Unusually, I don’t see Zoe in the band hall the next morning. I can’t help but to wonder if she’s not home ill. She was acting pretty weird yesterday. I wasn’t sure why at first, but after thinking about it, I think I figured it out.

Back tomorrow morning, she jumped about a foot in the air when I told her about all-region jazz band tryouts coming up soon. Then, she seemed really nervous when we were on the way to my house for her lesson. I bet the knowledge of an audition coming up so soon scared the shit out of her. You see, she always gets really nervous when auditions or tests are coming up.

In hindsight, I guess I could’ve broke the news to her in a more tactful way. I just didn’t realize that this would trigger her testing anxiety this badly.

Really, what should have happened was we should’ve gotten this music mailed to us earlier or something. I checked online, and the tryout music was available pretty early on. It really was disadvantageous to us freshmen for our school to hand it out so late. I resolve to have a word with Mr. Castro about this later.

Anyways, when I arrive at English class that day, I find that Zoe is here after all.

“Hey Zoe,” I say to her as I’m sitting down next to her. “How’s it going?”

“Oh, um, it’s going good,” she mumbles unconvincingly. She doesn’t look as nervous as yesterday, but she does still have a bit of a strange look in her eye. I hope she didn’t lose sleep because of this region jazz thing.

As I’m getting my things out of my backpack, I notice something else odd. Some boy I’ve never seen before is looking at me from a few rows in front of us. He’s almost my height, a bit muscular, and has short, brown hair that’s ruffled up and rectangular glasses.

“May I help you, sir?” I say to him, looking him in the eyes.

He blinks, and then suddenly shuffles around to face the front again. I guess he didn’t expect me to actually address him. I hope that guy doesn’t start causing me trouble, or else I may need to find a way to sneak that sword out of the Metaverse and into the school. You know, for self-defense. (I’m joking. Calm down.)

And once again, it is time for lunch. Anja got a bit preachy on me yesterday, so I’m hoping that doesn’t become a regular occurrence.

Whenever she gets to the table, she drops her tray to the table dramatically, making me think that she’s going to pick up right where she left off about how I was oh so wrong about my positive feedback loop theory.

“So…” she begins, “who here has seen Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Oh. Well, this catches me off guard. Especially given that I haven’t actually seen Guardians of the Galaxy.

“I have,” Nova says, which startles me because he’s so quiet that I keep on forgetting that he’s there.

“Awesome, right?” Anja asks.

“Yeah!” Nova exclaims. “It was hilarious.”

Suddenly, Anja squints her eyes seriously and points at Zoe and I. “You two. Need to go see it.”

“Um, we don’t need to do anything,” I point out.

“Yes you do!” she raves, animatedly pounding her fists on the table and accidentally knocking over her milk carton. (Thankfully, it hadn’t been opened yet.) For some reason, she’s getting even more worked up about this movie than she did about wealth redistribution yesterday.

“Fine. Give me five reasons why I should watch it,” I say. I’m in a pretty good mood today, so I decide to just play along with whatever she’s on.

“Number one: Chris Pratt,” she says.

There is a pause, and then I have to say it. “Okay… what about him?” I ask. I assume that he’s some actor that’s in the movie?

“He’s a cutie!” Anja jabbers, putting her hands to her face dramatically.

Heh. I guess she hasn’t caught on that I’m a lesbian yet.

Oh yeah, by the way, if you haven’t caught on to this yet, I’m a lesbian. That crush I was talking about way back when? It’s Zoe. I’ve had a crush on her pretty much since I first saw her. I’m not going to say anything to her about it, of course. I was trying to be cool in front of Anja yesterday, but I’m aware that Texas also has its… drawbacks.

And if my being a lesbian is a problem for you, you should probably quit reading now, because that’s not going to change throughout the rest of the story. Even now, I can tell you that much.

Anyways, speaking of Zoe, she’s looking at Anja as if her skin had suddenly turned green.

“You’re going to have to give me another reason,” I say.

“Number two,” she says, unnecessarily miming her statement by holding up two fingers, “Zoe Saldana.”

“What, have you memorized the name of every actor in the movie?” I ask her.

“She was in Avatar, right?” Nova asks.

“You mean that Nickelodeon show?” I ask him back, admittedly interested.

“No, he means the James Cameron movie,” Anja clarifies. Except that wasn’t much of a clarification.

“Who’s James Cameron?” I ask.

