Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii---!

Sleepily, Chie reached over to her alarm clock and accident knocked it off her nightstand. She sat up and yawned. She felt so sleepy, but wasn't quite sure why. Her sleep had been plagued by bizarre nightmares that she couldn't remember. All she remembered was fear and pain . . . and sadness.

"Note to self: stop eating meringue pie with hot sauce before bed," she mumbled to herself. "What time is it?"

Chie looked down at her fallen alarm and immediately jumped out of bed.

"8:00 A.M.!" she shrieked as she grabbed her wrinkled school uniform of the floor and threw it on. "Why didn't anyone wake me!"

Chie grabbed her hairbrush and ran down the stairs. Kikuko, who was already behind the counter, glared at her.

"No time for breakfast!" Chie said and grabbed a piece of the day-old bread sitting on a table.

She jammed her feet into her shoes and spirited out the door with the brush still in her hair. She ran across the street and heard a car screech to a sudden halt. Chie stopped momentarily and saw that the car had stopped to avoid running her over.

"Sorry!" Chie said, spitting out bits of bread.

The window of the car rolled down and Satoshi stuck his head outside.

"Ryoyu?" he asked with amazement.

Chie ran over to him. "Hiwa-san, hello! Are you also late for school?"

Satoshi shook his head. "I'm not going to school today. I have something important to take care of."

Satoshi smiled. "I wish I didn't have to go. By the way, do you have the time?"

"I think it's 8:15."

"8:15!" Chie screeched, her face turning a sickly pale color. "Oh, I've got to get to school! Bye, Hiwa-san!" She turned to run.

"Wait, Ryoyu!"

Chie turned back to face him. "Huh?"

"Would you like a ride to school?"

Chie shook her head and her brush hit her in the eye. "Ouch." She pulled the brush out of her hair and rubbed her eye. "No, that's okay. It looked like you were in a hurry and I'd just get in the way."

"It'd no problem."

"Well, if it's not too much trouble---"

"It's not," Satoshi said and opened the door.

Chie grinned a big, goofy grin. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed and slid in.

Satoshi stared at Chie. Her school uniform was noticeably wrinkled, she had on one white sock on the left foot and a neon green and yellow sock on the right, her hair resembled a bird's nest, and there were bread crumbs on her face and clothes. Satoshi stifled a laugh as Chie tried to run her brush through her tangled mass of hair.

Chie jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped in front of the school.

"Thank you once more, Hiwa-san!" Chie said and ran inside. "Bye-bye!"

Chie had such a high-pitched, girly voice. Sasaya's voice had always been polite and soft. When Satoshi first met both of them last year, he had found it very hard to believe that the two were even related. They didn't even have similar features.

Of course, Satoshi had realized that Sasaya wasn't a Ryoyu when she first transformed into Sana.

Sasaya . . .

Satoshi leaned his head back on the headrest. They were all caught up in a serious mess.

Chie ran up to her first class and opened the door.

"Koiko-sensei!" she gasped, breathing hard.

Koiko-sensei turned her attention to Chie.

"Ryoyu-imoto," she said in a calm controlled voice, "where is your project?"

Chie gasped. Her face turned a very bright red. "Uh, um . . . an iguana ate it," she said rather lamely.

Koiko-sensei's face turned red with fury. "An iguana ate it? AN IGUANA ATE IT!" she raged. "What happened to the cat that ate your disc in the last project?"

Chie played with her hair, a sign that she was visibly uncomfortable. "It ran away," she offered in a tiny voice.

The teacher sucked in her breath sharply through her teeth. "Go to your seat and bring it in three days," she said.

"Thank you so much!" Chie exclaimed with a smiled lighting up her face. She bowed deeply and fell over, smacking her forehead on the floor. The class laughed. Even Koiko-sensei couldn't help it.

"Owie," Chie mumbled as she walked over to her desk and sat down.

"By the way, Ryoyu-imoto, where's your sister?" Koiko-sensei asked after a few minutes.

"Huh? My sister?" Chie asked with surprise.

Koiko-sensei nodded. "Yes, Ryoyu-imoto, your sister," she said slowly as if addressing a four-year-old.

Chie turned around and scanned the room. Daisuke avoided her gaze by staring at his desk. Riku averted her eyes and stared out the window.

How strange, she thought. Are they avoiding me?

"Oh, now I remember!" Chie said and faced her teacher. "She said she was going to visit someone."

Koiko-sensei nodded. She could tell it was a lie. "All right. Now, class, open your books to page 453 and . . ."

Chie stared at the page too closely and the letters started to jumble up. Something felt different. Why had Daisuke and Riku looked away? Where had Sasaya really gone? And what exactly happened yesterday?

Chie sighed and rubbed her temple. The question that bothered her the most was, "Where had Anas gone?"