Title: Pieces of Blue - Chapter 7
By Ashley Delfin
Notes: Turned out shorter than I expected after some major rewrites, and I left a few cliffhangers. *insert evil laughter* Remember you can comment on the forum. Hope you like it!

---

Sister Adriana stepped on the brake, and everyone on the bus felt their breathing stop and held on to whatever they could. The school bus once again stopped an inch away from hitting the tree right in front of its parking space. After the bus came to a full stop, a few students thanked God out loud, and everyone walked out.

"Have a nice day children, remember TGIF! Thank God It's Friday!" Sister Adriana said, standing by the door and smiling sweetly at all of them. It was hard to believe that this amiable plump nun had managed to make "bless you" seem like an insult just a few minutes ago. Granted, the guy had deserved it for cutting in, but from his face you could see that he felt he had just been damned to the darkest pit in hell by a speeding nun.

"It's not right!" Cee Cee yelled, once she was far enough from her. "People should be nice all the time, or insane all the time. Bipolar people bug me to no end."

"Esper's insane all the time," Matt said, smiling at her.

Cee Cee rolled her eyes. "Esper's insanity is annoying," she said. "Besides, he's not just insane. He is random, and illogical, and he doesn't even have the decency to explain whatever he's going on about."

Matt laughed but said nothing, they sat at the steps near the entrance and waited for the other three. Since Brother Fred, the priest in charge of driving the bus Amaranth, Amis, and Esper rode on, did not drive like a maniac, they usually got to school at least five minutes later than Matt and Cee Cee.

As soon as the two jocks saw Amaranth walk towards them, followed by a worried Amis (and Esper, but his expression was always hard to read), they knew something was up.

"Your mom called me," Amaranth said to Cee Cee as soon as they were close enough.

"What did she say?" Cee Cee replied. She didn't need to make much of an effort not to be surprised at this. Her mom was the only one of the teammate's parents who knew about their little group, and every once in a while she would call them and tell them of something she thought they should know. Most of the time, they already did know.

"The Lua residence got robbed," Amaranth said.

"And," Amis kept on, "the robbers only took Mrs. Lua's jewels."

"But we were there all night!" Matt said.

"There where?"

The five of them turned to look at the source of the voice. None of them were particularly pleased to see the person standing there, but Amaranth could've waited a bit longer before being reminded he was in for another whole day of school alongside Roberto.

"Roberto, go away," Amaranth said, not even trying to hide the fact he was annoyed.

"But I've been waiting for this happy reunion ever since we parted ways yesterday!"

"The only way this would be a happy reunion would be if you did not come here at all," Amaranth replied.

"But I could never break your heart in such a way, my love."

"Stop calling me that."

"Well, of course I consider you much more than that, my love, but we mustn't be so hasty," Roberto said, flashing Amaranth one of those grins that made the albino want to get a restraining order on him.

"Do you mind? I was talking to my friends," Amaranth said.

"Of course not, I would also like to know where you were last night." Roberto looked at Cee Cee and glared. "All night."

"Ummm... Amaranth," Cee Cee said. "Why is Roberto glaring at me?"

"You're asking me," Amaranth said, also confused.

"I'm onto you," Roberto said in a menacing growl.

"He does know you're gay, right?" Cee Cee asked Amaranth.

"Too afraid to speak to me? Already aware of the fact that you are no match for me when it comes to winning over Amy's love?" Matt could not contain his laughter at that.

"Why do you always have to date the weird ones?" Amis asked to her brother.

"We are NOT dating," Amaranth said, causing Roberto's attention to be focused on him instead.

"But this Saturday, my love, this Saturday will be unforgettable," Roberto said, inching closer to Amaranth.

"Roberto!" An annoyingly cute voice was heard from a few steps behind. Amaranth would've never suspected this day would come, but today he was actually happy Denise was alive.

"Hi!" the cheerleader said, hugging Amaranth's neck from behind. "Roberto, Brother Victor's looking for you."

"Coach needs me!" Roberto said, taking a sort of battle stance. "I must fly, my love, see you in class!"

Once he was a few meters away, Denise giggled. "Good thing I found him, don't you think?" Before anyone could say anything to her, Denise let go of Amaranth and shrieked. "Oh my God, Rosita, that is the cutest pair of earrings I've ever seen!" With that she ran towards her fellow cheerleader and the two girls walked away.

"You know, I think it's a good thing we didn't switch into the D schedule... it's way too weird this year," Cee Cee said.

