Carmen The Chosen

Carmen walked into her stupid swim meet, an event she simply could not stand. She couldn’t believe her mother was making her do these stupid meetings. She’d been looking forward to an empty summer all through May, with plenty of time for electronica and story typing. Naturally, of course, her mother just had to shatter that dream, making her go to the swim meets every day for almost four long, torturous hours. But that had been two months ago. School would be starting soon—as in tomorrow. This was her last swim meet. Since she was always so lucky (hysterical laughter) she’d hopefully never have to do it again. She clicked her tongue, tapped her foot, and gave off a general aura of impatience as she waited for the class to start. The same annoying group of girls showed up all at once, giggling, laughing, and doing everything else that all annoying girls do, just as always. Her swim instructor was screaming off somewhere, just as always. Those two aspects were what she really hated about the swim meets—not the swimming. But, of course, the girls made themselves annoying at every available opportunity (which was basically all the time) and her swim instructor found her plenty of way to really, really hate the swim meets. Carmen stared blankly at the bottom of the pool. There was a T-shaped mosaic of tile under the heavily chlorinated water, easily seen. She gazed at it intently, like she was trying to communicate with it. There was something really strange about the object she didn’t quite get. Something mysterious, mystical...not right. This is what all tiles under the pool are like, I shall have you know. An electronica (Carmen always called dance music electronica, so I will as well) song played through her head, not quite as if she was remembering the song and yet not quite as if she was listening to it, which she really obviously wasn't, not only for obvious reasons, but also because even faint as it was she could easily pick out the singer. And the song didn't exist. Period. The time sensation was off, too. Not off like as in, "Time freeze! I shalt opposite of age!", more like "Where the freak did my clock go?". There was no clear linear forward direction, more like back and forth, but irregular. It was hard to explain, even to her own mind. It was much easier just to, you know, go with it. "Oy—You swimming anytime soon? There’s a line, you know. Get moving," yelled her obnoxious swim instructor. Carmen made a face. She was forever making faces, just like she was forever being sarcastic and using stupid phrases. Well, sure, she really needed something to awaken her, but there could have been something a little more—oh, lets say polite. Or forget the polite—someone would be in a hard scramble to find a time when Carmen was outwardly polite—but something at least resembling politeness. In the barest of terms. Ah, whatever. Carmen climbed onto the diving board. Indeed, there was at least three quarters of the class behind her. Carmen put her arms up, did a sarcastic dance (Carmen could put sarcasm in anything if she put her mind to it) and jumped into the water. She spun around in the water upon impact, and the same group of annoying girls giggled and pranced. The teacher ignored them. Because that's just our world. Or Carmen’s world. Because Carmen felt like she lived in a really crummy world just about then. It didn’t help that her stupid teacher was making ridiculous demands. As usual, he assigned the group of girls two laps and Carmen ten in the same frame of time I hate my life, Carmen thought to herself as she shot off toward the other edge of the pool. Not being able to see anything, with her lack of goggles (and the way-too-chlorinated pool), she banged into the wall face-first. I really hate my life, she amended. She finished the laps quickly, ticking each one off much faster than at the beginning of the summer. She actually really enjoyed swimming, even though it was only seventy degrees out. Carmen usually spent her summer in southern California, Arizona, or somewhere around there, rather than in Southern Oregon where her home was. She was used to hotter summers. "You! Lere! Why aren’t you out?" I hate him. I hate those girls. I hate this stupid pool, she thought angrily as she pulled herself out, splashing water everywhere. She smiled with savage delight as she soaked her swim teacher. Heh heh heh. Then she went back to being angry, shooting another Carmen face. Carmen could talk really, really well just using her facial expressions and gestures. She was very dramatic. "You Lere, are two seconds late. Bad." He stretched out the "a" so he sounded like a sheep. Carmen rolled her eyes and made a big show of pulling her feet out of the water, splashing it everywhere again, primarily on the swim instructor. Carmen was really mad now—no, it wasn’t enough that she had to meet ridiculous demands; she also had to meet them to the last second! God, she hated this place, and swimming. It’s not like it really matters anyway, she told herself. And it didn’t. The only person it mattered to was her swim teacher—and Carmen would wish any disappointment on him she could. He was really strange in two main ways—first, he always picked one person each year to hate. And because of Carmen’s totally stellar luck (hysterics), she had to be the one he hated (before she started being sarcastic every possible opportunity). And the second was just the way he looked, though not just because of his features. His eyes were way blacker than natural, like he used contacts on them. And even though he was outside every day for three and a half months –even if they weren't the warmest months ever—he was always the same whitish super-pale. Basically everyone signing up for the swim team made prayers not for him to be the instructor. Thank god it’s almost over, she thought, splashing one of the annoying girls. They were practically floating, they had so much time. Carmen probably could have relaxed, too—the whole swim thing ended tomorrow. Usually Carmen had a lot of freedom during summer time—just like during school, when she stayed home by herself (except for her annoying brother) 90% of the waking hours (and during the other ten her mother spent locked in her office). This summer, however, her parents had cancelled their vacation and it was really getting Carmen's nerves. At least they hadn't called off work, though. Her mother hadn't worked part-time since she was ten. For now Carmen decided she would get to know the black T shape at the bottom of the pool. She stared at it intently, waiting for everyone else to finish. Anger seemed to make the water pulse irregularly, too violently somehow, the surface vibrating and shaking like there was a minor earthquake. Though, of course, it wasn’t like it was the first time things like that had happened—things vibrating when they weren’t, and hearing noises of things breaking when they actually weren’t. Carmen was used to it by now. It wasn’t like she could do much to control her imminent insanity, anyway. It had been a few minutes, and still most people weren’t finished. It was starting to get hot, and Carmen was already completely dry. Still not really thinking, she jumped into the pool. She was very relaxed now, focusing more on the cool water than swimming. Which was a mistake. She sank. She struggled, choking, but she was kind of stuck. Which is always the ideal situation you want to be in—you know, stuck underwater, not being able to surface despite being able to swim. Not. Pretty convinced she was going to die regardless, she took a breath. Nothing happened, except that she didn’t feel desperate for breath. She could breathe fine in the water (????). She could only maintain this trick for about ten seconds (or was her perception, anyway) before she could swim—and needed air. Rushing up, she accidentally swallowed about a gallon of water (Yum—water with so much chlorine in it, you could smell it in the locker rooms. Literally), and the staring of all the kids. Carmen started coughing from the water. That stuff was nasty! "Whoa! Are you, like, okay?" cried one of the kids. It was a tall, tanned girl, who turned and giggled with all her friends before marching off. One of the annoying group of girls, naturally. The water started vibrating again. "You were flailing around so much, I got the lifeguard." A well meaning boy who looked very confused at her angry expression. "It’s been, like, seven minutes since you jumped in." Another one of the annoying girls. Lovely. "Are you okay?" the idiotic lifeguard Carmen instantly hated asked. She looked like she couldn’t care less as long as her job wasn’t on the hook. She was rolling her eyes, crossing her arms, and looking back at hr lifeguard stand where Carmen could clearly see her jeweled cell phone. That's always the kind of person you want to have on lifeguard duty. "Do I look like I’m all right?" Carmen had her feet in the water, and she had an insistent urge to fling a lot of water at the lifeguard. She didn’t, though. Obviously. Instead, she made a face at the lifeguard. Dramatic as usual. "Look, I’m fine," Carmen cried angrily, stalking out of the crowd. "I’m alive, right? God." She didn't look back, but she was pretty sure that if she had the water would be vibrating. "Well, I suppose we know for sure she’s fine. She’s being sarcastic again." "Rude." "Angry." "Ungrateful." "Annoying." "Impulsive." "Snappish." I hate everyone here, Carmen thought to herself. She didn’t of course, but that group of girls was annoying enough to make her really hate the class. Between them, the swim instructor, and the crabby staff, Carmen felt really, really glad it was the last class. Like, euphorically glad. After swim class, Carmen stood over the pool, staring again. She should have been racing out to leave, but she was here instead, being a moron. Typical. Carmen was very strange, and sometimes she was so strange she couldn't explain what she was doing even to herself. And then she heard a voice. A really scary voice—grating with an obvious metallic edge. Somehow it seemed to be desperate but smug at the same time. The same electronica song she had heard earlier played. Naturally. Carmen got the feeling she was going to be hearing this song a lot in the future. And she wasn’t going to like it any more than she did now. Lovely. "Keep intruding. You'll regret it. Now that's the master plan!" Huh? What? What did that even mean? Was she insane? Hello, she was hearing, like, voices. That obviously no one else was noticing. Plus the whole water thing. And she really hated this song. And yet, there was something about it that struck her as similar to another song she knew. Another song she liked. A lot. And what was with the voice? You are insane, she told herself. You made up the electronica. You made up the vibrating water and everything else. You made up the voice. Things like that don’t happen. Duh. And the fact that you’re taking it seriously is just sad. Wrong. Insane. But still, probably because of her insanity, she couldn’t shake-permanently—the feeling that it was real. She wasn’t insane. Reality was here, and she was going to be a serious idiot (like she wasn’t already) if she ignored it. Solid evidence. Solid evidence another non-insane person can see. Like that was ever going to happen. She was insane. That was a fact. Period. End of discussion. Naturally, of course, she couldn’t stop thinking about it while she biked home. If The Voice existed, who was she? If The Voice existed, and was trapped, why didn’t she want help? And how come her voice was so strange, distinct, metallic and cruel? And what about the electronica? What was that? There was no way that song existed in real life. But if it did exist, where could she find it? She stomped into her house, greeted by the usual video game noises of things blowing up. It sounded like two players instead of one. Carmen did the best she could of making a lot of noise on the stairs. "Hey, Carmen," her brother called. "Back from the chamber of torture?" "It is so unfair that I am forced to go there and you remain here, playing video games." "I have company." There really wasn't much arguing with that, so Carmen made a face at him and continued upstairs, dropping her swim backpack on the floor of her spacious and immaculate room. She checked her new backpack before going back downstairs and watching a very long movie. That night, after stomping up to her room and blasting her music, she lay on the bed, utterly motionless. The music seemed magnified somehow, especially on certain songs. She couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened at the pool, even though tomorrow was the first day of seventh grade, she was worrying about whether she was insane or not. Because, of course, that’s exactly the kind of goal you should shoot for. Not. Carmen fell asleep thinking about her problem. She had already turned down her speakers, but not off. The songs would follow her into her dreams. So many songs... So many titles... So many meanings... So many ways to appear... Carmen walked through a black dimness where the only light was available via a bracelet on her arm. Eventually, she heard a really annoying song, one that punched through her mind with the beat, and odd, not to mention disturbing, lyrics. Slowly, the song got louder, and more light entered the scene. Eventually, she caught view of a girl on a large stage. No—not a girl really. She was of incomprehensible age—seemingly old though looking only half a decade older than Carmen. She had silver hair that glowed with the same light as Carmen’s bracelet. She had wide set purple eyes. On her amazingly tall frame was a short metallic dress with a long black cloak. As soon as she saw Carmen, she swung down the stage. Carmen felt compelled to come closer, despite the pounding, overwhelming music, freaky-looking girl, and the groups of people with black hair and eyes and alabaster skin. They had long nails and when they smiled, sharp fanglike teeth showed. They were seriously scary-looking, but they reminded her of someone. It took her only a few seconds to remember. Her swim instructor. He had to be one of these weird people. "Hello, Carmen," The girl shouted, straining to be heard over the super-deluxely annoying song. She seemed to be more commanding than greeting. The song dimmed in volume, allowing the rest of the conversation to be carried out at normal volume. "Hello, Nameless One," Carmen greeted in mock seriousness, her hand to her heart, and a really sugary voice and smile, both obviously sarcastic. Even in her dreams she was sarcastic. The Nameless One rolled her eyes. "I’m Sabrina, but my assumption was that you knew that," The girl answered coolly, taking a step back. She pronounced Sabrina weird, too, Sah-brih-nah, with a throat-clearing ending. Her name also hinted at dozens of vowels smoothly gone past. "Well, assumptions can be dangerous. What if tomorrow morning, you assumed that getting out of bed you would find your floor, but instead fell upon a pirates ship?" Carmen couldn’t stop. She knew she should have been more respectful, but she was nervous, and therefore babbling. And babbling almost always included sarcasm and rudeness in Carmen’s world. "You think you’re hilarious, don’t you?" Sabrina was totally deadpan. The song raged on. "I am so hilarious it is unbelievable," Carmen babbled. Not only did she include sarcasm regularly in her babbling, but also her stupid expressions. "Funny that you would use that expression." "In what way?" Carmen was having trouble thinking. Loud, pounding, headache-inducing music can do that. It’s just one of those odd things that seems to happen for no apparent reason. Not. "You aren’t really good conversation, you know that?" Sabrina cocked her head and crossed her arms. The music got louder. Carmen was seriously starting to doubt there were limits to how loud it could get. And, you know, that’s a pretty hard thing to understand. "I’d be better conversation I could think properly," Carmen basically screamed. "Are you referring to the electronica?" "No, it’s the dancing elephant over there in the corner," Carmen huffed. It should have been exceedingly obvious that the electronica was, in fact, responsible. Were there many other possible factors? "What dancing elephant?" Sabrina asked curiously. She actually turned her head around to check to make sure there wasn’t an elephant. "Have you heard of sarcasm?" "Have you heard of being serious?" "It’s a concept I’m having trouble completely understanding." "Can you speak without making a joke or being sarcastic?" "No." "I suppose I wouldn’t expect much more from you." "I don’t know what you are talking about but okay." "If you knew what I was referring to, you wouldn’t be okay."\ "Well, I don't, and now you're just being annoying!" Carmen crossed her arms n irritation. "You have no idea what's in store for you, do you?" "If it's more of this music, it's a suicide." Suddenly, a large rafter almost fell on Carmen. She screamed, and the odd-looking people started walking toward her, their sharp teeth and nails glinting. Carmen fought back, sweeping away the odd people. Sabrina threw other objects on Carmen, who was entirely focused on not getting herself killed. This tug-a-war of a sorts, conducted entirely by psychic means, went on for a while, until she realized what the non-idiotic thing to do would be. She distracted Sabrina, then threw a large and heavy object at her. She craned her neck to see if her mark had hit. It had hit a girl with long golden hair, pretty blue eyes, and an oval-shaped face. Someone who looked exactly like Carmen. With that charming thought on her mind, she woke up. Carmen always woke up in a muddle. It was very hard for her distinguish reality when she was still tired after waking up. If you really wanted to take advantage of Carmen's morning muddle (or find a good video for your YouTube channel) then find out her dream (which wasn’t hard, she always spoke a lot in her sleep before waking up), and make a similar attribute in her waking world. Carmen’s brother had once done it to her. It was not wise (Carmen had disabled his computer, so he couldn’t play his video games. He didn’t know enough about computers to fix it). For now, Carmen woke up and looked around, still thinking she was in the dream. And her computer was playing the song that the electronica in the dream was based off. Carmen lunged herself at her computer, hitting her speakers and knocking them to the floor (though not damaging the or removing them from the computer) she hit a key on her computer, moving it to the next song. Because it was on her top-played songs, a really loud Avril Lavigne song spilled out. Which, while being very good to wake her up normally, did not do much good for the rest of the house. Judging about the fact it was four o clock in the morning. She jerked back from the computer, tripping over a book and launching back forward. She disentangled herself from the various wires, the song playing the whole time. Finally, she managed to shut down the stupid computer, whacking herself in the face in the process. Therefore she whacked the computer back, and the monitor almost fell off her desk. Carmen is really not the most reasonable, responsible, or careful person in the best of times, and four o clock in the morning isn't even close to being one of her best times. Luckily, however, she managed to successfully save her monitor, creep back into her bed, and go back to sleep without actually permanently damaging anything, but it was a pretty near miss. The next morning, Carmen woke up almost like a normal person (except for the part where she attacked her closet and ruined her least favorite skirt. Carmen despised even the prettiest, most flattering skirt and that one was not in any way pretty or flattering.) She turned her computer back on. In her moment of MidnightMadness (It was not the first time a similar incident had happened without help of mischievous brothers or trickster friends, and she had named it then) she had neglected to check what song it was. Unfortunately she couldn't remember it either, since no matter how hard she tried to remember the song just seemed like the one at the pool (and the memory was pretty darn dim to start with). So she did the smart thing and hit for the "Last Skipped" column to show up, then looked for the one skipped at 4:02 am. And stared, openmouthed. The same really loud Avril Lavigne song from the night before played, but Carmen didn't hear it. All she looked at was the screen. There was no way The Electronica resembled "Dance Until You Drop" by The Savvy People (her favorite band). Im-Possible. She hit 'play', just to confirm her theory. The song began, and she had to admit that it did sound kind of similar- similar beat, melody and lyrics framework. "Ugh!" she screeched suddenly. Her mood had turned from contemplative to angry in seconds, and she had no idea why. Part of her was scared, but most of her was just mad. "UGH!" she screamed louder, sweeping stacks of library books of her desk, to fall with assorted smack!s on the ground, because some of them were very large and heavy and most hard backed. on the ground. She stomped over to her bureau, yanked out a pair of jeans and a black shirt with 'Sarcasmed' written on it, and shoved them on. She flung her pajamas into her hamper, grabbed her backpack, and stomped downstairs to grab her camera, cell phone, and mp3 player. Until she saw where they was. Her camera and mp3 player—her two most important possessions besides her computer—were in fragments. FRAGMENTS. Her brother came jumping down the stairs then, and seeing Carmen and her technology fragments, he started backing away slowly. He would never understand the obsession she formed with things (especially electronic things), but he was not going to be around when she started to explode. He didn’t really want to get the fragments of her toys in the face. "You," Carmen screamed. She couldn’t believe it! Why would anyone do this? But if anyone did, it would so be her brother. Who else had been here last night? "It wasn’t me!" What was he going to do? There wasn’t a logical explanation for this! How was he supposed to deny it? "Uh-huh. Right. I’m so sure MY CAMERA AND MP3 PLAYER JUST SUDDENLY WALKED DOWNSTAIRS AND BROKE THEMSELVES!" "I know this is really bad, but I think that’s about the only explanation you’re going to get." Carmen looked back down at the fragments of her prized possessions. Wait. What about the whole thing with the pool? Was that the dream? Was this her payback? "Next I’m going to start hearing The Electronica," Carmen muttered to herself, trying to see if she could find her memory card intact. She could always get a new camera, and new mp3 player, but the files on her camera were one-of-a-kind. "What electronica?" Her brother asked. Carmen, being the intelligent person she was, wisely decided not to tell him she was basically going insane. Not like he would tell anyone (her brother was kind of scared of Carmen), but still. "The new CD I’m getting from the library," Carmen called lightly. He'd probably take it as sarcastically, all for the better. Her memory card was in fragments, too. Her files were gone forever. Forever. She was about to start really destroying something(there was a large book right next to her and a bed frame very close by), when she remembered to "hold her feelings in" by hugging herself. It was kind of funny, but sometimes, the situation would just kind of resolve itself in a really creepy if she did that. She wished really that she could get her stuff back. Her parents had gone in early, so of course they had no idea. When she stepped outside, someone left something on the porch, with a note. It was a new camera (with all the pictures she had taken) and her mp3 player (with all the same songs she listened to downloaded onto it) with a note saying something about the magical goddess Alena. Carmen stared, shocked—though not completely. Something strange like this had happened before, believe it or not.. Once, she had gone to an old museum. She was very young, so it was kind of boring, and she stepped outside to look at the bay that was just outside. It was cold, and she had lost her jacket, so of course she was hugging herself. She was excessively bored, so she thought "I wish I were on a roller coaster right now," in that lame way that you wish for grand things that you know are never going to happen. Lo and behold, she was on the top of some random roller coaster . It was still cold, so she still had her arms wrapped around herself and when she wished to be back at the museum, she was. But that’s getting off track. Wait. Here was solid evidence. Her memory card was obviously in fragments—this had to be either her insanity or some kind of magic. If her brother could see it, chances were she wasn’t insane. "Hey!" She called, walking into the house. She and her brother were the only people in it 90% of the waking hours. "What?" "Does this camera really exist, and are my pictures really on it?" "Um. Yeah." So she wasn’t insane. This was definitely real. The Electronica was probably real, too. The pool was real. The voice was real. Was this good—or really, really sucky? "I'm not insane," she whispered, wondrously. "I'm not insane!" She announced louder, quickly, startling her brother, who took a step back. He had about the same amount of coordination as Carmen and tripped backward. Like sister like brother, eh? Or, alternatively, had it just been planted? But, then again, why would anyone do that? Had someone bought the exact make of her camera and memory card (and mp3 player), taken her real ones, and smashed the ones they had bought? It was a much more realistic option. But who would buy a hundred and fifty dollar camera and two hundred dollar mp3 player and smash them? None of her friends could afford it—no one at her school, really. Her brother couldn’t do it, nor any of his friends. There was no way some random person would waste money like that. It was a realistic conclusion, but not a logical one. And Carmen liked logic. After reading the note, it made even less sense. The person had managed to match up everything—her dream, The Electronica, the vibrating water My name is Alena. Depending on the dreams you have been having lately, that may or may not mean something to you. Let me tell you this: Sorceresses, goddesses, gods, and Sorcerers are real. I am a goddess. My enemy is Sabrina (we call her Sab), a Sorceress. Sab was recently imprisoned in water, but apparently seems to have escaped. She wants to become a goddess, because she wants to take over the universe. She's a 'dream Sorceress', because she gained a lot of power from this part of the dreamworld. She can pretty much control your dreams. Have fun. You are what's called a 'chosen'. A chosen is someone who can call upon my power. Most chosens don't have very much power of their own. You, somehow, do. Sab is after you. She needs your power to become a goddess, because though she's trapped most of the other chosens, they didn't have enough power to push her ahead. Sab has made these things called the Saushale (Sau, like in sauce, sha, rhymes with sau, and le, the e sounding like café). They're human, pretty much, but Sab gave them a bunch of chemicals, so they look different, especially to you- black eyes, black hair, and white skin. To other people they'll look normal. Don't ask me how. I don't know. They have this thing called mind control, which is a set of rules, beliefs, and behavior Sab gives them. They will not deviate from it. Trust me. There's also this thing called 'the Telkin'. Basically it means that you can move things with your mind, like telekinesis. You just kind of focus on something and think about how much you want it to move. Because you have a lot of power, you've probably already experienced this when you get mad- things seem to vibrate, fall, or flutter, depending on your amount of power. Sab can do this thing where she invades a person. It means that she controls them during some times. You can determine this by the following factors: they will have a slight silvery sheen to their hair, especially in shadow, and their eyes will flash purple every few minutes. Oh, and they'll act different, so if they're your friends that's a good indicator. Next, there's this music-ness attached to it. We usually call it electronica. I don't know why, because Sab decided it, but that's what we call it. Anyway, it's this special music that plays when a person gets angry or something. Savvy People copied it for most of their songs. I'm sure you've heard of Savvy People. If not, go listen to "Dance Until you Drop". Sab's electronica sounds kind of like that. Then click on "Cruel Summer". Mine sounds kind of like that. "Whatcha Talkin' 'Bout?" sounds like this girl named Bella (major Saushale, lots and lots of power) and "Obsession" is Laura's. Then there's this girl named Lynn. I think hers sounds like "No Explanation". If you get Sab early enough, you can simply lock her into something to destroy her. However, she'll probably figure out how to get that one off pretty fast, so you'll most likely end up fighting her. I have three suggestions for you: 1. Practice the Telkin as much as you can. 2. Get a song and figure out how to play it. 3. Don't be a moron. I think you know what #3 entails. One more thing. Please don't come whining to me. I've got enough o deal with already and I don't need some self-possessed little seventh grader to come and whine in my face. Thanks anyway. The person, she could already tell, was not going to be her favorite. The overall shock of the document didn’t help much, either. What on earth were Saushale? Sabrina was after her? Sabrina was real? A goddess couldn’t take on Sabrina, but apparently she could? What was wrong with these people? Was this some kind of prank? No wonder so many people ignored it! Maybe she was insane. Or maybe someone had figured out she was insane, and was now, like sending her some kind of note or whatever... But that couldn’t be right! What about the dream? There had been no one in the house except for her and her brother. There was no way they could have known she would make the connection. So maybe it was real. It wouldn’t be the first time she had dreamed about something before she came in contact with it. Something was happening here, and she might just have to accept it was magical. Kind of. Maybe she could start with the song. She had caught some of the lyrics, so she could input them into a lyrics website, find a song title, google it, figure out what the heck it was. It sounded like a remix or demo or something related to "Dance Until You Drop", so she could look that song up as an alternative. That would be a start. Though, of course, she could be making it up—that possibility was totally open. And kind of inviting. She didn’t really want to think there was a psycho Sorceress after her. She’d rather think she was insane. But what about the roller coaster thing, way back when? She used to think it was some kind of dream or something, but what if it was real? After all, her parents hadn’t seen her, and there hadn’t been any time where she woke up. Maybe something was really up. And whatever was up, the electronica was definitely a part of it. Probably a big part. But her dream. It couldn’t be possible that the dream was real. The person in her dream the same Sabrina the note talked about—her weird looks and everything else. Well, Sabrina probably existed. And if The Electronica existed, that had to be Sabrina’s signature song. Unfortunately, she