I slouched in my desk in Mr. Kell's class, halfway through first period. Seven thirty is too early for school, my brain thought tiredly. No one else around me seemed all that awake, either. In fact, Jerry- my best friend -was catching some z's at the moment, head lying on top of his notebook. I reached over and punched his shoulder. My friend jerked awake, gave me a sleepy glare, then gazed at the board, sinking down in his seat miserably. His flaming red hair was mussed and his eyes were bleary- the sure signs that he stayed out too late at the stupid skatepark. Which would also explain the nice big scrape he had on his cheek and bruise on his arm that weren't there yesterday.

I gazed back at the chalkboard, then down at my notebook, where I was supposed to be writing my response to the section of our textbook that we had just finished reading. Just as I reached for my pen, the very thing that would sentence me to a day of schoolwork, there was a sharp rap on the door. The class seemed to perk up considerably as everyone looked at the door expectantly. Even Jerry, who had been nodding off again, looked over to the door, sitting up in his chair a little bit. Mr. Kell looked up from his papers, then called for whoever is was standing in the hallway to come in. The counselor dramatically opened the door, then clicked her way in wearing her signature high heels. Behind her were two girls, one with a book bag slung over her shoulder, the other with a messenger bag hanging limply from her shoulder. "Mr. Kell, I have your new students," the counselor said brightly. School staff was too awake at seven thirty. She urged the two new girls in front of her.

The taller of the two, the one with the messenger bag, strode forward, leaning against Mr. Kell's desk and dropping her bag next to her feet. She was lean and muscled, with body language that said, "I'm on a mission. Don't mess with me." I frowned as she scanned the class. She had short, cropped hair that was black, with silver and copper highlights. She wore a necklace that had a strange silver outline of a flower hanging from it. She gazed cooly from one student to another. I frowned more deeply when her eyes rested on me. When you held the full attention of her dark grey eyes, they glittered with something powerful. Something that wasn't quite...human. She held her gaze on me for a few moments, then looked to the next person. As this went on, Mr. Kell stood at the door and talked with the counselor. The shorter girl happily bounced next to her friend, as smirking smile on her face. This one had hair that fell between orange and red, at about chin length. The thing that struck me hardest about this girl was that she was tiny. And when I say tiny, I mean tiny. She was the smallest sophomore I'd ever seen. She had a small spray of freckles across her nose, and coffee brown eyes that smiled, but also had that same un-human glint as her friend. Her hair was pulled away from her face with a clip that had the same silver flower thingy as Miss Serious.

Once I was done surveying the new girls, I glanced around the room. Only then did I notice there were only two open desks, one on my left and one on Jerry's right. I looked from the empty desk to Jerry, who was watching the red-head, a goofy smile starting to spread across his face. I rolled my eyes, then looked back to the front of the class, where Mr. Kell was clearing his throat, trying to get everyone's attention.

"So," he said, "As you can see, we have two new students." He gestured to Miss Serious and said, "This is..."

"Millie," she supplied, no change in her facial expression. "Like the musical." Her voice was cold and smooth as silk. Her name bothered me slightly. Millie just seemed like the kind of name to belong to someone all bubbly and happy, like her friend. She was too serious.

Mr. Kell smiled and nodded, and was about to say something along the lines of, 'And this is...', but red-head beat him to the punch. "An' Oi'm Reagahn! Bu' 'ou can coall meh Teasah!" she said in one big rush. It didn't help that she had an accent...after I thought about it for a second, I realized it was Cockney. Like Jerry. Even after knowing him for ten years, and I still didn't understand half of what he said. Well...maybe more then half.

Everyone in the class was looking at one another, not able to understand a work of what Red-Head had just said. Even Mr. Kell looked kinda confused, and he was normally good at deciphering accents. Jerry and I were the only ones that even vaguely understood what she had said. Millie sighed, then propelled herself off of Mr. Kell's desk. "She means, And I'm Reagan, but you can call me Teaser. And before you ask, Teaser is her nickname, because she's the biggest tease in the world." The corner of Millie's mouth tugged upwards, and Reagan nodded eagerly, smiling cheekily. "You'll be depending on me for translations," Millie added.

"Actually," Mr. Kell said, walking down the rows. Oh, boy, I thought. I slouched lower in my seat, willing for the earth to open up and swallow me whole. But the earth didn't seem to feel like opening up at the moment. Instead, I remained in my desk, and Mr. Kell's hand came down on my shoulder. "We have our own translator here for Cockney- it is Cockney, correct?" he asked. Reagan nodded, eyebrow raised in an impressed manner. "Mr. Cory here is known around the school for translating this one's-" his other hand came down on Jerry's shoulder, who flashed a smile, "-speech." Then teacher then walked back to the front of the classroom. I looked at the new girls. Reagan, or Teaser, whatever, still looked impressed. Millie, on the other hand, seemed kind of angry.

"Bloimeh, tha's grea'! Ya jus' don' foind maneh folk tha' undahs'an' a word Oi saeh!" Reagan said. On my right, Jerry was chortling at my embarrassment of having been introduced as the translator, while the rest of the class tried to figure out what Reagan had said again. Millie offered no translation, simply leaning back against Mr. Kell's desk again, expression stoney. It became clear, after a few moments, that she wasn't going to give a translation. I sighed, then pulled myself up in my desk a little bit.

"She said, Blimey, that's great. You just don't find many folk that understand a word I say," I said. I sank back in my my seat when I was done. Mr. Kell smiled.

