★ kee speaks i'm not translating the swear words lmao

edit, may 4 2:thirty-fucking-five am: if anyone comments on how i changed kids to children i will fucking bite you 

I made a sour face. "What? Why?"

"Just go, like to another table or something!"

"Why?" RenRen asked again.

"You and 'Ana have to go, come on!"

I groaned when he said my nickname, but left the table anyway. RenRen muttered a "come on" and pulled me away. We stood at the other side of the room now, looking through the glass wall that faced the street. A banana-yellow car passed by, one that looked like my classmate's.

RenRen was distracted with something on the floor; a loose tile.

I cleared my throat. "So are we um—bati na ba tayo?" ("Did we make up already?")

He shrugged, still avoiding my eyes. "I guess so?"

I leaned forward, pressing my hands on the glass then patting his curly hair. "Yes or no?"

He smacked my hand away. "Yes, alright? It's real. We're doing a lot of things, and we're not getting out of it anytime soon. Sorry for fighting. You. Fighting you."

I was a little troubled with the "not getting out of it" part, but I smiled and said, "Yeah. Sorry. And um, getting out of it? Is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?"

"In between?"

"You're so vague," I muttered. "But then again, I think it's in between, too."

"We'll see later, with Beatrice and Millard."

"Yep. I hope so."

Back at our table, a group of boys sat down and greeted Aerron with croaky voices and sweaty hands. RenRen told me to shut up and listen before I could do it to him.

"Sinong kasama mo?" ("Who are you here with?")

"Is it Philip?" One of them asked. We watched as Aerron tensed up, saying, "No, babae." ("No, I'm with a girl.")

They ooh'd and I cringed. RenRen made a sour face and turned back to the window, muttering, "I swear, if he says it's a date..."

"Just the two of you?"

"Yeah."

Fucking two-faced liar, I thought bitterly. So he didn't want his friends to know he was with us? He didn't want to be seen with a kid from a lower grade and someone from another school? That's it? Making us seem like strangers?

I must have been scowling too deeply, because Laurence bumped my shoulder, and said lowly, "You know, I'd never ask you to go away if a different group of friends came to see me."

"I'm your only friend, RenRen," I joked.

"Yeah, and you're doing a great job at it."

"Aww," I mumbled, flustered. In front of us, a few tricycles sped past, followed by a big white van.

I remember the rumor/legend that parents and caretakers would use to scare children, saying people would kidnap them and sell their organs, all done in the white van. I knew it could happen, but I was too stubborn to take it seriously.

I would have chuckled if not for the horrible feeling of being thrown away and hidden. I thought Aerron was beginning to warm up to us. Well, not really to me and RenRen, but to Mia. That was a start. Now I felt like all progress was erased.

"O, sige na, mauna na kami." ("Alright, we have to go.") They stood up from the table, high-fived Aerron and went back down the stairs, rubber shoes squeaking against the tiles.

"Little bitch," I said under my breath, hitting the back of Aerron's head a bit harder than I intended to. I never did that before, and I didn't plan to do it again, but I was just really disturbed with what I just saw and heard. RenRen muttered "Ana" while pulling me back.

Aerron scoffed and fixed his glasses. "I might be a little bitch but you're the tiyanak here, look at you, you're like 3 feet and 7 inches tall!"

"I'm tall for my age, putangina mo!"

"Compared to me, you're not!"

"Cause you're a boy!"

"Hey!"

Elize, Philip and Mia appeared at the end of the room. I was glad that no one else sat with us, because being scolded by Elize was embarrassing. Heck, she was scary when she was mad.

Philip put a tray of French fries, burgers and a sundae down. "Aerron, what did you do?" He asked in a disappointed tone.

"I didn't do anything!"

"He's lying!" RenRen told Elize. "His friends came over and he told us to go away. Are you ashamed to say that you're friends with us?" He asked Aerron.

"It's not a big deal," Aerron said. "And who said I was Diana's friend?"

"Yeah, well imagine if we did that to you," Mia said.

"You're one to talk, you hardly get along with anyone in this group!"

"Punyeta naman..." Elize shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose. She put down a plastic cup down on the table, then she roughly grabbed Aerron by his jacket sleeve and scolded him under her breath at another table.

I sat down beside RenRen, tensing up my shoulders and frowning. This was not good. Now everyone was in a bad mood. I sighed, put my face in my hands then sat up straight again. I got one of the boxes of fries and pushed them towards Mia, who looked more upset than I was. I didn't care at all if Aerron didn't want me to be his friend, not after today. I've had enough.

"Eat," I told Mia. She looked at me questioningly. "Go, maybe you're just hungry. I-I mean maybe you'll feel better."

She stuck her tongue out at Aerron, who was still facing away, and munched on the fries. Soon Elize returned with him, telling me to share the sundae and fries with her. She seemed to not mind Aerron, who was scowling next to Philip, who tried to cheer him up.

