Laura sat in her usually spot during lunch. Tucked away in a bit of shade, her back against a wall on the edge of the fields she poked at her meager lunch of veggies and half a sandwich. Her best friend Jake was absent again so she was alone but with every sound she looked around as if expecting someone or something to appear.


He will come.

Maybe.

The faint sound of music could be heard in the distance. Gradually, it grew louder and Jono appeared. He was staring down at the Gameboy in his hands as he walked, but looked up and smiled once he reached Laura.

"Hey."

The sound of his game ending soon followed and he turned the game off. Sitting down, he put it in his backpack and pulled out some tupperware containing his lunch.

"H-Hi Jonothan." Relief and worry warred across her face. "Thank you for joining me, I know my note was kind of random and vague. I hope I'm not pulling you away from anything." She fidgeted with her food a bit more before packing it away uneaten.

He shook his head. "Not at all. I'm usually just off by myself somewhere."

He opened the tupperware.



"Would you like one?"

"No thanks." She said glancing around. "So, I wanted to ask you a kind of personal question and I totally understand if you don't want to answer but I hope you do and it's kind of important but I'll understand if you get mad and I hope you don't think I'm crazy or anything but...what's the deal with your pen?"

Now he looked around. "What do you mean?"

She didn't want to say the words out loud, it was still kind of crazy and silly to her so she just pulled back the sleeve of her coat and showed him her bracelet and prayed he could see the glow.

Mariana saw the empanadas and was called to them. "Trade you a torta for one of those." She seems to appear out of nowhere.

"Sure."

They were larger than empanadas and had a flakey crust. He offered a pasty to her.

Returning his attention to Laura, he nodded. "Yeah, it's the same thing."

Laura jumped a little when Mariana appeared and quickly hid her bracelet again.

"Umm, hi. Mariana right?"

"Yes..." She gave half of her torta to Jono. "And you are Laura, and he is Jono..." She shrugged.

"Marriana, do you notice anything unusual about this pen?" He held it up and glanced at Laura. "I think there are at least a few people in the class with these."

Laura was shocked by Jonothan's openness and waited for Mariana's answer.

"It has glow in the dark paint?" She shrugged as she ate the turnover.

"Good enough for me." he smiled. "I don't suppose either of you have pink hair, from time to time?"

"Uhhh, no. Wait, how are you so casual about that thing? Pens just don't glow you know? Can everyone in this town see the glow?" Laura was beyond confused.

He shook his head. "I doubt it. I don't understand it, but most people don't give it a second look. I do keep it hidden most of the time. I like using it for my personal writing, though. It gives me inspiration."

"Pink hair... besides Astrid? I saw the news so... that was crazy." She continued. "I know what you mean... I have a special pen for writing. Special mirror for makeup."

"OK but there are things that are special because then mean something to you and then there is SPECIAL. Like, because they do stuff."

"I don't think it was Astrid." he shook his head. "Do you have anything that glows like this, Marriana?"