Chapter 16 - Restless

Lost was sitting, leaning against the wall when Sarah and Swirl came into the dorm. Their laughter and chatter stopped when they saw Lost looking shaken.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sarah asked, her brow crinkled in concern.

"Did something happen? Are you still worried about that noise you heard?" Swirl said.

"I guess I'm still a bit spooked," Lost started shakily, "When I was walking back, I heard someone behind me! I saw them, they were right behind me!"

"Wait, wait. Someone was actually stalking you?" Swirl gulped.

"I think so." Lost stood up, her legs still weak from the fright.

For a moment, the dorm was quiet as the girls thought about what Lost said.

 

"It could have been someone going to their dorm and they just happened to be behind you," Sarah said after a while.

 

"That's possible," Swirl replied.

 

Lost nodded, still a bit unsure. "Yeah, maybe."

 

 

"Well, as much as I don't want to leave you guys, I should get back to my dorm," Sarah said. "I'll see you all tomorrow, okay?"

 

 

Sarah walked over to the door, paused, and turned around. "And Lost? Don't worry, we'll figure this mystery out."

 

 

"Thanks, Sarah. Have a good sleep!" Lost said.

 

Lost watched Sarah leave. As the door softly closed, Lost's gaze met Swirl's.

 

 

"Don't worry. We can think about this tomorrow. Try to get some rest," Swirl said reassuringly.

Lost nodded and smiled softly at Swirl before going to sit on her bed. She leaned back into the soft blanket and stared at the plain white ceiling above her.

 

A thought struck her. Rolling over, she grabbed her phone from the night table. She lightly pressed the power button and went to all of her text messages. She clicked Koolest's name and sent a quick text.

 

Lost scanned her last few texts that she had sent at school. A few of them said they had been read but the last few hadn't. And there had been no reply from Koolest.

She's probably just busy with school and stuff. She'll get back to me later.

- - -

Lost felt like an overtired zombie the next morning as she grabbed the tray and moved down the line. She stiffly held her tray of scrambled eggs and toast and gazed out at all the tables. She thought she noticed a few students glance at her and whisper something to their friends.

Everyone probably knows I ditched a class. Great.

"Lost! Over here!" Ja called from a table nearby.

"Hey," Lost mumbled as she sat down and started poking at her eggs. The smell was making her want to puke.

"Lost, you look awful! Did you not get any sleep?" Karalee asked, her eyes full of worry.

"I had a super restless sleep," Lost said.

Swirl stared at Lost from across the table. "Is this about last night?"

"Oh, Sarah told me what happened, Lost! That sounds spooky!" Ja said.

"Wait, what? Did I miss something?" Karalee said. "Something spooky happened?"

Lost ate her toast while vaguely listened as Swirl and Sarah gave Karalee the full story on what happened. Lost's mind drifted off to think about what to say to Ms. Liza and what might happen to her and if she'd fail English and-

"Wow, Lost, that sounds so weird!" Karalee said, her voice breaking through Lost's worries. "The mystery just gets more and more strange."

"Mhm," Lost said and rubbed her eyes.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Sarah asked. "You look super tired. Is there anything else bothering you?"

"Well, I haven't heard from Koolest in a long while. She hasn't replied to any of my recent texts and I'm worried," Lost said.

"Oh no," Swirl said worriedly. "I'm sure everything is fine but I'll keep an eye out for her, okay?"

"Yeah, I think we have some of the same classes so I'll try to spot her," Karalee said.

"We'll find her, don't worry," Ja patted Lost's shoulder.

"Thanks, guys." Lost forced a smile, trying to ignore the worry that was twisting in her.

- - -

"Lostfairy? Lostfairy, can you come back to us, please?" Mr. Cosmo called.

"Whuh?" Lost sat up straight quickly. Everyone in her science class turned and gave her odd looks.

Mr. Cosmo sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "I was asking if you knew what male bees are called and if they had any job in the hive?"

"Um," Lost quickly thought back at what she had read the day before. "They are called drones and their job is to mate with the female bees," Lost said.

"That is correct but pay more attention next time, okay?" Mr. Cosmo said before asking some other student a question about female bees.

Lost slumped in her chair. Her mind was full of worry and she just couldn't think of anything else. Her gaze slipped over to her backpack.

Should I risk it?

Carefully reaching for her backpack pocket that held her phone, she kept an eye on Mr. Cosmo. She quietly slipped the phone out and turned it on. She checked her text messages.

