I do not own anything in this story, everything, besides Mina, belongs to their rightful owners. Sadly that includes Jerome too. lol

Chapter 4

The next morning was the first day of classes for Mina and Nina, and both girls were nervous beyond words. Mina had 'Mina-fied' her uniform by stitching patches to the jacket and sizing the sweater better so it showed off her curves like a sweater should. She looked at herself in her mirror and had to agree with Nina on one thing. This uniform does not help the Harry Potter idea. She teased her hair one last time before leaving her room to go see how Mina was doing.

When she got up to Nina's room she was surprised to find it empty. Maybe she went down to breakfast already? Mina went back down stairs and headed toward the dining room to hear Patricia say that they should question the 'newbie', meaning Nina. "I'd say question me, Patricia, but I've got nothing to confess. Neither does Nina, I'm sorry to tell you." Mina made her presence known as she took the seat across from Jerome and next to Fabian.

"What about that business with the mirror?" Patricia asked them all. Mina gave Fabian a confused look, but he just shook his head. Jerome chuckled as he buttered his croissant. "What? You don't think I saw anything, do you?" Mina felt bad for Patricia. All she wanted to know was if her best friend was okay. If roles were reverse, and Nina was missing? She'd probably be doing the same thing as Patricia.

"Yes, we do. It's just, Mick saw Alfie hanging out in our corridor last night." Amber told them.

"Not even Alfie would have the nerve to sneak into our bathroom and do something like that." Patricia said to them. She looked over at Mina to see that she had an understanding expression, unlike her own friends who were annoyed with her.

"Are we talking about the same Alfie?" Jerome asked her with complete seriousness. Patricia stayed silent, making Jerome's point quite clear.

"So who do you think did write it then? Joy?" Fabian asked her.

"I don't know. Maybe . . . Maybe Nina wrote it to drive me crazy." Patricia was just determined to blame this all on Nina. All shred of sympathy that Mina had for Patricia just went down every time that she blamed her sister. Jerome saw the look on Mina's face and chuckled.

"I'm not even going to touch that." Mina said as she threw Jerome a look to stop it. She couldn't help but smile though. What could she say? Jerome's laugh was contagious. "Where is Nina anyways? She wasn't in her room." Mina asked the others, thinking that maybe one of them knew where Nina had gone.

"Gone to school early I think." Fabian told her. She nodded, not very surprised by that.

"Awww, she's a geek as well as everything else, is she?" Patricia groaned, hating Nina more and more by the second. Mina shot her a look, ready to say something to her to defend Nina, but Fabian's hand on her arm stopped her.

"I think it's probably more about getting away from us. I mean, we've hardly been very welcoming to her and Mina." Fabian said to the others, glancing at Mina to show her that they hadn't been their nicest to her as well as Nina.

"I know, I was thinking that too. I feel a bit mean." Mara said to them, feeling horrible with how she was treating Nina just because Joy was gone. It wasn't Nina or Mina's fault that Joy was gone, she knew that much.

"I can be very welcoming." Jerome smirked, his eyes locked on Mina. Her eyes narrowed at him. With out even flinching, she kicked him underneath the table hardly, causing him to groan in pain. "Feisty, I like it." He tried to laugh, but his shin was really hurting him now. The others at the table all laughed. She wiped her mouth with her napkin as she got up from her seat.

"I should probably go find her. As much as you'd like to say it, Patricia, Nina's not that much of a nerd to want to go to school early. She's probably just looking around the grounds." Mina said to them as she put her things away in the kitchen.

"Would you like me to come with you, Mina? So you don't get lost in the woods or something?" She heard Fabian ask her from his seat in the dining room. She smiled, knowing that his intentions where not as gentlemanly like as he was trying to sound. He just wanted to see Nina.

"I'll go. I've seen more than young Fabian here." Jerome called out to her. Mina chuckled as she came back into the room and walked over to Jerome. She leaned on his shoulder, her face just inches away from his, not even maybe closer. Jerome tilted his head and smirked, thinking that she had finally come to her senses. She's been here three days now and she had yet to swoon over his charm.

"If you came, how could we talk about you then?" She tilted her head with a smile of her own. Jerome's smirk fell for a second. He heard the girls and Fabian all chuckling at him. "I'll see you guys later." She said as she ruffled Jerome's hair before leaving the room. Fabian didn't miss to notice Jerome staring after Mina, neither had Amber.

She grabbed her bag from her room before leaving the house to go find Nina. Only she ended up not needing to look far. She found Nina only a few feet away with some old lady. "Nina!" Mina shouted out as she jogged over to them. Nina gave her a look and she slowed down. Mina knew that Nina didn't want to frighten the older woman.

