1969, Late Summer

"Hi there." A voice from the neighboring other yard said.

Sharon looked up towards the voice, peering through her red-brown hair. She saw a girl, hair dark-honey-blonde, about her age, but with an indefinable aura of...kinship? No, that wasn't right. Almost like teamwork. An ability to work with the tribe, even though she privately considered herself to above the tribe. This one was an interesting contradiction.

Sharon shook her head quickly. Where did she get these ideas? She hadn't seen this girl for more than two seconds, and she didn't even know her name yet. Her brain did the weirdest things sometimes. She started picking up the mail so she wouldn't straighten up and say something impolite. She was new here in New Salem--It wouldn't be a good idea to upset the neighbors her first day here.

"What, you don't like hi?" The neighbor-girl asked, having seen her quick head shake. "Bonjour, Boun Giorno, Wilkommen? Whichever you prefer."

Sharon couldn't keep a straight face and chuckled. "No, hi will do fine, thanks." She picked up the mail and the newspaper and walked over. "Do you really speak all those languages?"

"I only wish." The girl said. "A student of the world unable to get to her classroom, that's me. Carmen Bezile."

"Sharon Aubrer." She said. "I just moved here." She tacked on, as they performed the obligatory handshake over the honest-to-god white picket fence that surrounded Sharon's new home.

"I heard." She grinned, a flash like lightning. Another one of those bizarre hints in Sharon's head--this girl could probably dance up a storm, but discos weren't for her. She'd kick any man who got too friendly, too quickly. "I live with Liz, Elizabeth Franklin."

"She knows about me?" Sharon asked.

"Let's just say that Liz knows a little bit about everybody." Carmen said, with that slightly mischievous grin again.

"Are you guys related?" Sharon asked, racking her brain for any other reason why two young girls would live together.

"Second cousins. We're all a little mixed in here--although I've heard living out of each other's pockets is more like it. We're all kind of related." Carmen nodded back to the house Sharon had just exited. "Do you know them?"

"I'd hope so, if I'm living with them." She said, and then her eyes widened as she realized what had jumped out of her mouth. "I'm sorry--"

"Don't apologize. For god's sake girl, you've got spunk. Which is more than some people have..." She said, looking down the road towards presumably more neighbors that Sharon didn't know yet. Sharon grinned and ducked her head.

"Okay." She said. "Hey, are you guys going to go to New Salem High School in the fall?"

"It's the only joint in town, Sargent." Carmen said. "Yep. We're gonna be juniors."

"I'll...be a junior, I guess." Sharon said. "I mean, I was a sophomore last year at my old school, and they didn't ask me to take a placement test or anything."

Carmen's smile took on a different nature, one slightly more sick and mocking. "You're from Crowhaven Road, dearie. You could graduate right now if you wanted to."

"That would be nice." Sharon said. But she saw from Carmen's eyes that she wasn't kidding. "No shit? Really?"

That disturbing smile again. "Yes." Carmen said. "But I don't think I'll scare you with our bizarre situation when we've just met. How about you come over for...tea sometime before school starts?" Carmen grinned. "Normally I can't stand the shit, but for summer, it's tea or lemonade...and we're about out of lemons. I think you'll like Liz."

"I'd like that." Sharon said truthfully. "So I guess this is bye?" She asked, correctly interpreting little non-verbal signals that showed Carmen wanted her own space.

"For now, yes." Carmen said. "I've got a summer reading list that is calling my name. I could skip it, but I like The Grapes of Wrath for some reason I'm still contemplating upon.

Sharon smiled. She had read that book last year. From what she had gleaned of Carmen's personality, Sharon knew precisely why that book appealed to her. "Have fun, then."

"Will do." Carmen said, heading back to her door and looking over her shoulder one last time. "See ya."

"Yeah." Sharon echoed, going back across the grass to her own front door.