2: Kumorigachi: Aria

Elizabeth · 2: Kumorigachi: Aria

verse one

Melita pulled herself up, shaking snow off of herself as she half-blindly groped for her glasses so to be sure not to accidentally crush them. The last thing she wanted was for her new family to have to buy her new ones; she didn't want them to think that she was too expensive and send her away. She was happy there, or at least happier than she had been anywhere else. Mrs. Elendara was nice, even if she was always busy with work, and so was hardly ever there. Adrianna, however, seemed to simply adore Melita, who was a little wary at this level of affection, but was slowly growing less so.

Her hand brushed against the cold plastic frames, and she picked them up, quickly trying to dry them off on her coat before placing them on her face. The world came back into focus, for the most part, and she got to her feet, already feeling better. The fall hadn't been all that bad, really, aside from the shock of it. She was lucky Dana had been called in just then, though. She had seemed pretty angry, and Melita didn't want to find out what the girl would be willing to do, now that Melita had given her an actual reason to dislike her, apart from her existence.

Melita began trudging back towards the Elendara's house, kicking up little clouds of snow in front of her, which blew back towards the legs of her pants and tried to melt there before falling back to the ground. The snow seemed a lot less interesting now, and all she wanted to do was get back inside, get into some dry clothes, and lie down. For a few minutes, she wondered if she might be getting sick, then, for a few more, tried to convince herself that she was. If she was sick, Miss Elendara surely wouldn't make her go to school the next day, and then Dana couldn't touch her.

The problem was, she didn't feel sick, just tired of the snow. Maybe if she took off her coat for a few minutes, and lay down in the snow like that, she would catch a cold, but if her babysitter caught her, she knew she'd be in big trouble. Then again, her babysitter probably hadn't even noticed that she wasn't back from playing in the snow yet, and probably wouldn't until Adrianna got back from the basketball game and asked where Li-li was.

Melita kicked the next bit of snow a little harder as she thought about Anna's nickname for her. It wasn't awful, really, but it made her feel like such a little kid. If Adrianna really *had* to call her by something other than her full name, why couldn't she call her Lita, like Miss Elendara did? She didn't mind Lita nearly as much. In fact, she liked it quite a lot. But Li-li...

"Ick," she muttered, shivering with distaste and cold. Her fingers felt colder than before, and she glanced downward, noticing with surprise that she had her coat halfway unzipped already, her hand still clutching the metal zipper. She stared at it for a minute or so, still trying to decide what to do.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Melita quickly yanked the zipper back up to her chin, spinning around to see a smiling girl, about twelve years older than her, her light brown hair tied into a ponytail that hung halfway down her back. Her blue eyes twinkled in the fading sunlight, making her look even more happy than usual. Melita was fairly certain she had never seen her *not* smiling.

"Walking," Melita answered. She had a habit of not bothering to say more than one or two words at a time, unless the situation demanded otherwise. There just didn't seem to be any use for it, usually.

"Well, you walked past our house about five minutes ago, sweetie," Anna giggled. Melita blushed, head almost automatically turning to the sea of white under her feet, mouth opening, though never got a chance to say what she had intended. "And don't apologize!"

Melita closed her mouth quickly, looking back up at her sister's face, then, just as quickly, mumbling, "Sorry," before she could stop herself. Anna rolled her eyes, reaching out to take Lita's hand as it reached up to cover her mouth, before she had a chance to apologize for apologizing.

"C'mon, we should get you something to eat before mom gets home." Adrianna started to lead Melita back towards their house, trying to be her normal, cheerful self despite the worry that was gnawing at her. Had Li-li just been too busy thinking about whatever it was that went on in that strange little brain of hers to notice where she was going... Or had she been trying to run away? Adrianna liked to think that her new lil sister was happy living with her and their mother, but it was hard to tell sometimes. If she would just talk to them every once in a while...

As if on cue, Melita's voice softly emerged from beside her. "How was the game?"

Adrianna's smile widened a little as she started talking, steering the smaller girl through the snow as the sun set behind them, creating a carpet of diamonds beneath their feet.

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Melita sat up quickly, eyes snapping open, bringing her out of her nightmares and back into her bedroom, the pale light of the seashell-shaping night light in the corner illuminating the light pink walls and almost unnaturally clean floor enough for her to see her way to the door, and to be sure there was nothing waiting for her in between it and her bed.

She quickly looked down at her hand, sure that she had felt something prick her there just a moment ago. A bug of some kind, probably, she thought with disgust. It was gone already, however, so it wasn't a big deal, especially since there seemed to be no sign of her having actually been stung or bitten. Slowly, she began to lie back down, still a little suspicious, when suddenly, she saw a flash of... something... from the corner of her eye.

She snapped her head around to face her window, scooting backwards on her bed just in case she saw something she didn't want to be anywhere near, but there was still nothing except her curtains, which swayed slightly, as if from being brushed by tiny, tiny fingers, and then were still once more. Her left arm automatically reached for the stuffed cat lying beside her, and she hugged it to her chest, wide eyes staring at the white, lace-edged cloth in front of her window, waiting for an unseen horror to show itself. She fell asleep a few hours later, still without any sign of what had been in her room, though it was waiting for her in her dreams.

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"What's taking them so freakin' long?" Cynthia whined, tapping her foot impatiently on the carpeted floor of Mr. Yuumei's office. "Mom's going to kill me if I come home late again."

"I'm sure she'll understand, Ms. Asaguroi. She probably hasn't even left yet herself. I hear it was a hectic day over on her side of things." He looked a little impatient, too, though. Cynthia knew there was something strange about this. They should have already had this girl's blood on file, and so it shouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to go to the warehouse and find it. Even she knew that it never took this long. There was an entire department devoted to making sure that it didn't, though Cynthia had always thought they were a creepy bunch, sneaking into maternity wards and collecting infant's blood. Sure it was necessary, but that didn't mean she had to like it, or them.

"I thought this place was the most accurate in all the worlds," Cynthia teased, crossing her arms and leaning back in the uncomfortable wooden chair. "And you all just forgot about this girl until now?"

Mr. Yuumei glared at her. "We've been seriou..."

"Seriously understaffed for quite some time now?" Cynthia finished for him, smiling craftily. "Please. It's not like she just appeared out of nowhere. You've had what, six years? Almost seven?"

Mr. Yuumei sighed, actually looking a bit embarrassed. "Even the best sometimes make mistakes."

Before Cynthia could think of a way to mock her employer even further, there was a knock on the office door, followed by the entrance of a black-clad fairy that gave Cynthia a look that made her skin crawl, and then handed Mr. Yuumei a vial. That had always been another thing that bother Cynthia about the vampires, as she liked to call them. They always wore black. It just seemed stupid, especially considering that, apart from a rare few, human couldn't see them anyway. Couldn't even hear them, or in any other way detect their presence, unless the fairy had gone through the rite of bonding with the human to become their official conscience.

"Thank you," Mr. Yuumei politely took the blood, and began to carefully pour it into the pen he had been toying with for the past few minutes. "And now, Ms. Asaguroi, if you would be so kind..." he began, but Cynthia already had her sleeve rolled up, and her eyes half closed. She had never liked needles much; maybe that contributed to her dislike of the vampires. A moment later, it was over, and she rolled her sleeves back down as Mr. Yuumei screwed the top of his pen back on and handed it to her, pushing a piece of paper across the desk.

Cynthia glanced over it, pretending to read it so that Mr. Yuumei wouldn't get pissed off at her. It said the same thing as the last one she had signed, more than likely. Not that she had read most of that one, either. After she had signed it, she passed both it and the pen back to her boss, wiping her hands on her jeans distastefully, glad to be rid of them. Why did all the old rites have to involve blood? Were their ancestors really that gruesome, or had they just done it so as to gross out the future generations?

Mr. Yuumei glanced over the top of his spectacles at her, pen poised over the contract. "You ready?" Cynthia gulped nervously, trying not to remember what the last binding had been like, trying to convince herself that it couldn't possibly be as bad this time, since little Melita was only six, and was much too cute to have ever done anything *too* awful, and nodded.

He put the pen to the paper, slowly and carefully signing his name, and then, with the last of the blood, drew a small symbol on the corner of the contract, which then preceded to burst into blue flame. Smoke arose from the desk, encircling Cynthia, whose eyes were closed again. Her hand tightened on the arm of the chair as she breathed in, preparing herself...

A blanket of white rushed up at her face, and she felt hatred towards the girls that had made her fall off of the branch.

As chaos ensued underneath her, she just smiled, preparing one last snowball to send at her greatest enemy.

Tears streamed down her eyes, her hands balling up into fists, too scared to do anything then, but already plotting revenge.

Cynthia gasped in between the scenes that flowed in front of her eyes, and into her senses. It was just as she thought; nothing big here, just a few flares of childish emotion. Nothing terrible for her to take responsibility for, or relive. Nothing...

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Sunlight gleamed from the blade of the sword as the warrior leapt forward, bringing it down as hard as he could towards the skull of one of the enemy. He had raised his own sword to attempt to block the blow, but it snapped, no match for the enchantments forged into the dark steel of the other sword.

He could sense the rest of the guard closing in around him, and he knew he didn't have long. There was no way he could hold out against this many for long, and this... This was the only way. Every muscle in his body tensed as he opened the palm of one of his hands, calling forth all of the power stored in his sword, and in himself, and the frozen earth around him. He turned, eyes clouded with hate. These bastards had cost him his only chance...

Now they would pay.

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Cynthia was still screaming when Mr. Yuumei dragged her away from the smoke, which gently dissipated as if nothing was going on. Cynthia's mother stood, face pale, over her, calling her name desperately. Eventually, Cynthia's voice fell silent, though her breath was still heavy and tortured. "Wh-What *are* you?" she asked nobody in particular, a moment before she fell into unconsciousness.

verse two

Coffee may be great and all, though Melita had never actually tasted any for herself, but in her opinion, the best part of waking up was realizing that the nightmare you had just had wasn't real and you were still alive and intact. Nothing could possibly beat that.

She couldn't remember falling asleep, but it certainly seemed to have happened at some point. Whatever had been in her room the previous night still wasn't making its presence known, and she assumed that it was gone, mostly just so that she could stop worrying about it. She flopped back down on her bed, feeling relieved, and considered falling back to sleep, until she heard a light knock on her door.

"Li-li, time to get up," Adrianna called softly as she slowly opened the door, letting light from the hallway outside creep into Melita's bedroom. Lita groaned as she rolled over, hoping to ignore Anna for at least a few more minutes. "You awake?" Adrianna asked, gently shaking Melita by the shoulder. "You're gonna be late, cupcake."

Melita sighed, rolling over the other way. She misjudged how close Anna was to her, however, and ended up rolling her head into the older girl's knees. "Oww," she whined quietly, rubbing her head and glaring up at the big blur that she was assuming was Adrianna.

"Aww, I'm sorry, hon," Anna apologized, quickly leaning down to kiss Melita's head. Lita mumbled an apology, or at least what sounded vaguely like a tired six-year-old's apology. Adrianna pretended not to understand. "Well, if you're going to be like that..." Her fingers leapt downwards towards Li-li's tummy, and she started tickling her. Lita began giggling almost immediately, squirming around underneath her sister's fingers.

But Adrianna knew better than to keep it up for too long. Li-li might tolerate tickling for a few minutes, but beyond that... "C'mon, up with you!" she said finally, lifting Melita up into a sitting position. She began to ask if she wanted any help getting ready, but stopped herself. The only answer she ever got to that question was no, and there was no reason for her to think today would be any different. "Breakfast's almost ready, so hurry up, okay?"

Melita nodded sleepily as Adrianna got off her bed and began to leave her room, eyes closing again until Anna flipped the light switch right before closing the door. "Adriaaaaanna!" Lita wailed angrily.

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Melita's mouth never seemed to be very big, except when she was yawning. Then, it looked almost unnaturally large for her face, as if it were trying to push her other features off of her head.

"Didn't sleep well?" Ms. Elendara asked, setting a plate of waffles down in front of the seat Lita had just plopped onto. Melita shook her head as she grabbed for her fork and started pushing her breakfast around on her plate, not in the mood to eat, but also not wanting to get Ms. Elendara mad at her for not eating. "Bad dreams?"

Lita looked up from her plate to the seat across from her. "Kinda," she answered finally, cutting off a corner of her waffle and stuffing it into her mouth. Adrianna walked down the hall, coat already snapped shut. She kissed her mother on the cheek, then sat down and started wolfing down her waffles.

Melita ate another bite, still looking across the table at Ms. Elendara. She was a nice woman, really. She wore glasses, too, though hers were much bigger than Lita's, and she almost always had her hair up in a bun. Lita had seen pictures of her with her hair loose, and thought that she looked much prettier that way. Anna told her that she only did that when she didn't have to go to work, which seemed to be a very rare occasion. Lita wasn't exactly sure what Ms. Elendara did for a living, but it had something to do with old people, and a big brick building that Adrianna had driven her past one time when they had been out shopping.

She was nice, but, more importantly, at the moment, she was smart. She was probably one of the smartest people Melita had ever met, including her teachers. That was probably why she had to work all the time; the old people needed her to tell them about all the stuff they had forgotten about.

"Umm... Ms. Elendara?" she spoke up, gathering her courage.

Ms. Elendara seemed a little surprised, but at least not as annoyed as she sometimes did. She must have gotten used to Melita *not* calling her Mommy, finally. "What is it, Melita?" But Lita had lost her nerve, and had returned to staring at her food, slowly slicing off as little a piece of waffle as possible while still keeping as much of the butter and syrup in that bite as she could. "You can ask me anything you want, dear... I don't mind, I promise," Ms. Elendara encouraged.

"Well..." Lita began, setting her fork down and staring straight into Ms. Elendara's eyes, just as blue as her daughters. "When the window's closed... What can still get inside?"

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"I told you, I don't *know* what I saw," Cynthia answered, starting to get angry. "It should have been the end of the bonding, but all of the sudden, something else started. It was almost like another bond, but I couldn't see anything, I just... felt it." Her voice dropped for the last two words, a shudder passing from her head to her feet like a wave. "I don't know what was going on, but it wasn't anything I want to have to experience again."

Mr. Yuumei rubbed his temples, as if trying to force his brain to understand what had happened in his office the night before. "But that sort of thing just doesn't happen!" He told her again, for good measure. "You can't be bonded twice, especially not at the same time... And there's no way you wouldn't be able to see what was happening. You must have forgotten something!"

Cynthia rolled her eyes, wishing she had just walked past him that day, instead of stopping to look at the picture. "I think I would know whether or not I could see anything."

Mr. Yuumei ignored her. "This can't be happening... We've been doing this for millennia... We know everything there is to know about this..."

"Modest, aren't we?" Cynthia teased, only to be ignored again, as expected. "Look, I've told you everything I can at least ten times now. I have a job to do." She stood up, expecting her boss to stop her like he had the last time she tried to leave him to his fuming.

"Yes, I suppose you'd better get going." Mr. Yuumei sighed, getting to his feet as well. "I wish we had more time to figure this out, but now that the binding has taken place, we don't have much of a choice, do we?" He gave a forced laugh. "Be careful," he warned. "We don't know what this means, but more than likely, it isn't good."

"It'll be fine, Mr. Yuumei. I think I can handle one little girl," she reassured, pushing aside memories of her last case. It would be better this time, no matter what had happened last night. Melita was depending on her, even if she didn't know it yet.

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The sound of happy children filled the playground as Mrs. Friedman's primary class spilled from the double doors of the elementary school onto the snow covered wonderland outside. Most of the kids ran for the swings, or the slide, or just for the large empty area in the middle of everything, where the snow was still good and deep, since theirs was the first class to go out for recess, but one girl walked a little slower than the others, moving back towards another part of the school building.

School had been boring, as always. Melita hadn't expected it not to be, but there was always a slight chance that something exciting might happen. It didn't, however, and her day had just been the same old routine of going to class and trying to pay attention, ignoring the giggles and the notes from the other girls in her classes as they did their little best friends things. So far, Dana hadn't made any move to fulfill her threat. Melita wasn't letting that fool her into thinking that she *wouldn't*, though, because she knew it was just a matter of time.

The door to the kitchens had always been one of Melita's favorite places at the school. From inside, it looked like nothing more than a normal door, but the outside had walls on both sides, and a roof, so it was usually nice and dry there, and it was a little warmer than anywhere else outside, since she always went there while lunch was being cooked. Every once in a while, somebody would come along and tell her to stay out of the doorway, or she'd get smashed by the door, but for the most part, everybody left her alone there, and she was perfectly fine with that.

She was tired of the snow now, she decided, sitting down in her little alcove, staring listlessly out at the fence that surrounded the playground, and the empty street on the other side. The sound of the other students was still loud, but it was easier to ignore it if she had something else to look at. Unfortunately, the street was probably one of the most boring that Melita had ever seen; she had seen, in all, maybe three cars drive past since she started going to school here.

With a yawn, she hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, wishing she could just go to sleep. Or, better yet, find a way over the fence and back to the Elendaras' house. She had her key in her backpack, which was in the school, but getting inside shouldn't be too much of a problem. The fence was too high for her to get over in any way she could think of, short of flying, and the gate was chained closed, as always, and right in her teacher's field of vision. If some of the other kids would just do something stupid to make Mrs. Friedman leave her post for a few minutes, she could probably escape. Getting back to her house would be the biggest obstacle, even though she was pretty sure it wasn't that complicated. Adrianna drove her to school every morning, and she was almost certain that there were, at most, two turns. Where those turns were, or even what direction the house was from the school, however, was a complete mystery to Melita.

Reaching out of her hiding place with one warm, she started to draw a map of what she thought the way back home was in the snow outside, more to amuse herself than anything, since, after a few moments she grew frustrated and changed the map to a game of tic-tac-toe. As she finished up her third game she yawned, starting to get bored. Tic-tac-toe wasn't exactly fun when you were playing against yourself. Her eyelids drooped dangerously low, despite her best efforts. The urge to sleep was just too strong for her to resist, and before she could force herself to get on her feet, she was dozing off.

She woke again a few moments later, her eyes opening to reveal a large white blur, with three smaller blurs surrounding her. She didn't need her glasses to tell who they were - a good thing, too, since the middle blur, Dana, naturally, was dangling them from her left hand. "Hey, Keebler," she sneered. "You wanna play in the snow now?"

verse three

Melita tried to back away, but the doorway was only so big, and the door her hand brushed against a moment later was locked. She scrambled to her feet, squinting up at her tormentors, trying to figure out the identities of the other two with Dana. More than likely, it would be Celeste and Melody, and the blurs looked a bit like them, though it was hard to be sure.

Before she could stop herself, she heard her voice, sounding angrier than she could ever remember it being, say, "What, are you too scared to push me around when I can actually see?"

When Dana spoke next, her voice was cold as the wind that was starting to blow outside, and Lita was glad she couldn't see how angry she had gotten. She really should have just kept her mouth closed, like she always did. "What did you say?"

"I... Uh..." Melita began, all of her rage leaving her in a flash. "Leave me alone," she mumbled finally, her eyesight getting even blurrier than before, to her great horror. She hurriedly reached up to wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her coat, but was too late.

"Aww, is baby Lita gonna cry?" Dana teased. Melita stared at the ground, starting to blush, tears beginning to come more rapidly. "What do babies like you need glasses for anyway?" When Lita didn't answer, Dana took another step closer, pushing her up against the door. Dana laughed at the look of fear in the small girl's face, starting to feel even more powerful. "Is the baby scared?" she asked loudly, with a giggle. "We'd better leave her alone. Don't want her to wet her pants or something."

There was a high-pitched laugh in the background that Melita immediately recognized as Melody's, and the silence coming from the other girl made her feel even more confident that it was Celeste, who had wet herself just the week before, and didn't think it was funny to associate that with being a baby. Dana started giggling again, and, as she did, Melita's hands moved forward, reaching for where she hoped her glasses were. Dana saw her, backed away. "You still haven't answered me," she said, holding the glasses up. "Guess you don't *really* need them, huh?" And with that, she raised her arm, and threw the glasses off into the snow-covered playground.

Melita launched herself forward with all of her strength, taking Dana by surprise and knocking her down with a gasp. "Leave! Me! Alone!" Melita screamed, tears still streaming from her eyes, grabbing a handful of snow. A strong hand grabbed her wrist roughly, causing her to drop it, right before being pulled to her feet.

"What do you think you're doing, young lady?" Mrs. Friedman demanded. Melita opened her mouth a few times, then started bawling, giving Dana a chance to talk first.

"We were just trying to talk to her, ma'am," she said innocently. "And she got mad and tried to beat me up."

"Melita!" Mrs. Friedman scolded. "I thought you knew better..."

"That's not true!" another voice interjected. "Didn't you see them taking her glasses?" Melita tried her best to see who was speaking on her behalf, but still couldn't make anything out.

"We did not!" Dana insisted angrily. "She didn't even have her glasses on when she came outside."

Melita hoped that Mrs. Friedman would remember that she had been wearing them, that she always wore them, but, after a moment of silence, she nodded. "Yes, you're right, Dana. You really shouldn't lie about things like that, Jessica; you're setting a bad example for the younger students." Her voice became even more severe as she turned her attention back to Melita. "I think you need a time out, young lady, and I'll be writing to your parents about this."

With that, Melita felt herself being dragged back over to the back door of the school, directly in Mrs. Friedman's line of sight. Lita sighed, her heart sinking. Ms. Elendara would kill her when she got home...

"Are you okay?" a soft but perky-sounding voice asked from beside her. Melita gave a little jump, not realizing she had been put beside someone else. She looked to be just a little taller than Lita herself, probably in second grade, too, and pretty blonde hair.

"No talking, Leann," Mrs. Friedman reminded her, sounding exasperated, as if she had already said the same thing too many times lately.

"Yes, Mrs. Friedman," Leann chirped, but just lowered her voice to a whisper. "That Dana's a jerk, isn't she?" Lita hesitated, making sure her teacher wasn't watching too closely, then nodded. "She wouldn't be so mean if Mrs. Friedman wasn't her aunt," Leann fumed. "She lets her get away with anything."

Melita shrugged, wiping her eyes. She didn't want to get in any more trouble by talking, nor did she want to get in trouble because this other girl, as nice as she seemed, wouldn't stop. So she stared ahead at the snow, now marked all over by footprints and little indentations from where people had collected snow to throw at each other. There was a lopsided snowman standing on the other end of the playground, its head threatening to come off at any sudden gust of wind.

"It's all right..." Leann said finally. "I think my friends are looking for your glasses." Melita looked up in surprise. Leann grinned. "Your name is Melita, right?" Melita nodded, still shocked that someone was wasting their recess time to help her. "I'm Leann."

She stayed quiet after that, but somehow Lita felt better just knowing she was there. She stopped crying after a few minutes, and after a little while, she felt something small and cold being pressed into her hands. After wiping them off, she put them back on, the world coming into focus again to reveal an older girl, probably around ten or eleven, glaring at Mrs. Friedman, who was looking confused, and another girl, just a little older than Leann, who she was standing next to, both of them trying not to giggle at Mrs. Friedman.

"It's time for my class to go back inside," Mrs. Friedman finally said, sounding flustered. "Thank you girls for finding Melita's glasses for her." Leann smiled hopefully as the teacher glanced in her and Lita's direction. "You may go play again, Leann," Mrs. Friedman sighed. Leann bounced over to Lita, giving her a quick hug, and then went over to her friends. Melita watched, not sure if she was jealous or glad that she was finally gone. She whispered something to the younger of the other two girls, a tall brunette that looked like she might be a ballerina or something like that. They seemed nice, and they *had* gotten her glasses back, but looks could be deceiving, and Melita didn't need any more deceit just yet.

The two younger girls looked up at the oldest, who rolled her eyes at them, and then walked over to Melita. "Hey, do you want to eat lunch with us? We usually eat at the little round table next to the last big long one on the right side of the cafeteria."

"I... I hafta eat with my class," Melita answered slowly and quietly.

"Your teacher still makes you do that?" Jessica asked, surprised. "She must be the only teacher in the school who does..."

Melita shrugged. "Sorry." Forcing a smile that was obviously fake, she looked up. "Thank you for finding my glasses."

"You're welcome." Jessica smiled warmly, cheerful enough for both her and Melita. "Maybe we'll see you tomorrow."

Melita watched them go off to another corner of the playground, the knot in her stomach growing tighter. Had she made the right decision? If she had really wanted to, she knew she could go sit somewhere other than with her class without getting into much trouble at all, but at least when she was with the rest of her classmates, she didn't have to worry about any of them trying to become friends with her, because they all knew that anyone that did so would be sure to suffer the ridicule of Dana. Melita didn't want that to happen to Jessica and Leann and whoever that other girl was. She didn't want to find out that all they wanted to do was make fun of her, too, either, and that they had just been nice to try and trick her into trusting them. People were tricky that way - you never knew who you could really trust.

Sometimes it was better just not to trust anyone.

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Melita slid into the back seat of Adrianna's car, shoving her back pack in front of her, happy to finally have another day of school over without too many serious problems. Mrs. Friedman had even decided not to write to Ms. Elendara about the fight, at least until she could figure out just what had happened. She still seemed unable to accept that it was Dana that had started it, and Lita had a feeling she never would be.

"Have a good day at school, Li-li?" Adrianna asked from the front seat, already driving back to their house.

"I guess." Lita hadn't looked up from the floorboards of the car since getting in, until the voice in the passenger's seat caught her attention.

"Is math giving you problems again?" Adrianna's friend Vince asked, turning around to smile at Melita.

"Vince!" Lita exclaimed, her eyes meeting his for a second before she began to blush and stare back at the floor. "Thanks for helping me last week..."

"No problem," he laughed. "It was nice to do math that is actually relevant in the real world again."

Melita giggled, not exactly sure what he had just said, but pretty certain it was supposed to be funny. Adrianna reached over and punched Vince playfully. "Don't try to corrupt my little sister," she warned. "Don't listen to him, Li-li... *No* math is relevant in the real world."

Vince rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure she's never going to need multiplication."

"Of course not," Adrianna replied. "Now shut up and stop putting those ideas into her head."

"I think math is important," Melita piped up. "Mrs. Wolfe says we're gonna need all of it someday, so we'd better get good at it now."

"Now see what you've done?" Adrianna sighed dramatically. "She's even listening to her teachers. You're such a bad influence, Vince. I'm afraid you'll just have to stop coming to our house."

Melita's giggling grew louder as the two friends fought in the front of the car, knowing they weren't really mad at each other, glad that she would have somebody to help her with the only subject she had problems with. Someone other than Adrianna, that is.

Maybe it hadn't been such a bad day after all, she thought, watching as Vince finally gave in and told Adrianna that he'd be sure to never encourage Lita to be a good student. It hadn't been that bad at all.

verse four

Melita swung her legs back and forth nervously, tapping her pencil against her desk, waiting for the other students to filter out of the classroom, until she heard the teacher clearing her throat. Lita looked up sheepishly, setting her pencil down quickly on top of the face-down piece of paper that had been sitting on her desk for half an hour now, still untouched, making her legs stay still for a few moments. Mrs. Wolfe sighed. "If you would just pay attention in class, Melita, I'm sure you could do much better than this."

"I'm sorry," Melita answered in a small voice. "I-I tried..." She sniffled softly, a tear starting to roll down her cheek, heading for the collar of the yellow dress that she usually felt so grown up while wearing. She hardly ever wore it, except to church, but she had thought that maybe it would somehow make her do better on the test. She was wrong.

Mrs. Wolfe gave her a quick one-armed hug. "I know you did, honey. You've been doing much better with your homework lately. But still..." Mrs. Wolfe was quiet for a minute, trying to think of a way to phrase what she was thinking without crushing the girl's already visibly crumbling pride.

"I failed, didn't I?" Lita asked, sounding completely miserable. It almost ripped Mrs. Wolfe's heart in two to do it, but she made herself nod.

"If you need any extra help, I can see what I can do," she offered. "Don't worry about it too much. You can still bring your grade for the year up, dear." Melita just kept crying, burying her face in her arms. Ms. Elendara had just told her how smart she thought Melita was, too... Melita knew she was wrong, but had hoped that she wouldn't prove it to her so quickly. And Vince would probably be mad at her, too, for doing so badly even after he spent so long trying to help her.

"You'll do better next time," Mrs. Wolfe tried to reassure her, trying to sound as sincere as possible. Melita really did try hard, but she was just too easily distracted when things that she had absolutely no understanding of were being discussed. Mrs. Wolfe stroked her tiny back for a few minutes, until it seemed that the tears had started to stop. "But for now, I'm afraid you need to go to your next class."

Melita nodded, wiping her eyes as she sat back up, smiling meekly at her math teacher. "I-I'm sorry for crying, and..." Mrs. Wolfe waved off the rest of the apology, pointedly looking at the large clock hanging over the chalkboard. Melita followed her gaze, then quickly began to gather her things, not really sure what time it was, but knowing that the hands of the clock were very nearly where they were supposed to be at the start of her next class, grammar.

She dashed out of the room, followed closely by Mrs. Wolfe cautioning her not to run in the hallways. It was a good thing Melita listened, too, or else a few moments later she would have ran straight into Dana, which, in all likelihood, would not have made the other girl like her any more. "Watch where you're going, baby Lita."

Melita tried to walk around Dana, not in the mood to listen to or deal with her. She was starting to get very tired at being called a baby, which Dana had been using as her main insult for the past few days; Lita almost wished "Elf-girl" would come back, just for a little variety.

Dana stepped directly into Melita's path, forcing her to stop in her tracks. "That last test was really easy, huh?" she asked smugly. "I feel sorry for anyone that got less than a hundred... They would have to be very, very stupid to do that, though." New tears stung the corners of Melita's already red eyes, and she tried to get past again. "Where do you think you're going so fast? Need a diaper change?"

