Young Writers Society

Elias was excited to meet other people from the past. He was also excited to be able to listen to music from the past and be able to play it in the giant wheeled contraptions called cars, although Levi didn't seem too happy when he blasted a popular song called Baby Shark.

But being in a classroom and seeing another person he hadn't seen before? His classmate? Their classmate?

This topped the cake.

Without waiting for Levi's reaction, Elias immediately started to walk on over to the girl sitting in the back of the room, hands in his pocket to appear casual.

"Hey, anyone sitting here?" he asked as he pulled up the seat next to her.

Never mind that the entire classroom was empty. But still.

Levi knew that there would be risks involved when he decided Elias could go to school with him, but he hadn't expected said risks would show up so fast.

Charlotte looked up at Elias. Her eyes widened a little bit when she realized that Elias had already sat down next to her—mirroring the alarm that Levi was doing his best to hide—and she awkwardly flipped her phone over after a pause. It was clear that she didn't really know what to do with someone paying attention to her. Charlotte, after all, always seemed to be alone.

In another life, maybe Levi would have taken pity on her. He had caught sight of her leaving Hot Topic once or twice, and she had a little creeper key chain on her backpack. If Levi didn't have to worry about things that Charlotte and Elias couldn't ever imagine, he might have said something about it before.

...There was also the fact that she was weirdly antagonistic towards him.

She glanced between Levi and Elias, something suddenly seeming to click in her head.

"Hi," she said to Elias, a wary tone to her voice.

Levi resisted the urge to groan. He maneuvered his way around the desks so he was standing right next to Elias. If he stood there long enough, would Elias get the memo that they needed to get away from Charlotte? The alone ones were always the most perceptive.

Frankly, Elias was appalled that Levi was being rude. This was his school and his classmate, so why was he ignoring her? He had to do all the work around here, and this was his first day here.

"Hey!" he said with a smile. "I'm Elias. I'm new here."

He then glanced back at Levi, unamused that he was standing over him instead of sitting next to him or her.

"I'm also Levi's friend," he said. "What's your name?"

"Charlotte," Charlotte slowly said. "Charlotte Hart."

She glanced over at Levi again. He held her gaze for a moment before she looked away; he didn't know what to do with that.

"I'm not surprised you're friends with Levi," Charlotte added, hand lingering over her turned over phone. "He has a lot of them."

"Oh?" Elias said teasingly as he glanced between Charlotte and Levi. "Really? Levi hasn't shown me a single one."

How rude. He's been here a whole weekend and the only friend Levi had shown him was technology. Elias was beginning to think he was his only friend.

Levi resisted the urge to groan.

"That's because you've only been here for a weekend," he said, scooting a little closer to Elias. He wasn't going to acknowledge that he didn't have all the friends that Charlotte was convinced he had. She probably just saw him talking to their classmates and thought his popularity in the classroom translated to being popular outside it. He couldn't take the risk of getting close to them.

Charlotte gave him a look. It was antagonistic like usual, but there was pity to it, too. He didn't want to think of the implications of her starting to pity him.

"Come on," Levi said, looking over at Elias. "We need to go find the teacher to make sure your schedule is all sorted out."

They didn't really, but Levi didn't trust the direction this conversation was going.

Elias shot Levi a sour face, but then leaned towards Charlotte, putting a hand up on side of his mouth. "He's a real teacher's pet, huh?" he said with a hushed teasing voice and a snicker.

No way he was going to see a teacher. That was boring.

"C'mon, Levi," Elias said with an inviting smile, gesturing between him and Charlotte. "We can't leave Charlotte here by herself. That's mean."

Levi gave Elias another look.

"Come on," he hissed, grabbing onto Elias's arm and giving it a little tug towards the door. Charlotte just watched them. There was definitely a little confusion in her eyes right now, but Levi could also see her trying to figure out exactly what was going on.

Levi awkwardly cleared his throat.

"Charlotte's not going to be alone for long," he said, trying to recover from that slip in personality. He pushed his glasses up with his free hand. "Our other classmates are going to be here any minute now. But we really need to find that teacher, so we should go."

Elias glanced between Levi and Charlotte. Either Levi didn't like Charlotte for whatever reason, or he really wanted him to see the teacher. Honestly, it was hard to tell.

"Okay, okay, message received," Elias said as he lifted his free hand up innocently.

He let Levi lead him out of the room as he waved back at Charlotte.

"It was nice to meet you!" he said.

"...It was nice to meet you, too," Charlotte hesitantly said.

But, by that point, Levi had already dragged Elias out of the room. The hallway beyond the classroom was mostly empty, but Levi wasn't going to take any risks. He led Elias to a dead end that he doubted anyone else would be going to this time of day; all it had were spare lockers the school never needed.

Levi finally let go of Elias's arm.

Elias let Levi drag him allllll the way out of the classroom and down the end of a dead-end. He stumbled on his feet, barely keeping up with Levi. When he reached the end of the hallway and Levi finally let go, he snatched his arm away and lightly shook his hand.

"Ow," he said, narrowing his eyes at him. "What's the rush, man? You okay?"

"You have to be careful," Levi quietly hissed. He glanced down at Elias's arm and hand. He hadn't thought he had grabbed him all that hard, but maybe he hadn't considered his strength.

...That, or Elias was just hamming it up.

He let out a sigh, knowing very well that Elias didn't get it. He hadn't had to keep secrets all his life.

"Charlotte's observant," Levi said. "She doesn't really have any friends, so she pays attention to her classmates more than most people do. She's also had some weird vendetta against me for years. I don't know. I haven't ever tried to ask."

He looked back in the direction of the classroom.

"She also knows...things," Levi added. He didn't specify what those things were. She probably wouldn't have guessed Elias's secret, but Levi knew she could easily guess his if he accidentally left enough clues. "Things that could get us discovered."

"I don't really see what the big deal is," Elias said, and he was being serious, because he really had no clue. "I was just being friendly. What's the worst that can happen?"

A phantom pain—one that loved showing itself whenever Levi started to think of what ifs—lodged itself in his chest and back. Fighting it never did any good; he'd just have to wait for it go away again.

"A lot of things," Levi said. He sighed. Admitting just how badly things could go wrong meant telling Elias things he hadn't brought up yet. Things he didn't want to bring up yet.

He made sure to lower his voice when he spoke again.

"Do you remember how I said last night that I had magic and I didn't want other people to know that?" he asked. "That's what Charlotte could discover. It's dangerous to have magic like mine. And while she might not intentionally hurt us, she could let someone else who would know. I-We can't risk something like that."

The seriousness seeped in a little more for Elias as he stood in front of Levi, staring. It was just... well, was there really a harm? Would Charlotte even know? How would she if neither of them told her? They were fine as is, right?

"Okay," he said softy, then sighed. "I mean... we don't have to show her, or tell her, though."

He placed his hand on Levi's shoulder, offering a small, gentle smile as he detected his rising anxiety.

"Hey. We'll be okay," he said. "No one's saying anything or showing anything, so there's no risk. We'll just be here to learn and have fun. Okay?"