still couldn't quite believe that there was a Sabrina at all. Goddesses? Chosens? Sorceresses? Saushale? What? Hello, insanity. Would you like to take a walk? You would? Great. Because, you know, I’m imagining ELECTRONICA SONGS THAT DON’T EXIST AND EVIL SORCERESSES THAT WANT TO CONTROL ME AND IMAGINARY PEOPLE THAT ARE AFTER ME WITH SOME WEIRD NAME I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE. As you can imagine, thinking really hard and not really paying attention to the terrain while on a bike is not recommended. If you want to not almost cause several traffic accidents, most of them involving you almost being run over. Carmen managed to almost every bush, pole, tree, sudden turnoff, and basically anything else possible, not to mention at least five large pick-up trucks honking at her angrily. All in all, not her greatest bike ride. Carmen, throughout all her class, made sure to stare at all of the kid's eyes in there, to make sure there was no Sabrina in sight. Of course, they all really appreciated that and didn't think she was weird at all. Not. (Note: If you want to make a good impression in a new junior high and make new friends, do not stare for three minutes continuously at their irises. They will think you are psycho or something. Which you probably are.) In history, sixth period, the person next to her looked at her constantly. It was a girl, but she just kept staring in a very creepy way at Carmen. Like she was trying to read her mind. Finally, Carmen just asked. "What do you want?" She was irritable, and the threat of an evil goddess trying to ruin her life was just too much. Plus, she kept wondering is she was insane, which is NOT how you want to start junior high. You know, by doubting you mental stability. Yeah, not high on the list of ‘positive’ objectives. "I was trying my new psychic power." "Your psychic power. Right." Carmen rolled her eyes. "I’m Hailey. Who might you be?" "Carmen." "Are you nice?" "Um. It depends on your sense of humor. And today, I’m really annoyed, which does not help." "Got it." "Are you usually so...direct in making friends?" "Occasionally. But that is how I made my best friend, Heidi. What about you?" "I’m exuberantly shy. I couldn’t just walk up to someone and say ‘wanna be friends’ to save my life." "I’m special." "Um. Okay." "I know you are too. You know about the goddess and the Sorceress." Carmen tried not to listen at this point. It was starting to get a bit odd. "You know about Sabrina." Hailey continued. "Um. Kind of." At that point, thank god, the teacher rapped her desk for attention. Hailey never brought up Sabrina again—not to Carmen, or Heidi or Adriana. Even in future years at a summer camp, when in order to save her life, she had the missing clue, to save the lives of six girls, all excessively talented, she could not remember. But that’s the third book, not this one. Throughout the rest of History, Carmen felt fine. But she blanked on Science. She could not remember what had happened in Science, no matter how hard she tried. "Hey, Adriana, what’s the assignment for Science? Because I like completely blanked." "Uh huh. Right. I am so sure. Like you didn’t come into class, scream and go INSANE, and when you stood next to the stereo, this random 'electronica' played!" "Electronica?" Carmen went white. This was not happening. NOT HAPPENING. "Um, yeah! Duh! YOU’RE the one that listens to it, not me. Though why you like it I will never understand. That stuff gave me a headache. In like five seconds." Then her best friend, Adriana, whipped around and walked away. Because, you know, that’s just the standard decorum for truly loyal best friends. They will hate you when you OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON. Though maybe she had been really mean. She couldn’t even remember! Wait a second. Adriana was undoubtedly talking about The Electronica. Which meant it was real. Which basically cleared away any doubt she was insane. However, the song being real, she could probably find some info on it. Which would be good. Oh right, the voice in her head mocked, You’re expecting to find info on evil Sorceresses? And how to defeat them? I am so sure. Well, the song exists, right?, she thought right back. And if it exists, it's on the internet. Undoubtedly. As soon as she got home, Carmen rocketed up the stairs. Her brother, being the annoying and obnoxious person he was, had the nerve to stick his head out his doorframe and scream (screaming, of course, because of the enormously loud video game he and his friend were playing at full volume) "Hey, let’s go a little quieter out there, kay?" "Sure—once you turn down the video game!" "Like you aren’t going to blast you rap music as soon as you get to your room!" "For your in-foh-mation, it’s called el-ec-tron-ica, not ‘rap’" Carmen informed them in a snotty-sarcastic tone. Her brother laughed. Carmen didn’t feel like joking, but she really didn’t want her brother to think something was wrong. And if she didn’t comment, he would definitely know something was up. Carmen was just special like that. Carmen and her brother could play their electronic items as loud as they wanted, their parents being available for approximately fifteen minutes a day. Their mom came home at five, but she couldn’t hear it. Part of it was because Carmen had full control of the third floor, her brother full control of the second. Most of it was because Carmen, her brother, and their friends had soundproofed their mom’s office (so she couldn’t hear any outside noises) when the parents were on a business trip for three days. Their mom never knew her office had been soundproofed. By the way, Carmen’s speaker system being loud enough to annoy her mom two floors down gives you a pretty good idea of just how hi-tech it was. Just a hint. Hmmm. The day had been in the summer, so Carmen had been wearing a tank top. And she remembered brushing something off her right shoulder as she wished the soundproofing would hold and her mother wouldn’t be able to hear anything in her office. Maybe it wasn't their excellent soundproofing skills (uncontrollable laughter) that had secured the hours of five through eight as much as it was Carmen's chosen-ness. As soon as she got to her room, she blasted her electronica, but mostly just to annoy her brother. She sat on the bed, focusing and focusing. Whatever was wrong was going to stop now. It was. She was going to figure out what was real and what was her being insane now. She was not going to leave it to her own mind, not to mention dreams. Remembering what she had done that morning, she hugged herself and wished that she could know what was going on. Naturally she couldn't refrain from some sarcasm. But it was pretty low. Considering that this was Carmen and all. Suddenly, there were two people in Carmen's room. "I am the Goddess Alena. I have come, quite against my will, to answer your wish. What do you not know?" "Yeah. Hello to you to. So, how am I supposed to contact you again?" "The birthmark allows you to wish." Seeing Carmen's blank look, she clarified "The one on your right shoulder?" Carmen figured it out. She'd only seen the thing a billion times in her life so far, after all. "Right. Okay, also, there’s this blanking thing going on. Like in Science. I cannot remember what occurred in Science. According to Adriana, I went insane, and this electronica song played, and I have no recollection of it whatsoever. And that’s the kind of thing you’d remember, you know, you screaming at the class!" "Hmmm. You know, it sounds like Sabrina found her perfect alter-ego, but I doubt it. I mean…. How could she…." "Explanation, please. I asked for answers, not confusion! And why are you pronouncing it Sa-brih-nah?" Sabrina's name had the same off sound that Saushale held, the pronunciation that had Carmen tripping over it. Annoying. Plus Alena added in that throaty sound at the end, which just made Carmen's throat sore. The same thing had happened when she tried French last year. Yeah. Not such a good idea. "You know, the snappiness is really not necessary or desired. And it's pronounced Sah-aw-brih-eye-nah, not Sa-bree-nah. Okay, I think Sabrina might be possessing you, though how she managed it I’m blanking on. No one with silvery hair, purplish eyes, and random bouts of electronica?" "No. I checked. And now everyone thinks I’m seriously psycho for staring at their eyes!" Carmen crossed her arms defiantly. "Why didn’t you look at their hair?" "Trend. Everyone had silvery hair. I’m probably going to dye mine soon." "Oh. Well, see if you can make your friends, like, not hate you. They can probably be reasonably good sources. At least with the eyes, if not the hair, since they probably will think it’s just a trend." I’ll screw that up, thought Sabrina. She was excellent in that department "By the way, how exactly did Sabrina get to the bottom of a pool?" Alena stared blankly for a second before slapping a hand to her head. "Oh, yeah. I totally forgot. She was locked into the element. She wasn't stuck in the water, but she could follow it. Sorceress thing. Anyway, she was probably just following you, waiting for the right circumstances." "What circumstances?" she asked, curious. "For you to stare into the water and 'release your mind'. Something like that. Then she could hook onto your awareness, expand it into real-world capacity, and use the lever to bring herself into being through the manifestation of thought energy." "Um, what?" "It's a Sorceress thing." "What does 'element lock' mean?" "Well, because she controls the element she can also be trapped in it by some huge law of the universe and a bunch of stupid math that Sabrina worked out." "Why did Sabrina work it out?" "She was trying to trap people. Her math is way better than mine, too. No matter how powerful I get, she'll probably always be smarter than me." "But you’re a goddess." "She's still her own manifestation and it is infinitely better than mine." "Okay, back to the pool. You mean I released her?" Carmen raised her eyebrows, crossed her arms, and generally gave off an aura of skepticality. That’s probably not a word. “I can’t imagine whyever on earth you were staring into a pool, but if so, then yes.” “Ugh!” Carmen spun around, probably trying to seem defiant, but as Carmen is not the most coordinated person on the planet she tripped over the hem of her jeans and sprawled onto the ground. In the fit of frustration, a book picked itself up and lobbed itself at the bed. Has the girl ever heard of anger management? What an un-elegant thing to do. "I am leaving now. This must be stopped. And you are the one to stop it." "Wait—just one more question?" "Are you going to throw another book at the bed frame?’ "No. I promise." "Well, okay then. What’s the question?" "Why is this my job?" "What did the card say?" "The sarcastic, pessimistic one? You expect me to listen to that? It was blaming me for nothing!" "Look. Every chosen that gets the slightest bit of a paranormal problem suddenly freaks. It’s annoying. It’s infuriating. It’s time-wasting." "Okay, fine." A rather sarcastic and irritated sigh escaped from Carmen. "Well, most of it is that Sorceresses have one advantage: they are fast. If I battle her, where she knows I’m going to win, she evacuates. Fast. If you do it, she’s pretty sure she’s going to win. Let us pray she won’t." "You’re praying? You’re the goddess, not me! You are supposed to do this!" "Now do you see the point of the sarcastic card?" Alena crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. Alena could be annoying like that. It’s part of being a sarcastic, pessimistic, cruel goddess of goodness. Carmen thought about the card for a second, remembering some of the lines of it. "Oh. Kinda. But still, I want to know what entitles me to be so freaking awesome about me, the freaking human-" "I must ask. How many ‘freaking’s are really necessary in that sentence?" Alena raised her eyebrows, smiling. Typical Alena. "Come. Freaking. On. I. Am. Like. So. Freaking. Going. To. Freaking. Die." "What makes you so sure?" "Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because SHE’S A FREAKING SUPER POWERFUL SORCERESS THAT IS TRYING TO KILL ME! Reasonable enough for you?" "What’s with the freaking shouting?" Her brother screamed on the second floor. "Who are you shouting at?" "A magical person. Now shut up and do your homework," Carmen snapped in the downstairs direction. "I don’t have any. School just started." "Well, shut up then." "Aren’t we miss picky here," Her brother shouted back up. Carmen slammed her door. A much louder electronica song came on, releasing an infinitely grateful Carmen from hearing her immensely lame brother anymore. She turned back to Alena dramatically, then sat down with as much force as she was capable of. Which was enough to make the ground shatter and her speakers to skip. Alena started up with the conversation as if there’d never been a pause. "Not kill you. I’m think she’s going to make you Saushale." Carmen rolled her eyes as Alena shot her an ‘Alena’ face. "Oh, because that’s so much freaking better." "Can you please cut it with the freakings?" "I’ll do my best." "I know. And your best is crummy." Carmen shot Alena a ‘Carmen’ face. Alena made her own right back. Carmen stood back up. "Can we please switch the song? It’s too similar to Sabrina’s." Alena. "In what world is this," Carmen gestured toward her computer, "similar to Sabrina's?" "In this world. Now do it or I’ll smash your computer." "You wouldn’t dare." But Carmen walked over and hit the arrow key. As soon as she did, a song she had never heard before filled the room. It definitely was not the electronica she’d been expecting. ‘The world is a wish And I’m here to screw it. Lots like to complain But why should care? I’ll say to you what I say to them. I’m a goddess, Alena And if your world has been turned upside down What you thought you wanted now seems horrible Learn to live with it.’ The song was so annoying it made her want to scream. But it also rang that little bell in the back of her mind: she knew a similar song. But she couldn't figure out what it was. Well, she'd hopefully figure it out soon. Right now she needed to start asking and stop freaking out. "Back to my powers again?" "You have the exact same gift I do." "What gift?" She took a guess that she wasn't a goddess. "That’s the one that’s going to allow you to do some serious damage to Sabrina. There’s something special that makes some people able to command the Telkin better than others. Sabrina. You. Me." "You?" "Like, no duh. There were four hundred goddesses I had to destroy. To get to the top. Sabrina destroyed more," Alena sighed. "Come freaking on, Carmen. You can do it." Alena made a face. "Now I should probably go before your parents wonder what's up with the computer." "They’ll think nothing of it. Trust me." "How can you be so sure?" "I soundproofed my mom’s office." Alena laughed before vanishing. Carmen finished her almost nonexistent homework. She could tell Adriana, her friend, was on (they both had toolbars that alerted them when the had a new email, and what the email was), but even though Carmen emailed her forty trillion times, Adriana didn’t respond. "Whoa." Carmen realized out loud. Her friends never held grudges. She must have said sorry eight bazillion times! How many was it going to take? What had she done? "She must be really, really mad." Carmen observed out loud. It wasn’t like it was actually audible anyway. There’s a certain point your speakers reach when nothing you say can be heard by you or anyone else. Hey! There was new email! Yes! Response! Oh. That was disappointing. "Stop emailing me. The pings are driving me insane. Not all of us can blast our music so loud everything else is excluded," Carmen read. This was bad. Really, really bad. Well, she could try to talk to her at school tomorrow. Her friend was gullible. Obviously telling her that a dream Sorceress was impersonating her and making it seem like Carmen was insane or something was not going to go over well. Acting more psycho than she already was wasn’t going to get her anywhere (there’s only a certain level of psycho-ness people can take—the staring, random electronica, jumpiness, and haphazard levitating objects were enough, talking about Sabrina was going to get her zero in the form of beneficial happenings) "Look, I’m sorry." Carmen said aloud as she typed it. "I am really sorry for what I did in Science. I wasn’t being myself." Then she sent it. The result was instantaneous. Adriana usually didn’t respond instantly, but tonight she did. Thank god. Carmen couldn’t take much more. "I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Hailey said you were okay in History, so who knows, maybe you were just mad at me. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time that you were being mean for no apparent reason whatsoever. As you would say, you are so unpredictable, it is unbelievable. Or whatever." Well, okay, not that much better. Carmen was rarely on the defensive, true. She would suddenly ignore people, randomly. She would pretend like she couldn’t see or hear them, not talk or associate with them. If they talked to her, she pretended like they weren’t there. And yeah, it was excessively unpredictable. But never at Adriana. This was Adriana, not Breanne, the mean girl that had sat next to her for a while in sixth grade. But whatever. She was going to have to separate herself from the situation. Build a wall between her and Adriana. She had to smile, though. Adriana had remembered the expression she had loved back in sixth grade. Maybe this wasn’t going to be that bad. "I’ll be normal tomorrow, I hope. Whatever I said in Science, I didn’t mean. And I’m not mad at you, Adriana. I’m not trying to do the whole random-ignoring thing. Nice of you to remember my expression." "Whatever" was the lengthy and understanding response. Sigh. She went to bed, and braced herself for another Sabrina-dream. However, she had her normal dreams—with one exception. An electronica song played, which she assumed was somehow connected to Sabrina. The Sabrina song. The one that shouldn’t exist, but did. Crappy sit-u-a-ah-tion Crappy sit-u-a-ah-tion Crappy sit-u-a-ah-tion I have my dreams I have my wishes Unfulfilled Seems like if I am evil Just a zero Well I’m Sabrina Known as the Merciful Sorceress But don’t get your hopes up. Cause I’m of evil. Soon you will see What so bad about me Soon you will see What’s in store for you. Soon I will attack But then it’s just not over There’s still some things to do. You can’t guess. You do know who’s after you Named the Saushale oh, are they after you You can’t guess. Soon I’ll be a night goddess I wish it’d happen sooner Starting to annoy me You know that’s bad I need a challenge I need a good chosen Soon my part will be over First at Last What’s really awesome bout me I don’t go away Cuz I’m cool like that Recognize it when you see Soon you will see What’s so hard to get I hope you see Or else theres no point to this Some of us are special We have awesome abilities Alena’s one And I am one You can’t run Soon you will realize You just cannot try Whoever is the challenge I can make it. (that’s a fact) Soon you will see What’s so hard for me Soon you will see What’s so bad to be But hey learn a bit cuz I will get you Impossible for me not to win You get that now oh yeah you do Sabrina snorted silently in impatience( well, of course it was silent). She was eyeing all of Carmen’s friends. Carmen was giving her usual half-meant apologies, blah blah blah. Sabrina was bored, but she vaguely wondered if they could be of any use to Sabrina. The one with the black hair looked like she would make a good Saushale. Adriana, or something. She tried to show up in Carmen, but Carmen resisted. Grrr. Sabrina pushed forward via Telkin, pushing and pushing, throwing her anger and hatred forward like burning whips. But Carmen stayed solid, and Sabrina couldn’t get anywhere. Wow. This girl would make an excellent Saushale. She had the Telkin already! But for now, Sabrina was going to wait. Carmen said something, probably sorry, then shoved her way toward the bathroom, banging up against countless eighth-graders with too much eye-liner gossiping in front of mirrors. The bathroom had a whole line of mirrors available, and it took Carmen about ten seconds to figure out that she was currently housing Sabrina. Snap. This was bad. This was really, really bad. Carmen stood at the head of the table, with her three friends sitting at it (Adriana, Heidi, and Hailey). "Sit. Down." Adriana demanded out of habit. "Yeah, hello to you too," Carmen muttered, sitting down. "Take your mp3 player off." Adriana commanded. "It’s not on," Carmen said, confused. Then she could hear Sabrina’s electronica playing. Her mp3 player, Adriana’s, Heidi’s, and Hailey’s were all playing it. Simultaneously. Naturally, of course, they had chosen the worst possible time to start acting up. "Um, isn’t yours playing it too?" Carmen asked. Yes! New topic! "Yeah. It is. But how? I do NOT have Savvy People on mine, and I know that’s what that song is.." "How’d you know it was Savvy People?" Adriana had only made fun of her for listening to it approximately forty trillion times. Apparently electronica didn't hold the same merit that screaming people did. "How about that the stupid radio stations will not stop playing those lame songs? So just Capitol H, E, L, P! God. Someone forgot to tell her that was one of those jump rope rhymes." She made her voice go very mockingly high to demonstrate how lame the song was. Despite her fabulous criticism, it had broken a record in both rising to the number one and staying there. "I think that's kind of the point." "It's still just…" Adriana flew her hands around, trying to display her criticism. "it's just pointless. And that other one, the one where it's like That's not a reason! Don't put your hand up like that! What's she yelling about, anyway, her boyfriend leaving? And the other one, the one you're obsessed with-" "'Dance Until You Drop'?" "Yeah. That one doesn't even have a point. It's about, like, dancing at a club. Wow. Great song material. I spend my time on the floor, cuz I'm always wanting more, yeah!. Meaningful. Anyway, I do not want that crap on my mp3 player." Heidi and Hailey grabbed Heidi’s mp3player, shook it, and proceeded to watch anime on it. "I don’t know why it's on there, though," Carmen lied. "Well, like no duh, we didn’t expect you to," Adriana responded. It was silent for a moment, except for the chattering of headphones as Heidi and Hailey listened to some Japanese mange thing on Hailey’s mp3 player. Suddenly, Carmen felt this numbing sensation, like when you’re about to cry, and you just feel this whole sadness inside of you. Except this was more like—Power. Sadness and excitement and energy and most of all—anger and fury that came with it a sense of dizziness and overpower-ment all mixed together. A huge wave of a lot of emotion and anger all showing up. Right in front of her friends. She felt like she was going numb. She focused on her own anger—at Sabrina, Alena, the whole crappy chosen thing, everything she was hating and angry about. She focused on her hatred—Sabrina. The Saushale. Adriana’s email responses the night before. But Sabrina (assuming that was what it was) had the advantage. Naturally, of course, the electronica was back, loud and annoying and making it harder and harder to focus, but she focused anyway. She had always liked the song—how come she wanted to kill something listening to it now? She smashed into the bathroom, hordes of girls turning to look at her and cluck their tongues. They were so annoying, but thankfully, they all redistributed to another mirror. There were only, like, thirty of the large, shiny reflective surfaces encased in peeling blue tile. Carmen stared at the mirror. Sabrina showed up basically instantly. So, of course, Carmen could take notice of her silvery hair and eyes that were purple, for a second. Snap. This was bad. This was really, really, really, exceptionally bad. Where was all her good luck? Huh? Hello, luck? Can you come here? thanks! I, like, really need your help. Oh, your busy? With who? Sabrina? Right. I should have guessed. And that, she thought, is when you should really start doubting you own mental stability. When you have imaginary conversations with imaginary ideas. Who knows, next she’d start talking to her dead grandmother, just like her grandfather. He also claimed that there was a spirit living inside her brothers bedroom, and he could never hear the video game when his brother played it at full volume, or Carmen’s music even when her speakers were about to get blown out. Sabrina was really getting mad now. What was she doing—getting beaten by a chosen? She was twelve! Twelve-year-olds were not supposed to beat Sorceresses! Who cared if she had the whole of Alena’s power at her back? She wasn’t even freaking using it! She was using her own. Carmen herself was that powerful. Even Saushale couldn’t get anywhere with that, oh, and here was some random person (essentially, since she wasn’t even using the chosen thing) who could beat her on the first freaking try. The whole point of hunting chosens was to not get beaten. There weren’t any except Carmen. Sabrina was running out of time. If Sabrina could ever become a goddess, she wouldn’t have to sneak up on chosens and lose to little girls! She wished Bella the Evil were here, or even Lynn, the new girl who was smart and talented, always looking at something from a different angle. Well, now at least she might as well protect her from the whole claustrophobic thing anyway. She focused. It was easy, actually, just some stupid spell Alena had put on her. Naturally. Wait a second. She knew she was missing something really obvious. She knew there was some really easy way to make this all go away. Surprisingly enough, she couldn’t think of it, and the more she focused the further away it got. Hopefully, she’d remember soon. But she’d probably completely forget. Until it was too late, of course. Well, she might as well stop Carmen from getting more powerful. Because, of course, basically the last thing you ever want to happen is get beaten by your enemy, then the second time realize they have way more power. Maybe she could make the mark disappear, or something. Or fade. Since she was exceptionally lucky (NOT) Carmen would probably not use it! Hopefully! Of course, then again, she would probably use it by accident, ruin everything, and totally screw Sabrina’s plan. It wasn’t the really obvious thing she was missing, but, hey, it was a start. As soon as Carmen got home, she was greeted with her computer turning itself on and screaming Sabrina’s electronica. Literally, as soon as she stepped into the house, the computer turned itself on. Oh, perfect. This was seriously starting to get on her, not to mention her brother’s nerves. How could it just turn itself on, anyway? That was like impossible! And how come it didn’t do anything yesterday? Why did it have to be today? This was like so not fair! And why did it have to be so loud? What did Sabrina do to her speakers? There was no freaking way her computer could get that loud automatically. No way. She had tried. And now, naturally, it had to find it’s amazing store of energy. Hello, Annoyance! How are you today? Bothering me? SHOCKINGLY ENOUGH. "Hey! Carmen! You’re going to kill your speakers! Turn it down!" For like the first time in all of history and beyond, he had a point. Normally, Carmen would have screamed something back, but it was seriously unbelievable. It was loud down here. She couldn’t imagine going up to her room. Oh well. Maybe if she, like, deleted the iTunes program or something drastic. She took one hesitant step forward. Then another, and another. It took her fifteen minutes to walk up one short flight of stairs. "Carmen?" her brother said as she passed the second floor. Slowly. Very, very slowly. "What?’ "How is your computer playing if you aren’t even in you room?" Snap. How was she supposed to answer that without seeming insane by explaining Sabrina and everything? "Um. Errrr. I got a remote control!" Excellent. She was known to be very forward in technology. "For your computer? Isn’t that what the keyboard and mouse are for?" "Yes. But, um, the keyboard is in my room, and the remote control is in my hand. That’s why it’s referred as remote, because it’s not meant to be used near my computer." "Whatever. Can you remotely turn down the volume because I cannot hear my video game at all even though it is louder than it has ever been. What did you do, get new speakers or something? Because that is seriously excessively-" "Yes. I got it the first time." "Fine." She raced up to her room after that, even with the blasting music. Facing the problem, she had essentially a big fat zero as far as what was necessary to do. First, she turned down the volume on the speakers which did basically nothing. Then she hit mute on the computer. That didn’t really do anything. So, frustrated, she just hit play for a different song. That actually eliminated the problem. Why she had no idea whatsoever. She looked to her email. Adriana had written her one. What was with the abrupt departure today? Carmen looked at it for a second, trying to think of the best answer. One that didn’t involve Sabrina. Sorry about that. The answer came almost instantly. Please be good, please be good she prayed. Adriana: That wasn’t an answer. I asked for an explanation, not an apology. I thought you were going to be normal today. What was she supposed to say to that? Carmen: Presenting Carmen, the biggest idiot of the year. I had to leave because I thought I saw someone I knew. I didn’t want to tell you because... Snap. Why wouldn’t she want to tell? Backspace. Backspace. Backspace. Carmen: I had to leave because I’m idiotic. What else is new? I wanted to talk to someone, but they ran. I had zero time to talk about it, so that’s why I didn’t. