Aerie's POV:

~14 years later Wednesday May 28th

I was sleeping peacefully in my bed until suddenly I felt something really cold coming up my arm. My eyes shot open and I sat up right away.

"Finally woke up, Sleeping Beauty?" asked a voice to my right.

I looked over to my right and saw Logan smirking at me. "Logan!" I exclaimed, "can't you ever wake me up normally?"

"I tried to wake you up 'normally'" he did air quotes on normally, "since 6:30."

I looked at my clock and it read 6:45. "Oh."

"Yeah, Oh," Logan mocked

"Shut up, Logan. It's not like you've never woke up whenever I try to wake you up normally," I air quoted normally. Then, I grabbed my pillow and threw it at him.

"Oh no, you don't!" He grabbed my dolphin pillowpet and was about to throw it, but a voice stopped him.

"Aerie! Logan! Someone's trying to sleep here!" yelled a voice. It was my dad yelling from his room.

Both of us laughed. Logan turned to me and said, " Well, I should go get changed now." With that he went back to his room.

By the way, my name is Aerie Snyder. I'm an 8th grader and I go to Floyd Light Middle School. And Logan, the guy who just came into my room, is my childhood friend and neighbor. We became best friends like our dads who were college roommates. His room and my room both have a balcony that are so close to each other that we can just jump over to each other's balcony. That's how Logan came into my room today. Logan has really light blonde hair so white that it looks white and pale blue eyes.

Truth is. I kind of have a crush on him ever since he helped me get over my ex-boyfriend dumping me. I guess I just started seeing him in a different way. Problem is, is that Logan is pretty popular at school. But the good thing is that Logan doesn't even care about his popular status. He basically treats everyone the same way… except for me. Though I think it's only because we've known each other since we were 4. As you can see my love life isn't going very well.

Anyways back to my day, I threw on my simple V-neck lavender shirt and dark blue skinny jeans. I put on my dolphin necklace that Logan had given me on my 14th birthday. I was about to put on my black gladiators until I remembered my anklet that mom gave me. It has a silver chain and a dolphin and a seal charm.

It's actually my weapon. When I squeeze the dolphin charm, my anklet turns into a celestial bronze sword. On the other hand, when I squeeze the seal, it turns into a bow and a quiver full of arrows appear on my back. I don't use it very often though because monsters don't even care about me, they think I'm weak and not worth their time which is a good thing so I don't have to fight them.

I grabbed my school bag and rushed into the bathroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face. I took a quick glance at my hair and whoa, my hair was a mess! Immediately, I picked up my brush and started combing through my tangled black hair. After I combed my hair, I put a touch of concealer under my teal eyes to hide those dark bags. I don't usually wear make up, but last night I forgot I had art homework so I had to stay up till 2 a.m. to finish it. Lastly, I looked over my outfit and checked if anything was out of place. Let's see; my hair is back to its natural wavy state: check, no bags under my eyes: check, and I've got my anklet: check. Alright, I've got everything.

I rushed over to my balcony and jumped over to Logan's. I usually had breakfast at Logan's because my dad works really late and has VERY good ears. Whenever me or Logan makes breakfast (we take turns doing it, today it was Logan's) he hears EVERYTHING, and he can't sleep because of it. So to make it easier for him, I eat over at Logan's house instead. I opened his balcony door and found Logan's room empty. I ran downstairs to the kitchen and found Logan standing next to the toaster. Today he wore a dark blue Nike T-shirt with black jeans and navy Vans. I looked over at the counter and saw a plat with two waffles. "Is this mine?" I asked pointing over to the plate.

Logan didn't answer. He seemed dazed and was fiddling with his ring that his mother gave to him before she died. The ring had a cross and little tiny stick-looking stuff sticking out that looked like parts of a snowflake. The other waffles in the toaster shot up, but Logan still seemed to be staring off into space. I sighed and walked over to Logan. I got on my tippy toes and tapped him on the shoulder and asked, "Are you okay, Logan?"

Logan flinched and turned around slowly to look at me. His eyes widen when he saw me. "Since when did you get here?"

"About 2-3 minutes ago, are you okay, Logan? You've been spacing out a lot lately." It's true, every now and then he'd just stare off into space, even when I 'm talkin.

Logan grinned, "I'm fine. Oh yeah, that one on the counter's yours." He grabbed the other waffles on the toaster and put it on his plate. He went over to the dining table and sat.

I grabbed my plate and went over to sit across from him. "Come on, Logan, tell me! What's up with you these days?" I gave him my puppy eye look.

Logan just shrugged, "Nothing." Then he raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you tell me? Why are you wearing make-up?"