“He’s the- I- the one with the blue people in it!” Anja scolds.

Ooh. That Avatar. Okay.

“Number three: there’s a talking racoon in it,” Anja continues. “And if Sly Cooper has taught us anything, it’s that any story concept can be improved with a talking raccoon.”

“Sly... Cooper?” I ask, just because I know that whatever it is will drive her nuts.

Indeed, Anja looks as if she’s about to murder me where I stand. Zoe devolves into a fit of giggles at the sight of her.

“Didn’t you ever have a PS2?” Nova asks me.

“We used to have a GameCube when I was little,” I say. “But my parents never had the money to spend on video games willy nilly.”

Because it’s true. Being a freelance musician is not the easiest life. Our prospects didn’t start to improve until very recently, when my dad started finding more success as a composer.

“What do you parents do?” Anja asks me curiously.

“Musicians, both of them,” I say.

“Ah, that does explain a lot,” she says, which I take as a compliment. “My dad’s a psychiatrist.”

Ah, so her dad is a shrink, and her mom was Texas democrat. That also explains a lot. (I don’t say this out loud, because I figure I’ve pushed her buttons enough for now.)

“Wait, you mean like a guy who does therapy and stuff?” Zoe asks, cutting into the conversation.

“Yeah, he also helps with rehab clinics sometimes,” Anja explains. “Was always a great motivation for me to not start doing drugs.”

“So, I bet you know a lot about the… like, the human mind and stuff?” Zoe asks.

She’s gone a bit funny again, looking at Anja with surprising intensity. It’s odd, I never imagined her as one to be so interested in the behavioral sciences. I guess you learn something new every day.

That afternoon, it’s my dad that picks me up from band, given that my mom is currently on her way to Dallas for a rehearsal. This is going to be quite an intense week for her- she’s performing in a musical there four days in a row, starting tomorrow.

Anyways, my dad is not quite as talkative, which sometimes is a good thing. He always just plays music while he drives, and makes only occasional comments. The good news is, he’s got pretty good tastes in music. I don’t quite recognize what’s playing today, but it’s some hard rock band that has a lead singer with a shrill voice.

“Who is this?” I ask, when the song hits a moment of silence in between sections.

“This is Rush, a Canadian group,” he explains to me. “I don’t listen to this one as much. It always seems to me like the band was trying too hard to be contrarian, what with the pentagram on the cover, and the songs about drug use. This piece, in particular, is actually about the philosophy of Ayn Rand.”

I don’t have a clue who that is, but the next section is getting started, so I don’t press him. My dad places a high value on whatever the ideological or aesthetic basis of a piece of music. And while that is certainly important, in my opinion, ultimately the quality of the music itself wins. I mean, Dad is still listening to this despite it being based on something he doesn’t like, right? It’s because if you just listen to the song, it’s all really quite exciting.

It’s also long enough to last the rest of the way back home. We’re home early enough to where I have about 15 minutes to spare before my trumpet lesson begins. I take Skype lessons with Sarah Jane Azalea, who’s an old friend of my dad’s from college. She has to be one of the best trumpet players in the world. Before long, I imagine she’s going to be giving Wayne Bergeron a run for his money.

However, before then, I have some business to settle. I’ve had some questions stewing in the back of my mind for Ms. Lucy and Mr. Ted. Lucy is first, since she seems to be a bit easier to talk to. So, once I’m back in my room, I fish out that old journal from where I put it in my drawer.

I’m pleased to see that her info dump from last time is still gleaming on the first page. On the next, I write, “You there, Lucy?”

She writes back, “I’ll be here anytime you need me.”

“I have some follow up questions,” I ask her.

“Put them down, and I’ll answer them to the best of my knowledge,” she says.

Now that’s what I wanted to hear. I like it when people are actually helpful. So, I begin.

“1. What was with that stained glass window in the church, exactly? Why did it touching it release shadows? Also, what is with that pink gem?”

I pause for a moment. I had thought a lot about whether or not to tell Lucy about Ted. I ultimately decided to not do so. As it is, she seems to be under the impression that I defeated a whole hoard of shadows by myself, which makes me seem really impressive, which, in turn, makes it so I have a better chance of getting information out of her.

“2. What exactly is a Persona?” Ted already kind of explained this, but I’m curious about how she’s going to describe it. Also, remember, as far as she’s concerned, Ted doesn’t exist.

Finally, probably the most important question.

