The Search For Peace

Chapter 3

It was only when Mrs.Exley clapped her hands that Harmony and Sanjay finally stopped staring at each other and came back to their senses. As a blush crept on his face, he turned towards the middle aged woman as she spoke.

"Thank you Sanjay, for the wonderful introduction." He scoffed inwardly. Wonderful, she says. "Now, I'd like you to sit beside Ralph over there, if you don't mind." He followed her finger that pointed at an empty desk further back, a boy with a perfect black fringe seated beside it. "Ralph." The boy looked up boredly at the sound of his name. "Be nice to him, okay?"

"That totally depends on how he treats me." While the whole class snickered at his remark, Sanjay walked to his seat with a sigh. This Ralph character was going to be hard to deal with, that's for sure.

Class started finally, and the boy tried his best to pay attention, but the words in the textbook began to twist and turn, forcing him to close his eyes.

Crap, I'm getting sleepy... He thought as he rubbed his pupils to wake them up. Its only first period, too. And that's when a folded piece of paper flew into his book. A note? It was strange for him to get one though, when no one even knew him yet. He unfolded the tiny piece of paper, reading it in his head. 'Meet me at lunch.' It said.

A stare burned his side, so he turned to meet it. Sure enough, it was the Ralph character, gesturing towards the note with the eye that wasn't covered by his bangs. Was this his way of starting a friendship? He didn't seem like the friendly type though, considering his dominant frown. Maybe he was actually trying to mug him? Or introduce him to his underground gang mates or something? Either way, he'd have to wait until lunch to find out.

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In a dark, forgotten hallway of the school, where the oldest and smelliest lockers stacked the walls, a poor transfer student was being interrogated. Although his interrogator was alot shorter and smaller than him, his intimidating glare and demanding tone glued his feet to the ground. Sanjay Stryker didn't want to admit it, but he was slightly terrified at the moment. Terrified of Ralph Granger.

"You're from the clans, aren't you?" A drop of sweat slid down his neck at the question. Ralph crossed his tiny arms tightly. "Well?"

"I'm not obliged to answer that..." He stated as carefully as he could. Atleast now he knew what the note was about.

The little boy sighed. "Don't be so tense, you moron." And now he was deemed a moron. "I'm from the Clans too. The Taurus Clan, to be exact. You've probably heard of me, right?"

"I'm sorry, no." He could swear the guy's eye twitched when he said that. "But yes, I am from the clans."

"I see..." He gave him a look over, taking his features into account. You see, every Clan's people had a common feature, distinguishing them from the rest of the clans. For example, people from the Taurus Clan usually had black hair and black eyes, whereas people from the Leo Clan had brown hair and brown eyes. "Let me guess, the Leo Clan?"

"You got me."

"You must have a good reason for being here, right? Did Master Spark send you?"

"He did, but I'm not allowed to say why."

"That makes sense." After a moment of thought, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his smartphone. "Give me your phone."

"R-right.." So does that mean we're friends now? He thought as he passed it to him.

"I'm sending you the names and faces of the people from the Clans that attend this school. It'll take you a while, but you'll get to now them eventually."

When be got his phone back, he scrolled through the many profiles, recognizing some of them from this morning. He also noticed that a lot of them had 'unknown' written beside them. "What do you mean by 'unknown?" He had to ask.

"Exactly what it says. We know they're from our kind, just not sure which clan they're from. Or wether they're on our side or not. As you may already know, alot of the Clans that went into hiding back in the day are coming back to the surface."

"The Capricorn Clan is the only one we really need to worry about though, right?" Sanjay drew his lower lip between his teeth nervously.

But, when the dark haired boy laughed sarcastically, and said: "If only that were true." an uncomfortable chill ran down his spine....

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The last bell rang and the school day ended, students stumbling out from all corners, happy to finally be going home. Sanjay stood out in the terrace upon the entrance and held onto the railing, the crisp breeze freezing his bare cheeks. It was almost October, afterall. As he took out his phone to text his mother and tell her that he was heading home, the door behind him shrieked open, followed by a frantic: "Oh no!"

He craned his neck a bit to see who it was, and realized it was the crop cut girl from his class, the one who helped him with his introduction. "I can't believe my bus already left!!" She cried, rushing down the stairs like a crazy person. He watched as she anxiously ran about and dissappeared behind a corner, going into the alley that divided the highschool campus from the elementary school campus.

She must be talking about the school bus. He thought to himself, returning to his text. But, as if on que, the awfully loud door was pushed open once again. This time he turned around completely, only to come face to face with the one person he didn't want to see.

The awkwardness seemed to be mutual, judging by the surprised expression she was pulling. Although, she looked like she was in a hurry, breathing heavily as if she had run a marathon. "Um, did Alyssa pass through here, by any chance?" Harmony asked Sanjay, who in turn raised a confused eyebrow. Recognition dawned on her face when she realized he probably didn't know anyone's name yet. "Oh, right. In that case, did a girl with uh...short brown hair in a pink jacket pass through here?"

"Uh, yeah, she went that way, I think." And right when he pointed in the direction she went, a horrible scream sounded from behind the wall, causing both of them to freeze.

Harmony blanched, but didn't hesitate to rush down the stairs to get to where she was, hoping nothing too bad had happenned yet. And naturally, Sanjay followed.