Elena sat up groggily.

Ugh. Mondays.

It had been a couple of days since Yamila, Evan, and their sleepover, and they had gotten nowhere finding information about the new Tag virus, as the community had dubbed it. And now it was Monday, meaning that Elena had to go to school, and suffer through endless talk about the stupid Tag virus.

I mean, come on! Only one person has had it at once, and only two people have died. And we know it has a 100% death rate. It isn't spreading that quickly.

Jolon had eventually gotten a man named Defjad, who had had the virus for a couple of days now. He had been sitting on his porch steps, peacefully stargazing, when Jolon had jumped down from the porch roof, an extra boost of strength from the virus enabling him to tackle the middle aged man. Defjad had been detained every night once the sun had gone down. They were hoping to keep the virus contained in his body so that the doctors could study his body and hopefully find a cure. But they had gotten nowhere. And the government wasn't going to help since only three people had been infected so far. Highest Peak was on its own.

Reporters on the news had shown clips of Jolon's family grieving, which seemed cruel to Elena, given the fact that they had just lost a child. But the Tag virus was all over the local news, even though not many had been infected. Three was a lot in the tiny town of six hundred and fourteen people. Besides, nothing much really happened in Highest Peak, so a small virus? Huge news.

Elena drank her morning coffee with extra cream quickly. She had to get going to school in ten minutes, since she had woken up late. She drank coffee every morning. It was the only thing that got her through the day, as a teenager. But she knew that if Yamilia found out about her daily habit, Yamilia would chastise her. Yamilia HATED coffee, and always told Elena that it would kill her. It was surprising that Yamilia didn't drink coffee, for how hyper she was.

As Elena went upstairs to get dressed, she thought about her mother. Her mother was a scientist, a geneticist who had gone to a prestigious college outside of the small community college that Highest Peak offered for college aged students and gifted high-schoolers. What was its' name? Elena couldn't remember. She wondered if her mother would be the one to find the cure. Elena would help her, and learn more about the world of science that she so loved. Science was her thing, but she was too shy to show it at school.

As Elena ran up to catch the bus, just making it out the door after frantically snatching her coat, hat and gloves of the hook and yanking her boots onto her feet, she felt snow gather on her dark eyelashes. Snow tracked with her onto the bus, making the rubber floor squeak as all eyes turned to her. She caught sight of Evan and Stellan sitting on the right, and Yamilia patting the seat next to her on the left. She smiled and made her way back there, but was stopped by a senior, the girl that lived just down the road from Elena. She was sitting alone in front of Evan and Stellan.

"Hey, uh, I need to talk to you when we get to school. I'll wait for you outside the bus when we get there." The girl said.

"Me? You must be thinking of someone else." Elena told her, plopping down next to Yamilia, leaning out into the aisle as the bus started to move.

"No, I don't believe so. Elena, right? I'm Adelyn." she said with certainty. "And I would tell you now, but there's too many people here. I'll take you somewhere no one will hear us."

"Okay, sounds good, I guess." Elena gave a tentative smile. Adelyn grinned back, her bright green eyes staring straight into Elena's chocolate colored ones. She turned around until all Elena could see of her was her hand knitted black hat and her fiery red hair.

Elena turned to the seat next to hers and Yamilia's.

"Stellan!" she cried. "You're back early! We missed you!"

Stellan leaned forward to hug her. They embraced quickly, and then pulled away as the bus drove over a small bump in the road.

"Yeah, my parents heard about the Tag thing and decided we should come back, which makes no sense. I mean, the danger is here, but whatever."

Elena had met Stellan through Evan, when she had first met him in art class in fourth grade. They hadn't really become friends until fifth grade, and that was when they started hanging out, along with the new kid, Yamilia. Eventually, Stellan started tagging along too, and that was when they had gotten really close.

