When he walked into school the next day, Daniel was expecting stares because of his fight the day before. Much to his surprise however, no one paid any attention to him or the rest of his friends.
"It seems everyone has forgotten about your fight with Darren." Cerce observed.
"They are all talking about the same thing." Maya said. She narrowed her eyes and searched the minds of a group of girls. "Apparently, there was a robbery last night." Maya reported. Then her eyes widened. "One of the police officers was murdered. They couldn't even see the robber at all."
Luke glanced at everyone. "You don't think..."
Daniel nodded. "It is a possibility. We need to check his eyes. Remember, green eyes means he is a Pawn."
"But what if his eyes are a different color?" Cerce asked.
"Then he is just really fast," Daniel said.
There was a long pause.
Daniel spoke up. "During free period, we are going to split up. We need to make new friends. This will help us cover more ground faster. Spread out and look find out if anyone has been acting suspicious lately."
When free period came around, Luke was completely left in the dust. Daniel started talking to a crowd of football players. He barely knew enough about the sport to hold a conversation with them, but they accepted him, and his girlfriend who refused to leave his side. Maya and Cerce went over and made fast friends with some girls from their Home Ec. class. They all disappeared, heading off in different directions without Luke.
Luke sighed. He knew he wouldn't be able to make friends so easily. He was too shy around strangers. So Luke decided to take a break and headed to the library. He wanted to look up books on fire to see if he could expand his abilities somehow.
The library was completely quiet; it was perfect. Luke grabbed three books that looked interesting and took a seat at a table.
After a few minutes, a girl walked into the library. She immediately sat down and started reading a book. Then she noticed Luke watching her. She stood up and walked over.
"Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" she said kindly. Luke nodded, and she sat down.
Luke recognized the girl from one of his classes, though he couldn't remember what her name was. He flashed her a smile and got back to his book.
"You are in my class right? You are one of the new kids that came in with four other people," she said brightly.
Luke nodded.
"I moved here two months ago. I know what it feels like to be a new student."
Luke was confused for a moment, but then he remembered that Trabachian school started at a different time than Earth school.
"My name is Brooke. Do you like books?" she girl smiled.
"My name is Luke," he responded, doing his best to smile back.
Brooke looked around. "Where are your friends?"
Luke sighed and rested his head on his palm. "We split up for today. Daniel says it is important to make new friends."
"Well," Brooke said eyeing the empty table. "Looks like you are doing pretty well."
"Hey!" Luke frowned. "It is hard okay?"
Brooke giggled. "Just kidding."
Luke smiled. Talking to this girl was really easy.
"So you are hiding in the library until free period is over?"
Luke nodded. "I am not good at making friends," he began.
Brooke pointed to herself. "I will be your friend."
"Really?" Luke asked, completely baffled.
Brooke smiled. "Sure! I know what it is like to be the new kid in school. I can be your friend!"
Luke grinned. That was easy! Then he frowned. It was too easy. His body began to tense up. Was she a Pawn who knew who he was? He clutched the Triblade, which was hidden underneath his clothes. He looked closely at her eyes.
Brooke looked at him confused. "What is wrong Luke? You look tense." Then she reached for something in her pocket.
Luke jumped up, prepared for an attack.
Brooke tilted her head as she pulled out a bookmarker from her pocket. "Are you okay Luke? Maybe you should go to the nurse."
Luke looked at her eyes. He felt a sigh of relief. They were blue. He sat back down. He noticed that Brooke was actually quite beautiful. She had amazing blonde hair. Luke didn't even know he liked blonde hair until that moment.
Brooke adjusted her glasses. "So do you like books?"
Luke shrugged. "I guess I do. I don't read as much as I should though."
"I love books. I come here every chance I get."
"Why don't you go to the other library?" Luke asked. "That one is bigger."
"No way. This one is much better." Brooke beamed. "There are really cool and old books here. Some of these books are from over 50 years ago."
Luke turned over the cover of his book and looked at the date.
"This one was written 20 years ago." Luke said amazed. He was actually more interested than ever now.
"So what are you doing with all of those books?" Brooke asked curiously.
Luke shrugged. "I am just doing a little research," he began. "It is something personal." Then he looked at her. "What about you?"
Brooke smiled. "Just a little research." Then she looked him right in the eyes. "It is something personal."
Luke looked at the book she was holding, The Great Mysteries of the Deep. He chuckled to himself. He remembered a few years ago that scientists were going crazy over finding the lost city of Atlantis.
