Chapter 6

Ivy walked down the aisle of desks to the back of her homeroom classroom. Some gave her confused looks, while most didn't even glance at her. She sat down in the last row—an empty desk next to Zoe's; happy as Zoe was, she still felt nervous; her posture was in a fetal position as she tucked one of her legs under her torso, absently stacking cards in front of her, making a pyramid. 'It feels like people are staring,' her eyes flitted around the room before refocusing on the flimsy tower on her desk.

The boy sitting at the desk in front of Ivy was lying back in his chair, pretending his mechanical pencil lead was a needle and poking himself with it. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with a black torso, striped sleeves, and baggy black torn jeans. White, with messy brown hair, parts of it reflected the light as if someone dumped glitter on his head. He looked up as Ivy passed him, eyes slightly widening before going back to their lazy half-open look. Leaning over to his right, he whispered to his friend, "Yo, what's her name?"

"Huh? Who's name?"

The boy nodded in the direction of Ivy. The other kid glanced back and shrugged.

Ivy looked to the front of the class and back to Zoe; her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, "Wait...It's summertime! Why are we in school? This has to be against some kind of law."

"What law?"

"I dunno. Maybe something about child labor? Is that a thing?"

"We have school year-round, but instead of one big summer break, we get smaller and more frequent breaks throughout the year."

"Ugh." Ivy groaned, "I hate school."

The boy in front of her turned around and smiled, "Hey, I'm Herald." Ivy introduced herself. "Ivy? Alright, I like that."

After shaking his hand, Ivy glanced down, noticing a small tattoo of an animal on it.

"What is that?" She pointed at the ink.

"Oh, this?" He held it up for her to see, "One of my friends, she gave it to me. It was supposed to be a hippocampus…She ain't the best artist, though."

Zoe looked over at the boy's hand, "I know the hippocampus is a part of the brain, but I can't remember what it does," she said blankly.

"What?" Herald scrunched up his face in confusion. "Anyways, after this, when's your next class?"

"Uhh," Ivy took out her class sheet, studying it. They were currently attending the 'core' class for their age group. Her other courses included: math, history, science, and culinary—being mandatory for all girls to take. "I don't think I have any after this."

"Ah, you're lucky. Hey, so, my next class is in the evening sometime. You tryna hang after class?" Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zoe's face form into a blank frown.

"Yea! That sounds awesome!"

Herald grinned, "alright, cool." He said and turned back towards the front of the room. He leaned in towards his friend, "See, now that's how you do it."

His friend had a concerned look on his face, "What are you doing?"

"What?"

"She's the new one, right? She's literally dangerous. A serial killer."

"Why would she be dangerous? I mean, I'm pretty sure I could take her, if—"

"I'm just saying," Herald's friend interrupted, "that's what I heard. She's like a terrorist or something. Gonna kill us, maybe," he muttered, glancing back towards Ivy, who was drawing something on her desk.

Herald scoffed, "She's a terrorist now? You said she's a serial killer."

"Why can't a serial killer also be a terrorist?"

"Huh," Herald scratched his chin, deep in thought.

"Well, apparently, Colson's brother was saying something like that. The fortune-teller said something to him about that girl. He told me this a while ago, and I wasn't really paying attention, but—"

"You're jealous!" Herald decided, a playful grin crossing his face.

"Wha—am not!"

"Jealous cause I got to her first, apparently. Gotta be faster than that."

"That is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard. But I'm serious, though; my parents were saying something about that too. I didn't just pull this outta nowhere. This is like, a real thing."

"You can't still be on that BS," Herald said, his voice dripping with disappointment, "I'm bored of your conspiracies. There's no proof of a fortune teller. Like, if you're that mad about it, you could hang with us. You could even bring her," he nodded in the direction of Zoe. They both looked at each other and started snickering.

"I'm good, man; squirrel-girl is all you." 

Ivy looked at Zoe, "You wanna come with us?"

"I don't know; I have something to study for…."

"Study? What do you need to do that for?"

Zoe sighed, looking away, "So I can learn what it is they're teaching us," she mumbled.

"Oh, I never really went to school much, so I guess I've never needed to do that. But are you sure you don't wanna come with us?" Ivy asked.

Zoe looked away, "I'm fine, though," she said, moving the muscles in her face that made her smile.

After class, Zoe sat on the hallway windowsill, '"Hey, guys can I join you?"—no, that'd be weird—I can't just invite myself; that would be so uncool. Ugh, why did I even say no?' she thought as she watched Ivy and Herald walk down the hallway, talking and laughing.

She walked to the courtyard and to the giant oak under which she always did school work. Proceeding with her usual after-school ritual, she took off her shoes, placing them neatly on the left side of the tree. Somehow, the feeling of the warm grass tickling the bottom of her feet was more pleasurable than anything in that moment. Zoe moved her bag in front of her, rummaging around inside; she didn't have homework—she had done that. She grabbed onto the report card given to her a few days prior. The words, "Staggeringly average. Come see me." displayed in large red pen ink.

