[Early in the morning of] December 10th

Today was really weird. Well, I guess at this point it would technically be yesterday. I don't have a watch and there's no clock in the room, so I'm not sure what time it is. I think it's about one in the morning. As you probably could tell from my earlier entries, I'm not a night owl. I always fall asleep around nine or ten, and wake pretty early too—I'm usually the first in the house to wake up. So why, you ask, am I writing in my diary after midnight? Like I said before—today was a really weird day.

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I woke up around six, six thirty like I normally do. I changed and organized all of my stuff for school, finishing some math problems I had forgotten to do the day before. Both Amanda and Jess were sound asleep the whole time. They're always like that—you can shake them all you want, but they won't wake up. They only wake up by themselves, and often at the same exact time. The only exception to this is when Jess has a nightmare and starts jerking around in her sleep. This use to happen all the time, but a couple months ago, it began happening less and less. In fact, Amanda used to be a really light sleeper until a few months ago. I'm not sure what caused the change between the two of them. Even the sleeping pills my mom used to take didn't have that effect.

Anyway, I had breakfast, brushed my teeth, and walked to the bus stop. When the bus arrived, I realized Jess wasn't there. Even though we go to different schools, we still take the same bus everyday. I normally don't pay that much attention to her, but after noticing this, I realized I hadn't seen her at breakfast. Her or Amanda.

This bothered me for a while—were they cutting? They could be sick, but wouldn't they tell Mrs. Nash that? Why is it that I was the only one to notice them? Once I reached school, however, I forgot all about it.

I was leaving third period, when I ran into someone. Or they ran into me, I don't know. It was a girl, a ninth grader like me. She was a redhead, and I think her eyes were brown. She was kind of short, and really pale. I go to a pretty big school, so I wasn't the least bit surprised that I hadn't seen her before.

"OMG, I'm so sorry!" She told me. She even said the letters 'OMG.'

"Whatever, it's fine." I was pretty annoyed with her to be honest—she was going to make me late.

"I'm Alex!" She chirped. Alex, I found out later, was a very hyper person.

"Jeannie." I mumbled, practically running in the other direction. Not that I didn't like Alex (I don't, though), but the bell was about to ring. Not the time for introductions.

She ran in the same direction. At first I thought she was following me (creepy), but as it turned out, the class she was going to was right next to me. And of course, she talked to me the whole time.

"So, how do like high school? Did you know that midterms are next week? Crazy, huh? The school year is going by so fast. Christmas is coming up, too! Have you bought all of your Christmas gifts yet? I bought some jewelry for my mom—she loves jewelry. Doesn't everyone? I mean, if we hated it, why would it be so popular? Jewelers would go out of business. Museums would have fewer things to put on display. People would spend less though. Jewelry can be expensive. Really expensive. The stuff I bought my mom wasn't too expensive, though. Which is good, since it's coming out of her wallet. Man, doesn't that totally suck for parents? Sure, you're getting this awesome stuff you wouldn't buy for yourself, but it's your money! Having kids must suck. I don't know if I'll have kids when I grow up. What about you? Will you have kids when you're older?"

Don't ask me how I remember all of that. After Alex Bergstein (I found out her last name afterwards) talks to you, you can't forget about her. Her voice rings around in your head. And let me tell you, that is not a good thing.

At least I didn't have to answer her. At that point, the bell rung, and we reached our classrooms, giving me an excuse to get away from her. Wow, that sounded really rude. I'm not a rude person. Alex just freaks me out. Really, seriously, freaks me out. And if you had met her, you would be freaked out too.

The class I was late to was English. I think Alex went to English as well. If she continues to hang around me, I'll know her entire schedule by the end of next week. Nothing important in English—like all of my other classes, it's just reviewing for midterms. Boring.

I usually sit alone during lunch. I'm not a loser or a loner or anything; it's just personal preference. After I finish eating I go to the library and read. Its nice and quiet there—or at least it is normally.

Yep, you guessed right: Alex.

"There are a lot of books here! I mean, obviously, it's a library, but wow! No wonder you like it here so much. How many books have you read here? Do you like reading? You look like a girl who likes to read. Does that make sense? It makes sense to me, but over the years I've noticed that people don't understand a lot of things that I say. I don't know why. Am I talking too fast? Oh, hey, is that Twilight? Hey, it is! There are all the other books in the series, too! Wow, they're really big. I've never read a book that big. Have you read a book that big? I bet you have. I bet you're a great reader! I don't like reading. It's so boring. I'm mean, you just stare at words on a piece of paper. Boring! Movies are so much cooler. They have all this action and cool stuff! Pieces of paper can't act out scenes. Do people, like, envision the scenes in their heads? I bet they do. That's so weird. Why not just watch the movie instead? So much easier. Some of the actors are really hot, too. Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob? I'm Team Jacob. Edward is freakishly pale and emo. Jacob's so cute! You're a Team Jacob fan, aren't you? I bet you are. Why does everyone complain when people make movies out of books? I'm mean, there the same exact thing right? It's not like the characters or story is different or anything."

