Hallow

This story is fiction. This story will also involve sexual and intimate relationships between two (or more) males, and if this offends you or it is illegal for you to be reading, then please leave. If you are under the age of consent for your community, please leave. And if it does offend you, I honestly don't know why you're even here in the first place. Ready? Alright.

Hallow

(Or, How to Fly in a World Made of Feathers)

Exposition: Foundations

"Were we supposed to bring food?"

Santi, confused, looked between Nisha and the plate of enchiladas he held in his hands. He lit up, realizing what she was referring to. "Oh. Nah, I don't think so. I get these for free from the restaurant I work at." he joined Nisha in a folded chair next to her and placed the enchiladas on a nearby table. "Are we the first ones here?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Ahhh!" Santi jumped in surprise. Dan had replied to his question, but apparently Santi had not noticed him seated across from Nisha.

Dan furrowed his eyebrows. "What the fuck?" he said appropriately.

Santi was the type of person easily surprised. Perhaps it was because of his immense talent of concentration, sometimes involuntary concentration, that caused any presence outside of his specific lens of perception to be immensly startling. Of course this talent helped him in many more ways than it did hinder him, particularly in the three jobs he worked, but sometimes it gave him the false air of being extraordinarily air-headed.

"Maybe if you weren't so quiet..." Santi replied, embarrassed.

Dan however, simply disliked speaking at all. But seeing other people talking, even though he never had any wish to be part of their conversations, vaguely enraged him. Dan was certainly not a malevolent or harmful character. But he disdained aloofness misdirected into the petty whims of life such as idle conversation, or perhaps even basic etiquette.

Santi and Nisha engaged in this very idle conversation, prompting Dan to glare at the both of them with intense eyes, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet on the table. Nisha, perhaps noticing the expression on Dan's face, attempted to tone down her own exchange with Santi, while Santi remained oblivious.

With a rather ambiguous name like "Mayari," Nisha was never actually sure of her true ethnicity. Her mother was Filipina: a willowy woman with big eyes, delicate features, and long straight black hair. Nisha had inherited her strange green irises. But Nisha had not even the slightest inkling as to the wherabouts of her father. Whenever reminded, her mother would whimsically dismiss him as "being somewhere" and artfully change the subject. Although she was disturbed as to only knowing where half of her came from, Nisha never let it disparage what cultural pride she did have, and it in fact made her more empathic to other people in general.

The door of the rec room opened again, and this time Leslie Hayes stumbled through, her father trailing. They communicated in harsh whispers heard but not articulated throughout the large room.

"Dad, it's fine. Get off my case, there are people here, they-"

"No, I will not! I don't know who-"

"You always have to-"

"-could be dangerous, they-"

Leslie Hayes and her father, Patrick, had a lovingly consistent yet tumultuous relationship characterized by those of many daughters and single fathers. Although the Hayes were once a very content bourgeois nuclear family, the untimely death of Patrick's wife, Leslie's mother, caused Leslie to plunge from her airborne happiness under the harsh pull of a very real gravity. As if refusing to let go of the tattered light and glitter forced from her, Leslie occasionally lunged to and from emotions of quiet smiles, hypomanic rage, and immodest sadness. The doctors called it Bipolar II disorder, after one particularly bad episode led to the slashing of her wrists.

Patrick, however, remained strangely unaffected by his wife's death, so unaffected that it could be said to be a manifestation of his own private mourning. Patrick worked in perhaps the most boring bureacratic government job imaginable, so boring its position could not even be elaborated on with words, which was perhaps why Leslie always found it difficult to take interest in him in general. When such a dramatic death caused such divergent influences in father and daughter, neither found it easy to resolve the grief at all.

"Stop doing that, why do you-"

"-these people could be-"

"Ooooh!"

Leslie and Patrick stopped, apparently both of them recognizing the voice. They turned around in unison to see Ms. Deirdre in the doorway. She greeted them with her perpetual smile, her pink outfit somehow dissimilar but not clearly different from the one she wore yesterday. She dragged an important-looking rolling backpack behind her. "Good to see you, Ms. Hayes! And you too, Mr. Hayes! And... who-who's that all the way back there?! It's Ms. Mayari! And Mr. Aoki! And- well, what's this?!" Ms. Deirdre's voice frighteningly escalated in pep, and Santi's face turned fearful as her eyes locked in on his enchiladas. "Food! Mr. Mendez, you shouldn't have!"

