Too. Much. Information.

I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it. Telepathy. Imaginary childhood friend. Quinn was so much more than I thought. I felt like I was going insane. Or maybe I was dreaming. I didn't know. Scared thoughts flooded my mind.

If Aupster's existed in Quinn's world, and she actually existed, here on Earth, then, did Aupster's too? Was Aupster's contagious? Sure, it wasn't epilepsy or alzheimer's, but still, it sounded quite.. inconvenient.

I mean, practically going crazy for 5 minutes to 2 hours every month didn't sound like a fun time. Kind of like a period, I thought. Only a lot worse.

I was hoping that the info about Quinn would help me sleep at night, but it totally gave the opposite effect. I was even more determined to find out Quinn's story than before. Sure, I had just read it, but I had a feeling there was a missing piece of the puzzle. And that piece was the most important.

I was so deep in thought, theorizing what else Quinn was hiding, that I didn't even notice when my mom came home from work. I had heard footsteps upstairs, and immediately assumed that it was a burglar, until I realized it was 5 o'clock, which meant I had spent an hour searching for the other page.

I shoved the other page in my hoodie pocket and tried to put the thousands of boxes back in place. But, considering that it had taken me an hour just to move them out of place, I highly doubted that I'd be able to do it before my mom noticed.

I could hear her putting her things away, and my stress to put the boxes back only increased every time I heard it. At that point, I wasn't trying to be careful at all, I just wanted to get it done. I could hear her calling my name. I debated if I should respond or not. I decided to not respond to the first times she called me, but the 3rd time, to buy me some time.

"Where are you?" She asked. I started to pick up two boxes at a time.

"Uhm.. In the basement.." I said truthfully. If I had lied, she would've probably been able to know I was lying by the direction of where my voice was coming from.

"And.. what exactly are you doing in said basement?" She asked skeptically. I looked around me to try and think of an excuse.

"...Looking for junk food," I lied. I could hear her sigh.

"Mir, we don't have any junk food at the moment," She told me.

"I don't believe you!" I replied, still lying. I knew full that we didn't have any junk food. Actually, we hadn't had any for two weeks. But it was my lie, and I was sticking to it.

"Just come up here and I'll make you something," my mom said, sounding pretty tired.

"I will! After I find the junk food, though." I said, trying to end the conversation. And I did, since I didn't hear her respond after that. Just a defeated sigh and some walking.

I was relieved that she was distracted for now, but I knew she would start to get suspicious sooner or later. I continued to put away the boxes and random art project, thankful that nothing fell out of place or on me.

Soon enough, I had finished the task and went back up the creaky basement stairs. My mom was in the kitchen, pouring herself some juice.

"What took you so long?" She asked me.

"A good detective should search thoroughly," I said, making it up on the spot.

"And did the good detective find the junk food?" my mom questioned.

"...No." I replied. She took a sip of her juice.

"Now, how about some real food?" She asked.

"Real food? What counts as real food?"

"How about a pizza?"

"Real food it is, then."

After I had eaten my real food and taken a shower, I sat on my bed and tried to devise a plan for tomorrow. Now that I knew Quinn wasn't a real person, would she be okay with me asking her about herself? How would it even work? If she was just a figment of my imagination, then wouldn't I already know the answers?

Then the thought came into my head. What if she was real? What if Quinn wasn't an imaginary friend after all?

None of my current thoughts were very comforting, to say the least. I wondered if I should tell Chris what I found. I decided against it, seeing that it was kinda late and I was feeling all kinds of tired after the events of today.

I yawned. It was only 9 PM, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to get some sleep. So I did. I climbed into bed and tried to push all my worries away.

The next morning, I could hear my mom angrily yelling for me to get up. I glanced at the clock. I had ten minutes. I shrugged it off. It wasn't like that was a new occurrence. I always tried to sleep in as much as possible, anyways.

I flopped out of bed, half asleep. My blond hair was a frizzy mess, like usual, but I wasn't going to waste my time and brush it. Or eat breakfast. I didn't ever eat breakfast unless it was a weekend or a day with no school. It was the least important meal of the day.

The morning went by in a flash, at least it did to me. In no time I was waiting for the bus and getting on said bus. I took the window seat, knowing nobody would sit next to me anyways. None of my friends took the bus. Or anybody I tolerated, anyways.

I stared out the window during the entire ride, trailing off into the strange place that was my mind. My mind is my favourite place while also being the place I hate most. My mind is where all my thoughts come from, and that's not necessarily a good or bad thing.

Soon enough, the bus pulled up the to the school and the usual bus scene ensued. The kids from the back would push the kids from the front until they were the first ones out, not caring what happened to the nerds. I'd stay where I was until the coast was clear and would usually come out last.

I stepped onto the asphalt with my backpack in one hand, thankful that I wasn't the first to school. Yeah, I know that at the beginning of this book I said I was always the first one, but that was more of an exaggeration. I was mostly the first one to school.

Usually because most days my mom could drive me, and on it's own I probably wouldn't be the first one, but she was very strict about being punctual. So strict, in fact, that she often wasn't punctual because she arrived way before whatever event began.

Like birthday parties. Sure, they give you the time on the invitation, but it's more of an approximation. My mom takes it so seriously that I usually end up missing out on the party. That sucked.

Anyways, today was one of the days where she couldn't drive me, due to me waking up too late. I really didn't mind, since I usually don't like being the main character in a horror movie.

I didn't see Quinn anywhere, probably because I arrived to school on time and she blended in with the crowd, instead of being one of the only other people there.

I sat on my usual bench and doodled random things for the rest of that morning, assuming that Quinn would come talk to me if she needed to.

I didn't see her at all that day. Not in the halls, in class, or even during recess or lunch. I wondered if she knew that I knew that about her and that she was avoiding me on purpose.

I stayed under that assumption until I finally found her.