Author's note: Words in italic are what the main characters are thinking. Words that are underlined are what Romeo, Diamond, and Wednesday are thinking. Words in bold are author's notes.

Define Normal

Chapter One

Dianna was walking her poodle, Romeo, like she always had when she got bored. The walks let her mind open to its natural day-dreaming state. She was a girl of 18, and had just graduated high school and now she didn't really have much to do. Living in Arizona, she had known to bring a bottle of water on her walk. That bottled was now empty. She looked at it with her brown eyes (that matched her mid-back length brown hair) in an annoyed glare. "You'd think that since I knew to bring water, I'd know not to wear all black clothing, too," she told Romeo. Romeo glanced up at her, then returned to his panting. Dianna was wearing a plain black tank top with black jeans, and black flip flops. ((yeah, AJ, Jess, and Christina know what that outfit is :P)) She continued talking to Romeo as if he could understand. "At least today isn't going to be another boring day," she told the apricot colored poodle, "and be happy Jessica is letting me bring you along to her house, as panicy as her dog is around other dogs."

Of cource, Romeo already knew how Diamond, Jessica's master, acted. He was a good protector of his servants, like all dogs were, he was just a little skiddish around..well..everything. "The fact that he's getting to be pretty old doesn't help." Romeo thought to the heat-waved air radiating off the sidewalk in front of him. He heard a mumbling. Oh. It was just his servant, she was still talking to him like it interested him or something. "sigh Humans."

"Yup," Dianna continued, "this sleepover's going to be great after all the great mass of nothingness we've been doing." At the height of 5 foot 8, Dianna was pretty high over Romeo's head (a whole 9 inches from paw to shoulder). Romeo's hearing was good enough that he could hear her hair thumping against her back in the slight breeze, though. Suddenly, his master stopped. That caused him to gag himself on his leash. Romeo looked over at Dianna annoyingly, she was bent over and picking something small up off the ground. "Ooo...this might be interesting!" he thought, and trotted over to sniff whatever it was.

Dianna was holding a small shard of what appeared to be pale pink crystal. Romeo shoved his nose in to sniff it and was rewarded by a sharp pain. It was SHARP! "Romeo! Don't do that!" scolded the girl. She continued to stare at the glass-like pink shard, not even noticing that when Romeo had pricked his nose, his eyes had gone orange for just a moment. Romeo had noticed. He sneezed a couple times and growled. Dianna poked the white dot of fur on his head and said "Romeo, it's just a piece of glass. It's not anything to worry about!" Along with the white dot on his head, Romeo had a white chest, and three white "sock" paws. The only plain paw was his upper right. Romeo continued growling. Exasperated, Dianna got up, put the piece of whatever-it-was in her pocket and continued.

Ten more minutes of uneventfull walking later

Romeo twitched. It was comming soon, he knew it. They were only two more steps away from turning the corner. Suddenly his servant broke into a sprint. "Great. Here goes. Hope I don't go deaf." he thought, then he saw them.

"JESSICA! AJ!" Dianna yelled at the top of her lungs. Jessica, a tall girl of 5 foot 11 with a love for reading and confusing her parents, and AJ, an African American with a love for anime and confusing everyone else, replied with a shrill cry of "DIANNA!" Dianna slowed down just long enough to let Romeo off his leash before crashing into her two friends.

Along with Diamond, AJ had brought her tom cat, Wednesday, to the sleepover. Wednesday was a stray that AJ and family had taken in when its mother had abonded it near her house. He was the typical orange striped tom, and was proud of the fact that AJ had decided not to declaw him. He was sitting accross from Diamond, who was obviously uncomfortable left alone with him. He sneered evily and started to wash his paw when Romeo padded up to them. The three started conversing among themselves, their servants oblivious to their chattings.