“3. How exactly can I change the hearts of other people using the Metaverse, and what purpose do you have in telling me this?”

Because she has to have some sort of agenda here. She even kind of hinted at it last time, with that stuff about society being “sick.” Before I even entertain the idea of helping her, though, I need to know what she means, because that kind of comment could be taken a lot of different ways.

Finally, I finish my queries, and after a bit, they fade from the page. Once again, a hefty amount of writing replaces it.

“Ah, those are some good questions. Like with the last one, I’ll leave this page frozen up here so that you can reference it later if you wish.

First of all, the stained glass window is a sort of seal. Places like it exist in the UG all over, though less than .1% of them have actually ever been tampered with by human being. The UG is actually sort of a middle ground between the RG and a mysterious, totally different realm, which I call the SR. Thanks to my app, you were able to break the seal between the RG and the UG already, but the UG really can’t be used for much without also linking it to the SR.”

Keeping track of all of these acronyms is making my head spin, but there’s still a lot left to read.

“As for the pink gem, that was a surprise, though a happy one. It is a powerful artifact that gives you more sway over the higher realms. I know that there is at least one other like it, and I have reason to suspect that there are as many as four. You stumbling upon that was, as far as I can tell, a total fluke. Nevertheless, the book we are talking through is designed to accept and utilize those stones. Let’s call the one you found the Rose Stone, and we’ll call the other one I’m aware of the Amethyst Stone.

2. Your Persona is almost like a sort of guardian angel. When you go into the Metaverse, certain events, such as being in imminent danger, can trigger its awakening. When this happens, you may get a chance to briefly speak with your Persona, but will probably not get a chance to do so again. Your Persona will stand with you while you fight, allowing you to perform magic attacks, and many also have passive abilities that will increase your physical prowess or protect you from enemies. Personas can be strengthened through battling, so think of it as being like in a video game, where you have to get experience points to learn new skills. In addition to the Persona itself, you will be granted a spangly new outfit and some sort of physical weapon. Some enemies go down more quickly the old fashioned way.”

Wow, I’m really glad I asked her that question, because that information is way more practical that the way Ted tried to explain it.

“3. The process of actually changing people’s hearts is fairly involved, so I’m going to wait until we’re ready to actually begin to explain that. But yes, I suppose you do deserve to know the end goal here.

I have reason to believe that there is a demonic entity that has taken root in your region of the country. The goal of this entity is unclear, as are its motives; this kind of stuff is a rather fuzzy science. The only thing I know for sure is that it is currently residing in the SR. I’m not sure what kind of faith background you come from, but I must stress that when I call this thing ‘demonic,’ I mean it with the utmost seriousness. Whatever it is doing, we can be absolutely sure that it is bad for everyone.

The way to find this being is to take down a large number of people whom it has had direct influence over. These could be criminals, or corrupt people who are in powerful positions. And listen carefully: I don’t give a shit about some Joe Blow smoking weed in his apartment, or a couple of crazy teens who got naughty before marriage. The people we need to be on the lookout for are the worst of the worst. They are the people who possess no empathy for others and act out of malicious self-interest.”

This last part startles me a bit, for a couple of reasons. For one, Lucy totally dropped the more formal tone she had taken on up until now and got really… direct with me. It gives me the feeling that this is super important to her.

And yeah, it sounds like she’s onto something noteworthy here, and it’s not just “we must eradicate The Gays” type nonsense, like I was afraid it might be. I just wish she could give me a little more specific information about what’s going on.

“Why do you need me for all of this?” I write on the next page after that.

“This is a huge task that can not be done alone,” she explains. “That is why I created this book. I was hoping to find a worthy candidate to lead the charge.

There is one thing about the process of changing hearts that I will need to disclose now. The person who deals the final blow will need to be someone who has been directly affected by the villain’s actions. So, unless you have an extremely unfortunate life, you are going to have to bring others into the UG. You can do this by using your app whenever you’re standing near them.”

Ugh. So part of this is going to convincing a bunch of random people to come along with me. That sounds like a chore.

I suddenly notice that it is 5:55, so I hurriedly put the book away and start getting warmed up for my lesson.

Still, as I assemble my trumpet, one thing bothers me. Lucy had said that when my Persona was awakened, I may have gotten a chance to speak with it. But the weird thing is, I don’t remember anything like that happening. It’s a shame. I would’ve loved to chat it up with one of the top angels.