Hedgesville, West Virginia
Byrant Residence
Sunday, August 11, 1996
10:45 AM

Another headache swamped her head as Jennie opened her eyes to find two strange faces peering over her. With her breath caught in the back of her throat along with a scream, she sat upright and clutched a hand to her chest.

“What’s going on?” she choked out, looking to the persons who had been hovering over her. She noted one was Rem, but the other was someone she hadn’t seen before. Most likely the one Rem spoke of earlier.

“About damn time you woke up,” Rem growled.

Jennie shook his brashness off his brashness as she looked around her. She had been placed on a couch that sat in a large living room. Her eyes focused on the stranger as he gazed down at her with a composed face.

“Are you feeling okay?” the boy asked as he leaned down slightly to look her in the face.

Again she found herself looking at a person with the odd pigment disorder. With light-blue hair and violet eyes he seemed just as strange as the Caspian family. She noted he wore a slim pair of glasses and had his hair pulled back into a short ponytail.

“Who are you?” she asked abruptly without thinking.

“Janiston Byrant,” he said as he straightened himself and smiled, “you met my dad yesterday.”

“I did?” Jennie questioned as she looked away with bewilderment.

“He was one of the officers you met yesterday,” Janiston said as Jennie’s facial expression changed to a look of acknowledgement, “I’ll take that as you remember.”

“Yeah,” she whispered, but turned her attention to Rem, “but what happened...?”

“You collapsed on the road,” Rem muttered, “so I had to drag your fucking ass here.”

No words came to mind as she stared at Rem with solemn eyes. She looked to her lap as she pressed her hands tightly against the top of her thighs.

"Sorry," she finally stated, "I don't do too well with the heat."

"Thanks for telling me now!" Rem shouted, whipping a hand out.

Janiston caught Rem's hand in midair and gave him a stern look. "No need to get physical with her."

"Fuck off!" Rem shouted, shaking loose his hand.

Watching the two argue, Jennie sat on the couch as her eyes burned and her head ached. She pressed a hand to her forehead as the pain worsened. "Do any of you have any aspirin?" she asked.

"Headache?" Janiston asked, ignoring Rem suddenly, "if you get heat exhaustion often, you ought to drink more water and stay out of the sun."

"I know," Jennie whispered as a smile appeared on her lips, "my mother always tells me that." At her own words her smile faded as she looked away with a frustrated look on her face.

Drawing back, Janiston only stared at her with a troubled look. "I'll be right back," he whispered, walking out of the room.

"There you go," Rem muttered, "making my friends depressed!"

“Shut up,” she mumbled.

An abrupt eruption of feet coming down a flight of stairs caught Jennie's attention as she looked behind her to find someone flying off the third step onto the floor. Green hair that was the shade of a lime fell chaotically in front the person's face as ice blue eyes looked in her direction.

"Whoa, what's this?"

The green haired boy walked up to her briskly and dropped to his knees to get a better look at her. "Ordinary brown hair that's cut straight in the back and no bangs. Dark brown eyes with a light brown ring in the center. A little overweight, but looks good."

Jennie's face turned rigid as she stared coldly at the man who threw insulting comments in her face. "Who the hell are you?!" she bit back as the man stood up and stepped away with a laugh.

"And she's feisty," the man replied, pulling out a small notebook from his back pocket. "Let's see, you're about five feet tall and two inches and weigh about a hundred and thirty pounds. Now for your measurements."

Getting to her feet in mere seconds, she lashed out at the man and snatched away his notebook. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she shouted, ripping out the page that he had been writing her stats on. "I'm not here for you to ogle and study!"

"Ah, she ruined my research!" the man shouted as he looked to Rem.

"She's Jennie," Rem replied.

"Oh," the stranger said as an apologetic smile came over his face, "I'm Mirage Sabin." He held out his hand for Jennie to take, but she only stared at it.

"Don't touch me," Jennie muttered, flopping back down on the couch.

"Jennie."

Turning her head, she found Janiston walking behind her with a glass of water in one hand and a pill bottle in the other. "Here you go."

"Thank you," she whispered, taking them. Unscrewing the bottle top, she poured two pills into her hand then popped them into her mouth. She took a quick drink of water and sighed.

"I should be okay in a few minutes."

"Eating would also help you out," Janiston replied, "there are people who get sick when they don't have food in their stomachs."

"Yeah, that's true," Jennie said, looking up to Janiston.

"How about we go to the mall?" Janiston asked, kneeling down beside her. "I can treat you to a lunch in the food court. And maybe I can buy you a belated birthday present?"

"No thanks about the present," Jennie whispered, "but the food sounds good."

"Alright," Janiston said as he gave off an endearing smile.

"Wow, I've never seen Jan all worked up over a girl before," Mirage retorted to Rem as Rem only stood with a scornful look on his face.

"You don't plan on walking, do you?" Jennie asked, getting to her feet.

"No, I'm driving," Janiston said, pulling out a set of car keys from his pocket.

Outside the house, Jennie walked behind the boys to a silvery-blue 1988 Dodge Omni. She stared at the car as her face cracked into a smile.

"That's a cute car," she said as she laughed suddenly. "Oh, sorry, just didn't see you as the type to drive something like that. It's more like something I would drive!"

"Want to get in the backseat with me?" Mirage asked, placing an arm around Jennie's shoulders. He gave her a wink as Jennie swiftly slammed her fist into his nose.

"Don't touch me," she replied, stepping up to the car.

"Sit up front," Rem mumbled as he opened the door for Jennie, "I'll sit in the back with Mirage."

Jennie hesitated for a moment as she stared at Rem, but took her seat as the door was shut quickly. She found Janiston was already in the driver's seat, turning the car on.

"Ignore them," Janiston said, "Rem and Mirage are always fighting."

"What do you mean ‘always fighting'? I don't see them..." She turned to look out her window to find the two throwing punches at each other. Rem's fist connected with Mirage's jaw, sending the boy into the pavement harshly. "Whoa, that was severe!"

"Yeah, they fight hard," Janiston replied, "make that a reminder that you don't want to mess around with Rem's temper."

Nodding, Jennie sat quietly in her seat as Rem flopped onto the backseat. Shortly afterwards Mirage got into the car while caressing his bloody lip.