WOW! I UPDATED! *falls over from shock* I was sitting around today and I was like, "Oh! I'm gonna continue the Chosen!" Whatever.

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Groaning, I forced myself out of bed the next morning, rubbing my eyes and muttering to myself. It was Tuesday... dang.

After finishing all of the normal morning ritual habit things, I packed my back pack, and stepped out the front door.

"Ouch!"

Aidan had just been walking up the steps obviously to ring the doorbell and neither of us had been expecting the other to be there.

"Ha, ha, you look like crap!" I couldn't stop myself as I looked up at Aidan.

His face still had small scratches, and he had a black eye. Plus, his hair was all scraggly, and obviously uncombed.

He blinked at me, raising his eyebrows. "Me? What are you talking about? I NEVER look like crap!"

"Mua ha ha." I ignored him, and chortled to myself, forcing myself to believe that today would go better than yesterday- although I doubted it.

After last night.. I wasn't sure what to think about Aidan. Obviously, there was some sort of spell on him which forced him to protect me (despite whatever medical condition he was) if my blood was drawn. Also, he was really stupid when it came to fighting powerful creatures. He tried to go for the whole heroic thing, but really, shoes and teeth had worked A LOT better than his fancy LOTR sword. However, I couldn't help but feel grateful. I mean, even though I could do magic and stuff... I dunno, I had never really beaten an evil demon French sub thingy before.

"Karen, Karen!" Aidan stumbled after me, and then beamed when I looked at him. "Don't I look beautiful now?"

I raised an eyebrow. He had made the bruises and cuts disappear, and his hair looked gelled. I paused, debating. "Nope." I finally said, turning away, heading down the next street.

He laughed loudly. "Well, you're certainly in a better mood! Do you like me now?"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be stupid," I growled, walking faster. Perhaps I didn't forgive him.. But for what? I asked myself? All along, he had been doing it to protect me...

"KAREN!" I looked up as we joined the throng of people to see Jenny and Ted.

"Hi guys!" I called back, waving energetically.

"Well, look who's hyper!" Ted chuckled, grabbing one of my arms in one of hers. "And look who's cute and in love with you behind us!"

I glanced over my shoulder at Aidan, who pretended to be surprised and flashed me a dashing smile.

Ted giggled. "He lurves you, Karen!"

I glanced at Jenny for support. She merely chuckled, and said, "Ellen's sick, unfortunately, so Hilary wont have anyone to moan to. Kayla's in a SUPER good mood today!"

"Oh boy!" I rolled my eyes as we thumped up the stairs to my locker. "Dang. History today."

"And a quiz!" Hilary said, appearing out of no where.

"WHAT?!" Ted screamed, grabbing Hilary's sleeve. "You've got to be joking! I didn't know! I didn't study!"

"Don't you pay attention in class?" I wondered, tucking a lump of my hair behind my ears as I reached my locker.

"Of course I do!" Ted gasped, groaning miserably. "Hilary... you've ruined my day.."

I grinned, and opened up my locker. It felt good to back in school, in the scheme of normal, sort of boring things. My real life.. I continued to grin wryly, if only my friends knew what had happened to me last night! They probably wouldn't believe me if I told them anyway. Magic, strange demons, Elf guy saving my butt..

"Ah-ooh- Hey Aidan!" Ted yelled, waving and grabbing my arm in one hand.

"Hey yeah?" Aidan's voice asked from behind me, sounding disgustingly normal and witty- unlike his normal childish self.

"What class do you have first?" Ted wondered, pulling my arm, making me turn around.

Aidan glanced at me and grinned at the two of us. "Lemme check," he said, pulling a folded piece of paper out of his back pockets. "Hmm.. American History with Wallace."

"No kidding! You're in Karen's and my class then!" Ted said, overly excited. "Isn't that great, Karen?!"

I looked at Aidan. I looked at my three friends, all who were grinning nastily.

"I'm thrilled," I said, closing my locker loudly and turning away, heading for my classroom.

