Chapter 2

Jo

"I wish you were my roommate," Jo said sadly to her sister, Grace, after the two of them had packed their things and were heading back towards Miss Raven's Talent Facility. "My current roommate is such a diva!"

"I know that, Jo," Grace agreed. "But at least your roommate isn't a jerk."

Both sisters groaned. "At least I have Crow." Even saying his name made Jo smile. She blushed. "He's an orphan like us, you know."

"Great, you can grow up and be parentless together," Grace muttered. "Whatever."

"Are you okay?" Jo asked, concerned.

"My roommate's a jerk, our parents are dead, and you're staying 108 rooms away!" Grace complained. "What do you think?"

Jo frowned. "I'm sorry, Grace, but maybe you should focus on the positives," she suggested, trying to cheer her sibling up.

"Like what?" Grace prompted.

"We're making new friends like Miss Raven and Crow and Blue," Jo reminded her. At the mention of Blue, Grace's cheeks reddened. Jo smiled to herself. "That's a good thing."

"Yeah, but...I still miss you," Grace said softly. "You're my sister, and you're so far away."

"Lazy goose." Jo bumped Grace with her elbow. "It's not that far a walk."

"It feels like a far walk," Grace mumbled crossly. Miss Raven's Talent Facility was close now, and the sisters walked faster to reach the place. When they walked in, the only person standing there was Miss Raven. Two more sheets of paper had been added to the sign-up sheet. Jo took a quick glance and read the first six names aloud as she read them.

Chloe Carpenter-17

Yamioko Kohiah-17

Victoria Lemmons-17

Brandon Michael Smith-17

Jo paused to giggle. "Brandon Michael Smith? Either a movie star is here, this guy is lying, or this is a funny coincidence." She kept reading.

Marina Shelby Fisher-17

Res Green-18

"Most of them are seventeen," Grace commented.

"Except that Res chick," Jo said.

"I said most," Grace said. Jo shrugged.

"I'm gonna go unpack, kk?" she told her sibling. Grace nodded.

"Yeah, me too."

"Wish me luck," both said at the same time. Jo giggled. Grace laughed forcefully. It sounded more like an off-key opera singer then a laugh. Jo laughed harder. So did Grace. Then the two started off to their rooms. Jo pushed open the door to her room and froze. A velvet rope separated one side of the room from the other.

"Don't pass this rope or you'll regret it," Celeste warned. She was sitting at a vanity dresser putting on lipstick.

"How'd you get the vanity?" Jo asked, ignoring the rope comment for now.

Celeste just shrugged.

"And you get the whole bathroom?" Jo whined. "What if I have to pee?"

"That's the only time you can cross the rope," Celeste decided after a moment's pause.

"Thanks," Jo said gratefully. "But why split the room in half at all?"

"Because you're a newbie, and I don't associate with newbies," Celeste said nonchalantly. "I'm much too experienced for you."

"This is my room as much as it is yours," Jo said sadly.

"I know. And I made sure to give us each equal sides of the room," Celeste said in mock happiness.

Jo sighed. "That's so cruel, but until Miss Raven fixes it, I'll just deal with it." Then she began unpacking and was done in 3 hours. By that time, it was already 9 o' clock, so Jo settled down to sleep.

When Jo woke up, Celeste was gone. Assuming she'd left for class (which Jo still hadn't signed up for yet), Jo stood and dressed quickly. Then she left the room and found Miss Raven in the main hall. The woman pointed Jo towards a large auditorium, and Jo found her seat, marked 316 and next to Celeste and Grace, up in one of the top rows. Jo assumed that Miss Raven had put Grace and Jo next to each other on purpose, so the two sisters could talk. Jo sat quickly and ignored Celeste to talk to Grace.

"Where's your roommate?" Jo asked.

Grace smiled evilly. "He's still asleep. I hope he gets in trouble for not getting here on time."

Jo whacked her arm. "Don't be mean," she reprimanded. "Where's Crow?"

"He's right over there, with some blue-haired dude with an eye-patch," Grace informed her. Jo nodded.

"Do you think it's Brandon, or Yamioko?" Jo asked.

"I dunno," Grace answered, shrugging. Her roommate walked in slowly, like he didn't care that he was at least five minutes late. He plopped down next to Grace and crossed his arms.

"Hi there," Jo said, trying to make conversation. "My name is Jo, and I'm Grace's sister."

"Nice to meet you," Grace's roommate muttered. Grace leaned over to Jo.

"His name is Shun," she whispered. Jo nodded.

"Oh, okay." She leaned forwards a little bit to see past her sister. Shun's eyes were closed. "Is he asleep? In the middle of class?"

"Probably so," Grace laughed. "Is this even a class? I've never heard of class in an auditorium."

"I'm awake, you know," Shun said suddenly. Grace jumped.

"That's nice," Jo said. "Congratulations."

"Hey, is this your second year?" Grace asked. "Do you know anything about this place?"

"Yes, this is my second year. Yes, I know everything about this place. And no, I'm not going to tell you anything because Miss Raven will do it in about three seconds," Shun answered. Sure enough, Miss Raven was strolling onto the stage, microphone in hand, and had turned to face her audience.

"Good morning, students," she said brightly. "I am Miss Raven, and it's time to go over to basics of this school." She looked out at Chazz and Blue. "Some of you are troublemakers and some are new, so I'll tell you our few rules."

"I didn't know there were rules here," Jo said.