"My dad is going to kill me," she sighed, imagining the shade of his face turning the same color as the ink when he inevitably sees her grades.

Zoe realized she was just trying to look busy for the people walking by. She glanced at her watch, 'forty minutes until Colson gets out of class.' Out of the corner of her eye, something wriggled through the grass by her feet. Reaching down, she cupped the tiny insect in her hands, bringing it into the light. "The common carnivorous horned caterpillar." It lightly tickled her hand as its small mouth tried to bite into her flesh, not yet big enough to break the skin.

She groaned and laid back against the tree. Reiza and her pack of friends walked by, Reiza making sure to sneer at her when they made eye contact.

At the base of the oak, Zoe flicked through her cards, attempting to memorize the newest card trick. 'They first take the card and look at it; I take it from them and shuffle the deck. I fan the cards like so; then they pick three cards at random. I 'guess' each of their cards perfectly like this, and then I….' Someone sat down next to her; she looked up and saw Colson.

He grinned, holding up his ID card, "Just made ten CCs off some guys in class."

"Oh, hey," she said, looking down at her watch, seeing that in fact fourty minutes had passed. "Actually, can you help me with this?" She pointed to the cards that lay sprawled in the warm tan grass.

"Yea, what do ya need?" Colson said.

She held up a stack of cards and spread them out in a fan formation, "pick a random one, look at it, remember what it was and place it in my hand." He did as he was told; looking at it, he saw it was a blue five of spades. She bit her lip and shuffled the card deck, "What's your opinion of her?"

Colson thought for a second as Zoe handed him three cards to look over. "I dunno yet. Ivy seems alright… Here's the thing, Zoe, it's hard to know someone's intentions when they're always smiling, no matter the situation."

"Those were a four of hearts, seven diamonds, and a heart queen," She guessed; Colson nodded. "Why are you acting so weird around her?"

"All correct," he handed the cards back to her, "I'm not. That girl is just kind of odd. I can't really put my finger on it, but...I'm not sure. Pearson, he was the one who delivered that fortune a year ago. He was telling me that apparently, this specific one was an S-ranked secret, but he said that girl might be in it; something about destroying the colony."

"You believe she could do that?" Zoe asked while spreading ten cards in front of her, face down on the ground. "I don't think she would even want to. What would that reasoning be?"

Colson shrugged, "Every fortune is correct, right? So why wouldn't this one be?"

"Yea, but it also said something about her saving us, right? Not everything needs to be such a negative thing."

"Zoe, I'm just trying to be careful, you know, just because you-...never mind," Colson got to his feet. "Anyways, where is that girl, anyway?"

"With Herald."

"Oh," A mischievous grin crossed his face. "Shout out to Herald."

"Yea, I know. I guess they're friends now."

"Well," Colson stretched his arms into the air, "Or they're doing something else," he smirked.

"Ew!" Zoe said while miming herself puking.

"Man is slick; I gotta give him that," Colson said with a shrug. "She seems a bit too, well…." He trailed off.

"Hey, is your name Ivy?" A man asked. He wore tan sweatpants and a grey shirt, with a single strap bag over his shoulder filled with letters and boxes. He walked over to Ivy, who was in the river with Herald; both were barefoot trying to find a stray ball.

Ivy looked up, "Uh, yeah, that's me."

"This is for you," he said and jogged off after handing her a piece of paper rolled up and held together with a rubber band.

Ivy dried off and walked to the riverbank, unfurling the paper. Behind her, Herald, who had given up looking for the ball, came and sat next to her.

"Herald, can you tell me what this is?" She asked, pointing at the paper.

He looked at the paper; it was a drawing of what looked like an Island. It was labeled 'Isle of Skye,' with coordinates right below it. "It looks like a map of an island." He said it more like a question.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too."

"Who sent it to you?"

Ivy looked around at the paper; the letter 'L' was printed on the backside.

"L? Who's that?"

Her eyes widened, "I think it was sent by Lilith, my mom! Is there anything I can do to find where this is?"

Herald thought for a moment, "oh, you know what? Mr. Lee!" Herald said, turning and pointing towards the town. "He's one of my teachers; he's always hanging out at this shop that just opened in there. Right now, he is probably there! Dude's a wiz with this kinda stuff, I promise!"

After jogging through the town of Crater, they ended up outside of the shop. It was a low dark building with its storefront windows so tinted that they were turned into black mirrors. Over the front door, powerless neon letters read 'FabuLust.'

