Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world both belong to J.K. Rowling, several publishing companies (Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, Scholastic Books), Warner Brothers, Inc., and as I'm not a part of any of them I therefore own none of it. I'm making absolutely no money off of this, please don't sue. I do, however, own the following: geoley, the Hunter family, and nearly all of the first years.
Thanks to Blue Jeans for the beta :)

You know the drill, but yes, this is a fic about original characters. Nearly all of them are based on real people (myself included). This does not automatically make them Mary-Sues! Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but it's very, very true.

Chapter 6

"Who!"

"Chickenman. He wanted my opinion on something, can't remember what, but I couldn't understand what he was talking about... It must have been hard for him to talk with that beak," said Ruth Ann, sure that this would explain everything. She rubbed her eyes a bit more, then stretched. "I guess it was just a dream. You know it's bad when you start dreaming about fictional characters from your parents' childhood."

"Okay..."

Ruth Ann glanced around the room, taking in the rows of seats and desks, then turned to study the girl beside her. "So, if you're not my mom, who are you? And why were you trying to get me to stand up?"

"I'm Cassiope McColin – didn't you pay any attention at all to the Sorting last night?" Cassiope demanded, tossing her long braid back over her shoulder with a huff.

"Nope," said Ruth Ann proudly. "It was boring. I made a tower out of my silverware instead. And my napkin. And my plate... It was awesome – I was almost sad when I had to stop."

Cassiope stared at her housemate. "You are a strange, strange person, Ruth Ann."

"Thanks. So... Cassiopeia – that's a constellation, right? Can I call you Cassie?"

"My name is Cassiope, not Cassiopeia. And no, you cannot call me Cassie, I abhor that nickname," ground out Cassiope.

"Okay, Cassiope. Anyway, do you know why we're not in our room? Usually when I wake up in the morning I find myself in bed, not in... Is this a classroom? Why am I in a classroom? I didn't almost sleep through a class, did I? That would be horrible, just think of all the neat stuff I would miss out on!"

Cassiope stared at Ruth Ann, obviously unsure of how to answer these question. "Well, you didn't almost sleep through a class – Charms just finished. Nimuë, Parnelle, and I got you up and to breakfast and to class. It's all right though," she reassured Ruth Ann quickly, seeing the look of despair on the other girl's face, "Professor Flitwick isn't mad at you for sleeping through class. You even answered a question in your sleep!"

"Darn, I was really hoping I wouldn't sleep through. Maybe I'll be more adjusted to the time difference tomorrow," Ruth Ann said with a sigh. "Thanks for getting me up, though – you really didn't have to do that, and I appreciate it. So, if class is over, why are we just standing around? Where do we have to be next?"

"We have a break now, but it's Herbology next, so we should probably start trekking to the greenhouses." Cassiope gathered up her things and nodded towards the door.

"Mm, okay," Ruth Ann said in agreement as she looked around for her own bag. She suddenly squeaked in surprise. "My bag! I don't suppose all of you remembered to bring it when you trotted me out to breakfast?" The other girl's eyes widened with shock and she shook her head.

"Come on! Maybe if we run we can make it back to the tower and still get to class on time," Cassiope said hurriedly, as she dashed out the door with Ruth Ann on her heals.

As it turned out, both girls managed to retrieve Ruth Ann's bag from the Ravenclaw tower and still get to the greenhouses where Herbology was taught with time to spare. Slumping against the glass wall that separated her from the queer plants and things inside the clear structure, Ruth Ann attempted to regain her breath. "I'm... never... doing that... again," she informed Cassiope in between gasps for air.

Cassiope, also panting, nodded and waved her hand ineffectually at Ruth Ann. "Was sure that prefect was going to spot us running and yell," she said when she had finally regained control of her breathing. "How'd you know about there was a side passage behind the false wall?"

Ruth Ann shook her head, "Didn't, just panicked and ran to the right. 'm lucky I didn't run into a real wall. Have to remember that that passage's there."

Cassiope made a sound of agreement, then brightened up as she spotted two girls coming towards them. Smiling slightly, she gave them a shy wave, which the black-haired girl returned. Ruth Ann eyed the newcomers with interest. "Who're they?" she asked Cassiope, curious.

"You really didn't pay attention at the Sorting, did you? The one on the right is Nimuë," Cassiope pointed to a girl with pale blonde hair, "and the one on the left is Parnelle," this time she pointed to the girl who had waved. "It was Nimuë's idea to dress you and take you to breakfast and stuff. Parnelle helped also –Êshe's the one who remembered your wand."

