"Can you believe this?" muttered Mira, to where Tom stared absentmindedly out the window. "Our parents are shipping us off to some boarding school. I was just fine at our public school, thank you very much."

"I wouldn't worry about it so much," he murmured quietly. "They think that we're smart enough to go to this Kadic place, so that's where we're headed. You have to admit that you can do a lot of stuff Mira, and they don't even know about your hacking abilities."

"Thanks, I guess." Twelve year old Mira slumped in the seat of the car as the countryside whizzed by, giving them no hint as to where they were going. She messed with her thick black curls, constantly fidgeting from restlessness. She just couldn't seem to keep still, no matter how hard she tried to. She was anxious, to say the least; she hated not knowing what was going to happen.

"Looks like we'll be arriving there soon, you two," said Tom's mother cheerfully. "Oh, you'll both love Kadic, I know it! Some of the top students in the country have gone to this school. Have you ever heard of Jeremie Belpois?"

Tom stared at her blankly; Mira nodded.

"The best at everything, from what I've heard," she stated, looking serious. "That is, except sports, if his reputation's anything to go by."

Tom muttered something so quietly that Mira barely caught it, but she punched him in the arm in response, making him wince.

After another hour, Mira was considering breaking a window or something, when they arrived at last. The buildings were plain looking, and many students were already lined up outside the school, chatting with one another calmly. Many of them looked rather bored, with a 'been-there-done-that' look on the faces of most. Mira opened the door of her car hesitantly, with Tom following right behind her. She couldn't help but be slightly nervous; most of the others appeared to already know one another.

Retrieving their baggage from the trunk, they bid Tom's parents goodbye, watching as the car disappeared around a corner. Mira had had to say farewell to her own parents before leaving, as she and Tom would be carpooling. Turning, they both inhaled simultaneously and strode forward into the courtyard.

Their entrance turned quite a few heads, and the whispering ensued almost at once. Mira caught phrases such as, "Not from around here," and, "New kids." She curled her fists in anger, muttering under her breath about how they shouldn't be judging the two of them.

Without warning, a group of boys seemed to appear out of nowhere in front of them. Leading them was a blond haired boy, his steely gray eyes meeting Mira's own emerald orbs calmly.

"Newbs, huh?" he asked, grinning. He kept his hands in his pockets, not bothering to offer one to shake. "Name's Adam Polanka. You?"

Mira was about to snap that it was none of his business, when Tom put his hand on her arm. "Calm down," he muttered, before speaking amiably to Adam. "I'm Tom Saratra. This is Mira Anderson."

"Hey Tom. Hey Mara."

Mira felt something inside her snap. "It's Mira, you"-

"We should probably be going," Tom interrupted, quickly dragging Mira away. She scowled but complied, waiting until they were out of earshot before she began ranting.

"I can't believe that jerk!" she exclaimed heatedly.

Tom merely rolled his eyes, sighing in exasperation. "Only five minutes on this campus and you already hate someone. I know you weren't happy to come here in the first place, but still…"

"Yeah, well…" Mira struggled for the right thing to say, but it wouldn't come to mind. "Whatever. Let's just go find our rooms, or something." She began making her way in the direction of a line of students, all waiting outside what looked like the cafeteria, probably to pick up their schedules and boarding assignments. She pulled her suitcase along with her, Tom following right behind.

Ever since meeting at three years old (in which Mira had 'accidentally' given him a rather tight hug, and then spilled hot chocolate all over him), the two became inseparable. Best friends for life, according to their parents, but at their elementary school it was a different story. Speculation went around that they were in love, but Mira would usually go so far as to hack that person's email and have them send embarrassing messages to their friends as punishment for assuming that.

What she knew (and what her parents did not) was that their old school had discovered her antics. When she barely managed to worm her way out of a punishment and subsequently reveal that she was actually much more intelligent than she let on, despite only getting mediocre grades in the past, they suggested to her parents that she go to boarding school. Thankfully, it took only a small amount of begging to convince Tom's parents to do the same.