"This from the girl whose parents can tell the future and are perfectly content with letting their daughter and her friends fight crime," Matt said.

"That's exactly my point! I get enough weird at home, school should be the place where I come to see some normal for a change," Cee Cee responded.

"Well, we've got to go," Amis said. "Why don't you fill them in with the details in the way to your lockers?"

"Sure thing," Amaranth responded.

And in the way to their lockers Amaranth explained. Cee Cee's mom had called him to tell him that there had been some interesting news on TV. The Lua residence, the one she had predicted Cee Cee would be surveilling (and, by the way, she was so doing double duty at the shop for going out on a school night without permission), had been robbed. Mr. and Mrs. Lua had not noticed until Mrs. Lua saw her jewelry box that morning. Or rather, when she did not, since it was gone.

"That's so wrong!" Cee Cee exclaimed.

"I didn't know you cared so much for the Lua's," Matt said, confused.

"Not them! I have to do double duty at the shop! Not like she didn't know where I was at," Cee Cee responded.

"The strangest part," Amaranth continued, choosing to ignore his friend's whining, "is that the robbers didn't break in, or out. Of course the police think it's the same group of 'professionals' that hit the museum last week."

Matt opened his locker. "But we were there all night! They couldn't have done it!" he said.

"Well, the only thing we know, sort of, is that they're monsters. Monsters can pretty much do anything..." Cee Cee said.

"Look, I have some baby-sitting to do tonight, so how about we meet tomorrow at my house. I don't really feel comfortable talking about these things at school," Amaranth said, lowering his voice a little.

"Sure thing, I'll ask my mom about the news thing," Cee Cee said.

"See you guys at lunchtime," Amaranth said, closing his locker and walking away with a smile.

---

The last class of the last day of the week had ended. Amaranth knew he should feel happy, but he just couldn't. First Roberto gets all angry at him because Denise's message from Brother Victor was actually from yesterday, then Esper begged him to taste his lunch (origami made from a high-fiber snack that looked like recycled paper) and that tasted like recycled paper drowned in bad soy milk, and if that wasn't enough, the whole team expected him to know exactly how the robbery at the Lua's happened and what to do. This day had been way too cruel by any standards and there was still more to come. Somehow, he knew baby-sitting the Oakforest children would not be pleasurable today. For starters, he shouldn't even be baby-sitting. Mr. and Mrs. Oakforest had some sort of fancy dinner, which meant they'd be home late and getting little Jeremy and Sarah to sleep was difficult unless Mrs. Oakforest changed the "no hitting the children unconscious" rule.

At least today he had some time to go home and change.

He got up and left the classroom. He suspected Roberto would've followed him were it not for the fact that Denise was apologizing to him, for the millionth time that day. As he walked through the halls towards his locker he heard someone crying. The kind of crying where you just had to look because the person crying was obviously begging for attention. He turned his head and saw something that made him want to run, Quinoa and Mandy heading his way.

"Amaranth, so glad you walked by," Quinoa said, grabbing his arm. "Laura needs help."

"Who?" Amaranth asked, as he was dragged towards the crying girl.

"Laura Lua," Quinoa said. "She's with me in the A schedule, and her house just got robbed."

"Oh?" Amaranth tried to sound surprised. "Really?"

"Yes," Amanda said. "Don't you watch the news?" she added, obviously enjoying the fact she could point out her superiority at this. Amanda liked to be above everyone else at everything.

Amaranth rolled his eyes and his gaze landed on Laura. Then he recognized her. Back when Amis used to hang out with Quinoa, both of them used to hang out with Laura. It helped that the three families were neighbors at the time. Amaranth spent more time with his friends at the time, so he never got to know her too well. This made him wonder why Quinoa thought he could help at all.

"Oh, Amaranth!" Laura said, throwing herself into his arms. He stood there, not knowing what to do. He knew he had this effect on people, but he never really liked hugs from people he did not consider close. He finally raised a hand and patted her back. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll find the people who did this?"

"Yeah, right," Laura huffed and blowed her nose, way too close to Amaranth's shoulder. "The police around here are a bunch of idiots, they don't even know how the hell they got into the house."

"Laura," Mandy reprimanded.

"I'm sorry," Laura said. "It's just that my poor mom, all of her jewels... gone."

"Oh my God, I didn't know what I'd do if that happened to my mom!" Quinoa exclaimed. Amaranth began to feel like he was in the middle of a badly written novel for teenage girls.

