Yay! I wrote more! I might actually get this thing off the ground! Thanks for the reviews, peeps! But I digress. ON WITH THE SHOW!
Rain had been falling all day, but by the end of school, it stopped. It wasn't sunny, but it wasn't raining. Mei hated rain. It was so depressing! But things were looking up now. School was over for the week, and she was having a sleepover with her friends.
Their group was motley. There was Ellie, who had inherited her mother's good looks, with long blond hair and forest green eyes. Then there was Susan Olsen. Short, with auburn hair and an attitude, and her father's musical talent. Lenore was something of a Goth. She wore dark colors and read novels like The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Phantom of the Opera. Angela was a contradiction. She was a boy magnet and flirt, but she loved math and got straight A's. But in spite if these major differences, they got along. And this year, there was a new girl. She was a foreign exchange student. Her name was Vera. Mei called her fairy girl, because she had a light frame, golden hair that fell to her knees, and piercing blue eyes. She was a mystery, because she was light on her feet, but had perfect posture and poise.
As Mei walked towards the door of The Silver Dragon, someone called to her.
"Oy, Mei!" It was Angela. The others were behind her.
"Hi, girls! Ready for the sleepover?"
"Am I ever!" muttered Susan. "My grandma's coming over, the one I'm named after. She'll be teasing me about having mum's attitude." Ellie sniggered. "Hey, at least it's better than when your great grandpa. You'd think he had set your parents up!"
They entered the restaurant, and went up to Mei's room. She was a neat freak, so nothing was out of place. There were sketches on the walls of dreams she had had, each more wonderful than the next. They dropped themselves onto the bed, and began discussing what had happened during the day. Well, most of them did. Vera was WAY out of the loop as far as gossip was concerned. Apparently, Mrs. Rudolph, who had been teaching when their mothers were babies, was retiring. Everyone liked her. Vera could have sworn she had seen her back home…
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It was raining again. The girls were still up, but they were telling scary stories now. A single pillar candle was lit, casting a glow that should have been creepy. But Vera found it comforting. It smelled of orange and ginger. Angela was finishing a particularly gross story. "As he turned, he could see Harold on the roof, stretching out a bloody skin to dry in the sun."
"Ewww! That wasn't scary, that was nasty!"
"It was better than yours, Lenore!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Not!"
"Too!"
"Shhhh!" The girls stopped. "Did you heart that?" asked Vera.
"Very funny! There's nothing"
Someone was walking back and forth below the window. "Um…. Check it out, Vera."
"Why ME?"
"You heard it!" Vera sighed and took the candle and a pair of binoculars to the window. She peeked out. There was a man. He wore a long coat. His pale hair was cut choppily to shoulder length, and he had a strange tattoo on the front of his neck. He looked awfully familiar…
Vera set the candle on the bedside table, and grabbed on to the branch of a tree that was right by the window. "Oy, what are you doing?" asked Susan. "I'm going to get a better look."
"Are you crazy? I don't know WHERE you came from, but when there's a creep outside you window you do not go to get a better look!" The comment was too late. Vera had already swung herself out onto the branch. Unfortunately, climbing wet trees is a very stupid thing to do, and she fell to the pavement, swearing in Metamoorian. The man spun around. His cold grey eyes seemed to look right through her as he walked up. Light from the room above fell on Vera, and his expression turned from angry to shocked.
"Oh, gods, no…"
Cliffhanger!
So, to set the record straight…
Susan is Will and Matt's, Ellie is Cornelia and Caleb's, Mei is Hay Lin and Eric's, Lenore is Taranee and Nigel's, and Angela is Irma and Martin's. Not really original, but that's what it is. So… any bets on who Vera's dad is? Give you three guesses! The first two don't count….