Ephram Brown was still tired from the long night before and when he woke up that morning his arm was sore. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt so no one at school noticed the bandage. As Ephram trudged through the hallway he passed by the girl's bathroom. He stopped walking and turned back to the door to hear yelling coming from inside. Curious to listen but unable to make out any words from where he was, Ephram took a few steps closer to the door. That action he took as a mistake in judgement when the door opened and hit him in the head. He yelled slightly and took a few steps backward.

"Ephram!" Jig yelled as she stormed out of the bathroom. He looked up at her, his hand on his head.

"I'm okay," he reassured her.

"Ephram!" Amy yelled walking out of the bathroom behind Jig. Jig looked back at her, scoffed, and walked away from her in a hurry. Amy watched her leave worriedly before turning to Ephram.

"Ephram no one told me you and Desi didn't get picked up! I thought Taylor had picked you up! I swear Ephram I didn't know! If I had know I would ha-!" Amy told him.

"I, I know," Ephram said raising his left hand to stop her from continuing. Amy looked so desperate for him to believe her she had to be telling the truth, not that he ever doubted her.

"Ephram I-"

"It's okay, Amy, really. Don't worry about it. It worked out fine," Ephram reassured her and walked off. Amy placed her hand on her mouth in worry.

Delia and Murasaki sat across from each other at their lunch table. Neither of them had a lunch, and both had their heads resting on their arms that were folded on the table. Delia found out it had been true, Murasaki did know where to get the best candy, and the quickest route between the houses. She was so right, in fact, that this morning both of them were sick to their stomachs. Any sudden move might send one of them rushing to the bathroom. Normally the cafeteria food would give anyone a stomachache, but today, for the former witch and cat, it would give a free trip to the school nurse. Delia let out a pained moan and Murasaki replied with the same. The big problem was, after lunch they had play rehearsal. The two of them were sick from an overdose of candy, and for the next hour they would be candy. Two giant gumdrops. Two, giant, singing, gumdrops. Things are just not right with the world.

Charlene and Gerald were the names finally chosen for the twins. They were both born perfectly fine and healthy. Every time Dr. Abbott helped deliver a baby, he was positive it was the most beautiful baby he had ever helped to deliver. Though, in this case he had to admit, he had a preference for Charlene over Gerald, even though she was born first. Charlene just had this little smile always on her face, while Gerald just looked around like he didn't want to be here. Charlene looked curious.

"Hey Doc," Earl said walking over to him. Dr. Abbott was standing in his office, thumb tacking a picture of Charlene and Gerald he had been given to his board. That board held baby pictures going back six, maybe seven years. Earl walked right up to Dr. Abbott and Dr. Abbott cleared his throat nervously. Earl was a very tall man. He had been on the varsity basketball team back when he was in high school, he was still a sort of legend because of it. Earl saw the picture of his new children on the board and smiled.

"They're cute, huh? Quiet too, sleep all night," Earl said. Dr. Abbott frowned.

"Quiet?" he asked a little worried. Earl turned back to the doctor and laughed shaking his head.

"No, not that kind of quiet. Don't worry, we had that checked out," Earl reassured him.

"Oh," Harold said nodding and smiling. It had been a fear of theirs that the twins would take a certain aspect from their mother.

"Anyway, Tionè and I are taking the twins for a walk around town, and I just wanted to stop by and say thanks," he said extending his hand. Dr. Abbott shook it.

"It's just my job," he said. Earl shook his head.

"No, Doc. Going through the mechanics is a job, but you really helped us when we were worried," Earl told him. Dr. Abbott nodded.

"Hey, walk around down? The Presentation?" Dr. Abbott asked him. In Everwood it was tradition for all new babies to be taken around town to all of the stores and people. Earl nodded.

"Yea. We met Nina out there, the women are talking," Earl said bobbing his head with a smile. Dr. Abbott smiled too. Earl and Tionè were so young, but he had a feeling they'd be okay. In Everwood, everyone was always okay.

"Anyway, thanks again Doc."

"No problem, Earl," Dr. Abbott called after the tall man as he jogged away. With a slight smile Dr. Abbott turned back to the picture of the new twins.

Ephram walked into History class to find Jig laying on her desk. The way she was laying, with her face down and her arms dangling over the edge, he half expected an arrow to be coming out of her back. He walked over and sat down in his desk. Amy was sorry, Jig was angry, and Desi had been avoiding him all day. Ephram needed some guy friends, soon. Really soon. Girls were getting too complicated. Three of them too, three girls were his only friends, unless you count Wendell, which Ephram usually didn't like doing. Wendell was weirder and more frightening than the three girls combined. That's one thing he missed about New York City, at least there people made sense. Figuring Jig wasn't in the mood for an anime debate Ephram leaned over his own desk. He then felt a sharp stab in the small of his back and he snapped up. He turned around to see Jig retracting her pencil. He rubbed his back the best he could, it being a troublesome area to reach.

"What?" he asked her.

"Trunks or Goten?" she asked him. He sighed.

"Trunks, sword," he told her.

"Trunks, purple hair," Jig said pointing up at the top of Ephram's head. He grinned.

"How about you, which one?"

