3 days later, Lightning got to Crystal Prep earlier than usual, because she had a mission. Indigo Zap was wrong about her, and she could make friends just like anyone else. There were about 15 minutes until her first class, and she was determined to succeed before that. She glanced around and noticed 2 girls chatting across the hallway. One of them was light blue with long turquoise hair, and the other was orange with purple hair. She knew they were in her class, but never paid attention to their names.

Lightning confidently approached the girls. “Hey! You look interesting! Wanna hang out?”

The girls stared at her weirdly, before the girl with purple hair spoke up. “Aren’t you that girl who cheated in that basketball game?”

“And hit Sunny Flare on her first day here,” the other girl noted. “She’s bad news.” The 2 girls glared at her, then walked in the other direction.

Lightning sighed. Surely, not everyone was like that. She had a good explanation for what she had done. Looking at her watch, she noticed she had about 10 minutes left. This mission was not over yet!

~.~.~.~.~.~

Mission failed. Everyone else had heard what she’d done, and if they hadn’t, Indigo had probably told them. No one accepted Lightning’s explanation. They said there was no excuse for hitting Sunny Flare. Well, most of the students there were on Sunny Flare’s side. And everyone hated her for what she did in the basketball game. Just as she was about to try again, the bell rang.

Lightning noticed she had wandered far from her first classroom. She was not getting in trouble again, and she definitely didn’t need to be any more hated than she was. The only way to get there on time would be to run, hoping no one caught her. It was the stupidest rule, honestly. They expected everyone to be there on time, but running was forbidden?

She took off at full speed around the corner, but suddenly wished she had checked first. She instantly ran into another student, both of them tumbling to the ground.

“Would you watch where you’re going?” she said as she sat up, looking at the other person. He looked to be the same age as her, if not a little older. He had light grey skin and dark blue hair.

“You’re the one who was running,” he pointed out, getting to his feet.

“Whatever, I’m not gonna miss class because of you,” Lightning said as she was about to stand up. It was only then she realized she had twisted her ankle during the fall, and winced as she tried to put weight on it.

“Do you need help?” the boy asked, noticing her struggle.

“No, I don’t!” she snapped, finally regaining her balance. She could walk, but there was no way she would make it to class in time. The boy seemed to notice he was late as well.

“Well, we’re both getting detention now,” he said, walking ahead of her. She took a few steps and it wasn’t that bad. She would make it to class, there was no need to be even more late than she was. Today was not her day.

~.~.~.~.~.~

After the day’s classes, Lightning was preparing to leave, but she had forgotten…she had detention again. She was stuck in the classroom, but at least not by herself. Well, that might have been better in this case. The boy from that morning had also been late, and was in trouble as well.

They were sitting in the classroom, and the teacher was at the front looking through some papers. Lightning glanced at the clock, thinking it should be over soon. It must have been about 45 minutes.

2 minutes had gone by.

“You do know this school is very exact with their timings?” the boy said quietly.

“Yeah,” she replied. “You shouldn’t have gotten in my way, that’s the problem.”

“If I’m not mistaken, you were running around a sharp corner,” he pointed out.

Lightning thought for a minute. “…Well, you must be mistaken.”

“Would you 2 stop arguing so loudly?” the teacher spoke up, getting their attention. “You still have 47 minutes left in here and I won’t be putting up with all the noise.” They fell silent, but it only lasted about a minute.

“Well, this is boring,” Lightning whispered to him.

“We could always forget what happened and start over,” he suggested.

“Okay, fine,” she agreed. “Nothing else to do.”

“I’m Snowfall,” he introduced himself.

“Lightning Dust. I’m sure you’ve heard of me,” she said. She was very popular in school, for all the wrong reasons though.

“No, I don’t talk to others very much,” he explained.

“Why not?” she asked.

“There is no need,” he answered, staring at the desk in front of him.

Lightning didn’t get the message. She glanced around, then looked back at Snowfall. “How old are you?”

“18,” he said, not looking up. “It’s my last year. I will be graduating in the springtime.”

“Well, congratulations,” she said. He looked up at her uncertainly. “What? I mean it. I’m 15,” she said, waiting for a reply. He didn’t say anything, and was looking back at the desk.

“So, uh…” Lightning tried to think of another question. “What’s your favourite colour?”

“Black,” he answered.

“Oh, okay,” she said. “Mine’s red. I like warmer colours.” Once again, he remained silent. Anyone else might have noticed he was starting to get annoyed.

“You don’t talk a lot,” Lightning noted.

“That’s what they say,” he replied blankly. The sound of a chair moving made them look up to the front of the room.

“I will be back shortly,” the teacher announced as she went to leave. “Don’t try to go anywhere.” Well, it was going to be a long 44 minutes.

“You going to college?” Lightning spoke up. Snowfall shook his head, still looking down. “Oh. I’m going to be in the Airforce and be a fighter pilot! It’s going to be so amazing, to go on missions and stuff. Just 3 more years!” she paused. “You don’t have any friends, do you?”

“Do you?” Snowfall returned the question, this time making eye contact with her.

“…I don’t have to tell you anything.”

~.~.~.~.~.~

Around 5 p.m., Lightning finally got out of detention and was sent home. She was feeling better after all that had been happening, except for the fact that she hadn’t accomplished her friendship mission yet. After she finished her homework, she had gone on her computer for a while. It was today that she discovered Crystal Prep’s school website.

Some of the students had posted various pictures and videos online, but nothing special. She recognized most of them, except the last video that caught her attention.

“Vlog: Zip lining at the adventure park!”

She opened the video, as she didn’t know the girls in the picture. One of them was light-green with red hair, and the other was orange with light-blue hair. The first girl was holding the camera.

