Rhia knelt down on the cool pavement squinting her eyes. The pale moonlight shone on the mysterious pattern of symbols. There were four sets of them arranged in north, south, east, and west. In the center of this square was a circular pearl white stone. She heard a noise, a gasp, behind her and looked over her shoulder. Looking at Rhia quizzically were three people about her own age. Two girls and a boy. Who are they? They look vaguely familiar. They sat down beside her and the boy gently reached his hand out a cryptic symbols at the west. When his fingers brushed against the stone, a piercing brightness surrounded them. Rhia whirled around and saw silver white fire rush toward them as her mouth opened in a silent scream.

Rhia's eyes sprang open at the sound of loud buzzing. "Ugh," she moaned as she climbed out of bed to turn off the alarm clock. What a strange dream I had. I'm sure I had that dream before but I can't remember. Hell, I can barely remember any of the dream. She dragged herself to the bathroom mirror. A girl with shoulder length dark brown hair and light brown eyes stared back at her through the mirror. I'm absolutely normal. Which means absolutely uninteresting. Sighing, Rhia walked downstairs into the kitchen. She looked at the refrigerator door and tore off the note hanging there by a watermelon magnet. Good morning honey, your dad and I have to go to work early. Don't forget to eat breakfast and have fun at school. Do well on the Asian history test. Hugs and Kisses, Mom. "God, she still treats me like a ten year old," she grumbled while she crumpled up the note and tossed it toward the garbage can. It missed by three feet. Guess that I shouldn't play basketball.

Her eyes wandered up to the clock on the wall. Oh fudge, I'm going to be late for class! Rhia sprinted to her car, a Mercedes. She barely made it in time to school, where she was a junior. It was an old private school for the wealthy and it was absolute hell. Rhia strode down the hallway in her Calvin Klein jeans and a white silk blouse to her locker. Even with my clothes and my car and my money, nobody pays attention to me. Hell, everyone here has the clothes, the cars, and the money. She took the calculus book from her locker. If I can't be popular, might as well be a brainiac goody goody and teacher's pet. She paused at the door of the classroom. Everyone was in little groups chatting eagerly. As Rhia shuffled to her seat in the first row, not one person even casted a glance at her. The only time people ever did look at me was to cheat off me. She leaned her head against her hand and stared outside of the window. The trees swayed back and forth and a strong wind stirred up the water in the pond on the school campus. The school bell quickly arose Rhia from her reverie. Mrs. Howard sat down at her desk and smiled benevolently at the girl.

"Rhia, I happy to say that you received a perfect score again on the last test," she said loudly.

"What a nerd!" she heard someone whisper behind her. Snickers and giggles followed the comment. Rhia knew who said it, Renee Peterson, a senior and the high school queen. Renee actually had a tiny bit of brains; that, cheating off everyone, and having her father (one of the richest men in the state) bribe the school got her into calculus and other such classes getting A's automatically. Rhia felt her face turn red and tears fill up in her light brown eyes, but she bit her lip and pretended to ignore the comments by directing her attention back to the window. She clutched her pencil tightly in her hand until the white of the knuckle bones showed.

Suddenly the door creaked open. A girl with waist-length golden blond hair and a creamy complexion peeked in. She was absolutely beautiful with knowing green mystical eyes. Rhia felt a sudden sense of Deja Vu.

"Hi, is this calculus?" she asked softly.

"Yes, you're late. What is your name?"

"Dahlia Summers."

Mrs. Howard nodded and gestured toward the desk behind Rhia. "You may sit in that seat there."

"What about my brother?"

A boy with dark blond tousled hair that fell over his light brown, almost amber, eyes looked into the classroom. He looked...well...innocent like a five year old and had a shy, embarrassed expression on his face. Rhia's breath caught as his gaze set upon her.

"And your name?" questioned Mrs. Howard as she looked sternly over her glasses.

He quickly looked back at the teacher. "Um, Eric........Ma'am."

"You can sit there." Mrs. Howard pointed at the desk to Rhia's right. He sat down next to her and smiled in a shy goofy way. She sighed yet again thinking "It's going to be a long day." Rhia looked down at her hand and realized that she was still holding the pencil. She slowly unclenched her hand and gasped. There were black burnt imprints in the wood where her fingers had been.

Rhia trudged to her car in the deserted parking lot at 7 pm after working on a project for her biology teacher. Just as she opened the door to the Mercedes, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. Rhia turned around surprised and saw...no one. A shiver went down her spine and she hugged myself tightly. She was about to slide into the driver's seat when she saw Dahlia Summers waving frantically at her while running and Eric Summers following behind nervously. They stopped at a halt next to her.

"Do you live anywhere close to Moncrypt Street?" she gasped breathlessly.

Rhia nodded and said absently, "Yeah, I live on that street."