Still none from Koolest.

Lost felt her heart drop lower as she put the phone back. Penguin, sitting next to her, caught her gaze. He looked at her, then the backpack, and then her again. He frowned and shook his head before looking back at Mr. Cosmo.

Trying to act cool, Lost felt her face turn warm as she tried to pay attention to the young teacher as he excitedly talked about the eating habits of bees.

 

- - -

 

Lost slunk into her English classroom before the bell rang, hoping to catch Ms. Liza alone so they could talk before everyone came and heard them. That would be majorly embarrassing.

 

The room was empty except for Ms. Liza who was grabbing books from a box and putting them into the giant oak shelves. She turned around to see who had come in.

 

"Ah, Lost, glad to see your feeling better," Ms. Liza smiled. "Come, help me put these books away."

 

Lost slowly walked over, feeling uncomfortable. She held a stack of books out for let Ms. Liza who grabbed the first one and searched for its place.

 

"So, what happened yesterday?" Ms. Liza asked after a few minutes.

 

Lost gulped. "I panicked, I'm so sorry. You can punish me or tell the Headmaster or fail me or-"

 

"Sweetie, calm down," Ms. Liza chuckled softly. "Nothing bad is going to happen. It was my own fault, jumping that on you at the last second."

 

"I just don't like public speaking." Lost handed her teacher a thick book. "And I know ditching class is awful but I just had to get away."

 

"I get that, Lost," Ms. Liza said, sliding another book into its place. "But in English, you will have to do public speaking but you will get better. And your in Drama, aren't you? That will also help you cause you'll have to do your lines onstage."

 

Ms. Liza turned to look at Lost and looked into her eyes. "We can't always run away from our fears. Life will sometimes make us have to face them head on. You can do that for me?"

 

Lost nodded just as the bell rang.

 

"Well, it's almost class time. Thank you for helping, Lost," Ms. Liza said with a smile. She grabbed the box and put it in a nearby cupboard.

 

"So, I'm not in trouble?" Lost asked, shocked.

 

"No, you're fine." Ms. Liza winked as if they had a special secret and walked over to her desk.

 

Breathing a sigh of relief that everything went better than expected, Lost sat at her desk and waited for class to start.

Chapter 1 - There's a New Kid at Jamaasian High

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Lostfairy woke up with a start. She sat up and smiled. Today was going to be great. She'd stay home and read all morning. Then, she'd play computer and maybe watch an episode of "The Flash" with her siblings. Oh, and go for a bike ride!

Knock knock knock!

"Could you please turn off your alarm clock?" called Dreadwisp, her brother, through the door. "It is very loud and it's getting annoying."

Oops!

Lost reached over and turned the alarm off. She stood up, stretched, and walked over to the door. Just as she was about to open it, she looked at her Disney calendar.

How could I forget?!

She rushed out into the hallway and saw her mom, baking in the kitchen.

"Mom! Uh, is today September seventh?"

Her mom looked up and smiled. "Yes, it is. Why?"

Lost groaned. How could she have forgotten that today was the first day of school? Public school. As in, not homeschool.

"You better go get changed. It's already seven-thirty." said her mom.

Lost ran back down the hall into her bedroom. She frantically opened her closet and stared at her clothes.

What should I wear? A dress? No, it's just school. Jeans and t-shirt? No way. Too plain.

Finally deciding on a gray t-shirt and red skirt, she stepped back and looked into the mirror.

I'll have to do something with that hair of mine. Lost grimaced. Her hair was curly, yet straight. It was tangled in a weird mess.

After trying to get all the tangles out, she finally called it "decent."

She walked over to the dining room table and called, "Mom, when's breakfast and what are we having?"

"Pancakes, Lostfairy! And I think the pancakes are ready now so bring your plate here," Mom replied. "Koolestkat, come! It's breakfast time!"

Koolestkat was Lost's sister. She was going to be attending the same school as Lostfairy.

The two girls sat at the table and started eating their chocolate chip pancakes, hurriedly. Lost was done first and ran to get her backpack.

Lost slung her backpack over her shoulder, already filled with her school things.

"I'm ready. Can we go now?" Lost asked as she stood by the front door.

"Yeah, Mom. I'm ready too," Koolest said.

Mom got the keys and they all stepped outside. Once they were inside the car, Lost started getting really nervous. She tried to remember all she could about her new school.

