Down Memory Lane

//...\ means that it´s a memory...

Chapter Five-Eat, Sleep, Swim...

"When in doubt, blame the nameless person who looks as if they´re bewildered that just happens to be standing next to you when bad things happen."

~Chris Tyler Graham

Sirius couldn´t remember the last time that he had been so happy.

Freedom had come at a great price for the ex-convict so wrongly accused, as everyone still suspected him. His wand had been (somehow) recovered, and a priori incantatum spell had been preformed.

No dark magic.

Not even anything remotely illegal.

And so, with much suspicion upon his poor little head, he was reluctantly set free, having served time enough for the charges of breaking and entering Hogwarts.

Six months later he met the love of his life, Janette (and nearly gave her a heart attack, as she was a Muggle born who had heard when he broke out and not that he was free). Now he sat with her on the couch in his small apartment, telling her all of the things that had ever happened to him.

She was currently laughing over a prank that he had pulled on Lily and James shortly before they had died.

"That´s too funny, Siri. Tell me, what did James do when he found Harry floating ten feet above his crib?"

"Let´s just say--" A barn owl suddenly swooped through the nearby window, upsetting a vase of roses. Startled, Janette jumped and twitched her hands. The vase stopped in midair.

"I hate it when you do that," Sirius remarked, frowning slightly. "It just reminds me that I can´t."

Janette smiled. "I´m sure it would have come in handy many a time." She held her arm out to the frightened looking owl, onto which it hopped timidly.

A black letter was wrapped around its leg.

"Sirius," she said, a frightened tone in her voice. Sirius quickly unwrapped the letter from the leg. Both assumed it was about Janette´s parents.

Neither was prepared for the name that it bore.

"Me?" he said, startled. "But my parents have been dead for years!"

"What about Remus?" Janette asked. And then, "What about Harry?"

Sirius tore into the letter and scanned the first few sentences.

"Mr. Sirius Black: we regret to inform you of the passing of your...of your..." Sirius trailed off. Janette looked worried as his face paled rapidly, turning the color of ash.

"Of your what?"

"Of your godson, Harry Potter..."

~&~

Pyro reached over Chris and opened the door to the truck. Lia´s screams of terror could still be heard, though Pyro guessed that she was a good four or five blocks away by that point--perhaps even to Highway 99.

"Move, punk," Pyro told Chris, annoyed.

"Why? Who named you dictator? Huh? Punk. In. Punkin." He grinned at her.

"Because I´m going to make you get out otherwise, and I don´t think that you´d like the method I´d use."

"Care to share?"

"Wouldn´t you much rather exercise your imagination by HITTING YOUR HEAD ON A STEERING WHEEL?"

Chris looked thoughtful for a moment, and then paled. "I´m moving." He moved so slowly and cautiously, however, that Pyro nearly resorted to plowing through Jack, who hadn´t moved. Instead, she sat where she was, her arms resting on the top of the steering wheel, gazing out over the yard. Pyro followed her eyes and found that she was staring at a certain light brown-haired, blue-eyed boy. Pyro smiled and shook her head. Jack had shown interest in Daniel starting from when he had joined their club team a little over three years ago. It had been quite funny; Jack never revealed her feelings openly (her friends normally had to drag them out of her with a rousing game of truth or dare or ten fingers), so when she asked him out for the first time, it took him entirely by surprise.

[Nova: Hehe...how many times did she ask him out, if that was the first?!]

[Jack: ~*holds up three fingers*~]

[AVM: you know what I meant...]

Daniel had been making the pretense of going after Lia as well with a large wooden bat, but stopped as he began to pass the truck.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," Jack said back. She gathered her long hair--streaked with blue, as of the rest stop--and twisted it around her right hand. [Nova: But she got her long fingers hopelessly tangled and couldn´t pull her hand out and everybody laughed at her. And then she woke up...] [AVM: Shut up! I´m not going to put that in...that would be mean.] [Jack: my fingers are long, but not that long.] [Nova: liar.] [Jack: Am not!! I swear!] Pyro grinned as she recognized the movement as one that Lia also did whenever she was nervous.

"Are you okay?"

Jack blinked. "What?"

"ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"How do you even know about the accident? Lia never called!"

"Inad told Baskin, who told Kaori, who told Michael, who told Mike, who told me."

"Jeez, you sound like a bunch of girls."

"Half of the gossip chain was girls." He grinned at her, and Pyro could practically see her friend melting right there in the car.

"I didn´t get hurt--well, not seriously, at least. Just a scratch." She dropped her handful of hair and pointed to the cut with her index finger. Daniel caught the finger and pulled it towards his face.

