Darcy could only be so confused. The girl sitting next to her was looking at her with absolute certainty that for a moment she doubted herself.

“I am sorry, how do you know me? Rather, who told you I am a detective or whatever?”

“Oh, I’ve been watching you for a while now...” Seeing Darcy’s disturbed expression, the girl added: “not in a creepy way or anything. I am not a stalker.”

“What? No. Wait. That doesn’t even answer my questions...”

“I can’t tell you until you agree to help me.” Even Darcy could tell that this person was bluffing. She was probably never going to tell her. But Darcy was genuinely intrigued, as well as concerned. The idea of being a detective appealed to her immensely, but the fact that she might have to get involved in a real case of abduction worried her just as immensely. Not to mention that this girl’s mysterious aura made her uneasy. Something about her seemed off. It wasn’t that she apparently had been stalking her, or her voice that seemed to completely mismatch her face, or her unusually broad shoulders, or that quite visible Adam’s apple across her neck. It was something much more abstract than this. It was rather something buried underneath the oceans of her eyes.

As interested as she was in this, Darcy was eventually a normal person with a normal life. Picking up her stuff from the grass, she stood up slowly.

“I can’t help you. I recommend you consult a private detective agency. I am just a college girl; really, I have no idea how this misunderstanding even happened.” She turned to gaze at the now-dejected stranger. “Oh, and please stop stalking me or I’ll report you.”

“Please.” The beautiful stranger grabbed her hand. “I need you, Darcy. It has to be you.” When Darcy pulled her hand away, she noticed that she had a crumpled paper in her palm with a phone number written on it. The beige-haired girl stood up as well and dusted off her jeans. She shot Darcy a cunning smile.

“Then, I’ll see you later.” Waving her goodbye, she ran (with heels, Darcy noticed,) towards a group of boys and girls who had been sitting at a nearby spot looking at this exchange. Darcy stood watching as they seemed to be congratulating this strange girl for something. Although she could only see her back, Darcy assumed that she was probably laughing, all of them were laughing, most-likely at Darcy herself.

This was a prank, wasn’t it? Of course it was, what did she even expect? Darcy felt her throat burn a little bit. With pursed lips, she looked at the phone number at the palm of her hand. This would probably connect to some bar or some old pervert... At that moment, what Darcy wanted most in the world was to throw this piece of paper into the girl’s hair and to scream “assholes!” at the whole group, but Darcy knew better. She had learnt the hard way not to fight back when this heavily outnumbered. Yes, she had learned her lesson. But this was too humiliating, she told herself as she steadily walked towards them, I can’t let them get away with it just like that. Stopping just behind the girl from earlier, everyone had by now turned towards her, and were elbowing their blue-eyed friend to look behind her. The roaring laughter had altogether stopped. Darcy could only hear the loud thumping of her heart.

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“Hey Darcy, what’s up?” The girl casually spoke, smiling cheerfully.

“All I wanted was to be left alone. Is that too much to ask for?” The group now began exchanging glances. The girl’s smile melted into a serious expression.

“What?”

“What-my ass. Don’t play dumb with. I know what you’re all doing. I am all too familiar with fuckers like you. You think it’s funny to prank that lonely nerd who’s always sitting alone, huh? I bet it makes you feel so good about yourselves!” Darcy struggled to hold back her tears. But she had to keep her ground, for she knew that the second her voice shook a little, or hand trembled slightly, or she stuttered, they would destroy her. However, contrary to her expectations, everyone seemed puzzled, as though she was speaking gibberish. This made Darcy fall silent. This unexpected scene had driven words away from her, and she found herself standing silently faced with several wondering eyes which would look at her, then to one another, then back at her. Only the ocean-dipped pair of eyes had remained solely on her. Darcy had to say something, quickly. In situations like these, time was of essence.

“You’re... you’re all disgusting!” She then threw the paper at the girl and dashed out. She ran as fast as she could. They must never catch up to her. She had heard the girl yell ‘wait!’ at her, but she wouldn’t fall into that trap. Darcy ran on and on. She had no idea where she was going, but she kept on running until she reached the back of the campus. By the time she got there, her legs could not take another step further, and were shaking like crazy. In fact, all of her body was shaking. Her heart was racing like crazy, and she had trouble breathing. But Darcy had made it out at least. Now she had to lay low for a while. Yeah she’d spend a week in her room, she’d write all of this away.

“Why’d you dash out like that?”

Darcy shrieked loudly at the sound of the girl’s voice. She turned to find her leaning on her knees, gasping for air. Had she followed her all the way?

“What the hell do you want from me?”

“Look, you’re misunderstanding the whole situation.” She said, pushing her hair away from her now-sweaty face.

“Oh please, save me the bullshit.” It was a one on one, at least. This gave her a little boost of confidence since she knew she could fight back if it the situation got physical.

“No, really, it’s not a prank or anything. I really do need your help to find my friend.”

“Yeah, right. Why would a popular girl like you approach someone like me to find her missing friend? This isn’t some movie or novel. I may be a nerd but I know life from fiction, okay?”

Her addressee stared at her for a moment with a confused frown. Then her eyebrows went up in realization.

“Oh, I think I understand now. Okay first of all, just to clarify, I am a dude.” Leaving Darcy no time to process this sudden piece of information, the stranger continued: “You’re probably wondering why I dress like a girl and stuff but that’s another story. What you need to know right now is that we really weren’t trying to prank you. They were all laughing at me. They weren’t laughing at you, I mean, why would they?”

“What the_”

“I really need your help, Darcy.”