I stood gazing at the tall white columns between the hallways. It seemed like a dream. So surreal but it wasn’t. I was back at my school and back to the way things were before except for one thing.

  “Yo My! Can I borrow your French homework? I’ll use my ether and stop time to copy it,” said Jonah as he stood beside me. Others were giving us strange looks. A cool kid with a misfit? Get real! It was as real as it got. Jonah was a good friend after our ordeal. He’d seen me die and had held me while my heart stopped beating. He’d screamed at a god for me and we’d fought an evil council together. He’d seen me break down and had helped me through an episode too. He knew what I had and he was still my friend, a true friend. Never mind that we started as victim and Bully. Never mind that we were worst enemies. I understood him better now and he understood me which I never thought someone would ever do.

  Maryanne: It wasn’t a dream. We do have a friend.

  Strength: Yeah, dude’s not so bad

  Mark: This coming from you lughead is big but no he’s not so bad. We could have done worse.

  Jack: Yeah, we could have.

  I sighed and searched through my binder for my purple folder. I took it out and leafed for my homework pulling it out. “I need it for the third hour,” I said, smirking as I handed the papers to him. He saluted and I grinned as he left and I continued to History.

  Katilia was there and she was smug. I guess she thought that Jonah was still playing with me but the joke was on her. I wondered what Jonah planned for her. He knew her weaknesses better than I did. All I knew was that she hated bugs. I put up with her for the hour and went to English. We recently started on Macbeth. Finally! Mr Weatherby didn’t seem excited but I was as we began to read the play. We were assigned the first fifteen pages for a reading assignment and an essay on our predictions from the little we had read. Boy did I have predictions! I could also read the entire thing.

  Maryanne: He said to make the predictions on what you just read.

  Strength: Yeah, don’t break the rules

  Mark: I concur

  Jack: I don’t care. Do whatever.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Jack was still not exactly right yet as my subconscious was still boiling. I remembered my lesson though and ignored him. He wasn’t my friend, none of them were. One day they could all turn on me. I was glad I was back to four again but I did miss the others. They did help me and for whatever reason they were there for me when I needed them. I hoped they were in voice heaven having a party.

  At third period Jonah returned my homework and gave me a small camera.

  “For lunch,” he said, smirking and I grinned.

  “What are you planning?” I asked.

  “Hmm. I think there will be a strange wind at lunch today so buckle down for bad weather and a laugh,” he said and I smiled shaking my head and holding the camera.

  “I’m sure you’ll want pictures too?”

  ‘Of course! That’s my digital camera so make sure to take an abundance of photos.”

  I laughed and went into French with a smile on my face.

  At lunch, I made sure to sit at an empty lunch table to the front. The minute Katilia walked in I began snapping. She was holding her skirt down with both hands as a wind kept blowing around her. Ralf and Jonah gave her strange looks.

  “What? Can you not feel that?” she asked and they shook their heads.

  “Well, I can! There’s a strange wind attacking me!” she cried.

  Jonah laughed. “Kat, wind can’t do that,” he said and I saw him increase the silver energy from his hand that was on her back. I smiled. I could still see the energy! That was something I always wondered if it was part of the voices or if it was all me. Now I knew. Katilia squeaked and held onto her skirt tighter.

  “Do you really not feel that?” she asked and Jonah shook his head. He let his energy recede. “Nope. Stop being such a drama queen and sit down. We only got an hour to eat,” he said leaving her. Katilia sighed and straightened her clothes.

  “Strange,” she muttered. Beginning to walk in front of me.

  Jonah shot a big gust of wind and her skirt flew sky high. I took a bunch of pictures and Jonah whistled. “I didn’t know you still wore Hello Kitty,” he said, while the school laughed. Katilia wailed and ran out of the room. Jonah sent another wind whirl after her and laughed. Katilia didn’t show her face for the rest of the day. Jonah wanted to humiliate her further and paste the pictures on the school board but I talked him out of it. A few weeks later we were both sitting together for lunch ignoring the stares. It was hard enough to get used to sleeping alone again so instead we made this concession and spent our time together. Slowly he was dropping Katilia and Ralf and hanging out more with me.

  I laughed at a joke he was telling and we chatted like normal friends. Who’d ever thought we’d ever end up friends? I didn’t. He sure didn’t but we were. Later we were going to see a movie together. Our first hang out. Sometimes life doesn’t turn out like we want it to. Sometimes we’re given things to get other things, better things along the way. That’s how I saw my illness and my trip to Sapherine. Necessary stepping stones in my life to better things. It wasn’t the end of the world to be sick. I found someone who could at least support me and that was worth all the suffering I went through. I wouldn’t change it for the world. We stood from the table and went our separate ways for class.

  I smiled all the way to math.

  End Book One