"Oh, ignore Karen! She really likes you, you know!" Ted said loudly.

"WHAT?!" I did the quickest 180 ever seen in history and stomped back to where my friends and Aidan were standing, furious and bright red.

"Aw, it's alright, Karen O'Ralley," Aidan shamelessly threw an arm around my shoulder and proceeded to walk me down the hall, my friends (all who were snickering nastily) following us. "I'm so easy to love, you see."

I stepped out of his arm and glared at him. "Eh.. Right."

I sort of ran to History, and slumped into my seat, fuming. How could Ted do that?! Now he'd seriously think that I liked him- which I didn't really think that I did.

"Hey Karen!"

I turned around in my desk to see Kayla, who sat behind me.

"Hi," I said, miserably trying to sound happy.

Kayla could tell that I had been teased, and possibly insulted. A nasty grin spread across her face. "What's up?"

Just then, the door opened, and Aidan, followed by Ted, Hilary, and Jenny all trooped in. I looked at Kayla. "Long story."

Aidan, annoyingly, took the seat on my right at flashed me one of his smiles.

Kayla chortled, and I buried my face into my arms. Scratch all that happiness about today being better, I thought, moaning silently..

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Karen didn't seem pleased as we sat through her History class, and she avoided eye contact with me at all possible moments. I'm sure she was furious at her friends for teasing her- they seemed to think that she loved me- and I mildly felt guilty for only enforcing their teasing.

Note the mildly. History was fun- not as fun as science of course- but I was amazed at how short the history of Karen's country was. compared to the Fair Folk's history.

So, I sat there, entranced for an hour and a half, until the teacher dismissed the class, and I leaned over to Karen as she was packing up her books. "What class do you have next?" I asked curiously, pretending as if I didn't know that it was the same as mine.

Karen glanced at me, and replied snappishly, "Gym."

Gym. what was GYM?!... "Um. what's-"

She interrupted me, almost as if she knew that I was going to say something wrong. "What's after that? Lunch."

"Alright. I'm in Jim too," I added.

"No way!" One of Karen's friends shrieked, leaning over Karen's shoulders. "That's means that you're practically in ALL of Karen's classes! How weird is that?!"

"Heh! Pretty weird!" I agreed, grinning at Karen, pretending to ignore two of her friends, who were nudging her.

"Ouch," Karen said, frowning at her nearest friend. "That hurts! Well."

We all paused, waiting for to see what she was going to do next. I could just imagine her face going blank, and her turning away from me coldly, and I could only imagine what her friends were waiting for her to do.

"Well." She sighed, and held up her hands. "I'm going to be late for Gym."

I watched her go, and then turned to the one friend who hadn't followed her out. um. Jenny or something. "Sooo. exactly where's my Jim class?"

"Gym?" She wondered, picking up her books.

"Yup." I grinned brightly.

"Hmm- go down the stairs and its next to room 124. You'll have to talk to Mr. Bryan, he's the gym teacher, about getting a uniform." She shrugged, and began walking to the door.

I followed. Uniform? What, was it some sort of military thing.?

"Oh-" Jenny paused, almost causing me to bump into her. "Don't be nice to Karen."

"Huh? Nice?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Nice. Don't you dare let her get a crush on you!" She said, almost warningly.

I thought about this. Apparently 'crushes' was the human way of saying 'falling in love'. Karen- falling in love with me? Um- no. That'd be a little too weird. But, I grinned anyway, pretending to be hurt. "Why? Am I not good enough for her?" I wondered, laughing.

Jenny didn't say anything for a few seconds. "No. You aren't really."

WHOA! Major burnage! I stood where I was for a few seconds, until the boy behind me snapped, "Move it, Smith!"

"Eh- sorry." I moved out of the way, and slowly began walking towards my desired destination. Now. what had Jenny been talking about? Not good enough for Karen.. Hmm. I grinned, and stomped down the stairs, resisting my temptation to slide down them.

"Aidan! Aidan!" Someone screamed behind me as I reached the first level.

