he house wasn't really anything special - an old Victorian manor, in a street full of them, but there was just something about it, which drew the eye. It wasn't really discernible; the house just had an aura of peace about it. It was situated on the top of a small hill that was covered in lush green grass, and populated with big old trees of various descriptions. There was a path that wound its way to the porch, and a heavy oak door, which had apparently been made from one of the original trees of the property.

The back garden had the same neatly mown lawns as the front, but seemed to have a tamed wildness about it. The trees clustered together, forming small grottos where young children could hide and play, becoming lost in the world of fantasy. The house had been occupied by a single family for the last 18 years, and in the back garden, small houses built "for faeries" still existed, although they had mainly disappeared now. The flowerbeds were riots of colour all year round; the lady of the house had a passion for gardening.

The floors of the house were polished boards, the walls were cream, and the furniture was large and soft, yet elegant at the same time. The windows were all large, allowing the sunlight to stream into to house, lighting it brightly all day long. The house had three levels, including the attic. The kitchen was the centre of the house, being a natural gathering point and allowing a full view of the back garden. Downstairs also held the master bedroom, a dining room, a lounge room, a bathroom, a laundry, a small library and sitting room. The upstairs held 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, and another sitting room. One bedroom was a guest bedroom, and the other two belonged to the twin sisters who lived in the house.

The first of these bedrooms was situated towards the front of the house. It was carpeted, as were all the bedrooms in the house, and the walls were painted a pale greeny-blue. The window looked out over the street, and in front of the window was a window seat, where one could spend the afternoon watching people without being seen. The wardrobe was built-in, and contained a small set of drawers and all the clothes of the room's owner, and had a mirror on the inside of the door. A light pine desk was by the door, and next to that, in the corner, was a double bed that matched. The pine furniture gave the room a light, breezy feel to it, which the owner loved. In the next corner was a matching bookshelf, filled with books on poetry, and Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Christopher Pike novels - an interesting variation. The bottom two shelves were filled with text books and notebooks. The notebooks contained both sketches and poetry, authored by the room's owner, although very few people knew this. The room was mostly neat - the bed was made, the floor was mostly clear, but on the end of the bed was a pile of clothes, waiting to be put away, and on the desk were several battered notebooks similar to the ones in the bookcase, a jar of pens and pencils, and a school bag was dumped on the floor in front of the desk. The desk also held two framed photos - one of a family, and one of two girls with dark hair in formal dresses. The girl who did not own this room was only a little shorter than the girl who did, with green eyes, freckles, curls, and a Mona Lisa smile.

The second bedroom was at the back of the house, with the window looking over the back garden, rather than the street. The walls in this room were painted a soft bluey-purple, not that you would really be able to tell. The walls were covered with various objects - there was a large mirror on the wall, and about half a dozen large photos of groups of girls, and groups of guys and girls, in various places, in various seasons. But it was not really the photos that detracted from the colour of the walls, but the faeries. The walls were populated with many faeries of many different colours - they held up the mirror, pushed one of the photos askew, danced across the top of the bookshelf, and seemed to be having a war against the goblins that lurked along the skirting boards. A few small dragons lurked amongst the faeries, and a single undine stood in a corner, dripping upon a very annoyed looking goblin. The bookshelf, was this time filled with fantasy novels, books on mythology, philosophy and psychology and more photographs, mainly of a girl with blondish-red hair with various people. The furniture in this room was similar to the first - the bookshelf, a built-in wardrobe, a double bed and a desk, but also had a chest of drawers that seemed to double as a dressing table, all made out of mahogany. The room was not neat like the other one - the bed was unmade, the clothes were upon the desk, but you couldn't really tell because of all the other clothes scattered around the room. The top of the chest of drawers was scattered with hair brushes, make-up and jewellery, and a couple of the drawers weren't quite shut. On the dresser was the same family photo that had occupied prime position on the desk in the first room.