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Oh well. It wasn’t like she had anything better. Send. Adriana was responding surprisingly fast today. Usually, she didn’t respond until the next day. The answer came instantaneously. Again. You’re getting really annoying, you know that. Maybe I don’t want to be your friend, because you’re being so idiotic. Carmen: Sorry! Okay! I have a lot of stress lately! God! Adriana: Great. Now you’re yelling at me. Carmen: I’m typing. You can’t yell while typing. Adriana: How many exclamation points are really necessary? Carmen: a lot. Adriana: who did you want to talk to? Carmen: Summer friend. Swim practice. Adriana: Oh. I had to go to that stupid summer camp. The Flowers one. The day they let us bring electronic items is the day I like it there. Everyone hated me. Except this one girl named Zara. and her friend Lynn. They were nice. Tanya was kinda mean, though. Heidi and Hailey are coming next time. But I still didn’t like it. I have an acute case of homesickness, you know. Carmen: You see, that’s why I rock and you don’t. Carmen: Lynn? What kind of name is that? Adriana: You went from saying you’re idiotic to commenting on how you rock awfully fast. Adriana: Besides, her name is short for Lynette or something. But she says she has she has the aorta of the last person who called her that. Carmen: I’m special like that. And the aorta? That's just TMI. Seriously. Adriana: When are you going to tire of that expression? And how come you didn’t say you’d go? Carmen: I’ll never get tired of the expression. And I’m not going to summer camp unless you really need me. Like you are in mortal danger or something. Adriana: Sigh. Carmen: I’m really, really sorry. About the whole psycho thing. Just wait a week or so. Adriana: Fine. ONE week. Carmen: Agreed. I’m going to work on some short stories. Its of great importance. Adriana: ha ha. Carmen: Are you mocking me? Adriana: Yes. Carmen: I suppose it couldn't be any other way. She didn’t wait for an answer. Carmen just started typing, it came easily to her. Dianna swung on the swings, in the falling darkness. A breeze blew, flinging her hair into her face. She was scared, but she absolutely refused to go home. The rain could soak her till the cows came home and she wouldn’t budge. There was no way she was going to go home. Go home to interrogation, and everything else. There were eyes in the bushes. Glittering green eyes. Dianna swung the backlight of her mp3 player to illuminate them, getting a glimpse of silvery hair. She recognized her friend, and relaxed substantially. It was just Sarah. "Hey Sarah, get out of there," she called, expecting her friend to stand up, laugh, probably trip and get onto the swing next to her. They would talk, and Dianna would go to Sarah’s house, spend the weekend there. Sarah stood up carefully, then gracefully walked over to where Dianna was sitting. The first thing Dianna noted that was wrong was Sarah’s lack of laughter. Sarah always laughed about everything. The only thing that would have kept Sarah from laughing was if someone had died, or something else seriously wrong. In fact, now that she thought about it, the only time Sarah hadn’t laughed was at her great-grandmothers funeral, and a few days after. The second thing was her hair. It wasn’t silvery—it was silver. Sarah had black hair. She had dyed it the day before, so it had a silvery sheen, but this was way more than a sheen. "Sarah, is something wrong?’ Dianna said "It’s possible." "That’s really not an answer, just to make sure you know that." "Well, I’m different. But different isn’t always bad." "Why were you hiding in the bushes?" Duh question. She expected some sarcastic answer, like that she was trying to catch a dinosaur, or something normal, like that she had dropped something. She got neither. "I wanted to. I really did." It wasn’t sarcastic, but truthful, like she was confessing something. Okay, Dianna thought. Her best friend liked to hide in bushes now. "This might come as a shock, but that’s not exactly normal activity." She waited for an answer. "You think I’m not aware of that? I already told you I was different. I’m not sarcastic. I don’t laugh or cry. Nothing is real. It’s clear and sharp. You’d never understand. It’s just impossible." Sarah got up and stomped off, her hair somehow refracting light that Diana could not see. That was weird. Her mp3 player was going insane, playing about fifteen seconds of the same song over and over again. It was really annoying. But she’d never heard the song before—so where on earth was it finding the material? "Sarah! Wait!" Dianna called, sprinting in the near-darkness. Naturally, she slammed into just about every bush, fence, bench, tree, and obstruction that was humanly possible. But she could tell Sarah wasn’t hitting anything. It was like she could see it, or something. Considering the fact that it was pitch-black now, and the park didn’t contain any artificial lighting, this was a pretty amazing accomplishment. "Sarah! I’m sorry! I thought you were being sarcastic or something! Wait!" But nothing changed. They were running along the street now, and it was completely dark, no moon or anything. Sarah was way ahead of her now, even though she was slower she was managing not to bang into every pothole, yard pile, picket fence, and overall landscaping that came into her way. She could tell Sarah was getting tired though, doing less leaps and more walking. Dianna could have sworn she even saw her bump into a fence once. As Dianna got closer, her portable CD player played louder and more consistently, the whole song now instead of just one small segment. Or at least it was probably the whole song; despite owning just about every CD and mp3 download as she known to mankind (especially this band—she recognized the voice), this was definitely not something she knew. Finally, after at least fifteen minutes of slamming into various large, heavy objects Dianna stopped. No. This was not happening. This was not possible. Sarah had metamorphosed into someone else. The person had long, faintly glowing hair that was pure silver. Her eyes were a wide purple, and her lips were huge, her nose perfectly straight. She was tall, way taller than Dianna despite the fact that Dianna was always taller than all the kids in her grade and the one above. As she stood next to Dianna, her CD player went into overdrive, insanely playing the song louder than Diana had ever heard and slightly faster than before as well. "Who-what are you?" "A very, very special ‘person’." She smiled, her teeth a striking white. Dianna wasn’t one hundred percent shocked to find they were more fanglike than not. "My name is Dianna. Where is Sarah?" The person tossed her head, smiling again. "Your best friend doesn’t exist. She’s just a slave of mine. But she gave away too much info. She almost told you last week—who you are, what you can do, who am. Who my enemies are." "What am I, then?" She snorted. "Like I’m going to tell you." She smirked. All light disappeared. Dianna didn’t know if her eyes were closed or if it was just really, really dark. "Homicide on the horizon," the person hissed before something was slipped into her arm. Venom spread through her veins instantly. Dianna never heard the words. A note appeared. It was from Alena. There is a Saushale at your school. I don’t know who, but watch out for whoever it is. Oh, and if your computer goes psycho with Sabrina’s song, just play some rock or something. It will go away. At that exact second, The song she was playing ended. Sabrina’s song came back. She looked at the most recent song. Wait. That had to be wrong. It wasn’t rock or rap. It was electronica—the "Cruel summer" cover that Savvy People did. Maybe it just had to be a different song. So she played a different electronica song. Sabrina’s song played louder, drowning it out. Back to "Cruel Summer". Total elimination of Sabrina. A different genre, such as rock or rap made it bearable, though not gone. Hello weirdness. How would you like to investigate the universe with me? Sure? okay. Let’s start with MY FREAKING COMPUTER. Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Adriana was insistently emailing her. Adriana: Hey Carmen! Adriana: Hello? Carmen? Adriana: Carmen!!! You’re the one that’s always on! Adriana: I know you’re on your computer. You were on it like all summer. Adriana: Carmen. Get. On. Now. Adriana: Are you done with your short story? Carmen: Yes. I am totally Completio. Adriana: You already tried that one on me. And it sucks. Carmen: Thanks a lot. Adriana: I=EVL Carmen: That’s all u wanted 2 ask me? Adriana: What’s with the chatspeak? Carmen: I put it in. Adriana: U just can’t stay consistent, can you? Carmen: What’s with pointing out the U? Adriana: As you would say, I’m special like that. Carmen: Now I see why that expression is annoying. Adriana: Does that mean you explain like a normal person? Carmen: No. Adriana: What are you planning to do with your short stories? Carmen: Type them. Adriana: You know what I mean. Carmen: You know I’m not going to answer. Adriana: It seems like you are always typing. Carmen: maybe I am. Adriana: Ha ha. So, what do you think of Ms Suter? Carmen; she's okay, but there's very little you can tell about a teacher in two days, especially when they are the first two days and therefore the easiest. Adriana: I suppose. I like her. She seems nice. Carmen: I am not so easily swayed. Adriana: You're hilarious. Hey, when can I read your stories? Carmen: the day I find a reason for you to do so. After that, Carmen just stared at her screen. She was starting to get a headache. Listening to the same song over and over can do that. So she turned off her computer (thereby shutting down the music program) So not her smartest move. "I have my dreams," It screeched. Was she going to have to keep her computer on all the time now? Snap. Her brother was thundering up. Odd how she could recognize it even over Sabrina. "Turn. It. Off. Now!!!!" Damn. What was she going to do when he realized that a) the computer wasn’t on/iTunes wasn’t available, b) that it wouldn’t turn down, or c) that the version of this song didn’t even exist? "You and what army?" Okay. Block the computer. Stand in doorway. Psychically find way to NOT have Sabrina’s song pound. Maybe she could try to wish up a real remote control. Oh wait—the mark was fading. Or maybe she could just let him figure it out and think he was insane or something. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice the lyrics were different. "I'm Sabrina known as the merciful sorceress," It sang clearly. Okay, that plan was basically zero now. There are not many songs that sing about being Sorceresses. "Isn’t the real song different?" Her brother asked. "And since when is it so loud?" "Um." Carmen could never think of lies fast enough. It was really obvious when she was lying because it took her, like, five minutes to think of something. "Uh. I found a version on the internet. The person screwed with the lyrics and stuff. And it got so loud when I added a second set of speakers. Duh." "Well, I’m going to disconnect your speakers!" "And you’re going to manage that how?" Her brother didn’t know anything non-video-game related about computers. He had trouble turning them off, even. Well, okay Carmen’s mostly because of the complicated process to turn off everything separately. But you’d assume after the forty trillionth time you’d figure it out. Knowing his process of figuring things out, he’d probably permanently damage her computer and not even get the speakers out. Excellent. Her brother just looked at her and hightailed it out, banging down the stairs so loud she could seriously hear him. Now that's loud. Oh. Snap. Now he was coming back. What was wrong with her universe? Why couldn't it stay consistent? Why? "I don’t see any extra speakers." Oh snap. What was she supposed to say now? "Um. Uh... They’re hidden, so little computer ingeniuses like you won’t come and break them! Don't think I have forgotten last time!" Okay, that was excessively rude. But maybe he would go away—she so didn’t need this! Or maybe he could figure out she was lying; he’d never broken anything before—so there technically wasn't a "last time' to speak of. Most of it was because Carmen was always on her computer, or at least near it, so he’d only be able to screw with it for about five minutes before she came home from school, and it took him way longer for him to do anything but turn on his computer and start his video game. He couldn’t even turn on Carmen’s computer completely. It was pretty pitiful. "Where’d you hide them?" Only her brother would ask that. Honestly. Maybe it was all the video games, but he was her brother. Related to her. How could he be so much dumber than her? "Since the goal was that you wouldn’t find them, then I don’t really see a point in telling you. Besides, why are you questioning this anyway? I mean, who here is going to know more about computers here—me or you?" That was really, really rude. But maybe he would go, and make her stop clarifying her lies. That always led to trouble. He'd probably write down everything she'd said somewhere so that when he brought it up next time and she had forgotten everything, he could lord it over her "You. But if you say you have extra speakers, and I don’t see them, then I have reason to believe there are no extra speakers. Simply a process of logic, just as you keep saying." Universe, if you get me out of this, I swear., I will stop ragging on Alena and do the whole Sabrina thing. "Go back to your video game. Since when do you care about my electronics, anyway?" it was true. They had an unspoken rule that they wouldn't bother each other, to keep the peace. Having separate floors helped, too. "Since I can’t hear anything on my video game. I went downstairs. I used headphones. I even went into mom’s office—you know the one we soundproofed? Still couldn’t hear my laptop." "I feel real sorry for you. Now evacuate." He left. Thank god. She turned on her computer and played some random song really quietly. Sabrina’s song seemed to be guided by the volume on her speakers, so she made it really quiet. Her computer pinged. For some reason, it seemed like no matter how loud or quiet the volume on her speakers was, the pinging was always the same volume. Adriana: R U On? Carmen: Since when do you use chatspeak? Adriana: Since when do you not answer your email? Unless it’s like midnight or something? Carmen: Since I turned my computer off. Adriana: Why’d you do that? Carmen: Cruel Summer was really giving me a headache. Adriana: Hmmm. I wonder why. Could it be because you listened to that one song, like what, three hundred times now? Carmen: Four hundred. Adriana: How can you listen to the same crappy song four hundred times and still like it? Carmen: By it not being a crappy song. Adriana: Very funny. If it’s such a great song, how come you are basically the one person that listens to it? Carmen: yeah, that's why it hit #8 on the Billboard charts. Because I'm the one person that listens to it. Claire: Hey Carmen! Carmen: (to Adriana): Claire’s emailing me. I’ll talk to you in forty five seconds. Adriana: Is that a joke? Carmen: no, it's a carefully documented average of how much time she spends on the computer, rounded out to the nearest whole second. Adriana: Very funny, Carma. Carmen: Stop calling me Carma. Carmen (to Claire): Hi. Claire: What’s up? Carmen: Just email, mostly. What are you doing? (silently, she added, that would allow you to be so bored and companionless as to email me?) Claire: Same. Still writing stories? I saw you in Math writing in that binder you use. Carmen: Yeah. I didn’t see you in math. Were you in the office or something? Claire: I was seriously late. It took me forty-five minutes to find it. Carmen: The campus is seriously annoying. Claire: I assumed that the E-40 meant east. I was on the completely wrong side of the school. Carmen: What would make you think that? Claire: That was how they did it at my old school; you know, organized in four sections. Each corresponded with the directions of a compass. Carmen: They seriously need to start giving out maps. Claire: Totally. At least we don’t have to do anything in P.E. I have to go. email you later. Adriana: I get the feeling I am less in status compared to Claire. Carmen: Sad fact Adriana: I will never understand what it is about her that makes everyone so desperate for her approval. Carmen: Besides you, obviously. Adriana: no, including me. I think it's that she's so retarded, everyone feels compassionate towards her, and that makes her confident, so we feel that she is someone to protect and seek approval from. Carmen: Very plausible. Heidi: Hi Carmen! Adriana gave me your email. We should chat. Carmen (to Heidi): Hello Heidi. What are you currently embarking on? Heidi: You talk weird. Why do you talk like that? Heidi: Sorry, Hailey likes to take over my computer occasionally. Carmen: I thought something might be missing. Heidi: Ya. We're watching Rozen Maiden. I have the box set! Carmen: That sounds like something I could see you owning. Heidi: You should watch it. Heidi: Do something besides type. It would be good. Carmen: I'm guessing that last one was Hailey. Heidi: Duh. So, are you still writing? Because I liked the ones you showed me over the summer. It was like a manga in book form or something. Carmen: Only from you would that be a compliment. But yes, I am still writing stories. It's a distinct hobby of mine. Heidi: So, did Adriana tell you about the summer camp? We're going! It's super cheap. That's why my parents let me go instead of ballet camp. I love ballet camp, but it'll be nice to do something else. Carmen: Nah. My parents have an office in LA and they have this warped idea that we need to be along as well. Heidi: We? Carmen: My brother and I. Heidi: oh ya. I have a brother too. Thorn. He's really crazy. Heidi: I think it's genetic. Alford genes. Carmen: And you guys are best friends. Tsk, tsk. Heidi: That doesn't make any sense. How on earth would you even be able to say that? Carmen: magic. Adriana: Carmen? What happened? Carmen (to Adriana): Heidi emailed me. Or, really, Heidi and Hailey. They're watching Rose Maiden or something. Adriana: Oh, yeah. Trust me, depending on how much time you spend with Heidi, you can get what the entire series is talking about without even having to ask. Carmen (to Heidi and Hailey): Sorry, but I have to turn off my computer. See you at school! Carmen (to Adriana): Au Reviore, mademsoille. Adriana: I hate it when you do the French thing. Despise. Loathe. However people like you say that. Carmen: I know. Carmen turned up the volume as she slipped out of her computer chair. Then she went hunting around for her extra speakers. She had seven trillion of them somewhere here, even though she couldn’t find any of them. After fifteen minutes of searching, she finally located an extra pair, as well as a USB cable that would allow a computer to hold four USB things out of one connector. she then switched to "Cruel Summer" and turned it way, way down. She took the three electronic items and walked to her brothers room. "Hey Matthew," she called. "What?" "If you can magically find a way to plug these in, then here." She handed him the speakers and USB adapter. He looked at them helplessly. Carmen laughed, and ran up the stairs as her mom opened the front door. "Wow. It’s really quiet." Carmen didn’t feel a need to answer that. Neither did her brother. Within seconds, she adjusted the volume of her computer to acceptable levels while she read for an hour, before making it play "Cruel Summer" really quietly and going to sleep. "Carmen!" Great. Her English teacher was calling. Right in front of Claire, who was chatting about something nonsensical. Adriana was alongside, her arms crossed, waiting for Carmen to hurry up and go down to lunch. "Carmen, I need to talk to you." "Why are you calling me by my first name now?" The teacher, if he used names at all, usually called people "Miss Gomez" or "Mister Huylet". Claire smiled, obviously finding Carmen's question humorous. The teacher, however, ignored the question and sarcasm. "Your short stories are quite excellent. There's a fair next Saturday for the best short stories. For charity, you know. I really think you should enter, you could probably pull in some great cash for the cause!" "Do you even know what the cause is?" Claire gave a huge snort as Carmen said it. The teacher was notorious for forgetting small details. "Well, um, no, I think it was for the starving children of Zima-babe-way, or something…" The teacher trailed off, trying to remember while simultaneously staring at the ceiling. "Do you mean Zimbabwe?" Claire offered before sprinting away. Adriana had already left, hoping not to get sucked into being forced to write. "Yes! Zimbabwe! What do you think?" "Um, sure." Carmen gingerly took one of the forms and shoved it in her backpack before continuing off to lunch. "So what did your English teacher want with you?" Adriana said between bites of her ham-and-cheese sandwich. She’d already thrown the old lettuce away. Her mother, despite having plenty of money, had this thing about wasting food; Carmen thought it was kind of funny, though she’d never say so to Adriana’s face. "He wanted to enter me in some kind of contest, a writing thing for charity or whatever." Carmen bit into her apple. It was all she brought lately, all she ate until three. "You going to do it?" Adriana had finished the sandwich and pulled out a lemonade. She could never understand why Carmen like writing so much—Adriana didn’t even really like reading or writing, despite her 4.0. She didn’t have the same passion Carmen did. Instead of answering, Carmen continued on with an old joke. Since 2000, Adriana claimed that the trader joes lemonade had the exact same joke on the side. "Still a collieflower?" The joke was something about a dog and a flower, and a collieflower was the answer. "No duh. You didn’t answer my question." "Well, I agreed so heartily it was unbelievable." Carmen rolled her eyes at the idiotic expression and the clear use of sarcasm. She and Adriana always did that. "Ha. I bet you made a face at him, made some joke, took it and acted like it was the last thing in the world you would ever want to do, even though you are just dying to get started. Right?" "Can you be just a little less psychic?" "No." "I hate you sometimes." "Thank you." "You just assume that I’m sarcastic, don’t you? You just assume that, when I say that, I don’t hate, I’m not mad, and I’m not about to, oh, maybe ditch you, or hate you, or pretend like you don’t exist, right? Because that’s what a normal person does. When they say that sarcastically, they are sarcastic. They don’t mean it, They aren’t going to ditch you, or-" "Are you okay?" Heidi asked, speaking for everyone. "Yeah. Just…Elementary school drama," Carmen lied. Adriana was still looking at her strangely, but Heidi and Hailey, not having known her in sixth grade, were oblivious. "Right. Elementary school." Adriana said pointedly. Hailey and Heidi were listening to some Japanese song, but at that mention, they sat up (or Hailey did anyway). They ate in silence after that, Carmen mulling over her book, listening to her mp3 player and Adriana drinking her lemonade and talking to two other girls, Hailey and Heidi, the Ultimate Opposites (they were best friends, but Hailey was a huge pessimist and always complained and Heidi was always cheery and happy. They both loved Japanese culture and manga, this one called Sailor Moon especially. Why Hailey loved a show about happiness Carmen would never, ever understand. It was like the meaning of life—one of those uestions that simply do not have an answer). Carmen wasn’t even paying attention, focusing more on her apple core, which seemed to be lifting a few inches above the surface of the table, without even wishing via her mark. The same sense of dizziness overcame her. She felt angry, the apple core rose, she felt shocked, it dropped. She focused on her anger, angry, so angry, overpowering and dizzy and suffocating, the core rose, and rose, and rose. The electronica song played in her ears. She didn’t recognize it at first, and she thought it was Sabrina or something, but she relaxed when she realized it was just her headphones. She had figured out that if Sabrina stood next to it, it would play her song but if it was just Carmen then on her mp3 player there was no trace of it. Unfortunately, upon realizing that it was just the song on her mp3 player, she relaxed too much. She fell off the bench. Literally. She felt so exhausted after lifting the core just six or seven inches. She fell onto the cold cement, her Ipod hitting the groud and shutting off, her head banging against the hard, concrete ground, and her blonde hair streaked with gold and purple tangling in dirt and her gray eyes opened, smashed against the ground. "Um, are you okay?" Hailey had paused in her monologue about something random that had happened in Science. She wasn’t an uncaring person, and she and Adriana stared at her. "Just…tired." Carmen wasn’t even going to try to lie. She couldn't think of one fast enough, and they would so be able to tell. But she wasn’t going to start talking about the apple core. She wasn’t that idiotic. "Tired. Right. You fell off the bench because you are…tired. Yes. I can see that. NOT." Adriana rolled her eyes and helped Carmen up. "Well I’m just special like that." Carmen hauled herself up and sat on the bench again. Her Ipod turned right back on, and she put it on. Everyone at the table stared at her. Carmen felt uncomfortable. She pretended like they weren’t there and started instead on her second of the five short stories, each at least eight hundred words long. She decided that she would use the one about Dianna for her first. " I walked in my dream. I knew it was a dream, but I also knew not to act like it was a dream. I’d had these dreams before, where I knew intuitively not to let anyone know I was dreaming. I slowly walked up to a large building in front of me, impressive, outfitted with white topaz. I knew it was white topaz, which when pure, shines more brilliantly than diamond. I walked up slowly, hearing an electronica song ring around me. It was loud and obnoxious, hypnotizing and fascinating. I saw a girl in front of me. As I looked at her, I could hear a song, a special one I knew she associated herself with. Due to the dream, I couldn’t tell what she looked like, only a general picture. I knew she was formidable, fear-inducing, but I couldn’t feel the fear. ‘Enter,’ she said. Her voice was scarier than the song, scarier even than the time my old, deranged aunt had too much to drink and started singing in front of my entire class at her wedding. It wasn’t that same kind of scary, it was primal scary. Like what you would feel if you were faced up against a large, hungry lion in the middle of an empty savannah. I didn’t enter though, backing away instead and tripping over the steps, landing outside. The final jolt felt so real. Before it had been dreamy and odd, but this felt like real life. I awoke. I felt strange. The song rang in my ears, despite the silence of a dark room in a large house on a weekend at four-o-clock in the morning. I could hear the song. It wasn’t just me remembering it. I could hear it for real, though strangely. It was as if it were on, playing somewhere near me, quietly, though that was not possible. There was nowhere the song could be playing, I knew it for sure; no computer or stereo in sight. I lifted my head. Everything was just so wrong and out of place. I could have sworn I saw the same scary girl from my dream standing in the doorway of my room. I could tell it was her, even though I couldn’t see her in my dream. She was so odd-looking, with beautiful silver hair and sparkling purple eyes. She took a step forward. I took one back. "Why do you run?" Her voice was less scary than before, silky and melting, or like she was really trying to sound like it. The electronica song still rang in my ears, loud and focus-ruining..." "Carmen????" Hailey was right in her face. Carmen hit the pause button on her Ipod like her life depended on it. "What?" Carmen complained. She had really enjoyed writing her story. "Oh nothing. It’s just that the tardy bell is going to ring in, oh-" Carmen was already running. She could see the empty campus just as well as the next person. Her swim training took over, and Hailey struggled to catch up. "Hey! Carmen! Slow freaking down!" Carmen made it to class just in time. Class was monotonous. The teacher did lots of smiling and waved her hands around a lot. She pranced up and down the front of the room, talking about the class, her life, random kids in the class, interrupting herself with the most random anecdotes. She let them sit in a thrown together hubbub of tables, four people to each. Carmen watched the teacher blankly, feeling as if someone was dangling one of those strings in front of her face—bored, eyes swinging back and forth without much interest. Heidi and Hailey were whispering about something weird. It sounded like sue Seth and Seki, like they were people, and they needed costumes to do this, for some bizarre otherworldly reason. They also needed to see ink and you. Confusing. The teacher didn't notice. Adriana, the fourth person in her group, was studying her nails and humming, though she also seemed to be pretty sure what was going in class. She didn’t recognize the song. She only really liked a few bands that had quickly fallen out of favor, being quickly replaced by more dancelike selections. She started tapping her fingers on the desk, so loudly Hailey looked at her and hissed for her to be quiet. Hypocrite. "Do you need legal advice?" she asked in retaliation. Heidi and Hailey looked confused. "You know, so you can sue Seth and Seki," Carmen explained, smiling as she waited for them to roll their eyes and continue on with their conversation. Instead, they laughed so hard and so hysterically that everyone in the room turned to stare at them. Hailey especially couldn't stop. Carmen's face turned a steady, embarrassed red. "Sue Seth and Seki," she chortled, almost choking. Heidi at least made a solid effort to stop, but Hailey just couldn't stop laughing, effort or not. "Um, Carmen?" Heidi asked, eyebrows raised. She looked ready to burst into laughter again. "Well, hey. At least now we know that we put up with my sarcasm for a reason. I know it's been a deep philosophical question as to why my friends haven't ditched me yet," Carmen announced, spreading her arms wide for emphasis. Most of the class started giggling as well. It's a Carmen thing—you know, to be bored, lethargic, and unfocused one second, and energetic enough to crack up the whole class with enthusiastic sarcasm the next. "I mean, we all have a purpose in life. And if mine is to make my friends choke on their own spit, then so be it." All of the class laughing or smiling in at least some form. Including the teacher. "I mean, how fun is it to crack up your friends so hard that they can't even talk? I should really prescribe this as a hobby. Or as a sly homicidal strategy. I mean, Hailey, just breathe. You don't want to forget to breathe. See, look, they'll actually strangle themselves, they're laughing so hard." Heidi smiled. "Um, actually it's Suiseseiki. Just so you know." Carmen waved her hand demandingly. "You expect me to care about details like that? That is so out of my field of caring, I can't even believe you bothered me with it. How dare you disturb my peace of mind! "Though I must admit I was very curious as to why you needed to wear costumes to sue someone. Were you planning an afterparty? That sounds like the name of someone rich. You could throw a rich party. I could recommend some songs." Heidi made a face of mock horror. "Oh please, no, I'd do anything to avoid you being the DJ." Everyone continued laughing, though the teacher did not. "Carmen, may I continue class?" "Simpson-sensei, I am so honored that you asked I am shocked into silence." Heidi and Hailey rolled their eyes so hard, Hailey hissed under her breath in pain, and Heidi winced. "Is that an insult?" "Oh, my most humble mistake-" "Carmen, answer. Stop screwing around. What does it mean?" "I'm not sure. I read it in a book. They called people they revered 'sensei', because they had lots of fame and money due to the way they set everything up. It was a very good book." "I'm sure it was. Now, please summarize the passage I just read." "You were reading something?" she blurted with it being so obvious that she was actually confused the class roared in laughter again. Great, the second time in three minutes someone was laughing hysterically at a mistake. "Class!" the teacher yelled, turning from prancing and excited to furious. "Shut up!" It was as if she had, well, screeched shut up at the class—which most teachers would agree is not exactly appropriate to be screeching. Everyone stopped laughing and stared at her as if she might have slight mental problems. It was a very loud screech. I don't think even I could have been much louder, and I am a very good screecher. "Carmen can't