Serena slipped through the large doors quietly and into the hall of noisy pages. Her ears twitched at the noise and she looked around, surprised at the undisciplined pages. In Shang they followed a strict set of rules, they were not rowdy or noisy and there was no way that they would be allowed to do some of the things she saw being done here.

Serena made her way across the hall and picked up a tray and some food.

Staring at the food she was surprised, she hadn't eaten very much in the last year and a half and the amount of food on that she had was huge to her.

She shook her head, maybe living here wouldn't be so bad, she could sneak food out to Scat and the other urchins and she would get a proper bed.

Her eyes roved the hall and she went towards a relatively empty table. Setting herself at the end, away from the others she put her head down and scoffed her food. For the first time in a year and a half she was properly clean, had enough food to eat and had a bed to look forward to at night. It was something she had missed.

"Hey, are you new? I didn't know they accepted people at this time of year?" a tall laky boy across from her queried, he had black hair, grey eyes and looked genuinely curious.

"Yeah, well Alanna the Lioness seems to have her own rules" She said then turned back to her food and started eating again; trying to make it bluntly obvious that she didn't want to talk. But whether the boy was stupid or stubborn, he kept at it.

"You know Alanna then?"

"No"

"Er" the boy stumbled and the girl next to him broke in, "Robin's a stubborn mule, he'll never give up, you might as well just tell him what he wants to know" the girl had bright flaming hair and piercing, black eyes, her face distinctly reminded Serena of Alanna.

"Hey, I'm Kat, or Katrina if you want but Kat's good. This is Robin" she said pointing at the lanky youth "and this is Chelsea" gesturing at a tiny girl with blond hair and blue eyes.

"Me and Kat are in our second year and Chelsea's in her first, you are too I suppose?"

"No" Serena replied bluntly, then sighed when she saw their faces.

"I'm eleven, in my second year; I just wasn't here for my first one"

"Why did you only start this year?" Chelsea asked, looking at her, Serena saw strength in her gaze. But Serena didn't want to tell and glared straight back.

"None of your business!"

All three of them seemed quite affronted at her rudeness, Chelsea seemed annoyed but cowed and Robin turned away slightly embarrassed, but Kat seemed angry.

"There's no need to be rude, we're just trying to be your friends, but apparently you'd rather we didn't!" she huffed. Serena decided she liked this feisty girl.

"Right," Serena smiled "calm down, surely you don't expect me to start spilling my secrets to any random people who ask"

Robin looked up from where he had been staring intently at his food. "Of course not, but be careful with Kat here, she inherited her grandma's temper"

This piqued Serena's interest. "Whose her grandma?"

"No one less than the lioness herself"

Serena raised her eyebrows "Really, I thought you looked like her"

Kat smiled. "So people have said, so are we friends?"

Serena decided what the hell, it looked like she might be here for a while and there was no reason not to have friends in the palace, "Friends" she agreed.

The three grinned. "And I just have to ask…is that hair colour natural?"