After handing my luggage off to one of the many Pukwudgies around the station, I followed Blaine onto the train. Most of the compartments were open, although some had wrappers or dirt in them from the kids that were on before us. Eventually I stopped following him and just plopped myself in a compartment, as he was clearly looking for his friends. And I dunno about you guys, but I was not about to spend my whole train ride with my older brother and his two friends.

"C'mon, Keith!" I heard a voice outside my compartment, "They're up here."

"Okay!" Another voice, presumably Keith, responded. Two figured raced by the door, and two others poked in the compartment across from mine. One of them sat, the other just stood in the doorway. I heard them talking idly to each other.

"You're not actually gonna spend the entire year on their tails, right?" A male voice asked.

"No, of course not," said a female voice, "I have better things to do than watch them."

"Agreed," said the male voice, before opening the door to my compartment. He looked down at me through a mop of hair that was too blond to be red, but too red to be blond. He looked a couple years older than me.

Oh God..

"Oh," he said, "hey. Mind if I sit here? My friends and I normally use this compartment."

"Oh, yeah, of course!" I stood, "I can leave if you want!"

"No no, you're good." he sat down in the seat across from me. "You're a first year, right?"

I nodded a little, slowly sitting back down. "I am."

"I could tell, you looked kinda spooked." he smiled a little, offering his hand for me to shake. "I'm Orion, by the way. Fourth year, Horned Serpent."

"I'm Drystan," I said, shaking his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Same to you, Drystan." Orion leaned against the back of the seat, "Are you an only child or?"

I shook my head. "I've got two brothers. One's a second year."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"My little brother's a second year. What house is your brother in?"

"Wampus, I think. What about yours?"

"Thunderbird. The adventurers."

I nodded a little. "So, the houses have associations, right? Like adventurous Thunderbirds?"

"They do," Orion said, "I take it you don't know?" I shook my head. He sighed a bit. "Well, for starters, Wampus favors warriors, it represents the body of a witch or wizard. Thunderbird favors adventurers, it represents the soul. Horned Serpent, my house, favors scholars and represents the mind. Pukwudgie favors healers, and represents?"

"The heart?" I guessed.

"Bingo," he smiled at me, "You catch on fast."

"Well there was kind of a pattern going, so I just assumed-"

"'Rion!" exclaimed a happy, high-pitched voice from the door.

"Hey, Nat," he stood, happily embracing the girl that had shown up at the door. "It's been a while."

"I'm here too!" said a male voice from behind them. I looked down a bit, twiddling my thumbs. Cue being forgotten, yet again..

"What's up, Zayne?" Orion must have hugged him too, before he and Nat entered the compartment. "You two, meet Drystan. He's a first year."

I perked my head up at my name. Nat looked me up and down and Zayne smiled at me.

"What's up, little man?" he asked, plopping himself right next to me. "Name's Zayne. And this here's Nat."

"Hey." Nat said absently.

"It's nice to meet you." I replied.

Maybe I was actually going to be okay here.