possibly be that funny. Now look, are you going to summarize the passage or are you just going to disrupt the class?" "Um..." She was so going to get sent from the room if she couldn't summarize the passage perfectly. She heard Heidi mumbling something, it sounded a lot like 'forget it' but there was so no way that she was going to remark on her mumblings anymore. However, the teacher just seemed to shrug it off, not send Carmen anywhere, and continue on with whatever the heck she had been doing. She took a deep, calming breath. In fact, she was so calm, it's unbelievable. It did seem unbelievable to me, though, that Carmen could be excited and sarcastic one moment and totally calm the next. It's rather unnerving. Carmen walked out of her last class, tired, when Heidi walked up to her. "Hey, Carmen, are you sure you’re okay?" "What would make you think opposite?" "Oh, I don’t know, it’s just a quarterly thing. You’ve been acting totally normal lately." Heidi rolled her eyes, shook her head, and crossed her arms. Carmen rolled her eyes, though smiling in her mind at the sarcasm. "I never thought I’d see the day. Heidi is being sarcastic." "We live in a free world." It sounded like she was copying Carmen's tone almost, when she was being sarcastic by using a line from a book or movie. She even tilted her head slightly like Carmen, though she did not copy the flying arms that were notorious for knocking over something that was not beneficial to knock over. "Sure, whatever. I’m fine." Carmen accompanied it by waving her hand slightly and taking a step towards the bike rack. "Really? Are you sure? You’re not acting normal; I know that for a fact." Heidi sounded much more serious and concerned, a tone Carmen couldn't use without hating the way she sounded—so dedicated and just plain false. "Look, it’s nothing you could solve. Trust me." Even with that, the truest statement she'd probably said all week, she accompanied it with some sarcasm and sarcastic flash of the eyes. "Why not?" Curious, obviously. Carmen could hear Hailey's clopping shoes, way distinctive, so she knew that the ordeal was almost over. Even if Heidi didn't leave immediately, Hailey would make it so that a serious, non-insulting conversation was impossible by nature. "Well…" Carmen imagined a really sarcastic answer, like if she was a mystical lost Sorceress would she be helpful. Heidi would probably assume she was being sarcastic, it was, after all, normal Carmen behavior. But it would make her want to know more. But if she wasn’t sarcastic, that would probably just freak her out. "It’s not a big deal." Way to go, Carmen. She won’t think anything of that. Heidi, thankfully, just turned around, linked arms with Hailey and walked away. Carmen tried to breathe deeply and normally, a task she quickly ditched. Deep breaths never helped her calm down, it was mostly just sarcasm. It's a Carmen thing. Once she got home, she typed up her story, what she had anyway. She worked on it for about a half-hour, being a fast typer but wanting to finish. "… It was really annoying, and something about the situation clued me in that in order to get rid of her, I had to destroy the song. "You are evil." It was obvious just by looking at her how much so. "I’m shocked. How did you know?" Rather than answer her, I tried to think of a fake answer. I failed. "You just seem like it." I swallowed, but then realized how idiotic that was. I wasn’t going to cower. I was going to focus. Win. Besides, I had probably had a false awakening and was now dreaming. So it didn’t matter anyway. Seriously, all the evidence pointed in that direction-Real people did NOT have purple eyes. It’s one of things that is incongruent with the real world. "Do you have the Telkin?" "Judging by the fact I have no idea what you are even talking about, I would say no." "What a tradegy. You could really be something." She shook her head and clicked her tongue. I decided to take charge here. I was dreaming, right? So, I mean, it wasn’t like she could do anything, right? Of course! No duh! "Leave. Now." I drew out the now. "How are you going to make me?" I did a reality check behind my back. uh-oh. I wasn’t dreaming. This was real. My life was so over. "What do you want from me? I’m just me! I’m nothing!" I screamed it, ignoring the fact that I was probably going to wake someone up by doing so. Obviously she was insane, or I was. Maybe she was wearing contacts, and I was losing my mind, thinking she was the character from my dream. Just because she had been freaky and evil in my dream did not mean that she was evil in real life. That could totally be hair dye. Maybe we were both losing our minds—maybe she had escaped from a nearby asylum or something. It was four-o-clock in the morning. But the song. The song was playing now, exactly as it had in my dream. What was that? I didn’t have a stereo, mp3 player, or computer in my room. Oh. My cell phone. She could control my cell phone now. Oh this was just perfect. I had to carry that cell phone with me everywhere. "My name is Francesca." "My name is unimportant." "Hello, Unimportant. Nice to meet you at this lovely time., it's only four in the morning, you know. Should we aim for three next time?" I was tired, which made me cranky, and cranky makes me bitter and mocking and is that not what we just saw? Suddenly she vanished. I lived another sixty years, never seeing her again. I never even knew if she really existed. Carmen stood up and stretched. Her computer ended it’s song, and moved onto electronica, something off the large All Ultimate Dance CD her parents had gotten her for a present (and a very thoughtful present, too—it had all the best music from the best time). Sabrina’s song came on, freakishly loudly. She skipped it. It was so annoying, but she didn’t want to delete it in the off chance that Sabrina would be permanently confined, and she could listen to it without risking her life. A note from Alena appeared. It was kind of unnerving how they would just appear out of nowhere. This morning, in History, a note had suddenly appeared on her desk. One second her desk was bare, and the next there was some random note. It explained the whole thing with "Cruel Summer" that Carmen had already figured out. She like "Cruel Summer—UltraDance Mix" best though, and coincidentally it sounded very similar to Alena's, just with different lyrics (obviously) and it was a bit longer, thirty seconds or so where they basically just pounded the keyboards very, very loudly.. Sabrina is trying to become a goddess. You don't need to screw around with the history or theory of it; that doesn't matter. What you need to know is that if she defeats you, we're screwed. Seriously, seriously, seriously screwed. You don't need to bother with exactly why, but let me just tell you this; we are so going to be screwed if she wins. Let me give you a quick basis on how to defeat Sabrina: electronica. I've seen your computer's inventory, and quite honestly I can see why you're a little mental, listening to that all day. Basically, just play the electronica really loudly, keep her from playing anything, and try not to let her, you know, throw you out a window or something. When you're pretty sure she's subdued, then call me in, but only when she's, like, on the floor groaning in pain. Though with the mp3 library you have, that shouldn't be too difficult. Plus, I can't believe how many dance remixes of "Cruel Summer" you own. One version isn't enough? How many different ways do you need to hear the same thing over and over again? What is wrong with you? I think you can win. Trust me, think is probably a slight overstatement, but just don't lose, okay? You are not allowed to lose. You lose, and I can't even express how much I am going to hate you. Plus you'll have basically just screwed the entire universe in ways that I can't explain to you. Do. Not. Lose. Oh, yeah, and the mark thing is totally fake. Oh, lovely. How good Alena was at making sure she didn't get freaked out about the situation. Carmen wasn't scared at all. Let's play that game where we scream out 'Not' so loudly, I can actually hear you, typing out here in the middle of nowhere. Go. Man, that was loud. Moving on, Carmen read the note a few times, just to really soak it all in. Alena was really getting on her nerves. She was talkable, mostly, not much worse than Carmen. But notes.... First of all, she'd insulted her and her music at least four times. Then she went on and on about how Carmen couldn't lose, without explaining why it was so essential. She'd given barely any explanation or instruction at all, just complained and complained, like the note was a diary entry or something. Carmen, being a sarcastic complainer herself, didn't really have a 'hypocrite' motive in effect, but it was still annoying. Very annoying. Even though the mark was good news, she wasn't really feeling it. she mostly just felt really, really mad and depressed. And then Sabrina chose that moment to attack. Adriana watched and waited. She was usually a busy person, but the first week of school she never did much—just kind of hung out, reading books and chatting with her friends and cousins. She had very obnoxious cousins who had an obsession with being, well, strange. That's a good way to describe Carmen lately, isn't it? she thought sarcastically. She was lying on her bed, reading, and she rotated herself so her head was hanging off the bed and her black hair almost hit the ground. Carmen was acting weird. Carmen was always weird, obviously, but she was being more than weird almost. Suspicious. Bizarre. Or just out of the norm of Carmen—Adriana would be just as freaked if Carmen came to school being totally normal, calm and mainstream. She remembered class today, when Carmen had been cracking up everyone. It was probably a good thing she felt no similar attraction to that kind of thing, Carmen seemed to pay dearly for her sarcasm. But still, she certainly got attention. Why was she acting so off? Summer? Carmen usually went to LA, did it have something to do with that? What she did know was that it was really annoying her. She wanted Carmen to either stop acting so un-Carmen, or explain why she was acting strange. Sabrina wasn't really thinking. She knew Carmen was mad, but she was also depressed. Depression really screwed up your Telkin, which Sabrina knew very well, unfortunately mostly from personal experience. Plus it was totally unexpected, which added an extra bonus. She focused on her own anger. In order to really use up all your capacity of Telkin, you really had to be in control of your emotions; kill virtually any sadness or happiness, be completely of hatred and anger. Sabrina was very good at it. This time, though, the Telkin was mostly fuel. She was going take Carmen over in her own mind which, trust me, is so not easy. It required hypnotism, which Sabrina was not gifted at, and a quarter more Telkin than Sabrina was normally capable of using. But, if she did it right, she'd be using Carmen's Telkin when she really needed it, anyway. So hopefully it would work. Carmen, however, was very, very mad. She responded so fast, Sabrina was actually thrown off guard for a second at the surge of power. She had been expecting something Bella-sized—and this was so not Bella. This was unbelievable. Carmen worked harder. She was so mad. She was mad at Alena and Sabrina, Saushale and the note, her brother and her friends. The fact that all this crap had made her think she was insane, or the pool was insane, or that freakin' electronica was insane, or a whole long list of other stuff. This whole situation was so insane it was unbelievable, literally, and it just made her mad. But Sabrina was not going to give up. She was Sabrina, after all, not one of those flimsy Sorceresses she had ruled a while back, who could only control armies of five. They had zero Telkin of their own, just relying on the Sorceress in them. But Sabrina was special, just like Carmen. And Alena—she hadn’t gotten to be the goddess of forty trillion things by chance. Sabrina was going to win. She was a Sorceress. She was special. What did Carmen have over her, anyway? Except being way more angry at the situation than Sabrina. But she was just a totally baka, stupid human in the totally wrong situation Sabrina focused harder and harder, winning more and more, and Carmen started to bend. The pressure was immense, the Telkin. Telkin, in effect, might just throw stuff around, but that's just a side effect. It's really concentrated brainpower, like that whole electricity thing between neurons that your science teacher never taught you. Well, I do my homework. Carmen focused harder, a large surge came and shocked Sabrina. She focused more, but Sabrina was just too powerful. NO!!!!!!!!!!!! The determination was surprisingly powerful, even more than the anger, hatred, and fury. Determination steeled her, forcing against the seas, oceans of pressure and energy Sabrina was pouring in. It was too much. Her computer! Electronica! Had she not just read that three seconds ago and thought about how much Alena must hate her music? She raced to her computer, which was already on. iTunes was on, no duh, and she hit the spacebar, and the arrow keys. Within seconds, "Cruel Summer—UltraDance Mix" was seriously beating Sabrina. Sabrina basically recoiled in horror and shock. Savvy People were so unfair. What was wrong with that chosen? Why had she had to spill all the electronica? Sabrina refused to give up, Blasting her own song so loud it killed Carmen's ears. So she started singing, really, really loudly, which only made Sabrina want to run away more. Along with the electronica, Carmen’s hi-tech speaker system battled Sabrina’s ancient hold. Then her brother banged in. Carmen was shocked that, even though she had two savagely loud songs battling and playing exuberantly thunderously, she could still hear her brothers entrance. It was surprisingly clear, surprisingly outlined. Which was amazing, considering Sabrina's head-ache inducing song. And the UltraDance mix. She really never wanted to hear that again. "Why are you playing two songs at the same time? I can hear your computer across the street!" Then he yanked out the power cord on her computer. He unplugged the really expensive device, not taking the fifteen seconds and computer expertise it took to shut it down right. If Carmen hadn’t felt so tired, she would have screamed at him about possibly damaging her computer. Instead, she just fell down. Again. For the second time that day, relaxing took a downward turn. "She’s been really strange ever since school started." "Dude, why do you care? Lets leave." They left the house, excessively loud. Carmen could hear them take every step down the stairs, out the door, and across the street. If she wasn’t so numbingly exhausted, she would have realized how odd it was, not to mention annoying. But for now, it felt natural to focus on something completely and absolutely, so she listened to them leave. But pretty soon, naturally, her computer decided that it was going to play some electronica. Which Carmen loved. Not. It was the Alena one, the one that Alena identified herself with, raucous and annoying ( just like Alena, Carmen thought humorously). It played much more softly than Sabrina’s electronica, and was controlled by Carmen’s computer. But it wouldn’t be cancelled out with another song. Which sucked. It started out halfway through the song, where it had left off with Alena. "It’s not my problem. Don’t include me. I didn’t sign up. I do what I want. Not yours to dictate. Please accept it." Definitely Alena’s song. Carmen threw herself onto her bed. This was just what she wanted—she had to have listened to "Cruel Summer" forty trillion times in the last couple days. Now she got to listen to the annoying, screwed-up version for any and all apparent eternity. Whoa, was Carmen looking forward to it! Not. But wait—what was making it play? It couldn’t be Alena. Was it her? Because she was a chosen? Oh, this was just perfect. Alena wasn’t really giving her any favors here—not only did she get to be endlessly pursued by a psycho maniac Sorceress, but she got to be forced to be in constant company with, like, the worst song in all of history! Besides Sabrina’s, obviously. She might like "Cruel Summer", but Alena’s really, really sucked. Where did these songs come from anyway? Why did they resemble real songs? Why was it electronica? This whole idea made no sense. But don't worry, I'll give you some more theory in the second book, so don't put it down in frustration yet. "God. What is the next one—'Disturbia' or something?" she muttered, just to herself. It wasn’t like anyone could hear over Alena’s song Carmen was too tired to change the volume of. "Bum Bum Be-dum Bu Bum Be-dum Bum." Great. The universe had a really screwed-up sense of humor. People thought she had problems with humor but it was nothing compared to her situation. "Walk like an Egyptian," screeched out the next one. Loveliness. "Hey hey you you I don’t like your girlfriend," the next. She didn't really like the song, but had it anyway. She had all of Avril Lavigne. "What you gonna tell your dad it’s like a wheel of fortune," Okay, now this was getting weird. Why was it playing random songs from her inventory? "Holiday celebrate." "Can you see me here, on the dance floor. Dance—until you drop." Now it was weird enough for Carmen to investigate. The iTunes wasn’t even up, it was just a blank screen. There was nothing to make the songs play. So Carmen turned off her computer. A second of silence. Then: Crappy sit-u-a-ah-tion Crappy sit-u-a-ah-tion Oh. Perfect. Was her computer malfunctioning or was Sabrina trying to disguise the fact she was actually here? Or what? Or was she just going insane? It seemed like no matter how far she went, how close this got, how much proof she got, she still thought she was insane. Was that a sign? "Sabrina. I know you’re in here," Carmen called out. Somewhere, she added silently in her head. She hope Sabrina would show up fast, but it didn't seem to be true. "Sabrina. It’s only you that plays the songs. You’re in here, and I know it. Admit it." Silence. Or, at least, from the Sabrina front. The electronica was still playing loudly. "SABRINA!" Still nothing. Thank god her brother wasn’t here, wondering why she was screaming out to imaginary people. Was Sabrina here, or was she losing her mind? Unfortunately, she had way more proof on the insane front as opposed to the 'Sabrina is here' front. "Boo!" Alena. Carmen took a step back and hit her shoes, which she always strewn across her floor and put away before she went to bed. She tripped and landed on a tack. She always had a lot of tacks on her floor because of her dozens of pictures tacked up to her wall. Her family didn't have photo albums, they had pictures on this flash drive and lots of pics everywhere. She shot off the floor and tripped again, this time on a thick hardback she had thrown on her floor. Sometimes, when she was mad at cliffhanger endings she would drop the books on the floor, and she still hadn't picked that one up from a while ago. Finally she landed sprawled on her desk, getting poked in the side by the sharp points of a picture frame. She managed not to fall (for once). And the really sad part was that wasn’t even the worst injury she’d gotten. "You," Carmen panted. "Scared me." Alena rolled her eyes. "Couldn’t have figured that one out myself," she muttered. "What do you want?" Carmen was mad, and held her side as she stood up lopsided and glared at Alena. Alena struggled not to laugh. "To congratulate you," she answered sarcastically, like she had been planning to congratulate her, but not originally. Carmen, being a master of sarcasm herself, understood the tone. "And?" Carmen knew there was more to the story. The Cruel Goddess of Goodness doesn’t just congratulate someone. Simply not done. "Well, I also wanted to scare you. With the songs." She smiled, and Carmen rolled her eyes. Alena had way too much time on her hands. Honestly. "That wasn’t the scary part." "You’re just like Bella in that sense." "Who is Bella, anyway? You mentioned her in the note, too." "She’s this really famous Saushale. She’s scary and evil. More evil than Sabrina." "Sabrina’s the Sorceress of Evil." "The Merciful Sorceress of Evil. Bella’s just pure evil. And rude. Sarcastic. Pessimistic. She was a chosen." "Oh. That’s why she’s famous, right?" "I’m the Cruelty goddess. I pick cruel people as chosens. The good ones usually end up Saushale." She brooded for a second, staring off into the distance. Then she smiled. "Congratulations. Bye." "Wait." "Yes?" "What was the deal with the note?" "Okay. Look. You have to admit that you are a little mental. How much electronica do you honestly need? Why-" "Yes, I understood that part perfectly clearly." Her tone was icy and cut to the bone. She was very good at being intimidating, her amber hair and intense blue eyes, a terrifying-esque voice and an insult ready. But she preferred to be sarcastic and obnoxious. "I would imagine," Alena replied breezily. She wasn't scared. She didn't really get scared. She could prevail. If she cared to. She was still working that out. "Why are we screwed? What would make us screwed?" "Can't tell you," Alena explained, spinning around to vanish. Carmen grabbed her arm. No way. There was no freaking way that Alena was going to step out of here without explaining everything. If Carmen was fighting, she was going to know why. "Tell. Me." "Can't." Alena yanked her arm back and glared. Carmen's computer shot out something, but it was too late. Alena vanished into thin air, as if she’d never been. Carmen stood motionless, her computer moving on to a really loud Savvy People song. Carmen was too shocked to even register what it was; normally she could identify them all within two seconds. Or less. Usually less. Ping! Adriana: R U On? Carmen: Yes I Am On. Adriana: Are you mocking me or is there something wrong with your computer? Carmen: Guess. Adriana: Mocking. Got it. Carmen: Why did you have to email me again? Adriana: What are you talking about? I haven’t emailed you today! Carmen: Don’t you mean ‘I haven’t email u toda’? Adriana: What is with you? Oh, I don’t know. Carmen thought sourly. I’ve just had a sadistic goddess bet on dominating the universe try to kill me. You know, nothing major. Just the usual. But, naturally, she didn’t write it. She wasn’t that stupid. Carmen: I keep waiting for the day when you will realize my feelings/moods/responses don’t exactly form a coherent pattern. Adriana: Except that they used to, before school started. Carmen: Adriana: Well? Carmen: Adriana: For god’s sake, say something! Carmen: I thought you were an atheist. Adriana: I am. But it’s an expression. Like your whole special thing. Carmen: Except it’s not just an expression. Adriana: (uncontrollable laughter) Adriana: Please don’t tell me u were serious. Carmen: I was not serious. Carmen: Come. Freaking. On. Adriana: What? Carmen: In what world am I serious about anything? Adriana: Ha. Freaking. Ha. Carmen: That’s not funny. Adriana: I can’t laugh at your joke? Carmen: never mind. Adriana: Seriously. Carmen: It’s the freaking thing. Adriana: It’s like what freaking ev-ah. Adriana: What do you think of my imitation? Carmen: Add some Dance Until You Drop references and we’re golden. Adriana: It's all about me! Carmen: what? Adriana: that’s part of the lyrics, right? Carmen: Are you sure you’re mentally stable? Adriana: um. Yes. Freaking. Carmen: How did you know the lyrics, anyway? Adriana: the internet. Duh. Carmen: Why? Adriana: I wanted to see how you could listen to the same crappy song four hundred times. Carmen: I’ve listened to "Cruel Summer" four hundred, not "Dance Until You Drop". Carmen: Still think it’s a crappy song? Adriana: Nothing will change my mind about that. Trust me. Carmen: How can you not like it?????? Adriana: Two simple words: It. Sucks. Carmen: Oh, you like emo, but not electronica? Adriana: "No Explanation" was okay. Adriana: Gotta go. Sorry. Bye. Carmen: Au revior. Adriana: Aloha. Carmen: I’m not even going to ask about that. Adriana: That’s probably a good thing. Carmen switched off her monitor, leaving on "Cruel Summer" really quietly, and went downstairs to scrabble together some dinner. As usual, her brother had decided on dinner scrabbling about the same time and was hogging the microwave. "Cheater," she informed him jokingly. "You're slower than an obese kid without a leg," he informed her right back. "Your circadian rhythm is off," Carmen diagnosed. Actually, circadian rhythm has nothing to do with eating, but he didn't know that. "I don't even know what that is," he argued. Wow. The kid was a good debater there. Carmen was about to explain (an edited version), but the microwave dinged and he pulled out his pizza and went upstairs to eat. Carmen wasn't interested anymore either. She made do with a bag of popcorn before going back to her computer. She searched the web, and, as promised, there was a "Dance Until You Drop" UltraDance mix that sounded exactly like Sabrina's. Curious, she went back to the list of songs composed by the girl composing DUYD (As I will now call it). Turns out there was a whole list of them. Most with UltraDance mixes. Cool. In the morning, Carmen woke up without remainder of her dream. In other words, there was a startling, not to mention appreciated lack of MidnightMadness. She stood up and stretched, walking toward her desk. Some days she tripped, but today her room was immaculate, free of tacks, shoes, books, clothes, and all other whatnot. Then she tripped, slid across her floor, and landed on her computer, damaging her speakers. She also managed to entangle her long blonde hair in the wires, which is always a lovely thing. There was nothing on her floor to trip on. Of course, it's not like Carmen is really the most coordinated person on the planet. There wasn’t time to fix the damage to her computer. Carmen dressed quickly, not paying attention to what she put on (her wardrobe mostly consisted of jeans anyhow), yanked a brush through her hair (and fastened it down in two low ponytails, to lessen the damage somewhat) and grabbed her backpack. She slid down the banister downstairs, slipping semi-gracefully down to the first floor. She and her brother were very good with stairs, being able to slide down them for the last couple of years. Then she tripped. She upended her backpack, being an annoying Velcro as opposed to a zipper, and her stuff flew everywhere—wet spots on the floor, places under the couch that hadn’t been touched since they’d moved in, and all over the table. This was so not her day. She took one look at her brother, who was calmly eating cereal, totally oblivious and zoned out on his mp3 player. She could actually hear the music he was listening to, something he complained of Carmen's mp3 player, when she actually bothered to use it around her brother. Mostly she just blasted the music everywhere. However, the loud crash and utter silence must hve clued him in, and he pulled off his headphones and caught sight of Carmen glaring murderously at him, completely stewing in her anger. "It wasn’t me!" he protested before Carmen dramatically threw herself to the floor to gather up as much as she could find. She only had so much time before school started, and her stupid teachers had assigned too much homework for the first week of school. "Oh, right. Because I was really expecting it was you that had psychically tripped me. I was waiting for you to tell me about those ESP powers of yours, that allow you to just move stuff," she complained sarcastically. "It wouldn’t be the first time you had blamed me for something weird like that," he replied, thinking back to the first day of school. "Shut up," Carmen snapped unchararistically. She wasn't really a snappy kind of person, but this morning she was not in the mood. Only half of her stuff was recoverable, and most of it was wet. Exactly as she had wanted. Not. She went out to the garage. She tripped on a bike, sprawled over her own, and smashed it against the floor. Perfect. Now she had a long scratch on her ankle and her arm was bleeding badly, and her bike was semi-damaged. Now she could be even more late for school! What a great day! Not. She rode hurriedly to school and only halfway locked up her bike. It wasn’t like anyone was going to steal it anyway—it was basically locked inside the school, and anyone who went to the bike racks already had a bike of their own. And it was probably going to be nicer than Carmen’s. Carmen raced up to first period, her footsteps echoing down the near-empty halls. She was going to make it. Almost there. Just a few more doors- Literally right in front of her door, she tripped, again on nothing. She scraped up against a locker, raking her cheek and forearm. Within seconds, her entire face and arms were covered in blood. The trip had also reopened the wound from the garage. Oh, how delightful! Not. Oh, well. She couldn’t be late for class. She opened the door. "Good morning, Latecomer... Carmen! What happened!" "I tripped." Totally deadpan. Her desk was right in the front, and she swung her backpack on her desk dramatically. "Right. I am so sure," Adriana called. She and Adriana had all the same classes, except for sixth period (which was math). "Adriana. Raise your hand." "Yeah Adriana, we want to make sure we only get your sarcasm in controlled doses." "Thank you, Queen of Sarcasm." "Long live the queen!" "Carmen, Adriana, quiet down." "It’s okay, Carmen. You look great, covered in your own blood. Good thing there aren’t any vampires around." "Adriana, just because you revel in Twilight does not mean we all share your enthusiasm." "What about you and 'Dance-'" "Adriana! Carmen! Sit down and be quiet!" They did. "Carmen, I think you should see the nurse." "I’ll be fine. I’m not a hemophiliac, for god’s sake!" "A what?" "You know, someone who can’t clot their blood...?" "Right. I still insist regardless" "Fine." Great. Now she’d probably get to have another episode of Carmen the Ultimate Tripper. I hate my life she thought to herself What was up with that, though? It was getting to be really odd now—Carmen was never such a klutz! Why did she keep tripping? Was it Sabrina or Saushale? Was it Alena? Was she just tired? She wouldn’t shoot down that theory too fast—between the exhausting Force practice and the Sabrina and electronica-related nightmares, Carmen got approximately zero sleep. Or, at least it felt like it. After getting all bandaged up (it was pretty much okay anyway, she just needed to wash off all the dried blood), Carmen tripped on her way back to class, sliding against a door handle and shredding her bandages. Sigh. She checked her watch. First period was almost over. She had three minutes to get back to class and grab her stuff before next period; luckily they were probably all packing up anyway. But all the blood she had washed off at the nurse was quickly being replaced, dripping down her arms onto her shirt. Oh, this is just the pinnacle of perfection, she thought. Now I get to arrive to my next class dripping in blood. In P.E., which she had second, she just had to sit in the bleachers. She could do that. She would just sit in the bleachers, and not trip at all. Wishful thinking. On her way down the stairs alone, she managed to fall down the entire flight of stairs. She had to go up to the top bleacher, and fell down at least three rows. Tripped, of course. When she was getting down, again she fell. The partial scabs on her face and arms broke away, bleeding. Third period passed without much incident—Hailey asked what happened to her face, and Carmen said she had tripped repeatedly. Hailey believed her. Smart girl. The class was monotonous as usual—a movie, where they had to answer questions on a little sheet. Fourth period was science. Science: remember, where Carmen had reportedly gone insane earlier? And now she entered, covered in dirt, ripped bandages, and blood. The science teacher, along with the students, just kind of stared. Luckily, Carmen had a seat in the back, so she got to have the entire room stare at her for a full two minutes as she maneuvered to her seat. All except Adriana, of course. After few annoying eternities of staring, during which Carmen got out her stuff for the class, and her book, she finally asked. Like she didn’t know already. "What?" Carmen was exasperated and seriously out of patience, as you might have guessed. "What. Happened?" the class and teacher chorused. "She’s just special like that." Adriana. "Carmen?" "I tripped." "And...?" "Repeatedly. Against lockers. And in bleachers. And down stairs. And across blacktops." "Could this possibly be related to Tuesday?" Unfortunately, the Queen of Sarcasm/Rudeness anserwed before Carmen had a chance to. "Could we possibly begin the lesson? It’s been, like, ten minutes." "I think you need to go to the nurse." "Been there. Done that." "Again." "Twelve minutes." "Hey, Carmen! You fell again?" Adriana. She had gone to her locker, so she hadn’t seen Carmen trip and fall down a bunch of stairs. "Again is an understatement. I think I’ve tripped like twenty times today." "Keep working on it, and you can have one fall for every time you’ve listened to 'Dance Until You Drop'. Wouldn’t that-" "Adriana." "How come you keep tripping?" Nothing dissuades Adriana. "Because I’m special like that!" "I knew you’d-" "Adriana. Carmen. We have a lesson to get to." "Oh, now we focus on the lesson." "Carmen!" Ah, a day in the life of Carmen. How fun, isn’t it? The teacher still couldn’t get any of the students to pay attention; a lot of them were still staring at Carmen. The Queen of Sarcasm/Rudeness gave them a little sarcastic wave/smile, but eventually Carmen got bored with that. "Hey! Can you make everyone, like, stop staring?" "No." "How about shut up?" Adriana suggested, glaring at a couple of girls. "Adriana..." "I see. It’s always ‘Adriana’, never ‘Carmen!’