The photo consisted of the four individuals who currently lived in the house. The only male in the photo was a big burly man, who, as his daughters often told him, looked somewhat like a Viking. He had piercing blue eyes and curly reddish-gold hair, and a beard. His name was Erick, and he and his newly married wife had moved into the house 18 years ago, when he'd got a good job in the area. His wife, Lucia, was almost his exact opposite. She was small and petite, only 5' tall, whereas Erick was 6'1". They made for an odd pair. Lucia was beautiful, with long dark hair, fine features, and dark, Spanish eyes. She had been incredibly beautiful when she was younger, and although her beauty had matured somewhat over the years, she was still one of the most beautiful women in the town. The two daughters were twins, although that was not obvious when you looked at them.

The sister with dark hair was tall and willowy, with her mother's eyes and straight dark hair, which was cut to shoulder-length. She was pretty, in the girl-next-door kind of way, but she didn't really seem to care how she looked, almost always wearing jeans and a t-shirt, refusing to wear skirts for any reason, and only very rarely wearing dresses. She had despaired over her height of 5'11", having reached it at age 13 and not having grown since then, and had developed a slightly waspish attitude; probably as a defence against the teasing she received as a result of being taller than most of the boys. Jade, for that was her name, shunned many people at the school, and had gotten in trouble more times than you could poke a stick at - not because she was stupid, or played around, but because she simply didn't care what anyone thought, including the teachers. She had only two close friends - one was Melinda, Jade's best friend and the girl in the photo on her desk, and the other was her sister.

Jade's sister, Kat, was almost as opposite from Jade as Erick was from Lucia. Kat had inherited her mother's bone structure - she was 5'2" barefoot, although she often added an inch or 2 to her height with the help of heeled sandals, and was often teased by her taller friends for being unable to reach things on the top shelf. Kat had a mixture of her father and her mother in her face. She had her mother's delicate bone structure and long dark eyelashes, and her father's deep blue eyes and reddish-blonde hair, which she wore to her waist. To put it simply, the combination worked. Kat was considered to be beautiful, and the attitudes of the boys at school proved it. Kat was popular, with a huge group of friends who always seemed to be doing something - whether it was going to the mall after school for a coffee, or to the beach for the weekend, or to somebody's family's house in the mountains for a week, the group always had something planned. Kat had, to begin with, attempted to pull Jade into the group, but she hadn't been interested, and soon Kat gave up.

The girls were as different as night and day, both in attitude and in looks - the only feature that the girls had in common was that they had both inherited their mother's beautiful smile. Although Jade rarely used hers, except on Melinda and her family, Kat used hers on anyone and everyone, usually to devastating effect. The girls had just turned 17 years old last week, and were in their second last year of high school at the local public school.

Jade was, at present, sitting on her window seat, watching as people walked up and down her street. She had one of her notebooks and a freshly sharpened pencil on her lap, and she was sketching Mrs Muthuswamy, the old Indian woman who lived across the road. Jade had been people-watching for about an hour, since she'd arrived home from school. In that time Jade had seen Kat's ex-boyfriend, Michael, 5 times as he casually strolled past their house. Michael scared her, but Kat had casually brushed off Jade's concern, saying that she and Michael were finished, and he would realise that soon enough, and get on with his life. Erick was at work, and Lucia had left a note saying she'd just run down the shops, and would be home about 5:00. It was almost 5:00 now, and Jade was keeping a very sharp eye out for her sister. Kat's latest boyfriend, a guy by the name of Glenn, had just got a new car, and Kat had, after a quick explanation to her sister and a promise to be home by 5:00, one with him "for a spin". Jade worried when she didn't quite know where Kat was. Someone opened the front gate, and Jade peered down to see who it was. Recognising Sarah, who was a friend of her mother's, Jade closed her notebook and placed it on her desk before starting to move downstairs. She was almost at the door when the doorbell rang, and Jade opened it quickly.
"Hello, Jade, is Lucy in?" Sarah asked, using the English version of her mother's name.
"No, she's gone down the shops, but she said she'd be home by 5:00. Do you want to come in?"
"I may as well," replied Sarah, entering the house and moving towards the kitchen. "I just brought over this new herbal tea I found for your mother to try, I think it's just divine..."

Kat and Lucia arrived home at the same time, at 5:15, but Lucia entered the house 15 minutes before Kat, passing some comment about her daughter kissing someone good-bye in a red sports car out the front. It was 5:30 when Kat entered the kitchen and dropped her school bag on the floor by the kitchen table.