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CHAPTER 1:
Welcome to America
+Onthaal aan Amerika+
The sound of heavy feet making their way down the stairs filled the home of the Van der Berg-Kochs, and in the kitchen two adults sat preparing breakfast and coffee. A slender woman with strawberry blonde hair worked the stove, and a lean male sat sipping coffee from a mug at the new kitchen table.
“Goede ochtend!” The woman called out, not even bothering to look back at her approaching children, in a rush for their first day of school in America. Her fifteen year old daughter with the dark hair of her father came to her and kissed her cheek, muttering a hasty ‘goede ochtend, moeder’ before rushing to the polished counter and grabbing the piece of toast set out for her.
“Broer!” The girl managed around the piece of bread, grabbing a thermos filled with hot, steaming coffee. “Hurry up and get your breakfast, we have to go!” Her accent was not nearly as thick as her mother’s was, but it would still be noticeable among the American students they would soon be associating themselves with.
“Ja, ja,” her brother replied, crossing the length of the kitchen and grabbing the last piece of toast.
“Claus, don’t forget your medication,” his father rang out, shaking a bottle of prescription pills in an orange container. “Alyd,” his daughter whipped her head around to look at him even as she tugged on her shoes, “remember, you have to take him to the middle school.”
“I know, Papa.”
“And take him to the office and hand them the papers I gave you yesterday morning. They will need those if your brother needs to take his medicine during school.”
“I know, Papa.” She rolled her eyes at him and he smiled softly.
“Good, I was just reminding you.” He stood up and handed her two ten dollar bills. “The middle school and high school are connected, so give the other one to your brother before lunchtime.”
“I know.” She said again, grabbing her coat. Her brother stood eating his toast and drinking hot chocolate. “Claus, get ready!” She shouted at him, glaring with her impatience. “We gotta get this stuff to the office.”
He mumbled a few choice words under his breath and grabbed his boots, holding the jellied toast between his teeth while he put them on. “I don’t see why you guys can’t just drive us to school like normal parents! And what about a bus, anyway?” he mumbled, finishing off his breakfast with a groan.
“Buses don’t come to houses that are twenty minutes from school, and mom and dad don’t have their licenses registered in this country yet. Now get your freaking coat on and let’s go.” The thirteen year old mumbled a protest but walked over to the closet and pulled on his flannel jacket. “Come on,” she drawled, putting a hand on his back and pushing him out the door. “Tot ziens mamma, tot ziens papa!”
The boy echoed her words and the door closed behind them.
Janneke Van der Berg walked slowly to the bay window, watching her kids hop their way through the snow and onto the sidewalk by the road. Elias Koch came from behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “It will be fine, Janneke. You have nothing to worry about. This is America. They will be fine. Ben nog met uw hart."
“Oh, Elias. I’m just so worried about them. This is the first time they have had to move since they were born, and we are in America now, so far away from what they are used to.”
“They will be fine, Janneke. They are teenagers, they can adjust quickly.”
“I pray you are right.”
Elias nodded against her shoulder and stood with her, watching the snow fall outside.
c:.x.x.x.x.:c
There was no dress code in American schools. It was a new experience for the both of them, having to spend extra time each morning to pick out an outfit. Claus was not used to such things. His mom usually always had his uniform pressed and waiting on the foot of his bed for him to change into in the mornings - that was why it had taken him so long to get ready that morning. Everything here was different than it had been in Holland.
His sister was nearly a foot taller than him at five-six. He was just barely four-ten, and sensitive about his height. He looked up at her warily. She was just as riddled as he was about this place, but he knew she would not admit it. She was stubborn and didn’t like being wrong, so she always pretended. Especially times like now. Whenever something was wrong, she would be quiet but would act like she was just perfect, giving him fake smiles and laughs and sometimes being meaner than usual. He learned it years ago when he was littler, how to tell if something was wrong with her or not. She was bothered, but she was pretending to make him feel better.
The fact that she was nervous only made him more and more afraid of what was to come. “Excuse me, miss,” his sister called out to the woman at the counter. “My brother’s new here, and I’m supposed to give you this paperwork about his medication.”
“Oh?” The woman smiled kindly at them and took the envelope. “Thank you. And the medication would be for what?”
“ADHD.” His sister filled in. “Claus, here,” she held out her hand and he placed the orange bottle in it. “Here you go.”
