Thanks to everyone who reviewed! :) I love you and your brilliant ideas! xx

I'd like to give a shout out to xxDeadInsidexx, a sweetheart with great stories! She is a wonderful writer so go check out her stuff!

Sorry this chapter took me so long, I was crazy busy for a while!

Oh, and I've been putting Clover's thoughts into italic font, but I won't be doing that anymore.

Chapter 3

The dream on the airplane had shaken Clover. Something about the twelve wolves, and the eyes... It haunted her. I should've gotten more sleep, she thought, mentally kicking herself. Her eyes felt so heavy that she almost fell asleep while in line to collect her luggage.

The whole entire trip through the Boston Airport felt like a blur of tiled floors and large windows to Clover.Too many people, too little benches to rest on.Still, even though she was tired, there was a buzzing in her stomach. Instead of the heavy dread she had felt earlier that day, this feeling was more like the excitement she thought she ought to have.

Several tidy looking business women gave Clover odd looks as they hurriedly went by. Then, a little girl holding her mother's hand hid a smile as she trotted past her. After catching an old lady chuckle to herself and sneaking glances at her, Clover started to feel like she was a zebra in a room full of horses or something. She wheeled her suitcase into the large bathroom close by, not caring that she was scratching up the shiny floors.

The bathroom was spotless; it was strangely more sanitary than Clover would have expected an airport bathroom to be. The wheels on her suitcase squeaked and stopped abruptly as she halted in front of the huge mirror on the wall. She looked at her reflection and winced. Her hair was disheveled and sticking up on one side, and there was a red mark on her cheek from resting on the airplane seat. Her mom would die if she knew Clover was just walking around in public like that.

Clover brushed her fingers through her hair and rubbed her cheeks forcefully. Maybe her mother wouldn't really care how she looked. She certainly hadn't seemed to care while she was speeding away from the airport. Clover bit her lip. Her mom probably hadn't wanted to stick around for her grumpy mood. She wasn't exactly pleased with the announcement of her two-week stay in New Salem.

She sighed and stared into the green eyes in the mirror. In the large, shiny bathroom, Clover looked even younger and more innocent than usual. As much as the news of her extended stay had surprised her, she had known something like that would happen. She was quiet, but she wasn't naive. She hadn't missed the flicker of guilt in her mother's eyes as she tried to pass off the news as a happy, last-second arrangement.

For the past few months, things hadn't been very peaceful in the Rhodes home. Her father lost his job, and the bills were getting harder and harder to pay. The more expensive the bills were, the more frustrated Clover's parents got, not only with their financial situation, but with eachother. It wasn't long after Mr. Rhodes' became unemployed that her mother was blaming him for everything that went wrong.

Clover's parents had tried to cover up the screaming and the fighting, but even under her heavy blankets, she could hear everything. There had been too many days at school where she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. Mrs. Rhodes noticed the bags under Clover's eyes and knew that they weren't as discreet as they'd hoped. They'd been trying to make up for it whenever they could.

Funny how her parents' idea of an apologetic gift was Clover's idea of misery.

Clover shook her head to clear the thought, knowing she shouldn't be thinking that. But it was kind of difficult to be positive about something her whole body was protesting against. Her head started to pound as she attempted picturing her reunion with Cassie. She could see herself clearly; head ducked down slightly as she greeted her, smiling a small, nervous smile. Every time she had tried to picture seeing Cassie again she came up blank. For all Clover knew, she could have shaved her head and dyed her eyebrows.

Suddenly, the sharp clacking heels sounded behind Clover as a clean-cut businesswoman entered one of the many stalls. At the sight of Clover's disheveled appearance she quickly smoothed her sleek bob and shut the stall door with a click.

Realizing that she couldn't stay in the restroom forever, grabbed her suitcase handle and took a deep breath. A sudden and surprisingly strong longing to hop a plane and fly back to her cozy bed overtook her, but she ignored it forcefully. With one last look at the young girl in the mirror, she walked out.

There wasn't anyone meeting her at the airport, and she didn't have any family close by in Boston, so the plan that her mother had given her was to call a Boston taxi service and be driven to New Salem. Clover was old enough to have her driver's license, but she had never bothered to get one. She preferred being driven places; she knew she would never be able to focus on the road instead of staring up into the sky and getting lost in her thoughts. She loved long car rides, sitting in the window seat, and exploring her imagination. A smile tugged at her mouth as she recalled some of the crazy stories she'd come up with in the passenger seat.

Clover pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, gripping the suitcase handle hard. Just as she was about to press the button connecting her to the taxi service, she realized that she was standing smack in the middle of the center of the crowd. People were pushing past her and accidentally bumping into her so much that her permanent lack of comfort was slowly rising to a state of panic. Whipping her head around to find the nearest lounge area, she quickly ran over to a leather couch in the corner, not caring whoever she bumped into. There were three couches in the lounge area, two of them occupied. Clover collapsed onto a black loveseat, panting slightly.

On one of the other couches was an old Indian man. He was leafing through a foreign magazine and peering through his glasses with a stern expression on his weathered, tan face. The other couch was larger than Clover's loveseat and the Indian man's one-person couch. Three teenagers that looked a little older than her were perched in a group, chattering quietly. Clover noticed that the only girl of the three had a bright streak of turquoise in her hair, contrasting with her slick black locks. A small pang of jealousy hit Clover, as she looked at the edgy, but pretty girl. She wanted people to see her as they did when they saw that girl. Whenever people saw Clover, they usually treated her like a helpless little girl. Or, if you were a student at Reseda High School, you would just ignore her.

