"Angela, that's rude," Ruby exclaimed, looking up from her frappuccino.

"It's the truth," Angela replied with a smirk. "Jimmy is a total nerd and not worth dating by anyone beyond other nerds."

"But he's smitten with you," Ruby frowned.

"Smitten," Maria asked. "What popular girl says smitten?"

Ruby looked at her two friends, "A popular girl who doesn't want to be popular." The other two laughed, but Ruby sighed and looked at the ceiling. They'd had this exact same conversation several times since Angela had lost her braces and everyone in school began to notice her.

Maria stood and forced Ruby's blue eyes to lock with her hazel ones, "You wouldn't have survived as a popular if we hadn't stepped into your spotlight."

"Remind me to get you cookies that say 'Thank you for stepping into my spotlight'." Ruby rolled her eyes and looked at the door as a bell jingled. Three guys walked in with a girl, they went over to an empty table and sat. One guy scanned the room while his friends looked at the menu.

"Oh, he's cute," Angela whispered to Ruby and Maria when she noticed him. His hair was a sandy blonde almost like caramel and his eyes were a rich honey color. She and Maria giggled while Ruby rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to get another frappuccino," Ruby stated. She stood and walked to the counter with barely a wave from her friends. It was like that whenever boys came up. Ruby had never cared much for boys and never understood her friends when they commented how each boy was cuter than the last. It was just ridiculous in her opinion.

She looked at the menu that was above her, even though she knew it like the back of her hand. Her parents had been taking her to Cacao Café since she was little. They'd once tried to get her to drink the hot coffee, but it always left a horrible taste in her mouth. Instead, she preferred the cold frappuccinos as cream blends.

"What can I get you, Ruby," the server asked. She looked at him, it was no surprise that the server knew her name, but she didn't recognize him and that surprised her.

Believing that it was just that he was new she ordered her usual, "Cookies and cream frappuccino, no coffee, please." He nodded and she paid then went to the one of the nearby tables to wait for her drink. Cacao Café was one of the best places for fast service and that was one of the other reasons she liked the place so much. Fast service meant more time for school work. She was probably one of the few popular girls who would think that.

The server called out her order and she came forward. When she grabbed her drink, the server handed her a napkin and winked. She saved her frown and the roll of her eyes for when she wasn't looking at him, but when she turned around, the boy her friends thought was cute was right there and her frappuccino ended up on both of them. They both jumped back in surprise and examined their shirts.

"I'm so sorry," she said quickly handing him the napkin that the server had handed her. She set what was left of her drink down and grabbed some more napkins.

He smiled at her and took some of the napkins from her, "No problem, I should've been paying attention." She looked toward her friends while he wiped his shirt. They gave her a shoving motion with their hands and she glared at them before looking back at the boy.

"Since your drink was spilled on me, let me get you another one," he offered.

"It's no big deal, my parents would kill me if they knew that I'd gotten a second drink anyways," she replied as he cocked his head.

He gave her a look, "That strict?" She shrugged. "I'm Evan by the way."

She smiled, "I'm Ruby." His smile broadened. She looked down at her watch, "Oh no, my parents are going to kill me."

"What?" he asked, his smile disappearing.

"I have to go, nice to meet you, Evan," she said as she moved past him. She grabbed her stuff from her table and bolted out the door. Her friends laughed, but she was completely focused on getting home. Mom and Dad are going to kill me if I'm late for dinner, she thought. Even as she ran, trying to obey the walk signs and notice cars, her thoughts went back to Evan. She had to admit, he was cute.

Evan grabbed the drinks from the counter, ignoring the dirty look the server threw his way, and went back over to his friends. He heard a few giggles from the table where Ruby had sat, he ignored the girls sitting there. His own thoughts went back to Ruby. Her eyes were different, like those blue dwarf stars that Michael was always looking up online. He began passing the drinks around to each of his friends and then he took his own seat.

"You okay, Evan," Michael asked.

He looked up, "Uh, yeah, fine."

Rachel smiled, "I saw that look you gave her."

"Who did I give a look to," Evan asked looking at her suspiciously. She smiled even more and it reminded him that if Rachel wasn't like a sister to him, he'd probably think that she was cute. Her black hair was straight, the opposite of Ruby's, and her eyes were a bright green that twinkled knowingly.

"That girl that you ran into up there," she leaned forward with her hands over her drink. "You think that she's cute." Evan frowned as she continued, "What about her friends behind you? They seem to think you're cute."

