Welcome to Gaia! ::

This is how far Kieran and I got. Skim/read accordingly; it's not that much.

"Bye, Henry," said the sixteen-year-old girl, stepping out from the revolving door of the apartment building and squinting in the autumn sunlight shining down on Amsterdam Avenue. She adjusted the strap of her messenger bag and walked up the sidewalk, cutting directly through the Columbia University campus on her way to Arne High School. Her knees stung; both were bruised.

That damn Sun, he told me to grab the wood-fox, it wasn't "that fast" and Jesus, what a mess, she thought, skirting a puddle. But at least I got it.

At a glance, Lian Hua Yu certainly stood out from a majority of all the other black-eyed, black-haired Asians out there. She'd taken Japanese pop stars as her role models and consequently dyed her hair a dark red, while at the same time putting in tinted blue contacts for her myopia, which often led people to question her ethnicity. She'd heard enough "Is that your real eye color?" to last a lifetime.

But karma had a nasty habit of biting people in the a**. Lian had initially been ashamed of her Chinese heritage in elementary and middle school, where people teased her about her "slanted eyes". But it decided to repay her in the oddest way possible. That bracelet that she'd gotten for her sixteenth birthday turned out not only to release a hyper, screaming monkey that could turn himself large or small at will, but also scattered fifteen different monster summons all throughout New York City when the monkey had popped out. He'd automatically blamed her, of course, saying it was her duty as a Summoner to bring them back to her bracelet. Well, she'd been running around New York City at night for four straight months now and so far, she'd only collected two. Well, whatever. Lian had always thought those anime magical girl shows had been pretty cool, anyway.

Lian opened the door to homeroom and took a seat across from Trinka, her best friend, the one she shared every secret with, including this one. Trinka grinned at her, knowing full well why she looked so fatigued and offered her some coffee, which Lian gladly accepted.

The merciless class schedule began as usual, but the routine was broken on this particular day so that the instructor could introduce a new student. He bore the odd name of Kaen Marshall and didn't seem to be the least bit interested in his first day of school.

"I think he has a staring problem," Trinka quipped, always reluctant to let new people into the school "circle". They had to earn their way in.

Lian shrugged, too tired to notice anything unusual about the guy, other than he was tall. Really tall. And had long hair. She put her face down on her desk and it was not until she heard her name that she raised it.

"Take the seat behind Miss Lian Yu, who will so kindly point it out when she wakes up from her little nap," said the teacher.

"Here," Lian muttered, coloring and raising her hand.

The new boy took his place without any apparent enthusiasm.

"He creeps me out," Trinka whispered loudly, making her friend giggle and then roll her eyes.

Kaen's eyes had risen to glare at Lian's head whether he had heard her or not.

"He's STARING at you."

"I know," Lian hissed, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. What the hell is up with this guy?

But Kaen wasn't so much staring at Lian as he was staring at her ring, but soon enough he turned away and let the rest of the period pass without drawing attention to himself.

"So like, what the s**t was up with the new kid?" asked Trinka as they made their way across the courtyard on their lunch break. Lian shrugged.

"He gives me creepy vibes."

"You've said that enough," Lian snapped, moving a hand over her mouth to cover her yawn. The ring bounced against her wrist, making her even more aware of her secret task.

Lian shook her head. "Although knowing that stupid monkey, he's probably just ******** with me like the first time." She bit a nail. "Why don't the juniors get off-campus lunch priveleges? Why do they only give it to the SENIORS? Dammit! But I brought those cakes you like so much from the bakery in Flushing," she added, pulling the container out of her bag. "Is, is he like, STILL staring at us?"

"Johnny Depp from a timewarp," Lian quipped. "No, I think that was Will Jensen. Some jock." She wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Don't even think about it, Trinka, jocks are gross."

The boy had approached incognito and glared at Trinka.

"I wouldn't stare," he said curtly in even tone, "if she didn't have something that doesn't belong to her."

"I've only got a five finger discount... 5 times times in my life.. all when I was younger!" She blocked her friend and glared "We have NOTHING that DOESNT belong to us" She stared up at him, no matter how tell he was, she was about ready to kick him in the face.

"Wh-what?!" Lian was sharply taken aback. She clutched her bracelet defensively. "I don't know what you're talking about." Her mouth felt very dry and she had to choke the words out.

((o_O Waiiiit... this is a school in the middle of NYC...))