"Yeah!" Santi replied from across the room. "...I know better now." he mumbled as an aside to Nisha.

"A-a-a-anyway. Look who I brought along with me!" Ms. Deirdre seemed to scream. She opened the door behind her, and Teresa and Nate meandered inside. Nate was harmlessly irked. Teresa also had a perpetual smile, but unlike Ms. Deirdre's it was compliant and dream-like.

Upon several more minutes of coersion, Patrick finally left. Leslie, Nate, and Teresa took their places next to those already present, and Ms. Deirdre somehow procured a clipboard as she took roll in a high voice. "Nathaniel? Nathaniel Skye? What a beautiful name!" she remarked, like she did to every name she came across.

Nathaniel Skye was arrogant. But to his credit, he had many reasons to be. Academic achievement aside, he was also star player of the soccer team, a cello virtuoso, an apparently brilliant actor, and fluent in three other languages. He carried a certain air of smug self-assuredness wherever he went, repelling some but attracting many others.

It seemed Leslie was one of the repelled. Rather unsolicited in the middle of roll, she suddenly turned around to face Nate with a nasty glare, saying "You make me angry," and nothing more.

Nate gave a confused look. Ms. Deirdre's bubblegum voice seemed to pop as it stopped, and a very uncomfortable silence suddenly settled.

To everyone's relief, the doors busted open again. Mr. Li, Mr. Dixon, and a tall-ish woman with curly hair dyed ruby-red walked in. Mr. Li yelled from across the room. "Hello there!"

"Hi!" answered Nisha, then another "Hi" several seconds later when Teresa answered like a dreary echo.

Mr. Dixon put a hand on the woman's back and displayed her to the rest of the group. She was visibly older than Ms. Deirdre, but they got the impression that she had aged worse from stress and nicotine. "This is my sister, Sofia Calonica." Mr. Dixon said.

"So. You're the fucking ingrates." Sofia said, very loudly with a nasally tinge. Mr. Dixon took a moment to scold her, but she did not listen. Leslie, Nate, and Nisha, all of whom seemed to care about her imput for some reason, were not pleased.

"Hey. You." Leslie pointed at Sofia, Mr. Li, then Mr. Dixon, then put her finger down altogether. "Yeah. Anyway, I had a question."

"Please, ask." Mr. Li said.

"If this isn't a government thing... doesn't that mean we're vigilantes?"

A very chirping laugh responded, as everyone turned their heads to Ms. Deirdre. She stopped when she saw their reaction.

Mr. Dixon stepped forward. "Well... no. But I'll tell you what we are."

All quiet.

"...What are we?" Santi asked, finally.

"A high school club."

"Ah, crap." Leslie exclaimed.

Mr. Li cleared his throat. "...Mr. Skye, Ms. Mayari and Ms. Hayes already attend New Cinder High as seniors. Mr. Mendez and Mr. Aoki dropped out of high school and Ms. Lisieux has no record of any schooling at all, but a club can admit anyone if the facilitator deems them appropriate."

"Then... who's our facila-whatever?" Santi asked yet again.

Sofia dispassionately raised her hand. She then proceeded to light up a cigarette, causing Ms. Deirdre's nose to wrinkle from the other side of the table.

"My sister teaches music at New Cinder High. Recently budget cuts have left the music program at greater risk, so... she's ready to facilitate another group while we wait for the news." Mr. Dixon clarified.

The harsh metal sound of Sofia's lighter clicking shut cut her brother off. She took a large puff of the cigarette, and smoke flew out of her mouth with each word she said. "If you're gonna be doing what you're doing without me, you're gonna go to jail. So you little bastards better be grateful..." she mumbled the last part, but the sharp high-pitched edge of her voice made her crystal clear. After a very long pause in which every eye on the room became angrily focused on Sofia, she took yet another puff and rolled her eyes. "...Well, fuck me. Sorry."

"Ahahahahahahahaha!" Ms. Deirdre's prolonged laughter again. Sofia looked at her quite spitefully.

"By the way." Sofia said to the group, not detracting her glare from Ms. Deirdre. "...What powers do you have?"

"I thought you already knew." Nate answered on the behalf of everyone.