"Trunks. He cut Freezer in half, very cool," Jig said, knowing he'd understand the degrading nickname for the despised villain. Ephram nodded.

"Sword," he repeated. Jig smiled.

"Yea, yea, sword, sword," she said. The entire class had already entered the room and settled down, when the door opened and a last child walked in. Jig's eyes went first to the stranger and she motioned with her head for Ephram to turn around. He complied and was awe struck at what he saw.

Standing at six foot one, the lanky, oddly familiar looking boy glared angrily at the room. His perdition. Ephram, seeing the all too familiar face and movements flew from his seat to the floor and hid behind Jig's chair, covering himself with her extra coat. Confused, Jig twisted around and looked down at him.

"Drop something?" the girl sitting behind Jig asked. Ephram turned around to see Desi looking down at him. He jumped. Neither he nor Jig had ever realized she was sitting there. She smiled, knowing he had never noticed her there before.

"Ephram?" Jig asked him. He just held his finger to his mouth to silence her, or, rather, them both. The teacher took the note the boy gave him and sighed.

"My god it's like a plague," he said, now receiving his third new student for the year. One new student a year was odd, three was bizarre. He turned to the class.

"Okay, this is, what, Cory Cather? From, what's it say here? Buffalo. Cory from Buffalo, okay. There's a seat over there, no, wait, that's Brown's seat. Green! Where's Ephram?" the teacher asked Jig. She paused as ideas spun through her mind.

"He's, um, at his locker. He forgot his homework," she lied. The teacher nodded and was about to move on to something else when a fact hit him.

"But, I didn't assign any homework last night," he told her. Jig paused.

"Uh, right! It was homework for another class. He didn't do it, so he was going to do it in this class," she told him nervously. The teacher thought about it then nodded.

"Well, at least he's honest. Sit there," the teacher said pointing the boy to a seat on the opposite side of the room. The boy took his seat, keeping an angered gaze on Jig until the class started.

Jig pulled Ephram out of the mainstream of students immediately after History. Desi followed them, half out of care, half out of genuinely unintentional sense of a story. She was still head of the school newspaper. Ephram sighed and was about to explain everything to Jig, when the boy walked over to him. A glum expression on his face he studied Jig and then Desi, before turning his angered gaze to Ephram.

"Hello Brown," he said with the same tone of voice as expression.

"Hello Cather," Ephram replied the same. Cory looked again at Jig and Desi before walking off. Jig and Desi turned to Ephram, their confusion fully restored.

"An enemy of yours?" Jig asked him. Ephram sighed.

"Close, he's my cousin. But what the Hell is he doing here?" Ephram said, (the last part to himself,) as confusion took over any chance of him explaining to them. He walked away from the two stuck deeply in thought. Desi took a step closer to Jig as they watched him walk away.

"Cousin? Isn't that a little, ironic?" Desi asked her. Jig bit her lower lip and walked off in a different direction.

Amy sat on the floor in the library, leaning her back against a case of books. She held her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. He hadn't wanted her to, but Amy had seen that bandage on Ephram's arm. Jig made a point of making sure Amy knew it was there when she yelled at her. Amy had never been yelled at like that before. Jig was so angry with her. She wasn't just mad at her because she forgot about them, Jig was mad at her for forgetting about him. Jig was taking everything so seriously, or, maybe, Amy wasn't taking it seriously enough. She didn't know. She didn't know! There was a time Amy felt like she knew everything. She knew how to act, how to talk, how to move, how to dress, she knew how to do everything the right way. Now she didn't know anything. She was so confused. She never felt like getting up in the morning anymore, but her parents always made her. She walked from class to class, never listening, never retaining anything. She just moved from place to place like some nomadic zombie. Suddenly there was a clamor in front of her and she looked up to see Jig sitting on the floor there, looking over a book in her hands.

"Tess of the d'Urberville's. Have you read it?" Jig asked her perfectly calmed, in great contrast to their encounter earlier in the day. Amy nodded her head. It had been on her summer reading list.

"Thomas Hardy," Amy said just loud enough for Jig to hear her.

"Is it any good?"

"If you have a dictionary on hand," Amy replied and Jig laughed.

"Yea, I can see that," she said flipping through the pages. Amy smiled seeing Jig laugh. Jig was much nicer to look at when she was happy. When Jig was angry she was, scary. Amy reached her hand out and took the book from her second cousin's hands. Jig looked at her.

"Jig…" Amy started.

"I didn't mean to get mad at you like that. When you do stuff like that, I know you didn't mean to, but when you do, it hurts him. And, I don't know if you've noticed this, but Ephram doesn't heal well," Jig told her. Amy nodded.

"How is his arm, anyway?" Amy asked her. Jig sighed. That wasn't the type of healing she was talking about, but Amy knew that.

"Oh it'll be fine. It's disgusting looking, but it'll be fine. All bloody and gross with stuff oozing out of i-"

"I get it! Jig. I get it, thank you," Amy said stopping her. Jig smiled and Amy smiled back.

"Friends?" Jig asked her.

"Family," Amy replied.

"Yea, Amy, but are we friends?" Jig asked her, obviously really needing to hear it. Amy nodded.

"We're friends, Jig."