Ruth Ann nodded thoughtfully. "I'll have to thank them later, I suppose. Is everyone expected to know who everyone else is from the Sorting? I think I'm going to be in trouble if that's true."

"I don't think it's really expected that much, it just helps," Cassiope reassured Ruth Ann, then fell silent as a friendly looking witch emerged from a greenhouse to their right. As she reached the cluster of first years, she introduced herself as Professor Sprout and began telling them about the different plants that they would be learning about in class that year.

Ruth Ann yawned as Professor Sprout opened the door to one of the greenhouses and led them over to a cleared work table, passing out trowels as she set them to transplanting simple herbs from large flats to smaller, individual pots. The elderly witch walked among them, giving students tips to the proper care of basil, oregano, and thyme while at the same time outlining their uses in a number of potions of varying complexities. While Ruth Ann was sure it was fascinating stuff – both Cassiope and Parnelle were transfixed by the professor's words – she couldn't make herself truly interested in what they were learning. As the class came to a close, she gave a sigh of relief and cast her trowel aside, causing Cassiope to give her a questioning glance as she carefully set her own trowel on the table.

"It's so boring," she complained, "just taking plants from one place and putting them in another place. I don't see how any of this is going to help me learn magic – we're probably going to learn all that stuff about how to use the plants in Potions anyway."

"But... how can it be boring? Knowing how plants grow under different conditions will help us understand how they react with other ingredients in potions. I think it's fascinating," Cassiope said with a loving sigh. "And you won't feel so bored by it in the future when you figure out how many Sickles you can save just by growing a lot of the simpler potion ingredients in your own garden," she added matter-of-factly.

"Oh, I don't know about saving money by growing my own ingredients," Ruth Ann said with a chuckle. "My mom has a tragic but lasting black thumb. She's the only person I've ever heard of who could end up with a dwarf philodendron. She harps on it all the time. My dad's the one who has an okay hand with plants, though I think he may just have a soft-spot about the blackberry bramble in front of the house." She frowned and rubbed at a dirt stain on the breast of her robe, which only served to grind the dirt deeper into the cloth. "Dad loves blackberries. I like 'em too, but they stain like the dickens. Once I made the mistake of wearing a white shirt when we went blackberry picking on a camping trip."

"You'll ramble on about just about anything if you're allowed to, won't you?" Cassiope asked as she cleaned up her work area and hoisted her bag.

Ruth Ann shrugged, then hunted around under the table for her own bag. "I guess. Mom says that it's really hard to get me to talk, but that once I start it's even harder to get me to shut up. She's also annoyed by me saying completely random things without even realizing it." She fished a crumpled bit of paper out of her bag and smoothed it out on the table in order to read what was written on it. "Super! We have lunch now – another chance for me to observe what kinds crazy things you Brits eat and mock you in your lack of taste."

Cassiope raised an eyebrow as they trudged out of the greenhouse, "You have absolutely no tact. You do realize that, don't you?"

"I'm attending this school under protest. I figure anything I do wrong is just one more chance for me to be sent home early," Ruth Ann said with a shrug. "And any comments I make about the food aren't serious enough to go on my permanent record, so it's not like it really matters. Not that I pay attention to my permanent record anyway," Ruth Ann added thoughtfully.

"You are a strange and confusing girl," Cassiope said solemnly as they walked through the courtyard to the great double doors at the front of the castle.

"And yet you continue to follow me around," Ruth Ann said, her blue eyes wide. "I find this fascinating."

Cassiope rolled her eyes and grumbled something about self-centered Yanks that Ruth Ann either decided to ignore or didn't hear. Cassiope was not quite sure which it was, though as they rounded the corner and entered the Great Hall, she decided it didn't really matter.

Entering the Hall along with Cassiope, Ruth Ann was surprised to see that there were fewer people in the Hall for lunch than there had been for dinner the night before. However, as she made her way over to the Ravenclaw table, she came to the conclusion that this was logical, as not everyone would be finishing their classes at the same time.

Also, it was not as if it students were required to come to lunch at all. Settling down on a bench, Ruth Ann noted more than a few older students nip in to grab some food from the Ravenclaw table, then leave just as quickly. She supposed that these students were living up to their house stereotype and rushing off to spend their lunch hour studying in the library. Ruth Ann shrugged this behaviour off – she wasn't about to change her eating habits just so that she could be a good little studious Ravenclaw. It seemed to her that this was taking house loyalty a bit too far.

