I stood tensely, waiting for the poof, but it didn't come. Then I noticed Kyou was teally tense too and rwalized I was still clutching him.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" I pulled away and nervously tucked my hair behind my ear. Kyou just looked at me strangely. "What?" I asked irratably.

Kyou just shoo his head, grabbed my arm and lead me into the lunch room.

Pushing me into a chair, he sank down across from me. "Maybe you aren't as different as I thought." He said grumpily. Great. Now he was looking at me like I was the one who had deeply wronged him in a past life.

I shrugged, still mulling over why i didn't didn't change when I hugged him.

"Hi Shawna, Hi Kyou!" Tohru came bouncing up with Hana- chan, Uo- chan, Kaia, and Dean in towe. Yuki wasn't far behind, detered by fan girls.

"'Lo" I said simply, not feeling very friendly.

"Hey! You took my drink!" Kaia shouted at Dean.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"SHUT UP!" I screamed. Then I got up and stomped away from the group, ignoring their stunned faces.

"I'm sorry about her. The rainy weather makes her irritable," Kaia expained, then bolted after me, leaving Dean open- mouthed. Now he had to answer his questions with his broken, halting japanese.

"Shawny! Shawny! Are you okay?" Kaia asked me, running up.

"That boy, Kyou. There's something strange about him. Her's not normal. I acidentally fell and hugged him, but nothing happened. I didn't change. I'm telling you. Something anout those Sohmas. Yuki, too. There's something off about them." I fumed.

"Relax, Shawny. It probably wasn't a satisfactory hug. That's all." Kaia soothed.

I thought about it. It had definatetly been a satisfactory hug. We'd probably looked like a couple. clutching eachother like that. Maybe my zodiac sign was defective. Another thing to add to the list. My day was REALLY not going well.

"Excuse me, Curna- san."

Both Kaia and I responded, "Yes?"

Yuki had walked up behind us, and I desperately hoped he hadn't heard my little rant. "I wanted to introduce you to my other two cousins who go to this school, Momiji and Hatsuharu."

"Hello." The one indicated as Hatsuharu said. He had white hair with black roots. Seeing this, I froze. He had the same hair as my cousin, Lilah. That was NOT a common hair color.

"Hi!" Momiji smiled widely and grabbed my hand. "You look like Kyou!"

Hatsuharu watched me quietly, like he was trying to distern something.

"What?" I asked, crankily.

"Come with me." He turned and walked away, motioning for me to follow him.

"What?" I asked again, more comfused than cranky this time, but then I followed him.

"Shawny?" Kaia called after me.

"You can handle introductions, right, Kai?" I called over my shoulder as I continued walking.

"Umm... okay." Kaia sounded confused, but agreed.

"So, what do you want?" I asked, irritable again, as soon as we were out of earshot of the others.

"You're one of us, aren't you?" Hatsuharu asked.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You're... different. Not like most people." Hatsuharu replied.

"I- I have no idea what you're talking about." I said. He couldn't know. There was no way he could know about my family, was there?

"You change." Hatsuharu grabbed my right arma nd pulled up my sleeve, revealing my beaded bracelet.

I froze, realizing that he knew about my beads. The beads on my wrist that kept me from changing into a monster. How did he know about my beads? What else did he know about? If I was the only one found out, I had to figure out how to protect the rest of the family from being exposed.

And that's when his voice broke through my foggy mind. "You are the cat."