Nita shrugged, “Not really. She spent a lot of time in the library. She also has a meek personality to people tend to forget her. Not to mention that she is rather sickly and manages to miss about as much school as you do Luna.”
“As much school as Luna? Is that possible?” Said K in a snarky tone.
“Surprising I know.”
“Girls can we stay on topic.” Said Luna, “You said that she is sickly. What is wrong with her.”
Nita shrugged, “No idea. It isn’t like we are close or anything. It must be something serious however because apparently the teachers don’t give her a hard time about her absences like they do ours. However her grades seem good so she must do her own studying at home.”
“You know a surprising amount about someone you aren’t particularly close to.” Said K.
“What can I say? I am nosy and after losing to her in the history competition I snooped on her a little. It turned out that we shared a few classes so it wasn’t that hard. I dropped the investigation a couple months after the competition however so most of my information is a year out of date.”
“Do you know what class she has next?” Asked Luna.
“Interested? Unfortunately she hasn’t come to school the last few days. We share a literature class and considering how rarely she comes to school I would have noticed it if she had been there today.” Said Nita.
“You and your memory. Is her address somewhere hidden away in your memory with all the rest of the useless facts that you know?” Asked Luna.
“Hey, I resent that. Not everything that I remember is useless. I usually remember the answers to the quiz questions.”
“Nita.” Siad Luna.
“Right, her address. Sure, she lives in the Rose Tree apartments around six blocks south of here with her brother. Don’t know her apartment number however.”
“Thanks.” Said Luna. She picked up her now nearly empty tray and began to leave the table.
“Skipping class to go pay a visit? This has to be good. I want to come.” Said Nita.
“Don’t you have a class with Mr. Trent next?” Said Luna, “I won’t miss his class, your already on his bad side.”
“Damn your right.”
Luna took the time to escape the distracted Nita. K was more lax and just waved goodbye as Luna left the two of them. She dropped the tray off next the exit to the cafeteria and began heading toward the exit to the school. She pulled out her phone as she left and sent off a text to Joy saying that she had a lead and was checking it out.
Luna had almost reached the edge of the school when she heard a voice come from behind her. “Miss Luna Star, where do you think that you are going?”
Luna turned around to see Mr. Trent standing several paces behind her. He had a glower on his face, a common occurrence. Mr. Trent was a young teacher, this was his first year teaching, but he had already gotten a nasty reputation among the students. He didn’t let anyone off easily and tended to assign extra homework.
“Sorry Mr. Trent but I’m on an errand for my cat.”
“That has got to be the worse excuse I have ever heard. I will give you credit for that but I’m still not leaving you leave the campus just like that. You slept through my entire class Luna Star. Other teachers might stand for actions like that but I’m not going to.”
Luna sighed, “I do your homework and pass the tests. Is there something more that you want from me?”
“Yes, a little respect for education. You think you can just do whatever you want just because you have some smarts. The world isn’t that kind.”
“Yep the world is mean, don’t I know it. Just it is equally unkind to both of us at this time. Sorry Mr. Trent but I’ll talk with you about this matter at a latter date.” Then Luna was off, running out of the school grounds. Trent shouted at her but didn’t chase after her. He had a class to teach and both of them knew that.
Luna only stopped running when she was a few blocks away. She knew that Trent would give her a hard time later but he always did that with her so that wouldn’t be any different then usual. She glanced around her looking for Blackberry but he wasn’t there. She thought for a minutes before finally closing her eyes. She breathed in and out slowly for a couple of moments and then pushed out with her force of will. She repeated the exercise a couple of times before she was interrupted.
“Luna, what are you doing. I could feel you all the way from the school.”
Luna smiled, “Ah, good. My Blackberry called worked just fine. Glad you sensed it and came running.”
“Sensed it. You were practically a bonfire. I would have had to be blind and dead not to have noticed it. Anyone with any sort of magical sense in the city would have felt it.” Complained Blackberry. “We should leave in case somebody we don’t want to meet decides to pay you a visit.”
“Like who? An Elder Darkness, in the middle of the day?” Asked Luna skeptically.
“No, I was thinking more like that Prince guy who seemed to want you to see how awesome he was.”
Luna flinched, “Good point. Wouldn’t want him to be showing up randomly. Also if everyone could feel it I should send Joy another text to make sure she doesn’t try to skip school to figure out what that was.” Luna pulled out her phone as they begin walked and as she began to text Blackberry asked a question.
“So why did you decide that it would be a good idea to summon me by showing off your strength to the world?”
