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Author's Note: Here's Eleven. Things are moving along at a good pace. There are a couple more familiar faces in here plus the identity of last chapters red head. I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for the wonderful characters.

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Chapter Eleven:

I woke to the buzzing of an alarm clock, which was strange because I didn’t even know I had one. I sat up, bleary eyed and looked around the room. There it was, sitting on the little table by the bed. It wasn’t there yesterday. My grandma must have put it there and I hadn’t noticed. I threw off the covers and slowly dragged myself out of bed. I shut the alarm off first, then blundered out of the room toward the bathroom, half awake. I’m not really a morning person, especially when that morning leads to school. I was particularly dreading it this morning, more so than any other morning ever.

Back in the city, I went to a school where no one knew me, so it was easy to blend in and disappear. But here, the school was a lot smaller and a lot more likely for me to screw up. I stumbled into the bathroom, pulling the shirt over my head as I peed. Then I turned on the water and got into the shower. I often go through a morning routine on a school day on autopilot. My body seems to know what do even if my brain hasn’t caught up with it yet. I’m just glad that I remembered to strip out of my clothes this time. One morning last year, I was so tired I actually got into the shower in my shirt and boxers.

I showered for about twenty minutes, my mind still not familiar with how tender my new body was. I did notice something new this morning though. My grandma got me my own shampoo and the soap was gone, in its place were a funky sponge thing and a bottle of body wash. I suppose, when in Rome. There was a towel hanging on the back of the bathroom door for me. I grabbed it and remembered to wrap it around my whole body instead of just my waist. Then I went about brushing my teeth and throwing water in my face.

After the bathroom I went back to my room, my hair dripping wet, my body chilled.

I got dressed without thinking too much about it. In my fun---it was a little bit---I got a lot of clothes, most of them jeans and t-shirts. I’m not quite ready to wear dresses or skirts. But that didn’t stop Donna into talking me into a few. The dresses were now in the back of my closet and the skirts buried somewhere in my bottom drawer. I figured if they were out of sight then they were out of mind, too. Just as long as Donna didn’t go snooping through my drawers and pull them out, I think I could get away with not wearing them. So in getting dressed---after patting myself dry---I went with jeans and a t-shirt. To please everyone I wore a gender neutral color shirt of green. The jeans were tighter than I would have liked and I couldn’t quick figure out why girls’ socks were so small but other than that, I think I did ok with my outfit choice.

Breakfast was waiting for me when I got downstairs.

My grandma was just putting a plate of pancakes on the table as I took my usual seat. Donna was nowhere to be found. “The pancakes didn’t wake her?” I asked as I stuck a fork into the stack and placed a few on my empty plate.

My grandma poured herself a cup of coffee as she sat down. “She has late classes, so she’s going to sleep in until noon or so.”

I nodded, grabbing the syrup. My grandma had the best syrup. It was homemade, a lady a few houses down made it in her basement. I’m not sure how one made syrup but I always thought it was pretty cool. I liked to drown my pancakes in it. Today I was particularly hungry, smothering the whole plate. My grandma watched with interest as I devoured my meal, even going so far as seconds. It was during my second helping that the doorbell rang. Not wanting to interrupt, my grandma got up to get it. I heard her talking in the foyer and then two sets of people came toward the kitchen.

“She’s right in here,” said my grandma as she led Connor into the room.

I looked up and silently cursed. I forgot I told him he could pick me up in the morning. He smiled at me, his eyes going a little big at the sight of my pancake mountain. My new body apparently needed a lot of energy but to him I probably looked like a pig. Not that he was one to complain. I’ve seen him eat and his appetite would put my new one to shame. Not that you could tell by looking at him. He was all muscle, not an ounce of fat on him. Today he was wearing his Junior Varsity jacket, blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Like me, he was a t-shirt and jeans guy too.

“Damn” he said, looking at the half devoured pile of pancakes. “You umm….”

“I’m hungry,” I said, cutting off whatever he was about to say.

He smiled. My heart skipped a beat and I inwardly groaned again. Tell me I’m not going to be another one of those girls who goes weak at the knees every time Connor Kent enters a room. There were a whole slew of them that followed him around everywhere he went, hanging on everything he did. I used to tease him about it all the time. He hated it. It was funny but he was usually really shy around girls but around me---especially yesterday in the mall---he seemed like his normal, everyday self. Ok so maybe he was a little more squeaky clean this morning but he was still the same Connor that I knew and loved.

