ood evening," he said, handing her a glass.
"Good evening," Kat replied, looking to see what he'd given her.
"Mead," he explained, and Kat nodded and took a sip.
"Settling in ok?"
Kat nodded.
"Yeah, alright. Mostly got my room sorted, school's alright, learning my way around, made some friends. It's alright."
"That's good then. Getting to be friends with KatE?"
"That's why I'm here."
Marc nodded like there couldn't have been any other answer, and glanced around the room. Kat shifted. She was starting to feel quite claustrophobic, and there was a tall blonde girl glaring at her. As Kat caught her eye, the girl started towards them, and Marc sighed, softly.
The girl was of equal height with Jade with a similar figure, but with short, straight blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a short blue skirt, and soft blue jumper, and walked like a model across the room towards Kat and Marc. Reaching them, she leaned forward and kissed Marc on the mouth. Kat surmised that this was Irene.
"Hey honey," she purred, slipping an arm through Marc's.
"Hello, Irene, he replied, then reluctantly added when Irene's eyes moved to Kat and stayed there, "This is Kat. She's just moved here from... Where are you from?"
Irene seemed to relax at Marc's not knowing much about Kat, and turned back to him before Kat could reply, saying, "Did you know what that creep Andrew said to me?"
Kat silently slipped away, and headed outside. Marc helplessly watched her go.

Outside, Kat leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. The mildly claustrophobic feeling slowly drained away, and Kat placed her glass on an outdoor table, slipped off her shoes and moved into the garden. The grass was cold and damp under her feet, and she moved quickly down the garden to an old oak tree growing in a corner. Catching hold of one of the branches, Kat climbed up into the foliage. She rested against the trunk, closed her eyes, and relaxed.

Inside, Marc was sitting on Kate's couch, while Irene sat beside him, chatting to one of her friends. She had one hand tucked possessively on his knee, but Marc was otherwise free to think and watch. Kate had returned, and she and Darren were chatting with Maya, Sarah, and a couple of other boys Marc didn't really know, but he thought their names were Greg and Matt. Anne-Marie was chatting to her boyfriend, Brad, who had arrived late, and Darryl had arrived and was talking to Jade. There were other people around who Marc didn't know all that well, but he couldn't see Kat anywhere. His thoughts turned to his new neighbour, and he frowned a little. He didn't know anything about her, really, but she kept seeming to slip into his thoughts. Marc silently pondered what he knew about her as he watched people mingle. She was little. Seemingly just over five feet tall. Red-blonde hair that was long enough to sit on. Bright green eyes. Perhaps it was the eyes that made him think of her? They were quite hypnotic. She lived next door, and had a Dad. And Jade was interested him her. That was the sum total of his knowledge. Marc frowned again, then gave a mental shrug. Oh well. He'd learn more eventually, he was sure. He turned his attention to Irene's conversation.

Jade glanced casually around the room, and noticed Irene sitting with Marc, and sighed. As much effort as she put into acting indifferent to Irene, Jade knew that inside, she intensely disliked the girl, and particularly disliked the way she treated her brother. It was not so much that she treated him badly... because she didn't. She was just a little insecure and possessive, and needed his constant attention in order to feel valued. Intellectually Jade knew this, but Irene's behaviour still bugged her no end. Continuing her survey of the room, Jade caught Kate's eye, and Kate excused herself to come and talk to her.
"Glad you could make it," smiled Kate. "I didn't get a chance to speak with you before."
"Wouldn't have missed it for the world," Jade smiled. "Is this new Kat here?"
"Hmm, yes, somewhere. I saw her when she arrived, but haven't seen her since. Why?"
"Marc said she had a strange birthmark, which apparently looked something like the symbol for earth. I thought I'd have a look myself."
"Really? I haven't seen it, but I wasn't looking. She seems quite nice though."
"Earthy?"
"Not that I've noticed, but then..."
"Hmm... I don't know, Marc commented on the mark, but it might not mean anything."
"I don't know, either. I arranged with her to go to the shop tomorrow afternoon though, so we'll see what she looks at there."
"Good idea. I would be interested to find out, anyway."
Kate nodded. "I'll go have a wander and see if I can find her."
"Okay. I'll go talk to Marc."
Kate nodded again, and moved off into the crowd. Jade moved towards Marc.

