At school, Dee was walking in the hallways, zoned out.
"Are you sure you don't want me to be outside of your bag?" Ursa asked, peeking out from Dee's bag.
"No, you don't have to. I can handle it."
Dee walked past one of her friends, Cecilia, who immediately noticed her looking sad, so she rushed after Dee, in hopes that she could talk to her.
"Are you okay?" Cecilia asked, concerned.
"I'm. Fine," Dee said. "How many times do I have to say this? Why does everyone keep asking me this?!"
"Dee, you're clearly not fine…" Cecilia stated, and shook her head.
"I said. I'm. Alright. I don't need you to be concerned for me!" Dee shouted, which made everyone around them turn to look at the two.
"Honey, we're just trying to help you!" Cecilia tried to walk closer to Dee, who immediately took a step back. "You know that we are your friends, you can tell us any-"
"Anything what?!" Dee cut her off. "None of you understand! And you never will!"
"Well… If you don't tell us, we sure won't!" Cecilia argued.
"That is the whole. Point! Why are you trying to push me into telling you?!"
"Because I care about you! We care about you!" Cecilia explained angrily.
"If you cared so much, you would back off!" Dee argued, and shoved Cecilia away from herself. With that, she stomped away angrily, leaving Cecilia in shock.
After a while, Dee sat down at a bench outside.
"Stupid… stupid! Ugh!"
"Wow, you're really mad."
Dee froze for a moment. She looked up to see a familiar figure, it was Callum, standing in front of her.
"What's wrong?" he asked, and sat down next to her.
"It's just…" Dee tried to start, as she choked up a sob. "I… I lost a friend…"
"Oh… Oh!"
"And everyone is trying to comfort me, but it's too much! I don't want comfort! I want to be alone!" Dee explained.
"I know what it's like…"
"What?.."
Callum nodded his head. "Yeah. I lost my father. It was many years ago. And I am still not over it. My mom and I struggled so much at first…" he explained, trying to avoid any eye-contact.
"I'm sorry…"
"Don't be… He wasn't exactly the best person ever…" Callum said.
"My friend was amazing…" Dee whispered, and hugged herself. "She was kind, funny, never sad…"
"I don't doubt it." He gave Dee a small smile, which she returned, but hers was more shy. "Come on, let's go to class."
Callum stood up, and held his hand out. Dee hesitated, but she ended up taking it.
The two walked into the school building, they were not talking to each other, they just walked in comfortable silence.
When they passed Dee's friends, she tried not looking at them.
"Dee, wait!" Cecilia walked towards her. "Look, I'm sorry about what I did. I didn't mean to sound-"
"It's okay…"
"So… no hard feelings?" Cecilia asked.
"No hard feelings." Dee shook her head.
"Okay, because I can't handle the silence between us all."
"Take all the time you need to process things, okay?" Harley said, standing next to Cecilia.
Dee nodded her head. "Thanks, girls… I appreciate it…"
While the girls were talking, Callum looked at all of this with a smile.
"I really should go, class will start soon." he stated.
"Oh, yeah, totally! We have to go," Dee said, and she began walking away with Callum. "Bye girls."
After the two walked away, Harley turned to the others, looking skeptical.
"Does anyone else feel weird about him?" she asked.
Stella looked at her friend weirdly. "What do you mean?"
"I mean… Anytime he walks past us, don't any of you feel a weird energy coming off of him?"
"Eh, could it be that he has powers too?" Cecilia suggested.
Ursa suddenly flew onto Harley's shoulder. "That can't be… I mean, male Guardians are plausible. But… I would feel energy from him…" they shook their head.
Harley looked behind her back, and narrowed her eyes at Callum, who was still walking away with Dee.
"I know something is off about him... I'm never wrong about these things..." she mumbled, crossed her arms, and looked at him suspiciously.
A few hours later, the girls were sitting at lunch at their table without Dee.
"Ursa, didn't you mention that male Guardians exist?" Harley whispered to Ursa, who was hiding in her bag.
"Yeah, but they're very rare." Ursa said.
"If you feel an energy coming off of him… maybe he is one?"
"But that's the thing. I can't feel any from him." Ursa explained.
"That is too weird…"
"Maybe it's just your gut telling you to be careful with him?" suggested Cecilia.
Harley shook her head. "No… that can't be it either…"
"Maybe you're just… worried about losing her?" Cecilia asked, and she looked over to the other table where Dee was sitting at, and she whispered. "I know I am…"
"Maybe… but I'm never wrong when I'm being suspicious…"
"Honey, please, don't start playing investigator, please!" Cecilia begged.
"You know I will never listen to anyone!" Harley declared, and she stood up abruptly.
When she finally noticed that people were staring, she sat back down, slightly embarrassed.
"Look, I don't know if he actually has powers or not either," Ursa nodded their head again. "But you shouldn't start stalking him."
"I will not 'stalk' him. I will just do my research!" Harley argued.
And with that, Harley packed up her food, stood up, and with a prideful look on her face, she went towards the library of her school.
"Why would she go to the-" Stella wanted to ask, but Cecilia cut her off.
"She watches too many investigative movies."
"Oh…"
"I give her ten minutes to realize that the library won't help her." Ursa stated, with a blank expression.
Cecilia laughed a little. "Hah! I'll give her 10 seconds!"
At the other table, Dee was having a nice chat with Callum, and she actually looked happy.
"So that is how I managed to get my brother to stop annoying me."
"All because you told him you liked his art and that he should 'go and play now?'" Callum asked, a smirk on his face.
Dee nodded her head. "Yup! Not the most… conventional way to get anyone to go away. But it works."
"You're funny." Callum stated.
Dee's face flushed red. "Oh… really?.."
Callum laughed. "Yes. Really."
"Well… you're so… nice…" Dee scrambled to talk. "Or uhm… a good friend?.. oh!" she slapped her own forehead. "Stupid! Stupid!"
Callum took Dee's hands so she will stop. "Thank you…" he said sweetly with a smile.
"N-No problem…"
For a moment, the world felt normal again for Dee. She seemed to forget about everything that happened before all of this.