"Alright, girls. You can just remain standing, and I'll fill you in on where we are tomorrow, because the bell's going to ring right about...now." There was a great rustling as everyone rushed to get their stuff packed up to get to their next class on time.

You have to leave it to Mr. Kell, I thought. He's good. Maybe, if he wasn't my first hour teacher, I'd like his class more.


I walked home, hands shoved deep in the pockets of my jacket in the cold November air. The new girls had appeared in all the classes that I had with Jerry, which were gym, art, and science. Plus social studies in first hour. I already had the feeling that Millie didn't like me, because in every class that we had together, the teacher would point me out as the person that could tell you what Reagan had said. I heard from a couple of people that their other teachers had mentioned me, too.

I barged into the front door, kicking off my shoes and then grabbing them before lugging my book bag upstairs to my room. Then I trotted back down and into the kitchen, where I dug around in the refrigerator for an apple, some carrots, and the ranch dressing. I hummed under my breath as a put the carrots in a tiny little bowl with a pool of ranch, then put the stuff away and carried the bowl and my apple back towards the stairs, a bottle of water tucked under my arm. As I walked down the upstairs hall, I rapped on my mom's office door. "I'm home," I called in, then kept on walking.

"How was school, honey?" I heard her call.

"Fine!" I yelled, entering my room. I sat my snack on my desk, then pulled by iPod out of my pocket and plugged it up to the speakers. I flipped through the songs until I decided that was boring, then hit shuffle and let the music play. Then I sat down at my desk, kicking my computer on to check everything before I started my homework. Over the sound of the music, I heard footsteps in the hall. "What, Mom?" I said, not looking up from the screen.

"Well, this is wonderful," a voice said. My eyes widened, still looking at the computer screen. Slowly, I turned to face my door. And there was Millie, her messenger bag slung over her shoulder, and another, bigger bag in her arms.

"What the heck are you doing in my house?" I practically yelled.

She glared at me. "I'm staying here. I'm your cousin."


"She cannot stay here!" I hissed quietly at my mother. I gripped the side of her desk as she scrolled through some internet site.

"And give me one good reason why she can't."

"She hates me!"

"Cory, that sweet girl does not hate you."

"You could have at least told me she was staying here!"

"I did. Last week. At dinner. You shrugged and said, 'okay'."

The color drained out of my face as the dim memory of my mother saying something along the lines of, 'Your cousin is going to stay here for a while'. I shook myself. "But Mom-"

My mother turned from the computer and gave me a pointed look. "No buts. Millie is here, and this is where she's staying until things at her home settle down. Get it?"

I sighed in defeat, then turned and padded out of her office. I dragged myself back to my room, where I flopped down in my computer chair and started my homework. Through the wall, I could hear the sounds as Millie settled herself into the guest room. I glared down at my math homework, even though it was easy stuff. After a while, I managed to get the answers down. Then I threw my notebooks back into my backpack and went to the bathroom. "Thank God there's a separate guest bathroom," I muttered to myself. I went in and lean against the counter, gazing into the mirror. I saw a sixteen year old boy with pitch black hair that was streaked with copper and silver. I'm an idiot, I thought. It's obvious we're related. Why didn't I see that? The boy's eyes were dark, almost unnatural forest green. I sighed, then trudged out of the bathroom. I started to walk back down the hall to my room, but paused at the guest room door. I gazed in, and saw Millie sitting at the desk with a Mac laptop open, struggling to get it to connect to the WiFi. I sighed, then decided to try to redeem myself by doing one act of kindness. I walked in.

Hearing me, she whipped around. "What do you want?" she practically hissed.

"Well," I said, stopping and crossing my arms. "I was going to offer to get you hooked up to the internet," I shot back at her.

A flicker of regret flashed across her face, before her stoney expression returned. "Why would I need your help?" she spat, turning away from me.

I walked up to her, then leaned over her shoulder. "Exactly how long have you been trying to connect?" I asked.

Her stoney expression fell a little bit. Turning her face away from me, she muttered, "Thirty minutes."

I smirked. "That's right," I said, leaning over her shoulder and placing my hands on the keyboard. I pulled up Airport, then turned it off.

"What are you doing?" she yelled at me.

"Getting your stupid computer hooked up," I shot right back. Before she could say anything, I restarted it, and clicked on our WiFi, and typed in the password. "There," I said, backing up and holding out my arms. "Only takes a couple seconds."

She pursed her lips, and clicked on Safari. Of course, when it popped up, Google was up and running. "Thanks," she mumbled. "Now get out of my room!"

I rolled my eyes, and left. So far, I really didn't like my cousin. I ran down the stairs, jumped off the last few, then went outside. I zipped my sweatshirt back up, then walked around the house to the back gate. I opened it, grabbed my bike and yanked it out, then re-closed the gate. Not bothering to wheel my bike to the cement, I hoped on and cycled trough the lawn and onto the street. I biked through town, down to the skatepark. Padlocking my bicycle to the rack, I went in and climbed up on top of the half pipe and watched Jerry as he skateboarded around with someone else. I squinted at his companion, and then realized that it was the other new chick from school. I groaned, then left the park as quickly as I had come.

"Stupid new girls," I muttered as I pedaled. In my anger, I didn't notice the unusual amount of cats there were everywhere. I barely took into account that I had to swerve to avoid hitting a silver tabby, who was staring at me as I pedaled up to him, then turned around and continued to stare as I rode off.


A/N:

Okay. I know, I know. I have two other stories that I really need to update. Oh well. This idea has been bugging me. I think it has real potential. Review, please.