“Connor, dear, would you like some breakfast?”

I could see him salivating. It was a little known fact---ok known to me anyway---that his cousin, Kara, was a lousy cook. Her idea of dinner was giving him a twenty and sending him to the nearest fast-food restaurant. So the prospect of having a home cooked meal probably looked pretty good to Connor. He didn’t even say yes. He sat down in the empty chair next to me. My grandmother put a plate of freshly cooked pancakes in front of him. Then he lathered on the butter and the syrup and dug in. I think he was trying to compete with me, which was fine by me. He devoured his stack about as quickly as I did my first. But unlike me, there’s no seconds for him. My grandma looked a little winded, whipping up so many pancakes so quickly.

I waited until he was finished before I spoke. ‘If I can pull you awake I think we better get going.”

He nodded, said his goodbye to grandma and the two of us went out the kitchen door. He led the way around the house and toward his car. Well, truck actually. It was a beat-up old red pickup; I think it belonged to his Dad at one point. He was so happy to get it a few months ago when he turned sixteen that I don‘t think it bothered him one bit that it was a piece of shit.

He ran around to the passenger side and opened the door for me. I smiled as I climbed in, making sure I did it right. I didn’t want to act too much like a guy around him. I was stupid to allow him to pick me up. All day yesterday after our encounter in the food court, I was afraid he’d realize who I was. As much as I wanted to tell him that I was Charlie, his best friend in the whole wide world, I was afraid of how he might react. After all, it’s not every day that a guy turns into a girl; a super powered one at that. I mean how would you react if some random girl told you that she was actually your best friend transformed. I know if our roles were reversed and Connor was the hot chick telling me that I’d think she was nuts.

He climbed into the cab and started her up. It took a few times but eventually we were on the road. He turned on the heat and smiled. It was about five minutes into the ride when he decided to speak.

“How are you and Charlie related again?”

“On his Mom’s side, our mothers are sisters.”

“You’re his Aunt Vanessa’s kid?”

I bit my lip. Connor knew all about Vanessa and how she abandoned our family. Damn, why couldn’t I have said on my father’s side? Then I would have had to explain why I didn’t have a Greek accent. “My Mom is a bit of a flake” I said, “she sorta dumped me on grandma and took off again.”

“Man that’s rough” he sighed “trust me I know how that feels.”

Then he went on to explain his parental situation. I had to react like this was the first time hearing it, which was kinda weird. But even weirder was how he opened up. Before when it was me and him---the former me I mean---he never ever told me how he felt about all of it. He loved his parents even though he thought both of them were asses for leaving him. I suppose I could see where that was a problem. But his Dad did offer to bring him to California but it was Connor who wanted to stay behind. Luckily, Kara was nice enough to let him crash with her. Don’t even get me started about his Mom.

After discussing his parents, he switched to more common topics. He seemed to want to know a lot about me. So when he asked, I made up the lies on the fly. They were pretty good too, I think. Apparently my father---my fake one---met my mother when she was backpacking in Switzerland. He was a British national and like Charlie, my “parents” had a one night stand that led to my inception nine months later. As far as I knew, it could be true. From what I knew about my Aunt Vanessa, she did sound like the promiscuous type. Who knows, maybe I really do have cousins out there somewhere. The rest of it was fluff. I traveled about with Mom until she got tired of me and dumped me in Chicago. I think he bought it because it made the two of us sound like kindred spirits even more than we already were. After that, we arrived at school.

“C’mon, I’ll take you to the office so you can register.”

I let him lead me around; after all, I was the new girl. I’m not sure when it happened but as soon as we walked into the school and started toward the office, our hands were clasped. For a moment, I felt like pulling away but there was a small part of me that kinda liked it. Yeah, I know. Walking down the hall though was like walking toward my execution. There were a lot of angry girls who were glaring at me and a lot of guys who were leering. It didn’t matter that I was holding Connor’s hand. I was fresh meat as far as the male population was concerned. So it didn’t surprise me one bit with all the wolf whistles and things like that. Those made my skin crawl though. As did all the lingering stares. I was a babe, I knew that but not everything with a penis needed to remind me of it.

Connor stayed with me until we got into the office. The woman at the front desk was Mrs. Grant; she was a kind old lady. I think she and grandma were in a knitting group or something. She smiled at me when she looked up.

