Chapter One: What Goes Up...816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkIs3UHYzgn
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“Please, Emily? I really, really want to go.”816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ6bcTvdWDc
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“No and no. I need to study for finals, and it’s still cold out.”816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCXGYJh2lK5
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“Emily, you’re from Illinois and you think sixty degrees is freezing? Don’t give me that. I know you’ve braved five below plus a negative windshield. You've told me so.”816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNki00iUwQ1
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“Give me a break. Florida has thinned my blood. I’m a true cold blooded reptile now.” I quirked a brow, “And I mean it. I don’t want to go to Crescent Beach.” Anything but that. You'd thank me if only you really knew.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE5kOtcXyPm
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“Come on. I’ll even drive us," the girl talking behind me begged. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZhMMoN3Aww
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Flynn Shellspire, my roommate for the past semester of my Sophomore year, batted her liquid blue irises. I glared at her, quite aware of this particular technique. She had used the ol’ eye bat many times without even knowing it when dealing with; professors who caught her actively daydreaming in their classes, boys and girls she found particularly pleasing to look at, store clerks who had forgotten the very same discount stickers they stuck to bulk items and were trying to refuse said discount price. This woman, no, this girl had the nerve to turn her wiles onto me, her one and only best friend here. This meant war. I would not budge on my decision. And even if I did want to stick my toes in the water and ass in the sand, so to speak, my Helper intuition wouldn't let me or her. Them senses be tingling!816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoBu7hVYXB
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They had been tingling ever since I met Flynn the year prior in our elective class, Medieval Civilizations History. Back then, I had immediately picked her out from the mundane and generally unenthused faces of my fellow Flagler classmates. Flynn was sitting at the back of the neat rows of five desks, almost huddled in the corner like a fluffy squirrel in her hibernation hole. That was my first clue. A pretty girl like that all tucked away into a pocket of her own universe spelled out bad news in permanent black marker. But she seemed so sullen. Her straight russet hair had been pulled into a ponytail at the nape of her neck with stray thick locks framing her almost shimmering white skin and hiding her expressions. There was a constant tapping of her green pen on the overused desk carved with words like, love and peace. She was very long limbed, as tall as a boy like Zeike, and yet her body composition didn't allude to a bumbling overgrown puppy. Flynn was languid. Streamline. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡazJlYNu5eV
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Too much like Zeike. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1sJJKDdnRt
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I had let a few weeks pass while discreetly watching Flynn Shellspire containing herself in the back with on campus ads stuck to the wall, fighting with myself at every sidelong glance. She was lonely, that much was clear. No one spoke with her, probably too intimidated by how pretty and tall she was. Damn, I was a sucker for the lonely ones. I was instantly sucked in, and I had to check myself. Mentally, I listed the reasons why I should not go over to her desk and make nice.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOA8wq0FCaN
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1. Her name was Flynn Shellspire. Shellspire. That should have been reason enough. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhtiDf2U84o
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2. She was ungodly gorgeous and as oblivious of the fact as Dandris once was. Like, really, look at yourself in the mirror you majestic creature, you. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmu6zSZW0mh
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3. Well, I wasn’t really sure what she was good at yet. A of then, she turned in her homework and zoned out in class like everyone else. As far as I knew, I could have been overreacting. And yet that gut feeling of Flynn being off wasn’t something to snuff at. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡudXcjUXGF3
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Still undecided, I replaced my two hours three times a week of blatantly gawking at Flynn with trying to hazily observing the spot on the palm of my hand where I accidentally stabbed myself with a pencil twelve years prior. Gosh, I was a stupid kid trying to make a talking device with Dixie cups and yarn to play with Adrienne. Instead, I stabbed my hand, completely missing the cup. I could barely make out the mark right on the lifeline of my palm, but it was there alright. The gray lead scar almost blended with my light bronze skin. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlKWSzeJ7B
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Alright, I know you’re all asking the same question ( and if not, well, good for you.) Why am I not paying attention in class instead of mooning over Flynn and my hand? Shouldn’t that be hurting my grades? Well, for your information, I had at that time read all of the chapters assigned for the first three weeks of class. I really loved history, and actually, the subject was my major. The city of St. Augustine is almost five hundred years old, you know. Heck, there’s even a few houses left that have holes where cannonballs had been shot during a couple battles. The entire city promoted the nighttime tours of the country's oldest graveyard. The whole place was fascinating, and I had made it a requirement to stroll along the busy shops at St. George Street to take the weight of the area into myself, feeling its history settle in my chest like some content animal.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeFdQm9fvNW
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Anyway, the whole point is that I had the grades thing handled. Don’t worry about that. Well, maybe worry about math.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkcrLKLKjd2
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In any case, two weeks stretched to three and then four. I had taken to trying makeup at the beginning of college. I wanted to make my dull brown eyes pop with layers of green eye shadow and black liner. I even pulled up my shoulder length wavy brown hair into an intractly braided bun. It soon became apparent that college was not the best time or place to start improving on my personal grooming habits, and by that fourth week, I was back in a comfortable over sized t-shirt, blue jeans, sandals, and no make up. Hair? Everywhere. The same old me as ever. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLh7Qbr62nj
