Thanks as always to EoF for giving us such a great Universe to play in and to EoF, Maggie F, and Donjo for their input. Also thanks to my readers for reading my work and patiently waiting for new chapters. Also a big thanks to Maggie for helping me get into the mind of Carmilla.

There are times I wish that I could still dream. That night, as I lay in bed after the night at the club was one of those times. So many good things had happened that day; my date with Jason, seeing Natalie accepting being a girl, her and Sarah finally admitting their feelings to themselves and everyone else, but most of all that time spent with Jason in my room and being held in his arms as we lay entwined naked after we had made love. How I wished I could carry that moment with me into sleep and I smiled as I drifted off, trying to hold that moment as long as I could.

No dreams came but I did smile as I came back to wakefulness and thought about the day before. I spent the morning lazing about in my room talking with Silphia about the previous day and learning what she could tell me about Aos Sidhe laws. Their laws seemed to be mostly feudal system in nature and my status would allow me to petition the Queen or an Arbitrator for to redress any wrongs done to me by others in the Summer or Winter Courts. Near noon I received a call from Natalie and seeing her number on my display I quickly picked up and heard her say, “Hi Kay.”

“Hey Nat, congrats on last night,” I replied. “It’s good to see you and Sarah admitting to how you feel about one another. You looked great in that dress by the way; I knew there was a girl inside you somewhere. So was last night a one-time thing or are grey hoodies a thing of the past?”

I heard a sigh on the other end, “That’s what I was calling to talk to you about actually. I woke up this morning and realized that I spent the night in a sexy dress, admitting I was a girl and the world didn’t end this morning.”

I grinned and quickly responded, “Very true Nat, the sun did rise this morning. See, being seen as a girl isn’t so bad and doesn’t change who you are inside as you demonstrated very well last night.”

She groaned and I imagined that she had been hearing that a lot since getting out of bed. “Okay I admit it, you were all right, I can be a girl and still be me. Which brings me to my problem…”

I laughed and interrupted her, “Let me guess, you just realized that your wardrobe is barren except for last night’s exceptional outfit, some jeans, and grey hoodies?”

“Ummm yeah,” was her response. “Not totally barren, I have a few blouses and a skirt my mom bought the night we bought the dress. Anyway Sarah and Bailey want to take me shopping for new clothes today. Since I never spent much of the money I was given for new clothes when I first changed, they’re talking about a whole new wardrobe. I need someone sane to come with us and keep them from going too far.”

I broke down in a fit of giggles for several minutes before managing to finally get control of myself. “Let me get this straight? I’m your go-to girl for sanity and not going too far fashion-wise? You poor girl.”

“Okay Gothzilla, I will admit that was not well thought out,” Nat retorted dryly. “But I was still hoping you’d come hang out with us, we’ve hardly seen each other except for school recently. Sarah also wanted to hang out with her best gal pal and Bailey was looking forward to getting to know you better.”

I looked at the clock and sighed. “I’d really love to Nat and if it were any other day I would come along and drag you into Oh My Goth for a makeover. Unfortunately today isn’t a good day for me, Genevieve has me booked for this afternoon to meet someone ‘really important’ and I still have medical textbooks to go through.”

“Damn,” Natalie replied, “We were all looking forward to having you come. Maybe we can plan something for next weekend?”

“Sure Nat, we can all do something then,” I agreed.

“So who’s this important person Genevieve wants you to meet? Some kind of Unseen?” she asked.

I shrugged and muttered, “I have no idea, she won’t tell me yet. I think it may be an Unseen but it could be some kind of doctor to help with my Healing training or something. Genevieve knows a lot of odd people.”

“Yeah she lives with one of the oddest people I know,” my friend joked.

“Very funny coming from the girl who went from emo to the hottest girl in the club last night in one day,“ I retorted. “Not to mention that sense of humor of yours, which I would assume has something to do with Eric’s declaration last night that there is no gene pool.”