I almost choked on my waffle. I managed to ask, "How did you know?"

"You have a little bit of concealer stuck on your hair."

"What?" I looked at my hair and found bits of concealer on the inside of my hair. I grabbed my napkin and took it off. "Damn Logan, why do you have such good eyesight? Why can't I have it?"

Logan chuckled. "Just be glad that you're not going to school with concealer on your hair."

"Shut up, Logan. No one would notice it anyways. Only you and your good eyesight."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Suddenly he stood up carrying his plate.

"What are you doing?"

H stared at me blankly. "I'm done." I looked at his plate and it was empty! What! But I haven't even took a bite of my second waffle! I quickly gobbled up my waffles and put my plate on the sink. Logan laughed and said, "You know you don't have to rush. We still got about 30." He was right, it was only 7:13. School starts at 7:45.

"I want to go early today. Ruby and Giselle are probably there already."

" 'Kay, let me grab my backpack first."

As he went back upstairs to go get his backpack, I checked my bag to see if I got everything. A few seconds later, Logan came back down with his black Jansport backpack. "Hey Logan, do you have basketball practice today?" I asked hoping he'd say no, so they can walk home together.

"Nope. After our last game with the Silver Tigris, coach wants us to rest." Yes! I did a little happy dance in my head. Then, my phone vibrated. I took it out, it was a text from Ruby asking where am I. I replied saying I'll be there soon, meet me by my locker

"Come on, let's go. Ruby just sent me a text."


~Ten minutes later~

Since we only lived 10 minutes away, both of us walked here. My feet were a little sore from walking. Note to Self: Gladiators are NOT good for walking. All of our friends, included me and Logan, had the same home room so our lockers were all in the same hall. They were all standing near my locker and were talking about something really loud. They must be mad about something, I thought.

Then, Giselle saw us and cried out, "Aerie! Logan!" She waved us over. " You could not believe what just hap-"

"Keri just spray painted Slut on my locker!" yelled Ruby angrily.

" She did what?" I quickly glanced over at Ruby's locker. There was a crimson outline of the word Slut, but it looked like it was cleaned off. However, you can clearly tell that it was there

" She spray painted Slut on my locker! I swear the next time I see her, I 'm gonna-" Ruby got cut off by her boyfriend.

"Calm down, Ruby," said Jordan putting his hand on her shoulder.

"How can I? She just-"

Why didn't you guys tell the teachers?" blurted Logan.

"We did. But the teachers didn't believe us, apparently she used her friends as witnesses so the teachers thought we did it to frame Keri. They made us wash it off." answered Jared, Jordan's identical twin brother.

"Since Ruby's locker's all wet, she's sharing lockers with me." said Giselle. I can't imagine how horrible Ruby must be feeling right now. Ruby and Keri used to be BFF's until SHE came here. Nancy Bobfit came as a student teacher from our high school to help except she just made our school worse. Our 'popular' group used to be those nice kinds. They never bully or hit other people like those other type of popular people until SHE came here. She turned them into one of those mean popular people and one of those people just happened to be Keri.

"I'm sorry," I said not knowing what else to say.

There was an awkward silence in the air. Then, Logan broke it with, "Hey Aerie, you should put your stuff in your locker now." I snapped back to reality and noticed that Logan had already put his stuff away. What? Since when did he- never mind. What's wrong with me today? After I put my bag in my locker, we started talking like normal. Ruby seemed to have calmed down thanks to Jordan. Before I knew it, it was 3 minutes before class starts. Giselle Ruby an I said our good-byes to the guys since we didn't have any morning classes with them. We only had the afternoon classes with them. Luckily for us, we have all classes together.

On our way to first period, I started to notice what Giselle and Ruby were wearing. I was so caught up with what was going on that I didn't notice what was in front of me. Giselle wore a red off-the-shoulder shirt with ripped up jeans and black and white checkered Osiris. She had her strawberry -blonde hair in a pointy hibiscus clip. Giselle's hazel eyes were lined with eyeliner and had mascara on her long lashes.

Ruby on the other hand wore a pink floral tank top with a white cardigan. She wore a black pencil skirt with black ballet flats. Her long brown hair was combed straight with a pink polka dot headband. Ruby's make up was pretty like always, she wore light pink eye shadow, eyeliner around jade green eyes, and mascara that made her already long lashes look even longer. The popular girls were always frustrated with Ruby because no matter what they do to her, Ruby will always find a way to look pretty. Ruby's outfit everyday was always pretty, I swear I've never seen her have a bad hair day or wear scrubby clothes.

