I turned the page. I was in the middle of a really good book; it was called Twilight. It's about vampires and werewolves and a human girl that gets mixed up with them. I had started it yesterday.

Just then, my little brother wailed, "mom, I feel carsick!"

My mom didn't turn from the driver seat. "Emily," she said, "Please entertain your brother. It won't be much longer until we arrive."

Did I forget to mention that I had lived in Toronto my ENTIRE LIFE, and now my mom was dragging me off to some small, nearly non-existent town called Stouffville? We had been in the car a while, getting all of the worst traffic on the highway. Of course, I had WARNED my mother not to leave on a Sunday, but who ever listens to a 12 year old girl?

Also, my father had died when I had only been 7. My mom worked hard to provide for us, and we had a pretty good life, considering. We were moving because of a job opportunity for my mom.

Anyway, I looked at my brother in a way that said plainly, I am NOT entertaining you. Just shut your mouth and suck it up until we get there.

And with that I turned back to my book.

Soon, we arrived at our new house. I immediately jumped out of the car and breathed in a big gust of the clean air. Then I ran around the car to the trunk and pulled out the bag that I had brought along. The rest of my things were in a moving van that clearly hadn't arrived yet.

I ran up the front steps, and waited impatiently for my mom to unlock the door—she had the keys. Finally, I raced upstairs and claimed my room; mom had showed me the blueprints on the computer, which was now packed in a box on its way here.

Anyway, I sat on the unadorned window seat, looking around at my room, about the same size as the one I had left, and out the window at the green, green landscape. There hadn't been much green in Toronto.

Eventually, the trucks got here. My mom set up our bedrooms first, since out bedroom items were the most accessible to get out of the moving van. So, I sat on my bed reading as my mother, downstairs, arranged and rearranged the furniture with the help of the moving men.

When it got later, around nine o'clock, she came in and told me lights out. I was alright with that; the move had left me wiped.

The next morning, I was dead on my feet. I had woken up about seven times in the middle of the night, and each time I had read from Twilight until I fell asleep again. However, I was awoken from my waking sleep by my mom, saying, "Emily, are you going to order or not?"

I had completely forgotten that we were in a small restaurant for breakfast. I was so tired. I quickly scanned the menu. It was number arranged. Hmm. Okay pancakes—number seven. "I'll take number seven, please," I said aloud.

Breakfast was slow and torturous. As was the rest of that week. I dwindled away the time by playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on our Wii.

That is, the week was boring until Saturday the next week.

I had been forced to go for a walk by my mom, who strongly disapproved of my couch-potato-ing ways. So, I walked over to a park, which was more just a field. That was where I saw them.

There were three of them and they were all huddled up by the only tree in the park. The tall thin one had short brown hair and golden brown eyes. She was wearing a tight red and black t-shirt and a short black miniskirt with fishnet leggings. Her feet were bare and a pair of combat boots were discarded beside her. She was also inhumanly pale, and I couldn't tell at that distance, but it looked like she had pointed ears. It gave me the creeps.

The girl on the other side of her had pretty waist length blond hair. She was listening to the tall girl very intently, her short, navy blue, plain dress swirling around her black leggings in a sudden gust of wind. Her eyes were a pretty blue.

The last girl had her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her black and white knee length plaid skirt. She was wearing a white tank top and a black half jacket overtop. She was looking at the ground, her face hidden by short, stylish, spiky brown hair.

Suddenly, she looked up. Straight at me. I gasped. She had two different coloured eyes. One was electric blue and the other was emerald green. She fixed me with a piercing stare. Then she turned to the tall girl and said something really fast. They all looked up and glared at me. To my horror, they started walking towards me. I considered running away, but I decided that the tall girl would probably catch up with me pretty fast.

Then, I heard a cheery voice say, "Hi! My name is River."

I looked up, and noticed that it had been the pretty blond girl that had spoken.

This had earned her an elbow from the tall girl, who whispered fiercely in a musical voice, "River! You are a GOTH, remember?"

The girl named River immediately sobered down.

Suddenly, the tall girl tensed, and then looked annoyed. She whispered, "Not now, Edward."

Edward, I thought? Like, Twilight-Edward? No, I must just be thinking that because I'm reading the book, that's all, I told myself.

"Excuse me," I said politely, hoping for an explanation, "but who are you talking to?"

"Oh!" said the tall girl. "Um…my…shoulder devil. Yes. Um, his name is Edward, and he wants me to…to…blow up Russia!" she looked relieved that she had come up with an explanation, and then, as if to prove her point, scolded her shoulder, saying, "No, Edward. We aren't allowed to blow up countries."

The girl with mismatched eyes sighed and whispered, "Terra…"

So that was the name of the tall girl, then. Terra. So then…who was the last girl?

"Yes, April?" said Terra. So now I was at the advantage, as I knew their names, but they didn't know mine.

The one named April said, "Oh, nothing…just, tell your shoulder devil to shut up, that's all."

Then, River said loudly, "Emmett! What do you want?"

All three, including River froze, and Terra and April turned to face her. I noticed that Terra's ears weren't pointed, and she wasn't as pale as I had first thought. Then, River, squeaked out an "oops!"

Then, she made a nice save, although she STILL failed, by saying, "oh, um, Emmett is MY shoulder devil, ad he wants me to…brainwash…the president of the United States!"

Then all three turned and glared at the same spot in thin air, but I couldn't find anything special about it.

Then they turned back to me. Then, out of the blue, Terra's eyes widened, and she stepped forward, peering deeply into my eyes.

"Your eyes…" she said, "there is something different about them…"

April craned around her to get a look, and her eyes widened also, as if in disbelief.