“I am a perfectly normal formerly male girl,“ Natalie answered with all seriousness, though I could practically hear her smirking. “I blame both those incidents on Bailey. She was the one who introduced me to Eric and Mike as my cousin Jean when they didn’t recognize me, and she helped choose the outfit. Besides, you know you were the hottest girl there last night, you’re just being modest.”

I looked at the clock again and wished I had some idea when this afternoon I was supposed to meet this person and where. “Okay I admit it, I was the hottest girl there last night but you were a close second. I should let you go though and figure out what to wear to meet a person who I know absolutely nothing about.”

“Oh please, you’ll just wear the kind of stuff you usually do Kay. I’ll call you later and let you know how it goes. Have fun meeting the mystery person,” she said.

“Talk to you later Nat, you girls have fun,” I replied as I disconnected the call.

After talking to Nat I decided to get dressed in my usual Goth wear and started up my laptop to create an IM account for my new identity. Then I added Sarah’s, Jackie’s, and Becky’s IM info to my contacts list to wait their approval. Becky happened to be on at the time and immediately approved my friends request and we talked for a few minutes about what I had learned about Aos Sidhe laws while she set me up with an account for the Unseen Teen message board.

Around two o’clock we had to cut our conversation short as Genevieve called me downstairs and Silphia and I headed down to see if the person I would be meeting had arrived. I hadn’t heard a knock so I wasn’t terribly surprised when my maker had me come join her in her office. She had pulled up an extra chair behind her desk beside her own and motioned for me to join her as she explained, “Due to special circumstances we couldn’t arrange a face to face meeting. It would have required travel and likely would have been dangerous for both of us.”

I nodded as I gave Silphia a quiet command to stay out of sight as I made my way behind the desk to sit in the extra chair. If this was an Unseen I was meeting then I wasn’t sure how they would react to the sight of the Pixie should they be able to see her. “So am I meeting this person online then? I’m dying to find out what this is all about,” I said with a grin as I took my seat.

Genevieve rolled her eyes, “As you can hear Mother, she inherited Carly’s sense of humor.” Then once I was seated beside her she made the introductions. “Kayla, this is Carmilla, my maker and this is Kayla my little problem child.”

It was said as a joke and with an affectionate smile so I didn’t take any offense to it as I looked at the woman on the computer screen and said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

Carmilla looked me over with a gaze that seemed to assess both my appearance and my potential. “I must admit to some curiosity about the person who had my Genevieve so enraptured that she just had to turn you. I was saddened to hear of Carly’s death, but such are the consequences for our kind when we do not practice discretion.” I had never thought that I would ever meet a woman that could beat Genevieve in the looks department, but Carmilla did. If I was still attracted to women I doubt I’d be able to take my eyes off of her as she gave off a sort of femme fatale vibe. Her dark red hair and piercing green eyes alone would be enough to hold any man’s attention, and she had a strange accent that made me wonder if she was originally from France, Belgium or some other European nation.

Her eyes focused solely on me as she said the last and I sank back into my chair even as I nodded sadly. “That was a hard lesson to learn, and I am deeply sorry that it cost Carly her life. I didn’t know her long but she was a very special woman.”

“Keep that lesson in mind Kayla, especially when feeding,” the elder Vampire advised. “I am glad that you and Genevieve have managed to get yourself out of that situation and somewhere relatively safe.”

“I was wondering though, why didn’t Genevieve just bring me to that Ravencrest place?” I asked. “I mean she mentioned someone named Wisteria but she never really went into detail.”

“It was wise of Genevieve not to bring you here,” Carmilla replied. “Genevieve must live her own life now. Here in Ravencrest we maintain a delicate balance between my daughters and Wisteria’s. If you and Genevieve had come here Wisteria would have seen you as a threat and it could have broken that balance. I have no wish to break the balance here; we are not ready for a war with Wisteria.”

