The sun rose over the bland bricked buildings, inching up their high walls, and illuminating the city. Somewhere in that town lived five very important girls. They were yet to understand who they were truly. An uncanny feeling of change hung in the air over the newly lit concrete world. Everything else was happening as normal - the traffic of cars and bikes and buses and all pedestrians trying to share the streets in a civilised way however difficult it may be. A horn blasted here, a shout of ridicule over there, the screeching of wheels accompanied the sounds of life.

A motorcycle was starting up on the east side of town, in a secluded street far away from all the noise and buzz of town, its rider was a young man adjusting a helmet over his dark hair. His younger sister was closing the front door of the house, jingling the keys and turning around to wave at him. He nodded quickly and revved the engine of the bike, then sped down the street in a moment. Michael and Kara lived with their dad Jem, who owned the local motor shop down town. The small family of grease monkeys had their ways of getting along, usually functioning as a normal family, but sometimes just speeding off into their own worlds of machines. Kara left to go the other way to her brother. She walked to school alone most days but would sometimes go with a friend. Her friends lived close by, though most would argue friendship was never too far away.

Soon the sounds of traffic reached Kara, crept on her through her headphones and appeared bright and loud in front of her in the form of cars and cars and more cars stacked together on the main road through the city. It was not a huge place however it had always had problems with its population getting around. Kara walked on her usual route to school, having had agreed to meet with a friend for this morning. It had been a week since school started and things were more or less already decided for how the year was going to function. Classes were beginning to get increasing livelier and students were starting to become more awake with their work.

The last few bends in the road came and went and Kara found herself standing outside the Silver Dragon restaurant; her friend Mei Lin's great grandmother Yan Lin had opened it up many years ago. Her grandmother Hay Lin had passes it on to Mei Lin's parents just as her parents had passed it down to her. The whole succession was more important than Mei Lin could imagine since as well as the restaurant, came a responsibility which would not only affect her, but her friends too.

Kara opened the door and fell into the warm air coming from the inside of the kitchens. It was still early morning but cooking started early enough so that the lunch hour could be catered for. Mei Lin was still wearing her apron as she placed some dishes over the island in the middle of the kitchen. She noticed Kara waiting on the other side of the restaurant, and waved. Her long black hair was pulled into pig tails and her mint shirt was untucked from her jeans. Kara on the other hand was wearing a black jumper and jeans; the two looked in most ways opposites. They were both very brash about what they wore but in different senses of the word.

Kara raised her hand in response, and pointed to the clock; the two would be late for school if Mei Lin took much longer. Alarmed, Mei Lin threw off her apron and grabbed her bag momentarily and rushed after her friend.

'Morning!'

'Hey, I thought it wasn't your shift today?' Kara asked. Mei Lin shouldered her bag and fell in step with her dark haired companion.

'Yeah, but ever since grandma passed away, my parents want me to keep busy, y'know?' Mei Lin brushed away a stray strand of hair. Kara looked down at her messy boots.

'I guess, but shouldn't they cut you some slack? You've been working the entire summer and now that school started you need to rest up.' Kara glanced at Mei Lin's frown.

'I'm not going to object, it doesn't matter anyways.' She paused. 'Did you find out about that weird kid, Will?' she asked with a little more liveliness. Kara rolled her eyes.

'Yes, we went home the same way, he lives on the street behind mine.'

'And? Anything else? C'mon! No one knows anything about him and it's been a week. Something is up with him, believe me.' Mei Lin exclaimed.

'Why do we care anyway? He's just another person that goes to our school.' Kara shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans, and fished out her phone.

'Well, I don't particularly but he sits next to me in math class and we don't talk and that's odd.' Mei Lin was very bubbly and friendly so when someone didn't warm up to her, it was a strange feeling of rejection in her eyes. Of course her friends didn't think so since they liked her anyway.

