Anemone dashed into school and ran into homeroom, panting. Akira had left without her, lest he would be late. Her alarm clock had failed to go off for some unknown reason.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, just as the morning announcements came on. Various people were called to various offices, no one ever paid attention. Then Nem heard her own name. To the Main Office. She gulped and gathered up her things before heading out of the room.

"Anemone Dayo, the principal would like to see you," the secretary said, her expression unreadable.

"Anemone, have a seat," said the principal, after Nem had shut the office door behind her. Anemone did as she was told.

"What's this about, Mrs. Adal?" Anemone asked nervously. She received a stern look from the principal and flinched. She honestly couldn't think of anything that could be wrong.

"This is serious, Anemone. A locker search was conducted this morning and we found this in yours," Mrs. Adal said, thrusting a small bag of white powder at her. Anemone gazed at it stupidly.

"Uh, what is it? It's not mine," she said. This only angered her principal.

"Don't play dumb! You know very well what that is! How did you get it? Where or who did you get it from? I expected so much more from you, Anemone. Your parents will be notified of this, of course, and will deal with you accordingly. We won't call the police, since you don't even have a demerit otherwise, but you are being suspended for the time being."

Anemone looked at her principal with a mixture of horror and fear as realization dawned on her. The stuff in the bag was cocaine. And it had been found in her locker.

"Mrs. Adal! You've got to believe me! That's not mine, I swear! I wasn't even HERE this morning! I came in late. Someone had to have put it there, I don't use that, I don't know where to even get it, not that I would, and there has to be some mistake-" Nem began to cry. Mrs. Adal softened a little, but her mind was made up. She quickly stiffened her resolve.

"Anemone, I know this is hard for you to admit, but we can get you help. We're only looking out for your best interests. You can tell me, where did you get it?" Mrs. Adal's voice was soothing, but it did nothing to calm down the hysterical girl in front of her. The principal dialed out, and soon Mr. Marcellin was in the office, distraught. He looked at his daughter with an expression of disbelief, as if he'd been betrayed or let down.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Adal, we didn't know," he was saying. Anemone had blocked him out. How could this happen? Why didn't they believe her? Like the principal had said, she didn't even have a demerit on her record. For anyone to think Anemone Dayo Marcellin was a drug addict was absolutely preposterous. But it was happening. Dully, she and her father left the school building and drove home in silence.

"Dad?" She asked quietly. He glanced over at her, but said nothing. "Dad, you can't really believe that stuff's mine, can you?" Still he was silent. A solitary tear ran down Nem's cheek as she realized he did believe it. She slumped in her seat as the car pulled up to the house. Anemone locked herself in her room. She heard Akira get home from school, Paul had gone over Max's; heard his father's muffled voice telling him what happened. Would he believe it? She didn't know, didn't WANT to know. There was a soft knock at her door.

"Go away," she said, her voice hardly above a whisper.

"Nem, it's Akira. Please open the door," his voice sounded strained. Sighing, Nem did so.

"What? Do you want to scold me, too? Tell me you expected more? Do you think I've let down the whole family?" She cried, bursting into tears once again. Akira gave her a hug.

"Nem, I know you're always out of it, but it's not drugs. That's just you, little sis. You're that psychotic. God only knows how much more whacked out you'd be if you WERE on drugs," he said, knowingly. For the first time that day, Anemone laughed.

"I'm so glad you believe me," she said. "No one else does. I don't want to know what's going to happen to me when Mom 'finds out.'"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anemone and Akira were tense as they made their way to the dinner table. Their mother sat in her seat, not looking at anyone. Their father was bringing the food out to the table. Mrs. Marcellin looked up at Anemone, and the girl saw disappointment, love, sadness, pity, and... was that loathing? on her face. She involuntarily backed away from the table.

"Mom?" She whispered. Her mother sat as stonily as before. Then, after what seemed like an enternity, she looked once again at her daughter. Her expression still hadn't changed.

