Kinda ominous for a title. Or weird. Or unsatisfactory. Anyway. I have my ways. Or I'm writing this at midnight.

Louis has (for now) forgotten about his drawing with the horseshoe, which is me as an author taking away his rights to end the story so soon. But don't despair! It is not a forgotten plot line!

This oughta be good though.

Enjoy! :)

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It's August first and something is making all of them ecstatic.

Tony's search of what happened August 1 ended the same way what happened July 18 through what happened July 31 ended: nothing.

What they're all feeling is a feeling of...satisfaction. Like they did something and walked away satisfied.

No one knows what they did, though.

For Tony, he had déjà senti: he heard a someone say compromise. And somehow that did it. When he repeated it to the others, that made them all feel something too.

Compromise.

There was a compromise August 1st.

And it was tied to July 18th and July 24 and July 25th.

Were these random? Or just one ongoing event?

A Compromise August 1 in New York Google search doesn't have anything to say about it.

Louis is sure he's forgetting something. He saw something vivid at midnight on the 25th...he did something about it...but it's all fuzzy now.

"Okay, but what does it all mean?" Tony asks, currently cuddling with Sean on Jack's couch as once again they're in his house, hanging out, trying to figure all this out. "This has been an ongoing thing for pretty much two weeks now."

"There must have been something," Charlie says. He, for one, wants some form of answer. Or just a clue. Because in the past couple weeks his leg has just started randomly hurting like it did that first day of déjà vu. He doesn't know what it means. He's pretty sure it's directly tied to who he was in his past life, but he doesn't know in what way. Maybe if he knows some context, he can finally start putting two and two together.

"But we can all agree that we feel something, yeah?" Jack asks.

Everyone agrees.

"I feel like we're just so close," Tony states. "Like we have what we need to figure out what this is, but we don't know what exactly will help us find out what it is."

"Don't worry." Sean rests his head on top of Tony's. "We'll find out. Sometime."

His feelings about Brooklyn have gotten stronger, if anything. Whatever this compromise was, it was good for Brooklyn.

And it feels silly, but he feels like he helped Brooklyn with the compromise that benefited it, whatever the context was.

Who was he in his past life that could have made him this important to Brooklyn?

If he even was important.

"I say something's going to turn up real soon," Nick announces. "With the amount of good energy we're feeling, surely something's going to happen tomorrow, yeah?"

No one can argue with that.

They'll just have to wait for tomorrow.

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What happened August 2 doesn't turn up anything.

And for some reason, they all feel...disconnected.

Like...disconnected from déjà vu.

Today has the same vibe as one of the days scattered randomly from July 18 to today; something happened, but nothing major.

The main satisfaction, though, is over.

It's still there, but...it's old news.

It's dissolved satisfaction; meaning there's no pride or self-satisfaction in it. It's...things are back to normal now.

As the day goes on, the feelings start to fade.

Ever since July 18, it's as if they've been having colorful feelings that come from somewhere out of this world. And then, by the end of today...nothing.

Right back to where they started.

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The weeks pass.

They don't forget the feeling of déjà vu. It's like it activated a part of their minds that they haven't been using. But now the door has closed again. It's easier to open, but it still only comes open ajar. They haven't had any new feelings or visions to help them out.

It makes them wonder if it truly meant anything after all.

But it had to have meant something.

Right?

Except now, they have other things to worry about.

It is now the day before school starts.

Everyone is handling it differently.

Tony is preparing himself for what he might encounter this year in school. He knows he's gotten on a lot of teachers' bad sides; no reason something is going to change this year.

He knows it's going to be another year of taking Spanish. 

Because their school doesn't have Italian as a language.

Which means that he is constantly surrounded by people who don't understand anything about Italy, or its language, or its culture. They don't know anything, nor do they care to know.

True, he'd be surrounded by ignorant people no matter what; but at least if there was an Italian course, the number would drop at least a little.

Carpe diem, his grandmother tells him. A Latin phrase for Seize the day.

Maybe this year will be his year to carpe diem.

(Hold up a second, why does seize the day feel like something to him-)

But he has other things to worry about.

ADHD is one of them.

And it's hard enough being openly gay in a school where every other person might look at him oddly for it.

He also has to make sure no one finds out that he's not actually a boy.

That's the part that stresses him out.

Lately, gender dysphoria has been constant and strong for reasons, none of which he wants to talk about in detail. And with gender dysphoria comes stress. 

And he has no binder.

But he was able to do it last year. So he should be able to do it again this year.

He should be able to survive another year of high school.

Sean doesn't want to let go of the idea of finding out why Brooklyn means so much to him.

But he's going to have to focus on other things.

While he doesn't have to worry about transphobia like Tony does, he still does have to worry about homophobia. It's something he's seen in the past up close, and he doesn't want to get near it again.

He will hurt anyone who says transphobic/homophobic things to Tony or acts transphobic/homophobic towards him. He doesn't care if that gets him expelled. Tony has enough going on. He doesn't need any form of invalidation.

But why is he already preparing for violence? For people to look down upon him?

This was one of the things Tony talked about too: trauma from past lives influencing behavior.

So why was Sean's hypothetical past life so full of the need to be seen as someone not to mess with?

His in-and-out of space feelings persist too.

