"…and don't late home this afternoon because we're going shopping." Sarah Jane finished, sipping her cup of tea and reading the morning flicking through the morning paper. "I need to get Keira some clothes and you're growing a bit as well. You need a new school uniform."

I nodded, but half of my mind was still waking up. It didn't usually take this long, but last night was the call with Maria and I didn't get to bed until quite late. Lucky Keira. I didn't think she had even cracked an eyelid yet. She hadn't when I'd gone in to check on her. I was half worried that she was going to zone out for another two days solid, but when I'd shaken her gently she did a slight moan and I reckoned she was just tired too.

"I'm going to take her to the doctor's today." Sarah Jane added.

I almost choked on my toast, but managed to cough out, "Wha- why? If you take her the doctor might see the-", I gestured, "and they'll do all kinds of tests on her!"

Mum bit her lip. "I know. But I don't think all this sleep is natural. I've asked Mr. Smith to monitor her and we both reckon she may be narcoleptic."

"A disorder marked by excessive daytime sleepiness, uncontrollable sleep attacks, and cataplexy?" I asked, quoting from a medical dictionary I had read once.

"Cataplexy?"

"'A sudden loss of muscle tone, usually lasting up to half an hour.'"

"Ah." Sarah Jane gave her tea a 'just go along with it' look and carried on. "Anyway, it could be nothing, I just want to check it out and check if she's well. I'll pick you up from school; ask Rani and Clyde if they want to come along, though tell Clyde I will not buy him another x-box 360 game."

Sarah Jane was as good as her word, (what a strange expression) and picked us up after school finished. Of course, Rani and Clyde would never turn down a shopping trip and they were coming along too.

I got in in the left hand side of the car, while Rani got in the right, and Clyde the front seat. Keira sat in the middle, clutching her seatbelt to her and cringing every time the engine roared.

"Don't like the car?" Rani asked innocently. "But it's such a nice colour!"

Keira shuddered and drew her knees up on the seat so they touched her chest.

Sarah Jane started the car and we drove off in the direction of town.

"How was school today?" Sarah Jane asked, looking in the mirror at us on the back seat. "Learn anything?" Clyde made a non-committal noise.

Keira pressed up against my shoulder as we went round a bend. We straightened up, but her head stayed there. She really didn't like cars. I looked down to smile comfortingly at her, to find her lightly snoring.

Sarah Jane's eyes found me in the mirror, sad.

"The doctor confirmed it. Said it's only slight, but that we would have to take some medication to help it."

"What's the matter?" Rani asked, alarmed. "Is she alright?" she looked down at the unconscious figure.

"It's nothing, Rani. Just a small case of narcolepsy." Sarah Jane's expression darkened considerably. "Mr. Smith reckons it was caused by whatever the people who made her did to her as she was growing. Maybe she was a test subject for sleeping disorders."

Keira started awake as Sarah Jane parked the car. She hugged her knees again as if nothing had happened.

"Where first?" Sarah Jane asked as we all scrambled out. "Clothing shop for your uniforms? We might as well get that out the way, because that's never that fun. It's relatively near as well."

Keira nodded, but she was looking all around at the shops and houses and people and cars. For a moment, I could remember my first day and how overwhelming it all was to me.

The clothing shop was quieter than and not as crowded as the pavements. I could tell Keira was more comfortable without the noises and the bustle by the way her shoulders came down and her chin came up. People browsed the racks of clothing while a man bit his nails behind the counter.

Sarah Jane started examining pairs of trousers for me, telling Rani and Clyde to go look for skirts.

Keira tugged at my sleeve. "Luke!" she whispered urgently. "That man's eating himself!" she jerked her head over towards the man at the counter. She stared at him. He must have felt her watching because he scowled and started fiddling with the till.

I took her hand. "Come on. Let's go look for shirts."

We each found a few shirts to try on and took them to the changing rooms. Sarah Jane, Rani and Clyde were still browsing trousers and skirts.

"That man was eating himself." She whispered through the wall that was the only thing separating us. "Chewing on his thumb!" I could almost feel her shudder.

"He was biting his nails." I explained. "Some people form nervous habits, like biting nails or scratching or something like that."

Silence.

"Keira?"

Nothing.

"Keira, are you OK?" I opened the curtain to my changing room and stepped outside to listen at hers. Was she alright? I thought back to what Clyde had told me. I pushed that to the back of my mind and pulled the curtain open to slip inside and pull it shut. She sat propped up against the mirror, her mouth slightly open, taking in slow breaths, totally out of it. Luckily, she was wearing clothes. She's pulled on one of the short-sleeved blouses before collapsing.

Just to make sure she was alright, I leant down to reach her pulse. Of course, that would be the moment when Rani and Sarah Jane pull the curtain back to reveal me standing over an unconscious girl, reaching towards her neck. And the exact moment she woke up.

Sarah Jane gave me a stern look. "Back to your cubicle, Luke." She ordered, handing over some trousers and hanging some up in Keira's cubicle. Clyde grinned at me before I pulled the curtain to mine closed.

"Better luck next time, eh, mate?"

"I heard that, Clyde Langer!" Rani yelled from the next cubicle. "You pervert."

Clyde did a mock oh-I'm-scared face at the curtain and went over to chat up one of the female employees straightening ties.

After we'd paid for all our new clothes, we went to a stationary shop to buy some school supplies for Keira. I was still a little dubious about her being in our year, but if she was like me she was more than clever enough.

Once we got them, mum said she was tired and went to a café for a coffee, leaving us with some money to go find some everyday clothes for Keira. Rani took us round all the shops she liked and "five billion years later", as Clyde said, we and picked up Sarah Jane.

"Have fun?" she asked. "I hope Luke wasn't sneaking in to anyone's changing room again." She finished the last of her coffee and left money on the table.

I scowled. "She wasn't answering, I was just making sure she was OK."

Sarah Jane laughed at my expression. "You know I'm teasing." She said in her soothing voice.

When we pulled up into Bannerman road, there were two polices cars parked right outside our driveway.