Upon finding out that she was in Room 213 (Tom was in Room 345), she made her way upstairs in the dormitory. She was relieved to discover that she had no roommates, and that she would be alone for the most part. Apparently, they had free time until an afternoon assembly, but they were unable to leave school grounds.

She placed her laptop on her new desk, noticing that the place was scrupulously clean. Most likely it would stay that way; she could be something of a neat-freak at times. She decided to go check up on Tom, and hopefully she wouldn't be caught by Jim. Already she had gleaned that he was probably someone to avoid, based on how much he seemed to enjoy students getting into trouble.

As she made her way up the stairs and down the hall, she was joined by an unwelcome presence.

"Hey there, Moira. How do you like our grand school so far?"

She said nothing, but she did shoot him the dirtiest look possible. Adam walked along beside her, hands stuck in his pockets, the ever-present smirk on his face. She continued ignoring his presence, until he had the nerve to poke her.

"Not very talkative?" he asked, grinning at her. Her eyebrow twitched, and after what seemed like hours, she made it to Tom's room. Reaching up to the door, she rapped three times, hard.

"Talking to your friend, Tom, huh?" said Adam, still there. "Well, I wouldn't want to disturb you two lovebirds. I'll be seeing you at the assembly then, Mirror."

Deep breaths, Mira, she told herself, her hands balled up into fists as he sauntered casually away. Tom opened the door, looking unsurprised.

"C'mon in," he said, gesturing for her to enter. Mira immediately sat down in his desk chair, pressing her palms against her eyeballs. "Was that Adam guy bugging you again?"

"How'd you know?"

"To be perfectly honest, Mira, I know you get pissed off… a lot… but you don't usually show it so clearly."

"That bad, huh," she murmured, opening her eyes and glancing at Tom's blue ones. He only looked concerned for her, always the serious one. She sighed again, standing up. "Let's go outside for awhile. Find something else to do."

They did so, with her leading the way and him trailing behind, like always. Mira didn't deny that a lot of things angered her, but she usually thought that she had good reason to be angry. Her excuse was that she was just following the natural order of things, though her parents claimed that she was just a bit of a whiner.

Head held high, she marched outside, where other students were loitering, awaiting the assembly until later. She heard someone nearby complaining about them not being able to explore the town, but ignored it. A moment later, something collided with the side of her head, causing her vision to blacken for a moment while pain shot through her skull.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Uh, hey, could you pass that?"

The last statement was directed to Tom, who picked up the offending object (a basketball) and threw it to a tall girl that Mira hadn't seen before. "Thanks!" she called, before running back to a basketball hoop on the edge of the courtyard, her dark red hair swinging in a long ponytail behind her. Mira snuck a look out of the corner of her eye, noticing that Tom was staring after her with a curious expression on his face.

"Come on," she called impatiently. "Let's get going already!"

She saw him blink and visibly shake himself before joining her. Mira looked back at the girl once- she was shooting baskets with quite a bit of skill, but was clearly playing alone.

She's probably got friends, thought Mira. There was no need to talk to her.

"Tom!" came a shout from behind her, and they both turned to see her pet peeve striding over to them quickly. Adam had a smirk on his face and slung his arm around Tom's shoulders like they had been best buddies for their entire life. Mira prevented herself from scowling at the sight of the blond kid. His gray eyes were trained on her. "Hey again, Margie."

Margie? Okay, that was it; he was so dead.

"Don't start foaming at the mouth now," warned Adam, still grinning. Oh, how she wanted to wipe that silly smile off of his face…

"So, I just wanted to let you two know something. After the assembly we- that is to say, our peers- are going to be meeting in the courtyard for a little gathering. Just to get to know each other, you know? Newbs have to be there, so you'd better show."

He detached himself from Tom before hollering, "Later!" and trotting off to join his group of friends.

"He was rhyming," Tom commented idly. Despite the fact that her fists were shaking in rage, Mira snorted. Of course Tom would notice a strange little detail like that.