“I managed to get a lead on the girl that I say. There is girl named Sibyl who lives in some apartments near here. She might be the person that we are looking for but I don’t know for certain. She meets the description but I don’t have anything else other then that. I also don’t have the apartment number so if she does have potential to be a magical girl I was hoping that you would be able to figure out which apartment she is living in.”
“I can certainly try. If she is the one I should get something from her but I don’t know how far I will be able to sense her power from.” Said Blackberry.
Together they headed toward the Rose Tree apartments. When they reached the front of the apartments Blackberry scratched his face, “You humans. Who would name a place Rose Tree. Doesn’t they know that roses are bushes.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. A rose tree is when you grow the bush into the form of a tree. Most of them are smaller then a regular tree but they are good looking. They also tend to use three different types of roses when making it.”
“Why do you even know that? For a delinquent you sure know the weirdest things.”
“Mysteries Blackberry, I know lots of mysteries.” Said Luna. She neglected to mention that one of her friend’s families was in the flower business. While K didn’t often talk about flowers Luna still sometimes picked up a factoid or two.
They entered the lobby of the apartment. It wasn’t a very fancy place so there really wasn’t anything in the form of security. “Do you feel anything?” Asked Luna.
“Hmmm, faintly. It seems that this Sibyl is the right girl. I can feel her presence from down here but I’m having trouble pinpointing her. Maybe if it wasn’t for some powerful magical girl messing up my senses I would be able to tell you where she is.” Blackberry looked up at Luna.
“Hey, don’t blame me for your problems. Let’s take the elevator. Tell me when the sense feels the strongest and we will get off at that floor.”
They took the elevator up several flights before Blackberry finally said, “Stop, this is the floor.” Luna tried to hit the button quick enough but they ended up passing the floor. Then they were forced to take the elevator back down a floor before finally getting off of the elevator.
“Is this the right floor?” Asked Luna.
“Probably. It might be up or down a floor but I won’t be able to tell until I’m closer.”
“Great.”
The walked down the empty hallways. The place was basically deserted because it was the middle of the day and practically everybody who lived there was either at work or at school. They reached the end of the apartments before Blackberry stopped and pointed his nose toward one of the apartment doors. “That one. The feeling is coming from that one. I think it is Sibyl but it could be anyone who has a magical affinity but hasn’t awoken to their power. A prospective magical girl is just one of the things that could be.”
“No problem. That is what we are here to do anyways, check out Sibyl and see if she would qualify.” Luna stepped up toward the door and knocked on it a couple of times. They waited there and when there was no response Luna knocked on the door again, this time louder.
Eventually Luna could hear footsteps in the house and then she heard a voice on the other side of the door ask, “Hello, who it is?” It was a soft quiet voice, not much more then a whisper.
“Are you Sibyl of Freedom High School?”
There was a pause before the girl on the other side of the door answer, “Yes, I’m Sibyl. Why do you want to know?”
“Generally you should ask that sort of question before you give the answer.” Said Luna, “I got to Freedom High like you do and I wanted to talk to you about something important. If you could let me in we could talk about it.”
“I suppose.” There was the click of the lock and the door was pulled open. A small mousy girl was standing on the other side of the door. She had her hair tied up into pigtails and she despite the fact this it was already past midday she was still wearing pajamas. She girl stopped when the door was mostly open and stared at Luna, “You, you were in my dream.”
Luna smiled, “And your dream was in my reality. That is what I came here to talk to you about. Luna stepped through the door and into the apartment with Blackberry following just behind her.
“Um, the apartment complex doesn’t allow pet. My parents will get in trouble if somebody sees a cat enter the room.” Said Sibyl.
Blackberry put his nose in the air and said, “You needn’t worry about that. I find it better if nobody notices me in the first place. Plus what sort of place doesn’t allow cats?”
Sibyl looked back and forth between Luna and Blackberry and after a moment stuttered, “Was it just me or did you also hear your cat speak?”
“He does that sometimes. I still haven’t yet figured out why.” Said Luna.
Blackberry leveled a stare at Luna, “Very funny, confuses the poor girl even further will you. Yes Sibyl I can talk. Not if you could shut the door we could have a serious conversation about your future.”
Sibyl continued to stare at Blackberry but she did push the door shut and lock it. Then began walking into the living room, “You can come it. Please have a seat, I can try to make you tea if you would like it though I don’t get visitors she I’m not certain how to be a good host.” She finally broke her gaze from Blackberry and said, “You really did hear him talk right?”