It was called Jamaasian High and it had a lot of kids attending. It was a boarding school, which would be very new for Lost. The headmaster, Clark Stacey, was pretty nice at the little tour last week that Lost went to. The school was huge and had lots of trees and flowers all around. Vines grew basically everywhere. There were fountains and ponds. It was naturey everywhere.

They had been driving for a little when they went around a turn and Lost, all of a sudden, saw it. Jamaasian High. It was bigger than she remembered. Lost gulped nervously.

They drove into the big, fancy parking lot. Mom stopped the car and looked at Lost and Koolest.

"You'll be okay?" she asked. "Try to figure out when you should bring all your clothes and things to your dorm. Phone me when you find that out."

"Yeah. Totally," Lost replied, trying to sound calm. "Sure thing."

Koolest smiled at Lost while getting out of the car. Lost also stepped out and they turned to watched her mom smile, wave, and drive away.

Turning back around, Lost stared at all the crowds of people. There were tons of kids!

"Bye, Lost! See you later," Koolest said as she walked into the herds of kids.

Lost watched her sister walk away before she started walking down the stone pathway to the giant, oak doors of the school. As she went, she heard bits of chatter coming from all around.

"Oh my gosh, we're going to the same school as Aparri!"

"I hope I see Wisteriamoon again. Last year, she was, like, totally popular and cool."

"I love all the nature around here! Totally awesome!"

Lost reached the door and had just reached out to open it when someone came in front her.

"Hey! You look new! Welcome to Jamaasian High! Hey, you wanna join the cheerleading team?" said a girl. She grinned at Lost.

"Uh, I think I'm good. I don't wanna, you know, break myself while doing something crazy," Lost said. "But thanks for the offer."

The girl laughed. "Well, okay then! By the way, I'm Snowyclaw! I'm the top cheerleader! And our school's mascot is a blue heron named Mira! Cool, right?"

"I'm Lostfairy," Lost said.

"That's a nice name! Well, see you around!" Snowyclaw waved and walked back to a group of girls.

After watching them for a few moments, Lost turned and opened the doors. She gasped when she stepped inside.

The ceiling was very high and ivy went all the way down the stone walls. Wooden lockers all in long lines were down the hall. The ground was marble and in the center of the entryway was a huge statue of a bird. It seemed to have a magical glow around it.

Lost spun around, soaking it all in, and bumped into someone.

"Dude, watch where you're going," said a boy with brown spiky-ish hair. He was wearing a bunch of different shades of red. Somehow, they all worked together.

"Sorry!" Lost blushed.

The boy looked over his shoulder and saw a huge crowd of girls running toward him.

"Aparri! Aparri! Come back!" the girls cheered.

"Oh, great. I literally can't get anywhere around here without girls following me," he said and then started fast-walking towards the lockers.

Lost shook her head. So that was the Aparri she had heard about from outside

She then started looking around for the school office. After a few minutes of walking up and down some stairs, a girl with pale skin and black hair walked up to her. Lost noticed she had a really pretty necklace on. It was a light blue gem that matched her eyes.

"You looked like you need help." said the girl, kindly.

"Heh, is it that obvious?" Lost said nervously. "I'm trying to find the school office."

"Oh! I know where that is! Come with me," said the girl.

Lost followed the girl. "I'm Lostfairy, by the way."

"I'm Doomypanda. Most people call me Doomy," the girl replied.

They walked down the hall. Doomy finally stopped at a glass door that had the words "School Office" on it.

"Here we are," she said.

"Thanks so much, Doomy! You saved me from a long time of searching," Lost said, grinning.

"Anytime!" Doomy said. "Hope I'll see you sometime in my classes, Lostfairy!"

Lost nodded and opened the door. There was a big desk in the middle of the room with a lady sitting behind it, typing on a computer. Lost walked up to the desk.

"Hi. I'm Lostfairy. I'm new here and I need my schedule, please," Lost said.

The lady smiled and gave her a paper with her school schedule.

"Welcome here. I hope you enjoy attending here, Lostfairy," she said.

Lost looked down at her schedule and quickly checked to see what her first class was.

So first I go to homeroom, which is on the first floor.

Lost moved her way through the loud crowd to her homeroom. The bell rung and people started running to their classrooms. Lost picked up her pace and found her class. She peered inside the door. Most of the desks were full already.

This is it. My first ever homeroom.

Taking a deep breath, Lost opened the door and stepped through.