Adam wouldn't go so far as to call himself the leader of a gang. No, nothing like that, but he was part of a pretty notorious group. The others, Gary included, all listened to what he said and generally went along with it, too. He couldn't really help it, but he liked that fact; being in charge made him feel important.

The assembly was making him fall asleep. Beside him, Gary was already snoring away, a fact that he wouldn't hesitate to tease him about later. Adam found his eyes wandering over to the corner where Mary and Tom sat together, both huddled together and whispering about something. He smirked again when he remembered how angry she'd been when he kept getting her name wrong; she'd looked really adorable, all puffed up like that.

At long last, Principal Delmas dismissed everyone, directing them to get to the cafeteria for dinner and then off to bed at around nine o' clock. There would be plenty of time for the little game they had to play later.

Dinner was an uneventful affair. His group seated themselves at their usual table, at the opposite end from Teralyn Vohn, who sat alone as always. She had a disgruntled look on her face, and was poking at her food. Adam all but ignored her, focusing on Mary again. She didn't eat much- just a salad- and was still chatting with Tom. The guy didn't talk much, by the look of it.

His eyes wandered around to observe everyone else. Most people exhibited the usual behaviors: Isis was speaking with her friend nervously, Johnny and Hiroki were laughing at something, Ulrich Stern was casting jealous glances at where Yumi Ishiyama and William Dunbar sat together, while Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Aelita Stones, and Faustina Nelland all sat with their heads close together, speaking quietly and urgently about something. Jeremie suddenly opened his laptop, scanned it, and then the lot of them (apart from William) left, hurrying out of the cafeteria.

Adam raised his eyebrow at this. That was certainly odd.

He turned his attention back over to Vohn, who ate quickly but quietly.

"You'll be at the gathering, right?" he asked. He noticed Gary leering at her in an unpleasant way. Many knew that Gary thought that Teralyn was hot, but he overall didn't really approve of this.

"What, so you can humiliate the newbs?" asked Vohn, sounding tired. Must have been from playing all of that basketball. "Yeah, sure, whatever. I've got nothing else to do."

A shark's grin appeared on Adam's face. Teralyn was fun to mess with, even if she was more controlled than that new girl. She refused to look at him, and soon stood up, deposited her tray, and exited the room. Most of the others began to follow suit soon after, with members of the seventh grade all heading for the middle of the courtyard for the meeting. Mara and Tom headed in that direction too, and Adam felt it would soon be prudent to follow suit.

As the others followed him, he stuck his hands in his pockets. This was going to be entertaining.

Teralyn almost laughed when she saw how many had shown up. Really, were they all idiots? It wasn't like they were really required to show up, but she supposed that Adam and his crew could be a little more intimidating. She noticed the curly haired girl that she'd hit with her basketball earlier, along with the brown haired boy who had tossed it back to her. Neither of them looked at that comfortable being there, as they drew quite a few stares from everyone else.

She felt bad for the newbies.

Sure enough, Adam and the cronies showed up, calling for those present to gather around. She already knew what this would consist of, and so she tuned out the instructions, watching instead as the girl and boy from before glanced at each other, confused expressions on their faces.

"Any questions?" called Adam.

"Yeah, I've got a question," called the black haired girl. "Why is this game so lame?"

"Now you're rhyming," muttered the boy next to her.

Adam's grin turned decidedly more frigid at that comment, but he didn't reply to her comment, although the rest of his gang looked ready to beat up the girl. Teralyn felt her respect for the girl rise a bit; clearly, she wasn't about to take any crap.

"Alright then," said Adam, revealing an empty water bottle that he'd probably taken from dinner. "I suppose I'll have the first spin." Everyone formed a circle around it, and as fortune would have it, the cap of the bottle ended facing her. Teralyn rolled her eyes.

"Alright Vohn," said Adam, clapping his hands together. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Who do you think is attractive in our school?"

Teralyn almost laughed again; he couldn't have come up with something more embarrassing? Just because someone was attractive, it didn't mean that she had to have a crush on them.

"You, that kid," she nodded at Tom, "Dunbar, Stern, Rembrandt, Lith. That's it."