The laughter that greeted Melita's ears was that of more than one person, her first indication that Dana wasn't alone. "You'd better let her past, Dana." Melita turned, surprised to hear Melody say such a kind thing, until she saw that she was struggling not to laugh. "We wouldn't want her to leak all over that pretty dress."

"We hafta get to class," Melita mumbled, though she knew that if they were late, Dana and Melody would just blame it on her.

"Not until you tell us what you got on your test." Dana crossed her arms. "And if you don't tell us..."

Melita quickly threw her backpack down, rushing forward, hoping for a repeat of the playground incident. This time, however, Dana had enough time to think, even if just a second, and she swung her own backpack with all her strength, hitting Melita squarely in the stomach. Melita fell down, gasping for breath, as Melody snatched her backpack and began tearing through it.

Melody didn't have to look too hard - Melita had just shoved her test into the backpack as quickly as she could, not wanting to see how badly she had done, and so not looking at it at all, not even to note that it was one of the first things anyone that opened her backpack would see. Then again, she wasn't expecting anybody but herself to be opening her backpack any time soon.

"An F?!" Melody shrieked.

Dana smirked. "Thought so." Melita was sure her cheeks were going to burst into flames, only to be put out by her crying, as Dana reached over and took the paper from Melody. "How could you miss number five? You really are..."

But Melita was gone before she could finish her taunt, ignoring Mrs. Wolfe's order and running as hard and fast as she could, ending up eventually in the girl's bathroom. Slamming the door, she sat down in front of it, crying into the fabric of her dress as she rested her face against her knees.

"You know, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but you really need to stand up to those little monsters."

Melita got to her feet in a flash, not expecting anyone else to be here with her. And there wasn't. "Wh-Who's there?" Her heart began to thump against her ribcage, hand reaching for the doorknob, though she still hadn't decided if she'd rather face Dana and Melody again, or stay here with the invisible... whatever...

Cynthia cursed under her breath. This wasn't exactly how she had meant to introduce herself to her new charge. When you were assigned to work closely with somebody that almost certainly couldn't see you, it was usually best to start slow, to talk to them while they were sleeping, so that they could get used to your voice, and then gradually build up to talking in the daytime. But she was getting sick of seeing this poor little girl being tormented.

What should she do now? Would it be better to just let her think it was some other human, maybe on the other side of the door? Or should she just continue with scaring the wits out of her, and announce her presence? Her mother had told her that the second approach was a good idea, sometimes, with younger clients that were still open-minded enough to actually accept it. Would Melita believe that, though?

Cynthia fluttered down a little lower to get a better look at Melita's frightened, tear-stained face. She *might* be able to handle the truth...

Melita gasped, making Cynthia fly back up over her head, turning to see what had shocked the girl now. The rest of the bathroom was empty, however, and when Cynthia glanced back down, Melita was staring back up at her. "Hello," she said shyly. "Are you here to take me away to Neverland?"

"You have *got* to be kidding me..." Cynthia stared at Melita for a little while, trying to figure out if the girl had really been talking to her. Then again, if she hadn't, how would she have known she was a fairy? "You... see me?" she asked finally, straightening out her blue T-shirt, feeling self conscious all of the sudden. Mr. Yuumei told all of his employees to look "professional," but Cynthia found that to be absolutely ridiculous. Why couldn't they just wear something comfortable when you're invisible?

Melita nodded. "I've been seeing little glimpses of you for a couple days now. But you're never still long enough for me to get a good look."

Cynthia blushed. "Sorry about that... I didn't think you could actually see me." How could this happen? Two clients in a row with the sight? The *only* two clients she had ever had? It just seemed like too much of a coincidence to be a... well, coincidence.

Melita gave her an odd look, then shrugged. Why wouldn't fairies be used to not being seen? They would just about have to be good at that, or else they would get attacked by bigger things... Lita wondered if the fairy would be willing to show her how to do it, but decided to wait until a little later to ask. It was better not to ask for too much at one time. "*Are* you going to take me away, Miss Fairy?"

The fairy chuckled, her laugh sounding like the tinkling of tiny bells. "I prefer Cynthia, dear. And no, I'm not. Aren't you happy here?"

"I-I like the Elendaras... I like them a lot... But everybody else hates me." Melita shrugged again, looking forlorn.

"What about those three girls that asked you to eat lunch with them yesterday? They seemed nice enough."

Melita sighed, sinking back down to the floor. "But what if they're not really nice? What if they just wanna trick me?"

Cynthia fluttered down, landing beside one of Melita's feet. "And why would they do that? They sounded like they had already asked you, quite a few times. Don't you think they would have given up by now if they weren't serious?"

"I... guess..." Melita said, her voice confused. "But..."

"No buts," Cynthia interjected. "Just trust me on this. Talk to them. They can't be any worse than that Dana girl, at any rate."

"I don't kno..." Melita began, only to have the bathroom door slam into her back.

"Oh, Melita, I'm so sorry!" Mrs. Arrington, Mrs. Friedman's assistant, gushed, bending down to help Melita to her feet, probably thinking that she had knocked her over; why else would she be sitting on the floor? "Are you all right? Are you sick? Do you need to go to the nurse?"

Melita gently pulled away from her, not wanting to hurt her feelings, but still wanting away. The woman seemed to think that all of the students were still just little kids, which Melita knew they most certainly were not, and treated them accordingly. Lita would probably have been more angry about that if it wasn't everybody in the classroom that it happened to, even the third graders.

"I'm fine, I jus..." Melita felt her hand being grabbed and then used to tug her out of the bathroom and down the hallway, the woman trying to console her by telling her the nurse would make her feel all better. Cynthia was flying along behind, lagging back a little. Lita tried to inform Mrs. Arrington of her lack of sickness, but quickly gave up, as every effort was quickly thwarted by the woman's prattling. Oh well... At least she probably wouldn't get in trouble for missing class this way.

Cynthia came to a stop as the nurse's door was closed behind her, glancing at Melita curiously. When Mrs. Arrington left Lita sitting on a cot to go search for the nurse, she came in a little closer, trying to confirm what she had seen. Melita seemed curious as to what her new little friend was doing, but, as usual, stayed quiet.

The fairy made sure there was nobody heading towards the two of them before flying in even closer. "Could you lift your hair for a moment?" she asked, earning an even more curious look from Melita, who pushed her hair back, starting from both sides of her face, holding it so that only a few strands were free from her grasp, even though a few more were starting to try to break free and float down against her neck. The door Mrs. Arrington had passed through opened a second later, admitting two women. Melita let go of her hair immediately, putting her hands down to her sides and acting as if she had been sitting perfectly still since being left. She smiled apologetically at Cynthia, hoping that she had had time to do whatever it is that she wanted her hair out of the way for. Cynthia wasn't paying attention to her anymore, though; instead, she was staring off into space, a slightly bemused expression over her features, as if she had just realized something incredibly obvious that she should have already known for quite some time.

"So, it's true," she breathed, too low for her charge to hear. "This explains everything..."

verse five

"Cynthia!" Melita hissed, hoping nobody would notice her apparently talking to herself. "Please? You know I studied, but I just can't..."

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "How many times have I told you I can't do something like that? I'm here to be a good influence on you, not to help you cheat!" Melita pouted a little, tears starting to shine in the corners of her eyes. Cynthia crossed her arms impatiently. "That's not going to work on me, young lady. I'm sure if you just think about the problem a little..."

A tear splashed onto the test, blurring the one answer Melita had managed to get right so far, as far as she could tell. Cynthia sighed, her resolve wavering, and then completely failing. "Fine," she said. "But you owe me big time, Lita... I could get in big trouble for this..."

Melita nodded gratefully, quickly wiping her eyes before Mrs. Wolfe noticed her crying. Cynthia gave her one last look, starting to question the appropriateness of this, and then flew off on her mission to the teacher's desk.

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"Remember that?" Cynthia demanded, her arms once again crossed, with the fingers of her left hand tapping impatiently on her right arm.

"But I don't wanna go talk to them," Melita sulked. "They're gonna be all mad at me 'cause I ignored them for so long!"

"I'm sure they'll get over it if they really want to be your friends. Which, might I add, you need them to do. You have to find someone other than me to talk to, or people are going to start thinking you're crazy." Melita still looked doubtful, but Cynthia could tell that, despite her fear of actually going up to the girls and talking to them, she was going to do it. She just didn't have it in her to go back on a promise.

"What if *they* already think I'm crazy?" Melita asked, an obvious last ditch effort to get Cynthia to let her out of the bargain.

"That's what some people look for in their friends, dear. Now go on, before I decide to change my mind and make you try and make friends with Dana instead." She laughed at the shocked look on Melita's face. "I'm just joking, Lita."

Melita glared at her, only making her laugh harder, before venturing out of her little alcove, searching the playground for the three girls. They should be out by now - Lita's recess time was just about over, or at least she was pretty sure it was. Sure enough, after a minute or two of searching, she noticed a tall, black haired girl standing with two younger girls. Hesitantly, she moved a little closer, each step making her more sure that she was somehow mistaken, and she was going to three people that had no idea who she was, and wouldn't be at all pleased with her intrusion into their conversation, but as soon as she was close enough to conclusively recognize Leann, all her doubts were shattered.

"Melita!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down and waving. "Hi!"

Lita blushed, nervously surveying the other children on the playground, all of whom were too busy with their own friends and activities to care what about she was doing, or who was screaming her name. Finally, she waved back, walking a bit faster now that they knew she was there.

The second oldest girl, Courtney, shoved Leann, not enough to make her fall over, just playfully. "You're gonna scare her away again! No wonder she's been hiding from us..." Leann giggled, then waved again as if making sure Lita hadn't forgotten about them already.

Melita shyly approached, trying to stay as far away as she could without seeming too rude. "H-Hello..." she started, freezing for a moment under the icy glare of Jessica. The other two, however, didn't seem to notice it, or its effect. Leann bounced over, closing the gap between Lita and the others before Melita could do a thing about it. Courtney was a little more reserved, but still followed closely behind. Jessica, on the other hand, stayed still, looking angry.

"We don't bite," Leann reassured her, giggling. "You wanna jump rope?" Lita stared at her blankly for a short time before realizing that that had been what they were doing before her arrival.

"I don't want to interrupt..." she mumbled quietly, blushing as she tried to peer through the ground. Really, she didn't want to humiliate herself so quickly in front of these girls, but Leann just shook her head, pulling her enthusiastically toward the center of the fallen rope, which she then picked one end of up. Courtney quickly took up the other end, asking Lita if she was ready.

Nervous, but not wanting to leave yet, in case it would get Cynthia mad at her, she nodded. Leann and Courtney swung the rope back and forth a few times, getting in sync with each other before swinging it up, over Lita's head. Melita tried to watch it, to gauge where it was, but was still surprised when it came down on the other side, jumping as soon as it came into view again. Somehow, she managed to time her surprise so that the rope passed under her feet. She managed to contain her disbelief until she had successfully made it over two more times, and then she began to giggle in shock and awe at her nearly unprecedented athletic achievement. Jumping rope had never been an easy thing for her, when she had actually tried to do it - it hadn't helped that last time she had been being mocked continually, and ended up running off before she even had the chance to attempt the first jump.

Her fists balled up into fists at the memory, helpless rage boiling inside of her. Some days she just wanted to go back in time and tell herself to stand up to those bullies, to find some way to make them shut up. And then she realized that she was still letting the same things happen to her now, and that she still didn't have the courage to stand up to them. Maybe she never would. It certainly seemed that way most of the time; that didn't stop her from being mad at herself about it, however.

The rope was almost at her feet by the time she realized that she was still supposed to be playing. She tried to jump in time, but she wasn't prepared at all, landing only a moment later, missing a good deal of her balance. For an instant, she thought she had made it again, and then she felt the rope hit the side of her leg. Almost instinctively, she jumped again. Unfortunately, the rope went up with her foot, still trying to travel the way it had been. Melita's other foot came down, keeping her up long enough for the jump rope to disentangle itself, and then, somehow, she slipped. She noticed the world becoming blurry as her glasses fell off, heard a faint cracking noise that she didn't pay much mind to.

The snow had long since melted, and even the water left behind had evaporated away, after spending a night as ice, nearly closing schools for a day. The sky had been clear after that, with barely a cloud to be seen at all. So why did her hand suddenly feel wet?

After a moment, the pain set in, answering her silent query. She lifted her hand gingerly, watched with morbid curiosity at the blood dripping down slowly, onto what should have only been the ground, but was really the mangled remains of her glasses, which she had done her best to protect from just such a fate for so long.

"Go get her teacher!" Jessica commanded, and the two younger girls scurried off, as if used to taking orders from her. Jessica stared after them for a moment, and then awkwardly knelt down beside Melita. "You okay?" she asked finally, as if having to work up the courage to do so. Melita wiped her eyes, which had started raining tears of their own volition and nodded. Jessica was quiet for a little longer, as if waiting for Melita to speak. "You didn't have to play, you know... They wouldn't have cared."

Melita shrugged. "I-I just wanted them to like me..." she said at last. It was hard to tell, but she could have sworn that she saw Jessica smile just then.

"They already do, Lita."

Melita looked up, her grey eyes penetrating deep into Jessica's, until she just wanted to look away. She couldn't, though, not until she heard what she was about to say; she could see the words there, buried beneath the gaze. "Why don't you like me?" They came no louder than a whisper, yet clear as crystal to Jessica's ears.

Jessica started to say that she did like her, until she realized it was a lie. It was a lie she had told as much to herself as to Lita. Why else hadn't she spoken to her before she hurt herself? Why else had she tried to distance herself? "I.... I don't know." she answered finally. How could this little girl have seen through her actions so plainly? "Maybe I... Maybe I don't like how you ignored me for so long, after I offered to be your friend. Maybe I think that you doing this now is saying that you just want to be friends with us when you want to be." Jessica blushed at the sudden insight into her own feelings. Was that really what she had been feeling? It seemed silly now, looking into Melita's innocent eyes. Melita had just been scared, she realized. She had just recently come to the school... It couldn't be easy for her, especially with Dana choosing her as her newest target straight away. She was just a kid...

Melita blinked, a sudden flash of wings passing in front of her line of vision. She smiled at Cynthia, trying to show her that everything was okay, but she suddenly felt very tired, her eyes starting to close themselves. "Melita?" Jessica and Cynthia asked at the same time, even the hint of worry on their voices sounding identical, blurring into one voice as she drifted off into the land of dreams.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"Her again?" the nurse asked, annoyed. "Is there actually something wrong with her this time?"

Melita blushed sleepily. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty for taking up so much of the nurse's time lately, even if the first time hadn't really been her fault. Jessica, who had been sent along to make sure that Lita made it to the nurse's office without falling asleep again or bleeding to death, glanced from the nurse to Melita, confused.

"She... uh..." Jessica started, unsure of whether part of her responsibility was to explain what had happened; it didn't seem like Melita was too eager to do it herself.

"Cut her hand?" The nurse finished, almost seeming to mock Jessica with her words. "Yes, I can see that." She gave Jessica a pointed stare that went unseen, as her eyes were fixed on Melita. The nurse finally got her attention by clearing her throat. "Shouldn't you be getting to class, young lady?"

"But I..." Jessica started to protest, concerned for Melita's well-being, though not as much as she wanted her to tell her just what had been going on in her head a few minutes ago, if even she knew.

"I've never had a student die in this school, and I don't plan on breaking that tradition now. Besides, it's just a cut, nothing to get all worried about." Jessica wanted to protest, but never got as far as even opening her mouth. "Would you like me to take you to the principal's office?" the nurse asked harshly. Jessica quickly shook her head, dejectedly starting for the door. Leann and Courtney were going to be worried when she wasn't able to tell them that she had been absolutely sure that the nurse had gotten Melita all fixed up, but she would rather deal with that than a trip to Mr. White's office.

"Goodbye, Melita," she called softly as she started to close the door, not noticing that Melita was already asleep again.

Elizabeth

verse six

Adrianna nervously twirled the phone cord around her finger as she stared at Melita's closed door. "They said that there isn't anything wrong with her, except for the cut, but still..."

"She's upset about her glasses, huh?" Vince asked, his voice infuriatingly calm.

"You know as well as I do," Adrianna sighed. "She hasn't been awake long enough to even beg Mom to forgive her for breaking them. They say that there's nothing wrong... But I just can't believe that. She looks so... exhausted."

"Maybe she didn't sleep very well last night," Vince suggested. "She could have had a nightmare, and not gotten back asleep again."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it." Adrianna rolled her eyes, starting to wonder why she had decided to call him, rather than one of her other friends. Was it just because he had been around Lita more? "That's why I had to practically tip her bed over just to get her awake."

"And how does that work, exactly?"

He wanted to laugh, she could tell, and that just made her doubt her choice even more. "Shut up," she said finally. "I'm going to hang up now."

"Fine, be that way," Vince teased. "Tell Melita I hope she feels better soon."

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled. "See ya." She hung up before he could return the farewell, not feeling any better than before calling him. She stopped herself before dialing another number, though, setting the phone back down. Maybe her problem was just that she didn't want to be made to feel any better. To anyone else, Melita being sleepy would, more than likely, just seem like a silly little concern not worth spending much thought on. In truth, that was probably all it really was, too. Probably just her big sister instincts kicking in a little too much.

She glanced once more at Melita's door, then walked down to hallway to her own room, hoping she could concentrate enough to finish her homework.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Cynthia watched Melita's tiny chest move up and down slowly, feeling helpless. She had tried everything she could think of to wake her up, even if it was just long enough to get a confirmation that she wasn't dying or anything like that, but hadn't succeeded in getting even one of the girl's eyes to open.

How could this have happened? She had just left her alone for a few minutes... She certainly hadn't expected anything like this to happen. This assignment was turning out to be a lot more troublesome than she would have guessed. Then again, it wasn't as if Mr. Yuumei had offered her any actual information on Melita. Of course, she hadn't exactly asked for any, either. Still, there were some things that she shouldn't *have* to ask for.

Melita turned restlessly, mumbling softly in her sleep. Cynthia looked down at her face, feeling the same way she had when she had first been shown her picture. She was certainly cute, but there was more to her than that; Cynthia just couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"'s it time for school?" a tiny voice asked, muffled by the pillow. Melita rolled over, staring straight up and at the thing floating above her that seemed to be Cynthia. "Morning," she yawned.

"You're awake!" Cynthia exclaimed, landing beside her on the bed. "What do you think you were doing, little lady? You scared me half to death!"

"Huh?" Lita groggily reached for her glasses, wincing in pain as her hand hit the table they were always on, finding nothing. Why did her hand hurt so much..? She glanced back over at Cynthia's relieved, yet slightly angry, face, and something clicked in her mind. "Ohhh..."

"Remember now?" Cynthia asked, her voice a little gentler.

Melita shrugged. "I-I remember falling, and cutting my hand, and I remember the nurse chasing Jessica away..." She paused there, thoughtfully.

After a minute of silence, Cynthia decided she was probably not going to say anything else. "How are you feeling, hon?" Melita shrugged again, turning onto her side, away from Cynthia. "Lita?"

"You can't fix them, can you?" she asked quietly.

"What's that?" Cynthia already had a good idea, really, but would rather have it be something else.

Melita rolled back over, glaring at the fairy, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes. "You *know* what," she answered angrily.

Cynthia sighed. "No, Lita, I can't just fix things for you. And if I *could*, I would fix your hands, not your glasses. It's not that big a deal, honey, I promise. I'm sur..."

"Yes, it is!" Melita exploded, speaking more loudly than Cynthia had ever heard her before, sitting up as tears began to cascade down her cheeks.

"Lita..." Cynthia began, trying to calm her down, before her sister and mother came in, wondering what she was shouting about. She was probably too late, but maybe Melita would be a little less angry when someone else came in to see what was wrong this way.

She was drowned out by another voice, however, saying the exact same thing, a moment before the door opened and Adrianna rushed through, her expression worried and relieved at the same time. She looked around quickly, then sat down at the edge of Melita's bed. "You're up!" she said cheerfully. Lita just nodded, not looking any happier than she had a moment ago.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Adrianna took Melita's hand, gently rubbing the back of it, not sure if it would be a good idea to try and hug her just yet, no matter how much she wanted to.

"J-Just a bad dream," Lita lied, staring down at her legs.

Adrianna knew it was a lie, of course; she always did. But she also knew better than to press the matter right then, so she let it slide, for the moment. Her curiosity was eating away at her, anyway, and, even though it might be a bad idea, she knew she had to ask. "What were you yelling about a second ago?"

"Oh... You heard that?" Melita asked, cheeks burning red. "I was just... umm..."

"Don't pester her, Adrianna, she's not feeling well," Ms. Elendara admonished her oldest daughter. "And don't you have some homework to finish up anyway?" Adrianna sighed, but nodded anyway, bending over to kiss Melita on the forehead.

"Glad you're okay, sleepyhead." She ruffled Lita's hair playfully and then retreated to her room, too happy to think about doing any work for school the next day. All of her worries had been unfounded after all, and little Li-li seemed like she was going to be just fine. Flopping down onto her bed, she picked up the receiver of the phone and dialed the number again.

"Did you have a nice nap?" Ms. Elendara asked cheerfully, taking Adrianna's place on the bed. Lita looked up at her, nervously biting her bottom lip. "Are you hungry?" Melita shook her head slowly. "Still sleepy?" Lita thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. Ms. Elendara smiled, patting Lita's leg as she stood. "How about you try to get a little more sleep, and when you get up, I'll have a snack waiting for you? I'd be willing to ignore your bedtime for an hour or two if you wanted." Not that she would be able to get her to go back to sleep very easily anyway, unless she was somehow still tired. "Oh, and would you like to go to the eye doctor tomorrow? I made the appointment already, but if you don't think you'll feel up to it..."

A tiny hand reached up, catching the sleeve of her shirt. "I'm sorry."

Ms. Elendara sat back down as Lita started crying again. "I-I didn't mean to, I swear... It was just an accident!" She looked as if she wanted to explain more, but instead she buried her face in Ms. Elendara's arm. "I'm sorry..." she said again, the words muffled but easily understandable to someone that knew her.

Ms. Elendara gently moved Melita so that she could put both of her arms around her, then did so. "It's all right, Melita, really." Melita shook her head, trying to disagree, to tell her that she knew that it wasn't, it really wasn't. "They're just glasses, Melita. Nothing special. Things happen to them all the time. I've even broken mine a time or two. It's nothing to get upset over."

"But they cost so..." Lita started, remembering with a sinking feeling in her stomach the day that she had been taken to get her first pair of glasses, back with her "parents."

"And you couldn't see well enough to read without them, could you?" Melita shook her head, a little confused. "And you would have a hard time not running into a lot of things, huh? And you just wouldn't look nearly as cute without them. So they're more than worth it. Don't you worry about stuff like that, baby, not for another few years, anyway."

It took Ms. Elendara a few moments to realize what she had called Melita, about twice as long as it would have taken Melita to protest to it under normal circumstances, insisting that she was most definitely not a baby. But today, she didn't seem to care. "Are you sure?" she asked finally, sounding as if she wanted to believe, but simply couldn't bring herself to.

Ms. Elendara brushed Melita's hair away from her forehead, kissing it tenderly. "I'm positive."

Melita sniffled softly, and then did her best to curl up in Ms. Elendara's arms, suddenly feeling happy and safe. Ms. Elendara shifted a bit so that Lita was sitting on her lap, her head still resting against Ms. Elendara's arm. "Thanks... Mommy..." she said sleepily, a yawn separating the two words. Ms. Elendara looked down at her in surprise, but she was already dozing off again, her thumb having somehow found its way in between her lips.

Ms. Elendara smiled, watching her youngest daughter sleep. And, above her, Cynthia watched as well, marveling at just how angelic she could look, wondering how she could have ever thought about quitting her job. Times like these made it all worth it...

The memory of the night of the bonding ceremony came back, making Cynthia shudder. Maybe it took a few more moments like these to truly make up for some of the things that went on. But she would just consider this a down payment, for now.

verse seven

Melita glanced over towards the empty spot that Jessica, Leann, and Courtney usually occupied, starting to worry. She took her off her new glasses - these ones were oval shaped, and had pretty blue frames with flowers along the earpieces - and wiped them carefully on the sleeve of her jacket. When she had been looking at glasses, trying to decide which ones she wanted, she had tried her best not to linger near that pair, in case Ms. Elendara would notice that she was and realize that those were the ones she really wanted. Her plan hadn't worked quite as planned, but in this case, that wasn't really a bad thing, at least after Ms. Elendara had assured her once again that she wasn't about to throw her out over a pair of glasses, or anything else for that matter.

There was still no Jessica when Melita put her glasses back on. Where could they be? Had whatever caused her to be so exhausted been catching? What if she had gotten them all sick, too? They would probably hate her forever then, if they didn't already. Lita was a little surprised at just how much that prospect scared her. She sniffled softly, resting her head against the wall of her little hiding spot, desperately staring at the space that the three girls were supposed to be. Dana and Melody were off in the center of a cluster of girls, and Lita could spot most of the other members of her class, but not the people she actually wanted to see. She noted Celeste, looking rather lonely at the opposite side of the playground from her usual group, wondered why she wasn't with Dana and them, though she didn't dwell on it for too long before returning her eyes to Jessica's spot.

"Are you listening to me, Melita?!" Cynthia demanded, sounding annoyed. Lita looked up in surprise, earning herself a glare from her conscience. "I'll take that as a no."

"You don't think they're sick, do you?" Melita asked before Cynthia could start in on whatever she had been talking about again. "Or..."

"Think who's sick?" Lita nearly jumped out of her skin as Courtney sat down beside her. A second later, Leann joined them, sitting on Melita's other side, a purple envelope clutched in her hands. Jessica smiled warmly at Lita, but stayed standing after a disdainful glance at the ground.

"Umm... Nobody," Lita said quickly. Jessica gave her a strange look, then shrugged it off. Courtney and Leann didn't seem to think anything of this, however.

"You feel better?"

Melita nodded to Jessica's question. "My hand still hurts." She lifted her bandaged hand for a moment, illustrating her point. "But I'm fine."

"Good!" Leann giggled. Lita smiled, but wasn't really sure how else to respond to that. A moment later, Leann blurted out, "I like your new glasses!"

Melita blushed. "Thank you." She took them off, to better show off the flowers to the three blurs around her. "Aren't they pretty?"

"Uh-huh!" Courtney answered as Lita put them back on. "They look nice on you."

As Melita blushed again, Jessica gave Leann a pointed look, which Leann somehow managed not to notice in the least. She cleared her throat, but when that failed as well, she kicked the sole of Leann's shoe. When Leann looked up to see what the big idea was, Jessica turned the pointed look back on, and getting a blank stare in return. Jessica rolled her eyes. "Are you planning on keeping that card for yourself, Leann?" she asked finally.

"Oh, yeah..." Leann held the envelope out to Melita. "This is for you!"

Melita stared at it. "For... me?"

Leann nodded. "We don't know where you live, or we woulda mailed it to you." Melita said a quiet but heartfelt thanks as she took the envelope, carefully opening it and pulling out the card inside. The picture on the front was of Snoopy sitting on his doghouse, watching a falling, or perhaps just shooting, star. Inside, Leann and Courtney had just signed their names, though Leann had drawn a smiley face beside hers. Jessica, on the other hand, had written a little message as well.

Melita read through it twice, making sure she wasn't mixing up any important words. "Really?" she asked, looking up at her with big, grey eyes.

"You were just being shy before. It's not really your fault. I just overreacted a bit." She smiled. "Besides, maybe you'll keep Leann and Courts from driving me crazy." Courtney stuck her tongue out at Jessica, who promptly mirrored the action.

"What are you two talking about?" Leann, who had obviously not read Jess's message, inquired.

"Oh, nothing." Jessica winked at Lita and then rolled her eyes at the confused look she got. "Or maybe you'll just help them make me go crazy faster."

The sound of a whistle from the entrance to the school brought their conversation to an abrupt halt. "Guess that's your class, huh?" Courtney asked gloomily. Melita nodded, surprised to note that she actually felt a little regretful that she didn't get to stay with them longer. "Are you gonna eat lunch with us today?"

Melita opened her mouth, fully intending to use the same excuse as last time, but instead, "I'll try," came out. Courtney smiled, as Leann yelled "Yay!" Melita got to her feet, trying to brush her jeans off and keep her card clean at the same time, with the one hand she felt comfortable using at the moment.

"You'd better hurry," Cynthia reminded her. "Mrs. Friedman isn't going to be too happy if you're late again."

"Yeah, yeah," Melita said, louder than she had meant to. All three girls noticed that time, but she didn't have time to worry about it. "Bye!" she called, dashing towards to door. And, for once, she was actually looking forward to lunch.

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"Oh, sorry," Dana said as she ran into Melita for the third time. Lita did her best to ignore it, as she had the first two times, reminding herself to tell Cynthia not to let her get anywhere ahead of Dana in the lunch line. She thought she would be fine if she had a few people between them, but Dana had obviously bullied herself a new position. If Lita thought it was what Dana wanted, she would have let her in front, but she knew that Dana would rather just torture her a little longer.

"Thank you," she smiled politely as she took a slice of strawberry cake from the woman on the other side of the counter. She had never asked the woman for food of any kind, yet she always made sure Melita had whatever it is she was serving that day. Lita was sure she was a nice lady; it was just kind of creepy, and she wondered if maybe the woman were fattening her up so that she could snatch her up from the kitchen door one day and cook her.

Melita stumbled as she felt Dana's tray ram into her back, nearly dropping her own tray. Luckily, while the plates slid around a bit, everything stayed upright. She turned and glared at the girl, starting to get fed up. "Stop it!" she growled, though it sounded much more like a whine to her.

"Yeah, that's going to work," Cynthia said sarcastically.

Dana smiled innocently. "I'm just walking, Lita. It's not my fault you move so slow. Maybe you should have your mommy try to teach you how to walk again."

