Petra Price felt like she was particularly underestimated. Perhaps for lack of trying, she had never excelled at any one thing. It wasn't because she was lazy. She could admit to being just slightly lazy, but it was more than that. She was bored with things that were ordinary, and her life had seemed rather more ordinary than usual as of late. She went to school, she did her chores, and she spent time with her family and friends. In all of these situations she was glad to be part of the background.

In the classroom, she acted as capable and efficient as a young girl prone to daydreaming can. She spoke mostly only when she was spoken to and never drew attention to herself.

When at home, she was the dutiful daughter. She was glad to allow her baby sister to thrive on the attention of her parents. She preferred to be left to her own devices, happy to sit and read quietly in her room most nights. She was equally as quiet at the dinner table. Her sister would babble on excitedly and her parents would discuss how their days had been. Petra would simply let their voices wash over her. She didn't need to be a very active participant to feel the companionship and love of her family.

She even played more of a supportive role amongst her closest friends. Sally Dixon was unquestionably the leader of the group, and Petra was usually by her side. Sally was next to always planning some kind of get together. She hardly had to be acquainted with someone before she wanted to throw them a birthday party, and they'd been taking turns having slumber parties at each others' houses for years. Sally could be a bit bossy, but Petra didn't play pushover to appease her. Only within private conversations with Sally where her friend was being particularly stubborn had Petra ever become truly upset.

Petra's other best friend was Courtney Reed, for she truly couldn't imagine liking either girl more than the other. Courtney was easier for Sally to lead, but only when she could be pried away from her more studious activities. Courtney was the smartest girl Petra knew, very clever and hardworking.

Petra had a picture of the three of them together in her suitcase. Funnily enough, she couldn't remember precisely when the picture had been taken. It served more as a reminder of the last time she had seen them, through the back window of a car as she was driven away. The other girls had been missing school to see her off. Petra knew it must have chaffed at Courtney to be missing an opportunity to learn something new, but her friend hadn't complained. Sally had shown a rare moment of softness, crying as she waved Petra off. Petra had watched them standing there with her parents until the car rounded a corner and they were out of sight.

That same car rolled to a stop, leaving Petra to push thoughts of those she left behind to the back of her mind. She was helped from the car by the driver, who wordlessly carried her luggage up a crumbling cement walkway. Petra examined the house at the walk's end, her brow furrowing.

“This doesn't seem right, this place doesn't look like anyone's been inside it for years.”

The only response she received was the sound of the car's engine starting back up. The driver hadn't wasted any time, apparently in a rush to leave Petra behind. Deciding that chasing after him probably wouldn't do her any good, she perched on her suitcase and tugged a slip of paper out of her pocket. Within seconds, she was crumpling it up in exasperation. There had been an address scrawled across one side, she was sure of it. Now both sides were free of even a solitary number.

Despite the fact that she didn't quite know where she was, she was sure she wasn't in the right place. The building she had been so unceremoniously left at looked like it had a precarious hold on the ability to continue standing upright. It certainly didn't look anything like the building pictured in the brochure for her new school.

Leaving her bags just where they were, Petra trailed around the side of the house. The tall grass rustled with each step she took, until she found the back of the house as equally uncared for as the front. Other than discovering that she was well and truly alone outside an unfamiliar old hovel, she hadn't accomplished anything except getting burs stuck on her socks.

Walking back the way she had come, she knelt down next to her suitcase and unzipped it. She glanced around for a moment, as if she still might be caught out at doing something she wasn't supposed to. Satisfied that she was still on her own and feeling silly for checking, Petra fished a cell phone out of the bottom of her bag. It was something she was told not to bring, as the school had some strict policy. Since she was clearly not at any sort of school, she figured it wouldn't be a problem. She would just call her parents and explain that some awful joke had been played on them, though to what end she couldn't imagine.

She pressed one of the phone's buttons and waited for it to turn on. She soon discovered that it wasn't getting a signal. After holding it up every which way she could imagine, she let out a sigh and glanced around once more. She hadn't really been paying attention during the drive, but surely if she started walking down the road she would come to someplace sooner or later. Somewhere that had a phone. It seemed just about her only option.

She thought she was quite lucky indeed when she could see a car coming up the road in the distance only a few minutes after she started walking. She moved over to the side of the road and started waving her arms. Only when the car drew closer could she see that it looked identical to the one which she had spent the morning in. She eyed it cautiously when it stopped in front of her. Nothing happened and she was just starting to think about running when the back window of the car rolled down. A boy poked his blond head out the window.

“Need some help?” he gave her a smile.

Without answering him, Petra moved close enough to look past his shoulder into the front of the car. She gasped in surprise at what she saw. Behind the wheel of the car was the very same man that had driven her out into the middle of nowhere.

“Goodness, you certainly don't waste any time, do you?” Petra said, not really expecting an answer. She didn't get one, though the boy in the back seat raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

“You might as well hop out of the car now. He's just going to drive you down there a bit and leave you in front of an old, abandoned house. He did the same to me about ten minutes ago, but if he's had time enough to go and get you, you must live pretty close to here.”

The boy tilted his head to one side, still gazing at Petra. From the look on his face, she thought he was having a hard time believing the words coming out of her mouth.

“Usually the introductions come before any advice is doled out,” the boy said after a few long seconds. “I'm Budgerigar York.”

Petra's first instinct was to question what sort of name Budgerigar was, but she managed to quash the impulse. She was about to tell him her own name and at the same time contemplating trying to pull him bodily out of the car. She didn't get the chance to do either. Within the space of a blink, the car had gone. It hadn't driven away, it had disappeared. The driver had gone along with it, but Budgerigar York and a large trunk had fallen into the middle of the road.