"So," said AJ once the three girls had stopped doing the welcome ritual of poking, laughing, and screaming out randomly, "What do you guys wanna do?" "The Dianna is thirsty, " said Dianna, "the Dianna's H2O ran out on the way here." The girl threw her backpack into Jessica's open front door. It landed next to AJ's backpack. "Okay," said Jessica, "lets go inside and get something to drink." "Romeo! Come! In!" yelled Dianna, pointed at the door. "Diamond, go inside." said Jessica. "Wednesday, it's time to go inside." said AJ. Upon hearing their names, the three animals trotted inside. Wednesday took longer than was necessary, but finally got inside. The three girls followed. "Gosh," said Jess, "your cat is always doing that." "Yeah," replied AJ, "he's obnoxious like that."

After a bit of sitting on the couch and drinking some lemonaid, Jessica suddenly stood up, pointed to the ceiling and said "TO THE PARK, PEOPLE!" While Dianna stopped herself from choking on the drink, AJ asked "What..why? We just got here." After that she patted Dianna on the back, "Don't die on me! I have no more room left in my closet for more bodies!" Dianna shot her a glare and got her coughing under controll. "It's because, my friends, I am bored." answered Jessica, "Come on, we can take our pets." "Eh, okay," said Dianna, "bye the way, I found a cool piece of glass or something. I'll show it to you at the park." "Huh? Okay, whatever," the other two girls replied. After getting the dogs and cat on the appropiet leashes, the party of six went to the park near Jessica's house.

At the Park

AJ, Jessica, and Dianna were all sitting in the shade of a huge oak tree in the park. Romeo and Wednesday were sitting in their servant's laps. Diamond sat with his head in Jessica's lap.

"How have you been, Romeo Rainbow Sparticus Skittles?" asked Diamond. "Ugh! I told you not to be so formal, Diamond!" wuffled Romeo. "It's because he's so old fashioned. Emphasis on the word old." snickered Wednesday. The cat continued, "I have been having a great time. My servants do whatever I want." "That's why you act like such a spoiled brat," growled Romeo. "Look who's talking!" retorted the tom. Diamond did a short growl and said "Stop fighting, you two. You act like you are of the same kin, I swear." The two tried their hardest to look offended. Meanwhile, the three's servants were talking about Dianna's discovery.

Dianna dug into her pocket and pulled out the pink shard. "See, this is what I was talking about," she said. Jessica held out her hand and Dianna dropped the shard into it. Jessica examined it close to her face for a bit before handing it to AJ's waiting hand. "Hmm..this is pret- OW! IT BIT ME!" yelled AJ. She dropped it into the grass. All three looked at the drop of blood oozing on AJ's index finger. It finally got so big that it dribbled off and fell onto the fallen shard. Jessica and Dianna helped AJ with her finger. Upon reaching the shard, AJ's blood was obsorbed into it. It glowed a deep, blood red. That caught Wednesday's attention. He stood up suddenly in AJ's lap and hissed. Romeo and Diamond looked where the tom was hissing, and they both growled. The band-aid successfully on, all three girls looked at what their pets were growling/hissing at. "Wait..what's it doing!" asked AJ. "Glowing, duh!" said Jessica. Dianna looked at Jess and shook her head ironicly before slowing extending her hand to pick up the offending shard. "I don't know..it's not hot or anything," she said as she picked it up.

Suddenly, the ground all around the six-some shook! A crack appeared in the earth and moved untill it completely surrounded them! Dianna fell over, using her hand to brace her fall, she unconciously burried the shard into the earth. "Wha-What's going on!" yelled AJ. "I DON'T KNOW!" yelled Jessica. She was hugging Diamond for dear life, he in turn was shivering violently and letting her squeeze him as tight as she wanted. Wednesday was shoving his way up AJ's shirt. Dianna attempted to sit back up and hold Romeo on her lap, "Sorry for squishing you." "You better be." he growled. The shaking finally stopped as the shard wiggled itself untill it was completely out of site, digging deeper into the ground. The three girls stood deathly still. "Is..it over?" asked Jessica. As if to answer her question, the crack in the earth spiderwebbed all around them untill it looked like the six were sitting on the oldest sidewalk in the world. When the "web" met in the middle, it sunk in. Then the entire part of land sunk in a couple inches. "Wahh! We gotta get out of here!" yelled Dianna. Before the three girls and pets could even start to get up, the ground completely fell away, as if the grass that they were sitting on was only a glass covering to a gaping hole! Screaming and having death-grips on their animals, the girls fell and fell for what seemed like forever! After only a couple seconds of total darkness, light began to show below the frantic group.