"Of course not, silly!" Ms. Deirdre exclaimed. It seemed today was an "on" day for her.

Mr. Li nodded. "You overestimate the government's power. Would you like to volunteer first?"

Nate quickly shook his head. No one else at the table seemed close to answering either. Mr. Li sighed. "Very well then. We'll do it alphabetically. Mr. Aoki, if you please."

Dan did not move until coerced by Ms. Deirdre from behind. Santi and Nisha's eyes followed him nervously; Nate was still trained on Nisha. Leslie seemed to have lost interest altogether, while Teresa was mesmerized by Sofia's dangly earrings.

Dan moved to the middle of the rec room, the table to his left, and Ms. Deirdre, Mr. Li, Mr. Dixon, and Sofia directly across from him like some sort of counsil. Mr. Dixon cleared his throat. "Go ahead."

Dan crossed his arms. He looked around until he focused on a bag of soccer balls in the far corner. "Pass me one of those." he commanded to no one in particular. Rather illogically, Santi got up from his seat and ran over to the soccer balls. He turned around, cradling the ball to his chest; Dan was about seven yards away. Measuring his strength, Santi dropped the ball and kicked it in an arc towards Dan.

Santi had calculated the trajectory perfectly, but Dan didn't care. The precise moment the ball hit the top of its arc, Dan forcefully pointed to the ground under it. A force seemed to ripple throughout the room, the spot Dan pointing at acting as the epicenter. And although the soccer ball had not yet completed its course, it stopped in midair, suspended for a split second before plummetting to the ground completely. It were as if the ball was pulled by a magnet; strangely enough, the ball didn't even bounce when it hit the ground.

Mr. Li looked to Ms. Deirdre, who proceeded to jot down notes on her clipboard at his command. "Mr. Aoki: projection of energy fields with gravity-influencing effects."

Without a word, Dan released his mental grip, putting his finger down. As soon as he did, the ball seemed to be free again; Dan walked over and scooped it up with one hand. Mr. Li raised an eyebrow. Dan took the ball between his palms, and with swift strength, he thrust his knee up; the ball flew skyward at what seemed like the speed of sound. It hit the ceiling with a disastrous noise that caused everyone but Dan to cover their ears. A large wave of dust fluttered to the ground, as the deflated soccer ball finally fell to the ground with a futile "flop."

When the disaster was over, Dan sat down again. Santi, still in the corner, laughed "whoa" breathlessly.

Mr. Li, unsure of the appropriate witty aphorism, just cleared his throat again. "...Additionally, super-human strength." he said as an aside to Ms. Deirdre.

"Ms. Hayes. That means you next." Mr. Dixon said, taking over.

Leslie suddenly felt herself becoming very sad. "...Do I have to stand?" she nearly whispered.

Mr. Dixon raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. "What?"

"She asked if she could sit." Ms. Deirdre told him, apparently the only one who could hear her.

"Well sure. Just show us what you can do."

"..." Leslie traced her pinky on the table and gave a very heavy sigh. "...Last year, we learned in chemistry that an element obtains its name and attributes from the number of protons, neutrons, and electrons in its structure." Leslie put her palm flat on the surface of the table. "It's easy to just... you know. Rearrange them."

She didn't even finish her sentence as the table, starting from the middle and rippling outwards, literally transformed into thin air. Nate toppled his chair over in surprise, and Nisha, who was leaning on it, fell to the ground with a yelp. The plate of enchiladas also vanished into thin air, making Santi a hint sad.

Sofia cursed to herself. "Shit, could we not destroy everything in the building? Maybe? I'll have to pay for it, you know. Jesus Christ..."

"Very nice, Ms. Hayes." Mr. Li asserted. He gave a cursory glance to Ms. Deirdre, mumbling "transmutation" as her power. "Okay then. That leads us to Ms. Lisieux."

"This is boring. You're boring." Teresa said with surprising clarity; it was the first time she had ever shown any semblance of emotion besides dreary happiness, and the people were surprised that the emotion was frustration.

"Err... well, uh... I'm sorry you think that, Ms. Lisieux, but-" Santi raised his hand. "-yes, Mr. Mendez." Mr. Li was eager to change the subject.

"Can I go next?"

"Please do."

"Thanks. I-I, I'm really kind of freaked out. I was kinda hoping maybe you could explain what's going on."

"Well. Show us what you can do and we'll see."