Two minutes later, we got to our first period class. We had Social Studies with Mrs. Collins . I looked over at Mrs. Collins's desk and instead of seeing a slender woman in her mid-thirties, I saw a fat lady wearing a long-sleeved denim dress. I saw in the corner of my eye, Ruby scrunched up her nose at our sub's fashion style. She wore this hat that covered up her skin and face, but I could still see her bright red eyes. They looked like snake eyes which freaked me out.

Then I noticed a dog carrier by her feet. Inside was a Chihuahua. What's a Chihuahua doing here? Suddenly, a panic feeling bubbled up inside me. I have to get away from her NOW. It seems like I wasn't the only one who started trembling, Giselle looked as if she saw a ghost and Ruby, who got over our sub's fashion style, seemed to be alert as if she's waiting for something to happen.

Our sub saw us and smiled (I could tell by the sound of her voice). " You guys should go to your seats before I mark you guys as late." Her voice was surprisingly gentle. All at once, we noticed that we were the only one standing up and everyone in the class were staring at us. Embarrassed, we rushed to our seat.

The sub got up from her desk and walked up to the front of the class. "Good morning class." The class murmured good morning back. "Your teacher, Mrs. Collins, got moved to another school in our district so starting today I'm your new Social Studies teacher. My name is Mrs. Dolores, nice to meet you class." Somehow my panic feeling disappeared. The strange thing was, was that I never get that panic feeling unless I'm near…a monster. But Mrs. Dolores 's voice is so gentle and seems so nice, I just can't think of her being evil. I looked over at Giselle and Ruby who sat on the other side of the room, Giselle still looked freaked out by Mrs. Dolores, but Ruby seemed to have calmed down. Whatever Mrs. Dolores is, I'm going to keep my guard up when I'm around her.


~Last Period~

My last period was homeroom. Wait! Homeroom already? Probably my ADHD did this. Anyways, we had Mr. Miller for homeroom. He's so nice to us, he only lets our class get to choose wherever we want to sit. All the other classes had seating charts. Since the desks were all in pairs, I sat next to Giselle. Ruby and Jordan sat behind us and Logan and Jared sat in front of us.

Mr. Miller was taking attendance. He usually does it by pairs and he likes to call our last names as well because he forgets people's name easily. " Logan Turner and Jared Russell."

"Here ," called Logan and Jared.

"Aerie Snyder and Giselle Larson"

"Here," we chorused

"Ruby Hawthorne and Jordan Russell."

"Here," they yelled."

We usually had our announcements during this period. As soon as I said it, the intercom came on.

"Good afternoon, coyotes!" Our school mascot was coyotes. "The after school clubs meeting today are art, hip hop dancing, computer, and homework group. And, last but not least, I have exciting news for you 8th graders!" Our class groaned. Let's just say the principle's ideas aren't so fun.

"As you all know, our 8th grade basketball team won against the Silver Tigris, one of the top schools. All of the teachers ,including me, decided that we will have a formal dance for the 8th graders as their graduation party!" Our class suddenly erupted with chatters. Ruby started to scribble something down. We kept talking until Mr. Miller shushed us and told is the announcements are still going. We all stopped talking right away.

"The party will be next Friday on June 6th. And no 6th or 7th graders can go unless invited to go with an 8th grader. Eighth graders who plan on inviting a 6th or 7th grader, please bring your partner to the front office where Mrs. Greene will give you a pass. Remember, no dirty dancing or grinding at the party! Have a great day, coyotes!"

After the announcements, Ruby passed the note that she was scribbling earlier. I opened it and groaned. The note read, 'Let's go shopping this Friday!' Giselle caught a sight of it and groaned as well.

It's not that we didn't like shopping, it's just Ruby tends to get a little overboard when it comes to shopping. One time we went out shopping for winter coats. Well, Giselle and I managed to get one, but Ruby? She got 5 winter coats! She was about to get more, but Giselle and I had to practically drag her out. In other words, Ruby's pretty obsessed with shopping.

I wrote back,' Do we have to?' and passed it back.

Ruby saw it and begged, "Please."

Suddenly, I had an urge to say yes, but it disappeared as soon as it came. Giselle and I exchanged glances and sighed. "Fine." Ruby squealed and smiled. We smiled back, but in the corner of me eye, Jordan seemed to look kind of mad at Ruby. I wonder why…

"Aerie!" said Mr. Miller breaking my train of thought.

Immediately, I sat up and replied, "Yes?"

"Please read the next paragraph."

I was so distracted, I have no idea which paragraph to read. I was about to tell Mr. Miller that I wasn't paying attention until I heard Jared whisper, " 5th paragraph, page 261."

I whispered thanks and started reading paragraph 5. "I couldn't believe my e-"

"Aerie? Were you paying attention?" asked Mr. Miller.