Sitting on opposite sides of the girl were two guys. One of them had a small build with big glasses, and his dark hair was cropped close to his head. He looked like he would be smarter than Clover in just about any subject in school.

The other guy looked like an average high school boy: jeans, sneakers, wavy brown hair, and a t-shirt with some obscure band on it. It was hard to see his face because he was leaning over some magazine with the others, but he was obviously good-looking. He turned to the smaller boy and laughed at something he'd said. For a second, Clover saw his bright blue eyes sparkle as he grinned.

Then suddenly, he looked up and met Clover's eyes, the grin still on his face. She turned away quickly, blushing furiously. Her cheeks were still pink when she decided that it was probably a good time to call the taxi service.

After stumbling on a couple words and quietly confirming her location, she shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. All of the voices and clacking of high heels around her faded to static noise in her head as she leaned back and rested on the cool leather. Even though she had slept a lot on the plane, Clover realized that she was very tired. She hoped the taxi driver wouldn't want to talk much, so she could rest and listen to her Ipod.

She wished that she could just lie there, and not think. All of the worry and nervousness was exhausting her more than the plane ride, but she didn't know how to overcome that. It seemed like whenever she would reassure herself on one issue, another frightening issue would come flooding back to her and trapping her in fear. The cool leather of the loveseat felt so good on her neck. Maybe if she just closed her eyes and waited for the taxi, all her fears would go away...

"Hey."

Clover's eyes sprang open. She lifted her head up from the couch and looked around. Everything was the same as it had been only a second ago. Funny, it had sounded like someone was talking to her.

"Hey, over here!"

She looked straight ahead and realized that the cute boy and his friends were looking directly at her. The one speaking to her, the boy with the blue eyes, was wearing a friendly smile. He closed the magazine on his lap.

"Uh, I couldn't help but hear that you're heading to New Salem. My friends and I are going there too," he said. He talked easily, like he was used to holding people's attention.

Shocked that someone was speaking to her, Clover managed a nod. She blushed at how pathetic she must have looked and she instinctively played with a wisp of blonde hair.

The boy didn't seem to notice her lack of speech. "Maybe we'll see you around, then." He flashed her another smile, and with that, he and his friends grabbed their things and left.

Clover watched them disappear into the crowd. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought. Why couldn't I at least have said hello?

"Too late now," she sighed wistfully. The boy was cute, but if she ran into him again it would be way too embarrassing.

Clover looked up to see the Indian man peering at her with a raised eye brow. Heat flooded her cheeks again as she rose and trotted away.

Ten minutes later, a bright yellow taxi came to promptly pick her up. She stuffed her luggage in the trunk and slid into the back seat. The inside of the car wasn't anything special; it was like most of the other taxis Clover had ridden in on one of her trips to San Diego. A friendly-looking African American man met her eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Where to, honey?"

Clover swallowed and said shyly, "Can you take me to New Salem? I have enough money, I promise."

The man raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure? That's a two hour drive."

She nodded and blushed again, biting her lip. The driver grunted and they rolled away, the airport slowly fading into the distance. Thank God I've made it this far, she thought as she leaned her head against the cool glass window.

The car ride didn't seem like two hours.

The driver didn't attempt any small talk; he asked if he could put the radio on, then turned to an upbeat reggae station. That was perfectly fine with Clover. It gave her some time to think and prepare herself for the next part of her journey: the arrival.

After about fourty five minutes or so, the sky turned a light shade of gray and drops of rain splattered across the windows. Great, she thought bleakly. The weather matched her mood.

The lush forests on the sides of the road slowly dwindled down to several trees, then only a few, then none. Clover smiled when she saw the blue-gray waves of the ocean. It comforted her to see waves and endless sky; it reminded her of home. The Eastern ocean was choppier and bleaker than the sparling crystal water she was used to, but it was something. Clover thought of her mother, father, and Gram, and felt totally, utterly alone.

The taxi past a large sign that said New Salem - 2 Miles. Suddenly, the uncomfortable gnawing in her stomach increased greatly. It was getting harder and harder to reassure herself. It's gonna be great, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be great-

"We're here, honey."

A small town was visible on the horizon under the gray, cloudy sky. Clover could make out some surf shops, a diner, and was that bank? The town looked small and bleak in the rain, but also kind of...charming.

"Is there somewhere I should drop you off?" asked the driver kindly. He yawned and and cracked his head. The small digital clock in the car read 7:52. The sky was getting darker over the sleepy little town.

Clover gave him Cassie's address off the top of her head. She gulped anxiously, tapping her foot on the floor of the taxi. She just wanted to run all the way across the country and never look back.

Crowhaven Road, House Number 12. That's where she was headed, whether she liked it or not.

So what do you think will happen at Cassie and Clover's reunion? Is Clover's anxious feeling just nerves, or is it something else? What will happen when she meets the coven?

Anybody who reviews and answers I will look at their stories and possibly review. You might also get a shout-out ;)

Stay tuned! :)