"No, it's complicated. I kind of have to tell you myself. I can... just, do these things I couldn't do before. Effortlessly."

Nate spoke while he propped his chair up again. "What kind of things?"

"Well, uh... ask me the most complicated math question you know."

Confused quiet. Nisha mumbled to herself and then reached into her backpack. "Err... Just a sec." she pulled out a math book and flipped to an appropriate page. "...Ah! Here we go. What's the integral of x times the square root of x squared plus 2x plus 4?"

"Natural log of one over radical three plus the natural log of x plus 1 plus radical x squared plus 2x plus 4."

"..." Nisha's mouth hung open with disbelief. "I... how... did you do that? You need a computer system to solve this problem!" As though skeptical, the rest of the kids (minus Teresa) and even Mr. Dixon gathered around the textbook.

Santi shrugged. "My reflexes are better, I notice things I've never noticed before, it's... it's scary. Really, really scary."

Mr. Li leaned over to Ms. Deirdre, still busy scribbling away. "Remind me to provide Santiago Mendez with an MRI." he told her.

The rabble around Santi that ensued was suddenly cut short by the sound of the doors opening again: they turned in unison to see who had come.

At least five shadowy profiles were gathered, backlit by the bright ouside. "Hey, what time is it?" Nate asked as an aside to Nisha.

"...3:40. They're sorta late." Nisha mumbled.

Confused as to what was happening, Leslie looked up at Ms. Deirdre. Nothing frightened her more than seeing Ms. Deirdre, for the very first time, stone-cold serious. As though in protection, the adults gathered in front of the other six, who similarly stood out of their seats.

"What do you want?" Mr. Li yelled, suddenly confrontational and very empowered.

Three of the five walked into the rec room. All three wore curiously cheap plastic masks. The one in front was a tall broad-shouldered youth with buzz-cut hair, who in Nate's mind, looked like he might've been on the football team. The figure on his right had a more average build, and his hazel hair jutted awkwardly out from under his mask. The figure flanking the other side had ebony skin in a similar complexion as Leslie's, and her rainbow dreads draped over her shoulders.

"Shut up. You can't do shit about it." the figure in front said decisively, but in a profoundly brainless way. He looked behind Ms. Deirdre. "That's all you got? Pussies."

"You can go to hell, punk." Sofia retorted.

He suddenly raised his hand; with a zapping noise and a bright yellow flash of light, a beam of energy shot out at Sofia.

Ms. Deirdre acted with frightening reflexes, pushing Sofia to the ground. The bolt headed for Santi, who sidestepped not a moment too late. The energy created a searing smudge on the floor.

"Oh my God!" Nisha yelled in panic, covering her mouth with her hands.

Mr. Li and Mr. Dixon suddenly procured guns from under their coats, pointing them at the three. But the masked girl snapped her fingers, and a ripple of matter apparated around Mr. Dixon's hand, knocking his gun to the floor.

Mr. Dixon and his sister dove for the floor; the first masked man seemed ready to shoot another bolt, but Mr. Li pointed his weapon at his face. "Don't move, Energon!"

From behind him, Leslie wrinkled her nose and she suddenly began to feel angry. "What a stupid name." she exclaimed.

"Shut up!" Energon yelled. He looked behind him at the figures by the door. "Eos! Willow!"

Upon his command, the figures in the door disappeared. One appeared in a flash of spherical fire, and her appearance was a vision of otherworldly horror; in place of legs she had a grey tree trunk, roots and all, and her wild hair was nothing but stringy leaves. Her skin was grey as her trunk, her torso covered by a tube top (the only human indicator) and a bark-like green mask on on her face. Willow's long, spindly fingers clawed the air in anticipation.

Next to her, a trail of triangular sparkles, each as iridescent as a rainbow, interlocked into a sillhouette. The beautiful puzzle solidified with a corona of light into a figure: a slim youth wearing a cap. He wore a masquerade mask, and had a peculiar shiny stone around his neck.

Mr. Li Pointed his gun from Energon to Eos to Willow and back again. Eos held his hand to his pendant, and his other to Mr. Li. The gun in his hand disappeared in a cluster of triangular glitter and appeared in Eos' outstretched palm.

Energon looked to him, presumably smiling under his mask. "Thank you." He pointed his palm at Sofia, who was still clambering for the other gun.