He looked slightly frustrated at her nonchalant response. "Your turn to spin."

She did so, with the cap ending on poor Isis. "Truth or dare, Isis."

"T-truth."

"What did you have for dinner?" she asked dully.

Isis sent her a bemused, but grateful look. "Pasta."

Teralyn nodded, satisfied with that. Isis spun the bottle, then that kid (whose name she learned was Tom). It landed on Gary this time.

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

She saw the tiniest of smirks appear on Tom's face. Her respect meter went up for him as well.

"Admit any and all past wrongs you've ever done to Jim," he ordered.

She couldn't help it; this time she burst out laughing, along with many others in the circle. Oh, it just kept getting better. What's more, Gary couldn't refuse unless he wanted to be humiliated in front of the entire grade. He stood up, glaring darkly in Tom's direction, before storming off. Another boy named Harold went with him to make sure he actually did it.

Gary never arrived back; according to Harold, he was currently being lectured sternly by Principal Delmas. Several people called out congratulations to Tom, who mock-bowed. Adam once again took up the bottle, spinning it around and around.

It landed on Tom's companion.

Teralyn winced; nothing good would come of that. She knew that the sinister smile on his face meant no good for the girl.

"Truth or dare, Marie?"

For some reason, Marie's face hardened. Teralyn frowned slightly; Marie didn't seem like a good fit for her.

"Dare."

Several people winced in sympathy.

When Adam told her what he wanted her to do, her face tightened even more, but other than that her expression didn't change. Getting up, she slowly strode over to where he stood. An innocent kiss on the cheek was all, but at the last moment, the crafty sneak turned his head.

Several cat calls and jeers rang out, but Marie quickly pulled back before it even turned into anything, shooting an intense glare at Adam. Teralyn sighed to herself; the drama would never end, it seemed. Tom was staring darkly at the blond boy as Mira seated herself next to him, her face a deep shade of red.

"You still have to spin the bottle, Moira," called Adam. Teralyn blinked; wasn't her name Marie?

Whoever the girl was, she stomped over to the bottle, spinning it so that it landed right back on Adam. She blinked several times, before a huge grin stretched on her face.

"Truth or dare?" she asked sweetly.

"Dare," he replied, looking unusually calm.

"Say my name. My real name."

Teralyn slapped a hand to her forehead at that. So that was what it was? Adam had been getting it wrong on purpose all this time?

Surprisingly, Polanka actually looked reluctant to comply. He scowled at her, but she kept smiling at him viciously. At last, he gritted his teeth. "Mira."

"Thank you," she said, still smiling. Carelessly, she tossed the bottle at him. "You get to spin again."

Teralyn resolved to find some way to give the two newbies a medal.

Mira awoke on her first day of school feeling oddly refreshed. Sunlight streamed through her window and onto her desk, casting everything in a warm light. She stretched, realizing that she already felt at home at Kadic. She scowled; that wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to be angry to be here.

After struggling to put on her sandals, she was finally ready to make her way down for breakfast. Tom hadn't arrived yet, so she sat alone, looking up everything about the school on her laptop. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards when she realized that the computer system would be easy to crack- anything that needed changing, in her opinion, would be changed. Maybe she could tweak her schedule, in case it didn't match up to Tom's.

Absently, she took a large bite out of her croissant, chewing slowly while her eyes traveled up and down the screen. Heh, a breach wouldn't even be noticed by the school authority. She began typing, going through all the necessary codes with ease.

However, she was forced to quickly sign off and make it look like she was doing something innocent, like checking her e-mail, when the red haired girl abruptly sat next to her.

"Morning," she said, with a yawn. Mira stared at her, not really sure why this girl was here. Sure, she had seen her at the game last night, but she hadn't really spoken to her at all. What was her name again? It started with a "T"…

"I'm Teralyn," the girl explained. "I just wanted to say good job for getting Adam and Gary all riled up yesterday. I'd tell your friend, Tom, too, but it looks like he's not here yet."

