Star sighed again as Crista awaited her response to her invitation to have lunch together. Star then noted Sky exiting the restroom again and looked back at Crista, “let me just run it past Sky and then we’ll meet you at one of the tables, ok?”

“Ok” Crista looked a little worried by that possibly being a rejection, but managed a smile before heading off to find them a spot for lunch, she hoped.

Another breath before Star and Sky took a few steps toward each other then. Star then looked up at him, “so, there’s this freshman girl, Crista” she began.

“The one with the blue hair?” Sky concurred.

“So, you’ve noticed her?”

“Hard to miss someone with blue hair” he scoffed slightly.

“And a corset and a Lolita skirt” Star added wryly.

“Which it sounds like you noticed” Sky returned knowingly.

Star just shook her head, “anyway, she wants to have lunch with us.”

“So, babysitting bubblegum goths for lunch? Guess it still beats yesterday” Sky stated with another heavy sigh.

Star shook her head again before replying, “anyway, it turns out we’re somewhat famous, or infamous, at least to the bubblegum crowd.”

“Ok, I gotta hear this” Sky stated with furrowed brow as the two slowly began making their way toward the cafeteria.

“So, Crista has an older sister, apparently a bitch, so I’ve heard. And this sister, has apparently been telling Crista a lot of stuff about us” Star began.

“This should be pleasant then” Sky returned sarcastically.

“My point is, this may be our best chance to figure out who we actually are in this world. I mean, it sounds like this girl may know more about our lives here than we do” Star added pointedly.

Sky scoffed, “actually, it sounds like she knows a lot about the shit that people here may actually be saying about us; the two goth kids. Are we really gonna pretend that anything these fuckers say about us could actually be accurate?”

“I know most of it will be bullshit, but if we at least know what people here think that we’re like, then we know how to act around them. And maybe we even can dig whatever truth there might be outta all the lies” she suggested hopefully.

“Or we could just find out that this world sucks even more than the other one” Sky told her somberly.

“Sucks more than a world where our whole lives were a lie? A world where they wanted to take away our feelings and our abilities or just kill us? After already torturing us for a year and making us do...” a slight look around, “the things we had to do? How could any world be worse than that?”

Sky looked down at her sadly. As much as he hated all the unknowns of this world, and trying to adjust to them; she was right, it would have to be an absolute nightmare to ever be worse than the world they each remembered. And he had to hold onto the hope that it could be better, somehow, once they managed to figure it out. So he nodded and followed her to the cafeteria with another deep sigh.

Sky and Star didn’t get much in the way of useful information out of Crista that day at lunch. Most of the hour was spent with her going on and on about possibly being able to get a chance to go to the goth/industrial night in the city that weekend. At least that was one more thing that the two worlds had in common, they thought wryly as they listened to the overly animated fourteen year old sharing all her plans for her weekend in the big city.

When Star glanced at the time, realizing lunch period was nearly over, she interrupted Crista’s continued planning, “so, you wanted to meet us because of your sister?”

“Cassie, the bitch” she added as she tossed away a carrot stick she had been gnawing on through her recent yammering.

“So, what exactly did Cassie say that made you wanna hang out with us?” Star continued, the glazed look in Sky’s eyes as he listened to Crista for nearly an hour, finally fading as Star brought the subject around to their true reason for spending lunch with the girl.

“Well, she really fuckin hates the two of you” Crista smirked, “which was enough reason to make me like you both... before even seeing you” she added more quietly.

Trying to ignore the last bit of her comment, Star moved on, “so, why does she hate us so much?”

Crista scoffed, “well I figured you’d know, if anything she actually said was true that is. Which is doubtful, cause: Bitch” she repeated, “plus the shit she’s been saying about you guys is just plain weird. And when people like us think something is weird?” Crista just shrugged to end that statement.

“Weird how?” Star asked worriedly.

“And been saying? How long has Cassie had this grudge on for us?” Sky interjected at last.

Crista blushed slightly at just the fact of Sky finally speaking to her at all that lunch period, before remembering to answer, “like three years?” she shrugged again, “since that party” she added as a further explanation, vague as it was to two people with no memory of their entire lives here.

“So, what exactly does she say?” Star attempted to prod more specific answers from the girl.

