Chapter Two:

In Which A Rather Ridiculous and Questionable Friendship Is Formed

Rachel walked slowly towards the "indiscreet" platform her train was supposed to arrive at

Rachel walked slowly towards the "indiscreet" platform her train was supposed to arrive at. Setting down her six deluxe suitcases and smelly ferret case she lounged against a station bench and began to survey her fellow magic pupils.

She narrowed her eyes at them. Most appeared to be about her own fifteen years of age. Some wore long robes decorated in daisies, complete with little yellow umbrella floating over their heads. Others wore skimpy swimsuits with towels rapped around their waists. Still others were adorned with gigantic ski parkas. The more normal ones wore scarves and light sweaters.

They appeared to be from all over the world, all different shapes, sizes and decorations. Their only true connection seemed to be that in the outside world they would all be labeled "freaks". But hey, she was one of them now, so she was probably supposed to be a little more open-minded.

A little ways off she spied the brown haired girl from the station. She appeared to be running straight for her. Rachel let out a strategic yawn, stretching out her feet just as the other girl went past. The brunette went sprawling.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!" The brunette appeared to find her own clumsiness vastly amusing.

"Freak." Rachel whispered under her breath.

"Huh what?" the other girl asked, still lying sprawled across the chartreuse linoleum floor, propping her head on her fist but making no move to stand.

"Nothing!" Rachel quickly replied.

"So, what's your name?" The brunette asked in a fast, sing-song-y voice. Before Rachel could supply an answer she continued, "My name's Ashley Narcolepsian! Not that it matters much anymore! As soon as we get to Season Salad we get new names! I call dibs on Feegl-shwasn!"

Everything this "Ashley" character said seemed to end in an exclamation!! But hey, Rachel was accepting that she was going to be surrounded by freaks a lot these days.

"My name's Rachel." She supplied when Ashley stopped to take a breath, "Rachel Weaver."

"REALLY!!" Ashley squealed, "That is so AWESOME! You're that prophecy chick! I wish I had a prophecy about me! Instead I just tend to make people run screaming!!"

She seemed insanely proud of the fact.

"Are you going to get up off the floor any time soon?" Rachel politely enquired.

"Nah!!" Ashley replied. "I'm so used to lying on the floor at home (that's where my bed is, yah see) and this floor is so much nicer then ours!" She began to express her appreciation by rolling willy-nilly across the linoleum.

"Oh-kaaayyyy…." Rachel smiled uneasily. "That's…. lovely."

Just then a brunette boy with a pale and thin build similar to that of Ashley's walked over and stared down at her with highly raised eyebrows.

"You are SUCH a freak," he supplied.

"Uh-huh!" She smiled, momentarily stopping her floor-frenzy to survey the newcomer. "But I get to go to magic school and you get to stay hoooo-ome!" she sang.

The boy rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah. But at least you'll be out of the house!" He stuck his tongue out at her.

"That's my brother." Ashley unnecessarily explained to Rachel, "His name's Richard and he's a dummy, but I love him anyway!!"

"ME??" Richard appeared out raged by the accusation. "You're the one with the floor-fetish, you weirdo!"

Just then, before their scintillating sibling feud could escalate, a rather eccentric horn could be heard emulating from the train tunnel.

"Is that… the ice cream truck song?" Rachel asked in confusion. Everyone else seemed to find the ice cream-song-playing-train perfectly normal. Some kids even hummed along. Ashley took a different approach.

"ICECREAM!!" she screamed, jumping up and running towards the track.

"Oh sh--!!" Richard sighed, running off to grab Ashley by the back to her shirt and straining to pull her away from the on-coming train.

"Wait tell it stops, freak!!" He screamed, managing to pull her back to the bench where Rachel calmly surveyed her newfound "friend"s act of pure insanity.

"ALL ABOARD!" The train captain, a man dressed in a 1920's mobster suit of magenta-colored suede, called out to the hoard of oddly attired students.

Finally, the woman previously seen telling Ashley to shut up who was presumably of some relation to the crazy siblings, appeared, a huge grin on her face.

"Mom!" Richard cried out in relief, "Where have you been? Ash almost got hit by the train!"

"Oh, she never was the brightest of the brood", Mrs. Narcolepsian shrugged, kissing her daughter affectionately on the forehead. Ashley smiled a 100 watts back at her.

"Who's your oddly dressed friend?" Mrs. Narcolepsian asked cheerfully, turned to a rather confused Rachel. She'd never been called oddly dressed by a woman wearing a pink and green, moth-eaten bathrobe before.

"That's Rachel WEAVER!" Ashley supplied, "How awesome is THAT!?"

"Oh my! The prophecy girl! You better become very good friends with her too increase your own social standing!" Mrs. Narcolepsian order. Ashley nodded agreeably.

"You know," Rachel began, an evil grin forming on her face, "My true friends always perform heavy labor for me to stay in my good graces. And these bags are pretty heavy…"

Ashley jumped at the task, grabbing two bags per arm and skipping over towards the boarding train, singing loudly the whole way.

"Grab the rest, Richard!" his mother snapped, kicking him over towards the luggage. He grabbed the remaining bags, grumbling about pretentious old hags the entire way.

Left with only her smelly ferret cage, Rachel skipped on to the "ice cream" train.

Right after she boarded and arranged her suitcases around her the doors began to close. Richard jumped up and raced for the doors. Just as he was about to climb safely out Mrs. Narcolepsian jump out of nowhere to push him back on.

"But Mom!" He yelled, "I'm not supposed to go for three more years!!"

"Like hell am I feeding you until then!" She laughed, "You're the school's problem now!" She waved merrily as the train carried away two of her "little dears".

"&#&!!" Richard seethed, stomping back towards Rachel and Ashley.

"Haha! You have to go to scho-oool!" Ashley sang.

And so the three main characters of our tale, currently known as Rachel, Ashley and Richard but soon to be known as something altogether different for no apparent reason, began the long and tedious train ride to a school called Season Salad for reasons yet to be explained. (I love run on sentences – don't you?)

END OF CHAPTER TWO!!

Stay tuned for another exciting episode!  I promise I'll write if you read and review!