"...so *then* I said, well, if you're going to be like that you can sod off! And so he said..."
"Hey," Jade interrupted Irene as she sat next to Marc.
Irene shot Jade a glare, and continued her story.
"Hey," Marc replied, glad of the distraction.
"Having a good time?"
"Alright," he replied. "Tired though, don't think I'll stay late."
"I can see why."
"Be nice," he smiled, finishing off his drink.
"I am. Have you seen her?"
"Aye, about an hour ago. Not since then though."
"Hmm... She's missing."
"I'm sure she'll be around," Marc replied unconcernedly. "She wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to Kate."
"That's probably true. Will you go talk to Darryl for me?"
"Um... yeah, sure, I guess."
"Thanks."
Marc extracted himself from Irene, and went to talk to Darryl, while Jade continued a circuit around the room.

Kat sat up and shivered. She had no idea how long she'd been outside, but the air was chill, and she was starting to get cold. The tree had seemed warm and comforting for a while, but realising the moon had moved a fair distance across the sky had brought her back to reality. Kat climbed back down and moved back to her shoes, slipping them over her damp and slightly dirty feet. She collected her glass, and emptied the contents onto the ground before moving inside again. Finding a position near a heater, she struck up a conversation with a boy who was in her English class while she defrosted.

When Kate finally spotted Kat, she was deep in conversation with Leo about the relative merits of the crossbow and the longbow. Kat was seemingly all for the longbow, while Leo was arguing for the crossbow's power.
"Ah, Kat, there you are," Kate exclaimed, moving over.
"Kate," replied both Kat and Leo in greeting.
"I was looking for you," Kate smiled at Kat.
"Yes, I was looking for you, too, I have to get going if I'm going to get home tonight."
"Oh... I had someone who wanted to meet you. Jade."
Kat paused for a moment, but then shook her head.
"Another time, Katy, I'm really rather tired. Not in the right frame of mind for meeting new people."
Leo grinned suddenly - she hadn't seemed all that tired when she was arguing with him about bolts and arrows, but he kept his mouth shut.
"Well, if you're sure..." Kate said reluctantly, knowing Jade would be a little annoyed at not getting to meet her.
"I'm sure. I'll meet her soon enough. Leo, it was nice meeting you."
"You too," he replied, slipping away into the next room.
"Thanks for having me Katy," Kat said. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yes, I'll stop by your house just before lunch."
"See you then. I'll let myself out."
And Kat slipped away into the crowd, leaving KatE to tell Jade she'd left.

Kat arrived home shortly after 1 in the morning. She'd waved goodbye to Marc across the room, not wanting to encounter Irene again, and he'd waved back, looking surprised, but Kat had ignored his "come over" look, and left. In truth, the party was not really her scene - too many people she didn't know, on a night when she felt more like being alone. Erick was home and asleep, so Kat shut the doors and went silently to her room, shutting her bedroom door before turning on the light.

Sarah, Maya and Kate had been a great help in reconstructing her bookshelves and desk, and placing them against the walls. The black and purple lace curtains had been washed and re-hung, and the books placed into the bookshelves. The desk also had been filled with paper, folders and pens, and several plants had entered the bedroom. The walls had yet to be decorated, but Kat wasn't sure what she would put up, and what she'd store in the attic. Kat left her bedroom and entered her wardrobe. All her clothes had been unpacked and sorted by colours, so summer was on the left, and winter on the right. Straight ahead, under the window was a table, with a vase full of flowers in the centre. On the left, because her clothes didn't take up all the space in the room, was a beautiful wooden cabinet, with several boxes stacked beside it. Kat hadn't yet unpacked her magickal supplies cabinet, or set up her altar. Feeling surprisingly refreshed and awake, Kat opened the closest box and began sorting herbs and candles into the tiny drawers of her cabinet, and placing other tools and larger candles into the cupboard section. By the end of an hour, Kat was satisfied with the set-up of her cabinet and had placed her altar-cloth, goddess and god representations, and representations of each of the elements on her table, keeping the flowers in the centre. Feeling tired again, Kat flattened the boxes, turned off the lights, and crawled into bed.

