The next morning Penny and Tina woke up in Tohru's room.

"That's good." thought Tina. "At least I am not somewhere else again. And now I can spend the entire day starring at the gorgeous Yuki." she sighed and stared at the ceiling. When she had woken up more she left the room that was empty except for Penny and went down stairs to the kitchen. It looked like everyone was there except Penny and as Tina thought maybe she should go wake her up-

"Good morning Miss Fig, would you care to sit next to me?" Yuki offered. All thought of Penny was swept away as she talked with him over breakfast, feeling lucky that he had offered her a seat,and barely noticed when she came in a few minutes later.

"Good morning Miss Dear," Yuki said with a smile. "Would you like to join Miss Fig and I?" Peny was a bit crestfallen but recovered enough to enourage Penny to sit next to them. Penny took a seat on the other side of Yuki and found Tohru already putting a plate in front of her. She began to eat, answerign Yuki's questions politely and smiling at his jokes, but she was trying to keep her legs from cramping. She hadn't sat like this on the floor, this early in the morning since probably the second grade. When she had eaten plenty of food and a particularly bad crampcaught a hold of her leg, she excused herself, thanking Tohru for the delicious food, and walked out onto the patio to stretch.

It was a beautiful morning, early enough that there was still dew on leaves and grass that surrounded her, but late enough that the sun was comfortably warm on her face as she sighed. Around the house was clear of most trees sothe sun shone evenly, but she could see a little way into the forest a deer grazing as sunlight filtered through some leaves. She sat there watching it a minutes before its ears pricked up and it bounded away. Sometimes she wished she had one of those cameras people got in photography at school, well, and that she could use it since it might be more complicated.

She heard footsteps coming around the corner of the house and turned to find a black and white haired boy walking toward her. He gazed at her as he walked toward the door and smiled before going into the bustling kitchen.

A moment later Ayame and Momiji came out of the house toward a lane going through the forest. Momiji saw Penny and waved.

"See ya later Penny!"

"Where are you going?" she called.

"To the main house!" answered Ayame as he waved. Oh yeah, Penny thought, the main house, duh.

"Hello." saida voice from behind, making her jump. She turned to find Hatori standing there, looking into her eyes. He wasn't smiling, wasn't moving. it was a bit unnerving.

"Hi. My name's Penny."

"Hatori."

"So...do you live here too?" she asked, knowing it was sort of a lame attemp at conversation.

"No. I live at the main house. I just came to visit for a while. Had something to tell Shigure."

"Oh yes, I remember."

"I also have something to tell you and Miss Fig."

"Um...what?" she wanted to ask How do you know our names? but decided to go in the direction he was.

"I have come with the instructions for you and Miss Fig to stay here at the Sohma house until we can find a way to get you back home." Penny had the strange feeling that he knew how she had gotten there and doubted, as she did, that her home was in the same world as his.

"Um...alright. Thank you...we aren't under house arrest or anything, are we?"

"No." not even a smile "You will attend the school that the other children are according to how you do on the entrance exam. That will decide what grade you will be in."

"Um...Hatori?"

"Yes."

"Um...do I have to wear one of those uniforms." she had almost asked if he knew how she had gotten there.

"Yes." he said simply. " Well if you have any questions you can ask Shigure." he said, begining to walk toward the lane that Ayame and Momiji had also gone on. "And a suggestion."he turned around. Penny brought her head up and out of her thoughts for a moment to hear him say "Don't go into the kitchen right now."

Meanwhile Tohru wasn't letting go of the hug she had Tina in, telling her about all of the fun they would have at school together.