"Anything I can do to help?" Amaranth asked, hoping Laura would just say no and he could go. Far away.

"Well, I just wanted to see you," Laura said, still not letting go of him.

"Why?" Amaranth said, sounding a bit more weirded out than he had intended to.

"Well, I always considered you as a brother. Remember how we used to hand out together?"

"That's my sister you're thinking of," Amaranth said. "Remember her? Dark skin, white hair?"

"Well, of course I remember Amis!" Laura said, smiling a beauty queen smile that made Amaranth want to hurt her so he could leave before she got any more creepy. "But you were always nearby, watching out for us."

No, Amaranth thought, I was always nearby because the tree-house from which my friends and I threw stuff at you three happened to be nearby.

"Yes," Quinoa said, coming closer and joining the hug. "Us the older cousins have always had the difficult task of the younger ones."

"Quinoa, Laura's older than us, and she's not related," Amaranth said, deciding to be rude if that got him out of there.

"Yes, but she's a young soul, and she's like family to us, right?" Quinoa smiled the smile that meant contradicting her would result in pain and catastrophe.

"Of course," Amaranth said. "Listen, I have to go to my locker now, I need to-" Amaranth couldn't finish his sentence because he felt something rub against his leg. He thought it was Laura making a pass at him, but it was something else. Something sticking out of Laura's backpack, something black and fluffy.

"Amy, my love!"

Oh gods, no, thought Amaranth, not Roberto.

"You vanished before I could kiss you good-bye," Roberto said, hugging him from behind. Quinoa and Laura instantly let go.

"Oh, they make such a cute couple," Laura said, proceeding to break into tears.

"He's still a gay pagan," Mandy huffed.

"But he's got a honorable boyfriend," Quinoa said. Which made Amaranth wonder about her concept of "honorable". He could just swear Roberto was trying to get a hand between the buttons of his uniform to feel some skin.

"Hi, Roberto," Amaranth said, pulling away. "Bye." And with that he walked away as fast as his legs could take him. Wishing lightning struck Quinoa as she practically yelled the words: "He's so cute when he's shy!"

When he got to his locker he found a note stuck to it, one of Cee Cee's post-it's. It read: "Got out early, went to practice. See you tomorrow! CC & M"

"Great," he muttered. He opened his locker and almost had a heart attack.

"Lancelot?" he said. The permanently bored platypus looked up at him and raised his front paws in a familiar way.

"Oh, no, not this time. Matt lost you, so he has to find you," Amaranth said, sticking some books into his locker. Lancelot waddled out of Amaranth's locker and again asked to be picked up, now closer to Amaranth.

"How do you get in there, anyway?" Amaranth asked, closing the door and kneeling down to pick up Lancelot.

The platypus, of course, did not answer.

"You know, you're so lucky your owner's so damn cute. Otherwise I'd just take you out of my locker and leave," Amaranth said. He hurried back to his last classroom, but it was completely empty. He walked out the main entrance, hoping to find Leonard before he got on his car (or bus). Instead he found Amis.

"Hey sis," he said. "Have you seen Matt?"

Amis gave her brother a strange look. "You know, Amaranth, I don't think kidnapping Leonard's platypus is such a great idea."

"I didn't kidnap him, he was in my locker," Amaranth said, knowing that didn't sound too good.

"Really?" Amis asked, obviously not believing him. "And how did he get into your locker?"

"Look, can you just ask Brother Fred to hold on a minute? I'll go look for Leonard in the football field," Amaranth said.

"Sorry, bro, not riding the bus," Amis explained, "Esper's mom is picking us up to go for a picnic."

"You and Esper?"

"And Gaby," Amis explained. At the same moment, a slightly shorter girl with long black hair appeared. She had been Amis and Esper's close friend for a while, now.

"See yas, bro." And with that, Amis and Gaby ran to Esper, who was already waiting for them by his parents' forest green Geo.

He ran to the bus and saw Brother Fred had already started the bus.

"Can you hold two minutes?" Amaranth asked. "I need to see if Leonard's at the football field so I can give his platypus back to him."

"I don't think so, Amaranto," Brother Fred responded looking at his watch. "We're already late. You'll have to take the platypus with you."

"But I don't know how to take care of a platypus!"

"Well, no better time to learn."

Amaranth stood there for two seconds, wondering what to do. Where could Leonard be?

"Are you coming, or taking someone else's ride?" Brother Fred asked.

Amaranth sighed and got in the bus. As he placed the platypus beside him, he could just swear the little critter seemed to be amused.