I did want to tell her that's not true, but I decided not to bother. It's so much easier to just sit there and let her talk. She may think she's talking to someone, but she's really having a conversation with herself. I feel kind of bad for her.

"OMG, my brother is so annoying! He's a senior. I can't wait until he's out of the house. I mean, he makes all these gross jokes and goes through my stuff, and he has no table manners. He skips a lot. Mom and Dad are so pissed at him for it, but he doesn't even care! He just plays basketball all day. I think he's trying to get a basketball scholarship. Those exist, right? I bet they do. I wish I had a sister. Do you have a sister?"

"Actually, I—"

"I bet you do."

This went on for a while. She didn't notice once how uncomfortable I was talking about family. Yeah, she's nice, but she's pretty tactless to be honest. It's like she doesn't even realize the person she's talking to has feeling and thoughts. With about eight minutes left of lunch, she (fortunately) switched to a different subject:

"So, there's a bake sale coming up. You know, like selling cake and stuff. And cookies. Or at least, I hope there are cookies there. Cookies are optional. They're delicious, too. Especially chocolate chip cookies. The chocolate chips are all melted and awesome. Did you know that there's brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies? That's why they're brown. Makes sense, right? Anyway, the bake sale is next Tuesday after the midterms. It's outside. I hope no one brings ice cream! Haha, get it? Anyway, the sale is a school fundraiser. It's a fundraiser raising money for the….um…school. I'm not sure. However, my mom signed up to make brownies for it. I love baking. Do you like baking? I bet you do. Baking is fun! I mean, you get food from it! Who doesn't like food? Food's awesome. And delicious. But that's point, right? Anyway, I'm baking it Monday night, and I was hoping you could help me. Wouldn't that be so much fun? I call you tonight. What's your phone number? You have a cell phone, right?"

"Uh, no, actually, I don't." No one in the Nash House has a cell phone. We aren't allowed one.

"Oh. Well, I'll call your house. Hey, what's your last name? Mine's Bergstein. I think it's German."

"It's Puckett. Um…" I did not want to talk about this. "If your looking in the phone book…um, it's probably under 'Nash.'"

"Oh." She said. "Why?"

"Uh…" The bell rang.

"Oh, never mind! I have to go to gym. I hate gym. Do you hate gym? I bet you do."

.

So, I made a new friend. Or at least, I think I did. Mostly I'm just confused. I'm really tired, and I have school tomorrow, so I'll make this quick.

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There were multiple reasons why this day was so weird. Alex was one of them, but Amanda and Jess were another.

When I got off the bus, almost everyone was home. I was about to enter into my room when I heard people whispering. Trust me, whispering is never a good thing. I could recognize the voices right away: Amanda and Jess. I leaned against the door and listened. Like I said before, I don't eavesdrop. Sort of.

Amanda: I'm really scared, Jess.

Jess: Don't worry, 'Manda. It will not happen.

Amanda: You don't know that! It could! Your visions always come true!

Jess: But not as I see it. He'll be fine, Amanda.

Amanda: I hope so. Everything today went wrong. Finn's mom knows he crossed over.

Jess: Mrs. Nash doesn't know.

Amanda: So? This is bad. Really bad. We missed school today! And the green eyes are still out there.

Green eyes? Crossing over? Were they speaking in code?

Then, the two walked out of the room. Their conversation may have been kind of freaky, but that didn't mean I couldn't use it against them.

"Hey." I said to Jess. "I didn't see you on the bus today." She looked panicked. Honestly, both of them looked really panicked.

"I was there." She said. Really quickly, might I add.

"Oh, really? Because I don't think you were."

"Well—" I don't know what Jess was going to say, because Amanda cut her off.

"Don't tell Mrs. Nash! Please!" She asked me.

"Shh!" I heard Jess say. She obviously didn't know I heard them admit it.

"I might, I might not." I told her vaguely. I was going to milk this all I could.

"Jeannie! Please!" I heard the phone ringing downstairs. I was going to ignore it, and then I realized who it was. I ran downstairs, which probably freaked out Amanda more. Fine with me.

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I had to write this down. I knew if I waited until tomorrow I would forget what they said. I would've written it earlier, but I didn't want Amanda and Jess to see. They took a long time to go to sleep. Whatever. Now that I have something against them, this lack of sleep is worth it. Still, it's going to be a long day.

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I have a lot of studying to do.

Author's Note: My internet's working again! Thanks for the reviews ;)

So, I've decided that I will write a sequel to "Trouble at Sea." I want to finish my two HP fics first, though, so it'll probably be posted in about a month or so.