I blinked. "What?"

"We're on the 3rd paragraph."

I could feel my cheeks redden when my classmates started snickering. Jared was the loudest. I gave him my death glare. He quickly shut his mouth and mouthed, Sorry. After the class quieted down, I started reading the right paragraph.


~After School~

"Ready to go?" asked Logan, before we left the school building.

"Yeah." Suddenly I remembered my science homework was still in my locker. "Wait!"

Logan stopped abruptly and turned, "What?"

"I forgot my science homework in my locker."

"Again?" Logan shook his head and sighed. "Hurry up and go get it."

I quickly walked ( I would've ran, but Mr. McGinnis, our principle, would give me his evil eye and lecture me about no running which would've made me even slower) back to my locker. A few minutes later, I got my science homework and shut my locker.

"Hello there," purred a voice behind me.

I turned and saw Ezra Nightingale. He just transferred here a month ago. The moment he came here, he joined the popular group right away. His looks probably got him into that group. He had jet-black hair with bluish-grayish eyes. He was pretty muscular and was taller than me, probably about Logan's height. I guess he is pretty hot, but with that sly smile he's giving me right now, definitely means trouble.

"Uh, hi," I said.

"Are you Aerie Snyder?"

"Yeah, what do you want?"

He gave me a smile that sent shivers down my spine, "Will you go to the dance with me?"

I stepped back in surprise. Why would he pick me out of everyone? "I'm sorry, no."

"Why not?"

" Because I don't even know you." Just an excuse to say no.

"Well then," He walked up close to me, so close I could feel his breath. Then, he whispered in my ear. "Until the dance, let's get to know each other."

I flushed and quickly pushed him back. "Get away from he, you creep! I don't want to go to the dance with you nor do I want to get to know you." That sounded mean, but it I do go with him, he'll probably humiliate me at the dance. "Besides I already have someone in mind who's going to go to the dance with me. "

He didn't look hurt, but instead amused. "Let me guess, it's Logan Turner?" I was about to protest, even though he was right, but Ezra kept talking. "I don't know about Logan, but I'm pretty sure I heard Mimi saying that she's going to ask Logan to the dance with her. She seemed pretty confident that he'll say yes." Mimi was pretty much the leader of the popular girls besides Nancy.

"I don't believe you. You're just trying to trick me." I started to walk away.

"Believe what you want, Aerie. Mimi said that she's going to ask him today after school. Well since you said no, Aerie, I'm not going to be one of those annoying guys who keep asking the same girls to go to the dance. Your loss, Aerie." I heard him turn around and started walking the other way. Whoa, he's actually giving up? That's surprising. Then, I heard him whisper, " If only you said yes, Mrs. Collins and her chimera wouldn't attack you."

"What chimera?" I turned around and saw nothing. He disappeared. Wait, that can't be right. He can't just disappear, I would've at leas heard him thanks to my super good hearing from my dad. I quickly walked out of that hall, for some reason I just got a bad feeling being in there.

As I walked back, I started thinking about what Ezra said. 'If I said yes, Mrs. Collins and her chimera wouldn't attack me.' Mrs. Collins doesn't have a chimera…But she does have a Chihuahua. Wait, does that that the Chihuahua is actually a chimera? But the Chihuahua is so small and a chimera's huge! Could it be that the Mist is hiding it?

Wait! What does me saying yes have anything to do with a chimera?

I didn't get to think anymore once I saw Logan leaning next to the entrance door. I was about to call Logan until I saw a flash of red hair running over to Logan. It was Mimi! Ezra was right! I stopped and listened.

"Hi, Logan" said Mimi batting her fake lashes.

"Hey." Logan looked uncomfortable.

"Guess what? I used to go to my aunt's house whose a fortune teller when I was younger. She taught me a few tricks and so the other day, I was bored so I tried doing one of those tricks and guess who I saw?"

"Who?" Logan looked uninterested. "You! According to my reading, it showed me that you're having nightmares about someone using you until you're completely tired and you were only a small child so you couldn't do anything. They'd whip you if you stopped what you were doing or going too slow. I could tell you the meaning of the nightmare, only if you go to the dance with me. What do you think?"

"I bet you those were all lies. Logan wouldn't fall for that. I looked at Logan and surprisingly his face looked conflicted. Hold up! Does that mean Logan's been having those dreams all this time? I looked worriedly at Logan. He better not say yes!


Whew! That was a long chapter. By the way, I just wanted to tell you guys that I will probably update once in 1 or 2 weeks because of the following reasons, 1) Homework , 2) I usually write big chapters like this so it take a while to write/type it all up. Anyways, Please Review. :)