Time for me to go, Pyro thought, and pushed Chris the rest of the way out of the truck. He yowled with pain when his broken leg hit the ground, but Pyro ignored the yell and handed him his crutches instead. She looked up and saw that Nik had looked up from the ground in front of the tree that he was leaning against; his blue eyes--much like his dead mother´s, he´d told her once--were staring at her in a way that made her shiver. Nik could just barely glance at a person and make them feel that they were being evaluated. He had gone through so much for one so young.

"Did you have fun?" he asked as she approached. No are you all right? like Daniel had asked. He knew already that she was, and there was no need for obvious questions.

"I guess," Pyro answered. He collected her into his arms and she stood there, breathing in his scent of dirt, sweat, and some coppery smell that she could never seem to place. [Nova: What, like BLOOD?] [AVM: ~*hums innocently*~ Use your imagination. Believe what you want. I´ll clarify this later, anyway.] "Lia hit the guy in the backseat when we got to Seattle, though, so our trip was cut a bit short."

"What´s his name? He looks familiar."

"We´re not really sure. He lost his memory when he was hit, so Lia named him Zack."

"Zack? As in amnesiac?"

Pyro sometimes forgot how frighteningly smart Nik could be. But then again, he projected the aura that he picked up a lot more about people than most gave him credit for.

"Yes."

"Kind of a stupid name, if you ask me."

"I think another thing was that it´s biblical. You know how Lia is about biblical names. She hoards them like you hoard secrets."

[A/N: Before I get yelled out, it comes from a biblical name. Think for a moment. Now stop yelling at me!!!!]

"Well hidden?"

Pyro smiled wryly. "In abundance, silly."

"I missed you." Pyro looked at him in surprise and noticed a weariness that hadn´t been there before.

"I missed you, too," she answered, and hugged him tighter. I don´t know what´s bothering you, Nik, but I promise you, I will find out.

Even if I discover some things that I don´t really want to know.

~&~

Zack watched Pyro and the strange boy talking over by the tree as he tried to ignore the interesting noises that Jack and--did she call him Daniel?--were making from the front seat. [AVM: They´re kissing, stupid peoples. ~*Shudders*~ I can see you smiling, Jack. Just as I can see Nova trying to gouge out her eyes. ~*laughs*~] [Kaori: Only kissing? Are you sure? =) Golly, Jack...] [Nova: AHH! I have no eyes left, and I can still see it!! Why won´t it go AWAY?!] The strange boy looked up at one point and stared right into his eyes. A sharp, brief pain erupted in his forehead over his right eye, and he winced.

"What´s wrong?" Kirsten asked, lightly grasping his left arm.

"Nothing," Zack told her, still watching Pyro. He narrowed his eyes as she leaned in to hug him, practically pinning him to the tree. "Nothing at all."

~&~

Kaori skidded to a stop in the middle of the high school parking lot. She held up an authorative hand to stop Inad and Roman.

"I know she´s hiding around here somewhere," she said calmly, as though they weren´t chasing a sixteen-year-old girl around with a huge axe, a golf club, and an enormous Japanese style fan.

"Bushes?" Roman suggested, pointing the golf club towards the clump of trembling leaves. Kaori nodded at him and he parted them.

"Mreow," said the slightly frightened cat as it wandered out, giving them each a terrified look. It scampered away, and then broke into a dash as it spotted a new hiding spot beneath a small red Honda.

Kaori scowled. [Kaori: I do NOT scowl at kitties!] [AVM: NOT AT THE CAT! Gosh...use your head, Kaori...]"I guess this means that we keep searching," she said. They began to sprint across the lot, and then cut across the field towards the middle school as a certain curly-haired figure pelted in through the entrance.

~&~

Jack giggled madly as Daniel stroked her ticklish spot. [AVM|: ~*dodges Jessica´s fists*~] "Don´t do that!" she ordered, pushing him away. Daniel pouted. Jack grinned and kissed him. "If you tickle me, I´ll have to tickle you back," she warned, and wriggled her fingers to accent the comment. Daniel backed off. [AVM: Okay, in reality, he´s not ticklish. I asked. And checked. ~*pauses*~ That sounds wrong...~*hides from Jack*~]

As though he had just noticed Zack, Daniel frowned and stared at him. "Who´s he?"

"Huh?" Jack turned to see that Zack was still seated by the window. He appeared to be trying to ignore Nik and Pyro, who seemed to be having a bit too much fun out of the view of the parents. She smirked. "That´s Zack. He´s harmless."

Daniel gave her a look that read, I was aware of that.

Jack laughed again, and was surprised to hear Daniel joining in.

"What?"

"Your laugh is so funny it´s cute."

Jack swatted him playfully. "Thanks for that observation, he-who-has-nothing-wrong-with-him."

"Yes," he agreed, straightening slightly and examining the nails on one hand. "It´s not easy being perfect, you know."

[Nova: Oh, look, a cute little bad-graphics ghost...]

[AVM/: Have you been eating ice cream before editing again?]