“Hi Mrs. G” said Connor “this is Cassie Sandsmark, Charlie’s cousin. It’s her first day; she needs to register or whatever.”

Mrs. Grant’s smile got even bigger. “I didn’t know Julia had another grandchild. My aren’t you a pretty one” She looked me up and down. “And tall too.”

“Grandma didn’t really know what to think either. My Mom sorta dropped me off on her doorstep and vanished again.”

“You’re Vanessa’s daughter?” I nodded. “I never would have thought…”

“I get that a lot.”

She smiled then looked at Connor. “You can go to class now Mr. Kent; we’ll take it from here.”

Connor nodded. “I’ll see you later. Hey, maybe we can meet up after school.”

“I’d like that.”

Damn, no I wouldn’t. But he liked it. He smiled real big then tripped a little bit as he walked backwards out the door. Mrs. Grant laughed.

“I can imagine you get that a lot,” she asked with a laugh. “What with you being so beautiful.”

I smiled. “More than I’d like.”

She laughed. Then she picked up the phone and called the principal. I suppose that was standard operating procedure. She talked for a few minutes then told me that I was free to go in. I wasn’t sure what to think. My first day and I was already being sent to the principal. I smiled at Mrs. G and walked over to the glass door that led into the principal’s office. I knocked and then I heard someone say come in. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see that he wasn’t alone. Sitting in a chair in front of his desk---dressed like I thought she might usually be---was my resident babysitter, Cameron Chase. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a tight bun on top of her head and her civvies were replaced with a nicely pressed pantsuit. The principal, Mr. Weatherbee---“The Bee” as he was sometimes called---was standing behind his desk. He was a big guy, pushing sixty with a shiny bald head, round little glasses and a barrel chest. The Bee was a former Marine and he often didn’t let you forget it. He might come across as a bit stuffy and short tempered but a lot of us respected him.

I smiled. I opened my mouth to introduce myself but he beat me to the punch. “The new Mr. Sandsmark, I assume. Welcome back to Ri…”

I cut him off, directing my shock and surprise at Cameron. “What’s going on here?”

“As per new regulations, Mr. Weatherbee has been apprised of the situation and will look out for your best interests. He understands what’s at stake here and will make sure that your former identity will remain just that, your former.”

The Bee nodded. “You have nothing to fear from me, Miss Sandsmark.”

I nodded. I hated being snowballed like this though. Here I was expecting to have a clean slate and the government was one step ahead of me. I suppose it was all right if he knew but if the others. “Are you the only one, sir?”

“None of the faculty know if that’s what you mean.”

I sighed, thankful for that. It was bad enough that he knew. I couldn’t deal with it if all the teachers kept giving me strange looks, thinking I was some kind of freak.

The Bee asked me to take a seat. I took the empty chair next to Cameron. Then he told me how things were going to work. I was to be treated like everyone else, just a normal student. I was to act like it too, making sure that I didn’t do anything that might upset the delicate nature of his fine establishment. He made me agree that I wasn’t going to do anything crazy. After that, he gave me my new school schedule and went through all that pertained there. After that, he hit a buzzer and told Mrs. G to send her in. Whoever “her” was. I turned toward the door as it opened. The girl that walked in was vaguely familiar. She was short with shoulder length dirty blonde hair and a confident smile. She was wearing a cute little pencil skirt and a pressed blouse. Like a little administrator in the making.

“Cissie” he said, smiling. “This is Cassandra Sandsmark, Cassandra; this is Cissie King-Jones”

Cissie, I remembered her now. We were in the first, third and fifth grades together. She was kinda a know-it-all but other than that she was ok, I guess. I think she might have even lived near us but I’m not sure where. We used to be sorta friends. You know how that is sometimes. We hung out but not every day. It was kinda weird for boys and girls at that age. But once we hit Middle School it was like we didn’t even know each other. Which I suppose was fine by me because Cissie was a little weird. Not in a bad way, she was just really driven.

“Cassandra, Cissie here has volunteered to show you around the school, she’ll follow you to each of your classes and pick you up afterwards.”

I nodded. Then smiled at her. She smiled back weakly. It was clear that this was her job. She was the office helper that got stuck shuffling all the new kids around for the first few days of class. I’m sure it was all in an attempt to pad her college resume.