Stellan had light, curly brown hair with blue highlights, from the time that Evan had bet him he wouldn't dye his hair. They brought out his hazel eyes that changed with the light, but mainly stayed a bright, electric blue. He had a round, cheerful face, and towered over Elena and Yamilia with his tall, thin stature. He also had a strange passion for baseball, which was odd, considering that they lived in the mountains and that their school wasn't large enough to have a baseball league.

The four talked for the whole ten minute bus ride, catching Stellan up on what had happened while he was away.

When they got to the school, Elena pulled away from their group, to where Adelyn was standing off to the side with a girl Elena recognized. What was her name? Minnie? Melanie? She was that one kid that never raised her hand and the teacher never called on her. She always wore ratty clothes, and sat alone at lunch. No one bothered her, and she didn't seem bothered by the fact that she didn't really have any friends. In fact, Elena wasn't sure she had ever heard a word come out of the girls mouth.

The girl was quite pretty, but in a peculiar way. She had pale, light blonde curls that stopped just above her chin, and tan skin, which was unusual for people living up in Highest Peak in the winter. She had rosy cheeks and perfect features, with deep gray eyes that showed hidden intelligence if you looked deep enough.

Adelyn caught sight of Elena as Evan, Stellan and Yamilia waved her goodbye.

"Ah, good, you're here. This is my sister, Memoir. I believe she is in your school group?" Adelyn introduced the girl.

Memoir. Memoir. That's an unusual name. I like it.

Elena waved shyly. The girl backed away, almost afraid of Elena.

"Hi." Memoir said, almost inaudible.

"So, I've been seeing that Memoir has had trouble making friends and I was wondering if you could maybe introduce her to some people. This has been going on for awhile, but I thought, ninth grade, maybe a good time for me to step in. To be honest, I probably should have intervened earlier but here we are." Adelyn explained.

"I'm happy to help! But, if it's okay for me to ask, why me?" Elena inquired curiously. Adelyn nodded, flipping her long, thick hair that didn't look anything like her sisters behind her shoulder.

"Well, I've seen you and your friends at lunch. Y'all look like a tight group. And you live just down the road from us, so I actually knew who you were." replied Adelyn, starting to walk down the sidewalk towards the school. "Hey, Memoir, you should probably get to class. I saw your unfinished homework on your desk last night."

Memoir flushed.

"You weren't supposed to see that. But I probably should do it. One more missing assignment, and Mom's gonna freak." She offered a small smirk and started walking faster to the middle school wing.

"Okay, now for that quiet place I told you about. I'm really sorry to have to ask you to do this, but she's always been shy and she's been getting worse. I'm really worried." Adelyn frowned. Her blue eyes turned toward the ground. She led Elena down a dark staircase, made of cement. The sounds of students chatter slowly receded as they got further and further below the school.

Elena thought for a minute, taking everything in.

"Hey, it's cool. Everyone should have friends."

Adelyn smiled, her face shadowed by the darkness of this basement.

"This is a little hideout I found. Technically only the janitors are supposed to be down here, but I've never seen one come down here, so I took a look. It's abandoned. I've come down here once and a while when I've needed some time to myself. My mom doesn't care when I skip class. She only gets mad at Memoir."

Elena nodded in understanding.

"And that's what I wanted to talk to you about. So, the thing is, Memoir isn't normal. That's plainly obvious. Basically, our mom loves me and absolutely hates her. I've never had any idea why, but that's how it is. Until one night when she told me that she heard our parents talking, that she wouldn't be around for long. She's going to die." Adelyn told Elena bluntly. Elena's gasp could be heard all throughout the abandoned chamber.

"What do you mean? Like, is she going to die soon?" Elena asked in horror.

"I have no idea. All I know is that that's why our mother doesn't love her, can't love her. Oh, and she can't know I told you this. But that's why I'm asking for your help. If you want, you can invite her to your lunch table, or you can introduce her to someone else, but I want to make the rest of whatever time she has the best possible."

Elena nodded again. She looked around. The room was small, cramped, and completely bare. The walls and floor were made of cement, and the ceiling was a maze of pipes and insulation. There was barely any light, although there was a light switch, and the lightbulb had been lit up.