I wondered if it was just my imagination or if there was a silent ‘yet’ tagged on to the end of that sentence. “Okay, I think I get that, but why even get in contact with us if you are worried about that balance?”

“I just wanted to be sure that my daughter and her daughter are safe for the moment. What are your plans now Genevieve?” she directed her own question to my maker once she had answered mine.

“We plan to stay here for the time being,” Genevieve replied. “We have a pretty good thing going here. We have made alliances with the island’s other Unseen and I have a place on the Unseen Council. The rules we have been asked to abide by are not unlike our agreements in Ravencrest and the people here need a good psychologist for Unseen matters.”

“Do you have anything to add to that Kayla? The woman on the screen asked.

“I wasn’t sure about this at first,” I admitted. “But we are in a good place here. I’m even learning medicine from other Unseen so that I can better control my Healing ability, so I think its best we stay where we are for now.”

If Carmilla was surprised to learn of my Healing ability it certainly didn’t show on her face. I would have hated to play poker against that woman. She betrayed absolutely no emotion at all from that revelation. “Healing ability?” she said, “I would like to know more about this.”

I considered how much I should tell her before responding, “Yes ma’am, I discovered it when my friend Sarah got injured. It saved her life. At first the Witch community thought I might be a Witch like my human mother but it turns out that our family has a long line of Healers as well and I’m one of those. I can’t use magic but I’m awesome at Healing injuries and poisons and stuff like that.”

“Have you discovered any limitations to this ability?” she asked with a lift of one elegant eyebrow.

I quickly shook my head as I thought about that. “Not that I know of. There are a few conditions I am having issues trying to Heal but Dr. Brand thinks that it could just be because I need to know more about how the body works before I can Heal things with causes that aren’t immediately obvious to me. Sarah had a broken ankle and severe head wound and Marie was poisoned. Both those cases were pretty obvious to my Healing senses.”

“It is fortunate for you both that you are so far away from Ravencrest. Wisteria may still see you as a threat if she ever hears about your ties to one of my daughters and your abilities, but out there you are out of her direct reach. And who is Marie?” Carmilla asked. “Is she another of your friends?”

I mentally cursed my slip of the tongue. I knew I couldn’t outright lie while sitting next to Genevieve but so far I had avoided telling her about my new connection to the Sacred. “She is the infant daughter of one of the Sacred and my Goddaughter.”

“Goddaughter? Genevieve turned to stare at me. “I thought you said that was only a possibility, why didn’t you tell me about this before?”

“I… uh… didn’t think it was important,” I replied as I sank back into my chair again. “I mean you already knew about the Sacred taking an interest in me with them sending a Pixie to be my Guardian, and you knew it was a possibility. I just figured that Marie’s mother giving me a magic ring to mark me as her sister under their laws wasn’t a big deal given what you already knew was possible. And Nat told me that having connections to the Sacred isn’t exactly something you like to advertise, even to other Unseen.”

“Kayla, these are the types of things I need to know as your legal guardian. I can’t protect you if I don’t know what’s going on with you.” She sighed and shook her head. “I think you should probably get back to studying while I give Carmilla more details about our situation here.”

“It was nice speaking with you Kayla, perhaps we will do so again another time,” Carmilla said with a smile.

“Umm… sure, it was nice meeting you Carmilla,” I replied uncertainly as I stood up and left the room.

As I headed back upstairs with Silphia once again riding on my shoulder, I heard Genevieve say, “Was I ever that much of a handful?” I sighed and continued on to my room to think about the meeting I had just had, and the woman known as Carmilla.

Becky was still online when I returned upstairs and I decided that rather than going right back to studying I would talk with her for a bit longer. Instead of getting back on the IM program though I decided to look at the contact list on the message board and give her a call. “Hey Becky, It’s Kayla, I thought it might be nice to talk normally rather than through our IMs.”

“Hi Kay,” she responded cheerfully. “I guess you’re all done with the mysterious meeting then?”

I sighed as I thought once again of the woman I had just met. “Yeah, Genevieve wanted me to meet my grandmaker.”

