Hi, everyone! This is my first story (that I've posted here so far) and I hope all of you like it!!!!

WARNING: If you're anything like my friend (naming no names), who only likes stories with zero magical creatures (she also doesn't like Harry Potter and Twilight) then you will DETEST this story.

Chapter 1: The New Girl

In the middle of the universe, there was a big swirling mass of dust balls known as the Milky Way Galaxy. Inside the Milky Way Galaxy, there was a solar system. There was a large star known as the Sun, with nine planets slowly revolving around it. The third planet from the sun, called Earth, had a secret. There were several portals on that planet that led to a parallel universe where fairies dwelled in the enchanted forests, witches cast spells deep in mountain caves, mermaids ruled the waters, and evil was equal to good. Magic existed in Sidhe. And because some occasionally leaked through portals and seeped into Earth, some of the evil escaped too. And on one continent in the upper hemisphere known as North America, in the upper country called Canada, four girls with special Sidhe powers were destined to save the universe from this evil that escaped from Sidhe. Three have already met and become fast friends. But where is the fourth, you ask? Why, she’s the new girl in school, and she’s about to meet the rest right now…

* * *

The new girl was a smaller-than-average girl with petite, pixie-like features. She was normally very adventurous and out-going, but right now in front of thirty new people, she was a deer in the headlights. She gulped and scuffed her shoes on the floor.

Everyone looked at her expectantly. Even the boys who liked to disrupt the class at any chance possible concentrated intently on the girl’s words. She shivered involuntarily; it was cold in the classroom. She half-wished that the boys were whispering. It would be better in not everyone was concentrating on her.

Yes, she was scared.

“Hi, everyone. My name is Keira Neil,” said the girl as the teacher, Ms. Robin, looked on approvingly. Keira paused. She hated telling big groups of people about herself. She took a breath and started to comb her fingers through her glossy blonde ponytail. “I like to garden and I like to play outside a lot.” She sighed and looked around hopelessly. Why the teachers here encouraged the new kids to give a short speech to the class she’d never understand. Why couldn’t she have just sat down in the back of the room and become invisible? Why did she have to move from her comfortable home in Halifax to British Columbia? Why? Why? Why?

Everyone just stared at her. The class had never had a new student before and they weren’t taking it very well at all. Of course, it didn’t help that this girl wasn’t dressed in the latest style or didn’t like to listen to music and surf the internet like normal people did. I mean, who gardened and played outside anymore? Keira Neil was a perfectly nice girl, but there was no one in this class quite like her. This was because obviously, this girl was far from normal, but there was only one person in the room at the moment who was absolutely sure of it. She, the sure one, was sitting right in the back with two others, and all three were not of this world either.

“Well, um, I’m going to be staying with you all in this classroom from now on, so, uh…yeeeeeah,” Keira finished hopelessly, blushing fiercely, her face going all hot.

“That’s nice to know some things about you now, Keira,” said Ms. Robin “We will all make you feel welcome here.” Yeah right, thought Keira. “Now,” Ms. Robin continued happily, “who wants to be Keira’s buddy?” Also, even in the higher grades like grade seven, the teachers here insisted on new students getting ‘buddies’, friendly classmates to show the newcomers where everything was. Nobody raised their hands, all of them hoping that someone else would so that the silence would end. Keira rolled her eyes and blinked, hoping desperately that someone wanted to be her friend.

The three magical girls at the back of the class all wanted to be Keira’s friend. They all wanted to befriend this girl, even if she wasn’t the one they were looking for. Any of them would have gladly put up their hand and volunteered, but at present, they weren’t paying attention, so their hands stayed down. Camille, Cathy, and Angela (who was known by most as ‘Dulcet’) sat at the back of the class, oblivious to the teacher and the new student. At least, Dulcet and Cathy were.

