Kim was walking to school with her best friends Jason, Trini, Billy, and Zack. It was a sunny day in Angel Grove, California, and Kim almost couldn't wait until 3:00 when they could go to the Youth Center and just hang out.

"Hey, who's that over there?" Jason pointed to a girl with black hair and ice blue eyes, who was holding a baby in her arms. It wasn't that Angel Grove was a small town, but they did recognize most of the students. She was obviously new. Kim felt bad for her: she knew many kids liked to tease the ones who took advantage of the schools day care, calling them sluts and morons.

"I don't know, Jase," Trini said. "I don't recognize her,"

Kim considered for a moment. "I'm going to go talk to her,"

Kim walked over to the new girl, who was trying to coax the infant into letting go of her necklace, which sported a strange pattern. "No, Mari, you can't chew on that, you've got many things you can chew on, but this is off limits,"

"Hi," Kimberly said, interrupting the mother-daughter conversation. The teenager looked up and smiled sheepishly. "You must be new. I'm Kimberly, but you can call me Kim,"

"I'm Irene, but you can just call me Rene. And this is Marianne," she said in a baby voice. She smiled. "I just moved here,"

"From where?" Kim asked. The smile on Rene's face seemed to freeze.

"Uh…Ohio," she said, in a forced tone, which made Kimberly curious. "Yeah, Ohio. Home of the Buckeye's!" She smiled wide, selling her point a little too strongly.

Kim decided to let it go. "Cool. I've lived here all my life,"

"Cool," Rene said.

"So, do you want to hang out with me and my friends after school? There's a place called the Youth Center near the school, it's pretty awesome," Kim explained.

Rene smiled, but it was sad. She hadn't been out with anyone but PJ since she had become pregnant. "Do you mind a tag along?" she asked, referring to Marianne.

"No problem," Kim said, smiling.

"Then I guess it's settled. Of course I'll come, it sounds like fun," She smiled even wider, but there was still pain in her eyes.

"Are you a junior?" Kim asked, going into step with the girl.

"No…I just look older than I am. I'm only fourteen, I'm a freshman," she explained.

"Me too!" Kim gushed, excited. "Maybe we'll be in some of the same classes,"

"Gods, I hope so," Rene said. "I don't know anyone. Life here is scaring me deeply,"

"You shouldn't be," Kim said proudly, "You seem really nice. You'll find friends in no time, even with the amount of idiots that attend school here. Just stay away from Bulk and Skull and I guarantee you'll have a good year,"

"Really?" Irene asked, insecure.

"You've already made one," Kim said, smiling. "And you can make a few more later. I'm sure Jase, Tri, Zack, and Billy would love to meet you,"

"And I would love to meet them," Irene answered. They stopped outside the daycare and office (they were right next to each other). "Do you mind if I…"

"Go ahead, I'll just wait here," Kim answered.

"Oh, you really don't have to do that," Irene said, embarrassed.

"It's fine; I want to," Kim replied.

To Kim's relief, Irene just nodded. "Ok, I'll try to be quick,"

A few minutes later, Irene came out with books replacing Marianne. "Ok, let's go before I run back in there and try to take my baby to class with me!"

Kim laughed. "What class do you have first?"

"Uh…" she shifted the books to grab the schedule. "English with Ms. Applebee,"

"Ooo, me too!" Kim said excitedly. "Come on, I'll show you where it is,"

(Divider)

Hours later, Irene had gone to the youth center with Mari to wait for Kimberly. Unfortunately, the two classes she didn't share with Kim happened to be the only two classes Kim shared with the rest of her friends, so Rene hadn't met them yet. She was a little bit nervous, and stood outside the door. Finally she'd gathered what little self assurance that she had left and walked inside.

The place was as kicking as her mom's restaurant back home. Piper had built a teen area in the back, and the snack area looked exactly like it, except she wasn't there serving the drinks. But the place was almost….better. She saw mats and ballet bars and even a couple balance beams, like a school gym. Rene smiled. She could use the punching bags to work on Aunt Phoebe's kickboxing 101 skills, and could do a little acro or dancing on the mats. Gods, she hadn't gone dancing since she'd been pregnant.

"Hi, can I get you something?" Irene heard asked from the counter. She turned around and saw a middle aged, heavyset man with black hair, like hers.

"Not really, just waiting for my friends, or at least, some hopefully friends" she walked up to the counter. "I'm Irene, and you are…."

"Ernie. Nice to meet you," he said, grabbing her a strawberry smoothie, his best seller, anyway. "You new around here?"

She looked at him carefully, trying to use her sensing power (in the back corner of her mind she thanked her dad for the one good thing he had done for her). Seeing he wasn't a threat, she answered. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

Ernie chuckled. "Most kids come around here eventually for one reason or another. If you weren't new, I would have met you long before now," he set down the smoothie. "Here you go,"

"Oh, I didn't ask you for a smoothie," Irene said, knowing that until she got a job she was going to have to pinch her runaway fund pennies tightly.

"I know," Ernie said. "You just looked a little down. Tell you what: it's on the house,"

"Oh my gods. Thank you so much!" Rene gushed.

Ernie brushed it off. "It's fine. Do you need anything for the little one?" He knew better than to ask if it was her sister. After a few lovely conversations with new teens who used the daycare center, he had learned from his mistakes.

But Rene heard the unspoken question. "No thanks, Mari's a bit young for a smoothie. She'll be about a month tomorrow. She's mine by the way, if you were wondering,"

Ernie smiled. "Hey, it's fine. The Youth Center doesn't discriminate. I would warn you to stay away from Bulk and Skull, though, they like to use new teen moms as their own personal taunting bags,"

Rene chuckled. "The funny thing is I've already received that warning today. Thanks,"

"No problem," Ernie replied. He was starting to like the teen already.

Rene glanced away and saw a Help Wanted sign. "You're hiring?" she asked casually.

"Yeah, but I haven't gotten anyone I really like," he said sadly.

"Mind if I take an application?" she asked.

He smiled. "Knock yourself out,"

Rene grabbed an application and filled it out, skipping the work history section. She was starting to become very wary of anything that would lead to the discovery that she was Irene Halliwell and not Irene Warren. Not too much of a difference, but for her, the difference between life and death. Leo could easily get any record she put out there, and Rene knew that putting her mom as a reference was just asking for Leo to come after her. That's why she didn't tell anyone she was running away in the first place. She finished quickly and placed the application in the bin.

We're late! Stupid putties! Where's Rene? Irene looked up to see a disheveled looking Kim and four out of breath teens behind. Rene gave a slight chuckle and a small wave. Kim look relieved.

"Hi Rene. Sorry we're late, we got caught up in something,"

Rene brushed it off. "It's fine. I know the feeling," From millions upon millions of demon vanquishes, she thought.

"Oh! Guys, this is Irene. She's the girl I was talking about, and this is her daughter, Marianne. Rene, this is Trini, Zack, Billy, and Jason,"

"Nice to meet you," Irene said, shaking their hands. Man, Billy was cute.

For gods sakes, Irene, you have no chance with him with a baby on your hands.

"So this is the girl my little sister's been gushing about. I'm Jason. How are you liking Angel Grove?" The guy in red asked.

Irene shrugged. "What can I say? I haven't seen Bulk and Skull yet, and apparently their the ruiners, but so far, I think I'm going to like it here,"

"I hope so," Jason said. smiling