<span style="color: #08BFFF">Her entire body and Instinct were still high-strung, but the words Aliyah spoke managed to calm her to some extent. She glanced back at her as she stuffed half a granola bar in her mouth. She wasn’t joking to Miss Cunningham when she told her about the two new kids at her house. She really was hungry. Zere licked her dark-red glossed lips, feeling a strange sensation at the corners as they involuntarily pulled into a smile. <br/><br/>Had she ever smiled in this school before? Didn’t think so. But Aliyah had snuck out, too, and she didn’t like the people that worked at the school. And for some reason that made her happy, because that meant they were sort of similar. <br/><br/></span><span style="color: #BF8080">”O-Oh, sorry. I’m Zere.”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> She wasn’t used to introducing herself to people. The Family Services people always already knew her name when she had to meet with them. All she was used to doing was correcting their pronunciation. The teen tried to rush through her head about the rules of polite greetings and quickly remembered to throw in, </span><span style="color: #BF8080"> “It’s nice to meet you, Aliyah.” </span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> And she couldn’t help but smile more when the bell interrupted the conversation and Aliyah jumped into the air, adding a squeak for good measure. Zere knew she was beautiful, but she hadn’t expected her to be <span style="font-style: italic">cute</span>. Her cheeks, not used to smiling, started to ache, and Zere relaxed her mouth to finish off her granola bar.<br/><br/>As Aliyah stood up to throw out her food, the teen shoved her wrapper in her mostly-empty bag and tossed it back onto her back. The strap fell into its normal spot on her exposed shoulder, and Zere stood, adjusting the off-the-shoulder black long-sleeved tight top that she wore. She absentmindedly wiggled her fingers back into the thumb holes, closing her eyes for a moment to feel her contacts twirl. Their presence always made her feel more secure, no matter the situation. Part of her thought that Aliyah would just keep walking and not come back, so part of her was surprised when she did return. And part of her was scared. And part of her may have been happy. <br/><br/>She parted her lips to tell this new acquaintance where her next class was when her concealed eyes caught sight of something. Something weird. Brows pressed down over eyelashes, pupils narrowing as they tried to make sense of what they saw. Zere leaned closer and started to question, </span><span style="color: #BF8080">”Hey, um, your ea—”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> But she was cut off, not only by the way the girl moved her hair and moved into the crowd, but also by the way her Instinct roared within her. The way she saw pictures of similar ears—similar bone structure—similar eyes all flashing through the back of her mind, going way too quickly for her to actually hold on to. As quickly as they appeared, they seemed lost forever—the same way Aliyah’s ears were before she covered them with her hair. Since her Instinct wanted to advance on the odd images she was seeing, Zere did the opposite and tried to forget what she saw and what she thought, instead walking towards Aliyah’s outstretched hand.<br/><br/>She got closer and she spoke, </span><span style="color: #BF8080"> “Biology. My next class—it’s biology. Are you in that wing?”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> She wouldn’t bother to tell Aliyah that none of her teachers would even notice if she skipped. </span>