“Grandmaker?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yeah, Genevieve was the one who turned me and this Carmilla woman turned her,” I explained. “We talked in a video chat and damn is that woman hard to read. I’m not really sure if I should be terrified of her or glad I’m on the other side of the continent and not her enemy. I slipped up and mentioned not only my Healing ability but also my Goddaughter and my ties to the Sacred. She seemed interested in the Healing thing but it was hard to tell just how much.”

There was a thoughtful humming sound before Becky asked, “How in the world do you let something like that slip in a conversation with a stranger?”

“I was nervous,” I pointed out, “And she seemed concerned about us. I tried to avoid certain topics but they are interconnected and once asked I couldn’t lie with Genevieve there.”

“”Yeah my mom mentioned that ability of hers,” the Novice Witch replied. “The Coven was pretty excited over it actually, they can think of all sorts off uses for it. I imagine it’s not quite as exciting when the person with that ability is your guardian.”

“You can say that again,” I agreed. “She was pretty upset that I kept the ring thing from her I think, but how the hell does someone start that conversation? ‘Hi Gen, oh by the way I’m now magically bonded to a Sacred that you know nothing about, heir to whatever she owns, and bound to raise her half Sacred child if anything ever happens to her.’ Our lives were crazy enough as it was. I think what worries me most is that I’m worried that revealing these things to a Vampire I have very little knowledge about will come back to bite me in the ass later.”

“Can you do anything about it now?” Becky pressed.

“Probably not,” I admitted with a sigh.

“Then try not to worry about it for now,” she advised. “If something happens we’ll deal with it when it happens.”

“We?” I wondered aloud.

“You’re one of us now Kayla and on Sena Island we Unseen teens stick together.” Then with a sad sigh she added, “When we can be seen doing it anyway.”

“It sounds like you have something bothering you too,” I replied. “If you want to talk about it, I have really good hearing.”

There was a long pause on the other end before she finally spoke again. “I know that this whole misdirection through truth thing was my idea but I’m not sure if it’s really working anymore. I had a girl come up to me and ask how I figured out that you were a Vampire.”

I groaned at that. “I would imagine that was Megan and don’t worry it’s nothing you did wrong, she just really wants me to be a Vampire.”

“Well that’s a relief, but this whole thing has gotten me thinking recently. For the past three years I’ve been a social pariah in school. None of the Norms will dare be seen with ‘Crazy Becky’ unless it’s to bully me, and I can’t spend any time at all with my Unseen friends. Friday night was nice and I enjoyed hanging around with some of my friends. I even thought of going to that new club on Saturday night but what would be the use if I can’t be seen with any of you. I’m doing this to protect us all but I feel so alone sometimes.” I could hear sniffling on the other end as she admitted this.

“I thought you said that we stick together and protect one another,” I told her seriously, “Maybe we should start doing a little more of that. You don’t have to be alone to make the whole misdirection through truth thing work. We’re in high school, and there are a lot of people who don’t fit into the usual cliques. Misfits may all be different, but people sort of expect the misfits to hang out together because nobody else will have them. You could always just be the quirky friend who tells tall tales. Then we have Sarah who just doesn’t seem to care about social status, Jason the gentle giant, Natalie the hot tomboy lesbian, and of course I’m the eccentric Goth genius. None of us really fits in at school. Hell, your misdirection ploy will work better if you’re heard telling friends your ‘crazy stories’ and having us laugh good naturally about them.”

“I guess you could be right about that,” she said with another sniffle. “But how are we going to make people believe that you all suddenly want to be friends with me after the rumors I’ve started about you?”

“Leave that to me; just go wait for me at Gino’s, I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

“But it’s Sunday afternoon,” she argued, “Gino’s will be packed.” I could tell that she was nervous. At school at least there were rules to follow so she never got more than the occasional ribbing there, especially since her mom was the principal. But out of school there was nothing stopping her peers from being jerks. Of course she could have used magic to protect herself but from what I’d seen and heard Becky didn’t appear the type to use her abilities irresponsibly and took keeping the Unseen a secret very seriously.

