The Penderwicks, and the street musician.

Jane woke up smiling. Something her sister, Skye, did not. Skye hated going into town, with it's crowded streets and the need to dress up. But Jane wouldn't let Skye's negative outlook get her down today. Because Jane, unlike most of the sister's, loved going into town! She loved the smells of bake goods, the busy shouts in the market place, getting to wear her best clothes, and if she was very lucky she would get to help Rosalind pick out fabrics. Rosalind made most of their clothes. Batty was to young to be trusted with such a task and Skye and her lacked the patience and concentration to sew for hours.

Jane skipped merrily towards her and Skye's dresser and pulled out her favourite dress. It was a light blue dress, with yellow buttons, sash, and a collar. It puffed out just a tiny bit (enough for a 10 year old said Rosalind), falling so it just touched the floor. It's sleeves stopping at her forearm. Giddily Jane ran to her older sister's bed, where Skye was sound asleep.

Jane reached over quickly and grabbed a pillow from her own bed, whacking her poor sister repeatedly in the head.

"KNOCK IT OFF!"

Jane didn't even frown when Skye threw a pillow at her screaming at her to go away. Instead she dragged the tired girl out of bed and told her to get ready. Jane ran with Skye in tow to the washroom to pick up a bucket for water, and preceded to run outside to fetch the water from the pump.

"If you and Rosie had let me keep working on that water system, we'd never have to go outside for water again."

Jane rolled her eyes skeptically. "The first time you tried it all that came out of the pipes was dirt!"

"If you had let me keep working on it.." Mumbled Skye.

Skye had always been an inventor much like their mother had been. Although she often had brilliant ideas that made their lives much easier, she also had some really bad Idea's, like the water pipes. She wanted to put piped that connecter to their pump outside, inside the house. So when they needed water for cooking or cleaning, they wouldn't have to go outside for it. This all sounded very nice, but it didn't really work. The water wouldn't come out clean from the pipes.

Having pumped the clean water into the bucket, both sister's ran into the house again and up the stairs to the bathroom. Splashing their faces and rinsing the sleep form their eyes. After both sisters had clean presentable faces they went back into their rooms to get dressed for the day.

Skye pulled out a simple light brown dress. It had a light blue collar and a simple blue sash (because Rosalind wanted to add some colour). It's skirt didn't poof out like Jane's but instead hung loosely from her hips reaching to her ankles. Jane and Skye tied each other dresses and helped each other dress. The quickly went downstairs where they knew Rosalind was waiting with Batty.

Rosalind had just finished packing the sandwiches for breakfast in her picnic basket, and was trying to convince not to wear her Butterfly wings into town.

"Because Battykins, you can only wear the wings when we're at home."

"But why? Hound agrees!"

"Sweetie, you wouldn't want to lose them would you? If we leave them home we won't lose them."

Batty nodded gloomily.

Hound was Batty's dog. Which was strange. Skye had explained many times, that there was no such thing as a dog meant for snuggling. They were for hunting, and only rich people hunted, with guns anyway. But Batty had always had a way with animals, even Skye could admit that.

The girls had all decided when they go into town, they wouldn't bring hound. He got distracted to easily, and he would make a big scene.

The Penderwick sister's were not normal. They lived in the woods with their father, only came to visit town once every week, didn't wear dresses like most ladies, and were very intellectual. Their father and mother didn't believe in the restrictions that were put on people (mostly women) in society. As such, Skye often wore pants or shorts when they were in the woods. Rosalind studied Latin and different types of medicine, Jane wrote stories, and Batty ran around with her little butterfly wings looking for bunnies. But they all did this without fear of being judged, so long as their own private world was undisturbed.

The group was ushered out the door by Rosalind, soon the group was taking a trail towards town. Taking this trail it would only take them 20 minutes to get to town. Then they would head in to the doctor's office to visit their dad. Mr. P had been the doctor in town for almost 7 years now. He worked long hours and wasn't home a lot, but it was alright. The girls had Rosalind, and Rosalind being the kind person she was, didn't mind taking care of them.

On their walk Jane didn't fail to notice every excruciatingly small detail. She would scribble things down in her little blue notebook. Once and a while she would stop and read what she had out loud

"Sabrina Star looked at the forest around her, heavily wooded and full of assassins. With every twig that broke Sabrina jumped a little. The Forrest it self began to grow bigger in Sabrina's eye's, looming over her, she felt as if she had shrunk."

"what are as sass-ama-"Batty interrupted.

"Assassins," Jane corrected "People who kill other people for money."

"Jane, are there assassins in this forest?" Batty looked like she was going to cry. To batty the forest was already big, but it loomed over her now in a creepy resemblance to Jane's story.

Jane saw the look on Batty's face and quickly went about correcting her mistake.

"No batty! Your perfectly safe with us here, if you want I'll finish the story."

Batty nodded miserably

"She felt as if she had shrunk, suddenly an assassin jumped out at her from her left, followed by another two on her right. She dodged with ease as she whipped around to find her two opponents!"

"Sabrina found them!" Cried Batty with glee.

"She kicked one in the face and as he stumbled backwards she brought her foot down, tripping the other one on the way. Their fight with Sabrina didn't last long.

'how is this possible?' said one

'we've trained with the best fighters around'

Sabrina smirked and held her head up high. 'You haven't seen the best till you've seen Sabrina Star!'"

"Hurray!" Batty was quite happy to know she was no longer in danger, even if it was just one of Jane's stories. Rosalind smiled at Jane, giving her the "well done" smile. Skye just rolled her eyes. They'd be nearing the town soon and then she wouldn't have to hear a word about Sabrina freaking Star.

Once in the town Rosalind realized that their father didn't get a break for another 20 minutes. So the girls decided to wander around the town on their own and then go visit Mr. P.

The group spilt up, Batty and Rosalind went together as did Jane and Skye. Batty had wanted to visit the toy store, so Rosalind had left them saying to be careful and meet her at the park in 20 minutes.

Jane and Sky had decided to walk around the town and see if anything new had happened since the last time. Suddenly Jane heard something different on the crowded streets. Someone was playing music. But it wasn't like anything she had heard before. This music floated, drifted towards her ears. It swirled around Jane surrounding her in a smooth flowing melody. She felt shivers go down her spine listening. Without even realizing it both her and sky had walked closer, there n the middle of the market place was a street performer.

Jane had seen lot's of street performers before, some of them preforming dangerous tricks, or reading the future. But never had she heard a musician! Maybe Sabrina Star could rescue a Musician, or meet one, or become one!

And suddenly the thought about Sabrina Star and a musician was developing in her head, and she just had to ask the performer some questions. (Because Jane never wrote anything without researching it!) So after the song had ended Jane dragged her sister along to talk to the street performer.

"And who are you?" he performer asked quite nicely. He smiled and Jane instantly decided she liked his smile.

"Jane, Jane Peterson!"

Skye looked tiredly over at Jane not enjoying her time in the bustling streets at all. She looked at the boy cautiously. He had brown hair like Jane and Rosalind, and green eyes that twinkled when he looked at them.

"It's nice to meet you Jane, My name is Jeffery, just Jeffery!"