Teal stared out of the window of the train. Once a year the Tre Terre Train would take people to their new homes, in whichever part of Whaye chosen. This was the train that went from Southwestern Whaye to the border of Southeastern Whaye. She felt enclosed in a small train with about a hundred people in it. Even more, there were government officials patrolling the walkways to be sure that no one dared to alter the balance of the time zones. Like anyone would try. The only things anyone on the train had of Southwestern Whaye were memories, which they weren't supposed to speak of. How was that fair?

The stupid "time police" made sure everything was in check. They could see anything. Even if she was in Trenova and brought up a modern topic she would be prosecuted. What was it with them? She knew that a homeostasis had to be kept, but it made her angry that it would be like she hadn't even lived for the past fourteen years. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She sat alone in the booth. Her mother and her sisters were a few rows back. Teal noticed a girl her age sitting by herself in the booth next to her. The girl had a daydreaming expression on her face and she was looking out of the window. Deciding to be nice, she went and sat by her.

"Hey," Teal said, trying to start a conversation.

"Hmm?" The girl jerked out of her musing. "Oh, hi."

"So, what's your name?"

"Melissa. You?"

"Um..." Nearly everyone who had asked her name in the past had always laughed at her when she said her name was Teal. It was always the same reply: "Isn't that a colour?" Best to try and see if she noticed... "Teal."

"Wow, cool name!" Melissa exclaimed. "Mine's just boring. My parents have nice names, Madalena and Cortez. I have boring Melissa."

"Melissa isn't boring! Every name has its own flair. I like your parent's names too. Where are they?"

She pointed behind her. Teal turned around to see three booths back her parents, a dark skinned couple. It seemed odd, as Melissa had pale-tannish skin. Her mother had long curly black hair like her and a sharp look like daggers out of her ice blue eyes. "Crazy how genetics work, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Where are your parents?" Teal pointed back and diagonally a few rows and Melissa found her family.

"The ones with curly brown hair are Alicia and Elissa, they're the twins. Then the one with blonde hair and the really odd pointy nose is Isulette. And the youngest one who looks like she's depressed with raven-black hair is Rayna. The other is my mom."

"Awesome. So, where are you moving?" she asked. At least she was kind enough not to ask why her father wasn't there.

"Trenova."

"That's where I'm moving! So, why did your parents choose there?"

"I-my mother...I'd rather not talk about it. How about you?"

"Oh," she said bluntly. "It's a long story."

"We still have an hour. I've got time."

"Fine. Well, I'm a shapeshifter. Both of my parents are full-blood, as you noticed by the blue eyes." Teal gave her a confused look. "Okay, I'll have to explain this pretty thoroughly. If you've noticed, I have ocean blue eyes. My parents have blue eyes. Every shapeshifter you'll ever catch on the street will have blue eyes. Now, not every blue-eyed person is a shifter though. Another thing, the more we shapeshift the bluer our blood turns. So if I cut myself and bled right now, you'd see cerulean blood. It turns from scarlet when you first shapeshift, to lavender, to cerulean in about two years."

"About that, you bleed blue? Everywhere?"

Melissa grimaced. "You're such a pervert."

"It's an honest question."

"Yes. Anyway, we can only shapeshift if we have these necklaces on." She pulled a necklace out from under the top of her dress. It had a bright red pendant in the shape of a teardrop. "That's made out of Sabeos, a mineral that is ninety nine point nine nine, blah blah blah, percent unbreakable. We require that to shapeshift."

"And if you don't?"

"That's the thing." She sighed. "If you don't shapeshift, you get a disease called Salforum. It kills you in three months, and there's no cure. So naturally about every parent who has a kid shapeshifter overreacts and tells them to shapeshift everyday."

"But isn't shapeshifting in Southeastern Whaye illegal?"

"Yeah, so you can only do it so often, and no one can know. My parents have pushed me to my limits. 'Shapeshift Melissa, shapeshift, shapeshift, shapeshift!" It continues every day. I really just want to be a normal teenager, with normal problems and a normal life. So I ran away for two weeks."

"You ran away?" Teal asked incredulously.

"Yup. I lived on the outskirts of town for a while. I lived with a teenage girl named Leanne and we tried to live off of the land. My weight dropped really badly and I got sick the first week. That was when I nearly went home, but I got over it. I finally came home when they agreed my parents and I would move here so I would shapeshift less often. That must've been what broke them, either that or the book I put on their nightstand. It was filled with statistics about how often shapeshifters hate their parents and even commit suicide because it drives them crazy. It's not good."

"Wow," Teal murmured. She wanted someone to share her secret with, but she couldn't tell anyone that she was a witch. Ignoring her thoughts, the two girls chattered endlessly until the train arrived. Where Southeastern Whaye began, and so did Teal's story.

**

The family had been riding in a carriage for three hours now. Alicia and Elissa had been hitting their heads on the walls of the carriage when their mother wasn't looking. This was how it would be from now on, not much to do. Not very many books either, very few people could read or write. Their mother had taught them how to read and write in all of the time zone ways, so they could still understand everything here. Finally, they stopped at their house out in the country. At least they were alone.

Everyone went on into the house, and it was only blank for three seconds. Their mother, a much more skilled witch, furnished the house as easy as someone would tie their shoes, unless said person has one hand or is under the age of eight. Teresa put two small beds in one room and three in another. It was the same way in their old house: every once in a while, the sisters changed rooms when they squabbled too often. No one stayed in the same room for long. Teal looked in wonder at how different the furniture was from the kind she had in her old house. This was much darker, more apathetic.

"Hey Mom, can I go for a walk?" Teal asked, yearning to see more of this new world.

"Can you say that the proper way, doll?"

She groaned. "May I go for a walk Mother?"

"Go on, just be back by sundown. Do you want to share a room with Alicia and Elissa?"

"That sounds nice." She walked out before her mother could say anything else. Teal walked around the empty land near her house for a while, then went onto a small road. She came across a lane with some houses on it. In front of one of the houses, a teenage boy looked at her and walked over to her.

"Hello there, are you new to Trenova?" he asked.

"Um...yes, I am actually," she replied, shocked he knew. "Name's Teal, nice to meet you. But how do you know this?" Probably a freakish rapist, lovely of me to say I know nothing about where I just moved, Teal thought.

"I can only tell because girls your age usually don't look up from the ground. And most have a wedding ring on. Moved today, didn't you?"

"Yes, that too." What was this guy, a stalker? The "don't talk to strangers" speech may have came in handy at that moment, but she wanted to know what he was doing.

"Okay, well, I have a few friends around and I'm sure we could introduce you to this lovely country here. If you'll come back here tomorrow, say about noon, I'll show you around with some people. How does that sound?"

"Sir, I don't think I'll be doing that..."

"If it helps, there's going to be some girl named M...something beginning with that." For the love of anything decent, if it's Melissa I'm going to do a backflip. She seemed like a nice girl, why would she agree to something like this? Wait, why am I agreeing to this?
"Only if someone else is there....I suppose I'll be there. One last thing, what's your name?"

He grinned. "Sebastian. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then. Good evening."

Teal turned around and went back home, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Whoohoo! Now that I'm done setting the stage, the play can begin! The next chapter is a very mischievous game between everyone. Melissa's shapeshifter thing needed to be explained, and I also think she's a pretty awesome character. I would so huggles her. Remember, reviews are like chocolate and those really hot chips. One can never have too many. I see how many people look at this, and I accept anonymous reviews, so let's hear those reviews go people!