Melita turned back around, searching the cafeteria for the table Jessica said their group sat at. Her view was rather limited, however, by the crowds of people at the tables already, and she didn't really know the layout of the room all that well, since she had always just sat with her class. "That way," Cynthia told her, pointing. Melita didn't see anything that looked like the people she wanted, but it was as good a place to start as any, if Cynthia was mistaken.

"Hey, where are you going?" Dana smirked. "You're gonna get in trouble!"

"Am not," Lita protested. "You do it all the time."

"Well, I'm gonna tell," Dana informed her happily.

"You'd better not!" Melita spun around, not about to let Dana spoil this for her, too.

"Or what?" Dana laughed cruelly. "You'll throw a tantrum?"

Melita looked desperately up to Cynthia for some kind of advice, but she was hovering over Dana's shoulder for some reason. "Or... Or..." Lita tried to think of a good threat, but became too distracted with watching Cynthia, who looked as if she were trying to slap the air above Dana. "Umm..."

"Jerk," Cynthia murmured over her shoulder, flying back over to the still stammering Melita. "You're really not that threatening, dear - You do know that, don't you?"

Dana appeared to be thinking now, too. "Hrmph. You're not worth it." She shoved Lita backwards before walking off to her regular table, where Melody and a few second graders from their class were sitting. Melita tried to keep her balance, but she had never been too skilled at that, even when she wasn't trying to keep a tray of food from tipping over.

Luck was with her that day, it would seem. Plates clinked against each other, and against the edge of the tray, and she could feel herself starting to fall, but instead of hitting the floor, she hit something a bit softer. "Watch where you're goin', kid," it told her impatiently, shoving her back to her feet and then hurrying along its way.

"Sorry!" Melita called after him. After quickly checking to see that Dana was indeed heading back to her table, rather than the one the rest of the class was sitting at, Lita went hurrying along her way as well.

verse eight

Melita pushed the piece of cake around on her plate with a spoon, which she always got, yet never used. The only thing she used spoons for was soup, and she never ate any of that at school, mostly because she barely ate it while at home. It wasn't that she didn't like soup... She just felt more like she was eating something if she had to chew it before she swallowed.

"Would you stop playing with your food?" Cynthia rolled her eyes. "If you're not going to eat it, just leave it alone." Melita stuck her tongue out at her before remembering that she was sitting with other people.

"What did I do now?" Jessica asked, sounding a little surprised.

"Umm..." Lita quickly tried to come up with some sort of excuse, but all she could think of was, "Nothing..."

Courtney was obviously trying not laugh, and doing a pretty bad job at it. Leann just didn't bother with trying to avoid it. Jessica rolled her eyes, looking amazingly like Cynthia, despite not having wings and being more than four times her size. "I don't know why I sit with you guys..."

"Cause you love us, of course!" Leann informed her. Jessica hrmphed, then went back to eating to hide her own smile.

Melita's attention returned to the slice of cake. She really liked cake... And cookies, and chocolate, and ice cream, and pretty much anything sweet. Strawberries, however, were another story. It wasn't the taste, exactly. That was perfectly fine, though it wasn't her favorite by any stretch of the imagination. It was more that she was slightly allergic to them; not enough for it to matter a whole lot if she ate them, but enough that she felt a little sick afterwards. Sometimes she didn't mind so much, if whatever they were in was good enough to make up for it. The school's cake, however, was never all that good.

It was kind of surprising, really, that cake could be messed up quite like that. If it was any other flavor, Lita would probably have eaten it anyway, but just out of the futile hope that it would actually be tasty. Finally, she set her spoon down on the plate, bored of that little game. "Aren't you gonna eat that?" Leann asked, hungrily eyeing the slice of cake. Melita shook her head, pushing the plate over towards the other girl, who quickly began to devour it.

"Yeah, that's just what she needs," Jessica said with a long-suffering sigh. "More sugar."

"Don't you want me to be even sweeter?" Leann asked, giggling.

Jessica shrugged. "Guess it couldn't hurt, I guess. Maybe you should go get some more." Leann stuck her tongue out at Jess, but her eyes were moving over to the other side of the cafeteria. "Uh, Melita, I think your class is leaving..."

Lita turned around quickly, blood draining out of her face as she saw her last few classmates starting to leave the room. "Ohhh..." Melita moaned, trying to pile all of her dishes back onto her tray.

"Don't worry about it, we'll take care of it," Jessica assured her. "What are friends for?" she asked as she saw the shocked look on Lita's face.

"Th-Thank you..." she said, a little shakily, before turning and dashing for the door.

"Hey, Melita!" Courtney called urgently. Lita turned around, a little more rapidly than she had planned, almost losing her balance. "Do you... wanna come to my dance recital? It's this Saturday at 1, at the community theatre. Your mommy prolly knows where that is..."

Melita just looked at her for a few moments, her mind still functioning in overdrive from a few moments ago, before it occurred to her to answer. "Sure!" she exclaimed, then stared at Courtney for a little longer before Jessica shooed her out the door.

"Why didn't you tell me they were leaving?" Lita asked Cynthia angrily, turning around to look at the slightly embarrassed fairy flying beside her. "I'm gonna get in so much trouble!"

"Well... That'll just teach you to pay attention next time, won't it?" Melita glared at her. "Lita, look out!"

Melita turned around, surprised, but not in time to stop herself from tripping over the first step in the stairway that led up to the second floor, where her class was. She fell, knees and palms slamming against the hard stone stairs. She slid back down a few inches to the first floor, crumpling up at the foot of the stairs, tears starting to trickle out of the corners of her eyes as blood stains started creeping along the knees of her jeans.

"Damn it..." Cynthia cursed under her breath, floating downwards to try and comfort Lita. "I'm gonna end up killing her one of these days..."

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"How do you fall *up* stairs?" Adrianna asked, obviously trying to be nice and not laugh at the clumsy little girl. Melita just glared at her, then went back to her homework. Adrianna shrugged and went back to chopping carrots, a few chuckles escaping despite her best efforts.

"It's not like I did it on purpose!" Melita exclaimed, sniffling softly.

"I know, I know," Anna told her. "It's just..." She turned around, saw the tears threatening in her sister's eyes. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I bet it hurt a lot, huh?" Lita nodded, and Adrianna wiped her hands on the legs of her jeans, then walked over to the kitchen table and hugged her little sister, lifting her up out of her chair for a few seconds before setting her back down. "What else did you do today?" she asked, walking back over to the sink.

"Umm... I got invited to a dance recital Saturday..." Lita started swinging her legs a little faster, starting to feel nervous. Would Courtney be angry at her if she didn't go? "I can go, can't I?"

"Don't see why not, though you might want to ask Mom first."

"Okay," Lita said happily. "I've never been to a recital before..."

"I'm sure we'll have lots of fun," Adrianna assured her. "You know, I bet you'd make just the cutest little dancer." She could see Li-li's blush in her mind, though, when she turned around, it was even more adorable than she had imagined. "Aren't you done with that yet? Do you want to help make Mom some brownies?" Lita nodded excitedly, jotting down the last few answers in her English workbook, not really worrying about whether they were right or not, as Adrianna dumped the carrots into the bowl with the rest of the salad and checked the lasagna.

"Hey, be careful with..." she warned as she turned around to see Melita carrying a half-full bag of flour from the pantry. Melita set it down on the table, turning around to give Adrianna a smug look, knocking it off of the table with her elbow. "...that," Adrianna finished with a sigh. She had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

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"What smells so good in here?" Ms. Elendara asked as she walked into the kitchen, finding her two daughters, one struggling over the last math problem for the day, the other, looking rather frazzled, hanging the dish towel up as she finished drying the dishes.

Melita looked up from her homework. "We made you brownies!" she exclaimed, jumping down and heading over to the stove, where the pan was sitting. She reached up to pick it up, only to find it being lifted up by the oven-mitted hands of Anna.

"They're still hot," she stated, more to Lita than her mother.

"Thank you, you two!" Ms. Elendara exclaimed, bending down to kiss Lita. "These look very delicious!"

"They are!" Melita giggled. Ms. Elendara smiled at her, but glancing inquisitively at Adrianna.

"Yes, she ate dinner first. I *have* lived with you long enough to know the rules." She decided to leave out the fact that she had let Lita lick the bowl they had mixed the batter in even before dinner had finished cooking. Ms. Elendara hugged her, and then snatched up one of the brownies for herself.

"I think it's about time somebody got ready for bed," she said, giving a pointed stare to Lita.

"Try the brownies first!" the little girl urged. Ms. Elendara did, and once she had assured Melita that they were some of the best she had ever had, Lita scampered off to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"She wasn't too much trouble?" Ms. Elendara asked, taking another bite of the brownie. It really was good, if a little too sweet for her tastes. She guessed, correctly, that Lita had been the one to measure the sugar.

"Nothing I couldn't handle. Some pouting about having to do homework, but not as bad as usual, really. Besides that, she was a perfect little angel. As always." Adrianna stealthily brushed a spot of flour that she had somehow missed in her whirlwind of cleaning from the table.

Melita slowly pulled her nightclothes from the drawer, hoping to lengthen the time before having to put them on as much as possible, like she usually did. She jumped about a foot into the air as Ms. Elendara knocked lightly on her door. "You ready for bed yet?"

"Almost!" Lita called, stripping and getting redressed quickly, knowing Ms. Elendara wouldn't leave from the other side of the door until after she was allowed in, actually expecting that Lita really was almost ready for bed. "Okay!" Lita said finally, tossing her clothes into the hamper and hopping into bed.

Ms. Elendara pulled her covers up to her neck, tucking her in with a kiss. "Goodnight, Melita. Sweet dreams."

"'Night," Melita answered, starting to feel drowsy now that she was lying down. Ms. Elendara switched on the night light before flipping off the ceiling light, and closed the door lightly.

"Goodnight, Melita," Cynthia said, fluttering upwards.

"Why won't you stay with me?" Lita asked, yawning. "What if I need you in the middle of the night?"

"I've told you before, hon, I have to go back home, or my Mom'll freak out. Anyway, you're not going to need me, because you'll be asleep... Right?"

"Right," Melita answered, pouting a little. She would feel better knowing that Cynthia was there, even better than she felt having the night light on.

"Then good night. See you tomorrow!" And with that, Cynthia vanished.

"'Night, Cynthia," Melita mumbled sleepily, curling up into her usual position. She was fast asleep even before Adrianna came in to say good night to her, still having not noticing the streak of brownie mix on her forehead.

verse nine

Melita hugged her jacket close around herself, trying to keep up with Adrianna as they hurried towards the door of the theatre. She considered telling Anna to slow down, but she didn't want to be late... If only she had thought to tell Adrianna what time the recital was on Thursday, instead of waiting until Friday and half forgetting. 1:30 was pretty close to 1; it was an honest mistake. And nothing actually started right on the hour anymore anyway. How was she supposed to know this was any different?

It was a good thing she was, and always had been, obsessive about getting ready early. By the time she realized her mistake, she was already dressed in her pretty light blue skirt with the butterfly on the leg and her pink blouse that Adrianna had once told her had scooped sleeves, though Lita still liked to refer to it as her princess shirt, because the sleeves reminded her of a princess in a movie she had seen once. Adrianna was still resisting Lita's begging, not wanting to get dressed up yet, until Lita looked at the clock and something in her head clicked.

"Don't suppose you want to hang your coat up, do you?" Adrianna asked as they walked into the theatre. Lita shook her head, still amazed that Anna wasn't wearing her own jacket. Yes, it was kind of warm out, but around there, it never really got all that hot outside. Maybe once summer started, Lita would stop taking her coat with her everywhere, but until then, she liked to keep it close. Besides, it really was cold today, even if Anna didn't think so.

"There you are!" Jessica called, hurrying from one of the entrances to the auditorium. "We were starting to think you weren't going to come! Hurry up, it's about to start!" She grabbed Melita's hand and pulled her down the aisles of seats, Adrianna following close behind, until they reached the second row from the stage. Leann was sitting beside an older woman Lita assumed to be her mother, boredly trying to make a cat's cradle from a piece of string, until she saw the new arrivals. She waved excitedly, as if to make sure that Lita and Jessica knew where she was.

"You made it!" she exclaimed happily as Melita struggled out of her coat, wishing she had thought to take it off before sitting down.

"Just barely," Jessica complained as she sat down on the other side of Lita. Adrianna sat down beside her, smiling softly. It was good to see that she was making friends, finally.

"Is that your mommy?" Leann asked, pointing towards Anna, who promptly gave the little girl an icy glare.

Lita giggled. "No, that's Adrianna..."

"Ohhhh... Okay," Leann accepted. She looked like she was about to ask something else when the lights began to dim, and the woman beside her whispered that she needed to be quiet now. Leann nodded, turning to watch the stage.

Melita quickly copied her, staring intently upwards, not really knowing what to expect. She vaguely remembered being taken to see the Nutcracker once, but she had slept through most of it, and the only thing she could actually recall was a giant mouse, or rat, or something. Somehow, she doubted there was always one of those about while people were dancing - if there was, why would anybody -want- to?

Luckily, there wasn't, or at least not that Melita noticed. Perhaps it was wandering around the side of the stage, but since the dancers all tended to stay in the center, and Lita's enthralled eyes stayed on them, for the most part. When the different groups would come out onto stage, Lita would look over there, to see if Courtney was with them, yet somehow managed to not notice when she actually did. Leann did, however, and quickly elbowed Melita before waving at their friend. Lita waved, too, and Courtney's eyes lit up as she saw them. She started to wave back, but the girl beside her whispered something to her that made her blush and return her hand to her side, smiling meekly to someone, or thing, backstage.

Melita clapped her loudest for Courtney's class, even though she was starting to decide that she liked tap dancing better than ballet. Courtney -had- done a really good job, though, and she was the only person Lita actually knew. Ballet was actually prettier than tap, anyway... Tap just seemed neater to her, for some reason.

However, Courtney's class wasn't exactly Melita's favorite, and neither were any of the tappers. It was a soloist that came on just a little while after Courtney had left. She was the youngest person to have a ballet solo, and so good that it took until the middle of the song, and Cynthia asking if Lita realized just who that was, before Melita realized why the girl looked so familiar, despite her poofy tutu and makeup. And even after that, Melita couldn't help admiring the dance, while trying not to do the same for the dancer.

"Was that Dana?" Leann whispered to Melita as she swept triumphantly off the stage. Lita nodded, numbly, not sure what to say that wouldn't show how much she was impressed; being impressed by your arch-nemesis was never a good thing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"You were great!" Leann exclaimed, hugging Courtney as soon as she appeared in the lobby in her normal clothes, already changed out of her pretty ballet costume.

"Wonderful job," Jessica said, trying to sound a little more grown up than Leann, and succeeding, just barely. She handed Courtney a bouquet of roses Lita hadn't seen her holding. Lita smiled, not sure what to say or do, wishing now she had thought to bring flowers or something.

"Umm... I hope I didn't get you in trouble..." she said finally. "Wh-When I waved at you..." Lita went on when Courtney gave her a confused look.

"Oh! No, not at all, Lita! I'm jus' not supposed to wave to people when I'm onstage. But thanks for waving at me," she giggled, hugging Leann, then Lita. "Didja like it?" she asked, sounding a little worried.

"I loved it," Melita tried to sound happy, but her eyes were drifting over towards where Dana had just come out, still costumed, and was speaking to Melody.

"Oh, don't worry about her... She won't do anything here, or she'll get in trouble, and she knows it. Mrs. Friedman isn't here to save her." Courtney grinned, seeming glad to see that Lita had enjoyed herself.

"Who's that, now?" Adrianna asked, having just caught up with Melita and her friends. She wasn't nearly as small or quick as them, and so had actually had to fight her way through the crowd to meet up with the dancers.

"Nobody," Lita answered quickly.

"Nuh-uh!" Leann interjected. "That's Dana... She's the one that took Lita's glasses and hid 'em... And she stole Lita's backpack, too... And..."

"Leann!" Melita exclaimed, crossing her arms and glaring at her friend, who looked every bit as confused as Courtney had a minute ago.

"You never said anything about that," Adrianna said quietly. "You never mentioned that at all..."

Melita blushed. "It's not that big a deal..." She glanced down at her feet, hugging her now folded up jacket to her chest. In the background, she heard Leann explaining to Courtney that it wasn't Lita's Mommy after all.

Adrianna knelt down in front of Melita, trying to get her to look her in the eye. "Is that why you don't like going to school, sweetie?" Melita shrugged. "I wish you would tell me or Mom if somebody's doing stuff like that. You can't just let people push you around..." Lita shrugged again. Why couldn't she? That was the way the world had always worked, for her, at any rate. Adrianna sighed, gave Lita a quick hug, and stood back up. "You did a good job, hon," she told Courtney, who quickly thanked her.

"I told you, didn't I?" Cynthia said quietly, trying not to sound too mean about it. "I said you should tell them, because they'd find out eventually."

Melita sniffled softly, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. What was Adrianna going to do now? Would she tell Ms. Elendara? What if she tried to complain to Ms. Friedman, and Ms. Friedman told them about how Lita had tried to beat up Dana? "A-Anna... You can't tell anyone..."

Adrianna sighed as she knelt back down. "Do you promise to tell me if she ever does anything like that to you again?" Lita hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "All right, I'll think about it." Her eyes went back over to the girl that had been tormenting her little sister, then back to Courtney, who was talking with her friends, and finally back to Melita, accompanied by a grin. "But you'll owe me..."

"Okay!" Melita agreed quickly.

"And I think the only way to repay me will be... Oh... Let's see..." Adrianna pretended to be deep in thought. "To give me a chance to see just how cute a dancer you really do make."

"Me?" Melita squeaked. "A dancer?" She could barely -walk- without falling over - how could Anna really expect her to dance?!

"Well, unless you want me to tell Mom everything," Anna threatened. "And she will still have to know if this Dana does anything else."

"You're mean," Melita pouted.

"Yes, but that's my job, isn't it?" Adrianna laughed, swooping Lita off of her feet and into her arms as she stood up. "Do we have a deal?" Lita sighed, but nodded anyway. "Good!" Adrianna kissed her forehead and set her down again. "Now go talk to your friends."

verse ten

"What are you doing here?" Jessica asked angrily, hand tightening around her fork. Melita considered telling her to calm down, but didn't think it would be too great an idea, since she didn't really want to get herself stabbed either. And she also didn't exactly mind the thought of it happening to her instead.

"I-I just want to.. apologize..." Celeste answered slowly to her plate of pizza. "I'm sorry, Melita. I... I'm sorry about everything."

Melita glared at her, still angry. "Did Dana tell you to do this? What is she up to?"

Celeste shook her head, starting to look distressed. "Dana didn't tell me to do anything. I just want..."

"Then why don't you sit down and do it?" Courtney spoke up quietly. Jessica, Melita, and Leann turned on her simultaneously, but she ignored the looks she got from all three of them as she scooted her tray over. Celeste glanced nervously at Melita, trying to see if she was going to protest, before she took Courtney's offer.

"I'm really sorry, Melita..." Celeste said, trying to catch the other girl's attention. Lita was quite interested in the food on her tray, however - before she started school, she had never seen pizza sliced in any shape but a triangle, but here the slices were rectangular - and in doing her best not to look up at Celeste. "Dana's gotten really mean... I didn't notice till a few days ago how bad it was. And when I said something to her about it..."

"She stopped letting you hang around near her little group?" Jessica finished for her, still sounding a bit angry, but much less so than a few minutes before. Celeste nodded. "And now you want to be friends with us?" Celeste nodded again, a little more hesitantly. Leann and Melita still seemed to be unhappy with her presence. "Melita?"

"Wha?" Lita looked up in surprise, not really used to being asked anything. Even Jessica, Leann, and Courtney hardly ever did, since they all knew she wasn't all that fond of answering, even if it was just her friends around. Talking had never been her strong suit.

"Do you mind if she eats with us today?" Jessica emphasized the last word, shooting a glance at Celeste that suggested that, should she screw up, this would be the last day they let her anywhere near them. Lita shrugged, finally looking directly at Celeste, trying to figure out if she was trying to trick them.

"It's fine," she said after a few moments. Celeste smiled, relieved, and started eating.

Everyone else seemed to be rather hungry as well, and the table was quiet for a couple of minutes, until the last person anyone expected to start a conversation did. "Do you think I'll be able to take ballet with you, Courtney?" Melita asked.

Courtney put down her spoon, a bit surprised, but more sad. "Lita... I've been taking ballet since I was three."

Melita adjusted her glasses, obviously confused and trying to figure out what to say. This was why she didn't talk most of the time, or at least one of the reasons. Courtney tried not to laugh at her, not wanting to hurt her friend's feelings, but couldn't help but chuckle a little. "That jus' means... Well, no."

"Oh." Lita's face fell, almost breaking Courtney's, and Cynthia's, heart. Not because she looked so completely downtrodden, though that was a big part of it, but because she was so resigned, as if she had been expecting it all along, knew that nothing that good could ever happen to her.

Leann seemed to notice as well, and leaned over to give her a quick hug. "Didn't you like tap better anyway, Lita?"

Lita blushed bright red. "N-No..." She looked up at Courtney apologetically, knowing that her lie had failed miserably, hoping her friend could forgive her.

Courtney was smiling, not exactly what Melita had expected. "That's perfect! I was thinking about starting to taking tap lessons this fall. If you did, too, then we'd both be in the same class!"

Melita practically leaped out of her seat. "Really?!" Courtney just grinned, and Lita started giggling excitedly. Courtney began to giggle, too, and all of the sudden she got up, and hugged Melita tightly.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" she exclaimed. Melita was giggling too hard to actually answer, but it was obvious that she thought so as well. After a moment, Courtney was giggling too hard to talk as well.

Jessica rolled her eyes, setting her spoon down in the empty pudding bowl. "So, Celeste... Maybe you'll be the one that keeps me from going crazy around all these weirdos. *She* obviously isn't."

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"I don't think she's realized it yet." Adrianna sighed, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes. "I don't imagine she'll be too happy with me."

"Well, you *are* the Antichrist," Vince teased her, picking up his second taco.

"This is the last time I offer to buy lunch for anybody here," Adrianna complained. "I swear, this has to be the third time that's happened."

"Maybe you're just the Antichrist of Taco Bell, then," Vince offered helpfully. "It's just too big a job for one person anymore."

"We had a perfectly good topic of conversation going just a minute ago. I wonder where it could have gone to." Adrianna glared at Vince, much the same way she glared at Li-li, though a little more harsh.

Vince threw his hands up defensively. "Is it my fault your fate as the ultimate evil is more interesting than graduation? Semi-ultimate evil, anyway... For people who work here."

"Or eat here a lot," Adrianna said before she could help herself. "Just shut up and eat, Vince." Before he could say it, she added, "Yes, so I can kill you in the end times."

Vince shrugged, grinning. "Whatever you say, Anna."

"And don't call me that. Only six year old girls are allowed to call me that."

"Oh, so you're going to make her stop calling you that after her birthday?" Vince asked, raising his eyebrow, knowing Adrianna wouldn't ever deny Melita anything that wasn't dangerous, overly stupid, or dreadfully ugly.

"No, the requirements will just change a little." Adrianna started gathering up all her trash, noticing by the clock that she needed to be back at school pretty soon.

"Doesn't sound very fair to me."

"They're my rules. They don't have to be fair." Adrianna stuck her tongue out before quite thinking about what she was doing, then pulled it back a little sheepishly. She spent *way* too much time around Melita. "You can be my six year old girl if you want," she teased.

"Can I call you Anna then?"

"No." Adrianna leaned over, shoving the wrappers and napkins into the trash can beside their table. She started to pick up her receipt to do the same to it, then decided to keep it, like she had the other ones that had come up $6.66. They made nice souvenirs, and freaked a few of her more conservative friends out quite a bit. "Well, I'm glad we had this talk about nothing even remotely like what I wanted to talk about."

"Everyone's worried about graduation and starting college, Adrianna. There's not a whole lot I can do about it. And since I haven't exactly gone through that yet, either, I don't really know what to tell you."

"I'm not worried about graduation," Adrianna lied.

"Sure." Vince's smile told Adrianna that she couldn't fool him, so don't bother trying; something she already knew. "Then why are we here?"

"I don't know how she's going to take it, when I tell her I'm not going to be living with her for four months. I... I don't want her to...."

"To what? Start doing drugs? She's six, Adrianna. I don't think you have to worry about that just yet." Adrianna glared at him again, but this time he could see tears starting to appear at the corners of her eyes. "I'm sure she's going to miss you, but she'll be fine. She has friends now, remember? And as long as you call and visit every once in a while, she probably won't forget who you are by the time Christmas break rolls around. Now come here."

Adrianna went over to his open arms, letting herself be hugged, and hugging him back tightly in return. "I'm gonna miss her so much," she whispered, unable to speak any louder than that through the lump in her throat.

"I know," Vince comforted. "I doubt she's going to be happy with you for a little while after you tell her, but she'll get over it. By the first time you come back, she'll be thrilled to see you again. Maybe." He laughed as she hit him in the shoulder, pulling away, a little embarrassed to have just done that in the middle of a restaurant, even one which was virtually empty, except for the workers.

"We'd better go," she managed a few seconds later. "I'm gonna be late for Home Ec."

"I'm sure that'd be a big loss," Vince rolled his eyes. Adrianna got her keys out of her purse and headed for the door, where she paused for a moment, a vaguely evil smile on her face.

"You know, you'd make a very cute six year old girl."

"Whatever you say, Miss Antichrist."

Elizabeth

verse eleven

"It's very nice, is it not?" the little man asked eagerly, licking his lips nervously. He had the look of a weasel about him, and didn't seem like someone Dr. Herbert would normally trust, or even allow into his office at the museum he worked at. "Very old. Beautiful craftsmanship."

Dr. Herbert picked up the sword, looking it over carefully. It was rather beautiful, in a way. Its age, however, was nearly impossible to tell by simple observation. "And where did you say you found this, Mister...?"

"Names... are not required, sir," the man replied, adjusting his hat so that it went even further down on his head. "And I cannot tell you where I found it, either." Dr. Herbert set the sword down skeptically, beginning to suspect a con of some sort. "I can promise you that this sword is completely unlike anything you'd have ever seen before, though."

"I've seen swords. I've seen old ones. This one doesn't appear to be anything special."

The little man smiled impishly. "Maybe you should take a closer look, doctor. I'll tell you what - you can keep it until tomorrow night. If you're not suitably impressed by then, I'll take it back, and not bother you again." He bowed, and then started for the door before a low rumbling noise emanated from the table the sword had been set on. He froze in his tracks, trying to make sense of it before it vanished.

"What was that?" Dr. Herbert asked suspiciously.

"It was nothing, good sir. I'll be seeing you tomorrow." He exited the office, trying not to seem as if he were in a hurry. He needed to get back soon, anyway, but even if he hadn't... The old tongue wasn't exactly widespread anymore. He had heard it only once, but had read it many, many times more; the old tombs and temples were practically covered in it. He would have to look it up once he was back, but he was almost certain he had translated it correctly already.

But why would a sword be calling for its master?

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"I think the pink looks better on you," Adrianna said, trying to suppress a yawn. She wasn't sure how long she had been at this, but it felt like forever. "Do you like the white one, though?"

Melita shrugged. "The purple one was pretty, too..."

Adrianna sighed, glancing over at the racks of dresses, trying to remember what style the purple one she had gotten Lita to try on had been. She loved shopping with her sister, especially when it was for clothes, but she was now starting to regret allowing Melita to choose which dress she was going to wear to Anna's graduation. She must have tried on just about every kind of dress in the store, and she wasn't exactly the quickest changer in the world. Not to mention that afterwards, she would spend about five minutes trying to decide if she wanted to try a different one on or not. At first, it had been kind of cute, especially since it had allowed Anna to see her in quite a few quite adorable dresses, but after that, it began to get almost too long and tiresome to be worth it. But not quite.

"How about this one?" Lita asked, bouncing over to a blue dress with more energy than Adrianna could comprehend anybody having, especially after spending the past however long trying on clothes.

"Umm... It looked good on you too?" Adrianna wasn't really sure what Lita was even asking anymore; she was doing good to just stay awake.

"I haven't tried it on yet!" Lita pouted, sounding a little annoyed, and possibly offended.

"Oh... Sorry..." Adrianna apologized sheepishly. "Then you should go try it on, cupcake." Melita cheered up a little at that, and went back to the dressing room. Again. At least this time she hadn't felt the need to discuss it extensively beforehand. Anna was sure that she knew just as much about the dresses in the store as the people that worked there. Maybe even more.

Melita finally re-emerged, grinning broadly as she twirled, the ankle length blue skirt spinning. "Isn't it beautiful?" she asked excitedly.

"Sure is," Adrianna replied, almost automatically. This one *was* nicer than a lot of the other ones she had tried on, though. It was blue of course, sleeveless, had butterflies all over it, a ruffle around the neckline, and a hem running around the skirt about halfway down in addition to the one around the waist. All in all, Lita looked great in it, as would just about any little girl that wore it. "But not nearly as much as the person wearing it!" Adrianna got up and snatched her now hysterically giggling little sister up into a hug.

After she set her back down, though, she grew silent, and then looked up at Anna with big, worried eyes. "It's kind of..."

"If you say expensive again, I'm going to tell Vince to call you Li-li from now on." Melita blushed, and Adrianna was almost able to keep from laughing. "So, is this the one you want?" Lita glanced at the floor, mumbling something Anna couldn't quite make out, but would have been willing to bet that if she had, it would have included the word she had just told Lita not to say. "I'll take that as a yes."

"What?" Melita's eyes flashed upwards in surprise. "But..."

"Is there another one you like better?" Lita nervously chewed on her bottom lip, then shook her head slowly. "Well, okay then. Let's get this and head home before Mom thinks we got kidnapped or something."

