They pulled into the student parking lot at five 'til eight and ran to their first period classes. Taja bolted into Physics class and took the vacant seat next to Liz just as the bell rang.
"You cut it closer and closer every day. One of these days all three of you are gonna end up expelled for too many tardies," Liz said wryly.
"Hey, it's not all my fault," Taja smiled. "I'm not the one who lounges in bed all morning praying that it's not really a new day."
"Yeah, Michael and Maria both do that. The reason she got her mom's car back during freshman year was because she could never make the bus on time."
"Michael told me he never used to come to school on time unless he got rides from Max or Isabel until he fell for Maria." She shifted in her rock-hard school desk. "Most of the time he didn't even come to school."
Liz followed suit, trying to find a way that her butt wouldn't go numb for the next hour. "You got that right. In tenth grade, I had an English class with him and I didn't even know it until he came in the day before Christmas Break. The teacher nearly fell out of his desk in shock."
Groaning could be heard from the front of the classroom as Mr. Madoc lifted his girth out of his own government-owned desk. "Today, we will be studying the composition of electrons within specific elements. I know this is a review from Chemistry but hey, today's the Friday before Spring Break and I figured I'd give up something easy. I'll take all 'thank you' letters up at my desk."
"Woohoo!" Taja sat up immediately. "Now I get to fake my way through another subject I didn't take."
"What have you been doing to get through this year if you haven't taken Biology or Chemistry? You've got an 'A,' which is really hard to get senior year anyway." Liz was shocked. It almost made life too easy.
Taja grinned in a way Liz had only seen Michael use before he did something devious. "Kytanna taught me to scan. All I have to do is study something for a while and I've got it memorized."
"Wow, that's really cool!" Aliens suck!
"Yeah, so how do you do electron configuration?" She slid closer to glance at Liz's paper.
* * * * *
On the other side of the school, Maria, Michael, Max, and Isabel took their seats in their AP Literature class. Ms. Lombard was being particularly difficult this year as she was pregnant and experiencing mood swings. Already today, she had some obnoxious kid sent to in-house for tapping his pen against his desk persistently.
Isabel ran her fingers through her thick blond hair, almost pulling out strands in frustration. "You'd think she'd just go ahead and have her baby already. What, isn't she passed her due date?"
"By two weeks," Maria mumbled from the bottom of the pile of arms she had her head buried in. "I thought they'd induce labor by then?"
"That's what I'd think," the blond replied.
Maria glanced at Michael and laughed. "Are we making you uncomfortable with all the baby talk?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Not really. You should look at Max, though. I think he got like three shades paler at the thought of forcing Ms. Lombard to have her baby."
"Hey, I can't help it! The thought of giving some poor woman drugs just to force a person out of her just seems kind of inhumane." Max sat up, red in the face.
"Don't you mean barbaric?" Isabel giggled
"Shut up!" Max blushed even redder than he already was.
Maria burst out laughing. "I take it you've heard this speech before."
Isabel rolled her eyes. "Only like three times."
"When the hell would you have heard a speech like that?" Michael woke up fully to hear the tale.
Isabel started, laughter never leaving her voice. "Our aunt was pregnant two years ago and she was almost two months overdue. They finally induced labor and Max freaked out. He stormed around the house for a week informing everyone involved how barbaric it was. He'd even pulled research off the internet about the drugs used and the side effects."
Max smacked the back of her arm. "You know, no matter how much you make fun of me, I'll still know the truth."
"Whatever, guy." Isabel smacked the back of his neck playfully.
Maria's head finally popped up. "Hey, before this turns into a full fledged sibling thingy, I'm gonna need Van Henry's homework."
"Michael began to rub the back of her neck with care. "Yeah, ditto on that."
Max was rubbing the back of his neck as well. "Don't you guys do anything when you get home?"
"We do stuff…" Michael kissed the area he had been caressing.
The sister he shared with Max pressed her fingers over her eyes and moaned. "You know, if it's all the same to you, I would prefer not to know all of the sexual shit that you do at home."
Michael scowled. "That's not even what I was talking about, you pervert. Besides, I'm not just gonna brag to you people about what goes on between Maria and I. It's private and special and only ours."
"Aww, Michael." Maria ran her hand down Michael's cheek.
"Wow, that was really sweet." Isabel sighed.
Ms. Lombard cleared her throat in agitation. "Evans, Guerin, DeLuca. Why aren't you doing your assignment? I could have sworn that I wrote it on the board. Don't you see it?"
"Yes, ma'am"
"We'll get started right away."
* * * * *
Far away from the scrambling teens, a group of sisters were gathered around a book, speaking to a shimmering apparition.
"You will have to tell her eventually. She can't be kept out of this any longer."
"But Grams, she's only eighteen. She doesn't need to be dragged into this. Especially not now, with the Source still actively pursuing us."
"Yeah Grams, she's still an innocent. When she learns about us, there won't be any going back."
"I would want to know." The newest addition to the family spoke readily. Both of her sisters looked at her with amused "I-told-you-so" expressions.
The eldest spoke. "What about all that fuss you put up when you realized you were our sister witch? I could have sworn you wanted to stay the hell away from you and turn back time, if possible."
She crossed her arms over her chest defensively, "That was different. Besides, looking back, I can now say that I'm the better for it. We should tell her."
"Piper?"
"All right. Let's go to New Mexico."