"What kind of school doesn't have rules?" Grace asked.

"This kind of school, maybe?" Jo said, chuckling.

"Rule number one: BE NICE. Kindness towards your fellow students is a must. That means you, Kyoya, Chazz and Shun," Miss Raven added quickly, searching out the named people in the audience.

"Who's Kyoya?" Jo asked. Grace shrugged.

"He's a really rude second year student and my enemy," Shun said. "He's way down there."

"Oh boy, a jerkface," Jo said, rolling her eyes. "Just what I need, considering that my roommate is a total diva."

"You got Celeste this year?" Shun clarified. Jo nodded. "Good luck with that."

Celeste, thankfully, hadn't heard, since she was too preoccupied with her conversation with Astrid, who was sitting next to Celeste with her roommate, a girl with long, straight black hair.

Miss Raven continued. "Rule number two: No sleeping until three in the afternoon and expecting to get away unpunished," she said. Jo noticed that she was staring straight at Chazz. Chazz stood up.

"It's not my fault that I'm a sound sleeper!" he called.

"Then start going to bed earlier. Like, when we tell you to," Miss Raven suggested. Chazz sat back down. "Anyways...the last rule, rule number three, is two rules in one. When you get detention, don't try to give yourself MORE detention just for the sake of giving me a migraine." She turned to a greenish-grayish-haired boy down in the first row.

"She's talking about Kyoya," Shun said.

"Why on fudgesickles would he WANT detention?" Grace demanded. "That makes no sense."

"Just for the sake of irritating Miss Raven," Shun said.

"The second part of the rule is this: Don't be cruel to your fellow students just for the sake of getting detention," Miss Raven said. She was still staring at Kyoya. "That means you too, Shun."

"Don't worry, I'm mean for reasons other then getting detention too," Kyoya called suddenly.

"And I'm hardly mean at all," Shun called.

"Grace says you're a jerk," Jo commented. Grace stiffened.

"Thanks for being so blunt," she mumbled.

Shun chuckled. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Thanks."

"So you're not mad?" Jo asked, tipping her head.

"No. Once you've met Kyoya, random comments don't upset you anymore."

"So I could call you an idiot right now and you wouldn't mind," Grace verified.

"Um...yeah, I'd probably mind."

"Attention all students," called a woman now on stage, with brown hair in a bun. "My name is Miss Evangeline, and I am your principal. I would like to say something very important." She paused while everyone quieted down and then spoke again. "This school is your home for the next four years, or if you're a second year student, three years, and so on." She looked out at the crowd. "While you are here, it is likely that you will form relationships that will last a long time. You could fall in love while you're here, is what I'm saying. In that case, you do not, under any circumstances, simply say so. Here, your expression of love is in your song."

She paused again and listened to confused murmurs from first year students. "Here's what I mean: Suppose Celeste develops a crush on Chazz. Would she just walk right up and say it?"

"No!" shouted a couple of second year students up in front.

Miss Evangeline smiled. "That's right. Celeste would wait for a moment when Chazz was singing, or humming, and she would harmonize."

"Harmonize?" Jo echoed. "So...that means that if I fall in love with Crow (just an example), then I would have to harmonize with him to show him that I care?"

"That's what she said," Celeste said suddenly. "But why she would choose Chazz to be my example partner I'll never know."

Jo frowned. "What happens if you're too shy?"

"Then you get over your shyness and do it," Celeste snapped. "And if you don't sing, then you GET OVER IT and sing already."

Shun glared at her. "No way. I don't sing, no matter what."

"Can't, or don't?" Grace questioned.

"I have no idea. I've never sang before," Shun admitted.

"Surely you can hum, though. Everyone can hum!" Jo said happily.

"I used to be unable to hum," Grace pointed out.

Celeste suddenly burst out laughing. "Unable to hum? Why, everyone can hum! And singing is just as easy," she added, looking at Shun.

"Stop staring at me like that," Shun ordered. "It's creepy, and I'm not the only one here who doesn't sing. There's Chloe, and Kyoya, and-"

"At least Chloe raps," Celeste cut in.

"It's the same! You can't harmonize with a rap," Shun reminded her.

"There's a rapper here?" Jo asked excitedly. "I love rap!"

"Anyways," Celeste said loudly, ignoring her. "If you can't even hum, then I can't wait to see how you humiliate yourself in singing class."

"She said she USED to be unable to hum, not that she can't," Jo said crossly. "I can hum too. Watch!" Instantly, she began to hum, hitting every note. The song Jo had chosen was "We Cry Out", by Jeremy Camp. Grace, without thinking, slipped into harmonizing softly. Shun whacked her on the arm.

"Ow!" Grace exclaimed. Jo faltered a bit and stopped humming. "What was that for?"

"Be careful about harmonizing at the wrong times," Shun said. "Otherwise people are going to think you're really strange. Remember what harmonizing means here?"

"Oh yeah, so Grace and I shouldn't harmonize," Jo said. "That'd be really awkward."

Celeste laughed and stood. "Newbies," she said. "And by the way, you faltered and got off-key once." Then she walked off and was gone.

"I did not get off-key! Your face is off-key!" Jo frowned. "What a diva." She would much rather be rooming with Grace. Even that Kyoya guy sounded better then Celeste right then. She wondered who he was rooming with. I hope he didn't end up with Crow, Jo thought. Her cheeks flushed and she smiled a bit as the thought entered her head. I hope Crow sings.