He just hopes that sometime soon he can finally figure out just what exactly is going on.

Jack's escape from the world is coming to an end. This is always his least favorite part of summer. Yeah, escapism isn't the best coping mechanism, but it's worked for him so far.

He just wants to get on the next train to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe? Still?

And why a train? He's never been on one before. 

And why does he always picture it as a locomotive?

And wouldn't a plane be easier?

Last year, his grades weren't the best. So this year, he *should* try to do better. That will depend on how motivated he's going to be.

He won't find out until it's happening.

He's already missing summer. And it hasn't even ended yet.

He needs to find a new way to escape the world.

Louis doesn't know how to feel about senior year. On one hand, he's glad to only have one more year of going to this place. On the other hand, a lot of his friends are here. And once he's out of here, he's going to be out and about in the real world as a full-on adult.

He and Nick talk about college every now and then. They're still figuring things out.

The only thing they know for sure is that they are going to make this work, no matter what directions they go.

They're going to face this together.

And it's going to be them against the world.

For some reason, school doesn't fit with the vibe he's gotten so far about his past life. And it's really conflicting him.

Little does he know that the little thing he drew one night late July is still just barely tucked underneath his bed, waiting to be rediscovered.

Nick is hoping to get all he can out of senior year. And no matter what it takes, he will get Louis to go to prom with him.

It's a year of lasts.

A year of new promises.

Last year of school.

That's an odd sensation.

He's also insisting on driving Louis to school each morning. Louis points out that they can both drive, and that they both have their license. Nick insists that he wants to spend every moment with Louis that he can. Louis can't argue with that.

Especially since their time in school together is going to run out real soon.

Nick just hopes that life doesn't throw a curveball at them and they can complete their senior year just fine.

Charlie is nervous. Really nervous. 

He's been trying to play it off like he's fine, but...high school is daunting.

He's been asking Jack all kinds of questions nonstop. What's the cafeteria like, can he sit with them at lunch, is there any teacher he should probably avoid, who is the best teacher, what does the GSA look like, how are ninth graders usually treated, and more; and Jack answered them all patiently.

He's so glad that he has his friends.

It bugs him that they weren't able to find out more about who they could have been in their past lives. He's kind of disappointed; he's always been interested in that kind of stuff. Even if others want to forget about it, he still hopes they come up with something.

Kathryn has been counting down the days before she sees Pretty Girl--Sarah--again.

She's thought about her every day since she last saw her.

They've been talking non stop. Especially about the books they recommended for each other.

Sarah reluctantly sent her some fanfiction for a better ending for If You Could Be Mine that she wrote in seventh grade. In return, Kathryn has sent some rough drafts of some of her story ideas.

They both loved the other's writing.

Kathryn hopes for something more this year. This year is going to be the year she finds out the meaning behind everything.

Because everything that they go through, what everyone goes through...there's got to be some meaning behind it. There has to be.

David is freaking out. Anxiety is ruling his life.

Last night, he was on the verge of an anxiety attack. Sarah, having experience with this herself, walked him through the grounding technique. He is so grateful for his twin.

Back in early August, he had weird feelings that he couldn't exactly describe. He's glad that they're gone now.

He has everything ready for tomorrow.

He just doesn't want tomorrow to come.

He just wants to stay in this moment of time, let the world keep going without him.

Unfortunately, that's not how life works.

He's scared for any homophobia he might see. Any erasure of asexuality or bisexuality as well.

Sarah's there with him. She says that together they'll fight the homophobes. And that the gays always win.

He doesn't like to believe in magic and stuff, but tonight, he wishes on the first star he sees that everything will turn out alright tomorrow.

Sarah is ready to start school. Summer was fun, but now is time for school.

And seeing Kathryn again.

Nearly daily they've been texting.

Sarah went through the book recommendations so fast.

It took a lot of (or maybe lack of) dignity to send Kathryn that fanfiction she wrote so long ago.

She's glad that it meant getting Kathryn's story in return.

Sarah is in love with her writing.

She's in love with the writing and the writer.

She knows that David is nervous about tomorrow. She promises to be by his side when they walk through the door together.

They both know that he's on his own as soon as Sarah sees Kathryn.

I'm ready, she tells herself one last time before turning out the light for the night.

Tomorrow, they will all go through the same experience of starting a new school year.

They will all be drawn to each other in an inexplicable way.

And in a not too distant future, new knowledge of the past will change their present.

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Oh, I think I'm such a clever author with a way with words writing future and past and present in one sentence.

Well, as long as it was a good sentence.

I love how it can be 2:00 am and I can still proofread and tell if I put an apostrophe in the wrong place or if I have an extra space haha.

Seriously, looking up what happened X day on any website does not give any information about the newsies of 1899.

Again, it may be obvious that Tony/Race is the one I think about the most...

When there's Tony's thought in parenthesis about seize the day, that's pretty much how ADHD works. You have a train of thought, then connect a dot, and then there's-oh my gosh new thought that's only semi related but a part of the bigger picture-new train of thought. So he was on the verge of another detail about their past life...until he wasn't.

But literally. They're all about to meet for the first time in the next chapter.

I am so excited.

Please, no homophobia or transphobia, profanities, hate etc in the comment section.

Best,

~Your Beloved Author (who has changed the overall plan for the direction of this story several times)