Melita was silent as Adrianna took the dress up to the front of the store and gave the clerk her mother's credit card. The girl looked a little surprised, as if she had forgotten there was anyone other than her there, though Anna wasn't sure how she could have missed Lita's giggling every time she tried on a new dress.

She stayed quiet as they went out to Adrianna's car, and as they started home, until they were about halfway there. "Thank you," she said, finally breaking the silence.

"No problem, Li-li. I want you to look your best for my graduation, after all." Melita nodded, and then went back to staring at the closed glove box. "Sweetie, are you mad at me?" Anna asked after a few minutes of worry.

Melita looked at her, genuinely surprised. "Why would I be mad at you?"

"You *do* know that I'm moving away to college, don't you?"

Melita nodded. "Yeah, but that's not for a while, right?"

Adrianna started to tell her that it was just a couple months, that it wasn't all that far off, but couldn't bring herself to form the words. "Right," she said loudly, trying to convince herself at the same time as Melita. Lita didn't notice, though, and just nodded happily, and went back to looking at the glove box for a few more moments before Anna just couldn't stand it anymore. "When I do move, though, will you be angry at me? Do you think you'll be able to forgive me?"

Melita was silent, the setting sun throwing shadows across her little body. Adrianna's heart stopped. Melita really was angry at her. Furious, probably. They had just really started to get to know and love each other as sisters not that long ago, and now Adrianna was leaving her. Could they really be as close as they were now after not seeing each other for weeks, probably months, at a time?

"I'm not doing this to hurt you, Lita, I swear. I don't want to leave you, either, but I just think that the best place for me is there... If there were a college around here, I would go there instead, but there's nothing. If I stayed here, there wouldn't be anything for me to do but work at some fast food joint, and that's not what I want to do with my life. And I'll come visit you as soon as I can. And maybe Mom'll bring you to visit me sometime, too. It isn't that far, really. You could stay with me for a weekend, maybe. We'll have a sleepover. I'm sure my roommate will love you - who wouldn't? Things'll be different, but everything will be okay. I promise."

Melita stayed silent through Adrianna's big speech, and afterwards, too. How upset *was* she? A tear started to flow down Adrianna's cheek before she quickly wiped it away. She didn't want it to be this way between her and Lita. She didn't think she could stand it. "Lita, I love you. You know that, don't you?" Lita stayed quiet. "Melita?"

Adrianna stopped the car in front of the stop sign, quickly turning to see how Lita was doing, figuring she was probably crying by now. Instead, she was fast asleep, obviously tired out from her hard evening of shopping. Anna sighed in relief before kissing the top of Melita's head and returning her attention to the road. They could talk about all that later... If she could find the courage to do so when Lita was still awake.

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"Of course everything went fine, mother. I *do* know what I'm doing, after all." Cynthia rolled her eyes at the nightly interrogation.

"That's what you said last time," her mother reminded her, sounding as if she were trying to decide whether to be accusing or helpful. "You're being more careful this time, aren't you?"

"That's not going to happen again, mom." Cynthia started heading back to her bedroom, not in the mood to deal with this tonight.

"How can you be sure? Humans can be quite unpredictable, you know."

"Gee, I never would have guessed that. Good thing you tell me every single night!" Cynthia growled, turning back around angrily.

"There's no need to get upset, dear. You've obviously had a hard day. Better get some rest so that doesn't rub off on... what was her name again, Melinda?... tomorrow."

"Melita," Cynthia answered coldly.

"Oh, right..." Her mother smiled. "Well, do be careful tomorrow! Sweet dreams!"

An urge to say something she knew she would regret later welled up in Cynthia, but she pushed it back down. Her mom was just looking out for her... She *was* one of the best in the business, after all. Why shouldn't she expect her daughter to be just as good? And she did, of course, and didn't bother to try and hide that from Cynthia. It must have killed her to hear about Cynthia's first case.

"That's not gonna happen again," Cynthia mumbled to herself as she closed her bedroom door, leaning against it, exhausted. "I'm not going to let it..."

verse twelve

"This can't be happening," Ms. Elendara fretted, dragging the vacuum cleaner out of the hall closet. "How can she do this to me?"

"It's what mothers do," Adrianna told her, half teasing as she looked up from the bathroom sink. "Isn't that right, Li-li?"

Melita turned around, feather duster pausing in midair for a moment as she glanced from Adrianna to Ms. Elendara, and then back to Adrianna, who was nodding enthusiastically, encouraging her. "Umm... Yeah..." she said, not exactly convincingly.

"Thank you, girls," Ms. Elendara said, mostly to Adrianna, who smiled innocently, though she wasn't nearly as good at it as Lita could be. "It's just that... Everyone else found a motel, or are just going home afterwards... I would think she would be able to, too."

"Well, there *is* a graduation going on," Adrianna reminded her. "And you know how Grandma is - she never thinks to make reservations ahead of time." She shrugged, setting down her washcloth again. "Anyway, she probably just wants to see what her new granddaughter is like."

"This is why I've been meaning to turn the guest room into a library," Ms. Elendara mumbled under her breath.

"She wants to see me?" Melita asked suspiciously. "Isn't she gonna see me at the graduation? Or the party-thingie?"

"Oh, she believes you don't really know a person until you see them the first thing in the morning," Anna said with a sadistic little grin. "It's an old person thing, I suppose."

"First thing?" Lita squeaked.

"And she gets up rather early..." Adrianna teased.

"Be nice, Adrianna," Ms. Elendara warned. "Or would you like me to tell Melita about the time she woke you up at... what was it?... five in the morning?"

"Five?" Lita squeaked again, her voice even higher than last time.

"Don't worry, honey, I'll make sure she lets you sleep as late as you want, okay?" Ms. Elendara smiled reassuringly. "It'll be fine, you'll see." She turned back around, finally just shoving the vacuum back into the closet, deciding it could wait a little bit. "Bloody woman," she growled.

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"This isn't my kind of work." She slammed the piece of paper back down onto the table, starting to get up from her chair. "Why are you wasting my time?" She rested her hand on the hilt of the dagger, just visible from the sleeve of her coat.

"Calm down and sit, Miss..." The man looked down for a moment, as if scanning the card for something he already knew wasn't there. "Odd, don't you think, not to have your name on these?"

"You can call me Enzeru. If you ever need my services, that is." She was on her feet by now, having ignored the man's suggestion for her to sit again. "I'm not a bounty hunter. Treasure hunters do not concern me, even if they were ransacking the temple of some long-lost deity. Especially not, actually."

"Still bitter?" Enzeru looked up at the man, a little surprised, though able to keep that from her face. "I would think after what happened, you would feel the opposite."

"Yeah, well, I'm just a bit unpredictable that way." She sat down anyway. "If you know, why do you think your little case concerns me?"

"Because it's not the treasure hunter I want. It's what he took. Something I thought would be of particular interest to you." She could sense the craftiness in his smile; it was what she did, to an extent. Maybe he was setting her up, maybe he thought he was just being clever, thinking her had lured her into this job after she had already turned it down. Who knew?

"Treasure doesn't interest me either," she told him curtly, standing once more. "Thank you for wasting my time. Don't call me again." She reached out to take back her card, but his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her arm closer to him, turning it so that he could see the underside of it. She had her dagger out and to his throat before he could do anything else, but he had already let her go by then.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to let me see the left side of your neck, too, now would you?" She glared at him, backing the dagger a few inches away from his beck, but not too far. "Doesn't matter, really. I already know about the scars there. Everyone does. You're quite a legend, you know."

"Is that why I'm here? So you can brag about killing a 'legend'? Sorry, but it's not going to be that easy." She reached back, began to draw her sword.

"There's no need for that. I didn't come here to kill you, I came here to talk business." He held up his hands, showing that he had no weapons. "All I wanted to do was give you the chance to get the blade that gave you those scars."

She froze. Just for a second - she had been in this line of work long enough to know better than to allow any longer than that - but still, she froze. "That's what was stolen?" She sat back down, knife still in hand while the other reached for her mug.

"Afraid so." He didn't look it, grinning ear to ear. "So... I assume you're interested now?"

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"Are we done yet?" Melita whined, flopping down onto the couch, feather duster, along with the hand holding it, bouncing against the back of the couch. She sneezed suddenly, moved to block her mouth with the hand holding the duster. "I don't like dusting very much," she said miserably as soon as she finished coughing.

Adrianna wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, looking around the living room wearily. "If I knew it was gonna be this much trouble, I would have just failed a few classes this year." She looked around again, then all but fell into her mother's favorite chair, sinking down into the soft cushions. "Or maybe killed off a few semi-distant relatives." She grinned, reaching over to ruffle Melita's hair. The little girl was too tired to even say anything about it, much less try to fix it. "It's a good thing you're not graduating for another, what, eleven years? Maybe by then we'll be ready to handle cleaning this place again."

"Meh," was all Lita could muster as she pulled one of the throw pillows from the opposite side of the couch to underneath her head.

"You know, Melita," Adrianna started, clearing her throat as she sat up a little straighter.

"What?" Lita pulled herself up, looking quizzically at her big sister, wondering what she wanted to talk about now, of all times.

"Well, you see... About this whole graduation thing... And college... I..." Adrianna's need to talk to Melita about these things seemed to melt away as she looked into her open, if tired, eyes. She cleared her throat again, gathering her resolve; she had to say it, or she would feel awful about not doing so. "I..."

The doorbell rang, bringing Adrianna out of her struggle. Ms. Elendara, already changed into clean, fairly nice looking clothes, dashed past the living room. A second later, she ran back and hissed, "She's here!" at her two daughters.

Adrianna and Melita glanced wearily at one another, then got up and hurried back to their rooms to get changed. Melita didn't really get all that dressed up, but at least she wasn't covered in dust and grime anymore, despite still feeling as if she was. The bathroom door beckoned her as she opened her own, but she didn't think Ms. Elendara wanted her taking a shower right then.

She hesitated in front of it anyway, hanging back from the front door, where Ms. Elendara and her mother were still standing, talking. She brushed an imaginary blemish from her shirt, bending partway into the bathroom to make sure her hair didn't look too messed up, then quickly grabbed a brush and went to work, doing her best to get her locks under control. She wanted to make as good a first impression as she could, in case Ms. Elendara's mother thought she was... Well, she wasn't sure what she didn't want her to think of her as, but whatever it was most likely had messy hair, so she was going to make sure she didn't.

"Melita, hurry up," Adrianna said urgently, snatching the brush from Melita's hand and putting it on top of the mirror, where Lita didn't have a chance of reaching it without climbing onto the sink, which she wasn't exactly prone to doing, since she liked having her spine in one piece. Grabbing Melita's hand next, she dragged the little girl, still trying to smooth out her hair, into the living room, where they sat quietly on the couch, trying to pretend they had been waiting there the whole time.

Adrianna patted Lita's hand softly. "It'll be okay, sweetie. I'm sure she'll..."

"What?" Melita didn't exactly have a good feeling about the pause that followed that.

"Probably not dislike you too much?" Anna shrugged nervously. "She's a little hard to predict sometimes. But you're her granddaughter now, so I'm sure she'll..." This time, Lita just had to give her a glare to get her started again. "She's a good person. Really. She's just not very fond of little kids."

Melita pulled her hand away from Adrianna's, crossed her arms, pouting without meaning to. "I'm not a little kid," she reminded Anna.

"Of course you're not, muffin-pie. But she doesn't know that." Adrianna smiled. "It'll be fine, I'm..." The sound of two pairs of footsteps approaching shut her up, something Lita knew took quite a lot. "Hi, Grandma," she said a few moments later, turning halfway around on the couch. There was no verbal answer, just a nod and the hint of a smile.

And then she looked straight at Melita.

verse thirteen

"So this is Melita, is it?" a rather tall, perpetually angry looking woman with hair that was more black than grey, but with hints of the latter throughout, asked as she walked into the room. Lita opened her mouth and then blushed, sure that anything she said would simply sound stupid to the woman. She suddenly wished she had put on something a little nicer. "Not that I would know, of course, seeing as how nobody bothered to send me any pictures."

"I told you, Mom, I'm sorry about that, I just forgot... I thought I had, really I did." Ms. Elendara seemed about Adrianna's age when she talked to her mother. "I'm sure we have yours around here, still..."

But she was no longer the center of the older woman's attention. "Well, are you going to stand up and let me get a look at you?"

Lita blushed, getting to her feet quickly, almost enough so to slip and fall onto her back, making her blush even deeper. Would curtsying be a good idea? She considered it for a moment before realizing that she wasn't exactly sure how to do it properly, and she was quite sure the woman would know if she messed it up.

"How old did you say she was?" the woman asked, giving Ms. Elendara a suspicious glare.

"She's six, Mom." Ms. Elendara tried to give Melita a reassuring gaze, but her own insecurity was already mirrored in her eyes, big as day.

"Almost seven," Lita said automatically. It was something you had to remind people of, lest they think you were just a little kid. She fell silent again when the old woman's eyes tried to pierce through her own.

"You sure you're feeding her?"

"I knew there was something we were forgetting," Adrianna whispered sarcastically. Lita would have giggled any other time, but was too scared about what would happen if she did.

"It's... nice to meet you," Melita blurted out, recalling what Ms. Elendara had advised her to say at last.

"We'll see about that," she said after a brief pause, half-smiling, before turning back around and heading towards the entrance to the house again. "Are you three going to let an old woman carry her things in all by herself?"

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"Well, I thought it was a beautiful ceremony," some man said, his fork hovering above the styrofoam plate, threatening to drop the mouthful of cake speared upon it. "Your sister graduated, too, didn't she?"

"Umm... Yeah..." Melita tried to sound sweet and polite, but it was getting hard, being around so many people that were perfect strangers to her, even if most of them were supposedly related to her now.

"I hear Adrianna and her mother adopted a little girl about your age, I think, a while ago. You two friends?"

Even if most of them didn't realize that yet.

"Er..." Lita wasn't exactly sure how to answer that; it was probably the fourth time tonight she had been asked that, or at least something incredibly close to that. "I'm gonna go get something to drink," she said quickly, getting up from the couch and hurrying into the kitchen, where Adrianna and her friends had hidden after making their preliminary rounds by the other guests.

"Hey, Melita," Vince greeted her, turning around to see who had invaded their sanctuary.

"Lita!" One of the girls that had graduated with Adrianna hopped down from the counter she had been sitting on, swooping down to hug Melita. "I knew you liked us better than those old geezers!"

"You hungry, sweetie?" Adrianna, unlike Melita, had changed since she had gotten back from the graduation. Lita felt nervous about changing with so many other people around, even though Anna and Ms. Elendara had both assured her none of them would go into her room without her permission. Besides, she liked her dress too much to take it off just yet.

Melita shrugged, not really able to tell. Her stomach felt like it might want some food, but that could just be from nervousness. She didn't really feel like eating anyway, even if that was what her stomach wanted. "Aren't you s'posed to be at school?" Melita asked, trying to sound helpful, even though she couldn't remember when Adrianna had said she was going to be leaving for her school's after-graduation thing.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Adrianna teased, glancing at the clock. "I guess we could get going..." The girl who had hugged Lita and another one who had been sitting at the kitchen table playing Solitaire started grabbing things from around the room, not seeming all too happy about the prospect of spending the rest of the night in the building they had just been freed from. "You want me to drop you off at home, Vince?"

"Nah, I'll stick around here for a little longer. If that's okay with Melita, of course."

Trying her best not to sound too excited, Lita calmly stated, "That's fine with me," loud enough for people in the next room to hear, even over all the noise they were making themselves.

"Never woulda guessed," Adrianna grinned at Melita's reply, not laughing by sheer force of will. "I'll call you tomorrow, Vince," she promised, quickly looking away from him and to Lita. "Get some sleep, okay?" Melita nodded obediently, preparing once more to brave the sea of bodies.

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"Are you sure this is where you hid it?" the man glanced around the broken down old building nervously; it looked as if it would crash down on top of them at any moment. "This isn't exactly the best hiding place, you know."

Enzeru held her hand out in front of her, feeling for something along the wall. "Back then I had the blessing of Tatsutahime. Made it a bit easier to hide things here."

"Ah, so it is true, then," the man mused, brushing the layers of dust and cobwebs from an old chair that still looked like it could be sturdy enough to be sat upon. "I always thought it was a myth."

"Mostly, it is. She isn't nearly as powerful as most of the tales say, and so neither are her servants." Enzeru's hand finally hit what she had been searching for, and the air underneath shimmered for a moment before becoming solid once more, revealing an empty case. "Damn it," she hissed, kicking it angrily, sending it crashing against the wall.

"Told you." The man sat down gingerly, pleasantly surprised that the seat held up.

"How do I know it wasn't you that stole it?" Enzeru growled, her sword in her hand almost before the man saw her move. "How do I know you're not just trying to trick me?"

"You don't, of course," he answered calmly. "I have no proof that I'm on your side at all. But without me, you'll never find out where it is now; I, on the other hand, already know where it is. In a... general sense, anyway."

"And what exactly does that mean?" Enzeru's eyebrow arched, not sure she liked what she was hearing. In a general sense... If it was somewhere at the bottom of an ocean, she could live with that; if some random person had it, and all this guy knew was what country they were in, however, that could be a problem.

The man smiled mischievously, looking very pleased with himself. "Have you ever met a human, Miss Enzeru?"

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"Thought I'd find you in here," Ms. Elendara smiled softly as Melita glanced up at her from her perch on the bed, already changed in her pajamas, staring off at the wall above her desk, through which the living room was until a moment ago.

"I'm sorry," Lita said quietly. "I... It was jus'..."

"Too much?" Ms. Elendara finished for her gently, sitting down beside her, leaning over to give a hug. "I know. It's nothing to apologize about. I wanted to do the same." Lita gave her a surprised look. "In fact, I'm proud of you for staying out there as long as you did."

"Really?" Melita sounded positively shocked now, and very pleased.

"Oh, definitely. I would have left after an hour, at the most." Lita giggled happily, snuggling up against Ms. Elendara's side. Ms. Elendara smiled, putting her arms around her and just enjoying it for a few minutes - it wasn't something that happened nearly as often as she would have liked. "All right, it's way past somebody's bedtime," she said finally as she noticed that Melita was starting to drift off. Lita tried to protest, only to have her words cut off by a yawn. "All ready for bed?" Lita nodded, scrambling underneath the covers after Ms. Elendara stood, allowing herself to be tucked in. "Goodnight, baby-doll," Ms. Elendara kissed her forehead.

Melita gave her a glare for that, of course, after saying goodnight, but Ms. Elendara didn't mind tonight. "Don't grow up too quickly," she whispered as she closed the door, trying not to think about saying the same thing to Adrianna what seemed like only a few days before. Maybe, if she was very lucky, Melita would obey that command.

verse fourteen

Melita stared intently at the curtains as the wind blew them back and forth slowly and listlessly. Her legs swung back and forth in the air above her bed as she hugged her pillow to her chest. Cynthia watched the girl just as intently as she watched the curtains, and mostly for the same reason.

Melita sighed, sitting up suddenly, still holding her pillow. "Why aren't they here yet?" she pouted, her chin falling down onto the top of the pillow. She had forgotten just how... well, boring... summer was. It had been worse last year, though, because she hadn't been with the Elendaras; then again, now that she actually had friends from school that she hardly ever saw, there was a whole new dimension to her suffering. Especially now.

"Hon, do you remember how to tell time?" Cynthia asked, trying to come up with yet another way to keep Lita from asking her that every five minutes.

"Kinda..." Melita blushed, wishing she had spent a little more attention to that in class. She had a vague idea of how reading a clock went, but some parts of it were a bit blurry right then. Still, Mrs. Friedman had told her she had done excellent on that when they had gone over it at the end of school, while she had been scared out of her wits of screwing up and getting kept back in first grade. Luckily, she had done good enough that she wouldn't have to find out what kind of jokes Dana would have made about her if that had happened.

"It's..." she started, glancing up at her wall, where a large yellow clock, hands made to look like red and green crayons, had been hanging since Adrianna had found it in her closet a week ago while going through her things in preparation for her move to college. "4:15?" she finished hopefully.

"Very good," Cynthia smiled, actually genuinely proud of her charge. So she really did remember how when repeating an entire year of school wasn't the penalty for a wrong answer. "And when are they supposed to be here?"

Lita became suddenly enthralled with the pillow, staring intently at it as a hint of pink began to appear on her cheeks. "5:00..." Cynthia nodded, returning to silence as Melita's attention returned to the window. "Maybe they'll show up early, though," Melita added hopefully.

Cynthia sighed, but didn't feel like completely crushing the girl's hopes. "Maybe so," she answered, although she recalled that 5:00 had been the absolute earliest time the mothers of any of the other children had given. They would most likely all trickle in not *too* long afterwards, since their children wouldn't be likely to let them, yet there was very little chance they would be there any earlier.

A crash rumbled from the next room, followed by a word Lita knew wasn't supposed to be said anywhere near her; Anna probably didn't think she could hear, or she was just too annoyed to care at the moment. Melita's eyes darted to the wall, happy to see that it was still standing. A contemplative moment passed, then she hopped down from her bed, wandering out into the hallway.

"What are you doing, Lita?" Cynthia asked, flying along beside her. "Are you sure you want to go in there?" Lita ignored her, as she was getting good at, unhooking one hand from it's grip on the other, to keep the pillow against her body, and opened Adrianna's door, forgetting to knock.

There was stuff strewn all across the room, books piled up haphazardly on the bed next to a stack of clothing, some that was hanging over the books, making them appear even more ready to fall. Empty and half full boxes adorned the floor, more of the latter than the former, waiting for the last, all important item that would fit into them just right, even though all present knew that finding that for each one would be nigh on impossible, and most likely a bunch of smaller things would be thrown in at random, and another box would be needed for the rest of the semi-large stuff that shouldn't deserve a box of their own.

"You okay?" Melita inquired sweetly of the figure sitting cross-legged on the ground amongst the sea of boxes. Adrianna turned, hair falling into her slightly sweat-drenched face. She managed a smile anyway.

"Fine, sweetie... Just fine," she answered, her tone of voice implying that it wasn't really. "You need something?"

Lita shook her head, stepping around the boxes to get closer to Anna. "I jus' wanted to see what you were doing..."

Adrianna rolled her eyes, silently questioning the ceiling. This wasn't a time that she needed, or even wanted, really, a kid under her feet. "I'm not doing anything interesting, Li-li..."

Melita shrugged, not caring about that. Delicately, she set herself down on one of the only clear spots on the bed, making sure to stay as far away from the stacks as possible, meaning in simple terms that she was sitting on the very edge of the bed, barely even on it at all.

The bed, however, had been holding enough to begin with, and wasn't very pleased with the thought of any added weight, even that as slight as Lita's, didn't please it at all. Almost the very moment Melita's bottom touched it, it began to eject its other tenants, sending a rain of clothes and books onto the floor below as Lita jumped, eyes widening in surprise, seeming to advertise her innocence.

Adrianna didn't seem to notice that last part. Her gaze shifted, concentrated like twin razor blades on her little sister as her hands involuntarily spasmed into fists. "Melita..."

"Sorry!" Lita squeaked, quickly bending down to try to pick everything back up, only to feel herself being picked up from behind and deposited roughly back in the hallway. By the time she had turned around, apologies blocking each others' way as they all tried to spill out at the same time, the door was already closed, the click of the lock echoing in the silence.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"How could he have possibly found a way through? The Elders sealed the way two hundred and fifty years ago, when..." Enzeru stopped herself. "How could some treasure hunter have the power to break through that? Not to mention that he would still need to find a gate..."

"You don't keep up with the outside world much, do you?"

"They're dead, aren't they?" Enzeru gasped, letting herself be surprised. The Elders were always seen as just one step below the deities themselves; if there was someone strong enough to take them down, surely Enzeru would have heard of them, but she hadn't.

"Not all," the man answered, sounding sad. "Not yet."

"Who?"

"If we knew that, don't you think they'd already be dead? We don't even know if they're connected with this treasure hunter, or if he's just taking advantage of our weakness." The man's shoulders began to slump, as if he had suddenly realized what was going on.

Enzeru was quiet for a few moments, pacing across the dust covered floor of what had once been her house. "Find me a gate," she said finally, her true intent, if indeed she had one, masked by her flat tone of voice, "and I'll see what I can do."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Water pattered against the floor of the bathtub across the hall; tears flowed silently down Melita's cheeks, soaking into her pillow. Cynthia fluttered in between, starting to feel as if she were being drowned. The sound of a car in the driveway should have been a welcome sound, but none of them heard it, or wanted to hear it anymore. They mostly just wanted that day to end, each for their own reasons; they didn't quite have control over that, however.

Cynthia cautiously landed besides Melita's head, stroking her hair with her fingertips. "Your friends are here, Lita." Melita shrugged, not giving any indication of intended movement. Cynthia looked down at her for a few moments longer, as the shower slowly trickled to a stop.

The doorbell rang a minute or two afterwards, the engine of the car still audible in the driveway outside. Lita's head lifted a fraction; the shower door opened.

The doorbell rang again. And again.

Melita rubbed her eyes, trying to stop crying, and act as if she hadn't been in the first place. "Li-li..." Adrianna said from behind her, rubbing her hair with a towel. Lita froze. For a heartbeat. "I'm sor..."

"Hi Lita!" Jessica exclaimed, waving back at the car, which proceeded to drive off. "How are you?"

verse fifteen

Melita put one foot just barely in front of the other very carefully as the world spun wildly around her. Carrie, Courtney's older sister, grabbed her arm gently as she stumbled, keeping her from falling onto a half-full trash barrel. "Why don't we stand here for awhile, okay?" she asked gently, and Lita nodded miserably as Leann snuck up beside her and grabbed her hand.

"Maybe we should find something a little less... er... circley... to do for a while," Adrianna suggested, reaching out to stroke Melita's hair, only to be given a sharp glare until she withdrew.

"We could go on the ferris wheel," Jessica suggested.

"No we can't!" Courtney quickly interjected.

Jessica sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're -not- going to fall out of the car thingie." Courtney didn't look very happy about the idea, and Lita didn't seem all too pleased with it, either. "All right, fine, let's do something else!"

"We could play the ring toss game!" Leann exclaimed immediately.

Nobody seemed to disagree with that, and gravity was stable enough for Melita to walk again, so they all headed in that direction, walking out of range of the calls of the ticket-sellers, for the moment being at least. A hastily erected and wobbly looking fence separated the rides from the rest of the fair, flyers for the concert the next night plastered all over it.

"Pudding Moth," Adrianna read. "Isn't it nice to know that people can -still- come up with good band names?" she asked sarcastically, though slightly amused.

Leann loosed her grip on Lita as the game neared, scurrying over to get in the mercifully short line, with Melita trailing along a bit behind. Leann glanced back quickly, then returned her attention to the attendant, who was letting the next few people begin. "Come on!" Leann insisted, and her three friends obeyed, giggling nervously as they watched the kids in front of them, wondering if they would really be able to win anything.

Silently, Carrie and Adrianna decided just to watch, standing just far enough away to see how well their sisters did. An uncomfortable silence seemed to emanate from them amidst the cacophony on all sides. "So... uh... Is it nice being done with high school?" Carrie asked finally; there was still another two years until she could find out for herself.

Adrianna shrugged, distracted by Melita. She appeared to be happy, chatting with Courtney about something or other, but Anna could tell that she wasn't quite the same. Maybe she just wasn't used to seeing her talking to other kids. Or maybe she just didn't want to think that Lita was still so upset that even being around her friends wasn't helping.

"Hey! I -thought- I saw you guys!" Vince called from behind the two of them. Carrie spun around, surprised, but Adrianna managed to turn around a little more slowly, as if she had been expecting him to show up at any minute. "You two on sister duty?" Adrianna nodded over towards the game, which the girls had gotten to the head of the line for. "Oh, guess so."

"Li-li wasn't too thrilled with the Tilt-a-Whirl." Adrianna couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She had always loved rides like that, and had looked forward to sharing that with Melita for quite a while. Now it didn't look like she would even get to go on her favorite rides this year, unless she stuck Carrie with watching all four girls. Though, if she could get Vince to stick around, maybe he would be willing to help. If he didn't want to ride, too, that is.

"Oh, come on!" Jessica yelled, exasperated. "It's not that hard!" Melita blushed as Jess grabbed her last two rings, starting to apologize for doing so poorly on her first three tries. Jessica had both of the rings around the neck of a bottle before Melita could get a word out, and a moment later, she was wandering back towards Anna, a stuffed alligator in her arms.

She paused as she noticed Vince standing there, wishing she could hide behind her ill-gotten prize. All too soon, however, she heard him. "Hey, Melita! Did you win that?"

Lita blushed, eyes darting to Jessica, who was showing off her own spoils to Carrie and Adrianna while they made a big deal over them. "Umm... Yeah..." she said quietly.

Vince grinned. "Good job!" he congratulated, ruffling her hair a little. He had a way of doing it that didn't bother her nearly as much as when Anna did it. Lita smiled nervously, her heart skipping a few beats when Jessica glanced in her direction for a brief second, sure that she was going to be uncovered as a liar.

"Hey, do you guys wanna go on more rides now?" Adrianna asked hopefully. Lita turned a little green at the thought and Anna's heart started to plummet.

"Can't we stay here?" Courtney whined, having already seen about a dozen other things she wanted to play or at least look at some more.

"We can always come back a little later..." Adrianna wheedled, knowing she was defeated.

"How about we stay here, and you go?" Jessica suggested suddenly. Anna's eyebrow raised. "Come on... It's not like we're completely helpless..." Anna crossed her arms. "I'm old enough to be a babysitter myself, you know."

Carrie shrugged as Adrianna glanced at her from the corner of her eye. "It probably wouldn't be that big a deal, if they stick together and all..."

"We will!" Leann piped up, not caring so much about the games as sticking up for her friend's plan.

"Are you okay with it, Courts?" Carrie didn't seem like she really expected her sister to say no; she didn't.