“Are we all done here, Mr. Weatherbee?” she asked in a sing-songy voice.

I looked at Cameron and she nodded. The Bee nodded too.

“You girls have fun now.”

I turned to Cissie, getting out of my chair. Her eyes widened when she looked up at me. Yeah, I think I was going to get that a lot. Hey, look at the tall freak. It was starting to get old already.

“Lead the way.”

I let Cissie lead me through the school, pretending to be the green newbie. In truth, I think I knew the place better than she did. Not only that but she seemed to be taking me on an abridged tour. She never took me anywhere near the Gym and spent a little too much time in the library. She did show me the cafeteria and the Auditorium so I guess it wasn’t all bad. Except that I already knew all this. It was weird having someone show me a school that I knew all about. It took us the whole of first period to do it, probably would have taken longer if she didn’t just show me the places she thought were important. She finally dropped me off outside my second period classroom.

“If you want, I can meet up with you and take you to third period too?”

There was something in her voice, something I felt sorry for. If I remembered correctly, she wasn’t exactly Miss Popular. A lot of girls avoided her because they thought she was kinda stuck up. I suppose there was a possibility of that, seeing as Cissie walked around like she was better than everyone. Only spending a little time with her, I knew that not to be the case. She was a little driven but there wasn’t anything stuck up about her.

I smiled. “That would be good; I only know one another person here and I got dirty looks walking down the hall with him earlier.”

I didn’t add that he made me feel all gooey inside, something I wasn’t ready to confront yet.

She smiled. “I’ll be back here in forty minutes.”

She left, seemingly gliding away. I smiled too, glad that I made her happy. I went into the classroom and my school day started. My first class---well second of the day technically---was Math and boy was it boring. My body might have changed but apparently, my aptitude for school hadn’t. Which kinda sucked but then again, Amazons were warriors not thinkers. So I sat and pretended to listen as the Math teacher droned on and on about some boring crap. The same thing happened in my next class, which was science. Science and Math are not my subjects. When I got to fourth period English, I found some familiar faces. Connor was sitting in the back with a couple of football buddies. His eyes lit up when he saw me; I smiled weakly. Cissie was there, too and her eyes lit up too.

Both she and Connor had longing in their eyes but I chose to sit next to her. The only free seat near Connor was in front of one of his friends and there was no way I was going to have an ass sitting behind me for forty minutes. English is one of my better subjects. It helped a lot that the teacher of this class was actually a lot younger than my first two. She had a bright smile and wore a top a size too small. Charlie would have loved it but apparently, I was all girl now. I kept grumbling, wondering why some woman would subject herself to this kind of thing. I wanted to stand up in the middle of the class and tell her off. Instead, I stewed in silence. I looked around the room though, wondering if any of the other girls were offended.

My eyes locked with a familiar face. It was the red head from the track team. I hated that I couldn’t remember her name. When she and I looked at each other, I saw the look on her face. She was just as annoyed as I was. I smiled and she smiled back. It was good to see that at least one other person thought it wrong that a teacher had to objectify herself like that to get attention.

I suffered through the forty minutes with Miss Boobs. When the bell rang, everyone rushed to the door. Fifth period it would seem was when a lot of us had lunch. I got up and got to the door about the same time as Cissie. She smiled. Then that smile disappeared when she looked behind me. I turned just in time to see a tall blonde jock come walking over. He was wearing a JV jacket too, so clearly he was one of the Neanderthals on the football team. Except he didn’t look as ripped as the others, especially Connor.

“Well if it isn’t Prissy Cissie,” he said with a laugh, knocking her books out of her hand.

Cissie looked like someone had killed her cat. She bent to pick them up.

“No” I said, speaking before I could think. “This jackass is going to pick them up for you.”

The color drained from Cissie’s face. “That’s all right…I can…”

The jackass looked at me. Then looked up at me. I was at least five or six inches taller. “Butt out of this, Shrimp.”

A play on words. He laughed. I bet he thought he was pretty smart.

I smirked. I hated piss ants like him. He still continued to laugh, the only one apparently doing it. Me, I got angry and that’s never a good thing. Before I knew what was happening, I grabbed his crotch and gave his nether regions a good squeeze and twist. I didn’t apply too much pressure but it was enough to bring the bastard to his knees, tears in his eyes.

“And you called me Shrimp.”

