A/N School was cancelled today because of the weather! I'm not kidding when I say, "Baby, it's cold outside." "I do want to build a snowman" but there isn't enough "Ice, ice, baby," so I'll just have to "Let it go!" Oh, the puns, they burn! Anyhoo, enjoy!

The next morning…

I woke up, cold and surrounded by darkness, in an unfamiliar room. I panicked for a moment before I remembered where I was. It all came back to me in a rush; the leaving, unpacking, and general feeling of misery. I cast around for something else to focus on before I lost my motivation to do anything ever again. My eyes fell on my book boxes and I groaned. Well, here was something to focus on, alright. It was going to bother me until I found a spot for them, so I got up and started walking around, sure I'd find at least something I could put my books on, but there wasn't anything. Nothing at all!

As I was making my final round of the room, I felt a cold draft. I stared around for a window I might have missed, but it was just a blank stretch of wall and the ceiling above it had no cracks in it where it might have come from. Then, I started eyeing the baseboards, hoping to see a line in the moldings that would allow a breeze in, but it was to no avail. I gave up on it and sadly realized that I really had no where in my room for my books. I picked up the boxes and stacked them in a corner, mostly out of the way, but in a prominent enough spot so I wouldn't forget them. I sighed and turned away to finish unpacking the last of my things from the other boxes, not realizing how late it was getting until Mom's voice came through the door from the living room yelling, "Honey, are you up? It's nearly 10 and we want to go meet some of our neighbors."

Fortunately, I was nearly done, so I broke down one of the last boxes and yelled back that I would be ready in an hour and to stop rushing me. She sighed just loud enough for me to hear through the door. I could tell she wished I would speed up in getting dressed, but didn't want to push me. Dealing with me this early in the morning probably wouldn't be fun, but that didn't mean I was going to go out of my way to make it easier.

I tried to hurry up as I took a shower and got dressed in a comfortable pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with the words "Is it just me, or are circles pointless?" emblazoned on the front. Figured I would let people get to know my type of humor from the outset.

Checking the time (I had made it in under 45 minutes), I walked out of my bedroom and into the living room. There was a big window on the far side that led out to a balcony overlooking a small park. The room was spacious and a light beige color with conservative paintings on the walls of various fruit bowls and people, all very well put-together, but completely unimaginative. Where was the color, the famous London culture, the eye-popping creativity? Maybe I was just viewing it as an American hick, but this city was actually a little underwhelming to me from what I had seen already. Well, don't judge a book by its cover, as I always say.

No one else was in the room yet, so I wandered over to the window, looking at all the tiny people strolling along the sidewalks, doing what they did every day. Mom walking into the room interrupted my musings. She seemed surprised to see me there so early, but she quickly got over it and asked how I was holding up. I just nodded, not speaking.

We stood together by the window, just observing the world. Dad and Lizzie finally entered and we set off for the lobby. Most of the residents of Mayfield Apartments had kids, ranging from toddlers to teenagers, so Lizzie and I were swept up in a group of kids who were being shepherded outside to the park I'd seen earlier from the window. Everyone scattered across the grounds, bringing out balls and toys of all kinds. Lizzie ran over to some girls, who were talking to some boys with broomsticks, and was accepted into the group instantaneously. I stared after her wistfully, wishing I could be that extroverted and just run up to someone I didn't know and make friends.

I unexpectedly felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see a girl my age with shoulder-length brunette hair and bright blue eyes smiling at me. Behind her stood people who I suspected were her friends. There were two teenagers, an extremely tall guy with black hair and his polar opposite, a short, blonde girl with glasses. They all seemed to be nice people by the way they were smiling, but my natural shyness made me nervous to talk to them.

"Hi! You're the new tenant, right?"

"Um…yeah, up on the 12th floor."

The boy in the back spoke up. "Really? That's brilliant! We've wanted to check the place out since the last tenant, Mr. Myles, moved out. He was such an eccentric, we thought he must've had a bunch of secret stuff up there. We've always been locked out of the flat and we couldn't get in no matter how hard we tried! Tell me, have you seen any strange walls or paintings that could be concealing a door?" I didn't really want to answer his question because it might lead to them breaking into my apartment to look for secret rooms that may or may not be there in the first place. The thought of the strange draft from earlier started bugging me when he said that, but I ignored it.