[Nova: ~*evil grin*~]

"Oh, really now?" Jack said slyly. "And I suppose your parents are all right about us going out now, are they? Not that they know, right?"

"Maybe I should just tickle you into submission," Daniel said, changing the subject, and proceeded to do so, much to a certain raven-haired amnesiac´s displeasure.

~&~

Zack didn´t know why it bothered him so much to see something as natural as kissing a loved one. It wasn´t like there was something wrong with it. It might have had to do with the fact that very interesting noises were sometimes accompanied with the kissing; it might have had to do with the fact that Daniel was pushing Jack down onto the seat and...

[AVM: ~*evil cackle*~ We´re definitely not showing this to a certain lover-boy of Jack´s...~*hides from angry explosion*~]

[Jack: ~*looks away*~]

Zack quickly averted his eyes to the tree to Pyro and the strange boy who gave him the creeps. He now held her tenderly in his arms, as though he thought of her as a precious item that could be easily broken. He looked over the top of Pyro´s head, his cold blue eyes burning into his own...what color were his eyes?

Zack looked up, leaned back to avoid being smacked in the face by Jack´s flailing arm, and glanced in the mirror.

Green.

His eyes were green...

//"You´re the mirror image of your father..."

"Except for his green eyes, don´t forget."

"Ah, yes...his eyes...you have your mother´s eyes..."\

Zack winced as pain erupted in his forehead, just above his right eyebrow. Why does that keep happening? he wondered, slightly annoyed. It´s not like I was hurt there or anything. He glanced back at the mirror again and pulled back the hair that neatly covered his forehead, threatening to obscure his vision. Beneath it was the strangest mark. Zack leaned forward to see what it was.

It was a scar, in the shape of a lightning bolt, still shiny as though new. Somehow he knew that he hadn´t received it during a happy time.

Zack sighed resignedly and was startled when Jack and Daniel sat straight up, blushing furiously, and murmuring quick apologies to him. Jack also tried to hide behind the seat as she readjusted her shirt into a position where all who looked at her could no longer see her bra.

"I sure hope your parents weren´t looking over here," Kirsten said impishly. If possible, both teens went an even brighter shade of red.

//"Well, isn´t this interesting. The Mudblood and Scar-face snogging in the library." The two teens looked up, their feelings for the newcomer plain on their faces.

"Skive off!"

"Oh, and miss the opportunity to see the Weasel´s reaction to this happy gathering? Not in a million years..."

The sneer on the blond´s face made him angry, but what he had said wiped every thought from his head. He´s here?

Sure enough, the redhead walked out from behind a bookshelf, an astonished and betrayed look on his face.\

[AVM: Yes, I know the memory doesn´t really fit. But I needed a memory of his friends, or sorta, for something later on.]

Zack shook his head to get rid of the memory. He knew instinctively that the girl and the redheaded boy were two very close friends of his. The blond, [Nova: tan, hot guy!][AVM: yeah, IN THE SECOND MOVIE, NOT IN THE CANNONS!!!] he knew, was not.

Clear as day, the feeling of the girl´s lips on his was still there, even though it had been but a memory. Zack glanced out of the window and saw that Chris, who hadn´t moved farther than midway between the truck and Pyro and the stranger, was watching Jack. Zack noticed that he had a strange yet unreadable look on his face. Almost...sadness?

~&~

There was only one thing echoing through Lia´s mind at that very moment.

Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun!

Her breath came in jagged gasps as she circled the middle school, trying and (although she didn´t know it) succeeding to confuse her tail into thinking that she was actually trying to enter the building. Something glinted out of the corner of her eye, and Lia nearly turned to see what it was. Then, she remembered.

That damn axe! she thought miserably. Damn stupid Therese for giving it to her! Didn´t she know that Inad would grab it and run after me?!

Stupid Roman for chasing too. It´s not like his girlfriend was in the wreck! Hmm...Maybe I should remind him of that...later...after I--

She broke off as she swerved around the last side of the school, ending up facing the parking lot. Inad, Roman, and Kaori were walking into the school, neatly stashing their weapons into the well in the small garden in front of the school. After all, the No weapons no skateboards etc. signs were everywhere.

Well, at least they paid attention to that law.

Lia waited until they were safely inside the building until she sprinted across the lot and began to race back towards Jack´s house. Maybe if I´m lucky, Fred Meyers will let me beg for sanctuary, she thought bitterly. It was a long, shot, but she believed that there were signs about anti-weaponry there too.

~&~

"Melinda, calm down."

"But he´s trying to suck my daughter´s lungs out!"

"Well, if he did, I know a few good trauma surgeons-- "

"Kaitlin! That is not funny. If I ever..."

"Stop! Don´t go over there. They´re teenagers, and they´re boyfriend and girlfriend. Besides, don´t tell me you never made out with your boyfriend when you were sixteen."

