About a half-hour later, Genni and I were sitting at an ice cream shop in the school grounds. We had both ordered chocolate shakes.

"Great minds think alike." Genni joked.

I laughed and sipped at my shake.

"So, can you tell me about this school?" I asked her.

She nodded and whipped out the yearbook she had brought with us.

"Yes. I better, actually. So, like any other school, this place has its 'popular people'."

I nodded in agreement.

"First group is the girls. That would be Tiffany, Veronica, and Aurora." Genni said and showed me three pictures in the yearbook.

All had perfect hair, smiles, and even managed to look stunning in the plain white button up we were required to wear.

"Check." I said with a smile.

"Next, we have the guys; Jacob, Sam, and Stevie. Stupid names, I know."

Again, Genni showed me pictures of three handsome looking guys, all with brown or blonde hair.

"Right." I relied.

"Now," Genni started seriously, "Who I showed you are definitely not the most popular. They are more like little minions of the two kids who totally rule this school. Brother and sister, super hot, smart, and, I'd hate to admit, pretty cool in personality."

"What are their names?" I asked worriedly.

Genni took a quick swig of her shake. She threw down the yearbook in front of me and said,."That's them."

I looked down at two students. Jet black hair, dark skin, amber and brown eyes, and perfect, if not gorgeous, looks.

Underneath it read: Ian Kabra and Natalie Kabra. Oh, crap, I thought.

_3_

"Oh. My. God." I said with an anxious attempt at not to choke. Genni gave me a worried look.

"Are you okay, Amy? Please don't die!" She said.

"I'm- I- not-" I sputtered.

I took a deep breath and said, "Sorry Genni. Didn't mean to scare you, it's just... "

I glanced at Ian's face in the yearbook, at the same smile that had made my heart twist so many times before.

"I kinda have a history with the Kabras. We are sorta... cousins..." I said slowly.

Genni's eyes widened and she asked, "What do you mean, sorta?"

Now how in the heck was I gonna explain this?

"Well, we met at a family reunion thing a couple years back. Turns out, we are related to the same person who lived about 500 years ago. We're very distant cousins." I answered carefully.

Genni pursed her lips and said, "So basically, you aren't related. That's like us saying that we are 98th cousins or something like that."

"Yeah. Basically, we aren't related, but we did meet at my Grandmother's family get-together thing." I pointed out.

"Amy, by the way you reacted, I'm guessing that Ian and Natalie either tried to kill you, or he broke your heart." Genni said, totally joking about the killing part.

I had to stop myself from saying, "He broke my heart by trying to kill me."

Instead I replied, "A little bit of both." We paid for our ice cream and headed back to the dorm.

_3_

When we got there, I finished fixing up my side of the room. Funnily enough, it was painted my favorite color of jade green. I tacked up pictures of Dan, Nellie, Fiske and Grace. I even had a picture of Saladin, and of Grace's mansion. Genni's eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of her head when I quietly told her that the mansion was ours.

"And who's that? He's kinda cute, for a younger guy anyway." She asked, pointing at a picture of Dan.

I replied while trying not to gag. "That's my brother, Dan. He is a total dweeb."

I sat down in the bed after that and read for a while. When it was finally time for lights off, I had to force myself to go to sleep. Jet-lag was taking its toll.