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Lamenting at my one step forward and two steps back, I risked sneaking a peek at Flynn. If I couldn’t be pretty, then I could at least look at someone who was. As Professor Drocklehiemer drew a clumsy map of Greece on the whiteboard to the amusement of the class, I craned my head over my shoulder. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiyQlX0k1sH
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Flynn Shellspire’s bright blue gaze was affixed right on me. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQYAZ76hnr
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My heart nearly broke out of its bone jail using my throat as an emergency exit. I whipped around, gripping my pencil, hoping that the lack of eye contact would sever whatever connection had blipped into place. My ears rang, blocking whatever the Professor was talking about. Of course, I was wrong. I could still feel those jeweled irises, specked with all shades of blue found in the clear and calm ocean, right at the center of my back. The gesture felt as if I was being held under dripping, hot wax that stung and then cooled into a filmy shell around me. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqvM1s5RkZ2
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I had felt this before. Adrienne, Dandris, Zeike. My three best friends. Without a doubt, once we touched or bumped heads or just both acknowledged each other, there had always been this feeling. That I was required to help them if they were hurt or in trouble. That my own needs were little compared to the pain they could potentially become in danger of. My entire sense of self diminished to a minuscule scale when put into this position, and I had a hunch that if I even tried to ignore this pull or command or whatever it was, that the punishment would be dire. It’s either that or I had read far too many novels with their sole focus on prophecies of hubris and famine to follow unwilling participants of fate. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4l7j1iUNy
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Whether lightning would strike from the sky and roast my innards for casting aside what just happened or not, I had already given up on avoiding Flynn. I was lonely, too. Four weeks of being away from my mom and dad in a state fifteen hours away was difficult. Even if that strange pulse of power hadn't struck me dumb a few minutes earlier, a strong omen of being a Helper, I was going to be friends with Flynn. Don’t think I didn't notice her prompt answers in class. I saw how she turned in her homework with delicate looped handwriting on time as well as glimpsing her turned in papers with A’s circled in deep orange ink at their corners. (Yes, orange ink. Professor Drockleheimer had a whole rainbow of pens he liked trying out on the class assignments.) I had to assume that she at least took class seriously, and maybe, she shared my passion for history as well. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhaKWvKBkhw
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Target acquired.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3FBa4zE52x
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And so after class concluded, the drawing of Greece now covered with professor-like scribbles, I waited up for Flynn at the door. She was wearing a navy blue sundress with periwinkle flats, showing off her long legs. Flynn also wore no makeup, but the way her long braid kept her hair away from her face had as much dramatic effect brightening her features as any old mascara. More so, really.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCyBrYmSEWp
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“Hi,” I said. Completely original. I know. I liked to keep things fresh.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCWffqJX7ed
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“Hello,” Flynn said softly. Yes, she was also a lover of originality. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGxWrJinyd
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Professor Drockleheimer made his way past us. Flynn was taller than him, and with his large black backpack on, he seemed to be more of the student and her the professor. He told us to have a good weekend and then disappeared around the corner to exit onto the bright green courtyard. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNohrG6twj
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“So, today’s lesson was fun,” I ventured. She smelled like sea salt and ice cream. Not a bad combination. I was sure that I smelled more like books and…well, I’m not sure what I smelled like, but it wasn’t as good as the stuff she gave off. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWfB4jLbtey
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“Yeah. I like learning the actual history of the Peloponnesian war.” She cocked her head to the left side. “But I guess the film did give us more eye candy.” We both cracked smiles at that. Oh yes, 300. Nice stuff.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0zGTpsPuHi
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“Maybe it was a case of art imitating life. We don’t know for sure if the Spartans didn’t have massive eight packs. I like to believe that they did," I mused.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡndrxrShRWk
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“Me, too.” Flynn chuckled.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4L8c0vj8p
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Just like that, we bonded over the possibility of incredibly good looking dead guys. And just like that, as per usual, my fate was sealed. We became friends.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡen7A41cn2V
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I already lived in a dorm with two other girls (Ashley and Veronica who kept to themselves and partied hardied) and as it turned out, Flynn was only one floor below me. I ended up heaving my books and materials down one flight of stairs every night to study with Flynn. And by study, I mean gossip and hang out because, you know, it would figure that we had a great deal of interests that correlated with each other. For instance, she also loved history. She wasn’t making it her major, though. Flynn didn’t know what her entire life was going to boil down to and as such, hadn’t picked out a major. That’s fine. We all had the rest of our lives to figure out the fine details. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsvYQFaCdlp
