Chapter one – The New Heroes

Bored.

That was the one word that could describe the way Serena was feeling right now. And she was feeling that way for several reasons: she was trapped in a cold schoolroom, with absolutely no heating, with a half-witted teacher droning on and on, completely oblivious to the fact, that, out of twenty odd students, not one of them was listening to a word he said.

Serena put her arms down on the table, rested her head on them, and sighed. She was just about to doze off, when –

RRRIIINNNGGG!

Almost immediately, Serena's head shot up and she looked around. People were glumly picking up their books and leaving the classroom. Over at the doorway, she could see her best friend, Molly, waiting for her. She scooped up her books from her desk and got up.

As Serena approached the red-head, stumbling around the many tables and chairs, Molly smiled at her white-haired friend and said, 'Took you long enough.'

'Sorry,' she muttered, 'but I almost dozed off there. I swear Mr Smith gets more boring each day.'

'Yeah, yeah, let's just get going.'

When they were out of the school grounds, they bid each other farewell, and Serena started walking downhill to pick up her little brother and sister. When she had walked into the school halls, she walked over to the detention room and looked in. Her brother, Brendan, and some other kids were sitting there, all looking bored and unhappy.

Serena sighed, and thought that she way as well go and pick up her sister Tammy. It could take Brendan a while before he was let out of detention.

When she got to her sister's classroom, she looked through the window in the door and looked surprised at what was going on inside.

There were little kindergarteners who were either running around wildly chasing each other, drawing flowers and the like on the board, knocking off books on the shelves, or rummaging through the teacher's drawers, cabinets and desk.

Reluctantly, she turned the doorknob, opened the door, and walked in.

As soon as she took the first step inside, she immediately blocked her ears from the loud racket. She started searching for the teacher, when she found her hiding under the desk, looking very nervous.

'Excuse me,' said Serena, 'But do you know where a girl by the name of Tammy is?'

'Um, yes,' muttered the teacher. 'She's just running around the classroom right now.'

'O-kay,' Serena nodded, and looked around for Tammy. After a few seconds, she spotted her sister running around the center of the classroom. Serena started approaching her, and saying her name gently.

'Come on Tammy, it's time to go home,' she said softly, putting her sister's hand in her own.

'Aaawww, can't I stay one more minute,' whined Tammy frustratingly.

'No, Tammy,' said Serena firmly. 'Now, let's go. We still need to get Brendan.'

'Why didn't he come with you?' Tammy asked, once again, innocently.

'Brendan was um, he was, uh, um, ah, being a naughty boy! So, err, he had to go to a room, where all the naughty people stay after school for a bit! So, yeah, we need to pick him up!'

When they reached the room, nature started to kick in for Tammy.

'Aaww, I'm hungry!' moaned Tammy. 'Why can't we pick up Brendan later and eat now?'

Serena sighed. 'I'll go get you something sweet on the way back home, but don't tell Mum or Dad.'

'Oh, but I want something now!' complained Tammy.

'He will finish soon, so just wait a bit longer.'

'Okay,' Tammy grumbled.

Just then, the door opened, and the kids started flooding out of the room so quickly that Serena had to pull Tammy out of the way to make sure that she wouldn't get trampled by the many feet.

Last that came out was Brendan, who just walked at his own pace, his expression mild. His sandy hair was looking rather ruffled, his blue eyes dim, similar to the colouring of his father's own blue eyes and hair. Serena's green eyes came from her mother's side of the family, as did her hair. Tammy, on the other hand, had both her father's hair and her mother's eyes.

As they walked to leave the school, Serena decided to break the awkward silence, well, it wasn't really an awkward silence, butyeah, lets just call it that.

'Hi, Brendan,' said Serena, turning to her brother.

'Hi,' replied the boy in a dull voice.

'You look green,' said Tammy, giggling innocently.

'Well, what do you expect,' he muttered. 'You would be too if you were stuck in there with those creeps.'

'Wow, really!' she said excitedly. 'So all I have to do is be naughty and then I'll turn green, my favourite colour? That's great!'

Serena and Brendan both gave their sister weird looks.

'What have you done to her?' muttered Brendan to his older sibling.

'Hey, it's not my fault that she likes green!' said Serena as she opened the entrance door.

'Really? Then who was it who told her that green's the colour of slime? And slime's cool because it's squishy.'

'Uh, yeah, um, well that was just to, uh, reassure her!'

'Riiiiight.'

'Hey, it was!'

As they passed through the streets of St. Ivalice, the conversation continued very much like this – an argument of sorts. Remembering her earlier promise, Serena bought Tammy a lollipop from a store they passed by.

'You know, if Mum finds out about this, she'll go ballistic!' warned Brendan.

'Then don't tell her,' said Serena as Tammy happily sucked on her green lollipop.

'Fine, I wasn't planning to anyway. What about Tammy, though? What if she tells Mum?'

'Look, she may be five, but she's not stupid. She'll no not to tell, especially since she still remembers what happened last time.'

'Yeah, I guess so.'

Just after Brendan said those words, there was a loud crunching noise that was very irritating. Both heads turned to Tammy. Serena sighed.

'Tammy, if you bite lollipops and lose a tooth, the tooth fairy won't give you any money,' lectured Serena.

Tammy looked down at the stick of her lollipop. 'Oops,' she said meekly.

Brendan sighed. 'Never mind. Hey, wait a second.'

The girls stopped. 'What is it?' asked Serena.

"I never knew there was a road here,' said Brendan, pointing out a street which Serena had never seen before, either.

'What is this street?' she asked, walking into the street a few steps.

'I don't know!' said Tammy loudly.

'It doesn't even have a sign with its name,' pointed out Serena.

'Do you wanna, like, explore it?' asked Brendan.

'Maybe, but…shouldn't we be getting home soon?' asked Serena.

'Mum and Dad won't be home until four-thirty, and Uncle Doned is still in hospital. Grandma is there looking after him,' He replied.

'And Mr Randell?' asked Serena.

'Who?' said Tammy.

'Mewt Randell,' replied Brendan. 'You know, that brown-haired man who comes over sometimes? Dad's best friend?'

'Oh yeah, Uncle Mewt!' exclaimed Tammy happily. Although Mewt wasn't really her uncle, she had called him that all her life. 'He's really nice. I like him.'

'Yes, I know you do,' said Brendan. 'But he's busy, too. Besides, as long as we come back home before our parents, they won't know what we did, right.'

'I don't – Brendan, wait!' Serena called as Brendan ran into the street.

'Come on,' he called, suddenly sounding very enthusiastic.

'But I – ' she cut off as Tammy ran off after her brother, 'Tammy!' She sighed. 'Fine, but only for ten minutes.' She said reluctantly. 'Hey wait up!'

Chapter Two – the Gran Grimoire