!" "I’m special like that!" "Both of you shut up!" No one responded. They were all pretty used to the teacher saying shut up by that time. Usually it was directed at Adriana and Carmen, too. After that, there was minimal staring. Until the bell rang. No matter how carefully Carmen stepped, she still managed to trip and slide down at least two flights of stairs. But this time, she caught a girl grinning after her. Saushale! Or Carmen being delusional? Definitely Saushale. She had that pale skin and black hair, wolfish black eyes. Eagle-ish features. And it was probably her that was making Carmen trip. Carmen knew she had seen her before! What was her name—Laura—Lauren? Something like that. She had to find her! Carmen deposited her stuff at her regular lunch table, then put in her mp3 player and put "Cruel Summer—UltraDance Mix" on repeat. Okay, time to commit suicide—now! Saushale are very rarely social people. Only rarely—like you will see in the third section, in the case of Lynn—will they become popular and make lots of ‘friends’ (quotes because Saushale don’t care about anyone besides themselves, Sabrina, and occasionally a few other Saushale). Carmen didn’t have to walk far to find Laura sitting alone. "Hey Carmen." "Hello, Laura. "What do you want?" "A magical...well, really I just want to know if you could possibly be Saushale." "Why would you say that?" "Do you need a mirror or can you just accept it?" "Well, okay, so you know I’m Saushale. So?" "Is it you doing the tripping episodes?" "What are you going to do about it?" "If you listened really hard you’d find that wasn’t the question." "I’d rather you answer my question than I answer yours." "Why should I do that?" "Because I’m Saushale, stupid, and Sabrina severed your connection. Duh." "But-" "It doesn’t matter what you say. It only matters what you do-" Laura was interrupted by a rather large rock hurtling itself at her. "Still believing?" "You threw a rock at me. Congratulations." "Just answer the freaking question." "Yes. I am doing the tripping thing. But there’s no repeal. You can’t kill a Saushale, sourd-meut, and I can kill you. Done." "What does sour-da-mutt mean?" "Sourd-meut. It means dumbo." "Should have guessed, Sayshal." "Sayshal is just an easier way to say Saushale. It’s not actually an insult. Sorry." "I’m sure you’re very sorry." "What else do you want?" "Where’s Bella?" "Mirabella had other items to take care of." "I love how you can answer my question without actually answering it." "I’m special like that." "What-but—that’s my expression!" "It’s Sabrina’s." "But I made it up!" "What? Have a trademark on it? It’s actually pretty funny/cool how fast expressions spread. Sabrina stole it only a few days ago—three to be exact—and already it’s everywhere. Sabrina says it. Saushale say it. Soon all our friends will be saying it. It’s not yours anymore." "Fine." Carmen left. She tripped, naturally, and Laura gave her a wave. Carmen made a face. Hello, worst day in the history of the world! Wait. A. Second. Why didn’t she just force Laura to make her stop tripping? Okay, it was probably going to turn out to be an excessively bad/pointless/possibly harmful activity, but whatever. She'd barely thought that when Alena's electronica shot out of, like, nowhere. She dropped the iPod in her hands, covering her ears. Laura did the same. "Break...the dang....mp3 player!" she screeched. It flew up of it's own accord, as Carmen watched, along with probably most of the school. So Carmen whacked Laura. Really hard. Laura spun, heels over head, and smacked into a table. The song kept going, but quieter. I have provided lyrics, on the off chance that you actually care. "The world is a wish And I’m here to screw it. Lots like to complain But why should care? I’ll say to you what I say to them. I’m a goddess, Alena And if your world has been turned upside down What you thought you wanted now seems horrible Ha! Trust me, you’ll live "It’s not my problem. Don’t include me. I didn’t sign up. I do what I want. Not yours to dictate. Please accept it. How I roll. Cause I’m in control Sorry, not you. I have just one enemy’ not much of a fight all she does is run. One day I’ll be through And then it will just be me. I’ll be complete. Cause it’s just me theres no good protecting you if you wish and I’ll here it’s mine I can turn your life round for the worse And it’s so much fun I’ll be cruel I’ll be good cuz that’s just what I am she evaded me so now I’m not all there I’ll take it out on you" Laura stood up, dusting herself off. With the song off, the students shrugged and went back to talking about hair, or whatever else people talk about. "Excuse me?" Laura. Quietly. "Yes?" Polite. Fake, most obviously. "How did you get Alena’s song on your mp3 player?" "Because I’m special like that!" Very all-purpose, that saying is. "How did I guess that was going to be what you would say?" She rolled her eyes. She spent too much time with Lynn and whatnot. "Are you going to stop tripping me or what?" Laura laughed. "You have to admit, it was pretty funny... You are just the quintessence of sarcasm..." "That's like so not an answer." "You're very entertaining, you know." "I would imagine so. You've only said it, like, three times." "Fine." Good. She was back to normal. She started walking back to her table. Oh, perfect. "Um. Carmen?" Adriana. "Yes?" "Was that you?" Carmen walked over to their table and sat down. "Do you think I could, like, make music that loud? With nothing? Do I look like I have ESP to you? Psychicness?" "Um. No." "Exactly." "You’re so weird these days." Hailey was checking something in a mirror. Carmen ran her fingers through her purple-streaked hair. "There’s the understatement of the century," Adriana muttered. "Adriana, I think what you just said was the understatement of the century," Heidi chuckled, trying to make a joke. Adriana, Carmen, and Hailey all glared at her. Heidi shut up. "I’m weird, period. I’ve always been weird. I’ll always be weird. That is a fact. Done." "Great. Carmen’s fixated on a new stupid expression," Hailey muttered darkly. Carmen stood up roughly, grabbed her backpack, and started to walk away. And tripped. Naturally. This time, though, it was just her, not the problems earlier. Still, her backpack did a slide across half the lunch area, knocked against a table, and spilled open. This day just kept getting better and better. Not. She had the kind that had a Velcro rather than a zipper, so of course all her stuff, which was already soaked, ripped, and dirty from the morning went as far as it possibly could. If Sabrina really was going to come after her, she would have plenty of anger to fight her off. Nothing with a capitol N was going to get in her way today. Even evil, super-powerful Sorceresses. Carmen had just finished picking up her stuff and was going to go sit in a corner and read for any and all eternity when the bell rang. Great. Because another part of her plans was to go to the bathroom and wash off the blood, mud, and water. Except her classroom was on one side of the campus, and the bathroom the other. She was going to have to run just to make it to class. Je vous deteste, life, she thought darkly before firmly grasping her bag and taking off. She entered class just as the bell was ringing, and spotted her three friends. Because the teacher had let them pick their seats, they had all scored a table together. So, Carmen was going to have to sit next to them for the next hour. Which she was so looking forward to. Not. Adriana spotted her first. "Hey Carmen." Then Hailey. "Hello, Carmen." She dragged out the ‘o’ so it sounded not only sarcastic but at least three or four syllables. Finally Heidi. "Hi Carmen!" Trust Heidi to be chipper and cheery, even when she was supposed to be annoyed at Carmen. "Hello with a capitol H," Carmen announced, before taking a seat. Carmen was always dramatic. "Good God, Carmen, what happened to you?" The teacher stared openly. "She tripped," Basically the entire class said. They all had Carmen for at least one period, her bleacher fall in P.E. and her explanations in all the others. "Repeatedly," Carmen added. Throughout the rest of class, Carmen ignored Adriana, Hailey, and Heidi. Hailey was the most annoying, but she wasn’t that hard to ignore—Carmen disliked her the most out of all three of her friends. The teacher just had them write an essay for most of the period so the talking was limited, but Hailey had a surprisingly quiet whispering capability, so Carmen was annoyed the entire time. Which was shown in her essay, sprinkled with excessively sarcastic passages. Math was in a category of it's own. Their teacher was absent and they had a substitute, something Carmen knew from earlier; someone had told her. What she hadn't known was that the substitute was Saushale. Great. There was just no limit to how much gratitude Carmen felt at this development. Not. The teacher smiled at the class. She looked vaguely Mexican, but she was also definitely Saushale, so there wasn't really a concrete way to tell. "Today we have a test." Of course. "You have forty minutes to complete your test. Then you may work on homework. Please be quiet throughout the period." The teacher passed out the tests, pausing in front of Carmen's desk. "Carmen, please give me your mp3 player," she instructed her in front of the class. Everyone laughed, instantly reminded of lunch. Great. The rule in the school was that you could use electronics outside but never in class. Carmen, therefore, never used electronics in class. "I'm not using it, though." "Yes, but I believe there was a disturbance in lunch because it turned itself on. I do not want that to happen in class." "But-" "Give it to me!" Carmen just stared. "Carmen, you have one last chance. Give. Me. The-" "She does not have to," someone interrupted her; a girl in the back. She was a very quiet girl, but she always knew the answer. Always. But she wasn't obnoxious about it, unlike Carmen (who, if she can be obnoxious about something, she will). Everyone stared at her. Openly. Obnoxiously. "That's the rule. A teacher can't demand an electronic item unless it's being used in class. Plus you've just wasted five minutes, which means that you haven't done what the lesson plan demands." "Fine," the teacher fumed, clearly upset. Bonus. She whirled around and started walking back to her desk like she was two or something. "Start your tests." "Um, can we have some, too?" requested the kids a few rows to the side of her. The Saushale dropped the papers on one of their desks and went over to the side of the room. "Effective," one of them muttered. "I know, right?" their friend commented louder. The Saushale glared. Carmen finished her test in record time (in other words, about five minutes). Math was so her best subject. She flounced up to the teacher. "Completio," she explained, and dropped it. "Are you going to check it, or what?" "No need to," Carmen bragged, gesturing to the grade printouts. Hers was the only 100% on the printout. A couple of other kids came up to drop off their tests, and Carmen breathed a sigh of relief. Adriana cornered her after school. Carmen had her iPod in her ears, listening to "That's Not A Reason" by, you guessed it, Savvy People. It wasn't a great song, by Carmen's standards. It was pretty popular, and very loud. Hard to focus on anything else when you were listening. "Carmen, I have to talk to you. I know you can hear me! Stop ignoring me! You really need to-" Carmen couldn't even hear her. Like I said, loud. Then Adriana spotted the ear buds and knocked them out of Car's ears. Carmen looked up, startled at the absence of really loud electronica and an excessively pissed off singer. "God. What are you listening to? Why is it so loud?" "Electronica therapy," Carmen answered before she could stop herself. Adriana looked at her like she had flipped. "Electronica…therapy." "Yeah, like, listening to…never mind." "Why are you so weird this week?" Adriana crossed her arms, frowning. Carmen began desperately thinking up lies. As usual, it took about seventeen years. "Well, um, you see, I have, er-" "No way. No lies. The truth." "Who says I'm lying?" She flung her hands out in front of her, temper flaring—this whole situation grating on her. Papers and trash swirled in the gutter and streets, rather loudly. It was a windless day. Adriana laughed humorlessly. "Are you kidding me? It takes you a half second to tell the truth and a full minute to come up with a lie." "I can't tell you the truth," Carmen explained. Like that was any explanation. "Why not?" Carmen dropped her backpack on the ground, and then opened it on her knees. She pulled out an envelope with "SPL" on it, and rifled through it. Adriana rolled her eyes. Carmen was compulsively neat and organized about everything. She had ten envelopes like that. Adriana once went on her computer, and everything was in folder after folder after folder, uber organized. Her room was immaculate; her planner completely filled in. Seriously OCD. Carmen pulled out a printed piece of paper, smoothed it, and handed it to Adriana. She smiled, and waved. Evacuated. Adriana looked down at the paper, the section circled. The paper was the lyrics to "No Explanation". By the Savvy People. Adriana read the circled sections, just crap about guessing. Only in the eyes of the people who know… Oh, shut up, she told herself. Like the singer knows anything about Carmen. Or whatever. She crumpled up the lyrics and threw them on the ground, even stepping on it like she was in some kind of drama movie. She needed to talk to someone, and yet the only people she could think of were Zara and Jenny from summer camp. She still had the numbers, but that didn't mean they were actually going to answer. What was wrong with the world? Regardless, she dialed Zara. No real reason. "Hey Adriana!" Zara yelled. Adriana actually had to hold the phone away from her ear, like they do in movies, but never happens in real life. "Hi Zara. How's it going?" "Odd, actually. Lynn and Tanya have both disappeared. Has Carmen been acting strange lately?" ` That was quick. "Um, yeah. Distracted, weird music, plus every time I ask her abut it, she lies. Or tries to. She physically cannot lie." "Same with Lynn. When I call her and ask what's up, she just starts lying." "Something's up with both of them. Do you think it's the same?" Zara was quiet for a while. "I don't know, but I suspect. Since when has Carmen been acting off?" "First day of school." "Like Lynn. I've noticed that I can hear electronica in the background when I call her, but I can't really pick up the lyrics. You?" "I actually heard it firsthand. I picked up some of the lyrics, but it didn't make any sense. Oh yeah, plus Carmen kept, like, tripping today. Does that make any sense to you?" "I don't know anything about this situation, Adriana. I doubt that Lynn or Carmen will tell us anything-" "Her blog," Adriana interrupted. "What?" "Carmen keeps a blog. It's password protected, but that doesn't matter—they'll always have something to do with Savvy People." Naturally, of course, the house was full of video game noises from her brother. Carmen pulled out her remote control, hit a few buttons, and soon "Deep Breath" by Savvy People rocketed through. "On the abyss, I'm loving it, Deep breath, just take your deep breath," Carmen sang along as she climbed the stairs to her bedroom. "Out of all the songs to put on there, why did you have to pick the worst one?" Her brother, obviously, moaning. Just like Carmen really liked to be sarcastic, her brother really liked to moan. But he didn't do it much around Carmen, she would just mock him and turn it into a whole conversation. "To annoy you, mostly." Carmen laughed. "And this is not the worst song. But I can make it play quite easily..." "Not ‘Girlfriend’!" "Trust me, it’s on here." "You have the worst taste in music." "I’ll acknowledge that." Carmen walked into her room, but as soon as she stepped inside, the song changed drastically. Without the remote control. Dammit. It was her song, she knew that somehow without even really acknowledging it (like I believe I've said before, people like Carmen, Sabrina, Lynn, and Sav, whom you will meet in the sequel, don't think the way you normal people do. It has to do with the Telkin, but you'll just have to wait for that to be explained. Ha ha). Only forty trillion times worse. Wait. Hadn’t she knocked over her speakers this morning? Yes, she had! So, why was the song playing in the first place? Was it Laura? Or Alena? Or did electronica come first, overcoming any obstacle? Adriana: Are you okay? Sorry about lunch. Adriana: I mean, I didn’t know you’d be so upset. Adriana: I’m not mad. I know I’m weird. Snap. There was no way Carmen was answering Adriana. But she had to tell Claire not to come over. Carmen (Claire): Hey, impromptu event I can’t get out of. Tomorrow, okay? Claire: Sure. Adriana: What do I have to do to get you to answer? Sing? Carmen: Didn’t see you in math today. Claire: Had to go to the office. Carmen: Why? Adriana: Carmen! I know you know I’m emailing you! Claire: Hygienic emergency. Heard there was a substitute. What was she like? Carmen: She was kind of annoying, but we were taking a test, so there's really no way to tell for sure. Adriana: Carmen! Will you please give me some confirmation that this isn't computer generated???? Claire: Annoying how? Adriana: Carmen.... Carmen: She started harping on me because of my mp3 player, which wasn't on. She got mad about it, and forgot to give out the rest of the tests. But past that it was okay. Claire: Seriously wish I was there. Claire: g2g. Carmen (Adriana): Stop emailing me! Carmen: Bye. Adriana: The comment isn’t what’s bothering you, right? I mean, you are just as rude as I am. It struck home about something, I know that. Carmen: Just shut up, ok! Adriana: I’m not psychic! Stop blaming me! I’ve called you weird forty trillion times before, and it never annoyed you then! Carmen: Tell Hailey that! Adriana: Hailey never annoyed u B4! Besides, u kno u r as rude as she is! Carmen: *Insulted*! Adriana: That is a fact. I will not take that back. Carmen: l8r Adriana: R U still mad???? Adriana: CARMEN!!!!! She stared at it. She was still mad. She knew there really wasn't any way for her friends to justify her behavior, but it still made her mad. She knew she should be glad that Adriana was being forgiving and drop it, but it still made her mad. She really knew she shouldn't have closed down the internet program, thereby putting her 'offline', like a little baby who couldn't solve her problems like a normal person. Well, she had much bigger problems. Starting with how she was going to get this stupid song to shut up. It had the same complications as Sabrina’s had—except this time, neither "Cruel Summer" or "Dance Until You Drop" would make it shut up. It had to have an opposite, and that opposite was bound to be electronica. Skip, skip, skip, skip…Hey! Oh. This was just too much. The one Savvy People song she couldn't stand—"Don't Wait For It"—was it's opposite.. In other words, if she wanted to not listen to whatever the freak this was, she had to listen to DWFI. So not on the list of "positive" objectives (sample: annoying her brother, listening to "Dance Until You Drop", and writing more short stories). But, unfortunately, this song was way more negative than DWFI. I hate my life, part two, Carmen thought, clicking repeat on her iTunes program. Normal electronica, even really crappy normal electronica, was definitely better than the one that was forcing itself upon Carmen. Ping! Ping! Ping! Adriana: Answer my question already! Carmen: Adriana: Please don't do this again. Carmen: I'm special like that. Adriana: Is there some quota of obnoxiousness you have to fill every day? Carmen: Of course. You should see my brother on weekends. Adriana: I'm going to assume that was you being sarcastic. Carmen: You are so right it’s unbelievable. Adriana: Hilarious. Well, I have to bominos. Room painting. Carmen: K. Adriana: Aloha. Carmen: Where did you get that, anyway? Adriana: Lynn. She uses a lot of odd expressions. I taught her all of yours. She thinks they’re hilarious. Ok. Electronica elimination. Without other crappy electronica. Start with Alena. "Carmen? What’s the current predicament?" "That." Carmen pointed to her computer. She had paused the song so Carmen’s electronica raged. "Yes. And?" "How do I make it shut up?" Carmen clicked for DWFI to play again. "Why would you want to?" "Alena! I’m not a goddess or Sorceress! I can’t go to school followed by crappy electronica! That’s a really big problem!" "Who cares what your peers think?" "It's not so much what my peers think as opposed to the collective mental sanity of the community!" "Well, the thing is that this could be your ticket against Sabrina." "It doesn’t repel!" "What?" "Yeah! "Dance Until You Drop" doesn’t make it shut up!" "What does?" "A different song. But the point is-" "What. Song." "It’s just 'Don't Wait For It'. I mean, it only says that like twelve times. It's really a mystery what it could possibly be." "You need to learn how to get people to do what you want, and trust me—being sarcastic and belittling their intelligence is really not the answer." "Neither is asking what's wrong with them just because they happen to like a song." "What—Oh, you mean the note? It's one think to 'like' a song. It's another to listen to it four hundred times and have six different remixes-" "Ten." "Exactly," Alena observed, clearly believing the argument was over. But hello, this is Carmen, Queen of Sarcasm and Obnoxiousness. "You don't even have your facts straight. How can you possibly retain an argument?" "Because no matter what song it is, listening to a song four hundred times is neither healthy nor normal nor sane." "Doesn't the term 'neither' imply two terms as opposed to three?" "You are such a nitpicker!" "I like facts." "Do you have a predicament here, or do you just need a victim to annoy?" "Predicament. News on 'Don't Wait For It'?" "That song’s not taken." Carmen stared at her blankly for a sec. "No one uses that song. It's new." Carmen stared at her blankly. Why had she thought Alena was going to be helpful again? "That's helpful." "Totally." Alena turned to leave. "How do you get it off?" "You don’t." Alena rolled her eyes at Carmen's lack of knowledge. Like Carmen was supposed to learn so much in about three days. Two days? Four? She couldn't even remember. It felt like weeks. Months. Years. Freakin' decades. Wait a sec. Never come off? No! This was NOT happening! How could she be followed by that, all the time? She’d go insane! She’d, like, kill someone. She'd- "Listen to it. Does it really annoy you?" Alena looked at her fingernails, examining the enamel coat. How could she be so calm with that blasting in the background? Carmen was having trouble not flying apart at the seams, and Alena was examining her fingernails! What was wrong with the world? Carmen tried to focus back to the question. Right. That was such a dumb question- how could anyone in the history of the universe actually like it??? "Um. Yes!" How could it not annoy her? It was practically designed to annoy her! "It does? Really?" Alena sounded genuinely surprised. Baka. "Let me repeat: I’m not a goddess-slash-Sorceress! I don’t like this! And how can I get it, like, off?" Carmen was getting exasperated and mad, which is really not a good combination. That is, if you want to avoid screaming and stomping around in frustration, which Carmen can easily do. She could probably drive someone to suicide just by talking. "That’s your problem. You fix it." Alena accompanied it with a very Carmen-istic eyebrow raise and crossing her arms. How mature. "Ok." Carmen drew out the 'okay', usually a sign of sarcasm but today it seemed more like it would result in an explosion of something. "How?" "Don’t focus on the song. Duh. It’s broadcasting from you, so-" "Um, broadcasting?" What the freak was that supposed to be? A radio station playing Savvy People? Some insane girl with OCD about Savvy People's Youtube show? What was wrong with Alena? What was wrong with Carmen? For about the forty trillionth time that week Carmen wondered to herself why she had to do this. It was a pointless question, one already answered, but it was the kind of question that can never be answered. Never be reconciled. "I guess we all get caught up in Saushale terms," Alena sighed, bring Carmen back to her conversation. "It means that it’s you, like, sending it out. From your head." Oh, yeah. Great choice of words there. Nothing that anyone could ever be confused by. "I thought the Saushale were your enemy." "Doesn't matter. Phrases and talk circulate regardless. I hear it regardless." "Like regardless?" "No, that’s just me. Anyway, it’s you focusing on the song, however unconsciously. Stop focusing on it by focusing on something else, and it goes away." Lovely directions. Clear, concise, easy to carry out. "Focus on something else how?" Ah, the perfect Carmen tone. Complain-y and sarcastic, so Carmen it almost required a trademark. "Simple. Telkin. Like, subtle Telkin." Right. Subtle Telkin. Subtle Telkin wasn't possible. People were bound to notice things rustling and blowing and stuff—your eyes are actually designed to do that. Plus Telkin took up attention- how was she supposed to watch the lesson and be blowing stuff around, and act natural when people started paying attention? I. Hate. My. Life. I. Hate. My. Life. began in her mind, to the tune of "Deep Breath", one of the parts being "Deep. Breath. Know. It. Sing. It. Deep. Breath. Know It. I. Do. Etc... "So I’m supposed to be levitating objects and paying attention to my teacher at the same time?" "Yes." Alena sounded terse, ready for this conversation to be very, very over. "Now Aloha." "Hey! Adriana says that too!" "Really. What does she look like?" Obviously another Saushale phrase. "She has acne, Alena. Relax. And the only Saushale at our school never talks to anyone-" "What Saushale is it?" "Laura. But the only thing she’s done is make me trip a bit today. I don’t think it’s that much of a problem." "Good. I’m surprised you could take on Laura, though. Any Bella sightings?" "Nope. Besides, Adriana said she just got the expression from a friend at camp." "What friend?" "Someone named Lynn." Carmen didn't let any feelings she had for how stupid that name was slide in her tone, something she was very good at. "You never made the connection between the Lynn at camp and the one that’s so good she’d been Saushale for barely any time at all and already getting a song?" Alena was also good at that, letting it show how amazed she was at how stupid Carmen was for not making that connection. Like apparently now Carmen was psychic and knew every Lynn in the world or something. "I thuh-awt it was a really common name!" Yes. She really did pronounce 'thought' 'thuh-awt', to give it extra annoyance and defensiveness. "Trust me. It isn’t. Oh—did she have a friend named Zara, by any chance? Or Savannah?" Carmen detected the tone, like she was trying to sound casual when it was actually very essential. Carmen could never really nail it, but she could identify. "Zara, yes. Savannah, no." "Definitely the same Lynn." "Well, it’s not exactly a threat, now is it?" Carmen was pretty sure Lynn was out of state. "No, she’s out of the question." Alena paused for a moment. "A fight is inevitable. It’s probably a good thing that you created a song. Even if it doesn’t repel Sabrina’s." "Oh, are you’re psychic now too?" "No. But I know Sabrina." Alena finally vanished. Lynn. Great. Now she had someone new to worry about. Actually, it was kind of odd. Why hadn’t Sabrina sent any Saushale directly after her yet? What if she did? Then you, an evil little voice in her head said, are so going down it’s unbelievable. Thanks a lot, she thought back. She decided to stop being pointlessly pessimistic and write another story. Her deadline was coming and wasting time wasn't really the best thing to be doing in the world. Adriana cradled the phone to her shoulder while she typed into her computer. "Um, okay. I found the blog. Do you know anything at all about Savvy People?” “Try Hana Rose. She’s the lead singer or something.” Adriana typed it in. “Nothing.” “Silver-Plated Gold?” That was their first album, I believe.” “Flowers?” “Nada.” “Um... ‘Dance Until You Drop’?” “Zip.” “I think there was mention of-“ “No way. If we haven’t found it by now, I don’t think we will.” “Do you know what her favorite song is? I only know their top singles because they won’t stop playing them on the radio.” “Yeah, I know. Why don’t they play the good stuff anymore? It’s all ‘Lady GaGa’, ‘Rihanna’, or ‘Savvy People’, or something that was released, like, before I was born.” “Seriously! Lynn and Tanya were obsessed with all of them, and now I can’t get away! Save me from the lame dance music!” They both chuckled. “Okay, Car was always talking about some kind of UltraDance thing.” “It figures. Hana couldn’t incorporate enough dance and electronic into her normal songs, so of course she has to make UltraDance mixes too.” “Sometimes it’s really nice to speak to someone whom has my sense of humor. Carmen was too sarcastic and Heidi and Hailey