Instead, Ruth Ann reached out across the table and helped herself to a ham sandwich. Taking a bite, she let out a contented sigh. "You know," she said to Cassiope around a mouthful of ham, cheese, and bread, "the food's a lot better here than I thought it would be."

"I suppose you envisioned us consuming raw flesh and drinking baby's blood out of skulls," Cassiope grumbled as snagged a sandwich for herself.

"Naw, not what I meant," Ruth Ann answered, flapping her hand. "I didn't mean that the food is better than I thought British food would be, I meant that it was better than I thought school food could be. The Muggle elementary school that I went to didn't really have any good food. It would be cold, overcooked or undercooked, and sometimes just plain questionable – I knew kids who lived in fear of Mystery Meat Mondays. Most people only bought the hamburgers or the pizza. And it wasn't like those were–"

She was cut off by the arrival of a bouncy, energetic ball of black robes in the form of Sojin Young, who had rushed over from the doors to where the Ravenclaws were sitting. "Wotcha, Cassiope! Ruth Ann – you're awake this time," she added brightly.

"I was unfortunate enough to wake up in time for Herbology," Ruth Ann moaned. "It was horrible. The only good thing was that I got to play with dirt. Other than that... yerk." She grabbed her throat in both hands, bugged out her eyes, and stuck out her tongue in demonstration. "Cassiope had a good time, though. She just kept rambling on about how wonderfully interesting and fascinating it all was. Nearly made me sick."

"I had Herbology first this morning," said Sojin. "It was fun! Professor Sprout is really interesting. I learned a lot." As Sojin spoke, another Gryffindor wandered up behind her. The new girl had curly brown hair that Ruth Ann thought rather resembled a bush –Êthough she would never tell the girl that to her face.

"Sojin, are you going to come eat lunch or are you just going to talk until Transfiguration starts?" she asked. Noticing Cassiope and Ruth Ann, she smiled, "Hello, I'm Annabelle Lee."

"She's Cassiope and I'm annoying," Ruth Ann said brightly.

"She means her name is Ruth Ann," said Cassiope with a roll of her eyes.

Sojin was pouting at Annabelle while the Ravenclaws made introductions. "But I don't want to go sit at our table. I want talk to Ruth Ann now that she's finally awake," she whined.

"You could both eat lunch with us," Cassiope offered. "I don't think the professors will mind, as long as you don't cause any trouble."

"Grand, I'm starving," moaned Sojin, who clambered onto the bench across the table from Ruth Ann. Hesitating only slightly, Annabelle joined her seconds later. "So you two just had Herbology," Sojin said, indicating to Cassiope and Ruth Ann with her fork. "What did you have before that?"

"Charms," said Cassiope, while at the same time Ruth Ann replied, "Don't know."

Annabelle set down the sandwich she had helped herself to, confused. "How can you not know what class you had this morning? Didn't you go?"

"Oh, she went," Cassiope reassured the Gryffindor, "she was just asleep the entire time. She had let jag."

"Jet lag," Ruth Ann and Annabelle corrected Cassiope automatically. A bit surprised, Ruth Ann turned to look at Annabelle, "You know about jet lag?"

Annabelle shrugged, "I'm from a Muggle family, 'course I know about jet lag. So, where were you that you've got jet lag? The States?"

"California," Ruth Ann explained. "Was born here, raised there, so I've got dual citizenship. My dad wanted my brother and me to go to Hogwarts. So. Spend the summer in California, spend the rest of the year here. 'S confusing, don't like it. Didn't want to come here anyway."

The other girls protested Ruth Ann's dislike of Hogwarts in between eating their lunches, until a prefect noticed the noise they were making and tried to chase Sojin and Annabelle off to the Gryffindor table. The girls made faces at the prefect's back as they took their sandwiches and abandoned the Hall for the corridor, where they could finish their eating and talk without being sniped at. Since loitering in the halls set you up to be chastised by Filch,Êor so both Ruth Ann and Cassiope had both been told by their older siblings, they wandered in the direction of the Transfiguration classroom.

Ruth Ann was licking the last of the crumbs from her fingers when they reached the Transfiguration room. Taking a bite out of her own sandwich, Annabelle cracked the door open and cautiously poked her head in. She pushed the door open the rest of the way and motioned for them to enter.