"Terra," she breathed. "Terra, she can see."

Now I was being stared at by all of the three Goth girls. They didn't strike me as the type who would be Goths. Then, Terra, without breaking eye contact, groped around behind her and pulled some random air forward, taking a step back. "Can you see him?" she asked excitedly. She seemed to have forgotten she was a Goth, as she was now smiling widely. It struck me that she was very beautiful, more so smiling.

River had started bouncing on the spot, and April was just staring at her expectantly.

"Um," I said, "see who, exactly?"

Terra unclenched her hand from whatever she had been holding, and looked down. River's face fell. April looked a bit surprised, but not at all disappointed.

"I thought," said Terra, "that you said she could see."

"And I thought she could," said April, "but apparently I was wrong."

"But you're never wrong about this kind of stuff!" Terra cried indignantly.

"Um," I said, by now very weirded out. "I have to go."

"Bye, Emily," said River, still a bit upset, but getting happier.

"Uh," I said, "How, do you know my name?"

"Yes, River," said April mechanically, "how DO you know her name?"

"Uh, uh, well…she just…looks like an Emily?" she said. Ooh, nice save. Oh well, there was something fishy going on. I would find it out.

I started leaving. When I had crossed the street, a boy who looked about 14 came sprinting down the street, a smile plastered to his face in quite the same way that his sopping red hair was plastered to his head. But his hair wasn't the only wet thing—he was soaked and spraying water everywhere as he ran. I followed him with my eyes as he zipped past.

He ran straight to the three girls, still standing where I had left them. Before he even got there, he bellowed, "TERRA! THERE'S A FIRE BY THE LAKE!!!" At this, he smiled even wider, if possible.

Terra turned and looked between me and the boy. Funny; he looked exactly the way I had pictured Luke from a book I had read, called Eight Days of Luke.

"What now, Luke?" said Terra, seeming irritated. Luke, apparently the boy's name, ran over and started talking. Terra held up her hand to stop him, and then looked at me. She waved me over, her face serious. I walked over.

"You saw him," she said.

"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?" I replied. "He is a person, after all."

"You don't know the half of it," she replied. River giggles. April was looking at me intently.

Terra looked at Luke. "Go on," she told him.

"Well," he said, "well, there was a fire by the lake, and I had NOTHING to do with it, really!" Terra gave him a look that plainly said that she didn't believe him. He went on, not caring, "and Link was in the building." Whoa! Link, like from brawl? Anyway, at this, Terra paled. She was as pale as she had first seemed. She sparkled for a second—I swear—before regaining her composure, and then she stopped sparkling and wasn't QUITE so pale, but her voice shook as she said, "and? Is he…okay?"

"Oh, yeah," Luke said, seeming unfazed by her worry. "He jumped out a window, and ran straight into the lake—he was on fire a little—or, maybe…a…lot… But he got dragged down by all his weapons—I didn't know a person could have so many! Anyway, he was almost drowning, so I jumped in after him and dragged him out. Luckily, he didn't need mouth-to-mouth, since I was the only one there who could see him."

Terra rolled her eyes, smiling. "And where is he now?"

"He's just by the lake right now, but he told me to tell you he'd be here as soon as he got his breath."

"Okay. Thank you. It was…nice of you to save him. I didn't know you had it in you. And I shall have to say something to him about lugging all of those weapons around." She paused. River broke in, saying, "Luke, you're soaked! Do you want me to…?" she trailed off, giving him a look, but a look I knew I wasn't supposed to be in on. Otherwise she would have said it aloud. Luke nodded. River looked at him, and somehow, a second later he was dry, standing in a puddle.

"Thank you, River," said Terra, "that will do." River stepped back. When I looked at April, she was still studying me with her mismatched eyes. "Well, Luke," said Terra, "About that fire…" Luke snapped his fingers, as if to say, shoot! I thought she would forget about that!

"I'm sorry, Luke," she said, "But, as much as I would like to, I can't let you let that building burn to the ground. You'll have to put it out. I'm sorry, but it is our responsibility to keep you in check."

Luke's face fell. He said, "That's what I thought you'd say."

"Don't take that the wrong way," chimed River, "It is a beautiful fire, I'm sure, but people might get hurt. Do I need to remind you that you can't bring the dead—"

"Back to life," Luke finished, looking happier. "Yeah, I know. But it really is a great fire, a true inferno if I do say so myself. You should come see it!" He was looking very proud of himself.

"I'm sure it will be in all the papers tomorrow," Terra said icily.

"Okay, I'll go. See you later then." And he was off.

"Bye, Luke!" Terra called. River added, "See you around!" April just said, "Ta-ta."

"Hey, listen, Emily," said Terra. "I know we just met and all, but do you want to come over to my house for dinner? April, River, Luke, and our friends Fred and George will be there, too. You in?"

"Um," I hesitated, "o…okay, but I'll have to ask my mom." I only said that because they weren't the type I would like to mess with, but I was sure my mom would want me to help unpack boxes.

"Oh, your mom," said Terra, with a sly smile, eyes glinting, "I'm sure she won't mind."

"O…kay? Well, see you around, I guess."

"Yes, tonight. At six, my house. 77 Mallard. Don't forget. Oh well, even if you do, you mother won't. Bye!"

"Bye."

"Bye!" River chimed.

"Good riddance, muggle," muttered April.

I let that last one slide. I walked quickly home, not daring to look back, even though I could feel their eyes boring into my back.

Well, what can I say? Terra was right; my mom thought it was a great idea. In a distant kind of way. She said it in a detached way, "Sure you can go. It is a good way to get to know new people."