Chapter Text
“Everyone has a soul mate, and when one meets the other both of their hearts will start to glow one of the four colors; green, red, yellow, or blue. It is not presently known what the variety of colors mean. In some cases, a pair of soulmates’ hearts will not glow until physical contact has been initiated. However, studies have shown that ‘hateful’ physical contact such as rape, hitting, or kicking does not trigger the glowing in the heart area. Many people refer to the glow as a ‘Soul-sun’.
“We began to see the Soul-suns after the rebellion during the years 2018 through- ah. Would someone please answer the year that the rebellion ended?”
No hands went up. They never did in this class.
“January 18th, 2020.”
This day must have been an exception, as someone had been called on after raising their hand.
"Correct Mr. Spencers, nicely done."
Enter Daniel Spencers, a straight A+ student with a love for music, comic books, writing, and history. Considered to be a complete nerd and totally unlikable by the more popular students at San Luis High School. Despite this, Daniel does have a few friends. Granted there's only three friends in his circle.
(I'm one of them, Cynthia Highland, but that's not important right now.)
Right now it's the middle of October, it's just now starting to get colder this year in the city of Austin, after another hellish summer. The rebellion has been over for three decades, and most of the world has adapted to the idea of soulmates.
Right now my best friend is getting paper airplanes thrown at him every five to ten minutes. Cue Ms. Holmstrom scolding the offenders.
Cue the bell.
"That's ridiculous and you know it Cynthia."
"Pshhhhh, it's an amazing idea and you know it Daniel. Why is it that smart people don't understand my absolutely brilliant idea to rob an ice cream factory?"
"It’s because we’re not stupid, we’re smart.”
I glanced at Daniel before narrowing my eyes. Before I could begin to open my mouth he seemed to realize what he said and started apologising profusely.
Daniel and I were sitting at our usual lunch spot outside, a circular table with four benches attached. Granted the paint job was old and an ugly shade of blue, our spot was pretty. There was a willow tree that provided plenty of shade, and hardly anyone ever came around this spot, as our group was dubbed ‘those weirds kids you should always avoid, even though one of the kids is really popular’. There was practically a meadow beneath us, yeah it was pretty weird.
“Hey guys, sup?” Light hearted and energetic as always, Amity jumped into the conversation as usual, fitting in as she always did. That was okay though, that was normal. So was her soulmate, Annie, quietly observing and eating pasta.
What was not normal was the school accepting new kids. At least, we assumed this guy, who was standing about ten feet away from our spot talking with two jocks from my Biology class, was new. Kids from other schools weren’t aloud on our campus unless they were our older siblings picking us up. San Luis was a private school, hence the ‘stay off our campus unless you attend this school’ rule. The only thing we could assume was the blonde was new or picking one of the jocks up. San Luis didn’t accept new kids very often, so it was probably the latter.
“...hierarchy soon, but the kids eating under the willow tree aren’t really that popular, most tend to stay away from them. Two of the girls are more popular than the other two, but Amity’s Soulie is that shy nerdy girl, Annie. Daniel’s the skater guy, and Cynthia, well, don’t get her pissed off.”
Damn fucking right don’t piss me off. Which was exactly what I am right now. Looking towards Amity I found her smiling.
Student Council girls don’t fuck around. Especially not the President and Treasurer.
(Why our group was unpopular I still don’t understand.)
Passing my untouched sandwich over to Daniel, I stood with Amity with practiced synchronization.
The guys and the definite new kid were about five feet away now. We matched their pace quickly, catching up to them.
“I’m sorry, but are you two part of Student Council?” I asked, just the slightest bit of edge in my voice, only trained ears could catch it. The new kid glanced behind us, seeming to do just that. The guys from my Biology class whipped around silently. They knew they were in deep shit.
“Uh, n-no?” What was his name? Lyle?
“We were looking for you two, uh, we didn’t see you at your guy’s spot.” This guy was probably Lyle(?)’s twin, they certainly looked incredibly similar.
“Hm, you might need glasses, considering we’ve been there since you started showing him-” Cue gesture towards the new kid. “around this area. You know you two need to join Student Council to show people around.” Amity had more concern in her voice, some of it I could tell was real. Honestly, I was a bit concerned for Lyle and his brother(?), if they forgot one of the many important rules at San Luis.
“Well, we’ll take it from here, thank you for finding us, I don’t know what would have happened if Principal Salazar caught you two doing SC work.”
Five minutes later we were leading the newly introduced Josh Noel back to our table. He was incredibly rude at first, but I’m sure he was a good person at heart. Maybe.
Daniel didn’t talk to me for the remainder of lunch, Amity and Annie chatted away, so I started telling Josh about the things he’d need to know. He wasn’t a Freshman, but rather a Junior like Daniel and Amity. There goes my hopes of not being the only Freshman. (Annie was a Sophomore.)
The only thing I noticed was that Josh payed attention to me for the most part, but when he wasn’t he kept glancing over at Daniel. Said boy was drawing some type of creepy thing I’d have to ask him about later. He never once looked up until the bell rang, when he walked off saying he’d talk to us later.
He never did do that. I traded numbers with Josh, as did Amity and Annie, but Daniel didn’t text or call or Skype me or the other girls.
I would be lying if I said I was going to brush this off. He never did this, ever.
And I would rather die than not find out what was going on with my best friend since eighth grade.