"Was your dad on of the researchers trying to find Atlantis?" he asked.
Brooke nodded and smiled. "Yeah. I have always been interested in Atlantis ever since I was little. I heard stories ever since I was little."
Luke smiled. That must have been an interesting family. Then Luke remembered the pack of cards he had in his back pocket. He had wanted to do a magic trick ever since he learned of his ability, although he never got the chance to, since having powers was nothing special in Trabachi.
Now, with someone who had no knowledge of his ability at all, Luke could be the magician he always wanted to be as a kid.
"Want to see a cool card trick?" Luke grinned.
"Oh?" Brooke said interested. "So you can do magic tricks?"
Luke instructed Brooke to pick a card. She glanced at it, then placed it back into the deck.
"Now I will search for your card," Luke said closing his eyes. He turned on his heat-sensing ability. He kept his eyes shut as to keep Brooke from noticing they had turned red.
Since the pack was so new, Luke easily found the card Brooke's warm hands had touched. Luke opened his eyes. He shuffled the cards so that Brooke's card was on top. Then he threw the entire deck behind him. As they flew, Luke quickly used the Spatial Warp flame to teleport the deck onto the floor and out of sight. Brooke's card however, was warped carefully into his sleeve.
Brooke gasped as Luke cleverly pulled out the card she had picked.
"Whoa!" Brooke clapped. "How did you do that?"
Luke grinned, happy with that reaction. "I can't tell you. Want to try another trick?"
"Okay. Do something amazing."
Luke grinned. He pulled out a match. Glancing around to make sure no one else was watching, he struck the match. Brooke seemed a bit afraid by the flames, but she continued to watch.
Luke blew air at the flames. Instead of blowing out, the flames changed color to the Spatial Warp Flame.
This was more than enough to surprise Brooke. She glanced at something on her left, but turned back to the cards. Luke wasn't done yet. He grabbed her card and set it on fire. Of course, the card wasn't actually on fire, but rather slowly being teleported to another location.
Brooke looked confused as the card burned.
"So what was the trick?"
Luke grinned and blew out the match. He lifted his book up and held it so Brooke couldn't see behind it.
Suddenly, playing cards started raining down from behind the book. When they all fell, Luke flipped over one card, the Ace of Spades, which was the card Brooke had picked in the beginning.
Brooke gave him a round of applause while Luke did his best to bow while staying seated.
"That was so cool Luke. You could be a professional!"
Luke smiled. "I can't do anything like that. I am too shy around people."
Brooke giggled. "You are so weird Luke."
"How so?"
Brooke sighed. "Well, you give off an appearance like you are really shy, but in reality, it seems like you love showing off to your friends. I think you need to open up more. You really aren't as shy as you think you are."
Luke nodded and put away his cards. She was right, he knew that.
"So do you have a girlfriend?"
The question surprised Luke so much that he nearly fell out of his chair.
"Uh...no I don't." Luke said awkwardly.
Brooke looked embarrassed, which Luke noted was insanely cute. "I'm sorry if that was a weird question. I didn't mean to pry into your personal life."
Luke sighed, recovering from the shock. "It is fine I guess. What about you?" he asked awkwardly.
Brooke shook her head. "Not many guys are really interested in a bookworm like me."
Luke realized he was going into dangerous territory.
"I am sorry," he muttered.
"It is fine," Brooke said cheerfully. Then she glanced at the clock. "Well, it looks like free period is about to end."
"What class are you going to next?"
"Science," Brooke responded. "Want to walk with me?"
Luke shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
They walked together all the way to her classroom. Brooke politely thanked him and asked if he could come to the library more often. Luke smiled and gave her his word. He left very happy that he made a new friend who was a completely normal Earth girl.
The rest of the day seemed to fly by. Daniel was able to confirm their fears of Darren being a Creation Pawn. Darren was able to avoid capture, so they would need to discuss how to defeat him. Daniel also told them that humans that the Godkid of Creation possesses have a second life. In order to free them, they would literally need to kill them in order to do it. This wasn't a problem, since once they "died", they would wake up with no memory of their possession. So they had to kill Darren and anyone else the Godkid of Creation enslaved.
But those thoughts disappeared as Luke stared out the window. Two very familiar figures stood by the gates, waiting for them.
The second the final bell rang, Luke dashed outside.
"Mom! Dad!" he cried out.