The girls filed in, inspecting the apparently empty classroom. Ruth Ann perched herself on one of the desks in the front row, extracted her sketchbook from her bag, and proceeded to flip through it. Sojin wandered around the room, looking at the various pictures on the walls, munching on an apple she had stashed in a pocket of her robe earlier, while Annabelle sat down on the desk next to Ruth Ann's and finished off the last few bites of her sandwich. Cassiope made as if to join Ruth Ann, when she let out a happy sort of squeal.

"Kitty!" she said, pointing to the large desk at the front of the room. Looking up from her sketchbook, Ruth Ann saw that there was indeed a cat peeking out from behind the desk.

"Do you think it's Professor McGonagall's familiar?" wondered Annabelle as she came over to get a closer look.

"Maybe. Look at those markings around her eyes! It looks just like she's wearing spectacles," cooed Cassiope. She crouched down and began petting the cat. The cat, once she had passed her initial mistrust of the girls who had intruded upon her domain, arched into Cassiope's hand, her tail sticking straight up in the air. A low rumbling sound filled the air as the other girls came over and joined Cassiope in coddling the cat.

"Cats are evil," Ruth Ann said offhandedly as she skritched the feline under the chin. Her words seemed to knock the cat out of her haze of delight, and she backed up, hissing at the girl. "Well," said Ruth Ann said defensively, "not you. Cats like my cat back home. She's a psychotic nutcase. She and I get along really well, it's wonderful."

Annabelle glanced up from calming the cat to give Ruth Ann a piercing look. "You are a strange girl, Ruth Ann."

"Mm hm, 's great. Keeps everyone on their toes."

The door opened, admitting group of chattering Ravenclaws, and the cat broke away from the girls to jump up onto the desk to watch as the newly arrived students started picking out seats.

Annabelle elbowed Ruth Ann in the side, then nodded towards the cat. "Do you think it's trying to tell us something?" she muttered.

"Looks like it," Ruth Ann replied as she tugged Cassiope towards the desk she had staked out earlier.

"But... the kitty!" cried Cassiope, unwilling to be taken away from the cat.

"Class is gonna start in a soon, Cass. We'd better get seated or we might be counted as late," Ruth Ann explained simply. "Maybe you can play with the kitty some more after class."

"Cass?" Cassiope asked suspiciously as she allowed herself to be dragged away from the animal.

Ruth Ann shrugged. "Hey, what can I say? I like nicknames. Anyway, it's not Cassie."

They settled into their seats, and Ruth Ann had just started to pull a sheet of parchment and a quill from her bag when the door banged open. Ruth Ann looked up to see two boys Cassiope had identified as Barney and Jamie burst into the class and bound to an empty desk just as the bells that signaled the end of lunch and the start of class rang.

"Cutting it a bit close, aren't you?" asked a girl who Ruth Ann remembered from Herbology, though she did not know her name.

"Don't know why we bothered," Jamie said with a grin as he slid into his seat, "McGonagall's not even here yet."

Cassiope frowned and looked to be about to speak, Ruth Ann supposed the other girl was going to tell the boys how important it was to be to class on time, when they were distracted by movement from the front classroom. The cat had jumped off of the desk. That was not what everyone was distracted by, however. In the midst of her leap from the desk to the floor, the cat was changing shape, becoming longer and a lot less furry. It happened so fast that Ruth Ann didn't even get a chance to gasp as the cat transformed into Professor McGonagall.

Beside her, Cassiope eeped. "I was petting the teacher!" she squeaked.

Ruth Ann goggled at Professor McGonagall, trying to wrap her head around what she had just seen. She had read about witches and wizards that were talented enough to transform themselves into animals... What were they called again? Animus? Animorphs? Something like that. But never had Ruth Ann thought that she might actually meet one of those select few. "Coolness," she breathed, excited. "It's like something out of A Wizard of Earthsea. Do you think she can get stuck in cat form?" Ruth Ann whispered to Cassiope.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and glared at Ruth Ann. Gulping, Ruth Ann fell silent. "Good afternoon," the professor began, taking in the class with a single sweeping glance. "I am Professor McGonagall, and I will be your transfiguration teacher for the next seven years. Now, before we begin, does anyone know what, exactly, defines a transfiguration?"

