2 years later. . . .
Stele sat up with a start, woken by another dream. She looked at the clock. 5:06 am. Stele sighed. Why couldn´t she just sleep like a normal person until the alarm went off at 6? She settled back under the covers, trying to fall back asleep for another 50 minutes or so, until she had to get up and get ready for school. But, she knew in the back of her mind that it wouldn´t work. She never fell back asleep after the dream. After ten minutes, Stele got up and walked into the bathroom for a shower. She was a long time in drying her hair afterwards, so that it was 6:15 by the time she made it downstairs for breakfast.
Her grandparents were sitting at the table waiting for her, while her mom scrambled some eggs on the stove.
'Have another dream this morning?' her grandfather asked.
Stele nodded. 'It's the same one, where a woman that looks like an angel or some kind of goddess tells me: tu es dea, filia lunae. I really need to find a Latin teacher or something to tell me what it means.'
'You just might this fall,' Stele´s mom replied.
'What do you mean?' Stele asked.
'We´re moving to LA at the end of the school year.'
'What?' Stele exclaimed.
'Your father got a job as a bank manager there. So we´re moving,' Stele´s mom said.
Though Stele pleaded and begged, nothing she could say or do could persuade her parents to stay in Alaska, or at least let her stay with her grandparents, and at the end of the school year, they moved.
Stele liked her new house, but did not like LA. There was too little open space around the house to roam, although her dad assured her that they lived in a safe section of the city.
The week after they moved in, Stele´s mom took her to La Brea high school to register for the fall semester. They walked into the foyer, and paused to get their bearings.
'Which door do we go in?' Stele whispered to her mom.
Just then, an older girl, maybe 18 or 20, walked out of a nearby door. Stele´s mom stopped her to ask where the office was.
'I can show you,' the girl said. 'My name is Jimena. You must be the new girl from Alaska.'
'Yeah,'
Stele said. 'My name is Nadezhda. You work here?'
Jimena nodded. 'Yep. Summer long internship. Grew up in the
area, and now attending UCLA.'
They walked into the office, and Jimena set down her papers on a
desk. 'I´ll get you taken care of,' She said, pulling out more
papers.
Stele and her mom quickly filled them out, and as Stele bent over
the papers, her moon amulet slid out from under her shirt.
'Hey, that´s neat,' Jimena said. 'Not too many people
have amulets like that.'
'This? I´ve had it since I was born,' Stele replied.
'Fun, me too,' Jimena said. 'And I´ve heard some
fantabulous stories about the people who these are given to. You want
to hang out sometime to hear some of these stupendous stories?'
'Sure,' Stele replied. 'If it is okay with mom.'
Stele´s mom nodded in assent. 'Just no rule breaking while
you´re out.'