Everyone standing around us got a good laugh, including his buddies. I locked eyes with the red head and she had the biggest smile on her face. Cissie was just mortified but she was smiling, too. I looked over at Connor. He wasn’t smiling but he seemed amused.

“Ok, Eddie” he said, pushing his way through the crowd. “Apologize to the ladies, pick up Cissie’s books then go to the nurse, I think you might want to put ice on you know where.”

I let go of the jackass’s balls. The class laughed even louder. I heard the teacher’s voice behind us asking what was going on. Eddie grabbed Cissie’s books, handing them to her quickly. He apologized softly to both of us just as Miss Boobs appeared.

“Problems, girls?”

“No problems Miss Hill” said Eddie quickly “Cissie dropped her books and I was helping her pick them up.”

Miss Hill patted his cheek. “Such a good boy, Mr. Bloomberg.”

She turned to me and winked. Then she slipped past us and down the hall.

We broke up after that. I walked out into the hall with Cissie. It didn’t take long for Connor to catch up. When he appeared behind me, Cissie flushed. Not her, too. I picked up the pace; I wasn’t in the mood right now. Connor fell into step beside me, keeping pace. I was mildly impressed.

“So you want to eat lunch with me and the guys?”

I looked over my shoulder at the guys in question. There were five or six football jocks walking behind us, missing was poor Eddie Bloomberg. Probably off to the nurse’s office.

“Maybe some other time” I said, turning back to him. “I promised Cissie I’d sit with her today.”

Connor looked crestfallen. “Hey that’s cool. Maybe tomorrow.”

I nodded and he fell behind us, going back to the “guys”, I use the term lightly for them.

Cissie led the way to the cafeteria. I followed close behind, feeling the eyes on me. It didn’t take long for what happened after English to spread. There were of murmurs as I passed. A few of girls even congratulated me; apparently, Eddie was a big ass. He was one of the few guys I didn’t actually know. I think he was probably new. When we got into the cafeteria, some of the guys put their trays over their privates and gave me a wide berth. I had to laugh at that. It was kinda cool because I also got to cut in line, bringing Cissie with me. She liked that. I don’t think she got a lot of attention. I don’t think a lot of people stuck up for her either. I remember her being bullied a lot in elementary school and middle school and it pained me because I never did anything before to help her. Well, that all changes now. There was no way I was going to stand by anymore and let anyone harass her. It was time for a clean slate. Charlie Sandsmark the Bump on the Log was gone. I was Cassie, a new person with a new outlook on life. That meant no more blending into the background.

Cissie lead us over to an empty table near the back wall, I think it was her usual spot. Nobody really looked at her but everyone looked at me. I felt a little uncomfortable but I’d deal.

“You didn’t have to do that you know,” she said, opening her little carton of milk.

“Yes I did,” I said, opening mine. “No one should treat others like that. Eddie should know better.”

Cissie smiled. “You sure told him.”

“Solidarity in the Sisterhood” I said, holding up my milk and taking a huge slug.

Corny, yes but I was feeling empowered today.

“I’ll drink to that” she said and took a smaller sip of hers.

We talked a little bit after that. Cissie started telling me all about the student government of the school. Apparently, she was on the Student Council, serving as the sophomore class representative. It was kinda boring to me but she was really passionate about it. She went on and on about this and that. Apparently, the school was busy organizing the Valentine’s Day Dance; it was a big deal. It wasn’t a formal affair or anything but a lot of the girls got a little dressy. I remember it from last year---back when I still went here as a freshman. A lot of the girls threw themselves at Connor, trying to get him to ask them. Me, I could care less. In the end, the two of us went stag. I didn’t want to go but he dragged me to it. Suffice to say being a loner at the dance, it was pretty bad.

“I’m not much for dances,” I said, causing her to frown.

“But you won’t have any problems getting a date” she said, looking over my shoulder.

I turned and saw a bunch of guys staring. They snapped away quickly. I groaned. Why couldn’t they leave me alone for even a few minutes?

“I’m not really interested.”

“You’re not,” she asked in a low whisper. “You know?”

I shook my head. “Nothing like that” Yeah, I wish. It might solve a lot of problems. “I’m just going through some stuff. I kinda changed a lot over the past few weeks.”

She nodded. “I wish puberty was that good to me.”

