~~~[@Mr Allen J][@Polyphemus]~~~

[color=bc8dbf][u][b]Bae[/b][/u][/color]

Cedar gave up on convincing Miles that anything needed to be done. “Miles Wellington the... umm… Sixteenhundreth!” She let out a long growling sigh. “Of course you don’t care. You are the 1%!” Cedar put her hands on her hips. “If anything goes down you and your family will buy your way out? Is that the plan? Well you can’t buy your way out of that, man.” She pointed to the strangely illuminated sky.

Bae was impressed by Cedars bite. Cedar was brave and liked to speak out, but, rarely had the opportunity to do so in person. Her enemies were painted with a wide brush: the system, expectations, the patriarchy, the media, things like that. She pointed to the sky. “You can’t buy your way out of whatever’s coming after [i]this[/i]. Come on, Bae. Let’s go.”

Cedar and Bae went back down to the beach. They wanted to see if there was any evidence. Perhaps debris that fell from the sky. Perhaps they would see another reverse-shooting-star. Surely the police and such would come to investigate, they wanted to see anything important that might happen next.

Cedar and Bae were chatting back and forth. Kicking around the sand, using phone screens to light up and inspect rocks they overturned. They chatted back and forth about their theories, what they were finding, and what they were [i]not [/i]finding. There was more noise as Bae would pick up and put down her bag every so often to keep it close to their search. The contents of the bag were disorganized, and clanked against one another.

Cedar and Bae did not notice Jasmine at all until she spoke. 
[i]
"You,"[/i] Bae turned, and  saw a long finger pointed toward her. [i]"You're the girl with that weird name. Bae. Yeah, Bae. Did your parents know of that slang, or were they trying to be cute?"[/i]

Bae’s spine stiffened. She recognized the face, Jasmine. A sporty type from school.

She frowned, her stomach wrenched a bit at the mention of her parents. Parents she never knew. It didn't show. That whole [i]orphan thing[/i] was a fact she had her whole life to get used to and come to terms with. [b][i]My parents didn’t stick around long enough to give me a name. [/i][/b] She thought with a small degree of angst.

Bae was perhaps inspired by Cedar, or the lights, or was just god dam tired of her name being made fun of.

[b]“Original.” [/b]Bae’s voice was quiet but it was direct, and cut through the seaside air towards Jasmine. [b]“Ignorant-Koreans-accidentally-name-child-American-teen-slang.”[/b] She clenched her fists that hung at her side, the herb was wearing off and the anxiety was building back.[b] “No one has ever pointed that out to me before. When dearest leader takes over the country, I shall ask him to consider sparing you for your intelligence.”[/b]

Cedar whipped around, and dropped a rock that she was holding. Too engrossed in her search for answers to notice the conflict.[b] “How did I not THINK of that yet!”[/b] She was speaking much louder than Bae. [b]“This could be a terrorist attack! OR an invasion by North Korea or-or-anyone!”[/b] She peered into the sky. [b]“I wonder if homeland security will fly in! Helicopters or something!” [/b]

Bae’s face soured at Cedar. Then she looked back to Jasmine. 

Bae's thoughts started racing. She was thinking a lot about the lights and what they might mean. [b]"Didn't you see the lights? Just leave us alone if your going to... We have to figure out what is going on... We have to... Or else... ”[/b] Bae’s face crunched up again. She was thinking that everyone was being so unreasonably [i]loud[/i].

[b]“Cedar, be… Be [i]quiet[/i]. Your being so loud!” [/b] Bae didn’t [i]ever [/i]tell Cedar what to do, but, she couldn’t help thinking it needed to be done! She wanted to explain why they had to be quite, and quickly came up withe some rather paranoid notions.[b] “What if… What if… Someone… Someone hears us and… I don’t know. It might be the police coming to see the lights, but it might be someone [i]dangerous [/i]also… Even if it is the police what if we can't trust them? They might think we had something to do with this...” [/b]

[b]"That's right." [/b]Cedar put her hands over her mouth.[b] "That's just what I was thinking."[/b] She sat down in the sand, looking uneasy.

She turned back to Jasmine, wanting to finish her original train of thought but was having trouble finding it...[b]"Look... If you got into a college I'm sure there will be lots foreigners and names for you to make fun of, but high shcool is over and..."[/b]

[b]“The end of high school? WHAT IF THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD?” [/b]Cedar was panicking now. She, perhaps, had laced her herbs.