"I am now," came his tired voice, as he seated himself across from Mira. "Nice to meet you by the way," he added to Teralyn, rubbing his eyes. He glanced at Mira's laptop, before shooting her a warning look. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Tom glanced skyward in exasperation before turning to Teralyn. "So, you play basketball, right?"

"Right." And soon, the two were in a deep discussion on famous players, records, and Teralyn's dream of going professional. Mira wondered why it was the Teralyn didn't seem to have very many friends; she was talkative and friendly enough, and was clearly a talented person.

Mira noticed Adam enter the cafeteria, which caused a scowl to appear on her face. The memory of what had occurred the previous night was not something that was about to just vanish. The little sneak had turned his head so that they kissed full on the lips. It had taken all of her self control not to punch him right then and there, but at least now he had actually said her real name. He caught sight of her glaring, and waved cheerfully before sitting with the rest of his group. His eyebrows rose when he saw Teralyn sitting with them.

It turned out that she didn't have very many of the same classes as Tom, but Teralyn was in nearly all of them. They only sat next to one another and didn't converse much, but Mira found herself liking the tall girl. Her silence was a welcome gift, instead of being bothered by Polanka.

After gym class, Mira caught sight of Ulrich and Odd sprinting for the park. She quirked her eyebrow at the unusual sight, but other than that paid no attention.

"We have a free period right now," said Teralyn. Looking slightly uncomfortable, she jerked her head towards the basketball court. "Wanna have a game?"

Mira blinked. She had a feeling that Teralyn was unused to including other people in her practice. With a shrug, she replied, "Sure."

Tom tried his best not to yawn while listening to his teacher, but one seemed to escape him anyway. He looked over at the windows, but they were too far away for him to really see anything anyway. He wished that Mira was in some of his classes, but knew that there wasn't anything he could do about that; he was surprised that she hadn't hacked the scheduling system to get them into the courses.

Suddenly, a student by the window let out a loud scream.

"Robot!" they shouted, pointing, their face twisting in fear.

Most of the others broke out into laughter, except for those sitting near the window. They were all staring outside in horror, at something that Tom couldn't see. The teacher huffed and strode over to the window, but quickly stumbled away again, something akin to shock on his face. Tom stood up along with most of everyone else in the classroom, hurrying to peer through the glass.

It was some kind of giant red crab, that much he knew. It was advancing on a group huddled together in fear in the courtyard, a group that included the redhead he'd met earlier, and-

A gasp escaped him, and he turned and sprinted out of the classroom, ignoring the teacher's shout of, "Saratra!" that floated after him. Panic filled him; all he could think about was getting to Mira and Teralyn before they were either hurt or killed. He was about to push open the door to go outside when a loud boom shook the building.

"No…" he whispered, throwing the door open.

The students had been scattered by whatever the robot had done, but no one seemed to be hurt. He gaped when he saw Teralyn Vohn run straight at the crab, lifting herself onto its back and hanging on like it was a rodeo competition. He thought he heard her whoop, at least until it managed to fling her off, causing her to land several feet away, dazed.

Tom sprinted over to her, dragging her out of the way just in time to avoid a blast from the thing.

"Where's Mira?" he shouted. Teralyn, unable to speak, only shook her head. Tom cursed, about to go and look for his friend, but then paused.

It wasn't as though he could just abandon Teralyn here, when she wasn't able to move properly.

"Sorry…" slurred Teralyn. "I dunno where she went, or anything."

"It's alright," he replied, placing her arm on his shoulders and lifting her up. However, he was quickly forced to stumble out of the way of a blast. The robot set its sights on them, for a reason unknown to him. He was confident that he could keep the two of them safe.

He wished he could say the same for Mira.

"You owe me for this later," Adam muttered to an unconscious Mira.

He just arrived in the courtyard to find that Teralyn Vohn was desperately shaking Mira Anderson, trying to get her to move while the crab-like robot loomed over him. He'd acted without thinking, drawing the attention of the thing so that it accidentally shot the academics building. He managed to get over and grab Mira, before hurrying away and leaving the rest to Teralyn, who had seemed to determined to fight the thing off.