"Well I--but I never...when I was sixteen...ugh!"

"Was that her shirt flying out the window?"

"I´m going to slit that boy from neck to-- "

"No! Stop! Don´t just stand there, Kait, help me!"

~&~

Jack noticed that her hands were shaking slightly as she smoothed down the front of her shirt. She also noticed that none of the parents had stopped glaring at any of them.

"When Lia gets back, we´ll finish this discussion," Teri Florence said, her anger prominent in her voice. "How could you be so foolish as to not leave a message after it happened?"

Jack glanced at Pyro from underneath her eyelashes, and then to Kirsten, and finally to Chris.

"Any one of you could have been killed. And with Lia driving! You four know she hasn´t had her license for the required six months yet!"

"Mrs. Florence--"

"And you, Christopher..."

They all winced; if she had moved onto using full names--even for children who were not her own--they were in very big trouble.

"I swear, I didn´t do anything!"

"How am I going to explain your leg to your mother?"

"Leave me at Daniel´s house until it heals?"

Jack felt a snigger bubbling in her throat and stuffed her fist in her mouth to prevent it from being audible. To her right, she could feel Pyro doing the same.

"Hush, you three!" Jack looked at Kirsten, and saw that she had a glazed look on her face and was giggling madly.

"Oh, no," she moaned.

"What, Jessakah?"

"Jack, Teri. They´re `communicating´."

"`They´?"

Jack jerked her thumb towards Kirsten, who gave them all an innocent look.

"They´re heading back over here now. It seems that Lia tricked them into thinking she went into Alki or something. They´ll be here any minute now..."

Just then, Lia burst into view, sprinting for all she was worth towards Fred Meyers.

"This will be interesting," Jack, Pyro, and Chris said in unison. Kirsten continued her insane giggling.

~&~

"Runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun!!!!" Lia panted, dodging a car that was trying to leave the parking lot. The double doors to the store loomed ahead of her, looking as inviting as the car that was parked nearby. She resisted the urge to dive under it and pushed through the doors. "Safe!" she cried, startling a few people coming out with their groceries. She realized seconds later that her hair must look really interesting, as frizzy as she imagined it to be at that moment. She turned around as a car honked its horn at something--or someone--and saw that her three favorite people were back, and trying to hack their way through the car that had honked at them--

Lia shook her head to clear her vision. The three teens were speaking with Jack, Pyro, and her mother, pointing off into one direction, and then another. Even from where she stood, Lia could make out the evil grin that came over Jack´s face as she pointed towards her.

She rushed into the store, causing the man nearby to yell, "Hey!" Glancing around hurriedly, she wondered where she could hide next.

Too late.

"Hey, Lia..." Lia´s blood ran cold in her veins as she turned. Kaori grinned as she snapped her fan shut. "Nice to see you again. Did you have fun?"

"Umm...uh, that is--"

"That´s nice. It´s time for you to--" Roman started.

Lia interrupted him. "Sanctuary!" she cried, flinging herself to her knees and attempting to bring her hands up in a praying motion. Her left arm was restricted from doing so properly, however, and several people nearby laughed. Lia ignored them.

"What?" Inad and Roman said in unison.

"You can´t claim sanctuary!" Kaori cried, laughing. "This is Fred Meyers*, not a church!"

Lia pointed behind her to a shelf. Someone had set up a large cross on it, with a bunch of cards lying around it.

"Fine," Inad said, dropping the axe. "We´ll leave you alone."

Lia sagged in relief.

"If you never do that again."

"Never! I promise! Just put those things away and don´t take them out again!"

"But I like my fan," Kaori insisted, hugging it to her chest.

"And I like my head to not be bruised, or rolling around not attached to my neck," Lia said sarcastically.

As they walked out of the store, shoppers heard the only male out of the four say, "We wouldn´t have hurt you, you know." Some laughed when the girl with frizzy hair began to race after them after stealing his golf club, waving it threateningly in the air.

~&~

"We´re going home," Mr. Granger announced that evening at dinner. Hermione looked up slowly, holding her hair out of her face with one hand and picking at her food with the other.

"That´s it?" Ron asked angrily, slapping his hands down on the table. "We´re just going to give up, just like that? No fight or anything?"

"Ron--"

"No!" Ron stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over. Ginny looked down at her plate, her red hair hiding her face. "I´m staying here until we find him, even if it means breaking law after law!"

Mrs. Granger looked at her daughter. "Hermione, would you please..." She trailed off at the look on her daughter´s face. Hermione stood up, grabbed Ron by the collar of his shirt, and swung him into the nearest wall. His head slammed against it and his eyes went slightly unfocused.

"I know you can hear me," she said, her voice shaking with emotion. "We are going back to England. Dumbledore can take care of the rest of this. It´s out of our hands, Ron. There´s nothing else we can do except step back and wait for him to be found."