"That's terrific! Do you think that you could give me and my brother a ride home? Our mom has a project due tomorrow and can't pick us up and it looks like everyone else has left."

"Yeah, sure. Come on in." They opened the back seat and scrambled into the car. While Rhia drove through a rough road up to the hills she eyed the brother and sister through the rear view mirror. The pine trees stood looming above them as the last ray of sun disappeared.

"So, you're Rhia Bates, right?" Rhia answered with the slightest inclination of her head. She didn't feel like talking since it was practically impossible to drive up curving path with only the moon to guide the way. She swerved out of the way of a tree standing at the side of the road.

"Well, I'm Dahlia Summers, and this is Eric. I'm a senior, and Eric here is a junior like you. We just moved here from Southern California. It's so beautiful here; I absolutely love it! Everyone at school is so nice, especially Renee Peterson; she showed us around school today."

Rhia's eyes widened slightly at the Renee Peterson's name. Renee Peterson nice? She was only nice if she wanted something.

"She invited me to her party this weekend. I heard it's going to be a blast! Are you going Rhia?"

Rhia smiled wryly and said, "Renee Peterson would never condescend to ask me, the lowly nerd, to one of her exclusive parties."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought since both of you live on Moncrypt Street and so you knew each other..." Dahlia murmured softly.

"Well, who cares Renee Peterson invites someone to a party. She's just a stuck up ditz!" burst out Eric. Rhia's eyebrow lifted at the sound of his voice. he hadn't spoken since he had gotten into the car. He quickly turned red and faced the window, pretending that nothing had happened.

"So Rhia, you have an interesting name..." said Dahlia trying to make conversation.

"Actually it's short for Rhiannon. It was my grandmother's name."

"That's a nice name. Oh, that's our house over there! The one with the oak tree!" cried Dahlia.

Rhia drove up their driveway and glanced at their house. It was small for a house on Moncrypt Street; actually, it was small for any house. Only one story and it looked like the roof was going to cave in. The windows were cracked and the minute front lawn was consumed by dying weeds. She had passed by this house every day. It was built about fifteen years ago for one of the assistant maids at someone's house. But it had been empty for over five years.

How did they get the money to go to our school if they live in a house like this? was Rhia's last thought as she drove away from their house. In the distance, she saw her house. Rhia's house was a welcome contrast. She leaned out of the window to punch in the code to open the gates. They slowly creaked open and she drove past the gorgeous flower gardens and trees on both sides of her. As Rhia drove closer, the house loomed over her. It was a normal house around here. Three stories, thirty-something rooms. She parked the Mercedes on the driveway and unlocked the front door. Ahhhh, home. The spiral staircase led up to her room, which was on the second floor. Rhia dropped her books on the chair and lied down on her water bed. She always wanted one and her parents got it for her on her twelfth birthday. Decorating her walls were the paintings that Rhia had done. In the corner of the room was a large desk, strewn with papers and books. At the edge of the desk was her beloved computer. Rhia swept the books off the chair and turned on the computer. After a few minutes, she glanced at the computer and gave a choked shriek. On the screen it said:

Rhia jumped up, knocking over the chair, and backed away until she was against the bed.

"Oh god, oh god, I'm going crazy," she said with uneven breaths, the whole time with her eyes on the computer. She edged sideways and tripped over one of her school books. Rhia's knees fell to the floor. She stumbled to her bed before falling to the ground.

"Um, honey, what are you doing?" Rhia looked up in surprise and fear to see her mother at the door. A chic black suit covered her petite frame and her rich brown hair was done up elegantly in a French twist. Her deep blues eyes looked at Rhia with concern.

"Mom....my computer....." Rhia managed to choke out while her hand was waving numbly in the computer's direction.

"Yes......is it broken? If it is honey, we can always fix it or get a new one. Nothing to be so worried about."

Rhia looked up at her mom in shock. Her dizziness gone, Rhia stood up and stared at the computer with a gaping mouth. Those five words are gone and left was only a blank screen.

"Where....where....where did they go?" she spluttered out.

"Hmmm? Forget about the computer for now. We'll get it fixed tomorrow. Why don't you get changed Rhia; The Reynolds are coming over to dinner and you can see Sandra again." Her mother strode out of the room, gently closing the door. Rhia slowly edged toward the computer eyeing it warily. After what seemed like hours to her, she reached a hand out to the screen and gingerly touched it. Nothing. Rhia sighed heavily in relief and spun around on her heels to face her closet. You're an idiot Rhia; it was probably your imagination. she thought as she rummaged through her closet for something decent to wear.