'Look, I sit behind you and I see that he doesn't really want to talk. Leave him be, Mei Lin.' Kara read the message on her phone and sniggered. Michael had gotten to college and was wondering where his keys were. She tapped out snarky reply and continued on her way with Mei Lin who skipped up to catch a leaf falling from a nearby tree.

The girls reached school and split off to go to their lockers. The kid previously mentioned, Will had a locker next to Kara's however the latter didn't know so until she closed her locker and the one next to hers was opened. The clang of the lockers made her jump. Each one looked up and caught the other's eye. Will was a tall boy with chin length brown hair and a concerned face. His brows we arched slightly in surprise as Kara had seemed caught unawares at the sound of metal closing on metal. A second passed and finally Kara broke off their competitive staring and turned to go. Will stared after her and rolled his eyes. Kara frowned at the encounter as she walked away. Mei Lin was right, something was weird about him.

In class Mei Lin met up with the others; Ashley and Natalia. They waited for Kara and Tia to show up. Tia was sorta friends with the four but also had her distance from them, they'd only really started being friends at the end of the last school year. The summer had come and gone and none of them had heard from Tia. She was somewhat a ghost among them. But now that school had begun, they included her as much as she was there to be included and not somewhere else…

Ashley was a fiery spirit with hair just right to match her personality. She had a flaming, orange mess of locks and freckles peppered across her face, and that stood out from whatever odd combination of jeans and shirt she wore each day. On the other hand Natalia was a calm, sensible girl with dark auburn hair kept in a tidy pony tail. It was bushy and somewhat curley but Natalia kept it in order – it was interesting because whenever no one was around, she liked to loosen it and let it splay around her face.

The trio were sitting at a desk, occasionally glancing towards the door in case either Kara or Tia showed up but the only person which came through the door was a new girl. She had been there last week too but no one had noticed her much. She had long fair hair braided to the side and a grey cardigan. The girl looked about her as she went to sit down at the back of the classroom by which point none of the three were looking at her. Perhaps they should have invited her to sit with them.

Soon, Kara joined her friends and they spoke about today's meeting after school. They were all going to go to Mei Lin's to hang out. Tia had said she couldn't come because she had to help her mother with "chores". It wasn't far from the truth but "chores" were more like a queen's duties. Tia was going to be taught more about the ways of running a kingdom for when her turn came to rule.

'That's okay, Tia, you can come next time or something.' Mei Lin smiled.

'Thanks anyways.' Tia said. Internally she was a little disappointed she had to lie but of course, Meridian was a secret. Her mother had sent her here to study the ways of the earth people and so that she could fit in. Tia didn't want to always be known as the queen's daughter, because in Meridian, that's who she was. Here she was Tia. Just Tia.

The bell was going to ring any moment now, so Tia said her farewells and went to the other classroom hastily. She was the only one of the group in the other class and so they rarely saw her as it was. Once she was gone the three left continued talking.

'Hey, maybe we should invite Cleo.' Ashley piped up. The redhead motioned to the girl sitting at the back of the class. Her head was now buried in a book. The four looked at her in turn. Cleo hadn't made any friends yet, and it was becoming more obvious with every day. Ashley actually felt very sorry for her because that was the same situation she had a couple of years ago before she met Natalia in class over a project.

'Sure, but I don't really know her, guys.' Mei Lin said.

'She seems okay, I'm her lab partner and I guess she's smart, that chemistry assignment from last week? She did it in 10 minutes and it took most people half an hour.' Natalia added.

'Think about how she must feel; she doesn't seem to know anyone and it can get pretty lonely around here. I say we invite her.' Ashley persisted.

'Okay, fine, I have art with her next so I'll ask then.' Kara concluded. The rest nodded and split up when the teacher walked through the door. Will slipped into the classroom at the last moment and rushed to a spare seat next to Cleo. Ashley looked back for a moment and felt a pang of guilt; the cycle of new people coming in was rather sad since they always ended up being alone at the back of the room. She knew she had to do something so she nudged Kara's foot under the desk. Kara shrugged the sleeves of her jumper down a little and gave Ashley a tiny nod as the bell rang.