Oh my God. I hit the brakes on my bike seeing the red-haired girl in a white blouse and brown pants sitting cross-legged on one of the benches. She was facing one of the pillars and talking. The sun was right above Circle Park, beating down on the gazebo's roof, and I estimated we had about an hour before curfew.

"Oh-ho shit," I whispered, gripping RenRen's forearm and hopping off my bike.

"'Ana, that hurts."

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

Philip let go of Aerron's shoulders and nearly tripped on his way off of the bike. "That must be Millard."

Aerron pushed his glasses up his nose. "Okay, who—who is Millard?"

"Shh." Philip patted his shoulder and went ahead of all of us, running up to the girl and doing a little wave.

I glanced back at Elize, whose mouth was hanging open in shock, then followed.

"Beatrice, right?" Philip said, holding out his hand.

"Yes," she replied, shaking it and nodding. "And I'm assuming you're not Diana."

"No, I'm Philip. Philip Kwon."

Beside me, Mia caught up and facepalmed, telling me something in Filipino. "Mia, don't do that, that's rude," I whispered, regarding her speaking in another language in front of the two, who probably didn't understand it.

From beside Beatrice, a deeper, masculine voice said, "Millard Nullings, pleased to meet you" and silence followed as Philip seemingly waited for what happened next.

"Oh, yeah," Beatrice chuckled. "My boyfriend's invisible. He's here, though, don't worry." Then she whispered something, holding up her hand.

Slowly, color grew from her palm, revealing the shape of another person's hand up to their wrist. Beatrice released it and then the color disappeared.

Philip's eyes widened and he smiled a bit, saying "hello" and shaking the invisible hand.

Elize, Laurence, Aerron, and Mia joined us and watched as Philip quickly began a good start with the two peculiars.

Beatrice uncrossed her legs and sat properly, facing us. I could almost feel everyone tense up, fingers moving toward pockets and arms swinging back to meet the blades behind them.

She smiled, and I got the uncomfy feeling of being inspected. Though I liked her British accent, just like I did with Millard's. Her eyes traveled from Philip to the rest of us.

"I expected...older kids, but you look like a fun bunch."

Philip bounced his leg. Elize stared blankly. Normally I would have told Aerron to shut up when saying something about me but he broke the tension with a slightly insulting statement. He pointed at me and said, "Yeah, Diana over here's a fetus."

I flipped him off but RenRen put my hand down. "Uh. Yes, hi, I'm—I'm Diana. And these...this is us," I looked at Philip and he nodded in approval, "Laurence, Elize, Mia, Aerron."

I didn't look back at my friends' faces because I was busy with my own feelings of amazement. Woah. He's here. Millard's real.

I reached out for his invisible hand and Millard took my visible one. Cool, alright, so, he's not a ghost or anything. Don't be stupid. Tanga.

"Nice to meet you all, er, children, I'm Millard." He went to the others, shaking their hands. It was a bizarre sight. I turned to Philip on my right, who was still staring at Millard. He mouthed a wow to me.

Beatrice was laid back, to say the least. She was very relaxed and I didn't feel like I was in danger around her anymore. She stood up, leaned against a pillar, and did a salute to us. "I'm Beatrice Warren, 18 year old peculiar with chromokinesis, call me Bee or anything you want, and I go by she/they."

RenRen cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean, like—"

"Pronouns. I'm referred to as a female, like she/her but I'm also okay with they/them. Kind of like that. People alternate between those two."

"Huh? Oh." He stared, slowly nodding.

"I'm sorry, I have a bad habit of interrupting," Beatrice said, red-faced.

"I thought you were 20," Elize mumbled.

Mia was staring at the ground, zoned out. Then she took a deep breath and asked quickly, "Do your clothes disappear with you?"

"No," Millard replied.

Everyone but Philip and I took a step back.

Philip chuckled. "It's okay, guys. So shall we start?"

I raised my hand. "Uh, start what?"

"Do you know what you're fighting against?" Beatrice asked, suddenly serious.

"Yeah, hybrids," RenRen replied. "Half of one animal and half of another."

"Er, we call them Creatures, capital C; because the Old Peculiar for it is really hard to say, even for me," Millard said. We all nodded. "What else do you know?"

Mia glanced at Aerron. "This is starting to feel like an interrogation."

"Not really," I said.

"Sorry, would you like to share anything with us?" Millard asked.

"No," Aerron replied flatly. Philip gave him a look and lightly punched his side. "Aray! We've been fighting them since September—"

"December," I cut in.

"Shut up. December, and...yeah."

Beatrice pursed her lips. "December? With what?"

Everyone reluctantly pulled out their blades. Except for RenRen, who still didn't have one. He stared at the floor, then me, and I gave him a reassuring glance.

"Ah, alright, put those back—put those back, please," Millard said as Mia waved her knife in his direction.