"No!" Eos stopped him.

Energon became distracted again. Mr. Dixon picked up his gun. Sofia jumped to her feet and spun around. "You're the Blessed ones, you little shits! Do something!" she yelled.

Although it took Santi, Nate, Nisha, and Leslie longer to respond, Teresa and Dan acted quickly. Dan grabbed his chair with one hand and flung it at Energon, sending it flying as fast as a bullet. The masked girl stepped forward and with gave an earsplitting wail: it seemed that the sound solidified into a barrier of waves that deftly blocked Dan's projectile.

Teresa suddenly pushed Santi, Leslie, and Ms. Deirdre out of the way. She outstretched her hands. The two red charms on her braclets circled around her wrists and into the air in front of her, spiraling in a frenzy and growing exponentially in size. In a frightning second two humongous hands, dark red and shiny like her charms, floated in front of Teresa in sync with her own pale palms. They were the hands of giants, but despite their gross size they were strangely feminine and delicate. Teresa continued her loony smile. With a sweeping motion of her arm, she sent a monster hand flying towards the opposition.

Although Willow and Eos teleported away, Energon and his companions were unfortunately swatted into the wall by the crimson beast. When they finally plummetted to the ground, it seemed they had a hard time getting up again.

Eos appeared next to Energon, doing his best to help him to his feet then checking on his companions. Willow appeared in a flash fire behind the six, coming face-to-face with Nate and Nisha.

Willow put her branch-like hands together. An eerie fireball conjured between her palms, which she shot at Nisha. Nisha instinctively covered her face. A big, spherical dewdrop of light conjured front of her, rising in Nisha's protection and blocking the fireball in a suspended brightness like a levitating orb of gelatin.

Dan picked the table up with one hand and slammed it into Willow. Although it didn't uproot her, it was enough to elicit a painful scream and a fiery burst of embers as she teleported away.

Simultaneously, Teresa thrust her arms forward, commanding the monster hands to do the same. Eos disappeared in a cloud of glitter with his companions except Energon. Energon was forcefully pushed to the doors by the hand, and they could see his face attempting to peek over the giant red fingers. "This isn't over!" he yelled. "You're a buncha bitches! Slaughterhouse Five'll kick your-" and the hands finally succeeded in shoving him out the front. The doors slammed shut.

Sofia ran to the doors and locked them with a big ring of keys. She looked at the broken table across the room. "Well... you could've destroyed more, I guess."

"Who was that?" Nisha asked. She and Santi remained abnormally calm about the situation. Dan was similarly taciturn. Teresa's hands shrunk and swirled around her wrists again, retreating back to her bracelets. She continued to smile as she joined her compatriots. Leslie, who had done little during the battle, simply stood with her arms crossed. Nate seemed the most upset, but it was only because a good lot of rubble from the table had gotten into his hair. "I heard him say ÔSlaughterhouse Five'" she continued.

"That's what they call themselves." replied Mr. Li. He patted his coat, but then remembered that Eos had taken his gun. "The Slaughterhouse Five have been the most irritating group of young Blessed to hit the streets of New Cinder."

"So I bet you want us to fight them." Leslie said. "Well, we basically just kicked their asses, so that should be easy."

"Don't be so cocky, kids. You haven't begun to see what they can do." Mr. Dixon stated with a bit of menace in his voice. His sister came to his side as he turned to Ms. Deirdre, who at the same time replaced joy on her face. "Do you have the list with you?" he asked her.

Ms Deirdre pilfered her clipboard. She read off a series of papers in soprano song. "The Slaughterhouse Five consist of five unidentified youth that have been robbing and terrorizing New Cinder shops and townspeople for the last two months. They consistently keep their faces hidden, and address each other by the codenames Energon, Eos, Echo, Abomination, and Willow."

She began to read off their names and powers. "Energon: Energy projection. Eos: Light manipulation, teleportation..."

"But this means that we're in danger. They could attack us at any moment." Nate said while Ms. Deirdre prattled.

"Echo: Sound manipulation. Abomination: Transformation..."

"Well, if we're lucky..." Mr. Li began to say in response. "They're not the brightest bulbs. Especially that Energon. I have no idea how anyone could come up with a name like that... Anyway,they probably don't even remember your faces."

"Willow: Plant-human hybrid, fire generation, teleportation."

