My name is Peyton, but my many friends call me Pey. I have blond hair and gray-blue eyes, and I've been told a very nice laugh. I don't exactly remember the circumstances of getting my letter. I would try to remember, but that would take too long and we don't have much time. [Yes, Nick, I'm hurrying!]

Sorry. Nick and I are on the move. Our little group of three is searching for the cause of this epidemic. Everyone at our small-ish school of magic is turning to stone...well, not everyone. There are about four people besides us who were spared. I don't know exactly who they are, but I know they're there.

Oh, you caught the "school of magic"? Yeah. It's like we apparated into Harry Potter's life, I swear. Except that instead of it being in Great Britain, we're in the middle of freaking Nowhere, Kansas. Not kidding, it's called Nowhere.

It's a wizarding town, and most of the citizens are teachers here at Catsmeer, I guess. I was in fact eleven when I came here—most students are—but a few uneventful years have passed since then. I am now thirteen, and starting my third year at Catsmeer.

[I know you know, Nick. I really don't think they know everything, though! the faint sound of someone saying something—urgently Fine, then. Enough explanation. I get it.]

Nick is getting a little anxious, and, to be honest, I don't blame him, so I need to cut with the back story and actually get to the story.

It started, I guess, at the beginning of the school year. I was sitting down at my house's table—here in America, it's not Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin—which was called Oakgarden. If I'd had my choice, I would have been sitting with my best friend, Belle Robertson, but she was sitting at the Sunnyside table. Well, we can't all have what we want. I really only had one friend in my own house, and we weren't all that close, anyway. Her name…ugh, I can't remember her name.

[Yes, Nick, I'm hurrying!]

I remember that night, the divination teacher, Mrs. Ihmihnend, came running in, her eyes widened as far as they could. I remember thinking Wow…she has brown eyes, because they were usually all squinty from looking into a crystal ball all the time. My next thought was, Something must have happened.

Something had happened, actually. There was a Sunnyside girl, who had been late to the feast. She had been helping our caretaker, Mr. Sahnee, to get everyone's suitcases where they should be. She had always been that "good person" everyone was friends with. She had been running back to the feast so she could join Belle, seeing as how they're really close. The girl had apparently run into some creature on the way back, something that had turned her completely to stone.

That's where Mrs. Ihmihnend had come in. She told us that there had been a disturbance in the force or whatever. She had come downstairs, looking for the cause of her troubles, when she found the Sunnyside girl. She had immediately come into the Great Hall. Which, really, why would you do that when everybody's fuzzy, fat, and happy? Okay, not so much fuzzy. Anyway, continuing.

I looked over at my least favorite person in the world—everybody calls him Bee, and really, no one likes him. He likes to fool himself into believing they do, though. He's just…generally the kid in the background. He had an expression of polite concern—which, really, if it had been anyone but the girl everyone likes—you know, there's always one of them—I would've let go. But, since it wasn't anyone else, I came down hard on him.

In my mind. It's not like I attacked him without proof.

[Fine, Nick. But don't expect anyone to know what you're talking about.]

Nick is being stupidly melodramatic—to be expected, especially from him—and wants me to add in something stupid, like foreshadowing or whatever he calls it.

Little did we know, soon we would have our proof.

[There. You happy?]