Chapter 1: Raen's School Author: Raen Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns Kel, Neal, Faleron, Joren, Merric, Owen. We don't own anything else apart from the plot.

What a nice morning. That is, if your idea of nice is dark clouds covering the sky, lots of rain the night before, wet school grounds and the like. It certainly wasn't mine. I couldn't even figure out what I was doing in school, let alone singing the national anthem and the school song. Gripe. Moan. It was after exams for goodness sake! Then, the announcer came on the stage. Bother. "Girls, I would like to inform you all that the exchange students from Britain will be coming over today. I would appreciate it if you all behaved well and set up a good example to them and their teachers. That is all." Opps. Exchange students. If I remembered correctly, there were supposed to be four of them and one teacher coming to our class. I hopped they were our age (14). I just didn't get along with people younger or older than me.

I made my way back to class, slumping into my seat and slinging my bag to the ground. Grabbing a book from it, I began to read my newly acquired 'Lady Knight'. And the teacher came in. Followed by the exchange students and one teacher. I squashed my book under my already overflowing desk and stood up to great the teacher. "Goood Mooorrinnggg Misss Tannnn" I echoed with the class. We most definitely did not feel like that. Seating back in our seats, I took a look at the exchange students. Two boys and a girl. Greatttttt. I most definitely did not work well with boys. One was a short boy who looked like he was going to explode with excitement, and the other was taller with light blond hair and blue eyes. The girl was very tall, reminding me of the netball school team players, and she had dark hazel eyes. Where have I seen this before? They seemed familiar. Why? Oh, and the teacher was balding and had a scar on his head, and was holding his right arm like a cast. This was weird. Very weird. And then they introduced themselves.

"Hi!" The short boy stepped forward. "My name's Owen and I'm really glad to be here and I'm 13 and I'm very proud to be here representing my school and I want to learn more about this place and I'm really bad in many things but I'm good in others." He was yanked backwards by the girl then. The class, being what we are, applauded. I grinned. He looked, well, jolly. And then I remembered where I had heard of a short boy who was jolly. Oh. The other boy stepped forward.

"Joren. I'm 16. I really hope to get to know everyone better." Many in the class fidgeted nervously. The sarcastic tones in his voice, though little, were easily detectible. Ice King, I thought to my self. Or is it that you read too much Tamora Pierce books and decided to act like that Joren? The girl's turn.

"Hello. My name is Keladry, but you can call me Kel. I'm 14." I felt distinctly weird. Kel, Joren and Owen? What was going on? To complicate matters, I was the only one in class who read Tamora Pierce, apart from Jacquelyn, who read the Circle of Magic series. "I spent the first few years of my life in Japan up to six, as my father's the ambassador there. I really like it there. I hope that I can get to know everyone better." Ok.weird weird weird. This was the correct description of Kel and Joren and Owen from the books, but what the heck are they doing here? What's going on? And the teacher is.

Miss Tan stepped forward. "Welcome to 2A. I hope you all will like it here. Owen, you can go to group 1. (Hyper People group) Keladry, why not group 2, (Japanese Lovers Group) and Joren can go to group 3. (My group. What??)" Why couldn't Kel have come to my group? I get Joren instead? Not fair. Then Joren came forward.

"Do you have a spare seat?" I started. Then nodded. I pointed towards the stack of spare chairs at the back of the class. He went and got one. I noticed that Keladry went at the same time, and he deliberately went out of his way to bump into her. Pig, I thought. Then walked back and put his chair down. At my desk. To be specific, the side of my desk. WHAT? Why me? And.. My friends were looking at him like he was some sort of handsome thing. NOT. Their teacher stepped forward next, once all three were settled down.

"I am Sir Wydlon, addressed as sir. I will be sitting in this lesson. I hope to see good behaviour from all of you." It was impossible to tell if he was talking to his students or to us. I didn't bother to ask. He sat in a chair at the side of the class, and the lesson began. With Joren at my elbow. *Shriek in mind*.

* * *

I couldn't wait till recess, not with all my group mates passing me notes like 'Oh god that guy's so cute' and such. They were totally clueless about what he really was like. Weird. When recess came, I didn't hang around to familiarise with the three, but ran down to the canteen. I had to call Sarah, my cousin. She was as Tamora Pierce crazy as me, we being the only two in the family. I rushed to the coin phone, stuck in a coin and dialled her handphone. It wasn't too long before she picked it up. "Sarah, remember I told you about the exchange students I'm going to get? Their pretty nice, apart from their names being Owen, Keladry and Joren." Silence on the line. For a long time. Then: "Raen, I told you I was getting exchange students too, right? Well, their names are Nealan, Cleon and Faleron. I'm not kidding you." I got a shock. Sarah would never kid anyone, let alone me. "What?" I asked. "Are you sure?" Then who should appear at my side but Joren. Eep.