Camille was leafing through a big, dusty, gold-trimmed red book that she had on her desk. She would turn a page, mutter something under her breath, and turn another page. Cathy doodled a fish on her math paper and yawned, looking around the room, her eyes skimming over the new girl. Cathy looked over at the book Camille had in front of her and sneezed. “You need to dust this thing more often,” Cathy complained, wiping her nose on her sleeve.

“It doesn’t need to be dusted,” said Camille absent-mindedly, flipping past a page with a beautiful woman resembling Dulcet on it. She flipped past the picture of Dulcet on the following page. She flipped past her picture that came next. She flipped past Cathy’s picture that grinned cheekily at the camera. She flipped the page once again and found what she was looking for.

Camille gasped and pointed to the picture in the book. “That’s her! The one we’re missing! KEIRA!”

Dulcet, who was leaning on her elbows on her desk, a very dazed expression on her face, floated back to reality and took a look at the picture. She compared it to the girl standing in front of the room. When she was jerked out of a daydream, she had trouble adjusting to the real world. This made her argumentative. “Uh, here?” Dulcet said, frowning. “Now? Are you sure it’s her?”

“Yes,” said Camille hotly.

“You’ve been wrong before,” Dulcet pointed out.

“I’m not now,” said Camille impatiently. “I’m sure we’ve found her. Check for yourself.”

“100% sure?” asked Dulcet, not checking for herself.

“100% sure,” answered Camille.

“100% totally positively sure?” Dulcet pressed on.

“100% totally positively sure,” Camille rolled her eyes.

“100% totally positively not a doubt in your mind sure?” Dulcet prompted.

“100% totally positively not a doubt in my mind sure!” said Camille loudly. Ms. Robin’s eyes darted to the back of the room.

Dulcet looked at the book for a long time, then back at Keira again, and as she this time she herself was indeed sure, too. “It’s definitely her,” she said. Her face split into a big grin. “You were right.”

“Told ya,” said Camille, as Cathy smirked and brushed dust off her cardigan. “I mean, aren’t I always?”

Dulcet raised her hand, ignoring her friends. “I’d be happy to show her around, Ms. Robin.”

“Me too,” said Camille.

“Me three!” exclaimed Cathy, jumping up from her seat. “Can she sit with us?” she added unnecessarily.

Everybody laughed. Cathy beamed. She loved being the center of attention. “Pretty pretty pleeeease?”

Ms. Robin smiled. “Of course, that is, if you don’t gab too much! I know you three and I’ll be keeping a close eye on you. Now it’s time for math. Camille, you and your friends can show Keira to her seat.” She gently pushed Keira in their direction. Keira felt herself go all relaxed with relief. It looked like she had found three new friends already.

Keira smiled shyly at the three girls. They looked nice enough. The one with brown hair looked to be one of those girly-girls who liked boys, makeup, clothes, cell phones, and shopping. The dark skinned one looked like more of an intellectual type, like she always got straight A’s. The white blonde looked like a dreamer. Keira liked them on the spot. She slid into the seat beside Cathy. Cathy smiled sweetly and held out a hand. “Hey there, sweetie. I’m Cathy. Welcome to SWAN.”

Keira shook Cathy’s hand. “Thanks. Just one question: why do you call it SWAN?”

“Well, it stands for ‘Sarah Wilcox Academy’ , but we added the ‘N’ to make it into a cooler acronym,” explained Cathy cheerfully.

“So with the N, what does it stand for?” Keira asked.

“It stands for ‘School Without A Name’ ,” said Dulcet, looking over Cathy’s shoulder to grin at Keira, who giggled and waved. Camille threw a note over Dulcet and Cathy’s heads to Keira that said ‘Hey, welcome, Earth Queen!’

Earth Queen.

Keira had no idea what that meant, but she liked it a lot. It seemed to fit her perfectly! She slipped the note in her pocket, promptly forgot about it, and concentrated on the algebra.