Ron grunted.

"How?" Ginny asked. Hermione turned around, dropping Ron as she did so. He plummeted to the floor like a sac full of stones and sat there with a dazed expression on his face.

"Pardon?"

"How are they going to find him if he´s with a girl who doesn´t even exist?"

"They´ll find him," Hermione said, her eyes blazing. "Even if it means breaking a few laws along the way. They won´t leave the Boy-Who-Lived to the dementors. He´s too important. What happens to him may mold what happens between You-Know-Who and the rest of the wizarding world. The Ministry can´t afford for that to be negative."

"Our flight leaves tomorrow morning," Mr. Granger said, standing up. A tawny owl suddenly swooped through the window, screeching its greeting. It landed on the table between a bowl of mashed potatoes and the chicken. After giving the latter a derisive hoot, it hopped to Mrs. Granger and held out its leg, exposing the attached letter.

"It´s Dumbledore´s," Ron said thickly from the floor.

"Finally," Hermione said. "We sent that letter two days ago!" She walked over to the table and pulled the letter off its leg. Cracking the seal with her fingernail, she scanned the letter. Then, with no warning, she dropped it with a little scream and backed away from it as quickly as she could.

"No," she whispered, crouching down on her knees. "No...it can´t be."

A few white feathers floated with the letter down to the floor and landed softly, making no noise.

~&~

As he lay in bed, unable to sleep, Zack couldn´t help but think that something was missing. Chris´ parents had been more than kind to him; they even agreed to give him Chris´ brother´s old room, as soon as they got a new bed to go in it.

Chris had dropped of some time ago, and his snores were now filling the room in a comforting way. The window had been left open, letting the warm night air flood into the room.

Zack still had the feeling that a very large part of him was missing, aside from his memories.

Giving up on sleep for the meantime, Zack threw away the thin sheet that he had been using and got to his feet. Padding to the kitchen to get something to drink seemed like a good idea.

A minute or so later, Zack stood near the faucet with a glass in his hand. He swirled the water in it around, not really paying attention to the fact that it was nearly flowing over the edge. Memories like small, brightly colored birds were flashing in front of his eyes, too fast for him to really grasp on to, until one slowed down enough so that he could actually comprehend what was going on...

//Lily, take him and run!"

"No! Not without you!"

[Nova (in singsong voice): I´ll never let go, Jack, I´ll never let go...!]

[Jack: Crazy beta-reader...]

"Don´t be foolish; GO!"

...Anguished sobs...

"Lily! Take him and go! It´s him! Go! Run! I´ll hold him off--"

...Stumbling...

...Wood cracking...

...Laughter...evil laughter...

...Screaming...

...Silence...\

Silence...it was deafening...

The glass shattered as it hit the floor, though Zack didn´t notice it. He was too busy hurling everything that was in his stomach at that moment onto the once sparkling tiles. His head spun, throbbing in one concentrated spot. After the vomiting had subsided, he pressed his hand--cool, maybe even freezing--to his forehead, trying to ease the pain.

Instead, more images flashed in his mind, but these were not memories.

Many robed figures stood in a circle, each united in all but one way, though Zack did not know what it was at that moment. His mind was a blur. Coldness seeped into his skin to chill his bones as a voice spoke.

"The boy is dead." A figure walked through a part in the crowd. A deep red light shone from his eyes, as though someone had placed two small yet powerful light bulbs there as a joke. He too was robed, but from one long-fingered hand he held a snow-white owl--a snowy owl, Zack suddenly realized. Another sick feeling came into his stomach, though it wasn´t like the one that he had had when he was throwing up. This one was of anger...sadness...fear...

The circle of men whispered to one another, each comment the same: "Is he truly dead? Is it really over? Are we really free?"

Free from what? Zack wondered. What could be so horrible that they questioned what they were told?

More pain in his forehead, and then all went black.

~&~

Crash!

Sirius burst through the front doors of the castle known as Hogwarts, ignoring startled gasps from various adults as he stormed through the halls, searching for one point in particular. Those who looked close enough noted that his eyes were rimmed in red, giving him the appearance that he had either little to no sleep or had done a lot of crying. The woman who trailed behind him was no better, although she lacked the red-rimmed eyes.

"Dumbledore!" Sirius roared, approaching a stone gargoyle in the middle of an otherwise empty corridor. The gargoyle leapt aside, revealing a winding staircase that led to a beautiful wood door, which the furious ex-convict nearly knocked off its hinges as he entered the room.

"Sirius, what is the matter that makes you need to be so violent?" Dumbledore asked meekly, staring at his former student from behind half-moon glasses.

White lipped with fury, Sirius threw the letter that had caused so much distress onto the desk before collapsing into a chair. Janette stood behind him, a comforting hand on his shoulder, staring into the eyes of her old head master.