“Thank you very much. You’re a responsible girl. You aren’t enrolling in middle school too, are you?” The woman chuckled.
“No, no, I’m actually going to be in the other buidling.”
“Ah, high school. I thought so. Grade?”
“Uh...ten.”
“Hm, a sophomore. And what grade is your brother in, may I ask?”
“He’s in eighth.”
“I see. Well, that’s all we’ll need from you,” the woman said, smiling and placing the papers back into the envelope, “You can go on to your classes now.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Claus’s older sister lead him back out into the lobby and kneeled like a mother seeing her baby off to preschool. She straightened his coat and mussed his hair and did other unnecessary things that made him feel like he was ten years younger than he really was. “Zuster,” he started, brushing her off, “I’m fine. Go to your classes. I’ll be okay.”
“Alright,” she said, smiling. She gave him the ten dollar bill from earlier. “Don’t lose it or I’ll kill you.”
“Yes, mamma.”
She grinned and laughed and waved a goodbye. He tried to smile back but now that he was alone he felt miserable in America. Wasn’t America supposed to be the best place to live?
He looked at the students his age and younger, bustling around lockers and horsing around. It surely didn’t look like it was the best place to live. He missed his home already.
c:.x.x.x.x.:c
Her breath crystallized before her as she crossed the darkened street. It was all but completely deserted save for a man who had already jogged far, far away from her. It was another fifteen minutes to get to Walmart, where her mother had insisted her go to buy some bread instead of the corner store only five minutes from their house. She didn’t like being out in the dark. It gave her a sense of foreboding she couldn’t explain.
She warded off the wariness by turning her headphones on full blast, filling her ears with the tunes of a popular Netherlands band singing in her native language of Dutch, but even that couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something there with her. America was a dangerous place. Americans weren’t nice. She could be raped and killed and no one would ever find out about it. She could be kidnapped and held for ransom. She swallowed and turned the corner.
This street was even emptier than the previous. The houses were spaced far, far apart and had large, unkempt yards still covered by snow from a storm she supposed had happened before they arrived here. The sidewalk was left untouched and even her winter boots slipped on the ice underneath the freshly fallen snow that had come down earlier that afternoon in a light shower.
She brought her hands up to her mouth and breathed into them, hoping to make them even a bit warmer than they had been in her pockets. It had never been so cold in the Netherlands - mostly it just rained all the time over there. The winters got cold, yes, and sometimes they got snow, but it was never to this extent.
She could even swear she saw something moving in the bushes to her right. She didn’t look to find out. It would only make her more paranoid. She had a habit of overreacting to things. “It’s the wind,” she told herself.
Something ripped out of the bushes and tackled her to the ground. She hit her head on the rock solid concrete of the sidewalk and she could feel whatever it was rip into the flesh of her neck right before her eyes rolled back and she passed out.
“So you’re awake.” Her head whipped around to try and face the voice. She tried to ask a question but realized that she was also gagged. The voice was a male’s and sounded a bit too kindly for her liking. She didn’t even know the guy and he was acting like he could have been her brother! Broer...
“I’m sorry I had to blind you. And gag you. But it’s important that you don’t see us.” She wanted to ask, Us? What do you mean by ‘us’? There’s more than one of you? “I can’t risk it. We can’t risk it.”
A woman’s voice spoke up, very close to her ear. “You are in a cage.” The woman told her. “Unfortunately we cannot let you go. Not like this.” There was a pause and a hand wrapped around the back of her neck. She protested through the gag in fear. It fell to her lap. “You may ask us anything you wish.”
“Wie zijn u? Wat u aan me hebt gedaan? Waar zijn mijn ouders? Mijn broer?!”
The man from before spoke up with a laugh, “You might wanna try English this time, kid.”
“Who are you?” She asked seriously.
“My name is Austin, and the woman right beside you is Jade. There is also three other people here. Jacob, Henry, and Lena.”
“What have you done to me?”
“We’ve done nothing. Well. Aside from the obvious.”
“Where are my parents? My brother?”
“I assume they’re in their house, worried sick about you.”
She blinked behind the blindfold and her head tilted to the side. “You mean you haven’t touched them?”
“Of course not, we had no reason to, sweetie.” The woman at her side piped in. “We only took you here because we have to let you in on a big secret.”