* * *

“Wow, thanks for being so nice to me!” exclaimed Keira as Dulcet handed her a cupcake that she had bought for her at the annual bake sale. The four girls were standing under a large oak tree off to the side of the school field. They were far away from all the other students, but not far enough away that they weren’t allowed to be there. They needed some privacy.

“Oh, we do it all the time,” said Cathy. “Befriending the new girl. Every time a new person comes. We always hope, always wish…”

“For what?” Keira said, biting into the cupcake and smearing chocolate icing all over her face. She licked it off as Cathy opened her mouth to answer.

Camille nudged Cathy. “Tell ya later.” Cathy stuck her tongue out at Camille.

“Of course, we almost never make friends with them,” continued Cathy in a sad, dramatic voice. “They always break away from us and go off with somebody else…”

“Not me!” said Dulcet happily.

“Well, Dulcet was the only one,” said Camille.

Cathy nodded casually. “Yeah, she had the truth of our real se—” Camille clapped a hand over Cathy’s mouth. “Never MIND, Cathy.” Cathy frowned as Camille took her hand away. “Well, she has to find out sometime, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, but not NOW,” protested Camille.

“Why not?” asked Dulcet. “She probably won’t believe us anyways. And even if she did and she wasn’t the one, we could always just borrow my mom’s spell book and cast a memory spell on her.” She sighed. “I think my mom cast one on me. I can’t remember how to cast one.” She sighed again. “It wouldn’t hurt.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Keira, looking at them strangely.

Camille smiled. “Tell ya later.”

“Hey!” said Keira, finishing her cupcake and forgetting her friend’s strange behaviour. “Why don’t you guys come over to my house tomorrow for a sleepover or something? Mom said that I could as long as there isn’t too many people.”

Cathy grinned. “We’ll convince her to say yes even if her first reply is no!” she said. “We’re kind of special that way.”

Camille shot a warning look at Cathy. Cathy cut her eyes at Camille and smirked.

“Um, yeah,” said Keira. “So how would you do that?”

“Oh, that’s a secret,” said Cathy, waving her hand dismissively. “And we’ve got plenty of secrets. And if you ask nicely, we might even share one with you!”

“Okay then,” said Keira, planting her hands on her hips. “Tell me a secret.”

Cathy clapped her hands and said, “Alright!” She smiled sweetly at Camille. “I DID tell her that if she asked nicely, I’d tell her.” Camille sighed, knowing full well that she was defeated. “Whatever. Go ahead.”

“Well, Dulcet can fly,” said Cathy, smiling in a false sweet way at her friend. It was obvious that she was quite jealous.

Keira laughed. “Puh-leeze.”

Dulcet smiled. Then she closed her eyes and stretched her arms out to her sides.

Cathy and Camille both pounced on her. “Oh no you don’t!” Camille exclaimed. “Not in the middle of school! You can prove that to her later when we’re out of eyeshot!” Dulcet just smiled again at Keira and winked.

Cathy let go of Dulcet and smiled at Keira. “I can do cool stuff too. I can breathe under water. I can also walk on water if I wish, and grow a tail like a mermaid, because I partly am, you know.”

Keira laughed again. She didn’t really believe it. If someone could fly, then there was probably someone who could breathe under water, too. And Dulcet probably was just being funny when she said that she could fly. So that meant that they could not possibly have magical fairy powers. She shook her head to clear it. Who said fairy powers? What if they were gnomes? She shook her head again. Gnomes? Them? What was she thinking? Was she actually believing their mad stories?

Camille’s eyes twinkled. “I can control fire.”

This wasn’t what one expected to find on one’s first day of school.

“You, I think, are kind of crazy,” said Keira finally. She stared at her new friends. Hey were looking at her expectantly.

“Well?” Camille asked finally. “What do you do?”

Keira had no idea what she was talking about. “Um, what?”

"See, I told you we took it too fast," complained Camille. "Just forget it, Keira."

"I can hardly forget that you've got powers," Keira said.