Dumbledore glanced at the contents of the letter and sighed. "Did anything else accompany this? His wand, his glasses?"

"Nothing," Janette said, after Sirius made no motion to even twitch one of his fingers.

"He was with Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger in America, was he not?"

"Yes, that´s right." Janette glanced down at Sirius before looking up again. "What does that have to do with anythin--oh." Her pale blue eyes widened. "You don´t think that--would the Weasleys know?"

"There´s only one way to find out. Take Sirius home, Ms. White. Make sure he doesn´t cause any trouble." The look in Dumbledore´s eyes was quite grave by this point. "I´ll let you know if find out anything of importance."

After hearing the click of the door shutting, Dumbledore sighed. "It seems that the war has truly begun," he said soberly.

~&~

"...Zack..."

Zack lifted his aching head from the ground, only to realize that it had disappeared entirely. He was back in the black void that he had been in before he came out of his coma only one day before.

"...Zack..."

The disembodied voice had also returned, though Zack remembered to whom it belonged.

"Where are you?" he asked. "I want to see you again."

She materialized before him, a sad smile on her face, her raven black curls whipping around her head. "I know you do. That´s why I brought you here."

"Who am I, really?" Zack asked. "I have all these memories, but none seem to fit together."

"I´m keeping you safe, Zack," she told him, walking forward with the grace of an angel. "Just remember that one thing as you go few the next few months. Nothing can hurt you as long as you remember this place and me."

"Who am I?!" Zack demanded, grabbing her shoulders roughly and shaking her. Her pale blue eyes, nearly white in their brilliance, closed as sadness finally overtook her.

"Soon. It will be soon." Her eyes opened again, and Zack noted dimly that they had started to glow slightly. "You will meet people who know you, but do not be fooled by their friendship. Some will be bad people, people who want nothing more than your existence eliminated from this earth." She gripped his shoulders back, surprising him. "Remember that as well."

The world swirled, and the light point that had appeared in the distance swam forward to greet him.

~&~

"Zack..."

Zack groaned as pain erupted in his head. Why couldn´t he be left alone to sleep?

A rancid smell met his nose suddenly, causing him to roll swiftly in the opposite direction of him, right into a body.

"Zack!" the whispered voice came to him with a frantic note behind it. "Dammit, Zack, wake up! My parents are going to kill me..."

Zack opened his eyes to see a very blurry figure above him. He blinked, trying to clear his vision. Then he remembered that it was always like this. Perhaps this was how other people saw as well.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice slurred and full of sleep.

Chris frowned. "Have you been drinking? If so, where did you find the alcohol?"

"Drinking?" Zack asked, confused. He cleared his throat and sat up, with menial help from the tall, curly-haired teen.

"Puke on the floor, a shattered glass, you knocked out. It all points to it."

Zack looked down at the different liquids on the floor and remembered the bad smell. "Oh. Sorry about that...I tried to remember stuff, but it just made my head hurt a lot and then..."

// ...Robed figures in a circle...

...Coldness...

...Someone was dead...\

"Someone´s dead!" Zack burst out suddenly, grabbing Chris´ arm with his left hand and pushing himself off the floor entirely. He swayed slightly as the blood all rushed to his head and nearly pulled Chris over. "Someone...someone´s dead!"

"What are you talking about?" Chris hissed, looking over his shoulder at a door.

"I don´t know...people..." Zack furrowed his brow as he tried to remember the strange dream--or was it a dream? It had seemed so real... "People were waiting in a circle...I couldn´t see their faces; they wore cloaks or something with hoods...it hid their faces."

Chris looked slightly scared. "Were they speaking in a different language? With an accent or something? Maybe it was al-Quaeda!"

"No, it was definitely English. Who´s al-Quaeda?"

"Never mind." Chris waved a hand, telling him to continue, and shifted his weight from his uninjured foot to one of his crutches.

"Someone came. Er..." Zack frowned and winced as his forehead flared in pain, and pressed a hand against it. Again, it felt like ice to his hot face. "I can´t remember..."

"But who´s dead?"

Zack looked down at the puddle of puke that was beginning to dry and then back up to Chris. "I don´t remember. I don´t even know if it said." He frowned again and massaged his temple. "I don´t know whether it was a memory, a dream, or--"

"A hallucination?" Chris suggested with a grin. "Maybe you did drink something that didn´t agree with your stomach. Now hurry up and help me clean this up before my parents wake up. I´m surprised that they didn´t come running out here, with all that screaming you were doing." He shuddered, as if remembering. "It sounded like you were trying to raise the dead, or something."

Maybe I was, Zack thought. Or maybe I´m the dead one...

~&~

The next week flew by, although Zack felt like he was being purposely given nothing to do. Chris´ parents wouldn´t let him put his dishes in the dishwasher. They wouldn´t let him help with chores.