“Trust me Becky, I’ll handle it,” I assured her. “Just wait at the counter and have a slice of pizza like you were out window shopping or something. I’m going to call Jason and we should be going to Gino’s soon for a date I think.”

“Well isn’t that a coincidence,” she replied sounding uncertain. But she also sounded a little more positive than she had been a few minutes earlier.

We disconnected the call and I phoned Jason’s cellphone. He picked up on the second ring and sounded happy to hear from me as he answered, “Hi Kay, I really enjoyed our date yesterday. What’s up? I thought you had a meeting today or something.”

“I had a great time too,” I said with a grin as I thought about the day before. “The meeting is over and I’m still trying to figure out what to make of the woman. That’s not important right now though. Are you free for a fake date?”

“I’m free,” he replied with a chuckle, “But I was hoping that after yesterday I’d have earned another real date.”

“You’ll get one, just not right now. Right now I need you to pretend to take me to Gino’s for a date. You get to show off your new girlfriend and we get to help Becky too.”

“I’m all for showing you off, but what does this have to do with Becky?” he asked.

I started getting my boots on as I explained. “I just got off the phone with her and this not having any friends thing is really getting to her. She shouldn’t have to suffer for us all like that. I managed to convince her she can still make it work if she hangs out with a bunch of other social misfits.”

“And what better social misfit than you,” Jason joked as he caught on.

“Well us anyway; the two of us, Nat, and Sarah are a pretty weird group,” I agreed. “I told Becky to go wait for us at Gino’s and make it look like she was window shopping or something.”

I could have heard a pin drop when Jason realized what that meant. Finally he replied, “But it’s Sunday afternoon, Gino’s will be packed with teens. That’s like sending a lamb into a pack of wolves.”

“Which is exactly why we’re going to be there to rescue her,” I pointed out as I started lacing my boots. “I would have asked Nat and Sarah to help but they’re out with Bailey making sure that Nat has something other than jeans and grey hoodies to wear to school tomorrow.”

“I’ll be ready to go by the time you get here,” Jason assured me as I finished tying my boots and stood up.

“Good, I’m heading out the door now.” I shouldered my purse and made my way downstairs where I told Genevieve that I was off to help out a friend and get something to eat before heading outside and climbing into the Mustang.

Gino’s really was packed when Jason and I walked in and I had Silphia remain out of sight just in case. There was a large crowd gathered around the counter and right at the center of it was Becky dressed in her usual jeans and sweater combination and looking very nervous. I didn’t know many of the teens there very well yet but I did immediately recognize Eric and his friend Mike, as well as Paula Leeds. The latter was someone that Tara and Janice from my gym class had pointed out to me and warned me about. She wasn’t as pretty as Moriko, Natalie, or myself but she was very good looking by Norm standards and considered herself to be the top of Sena High’s social pecking order. She also liked to make sure that everyone else knew it.

It was Paula that was currently the loudest of those harassing Becky, “I thought I told you to tell us a story Becky, we all want a good laugh.” Some of the other girls with her giggled at that and Paula, encouraged by her friends actually shoved Becky, “Come on Becky, give us a laugh.”

I practically snarled and could feel my fangs start to emerge as I saw the blonde bitch shove my fellow Unseen. Jason had to put a restraining hand on my shoulder as he whispered, “Easy, you don’t need to use violence. Beat her at her own game.”

I took a calming breath and stepped forward. “If you want a laugh Paula, go find a mirror. What is this some sort of witch hunt? You’re all so fucking brave ganging up on one girl.”

“Stay out of this freak, it doesn’t involve you.” Eric warned me.

“I think I’ll decide what involves me and what doesn’t,” I said as I glowered at the jock. “And when I see fifteen people picking on one girl then I decide that it involves me.”

