Chapter 2

Zoe finished up her Pop Tart and ran upstairs to her bathroom. She turned on the little boom box on the counter and brushed her teeth as Sakura Saku blasted in the bathroom. She sang as she brushed, toothpaste drooling from her mouth to the sink, "Yane no ue de sora o aogu hizashi wa uraraka. Miageru sora, karadajuu genki ga minagitteku. That's so wonderful! Ikiterunda! Yamerarenai, akira meru da nante!" She continued the song as she rinsed and spit, and brushed her long, dark brown hair. She moved the boom box to her room and danced as she got dressed in a black t-shirt, gray skin-tight jeans, and black high tops.

Zoe continued to dance and sing to the last verse around her room, which was decorated with The Nightmare Before Christmas items, posters, and oriental furniture.

"Te o nobashite," she sang. "Te o nobashite. Ryoute agete!" She stopped the boom box when the song was over and put on silver hoop earrings and her lucky pentagram necklace. Then she ran back downstairs, finding Safiya still in her pjs when it was time to go to school.

"Safiya!" Zoe cried. "It's time to go to school and you're not dressed yet!"

Safiya grinned. "Relax," she said in her Italian accent. "I'm a genie, remember?" She snapped her fingers and her red pjs turned into a black and red striped shirt, black slacks, and black Converses.

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Come on, Emma's waiting for us," she said, grabbing her backpack. The two girls walked out the door, and with a wave of a hand, Zoe closed the door with her magic. She and her mother are witches. Mrs. Halliwell was a potions and spells master, and she could freeze time. Zoe's a telepath (meaning she can read minds and move things with her mind) and see the future. Not much of a potions person, almost as good as her mother at spells.

Now, Safiya is a different story. When Zoe was 10, she and her parents went on a vacation in Italy. There, they found little Safiya, being taken care of by poor gypsies. The Halliwells decided to adopt Safiya after getting to know her, and finding out that she's an orphaned genie who's been struggling to survive with the gypsies. Safiya wasn't a trained genie yet, so she couldn't help the gypsies or herself. When they adopted her, they helped the gypsies earn jobs for normal people to have to live normal and healthy lives. Safiya was able to learn how to be a genie with Mrs. Halliwell's help and magic.

The two girls went to the house next door and found their friend running toward them.

"Morning girls!" Emma greeted as her red hair bounced when she ran. Her demon slayer pendant shone in the morning sunlight. You probably already know what a demon slayer is (or guessed it). A demon slayer slays demons for a living. That's what Emma is. Although this is the 21st century and people aren't very aware of magic and demons, she works with Zoe and Safiya to kill demons for free. Her special weapon is two sharp, 500-year old swords from her ancestors and giant steel-toed boots whose kick will always cause harm.

"Morning, Emma," Zoe said with a smile. "How are you with your lines?"

"I'm ready for the rehearsal of the last scene tomorrow!" Emma exclaimed. On the following Saturday, the girls and their two friends, Brad and Mike, are going to be in the Fall Musical, Once More With Feeling. It's the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with Zoe as Buffy, Emma as Anya, Safiya as Dawn, Brad as Spike, and Mike as Xander.

Brad and Mike joined the girls from across the street. Mike was tying his ninja band around his head.

"Good morning girls!" Brad said in an announcer type of way.

"Morning Brad," Zoe replied. "How're the big guys upstairs?"

"Good, I guess," Brad replied. "They're teaching me how to use my invisibility powers now."

"That is so cool!" Safiya cried. As a genie, she can only turn into different animals, things, and people, and make things pop out of thin air, including changing her clothes just by snapping, so she envies other supernatural people like a normal person.

Brad is a half-whitelighter in training. Unless you watch Charmed, you probably don't know what a whitelighter is. They're like guardian angels for witches. They can orb (or transport in white lights) and help witches. Since Brad's grandfather is an Elder (one of the head whitelighters), he can inherit his invisibility powers. Brad knew Zoe his entire life, since his father was Mrs. Halliwell's whitelighter. Now he's almost finished with his training and ready to be Zoe's whitelighter.

"By the time you nail that, you'll be my whitelighter!" Zoe squealed as she hugged Brad around his waist.

"I feel owned," he said with a fake frown. Zoe let go of him and the five friends walked down the street to Oaks High School.

"Is that your real ninja headband?" Emma asked, pointing to Mike's forehead.