on the immature side.” “Yeah, kind of the same way for me. Lynn was pretty funny, but could get kind of annoying. Especially when someone challenged her. Tanya was always in a whole other world. But seriously, try UltraDance or something.” Adriana tried several different versions of Savvy People’s hit singles with ‘UltraDance’ mixed in, until finally, FINALLY, one got her in. “Cool. We’re in.” But you’re not really worried are you? Or, at least, you shouldn’t be. Go back and read the beginning again if this is a cliffhanger for you. There are days when I love my life, or at least it doesn't seem so bad. Usually these days involve lots of sarcasm and electronica, my two favorite things in the world. And then there are the days that make me just want to throw something. Or scream. Or listen to really, really, really loud electronica. This, as you might have guessed, is about the latter. It's really not fun to read about someone just going around being sarcastic and listening to music, now is it? It started out as an ordinary day. I woke up and wanted to listen to electronica, so I got up and turned on my computer. I blasted some really loud Savvy People, not really paying attention to which song exactly. Until it seriously backlashed. The stuff coming out of my computer was not Savvy People. I didn't know what it was, but I guess I didn't care as much as I should have. It's a remarkable thing of human nature: If we see something startling, we look for a solution and if we don't find one, we move on. So, in accordance with this rule, I switched off my computer and went downstairs. I tripped on the landing (the little square area in front of stairs or in between stairs, if you have a three story house like mine), but I didn't really care enough to pay attention. I stood up, a new bruise on my arm. Lovely. I sat down at the table, eyeing the breakfast choices. I'm not the biggest fan of breakfast, but sometimes I choke something down anyway. My brother walked in front of me. "Hey, Kat?" My name is Katrina, but everyone calls me Kat. It's one of those annoying things that only gets worse if you ask people to stop. So I don't. "Like, yeah?" You can usually tell when I'm not paying a lot of attention because I say 'like' differently. Right now I was mentally trying to figure out if I had finished all my homework. I had already decided to skip on breakfast. "There's, like, something wrong with your camera. It's not turning on, it just makes these beeping noises. Plus, um, your mp3 player is smashed." He handed them to me, head down. I wondered if it was because he was guilty or because he was hoping not to get hit in the face or something. I tested the items then and screamed, whirling to face him. He was so going to die. They were broken! He'd broken my stuff! "You little-" "Ack! Kat!" "What?" I could think of a lot of things that I really didn't want to deal with. And this was one of them. "The table! It's moving! So is the orange juice!" My anger exploded. Yeah. Right. Table moving. What was next, my mp3 player fixing itself? "And your mp3 player! Whoa. Kat. Something is-" The orange juice exploded in his face. He screamed, a high sound I'd never heard before. "Kat. Do you know what's happening? What's wrong? Is this a dream?" "It's not a dream." I ran up to my room, taking the stairs half a flight at a time, a new record for me. I switched on my computer, and tried to play Savvy People again. The same song rocketed out of the speakers. Something I'd never heard before. I flew down the stairs, a flight at a time. I looked at my brother. He nodded; I did as well. Something was up, we both agreed. I checked my watch. We had about five minutes to grab our stuff, jump on the bikes, and go to school. "Okay. Do you know what's going on?" "Yeah. Check out my new ESP. I now know the answer to everything in the universe. How could you not know that?" "Great." "You think it's all connected?" "Obviously. I just don't know what it is." "Me neither. Anyway, I need to get to school, and so art thou." As was my habit, I switched on my mp3 player before leaving. It turned on and started playing my usual shuffle list of my library. This was unbelievable! The thing was supposed to be broken! It had been broken two minutes ago! How was this even possible? Whatever. I really needed to get to school. Like, now. I jumped into the garage, banged into a bunch of stuff, and biked to school, thinking all the way. When I got to school, my friends, of course, found me almost immediately. Damn. I should have used the other bike rack. "Hey, Kat. Did you get the history homework? I sure didn't. I mean, it's so unfair that we have to do an essay. Isn't it? It's like the third week of school! I can't write an essay about archaeology now, I need to get warmed up..." Yeah, that's my friends for you. Sarah and Sophie. Sophie goes on long babbles about nothing at all. Sarah is totally cold. "Sophie, you know, it's not really necessary to go on and on about something that we understood the first five seconds," she reprimanded sharply. "Yeah, guys. Cool it, will you not?" "Okay, fine. But I still need to see your essay. I-" You pretty much always have to cut Sophie off, or else she can go on for twenty or thirty minutes. Literally. We actually timed her once (though she didn't know, of course). Sarah handed Sophie her essay, and Sophie speed read it. I stepped inside, tripping over the threshold, of course. Ugh. I hate thresholds. Probably always will. A girl to my right commented on it too, of course. "Do you think you can avoid trying to kill me here, sprawling over the doorway?" Cold. Hm. Must be new. Beautiful girls think that just because I'm not drop-dead gorgeous I'm not going to mock them right back when they mock me. I turned to face her. She grinned at me, clearly trying to get my attention. She had long white-blonde hair and blue-violet eyes. Her skin looked as if she had lost one heck of a lot of blood. "Hey, Katrina. Nice breakfast this morning?" She grinned at me, perfectly white teeth. Almost fang-like. Almost. "It was perfectly fine, thank you." "Really. So, what kind of music do you listen to?" "'lectronica." "Really. I love that as well. UltraDance." "Right. Okay. I have to go to my locker." "Oh yes. Please do." I looked at her, and something floated up into my hands. She grinned again and ambled away. The object was just a leaf, but it's motion was not normal. Neither was the girl. And, as I was soon to find out from a very cheery (N. O. T.) note in my locker, neither was my life. Cool. Your last story before Sabrina decimates you, another little voice in her head told her. Carmen put her hands on each side of her head, shaking it. "I’m going to count to three, and you shut up," Carmen informed it aloud, just like all sane people. "Who are you talking to?" Her brother appeared in her doorway. Somehow she hadn't managed to hear him, a seldom occurrence. "A magical person. Now go away." "Are you talking to your computer?" "N-Yes. Now go away." "Why?" "Because I’m special like that. Now go away." "But-" "I repeat: Leave!" Her brother made a face and left. Carmen: Adriana, be ye on? Adriana: What? But yes, I’m on. Carmen: what did Lynn look like, you know, the one you knew at camp? Adriana: What other Lynns are there? Anyway, she had dark brown hair and eyes. Why? Carmen: Was she pale? Adriana: It was August, Carmen. No one was pale. But why would you say so? Carmen: I thought she might be someone I know. But apparently not. Carmen: Are you as bored as I am? Adriana: Most likely. But since when are you bored, like cause of your story thing? Carmen: Since now. Adriana: That makes sense. Carmen: So, what’s up lately? Adriana: What’s with the lyrics you gave me? Carmen: Did you read the circled parts? Adriana: Yes. Carmen: Then all your questions should be answered. Adriana: There are times when I really wish that Zara was in our school. Carmen: Why? Adriana: Never mind. Carmen: And here we have Adriana, the Master of Suspense. Adriana: You need to cut the sarcasm. No one thinks you’re funny. Carmen: Except for the hordes of people that laugh when I’m sarcastic in class. Adriana: well, I am not one of them. Carmen: Sorry, I guess. I’m just in a bad mood lately. Adriana: Wow. Carmen just apologized for being sarcastic. I never thought I’d see the day. Carmen: You just turned the earth on its axis, Adriana. You were sarcastic! Adriana: Sigh. Adriana: Maybe you should talk to Lynn. Zara says she’s even more sarcastic than you are. Carmen: Someone might think they know excessive sarcasm, but until they have met me they cannot be sure. Adriana: I wish I could disagree with you right now. Carmen: Unless she’s sarcastic enough to have immunized Zara. Adriana: linn.ultimatihah@gmail.com Carmen: Huh? Adriana: That’s her email. Carmen: What’s with the ultimatihah nonsense? Adriana: That’s her last name. Carmen: Yeah. And I have telekinesis. Adriana: believe what you want. Carmen: I suppose I should continue doing just that. Adriana went offline, and Carmen stared at the link on her message She hit it Carmen: Hey, Lynn. Lynn: Who are you and how do you have my email? Carmen: I’m special like that. Lynn: Oh! You’re Adriana’s friend, the one that made up the weird expressions! Carmen: You are so right it is unbelievable. Lynn: I am bored with a capital B. Carmen: Good. I got the right email. Carmen: Are you really a ‘Saushale’? Lynn: ??????? Carmen: You know what I’m talking about. Lynn: !!!!!!!!! Lynn: What are you? Carmen: where are you? Lynn: in a magical place, where the fairies roam and the unicorns graze. Carmen: Did you make that up, or did you steal it from someone else? Lynn: It’s basically Saushale speak. Like 100% and beneficial. I’m special like that, unbelievable, and with a capitol _____ are joining them. Lynn: You haven’t answered my question. Answer. Me. Carmen: Wow. I'm terrified. I think I see a hand coming out of my computer. Lynn: Guess how fast I can transport over there. Carmen: On a mission for Sabrina? Lynn: How did you know that? Carmen: Laura. Alena. Carmen: How come Saushale go to summer camp? Lynn: I wasn’t Saushale when I went to summer camp, stupid. But I’m probably still going anyway, because I have to follow this one person and she’s going to be there. Carmen: That’s probably good, since Adriana is so looking forward to your arrival. Lynn: So beneficial. Carmen: Maybe I’ll be there. Lynn: Maybe not. Carmen: Not totally 100%? Lynn: you are so right it is unbelievable. Carmen: Oh, trust me, it’s believable. Lynn: You did NOT base that expression of seriousness. Carmen: Well, okay, yeah I didn’t. Carmen: Have you made up any expressions? Lynn: Just Aloha. Carmen: What’s so bad/great about Flowers? Lynn: You want me to talk about flowers? The plant or the album? (Savvy people's second album, coming out in an undetermined time, was going to be called Flowers for unknown reasons. Their singer/composer was very strange.) Carmen: No, you idiot. The summer camp! Lynn: It’s really remote, so all the Saushale congregate there. I think Adriana’s parents lived near there, and they liked it, so that’s why she goes. I just wanted to go to some random place, so I dragged off my friends. Trust me, there’s nothing really great about Flowers. Lynn: And don’t call me an idiot. Carmen: You and what army? Lynn: The Saushale army, genius girl. Duh. Carmen: Thanks for the compliment! Lynn: you know, for a maker of seven trillion sarcastic expressions, you really have truly distinguishing it yourself. Carmen: I am so aware of that it’s unbelievable. Lynn: Are you a chosen? Carmen didn’t answer. She practiced the Telkin a while, then fell asleep. At 7:30 pm. Friday night. She dreamed quite possibly the oddest dream that week (and that was saying something, considering Labor Day’s dream) Black. And, naturally, Sabrina’s electronica. A dream just wouldn’t be complete without it, eh? She saw six girls, three she recognized as Adriana, Heidi, and Hailey, and three that she didn't recognize at all, one myusly Saushale, one extr. Behind them slightly, was Alena. On the other side was Sabrina with a bazillion girls and boys of all ages. Saushale. Things and people were flying, electronica combinations blasting, but Carmen could still see that Sabrina and Saushale were winning. "Car! What are you doing! Get down here!" Carmen raced down; started using the Telkin. "It's not enough," one of the unknown girls sighed. "They're barely doing anything, and yet we're still getting beat. "I read somewhere that we can combine and enhance our power as well as electronica." "How?" "It involves focus, I know and-" Suddenly, a white beam of light shot out of the tallest and easily most beautiful girl's hand, blasting away several Saushale. Unconscious. The others stepped it up, Saushale slamming into trees, the ground, even other Saushale. The tallest girl’s light turned green, and the others gave off their own destructive light. CarmeSaushale on thjiern’s was purple. “That’s Sabrina’s color,” one girl observed, her eyes wide in shock. “She’s not Saushale,” the "This is the future, Car." "It's not over till the fat lady sings; the final fight is never final." A pause. "Hope ya like summer camp." Black. After waking up and smashing her dresser into her wall via Force, Carmen went back to bed, but couldn’t sleep. It was five thirty in the morning, but still couldn’t sleep! She decided to wake up her brother just for fun. Her parents were away on a business trip (oh, what a shock). She pulled out her remote control and pushed the play button, starting up the shuffle of her library. Some random dance hit from at least ten years ago played, actually vibrating her bed. Her brother woke up and she could hear him start getting dressed, until he looked at the clock. He pounded up the stairs, banging against stuff in the dark. "Carmen, it’s five thirty." Carmen leaned against her door, preventing access to her room and computer. No way was he shutting off her electronica.. "Turn off the mus—I mean electronic or whatever." He started kicking the door. "Electronic-a. And it’s not going off and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even kicking the door. So please stop." Carmen hit the volume button, and the electronica got even louder. Carmen read a book and practiced the Telkin simultaneously for a while, then went over to her computer and started typing. I never can wake up like a normal person. Every morning, when I wake up, I end up smashing something, turning off something. One time, I actually ate a piece of a towel, thinking it was a vanilla cupcake! So, you can see where I’m going with this when I say I have violent dreams. And fragile electronics very nearby. That does not paint a happy picture. For me and those nearby. In fact, once my MidnightMadness struck during a sleepover. A sleepover. I was dreaming about fighing an evil Sorceress, and I ended up thrashing around. And so did my room. And, well... Needless to say, that was my last sleepover. But my MidnightMadness comes in handy, too. Remember the evil Sorceress? Yeah, so, she’s come into my room a few times, but is usually backing off about the time when something very large and heavy decides it likes the spot Sabrina is in very, very much. In other words, I am rarely caught unawares. I’d probably be dead now if not for it. But, you know, the twentieth time I destroyed my speakers really got me mad. Which is not beneficial. In fact, it’s probably one of the most un-beneficial things, especially if it’s you I’m mad at. Note the especially? Good. Yes, innocent bystanders are very rarely simply bystanders when I’m around. Mostly because they start shrieking their heads off and throwing things at me, so then I throw things back, and the whole thing dissolves into this whole giant mess. I don't always mean to go and hurt people. It's an accident. However, the messes have been happening less lately. I think it's because people grew a brain and stopped annoying me, but you never know. These events mostly occur at school, where all the students and teachers hate me but aren’t quite sure how to not get killed while telling me about it. Well, not really killed. But you get the pic. Sabrina, however, in another story. Sabrina would really not like to get torn to pieces while battling me, so she rarely puts much thought into it, but she’s still a threat. You know the saying your parents used to tell you when you came up against a snake ‘Don’t worry, it’s more afraid of you than you are of it’? Yeah, that’s me and Sabrina. With you and the snake, who’s got fangs and venom? The snake. Who seems scary but actually isn’t? You. Who would you rather be? The snake. Take a really wild guess at who’s who when it comes to me and Sabrina. 'Sabrina’s the snake?' Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! Okay, so now that I’ve painted you a nice little picture, let’s move on with the story. Remember the setting? Good, I'm waking up and have dreamed of fighting Sabrina. Remember the characters? Me and Sabrina. Remember the conflict? Excellent—I’m the main character and I am SO GOING TO DIE! Because I forgot to add that Sabrina is a mad scary snake. Not just one of those ones that’s just going to stare at you or slither away. Seriously, I might as well just eat cyanide for how much further I’m going to get on with my life. Smash! Bang! Crash! My bed smashed into the wall as I continued to wake up. Electronica blasted insanely out of my speakers as I jerked insanely around the room, driving it higher by my fear and anger that refused to disappear. As I started to come to, I noticed what looked like simply a pretty young girl, purple eyes, silver hair, freakishly pale skin. You’ve probably heard this a trillion times before from other Sabrina-fighters who put up a whiny and sarcastic journal. So I stared at the beautiful young teen, who looked at me innocently. I had no idea what she was trying on me, so I just slammed a really big object at her head and rocketed up the volume of my electronica. My electronica is quite possibly the most annoying song on the planet. It even annoys me, while theoretically I’m supposed to love it more than any other sound in the world. However, anyone who can like it, I believe, is permanently and inexcusably insane. Even worse, It plays by itself and it's virtually impossible to shut off. Fun. Total fun-ness. So, anyway, Sabrina frowned at me and stared harder. I still had no idea what she was doing, so I reverted back to my No. 1 rule: When in doubt, throw something really hard at whatever is confusing you. Try it! Suddenly, the confusing thing just vanishes! Or gets mad, at which point it's not confusing anymore! It's a foolproof plan, really. Once again, Sabrina didn’t do anything! What was she, possessed? This was Sabrina we were talking about! I’d thrown several things at her now—how come she wasn’t reacting? Finally, still acting strangely un-Sabrina-like, she spoke. "Stop," She said like it was something amazing. I, being the genius that I am, decided to be very sarcastic and rude about it. Sometimes I am very wise and practical. Now was not one of those times. "How profound. Of course I’ll stop now. You’ve done an excellent job of persuading me." I added in an eye-roll for good measure. All of the other land mines (No, they are not real land mines, I just mean they have explosive tempers and can throw things like I can, with their minds) say that if I keep annoying Sabrina like that then one day I’m going to regret it. I say to shut up and leave me alone. I know, it’s quite shocking I don’t have any friends, even among those who like to imagine they can take me on (in their dreams). You know the whole un-Sabrina-like thing? Well, I wasn’t exaggerating. She just stared at me. No screaming, no tantrums, no tornados in my bedroom, not even any electronica. She just stared at me. Which was really starting to creep me out. "You like to imagine you can beat me. Maybe I should prove you wrong." She was totally calm, not hissing, or blasting electronica, or anything else she would have normally done. Hello, creeptown. "Somehow I doubt you’re going to prove me wrong standing there," I said scathingly. "So either wrap up this meditation ceremony or fight me!" This was really getting on my nerves. Despite popular belief, waking up at four in the morning having to deal with an evil Sorceress is, like, not my idea of fun "I’m surprised you are more unnerved by me not attacking you than trying to kill you. Are you really so arrogant?" Come. On. She’s only tried to kill me, like, forty trillion times. And she fails every single time. I’ve gotten pretty immune to the fear (you know the Chinese definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result? Sabrina would be wise to heed its cautions). But her just being there, and not doing anything, was not only seemed dangerous but was also really annoying. "Yes. I am so that arrogant." Whatever. I always responded similarlily to stupid questions like that. What was the point in doing otherwise? ‘I’ll be seeing you in just days." "Now there’s a shock." I saw her at least two or three times a week, every week. "Enjoy your last days of life." She grinned widely. "Thank you for the invitation." She turned and left. What on earth was that about? I never found out, either. Lynn: I can’t believe I’m emailing you, but I’m too bored to do otherwise. Carmen: it’s like six in the morning. Why don't you go back to bed, like a normal person? Lynn: nine over here. Carmen: Oh. So what are you emailing about. Lynn; Let me put it this way: I am stuck at some random boarding school and no one ever emails me, except for you. Adriana says you always email back. Carmen: Adriana is so right it is unbelievable. Lynn: Beneficial. Hm. Lynn seemed so normal. Entertaining. The kind of person that Carmen probably could have been really good friends with. Had she, like, not been Saushale. Lynn: I can’t believe I’m emailing you. That's the kind of opener everyone always appreciates. Carmen: Yeah, that's a common thought among my friends. Last year for my birthday, Adriana gave me a plaque for being the Most Sarcastic Entity In The Known Universe. Lynn: Zara gave me one for being obnoxious. Wonder if they shared the idea. Carmen: Wouldn't be surprised. Lynn: Do you really write stories? Carmen: I really do write stories—quite possibly the crappiest in the nation. Lynn: Adriana said you were a great writer. Carmen: You've got some great explanations up your sleeve there. Lynn: Thank you. You're so kind. Carmen: That's your idea of sarcasm? You need some work. Lynn: And what kind of authority do you have on said subject? Carmen: I'm the Queen of Sarcasm. Heidi gave me a crown. Lynn: Your friends have problems. Carmen: Duh. Why else would they talk to me all day? Lynn: Because of your rich personality and outstanding wit. Carmen: I don't know who you think you're talking to, but it's not someone with rich personality. Usually that involves someone that you actually want to talk to, I assume? Lynn: Whatever. So, how's it going with Sab? Carmen: Oh, I'm so on top. She'll never make it past me. I rock- a measly Sorceress could never get anywhere against me. How could you think otherwise? I don't understand how you could even think otherwise! Lynn: So, your idea of good sarcasm is when you go on and on and on about the same thing? Carmen: You want a lesson in how to use sarcasm properly. From me. Lynn: No, I want to hear it, not actually utilize it. Carmen: That's just lame. So, why are you emailing me? Lynn: Partly because sometimes it's fun to talk to other sarcastic people. Carmen: That is the absolute lamest reason I have ever heard. Lynn: And partly because I want to help. Carmen: Hey, genius girl. You might be shocked to learn this, but you are Saushale. Lynn: You don't say. Lynn: I'm still waiting for the sarcasm lesson. Carmen: Fine. If someone asks a really dumb question and you don't like them, go on forever. If someone asks you a dumb question and they're your friend, keep it short. When you're being sarcastic, try not to say the same thing over and over again, or try to avoid phrases that could be used for more than one situation. Lynn: What do you have, a manual or something? Sheesh. Carmen: I actually wrote one once, on my blog. Lynn: Wow. Carmen: Besides, you never answered as to why you want to help while remaining Saushale. Lynn: Saushale have mind control. You might have heard. Well, mine came off. I want to help fight Sabrina. Carmen: Your mind control came off. Right. I'm supposed to believe this because...? Lynn: You want me to prove it? How do you suggest that? Carmen: What Saushale is at my school? What is she like? Lynn: Okay, if your trying to get me to help by info, I suggest something less obvious. That doesn't help at all. Anyway, Laura is at your school. She's probably in eighth grade. Check for cameras in your room. She's quiet, so you won't notice her I'm guessing. Mostly she's just monitoring your power, so if she does anything, then its just a joke and don't be worried. Sabrina will probably call for her and a few other Saushale in the fight, but I can probably stop her and Laura from coming with my lovely computer savvy. Carmen: How would computer savvy work? Lynn: S-SW. Carmen: What's that?!? Lynn: Sabrina-Saushale Web. Carmen: Can I go on it? Lynn: Sure. Type in your address bar ssw.home.search.sab. It'll ask you for a password. It's mp3-dance4502 Carmen: Why is there a password? Lynn: There isn't a password on Saushale computers, but sometimes Sabrina uses other computers so she uses the password to prevent people against her from using it. But now I'm giving you the password. Carmen: Cool. What's on it? Lynn: I think that you should check out the files on past chosens and the current plan. Carmen: She writes up all her plans???? Lynn: Yep. That way if any Saushale have suggestions, they know what's up. It's why she always has twelve thousand back up plans. She's annoyingly smart. Carmen: Back up plans. Right. Great. Lynn: That's why there's four hundred Saushale and not many tasks. Each one has a few million back up plans. Carmen: Four hundred Saushale. I cannot compete with four hundred Saushale. Lynn: There's some kind of limit of like three Saushale, because if there's too many witnesses, even Saushale ones, the transformation when she wants to change you won't work on people with Telkin as high as yours. Carmen: Great. So, I'm not just going to die, I'm going to die slowly? Lynn: You're not going to die. Carmen: Right. Hello. Sorceress vs. human. Lynn: Just get really mad. Carmen: Whatever. Stop stressing me out. I think I'm going to check out the ssw. Lynn: Oh, wait. Do you have an extra computer or something that you never use? It's safer, because the plans contain viruses that shut down your computer every few seconds if you try to access them off a Saushale computer. Carmen: Yeah. My dad has some extra laptops he has around for "emergencies". He's never used 'em. Lynn: Kay. Yeah, use that.