Suddenly a quiet gasp escaped the girl's lips as she involuntarily jolted. She'd suddenly felt a…the only way to describe it was a presence. Quickly looking up, Jessica saw that somebody new had walked into the room. She was new to the class, but the face was very familiar.

Looking down again, Jessi saw that the picture that she'd drawn was exactly this girl, every single feature. I'd never seen her before, the girl thought wonderingly, looking from the picture to the new girl, then back to the picture again. Sure enough, the picture was an exact replica of the girl. Or the other way around.

As well as that, there was something else strange about the new girl. Some sort of…aura, of power, of something that Jessi had never encountered before. She suddenly felt scared, sinking down into her chair.

The new girl seemed to notice Jessi's discomfort. Either that or she felt some sort of discomfort towards the other girl. Either way, her eyes suddenly snapped up and looked directly into Jessica's, a shocked look on her face.

Then it was over, and the girl was looking at the teacher as if the past few moments hadn't happened. Jessi, blinking, considered that maybe they hadn't, maybe it had all been in her own head. Looking back down onto her paper, she quickly dismissed the idea. The worried feeling was creeping back into her head, and Jessica knew that something spooky was going on here.

"Class?" asked the teacher, causing Jessi's head to look up sharply. "This is Carrie Andrews, she'll be in our class starting today. Carrie, take a desk wherever you like."

"Carrie" nodded and went to sit down right next to Jessica. The latter felt the dark girl's eyes on her paper, and she quickly put the picture away, glancing at Carrie. Her face was…blank, as if she had no emotions at all. Perhaps it's shock? Jessi thought, surprised. Weirdness didn't normally scare her…so why did she feel like wetting her pants right now?

"Hi, Carrie," she said, putting a smile onto her face nervously. She didn't really expect Carrie to answer, from the expression on the other girl's face.

"Hello," replied Carrie, her eyes turning less blank and more animated. Because she really felt that way or because she was able to put up a good mask, Jessi wasn't sure. Carrie turned to smile at the other girl briefly, then looked ahead again. There was something odd about the new girl, Jessi could tell, she looked uncomfortable, nervous…

Of course she does, it's a new school, the girl thought. However, something else was odd, just a weird feeling that Jessi had. The bell rang and the teacher called everybody to silence, rapping her ruler on the large desk at the front of the room.

"Alright, class, please settle down." The Math teacher was one of those old-fashioned ones who did everything the old way and didn't use any sort of modern teaching methods. In other words, no fun. Not that any of my classes are fun, Jessi couldn't stop herself from complaining in her own head.

She noticed that Carrie seemed to tune the class out almost immediately. An odd look spread over the girl's face, as if she was thinking very hard, searching for something even though she wasn't moving…

Jessi shook her head, looking back down at her blank notebook page. She opened the notebook to another section, the section with the parts of story that she wrote. Some of it was continuing stuff that she already had saved on her computer, some of it was just random scenes that she was hoping to reach that section of the actual story, someday. She looked over all of the stories she had there briefly, and settled down to continue the current story. I really should type this into the computer, Jessica told herself, doubting that she'd get around to it any time soon. It would be pretty long.

Everything felt different, somehow, colder. It all seemed to emanate from Carrie, as if that girl was some sort of portal for power or something. Jessi did her best to shrug it off, looking up from her notebook page. She couldn't concentrate on the story enough to write it any more, and instead the girl looked up, deep in thought. What was that feeling? Was it even there, and if so was it really stemming from Carrie? It's probably all in my head, again. Jessica down, dejectedly.

Her eyes fell on the pencil, and the thoughtful look grew deeper. That had to have happened, after all everyone else there remembered it, too. But had it been her who moved it, or something else? Maybe Miss Garcio had hit it with something by mistake, and that had been what made it fly across the room.

An accidental brush wouldn't have sent it flying across the entire room, the rational side of Jessi informed her. She blocked it out, starting to get a bit scared. She'd never been scared of different things before, but now that it was about her, that was different. Wasn't it?

After a while of concentrating without any movement of the pencil at all, Jessica looked back down at her story. She wrote a few sentences, then stopped again, having no idea what to put into the story. She turned to her Math book and decided to follow what the teacher was saying for a while.

Finally the bell rang and everyone got up to go to second period. Science wasn't too bad, even though the teacher had a habit of using "like" in her sentences when it wasn't needed. Jessi picked up her binder and her books and walked out of the room, trailing behind everyone else to avoid being near to them. As she stepped out of the classroom, someone spoke to her.

"You draw very well," said the voice. Turning, Jessi saw that it was Carrie.

