She walked up to them cautiously. Now that she was so close to them she was beginning to feel shy and nervous. Amethyst ran her long-nailed fingers through her soft blonde hair nervously. She wasn't quite sure how to begin. She hadn't had much experience with people before. "Uhm," she said quietly. It was no good. The two just kept on walking. 'Drat,' Amethyst said to herself. "Hello?" she tried again, a little louder, but not much. Her eyes became mere slits for a second, and then they extended again. 'I must get their attention!' she told herself. 'Don't be so foolish, be assertive!' She walked up to the red-haired girl and tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me." The red-haired girl turned and the boy looked over his shoulder. The shyness returned in full strength and Amethyst's voice lost the strength it had had the second before. "I'm new here, and-"
The girl cut her off. "D'you need help getting to your classes?"
Amethyst was a bit indignant about being interrupted, but she mused that the girl had just been trying to be helpful. "Yes," she said. "Will you help me?"
"No prob," the girl said. "What's your name?"
Amethyst bit her lip. From her sparse knowledge of the human world she had collected she knew that Amethyst was a rare name. She also knew, in the back of her mind, that she was being searched for, so keeping her given name wouldn't be a good idea. She smiled smugly as a new name came to mind. One that wasn't unusual and was close enough to her true name for her to not get confused. "Amy," she answered.
"My name's Kim," the girl answered. Her emerald eyes traveled over to her blonde-haired friend, who had turned to face them now. "He's Ron."
"Hi!" Ron said, grinning.
Rufus stuck his head out of Ron's pocket. "Hi!" he echoed his human companion.
Amethyst tensed. A rodent? Why did one of them have to have a rodent? She struggled to contain herself, but the very sight of the little hairless thing was alluring. She remembered the days of chasing the rats around the laboratory out of boredom, watching them squeal between her fingers. She shook her head. Those days were over. She smiled at the creature. She wasn't some rat-chasing freak anymore. "It's nice to meet you all," she said sweetly, keeping the smile fixed on her lips. As they turned to take her to her 'classes', the smiled dropped into a frown and her eyes quickly changed into slits. This was going to be much harder than she'd thought.
~*~*~*~
Kim had been surprised to find Amy in all of her classes, and even more surprised to find out that the new girl was a super-brain. She seemed to think like a super-computer, belting out answers left and right. Her hand had stayed raised for most of the time in almost every class, and she was quickly growing on the teachers. It annoyed her a bit, as she was used to being the 'over-achiever', but she couldn't help but like Amy all the same. 'And', she told herself, 'it would be shallow to not like somebody over something like that.'
A familiar musical beeping from her pocket interrupted Kim's silent musings. She reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out the Kimmunicator, which flashed and revealed Wade, Kim's 'techno-wiz' friend. "Hey Wade, what's up?"
"Hey Kim," Wade said. "Anyways I just got an urgent message from the Genetics Club of America-"
"The what?"
"That's what I thought," Wade said with a grin. "They're a bunch of wacko scientists like DNAmy, only they don't use humans in their experiments, just their DNA."
"So what's the sitch with 'em?" Kim asked.
Wade began typing, his fingers running across the keyboard as quick as possible. "It looks like they lost one of their experiments, and a really important one, too." He broke off for a second. "Her name's Amethyst."
"Amethyst? Isn't that some sort of a gem?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yup," Wade said. "Anyways, I bet you can't guess what the GCA wants you to do." His tone was sarcastic.
"They want me to find this experiment and bring her back to them, right?" Kim said, placing one of her hands on her hips. She rolled her eyes. People were getting to be so predictable.
"Exactly," Wade said.
Kim sighed. "What else can you tell me about this experiment?"
Wade peered at his computer screen. "She's half cat-"
"Half cat?"
"Yeah," Wade said. "Here's a picture of her."
The screen flashed to show a photograph of a girl who appeared to be about Kim's age, with long, black streaked blonde hair and slitted yellow eyes. Two vampire-like teeth came down a bit below her pink lips, her ears were pointed like an elf's would be, and they were lightly covered with fur the same color as her hair. Her face was oddly formed, and bulged out a bit further than a normal person's. Kim peered closer at the image. There was something very familiar about that girl. "Is there anything else I should know about her?"
"Yeah," Wade said. He grinned. "It's not something you should worry about, though. It says that she took an old spell book that one of the scientist's were studying, and should be considered highly dangerous." He chuckled. "Better watch out for some 'abra kadabra' if you spot her."