Philip sat with his legs crossed on the bench. "Bee, you look like you're holding something back."

"Hm?" They looked up.

"Philip's right," Elize said. Philip's eyes flicked to her and caught me looking, making me turn away. "Do you want to ask us anything?"

"Ah...er, I don't know how to break it to you, but it might be a little too straightforward, and we don't know each other pretty well..." She ran a hand through her hair.

"If you fight against the Creatures, we're on the same side," Elize said. "Just tell us what they really are."

"From what we know, a man named Alfonso Tomaszewski is trying to recreate Hollows and er—"

"Who?" RenRen asked.

Millard cleared his throat. "Someone raised by wights. If you're willing to, we'll take you on a road trip to his lab."

"Huh?" RenRen said, processing. Everyone stared at where Millard's voice came from. Well, everyone but Mia, who straight up said, "What the fuck? Like some kind of field trip to our deaths?"

"YEAH, OKAY," I said loudly. "Time out. Over there." I pointed, half-jokingly to the bench on the farthest side of the gazebo. Elize put my hand down.

"Okay, okay, I think we should back up a bit, love," Beatrice blurted out. She stood up in front of us, and said, "We need help. Because Devil's Acre is already having enough problems, but with how the Creatures are spreading, we don't think we can handle it."

"What about Jacob?" Philip asked.

"The bloke disappeared again. He's going to pop a vein in Miss Peregrine's head one day," Millard said. And by his tone, I could tell he was tired of reporting about Jacob.

"Besides, Jake doesn't specialize in Creatures." Beatrice crossed her arms. "We're asking you children for help because it looks like you have experience, and again, we're a little low on reinforcements."

I raised my hand. "Yeah, um, about that. How did you find us?"

Beatrice froze, then relaxed, putting one foot behind the over in a bow. "Oracle in Disguise. It's a pleasure to meet you in person."

My eyes widened in awe. "Woah, so..."

"I got your message. At the right time, even."

"But aren't you all the way across the world?"

"There's a loop from the 80's in Quezon City," Millard revealed. "We used the Panloopticon to get there and made our way here. Ophelia back at Devil's Acre helped pinpoint your town."

"What's the Panloopticon?" RenRen whispered.

"Later," I said.

Mia rested her chin on her hand. "Did your Ophelia also pinpoint where the Alfonso dude is?"

"He's somewhere near a beach is all we know, from Horace," Beatrice replied.

Great, I thought. That's gonna be easy, in an archipelago.

"We're still looking for more information," Millard reassured. "We just need your answer whether you'll help us or not."

Me and my friends exchanged glances. It was like they were shooting messages at me with their eyes. Too many messages. The setting sun cast shadows on their faces, making the mood a little more serious.

A mission to the man's lab who was making all of this...We made a promise, didn't we? Millard and Beatrice; we knew them quite well. We knew Millard well, at least. Assuming our parents wouldn't come with us, and a field trip to our deaths—I mean, a road trip to somewhere near the sea...We had had enough adventures already, why not go for a real one? It sounded a little fun. This was more of a quest, though. Our promise...yes, I'd go. I would just go with whatever happens in the future. I always went like that. But if our future contained getting mauled by Creatures, I would not go with that. Obviously.

"We'll think about it," Philip concluded. "Uh, curfew..." He broke eye contact with Beatrice and stood up, putting his hands in his pockets. Aerron followed, stepping really close to him and whispering something in his ear.

Beatrice sighed. "Well, stay safe, children. We'll be here. We'll stay in contact with Diana and Mia if you need help. Or a ride." She nodded towards a white van at the end of the street then winked.

I saw RenRen shudder at the van and chuckled, bumping his shoulder.

Elize looked really deep in thought. I nudged her arm and asked, "Okay ka lang?" ("You okay?")

"There's still a lot of time before curfew," she mumbled, brows knit together. Mia had already begun to leave.

RenRen tugged on my shirt so we could get going, but we heard a sst from Philip's direction. We looked at him and he stepped away, leaving Aerron on his bike. Aerron's eyes darted from Millard and Beatrice to us. "Check the group chat tonight."

"How do you even open this?" RenRen said, inspecting the football-shaped nut in his hands. I shrugged, not looking up from the dishes I was washing. We had returned from Circle Park and the sunlight was dimming. I had dishes to do, and RenRen had a bag of nuts to give me and my family.

"Helloooooo. Diana," He called, leaning on the counter.

"Mm. Why?" I said.

Silence passed. As I shewed my lip in thought, I felt like we were both gathering courage to say something.

"I'm only going if you're going," he said.

"You can go by yourself, you know. You just want me to go too."

"Do you want to go?"

Here we were again. Always throwing sentences back and forth.

"Of course," I said lowly, keeping my eyes on the plates. "I said 'until things are set right,' right?"

"Yeah so...are you going?"

I grinned mischievously. "Only if you are."

"Hey, you're making this harder!"