The only thing they did let him do was follow Chris to swim practice--not that he was going to be doing swimming any time soon. He and Lia were stuck on the sidelines until Lia´s arm healed to the point that it wasn´t an issue that the stitches would come out (and that she could move her arm properly), and Chris had to wait until his leg healed.

At the current moment, Zack would have sold his teeth for Chris´ leg to be healed, as he was whining a great deal and annoying practically everyone.

"I want to be in the water!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw Lia turn to Chris with an annoyed expression on her face. Her arm was hurting her for some reason. "Stupid: so do I!"

"Let´s try this again: I WANNA BE--"

"Face down, floating, with that sexy, sexy lifeguard standing over you, wondering why he couldn´t get to your bloated body in time."

Chris shuddered and Zack suppressed a laugh.

"What? Was it something I said?" Lia asked innocently, her lips curled at the corners in a half smile.

They had gained Zack´s full attention now.

"I think it was the `sexy, sexy lifeguard´ part that makes me want to poke my eyes out."

"What? Not the bloated body in the water thing? Damn...I´m loosing my touch..." Lia noticed that Zack was watching just them and flashed him a huge grin. "Enjoying yourself?"

"Er..." Zack shrugged.

"Did you swim when you...oh, wait...never mind...heh..." Lia scratched her head. "Let´s try this again: do you swim? Do you think you can swim?"

"I don´t know," Zack said. "Every time I look at the water, though, I get the image of being at the bottom of a very deep lake."

Lia looked very disturbed. "The...bottom?"

Chris grinned. "Lia´s afraid of deep water." His grin turned to a look of thoughtfulness. "It´s a mystery why she loves swimming so much."

Lia made a face at Chris. "If you had nearly drowned when you were three, you--"

"Wouldn´t like water either," Chris interrupted. He had obviously heard the speech a million times or more.

"You nearly drowned?" Zack asked.

Chris groaned. "Don´t ask her, please!" he pleaded.

"My mother was riding along a dock--"

"Tipped over, under water for less than five minutes but more than one, nearly died, close to death, yada yada yada," Chris quickly finished for her.

"It was a terrifying experience," she concluded.

Chris rolled his eyes. "You were three. You probably don´t actually remember; just stories that your mother has told you."

"I remember warm orange juice, which I spat at the guy who rescued my mother and me. I remember the counselor who kept trying to get me to tell her what happened by drawings and all I was interested in was telling her about the bumble bee that I had seen on the stairs in front of the room." Zack saw that Lia´s eyes were bright green now. "I remember--"

"Okay, okay!" Chris held up his hands in defeat. "You remember!" He turned to look at the swimmers in the pool and sighed. "They´re sprinting."

"You would be complaining if you were in there sprinting," Lia pointed out.

"It´s better than being on the sidelines, watching them have all the fun complaining."

Lia growled angrily and pulled at her hair with her uninjured hand, which came out of her ponytail in a large bunch.

Zack was once again trying not to laugh, but he suspected that his twitching lips were giving him away.

"I´m going to go try to fix my hair," Lia murmured, and got up from her chair. The slamming of the locker room door told them that she had pulled it shut instead of letting it go on its own.

"Now you´ve done it," Chris told Zack.

Zack was confused. All he had done was try not to laugh...

~&~

[A/N: I would like everyone to note that the real Jack wrote this. I bought her a nifty little notebook for Christmas (and pencils!), and she wanted to know what to write, so I told her to have fun and write this next part. Enjoy.]

"Eight fifties on a minute. Drill, swim; your choice," Coach shouted, trying to be heard over the noise of the swimmers chattering.

"Eight? On a minute?" Mike asked. Jack shook her head sadly. He never got it right the first time.

"Yes, Mike," Coach said, irritated. "First person goes on the top."

Jack and Daniel started their fifties with relative ease. As she rolled her head to breathe, Jack noted that Pyro seemed to be having more trouble than usual. Probly her wrist, she thought.

As Jack finished her third fifty, she glanced up at Chris, Lia, and Zack. Losers, she thought maliciously, watching Chris and Lia argue over something. Behind her, she heard Daniel laugh softly.

"Look at them," he said, nodding in their direction.

"Yeah," Jack said. She grinned. "Are they losers, or what?" Daniel laughed again, and Jack left the wall smiling.

~&~

{Still Jack here...}

Five minutes later, Jack yanked off her swim cap untied the hair elastic that she had used to keep her hair in a loose bun. After soaking it in the water for a moment, she pulled herself from the pool, letting water splash everywhere. After putting their equipment away, they grabbed their bags and walked towards the locker room and the three teens who didn´t swim.

"How was practice?" Lia asked sarcastically. Jack held back a snigger when she saw how frizzy her friend´s hair was.