Almost a full kilometer away, Jade noticed the lights go out. She'd come home about 15 minutes before, and had taken some of the dead wood up to her bedroom to fiddle with, and noticed the lights on in the distance. Jade guessed Kat had not been all that tired after all, and sighed. She really wanted the meet this girl. Darryl had mentioned seeing her at school, and said that Jade had been with him when he saw her, but Jade honestly couldn't remember seeing her at all. Returning from the kitchen, Kate had told Jade Kat was leaving, and entering the front room Marc had told her Kat had left. Jade was mildly annoyed. It was almost like the girl was avoiding her. Putting down the wood and knife, Jade wandered through the house to Marc's room, and peeked in. He wasn't there. Jade supposed Irene had collared him for the evening, and he wouldn't be home until early, if at all this night. Her attention was caught by Marc's sketch-book, open on his bed, and she entered his room to have a look. Marc had seemingly been drawing earlier in the day, because the charcoal sketch hadn't been set - which was, presumably, why he'd left the book open on his bed. Marc's drawing talent was simply amazing, as far as Jade was concerned. Whilst she could carve, and was rightly proud of her ability, her brother's drawing skills far surpassed her own drawing ability. When Jade wanted a concept sketch for an idea in her head, she would go to Marc and describe it to him, rather than attempting to draw it herself. She wasn't quite sure why, but the pictures in her head never came out on paper the way she wanted. She either put knife to wood and the picture emerged exactly how she wanted in carving, or she spoke to Marc, and he drew it for her.

Jade flicked on his bedside light to get a better look. The sketch was of a dryad, leaning around a tree, peeking out at the viewer. Jade smiled. The picture was cute, though not really Marc's usual style. Jade moved to the start of the book and flipped through the older pictures she'd seen before - faeries with Jade's face - or rather, sketches of Jade with wings, pictures of Kate with a mermaid's tail, "normal" sketches of Jade, Kate, and Irene - a lot of Irene, several in various forms of undress. Jade flipped through those quickly. There was one of a demonic form, with Irene's face, and Jade grinned delightedly. She liked that one. There were a few more sketches of Jade, one of her and Darryl, sitting on the couch, and Jade smiled. She liked that one too. There was a concept sketch of the dryad, and a couple of more complete pencil sketches. Jade turned the page again, and found herself confronted with the dryad, stepping out of her tree. Somewhat scantily clad, though all the important bits were covered, one arm and half her hair were still within the tree, with one tiny foot firmly on the ground, the other emerging, her expression was one of mild annoyance. Jade studied the picture carefully. The dryad was slim, but curvy, and appeared to be fairly short, with long hair and come-to-bed eyes - even through the expression of irritation. Marc had named the picture "wood-cutters beware!", and Jade grinned. She liked the picture, though it wasn't like Marc to not draw from a person. Jade scrutinised the picture, looking for familiar features. The body shape was too short to be her or Irene, but she supposed Marc could have just scaled it down to fit his image of a tree sprite. The hair was similar to Jade's own, but longer, and the eyes were vaguely reminiscent of Irene's, though again, there were differences. The remaining two pictures were some trees, and the first one Jade had seen. Jade placed the book back on Marc's bed, and switched out the light before returning to her room. She really quite liked his idea. Though perhaps modified slightly... Jade picked up the wood and knife again, and began to carve.

By sunrise, the basic outline of the dryad had emerged from the wood. Jade had given her a little more coverage than Marc had allowed, and the expression was less annoyed and more sensual. The dryad had a longbow in her hand, which Jade had decided she used to convince passing males to tarry a while. Jade paused for breakfast and considered what sort of trees she'd carve. Her parents were still asleep, and Marc wasn't home when she returned to her room, and continued carving. By lunchtime the entire carving had emerged, roughly, and just needed the finer details added, a bit of sanding, and some stain. It was with some annoyance that Jade realised all her fine work tools were at the shop, and she'd have to go there to collect them. Then she remembered that Kate had said she was taking Kat to the shop that afternoon, and she grinned. Maybe she would finally get to meet the girl! Jade had some lunch, and showered and changed her clothes before grabbing her car keys and heading to the mall.

Jade had only been at the shop for 15 minutes when she heard Kate on the other side of the counter.
"Jade's really quite nice," Kate was saying. "I was friends with her in primary school, and the start of high school. In year 9 I went to France for a year on exchange, and so when I came back I was still in year 9 whilst she and the others were in year 10. So I became friends with Marc and Sarah and Maya. I'm still friends with Jade and Darryl and Irene, and of course I'm dating Darren, so I've still got friends in my original class as well as friends in the class I'm in now."
"That explains why you have your P's then!" laughed Kate's companion. Then, "Oh... I like that bookstand!"
Jade emerged from the storeroom and was confronted with Marc's dryad, holding one of Jade's elemental pentagram bookstands.