“Secret...?” She repeated. Their warm voices were misleading, they had to be.
“Yes. You see - I’m sure you don’t remember a bit of it, but - three nights ago, one of our pack happened to escape and...and you were attacked. On accident of course - we would never do something like that on purpose - but it happened. We had been tracking him since the moment he left these quarters, and when we found you, he was still feeding. I’m sure you’re starting to feel the aftereffects of it now. A pain in your shoulder, perhaps?”
She didn’t nod, but recognized that he was correct. It’d been bothering her for a while now - it had actually been what had woken her up. Her shoulder was stiff and ached, the skin felt like it was being pulled too tight.
“Considering the look on your face, I’d say you have. Anyway, the thing that bit you was, like I said, of our pack. It was Jacob if you must know.” She heard a soft apology that should have been too far away for her to hear. “We have to keep you here through your first night. Then once you learn, you can go home. You must, however, keep in contact with us. A pack stays together.”
“Pack? What’s this ‘pack’ thing all about?”
“Young girl,” Austin prodded, “have you ever heard of werewolves?”
“Weerwolf.” She said, frowning. “Transform at full moon. Transfer it by biting. What about it?”
“That’s what we’re a pack of. A pack of werewolves.” She was quiet. How could he possibly expect her to believe him? “Listen, I know it doesn’t sound too plausible. But consider it for a moment. You’ve been asleep for three days adjusting to the changes in your body. Your eyes have been wrapped not only to prevent you from seeing us, but also to prevent you from blinding yourself with your new eyesight. Feel your teeth with your tongue. They’re sharp, aren’t they? Sharper than usual. They’re called fangs.” Sure enough, her canines were sharp enough that she felt a sharp sting in her tongue just from touching them. “They’re baby teeth, so don’t bother trying to eat any meat, it’ll hurt like a bitch.”
She nodded numbly. “You might get a bunch of weird cravings you’ve never had before. Mainly raw meat and possibly, well, a lot of lust, both for blood and for the regular ‘thing’ it’s associated with, you know. Also, every full moon be prepared.”
“You’re...you’re serious, aren’t you?” She asked, rolling her head back to hit the wall with a thud.
“Serious as a heart attack.” Austin countered. “Every full moon I want you to come here. We’ll keep you safe for the night. Do not tell anyone about us, or this. You are sworn to secrecy. You must swear on your honor that you will not speak of this to anyone outside of our pack. Do it.”
“I...I swear.” She said, simply out of the fear that they would bring harm to her.
“Good.” Austin chuckled. “You can never break that promise now. Wolves can never break a promise or lie. They are loyal creatures by creation. You realize this, don’t you?”
She cursed inwardly. A trap. But that couldn’t possibly be true, right? “Are you saying...that I’m really...I’m really a werewolf?”
“Yes.” Austin paused. “Since you’ve sworn your secrecy, then you may have your blindfold removed. Jacob, dim the lights, would you?”
“Here,” the woman beside her said. Jade reached behind her head and untied the strip of cloth that blinded her. Slowly it fell to her lap in much the same way that the gag had when it had been removed.
Aaltje opened her eyes slowly and winced even with the little light that illuminated the room. It was barely brighter than the light you might see an oven feature, but she had to squint her eyes for an excruciating half a minute before they finally adjusted enough to the light source and she could open them further.
“It must hurt,” Jade said. She turned to look at the woman beside her and finally could associate a face with the voice. Jade’s face was just as warm and inviting as her voice had sounded right next to her. Her eyes were an unusual shade of green and her skin beautifully tanned. Her hair was kept short and dyed a platinum blonde - she could even smell the leftover chemicals. She sneezed, and wondered why she hadn’t smelled it before.
As if he could read her mind, Austin spoke again, “A lot of your sense will start coming back to you now that your blindfold has been removed. I’m sure that you noticed that - that sneeze was a signal that your nose isn’t used to smelling things so strongly.” She sneezed again and her body rocked with the movement. Jade’s musical laughter filled her ears. When she finally looked up again, she could see the bars of her cage closing her in, and the figures of four people on the outside. Closest to them was a man wearing a strange outfit that looked like it could have come from centuries ago, with blonde hair like Jade’s, and the same electric green eyes. “It’s nice to meet you,” the man said - and she realized that this blonde man was Austin. He could have been Jade’s twin brother.