“And whatever involves my girlfriend involves me,” Jason said from behind my shoulder.

Paula sneered at me, “You’re sticking up for this nerd? After the rumors she was starting about you? You could be as pretty and popular as me if you tried and dressed better. You’re still new here so I’ll give you some advice. You really should be thinking about who you want to be seen with and trust me Batty Becky isn’t someone you want to be seen with.”

“I may be new here but I don’t think having a good imagination is a crime and you have a pretty distorted scale where looks are concerned since we both know I’m twice as hot as you’ll ever be,” I said, giving her a taste of her own medicine. “I think I’d rather be seen with her than you since I think she’ll probably be just as good looking as you with the right style, and she seems a whole lot better looking on the inside.”

“How dare you compare me to her!” she shrieked as she stepped forward to slap me.

I caught her wrist easily and let go of it as I replied, “No, I don’t think Becky would take too kindly to being compared to a bitch like you.”

“She’s right Paula, leave Becky alone,” said a familiar voice from behind me. A moment later I saw Megan shuffling past me and through the crowd and placing herself between Becky and her tormentors. I had to hand it to her; the girl had guts, facing a bunch of older kids with her condition. “Becky’s never hurt anybody and it’s not like anyone actually believes her stories.”

“So the school freaks all decide to stick together,” Paula sneered at Megan. “You wouldn’t be so brave if your daddy wasn’t the sheriff Twitchy.” That surprised me. Sena Island is too small and out of the way for a regular RCMP detachment so we have a sheriff, but I hadn’t known that he was Megan’s father.

“But she is my daughter,” said another voice from the doorway. “Now you all better be getting back to whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing before I decide to bring some of you in for disturbing the peace.” The speaker was of course Sheriff Damon Gibson, I had met him briefly during my time as Keith but since I wasn’t much of a lawbreaker before leaving for Toronto it had only been in passing.. He was a tall and muscular blond man in probably his mid-thirties and at the moment he was wearing jeans and a brown leather jacket. There was a woman with him too, slender with brown hair and dark brown eyes who smelled very similar to Jason.

The crowd quickly dispersed and once everything was quiet again the Sheriff said, “It’s nice to see you kids sticking up for your own. Are you okay Miss Lawson?”

Becky nodded and smiled, “Yessir, it’s nothing I’m not used to.”

“Folks shouldn’t be used to being bullied Miss Lawson. We were about to have a nice family dinner together, why don’t you three join us. Megan seems quite taken with you Miss Dunn and I’m beginning to see why. Would you mind if I have a quick word with you alone while your friends help Megan and Sandy find a table for us?” he asked.

Oh this can’t be good, I thought to myself as I plastered a smile on my face and replied, “Sure Sheriff Gibson.” Then I turned to Becky and Jason and gave them a brief nod, “You guys go on ahead.” Then I let Megan’s dad lead me outside to his patrol car where we got inside and he smiled at me. “Well if it isn’t one of our new town Vampires. I heard you got in a bit of trouble back east with some old friends of mine.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, blinking in surprise.

“The Order of the Sacred Heart must have wanted you or someone you were with dead real bad to send that many Hunters after you. In my younger, dumber, days I was one of them,” he explained. “Then I started realizing that most Unseen are just like the rest of us, they want to live normal lives. Have you ever heard of a little town called Snow Creek?”

I shook my head wondering just where this was going. “No,” I responded as I decided to take the initiative in this conversation. “Is that where you met your wife? It seems odd for a former Hunter to be married to a Were, she smells sort of like a Moose.”

“She’s a Deer actually,” he said with a shrug. ”And you probably never will hear of Snow Creek except in old news reports, but yes that’s where we met. I was with a group of fifteen Hunters assigned to investigate the village for Unseen just over thirteen years ago. It was a small commune, up in northern British Columbia, barely more than two hundred people, a lot of young families who wanted to get away from city life, and at least half of them were Unseen. It was mostly lesser Weres but there were some Witches and other Unseen as well. They were just good people enjoying life and living off the land. Not a one of them were the monsters that I had been led to believe, the real monsters were the people I came there with. When the killing started my team didn’t care which of them were Unseen and which were human, they were even killing the children.”

