Chapter 2

Goode High School didn't look very goode at all to Aria. It loomed up before them like a prison, a miserable-looking brown stone prison. The fifth stone prison in five years for Aria. Zayne complained every time they had to switch schools. And when their mother had announced that they had just moved from florida he had really complained. It was a hard hit for them Cement stairs led up to the entrance with an archway overhead. Aria glanced at Fae, who was already on the fifth step. She looked back.

"What's wrong? Still want the grand tour?" Fae giggled as Aria stared at her.

"Grand? Don't you mean bland?" she replied doubtfully. The parking lot was filled with flashy BMWs and Lincoln Town cars. Here goes nothing, Aria thought as they marched up the stairs and tried to navigate to the front office. Everything inside was gray, a dirty dishwater gray to be exact. Your typical middle-aged graying secretary popped her gum loudly. Her hair was in a tight bun and her eye make-up and blush was too bright. A #2 pencil behind her ear completed this season's Old School Secretary look. She eyed them as they came in.

"Yes, dear? Why are you back? Has there been an issue with your schedule?" she said in a nasally voice. Aria blinked in confusion. What?

"I, uhm, came to get my schedule," she said tentatively, shrugging her shoulders at Fae. The secretary gave an airy laugh.

"You were just in here, don't be silly, Arin!" the secretary exclaimed. Aria frowned.

"Actually, it's Aria, ma'am. Maybe you met my brother already, Zayne Starwood? But I need to get to class, so can I have my schedule, please?" Aria plastered on a fake smile to hide her annoyance. The old lady's eyes widened, realizing she was serious.

"Aria Starwood? I'm sorry, it's just that you resemble someone who came to get their schedule already. You don't have a sister?" The lady typed a few things into the computer and an ancient printer shuddered to life. Fae gave her a questioning look and Aria mouthed I don't know.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Just my brother, unfortunately," Aria answered as she was handed a map of the school, her schedule, and her locker number and combination. "Thanks." She grabbed Fae by the arm and dragged her out of the front office.

"What was that all about? That was weird," wondered Fae as they walked. She reached over and tried to grab Aria's schedule, which she hadn't even gotten a chance to look at yet. "Lemme see! I wanna compare classes!"

"But I haven't even looked at it!" Aria held it over her head out of Fae's reach. She jumped up trying to get her schedule and Aria laughed. "Okay, here. You win, just stop embarrassing me." She gave in and dropped the schedule . Fae snatched it up.

"First block, English II. Second block, Algebra II Honors. Third block, Latin. Then it's lunch, everyone eats in the courtyard at the same time. Fourth block, Chemistry," she read aloud, her eyes scanning the page. "Yay! We have English II and Latin together! And lunch, of course!"

"That's great!" Aria smiled as she stopped in front of her locker, #003. She spun it three times clockwise, stopped on the 26, spun it counterclockwise to the 19, clockwise to the 9, and the other way to the 7. It popped open and she shoved her soccer stuff in. Fae bounced impatiently on the balls of her feet.

"C'mon! We're already five minutes late, Aria!" she whined. Aria rolled her eyes. She didn't have a problem being fashionably late on her first day; it'd show people she wasn't such a Goode-two-shoes. She shut her locker and she trailed behind as Fae skipped, yes skipped, to first block.

"Are you like ADHD or something, Fae?" Aria glanced at her. Aria had ADHD, but seriously Fae was hyper as hell.

"Actually, I am!" Fae sang. "C'mon. Almost to Mr. Stanley's English class!" She stopped outside of a heavy oak door and went right in, heading for a empty desk in the back of the room. Aria followed suit more slowly as she felt everyone's eyes on her.

"Nice of you to join us, Miss Montgomery," droned Mr. Stanely right as Fae dropped her pencil. She bent down quickly and picked it up, brushing her hair out of her face. "And nice of you to join us as well, Miss...?" He left the sentence unfinished. Aria halted at the front of the room, unsure of what was expected of her: sit down or answer, then sit down?

"Starwood. I mean, Aria Starwood," answered Aria, making her escape to the back of the room. She slid into an empty desk next to Fae. The class turned in their seats to get a better look at her. She heard a few whispers that hung in the air.

"...looks like..."

"...sure it isn't her?..."

"...could be sisters..."

Someone cleared their throat loudly. Mr. Stanley stood at the front of the room, looking very small and hunched over. He had a bald spot and what little hair he had left was pure white.

"Would you mind telling us about yourself, Miss Starwood?" he asked in a monotone voice. Aria looked at Fae for help, who just shrugged in reply. The teacher looked at her expectantly.

"Uhm...sure? I'm Aria and I just moved here from Florida with my mom and my brother, Zayne, who's a year older. It's a lot different than Florida, is all I can say." He nodded and a murmur of "Hi, Aria," rippled across the room.

