"Welcome to Emerald!"

It was everywhere, from the greetings from Maria's new co-workers who helped us move in to the envelopes that contained information about the middle school. Not that we needed it- our schedules were already set- but Maria still made it into a big deal. "Nice, warm, welcoming" and all that crap.

We all sat inside Maria's crappy old car, I in the passenger seat and Artemis in the back. The radio was tuned to some rap channel and unfortunately my iPod was forgotten, lost in the bottom of Art's backpack.

"The office is right inside- you can't miss it. Dead straight ahead." Maria was describing our future path of travel. "Your schedules are all fixed up, so don't worry."

"Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes and leaned back against the headrest; Artemis mimicked the actions, minus the speech. She was the perfect mime: all she needed was the creepy make-up and the invisible box to hide in.

"Now go, guys. I gotta get off to work." Maria re-tied a ponytail in her hair and re-started the car, making the rap music go mute. Finally.

Artemis cracked the car door open and waited for me to do the same. We stepped out in unison and onto the sidewalk, watching Maria roll the window down. "Good luck!" She called with a wave, and sped away.

Not many kids were here at seven fifteen- school didn't start for an hour, so why bother? The ones that were here gathered in little groups, standing close in brand-new jeans and nice clean new t-shirts. Artemis took one look at them and turned away, focused on the task ahead.

We opened the doors and were blinded by red and black.

Posters and the like coated everything in sight, promoting everything from clubs to sports and even the lockers were painted bright red. Apparently this school had spirit.

Great.

Artemis touched my shoulder and pointed above our heads; sure enough there was a red-and-black "office" sign, just like Maria had said. I glanced back at Artemis- who treated me to the same old creepy stare- and opened the door.

Here went nothing.