“So what happened?” I asked, wondering what the point of this story was.

“My eyes were opened and I tried to help as many of the people escape as I could. With Sandy’s help I managed to gather up about three dozen people, mostly children, and we fled for the woods. On our way out of town I heard a baby crying and I found her hidden away in some bushes. With so many young families there were several baby girls in town so we weren’t sure whose she was, but she was alone so I brought her with us. Once we had helped the others reach safety Sandy and I headed south with the baby and heard about Sena island from a Selkie. We came here, got married, and have been raising Megan as our own ever since.”

“And you’re keeping her in the dark about the Unseen? No offense but my birth parents did the same with me and it didn’t turn out so great.” I had to force myself not to clench my fists.

“We just wanted her to live a normal life until she discovers her own heritage, if she has one. It’s entirely possible that she is a Norm. Then the doctors discovered she has ALS. I heard that you’re a Healer, can you do anything for her?”

“I need to learn more about how the human brain and nervous system works,” I replied with a sigh. “I’m studying that as much as I can because I like Megan and she really doesn’t deserve to suffer like she is. Even if I can cure her it’s going to take some time because at the moment I just don’t know enough.”

“I appreciate that, and how you’ve been looking out for her and trying to gently push her away from the Vampire obsession. I may not be her biological father but I have raised Megan since she was a baby and she’s my girl.” He really did love her and that and his worry for her was written all over his face. “I need to tell you though that if you go bad, if you harm Megan or anyone else on this island without a damn good reason, I will stake you myself. Are we clear?”

And there it was. I couldn’t blame him for it, I could even understand why. I might be a Healer but I also had the potential to become something terrible if I gave in too much to my baser instincts and desires. “Crystal clear sir, I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want to get a handle on this whole Unseen thing and live my life.”

“I’m glad we understand one another, you seem like a good kid so as long as you stay out of trouble we should get along just fine.” He gave me a friendly slap on the back and smile and we both headed back into Gino’s. I think that we were both relieved to have that conversation over with.

Jason, Becky, and I stayed with the Gibson family for a bit just making small talk as everyone but me ate. We excused ourselves early though and I gave Becky a ride home while Jason sat in the back seat. To my surprise, as we stopped outside the Lawson house Becky leaned over and hugged me. “Thanks Kayla, I don’t know how much longer I could have played the social pariah role, it’ll be good to have friends I can be seen with again. The witch hunt comment was especially good by the way.” The last was said with a grin.

I returned the grin with one of my own, “Well I thought that turnabout is fair play. See you at school tomorrow Becky.”

The next few weeks were quiet and surprisingly normal as Valentine’s Day approached. Becky was still telling tall tales but at least now she didn’t have to do it alone and people tended believe what she said even less when those of us that Becky was with found it terribly funny. Natalie was a bit worried that someone seemed to be watching her but we were making sure that someone was always around to keep an eye on her and she was getting a lot of attention now that the grey hoodies were a thing of the past. She and Sarah still only had eyes for one another though, and personally I thought they were cute together. Bailey even started hanging around with our little troupe a bit more and I found that I liked her wicked sense of humor a lot.

As for me I settled into a pattern of school in the mornings, then to the clinic and the Book Mark. After work I would grab dinner and study or spend time with Jason, or one of my new friends including sometimes visiting Megan, though the latter was often to quietly scan her and see if I had learned anything new that might help me to treat her. On weekends I would split my time between studying medicine and dates with Jason. We had even managed to bang out all the dents in the Charger and he was planning on painting it a nice black once we got it fully restored. All good things must come to an end though and our quiet time soon would as well as Valentine’s Day came up fast and with it events that would throw us into chaos once again.