“Hi, everyone! My name is Melon Mint, but you can call me Minty,” she introduced herself, then the other girl entered the shot.

“And I’m Frosty Orange,” she waved. “But I’m more known as Frosty. And today, we are at the adventure park to zip line!”

Lightning couldn’t help but smile as she watched the rest of the video. These girls looked like fun. They had a few different videos at the adventure park, posted just the week before. She wondered if they would be up for making a new friend.

~.~.~.~.~.~

The next morning, Lightning arrived at school early again, giving herself enough time to find these girls from the video. Just as she was getting her books from her locker, she glanced over at 2 other girls walking by. It was Frosty and Minty! Well, that was easy. As they were passing by her, she stepped in front of them.

“Hey, how are you guys?” she asked.

“Um, alright,” Frosty replied.

“You up for making any new friends?” she asked hopefully, though she was expecting them to say no like everyone else.

“Maybe,” Minty said. Well, that was closer at least!

“Saw some of your videos on the school website,” Lightning said.

“Oh really, which one?” Minty asked.

“The one where you guys went zip lining,” Lightning answered. “You know, I love extreme sports too.”

“Really?” Minty smiled. “That’s so cool, no one else really seems to around here. Do you want to join in?”

“Sure, that’d be great,” she replied casually, not wanting to sound desperate. On the inside though, she was ecstatic! Mission accomplished!

“Cool,” Frosty replied. “Well, you probably already know this then, but my name’s Frosty, and this is Minty.”

Lightning smiled. “I’m Lightning Dust.”

“Okay, you have such a cool name though,” Minty commented.

“Right?” Lightning agreed. The girls laughed together. They were going to get along great. “So, what else do you plan on doing?”

“We were thinking of going mountain climbing one day,” Frosty said.

“Yeah, and we could use my idea too!” Minty suggested.

Frosty sighed. “No, not that one.”

“It’s really good!” she insisted, looking at Lightning. “You’ll like it. Extreme ironing.”

“Uhh…can’t say I’ve heard of that one before,” Lightning said, wondering if she’d heard it correctly.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Minty said. “You iron clothes in the most extreme locations! Like on the top of a mountain, on a cliff, in the snow, those type of things. But Frosty thinks it’s lame.”

“Frosty is kinda right,” Lightning laughed.

“Oh, come on!” Minty said.

Frosty laughed and looked at Lightning. “I told her maybe one day when we are completely out of ideas we could give it a try,” Frosty explained. “How about you, Dusty? You like that name, right?”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Lightning said. It wasn’t her favourite nickname ever, but it made her fit in with them better. “Well, I’ve always wanted to go skydiving,” she continued. “It’s my dream! But we can’t do that until we’re 18.”

“We can have lots of fun in the meantime though,” Minty told her.

“So, about your videos, where do you post them?” Lightning asked.

“Just on my account,” Frosty said. “We were thinking of creating a channel together, but no idea what do call it. It was going to be Frosty and Minty, but now that you’re joining, that would be too long.”

“I’ve got one!” Lightning spoke up. “We should name it To the Extreme.”

“I love it,” Frosty replied.

“Me, too!” Minty said. “It would really fit our theme of extreme ironing, too.”

“I think we’re gonna have a lot of fun together and get lots of views too,” Frosty said, ignoring Minty’s idea.

“Totally,” Lightning agreed. The bell for class rang. “I’ve got to get going.” There was no way she was going to get in trouble again. She must have been close to getting expelled.

“We’re going for ice cream after school,” Minty told her. “Do you wanna come?”

“If it’s not extreme ice cream eating, then no, not really my thing,” Lightning laughed. “See you.” she started off to the classroom.

Success! She was very proud of herself.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Lightning was on her way home from school, imagining the next few years. Her remaining time at Crystal Prep actually started to look brighter now that she had friends. Hopefully, it would last longer than her friendship with Indigo Zap. She thought about her 18th birthday. She would go skydiving with Minty and Frosty, and it would be their last year together. Then after graduating school, she would go and do what she’d always dreamed of.

Lightning stopped walking and looked around, realizing she had no idea where she was. It was some different neighborhood…did she take a wrong turn? How was that even possible? She had walked home so many times. She must have been really lost in her thoughts today.

As she looked back the way she came from, she noticed a person standing on the side of the path. They were wearing a black hoodie and pants, and they looked to be just standing in the same place. Lightning looked back in the direction she was going, and realized no one else was out. It was about 4 p.m., so it was still pretty light out. But she only had another hour or so to find her way back to her neighborhood.

She knew one thing, she had to go back the way she had come to find whatever turn she’d missed before. The person was still standing there, not moving. She thought about crossing the street to walk on the other side, since this person gave her a strange feeling. However, she decided against it. She wasn’t going to change her path just to avoid someone.

As she got closer, the person still didn’t move. She increased her speed, focusing on the path ahead. Just as she was passing this person, they suddenly stepped out in front of her. It was a man, who looked to be in his mid-thirties.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Yes, actually,” the man replied. “You can come with me.”

“Come with you where?” Lightning asked, her heart pounding faster.

Before she could do anything, the man grabbed her and pulled her behind the nearest fence, holding her tightly. “I have a knife in my pocket, and I will kill you if you scream or draw attention in any way.”

And in that moment, Lightning knew she should have listened to her intuition.

⚡⭐⚡⭐⚡⭐⚡⭐⚡⭐

Author's Note

Bet you weren't expecting THAT!! This book is just full of plot twists and cliff hangers 😉😂 also Frosty Orange and Melon Mint are actual Crystal Prep students from the movie!! 💕