Kim snickered. "Yeah right," she said. "Is that all?"
"Yep," Wade answered her.
"Alright," Kim said. "I'll look out for her."
Wade waved as Kim switched off the Kimmunicator. She sighed. She was really getting some weird missions lately.
~*~*~*~
Amy looked at the naco in front of her with suspicion. "Is this thing even edible?" she asked Kim, who sat next to her.
"Of course it is!" Ron said. "I invented it." He grinned smugly as he downed most of his and handed Rufus the chunk that was left. He rubbed his tiny black paws together and began chomping into it, spilling little bits of meat and sauce everywhere.
Amy raised an eyebrow and pushed hers away in disgust. "For some reason, that doesn't make me feel any better."
"Soooo.. you're not eating it?" Ron asked.
"No way," Amy answered.
"Cool!" Ron said, grabbing it and wolfing it down.
Kim sighed and rolled her eyes. Ron was her best friend in the world, but sometimes he could be a bit too.. male. It would be nice to have some female company around besides the other members of the Mad Dog Squad.
The Kimmunicator's distinct beeps chimed again.
Amy's head darted around like a viper's. Her eyes narrowed into slits for a split second, an action that wasn't spotted by Ron or Kim. Rufus had seen it, though. He rubbed his eyes with his paws, trying to clear his vision. "Huuh?" he squealed looking into her amber eyes. They had returned to normal. He scratched his hairless head, but decided that he'd just been seeing things.
"What was that?" Amy hissed.
Kim, surprised by her new friend's outburst, answered, "The Kimmunicator."
"What's that?" Amy asked, trying to calm herself down. It was obviously not threatening.
Kim held the Kimmunicator up for Amy to see. "It's what I use to get my missions and stuff."
Amy watched as Kim switched the Kimmunicator on and Wade's face appeared on the tiny screen. "Hey Kim," he said. Amy's eyes lit up in fascination.
"Whatcha got, Wade?" Kim asked.
"Information on that escaped experiment," Wade replied, the clicking of his fingers on the keyboards evident in the background. Amy moved a bit closer to Kim. "She's here in Middleton!"
"Well," Kim said, "that makes my job easier. How many cat-people can there be in Middleton?"
"Not many," Wade agreed. "It shouldn't be too hard now."
Kim nodded and moved her thumb to shut the Kimmunicator off. "Thanks, Wade."
"No problem," Wade said, grinning. The screen went blank.
"What was that all about?" Ron asked. He grinned.
"It's a mission," Kim said. "Another weird one."
"How weird can they get?" Ron asked.
Kim rolled her eyes. "As weird as an escaped cat-woman with a spell book," she said skeptically.
Amy's eyes returned to slits for a brief second. How could this have happened? It was a one in a million chance! She felt her fingernails sharpen and begin to curve. 'No! I can't lost it like this!' she screamed in her head. She clenched her hands into fists and tried to calm herself. 'It'll be fine as long as she doesn't find out,' she told herself. The claw-like fingernails slowly returned to normal. 'I've just got to keep under control.' Her eyes widened again. She put on the best smile that she could. "D'you do stuff like this often?" she asked Kim.
"Yeah," Kim said, nodding. She grinned. "Maybe you can help us out with some missions sometime."
"That would be.. nice," Amy said, her fingers twitching a bit.
"Cool!" Ron said. "The more the merrier."
Rufus looked up at Amy with his big black eyes and nodded happily. "Yeah!" he squealed.
~*~*~*~
Rebecca watched the trio walking home, dropping Ron off first since his house was closest, from the window of her bedroom. She frowned. She didn't know the other girl. Rebecca closed her eyes and shuddered. There was something odd about her.
She walked down the steps as Ron came into the house. "Hey little sis!" he said, grinning.
"Hiya,"
Rebecca said, smiling sweetly and giving her big brother a hug. "Who was that
new girl with you?"
"That's Amy," Ron answered, shrugging off his book bag into the corner.
Rebecca remembered the strange feeling she'd gotten from the girl. "Is she nice?"
Ron nodded. "Yeah. She's cool. She's been hanging out with me and Kim all day today."
Rebecca smiled, but didn't comment. She was still apprehensive about 'Amy', but if Ron said she was cool, then she must be. Rebecca skipped after her brother. She decided that she shouldn't judge her without meeting her first.
~*~*~*~
True introduction of Amy, a bit of foreshadowing, and a lot more dialogue. ^.^ Hope you're all liking this!
P.S. Heard Sk8er Boi. Is such an awesome song!