"Do you have a memory spell handy?" Cathy asked Dulcet sweetly.

"Look, I already said that I forgot how to do it, okay?" said Dulcet, crossing her arms. "Ask someone who knows."

Camille rifled through the book and jabbed a finger at something in the book. "Ah-ha! There!" She held a hand out in front of her and said something in Gaelic.

Keira's head suddenly went fuzzy and she couldn't remember anything. She opened her mouth. "What's...ah..." She blinked. "Sorry, felt a little woozy there. What were we talking about?"

"You said something about a sleepover?" asked Cathy innocently.

"Oh yeah," said Keira, snapping her fingers. "My mom said that we could have a sleepover tomorrow! Isn't that awesome?"

"Totally!" Dulcet squealed, reacting perfectly to the news. Camille smiled. "That is awesome. I'll ask my parents." Cathy and Dulcet quickly said that they would, too. At that moment, the bell rang. As they all walked back into class, Camille breathed a huge sigh of relief. "That was a close one. Never ever do that again," she snapped at Cathy. "Well, we'll try telling her again sometime," said Cathy. "And next time, it'll go better. Trust me on this one."

"Whenever you say 'trust me' something bad always happens," groaned Dulcet.

"Maybe she'll just figure everything out on her own," suggested Camille. "And then when she confesses to us that something weird is happening to her, we'll tell her the truth. Okay?"

Dulcet and Cathy nodded. "Agreed." They all looked at Keira. Keira was still a little woozy from the memory spell, and hadn't been listening very well. As the quartet reached the door of the school, Dulcet vowed to be more careful next time.

"Science time," announced Ms. Robin. "We're starting our unit on microscopes today. Everyone grab a partner."

Cathy nudged Keira. "Partner?"

"Partner," Keira agreed.

Ms. Robin walked to the back of the room and came back holding a microscope. She placed it carefully on her demonstration table and brushed off her hands. "Okay now, first we've got to learn the parts of the microscope. What's this called?" She pointed to the base of the microscope.

"Easy one," called Cathy. "That's the base."

"Correct," smiled Ms. Robin. "When you're carrying your microscope, you place one hand on the base and grip this"--she pointed to the curved metal that supported the lens--"with your other hand. Anyone guess what this is called?"

"The neck?" guessed Keira.

"Correct," said Ms. Robin. Keira smiled happily.

Ms. Robin rambled on and on, because she was one of those teachers who just loved to talk. The class was getting bored-er and bored-er. Keira glanced at her watch. It read 11:23. Cathy yawned. She glanced from side to side. Keira saw Cathy flick her hand in the direction of the clock. Then, to Keira's astonishment, she hands of the clock shivered and then started to spin rapidly around the clock. Both hands stopped at the 12 at the top.

BRINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

Ms. Robin looked extremely surprised, and a bit embarrassed. "Oh! Well it seems like we're out of time. We'll continue with the microscopes tomorrow."

"Why not after lunch?" a boy called from the back of the room.

"We've got a Socials project to start," said Ms. Robin, putting the microscope away. "Well, then, everyone go get your lunches." There was a loud burst of noise as kids pulled back their chairs and headed for the cloakroom, chattering loudly.

"How did you do that?" Keira whispered to Cathy as she and her 'partner' stood up.

"Do what?" Cathy asked innocently.

"You waved your hand and the bell rang," said Keira, confused.

"You must have been seeing things," Cathy yawned. "I've got spaghetti for lunch today, what do you have?" she asked, changing the subject.

Keira smiled weakly. "Peanut butter." As she and Cathy walked to the cloakroom, Keira glanced at her watch. It was still 11:23. Keira frowned at Cathy's retreating back, and then looked at the clock again. She shook her head and followed Cathy into the cloakroom.

So how was it so far??????????? Did you absolutely hate it or are you curious to read the next chapter????????? Tell me please!!!!

Luna, if you're reading this, hello, you're awesome!