"All right, fine." Adrianna checked her watch, making sure to see that Jessica had one on as well. "But no more than half an hour, okay? And we'll meet here. If you're late..." They all looked so serious as she glared at them, eyes full of false threats, that she could barely keep from laughing. "Lita?" she asked quietly. She nodded.

Adrianna couldn't help but keep looking back at the little group of girls she was leaving behind, wondering if she was doing the right thing. They were good kids, though... She was just being a little over protective. What could possibly go wrong?

------------------------

"What's wrong with you?!" the girl asked, stomping one of her now wet, sticky shoes and glaring. Lita melted away, only for the girl to storm over to a man, demanding another slushie. As inconspicuously as possible, Melita dashed forward to catch back up with her friends, making sure to put Jessica between her and the strangely familiar girl's line of sight. Cynthia thought about making her go apologize, but the other girl looked like a spoiled brat, so she decided it wasn't that big a deal.

"Took you long enough," Jessica complained with a loud sigh. "Honestly, how long does it take to go to the bathroom?"

Melita looked up at her in surprise, and a little anger. She hadn't been gone all that long! She hadn't even made it to the bathroom before bumping into the other girl, and she was too afraid to try to get to it afterwards, in case the girl had her father wait for her to come out, and make her clean up the mess she had made, or something like that; and now she definitely wasn't going, or she would incur the wrath of Jessica.

"Can we go now?" Courtney was tapping the toe of her shoe on one of the last patches of grass that hadn't been flattened into the ground by the other fair-goers as she watched the entrance to a dark little tent.

"Sorry," Lita blushed, starting to wish Adrianna was here, until she remembered how mean she was, too. Why did she agree to come to this thing? She hated being around people, especially this many at the same time, and her head was starting to hurt, and all she wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep. She sniffled, not as softly as she had meant. "I-I didn't mean to..."

"Hey, it's okay, Lita!" Leann exclaimed, running up and giving her a hug. "C'mon, let's go get our fortunes told, okay?" She grabbed Lita's hand, guiding her to the tent, staring nastily at their two older friends.

An odd scent emanated from the tent, strong enough for Melita to notice before getting within a foot of it. It wasn't unpleasant, exactly, just strange. Almost nice, really. Even so, she would have been nervous about going in if she wasn't being pulled along by someone else before true doubt had the chance to manifest.

The first thing she saw once they were inside was a blotch of red and orange from the corner of her eye. When she turned to get a better look, there was a painting of a bird.

"Hmm... A phoenix..." Cynthia mused.

"What?" Lita whispered, somehow forgetting about the person squeezing her hand.

"What what?" Leann asked, confused.

"Nothing," Lita answered too quickly, blushing.

For some reason, the bird creeped her out, so she turned her head, only to see a skull, an eye in one of the sockets, on a table to the other side of the entrance. The eye looked perfectly real, although most likely it was just made of glass, a possibility that never occurred to Lita. She squeaked loudly, pressing closer to Leann, the only protection she had.

"M-Maybe we should go do something else," she suggested, too quietly for anyone to understand. Leann glanced inquisitively at her and she just shook her head.

There were three chairs in front of a table. Just to be mean, Lita started to sit down at one before chickening out and standing back up, stepping off to one side, refusing Leann and Courtney's offers. Jessica didn't bother with one.

"Just a moment, dears!" The voice came from the dark maelstrom of cloth and beads on the other side of the table, muffled quite a bit, but still easily understandable, if a bit hard to figure out just where it was coming from. It sounded almost as if it were all around them.

"Sorry for the... wait.." A small woman draped in even more cloth and beads appeared, pleasant enough until she saw who was seated at her table. Her smile wavered for a second, no more. "Darkness," she whispered after an uncomfortable pause.

"Umm... Excuse me?" Jessica raised her eyebrow nervously in Courtney's direction.

"I see darkness around you all... It's all that's in your future." She turned quickly, her sleeves brushing swiftly across the table top, nearly knocking her crystal ball from its stand. Her finger pointed straight at Leann. "You shall be the first to go, before anyone even suspects a thing, but you..." she focused on Courtney next. "Your passing will be even more tangible, and you will forever be remembered as 'the betrayer'."

She bent over the table, her hand fully emerging from the mass of clothing over it as she lightly brushed Jessica's cheek, Courtney and Leann exchanging frightened glances behind them. "Your fate is yet the saddest. Destroyed by those you hold dearest in your heart..." Jessica, despite doing her best to appear grown up, was too scared to pull away from the woman's hand, until her attention finally fell upon Melita, trying to hide in the shadows, since her legs felt too weak to carry her outside again.

"So old..." She reached out again, and from somewhere Lita summoned the strength to back further away. "Your soul..."

"Let's get outta here!" Leann got to her feet in the pause created by Melita and the old woman's eyes locking on each other. Courtney and Jessica shakily stood as well.

"Yes... Yes, it is time for you to leave," the woman said, blinking a few times as if surprised to see that the other three girls were still around. They quickly headed for the entrance, Leann's face paling even more when she noticed the skull. Melita was the slowest; the exit flap had already fluttered closed by the time she had reached it. She was about to pull it aside when the voice came yet again.

"You think the guise of innocence will stop justice? There is no stopping it... There is no hiding from it..."

Melita didn't even turn around, too afraid of what else would be said if she stayed any longer.

"Stupid kids," the fortune teller mumbled as the lights from outside were blotted out by her tent, idly dusting off the crystal ball. This was why she hated fairs...

---------------------------------------------------------

"See? They made it out okay, just like I told you they would."

Adrianna sighed, daring to look away from the group of kids long enough to see Vince's bored face. "I thought I told you to go find Carrie so we can get going..."

"Yes, I did that, but watching you spy on your little sister is so much more interesting." Adrianna considered hitting him, not for the first time. "Are you planning on having any fun for yourself tonight? As much as you don't want to admit it, they'll be okay for five minutes."

"Do you even watch the news? Bad stuff happens all the time, and I don't want..."

"What have you ever heard of happening here? I wouldn't want you to make a regular habit of it or anything, but there are plenty of people around that know her, and probably the rest of them, to keep her safe enough for you to go on a ride or two."

Adrianna sighed, nearly tempted by her friend's words. "I know... It's just... I don't... You know?"

"It would help if you used actual sentences," Vince grinned. "But I think I get the gist of it." The girls started walking towards another attraction, and Adrianna got up from the bench and began to follow them. Vince copied her, headed in the opposite direction. "I'll go get Carrie."

Adrianna nodded. It was almost time to pretend she hadn't been there all along, so as not to crush the girls' pride. Hopefully her nerves would hold out that long.

Elizabeth

verse sixteen

Time was a funny thing, something Melita was pretty certain she'd never be able to understand. During the school year, time seemed to drag on forever, but the three months she had to get away from school had raced by, taking less than a month of school usually did. It just wasn't fair - she should get more time off to make up for it. Ms. Elendara didn't agree with her, however, so it looked like she didn't have much of a chance.

"Why do you want more summer anyway? You'd probably just be bored for most of it, and I'd have to listen to you complain about having nothing to do for even longer. I think I like this arrangement better."

"Who asked you?" Melita grumped, struggling with her shoelaces.

"Well, somebody's in a bad mood today," Cynthia commented. "Didn't sleep well last night?"

Lita ignored the question, though the answer was yes. She had been having trouble sleeping for a couple weeks now, and her disposition was suffering from it. She wasn't having trouble getting to sleep, or even staying that way, but she kept having all these weird dreams that she could just barely remember when she was awake. Ms. Elendara had asked her about it a few days earlier and Lita had pretended everything was fine. As far as she could tell, Adrianna hadn't even noticed, and probably didn't care. She was probably still mad at Lita; that would explain why she's hardly spent any time with her since the fair.

"You'd be in a bad mood, too, if you hadta go to school," she snapped back.

"What makes you think I don't?" Cynthia asked mysteriously.

"Do you?" Melita's eyes lit up as she looked up, curious.

Cynthia grinned, glad she could finally find something to cheer up Lita, if only for a moment or two. "Maybe... Maybe not." Lita pouted at the answer, but she knew Cynthia, and knew that a more definitive one wasn't likely to be coming, so she returned to her shoes.

After another moment, she looked back at the fairy. "When do you have time to go to school if you're with me all the time?"

"I'm not with you all the time, now am I?" Melita cocked her head to one side, trying to remember when Cynthia -wasn't- around. It seemed like she was always there, which was nice, since she had someone to talk to whenever, though not as good when other people were around. "I leave when you go to bed... Remember?"

"Oh... Forgot about that," Lita blushed. Sometimes it was hard to remember that the world didn't disappear when she closed her eyes, yet it always did. Or so she assumed, anyway, when she thought about it. "You go to school then?" But Cynthia just gave her the mysterious smile again. Melita probably wouldn't have liked the answer anyway.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Lita was bored already. Class hadn't even started yet; the teacher was trying to organize things on her desk, or so Melita assumed, even though they ended up in just about the same places they started in. It all appeared to be very pointless, just like the rest of school.

“I told you it wouldn't be better this year,” Melita sulked, crossing her arms on top of her desk and resting her chin on them.

“It just started, Li-li, give it a chance. It's not like it's going to be worse. At least you're going to be spending the whole year here, instead of just half of it, and you already have friends.” Cynthia patted Lita's head, hoping it made her feel happier instead of annoying her. It was always 50/50 with that, though there was some fluctuation, depending on who was doing it.

“Still don't like anyone in my class,” Melita pouted, ignoring it altogether, an option Cynthia hadn't even considered.

“Well, maybe you should try to get to know them better. You haven't even tried talking to most of them! And you like Celeste, don't you?”

Lita shrugged, looking over at the opposite side of the room, where Celeste sat. She supposed she was nice enough, now that she was away from Dana, but she still didn't like her all that much after everything she had done to her. She knew she should forgive her, she just couldn't... Not yet. Still, she would have preferred sitting next to her; as it was, she was next to some girl named Allison. She didn't know much about her, but she had been trying to break into Dana's little group last year, which made her a threat, possibly even an enemy. And on the other side was some boy she never even bothered to learn the name of, because most boys tended to be icky in some way or another.

“Oh, come on, she's not that bad...” Cynthia prodded.

“She's better tha...” Melita began, stopping quickly when she noticed giggling from beside her. Blushing, she bent her neck forward a little more, trying to disappear into her arms, tears already starting to gleam at the corners of her eyes.

“This is a great start,” Cynthia sighed, mumbling to herself. “Obvious sign that the best school year ever coming up.”

“Welcome back, class!” Mrs. Friedman exclaimed finally as the clock's hands aligned themselves properly. “I hope you all had a fun summer!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Lita swayed back and forth, right hand firmly clasping her left behind her back as she stared at the ground. Where was everyone? She had forgotten how boring it was to wait for them to get outside. She started wandering back towards the kitchen door, since it was something to do, but stopped when she noticed a glint of silver on the ground.

Curious, she squatted down. “Melita, what are you doing?” Cynthia asked, having not been paying attention since she was bored as well.

“I found a key,” she replied, picking it up. It was surprisingly clean for coming from off the ground; a good thing, since Lita tried to clean it off with her sleeve without thinking about it. It was about the size of the key to her house that she never got to use, but always had to keep with her, just in case. Unlike the house key, however, there were no sharp pointy things sticking off of the long part of it for her to poke her finger on.

Cynthia considered pointing out that it was a blank, and completely useless, but she could tell that Lita was getting enchanted with the idea of having two keys on her little keyring, and it wasn't like it would do any harm for her to take it. What harm could it do?

“Whatcha doin', Lita?” Leann asked perkily from behind Melita, who squeaked loudly in fright and lost her balance. “Oh... Sorry about that,” Leann giggled, helping Lita to her feet. She didn't even notice Lita slipping something into her pocket as she stood up. “So... Whatcha doin'?”

“Nothing,” she answered nervously, trying to avoid Cynthia's quizzical glance. “Nothing at all...”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Don't be scared.”

“I can't help it,” Melita whispered, shivering a little.

“There's nothing to be afraid of.”

“I'm gonna look dumb.” So many beginnings today, even if some of them didn't technically come at the start of things.

“No, you're not.” Courtney smiled at Lita, remembering how nervous she had been, her first time.

“I'm gonna fall down and everyone's gonna laugh, and the teacher will kick me out, and Ms. Elendara'll get mad, and...” Melita began to sniffle softly, wondering if Adrianna would tell Ms. Elendara about Dana if she didn't even make it through her first dance class.

Courtney gave her a quick little hug. “None of that is going to happen. You're gonna be great, I know it!” Lita looked doubtful, but nodded anyway. “We'll start with really easy stuff, so you prolly aren't gonna fall over, so you don't have to worry about getting kicked out, or anything like that.”

“I... guess...”Lita answered slowly. She still had her doubts, and felt rather out of place. Pretty much all the other girls that appeared to be waiting for their class, including Courtney, had on a leotard, with tights under it and a skirt over it, while Lita just had on the jeans and shirt she had worn to school, since she didn't have that other stuff yet. She wasn't sure what the point of the skirts were, since most of them were thin enough to see through, but they looked neat anyway, so she didn't worry about it too much.

Most of the other kids were wearing tap shoes, too, though Lita spotted a few other pairs of sneakers other than her own; Adrianna and Ms. Elendara weren't sure where to get tap shoes, so they had told Melita to ask her teacher, something she was dreading almost as much as class itself, possibly more.

“You! What are -you- doing here?!” a blond, prissy girl asked, stomping delicately over to Melita.

“Umm... Hi?” It probably wasn't the reply the girl was looking for, but it was the best Lita could think up when faced with the terrifying power of... whoever she was. She was pretty sure she had seen her somewhere before – beyond that she was completely clueless as to why her presence had warranted such a reaction.

The girl, obviously confused, looked Melita over, as if confirming her identity. “How old are you?” she demanded.

Lita glanced over at Courtney, and then Cynthia. Neither of them were very helpful, only shrugging, so Melita said, “I'll be seven in a couple months...”

The girl smiled happily. “I turned seven last week,” she announced proudly.

“Happy Birthday?” Lita waved uncertainly for a moment before Courtney grabbed her hand and started to lead her into the dance studio, where she realized that the teacher, an extremely tall and pretty woman, was the person the girl had been waving at. Feeling rather stupid, which was at least a change from nervousness, she put her hand down to her side and allowed herself to be taken into the mirror-lined room.

verse seventeen

“Do you know that Mathilda girl?” Lita asked Courtney quietly as their teacher, Miss Hamilton, and Adrianna looked through catalogues at the desk above. “I think I've seen her before...”

“I think I saw her at the recital, but that's about it. Maybe you saw her there, too?” Courtney sounded tired, though not quite as much as Melita. She was at least used to dance lessons, though even she hadn't expected the first class to be quite as hard as it had been. Lita shrugged, pretty sure that wasn't it, but she didn't feel like pursuing the matter any further yet.

Courtney smiled proudly at her. “I told you you'd do fine, didn't I?”

Melita stared at her in confusion for a few seconds before realizing that Courtney meant the class, and not their current conversation. “I didn' fall over...” That was all she could really say. She didn't remember most of the stuff they had learned, but at least she had managed to keep her balance the whole time, and that was what really counted. Not that they had done anything that could have made her lose her balance unless she was still learning how to walk on her own. Still, that wasn't the point.

“Bye Court'ey! Bye Lita!” Stephanie called, waving as she walked out the dance center's door with her mother. Courtney waved back as Melita sat quietly, blushing. Stephanie, the youngest person in the class at just five years old, had taken quite a liking to the two of them; Lita hadn't minded until she found out the reason was that Stephanie thought Lita was younger than her. And she was smaller than her, by a bit, probably more than she was willing to admit. Maybe it wouldn't have been quite as bad if Mathilda, who had taken it upon herself to lord over the younger half of the class until Miss Hamilton had told her to stop being so bossy unless she wanted to be the teacher, hadn't thought it was one of the most humorous things ever and already pointed that out to her. A few times.

As if she needed another reminder of just that, Miss Hamilton took that moment to ask, “Are you sure five and a half doesn't fit?”

Melita started to shake her head before remembering that Miss Hamilton couldn't see her. “No, they're too big.”

Miss Hamilton sighed, starting to search through the file cabinet drawer full of catalogues again. “For some reason all of these ones start with five and a half...”

Lita felt like she should give some sort of answer to that, but the only thing she could think of was, “Sorry.”

Miss Hamilton stopped for a moment. “Don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll find something soon. I didn't really have anything better to do anyway.”

Adrianna smiled to herself. Lita's teacher seemed to get along with kids well, and she was definitely nice enough, helping them out with this, after pointing out that there actually were no stores that sold tap shoes anywhere nearby, which was probably why Adrianna couldn't think of any earlier. It made her feel a little better about that; maybe she did know her town as well as she thought she did.

“Hey! Smaller sizes!” Miss Hamilton announced excitedly, relieved to see that she did still have the catalogue from a company that actually stocked toddler sizes, though she hadn't needed to order from them for quite a while. It had been a long shot, but it was the best way she could think of to find smaller sized shoes than what every other place had. “They end at size four, though,” she said after a moment.

“That sounds like good business sense - go from size four to five and a half,” Adrianna muttered, picking up another catalogue.

“Five's not a bad size,” Lita defended herself. “It's halfway to ten, which is always good.”

Courtney giggled. “Guess it's not good enough for the tap shoe makers.”

“I don't think we're going to find much,” Miss Hamilton sighed, finally giving up. “I can look some more later, but it would probably just be easier for you to go buy some shoes with flat, hard soles and I can put some taps on them.”

“You wouldn't mind?” Adrianna sounded relieved, standing up from her chair before hearing the answer. Lita started to get up, too, slightly less excited to be going home to be with a sister who she wasn't sure even liked her anymore, sadly waving goodbye to Courtney, and a minute or two later, to the dance studio, which she was almost looking forward to returning to the next week.

“Did you have fun?” Adrianna asked as she started the car.

“I didn't fall,” Melita announced again, her head leaning against the window, eyes watching the parking lot slowly begin to move under her as they closed slowly.

------------------------------------------------------------

“Why do they always take so long to get out here?” Melita whined, tapping the school's wall with her toe. She would have kicked it if she hadn't already learned from experience that doing so hurt more than it was worth.

“I'm sure they would rather be out here than in class. They don't exactly have much of a choice, you know,” Cynthia reminded her.

Lita shrugged, making a noncommittal sound that was sort of similar to “Meh.” Everything was just so boring lately...

She wandered over to the kitchen door, as she had grown accustomed to doing again; now she wasn't doing it to pretend she didn't exist, however, which was a nice change, she felt. She started to sit down in the corner, hoping that Jessica would remember to look for her there - she always did, but that didn't stop Lita from worrying about it - when she caught something from the corner of her eyes. Whether it was light or shadow she couldn't quite tell.

Either way, it was more interesting than just sitting and doing nothing, so she straightened up again, turning to view whatever it was full on. Only it was gone. “Did you see..?” she started to ask Cynthia, but the fairy had f littered off somewhere else.

It didn't really matter. She -knew- she had seen something, she just wasn't sure what. And she knew it was still there, somewhere, if she could just figure out how to see it again. She could almost feel the presence of something close to her, even though she was the only person there.

Or maybe not, she realized, looking at the handle of the door that made the third wall of her little refuge. She had almost forgotten it was there, she was so used to thinking of it as a normal wall, with a constant risk of it randomly opening on her.

She put her hand on the knob, twisting it tentatively for the first time since she had first taken to hanging out there. As usual, it didn't turn, but she could swear that the presence she felt was stronger now. She wasn't sure she actually wanted to see it, whatever it was, but at the same time, she had to know. Curiosity killed the cat, and so on.

“Hello?” she whispered, though the door was too thick for anything on the other side to be able to hear her.

“I don't think anybody's there,” Leann informed her. Lita's heart tried to jump out of her body, but she was able to stop it before it escaped. “What're you doin' over here?”

“Nothing,” Melita lied, glancing around. None of the others were around; her little corner of the world was abandoned except for her and Leann, as usual.

“Okay, then, let's go play,” Leann giggled, pulling on Lita's sleeve. Lita let herself be pulled away, until she once again saw the same thing that had attracted her attention to begin with. “Lita?” Leann asked as the other girl shrugged her hand off, heading back over to the door, her hand searching in the pocket of her jeans for something.

“Who's there?” Lita asked quietly, not expecting the answer she never got. She lifted her hand, keychain coming up with it. She looked at the for a moment, noticing numbers she hadn't seen before on the key she had found the day before. The only ones she could make out were the first and last - they were both 2 - but there were obviously six in between them.

“Lita?” Leann repeated, no more than a buzzing in Lita's ears now.

“Am I s'posed to let you out?”

Melita was almost unaware of what she was doing as she raised the key, bring it up to the doorknob. The sun slid behind a cloud, or at least she assumed that was what had happened; the alcove was suddenly bathed in shadows. She didn't actually see the key slide into the lock, but she felt it go into something.

“Lita, what's going on?” Leann laid her hand on her friend's shoulder gently, but Melita didn't even seem to notice. “Are you okay?”

She turned the key.

For a moment, nothing happened, and she started to tell herself that she was just imagining things; there was nothing beyond the door except the kitchen, and her key surely wouldn't let her into there.

Shadows crept out from around the doorknob like fog, or smoke, moving over the surface of the door. Lita heard Leann's voice, couldn't understand a single word she said. If her hand hadn't been on her shoulder, she probably wouldn't even have remembered she was there.

“Who are you?” she asked.

The door wasn't exactly covered with the shadows; it was more like they formed another door, right in front of it. Lita knew this was the door she had actually unlocked, but she didn't know how she knew that. Her hand should have been shaking as she unconsciously turned the doorknob, yet for some reason it gave the appearance of being perfectly calm.

The shadows started to darken, for a split second, and then they rushed forward from the door, filling the small space in front of the school's kitchen as they tried to escape. Lita spun around, either by her own volition or because her legs wanted her to, and she saw the shadows seem to take on a shape as the light of day hit them full force, and then it vanished, leaving behind only a noise that sounded like laughing.

A moment later, she felt herself snap back into reality, the echo of a scream fresh in her memory. She blinked a few times, confused, before she noticed Leann on the ground beside her. “Leann? What're you...”

She was still breathing; Lita could tell that, somehow, in the same way that she could tell that her eyes were now just windows to the blank nothingness her mind had become.

verse eighteen

Melita stared out the windshield blankly, her hands, still holding the memory of Leann's almost cold flesh, folded in her lap. She wished she could erase the things she had seen in the past few hours, wished she hadn't seen Leann the way she was now, wires sticking out of her every which way, as if she were some kind of insect trapped in a spider's web.

She was supposed to talk about how she felt, about what had happened, if she was okay, but there were no words. And there were too many, and she couldn't find the right ones. She wanted somebody to know how she felt, to tell her it was all right, but at the same time she didn't want everyone to figure out the truth, that it was all her fault.

And so she said nothing.

It had been the hardest when Leann's mother had seen her, crying, yet trying hard to pretend she wasn't. How had Melita gotten away fine while her daughter's mind seemed to have just been stripped away? Lita chewed on her lip silently, until Adrianna had quietly informed Leann's mom that Lita hadn't gotten away quite as unscathed as it appeared.

She didn't want to make Adrianna lie for her, but she didn't know better anyway, and it was easier just not to talk, for a while. People looked at her a little less accusingly; just a little.

“It's not your fault, honey. I'm sure nobody blames you,” Cynthia had said.

She hadn't been there. She hadn't seen. Even if nobody else blamed her, she still knew the truth - it was her fault. Leann was in the coma, or whatever it was, because of her.

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“What the hell?” Enzeru growled.

“I told you this little side trip of yours was useless,” the man reminded her, rather uselessly. “Chasing Shades tends to be.”

Enzeru ignored him, as she had for every day in the past week or so. Maybe he didn't realize that she was planning on going up against the person the Shade belonged to, or maybe he hoped that by complaining, he could get her to leave the Shade alone, and thus forget about fighting its true self when the time came. Or winning against it, at any rate. “Is there a gate here? Where could it have gone?”

The man sighed. “I'm hardly an expert at this sort of thing, as I'm sure you're aware...”

“Just answer the question.”

The man shrugged. “Can't be sure... It feels like something was here, but it's very faint.”

“Well, this is where the trail ends, so I assume he found some way to jump worlds here. Guess what you get to do?” Enzeru's hand rested on the hilt of her sword, though more from habit than actual threatening this time.

“Already working on it... I'm pretty sure there's not a full-fledged gate here, but somebody could have opened a portal for our little friend.”

“Can we follow?”

The man chuckled. “Do you have somebody with a key on the other side?”

“Any way to tell where it came out, then?”

The man shook his head.

“Well... Damn.”

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“I hear they just barely got her away from that other girl in time,” Dana whispered across the aisle of desks. Lita wasn't sure if she had been being loud enough for her to hear on purpose or not, though she suspected she most likely was.

“Do you ever listen to me?” Cynthia feigned irritation, knowing that anything less wouldn't do much to catch her charge's attention.

“I'm surprised they let her come back. She should be in jail or something,” Dana commented.

“Melita!” Cynthia exclaimed sharply, breaking Lita's stream of memories for the moment. “Good to see you haven't gone deaf.” Melita glared at her, but really she was glad to be off that particular train of thought. “You're not thinking about what that little brat said again are you?”

Lita shrugged. It was the best answer to that, she had found, since Cynthia got mad at her if she nodded, and knew she was lying when she shook her head. Was just part of her job to know Lita that well, or was she just that easy a person to read?

“She was just trying to upset you... You have to stop blaming yourself. I'm the one that failed you, Li-li,” Cynthia said sadly. “I should have been there, watching over you like I'm supposed to. If you did whatever it is you think you did, then I should have been there to stop you - that's my job. That's why you need me, to stop you from doing stupid stuff. I failed you.” Cynthia paused with a sigh, running her tiny hands through Lita's hair. “And that's why I have to leave.”

Melita's head snapped up in shock, mouth hanging open, eyes full of deep betrayal. Cynthia wanted more than anything to look away, knew that if she did she would never be able to live with that as her last memory with Lita. “I didn't want this any more than you, honey, and I did all that I could to stop it. I swear, if I could change this, I would do it in a second, but my boss...”

... is afraid that I'm raising another murderer. She couldn't say the words. Lita didn't need to hear that Mr. Yuumei even considered that a possibility. Or so she told herself, though she knew that she really just didn't want Lita to know how she had failed in her first job, how she could very well have failed with her second one now, too.

“Someone else will be coming in another day or two. Be good for her, okay? It's not her fault this is happening. I'll... I'll try to visit you.” A lie, and she knew it. There would be no visiting. Once the bond between her and Lita was broken, it would be all but impossible for her to come back to the human world, until another bond was forged. And with her record, that probably wasn't going to be happening anytime before Melita was too old to remember her, or, more likely, dead.

“Melita, you do know I care about you, right?” Melita sniffled, tears running down her face. “I would have liked to be around when you start talking again.” Cynthia smiled sadly and waved, and then she was gone.

------------------------------------------------------------

“Coming!” Courtney called from inside the house. If she were less graceful, the sound of running footsteps probably could have been heard as she dashed to the front door from the other end of the hallway. “Hi, Celes... Lita?”

“Can I come in?” Melita asked quietly, shyly examining the welcome mat as she saw Courtney's mother's shadow fall across it.

“Of course you can,” Courtney's mom told her. “Does your mom know you're here?”

Lita shook her head, stepping inside. “I hadta be somewhere else...”

Courtney's mom was confused, but led the girl to the living room anyway. Courtney followed, unsure of whether or not she should take the seat next to her friend on the couch. Something told her she was going to be told to go to her room soon. “Is there something wrong, honey?”

“No, not really,” Lita was smiling now, an action that looked almost unnatural on her face after so long. Her hair was falling in front of her glasses, but she didn't seem to notice or mind.

Courtney's mom was even more confused now, but her next question was cut off by the doorbell once again. Courtney jumped to her feet and skittered off to answer it. “Maybe I should call your family...” Courtney's mother said finally.

“More people,” Melita giggled. “There's even more people coming to my little tea party.”

“Are you feeling all right?” Courtney's mom got up, brushing back the hair to put her hand on Lita's forehead, snatching it back quickly. “You're freezing!”

“No, I think I got over that a long time ago... I prefer to think of myself as frozen now,” Lita smiled.

“You're late,” Courtney complained to Celeste as they walked into the living room, lugging Celeste's sleeping and overnight bags between them. “We were s'posed to be watching movies by now.”

“Lita? I didn't know you were sleeping over, too...” Celeste glanced over at Courtney questioningly.

“Oh, don't let me interrupt,” Melita chirped, hopping down from the couch. “I was just out for a little walk, thought I'd drop by.”

Courtney and Celeste exchanged worried looks. Had Lita finally lost it? Courtney knew she had been taking the Leann thing much harder than pretty much anyone else... Maybe it had just gotten to be too much for her.

“It's nice that all three of us are together like this, though, isn't it?” Lita giggled as she walked over to the other two girls, her eyes still focused firmly on the ground. “I'm sure we'll have all kinds of fun!”

“Lita... Why are you here?” Courtney put the sleeping bag down on the floor, moving closer to Melita as she saw what looked like a tear fall from her face.

“Just a little blood,” Melita giggled as she stared up into Courtney's eyes. Courtney gasped loudly as she saw the Lita-thing's eyes, then gasped even louder as it reached out with one skinny little arm and threw her into the living room wall, before melting into its own shadow.

A moment later, the shadow thing reappeared behind where Courtney's mother was sitting, having cast off its disguise. The shadow of the couch rippled as it reached deep inside, pulling out a spiky sword. “Just a little blood,” it repeated, its true voice more like the sound of wind rattling against a half-closed shutter than anything else.