He narrowed his eyes, "Is this going somewhere, Rachel?" Her smile told him that he would not hear the end of this for several weeks. She sipped her drink and somehow managed to smirk while doing that. Evan's frown deepened, Rachel sometimes confused him when she spoke like that and he didn't understand how she could get that out of a conversation and a few giggles.

"You know, you boys are really transparent when it comes to girls," she said with her eyes closed.

"You don't know everything about guys, Rachel," Michael broke in. Rachel glared at him and put on an indignant expression. She looked at something behind Evan and winked at him. He raised an eyebrow and then felt a tap on his shoulder. Rachel smiled as he turned around and saw the two girls that had been with Ruby.

The one girl with blonde hair and blue eyes smiled, "Excuse me, my wallet accidentally fell off our table and slid by your foot." Evan looked down and saw a pink wallet with white hearts and stars.

He bent down and picked it up, "This it?"

"Yeah, thanks," the other girl with brown hair and hazel eyes said. "I'm Maria and this is my friend Angela, are you guys new in town?" Angela took her wallet and Evan had a feeling that the wallet didn't fall off the table on accident.

Rachel smiled at them, "I think we'll leave this to you, Evan." Michael shrugged and ran a hand through his brown hair nervously, his brown eyes apologetic. Evan looked over at the one person who hadn't spoken since he'd named the drink he wanted, Seth. The boy looked at Evan and shrugged, his blonde hair hung in front of his dark blue eyes as it always did.

"You're on your own, dude," Seth said.

Evan turned back to the girls, "Um, maybe?"

"What's that supposed to mean," Angela asked, batting her eyelashes.

He was at a loss for words when a new voice broke in, "Hey, Ang, do you know where I put- Ang, what are you doing?" Angela backed up so fast that Evan thought she would trip over her own feet. At the door stood Ruby, a frown on her face. He couldn't help think that she looked even more beautiful than before, her olive skin, which was dotted with freckles, glistened with sweat. She glanced back and forth between Evan, Angela, and the wallet.

"You didn't use the wallet trick did you," Ruby asked crossing her arms. Angela blushed and she sighed, "Angela, we agreed you wouldn't use that trick anymore!" She turned to Evan, "I apologize for my friend, she can be a pain in the butt sometimes."

Rachel smiled, "No harm done, all they did was give their names." Ruby sighed in relief, what was the wallet trick?

Before Evan could ask, the girl looked at her friends, "Have you guys seen where I put that present for my mom?" Angela pointed at the ground near their table where a small gift bag rested. Ruby walked over, looked inside, nodded, and then walked to the door, "Bye." She walked out looking back only once and in that instance Evan could've sworn he saw her eyes flash gold.

He stiffened and he felt the others at his table stiffen too. Had they seen that? Seth stood, "Excuse us, ladies, but we have to go otherwise we'll be late for dinner." Evan, Michael, and Rachel stood up and they all exited with their drinks. He didn't dare glance back for fear that Angela and Maria would take it as encouragement to 'chase' him.

"Did you guys see that," he asked, just to be certain.

"Kind of hard to miss," Seth said.

Michael nodded, "I believe Henry will want to know." Rachel also nodded. This evening was taking an interesting turn.

Ruby opened the door to her house as quietly as possible. She was so dead for being this late for dinner and Mom probably wouldn't accept the excuse that she had to go back and get a present. Taking a deep breath, she began tiptoeing through the house toward the dining room. She could hear raised voices, were Mom and Dad arguing? They never argued.

She paused outside the room and listened as Mom shouted, "…but Brother Alfred won't reply to any of our messages. I have a horrible feeling about this." Who was Brother Alfred?

"Honey," Dad said reassuringly, "they won't know about her. Brother Alfred wouldn't tell them." Who were 'they' and 'them' and who wouldn't they know about?

"I know, but Ruby wouldn't be this late unless something happened," Mom said so quietly that Ruby had to strain her ears to hear.

Dad sighed, "We haven't tried calling her yet." It was now or never.

"Haven't tried calling who," Ruby asked as she stepped around the corner. Her two parents jumped and began stumbling over sentences that she couldn't begin to comprehend as they spoke at the same time.

Mom finally figured out what she was trying to say, "Ruby, where have you been?"

She shrugged, "At Cacao Café with Angela and Maria. Sorry I'm late, they held me up talking about the dance and then I forgot your present at the café."

"Present," Mom blinked in surprise.