"Anemone. How could you do this?" Her words sounded strangled, as if she were trying very hard not to cry and it wasn't working, "your father and I were talking." At this, Mr. Marcellin looked down at his plate, his appetite suddenly gone. He knew what was coming, what he and his wife and decided on, and while neither of them liked it very much, they felt they had no choice.

"We know this is hard for you. It's hard on all of us," a swift glance at Akira revealed nothing, and the woman continued, "we've thought of many possibilities, but nothing seems like it would be effective."

"Effective?" Anemone swallowed hard, and put down her fork. She suddenly wasn't hungry anymore, either.

"Yes, effective. We don't like it, but we think it's the only way. We don't know who's your... supplier or anything like that," she spit these words out, "but we think the only way to help you is.... to send you to boarding school. Just for a lit-" Anemone rose so quickly her chair fell over.

"Mom, no! You can't! It's not mine, don't you understand!? Why won't anyone believe me?! You can't do this! I can't go away, not now! Please, don't do this. You're wrong! Please!" Anemone was pleading, but she could tell from the look in her mother's eyes that it was tearing her heart out not being able to relent.

"Anemone, it's for your own good, you see? They can help you while you're there; it's only for a little while. Then you can come home and move on with your life, and we can deal with whatever caused this..." the mother trailed off. Nem ran from the room, crying. Akira just stared at them both.

"Why are you doing this? Why don't you believe her? She's obviously not on drugs, you know..." He started. A look from his father silenced him.

"The cocaine was found in her locker. I saw the stuff myself. There was an entire baggy full, Akira. People don't just have bags of illegal drugs lying around in their lockers," he said harshly.

"How do you know it's hers? Someone could have put it there by mistake... She wasn't even in school this morning! And if it was hers, why would she have left it there?" He was grasping at straws.

"How should I know? I don't know how someone on drugs thinks," this last part was sad with a note of horror. "Why would someone put something as expensive as that in a person's locker by mistake, Akira? I'm sorry, I know you're very close to your sister, but there's nothing else to say. This discussion is closed," his father finished wearily. Akira, too, rose from the table and strode from the room. The cold food sat untouched, and Mrs. Marcellin went about cleaning up.

Meanwhile, at the Takeshi's:

"Oh my God, you guys, come here! Look at this!" Kari shouted. The mirror had just flown out of its spot to levitate in the middle of the room, only this time the glow around it turned an opaque black. The mirror could hardly be seen through the foggy glow. The four girls stared at it curiously.

"What does it mean?" Whispered Tess. The cats were not home, or they would've had an answer, maybe.

"I don't know. It can't be good though... That, that blackness! It looks so evil," said Ren, shivering. Kari's eyebrows shot up.

"Well, yeah, it's definitely creepy, but evil? Come on, Ren, you said so yourself, that mirror's connected to us somehow, and we are certainly not evil," she said. Still, Ren couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong. Ariana chewed her lip thoughtfully.

"I think we should call Nem. She got called to the office and no one's seen her since," she said. Kari leaned over and got the cordless phone off her desk, then dialed. Nem picked up the phone in her room after only one ring. She must've been in the room.

"Hi, Nem. What's up?" Kari asked. The other girls crowded around to try and hear the conversation. Kari's brow furled as she listened intently to whatever Nem was saying. She gasped.

"Nem, no! They can't do that!" The three girls still in the dark began clamoring to know what was wrong.

"Ohh, we'll fix this, somehow. There's got to be a way," Kari said, her voice sounding slightly doubtful. "Well, I'll let you go for now. We'll come over tomorrow, after school, ok?" Then she hung up. Ana, Ren, and Tess practically jumped her. Kari explained the whole thing. Tess began to cry.

"How could this happen? We know it's not hers, but where'd it come from? And WHY?" Asked Ariana. Everyone shrugged.

"She leaves the day after tomorrow, her parents made the arrangements tonight," Kari said, sighing. With all this new commotion, the mirror had been forgotten. It had, by now, returned to its blue glow and was lying on the floor.