She blinked and acknowledged that they were waiting for her to introduce herself. “Aaltje.” She told them softly. “My name is Aaltje.” Her eyes wandered to the left of Austin, where a group of three sat clustered around a table. Two boys and a girl. One of the boys was sitting on the table, dressed in the same kind of garb that Austin wore. He smiled apologetically at her. His left cheek was marked with a red slash, but it looked more like face paint than a scar or a scratch. His hair was a dirty blonde and his eyes baby blue. The boy beside him, sitting in a chair to his right, was a little older, more mature it seemed like, and had longer, darker hair that was unkempt yet looked to be well taken care of at the same time. His eyes were dark brown and his skin tan. The girl resembled the previous boy in a way, and looked remarkably like Jade at the same time. Her eyes were the same green as Austin and Jade, and her smile was almost enough to make her smile in return, so warm and welcoming.
“Aaltje?” Austin repeated, looking surprised. “That’s hard to pronounce for me.” It was true. He had mistakenly pronounced it like only an American could - like her teachers had when they had been calling roll.
“You can call me Alyd,” she offered, frowning all the while. Her chest constricted with the words and her eyes squinted to keep the tears from falling. Only my family ever called me that.
“Alright, Alyd.” He smiled with his words. He reminded her of her father, only much younger. “Everyone, if you would be so kind.”
The boy that had smiled at her jumped off the table and bowed. “I’m Jacob. Sorry about...well, you know.” He smiled sheepishly again, in that same apologetic way as he had before, and went back to his seat on the table.
The boy beside him stood and bowed as well. Why were they bowing? “That would make me Henry. It’s nice to meet you.” He stood and bowed his head with respect in a formal nod, then resumed his seat as well.
Finally the girl stood, curtsied, and introduced herself. “I am Lena.” She said simply. She smiled again and sat down.
Austin smiled at them as they finished their introductions. “As you very well know, I am Austin, and that is Jade. There is another,” he said, his smile beset with sadness now rather than the previous warmth it had held, “but she is not here with us tonight.”
“Where is she?” She asked without thinking.
“She is away,” Jade said beside her. “She went to visit a brother pack.”
“Oh.” Her voice was nothing but a whisper.
Austin’s smile brightened yet again. “But you will meet her tomorrow, so don’t fret!” The other three outside of the cage nodded just as enthusiastically. “We have to go to our own sleeping quarters,” at this Jade stood and walked to the cage door. Henry produced a set of keys and released her, but hastily locked the door behind her, as if she could possibly escape being bound the way she was. “But we will be back tomorrow, with food, and with our last pack member. She is a very nice person. I think you’ll like her.”
Jade smiled at her from outside her cage. “Yes, I think you two will get along pretty well. The two of you are around the same age...human-wise, anyway.”
She tilted her head to the side with curiosity, but did not say another word.
“Good night, Alyd!” The five called out to her as they left through a fairly heavy steel door. When it shut behind them, she could hear the click of the lock even from so far away, and the hum of their voices outside of it. She sighed softly and gazed at the ceiling. Why couldn’t they have at least let her out of this whatever-it-was she was wearing?
c:.x.x.x.x.:c
The light of the new day came streaming in through the window of the room they had put her in, and her eyes being so sensitive to light, it woke her immediately, not even seconds after first light. “Ugh,” she muttered, opening her eyes and wishing strongly to be able to stretch or eat or have coffee like she usually would this early in the morning.
“You’re awake,” Austin observed from his post outside. “Good morning.”
“Goede ochtend.” She murmured under her breath, still drowsy and begging release from her cramped position on the floor.
He smiled at her as if he felt her pain. “Don’t worry.” He took the keys from a nearby shelf and walked to the cage door. “I’ll get you out of there in a few minutes, be patient.” He opened the door and came to her side, already working on relieving her of her restricting clothes. “This is called a restraining suit.” He told her, “We invented it to restrain a new pack member when they’re going through their adjusting stage.” Her arms were free. She sighed in pleasure. “It helps relieve the pain somehow if you aren’t free to move. You don’t have to focus on moving, so you don’t focus on what your joints and bones are going through.” Her legs were free.
He stood and helped her too her feet. She stumbled slightly but regained her footing quickly. “You’ll be a little wobbly on your feet for a while. I mean, you were sitting in the same position for four days.” She stretched like a cat and yawned tiredly. Her teeth ached.