We had a laugh. I started telling her about some of the globetrotting I’ve done. She told me she was jealous, always wanting to travel herself. I was halfway through my vacation to Greece---making up a lot of it---when the color drained from Cissie’s face. At first, I thought my story was bumming her out until I realized she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking behind me. I turned and saw a group of girls walking toward our table, carrying trays. I recognized them immediately. The red head was in the lead followed by several other girls from the Track team.

“Hey, Miss Speedster” she said, sitting at the table. The other girls sat in the empty chairs. “I loved what you did to Eddie.”

I nodded. “He had it coming.”

She laughed. “That he did” She looked over at Cissie. “He won’t bother you again; we’ll make sure of it.”

Cissie silently nodded.

Then she turned to me. “You ran off so quickly yesterday we didn’t get a chance to talk.” She held out her hand and I shook it. “I’m Artemis by the way.”

That was her name. Artemis Something or Other, I guess her last name wasn’t really important. She was Uber Jock though. I remember her from last year, winning all those sports awards and things like that. Her friends were real sporty too. I looked from her to them and back again. They all were pretty ripped, their tight muscles visible through their bare midriffs. These girls looked to be serious athletes and why not, most of them were probably tri-athletes. I caught a match or two of theirs last year---Connor liked to watch them so he dragged me a long. They did stuff like pole vaulting and javelin throwing. It was some seriously wicked stuff.

“I’m Cassie,” I said and she nodded.

“Trust me I know.”

She introduced her friends. They all had weird Greek names too. It kinda freaked me out a bit, like they gave themselves those names or something. Knowing them, they probably did. I smiled at them but they didn’t seem to be too interested. Clearly, they were only here because Artemis was. Which was fine by me.

“I’m sorry for barging in like this,” Artemis continued “but the Coach insisted. After you impressed the hell out of her yesterday, she wanted to make sure that we hunted you down.” She pulled a card out of her pocket and placed it on the table. “She wants to see you as soon as possible.”

I looked at the card, it was the same one that Jay had yesterday. I made no move to take it. I thought about it long and hard all last night. As cool as it would be to compete on the team, I just couldn’t. It would have been an unfair advantage, me being all-super and everything. I planned on calling the coach tonight and telling her that I was flattered but not interested. But apparently, the woman was really interested in me.

I smiled. “That’s great but I’m not the competitive type.”

Artemis nodded. “Can you think about it please? We could really use you” The others nodded, they looked pretty serious. “You’ve got mad skills, you smoked me and that’s hard to do.”

I nodded. “I can do all the thinking in the world but it’s still not going to change my mind.”

Artemis wasn’t willing to let it go apparently. “One practice. Come to one practice. Tomorrow after school, we meet in the park.”

She had a pleading look in her eyes. Her cronies did too. I sighed. “One practice.”

Her face lit up. She looked like she wanted to give me a hug but pulled back at the last second. She thanked me as she stood up, her teammates stood up at almost the same time. It was kinda freaky. Then as one, they left. I looked at Cissie and rolled my eyes. She smiled and then we had a laugh.

The rest of lunch, I had to explain yesterday to her. She seemed pretty impressed but she understood not wanting to be in the spotlight. After that, lunch went by pretty quickly. The rest of the school day did too. It turns out that Eddie was in my sixth period study hall. He sat with his legs apart, a bag of ice on his crotch. I smirked when I saw him and he gave me a dirty look. My last period of the day was Home Economics, which was probably the most sexist thing ever. The guys got to do technology and I was stuck in here with a bunch of other girls. One of Artemis’ teammates was in there with me. I think she called herself Akila---real name Melissa. She had short cropped blonde hair.

She kept giving me this look throughout class, which kinda freaked me out.

When the last bell rang and I made my way out to the parking lot, Connor was waiting.

“Your chariot awaits,” he said with a laugh.

I smirked. “Sorry about earlier but I think Cissie really needed a friend.”

He nodded. “Eddie is a dick.”

I laughed at that. He figured out why I was laughing and joined in.

When I got home, I filled my grandmother in on the day-to-day school life. I neglected to tell her about poor Eddie Bloomberg though. Donna was gone; she was at class. I wasn’t sure if we were going to see her or not. I did my homework then decided to go for a run. I gave Cameron another call and Jay came by to pick me up. I kept things nice and slow for him tonight. When we were done, grandma invited him and the driver---Daniel Johnson---to dinner again.

When I went to bed, the owl was back in its tree, ever my nighttime sentinel.