After a small scream that Petra felt silly about after a few moments, she ran over to help the boy up. For his part, Budgerigar was laying on the ground with his eyes closed. By the time Petra approached, he had sat up and set his glasses straight atop his nose.

“Well, that's not the sort of thing that happens everyday.” he punctuated his statement by taking Petra's offered hand and allowing her to help him stand.

“No,” Petra muttered the single syllable quietly. Budgerigar had reacted to the car's disappearance as nonchalantly as if someone had just asked him the time.

She watched him as he picked up one end of his trunk and started dragging it back toward the old house.

“That's the wrong way!” Petra helpfully informed him.

He shrugged and kept moving, making her feel as if she had no choice but to grab her things and fall into step beside him.

“I don't really know what you were talking about a moment ago, we'd been driving for hours before the incident just now. Besides, I can see someone up ahead,” Budgerigar gestured with a slight turn of his head.

There was a smartly dressed woman waiting for them outside of the boarded up old house. As they approached, she gave the pair of children a broad smile. Her shoes clicked against the house's walk as she hurried to close the distance between them. Petra wondered how the woman was managing with such high heels on the chipped, uneven concrete.

“Two of my young charges have made it already, I see. Please excuse me, children. I tried to get the word out that I was running late, but obviously the message didn't manage to reach everyone. I'm Charlotte Blake. Your new principal, for lack of a better description,” she offered her hand to each of them in turn, smile still in place.

Without waiting for an introduction, she turned around and went back to the front door of the house. Following her, Petra wondered why she hadn't thought to try the door for herself. Perhaps because the house looked like the slightest shift would cause it to fall in on itself.

“Surely, this isn't the school? I've seen the brochure, you know. My parents would have something to say if they saw the state of this place,” Petra huffed quietly, “We could catch any manner of things from going in there, I bet.”

Principal Blake was unperturbed. She withdrew a glittering key from a small pouch tied around one of her wrists and unlocked the door. The door unlocked with a click, but wouldn't budge when the woman tried to open it. It took much rattling before it swung open, the movement accompanied by an ominous creak and a swirl of dust.

“You're going to be disappointed, I'm afraid. Your future education won't take place in quite the packaged form presented to your families, but neither will I let you suffer through very much time in this wreck. If you'll just head through to the back of the house. I've still got to wait out front for the rest of your peers. Mind you don't touch anything!” Still smiling, Principal Blake stepped aside and waved them through.

Petra wasn't quite sure what to make of her, but she was glad to have some sort of symbol of authority to look to in an increasingly strange situation. Assuming there would be time for questions later, she walked into the gloom of the house. Her steps were slow and careful. She allowed herself time to give her surroundings a thorough examination as she passed by, and also kept pace with Budgerigar. He was presently her only companion. He was also the closest thing she had to a friend at the moment, even though he was nearly a stranger.

There wasn't much to see. The paper on the walls was faded. The one open doorway they passed was the entrance to a room that wasn't furnished. Next to the door was a frame that could have held either a picture or a mirror, but Petra couldn't tell because it was caked with a layer of dust.

“I looked around back when I first got here,” Petra told Budgerigar, “The grass is just unruly. I hope she doesn't keep us back there long.”

To add yet another surprise to the day, she didn't exit the house to find that same yard. Instead there was a stone path meandering through a pretty garden, all sorts of flowers and trees in attendance.

“This isn't right at all... It didn't look like this before!” Petra gave a little frown. Turning on her heel, she was glad to see the house had stayed the same. Its state of shabby disrepair was somehow comforting.

“You must have a very meticulous gardener, if you call this unruly,” Budgerigar quipped.

Petra didn't respond. Sure to leave the door open, she marched back through the house and past Principal Blake. She traced her earlier path through the long grass at the side of the house, still able to see where her steps had squashed some grass into the ground. She found the yard behind the house just as she remembered it. There was no garden, and no Budgerigar York.

She reacted to this information by returning to the front of the house and gazing through the still open door. There was more or less a straight path from the front door of the house to the back one, and Petra could still see her new friend standing where she had left him.

“Is something the matter?” Principal Blake asked. Petra just shrugged and muttered something about losing her mind.

“As I'm sure you can imagine, I have some explaining to do. If you'll return to the garden and wait with Mister York, I'm sure it won't be long. Take Miss Garland along with you, won't you? She's another early arrival.”

Petra hadn't seen the girl standing just behind her new Principal. The girl was looking more than a little anxious. Just about how Petra thought she should be feeling, given her strange morning. She somehow couldn't manage to work up any sort of panic or fuss. While her day so far had certainly been queer, nothing so very alarming had happened.

Petra tried for a reassuring smile, “I'm Petra, it's nice to meet you.”

“I'm Marnie,” was the girl's shy reply.

After a bit of a push from Principal Blake, Marnie approached Petra and they walked side by side through the house. Petra didn't waste any time on her third walk between the two doors and the other girl was obliged to keep up with her.

By the time the two of them reached the garden, Budgerigar was no longer waiting by the door. Petra started down the stone path and Marnie meekly followed. Petra wasn't at all sure what they should talk about.

“You're the third to arrive,” she started. After no immediate reply from Marnie, she continued, “I was the first, and it was a bit of a shock to end up here, let me tell you. Budgerigar was next, he seems nice enough. He must be around here somewhere, so we'll find him and then I guess we'll wait.”

For what and for whom they were waiting was anyone's guess.