Crista looked visibly uncomfortable then, but her seeming infatuation with both of them, forced her to want to give Star the answers she wanted, “well, for starters, she said that the two of you are like witches or some shit. Which I guess is the usual bullshit people like us get from people with less of a fashion sense” she smiled.

“Witches?” Star asked, giving Sky a sideways glance.

“Naturally” he returned, them sharing that brief inside joke.

“And why does she think we’re witches? I just gotta hear this one” Star continued.

“Well, she says you two like attacked her at that party. But with your minds, of course” Crista just scowled and shook her head as if to scoff at the entire idea as pure fantasy.

The two then gave each other another furtive glance before Star pressed on, “attacked her how, exactly?”

“And why?” Sky added.

Crista shook her head again, “well, that’s the other weird shit. She says that the two of you attacked her with your psychic powers, of course” another shake of her head, “because of what she caught you doing” she hurried to the end of that sentence, “keep in mind, I don’t believe a word the bitch says. Although if you guys really were witches, I’d be so down with that” she allowed another little laugh.

Star swallowed a bit as she and Sky shared another worried look, “what she caught us doing?”

“Yeah, she said that she walked in on the two of you...” Crista just shook her head, “I don’t even wanna repeat it. Like I said, she’s a bitch; please don’t think I’m a bitch by association. I really didn’t get to choose her as a sister. Trust me on that one” Crista added as she stirred a straw around her juice with a worried look that maybe they would like her less because of something her sister may have said or done.

“So, at this party... three years ago...” Sky began, trying to puzzle it out in his own mind, “your sister supposedly caught us doing something... with each other?” he swallowed a bit, “and because of it, we supposedly attacked her with psychic powers? I get that all?” he asked, his breath a little ragged as Star looked down at the floor, nearly biting a hole in her lip.

“Like I said, I don’t believe any of the shit she says. Think it’s kind of sick that other people seem to” she replied as she looked accusingly around the room at their peers.

“So, this party... that’s where all these rumors started?” Star stated, more to Sky as they both continued to try to make sense of this world.

“Yeah, thanks to my bitch sister” Crista answered, “I would apologize, but, doubt it would help” she added sadly.

Star took a deep breath to compose herself before looking back over at where Crista was obviously worried she may have lost her new friends already. Star then let out the breath and spoke, “no believe me, you’ve helped” she swallowed, “at least now we know what other people think, or at least why” she quickly corrected.

“I am sorry” Crista told them sadly.

Sky then looked back at her, “not your fault. We know all too well about the shit your own family can pull” he swallowed as he looked back at Star with another sad expression.

Having rumors like that spreading for the last three years in this world did manage to explain at least a small part of what had ‘fucked them up’ as Sky had stated the other day. But he was more concerned with how much truth were actually in those rumors. And when he looked at Star, he knew that was what she desperately wanted to know too.

When the two of them made their way back to the car after classes ended that day, they were both more than a little somber. Though at least they understood all the looks and whispers now. They sighed almost simultaneously as they got into the car and slumped back in the seats.

After a long breath, Sky spoke up, “so is it really possible that I started to have sex with you when we were both fourteen... in this world too?”

“Soul-mates can only fight it for so long” Star replied softly.

“Only it was in a different place. And since we got caught, our abilities made different things happen?” he offered a worried guess.

“And since it wasn’t our scientist parents who knew about it this time, no awkward conversations and handing out of birth control; or being locked up in labs for the next three years” Star attempted to fill in more blanks.

“So, did something actually make us stop having sex with each other then?” Sky shrugged as he looked to her for answers he knew she didn’t have either.

“Attacked her? With our minds?” Star offered her guess, to which Sky looked down. She then continued, though in a whisper, “I know that every time we hurt somebody in our world, it sure as hell didn’t make us eager to crawl back into bed together right away. And if that was the first time we ever were together, like that? Feel free to multiply that guilt by a thousand or so.”

“But we didn’t kill Cassie” Sky added, trying to find some shred of light in the hypothesis they were trying to form right then.

“Guess that’s why we’re not in prison” Star sighed again.

“Except one of our own making” he added wryly, nearly repeating her own words from that other world back to her as the two let out another sound of melancholy, trying to figure out exactly what their plan would be now. It was true that this life was a bit less hellish than their other one, but that didn’t make any of it any easier at all.