"Wha-wha-what is th-th-AHHH HA HA HA - that!" screamed Jessica in her best bloody murder voice. "HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW!" yelled both Dianna and AJ and the same time.

Before

Shippou stood up, put his little pawed hands on his waist, and exclaimed proudly "I did it!" Kagome, Miroku, and Sango all turned to look at what the little fox demon was talking about. Inuyasha continued to ignore him (as usual). "Uh..what did you do?" asked Miroku. He was starring at a little mound of earth. Shippou looked up at him and said "I burried a Sacred Jewel Shard, isn't it obvious?" Kagome looked down at the little bottle around her neck and saw that one shard was missing. "When did you take that from me, Shippou?" she said, giving him a stern look. He fidgited a little and said, "When everyone was sleeping. BUT I DID IT FOR A GOOD REASON!" "And what reason would that be?" asked Kagome. Shippou took a step forward to the little mound of earth and kneeled down so he could lay his hand on it. "It's going to sprout and make a Sacred Shard Tree! Then we won't have to go looking for them anymore and get into so much trouble because it'll give us enough shards to make a new Jewel! See, it's genius!" The three stared at him for a bit before Inuyasha finally turned around and said "Baka. That's not going to work. It's a SHARD. Not a seed. Why do I even let you hang around me?" Shippou turned to Inuyasha and gave him the puppy dog (or fox kit) eyes and said "sniff Why are you so mean to me?" "Stop being so mean to him," said Miroku, "he's just a child." Shippou continued to snivel while Inuyasha proceded to turn back around and ignore everyone again. Sango walked over to Shippou and said "You need to dig that back up, we have to get going." "sniff Ah .. Okay." said the little fox as he complied.

As the group stood up and got ready to go, they noticed they were missing Shippou. "Shippou, come on!" yelled Sango. When she turned to look back for him, she noticed that the hole he was digging to dig up the shard was at least four times larger than the hole he used to actually bury it. "Shippou, what's wrong? Hurry up! We don't have time to play!" Shippou looked up to Sango, and she noticed the desperate look on his now dirty face. "Shippou?" she cried as she ran back to him. The others followed. When they were close enough, Shippou sat down and wailed "It's gone! It duge itself deeper or something! It's gone!" Red suddenly filled his vision, Inuyasha had picked him up by the tail. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S GONE!" he yelled. Kagome took Shippou out of Inuyasha's grip and said "What do you mean it's gone?" Shippou looked hessitantly at Inuyasha before looking back at Kagome and saying "It's .. gone?"

Suddenly, the ground around the hole that Shippou had done cracked and spiderwebbed.

While that was all going on

The girls were still screaming blood curdlingly when the Jewel Shard finally caught up to them (they wieghed more so they fell faster). Once it had, it cracked itself untill it had six identical pieces. Then it broke itself into those pieces, and went to the falling party.

Two pieces burried themselves one in Romeo's chest and one in Dianna's chest. Romeo how had a heart shaped pink scar on his chest, and Dianna had a pink paw print on her's. She clutched her chest and almost dropped Romeo, but he was determined to stay with her, so he clamped his jaws onto her shirt. His vision was going slightly orange again. Dianna's was going orange for the first time. She freaked out more (seeing as it seemed the most appropiet thing to do at the time).

The next two pieces burried themselves one in Jessica's shoulder and the other in Diamond's shoulder. Diamond now sported a pink cross scar on his shoulder, while Jessica got a pink paw print on hers. Jessica and Diamond both yelped when the shard entered their bodies, and yelped again when their vision went green.

The last two pieces burried themselves one in Wednesday's forehead, the other in AJ's forehead. AJ now had a neat little pink paw print on the exact middle of her forehead, and Wednesday now sported a pink star on his. AJ used one hand to clamp over her forehead while Wednesday hissed even more than he was previously doing and burried his claws deeper into the girl's shirt. His fur stood out even more when his vision went pink.