“My teeth hurt.” She said plainly.
“That’s to be expected.” He unlocked the door, not bothering to inform her of the fact that she was basically walking around in just a very large heavy duty shirt with a hood. “Come on, she’s here.”
“She?”
“The girl we told you about yesterday. The girl that wasn’t there.”
“Oh.” She sighed and yawned again. She had the urge to stretch while she did it but resisted. She was not a dog. She was not a wolf. She was still human.
“Oh!” He jumped, startled, and shut the door before she could walk out. “I almost forgot.” He grabbed a pair of shorts from the same shelf the keys had been on. “You need to put these on.” She stared at them for a few long moments before sighing softly and pulling them on. “Good. Now you’re ready.” He opened the door again and led her out into the other room.
It was larger, much larger than the one she had previously been in, and almost left her disoriented. The room was like a recreation room, with a large pool table off to the left, and in the very middle, an entertainment center complete with a fairly big television and a comfortable looking couch. There was a kitchen just off to the right as well, and she could smell something cooking. She salivated at the mere thought of eating something, meat or not.
As they entered, the two boys from before sat up on their knees from their positions on the couch to look back at her. Lena was sitting on the pool table waiting for the food to get done, and at the kitchen table just yards away sat another girl she had never seen. She supposed that Jade was the one cooking.
“Morning, everyone,” Austin called out cheerily, breaking the awkward silence that had befallen them. “This is our newest addition to the family,” she winced at the word, “Alyd.” She knew that he was only introducing her for the sake of the one who had been missing the previous night, as she had already met the others.
“Good morning, Alyd,” they chorused with identical smiles on their faces. Even Jade peered out of the kitchen to smile at her. She smiled back, albeit a bit nervously.
“Good morning,” she mumbled under her breath. Their smiles only widened. They could hear her every whisper.
Austin turned and faced the girl at the dining room table, “This would be the girl you had the misfortune to miss yesterday night, Alyd. Her name is Chessa. She’s from Siberia.” He smiled kindly. Chessa looked up and smiled at her just the same. Aaltje could only nod in recognition and attempt a smile herself that faded when she realized just how hungry she really was.
She groaned and closed her eyes. “Hongerig...” She crouched on the floor and held her aching stomach.
Chessa laughed. “Even I can guess what that meant. Jade, is the food ready yet?”
“Almost!” Came the call from the kitchen, “Just give me a few minutes, okay?”
“M-hm,” Chessa hummed, getting up from her chair and walking over to her. “Hey,” the girl said kindly, touching her face with a caress that could resemble her mother’s own, “Jade says only a few minutes. Then you can eat. That good for you?”
Aaltje nodded numbly and looked up at the other girl through her bangs. Chessa was strikingly beautiful, with long dark hair dashed with highlights of golden blonde. However odd it may have seemed on anyone else, it looked natural on Chessa’s flowing locks. Chessa was thin and slender, and her eyes the color of dusk, a mix of colors that made them seem violet in hue. “Ja,” she said, before realizing that she had spoken in Dutch once again. “Yes, I mean.”
Chessa only laughed at her. Her laugh was even more beautiful than Jade’s had been. “It’s fine,” she said, “I was the same way when I first came from Siberia. I'd always slip into Russian whenever I spoke,” she smiled softly, “but I don't do that anymore.”
“You don’t sound Russian.” Aaltje commented.
“No?” She laughed. “I’ve been in America for a long time. I was only seven when I moved here with my father.”
She frowned. They have parents too. “Where’s your father now?”
Chessa smiled sadly. “He isn’t with us today, unfortunately.”
“Was he...?” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the question.
“Was he apart of the pack?” Chessa finished for her. “Yes. He was. He's the one who invented this outfit you’re wearing.” Aaltje looked down at the white shirt instinctively, “And the one who helped us create a routine for inviting our new additions.”
She blushed. “I don’t - “
“Don’t be shy about it.” Chessa warned, looking serious.
She blinked and tilted her head just slightly, but wasn’t able to say anything before Jade came out of the kitchen bearing their breakfast. Her thoughts were forgotten at the sight of her meal. It wasn’t until after she had eaten that she noticed that there were actual assigned seats to this eating thing. Austin and Chessa were sitting at the far ends of the table. Jade on was on the right side of Austin and Henry on the left, then Jacob on the right side of Chessa and Lena on the right. She sat on the floor to eat her food, as there were only six seats to eat at for the moment.