A quiet 'ding' of a bell, as they saw the shop's door swing open. For the time the door was ajar, they could see inside. A stained purple carpet, dreary orange lighting, and mannequins wearing all black. Out from the door stepped a man carrying a bag full of magazines and DVDs. He had wild brown, unkempt hair that pointed upwards, dark grey bags under his eyes, and a flat nose. He wore black pants and a white dress shirt with a striped tie.

"Yo, Mr. Lee," Herald said, trying to hide a grin, walking up to him, "I gotta ask you something real quick."

"Uh, okay…" Lee said; his eyes widened, and he shifted around nervously. "Well, you see, I don't have a lot of time on my hands right now…."

Herald looked down at the bag he was carrying, "I see you're gonna be busy soon."

Ivy looked back and forth from Lee to the store, "What kind of store is this?"

"It's not going to take long. I'm just tryna help out this girl with something," Herald gave the map to Mr. Lee, who begrudgingly set his bag down to study the paper.

"Hmm, the Isle of Skye? It doesn't ring a bell," he said unconvincingly. "You may need to—Hey!" He snapped, noticing Ivy, who had curiously opened his bag, and started flipping through the magazines inside. He quickly snatched both the bag and the magazines back from her. "You nosey little—It's in the library, now skedaddle!"

Herald had to bite his tongue to stop himself from laughing, "thanks, man," barely getting out the words.

They watched Mr. Lee stomp away into the distance.

"Man, what a weirdo, that's why no one takes his class seriously. He once got caught reading that stuff in class."

"Interesting book," Ivy said, walking over to the store, curiously putting her face to the glass, trying to look through the tinted windows.

Herald laughed, pulling her away from the window, "yo, we don't wanna be seen near this store. People are gonna get the wrong idea. Anyways, though, the library is just down here," he said, pointing down the street.

The library was constructed to resemble a large curving jungle tree, making it stand out compared to the surrounding homes in the neighborhood—two-story Tudor style. The tree twisted high into the air, several stories tall, with windows on every level reaching halfway up its 'trunk.'

Herald and Ivy walked through the sliding glass doors, soft classical music playing from speakers overhead.

Herald pointed at a sign that read 'resource center.' They walked over, seeing a row of desktop computers, and sat down at one of the chairs. Each of them displayed Crater's logo as its screensaver.

"We just need to Surf for it."

"Surf?"

"It's what the web browser is called."

Herald took a few minutes to type some things. "This information is blocked," he read slowly.

"Blocked? Like, what do you mean?"

"Says it's blocked," Herald shrugged.

"How do we unblock it?" Ivy asked. A message box opened up on the screen, asking them to type their ID numbers. Herald did as it said.

"Looks like we need to be at least three stars to access this information. They don't like to tell us anything around here. So, unless we know someone who's gonna risk getting in trouble and type their info in, we're shit outta luck."

"There aren't any other things we can go to here?"

"You mean different websites?"

Ivy shrugged.

Herald gave her an odd look, "No, you can really only see what they want you to see on here. Is that what it's like out there?"

"Restricting information? I don't know. Never had much of a reason to use a computer before."

"Oh."

"Hmm," Ivy hummed, grabbing the keyboard and typing in as many variations of 'Isle of Skye' into the search bar as she could think of; each time, it came up blank. "Can you find people on here?"

"Maybe? I doubt it, but I haven't tried, either. Who are you gonna look for?"

Ivy typed in 'Lilith' into the search bar. " My mom," she said while waiting for the computer to load. When it finally did, the screen showed its usual empty webpage. "Darn," she said, biting her lip in frustration. Then again, I don't think I'd want it to be that easy either!"

"Well, I guess you're just gonna have to rank up to get it, then."

Inside the house of Seeley's bathroom. After her shower, Zoe sat and waited for the voices of the other Colonists to leave the bathroom before she pushed the curtain aside and walked to the sink, holding her dirty clothes in one hand.

She looked at herself in the mirror; her wet hair hung in front of her face; it had a tropical fruity smell from the shampoo and conditioner. She looked down and saw her baggy and oversized clothes hanging off of her as usual; Reiza always made fun of her for not being able to afford 'real' clothes and wearing hand-me-downs, but money was never an issue for her… She looked back up at her face, using her hands to squish it, trying to morph it to look different.

Zoe sat at her desk, nose buried deep in a book, 'Revolutionary: Actual Card Magic and Wizardry!' She glanced up, hearing the familiar walking pattern from boots outside her door. A few seconds later, Ivy burst into the room, tossing her bag onto her bed and rolling out the map on her desk.

"What is that?" Zoe asked, looking over Ivy's shoulder.

"The map of a place called 'The Isle of Skye.' Some guy gave it to me; I think he was a mailman. Me and Herald 'surfed' for it, but we couldn't find it. Do you happen to know anything about it?"

Zoe thought about it for a bit, "No, I don't know anything. It vaguely rings a bell, but that's not really helpful, I guess."

"I think that this may be where my mom is!"