That done, the shard glowed blood red again, making the scars on everyone's body glow with it. Then the light that was below the six-some suddenly separated into three circles of light. Each one focused on a pair of girl and pet. Then, the light that focused on AJ and Wednesday brightened up and then vanished, taking AJ with it! Dianna and Jessica looked at eachother and tried to grab eachother's hands so they too wouldn't get separated, but the light would not have it, and the beam around Dianna flared up and then disapeared.

Jessica was alone and now crying more than she was screaming. Finally her beam of light decided to end her torture and flared up. Then it too dispeared, taking the girl with it.

That done, the relm in which the three girls and entered and fallen closed up, the ground around the oak tree where they sat returned to normal. Looking for all the world like an innocent chunk of earth. Well, it would've been more innocent looking it it hadn't left one of the oak tree's great roots poking out of the ground.

Back to the present

Kagome jumped back, out of the spiderwebbed circle. She took a couple more steps back, and Inuyasha ran and stood in front of her, claws ready. Everyone in the group got into defencive mode, taking a stronger grip on their weapons. Then the earth errupted, shooting dirt into the air. Sango used her boomerang to shield her own and Miroku's eyes from the assailing soil. Kagome used Inuyasha as a shield. Inuyasha got dirt in his eyes and cursed. As quickly as it had begun, the earth immidiatly stopped shooting dirt, bringing back in all the dirt it had shot up into the air ((this looks mostly like a rewind shot)). Sango lowered her boomerang, Inuyasha continued to curse while he got the dirt out of his eyes. Kagome peeked around Inuyasha's shoulder and did a small gasp. Sitting where the ground had just errupted was a dark skinned girl with an orange cat. The girl took one look at the party of people starring at her and smiled once before passing out. Her cat hissed crazily and jumped on top of his fallen human, trying desperatly to look menacing. In all actuallity, he was terrifyed. There was a thing that was dog AND human standing in front of him, and it obviously wasn't in a good mood! Nor did it look as passive as the two dog friends he had come to know. He knew stories of how other dogs acted toward cats, and he really didn't like the fact that this dog could stand so tall.

Somewhere in the mountains

A man with an apparent love for fur stood at the edge of Inuyasha's Forest. He was on he hunt with the rest of his pack for something to eat. He had elfin ears and blue eyes. His long black hair was put into a high ponytail. His tail wagged in anticipation of the hunt. Finally, Kouga stood up and signaled for his hunters to follow him into the forest. Just as he took a step forward, the earth around him cracked to form a crude circle, then spiderwebbed! He jumped back, almost crashing into one of his friends. He took his sword out of it's scabbard and pointed it at the now errupting earth. "What is that!" yelled one of his men. He replied with a short growl and said "I don't know, but I don't like it." Then, without apparent reason, the ground stopped errupting, pulled all of it's spilled contents back into itself, and the ground fused back up. Standing in it's place as a girl in apparent hysteria, holding onto a rediculously small dog. She turned around to see the group of people starring at her, squeaked, and sat down on the ground, hard. The little puffball dog was growling at the men. The girl continued to hyperventilate, saying something about hating heights. Kouga looked to his men, who all seemed to shrug and wait for him to do the first move. He sighed and took a step forward.

In the middle of Inuyasha's Forest

A squirrel sat on the ground, enjoying one of it's neighbor's burried acorns. While he was munching the ground he was sitting on suddenly sunk in a couple inches! He did a squirrel shriek of surprise and lept up, climbing a tree up as high as he could go. He wasn't fast enough though, and soon earth was spraying itself all over him. He squeaked in dismay and climbed faster and higher. Finally, the dirt stopped assulting him, and he looked down. Instead of the hole he expected, he saw a girl and an older dog. The girl was unconcience, but the dog was not. He was whimpering and pawing at her. Finally he licked her face. That seemed to do something, and the girl got sat up. She looked at Diamond and said "Man, I just had the strangest dream." Then Jessica noticed where she was. Memory sunk in, and she started freaking out. She stood up too fast, and she became very dizzy. Then she blacked out. Diamond whimpered more than ever, now he was shaking, too. He took a sniff and thought "Okay. Completely wild." He layed his head down on Jessica's stomache and thought "Now what?"