“I promise we’ll get you a chair soon, Alyd.” Austin said between mouthfuls, “We don’t want to seem like bad hosts, now do we?” Jade and Chessa smiled at the remark, and the boys all shared a laugh. Lena seemed too busy with her food to care.
Even after they had eaten the pack stayed in their seats save for Jade, who had cooked the meal. She stood after she was finished and went around collecting the plates of those who were finished. They all muttered a thanks for her services as she went to clean her mess. Everything seemed so orderly here opposed to back at home.
As soon as her thoughts returned to her home she lost her appetite. She felt bad that she couldn’t finish her food - Jade had made her a special dish so that she wouldn’t have to use her new teeth to the point where they began to hurt. There was still a bit of rare meat on her plate, cut into manageable bite-size pieces, but she could only pick at it now that she was so homesick.
Jacob noticed faster than the others had, and came to sit by her. “Homesick, huh?” He asked, as if he could see into her thoughts. She glanced up, but did not respond and went back to picking at the rest of her food. He smiled softly. “I know how you feel.” He looked up at the ceiling as if trying to recall a lost memory. “I don’t see my family much anymore, now that I have everyone here. They were nice enough...but they couldn’t compare to what I have with me here. I know it may be different for you, because you look like you miss them a lot - I didn’t miss them so much, really, I was glad to be away from them at first - but you’ll get to see your family soon. It’s been four days now, and they’re probably really worried about you. They’ll be happy to see you.”
She sighed heavily and placed her plate on the floor. “Do they know?”
“Who?” He blinked.
“Do your parents know?”
“About what?”
“About this,” she said, gesturing to it all. “Do they know about this?”
He shook his head. “You’re sworn to secrecy, remember? That means you can’t even tell your closest friends and family, no matter what. I wish I could have. Maybe then they would have understood what I was going through...but do you really think they would believe you anyway?”
She blinked, “I wasn’t talking about me...”
“No, but you were thinking it.” Jacob tapped his temple with a grin.
“Are you guys telepathic?” She said, finally catching on.
Chessa laughed. “No, no, not telepathic. Just in tune with everyone’s feelings.” At her blank look, Chessa continued. “You know how they say dogs can sense fear?” She nodded. “We can sense more than that. Emotions, feelings. That sort of thing. You get better with as the years go along.”
“You can sense everyone’s emotions then?”
“No, only those in our pack, and vaguely those of sister packs.”
“I see.” She said, unable to think of anything else to say.
Jade returned from the kitchen and laughed at the sight of her plate. “Well, would you look at that! A wolf that won’t eat meat!” A chorus of laughter filled the room and her face felt like it was on fire. Jade grinned to lessen her worries and picked up the plate, “Don’t worry about it,” the blonde winked at her, “your appetite will come back in a few hours.”
“A few hours?” She said, blinking. “I won’t be hungry for at least another six.” Her eating habits had always been well marked ever since she had gotten on a diet for her korfball team back in the Netherlands.
Austin laughed. “Another change you’ll have to get used to, Alyd. We all have very, very high metabolism. It only takes an hour to digest something in our systems. For all we know, one of us could be cooking our next meal in less than two hours!”
Lena leaned back in her chair and looked back at her. “I bet your stomach’s gonna be growling in half an hour.”
Aaltje hunched her shoulders and let out an involuntary whine, wanting to tell them to stop making fun of her. She brought her knees to her chest and set her head on them. “Voor een familie bent u niet zo aardig.”
“What?” Jacob asked, blinking.
She smiled despite herself. “I guess that your telepathy doesn’t transcend languages.”
I apologize to anyone of Dutch descent who speak this language, but I wanted the girl from the story to be from the Netherlands, and I thought that a girl first moving to America would probably slip into her native language unconsciously every now and then. Most of these sayings I got from Babelfish/Altavista, so if some of the dialogue happens to be said/structured wrong, then please take the time to inform me in a review and I promise I’ll fix it accordingly (provided you supply me with the correction, of course).
To everyone else who bothered ready this rather long first chapter, thank you for your time, and remember, please read and review. It makes me feel loved and encourages me to write more. Thank you once again.