The blonde girl elbowed him then stepped forward, saying, "I'm dreadfully sorry. We've just started forcing ourselves on you and you don't even know our names. I'm Jessica Taylor, this beanpole is Max Hall, and the girl standing next to you is Melanie Sinclair. Now that you know our names, what's yours?"

"I-I'm Alexia Hendrix. It's nice to meet you," I said awkwardly. I smiled to make up for it.

I noticed Melanie staring at my shirt, looking very confused. That was everyone's reaction to my t-shirts. I was about to explain it to her when Max spoke up and explained instead. He must have seen the look on Melanie's face and decided to put her out of her misery.

"Get it, because circles are round and don't have any points?" Finally! Someone understood my shirt! I smiled at him, but he didn't notice. Melanie looked confused for a second more then burst out laughing. No one had ever thought my t-shirt was that funny before! Jessica rolled her eyes at Melanie, exasperated but smiling. She looked back at me and gestured to a big, shady tree in the corner of the park.

"You want to join us? We were just about to head over there."

One side of me perked up instantly, but the other side didn't really feel all that into talking to complete strangers. I ignored that half and walked over to the tree with them. When we got there, the only thing I could think to talk about was, "What was Mr. Myles like?" Max immediately went off on a passionate speech about the bitter former tenant.

"Oh, he was horrible to all the kids! He was always yelling at us from his balcony to keep quiet while we were playing in the park. Can you imagine kids playing quietly in a park? Crotchety old git! He worked for the Ministry of Magic, but he was an Unspeakable, you know, the ones who work in the Department of Mysteries (probably why he was so eccentric; working in that department could drive you loopy). So anyway, he probably has loads of secret stuff up there, hidden where nobody can find it. Then he left and we wanted to see if he left anything, but it was already locked up tight the day after he moved out. It's not like anyone was sorry when he left; he'd scowl at anything that moved. I even saw him kick a puppy once, I swear!" Max obviously had a deep-seated grudge against this guy. I couldn't help but wonder why…

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what the Department of Mysteries is, exactly," I said tentatively, interrupting his rant. "Georgie was never the same after-what do you mean?" I felt kind of embarrassed; it was one of my pet peeves, to be looked at like I was stupid, but I just had to know what was behind the mysterious title. "Exactly what I said," I shot back defensively. "I just moved here from America, so I kind of unfamiliar with your system of government. Or your schools…" I pulled a face at that confession, but Jessica piped up. "Well, then, let us remedy your ignorance, fair maiden! We shall set forth on a noble quest to seek the Holy Grail…of knowledge, that is," she proclaimed, suddenly switching into Old English dramatically. I played along with it, feeling amused at this odd group.

"Oh, I thank you, kind lady-knight! We shall have such a quest as has never been undertaken before, one that shall be sung about for years to come!" Hooking arms like the characters in the Wizard of Oz, we set off down the yellow brick road…ah, the park path, back to the apartment building with Max and Melanie walking after us, shaking their heads, but both hiding smiles. Jessica led us to a room on the ground floor just off the lobby. Inside it was shady, but comfortable, with the smell of something baking in the oven. I was wondering why we had just walked into this room, when a tottering old lady came bustling in, saying, "Hello, dearies. Just sit down there and I'll be back with the cookies in two seconds." Either she knew the others or she was just a really accommodating old lady; probably a bit of both. Maybe she was someone's grandmother?

I stared around at the space, so different from my own sitting room. It was darker in here, as was pointed out before, and the view from the windows was defiantly not as lofty. The walls were a vibrant shade of orange, so eye-popping it shocked my eyes every time I looked at it, but it wasn't a bad shock. There were no paintings, but a few drawings done, obviously, by a kid, whoever that was. I liked this woman already!

She came back a few minutes later with a tray of cookies. "You're right on time, as usual. I swear, it's like you can sense them baking! Now, are you here to take advantage of a poor old lady's cookies or is there a special reason for coming?"