"Um, yeah," Jessi looked down and bit her lip, as she always did when nervous. If she'd be sitting down, she'd be tearing at her nails and drawing doodles on her binder as well, almost as if she was trying to escape the conversation that she was having.

"It was really fast," continued Carrie. "I don't think I've seen anybody draw so quickly and have it look so good." The voice didn't sound admiring, but Jessica could tell that it was supposed to.

"I…I didn't," Jessi faltered, her voice getting lower. She started to wish that she had the ability to open up the ground and just sink though.

"What do you mean, you didn't?" asked Carrie curiously, looking at the other girl more closely. "I mean, how did you get the picture then, if you didn't draw it?"

"I drew it," corrected Jessi hastily, then drew back. "Look, I have to get to Science class. Bye, okay?" She ducked her head and walked swiftly to the next class, looking at the floor the whole time. She could still feel the other girl's eyes on her back, and she shuddered a little. Something was very wrong with Carrie Andrews, Jessi could tell. But what? she wondered. Why does she feel so…wrong? Like she shouldn't be here.

Jessica mulled over the other girl for most of Science class, but she couldn't think of anything else. It could all be in my imagination, she admitted to herself. It wasn't an idea that the girl liked, but it was the only one that made any sort of sense.

As soon as she got to English class, Jessi saw the new girl there, again. That's weird, thought Jessi, normally they automatically put the new kids into Regulars English, don't they? Apparently the rest of the class felt the same way, because they were murmuring amongst themselves.

"Class, this is Carrie Andrews, she'll be in this class for the year," spoke up the teacher as soon as the bell rang and everyone was in their seats. "Last period she was in the class, and I decided that she'd do much better in the Advanced class, so we're going to go onto a new schedule starting tomorrow. Alright, Carrie," she said, the last sentence addressing the girl, "you can go to your next period now." The girl nodded, leaving the room after smiling at the class.

That smile isn't friendly, it's creepy, decided Jessica. Looking around, though, she could tell that everyone else seemed to think that the girl seemed nice from what they'd seen of her. Everyone else seemed to think that her smiles were genuine.

Shrugging, she got out her textbook as the class started. If the other kids were going to get messed up in this, it wasn't her problem, and she wasn't going to let it become her problem.

It had taken Veheli more time to recover than it did Cuiaree. She didn't have either of the physical nor the mental strength to follow the other girl to wherever she was going. Veheli only slumped against the wall, gasping for breath with sweat running down the sides of her face.

The girl sighed and turned to walk back into her room. She went into the bathroom and stripped, turning on the shower. The water temperature was freezing cold as the Eneni stepped into it, but at least it woke her up. After a few minutes, she turned off the water and just stood there in the shower for a few minutes.

Stepping out of the shower, Veheli found that she did feel more awake, less dazed and confused. Out of all the hotels in the city, I ended up choosing the one that Cuiaree was in. Great. The girl shook her head and grabbed a towel, drying herself off. She wrapped the towel around herself and stepped out of the bathroom to get her backpack. She pulled some of her cleanest clothes out, wincing a little since they were still pretty dirty.

I really have to find out where to wash these, and also get more, Veheli sighed out loud, walking to the bathroom again to put the clothes into the sink. She turned on the water, and put the stopper in the bottom of the sink. Grabbing some of the hand soap, she did a quick wash right there, getting most of the dirt off of the garments in the water.

Veheli pulled the clothes out of the sink and laid them out before her on the sink, letting the water in the sink go down the drain. She felt better this way, somehow, washing her own clothes like she used to do before the war. The girl remembered a drying spell from back then and whispered it, watching the water swirl off the shirt and into the sink with a feeling of déjà vu. She did the same to the rest of what she was going to wear that day, smiling a bit to herself. The rest of the clothing she just let dry the normal way, hanging it up with the towels.

She walked out the door, still not sure exactly what she wanted to do today. After the shower, and with the clean clothes on, Veheli felt kind of refreshed, despite the fear and nervousness that she was still feeling. She still wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do.

Well, first, I'm going to get breakfast, Veheli told herself firmly. I'm not going to get that exhausted again, not if I want to be able to stop Cuiaree. Walking into the lobby, she saw that there was a café connected with the hotel. She walked into it, not quite sure what to do. The girl decided to do as she always did around here, where she didn't know what the custom was, and looked around to see what others were doing.

She saw a short line, and stepped behind it, waiting in back of some other people. Soon enough, after someone had led them away, another woman came to give Veheli a seat, and gave her a piece of paper with different meals printed on it.

Veheli looked over it, trying to pick out a meal that would give her some more energy and wake her up. Like many Eneni, she kept a diet without meat. It served to keep their minds in a certain frame for various spells to be easier. Finally picking out an appropriate meal, Veheli sat back and waited for someone to come and take her order, as the other people seemed to be doing. She stifled a yawn, running her hands through her wet hair. It would be useless to try and use her power to find Cuiaree until she had some sort of sustenance inside her body.