"Yeah, but we're gonna be fighting them. What if they find out our names?" Nisha posed.

Ms. Deirdre finally finished. Sofia, Mr. Dixon, and Mr. Li looked up at Nisha. "...Wait...So you'll do it?" Mr. Dixon said, skeptically.

"Well, yeah. That's what we signed up for." said Leslie with frustration. "Hell, we didn't even sign anything. But that's what we came to do." the rest nodded in agreement.

Although the adults were lost for words, the general feeling was evident and summed up by Ms. Deirdre's exclamation. "Perfect!" she yelped. "Then just tell me your codenames, and I'll record them!"

"Whoa-haha, wait, really?" Santi laughed and covered his mouth. "We get to have codenames? That is so cool."

"That is so lame." Nate said at the same time. "I'm not gonna think of a codename."

Sofia raised an eyebrow. "Fine. Then you'll get the stupidest one." she turned to Ms. Deirdre. "Sphincter. Call him Sphincter."

Ms. Deirdre eagerly wrote it down. Nate threw his hand up in protest. "Excuse me?"

"Because the asshole's a sphincter, and that's what you are!" Sofia pointed to Teresa. "You're next!" Teresa remained silent. Sofia rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll choose yours too. You'll be Badly Proportioned Girl."

"Alright, that's enough." Mr. Li interjected. He looked over each and every one of the youth in the eye. "...We'll meet here tomorrow at the same time. We will be responsible for your transportation, but when you arrive next you will have a codename ready. For now... for now, the team will be called the Coronae, after the Corona Project. Understood?"

"I guess." said Nate.

"Good. You're dismissed. Exit out the back entrance one at a time in intervals of five minutes, then blend with the clubs going out on the rest of the campus." and with that, Mr. Li, Mr. Dixon, Ms. Deirdre and Sofia went out the door.

Teresa went out the back first without consulting or asking the rest of her companions. Nisha rolled her eyes and then set her watch to timer. "Anyone wanna go next?"

"I'll go." Dan said.

After four minutes of silence, someone had to take on the responsibility of striking up small talk. "So... why are YOU here?" asked Leslie to Dan.

Dan gave Leslie a terribly blank look. "I'm looking for someone."

"Oh." Everyone replied in scattered monotone. Another minute passed before Nisha picked it up again. "...Will you tell us who you're looking for? Maybe we can help."

Perhaps he timed his silence perfectly on purpose, for as soon as Nisha asked her question her timer went off. Dan strode quickly out the door and the rest could see a crowd of students outside engulf his disappearance.

"So, um... pretty crazy, huh?" Nate asked Nisha. Nisha didn't dignify him with a response, just continuing to gaze at her watch.

Santi was eager to talk, though. "Yeah, I dunno what's going on. Super powers are cool though. We get to be superheroes. Kinda cool."

Nate, however, certainly wasn't interested in Santi, and only gave him a chance glance before continuing to assault Nisha. "I saw your powers, by the way. You're good."

Regretfully, Nisha was forced to give him eye contact. "Thanks."

"What do you do, anyway? Make water?" Nate asked, trying very hard to seem interested.

"No... it's not water. It's light."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"Hey, Sphincter." Nate gave an annoyed look to Leslie. "What's your power, anyway?"

"What's yours?"

"Uh, duh? Didn't you remember the table?"

Nate fumbled with his lapse of memory for a second. "Th-That didn't mean anything."

Santi squinted. "Dude. She turned the table into air. Not to mention my food."

They were all relieved when Nisha's timer went off and Nate quickly went out the door. Before leaving he flashed a look at Nisha exclusively. "I'll see you."

"Aheh, yeah." The door slammed shut as he exited. Nisha rubbed her face in her hands. "Jesus. I thought I knew him from somewhere."

"Who? Nate?" Santi asked.

"Uh huh. One of my friends dated him for like, a month. He's obnoxious like a fox."

Changing the subject, Santi asked, "Do you guys know what your codenames will be?"

"Psh. No." Leslie put a hand through her hair, mumbling to herself, "it seems kinda stupid if you ask me."

"I think it's cool. Don't you?" he asked Nisha. Nisha, not wanting to give a harsh answer, simply grimaced and shook her head. Santi blushed.