"Of course," Ruby smiled, "you didn't think I would forget your birthday, did you?" She handed the small bag to her mom and couldn't help marveling at how different they were. Mom was blonde with green eyes, she was always serious and constantly worried about little things like Ruby's hair clips. Everyone said they were alike in so many ways, but Ruby thought that they had more differences than likenesses.

Her mom gently pulled out a velvet box like the bag would bite her. She set the bag on the table and opened the box. Ruby smiled as her mother put a hand to her mouth in surprise. "How did you pay for this?"

"Well, actually, I made it in my jewelry crafting class and I had Angela hold onto it for me until I could get a box for it," Ruby shrugged. Her mother pulled out a golden heart locket on a delicate silver chain. The heart was designed to look like a lock and dangling off the bottom was a chain with a small key on it. "Open it up."

Her mother gently pried the two sides apart and smiled at what she saw inside, "Honey, it's beautiful." They hugged and Ruby noticed her dad smiling tentatively like he wasn't sure if it was okay to do so.

"So," Ruby began pulling away, "what were you two talking about?"

Her parents exchanged a look as her dad said, "Oh, um, we were just talking about an old friend of ours. He wouldn't answer our calls, but that's just because it's been so long since we last talked." Ruby frowned, that wasn't it, something was wrong.

"Come on, let's eat dinner before it gets cold," Mom said quickly, clapping her hands together. Mom never clapped her hands unless she was nervous. Or at a concert, but that goes without saying. Ruby sat at the table, what were they hiding?

"So, Ruby, did you do anything interesting today in school," Dad asked.

Ruby picked up her fork and looked at him, "Nope."

He looked at her, "Why not?"

"It's finals week, dad," she rolled her eyes like this was obvious. "We don't do anything except take tests."

"Well, isn't that interesting," Mom asked taking a sip from her wine glass. Something was definitely up, Mom only drank when she was worried about something other than Ruby.

Ruby speared a few pieces of chicken, "No, the tests are practically the same every year and they're a piece of cake. It's impossible to get an F on them."

Her mom waved her fork in the girl's direction, "I better not see anything below a B on your tests."

"You won't," Ruby sighed. This conversation was a repeat of every conversation that came up during finals week. The rest of the evening went by in silence, her parents usually gave up talking to her after she sighed, and she went to her room to study for her tests the next day. A typical night in her parent's house.

Evan waited with the others, in front of the large office doors. They'd stood in front of Henry long enough to explain what had happened before they were shooed out of the room so he could take a call. Michael was fidgeting with some gizmo he'd pulled out of his pockets, Rachel was playing with her hair, and Evan was pacing. Seth was the calmest out of all of them, leaning against the wall casually as if he could stand there forever without being disturbed.

"When is he going to let us know what he thinks," Evan finally blurted.

Rachel looked at him, "You just want to know if you get to see that cute girl again."

"I'm being serious, Rachel," he snapped.

"Hank will let us know what he thinks when he's ready," Seth said, even his voice was casual, like this happened every day. Evan sighed and resumed his pacing. The wait was killing him. As if that was a cue, the massive oaken doors swung open and Henry walked out. The group froze in whatever they were doing and looked at their mentor.

Henry looked back at them with his brown eyes and walked confidently forward. His shirt seemed a bit small on his massive frame and fit so snugly as to show his muscles. Evan frowned as he noticed that his mentor's normally tan face was pale. Something was wrong.

"Well, I have some bad news," Henry ran a beefy hand through his buzz-cut black hair. "We just learned that a monastery was attacked. No survivors were found and there were signs of torture in the ruins. As if that wasn't bad enough, the monks did a ritual some years ago that hasn't been done in centuries."

He sighed, "We believe that whoever attacked the monastery is after the result of the ceremony and we found a hidden book giving the name of the subject, but not what was done." His eyes locked with Evan's, "Here's the good news; you already found her."

Rachel gasped, "The girl that Evan thinks is cute?"

"The girl whose eyes turned gold for a second," Michael added.

Seth remained silent.

Evan looked at Henry, his chest tightening, "Ruby?"

"I'm afraid so," Henry replied. "We have to find out what she has and stop whoever wants it. And for that to happen, you need to go undercover, at her school."

Rachel laughed, "Oh, Evan probably likes that idea."

"Spending a week or more pretending to be a regular teenager," Seth asked as he crossed his arms. "He's probably thrilled by the idea."

"Shut up you two," Evan snapped back. "We have work to do."

Sorry this took so long to upload, I have no idea how Crazykid666 does so many stories at once, I swear. Anyways, I hope you guys liked the chapter. Please review.