Cassiope started with surprise when Ruth Ann's hand shot up like a bullet beside her. From the look on McGonagall's face, she too had not been expecting the American to volunteer the answer. "Yes, Miss... Hunter, is it?"

Ruth Ann nodded in acknowledgment of her name. "Yup. Um. Transfiguration is changing one thing into another thing. Like a yo-yo into an owl. My cousin did that once... only he didn't use a wand or anything," Ruth Ann said, frowning.

"Correct, Miss Hunter, transfiguration is the art of transforming the shape and function of one item into another. This rearrangement of original articles atoms is often very complicated and some find it very frustrating as well. Because of this, we will be starting with simple transfigurations that employ a phenomenon which is called 'sympathetic magic.' How many of you have heard of sympathetic magic before?" Several hands went up, though none of them were as enthusiastic as Ruth Ann's had been when answering Professor McGonagall's first question.

Eyes skimming over the room, the professor picked out a boy wearing Gryffindor colors who had his hand raised. "Mr Cathrop, do you know what sympathetic magic is?"

The boy lowered is hand and shifted uneasily in his seat. "Well, um... To be sympathetic is to feel sorry for someone or feel what someone else feels, I guess. So is it magic that feels sorry for other magic? Professor?"

Professor McGonagall's expression softened at the boy's nervousness. "Close. Sympathetic magic is magic involving items that feel favorably inclined towards each other. For example, you will start with simple tasks such as turning matches into pins. Both are around the same size and have similar shapes. Eventually you will progress so far as to be able to change guinea fowl into guinea pigs – another example of sympathetic magic. Simply by sharing similar names, the two animals are more favorably inclined to switching one form for the other."

Then the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, "Sympathetic magic can be found in most any transfiguration, and is often part of the reason why that transfiguration is easier than it might be. For example, if I were to do this," she withdrew her wand from her sleeve and changed her desk into a pig, and then back again, "how would I be employing sympathetic magic? Miss Linar?"

"Both the desk and the pig have four legs, Professor," said the Ravenclaw girl that Ruth Ann vaguely remembered from Herbology.

"Precisely. Now, quills at the ready, I want you to write this down," she flicked her wand and a piece of chalk lifted up from the tray in front of the black board and began to write out information on the use of sympathetic magic in transfiguration. Ruth Ann dipped her quill and hurried to jot down what was being written, but it was not long before she was interspersing Professor McGonagall's lecture with various questions. She was very interested in transfiguration, if for no other reason than that she wanted to show up the cousin that had changed a yo-yo into an owl.

Cassiope was grumbling slightly as she left the Transfiguration classroom with Ruth Ann, Parnelle, and Nimuë. She was upset that they had not been able to attempt any practical magic because of Ruth Ann's questions, to say nothing of being put out because she would not be able to visit with the kitty after class, since said kitty was actually the teacher. Parnelle tried to cheer her up by talking about Defense Against the Dark Arts, which they had next, but this only served to upset Ruth Ann instead. "I'm going to die in that class," she moaned. "It'll be like math, I know it'll be like math. And I'm horrid at math! I even used to hide in the restroom when we did math in first grade."

While Parnelle tried to reassure Ruth Ann that it was highly unlikely that Defense would be anything like math, Nimuë pondered allowed on whether they would be learning any interesting curses or jinxes in class. "Think of all the new things that I might learn! I read somewhere that over the summer someone invented a new hex that turns your toes into prunes. I'd use it on Gillichu, but I doubt he'd notice."

Such was the conversation as they walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and picked out seats. Parnelle, who had abandoned reassuring Ruth Ann for a conversation with Cassiope about what they had done in Herbology, slid into a seat in front, Cassiope next to her. Having lost her lackey, Nimuë bullied a rather shy boy into letting her sit with him. Abandoned by the few people she knew, Ruth Ann found herself in a seat by herself near the middle of the class.

As Ruth Ann sat there, trying to figure out how exactly she had ended up by herself, a girl came up beside her. "Is it okay if I sit here?" she asked, gesturing to the empty seat next to Ruth Ann.

"Hm? Oh, sure, go right ahead," said Ruth Ann, waving her hand.

The girl slid into the seat and set her Defense book on the desk. "I'm Lora Linar, by the way. What's your name? It's kind of embarrassing, but I wasn't paying attention at the Sorting."

Ruth Ann clapped her hands with happiness. "Really? You mean I wasn't the only one who thought it was boring? Cool! I'm Ruth Ann Hunter," she added as an afterthought.