"Yep," Mike replied with a smile, his Japanese-American face beaming. "This is the first time I brought it out of the house. Thankfully, everyone at school will think it's Naruto cosplay."

Now to explain Mike. His father's families are all ninjas, like in Naruto, making Mike one as well. He now knows every jitsu and has a power of his own. He can create a strong barrier that can cover up the entire U.S. if he wants.

The five friends walked on to start a new week as sophomores in high school, talking about the musical, their costume dance that's coming up this Friday, and the 12-hour school tele-thon the school's having to raise money for a school theater. They're going to be one of it's performances as a band called Rock Candy, with Zoe at lead vocals, Safiya and Brad on guitar, Mike on bass guitar, and Emma on drums. Even though they're supernatural beings, they live pretty normal lives.

Bbbbrrrrriiiiinnnggg! Zoe ran out of her class in the back of the school and was about to enter the hallway when Brad called her over from the basketball court.

"Hey Zoe!" he yelled, still in his P.E. clothes while dragging a large bag of balls. "Can you help me with this bag?"

Zoe nodded and ran up to him to help carry the bag inside the activity room. "Gee, what are these balls made of, iron!" she said after pushing the bag into the P.E. closet. When she got inside, she slipped on a ping-pong ball and began to fall backward, but Brad caught her hand.

"Thanks, Brad," Zoe said, breathing a little fast. After that, the two heard a crash. Zoe looked over her shoulder and saw a puddle of dark red liquid and broken glass. She looked closely at it. "Oh no!" she cried.

"What? What happened?" Brad asked, looking over.

"That was a dimension potion I got yesterday from my cousin," Zoe cried. "I didn't even read her directions for what to do with it and how to use it!"

"Ok! Ok!" Brad yelled. "Don't panic! I'll help you clean it up." He took a look at the liquid. "Heh. Ya know what that stuff reminds me of?" he asked with a grin.

"What?" Zoe asked, getting tissues from her bag.

"It reminds me of the stuff they call 'blood' they use in Inuyasha instead of real red blood," Brad replied with a laugh.

Zoe smiled. "Yeah, it actually does," she replied. "They make blood look black."

The potion glowed for a second when Zoe touched it with a tissue.

"O-k," she said, raising an eyebrow. "I need more paper towels." She and Brad cleaned up the mess and at 3:30, Safiya, Emma, and Mike showed up at the scene.

"I was wondering what was taking you guys so long," Emma said as Zoe threw away the last of the wet paper towels. "What happened?"

"You don't wanna know," Zoe said with a sigh. "I need to go to my locker to get my math book."

The fivesome walked out into the school hallway and Zoe ran to her locker. As she opened her locker, pictures of Koga fell out.

"Ok, can we say 'overly obsessive'?" Safiya joked.

"Shut up," Zoe said, picking up the pictures. "Look who's talking, Miss Inuyasha's-my-mate!" Safiya turned red.

Zoe took out her math book and noticed that something's in between the pages. Must be a huge pebble, she thought. She opened the book to the page where the 'pebble' would be, but in the middle of her book laid a pink shard.

"What the hell?" she said with a raised eyebrow. She picked up the shard and she gasped, dropping the book on the ground with a THUD!

"What's wrong?" Mike asked as the four ran up to her.

"She's getting a vision, you ninja nerd!" Emma replied.

Zoe saw her watch changing to 12:00 the following night and looked up. Where the potion was dropped formed a portal and hundreds of demons and Naraku's poisonous insects flew out of the portal and out the doors. Followed by them were Kirara, Shippo, Sango, Miroku, Koga, Kagome, and Inuyasha. Then Zoe came back to reality.

"What'd you see?" Brad asked.

Zoe squeezed the shard and looked down, beginning to laugh.

"What's so funny?" snapped Safiya.

Zoe looked up with a huge grin on her face. "This is a shard of the Shikon Jewel!" she squealed. "I saw demons and Naraku's insects coming out of a portal where I dropped one of my potions, followed by the Inuyasha group and Koga!" Zoe paused and realized what she just said. Koga? She thought. Here? I'm gonna meet Koga! Her face started to fluster.

"Oh God," Emma said, slapping her forehead. "She just realized that she's gonna meet the Koga of the wolf demon tribe."

Zoe laughed. "We gotta hurry!" she said as she put her math book in her bag and closed her locker. "We need to prepare our house for them! They'll be here at midnight tonight! Let's go!"