` Carmen turned down the volume on her computer, switched off the monitor, and walked onto the landing. The laptops were kept downstairs in her mom's office, and she was going to try jumping down the stairs today instead of sliding like she usually did\. Burt usually it's better to attempt these things when there is nothing on the stairs. She jumped down the flight of stairs, landing and tripping on the landing of the second floor. "Help, Car! An elephant is loose in our house!" Her brother rushed in, fingers in his mouth and an expression of mock fear. This is how you can tell they are related. "Oh no! It's on the stairs! Save me, Carmen! Save me!" "How jocular," Carmen intoned. "You have to be impressed with my intellect, thinking up something like that." "I suppose I am impressed with your intellect, or more accurately, your lack of it. Don't you have anything to do besides think up insensate metaphors and be abhorrent with them?" "What's with the dictionary dot com vocabulary?" "My awesomeness exceeds everyday words. Anyway, what are you doing?" "My video games broke, so I did some homework and then I came up with a plan to annoy you. When you came banging down the stairs the opportunity presented itself." "You need some help in learning how to annoy people. That was merely inconvenient, not actually annoying." "Whatever. Can you fix my game?" "No. Fix it yourself. I have to find a laptop." "Why?" "I'm special like that." "Can you stop banging down the stairs like that? It's really inconvenient." "Sorry, but no. Bye." Carmen banged down the next flight of stairs and tripped again, banging up against the railing. All in all, a very noisy affair. She limped away from the stirs, swearing never, ever, ever to attempt that again, holding her side as she did so. Her mom's office light was very bright, but even so Carmen managed to skid around on the random papers on the ground, which was uber-annoying. Luckily, though, she didn't step on anything electronic, of which there were many scattered upon the floor. Apparently ultra-cleanliness was not from her mom's side. Finally she found the cabinet of laptops; selecting the oldest ands most decrepit of the five. Five laptops? When in the world was her dad and mom going to need five laptops? Ridiculous. However, having grabbed her laptop, she walked back upstairs, careful not to jostle the laptop. It was crap enough, she didn't need her usual klutziness to damage it further. However, upon reaching the second flight of stairs, she realized that if she had been intelligent she would have fixed her brother's video game earlier. Because he was right there. Wondering why in the world she needed some old, crappy laptop when she had her very new, hi-tech desktop computer upstairs. "What's the laptop for?" "Nothing." "Then why do you need it?" "No reason." "Then why do you have it?" "My awesomeness exceeds the confines of normal behavior." "Okay, look, what is wrong with you lately? Playing weird remixes with lyrics about killing people? Screaming at people that aren't there? Tripping seven times down the stairs? Having your mp3 player smashed and then fixed again? And now you're using one of dad's emergency laptops?" "Does it concern you? No. So get out of my way." "What are you hacking into? That's why your using the laptop, right? FYI if you use google to search, that'll still show up." "I'm not hacking into anything," Carmen lied, shifting the laptop. The thing was heavy. She mentally began running through lies before he asked. "Then what is up with you?" And then her temper decided to really go wacko. Lynn stared at her screen. What kind of idiot was she again? Seriously. She gave Carmen the password. They could track everything through that. Even if she did use that old laptop, Sabrina's skills were too big. Lynn didn't even know what she was capable of. She copied the conversation into a document, saved it to her flash drive, and deleted the document and conversation, as well as gmail from her web history. She did so with every conversation, so she could look back on it without having it saved on her computer. Then she simply got up and paced. She had no idea what to do to stop any of this from happening. She needed Carmen to win really bad. But how? She was pretty sure Carmen could fight her pretty well with the right combination of anger, determination, and electronica. But could Carmen fight Sabrina and Bellauren (Bella and Laura; Lynn had combined their name because they were always together)? No. Could Carmen fight Sabrina if her computer "broke" and she couldn't control the electronica? No. Could Carmen win if a thousand other things happened? No way. So, of course, it became Lynn's job to fix everything. Call off Bellauren. Set up her computer with Saushale technology. Arrange the tripping spells to get her really mad. And it was annoying to no end. Lynn watched her computer screen saver for a few minutes, then turned away. Her phone rang. Blech. "Hey, Zar." She didn't even have to check the caller ID. Zara was the only one who ever called her. "Hey, Lynn. Look, Carmen's doing the same weird thing that you are. Adriana called me. What is up?" "Can't tell ya." "Lynnette. You. Are. Going. To. Tell. Me. Now." "My name is Lynn-" "Lynn actually told me what was going on. But Lynnette seems a bit too eager to ignore me and screen all my calls, agree?" "This school is hella hard, I swear I'm not just ignoring you." "Right. I suppose I can't really tell. Regardless, Lynnette-" "Stop calling me Lynnette!" "Stop claiming that you can't tell me what's going on." "You wouldn’t believe me." "Swear I would." "Swear you wouldn't." Lynn clicked it off. Zara called again. And again. And again. And again. And again. She called twenty three times more before Lynn couldn't take her ring tone anymore and picked up. "Zara, please stop calling me," Lynn instructed tersely, then ended the call. The phone rang again. Ugh! This was so unfair! She couldn't even turn off her phone, because Sabrina mandated that they always be on. The phone rang again. Lynn couldn't take it anymore. The phone crashed into the wall hi-speed, smashing into a thousand pieces. Let her try to call her with that. After the glory of the smashed phone wore off, though, reality set in. Great. That was her fourth smashed phone in a month, all from that same reason. When Zara wanted something, she wouldn't stop. Lynn's patience was getting better, though- last time she had only lasted nineteen calls. She picked herself up again. She had stopped getting phones from Sabrina, who got mad way easier than Lynn did. Instead she went down the street to a little used phone shop, who had identical phones that didn't require Sabrina. But not now. Zara would just call her incessantly and she so didn't feel like dealing with that. Instead she stared at her ceiling in despair. Her brother lost his balance against the stairs, aided quite a bit by Carmen's Telkin. He banged down the stairs, hitting each harder than normal, slamming onto the floor and rolling wildly till he hit the wall. It looked pretty painful. Carmen used it as an escape route, racing up the stairs and dropping the laptop on her bed when she reached her room. She moved something very large and heavy in front of her door. Perfect. Then she set the laptop down on her "homework" desk and switched it on. Carmen then walked over to her computer, deciding that she was tired of not listening to electronica. She scrolled through her library, looking for something non-Savvy People related. Avril Lavigne, some weird Japanese music she'd downloaded from Heidi, Ayo Ayo, some weird band that Adriana had downloaded onto her computer, Break it Up, Rihanna, and a whole score of stuff she didn't even know about, because it had originally been her mom's computer and she hadn't deleted everything. Finally she just hit shuffle and walked back over to the laptop and logged in, opened up the internet explorer and typed in the address, logged in the password. The home page had the five top plans, a search engine, and a notice of a password change. Carmen wrote down the new password, then clicked on her plan file. It was immense. She saved it to her computer, scanning the table of contents. There were seven back up plans, a few theories, and a basic overview of her pros and cons, as well as Sabrina's. Wow. She clicked on the pros and cons. Mostly stuff she already knew. She looked up the back up plans. There were only three main ones: Saushale, breaking her computer, and making her think her mark was gone. The Saushale thing was already taken care of, according to Lynn, and Carmen had four different ways of controlling her speakers (there were four speakers in each corner of her ceiling and some in her walls). One was her computer, one her stereo, and one her iPod dock- but the fourth was simply her necklace. Carmen never, ever wants to be without electronica. She took a deep breath. Crisis averted. Her computer instantly shut itself down (probably that virus Lynn had warned her), but Car didn’t care. She had the file on flash drive, and she'd finish reading it tomorrow. For now, she jumped back on her main computer. Carmen: Hey, Lynn Lynn: Like, hi. Carmen: So, I read the file. You'd better prevent those Saushale from showing up. Lynn: Totally will. Hey, you'd better watch out for Claire today. I think Sabrina's invaded her. Carmen: How is she going to try to get me? Lynn: Just try to unmask her. She'll attempt to kill your computer and then get you, but if you unmask her she won't bother. Carmen: it's okay. I have other ways of making my music play. Stereo, necklace, iHome dock. Lynn: A necklace. You have a necklace that plays music. Carmen: It works like an iPod shuffle, except it also has a broadcasting thingy so it'll play on the speakers in my room. There are like four in my walls. Carmen: I built in some youth camp my parents put me in last year. It was really fun- they gave me all these suggestions and everything. I won the contest. Lynn: Wow. That's just...wow. Carmen: So. What's it like being a Saushale? Lynn: Confining. I can't even turn off my phone. Carmen: Why would you want to? Lynn: Zara called me twenty six times today asking what was up. Then the phone accidentally smashed itself in the wall. I have to get a new one tomorrow. If I don't, Sabrina will totally figure it out. And that would not be good. She'll check her backup plans and everything will be screwed up. Carmen: It smashed itself in the wall. Right. Carmen: I hate not being the one in control. It's so uncommon. I mean, I've never felt like everything is so out of wack in my life. Lynn: Join the club. I mean, hello, my life was so perfect. Friends, school, sports, everyone wanted to be me. Now I would do anything to be anyone but me. Carmen: Everyone wanted to be you? I thought Zara gave you a plaque for obnoxiousness. Lynn: Yes, but I'm really nice about it. Only Tanya thinks I'm obnoxious. Everyone else just thinks I'm funny. Carmen: I see. Is Saushale boarding school actually a school? Lynn: Yeah, we have classes. Just classes in advanced technology, history of the universe, and how to smash people in walls as opposed to normal stuff. Carmen: Hey, do you know why Sabrina simply can't be prevailer? Is it because she's evil? Lynn: I'm not sure. They don't exactly tell us stuff like that. I looked at some of the really old textbooks and I hacked in some blogs, but it's still pretty elusive. I think it has something to do with some rule of time travel, but I don't know. Carmen: TIME TRAVEL??????? Lynn: Some Sorceresses can time travel. That's where the Lost Sorceress is. Carmen: What's a lost sorceress? Lynn: A power missing. Part of why Sabrina is unbalanced. Apparently the people with time travel bolted. There's two, a Sorcerer and a Sorceress, that are missing. Ladon and Alice. No one knows who or where they are. Carmen: Time travel is possible, and no one thought to inform me? Lynn: It doesn't matter; you won't deal with it. Basically the plan is Sabrina controls you, she becomes a goddess and takes over Alena. She’ll have enough power then to time travel. She finds the Sorceress and Sorcerer. Then she messes with time travel, because when she prevails she can do anything. Normally the power is split to prevent stuff like this, but since she controls it all, then she can take over other planets, because she controls time. And that's really not good. Carmen: What's the rule? Lynn: It's either that you don't believe in the travel afterward or that whatever you do in the time travel will fix itself as soon as you leave, so you can hide in time, you can enjoy time, but you can't screw up time. It's probably the latter. Otherwise nothing she did would have any effect. Carmen: And Sabrina has no idea you know any of this? Lynn: Nope. I even think that Alena doesn't want to prevail, but she knows that if Sabrina wins then everything is totally gone. Over. Everything. The universe doesn't just end, it never existed at all. Carmen: And this is all hinged on me? What? Why? I am so the worst person to be trusting with this! Lynn: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Carmen: Uh, more like a life-threatening situation than greatness if you ask me. Lynn: Just don't let her win, kay? Carmen: Really, Lynn. Well, you finally convinced me. I hadn't reached that conclusion earlier, as you should know. Lynn: Oh, that's simply hilarious. I love how even telling you how serious this is doesn't make you serious. Carmen: I'm serious. Just also really mad, which makes me sarcastic. Lynn: Right. How about the Telkin. Do you think you could win? Carmen: Wild horses couldn't stop me. Lynn: Yeah, except that you're not fighting wild horses, you're fighting a really mad and powerful Sorceress. Carmen: Way to make me feel better, Lynn. Lynn: Just doing my job. Say you appreciate it, she told herself. But instead she was sarcastic. Carmen cannot take saying things like that. Maybe it has to do with being deserted by her parents since she was eight. I'm sure her brother will be just as, if not more, neurotic than she is. Carmen: If your job is to make me feel like I already lost before I started, congratulations. Hail thee, Lynnette, the greatest of all. Lynn: Ha ha. Don't call me Lynnette. Carmen: Whatever you say. Lynn: Thank you. You're so kind. So, what's your game plan? Carmen: I'm thinking about the move-to-Kenya suggestion. Lynn: She'd just follow you. Carmen: Okay, fine then. I'll just play a bunch of electronica and try not to get killed. Lynn: Well. Hmm. I wouldn't really call that a game plan, more like a losing plan, but you may try it. Carmen: Oh, well, I thank thee for thy permission, my Lady. Lynn: What the abyss have you been reading? Carmen: a) why are you saying abyss and b) what does what I've been reading have to do with my dialect of choice? Lynn: Oh, I have a very extensive vocabulary. My parents told me I would never have to cut my hair if I didn’t swear until I was eighteen. It's a habit now, even though it doesn't really count anymore. Anyway, I would assume that if you're speaking like you're some deranged princess in the Renaissance era you've been reading stuff like that. Carmen: Nah, I just venerate talking like that. Lynn: What does venerate mean? Carmen: Look it up, Miss Vocabulary. Lynn; Oh, shut up. Lynn: Back on topic, you don't have any other plan? Carmen: That's what Alena told me to do, in between insulting me. Lynn: Ha. What did she say? Carmen: Ugh. Stuff about "Cruel Summer", like just because I love the song and have ten different versions of it that's weird. Lynn: Ten. Different. Remixes. Did they even release ten different remixes???? Carmen: Well, it was released by three different artists, so I downloaded a bunch of remixes by them too. Lynn: Wow. Ten different remixes. What on earth could you possibly need ten different remixes for? Carmen: Oh, shut up. Carmen: I like the song, okay? Lynn: Yeah. I like songs, too, and I don't need ten different remixes of them. Carmen: This does not sound like shutting up to me. Can we go back on topic? Lynn: Great. Lynn: I cannot imagine Alena giving you advice as lame as that. You must have made it up yourself. Carmen: Thanks for the compliment. And how do you pronounce Alena? Turns out Sabrina isn't as simple as I thought it was. Lynn: Ah-aw-lee-leh-n(uh)-Ah, with the whole throat thing as the end of Sabrina. The double vowels all mean something. Carmen: What do they mean? Lynn: double a is great, double e is mind, double i is power. Sabrina means great one, Alena great at mind, Ciel mind power, Saushale great mind worker. Something like that. Carmen: Who's Ciel? Lynn: Oh, just some Sorceress. They haven't told you about her? Carmen: If they have, I completely forgot. Lynn: She created a bunch of different powers. It's a long story. Carmen: Je vois Lynn: You know I speak fluent French, right? Carmen: oh. I just copy stuff out of Google Translate. Lynn: Ha. So, have you met any of the Saushale besides Laura yet? Carmen: No, but I hear Bella is pretty disturbed. Lynn: Disturbed x 40,000,000,000,000 Carmen: She sounds great to be around! Lynn: We really are similar. Carmen: I couldn’t have figured that one out myself. Lynn: Ha. Gotta go. Carmen: Like, bye. Lynn: Like, bye. You stole my greetings! Carmen: no, you stole mine. Carmen is now offline. Lynn: we must be very similar. Carmen did not receive your message Lynn: For as long as I live, I will not understand Google. Carmen did not receive your message Carmen practiced the Telkin, then read a bit, until, the library opened. Carmen loved the library. How could you not love a place with thousands of books-literally—and computers? It’s just natural. She checked out a huge stack of them, then sat and read for two hours. After pedaling home, Carmen sat in her room reading for a few minutes before deciding to write another story, her fifth and final. In my time on this earth no one has ever, ever thought I was normal. No one has ever accused me of being ordinary. I've been reminded of my rudeness, intelligence, sarcasm, and half-beauty, but I don't think anyone has ever taken a look at me and said to themselves 'I can't imagine that girl being normal'. Of course, the fact that I'm probably answering a question no one in the entire class could answer, being really sarcastic to these two guys who sit behind me in all my classes- one hates me and the other is always talking to me for some reason; anyway my normalcy has never been mentioned or thought. Anyway, I think that my most eccentric part of my life has always been my dreams. Not because they themselves are eccentric- everyone has weird dreams about roasting math teachers over a spit or making out with movie stars. My eccentricity is that some weeks they will follow almost a story with clear beginning middle and end; each night is like a book in a series. Other times in my life my dreams are so whacky, so different, so absolutely insane, each minute a completely different setting, people, problem, ect. Completely different. The dreams I would particularly like to elaborate are of the first. The first night wasn't spectacular. I walked into a building and mysteriously asked to see a person named "Sabrina". When they asked for clarification I wrote down the name on a piece of paper. Immediately I entered a room. "Hello, Jessica," a voice boomed as soon as I sat down. I looked around, at long last spotting a tall girl, about in her twenties, with long platinum blonde hair and ridiculously pale skin, wearing a short purple dress and a long black cape that trailed behind her. "Jessica is my sister. My name is Brianna." "My apologies," she answered smoothly. "Now., are you ready?" "Ready for what?" "Now, ma ch`ere, why on earth did you come here if not for a reason? I assume that this was merely a joke on your part." "Um, like, I'm not joking." "Too bad. Now, firstly, you may as well dress the part." She snapped her fingers and the simple jeans and elaborately designed shirt that I always wear vanished, replaced by couture much like the one who stood before me. "Who are you?" "I am Sauhb. I shall one day rule all." "This might come as a shock, but most of normal society-" "And you know exactly what of normal society?" "Wow. The girl knows how to heckle. Bravo." "I suppose I must view this as-" "A reason to leave? Dégourdi! Why did I not think of that earlier? Oh wait-" "Stop it." "I JUST DID!" "Stop it." The words were quiet, yet forceful. My attention was involuntarily directed towards her. "This is ridiculous. We can work together." "I don't have anything you would want, Miss I'm Gonna Rule The World! Unless it's sanity!" "I am perfectly sane." "Oh yeah, that's so incredibly believable! I see much evidence towards that conclusion, eh?" I never really know what sets me off like that. She smiled and snapped her fingers. We immediately appeared in a dim blackness, stars swirling. "What the-" "Don't say it, ma fille. You might get your hair cut, would you not?" My parents have this rule that I never have to cut my hair if I don't swear. "Stop speaking in French," I responded sulkily. How on earth could she have known that? "Now, you must have some idea of what I intend." "Psychological torture?" "Oh, very clever. But no." "Oh, it must be in the physical realm. Because I am pretty sure that-" "Imbécile peu irrespectueux!" she screeched. I'm not sure what it means. Maybe she was complimenting my great new method of applying eye shadow? "Oh dear, I am so insulted. How could I not be? You called me something incomprehensible in another language! Maybe I have a panty line! That would just be so-" "I know that you think you are hilarious-" "Now who wouldn't? Vous, ma fille?" I didn't know what the 'ma fille' was, but I figured it was something insulting. Sabrina smirked. "All in good time, my dear." She spun out into the world before beginning and Inquisition that rivaled those in the thirteenth century. "So, have things ever vibrated around you when you got frustrated/" "Yes..." "Have you ever suspiciously, almost magically, gotten exactly what you wished for?" "Er, kind of." "Have you ever felt like there are two or even three people inside your head?" "Like, to some extent. But why on earth would you care, anyway?" "I ask the questions here." "Sigh. Why did I ever agree to this program? Could it be...yes... it's coming...Because I, like, DIDN'T?" I always love nailing sarcasm like that. I included some great emphasizing gestures. You know, there's probably a really simple reason why my history teacher hates me. I just have to think of it... "You know what you are?" "A really annoyed persona? How does that work for you?" "You are a chosen, Jessica. You have been chosen. "But unfortunetly, your purpose has been denied. You are an outlet of power, dear Jess, and a powerful one at that." "What the-" "My outlet." Just as she finished the last line, the doorbell rang. She was about to race downstairs before her brother did, but something stopped her. The second voice. She knew she had to make sure "Cruel Summer" was ready for playing. Oh, come on. The Saushale is so lying. Just to be safe, you know. We have to be safe. But- JUST PLAY THE DAMN SONG ALREADY!!!! Carmen spun around carefully, grabbed her remote, turned her speakers way up, and managed to somehow not knock down everything on her desk. She could see her brother just leaving his room , so she, of course, screeched out for him to go back and hurriedly slid down the banister. Her brother, confusedly, tripped on the carpeting and Carmen kicked him into his room. As soon as she opened the door, she knew. Claire's eyes flashed a brilliant violet before resuming their normal sky-blue. Her hair was silver (platinum blonde + silver dye + Sabrina = freakishly silver). Linn was right! How was this possible? She was so going to require some "Cruel Summer". "Hey Claire!" Must act exited, must act exited, she chanted to herself. "Hey Carmen!" Claire answered and stepped inside. Carmen pulled out her remote control and clicked for the only Avril Lavigne song she had on it, Claire's favorite. Just foir fun "Please turn that off," she said calmly, still climbing up the endless stairs. "Why?" Calm, calm, calm, she chanted again. "I prefer electronica." "Since when? Avril Lavigne has always been your favorite." Carmen turned so she was facing Claire. They were almost to Carmen’s room. "Since-" "Sabrina," Carmen finished her earlier sentence. "Who is Sabrina?" "Your hair is silver. Your eyes are purple. You hate Avril Lavigne, and my computer is starting on electronica. You know exactly who Sabrina is." "Um, like, actually I don’t-" "And we could add Claire has never said like before in her life." "You want it this way? It’s this way." Sabrina stepped into Carmen’s room, free of Claire, who smashed to the floor and slid to the side. Sabrina stood in front of Carmen’s computer, her arms spread wide and her expression angelic and serene. Carmen just stared. She had never seen Sabrina outside of her dream. But Carmen’s dreams were ever rarely vivid, and she hadn’t been able to see what Sabrina really looked like. In real life, every contrast was clear, ever angle like a knife. She was taller than Carmen thought possible, and everything about her was strange and non-human. Whoa. It was no wonder Sabrina never walked down the street without possessing someone. At least Alena could look halfway normal, but there was no way anyone could ever look anything like Sabrina, dyes and contacts included. Carmen threw a large object at Sabrina, who just threw it back. Carmen tried to penetrate Sabrina, but naturally her concentration was shattered when Sabrina’s electronica blasted full force. Had Alena’s electronica ever been this loud? Carmen was pretty sure not. Sabrina sashayed across the floor, until Carmen leaped toward the computer, entirely focused on her own electronica. It worked. Sabrina’s stopped mid-sentence and the most annoying song Carmen had ever heard blasted so loudly it was unbelievable. For real. Carmen focused along with the beat, every word with emphasis, every beat and note thrown full Telkin at Sabrina. She staggered. Carmen threw more, like jabbing knives thrown across the room. Sabrina jumped across the room to be closer to the computer, and Sabrina’s came back on. Carmen could see this was going to be a really long day. Carmen clicked her remote control for "Cruel Summer". Sabrina stopped for a moment, enough for Carmen’s to turn back on. Thank god Sabrina didn’t know about how to stop Carmen’s. But Sabrina’s concentration was barely broken, enough for a SORCERESS to turn it back on. See, Carmen thought to Alena. She’s a Sorceress, and I’m jut a stupid human, well okay maybe I’m a chosen- And I’m a really stupid chosen, she added. Hello! How could she have not noticed the simple way to win? Simpler, her mind reminded her. The mark! Unfortunately for her, Sabrina remembered the really obvious thing she had been missing earlier. Because Sabrina was doubting how far she could get. Rather than just dominating, like she did against most chosens, her electronica was getting beaten back. Her concentration was getting shattered again and again. Like "Cruel Summer" wasn’t bad enough! Carmen’s electronica had to be the most annoying, shattering, slamming, breaking, irritating thing she had ever heard. Hers was supposed to win that place! She had the most power! She got the most annoying song! She was better than Alena—you only had to listen to theirs songs to determine that. But Carmen's was definitely worse than Sabrina’s. But the tables had turned, or rather they were going to soon. The Saushale! Focusing hard, Carmen’s electronica dominated. Her mark threw power into it, beating back Sabrina’s electronica and driving her away, uselessly fighting. Carmen started to get happy and hopeful, until she felt the her spear fall apart. But focusing hard on her anger eliminated that problem quite nicely. She was so going to win. How could she have ever doubted that? Sabrina was really getting annoyed. She couldn’t even call the Saushale, because Carmen was throwing too much power into her throws. Sabrina’s attention and concentration was diverted and shattered every time she tried to call them. She had no choice. She was going to have to electronically contact them, which meant going over to Carmen's computer. Which was so not her idea of fun. Why couldn’t she just Telkin-contact them? Why did everything have to be so freaking hard? Carmen watched everything in slow motion as Sabrina tried to get near her computer. Carmen threw her against the wall. Again and again, Sabrina was thrown into the wall. Why was this so easy? Sabrina was a super-powerful Sorceress. This was supposed to be HARD. Difficult. Something was missing. And where were the Saushale? Sabrina couldn’t be stupid enough to have not thought of them before Carmen. Why weren’t they here? Shouldn’t they be here? Laura was only like down the street, at an apartment. And what if Sabrina did contact them? Should she throw them into the wall, like the note had said? Or should she battle them like Sabrina? Kenya was looking better and better. Okay, this is officially annoying, Sabrina thought as she tried to jump to the computer for the trillionth time and got thrown into the wall. Again. Why was this so hard? Carmen was just a human, maybe a chosen. Chosens could not direct that much Telkin. Telkin wasn’t a tangible thing, you couldn’t gain it from a mark like that. Or, at least, the ability to control it like that. Her mind was still human, she wasn’t suddenly a Sorceress just because she was a chosen. There was something off about this. Something excessively off. Was it Alena? Naw, Alena couldn’t have crammed a crash course this complicated in three days. Okay, time to stop Telkining the computer move. She was going to just grab Carmen and throw her down the stairs. It couldn’t be that hard. She was still Sabrina, after all. Carmen was still shocked by Sabrina’s lack of action against her. She wasn’t doing ANYTHING, just jumping to her computer. What the freak was that for? Why would Sabrina need to get near her computer, except to change the song? And there was no way Sabrina could know that. Unless she was, like, psychic or something. And Sorceresses were not psychic. What else did she want on Carmen’s comp? This was getting kind of weird. Then, all resistance to her Telkin disappeared. Sabrina had stopped fighting. What was she doing? Her confusion mounted, almost completely blocking her Telkin ability. She walked calmly over to Carmen’s computer. Then, with a sudden and unexpected move, she grabbed her and heaved her down the stairs. Carmen landed on the first floor, on her back, severely injured. However, in less than a few seconds, Carmen was slamming up the stairs again. It was probably a beneficial thing she'd given her brother those really loud speakers and a ridiculously thick door... Okay, focus. Sabrina cut off her resistance. She watched Carmen look at her, confused. Sabrina smiled. It was difficult to not respond with the Telkin, from the patterns in her head from previous chosen hunts. See, when a Sorceress does something several times, it becomes basically implanted in their head, making it difficult to not do it. Sabrina remembered taking advantage of it so many years ago, overtaking the other Sorceresses. Wait. Focus. Focus was key to the Telkin—it wouldn’t just happen. Sabrina felt the Telkin gather in her mind. She’d be throwing Carmen halfway to China if she used all this. Of course, that was just the opposite of not beneficial. Sabrina continued to focus, walking up slowly to Carmen. Carmen was totally clueless about what to do—just staring at her, hands in front oif her like she was directing some kind of symphony . It was really too bad chosens couldn’t be Sorceresses. She’d make a great one. Then, quickly, ever so quickly, she grabbed Carmen and lobbed her down the stairs. And that, you see, is how it’s done, she thought to herself. She typed in Saushale: Sabrina (mp3-dance4520). The second part being her password, of course. She’d set up the password protected web page ages ago, as soon as computers had been invented, practically. Sabrina: help, Carmen’s house. Anyone good available. Tara: There is no one good available. Sabrina: No Bella, Laura, Lynn? Tara: Lynn is in. Sabrina: Send her then! Tara: Are you sure????? Sabrina: Would I type it if I weren’t? Tara: She’s on her way. Sabrina: Connect me to Laura Tara: She’s on an assignment. Sabrina: This assignment idiot! Laura: What do you need me for? Sabrina: Carmen’s house—now. Don’t bother with secrecy. It’s just me and Carmen. Laura: You sure? Carmen hit the stairs then. But she was no longer in control—even though the Saushale weren’t there yet, Sabrina’s song was on. Sabrina then saw something that made her freeze with shock. After jumping up the stairs, Carmen caught Sabrina leaning over the computer. Just by the hum of her computer in overdrive, she could tell Sabrina was IMming someone. She caught sight of one of the names on the conversation—Laura. Sabrina was IMming Saushale. Huh? Ack! Lynn was emailing her! What was she going to do now? She’d promised Lynn that Sabrina wouldn’t see the messages! How could she get her moving in the opposite direction from the computer? No! What was Lynn doing on here? Lynn: Hey Carmen. Art thou on? Lynn: Carmen? I know you’re on. Stop ignoring me. Lynn: Carmen! What did I do? Lynn: So, I found Savannah, like you said. Wow, that has to be the most anti-social brat I have ever met. Lynn: Carmen?????????? Hello???????????????????? Carmen: You have been emailing a chosen. Carmen: Taking her advice. Carmen: And didn’t tell me. Lynn: What? Carmen: Maybe I should make myself a little clearer. Lynn: That’s a good idea. Sabrina: Clear enough for you? "What are you doing on my computer?" Carmen asked frantically. But then a girl appeared next to the window. Just appeared. She put her finger to her lips. She was definitely Saushale. But was it Lynn? "Wow, Sabrina. Never thought you’d stoop to snooping. Has to be record. With a capitol R." Definitely Lynn. "Lynn! You traitor!" Sabrina hissed. Carmen suddenly got a flash of inspiration as to the best course of action. She pulled out her remote control, and hit the "Cruel Summer" button. As expected, Sabrina ran from the computer. And a new song appeared. It wasn’t Carmen’s. It was Lynn’s. "Well, that just made my day there," Lynn commented. "Not only did I defeat Sabrina, but I got my song." "Leave, Lynn." Sabrina commanded, her eyes directly on her. Carmen got another epiphany. She jumped on her computer and went to an electronica song. She remembered how, with Sabrina’s, if another song went on, Sabrina’s electronica would drown it out. As expected, Carmen’s electronica rose some considerable decibels. Both Lynn and Sabrina covered their ears. Carmen didn’t know the words exactly, but she had a good enough clue to sing along. Which helped it on it’s crusade against Sabrina even more. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last. Sabrina shoved her aside again, and her song raged. But somehow, Carmen was almost immune to it. She didn’t like it, and it still gave her a slight headache, but if she focused on the Telkin or fight, it didn’t really annoy her. Rather than hit "Cruel Summer" on her remote, she hit for "Girlfriend", by Avril Lavigne. Just to see what would happen. It was pretty entertaining, too. Sabrina smashed against the fall, firing Telkin to try and destroy her computer. Carmen headed them off, especially as they got weaker. She sang along, hitting ‘repeat’ on her remote control after a while. Once again, it didn’t last. Sabrina eventually stood next to her computer. Her song was even louder because of the electronica she had turned it to. Note to self, Carmen thought, when fighting powerful, super-smart Sorceresses, avoid giving them ideas. After a while, though, Carmen got bored with that. Every time she tried to work her remote, turn it to "Cruel Summer", Sabrina just switched it back. Maybe it was time to stop fighting with electronica. So, instead, she reverted to her fictional character’s No. 1 rule—throw something at the person’s head. Which worked considerable well, actually. Sabrina fell off the chair, and Carmen pulled the plug on her computer. It shut down instantly. "You’re really annoying, you know that?" Sabrina commentedbitterly. She was really a crummy fighter up against someone her size. "Oh, now there’s a shock," Carmen replied sarcastically. "Someone standing between you and your ultimate goal? Well, never would have thought of that as annoying!" "I see why you’re a chosen. You’re excessively annoying, sarcastic, and tall." "Tall?" "A bit too tall perhaps." Sabrina finished her sentence by flinging Carmen into the wall, via Telkin. It felt just great, of course. No pain whatsoever. Snap, Carmen thought to herself. Can’t let your guard down like that. Carmen pulled herself out of the wall, throwing all the Telkin she could at Sabrina. She staggered. Carmen was really tired of this game—neither she or Sabrina could actually win. The game was over now. She was going to end it. Lynn held Sabrina incapacitated by singing "Cruel Summer" and a few other songs. Carmen laughed at Lynn’s crappy singing—she had no idea whether it was on purpose or not. Either way, it was pretty funny. While Sabrina struggled, Carmen pulled out her stereo—easier to turn on and off. Maybe there was a lack of remote—but she had different songs on different CD’s. "Let’s see you screw with that," Carmen challenged. Naturally, the stereo went to her electronica. Sabrina screeched, covering her ears. Carmen had hooked it up to some speakers, and it was even louder than on her computer. But one strange thing that happened was what happened when Lynn stood exactly next to her—the songs merged. Carmen didn’t even know a song could be more annoying than hers—but the doubt was gone. "You...little....impertinent...brats...." "I think she does not want to live in a world that includes your rendition of 'Cruel Summer'," Carmen explained to Lynn. "Yes," Lynn responded. "That must be it." Suddenly, however, Sabrina stood up. "Don't even begin to think that this is over. "You cannot kill me." Sabrina vanished along with Lynn, though whether they went together or apart Carmen was uncertain. Claire picked herself up from the floor. "Carmen?" she asked. "Carmen, why am I here?" "Trust me. You don’t want to know." Carmen pulled her up. Claire sprawled on the bed. "I think I hit my head," Claire moaned, wondering how Carmen would take it. She hated whiners. Though how she could do that and be friends with Hailey Claire would never understand. However, she also knew the world was full of confusion and irony, and she refused to care. "Well, like, no duh. You didn’t really need to tell me that, given that I was there the entire freaking time." "Fine. Be like that," Claire sniffed. She tried to get up but a fierce headache exploded. "I think I'm really hurt," she whispered. "Thank you stating the obvious, Ms. Genius. You want an antidote or what?" "Antidote? To what?" "Why, global warming, of course? What else?" "What is the antidote?" Carmen walked into her bathroom and pulled out the small bottle that Sabrina had left there. It was a vial full of clear liquid, with unintelligible instructions written on the side. "Wait a sec,' she muttered after a second. Spinning into her room, she pulled up the earlier chat about the double vowel thing. "Great. Okay." "What are you doing?" Claire crabbily complained. "Nothing, ma chere," Carmen called back, smirking. Apparently the bottle was 'mind own' (mind use? Mind control? Something like that) and to apply you needed 'great liquid' (lots of water?) and 'take it to your mind' (Swallowing?) She dropped it all into a large glass of water. "She will never remember this. Her head will be fine. She will exit and continue on with her life as normal," Carmen muttered, hoping Claire was so focused on her real live injury that she wouldn't care about Carmen muttering in the kitchen. She walked back into her room with the glass. "Drink, like, it all," Carmen instructed as soon as she reached Claire. "It looks like water," Claire complained before swallowing it all in one gulp. She stood up and walked out. Carmen rolled her eyes at the departure. She lay on her bed exactly how her mom had always yelled at her, before she went to work full time, with her feet on her wall, her head hanging off the frame and back to the mattress. She still had scuff marks on her wall. She banged on the wall for a while, just to see if her brother would notice. He did, of course, storming up the stairs to come yell at her. "Carmen! Stop banging on the door!" "And I should complete this for what reason?" "To be a great big sister?" Her brother got that look on his face to mock 'bambi eyes'. Carmen laughed. "I'm the best big sister ever, am I not? I mock you, torture you with excessive electronica, complain, annoy your friends... the list goes on." "Can you please just stop banging on the wall?" "In a perfect world..." Carmen hummed, much to the annoyance of her brother, whom balled his hands into fists and surveyed her room. "Hey..." he commented. "Yes?" Carmen prompted. "Weren't you moving around furniture earlier?" Or maybe it wasn't the headphones that prevented him from seeing Sabrina... "What gave you that idea?" "Do the words 'really loud banging' clue you in?" "No." Carmen raised her eyebrows and stretched out the o part of the no to make it obvious that the answer was actually a yes. "Then what were you doing?" "Oh, the ultimate Sorceress of the universe stopped by and tried to kill me, why?" Carmen's brother gave her a look that clearly defined that he was unsure whether she was being sarcastic or not. Hello. This is Carmen. The girl is sarcastic every time she breathes. "Okay...Can you please choose to either fix my computer game or stop banging on the wall? Please?" "Yeah. Just don't tell mom or dad, okay? They hate it when I scratch up the floor." There we go. Finally, a perfectly delivered lie. Carmen jumped down the stairs to fix the computer. Naturally, of course, the only problem was that the disk was scratched. "Does that mean I have to buy a new one?" her brother whined. "Like, not if you copied the program onto the computer." "Is that possible?" "No, I decided to mention it for my health. I hear it’s a great way to prevent smallpox, you know." "Why are you always like this? You can't say something serious for once? Would it really kill you?" "That's a nice way to thank me for diagnosing your problem. Anyway, I backed up all the disks in here one day when I was bored this summer." "Why?" "Because I was bored, Resident Genius. I just said that, do you recall?" Carmen ran upstairs and located the flash drive, neatly micro-organized in a small cupboard. Carmen's favorite thing to do when she was bored was micro-organize things. When her brother was done whining about his video game, she finished her homework and ate a nutritious dinner of half a potato she found in the cabinet she microwaved for a few minutes. Finally, she read a bit and went to sleep, exhausted from the Telkin and a new sickness she didn't even know existed. When she woke up in the morning and tried to stand up, a wave of extreme exhaustion flowed over her. "Yippee," she muttered. "I can't walk. What delirious fun." The best thing to do in the morning is be really sarcastic, I'll have you know. This happened every once in a while, just because she woke up so early and didn't always go to bed early enough. The best antidote, she knew, was ear-drum breaking electronica. She groped around for her remote control before remember that her computer wasn't on and therefore it wouldn't do any good. So she pulled on her necklace. Normally she didn't wear it, because the thing was huge and annoying, but she'd donned it for the fight yesterday and had forgotten to take it off. She hit play, and the first song was exactly the one she'd been looking for- one of her "Cruel Summer" remixes. Ugh. Had the song always been that annoying? So screeching, pounding, and, like, loud? Maybe it was just because it was probably about six thirty in the morning. She hit next. And yay, "Dance Until You Drop" came raging on. No way. She ended up just hitting next on the thing endlessly until she gave up and realized she wasn't as tired anymore. That's Carmen, the Genius of Ashland, Oregon. But anyway, she sat at her computer leaning her head on her hand. She was still tired. There were about thirty emails from Adriana. Carmen looked for Lynn first, however. How psycho could the girl be, anyway? Carmen: Lynn? Art thou on thy computer? Lynn: What do you care? Carmen: Are you mad at me? Because, I mean, I’m really sorry about Sabrina and everything. Lynn: What do you actually want, random? Random? Now this was really getting weird. Carmen: Wow. I think I've gone my entire life without being called random. I’m too awesome. Carmen: Seriously, though. Are you, like, okay? Lynn: No, I am, like, not. But what do you care? Carmen: Despite popular belief, I am not your enemy. Lynn: I'm Saushale, genius. Hello. Lynn: I am, of essence, your enemy. Lynn: How did you even get my email, anyway? Carmen: You don’t remember me. Lynn: Sure I remember you. You’re the one that made me act like such an idiot! Trying to fight against Sabrina! Thank god she put me back again. Carmen: But you didn’t want Sabrina to find out about you! You fought against her, with me! You told me that you hated Sabrina! That she was your enemy! That only an idiot like Bella would ever like her! Lynn: Bella is NOT an idiot! Carmen: You said she was disturbed! Lynn: As they say in debate, twisting my words. Carmen: Then where did you think this quote came from, genius? ‘Carmen: No, but I hear Bella is pretty disturbed. Lynn: Disturbed x 40,000,000,000,000’ Lynn: So I was being idiotic. That doesn’t prove anything. All young Saushale are like that. Carmen: It’s dated for yesterday, Lynn. You changed that fast? Lynn: Um, like, yeah. Bella said it happened to her. Carmen: Hence the reason you called her disturbed in the first place. Lynn: I don’t know why I’m even talking to you. You’re just some random who somehow got my email. Carmen: And made up a bunch of super-awesome expressionaos (ex-press-ee-on-a-os) Lynn: w to h, to a t and e, don't dare forget the v and e and tack on the damn r Carmen: Listened to "Fergalicious" by Fergie lately? Lynn: What? No. Lynn: What would jump you to that conclusion? Carmen: That’s where I got that from. With artistic license, obviously. Lynn: See above. Carmen: So here are the facts: Yesterday you said that Bella, in her undying devotion to Saushale-ness was idiotic/disturbed. Later that day, you fought against Sabrina, endangering your life/mentality stable-ness because you hated her so much. Barely past twelve hours later, you say that you not only opposite of hate Sabrina, but that I am the idiot for thinking otherwise. And this all seems logical to you. Lynn: So logical it is unbelievable. Carmen: I am so off it is unbelievable. Lynn: tah. Carmen: You didn’t say Aloha. Lynn: That’s just a retarded expression. Why would I use it? Carmen: it’s your expression—not mine, or Bella’s, or any other Saushale. Lynn: it’s like, what-ev-ah. Well, there went another friend. And she had thought that Lynn really got her, too, even though she'd only known her for a few days. Got Sabrina, got the sarcasm, got the control in life. Got the eventual alienation of all people. Adriana, Heidi, and Hailey had known her for months and didn’t even come close to understanding her as Lynn did. They were annoyed by her sarcasm, as opposed to understanding how it came to be. They were confused by her need to organize things, instead of laughing about it. But Lynn was Saushale. They were not. Carmen sighed. Whatever. Maybe it would be better for her to talk to people whom did not encourage obnoxiousness. Her teachers would probably appreciate it. Actually, half the world would probably appreciate it. Anyway, she uninterestedly clicked to chat Adriana. Maybe Adriana would uncharacteristically remind her why they were friends. Snort. Carmen: Adriana, are you on? Adriana: yes. That’s why I’ve sent u like thirty emails this morning. Carmen: that makes sense. Adriana: I can’t believe it. You said something serious. For like the first time ever. Carmen: Can you be so sure I was serious? Adriana: Don’t you usually say something like how it is so true it is unbelievable, just to make sure we all know that it’s not a trend? Carmen: What normally happens and what is happening now can be very different things. Adriana: You’re not acting like you usually do. Carmen: *shocked* Adriana: I see… Adriana: So there’s this really cool movie coming out soon. Carmen: Wow. Sounds like something that I would be absolutely fascinated by. Adriana: Come on. It’s about a book. Carmen: There are three things I have learned in life. 1. Hold onto your friends 2. Finish high school, and 3. The movie is never as good as the book. Adriana: Did you make that up or get it from somewhere? Carmen: It was in a Science News article. Adriana: What? Carmen: They were talking about how, when you’re reading something Carmen: Actually, you probably wouldn’t care. Adriana: Right on. Carmen: Have you done much upon late? Adriana: I talked to Zara. Read a bit. Carmen: Did you actually manage to finish a hundred pages within a week? Good job! Adriana: Some people, you know, actually have a life. Carmen: I have a life. * breathes*. See? Adriana: That’s not what I mean. Carmen: Duh. I am not that dumb, despite appearances. Carmen: hey. Actually, Lynn mentioned something about Zara calling her twenty billion times or something. Did she say that? Adriana: Maybe in passing. Carmen: oh. Whatever. Carmen: Oh. By the way. You can tell Zara she was right about Lynn. Adriana: How sarcastic is she? Carmen: On a basis where I am a ten and, you know, zero sarcasm is a zero, she’s a nine point eight. Adriana: I believe you have found your soul mate. The fact that she is the hypnotized minion of my worst enemy certainly gives some perspective on my life, Carmen thought wryly before answering. Carmen: She’s got problems. Adriana: That’s life. Carmen: Not mine, not hers. Accidents. Adriana: Huh? Oh, you mean the crazy thing? Carmen: What crazy thing? Adriana: Oh, nothing. Me and Zara were making jokes about how you guys have a genetic disorder or something. Carmen: Well, it’s great to know you guys think so highly of us. I feel honored. Thank you! Adriana: You know, when normal people come up against an insult, they change the subject. Carmen: And ruin my fun? Carmen: And why would we have a genetic disorder? Adriana: Oh, you know, the sarcasm and all. Anyway, Zara says Lynn disappeared. Did she tell you why and where? Carmen: She Yeah, sure. She was hypnotized by a sorceress. That’s going to go over real well. She’s not going to think I’m insane or anything. Carmen: She’s probably on vacation or something. Adriana: Two weeks after school starts? Carmen: Her school’s different. It’s harder, but they let you skip way more of it. Adriana: Oh. Whatever. So, did you tell her why you’re so weird? Carmen: I only knew her for three days. Adriana: Is she not coming back or something? Nice move, Miss Ace. People on vacations generally don’t disappear completely. Carmen: She got eaten by a bear. It was a real tragedy. Adriana: She-what? Carmen: Sarcasm, Adriana. Anyway, I have to go. Carmen signed off quickly. It really is amazing how many situations sarcasm can get you out of. Anyway, Carmen sat on her bed, deciding what to do next, still exhausted and really not wanting to listen to electronica. She thought about updating her blog- there was plenty that had happened this week- maybe reading a book, possibly searching the web for something random. There were Savvy People demos, for instance, that she wanted (snort). But mostly she was too tired to attempt any to it. After a few minutes her brother came tromping in. “Hey, Car, is your computer broken or something?” then he saw the perfectly functioning computer off to the side, still displaying her homework. “Are you sick?” “What? Why?” “You haven’t played electronica all day.” Oh dear, what a frightful symptom. “No. I’m fine. Just tired,” she sighed, tracing patterns in her colorful comforter, not paying attention to her brother. Her brother gave her a weird look, probably because Carmen was always complaining about being tired and still managed to blast her electronica all the time. Just a thought. “That’s not ever really stopped you before,” he observed slowly, backing away. A calm, quiet, sorrowful Carmen usually means that an explosion is about to come up. “I also have a wicked headache.” “From what?” From trying to eradicate an all-powerful Sorceress using only my mind. Easy, isn’t it? “I’m just tired.” She wanted to tell someone. Badly. Someone other than Lynn, someone whom had to believe her. Whom might. “Actually, there’s something more…” she trailed off. This is a bad idea, her brain warned her. “You know how I was moving furniture the other day/” “Yes. It was ridiculously loud.” Ah, he had stolen her favorite adverb. Evil. “Did you notice the girl at the front door?’ “Kind of. Why? Was she helping? Did you hit your head?” Bad. Idea. Bad. Idea. “Yes. Exactly. Bye.” She flicked her wrist in an offhand gesture just as a draft of wind drifted in through the window and swished a collection of papers off her desk. The stack that included Alena’s notes. Damn. She slid off her bed not before her brother had glanced down and noticed the words ‘Do. Not. Lose.’ And ‘evil sorceress’. And probably a few mentions of ‘electronica’. He picked them up. Lynn actually enjoyed her boarding classes regularly. When you’re a hyper-nerd like her (she and her friends had often competed for the top grades in seventh grade) you tend to enjoy classes like ‘Advanced Technology’ and ‘All History’. And the Telkin classes? Those were just fun. But now there was this small suspicion in the back of her head that something was up. What had she been doing yesterday? Right. Fighting Sabrina. But why? What had driven her to such desperate measures? And Carmen. She used to like her. She used to feel a need to help her. But why? Why did she need to do that? And even just the way she looked. Hadn’t she had hazel eyes yesterday? Right? Something was different yesterday. What? Sitting in ‘Genetics’ listening to what gave hypnotizers and mind readers the special Ciel powers, she heard her name called. ‘Lynn Ultimatihah, come in.’ As usual, they completely botched her last name. No one except Lynn and her mother had ever gotten the last name right (it was her mother’s maiden name). No one else had noticed. She looked around. ‘Lynn Ultimatihah, where are you and why are you not coming in?’ Oh. Right. She needed to go in for her assignment. They didn’t want anyone else to hear, so they only let her hear it. She slid off her seat. The teacher didn’t bat an eye. All teachers knew that students often had to leave randomly for no easily seen reason. She could have chosen the full, crowded hallway for her destination, but for some reason she selected one of the smaller, quieter ones that would take her directly where she needed to go. The walls seemed to glow slightly, a purplish color of course. Almost all of the walls here had some crystal in them to help Sabrina’s power flow better, and because of her presence they always seemed extra creepy Her black ballet flats echoed off the walls, making it even creepier. The ceiling wasn’t straight and quite often it dipped down to almost hit her in the head. She hummed to herself, and, as usual, the whole place seemed a lot friendlier. Her almost frantic pace slowed down considerably. I suppose Hana Rose just has that power. When she finally reached the place she was supposed to be ‘in’, the door swung open without her even having to touch it. “Took you long enough,” the tall Saushale that answered her complained. He had the usual Saushale features, but Lynn could tell that before he had always had an air of irritation just like he was displaying now. And his ears had stuck out considerably. “I’m too special to be constrained by the demands of others. I would expect you to know that, Mister. How dare you be so irritated with me!” she walked in primly, not grinning sarcastically or anything she normally would have done to alert him that she was joking. Just to see if he would fall for it. The Saushale rolled his eyes. “They told me you’d play games,” he informed her, slamming the door shut when she wasn’t even an inch inside the building “What am I here for?” “What do you think?” “Lots of things. But thinking isn’t the same as knowing, and I prefer the latter,” she told him bouncily. “That’s nice,” he replied indifferently. Lynn could tell he was just trying to annoy her. Lynn has a way to combat these things. “Sometimes my imagination thinks up several solutions, and usually they’re all wrong.” “Great.” “It’s good in some situations but never great.” “That’s nice." Lynn continued saying random things, and he continued to say 'that's nice' to all of them. "Your ears stick out," she informed him in the same tone she'd been she' been using the whole time. "That's nice." "And you're really boring." "Great." "You're so dumb I can't imagine why you're here. And ugly, too." "Will you stop insul-" He caught sight of her grinning face and gave an irritated growl-like sound. "Oh, that's so chahming," she responded in a rather fake accent. "Great, we're here." He made it sound like the relief of the century. "Are you coming in too?" "I was called in as well." They walked in the small, entirely crystal office. Sabrina spun around on a large chair to see them. Not a good sign. "Hello, Miss Ultimatihah," Sabrina greeted. She pronounced it perfectly. She easily saw Lynn's shock. "It's in the language of the powers. Your mother was certainly something else. It's not her real maiden name." Sabrina leaned forward and grinned with a mouthful of white teeth. "It was her Saushale last name." "She was-" "Now, now, there's plenty of time to discuss this later." Typical Sabrina. "But I must tell the two of you about your next joint assignment." "Joint?" they both asked her, swallowing in perfect unison. "I can see that you've probably already gotten to know each other. I could hear you arguing all the way down the hall." "So, I have to work with her?" the tall Saushale asked. "Yeah, and I'm really going to have fun spending time with the reincarnate of my second-grade teacher," Lynn spat. The whole Saushale house knew of Lynn's fun times with her second grade teacher. He took a look at her. "You were the one with the brown hair that told all those girls to break the window, right?" "Yes." "I believe I was your second grade teacher." Lynn spun around and, in a flash, the Saushale was crashing against the wall, breaking several glass objects and sending books everywhere. He responded with equal power, trying to slam her into the wall, but she resisted and the power bounced back. Lynn focused harder and- "Stop it, you two. I need both of you to complete this mission. This mission is key. If you two mess it up because of petty disagreements, none of us are going to be happy. Particular you two. Now, Lynn, this is Bryan-" There was a loud hiss as the two acknowledged his name "He's one of the most powerful Saushale here. Pay attention when he's talking about strategy and screen out the rest. This is Lynn. Just ignore three quarters of what she says-" "Hey!" "Shut up, Lynn. She's pretty smart and be wary of flying objects." There was a pause as Sabrina contemplated and Lynn and Bryan glared at each other. "Actually, both of you be wary of flying objects. This next assignment is not cherry pie." "Well, what is it?" Lynn asked, annoyed. "There's a girl named Savannah. Please don't think up nicknames for her, Lynn-" "Oh, I never do that," Lynn informed her with her head cocked to the side and a sickly sweet smile. Sabrina wisely decided not to dignify that with a response and continued. "I need her power. You must wait until she's at full power, probably in about two weeks, you'll slip her the chemicals. Bryan, please just ignore her." "Then what is he here for? Can’t I do this on my own?" "It would certainly make my life easier," Bryan muttered. 'Both of you, SHUT UP! I need this mission. This is of utmost importance. Bella and Lauren are getting older, their power is waning. You two are the future. You two are the Saushale POWER! If you shirk and whine, complain and mutter, you are NOTHING! THIS is how I will win. THIS is how I can take over Alena. YOU TWO ARE WHAT I NEED, AND IF YOU DESTROY IT THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!" Lynn and Bryan took a step back. "Get ready," she spat. Bryan turned around and started walking. "Lynn, please check Laura's house and deal with Carmen accordingly." Carmen watched her screen for a few minutes until she couldn't take it anymore. She needed to get out. Somehow. Go somewhere. Freaking anywhere. She decided to go aimlessly around. There was supposed to be a Saushale house somewhere around here. She might find it, or she might not. She slid down the banister until she reached the second floor. She paused in front of her brother's room. "If you go in my room I am so committing a homicide," she informed him before bounding to the first floor. "I suppose there’s a homicide on the horizon then," he screamed back. "That’s my expression," she called back before stepping outside. Laura lived only a block or so away—supposedly renting with her twenty-year-old cousin or something. Carmen wondered idly what was really happening—how old was Laura? She couldn’t imagine Saushale aged. Was Laura living there alone, with another Saushale, or what? This has to be the dumbest idea you’ve had in a really long time her mind calmly notified her. Including the whole angering-Saushale-in-front-of-a-billion-people plan. And that was an adamantly awful plan. Yes, we all know your position on the matter another voice in her mind informed it. Oh this is just perfect she thought. Now I’m going insane. Like you weren’t already. Let me define Shut Up for you. Let me define walking up and ringing the doorbell or walking away for you. So Carmen walked up and walked in to the small house. "Laura," She shouted defiantly. Silence. "Laura." Carmen walked around. It didn’t look empty. Where was she? "Laura? Are you here or what?" "Tressspassser," someone hissed. Carmen jumped halfway across the room as someone stepped out of the shadows. It wasn’t Laura. "Saushale." Carmen crossed her arms and stared into the person’s eyes. Saushale eyes rarely looked like real eyes, but in the shadows they looked even creepier. The persons skin was gray and her eyes just deep black. The hair was just an extension of the darkness. "What are you doing here?" Somehow, Carmen almost recognized the voice. Who was this? She couldn’t tell much about the appearance, only that itr was a girl. "I’m looking for Laura." "Couldn’t have figured that one out myself," she hissed again. This time Carmen did recognize it. Not Laura. Lynn. "Then why are you asking? Lynn." "Why do you need to talk to Laura?" "Take a really wild guess, Saushale." Lynn instantly understood. "How were you planning on fixing it, genius?" "Somewhere along the lines of this." Carmen said before slamming Lynn backwards and around the room, then dropping her. "You’re a lot better than I thought you were." "No." Carmen replied sarcastically "Well, thank god you were sarcastic about it or else your point never would have gotten across." "Who’s sarcastic now?" "Okay, now I see why it was entertaining emailing you." "Okay, back to the sickness or whatever-" "It’s not the sickness," Lynn whispered, staring blankly at a wall behind Carmen. Carmen looked at the wall for a second before turning back. "What?" Carmen asked, confused. "There’s two diseases or whatever Sabrina uses. One is the sickness. The other is just a sickness." "She's got some good distinctions, doesn't she?" "What do you want?" "Well, we could start with not having a sickness or whatever." "And you believe I am going to tell you this why?" "Lynn. What did Sabrina do to you?" "Take a really wild guess." "Note to self: when dealing with overly sarcastic people, avoid giving them ideas." "I bet every person who meets you gets about that same idea." "What happened to you with the sickness?" "Like I’m really going to tell you." "I give up my crown of sarcasm." Carmen rolled her eyes. "What?" "I am the Queen of Sarcasm." "Right. You suck at it." "Okay. Focus. How do you get a sickness off?" Carmen made sure to be very sarcastic about using 'a' instead of 'the'. "What makes you so sure I’ll tell you?" Carmen smashed her into the back wall. "Okay, fine. You just have to use the Telkin. Which you’re not supposed to like." "Right," Carmen replied sarcastically. "Just leave." Then Lynn showed her amazing ability of vanishing at will, just like Sabrina. Leaving lucky Carmen to deal with the neighbors. Note: If you ever throw someone into a wall, thereby getting blood everywhere, make sure they’re soundproofed walls. Because it is seriously not fun when the neighbors burst in and scream "What is going on?" then look at you and the blood and scream "Ahhhh! It’s a murderer!" then say "Where is that nice girl Laura?" and have you go "Ummmm, I’m not really sure" and then have them look suspiciously at you until they call Laura and find out she is fine. Just a little lesson. So after Carmen walked home, she felt much better. She used the Telkin to go up the stairs, rather than walking like a normal person. Her brother was at a friends house so he didn’t notice her floating around everywhere. As Lynn had said, Carmen felt considerably better after using the Telkin and turned on her computer, which naturally had to take thirty years because of not shutting it off properly the time before. As expected, Adriana, Heidi, and Hailey were all on. So was Lynn. Lynn: regretting your field trip now? Carmen: No, I actually feel better now. Carmen: There was just one problem—where you vanished four seconds before the neighbors came in and thought I HAD KILLED SOMEONE. Lynn: That was what I was referring to. Carmen: Oh. Do you feel different/better? Lynn: different, yes. Better, no. Lynn: I’m going to try, though. To think like a normal person. Carmen: Emailed Adriana lately? Lynn: Yeah, but she like never emails me back. Carmen: Now there’s the tragedy of the century. Lynn: And you should care why, random? Carmen opened the software so that she and all three of her friends could chat at the same time. Naturally, of course, they were all debating whether she was a psycho head case, so Carmen had to convince them otherwise. Sabrina was finally, finally gone. It seemed like it had been an eternity but it had only been about a week since Sabrina had come. Just a week. But it had been enough electronica for about eighty lifetimes. Though in this harsh, cruel world, can you really be so sure? In the harsh, cruel world I control. EPILOUGE Sab watched Carmen until the picture finally faded. So Carmen was back to being sarcastic and happy, chatting with her friends, obsessing over electronica, writing stories. What did she care anymore? Sab's fingers curled into her palm. Calm, she thought to herself. Now is not the time. She knew the time, though. When she had Savannah. When she was Saushale. Then she could fight. Destroy Carmen. Destroy Alena. Alena may be free now, but wait until she sees what little ole Sab can do. Wait until she sees me Sees Sabrina, the Merciful Goddess of Evil.

So, yeah. I'm still editing this. I'm going to finish the epilogue and put in a prologue...um...someday.