With each passing tree, Kali seemed to miss her home that much more, even though it seemed impossible. This country was so different from her own, so much dirtier, that Kali was starting to think the Philippines was paradise. You never know what you had until it's gone, she thought as another tree, covered in graffiti zoomed by. But, she continued with a smile, it'll all be worth it.

I hope.

Looking at the photo she held in her hand, Kali felt a surge of trust and purpose along with an underlining emotion she cared not to think about. The girl in the photo reminded her of herself, young and confused yet strong and determined. The girl's eyes told the fear Kali felt at the moment. Who knew what would happen when she stepped off that bus? Closing her eyes, facing the window again, the sixteen year old bit her lip, demanding the terror away.

Even with her eyes closed and though the seat barely moved, Kali knew that right in front of her Gina had turned around. Swallowing the justified fear that threatened to boil over, the girl opened her chocolate brown eyes and there she was hanging over the back of the seat in front of her. Gina, her golden hair pulled up into a ponytail (curls still cascading around her face no matter what she tried), the girl Kali had known and come to love in this past year. Yet, at this moment, she wasn't exactly the person she wanted to talk to. Neither was anyone else, though, she reasoned to herself.

Gina was a problem solver by nature and though Kali had become closer to her than any other since she left home, she knew there would be no solution and all efforts to find it would be futile. Unfortunately, Gina wasn't a hint taker unless you spelled it out to her in plain English. Kali was not the girl for that job.

"So, you're still studying that picture?" She asked, ignoring Kali's brooding eyes.

Instead of being rude to her friend, she nodded and sandwiched the picture between her palms. Slowly, she answered, "Her face? I want to know it."

Though Kali had been studying English for over a year now, she was still having trouble fully grasping it. That was the trouble with knowing only one language for fifteen years then being thrown into a world where English was meant to be "universal". She could understand it when others spoke it and read quite fluently, but her speech was flawed. Luckily, Gina was patient, supportive, and understanding, she was also Kali's prime tutor. Her British accent mde words slightly easier and more respectful, untainted with the slang of the Americans.

Reaching over her seat, Gina pulled the photo from Kali's hand and surveyed it as Kali's eyes drifted back to the window. The cars that passed in colorful blurs created a nice distraction to the words that came from her friend. "Just so you're not surprised, she won't look like this anymore. This was what? Five years ago or something? She could've shaved her head or gained a massive amount of weight or gotten glasses or, more likely, scars of some sort." Gina laughed at herself for her keen insight. But all the "insight" and laughter did was harm Kali's psyche further.

Apparently, she thought, fifteen months does nothing to prepare one for this. And quietly, under her breath, a swear from her native Philippines slipped out. Normally, Kali's tongue was swear free but this fear was doing something to her and the curse was just something that needed to be said.

Kali did forget who she was sitting before her. Gina James, fluent in three languages, Spanish being one of them. Her eyes bugged out at her "innocent" friend's slip and she let a gasp escape her mouth before she reprimanded Kali's choice of words. "Kali Morales! What? Did you just say... that?!"

While Gina stumbled over her words, Kali found some in her beloved family's language. "I'm upset, okay? Please don't make a big thing of it."

After another few seconds, the British girl was able to close her mouth and discovered her voice again also in another language, much to Kali's graciousness. A little privacy goes a long way, she thought. "Kali," Gina started, grabbing her friend's hand to comfort her. "It's going to be fine. Four years! She's been doing this for four years, she knows what she's doing." Gina handed back the photo for emphasize her pont. Then thought a second and added, in English, "So do we."

Kali let her lips smile in gratitude, silently thanking Gina for her bilingual words of comfort. Feeling a surge of strength, she slid the photo into her nap-sack, and out of sight. She no longer needed a piece of paper to show her what she could be and who she could become, all she needed was confidence. The kind that radiated off Gina and her kind, gentle words. Even if Gina would be the one trying to make her think it was all about her own self and nobody else. Nodding, she felt herself ease a bit and her friend let her hands go and slide back into her seat.

Letting a small sigh escape her, the teen closed her eyes in the hopes of some quick sleep before she had to step from the safety of the bus. That was a strange thought; a small, cramped, uncomfortable, metal box was safer than whatever was outside. And even still, Kali knew she could handle whatever that was. Just after a cat nap.

Gina found it easy to calm someone down when using their native tongue. A little touch of home, I suppose. That was the reason she thanked her parents for placing her in so many extra curricular activities, language classes included. They would all come in handy when she went for her PhD in psychiatry.

She sighed silently then, mourning the loss of her future. Pushing one of her loose curls behind her ear, Gina looked out the window, mimicking Kali as she'd found her just minutes ago.

Watching the trees rush by the buss, getting a little nauseated as she did, the fifteen year old could only guess at what she was feeling towards the way turn her life had taken. From upstanding, near-genius teenager to Slayer in only a handful of months, she still wasn't sure what the right emotion to feel was. Pity? she guessed. Pity for the world she left behind. They'd never understand what kind of world they were actually a part of. And pity for herself for never being able to go back to that ignorance. Pity. That sounded as good a feeling as any.

Gina wasn't angry when Mr. Harris come to her school in the guise of an American military man to recruit her. Nor had she been scared. Sure, the eye patch did make him a little intimidating but other than that, he'd calmed her and made her understand not what she was leaving behind but what she was joining. "A band of brothers," he'd said, then corrected himself, "Sisters!" Stumbling an apology to all womankind via Gina, he explained what QB had done for them all.

And yet, could there ever be total acceptance?

Of course not. As a teenage girl with all the whacked hormones of said girl, the news was a little less than welcomed. But how could it be shunned? Gina did notice her strengths and unheard of skills. That was another fact that couldn't be shrugged off.

When Gina was twelve she tutored often after school from grade schoolers to high school aged delinquents. Once while tutoring one boy in her class, she had to fight off advances of the prepubescent boy and his older brother. She did not scream or cry or beg, she merely thrust her arm forward. The punch landed and broke the boy's two front teeth, he then fell back into his brother who knock over a book shelf. He needed nine stiches. But those injuries counted for little when compared to the unadulterated shock that held Gina to the same spot until her parents were phoned by the police.

From that day on, that was her life. Moments of violence, banned from the James' house, to jolts of shock that routed Gina wherever she was.

And now to be followed by pity. Perhaps, she wondered, pity will just take over completely and I'll never be shocked again. Just numb.

That time was drawing nearer. For her, her family, the boy, all the Slayers... This life, she thought still staring out the window, pity.

The bus stopped suddenly and a low hissed came from the rear. Kali caught the reflection of her sister-Slayer in front of her in the window. It could've been herself in the glass: the fear, the uncertainty, the anger. They were all rolling together into one. One that they were both feeling, together.