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We spent a great deal of our days in her dorm watching movies on my laptop and then later on my phone when the computer lost its charge and I forgotten the charge cord for the upteenth time. We played video games, ventured outside for food and some sunlight, and then retreated back to catch up on the latest post from our favorite Youtuber. We sat next to each other in Medieval Civilizations class passing notes and getting into trouble with Professor Drockleheimer. At the end of those classes, he would give us each a paper that had “Pay more attention in class, you hooligans,” written in a myriad of different colored pen marks. We’d giggle and made sure to evaluate him with the highest of honors when the end of the semester came. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnRP1hXEJjN
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When we came back from Winter Break, we applied to move into the same dorm room by switching me with Flynn’s other roommate, Heather. Heather had become fast friends with the girls I lived with, so the exchange was fundamentally for the best. I was able to haul back with me from Illinois five manga novels that I held dear to share with Flynn. She wasn’t too particularly fond of manga, but she made the attempt to read them. She was surprised when she actually enjoyed the characters and plot. Excited, Flynn lent me her favorite YA novels. I cringed when she gave them to me, because of course, I had read them already. Read them and wasn’t particularly cheered by their presence. They all followed the overused tropes and outlines of every other YA novel, and yet I had lived them. I was that friend in the back. The one who was left behind after doing her best to keep her friends safe. Those sidekick characters must have felt as torn up as I always did by the big climax of the novel. Heck, some of them even died. I stared up at Flynn, meeting her questioning look without flinching, knowing that I would do my damnedest to keep this friendship. I told her that her favorite books, yeah, they were my favorite, too.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTUEB9y88v8
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I opened up and explained to Flynn how my three best friends had moved away and that we haven't had any communication since their departure. No, I didn’t go into the meaty details. I'm not that clueless. I just needed to vent. I missed Adrienne and her vast knowledge of nature. How she could name every tree, flower, leaf, and bud without even hesitating. I yearned for Dandris, who kept me grounded whenever I felt like I could float away from my depression. She’d sing old songs to me she learned from the madrigals choir she attended, fueling my love for all things medieval even further. And Zeike. I never said it out loud, but somehow Flynn immediately understood that I liked Zeike more than a friend. Always had. She was kind enough to let me skim over that particular hurt. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqVxjcpengu
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Flynn told me that her mom initially did not want her anywhere near the ocean let alone St. Augustine, and about how her dad had died out on his trusty rusty fishing boat on the Pacific Ocean when Flynn was only one-year-old. That was why her mother was so scared for her daughter to be in such close proximity to the large body of salty water. Irrational, yes? Yet Flynn’s heart was soft and compensating for her mom. Flynn had promised her mother that she would stay inland while studying, and that promise seemed to be good enough for her mom. Personally, the whole thing stunk of Helper business, but I kept my mouth shut. If her mom wanted Flynn away from the beach, I wasn’t going to aid in anything potentially friend napping in nature. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2aP2RMu5F2
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And now the first finals of Sophomore year were upon us. I had known Flynn for over a year. She had become a solid presence for me, and I was growing aware that I was depending on her as much as she depended on me. I knew that she secretly loved ramen even though she complained that it was the only thing she ate. She understood that the comics I doodled in class were from more than boredom, but a way to calm myself and pay attention. I could list more little quirks, because there was a whole mountain of them, but you’ll read them soon enough. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckU4u7YJ1G
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“Flynn, why should we go to the beach if you aren’t going to go in the water, anyway?” I mumbled from the purple disk chair I was folded up on. I was stuck on a question for my Fiscal Mathematics class. Formulas just weren't my thing. Flynn bent over my shoulder, her sweet and salty sent still recognizable, and used her green pen to neatly scribble the answer onto my paper. “How did you do that?” I scoffed, although I knew very well that she was leagues higher than I was in math.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqyUsG5Rny
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“If we go to the beach, I’ll tell you.” Once she received my pointed glare, she sighed heavily. “Fine. Okay! You’re more anal about beach outings than my mom.” She folded her arms gracefully. “I’m just cramped up in here is all. Talk about cabin fever. Can we at least go to the Castillo? Pleeease?” 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoVVUiVp5PI
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Flynn was speaking of the Castillo de San Marcos, a fort that was built in the fifteenth century to protect its Spanish settlement. The battlement faced the Matanzas River and the Bridge of Lions that connected the mainland to Anastasia Island. The fort itself was sturdy and far enough away from the water to be visited many times without the fear of Flynn plopping in and creating a chain of events that would awaken whatever her mother was afraid may happen when Flynn plus water equals question mark. Plus, the Castillo was a fifteen minute walk away and I was also getting a bit cramped in our small dorm. 816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2TrbrWiWx8
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“Okay. You win. The Castillo it is. This room is far too dark, anyway. We need some sun.” I shrugged and felt the ache of sitting in one place for too long attack me with pins and needles.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡStSWwrNELq
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“Woohoo!” Flynn did a little dance and then swirled to dig around her pile of clothes on her bed, picking out a slightly bent sun hat. She had to learn to do her laundry instead of making a comforter out of dirty clothes to sleep in. I smiled, though. Being here made me happy. I wasn’t as jittery or as down on myself like I would have been in Illinois. Maybe it was the atmosphere, the sun, Flynn, or all three, but I was hella content.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfPfJ5LzSOP
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So I have to question myself. If I was so freaking happy, why oh why did I agree to going out that day? If I hadn’t, perhaps everything could have stayed as it was.816Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ01hKeBue0E
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