Lora was about to reply when the professor who had made the silly speech the night before about "being friends" with the students, stood up at the front of the room and cleared her throat. "Hem, hem," began dumpy professor, "I am Professor Umbridge, and this class is Defense Against the Dark Arts. You all have your Defense textbooks, correct? Good. Would you all please take out your books and read the first chapter. There will be no need to talk."

The class stared at Professor Umbridge. No one made a move to take out their books, except for Parnelle and the boy next to Nimuë. Nimuë hit him lightly on the arm, and his hands fell still. It was obvious that he was more afraid of Nimuë than of Professor Umbridge, and Ruth Ann was beginning to get the feeling that he was right to feel that way. There was just something about Nimuë...

Professor Umbridge frowned at her near-motionless class. "Well?" Nimuë's hand shot up into the air. "Yes, Miss...?"

"Chandler. Nimuë Chandler. Professor Umbridge, not to be rude or anything, but do you actually intend to have us read our textbooks during class time? That's really more like preparatory work, we should be doing it before class, on our own time."

Umbridge's eyes narrowed. "I do not think that you are in any position to question my teaching methods, Miss Chandler. While the reading for your other classes may be done outside of the classroom, you will all be completing your Defense Against the Dark Arts reading in this room. If you feel the need to reread anything you did not understand, I suppose you may use your own time if you choose."

Nimuë gave Umbridge a look of scorn at the implication that she might not understand everything that she read. "What about practical magic?" she pressed. "Will we be learning how to perform defense spells in class, or just reading the book?"

Professor Umbridge's mouth settled into a firm line at Nimuë's question. "Do you expect to be attacked in this classroom?"

"No, but–"

"If you are not attacked, there is no reason for you to be performing any defensive magic. As you will not be..." She trailed off as she spotted Ruth Ann's hand, which the girl had raised tentatively. "Yes, Miss...?"

"Hunter. Ruth Ann Hunter," Ruth Ann answered shyly.

As soon as Ruth Ann spoke, a strange look appeared on Professor Umbridge's face, though it quickly disappeared as she schooled her expression. "Did you have a question?" Professor Umbridge asked sweetly.

"If we were attacked in the class could we–

Professor Umbridge gave Ruth Ann a patronizing smile. "You will not be attacked while in this classroom."

"It was a hyper – no, that's not it – hyperbole, hypotenuse, hypothermia..." Ruth Ann searched for the word that she wanted.

"Hypothetical?" Lora suggested quietly.

"Yeah, that's it! A hypothetical question. If we were attacked by, say, aliens, could we–"

"Attacked by what, Miss Hunter?"

"Aliens. You know, little green men from outer space in flying saucers? Only they aren't really little green men, they're floating black balls about the size of a Bludger, but it's generally the same idea. If they attacked, could we use our wands to defend ourselves, or would we have to wait until class was over?"

"Miss Hunter, while these... aliens... may be a problem where you come from, there is no chance that they could possibly invade the classrooms here at Hogwarts," Professor Umbridge said, her voice taking on a tone of false reassurance.

"Shows what she knows," Ruth Ann muttered to herself as she withdrew her Defense book from her bag. "I'm an extraterrestrial and I've successfully invaded Hogwarts and no one's even realized it yet." Lora gave her a strange look, but wisely chose to instead open up her book to the first chapter and not say anything. With Ruth Ann, that was almost always the safer option.

Still wondering about Ruth Ann's ranting on aliens, the rest of the class decided that it might be safer to admit defeat for now, and seek revenge on the teacher who dared to inhibit their learning another day. The Ravenclaw first years took out their books, and began reading Chapter One. Of course, since most of them had already read the first chapter, quite a few spent the class with their books open but their minds lost in thought. Nimuë and Ruth Ann's questions had given them all a lot to think about.

– – –
And so we learn of Ruth Ann's cousin. And Ruth Ann's own other-worldly origins. As to whether or not Ruth Ann is an alien... I really don't know. She hasn't told me yet (though I doubt that she is. The Xorklings wouldn't like it very much at all). But look! I have a real title for this fic now! I am so very proud of myself.

Sorry about the sell-out chapter ending, but it was getting to be too long, and I really needed to end this thing. Here I was determined to start writing shorter chapters, and then this one goes and ends up being almost as long as the previous ones... :(

Next chapter: psychic powers and the lack-there-of, concerning names, Ruth Ann's One True Love.