Rhia's mind wandered back to the time when she and Sandra were best friends, and Rhia's only friend. They used to laugh together and giggle over secrets. That is, until they got into high school. Then Sandra became an idiotic follower of Renee's group, looking like a pathetic puppy, and now she was a mirror image of Renee. Rhia knew that Renee only tolerated Sandra because she was useful to copy homework off of. It made her hysterically angry at Sandra's stupidity and she promised herself never to talk to Sandra again. Forget about her, she's just like Renee now. She isn't the girl you knew before. Rhia told herself harshly. She savagely grabbed a short black dress off a hanger and slammed the closet door shut and grabbed a pair of black pumps lying next to her bed. She quickly dressed and stomped angrily downstairs to the dining room. Rhia stopped in her tracks as she heard a familiar voice speaking downstairs.

"Of course, Mrs. Bates. I'm looking forward to see Rhia again."

How dare she! How dare that little...just waltz in and pretend that everything is okay between us! Rhia's heels clicked angrily on the marble floors as she walked to the doorway. Everyone looked up her. She recognized Sandra's black-haired head lift up and her dark brown eyes look at Rhea with a twinkle.

"Hi Rhia! Long time, no see, huh?" Sandra said with a happy smile.

"I would immensely prefer that it was a longer time," replied Rhia icily. Sandra gasped and Sandra's parents and Rhia's mom stared speechlessly, but Mr. Bates looked sternly over his glasses at his daughter.

"Rhia! That is no thing to say to your friend and a guest in our house. You will not be so rude under my roof! Apologize at once!" he ordered briskly.

Rhia tossed her head defiantly and said, "I will not! You can't order me to!" With that, she turned around and tried to walk away with dignity, but ended up running out of the front door into the cold night air. She ran to the old gazebo at the edge of her parents' property and sat in there shivering. Five minutes later, Rhia spotted a figure running toward her.

"Go away! I don't want to talk to anyone of you!" Rhia screamed as she stood up to flee.

"Rhia! Wait!" came Sandra's voice.

Oh terrific...now my day is perfect.

A breathless Sandra came sprinting toward Rhia. She gasped for breath as Rhia stonily watched her.

"What do you want, Sandra?"

"I want to know what's wrong with you! First you abandoned me three years ago and know it looks like you want to murder me!"

"What's wrong with me?! Excuse me?! I didn't abandoned you.........you dumped me for some "cooler" friends. I have every right to want to murder you!"

"It was you who never returned my phone call when I called to apologize for not paying you enough attention!"

"It was-wait...what phone call?" said Rhia suddenly confused.

"You mean you never got my phone call?" Sandra asked also confused.

"No....I never got it...."

"Which means..." they said simultaneously. Sandra and Rhia stared at each other silently and then started screaming with excitement and hugged each other while shrieking apologies at the same time.

"I'm sorry I was mad at you at dinner..."

"I'm so sorry I thought you abandoned me!"

"...and I'm sorry that I said that I wanted to murder you."

Rhia and Sandra broke off their hug, looked incredulously at each other, and started laughing hysterically. However, the two girls were unaware of a pair of red eyes staring at them hatefully through the dark bushes beyond the gazebo.

* * * * * Rhia woke up the next morning happy and refreshed. No dreams this time she thought with a smile. She cautiously stretched and then tiredly walked to the bathroom. As she looked at her grinning face in the mirror, she suddenly remembered another time when she had looked into the mirror with a quite different expression. It was after she had heard Sandra and Renee talking about her...

"Hey, isn't that dork...what's her name...Lea or something like that...isn't she your friend?" asked Renee spitefully.

"Lea? Oh, you mean Rhia," Sandra said with a disgusted look on her face, "No, I would die if she was...I would rather be friends with a rotting frog!" They walked away laughing maliciously, oblivious to the fact that Rhia was behind them.

That afternoon, Rhia ran into her bathroom sobbing. She looked at the mirror and saw an image of a girl with a puffy, tear-stained face.

"Life isn't worth living anymore..." she whispered to her reflection. Rhia slowly opened the medicine cabinet and took out a bottle of pills. She opened the bottle with a shaky hand and spilled a couple pills onto her palm. Rhia stared at the pills for minutes before finally throwing them at the mirror. Her other hand dropped the bottle to the floor and she kicked it, strewing the pills across the tiles. Rhia screamed at her reflection with her hands in tight fists at her sides.

"No!!!" she yelled, "Nothing will make me give up! Nothing!" Rhia burst into tears and sank to the floor with her hands covering her face...

Rhia was quickly brought back to the present by the sound of a door slamming shut. What made me think of that time? She looked up at the mirror and gave a startled little gasp. She leaned forward to get a better look of her face. I swear that it looked like I had red eyes. But no, they're brown right now. Must have been the light. Even though she felt as if her insides were frozen over the incident, she gave a small shrug and left the bathroom.

Questions, Comments, Constructive Criticism? Circe, NW

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