After her meal had finally come, Veheli could already tell that her mind was stronger, more alert, after the meal. She stood up and left, wiping the memory of herself from the memories of all the people there. Don't get in the habit of using people, a voice in her mind warned, and the girl had to admit that it was good advice for right then. She would have to be careful about that.

Walking back up to her room, Veheli tried to find Cuiaree's mind and tune in on it. After concentrating for a few moments, she noted that the other girl wasn't very near. So, she leaves the city to do whatever she's doing. Trying again, Veheli felt her old friend's mind, and tried to tune in. There was another presence near to her…how was the possible? Had another Eneni come to stop Cuiaree? Stop me would be more like it, the girl sighed out loud. Shaking her head, she tried to tune in again. All she could sense this time was a bunch of people about their age.

Age! That reminded Veheli; her birthday was only in a few days. I can almost guarantee that it won't be a very happy one, she made a face, then shrugged. At her door, she paused. What had she wanted to get? Was there anything or she just turn around again? Veheli knew that she needed more clothes, but she couldn't get those in her room, she'd have to go to stores to get them.

Shrugging, she turned back around and went over to the elevator. She pressed the button with the "down" arrow and stood back, waiting for the door to open.

With a "ding", it did. There was a woman with a little girl standing there, and Veheli smiled at the woman as she stepped into the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor.

"Hello," she said to the little girl, smiling.

"Hi," said the little girl, hiding a little behind her mother and burying her face in her mother's dress shyly. Veheli smiled, despite the fact that she knew that if this were back home the kid would annoy her. Little children didn't just come over to Veheli, they clung, and that could get rather irritating sometimes. There were times when she really liked little kids, but she always had to be able to give them back.

They got to the ground floor and Veheli left the elevator, no longer paying any attention to anybody else. Walking out of the hotel's door, the girl walked slowly down the stairs, looking around and turning right, not really quite sure of exactly where she was going. She was suddenly hit with guilt, a worry, for not going and doing something about Cuiaree.

You can't do anything if you're so tense and exhausted that you can barely think, she told herself firmly. As if to prove her own point, the girl suddenly swayed, her vision clouding over suddenly. She grabbed for the wall, and leaned against it for a few moments, the rough brick feeling harsh behind her sweatshirt. Veheli shivered, suddenly feeling the cold more acutely than she had before.

Her vision came back into focus, and Veheli stood back up again, slowly, still keeping one hand against the hard wall as she tried to stand on her own. Balancing a moment, she pulled her hand away from the wall, and took a few cautious steps. I didn't realize that I was that exhausted, Veheli groaned to herself, taking a few more careful steps. Once she was sure that she could walk normally, she got back onto her path. Today was going to be her rest period, so she'd better get as much out of it as she could, because starting tomorrow she'd have more work than she could handle.

With one last short hesitation, the girl turned and walked into an interesting-looking store.

********

Cuiaree left the school, feeling slightly exhausted. She'd used a lot of power today, in order to gain popularity among these Normals. The plan was working, she could see. Everything was working the way it was supposed to.

Except for one thing, she reminded herself. There was one hole, one place where the plan was unsure. That girl, the one who had been in those classes, Jessica was it? Something was odd about that girl, something that felt different from most other Normals. Plus, that picture… Cuiaree shook her head. She'd said that she drew it, but she didn't; now what could that mean?

Cuiaree focused her mind, looking back on the scene.

Blinking a moment, the girl took in the dialogue from the earlier conversation, trying to figure out what else the Normal could have meant. She drew it, but she didn't…draw it quickly? Could she have simply been trying to be modest, saying that it didn't look good, or was she quite literally saying that she hadn't drawn it just then, in those moments? Having drawn a picture of someone with power before they came, that was the trait of certain Eneni. But that was impossible, these were Normals here!

Shaking her head, Cuiaree looked up as the bus stopped. She climbed on, giving the man some quarters that she'd gotten from the cafeteria earlier, just in case she would be as tired at the end of the day as she was. Sitting down on the bus in utter exhaustion, the girl knew that she'd have to get a lot of sleep that night and not attempt anything else to further the plan until she was rested.

But tomorrow, I'm coming back, to work on it even more, she vowed. And I am going to find out what is so odd about this one little Normal. I feel some sort of power from her…but nothing is going to stop my plan.

Remembering the other Eneni girl who was back at the hotel, she sighed, almost regretfully, then straightened in my seat again. Nothing is going to stop my plan, she swore to herself again.