"It was so much fun!" Jack trilled, now grinning broadly. "You guys should have swam with us. Oh, wait! That´s right...I´m so sorry; I forgot."

"Don´t make me hit you with my crutch," Chris threatened her, waving it in the air.

"I´m sorry...here, let me give you guys a hug." Jack glanced briefly at Pyro, letting her know to join in. The two of them engulfed Chris and Lia in wet hugs. Lia obviously didn´t enjoy it, as she shrieked loudly and tried to keep her still heavily bandaged arm out of harm´s way.

"Thanks so very much," Lia said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she tried to dry her shirt. "Go get changed, or something, before we push you back in the pool."

I´d like to see Chris try without getting his cast wet, Jack thought evilly, a grin coming over her face. Then she turned to Daniel and asked, "D, will you give me a ride home? I really don´t want to ride home with Lia and Pyro." She paused and side-glanced them. "For obvious reasons." The blue-tipped haired girl was jumped up and down and giggling insanely once again.

Looking back to Daniel, Jack saw that he had his eyebrows raised.

"I completely understand," he said. "But I´m giving Chris and Zack a ride, too. I´m sure they won´t mind if I give you a ride also, though."

"That would be great," Jack told him. "I´ll call my mom and tell her you´re coming over to eat dinner."

She barely heard the whisper that Lia shot to Zack: "Every time Daniel gives a ride to Jack, they either end up taking forever to get home because of `detours´ made in the parking lot, or he ends up eating at her house."

I´ll get her later, Jack thought angrily, squishing the urge to hurl her friend into the pool. "Yeah, cool. See you upstairs," he said and gave her a hug that was interrupted by a disgusted Pyro.

"Disconnect! Now!" she bellowed. They immediately separated. Pyro thanked them.

"We only did that for your sanity, you know," Daniel told her.

"What sanity?" Lia asked, and then looking around, as though she hadn´t said it and was wondering who would have the guts to say something like that.

Jack ignored Lia and instead held up three fingers and mouthed the word "Goat!"

After saying farewell to her "boyfriend", who left for the guys locker room, she walked into the girls locker room. "You goat," she scolded Pyro. "We were just hugging!"

"Which would turn into something more," Pyro said knowingly.

"Not at practice. No one is supposed to know, except a select few. Anyways--"

"Is not a word," Lia sang, popping in and bouncing to the door.

Jack blinked after her and turned back to Pyro. "Do you want to come over too?" she asked, aiming the comment at both girls.

"Yup!" Lia yelled thought the slowly closing door.

"Sure," Pyro said.

"I´d have to ask my mom," Chris´ voice said from outside the door.

"What would we be having?" Zack asked. That, I do believe, is the most he´s said to me since I met him, Jack thought to herself.

"Umm...pizza, probably. Or...pizza. Yeah, we´re having pizza."

"Good. Pizza´s good. See y´alls upstairs," Lia yelled. The door snapped shut, leaving Jack, Pyro, and the rest of the girls who slowly sauntered into the locker room to dress in silence.

~&~

{Still JB...}

The two girls came out of the locker room together, meeting with Daniel at the bottom of the stairs and Lia, Chris, and Zack at the top. Jack and Daniel walked on either side of Pyro, pretending that they were "just friends".

"Are you guys coming to my house for dinner?" Jack asked them.

"Didn´t we go through this already?" Lia asked.

Chris glanced at her, his eyebrows raised, and answered slowly. "I guess. But Daniel would have to take us to my house to ask first," Chris replied.

"Yeah, okay. I´m coming with. Dan is giving me a ride, too."

"No detours," Lia told them, waving her finger in Jack´s direction.

"Okay, okay," Jack said

"Promise?"

"Yes! Jeeze, ye of little faith!"

"Promise what?" Zack asked, obviously confused.

"Weren´t you listening?" Jack asked him.

"I suppose I wasn´t," Zack answered.

"It doesn´t matter," Jack told him.

"Huh? What doesn´t matter?" Lia asked.

"Nuthin´. We were just talking about stuff."

"Stuff?" Lia asked, a suspicious frown coming over her face. "What kind of stuff?"

"Why does it matter?" Jack demanded.

"Because I wanna know. Why can´t you just tell me?"

"If I told you, I´d have to kill you. Well, we would both have to kill you." Jack nodded towards Chris.

"And I doubt that you would like that," Chris agreed.

"Are you ready?" Daniel asked, stepping in just in time to prevent a typical Lia outburst.

"I guess," Jack answered. "Pyro, Lia, head over to my house. We´ll meet you there."

"Under forty-five minutes this time, please," Pyro ordered.

"I would like to eat before midnight, for once," Lia agreed.

Jack scowled. "That was only once!"

"Yeah," Lia told her. "Once too many!"

"Fine. Ruin our fun," Daniel told her with a pout. The six of them walked out the front doors and into the warm August night.