I turned, eyebrows raised, to find two girls that I had met yesterday running down the stairs. They instantly attached themselves to my arms.

"So, Aidan Smith! What class do you have next?" The one on my right asked brightly.

"What class? What class, Aidan?" The one on the left asked cheerfully, swinging around my arm, grinning at me.

I stared at them, a bit horrified. I sensed magic but.

"Aidan! Well, what class do you have?" One of them asked, flicking her long hair over her shoulder and out of her face as she stared avidly at me.

"Um. Jim -no- Gym," I said, correcting myself. "I have to get a uniform, you see."

"Ooh ahh! A uniform! I bet you'll look DARLING in one of those!" One of the girls shrieked happily.

"Absolutely butt ugly sexy!" The other gasped, clinging tighter to my arm.

"Ahh- so handsome! Don't I wish I was in your class! Most boys look terrible in those, Aidan-elf, but I'll bet that you'll be-" One said, staring at me with large black eyes,

"-butt ugly sexy," the other finished and I slowly turned my head, confused as I looked into her large eyes. Wait. something wasn't right.

"Aidan darling, tell us about yourself," one gushed, stopping me.

Together, they pinned me against the wall, clutching onto my arms, staring at me with those huge eyes.. A nice feeling came over me, one that I hadn't felt in a while. It was a dreamy sort of pleased emotion, almost as if I was eating the most delicious things in the world. I reached for more food, but she held it away. "Karen- can I have another one?" I asked, grinning at her, trying to make her see that I wanted to keep this happy feeling forever.

There were voices above me.. I think... talking about something... someone.. some girl or something..

"-So tell me, Jeraf, how can we stop you from protecting her?" A voice asked.

Another voices responded, "Just don't draw blood. I'm only forced to when blood is drawn." Wait- was that MY voice?

I thought about it as another question was asked, far, far above me, and as the question was answered. Nah, my voice was here, in my mind. Here with the good food.

"Can she defend herself on her own?" Another voice asked sweetly, and I felt another wave of that great, almost sleepy feeling wash over me.

"Ha! No way! She's scared to use magic. she won't use it unless she thinks of nothing else to use," the answering voice responded with a laugh.

Wait- I knew that laugh. That was MY laugh.

I struggled, but nothing happened. I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. They had a spell on me. CRAP!

"Now, are you going to obey us, jeraf?" One of those voices asked silkily.

"Of course...not." I finally managed to have a say in what was going on. Abruptly, I was back in my body, pinned against the wall, the two girls standing over me, not really looking like normal high school girls.

Elves.

"Why thank you, honey!" One said, bending down and pulling me to my feet. "You were exceedingly helpful!"

"I was lying," I commented, just for the sake of it.

The two elves laughed their merry little laughs, and pulled me along. "Don't be silly, Aidan! You couldn't possibly have lied under that spell!"

"Now," the other said cheerfully, "aren't you going to be late for 'Jim'?" She said, mimicking my voice and laughing loudly.

They walked away, leaving me alone in the halls.

"AIDAN!"

I swiveled around, not really wanting to see who was ready to attack me next.

It was Karen.

"Aidan!" She hissed, panting and gasping for breath. "God, what's your problem?! Mr. Bryan sent out looking for you.. Well, I persuaded him to let me look for you..."

"I got lost," I said, grinning apologetically.

Karen straightened up. "Oh shut up," she said, grabbing my wrist and hurrying down the hall. "What REALLY happened?"

I didn't have the heart to tell her that two exiled elves had just forced me to tell them how to get to Karen. "I was told that I would look butt ugly sexy in my Gym Uniform."

Karen stomped down the hall, silent for a few seconds. "I think that's about the most disgusting thing I've heard all day," she said, glancing up at me and grinning a bit.

I laughed, and ruffled her hair, which made her snarl in annoyance. "See? Don't you feel better now?" I asked, smiling. "Hey. what IS gym?"

Karen rolled her eyes, but told me anyway.