And then it struck.

verse nineteen

Melita had never seen so many people wearing black at once in her whole life. Of course, she very rarely saw so many people in one place other than at school, and most people her age tended not to wear a whole lot in the way of black. She didn't mind it, but really pink was more her style.

Then again, it didn't seem much like a pink kind of day. Most days didn't anymore. She wasn't sure she wanted to be here. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to vanish, wishing everyone would stop looking at her. She wasn't sure if they actually were, but it certainly felt that way, and that was what mattered.

Lita couldn't even look up at the three caskets anymore. She had seen them as soon as they walked in, but after that her eyes seemed to have become glued to the old looking gray carpet. There was a man and a woman standing at the front of the room, too, and most of the people had went up to them at some point and said something. Lita vaguely remembered the man as possibly being Courtney's father, and assumed that the woman was Celeste's mom. She could have been wrong, but it didn't seem likely.

Why had she agreed? Ms. Elendara had told her that it might be better to stay home, and just go to the funeral, and Adrianna was completely, outright against the whole idea. But Ms. Elendara had given her a choice. What did she think she would accomplish by showing up? Whatever it was, she certainly wasn't getting it done by doing her imitation of a black-clad statue.

“Lita?”

Melita barely recognized the voice until she saw the mouth it was coming from; she could barely believe it was Jessica standing in front of her. She had only seen Jessica scared once, and this was the first time she had seen it in a place bright enough for her to actually be able to see.

“Do you remember?” Lita looked at her strangely until she repeated herself. A second or two after that, she clarified with, “Do you remember... who's next?” When Lita still gave no indication of understanding, she finally asked, “Do you remember who the fortune teller said was going to... to get hurt... next?”

Lita shook her head slowly. She didn't remember a whole lot about that night, but what she did she was trying hard not to. Jessica narrowed her eyes, suspecting something, but Adrianna appeared back from the bathroom before she had a chance of accusing Melita of knowing more than she was letting on. Jessica stared up at Adrianna for a second, then turned and stalked off without even saying goodbye.

“Let's go home,” Adrianna suggested, and after a moment, Lita nodded her agreement.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you sure you know what you're doing?” the man sounded a bit apprehensive as he watched Enzeru carefully moved her hand over the earth in front of her, drops of blood falling to finalize an incredibly complex design she had been working on for the past few hours.

“Of course I do.” Enzeru even looked every bit as confident as she sounded, though she actually was a bit nervous. She always got that way before summoning a god, for some reason. “He owes me a favor.”

There were easier ways to get a deity to come to you; she knew most of them. However, most of them also took more time, and she knew that the more time she took, the less likely he would be to cooperate, favor or no. And there was always the possibility that he didn't like the idea of owing something to a lesser being, such as an elf, and he would fry them both on the spot so as to get out of it. You could never tell with gods...

That was half the fun.

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It took a moment for Melita to realize that she was being shaken, and another few moments for her to figure out that it was being done to wake her up. She opened her eyes groggily to see Adrianna, poised to give her another shake.

“Ah, you're up, finally,” she smiled.

Melita blinked blankly at Anna a few times, then fell back down onto her pillow with a moan. Anna reached under the covers, tickling her stomach for a moment. “C'mon, it's time for school, sleepy-Li-li.” Melita squirmed under her fingers, but then just curled up, turning to face the other way.

“Melita?” Adrianna started to sound worried, her gut telling her that something was wrong, even more so than had become usual the past week or so. “Lita?” She bent down close to her little sister, trying to see her face, only to find that she was crying, again. “Li-li?”

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“She'll get up some time, dear, she's just been through a very trying time. She's taking it quite hard, but give her some time. It's a tough thing to go through at any age.” Ms. Elendara kissed Adrianna's forehead. “I promise, it will work out. It always does.”

“I know, I know... I can't stand to just sit here and watch, and wait. I can't stand to see her like this.” Adrianna's muscles twitched angrily, and she just wanted to hit something, to break anything. How could her mother be so calm about this?! Why was she so angry about it?! She clenched her fists, closing her eyes for a few deep breaths, calming herself down somewhat.

“Then maybe you should rethink this whole thing,” her mother told her quietly. “There's no telling how long it'll take, and while I'm sure she wants you here with her... Well, I don't want you to try to push her too far, too fast. She has to heal at her own pace, or she isn't going to heal at all...”

“I'm -not- leaving her!” Adrianna discovered her fist pounding down on the kitchen table before she realized she was raising it from her lap. “Not like this!” It only took a motherly look to get Adrianna to meekly remove her hand from the tabletop, but Ms. Elendara could tell that she wasn't going to be changing her mind any time soon. “I don't care what they say about college being harder if you wait a year... Or two... After she's better, I'll make myself go, and I'll work my butt off if I have to.”

“And what if it takes more than two years? What if you decide that she isn't 'okay'? What makes you think you'll be able to tell when she's truly over this well enough for you to be able to move on?”

“I don't care.”

“Adrianna, you can't...”

“Don't you dare suggest I'm throwing my life away,” Adrianna growled, pushing her mother's hand away before it could reach her. “She's more important.”

“If you're so set on being here for her, why don't you find someplace closer to here, so you can visit her while you're at college?” Ms. Elendara suggested, her voice still gentle, if a little strained now.

“A visitor isn't what Lita needs, and you know it! She needs a sister, one that's here more than once, maybe twice a week!” Adrianna got to her feet, finally tired of arguing about this, not wanting to get any more upset about it. She didn't want Lita to hear them arguing...

“Do what you feel you have to, but I suggest you not tell Melita why you're still going to be here through the fall, after getting her all worked up about you leaving.”

Adrianna froze, wishing she didn't know her mom well enough to be able to tell just how angry she actually was. Why was she so mad about this? She should be happy that she was so concerned... “What do you want me to do – lie to her?”

Ms. Elendara shrugged. “Do what you have to.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ms. Elendara was still frigid when she told Adrianna that she needed to go into work that day, despite it being her day off, for an emergency, but in her heart Anna knew she was doing the right thing. She had her priorities straight, and higher education wasn't all that important in the grand scale at the moment. What was important?

“Come on, you can't stay in bed all day, sweetie, you have to eat sometime,” Adrianna coaxed. Lita gave a little groaning sound, but didn't make any other move to respond, so Adrianna moved over to her bed and picked her up. Lita squeaked loudly, fumbling wildly until she had wrapped her arms around Adrianna's neck, and then she glared deeply in Anna's eyes, which didn't quite produce the fearing apology she would have hoped for, but instead an almost concealed giggle at Lita's supposed ferocity.

Adrianna set Melita down on the kitchen chair, then walked over to the refrigerator. “So, what do you want? We could have breakfast, since you missed that...” Lita shook her head, wrinkling her nose slightly. She didn't like breakfast food -all- that much in the morning, and it wasn't any better in the late afternoon.

“All right, then...” Adrianna looked through everything else in the fridge, and offered everything to Lita. The response was always a shaking of the head, which got smaller and smaller as the process drew on and Lita got sleepier and sleepier, despite having already spent all day in bed. Finally, Anna got her to agree to eat some ice cream, though she poked at it more than anything, only a few spoonfuls actually making it to her mouth. She had been a picky eater ever since Adrianna had known her, but never this bad... Adrianna made a mental note to point this out to her mother as another reason why Lita needed her to stay there. It wasn't like she could afford to eat any less than she normally did. She already was starting to look more gaunt than Anna would have liked.

Adrianna grabbed a few pieces of bread, made herself a sandwich, and joined Lita for a rather quiet dinner. It wasn't until Anna took Lita's still half full bowl of melted chocolate that the little girl had long since lost interest in up to the sink that she noticed the dark clouds gathering outside. And not just in the sky outside, either, but in the yard surrounding the house. “What the...” she murmured quietly, and then was silenced as a sharp gust of wind blew against the wall of the house, shattering all the windows on that side, including the one she was looking out of. Shielding her eyes, she turned away quickly, already racing for Lita.

The basement. She had always heard that was the best place to go, in the case of a tornado; what else could this be? Out of instinct, she flipped the switch to turn the lights in the stairs to the basement on. The lights along the wall of the stairway flickered with energy for a moment, and then their light vanished. Adrianna cursed under her breath, hoping Lita wouldn't hear, or notice that the electricity had gone out. Lita hated being in the basement when the power was out, and if she realized that it was out already, she would hardly be pleased about being taken down there.

Except that Lita, from her position in Adrianna's arms, could see the lights they had left on upstairs. They were all still on.

The door slammed shut, plunging the pair into darkness. Adrianna cursed again, louder, and started moving more quickly down the steps, hoping she would be able to remember exactly where to find the emergency candles, and the matches. There was a faint humming noise coming from the light fixtures that had been drowned out by the wind until now, when it started becoming less than faint. Adrianna slowed, turning to investigate the noise, despite not actually being able to see anything.

The lights exploded, sending a shower of glass across Adrianna's face. She gasped, too shocked to give a full scream, and tried to step away from the source of her pain. Her foot slipped off of the step, and before she could try to save her balance, she was falling. She curled herself around Melita, trying to shield her as much as possible, until they hit the bottom of the staircase, and her head slammed against the concrete floor.

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“Wake up, child.”

Melita's eyes opened slowly, then closed and opened again a few times, trying to figure out why it was just as dark one way as the other, until she realized that, actually, it was darker with them open.

“Good, good...” The voice was familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it, especially without being able to see the face attached to it. As if reading her thoughts, a dim light appeared in a pool around her, illuminating the cold basement floor, and a pair of eyes watching her just outside of it. There was something about them that she couldn't resist, and she found her mouth moving in speech.

“I-I know you,” she whispered, her voice rough from not being used in so long.

There was a chuckle. “You recognize me. Impressive. Yes, you know me, child, but I have become much more powerful now than I was when you first saw me...”

“I let you out...” Lita shakily stood up, legs feeling like jello underneath her. “I opened the door...”

“And now it's time for you to get your reward.” The eyes stepped forward, became a body of sorts. More just a form, really, but something Lita could relate to as partially human. “It's not really much of a reward, I'm afraid. In all honesty, it's just your destiny.”

“Where's Anna?” Melita glanced around, trying to catch a glimpse of anything outside her little pool of light.

“That's not important. None of this is important anymore. Don't worry about this pathetic little world. We're beyond this. I'm here to take you on the next stage of your journey.” The part of the shadow that seemed to be a hand reached out for Melita. She backed away, not wanting the thing to touch her.

“Don't resist me, child. You can't fight destiny.” The hand reached out again, and this time Lita couldn't move fast enough, and she felt it tighten around her arm, colder than death. She stared up into the glowing eyes, tears forming in her own, and she knew that she was never going to see Adrianna again, and it was this thing's fault.

“No!” she screamed, pulling away violently, turning away. For a brief moment, the basement lights all flickered on, and Lita saw Adrianna's body lying crumpled at the foot of the stairs. She rushed forward; was it for protection, even though in her heart she knew that Anna couldn't even protect herself, or did she want to be the defender this time?

She heard an exasperated sigh behind her, and then she stopped moving forward, started falling back to the floor. She looked down, saw the blade of a sword sticking out of her stomach, blood starting to cascade out around it.

“Oh.” It was the only thing she could think of to say. Her knees slammed against the cement, and the lights flickered off again.

verse twenty

Clouds rolled angrily across the heavens, lightning crackling between them. “Nice show,” the man commented, leaning back against the tree as he gazed at Enzeru.

She smiled. “Yeah, he's a flashy little bugger. Not that he has any power over the weather, really – it's just a little illusion he picked up to make his grand entrance actually look grand. He has some self esteem problems. Heard his brothers picked on him as a child.”

“Your tongue is too loose, elf. Would you like me to see to that?” The words seemed to emanate from everywhere at once, causing the man to nearly slide off the tree and onto the ground in surprise.

“That's a cute trick, but I've seen it about a hundred times too many to be impressed by it anymore. Just show yourself,” Enzeru commanded, getting to her feet, dusting off her legs as she did so.

“So be it,” the voice echoed throughout the woods like a roll of thunder for a few moments, and then the accompanying bolt of thunder struck the center of the design Enzeru had drawn. Instead of existing for only a split second, however, the lightning stayed there, widening, until a black-cloaked figure wearing a hood stepped out, of it. Then the lightning snapped back into its original shape and retreated back into the storm clouds still roiling overhead.

“How've you been, Ukokiji?” Enzeru stepped closer to the figure, trying to sound nonchalant and friendly. The deity's head lifted to look at her, a flash of lightning in the sky above reflecting off of the metal surface of his face. Enzeru had never found out if he was made of steel or if it was just a mask; she suspected a little bit of both. Perhaps it had been a mask to begin with, but it had somehow ended up grafting itself permanently onto his skin.

“Times have been better, yet also worse.” It was hard to tell when Ukokiji was smiling, though for some reason Enzeru got the feeling he was now. “Currently I'm quite well.”

“Good to hear. I got a problem I need you to help me with.”

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“Now, you have a decision to make, child. You can come with me now, as you were meant to, or I can leave you here until you pass out from the pain, or blood loss. Either way, I'll have you in the end. All that really changes is whether or not that happens willingly.”

Melita tried to scream as the sword was pulled out of her body, but couldn't get enough air to do so. She wasn't sure how she was still awake; she wished she wasn't. The shadow's words flowed around her like river water, though on some level she was able to grab enough of them to understand basically what he was saying. Replying, on the other hand, was a completely different story. She wasn't sure she would be able to answer it even if she knew how to. Her throat felt like it was drying up, as if all the moisture in her body had gathered in the stab wound, and was now pouring out into the basement.

“Hmm... Having a problem deciding, little one? How about I make it easier for you?” The shadow's eyes appeared above the space where Lita had seen Adrianna, and the sword began to lightly glow, showing her that it was positioned right above Anna's neck. Melita's heart froze in mid-beat. “I'll give you three minutes. Choose.”

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“This request is not a thing that should be taken lightly,” Ukokiji fretted nervously. “There are many variables, any of which could...”

“Does it look like I'm taking it lightly?”

“No, of course not. But I don't know if you fully realize the risks involved. Even I couldn't tell you all of them, and this is my domain we're talking about.”

“I know. But the risks involved with not doing it are a little more concerning to me at the moment.”

“Are you sure you wouldn't just like eternal wealth or something like that?” Ukokiji didn't have to see Enzeru to know she was glaring poison-soaked daggers at him. The god sighed. “Fine, have it your way. Are you ready?”

Enzeru drew her sword, nodded. Ukokiji sighed again, raised his arms above his head. His cloak fell away from his shoulders as twin scythe blades appeared from them, piercing through the flesh of his arm due to the curve of the metal. “This is the last time I let myself owe anything to an elf,” he muttered under his breath, and then he brought his hands together loudly, a peal of thunder echoing through the trees deafeningly.

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“N-No,” Melita moaned from her spot on the floor.

“What was that?” asked the shadow, lowering the sword blade a little so that the tip was resting on Adrianna's flesh.

“L-Leave us... Leave us alone,” Lita's arm was quaking as she started to pull herself back up with it.

The shadow gave a chuckle. “Now you think to give me orders...”

“Get away from us,” Melita growled, forcing her arm to stay still through the sheer force of her rage. “Get out.”

“Do you think you have power over me, child? To tell you the truth, I hope you do, so I can break you of that little misunderstanding. I was afraid I would have no need to torture you...”

“You think you scare me? You're nothing. You're only a shadow.” Lita smiled as she lurched to her feet, hair cascading in front of her face. Quickly, she reached up to brush it out of the way, feeling the streaks of warm blood that she left behind on her face. “You want to see torture?” Melita's smiled cracked into a giggle. “I'll show you torture.”

The glow around the sword seemed to waver for a moment, and then it grew, encompassing the entire room, so bright that it forced Lita to close her eyes.

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Lita's eyes opened again, not as long after she had closed them as she had thought, since she still saw the parking lot underneath her from out the window. She gasped loudly for a few seconds before she noticed that she had plenty of air, then tried to pretend that nothing had happened.

She failed, of course. “Lita? What's wrong?” Adrianna panicked, bringing the car to an abrupt stop. Lita blushed, trying to burrow her way into the seat. “Are you okay?” Melita nodded, blushing deeper at the strange look Anna gave her. “O...kay...”

“Sorry,” Lita said quietly. But as she stared out the window again, she was already thinking about something else. What, she couldn't say. She just had a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right, that she was missing something incredibly obvious.

“Are you sure you're okay, Li-li? You're looking a bit peaked,” Cynthia asked, concerned.

“I look like the top of a mountain?” Lita blinked. Cynthia rolled her eyes.

“What did you say?” Adrianna started slowing the car again, in case Melita was read to admit what was wrong with her. She just shook her head and blushed, though, so Adrianna kept driving, wondering if she was going to have time to take Lita shoe shopping before she left for college. After all, what were big sisters for if not for taking their little sisters out to buy things?

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The alligator stared deep into Melita's eyes, as if contemplating the benefits of eating her there, as opposed to waiting for her entire family to amass near her, so it could take them all out at the same time. Lita stared right back at it, until Cynthia's voice broke her little reverie, then she picked it up and hugged it to her chest as she rolled over onto her back, staring at the ceiling of her bedroom instead.

“What are you thinking about, hon?” the fairy had asked.

Lita shrugged. “Nothin' important.”

“If you say so.” Cynthia landed next to Lita on the bed, sitting down and crossing her legs. “You did good in dance class today.”

“I was okay...” Lita muttered, though as she looked back she realized that she hadn't even done as well as she had originally thought. She was surprised she hadn't made the teacher incredibly angry at her for her complete incompetence, in fact.

“That's not what I meant,” Cynthia smiled. “Though I'd say you were at least a bit better than just okay. I meant you were good with that Stephanie girl, especially when you had Mathilda there annoying you. I could tell you were mad, but you never even thought about taking it out on Stephanie, even after she told you how old she thought you were. You were perfectly nice to her the whole time, and I'm very proud of you for it.” Cynthia's smile widened, more to keep herself from giggling than anything else, as Lita started blushing, then pulled her stuffed alligator up over her face to hide it.

“Are you getting ready for bed, Li-li?” Adrianna called from the other side of the door.

“Umm... No...” Melita answered honestly, not making any move to correct that, either.

“You've got five minutes before I come in there and make you... Oh, I mean help you... get ready, okay?” Anna teased.

Lita couldn't help but smile as she called back her “Okay,” despite doing her best to remind herself that she was still mad at Adrianna, and thus shouldn't be smiling at anything she said.

Lita hopped off of her bed and wandered over to her dresser, pulling things out and shoving them back in haphazardly before finally coming up with the right combination. It was hard to decide this time of the year; should she wear her pajama pants, or just a nightshirt? How long of a nightshirt did she want? She probably had more options for things to wear to sleep than anyone else her age, mostly because she had dug through a lot of Adrianna's old T-shirts and snatched up all of the ones that she liked. At the moment, however, they were way too big for her to wear to school, as she would have liked, but they were perfect for wearing as nightshirts, so she kept them.

Finally, she settled on a white shirt with a little sleeping cartoon kitten on it. She finished getting dressed for bed almost exactly as Adrianna knocked twice on her door and then walked in. “Done already?” she asked, pretending to sound disappointed. Lita stuck her tongue out at her. “Anybody ever tell you that you look extra adorable in your pajamas, about to go to sleep?”

Lita stuck her tongue out again, but had to pull it back in a moment later as she started giggling. Adrianna was giggling, too, as she picked Li-li up and tucked her into bed, then kissed her goodnight.

“Wow... She was happy...” Lita commented to Cynthia after Anna was back in her own room, and Ms. Elendara had told her to have sweet dreams as well. Cynthia just smiled.

Lita closed her eyes, trying to get to sleep. She even kept them that way for a few minutes before opening them again, something nagging at the back of her mind. There was something she was supposed to remember... She could feel it... What she couldn't feel, however, was what it was, or even what it was related to.

“Did I forget something?” she almost asked Cynthia, before remembering that she was already going back home. She pouted – whenever she had important questions, Cynthia was either not there or not willing to answer – then went back to pondering as she stared upwards.

Her arm reached out for her alligator, bringing it back up onto her chest. She couldn't see its face anymore, since she had taken off her glasses, but she didn't need to. It had become her favorite stuffed animal, ever since the fair.

The fair... Something about the fair... Whatever she wanted to remember had something to do with the fair, of that much she was certain now. In her mind, she ran through everything that had happened while they were there. The Tilt-A-Whirl, the games, all the people, the fortune teller... “Wait!” she said out loud without noticing or meaning to. That was it...

The fortune teller! Right before they had gone into there, she had went to the bathroom, or tried to. On the way there, she had run into a girl, and spilled her drink all over her. Lita closed her eyes to help her remember everything she could about it all, running through all of the images in her mind, until finally she hit the one she was looking for.

“That girl I ran into was... Mathilda...” she whispered to herself. No wonder she had acted as if she knew her. And no wonder she didn't seem to be all that fond of her. Mathilda was probably mad at her for not apologizing when she saw her at the dance studio. Not that Lita blamed her; she wouldn't be surprised if Mathilda never forgave her. “Oopsie... Guess I have more enemies than I thought now...”

Elizabeth

verse twenty-one

“Is she still unconscious?” the weasely little man asked, hanging back from the table worriedly. His hands were fiddling around nervously in his pockets, fingering things that he could use to defend himself, just in case.

“Don't worry, Breznak.” The large, almost mountainous, man laughed. “I don't think she'll be hurting you now.”

Breznak didn't stop the search through his pockets. “I wasn't asking you, Ostrom. If I wanted your opinion, I would go shoot myself rather than speak to a muscle-headed moron like you.”

“Now, now children, let's play nicely,” the head scientist interjected before violence erupted. “The subject seems to have returned to her comatose state.”

“That's what I said,” Ostrom whined quietly. “I don't see what y'all are so afraid of anyway... It's just a littl...”

“And this is why you're not a scientist. Have you even -looked- at her charts? She rated over 9,000. No adult has ever gotten even half that reading! There's no telling what she's capable of, in her fully conscious state...” Breznak sneered at his colleague's ignorance, though in truth he himself sometimes doubted the validity of the tests. There had been some abnormalities, yes, and some that seemed completely impossible, but in most things, she seemed perfectly normal.

“She is the single most dangerous organism the planet has ever seen,” the head scientist looked over at the pod with the girl on it. “Very few people are allowed even to come within twenty miles of her. You should be honored you were selected.”

“You were selected because you could actually lift the coffin,” Breznak grumbled under his breath. In all honesty it was quite an impressive feat, really. For such a small girl, the machinery used to keep her from waking was rather... Well, overkill wasn't quite a strong enough word. He wouldn't want to see her without it, though.

“She don't look that dangerous,” Ostrom observed.

“Well, appearances can be deceiving,” the girl spoke up with a giggle. Ostrom turned quickly, shocked, while Breznak pulled a small handgun out of his pocket, aiming it with shaking hands at the coffin. Also overkill, as there were still several thick bands of metal holding her body down, but it made him feel better.

“Breznak, put it down!” the head scientist shouted, rushing towards the other scientist. It took a moment for Breznak to realize that the gun was starting to melt, and in that moment time appeared to slow down to a crawl. The head scientist was still headed towards him, but he knew already it was too late. He could feel flames licking up along his body, setting his clothes alight. His back arched involuntarily as he screamed, the fire suddenly speeding back up to regular speed as he was transformed into a pillar of flame.

“Ostrom!” the head scientist shouted. To his credit, the large man instantly remembered his orders, lumbering over to the lid of the coffin and began to push it shut, doing his best to avoid looking into the eyes of the killer as she lay giggling in front of him.

His hands were on fire before he realized it; as soon as he did he pulled his hands away from the lid. The head scientist cursed loudly, leaping towards the coffin as quickly as he could, his hand scrabbling on the tabletop beside it for a syringe. He could see Ostrom on fire behind him in the reflection on the metal table, but paid no attention. The girl had stopped giggling by then, and she appeared to be trying to break free of her bonds, and making good progress. The metal bars were bending, becoming misshapen from her struggles.

The head scientist plunged the syringe into her flesh, pushing down the plunger before she had a chance to deal with him. Though afterwards, he wished he would have been just a little slower.

The girl screamed as the drugs coursed through her veins. He could almost feel the pain in her voice, and he was almost sorry for what he had to do. And then a shockwave of pure fear and anger exploded from her, disintegrating him in a second.

Outside, fire began to pour down from the gathered storm clouds, transforming trees into torches on contact.

And even as the rain of fire began to disperse, other forms began to fall from the clouds, things that looked almost human, but as they approached the surface, seemed less so. Some of them could have passed for most of humanity if not for their pointed ears and small stature, while others looked nothing like them, with withered, gray skin and sharp, pointy teeth designed to tear into flesh, living or dead.

--------------------------------------

“Maybe I should pay closer attention to what you drink,” Adrianna teased.

“Huh?” Anna wasn't too concerned with remedying Melita's confusion, as she just patted her on the head condescendingly. “It's not my fault I'm having weird dreams,” she pouted.

“Sure it's not, Li-li,” Anna said, doing her best not to laugh as her little sister continued giving her one of the most confused stares she had ever seen. “You gonna be able to get back to sleep okay now?” Lita nodded slowly, and Adrianna kissed her forehead and tucked her back in, then walked out into the hallway and back into her room, and finally burst into full-fledged laughter.

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“What the hell is going on?” the man glanced around the woods, trying to figure out why he was suddenly in a different part of it than he had been a moment ago.

Enzeru sighed and rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks, Ukokiji.”

“Who?”

“Just me.” The time god appeared between them, surprising the man even more than his apparent teleportation.

“Was that really necessary?” Enzeru gestured towards her traveling companion as she sheathed her sword. If the Shade were anywhere near yet, there was no way Ukokiji would show himself.

“It was dangerous enough letting you remember, Enzeru, even if you were the one that requested the change.” Ukokiji shook his head. “I'm still not sure what kind of effect this will have on...”

“Yeah, that's great, Ukokiji, but what are you doing here?”

“I just thought you should know that the Shade is stronger than you think. It killed three people, and was about to kill two others... I think...” He still wasn't exactly sure what it had been doing at the end.

“So? It hasn't yet, and it's still in this world.”

“I don't think you truly understand just how vicious this Shade is, Enzeru. You haven't fought one before, have you? There was a reason they were used as a last resort in the war, and a reason why they stopped being used...”

“But they can be killed, can't they?”

Ukokiji sighed, shaking his head; he should have known better than to believe she would listen to common sense. “Yes, they can be killed.”

Enzeru allowed herself a bit of a smile. “Well, that's all that matters...”

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“It could just be her way of reacting to you leaving,” Ms. Elendara suggested, blowing softly into her coffee. “Though I'm not sure what falling elves and goblins have to do with that.”

“She can be a bit odd sometimes,” Adrianna said fondly. “Guess that's why we love her.”

“You know, there's still time to change your mind. You don't have to go so far away, do you?” Ms. Elendara smiled sadly, tears threatening in the corners of her eyes.

“I'll be back to visit soon. I promise.” Adrianna leaned forward and grabbed her mother's hand, squeezing it tightly. “You know I can't just leave you here to raise Lita any way you want... Who knows what kind of weirdo she would grow up to be then?”

“I can hope that she'll turn out as good as my first try.” Ms. Elendara set her cup down, then leaned forward and hugged Adrianna as if she would vanish as soon as she let go.

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“See? It doesn't look scary at all, now does it?” Adrianna smiled down at Lita, who still wasn't convinced.

“There's too many people,” she complained. “And it smells funny even from out here...” And it's not your car... But she couldn't bring herself to finish the thought.

“You'll get used to it in no time.” Adrianna tried to forget what it had been like riding the bus, before she had gotten her license. It might turn out to be good for Lita, though... She had met a lot of her close friends on the bus – maybe Lita would find some more there, too. And if not, well, Vince had been trying his best to find a car for going back and forth to school to replace his bicycle... Maybe by the time Lita was in high school, he'd have found one he could afford.

“You're not gonna be here when I get back, are you?” Melita could hardly hear herself say it, and almost wished that Anna hadn't so that she couldn't answer.

“You already know I'm not...” Lita nodded. Adrianna wasn't sure what she had been expecting her to do; that wasn't it. She knelt down, trying to look into her sister's eyes, to see how upset she was. “I'll visit as soon as I can...” Lita nodded again. “So... umm... I guess you should get going so the bus driver doesn't get mad at you, huh?”

Lita started to nod again, and then leapt forward, wrapping her arms around Anna, burying her face in her chest. Adrianna's heart broke as she pushed Lita away gently, reaching up to wipe away her tears. “Do you promise to be a good girl while I'm away?” Melita sniffled as she nodded, almost wondering where she had gotten more tears from, after spending most of the previous night crying when she had realized what the next day was bringing.

“I love you,” Lita told Adrianna as she hugged her again, less desperately this time.

“I love you too. Have fun at school, okay?” Lita looked at her as if she had just told her to have fun while being slowly tortured to death. Adrianna found a smile somewhere within herself and put it on. “Go on, get going.” Lita nodded and ran up to the bus, carefully clambering up onto the first step. She turned and waved until the driver told her to go sit down.

Adrianna waved back, somehow able to keep from crying herself until the bus was out of sight. “Goodbye, baby,” she whispered. Five minutes later, she was on the way to the next milestone of her future.

verse twenty-two

This was one of those times when Melita really wouldn't have minded being wrong. It happened often enough anyway; why not now, when she actually wanted it to?

The door closed behind her with a hiss and a squeak, making her jump slightly as she turned back to see what was going on. The kids in the first few rows of seat snickered at her, while the rest continued being just as loud and obnoxious as they had looked to be from outside.

“Are you planning on sitting down anytime soon?” the driver asked. Lita wasn't sure if he sounded more bored or annoyed, but both were quite obvious in his voice.

“Sorry,” she blushed, trying to walk up the last two steps to the floor of the bus as quickly as she could, stumbling and nearly falling on her face in the process, giving the other passengers something else to laugh at. Once she was firmly on her feet again, she looked down the aisle forlornly, trying to spot any empty space or familiar faces.