"I'm sure we'll all try to make you feel welcome on your first day at Goode High School," and with that he dove straight into the lesson. After handing out battered copies of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and each person's book was assigned a number, he spent the rest of the period giving them a history lesson about Shakespeare's early life. As the bell rang shrilly, students filed out of the classroom.

"Hey, I've got World History next and it's on the other side of the school, so I gotta go! I'll catch you in Latin, Aria!" In half a second, Fae disappeared out the door into the traffic jam of students. Someone bumped into Aria and she dropped her schedule. She bent down to scoop it up, but someone was already holding it out to her.

"Looks like we've got Algebra II together," somebody commented as she looked up. A boy with a black beanie pulled down over his ears stood in front of her. He had curly brown hair and brown doe eyes. He had a wispy little beard starting, too, Aria noticed. "I'm Cam. I sit in the front of the cla-"

"Mr. Redfern, that'll be your third detention this week for wearing that hat. How many times must I tell you hats are not allowed to be worn at anytime during the school day. It belongs in your locker." Mr. Stanley glared at Cam with beady eyes as he scribbled a detention and handed it to him. He turned to Aria. "And you, Miss Starwood, make sure you and Miss Montgomery aren't late again or I will have no choice, but to write you both a detention. Are we understood?" She nodded and he started shuffling papers on his desk. Aria nodded in the direction of the hallway to get Cam to walk with her.

"Come on, before you get written up for breathing," she hissed and started walking in the direction of her next class. Cam trotted after her, still wearing the hat. "And aren't you going to take that off?"

"No, I'll risk another detention," replied Cam, changing the subject. "So you're new here?" Aria nodded, already sick of answering that question. He seemed to catch on. "And you're just diving straight into Algebra II Honors?"

"Math isn't hard for me. It's the next block that I'm worried about," confessed Aria. Latin. She'd never taken it before in her life. Cam loped beside her to Algebra II, which went off without a hitch. They split up into groups and worked on math problems for the whole block and Cam somehow managed to get put in her group. Just one more class until lunch. Aria was starving. Fae met Aria at the door for Chemistry.

"How was Algebra with your new friiieeennndd?" Fae was being nosy asking about Cam, who'd disappeared into a throng of students right after Algebra. Aria shrugged.

"He's cool, super nice," she answered as she slid into a desk next to Fae. Fae hmphed and put her chin in her hands at the vague information.

"Salve genus." Hello class, Aria thought a fraction of a second before half the class chorused "Salve," back to the teacher. She found herself saying it automatically while others stayed silent, not knowing what it meant.

"What did she say?" hissed Fae. "How did you know what she said? I thought you've never taken Latin!"

"I must have heard it on TV somewhere," Aria whispered, turning back to face the front and pushing the incident out of her mind. Class had begun and she didn't need to catch detention after Mr. Stanley had already threatened her earlier with it. They started conjugating Latin verbs for the duration of class and before long the lunch bell rang. Finally.

"Let's go EAT," Fae said, springing to her feet and grabbing her bag. Aria nodded and collected her books as her stomach rumbled. She could go for a slice of pizza for sure. Her hunger made her forget about the weirdness of the start of her day. Her and Fae got in the lunch line in the courtyard. The courtyard was a big open space in the middle of the school where all the students gathered to eat during lunch. They each got a slice of pizza, a chocolate chip cookie, and a milk, a tradition of theirs. Aria couldn't wait to sink her teeth into it as she turned around, lunch tray in hand.

"Hey, Fae so how wa-" WHAM! Aria collided into something mid sentence, her pizza going flying and milk splattering everywhere. She fell back on her butt and lunch trays clattered to the floor, food flying. Fae had managed to escape the milk danger zone with a squeal as she stepped back several paces. For the second time that day she was knocked to the ground.

"Are you okay?" a voice asked. Aria's head throbbed and she cradled her milk-drenched head with her hand. Her waist length hair was all in her face. Fae got on her knees next to her, setting her tray on the floor.

"Ohmigod, Aria, are you okay?" she asked concerningly.

"I think so…?" It sounded more like a question than it did an answer. She didn't really know who she was answering, Fae or the mystery voice. She grabbed the hand that was extended to her and got pulled up. She smoothed her wet hair out of her eyes. She felt for her seashell necklace automatically. It was gone.

"Oh, no! My necklace!" she said hysterically, blindly feeling the pavement for her necklace her mother had given her. "Where is it?!"

"Is this what you're looking for?" the voice asked. A hand showed up in her field of vision with her necklace curled up in the center of the palm with drops of milk on it, but intact. Aria took it carefully to dry off on her shirt and fastened it around her neck again safely. The hand was still extended down to help Aria up.

"Thank you so much!" Aria took the hand and pulled herself up, dragging Fae up with her. "You have no idea-" And that's when she finally saw who she ran into. She stopped. She hit her head too hard. That had to be it.

"What in the…?" Aria's voice trailed off as she squinted at the girl who had helped her up. Her palm clutched the side of her head that throbbed.

She was staring at herself.