"Now, we have five minutes to get to class. Thank you, by the way." Adelyn bent down to Elena's height. Elena grinned and started to walk back up the stairs.

—

Finally, it was lunch time. Elena's heart was pounding with anticipation as she was herded along next to Memoir by the river of students excited to hang out with their friends. They had assigned seats during their first Core group, which was Social Studies and Language Arts, so Elena had not had a chance to introduce Memoir to Yamilia, who was also in their Core group. And she hadn't seen Evan and Stellan, who were in the advanced group, since they had gotten off the bus that morning.

Elena walked to the side of the lunch room, by the window, to where Evan and Stellan were already sitting with their friends Shane and Norman.

"Hey guys. This is Memoir." Memoir gave a shy wave. "Can she sit with us today?"

Stellan smiled a friendly smile, looking Memoir in the eye in that unintentionally intimidating way of his.

"Of course! Our lunch table IS pretty small." Evan replied. Elena sat down next to him and patted the other seat beside her, looking at Memoir. Memoir delicately slid into her seat, and Stellan looked at her as if she was the most fascinating in the world.

After a few minutes, Elena looked up just in time to see Yamilia bouncing into the cafeteria with her friend Liri, with whom Elena was also close with.

Of course Yamilia would show up now. Yamilia was always happily late to lunch. Never to anything else. Just lunch. Yamilia and Liri sat down, with Yamilia sliding into her seat and exuberantly falling off. Elena giggled.

"Hey, Liri!" Evan said. "It's been awhile!"

"Yeah," commented Liri, "I've been sitting with Arna lately, but her friends aren't the nicest. They're honest, which is fine, but I don't really like them much. I mean, you guys probably were happy without me. But lucky for you, I'm back to torture you another day!" Liri's dark brown eyes ironically lit up at this self deprecation.

"Okay, for one thing, that doesn't even make sense, and two, STOP PUTTING YOURSELF DOWN! You are amazing and we missed you!" Shane commented. It was obvious to everyone except Liri that he liked her. Of course, any good friend would have said the same thing, but Shane said it in a dreamy way, and Elena could tell that he was lost in her dark eyes.

"Shane, when are you just going to tell her?" said Norman with a twinkle in his eye. He reached over and put his tree bark colored hand on Shane's olive one. Evan nudged Shane with his shoulder, as did Stellan.

"Boys," Elena sighed. "Oh, so guys, this is Memoir, she's gonna sit with us!"

Memoir straightened at the mention of her name.

"Hi. I'm Memoir. Wait... I know you!" Memoir said, quietly at first, and then surprised as she pointed to Stellan.

"Huh... I wonder... ohhh, we were in the same class in kindergarten! You were, like, my best friend! But only that year. Then you stopped talking." Stellan remembered. He ran his fingers through his curly hair. He took a bite of his overcooked, suspiciously white pasta, and made a grossed out face.

Memoir grinned. A look of recognition passed through her. She actually did have a nice smile, she just never showed it.

"So... what do you guys think of this whole Tag thing?" Yamilia asked. Her dark hair shone in the fluorescent cafeteria lights, making her whole cheerful aura sparkle even more.

"I kinda wonder if it's something to do with a modern product," Memoir confessed, as her pale cheeks went red. It was clear that she wasn't used to talking so much. She looked almost... sheepish. Hunched over, arms crossed, with her head tilted towards her untouched food. "Since there aren't a lot of animals in the area, and the fact that the infection rate is one person, and once the person passes it on, they die. Doesn't it seem a bit... artificial to you guys?"

Elena was taken aback. Memoir was a genius! Why wasn't she in the advanced group, even though she was a girl? Well, Elena reasoned to herself, she's probably too shy to show it.

"That's... genius!" Evan exclaimed, speaking for the whole group.

Elena nodded in agreement.

Memoir was going to be a great addition to their group.