“Umm... Where am I s'posed to sit?” she asked the driver quietly.

The driver rolled his eyes. “Look, princess, I don't have time to find you a throne. Just find a seat and sit your little bottom down – it's not that hard to understand, is it?”

Lita hadn't thought she could blush any deeper than she had been a moment ago. She was proven wrong yet again. She hurried down the aisle between the seats, hoping that she would spot an empty one that had been somehow invisible from the front of the bus, trying to keep her eyes on the floor at the same time. Even so, she still managed to miss noticing a foot stuck out from one of the seats, just enough for her to catch her own foot on. She tripped again, but this time she couldn't stop herself from falling.

“Awww, is baby Lita having trouble walking again?” Dana asked from above her. Melita did her best to ignore her, and the laughter around her – she was almost getting used to it already – but as she struggled to her feet, Dana grabbed her arm and pulled her into the seat beside her. “Maybe she needs a babysitter to look after her on the big, bad school bus?”

Lita started to get up, but the bus driver, anxious to get going now that she was finally sitting down, was already pressing the gas pedal. Lita fell back onto the seat, too scared to try to walk while the bus was moving, yet none too pleased with who she was stuck sitting with.

“Was crybaby Lita afraid of the big, bad school bus? Is that why it took her forever to get on?”

Melita tried to ignore Dana as much as possible, but she still noticed that she seemed to be dressed quite a bit nicer than usual. After a quick glance around the bus at the other kids around her age, she saw that they all looked to be dressed up. For some reason, she had a feeling she was forgetting something important.

“You know, I was just wondering why there weren't more smelly babies on this bus,” Dana spoke up, trying to find something to get a reaction from her.

Lita glared at her, almost able to follow Cynthia's advice not to listen. Not quite, however. “I'm -not- smelly,” she answered finally.

Cynthia sighed. “For future reference, if you do decide not to ignore somebody, at least make sure you have something better than that to defend yourself with.”

“But you are a baby?” Dana giggled delightedly.

“Nuh-uh!” Lita insisted. “Am not!”

“You didn't say you weren't, so you are.” Lita wasn't sure how to counter this impeccable logic, so she just stayed quiet, wondering if her cheeks would end up permanently red from all the blushing she had been doing.

The bus came to a stop. Melita glanced around, trying to make sure it was going to stay still long enough for her to be able to switch seats, though how she would be able to tell, she wasn't sure. Before she could get up, another girl slid into the seat beside her, forcing her to scoot closer to Dana, trapping her in between the two of them.

“Good morning, Melody,” Dana chirped. “Look who's riding the bus with us today!”

Lita stared down at the floor underneath the seat in front of her, imagining that she was the only person on the bus. If it hadn't been so noisy she might have been able to do it, at least until Dana elbowed her in the side. “Aren't you going to say hello, or are you trying to be impolite, young lady?”

Melita faced Melody's giggling face, promptly sticking her tongue out at her before returning to sulking. “Now that wasn't very polite at all,” Dana shook her head. A moment later, she reached out and grabbed Lita's backpack, pulling it off her arms before she even started to think to stop her.

“Give that back!” Lita whined, trying to reach out for it only to have her arms grabbed from behind by Melody. She struggled for a few moments, though she already knew from past experience that Melody was too strong for her.

Dana unzipped the backpack, rummaging through it until she found a piece of paper with Lita's handwriting on it. With a sudden burst of strength, Melita struggled against Melody, only to end up feeling even more helpless than before.

“Why didn't you do your English homework, Lita? You know only bad girls don't get their school work done...”

“But...” Melita started to protest that Dana was holding her homework. Dana crumpled up the paper, throwing it out the half-open window. “Oh.”

“What about math? Did the little baby get her math done?” Dana began rifling through Lita's bag again as Lita uselessly fought to get free. Not her math... She had spent an hour working on that, and for once she was pretty sure she actually knew what she was talking about! Dana found the piece of paper she was looking for, scanned over it to make sure it wasn't old homework that Lita had left in the backpack, then grinned over at her captive tormentee. “Guess not.”

“No!” Melita protested, tears stinging at the corners of her eyes. “Put it back!”

“Aww, is the crybaby going to cry some more?” Dana mocked, starting to turn the paper into a ball. Not knowing what else to do, Lita kicked as hard as she could, hoping she could twist her leg around enough to actually hit Dana's.

“Ow! You little brat!” Dana looked ready to shoot fireballs out of her eyes, if she could do that. Since she couldn't, she kicked Lita back, causing even more tears to spring to the smaller girl's eyes. Melody, surprised by this sudden burst of violence, let go of Lita's arms for a split second.

Lita spun sideways in her seat, grabbing her backpack and homework with one hand, then pushing Dana away with all the strength she could muster for her other. “Why can't you leave me alone?!” she growled, turning back around, crossing her arms and pouting. She heard a thudding noise as Dana's head hit against the window and back off, heard her groan and saw her rub the side of her head, but for the most part she just stared at the floor, wishing she could vanish into thin air.

Dana was quiet for the rest of the ride to school.

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“As I'm sure we all remembered, today we get our class picture taken,” Mrs. Friedman seemed to be looking directly as Melita as she spoke, as Lita tried to sink further down in her desk. How could Ms. Elendara let her forget about pictures? It wasn't fair... She was going to look so stupid now, and everyone would remember her as the girl who forgot to dress up for pictures. She even had a fairly new dress that she had only worn to church once that would have looked really nice...

Mrs. Friedman continued talking, but Lita wasn't sure what about anymore. She had gotten into the habit of ignoring whatever she said at the beginning of class, since it was hardly ever important. She glanced over at where Dana was sitting, pretending to be fascinated with what the teacher was saying, though from where she was sitting Lita could tell she was writing a note.

Confident that Dana wasn't going to do something horrible to her, though she hadn't been sure what she was expecting anyway, she began looking at everyone else in the class, hoping that maybe at least one other person had forgotten as well. Celeste was one of the last people she inspected, and also seemed to be one of the most prepared for the day, like most of the people on that side of the room. Curious, Lita turned back to look at the other side, only to find that they appeared the be dressed even nicer than before.

“Would you stop that? Your teacher's gonna think you're watching some invisible tennis game or something.” Lita stuck her tongue out at Cynthia, but took her advice, settling her gaze back in the direction of Celeste, who seemed to be reading something now.

“Are you paying attention to a word I'm saying, Melita?” Mrs. Friedman asked suddenly.

Lita sat up straight, eyes widening as she tried to recall the last thing her teacher had said that she could use in her defense. “Umm... No?” she came up with finally, smiling hopefully.

“I didn't think so,” Mrs. Friedman grumbled, then went back to rambling on about whatever again, while Lita returned to ignoring her. When she glanced back down at her desk, she saw a slip of paper there, and noticed Allison watching her. She grabbed the note, but instead of opening it, she just shoved it into her desk, not wanting to know what Dana's little flunky, or possibly Dana herself, had to say about her.

Her hand brushed against another piece of paper inside the desk, crumpled up against one side. She pulled it out curiously, smoothing it out on the underside of her desk so Mrs. Friedman wouldn't notice as much. Cynthia floated over to the edge of the desk curiously as Lita brought the paper up so she could try to read it.

“You do know you were supposed to give that to your mom, don't you?” Cynthia knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help but giggle at the look she got from Lita for that remark. “Little late now, I guess.”

verse twenty-three

“Are you okay?” Celeste asked quietly. Lita looked up in surprise, not having realized that she had been followed to her waiting spot.

“Umm... Yeah... Why wouldn't I be?”

Celeste shrugged. “I dunno. It just looked like you were walking kinda funny.” She glanced around almost nervously, though Lita got the feeling that it wasn't that she was nervous to be seen with her, just that she was nervous in general for whatever reason.

“My leg just hurts some. I got kicked on the bus.” Lita glanced down at her leg curiously, rolling up the leg of her shorts slightly, wondering if she had a bruise there yet; she did.

“Looks like it hurt,” Celeste said sympathetically. Melita shrugged. It had, and it still did, but it didn't really bother her that much for some reason. Maybe because she knew that this time, she had actually managed to get Dana back.

There was a silence, not exactly uncomfortable, yet still not one Lita wanted to continue to be a part of for too long. “Do you wanna sit down?” she asked finally, scooting over closer to the wall for no apparent reason, since there had already been plenty of room. Celeste shook her head, and Lita remembered once again that she was the only one not dressed up for class pictures. Celeste probably didn't want to get her dress dirty, which Melita could understand. “That's a pretty dress,” she said while it was still on her mind.

“Oh, thank you.” Celeste smiled as she looked down at it. “And... that's a pretty T-shirt...” Lita could tell she was just trying to make her feel better, but she smiled anyway. It was the thought that counted. She liked the shirt quite a bit, to tell the truth... It was pink and had a ladybug on the front of it.

It was quiet for a little longer. Melita took off her glasses and tried to clean them with the bottom of her shirt, like she had seen Mrs. Wolfe do when she got frustrated at the class. It did help some, but her glasses hadn't been all that dirty to begin with, so there hadn't been too much of a point.

“Wanna go over to the swings?” Celeste asked suddenly.

Melita started to shake her head; there were usually older kids near the playground equipment, and most of them didn't like first graders too much. Today, though, there was hardly a soul over there. Mrs. Friedman's class was still the only one out there so far, so Lita assumed the others were getting their pictures taken already – they would be going after recess.

“Sure,” Lita got to her feet with a little giggle. “Why not?” She wasn't sure why, but she was just in a good mood at the moment, despite everything that had happened. Sure she would get in trouble for not being able to hand in her English homework, sure her leg hurt, sure she was going to look a little out of place in the picture. But things couldn't get worse, could they? And if she ate lunch in a hurry she might be able to redo her homework, and at least she was wearing one of her favorite shirts. Life wasn't all that bad, once she put things in perspective.

Once Melita was on her way to the swings, she was in an even better mood, almost skipping across the ground. She had stood up to Dana, and Dana hadn't even retaliated the second time! Maybe she was afraid of her now, or maybe she realized that now that Lita wasn't going to take it anymore, she should just leave her alone. Either one would be fine, though the first would be quite a lot more satisfying after living in fear of Dana's wrath for so long.

“Wow... Didn't know it rained this much last night...” Lita commented as she carefully tried to step only on the grassy patches around the playground area so as to avoid the mud that had seemed to spring up overnight. “Do you think the swings are gonna be all wet?”

Celeste didn't answer; she was too busy being nervous again.

“Are you okay?” Lita asked quietly.

“Umm... Yeah... Why wouldn't I be?”

Melita shrugged, not sure how to answer that. Something just seemed... off... about her today, especially now. “I dunno.” She started looking for a way around a particularly large mud puddle. “It just seemed like...”

“Imsorry!” Celeste blurted out, almost too quickly for Lita to understand what she was trying to say at all. And then she felt a hand on her back, shoving her forward. Her arms pinwheeled for a few seconds before she lost all balance for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, falling straight into the mud.

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She was still there when Jessica showed up, wandering around confused to have found no Lita by the kitchen door. In fact, she seemed to not be there at all, until she spotted Celeste running away from near where the slide and swings were, heading over to where one of the larger groupings of girls that she knew from experience would have Dana at the center. That was definitely not a good sign.

Lita struggled to get up, trying to wipe the mud off of her face with an equally mud covered hand – it didn't work quite as well as she had intended. Her foot slipped on the mud underneath her, sending her back into the puddle. Frustrated, she gave up, pulling herself up just enough to be able to sit down, but not in the grass patch by the edge of the puddle like she had planned, of course. The mud squished underneath her bottom, and all of the happiness she had been gaining for the day vanished as if it had never existed in the first place.

“Lita?” Jessica asked the mud monster cautiously. “Is that you?”

“Oh, it looks like baby Lita was just getting ready for her pictures. Isn't that right, Lita?” Dana smiled evilly as her entourage giggled behind her. All except for Celeste, who was trying to hide behind Melody, hoping Jessica wouldn't see her.

“You little... I oughta...” Jessica started menacingly, moving towards Dana, raising her fist.

“I didn't do a thing,” Dana told her truthfully, though she backed off a few steps anyway.

“You...” Jessica's eyes locked on Celeste, who immediately paled. “It was you, wasn't it?”

“Leave her alone,” a quiet, subdued voice rose up from behind her.

“That's right,” Dana interjected. “This is none of your business. That little brat had it coming to her, and if she ever thinks about doing something like that again...”

“Stop talking now,” Jessica growled dangerously.

“Or what?” Dana asked smugly, confident that Jessica would listen to Melita.

“What are you girls doing?”

Dana transformed instantly into an innocent victim. “Jessica was threatening to beat me up, Mrs. Friedman!”

Jessica began to protest, but got no further than “I..” before getting cut off with a lecture about how she was supposed to be setting an example for the younger children, not being a bully, and she would have to go see the principal about this. Mrs. Friedman was obviously just getting started, but was herself cut off when she noticed “...Melita? My lord... What -are- you doing?”

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Melita poked sulkily at the spaghetti, or whatever it really was, with her fork, wishing that everyone would stop looking at her. Cynthia had told her a few times already that they weren't, but she was probably lying. It certainly felt like the whole school was staring at her.

“So... umm... They couldn't get ahold of your mom?” Jessica finally broke the silence that had settled over the little group since Lita had sat down. Melita shook her head, though Jessica didn't really need an answer, since Lita's current wardrobe was a pretty good indication of what had happened. As luck would have it, there hadn't even been any spare clothes that came anywhere close to fitting Lita; the best that could be found was a shirt that went almost to her knees. She didn't like it much, but it was better than her poor mud stained ladybug shirt. Her shorts had fared better, but there were still stains, and since there were no other pants that would fit Lita, she had to wear them. The shirt hid most of the shorts anyway, but that didn't make things a whole lot better.

“Did you tell anyone what actually happened?” Jessica already was mostly certain of the answer to this, too. Lita shook her head, just as expected. “Why not?”

Melita shrugged defeatedly. It just wouldn't have been worth it, she had decided. If she got Dana in trouble, she would end up doing something even worse, and now that Lita was stuck riding the bus with her every day...

“Stupid Celeste.” Lita looked up at Leann in surprise, never having heard her speak with that angry a tone ever before, even when Dana was the subject of conversation.

“I thought she'd seen the light, too... But no, she had to fall back to the dark side,” Jessica shook her head sadly, though in her mind she was picturing Ewan McGregor and giggling.

Courtney opened her mouth, about to add something, then decided it would be a better idea not to, and stayed quiet. She glanced a couple of tables over, caught Celeste's eye for a moment before the other girl looked down at her plate.

“I'm not hungry,” Melita said, pushing her tray away. Nobody was overly surprised since she hadn't eaten a single bite since sitting down. She folded her arms on the table, resting her chin on them and staring at her cup, the ice cubes still stirring about some from the tray's movement.

“It'll be okay, Lita,” Leann tried to comfort her, hugging her. “At least....” She paused, trying to think of an up side to her friend's situation. “Umm...”

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“Hi, you must be Melita, huh? My name's...” the perky, purple haired teenager started to say as Lita came up to the front door she was holding open. Melita pushed past her, ignoring the rest of her speech, went straight to her room and threw herself on her bed.

“Are you feeling all right? Do you want me to call your mommy?” The girl stood in her doorway, one hand hovering near the light switch, wondering if she should turn it on or not.

“Yes,” came Lita's muffled reply, but she wasn't sure to which question.

Her babysitter assumed it was the first. “You sure?”

“Yeah.” Lita struggled out of her backpack, tossing it on the floor, kicking off her shoes a second later.

“Do you want anything?”

Lita squirmed up to the head of her bed, crawling under the covers. “I want this day to start over,” she whispered, even though she knew her wishes were never granted. It wasn't this time either.

verse twenty-four

“I wonder how much trouble we'd get in for locking them in a closet for a few days?” Jessica mused, tapping her fork against the edge of her tray absentmindedly. “Well, none if we don't get caught, of course, but I'm sure Dana would tell...”

“How would we lock them in? Dontcha need keys for that?” At least, that's what Melita assumed the janitors carried all those keys for. “And they're usually locked anyway, aren't they? We'd hafta find a way to unlock them first...”

“Okay, okay, so it wasn't that great a plan.” Jessica sighed, staring over at Dana's table. “Haven't heard you come up with any better ones, though,” she teased, sticking her tongue out.

“We could dye their hair funny colors and get them in trouble with their mommies,” Leann piped up finally, having spent most of lunch thinking up a method of revenge. She blushed a little as she spoke, making Lita wonder if she had personal experience with that sort of thing. Just for a moment, though, and then she was giggling as she thought about Tori, her babysitter for the past couple weeks.

“I don't think that'd work too well either... I imagine they'd notice us doing that.” Jessica sighed, setting her fork down with an air of defeat. They had been at this ever since that fateful day, and still had no plan for revenge. “We're not gonna come up with anything.” Courtney, who had been quiet the whole time, looked up at this, but stayed silent. “I'll ask my big sister if she has any ideas.”

“Maybe we should just focus on Celeste...” Lita shrugged. “Dana's always been a jerk... Celeste... Well...”

Jessica reached across the table and patted Lita's arm. “She'll get hers, Lita, don't worry. Nobody pretends to be our friend, then betrays us like that and gets away with it.” Melita could have sworn that she felt the air beside her freeze as Jessica glared behind her at Celeste. “Nobody.”

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Melita looked at the orange paper pumpkins decorating the wall of the dance studio as she fastened her tap shoes carefully, trying to make sure they were tight enough. She had thought they were before, but when she had actually tried walking in them, they felt kind of loose, so she decided it was probably a good idea to tighten them before class – she didn't need any extra help from her wardrobe to make her any clumsier. As if the shoes themselves weren't bad enough.

She got to her feet cautiously, keeping one hand on the wall beside her the whole time. She hadn't actually fallen over because of the shoes yet, but she had felt like it plenty of times, and she had only worn them for maybe five minutes. For some reason, she didn't think she was cut out to be a dancer.

Lita heard a giggle from behind her, and she turned to see Courtney watching her, unable to resist saying, “You look so cute!” Melita blushed, suddenly deciding that her skirt needed to be retied. Tori and Cynthia had both told her the same thing when she had changed into her leotard and tights for the first time at home right before coming to the studio. They still felt kind of weird to Lita, though she was happy that she would look more like she belonged to the dance class, instead of just someone who had wandered in off the street.

“Hey... Lita?” Courtney sounded quite a bit more serious when she spoke again, sitting down against the wall opposite Melita.

“Yeah?” Lita considered sitting again; she didn't want to have to stand up in her tap shoes again, though, so she stayed standing.

“Do you really think Jessica is gonna go through with this whole revenge thing?”

Lita shrugged. “I dunno. If we come up with a good plan, she might...” For about the thousandth time that day, she wished Adrianna was still there, that she would be waiting for her to get out of class so that she could take her home, fix her dinner, help her with homework... And, at the moment, come up with a way to get back at Celeste. “Why?”

Courtney sighed. “It's just... I know you're mad at her, Lita, and I understand, but I don't think playing a trick on her is gonna help.”

“Why not?” Lita folded her arms, pouting. “It's what she deserves.”

“We haven't even talked to Celeste since then... I'm sure she wouldn't do that on her own... She musta had a reason.”

“Hrmph,” Lita sneered. “She prolly just wanted to get Dana to like her again, and that was the perfect chance.”

Courtney wanted to add something, Melita could tell, but she stopped herself, probably realizing that Lita didn't want to hear any defense of Celeste, not now. Nobody wanted to see Celeste's side of it.

“Do you know what you're gonna be for Halloween yet?” Courtney changed the subject, saving it for another time, when Lita might be persuaded to see reason. “I'm prolly gonna be a witch again, like last year. I can never think of good ideas till the day after...”

Melita smiled a little, glancing up at Cynthia. “I'm not sure...”

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Lita collapsed onto the floor, tugging her tap shoes off with relief. The last class hadn't seemed nearly as hard as this one, probably because the teacher was actually expecting them to remember the steps she had taught them the time before. And now that her feet made noise like the rest of the class, she realized just how off her timing had been with pretty much everything. She was a little surprised that the teacher hadn't gotten more frustrated at her than she had.

“Told you you should have practiced,” Cynthia nagged. “How do you expect to get good if you only work on it once a week?” Lita glared at her. “Oh, don't give me that look, young lady, you know I'm right.”

Melita shrugged as she pulled her tennis shoes on, tying the laces clumsily. Normally she was a bit better at it, except when she was tired, which she supposed she was. She tried to see out the glass door to the parking lot outside, but there were too many people in the way to tell if Tori's car was out there or not. Judging from where she had parked to drop Lita off in the first place, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell anyway.

As it turned out, that didn't matter. A minute or two later, Melita noticed a spot of purple moving through the crowd of parents at the front of the building, and she got up and waved at Tori, in case she hadn't seen her, though if she hadn't she wasn't sure why she would be heading right towards her. Tori waved back, then beckoned her onward. Lita called goodbye to Courtney and Stephanie waved at her until she did the same for her.

Melita hopped up onto the seat of Tori's car, carefully setting her tap shoes down on the floor before buckling her seat belt. Tori's car, or, as she called it, Vera, wasn't quite as large as Adrianna's had been, and made a bit more noise. Lita liked it just as much, if not better, and it was a lot funner to ride in, because Tori didn't drive as slowly and boringly as Anna.

Tori herself wasn't much of a replacement for Adrianna, however. She was funnier, and a bit taller despite being a few years younger than Anna, just barely old enough to be driving by herself. She even was good at pretending to like Lita a lot, but Lita knew that she would much rather be somewhere else than with her on the afternoons she babysat. Still, Lita preferred her to the creepy old women Ms. Elendara occasionally got to watch her; Tori was much more open to the idea of eating dessert before dinner.

As if to prove that point, as soon as they got back to the house and Lita had changed back into normal clothes, she was given a bowl of chocolate ice cream as Tori rummaged through the refrigerator. “What sounds good for supper, Lita?”

Melita shrugged as she stirred the ice cream up a little, mixing it up with the part that had melted already. “How 'bout just this?”

Tori laughed. It sounded a bit forced, not quite as much as usual. “I have a feeling that wouldn't go over too well.” She closed the fridge, moving over to the pantry. “I don't suppose you want macaroni and cheese again, do you?”

Lita shook her head, then realized that Tori was still staring into the pantry and couldn't see her. “Not really,” she answered, still trying to smooth out the last few lumps of ice cream. She didn't usually eat it like this, but every once in a while she would, just for fun. It tasted more like a milk shake, which was always a good thing.

“Well, we got peanut butter.” Tori was pretty sure she had seen jelly in the fridge – what little kid could resist that? Certainly not Melita. Tori set the jar of peanut butter on the counter, then started looking through the canned vegetables.

“That's crunchy,” Lita whined.

“What, you don't like crunchy?” Tori shook her head in mock disappointment. “You're missing out on one of the finer things in life, kid.” But she took the jar back and set it on the shelf again. She started to pick up the smooth, finding it to feel curiously light. She opened to lid, discovering that it was mostly empty, only a few smears around the bottom, definitely not enough to make a sandwich with. Ms. Elendara must have relied on her older daughter to do most of the shopping, Tori mused. Well, she was going to have to get used to doing it herself again, unless she wanted Lita to starve. She definitely wasn't paying Tori enough to do it for her.

“Can you live with crunchy?” Tori asked, putting both jars on the counter. Lita pouted for a while, but nodded. “And how about peas?” Lita shrugged, too busy eating her ice cream, now that it was the perfect consistency, to comment. She was rather neutral about peas in general, though when they were too mushy she wasn't too fond of them.

Tori moved back to the fridge, pulling out the loaf of bread and tossing it beside the peanut butter. “What kind of jelly do you want?”

Lita craned her neck to try to see around Tori, not quite sure what kind they had. “How 'bout... cheese?”

Tori turned around, blinking a few times at the girl, wondering if she was kidding. “O... kay...” Little kids sure could be weird...

Melita scraped up the last of the ice cream as Tori poured the can of peas into a pot, starting to get a couple slices of bread from the loaf. And then Tori's jacket began to ring. Lita was a little startled by this, until Tori dashed over and pulled her cell phone out of one of the pockets.

“Hey, what's up?” Tori cheerfully answered the phone. “Yeah, I'm still over with the kid...” Tori glowered at Lita, as if it were her fault she wasn't with her friend. “Don't you have some homework to do or something? Jeez...” It took Melita a little while for it to sink in that the last question was aimed at her. She blushed, putting her now empty bowl into the sink before retreating to her room.

Lita's homework turned out not to be quite as hard as it had looked at school earlier, and she managed to get nearly all of it completed by the time Tori called her back into the kitchen. She probably could have gotten all of it done if she hadn't gotten distracted by Tori saying some rather bad words quite loudly a few times, usually accompanied by the sound of water boiling out onto the stove.

Lita sat down at the table again, and this time was greeted with a plate of food. She smiled up at Tori, who, appearing to be in a bad mood, didn't bother even pretending to smile back. Lita was already looking back down at her plate, though, and didn't notice. “You cut the sandwich diagonally,” she pointed out, sounding like more of a complaint than she had meant it to. She just wasn't used to eating sandwiches that way... Anna aways cut them straight down the middle, and sometimes even quartered them.

Tori glared at Lita for a few seconds, then, throwing her coat on, stormed out the back door. Melita watched through the window in the door as Tori reached into the inner pocket of her jacket, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, then leaning back against the house, grumbling angrily.

Melita quietly ate her food alone. She wrinkled her nose as she began to eat the peas, which had been cooked way too long, but ate them all anyway, not wanting Tori to get any madder at her, wishing for about the thousand-and-first time that day that Adrianna was still there.

verse twenty-five

“Very amusing,” Cynthia commented dryly. “I would like to point out that I hardly ever wear dresses or pink, and I don't have a wand.”

Melita stuck her tongue out, but the words didn't really bother her. She twirled around again, giggling happily as the tulle and ribbons that rested on top of the skirt of the dress followed her body's circle, giving Cynthia enough time to smile at how incredibly adorable Lita looked before going back to pretending to be angry at her choice in costume.

Lita set her ribbon-streaming wand down on her bed again, adjusting the ruffle of pink and purple tulle on her shoulders, before struggling to get her wings on straight. Ms. Elendara had told her that she would help with that, but Lita didn't want to wait for her. Finally, she took the circle of flowers, matched perfectly to the ones on the neck of her pink dress, and put it on her head, making sure that the ribbons on the back of that spread out evenly in her hair.

“How do I look?” Lita asked Cynthia, picking up her wand again and twirling it in front of her.

“You're the cutest fairy I've ever seen,” Ms. Elendara answered, smiling from the doorway, taking a quick picture before Melita could notice the camera and protest. Adrianna would kill her if she didn't get at least one picture of Lita, though, so she would just have to suffer through the pouts and glares. Then again, she would have done the same thing even if Anna for some reason didn't want to see her little sister looking even more precious than normal.

“I would agree, except I have a baby cousin that's a little cuter than you,” Cynthia admitted, wishing she had a camera herself as Lita blushed at her comment.

“The costume's so pretty,” Melita giggled. “Thank you.”

“No, you're what's pretty. The costume's just icing on the cake,” Ms. Elendara kissed Lita's forehead. “But you're more than welcome anyway. Are you ready to go to school?”

Melita sighed and nodded, though it was obvious she was more eager than usual. Not only did she want to show off her costume, she also got to ride to school with Ms. Elendara, instead of taking the bus, since Ms. Elendara had gotten the day off of work. Lita grabbed her backpack, confused for a moment about how she was going to wear it before deciding she would just carry it, then followed her mother outside, into the crisp Halloween air.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I think you're a little confused,” the leopard told her snottily. “You're an elf, not a fairy, remember?”

Melita considered bopping Dana over the head with her wand, but Mrs. Friedman might see, and she didn't want to get her wand taken away. Besides, she wouldn't want it touching Dana anyway. So she just ignored her, smiling with satisfaction when Mrs. Friedman reminded the class that they were supposed to be quiet as they waited their turn to enter the auditorium.

After a quick glance through the doors, Mrs. Friedman addressed her class again, handing out name tags with large numbers written on them. “Once we go inside, I want everybody to stay together, all right? We're going to be walking in a circle so the judges can see everyone, and after that we'll wait together for them to decide the winner.”

With instructions so plain, how could they help but do the exact opposite? As soon as they got inside, Melita headed straight for Leann. She was rather difficult to miss, as the pink of her cheerleader costume was even brighter than Lita's. If that hadn't been enough, she began waving her pom-pom at Lita as soon as she noticed her, nudging the girl beside her.

Jessica turned around, long black cape sweeping the floor. Her black dress was interrupted by a stripe of red down the middle, the bodice criss-crossed by black ribbon connecting the two black sections on either side of it. Her face looked deathly pale, and Lita saw fangs in her mouth as she smiled at her.

Courtney, as predicted, ended up being a witch again. This year her costume looked quite a bit cooler than normal, though, so she couldn't complain. Lace decorated with cobweb designs hung from her sleeves and over the black skirt of her dress, not unlike Lita's skirt, except more creepy-crawly and less cute. As if in explanation of the cobwebs, a small stuffed spider hung from the tip of her hat.

“Didja go by the judges yet?” Lita asked, chewing her lip nervously.

Jessica shook her head. “Nope, we were waiting for you.” Lita's face lit up as she and her friends entered the circle of kids, their main destination the front of the room, where the three adults who would decide their fate awaited.

“Are you going trick or treating tonight?” Leann asked, bouncing up and down excitedly, making Lita wonder how much candy she had eaten already. Melita nodded; that had been the reason Ms. Elendara had gotten the day off work.

She started to open her mouth to give a verbal answer, too, until she noticed how close to the judges they were already. Her legs began transforming into blocks of ice, threatening to freeze her to that spot on the floor, or melt completely, taking away all her footing and spilling her out onto the floor like the klutz she knew she was. She grabbed onto Leann's arm, frightened.