Hence the reason why he was currently carrying Mira bridal style, trying to find somewhere where he could leave her safely and go back and help. She showed no signs of waking up, however, and he did not want to be burdened with carrying her while there was a fight to be had.

Something pierced the ground in front of him- a claw from another crab. He gulped, throwing himself and Mira out of the way as quickly as possible.

"Dang it!" he shouted, setting down Mira, his trademark smirk playing around his mouth. "Come and get some, then!"

His smile quickly disappeared when the thing aimed for him, and he ducked, noticing that it hit a pillar, causing it to crumble away. He glanced around wildly for some kind of weapon, but there were none in the vicinity. Adam pushed his fear away, unwilling to just give up.

The thing scuttled towards him (that was just plain freaky), and swatted him into the wall as though he were nothing more than a fly. He hit the wall, feeling the breath driven out of him, and his leg let out a cracking noise. He hissed in pain, realizing that he had broken his ankle. The crab was advancing again, and probably knew that it had him.

"Fine then, kill me!" he shouted defiantly. "Just don't eat me or whatever, okay?"

Something dark flew in front of him, collapsing heavily on top of him when he heard the telltale sign of a shot being fired from the monster. He heaved the body off of him, revealing all-too familiar black curls.

"Idiot!" he shouted, shaking her. Her entire stomach area had been scorched by the blast, and she was shaking in agony. Mira, however, offered him a grin.

"Thought I owed you," she muttered. He opened his mouth to reply, but for once no words came out. He couldn't believe it; the girl who had claimed to all but hate him had just saved his life.

"Mira!" came a shout, as Tom hobbled over, carrying a semiconscious Teralyn on his back. They both dropped to the ground next to him, huddling over the black haired girl in concern. Tom, Mira, and Adam had all but forgotten the enemy behind them, but Teralyn had not. She desperately tugged on Tom's sleeve.

"Go!" she rasped. "You're fast enough to get out of here!"

"Not a chance," replied Tom curtly, turning to face the robot, determination showing in his eyes.

"As if you're facing him alone," panted Mira; Adam watched in astonishment as she somehow forced herself into a standing position, despite the pained look on her face. Teralyn struggled to her feet as well, and it made him feel inadequate, not being capable of standing himself.

To hell with it, he told himself, grasping the wall for support and shifting his weight to his uninjured leg.

"We can take him," stated Mira, her voice coming out more strongly.

At that moment, the crab froze, as though some invisible force had commanded it to stop. Then, a white light enveloped them all. Adam's eyes widened when he realized that all memories of what had happened were leaving him, and he desperately struggled to hang onto them…

Faustina Nelland wasn't always really the observant type. She tended to focus on the here and now, as well as her own objectives, rather than what was going on around her. But she was almost certain that it had just been the black haired girl, the redhead, and the brunette boy sitting at breakfast before. However, this time around they were joined by a blond boy, and all four were chatting comfortably.

She frowned deeply, nudging Aelita, who sat next to her. Her blue eyes flickered in the direction of the group. "Does that usually happen?"

The pinkette blinked, studying them carefully. "No, I don't think so. They don't seem to remember anything, though; maybe it's just a kind of subconscious effect. They must have helped each other survive the crabs, and it's carrying on."

"It is possible," said Jeremie, breaking into their discussion. "I haven't had much time to study the psychological effects of the return to the pasts, but they could still retain some kind of connection they gained."

"Huh," muttered Faustina, studying them with narrowed eyes. Then the tiniest of smiles appeared on her face. Friendship surpassing amnesia.

It had a nice ring to it.

Author's note: I am back! Back, from the depths of my Final Fantasy XIII obsession! Now people, just in case you haven't seen my profile, this story has nothing to do with the new season of Code Lyoko coming out. Remember that!

Heh. I'm always so mean to Adam. First he stays behind to fight off the evil Masquerade that Stella summoned, then he's trapped in time with Stella herself, and now he breaks his leg. Again.

Review, please!