I own nothing. except Joa. and Aimee.

Joa took a deep breath and pushed the office door open. The lady behind the desk looked up.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"Um… hi. I'm Joa Linos, and I just transferred here from Ilea High in New Mexico." She smiled, a little nervously.

"Oh, you're the new girl. Aimee!" she called.

A girl stepped forward. "Hi. I'm Aimee, but you probably already figured that out. You must be Joa. I'm here to show you around."

Joa decided that she liked this girl; Aimee had very strong resemblance to her beagle, Beanie. They were bold, energetic, and very friendly. "Thanks." Joa dug into her bag, and came up with a class schedule. She swore. "My first day and I'm already late. Oh, well. Let's go."

She checked her schedule again. 207. This had to be the right room. Joa took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

"Can I help you?" the teacher asked. He was kind of heavy, but had a nice face.

Second time someone's asked me that today, Joa thought to herself. She walked to his desk. Whispers filled the air. "Hi, I'm Joa. This is my first day. Are you Mr. Cheli?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes," he answered.

"Great. I tried four class rooms before I found yours."

"Alright, you can sit in the back row in the empty seat."

"Thanks."

He cleared his throat. "Class, please settle down, and open your text books to page 37, The Breakup of the Soviet Union."

Aimee met Joa after her last class before lunch.

"How was your morning?" Aimee asked as they walked towards their lockers, which happened to be next to each other.

"I survived," Joa said dryly. Then something or rather someone caught her eye. "Who is that?" she asked.

"Serena." She sounded wistful. "A lot of guys like her, but she has a big scary boyfriend. I've met him." She shuddered. "All of a sudden I had this incredible urge to run, but a lot of girls want to look like her." She smiled. "Here are our lockers."

Joa rummaged through the pockets of her black jeans, and came up with her locker combo. She opened her locker and her hand closed around two Hershey's kisses. She held them out to Aimee and smiled. "Want one?"

"Secret admirer?" she asked disbelieving.

"No," Joa said, voice muffled by her locker. She grabbed her lunch, and slammed her locker. "Ellie."

"Who's Ellie?"

"She's my twin. Older by a minute and a half, and my complete opposite. Let's go." They went off to lunch.

Yes, I know the beginning's dry as dirt, but it gets better, I swear. Read and review, to show you actually read this.

Hugs

Buri208