Suddenly, the front doors burst open. Patrick Hayes stepped in and set his eyes straight on Leslie. As though he had a sixth sense for danger, he swooped into the rec room, took Leslie by the arm, and went out the door again. Their departure was marked by the same angry whispers that heralded their entrance, which prompted Nisha and Santi to exchange hushed glances.

And then it was the two of them. Nisha grinned intently. "So... what're you doing after this?"

Santi shrugged. "Video store. I gotta gotta work overtime, bad."

"Oh. I thought you said you worked in a restaurant."

"I do, but only mornings."

Her watch went off. Nisha sighed. "Well... you gotta go more than I do. You can leave before me."

"You sure? I don't wanna leave you alone here."

Nisha shook her head at the gesture. "Yeah, it's fine. I like being alone sometimes."

"...Alright. I'll see ya then."

"Yup. Bye."

Santi, realizing he was a bit late, strode outside and shut the door behind him. Small groups of students were pouring out from the other buildings; harried, Santi walked as fast as he could through the crowd towards the parking lot.

He walked a little too fast. Inevitably, one person cut in front of him, so to walk around him Santi passed him up, not realizing someone else was walking towards him in the opposite direction. Santi bumped head first into the other pedestrian, both of them falling to the ground.

Several students that saw the accident looked down at them and giggled before moving on. Santi rubbed his back and glanced at whoever he bumped into: a slim boy with green eyes, and dark hair highlighted blonde. Santi quickly stood and bent over to help him up. "Man... sorry. You okay?"

"Yeah, I-" he took his hand and stood up. Examining Santi's face closer, he lit up. "-Santiago?"

"...Err, yeah?"

He smiled. "It's me. Div."

Santi furrowed his brow in recall. Divyajyoti Tala; a friend from middle school and his first year of high school. But he looked way different in the span of three years: gone were the plain bowl-cut black hair, the short stature, the thick glasses. Now he was Santi's height, with a swimmer's build and a model's face. But considering the circumstances, Santi was mortified to see him. "Div? Div! Whoa, hey. Hi. How are you?"

"I-I'm good, I haven't seen you in so long, I..." Div cleared his throat. "What happened?"

He had hoped Div wouldn't bring up the subject. Santi twiddled his fingers. "Um. The counselor said I wasn't up to academic standards so um... I transferred to Quillmore Bay High."

"No way. I mean, you tutored me in bio, how could she have said that?" Div pouted. "Totally screwed up."

"Yeah. Y-yeah, um, really." Santi averted his eyes. "Uhh, I'm sorry, uh, I gotta go."

Div perked up. "Oh! Right, sorry, it's my bad." Santi turned to go but Div stopped him again. "Wait, what's your number? Let's stay in contact."

"Um, yeah, ok. It's..."

Although Div was expecting Santi to take out a cell phone, he was surprised to be met with a home phone instead.

"Thanks!" Div said with a smile.

Santi couldn't help but smile back as he ran off. As soon as he was far enough down the street away from the school, he sighed. Div was a really good friend. But he definitely couldn't tell him that he dropped out of school, much less why.

He desperately hoped Div wouldn't call. He really hoped he didn't. Wishing to get his mind off the matter, Santi shook his head and clung to the possibility of a new code name. How cool was that?

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Corrections: In the first chapter of Hallow (haha, remember that one?) I think I accidentally referred to Nathaniel Skye as Aaron Skye. That is very much a mistake. His original name was indeed Aaron, but only in the first stages of the story: after I introduced the character Aaron Parris in Charmed: Reborn, I decided to change it. I do that in a lot of my stories, actually. Almost every single character I've made has gone through at least one or two name changes. Apparently this time my "find/replace" thing didn't work :P.

Hey all,

Yeah... I think I said this before, but I released Hallow a lot earlier than it should have been. I underestimated the amount of time it would take to write the story, and for that I apologize. But Hallow is now relaunched! And will not be neglected again :D.

thank you for reading this far!

Questions? Comments? Recommendations? Fan Mail? Hate Mail, maybe? Wanna just chat? email me at ThePleiadesCall@gmail.com . Love to hear from you!

If you like Hallow, maybe there's the very vague possibility you'll like other stories I've submitted:

Charmed Reborn (Celebrity), Final Fantasy Rosa (Celebrity), Pokemon: Amethyst (Celebrity), Teth (Fantasy), and Diana Celes (High School).