"Hey, Min. Sarah, this my cousin Mina. Mina, this is Sarah. She says that she use to live here." Nina explained to Mina. She nodded and gave Sarah a warm smile. Sarah seemed to brighten up upon seeing both girls in front of her.

"Its you! Your both here." She said to the girls. Mina looked at Nina confused, but she just shrugged, silently telling her that she didn't know.

"Hello, Sarah. So you lived here before? That's sounds pretty cool. Would you like to come inside and warm up or something?" Mina asked the older woman. She seemed to freeze at the mention of going inside of the Anubis house though.

"I've already asked her. I've called the old home to tell them that she was here. I'm going over there to talk to her for a bit when they come to pick her up." Nina explained to her sister. Mina nodded that she understood. Nina would be missing at least first peirod then. Knowing Nina, she could get away with missing one class.

"Okay, well I'll see you later then, Nina. It was nice meeting you, Sarah. Maybe I can come by to see you soon. I have to get to class soon though so I'm not late." Mina said nicely to the old woman. Nina nodded, giving her a quick hug good bye. Nina and Sarah watched as Mina walked off to go get to her first class, or at least get an idea of where she was going.

Mina was walking down the hall of the school alone when she suddenly found herself lost. She must have written down that number wrong. Did that kid say third or fourth floor? God, she really should have taken that map. She stopped in the middle of the hallway, not even knowing where she was anymore. She groaned in annoyance and threw her head back.

"Well, I'd say that you're lost, luv." She jumped at the unexpected voice and spun around to see a boy standing behind her. He was cute, but she's seen cuter. He wasn't as tall as Jerome, nor did his hair have that funny look to it. He was about her height, and had brown short hair. She shook her head, why the heck was she comparing this guy to Jerome?

"I'd say that I was am too." She laughed out as she took out her class schedule and moved closer to him. Maybe he would know where she was suppose to be right now. "Maybe you can fix that for me? Do you know where . . . room 54b is?" Mina asked the boy, showing him her paper.

"Uh, yeah. It's just below this floor and just your luck, right by the stairs." The boy laughed to her as he handed her back her paper. "I'm Brandon by the way." The boy said to her as they made their way toward the stairs. Mina blushed and smiled at him.

"I'm Mina." She smiled as they walked down one flight of stairs together. Just like he had said, her class was right by the stairs. She noticed that Alfie and Jerome were standing at the lockers near the door. Oh great.

"So, just so you don't get lost again, maybe I can show you around campus sometime? Maybe around town as well?" Brandon asked her. She felt her cheeks blush. She didn't know what to say. A part of her was screaming to say yes, but a bigger part of her was telling her to say no.

Alfie glanced past Jerome and saw some guy talking to Mina. He frowned, hoping the the guy wasn't doing what he thought he was doing. Jerome caught up to the fact that Alfie wasn't paying any attention to him at all. He looked behind him and frowned. He could tell by the body language that the guy was asking Mina out, but he could tell that she hadn't answered him yet. He motioned Alfie that he would see him later before he went over to them.

"There you are, I was starting to get worried. Thanks for finding her, mate. How's history by the way?" Jerome said as he came up behind them, wrapping his arm around Mina's shoulders. She looked up at him in shock, not knowing if she liked him interrupting or not. Brandon seemed to get the message and took off faster than Mina had seem any boy run before. She spun around on her heels, swatting Jerome's hand off of her shoulder.

"What do you think you are doing?" She asked him angrily, but he could tell that she wasn't exactly as mad at him as she seemed.

"Saving you of course. Do I get a kiss for being your knight in shining armor now?" Jerome asked her, puckering his lips as he leaned down toward her. She froze where she stood. She couldn't believe him! She gave him a nice hard slap before storming off into the class room. Jerome rubbed his jaw, nodding as he realized that she wasn't going to be easy to win over.

"Now, that was funny." Alfie laughed as he came up behind Jerome. Jerome narrowed his eyes at Alfie and glared at him. That was not funny at all to him. Alfie was just happy that Mina didn't kiss him, or let him kiss her, either way there would have been a kiss.

"She so wants me." Jerome was serious.

"How do you know? Cause, I would think that a slap means the opposite of that." Alfie asked him as they walked into the class room that Mina had gone into a minute ago. They took their seats in the back of the room, Jerome's eyes next leaving the back of Mina's head.

"Opposites attract. More importantly though, it's all about body language, my dear friend. I moved in far too quickly on the girl. Mina is obviously going to be much harder to charm than the usual girls here. She won't be able to deny me after long though." Jerome explained to his friend next to him. Alfie frowned, hoping that Jerome was wrong for once. Only time would tell though, and hopefully time was on his side when concerning Mina.