Leann giggled, loosening Lita's grip so that blood could get to the lower half of her arm. “It'll be okay, Lita. I bet you'll even win a prize!” Melita wasn't sure if that thought cheered her up or terrified her, since getting a prize would almost certainly involve going up to the stage to get it.

“They're not going to like it,” Lita decided out loud. “They're gonna think I have the worst costume ever, and then ban me from ever entering the contest again, an'...”

“Yeah, I'm sure that's what they've been talking about doing ever since we passed them,” Jessica said. Lita looked over at her in surprise, then looked over to where the stage should have been, discovering that it was, indeed, behind them, and the judges seemed to be talking to one another.

“You really think so?” Lita asked Jessica quietly. Jessica rolled her eyes, steering her group off to their own little corner of the auditorium. Melita was worried that Mrs. Friedman would get mad at her for not going back with the rest of the class, until she noticed that only two or three of her classmates were actually waiting with the teacher.

Melita hadn't realized how near the end of the circle they had been until she decided to see what kind of costumes everyone else was wearing, only to find that nearly everyone was sitting down to wait on the judgment. Lita crossed her legs under her chair nervously, still not sure what she wanted to happen.

Before she had a chance to survive, one of the judges got up onto the stage, holding a microphone. Lita gave out a squeak of anticipation, and Leann reached over and patted her shoulder. Lita grabbed her hand and held on for dear life, making Leann giggle again.

“I would like to congratulate everyone here on all of their wonderful costumes,” the judge droned on from the stage. “Unfortunately, only three can be chosen as winners...” Lita tuned him back out for a few moments as he went on, until he finally announced the third place winner, and Leann let go of her to give her polite applause for a few seconds before Jessica glared at her to make her stop.

Lita glanced over to see what was going on, then her eyes turned to the stage, where she saw who had just gotten onto it, and was being given a white ribbon, which she pinned proudly on the front of her pirate costume. “Celeste,” Jessica hissed.

The second judge came onstage to award the next prize to some boy none of them could recognize, who had came as a spaceship. Leann started to look disappointed; this meant that at most one of her friends would be able to win something now.

The third judge appeared from offstage, holding a sealed envelope, going into some big speech, telling everyone that didn't win that they had all done a great job anyway (again). Lita began to relax, having decided that she was glad she hadn't won any awards. It looked like it was a long way up to the stage, and everyone would be staring at her... Then she would actually be -on- the stage. No, it was better just to be satisfied with not being thrown out of the contest for all the years to come.

She was so engrossed with telling herself this that she didn't hear the number of the first place winner get announced, didn't even think about it until Leann pounced on her with a giant hug. “Hrm?” she said in surprise.

“That's you, silly,” Cynthia told her, unable to hide her happiness for her charge.

“What?” Lita's eyes shot open. “I... I won?”

“Of course you did.” Jessica pushed Lita to her feet.

The first few steps were the hardest. She could feel every eye staring at her as she struggled to lift her feet to move forward, sure that any second she was going to burst into tears and humiliate herself. And then joy took over, and didn't let go until the flash of the local newspaperman's camera blinded her for a moment, and she realized she was onstage, holding her blue ribbon.

Melita walked back to her classroom in a daze, sure that there was no way this day could get better, not even if Dana were to suddenly catch a really bad case of the flu and have to miss school for the rest of the year. And then, when they got back, she found out just how wrong she could be. There were cupcakes, too!

Who would have ever guessed school could actually be fun? Lita thought as she picked the last few crumbs from her cupcake's wrapper, humming to herself and swinging her legs back and forth. Why couldn't it be like this every day? She wouldn't even mind Dana's evil, evil badness.

The day wasn't even over yet, and the best was surely yet to come! After all, she was going to get to spend time with Ms. Elendara, which she loved to do even if she didn't get the chance all that often, -and- she would be getting a ton of candy at the same time. Things just didn't get any better than that.

Elizabeth

verse twenty-six

Melita slid into the car, smiling over at Ms. Elendara, who smiled back, appearing a bit surprised at just how obviously happy Lita was. It wasn't something that happened all that often, as much as Ms. Elendara wished that it was otherwise.

“How was your day, honey?” she asked, starting off a seemingly endless tirade from Lita, who was literally bouncing with excitement as she spoke, too quickly to actually be understandable for the most part, though Ms. Elendara got the gist of it.

Lita grinned proudly up at Ms. Elendara as she finished. “So, when're we going trick or treating?”

Ms. Elendara's fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel. She had hoped to be able to wait until they were home, at least, before being asked that. She smiled sadly at Lita, who immediately sat still for the first time since getting in the car when she saw her mother's expression.

“We're... We're still going... Right?” Lita felt her stomach and heart twist up around each in her stomach.

“Work called, honey... I have to go in tonight. I tried to get out of it, but they didn't have anyone else.” She knew the explanation didn't really matter to Melita; most likely all she had heard was “No, I'm going back on my promise.” It made her feel a little better about it, though. Just a little.

“Oh.” Melita gave a quiet, sad sigh, and stared silently down at her feet for the rest of the ride home. Ms. Elendara longed to comfort her, but decided to wait until they were back at the house, since it was just a few more minutes away.

When they arrived, Lita grabbed her backpack and trudged to the door, already wondering when Tori was going to get there, and if she'd somehow be able to convince her to take her out. Probably not. She started to head to her room, resigned to just another day at home, already deciding what clothes she was going to change into.

“Lita, where are you going?” Ms. Elendara's voice followed her down the hall.

Lita froze for a second, wanting to turn around and scream at her for going back on her promise, for making it in the first place. She couldn't do it. Why should Ms. Elendara take her trick or treating anyway? It wasn't like she owed anything to Lita – on the contrary, Melita owed quite a lot to her. If she got mad at her about this, what would Ms. Elendara think of her? Probably that she was a selfish little brat, only thinking about herself.

And it was true, she realized. She was selfish. She wanted Ms. Elendara all to herself tonight. She didn't want her to be with all those old people when she should be out collecting candy with her. She was a horrible person.

But she couldn't let Ms. Elendara know that. “I'm gonna go change,” she answered finally.

“Melita, I'm sorry.” Ms. Elendara wished she had more to say than that.

Lita forced her voice to form the words, “It's okay.” She swallowed, then turned around, trying to smile. “So, when is Tori coming?”

“She's not. She was busy tonight.”

“Then who...” The ashes of Lita's hopes started to stir a little. Maybe she would get to go trick or treating after all. It certainly wouldn't be the same, but it was something.

“Nobody.” Ms. Elendara had started to call everyone she could think of who might be available, only to find that none of them were, then settled on a slightly different solution. “You're coming with me, hon.” Lita's eyes lit up a little with this news. It wasn't the way she had hoped to spend the evening, but if she could be with Ms. Elendara... Well, that was a start. “And you can keep your costume on, if you want.” Melita perked up visibly, some of the excitement Ms. Elendara had seen at the beginning of the car ride making its way back to Lita's face.

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Melita watched as the building grew larger than she had ever seen it before. It wasn't much of an accomplishment, really, since she had only ever seen it from the road as Adrianna drove by it, but it was still enough to enthrall her.

In a way, despite having seen the outside of it before, Lita always thought that it was quite a bit larger than it actually was, probably because Ms. Elendara spent so long there – she wasn't exactly sure what that had to do with the size of the building, though it made an odd sort of sense. Honestly, it wasn't all that big, a little smaller than her school, but only one story.

“You ready?” Ms. Elendara asked, and Lita nodded getting out of the car and following her inside. There were a few paper skeletons hung on the walls that caught Melita's attention as her mother went to the front desk, where a small golden haired woman sat. They spoke for a minute before Ms. Elendara called for Lita.

Melita left the skeleton alone, obediently going to her mother's side. “Lita, this is Angel.” Lita waved shyly at the woman, who grinned.

“Hey, cutie.” Lita blushed. “I hear you won a costume contest.” Lita nodded proudly, giggling as Angel added, “Then again, I don't see how a cute little thing like you could lose.”

“Thank you,” she said, finally finding her voice. It always seemed to run off for the first minute or two when she was meeting new people.

Angel's grin got a bit wider. “I also heard you had to miss out on trick or treating tonight. And, well... It just isn't right for a growing girl like you to go without candy on Halloween night, so...” Angel reached behind the desk, pulling out a bag, filled to the brim with all kinds of candy. Lita's eyes widened as she reached up to take it, and Ms. Elendara looked a little surprised, too.

“Thank you,” Melita repeated, sounding quite a bit more like she meant it this time. Ms. Elendara showed her a little room off where she could put it and the bag she had brought, then shooed her off.

“You didn't have to do that,” she said when Lita was out of earshot.

“Like I said... It isn't right for a growing girl not to have candy tonight,” Angel winked. “It wasn't a problem; everyone pitched in.”

“Well, thank you all.” Ms. Elendara bent over the desk to hug the woman.

“Whatcha doin?” Melita asked as she returned from the room, licking chocolate from her fingers.

“Just getting ready to make my rounds.” Ms. Elendara held out her hand. “You wanna come?” Melita nodded enthusiastically, running up to her and, with a final smile to Angel, headed off into the depths of her mother's world.

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Melita's wings rested against the couch in the nurse's lounge, where she had left her candy earlier. Her shoes sat beside it, and she was lying on her stomach on the couch, crayons spread out in front of her as she struggled to draw, something she had never been anywhere near as good as she wanted to be at. “I didn't know you had pictures of me in your purse,” she said suddenly.

Or that she showed it to just about everyone she had ever met, or so it seemed. Most of the patients Ms. Elendara had gone to check on had recognized Lita, telling her that she was even cuter than her pictures, and complimenting her costume. Melita had been a little nervous about being around people so old at first, but after the first few had insisted she come closer so they could get a better look at her, and she had seen that they weren't nearly as scary as she had expected, she quickly got over that.

“Of course I do.” Ms. Elendara looked up from the book she had been reading, glancing at the clock on the other side of the room. “It's just about your bedtime.” Lita pouted, but she knew that she had gotten to stay up a little later than usual, and she was getting sleepy anyway.

Ms. Elendara dug around in the bag she had brought, bringing out a pillow, blanket, and Lita's pajamas and toothbrush. “Why don't you go get changed, okay? There's a bathroom right through there,” Ms. Elendara pointed as she handed Lita her things.

“Here?” Lita pouted.

“What, you don't want to sleep in your pretty costume, do you? Go on, it'll be okay.” Lita kept pouting, but shook her head, retreating into the bathroom. Ms. Elendara cleared the crayons and paper from the couch, setting them carefully on the table beside it, then spreading the blanket out on the couch.

“I'll be back in a little while,” Ms. Elendara promised as she kissed Lita's forehead gently after tucking her in as best she could on the couch. “But I want you to be asleep before I get back, all right? When you wake up, we'll be back home.” Lita nodded drowsily.

Ms. Elendara started to head out of the room, her hand pausing on the light switch for a moment. “Lita? I hope your Halloween turned out all right... I'm sorry about breaking my promise.”

“Don't be.” Lita sat up a little, trying to make out the blurry figure of her mother. “It was perfect.” It wasn't until after Ms. Elendara had turned out the lights and left her alone that Melita realized she had been telling the truth.

verse twenty-seven

Melita hadn't been sure what to say to the question. It wasn't one she had ever been asked before. “Do you want to have a birthday party?” Ms. Elendara just sprang on her the next day as she cut the picture of Lita, Celeste, and spaceship boy out of the newspaper, as if it were the easiest thing in the world to answer. Lita had never had a birthday party before, that she could remember, at least, and she doubted she had any that she had forgot.

“Umm... I dunno...” she said finally, the best she could come up with. While it might be nice to have her friends to celebrate her birthday with, she was a little scared about it, too, for reasons she couldn't quite understand. None of them had ever been further in her house than the living room, and there only for a few minutes. What if they saw her room, and thought that it was too babyish? Or what if Ms. Elendara decided she didn't like them and didn't want Lita being friends with them anymore?

“We could just have a little one if you want, just a few friends. And Adrianna's coming home this weekend...” The thought of seeing her big sister again perked Lita up some. “You want to do that?” Lita thought it over for another moment or two, ultimately nodding her approval.

Melita hadn't realized how close her birthday actually was - she had been telling people she was almost seven almost the moment she had turned six, but now it was definitely true. Just a little over a week, in fact. Birthdays had never seemed like that big of a deal to her before, though she had a feeling that was going to change soon.

Ms. Elendara had worried that Lita's friends wouldn't be able to come on such short notice, so she got the invitations as soon as she could, and Lita handed them out at lunch that day, having forgotten to bring them with her to recess. By the time Ms. Elendara returned from work, Tori had answered three phone calls, all saying that their daughter would be coming.

Lita gave one to Tori, too. She was obviously a little surprised by this, and didn't give Melita an answer, which was all right with her, since she hadn't yet decided if she really wanted her to be there.

That left one. Melita had told Ms. Elendara she only needed three, but the smallest package she could find had five, and she told Lita that it was always good to have extras, just in case. Secretly, she was hoping that Lita had more friends than that, and was just being modest because she didn't want her to worry about too many invitations.

Lita knew who she wanted to give the invitation to, she just wasn't sure how to do it. Luckily, her problem was solved for her on Friday, the day before the party was to occur, even if her actual birthday wasn't for three days after that. She hopped off the last step on the bus with a little yawn, feeling as worn out as she usually did after a week of school, wondering if she should take a nap before starting in on her homework. She dug around in her pocket as she approached the front door, trying to find her keychain so she could unlock the door herself, before Tori did. She had actually done it a couple times, though most of the time Tori was too quick for her.

She was much too fast today. The door opened before Lita was even halfway across the lawn, and she stopped searching for her keys with a little pout, which was erased almost instantly as she saw a figure dashing towards her, grabbing her and picking her up into a tight hug.

“I've missed you soooo much, Li-li!” Adrianna exclaimed, kissing the top of her head. It took Lita another moment to process what was going on before she threw her arms around Anna's neck. “You've grown so much! Soon you'll be taller than me!” Truthfully, Adrianna was pretty sure Lita was still exactly the same size, but she knew her little white lie would make her happy, and Lita's reaction told her she had been right.

“I thought you weren't s'posed to be here until tonight,” Lita said when she was finally able to stop giggling happily long enough to speak.

“Do you want me to go back to school and come back later?” Anna teased. Lita shook her head furiously, and it was Adrianna's turn to giggle. “Guess you're stuck with me, then. I skipped my last class. I thought seeing my baby sister was more important than listening to some old guy talk about the history of music.”

“Hrmph.” Lita stuck her tongue out at her big sister. “I'm not a baby. I'm almost seven!”

“Yeah, yeah, you always say that,” Anna smiled. “You're not seven yet, though, so I can call you my baby sister all I want for the next couple days.” She reached up with the arm she wasn't holding Lita with, tickling her belly a little.

“Are you two planning on coming inside any time soon?” another voice asked from the doorway. Melita craned her head around to see Vince standing there, and she blushed, a bit embarrassed for him to see her being held by Anna.

“I don't know, I think I like it out here.” Adrianna was heading for the door anyway, still carrying Lita, who smiled shyly as they passed Vince.

Adrianna set Lita down on the couch, sitting next to her as Vince sat down in the chair facing it. Melita immediately took off her backpack and started pulling things out in a flurry. The two older people gave her a funny look, then shrugged. Lita found the envelope a few seconds later, getting down from the couch and bashfully handing her last invitation to Vince. He glanced from the envelope to Adrianna, who shrugged, just as confused as he was, before taking it with a quick thanks. Lita blushed, then retreated to the couch, taking off her shoes so that she could curl up beside Anna on it, nervously watching as Vince read through the contents of the envelope.

He looked up at Lita with a smile. “Of course I'll be there,” he assured her.

Vince stayed for dinner at the insistence of Lita and Anna, before they drove him back to his house. Adrianna took the long way home so that they could go rent movies after a rather odd conversation had revealed that Melita had never seen The Little Mermaid.

By the end of the night, she still hadn't. She had curled up next to Adrianna on the couch again, and promptly fell fast asleep. Anna smiled at this, turning the television off – they could try again the next night, if Lita wasn't too hyper to sit still after her party – then carried her baby sister into her bedroom and put her into her pajamas before tucking her in, careful to be gentle enough not to wake her accidentally.

When she woke up, she could smell something chocolate cooking in the kitchen, where she wandered with a yawn before bothering to change, something she hardly ever did. Ms. Elendara looked up with a little surprise to see Lita standing there, probably not expecting her to be up so soon. “Good morning,” she said cheerfully.

“Morning!” Melita answered, equally cheerful, as she plopped down in her chair at the kitchen table.

Ms. Elendara looked at her a little curiously, then shrugged. “I was going to make you pancakes, but if you're hungry now, I can find you something else.”

“No, I can wait for pancakes,” Lita giggled. “With chocolate chips?”

“But of course.” Ms. Elendara smiled. “Nothing but the best for my little birthday girl.” Sometimes she wondered if Lita would ever get tired of chocolate; then she remembered how much she had liked it when she was much younger. Besides, what fun were pancakes without chocolate? Even if they were going to be eating chocolate cake, with chocolate icing and a side of chocolate ice cream, at the party later on.

Vince was the first person to show up, though that had been on purpose, since he and Anna had arranged for him to come early and help decorate. Melita had forgotten about that, though, and was still in her pajamas when she heard his mother's care pull into the driveway. She dashed to her room to change, coming back out in the light purple dress she would have worn to get her school picture taken in, if she had remembered.

Leann arrived not too long after that, clutching a messily wrapped box that she thrust at Lita with a blush, telling her she had wrapped it herself. Lita told her it was okay when she apologized for how it looked, deciding not to tell her that the last time she had tried to wrap a present, it had taken Anna five minutes to figure out how to unwrap it. Adrianna confiscated the present before Melita could try to open it, then scooted them off to Lita's room, glad for a way to get her already giddy little sister out from under her feet while she and Vince hung streamers from the ceiling of the living room.

Melita was a little hesitant as she opened the door to her bedroom, all of her fears about what her friends would think about her room rushing back. If Leann thought any of those things, however, she either kept them to herself, or thought they were good things, as Lita showed her where the stuffed alligator she had gotten at the fair was now, then showed off a couple of her other stuffed animals.

As Leann looked at those, Lita inconspicuously dove towards her night light, unplugging it and hiding it behind her back as she stood back up, Leann staring at her strangely. Melita backed over to her desk and set the light down on top of it and opening the drawer underneath it a little before brushing it down into it with a loud giggle as she slammed the drawer closed. How could she have forgotten about that? She was certain none of her other friends still slept with night lights. Sure, they were a little older than her, but that didn't make any difference. She would be the same age as Leann soon, minus a few months – she should start acting like it.

“Let's play hide and seek!” Lita suggested suddenly, perhaps a little too much so. Leann didn't seem to notice and just nodded eagerly, running off to hide as Lita closed her eyes to count to twenty-five, the best number the two of them could agree on.

When she opened them, already opening her mouth to yell out a warning that she was starting the search. She gave out a squeak of surprise instead, and Courtney giggled. Lita glared for a few moments, then hugged her happily. “You can help me look for Leann!” she said, tugging at Courtney's hand.

“Nuh-uh, that's cheating,” Courtney informed her. Lita pouted a little, but accepted the verdict, walking out of her room and glancing up and down the hallway. By the time Jessica had joined them, Melita was starting to get frustrated, until she heard the noise of somebody trying not to laugh as she walked past her room for the fourth time, deciding to check Anna's room again. She reached out towards the nearly completely closed door, pushing it in a little further.

Leann gave out an indignant yelp, jumping out from behind the door. “Found you!” Lita exclaimed happily.

“Nuh-uh, you have to tag me first.”

“Umm... I think you're mixing games up,” Jessica tried to interject in the hopes of ending the game peacefully, but Lita was already bolting towards Leann, who dashed out of her way with a laugh, running out of the door and into the hallway. Lita went after her as quickly as she could manage, following her outside when Adrianna told them not to run in the house or Ms. Elendara would kill them when she got back. Lita didn't even think to ask where Ms. Elendara had gone to, she was so caught up with the chase. Leann's legs were longer than hers, however, and Lita just wasn't fast enough to make up for the difference, so eventually she gave up.

Leann noticed that she was no longer being pursued, and went back to make sure Melita was okay. Lita nodded at the question, then tapped Leann's arm with her hand. “There. You're it.”

The next round of their game was interrupted by Ms. Elendara announcing that they should come back inside to eat lunch. Melita eagerly returned to her house, knowing that once they had eaten, it would be time for cake and ice cream, and then presents. She was a bit mistaken about that, though, because as soon as she entered the house, Ms. Elendara handed her a kitten, white except for brown patches on its face, paws, and tail, with a quick kiss on her forehead. “Happy birthday, honey.”

Lita was almost too enthralled with playing with Gabriella, what she had settled on as the only suitable name for her cat for whatever reason, to concentrate on eating. Finally, she gave in to the other girls' requests to play with the kitten, who good-naturedly endured its admirers for a while before hiding under the table with the rest of Lita's gifts in the living room.

After blowing out her candles, arranged to form a number seven, Melita clumsily made the first cut in her birthday cake, as the Elendara family tradition stated she must, before handing the knife to Ms. Elendara. Once everyone had gotten their fill of chocolaty goodness, they migrated to the living room, where Lita began unwrapping her presents, surrounded by all the people she loved the most.

Elizabeth

refrain

Mr. Yuumei sighed, weaving his fingers together and staring at Cynthia over them. Cynthia leaned back in her chair boredly. Why couldn't he just get to the point and let her get back to Melita?

“We've been having some... concerns,” he said finally. “About you and your client.” Cynthia winced a little at hearing Lita referred to as that, but kept her silence. “We think you're getting too attached to this girl.”

Cynthia's heart froze, ice spreading from it to the rest of her body. She knew what this meant, or at least what it could mean. And after her first case, it almost certainly would lead to her getting reassigned, taken away from the little girl she had grown so attached to. She couldn't do her job if she couldn't be objective, and trying would almost certainly lead to failure.

“It isn't your job to be her friend, Ms. Asaguroi, even if she can see you. You should know as well as anyone what that can lead to.” Mr. Yuumei pulled a few folders out of his desk, setting them down on its polished surface. “Perhaps it would be... beneficial... for you to transfer to...”

“No.” Cynthia shook her head, trying to think of some way to stop this. What would Lita do, if she thought she was going to abandon her?

“Ms. Asaguroi, this is the best thing for both of you. Humans need an impartial party to help them make their decisions, and if you're unable to provide that service, I'm afraid I'll have to find someone who is.” Mr. Yuumei straightened his glasses halfway through the speech, only to find that he had been seeing correctly after all. “What -are- you smiling at, Ms. Asaguroi? This is no laughing matter.”

But that only made Cynthia want to laugh even more, so much so that she couldn't stop herself. So they really didn't know. They still thought Lita had just slipped through the cracks at birth somehow, and that was all there was to it. They didn't know...

“Ms. Asaguroi, if you're not going to take this matter seriously...” Mr. Yuumei began angrily, starting to rise from his seat.

“Those rules for staying impersonal are for human clients, right?”

Mr. Yuumei nodded, still angry, though now a little confused as well. “Of course.”

“My -client-,” Cynthia spat the word out disdainfully, “isn't.”

“Isn't?” Confusion began to take over the anger in Mr. Yuumei's face.

“Human. At least not all the way. She's half elf.”

Mr. Yuumei looked like he was about to choke, and most likely would have if he had taken a drink from the coffee mug on the corner of his desk any time recently. Cynthia smiled sweetly. “So, I'm afraid those rules just aren't important, then, are they? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do.”

Cynthia got up, walking slowly out of Mr. Yuumei's office, picking up her pace as she headed for the main doors of the building. She couldn't breathe easily until she was out on the street, where she let out a huge sigh of relief that she hadn't been stopped by Mr. Yuumei or one of his secretaries. She wasn't sure what she'd have done in that case, but she had a feeling that it wasn't something that a good conscience should do.

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Melita ran over to the bus, her hands tightly grasping the envelopes she had gone back to get after making it halfway to the bus the first time before remembering them. The bus driver didn't appear to be too pleased, but Lita didn't care too much – she had been in an almost universal good mood since her birthday party, and she wasn't going to let anything ruin that.

She got lucky for once, finding an empty seat close enough to the front of the bus to keep her from having to walk past Dana. She took off her new backpack, a present from Adrianna, setting it in the seat beside her. She unzipped the first, and smallest, of the three pockets, the one that the wings decorating it were attached to, and started to slip the thank you notes inside before deciding to check that they were all there again.

She giggled a little at the first one, recalling what Jessica had said when Lita had unwrapped the fancy wooden chess set she had given her. “You'd better learn how to play, so I can beat you.” At the moment, Lita certainly didn't doubt that, since she had lost every game Adrianna had played with her, but it was fun anyway, and she looked forward to finding out how good Jessica really was.

The next one was for Courtney. Lita was wearing her present that day – a pink sweatshirt with little candy hearts “Tap your heart out” on it, the heart in the phrase not spelled out so much as formed by one of the candy hearts.

What should have been the last note had a little paw print drawn on the back of it, to show that it was from Gabriella as much as Melita. Leann had given her a copy of Alice in Wonderland, which Lita had read out loud to Gabriella Saturday night, when the little cat was hiding underneath Lita's bed and crying. They had both liked it, or as much of it as they had gotten through so far.

There was still one left over, however, the one that Lita had been intending to leave at home, but had grabbed by mistake. It was for Vince, of course, who had given her a book as well, though one that was quite a bit bigger than Leann's present, and had the complete stories of Winnie the Pooh. She carefully placed the last card into the pocket, then switched it to the main pocket, slipping it in between the pages of her math book so that she would be more likely to remember it when she got back home, unless she got lucky and her math teacher decided not to assign her any homework.

She had been surprised by how many cards, many of which had contained money, she had gotten from relatives she had seen perhaps once. She was still working on the thank you cards for those, and it seemed like it would take forever, or at least until her next birthday.

The ride to school didn't seem nearly as long as usual, perhaps because she spent so long reminiscing about her gifts. Whatever it was, she wished it would happen more often – less time on the bus was always good, even if it was all in her head. The rest of the day went by fairly quick as well, until lunch time rolled around.

Melita was babbling about Gabriella, as she had been ever since they had sat down, when she felt someone tapping on her shoulder. She turned around, seeing Celeste. Lita glared, and only Courtney quickly putting her hand on Lita's arm kept her from trying to hurt Celeste in some way.

“I heard it was your birthday,” Celeste said after a moment, her gaze flickering behind her to where Dana was standing for a moment. “So... Happy birthday!” Celeste set the gift bag she had been hiding behind her back on the table in front of Lita, then retreated back to Dana, who was still standing suspiciously close to Lita's table.

“Are you sure you want to open that?” Jessica asked suspiciously.

Melita considered it, and almost said no, before recalling Courtney's words before tap class. Maybe Celeste did have a reason for doing what she had, and maybe this was her way of apologizing. Pushing the tissue paper aside, she pulled out the contents of the bag, holding them up for a few moments before realizing what they were – a jar of baby food and a bib. Lita blushed furiously, trying to bury them in the bag again before anyone noticed.

“Don't you like our present to you?” Dana smiled behind her. “We picked it out especially for you, birthday girl.”

Lita shot up from the table, drawing herself up to her full height and staring Dana in the eyes. She almost wished she hadn't, since it didn't make her feel a whole lot better, seeing as how Dana was about a foot taller than her, if not a little more. “For the last time, I'm not a baby!” Melita growled. “I'm almost eight years old!” Which wasn't quite true for another day, but she needed to get used to saying that instead of almost seven, and it made her sound a little older.

“Oh, really?” Dana pretended to be shocked by this 'news'. “I'm sorry... We thought for sure you had just turned two, not seven.” Lita's hands began to curl up into fists. “Are you sure about that?” Dana looked down at Lita's shirt. “You certainly look more like a two year old.”

Melita followed her gaze, seeing that she hadn't done quite a good a job of keeping from spilling her drink as she had thought. She blushed, her hands unfolding, then clutching the legs of her jeans nervously.

“Guess you'd better keep your present. Looks like you need it, even if you aren't a baby.” Dana smirked, then left, Celeste trailing obediently. Lita stayed standing, eyes filling with tears as she bit her bottom lip to try and keep herself from crying.

Jessica glowered at the retreating forms of Dana and Celeste, hand tightening around her fork. “All right,” she said finally, her voice low and dangerous. “This means war.”

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Enzeru fell to her knees, breathing heavily, the blade of her sword digging a furrow in the mud as she went down. Two of the remaining priests of Tatsutahime rushed up to their leader, who waved them away, telling them to go look after the more seriously injured.

She struggled to her feet, wincing at the pain in her leg, and limped over to the body, keeping her sword drawn just in case the bastard still wasn't dead. He didn't move, even after she pushed his flesh roughly with the blade.

Fire was raging behind her, but there was nobody left to put it out, not if they wanted any of the injured to have any chance to survive. Enzeru couldn't bring herself to look at the ruins of what had once been her temple, didn't want the sight of the elf that had slaughtered so many of her people in her eyes anymore.

She turned away, sighting one of her warriors lying in the mud. She walked over to him, wondering if he was still alive. His eyes fluttered open as the sound of her approaching feet, and he smiled grimly, blood staining his teeth and the ground around him.

“It's finally over,” he said quietly, though he was struggling to speak as loud as he could.

Enzeru looked behind her at the elf's body, at his outstretched hand, metal claws extending from the back of his hand, where he had strapped them on, as if he had needed another way to deal death besides his sword. His fingertips were brushed against that sword, the dark blade seeming to draw the fading light of day into its depths.

“No,” she answered, smiling sadly at her dying comrade. “It's just beginning.”