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Tanya was surprised by the new student in her art class when she came up to her.

“Where is the paint stored?” she asked.

Tanya was also intrigued by her accent.

“It's over here.” Tanya showed her where the various art supplies were kept.

“I thank you,” the new girl told her.

Tanya smiled at her and pulled her project off the shelf. It was a charcoal drawing of an empty field with a single, leafless tree in the distance. She'd been working on it for a week in the drawing and painting I class. It was nearly finished now.

Tanya looked up when the girl stood behind her, almost hovering over her shoulder.

“Do you need help with something?” Tanya asked.

“No, I'm simply...I...I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.” The girl shrugged sadly.

Tanya smiled again.

“Go talk to Miss Harriet, she'll explain things better than I can.” Tanya pointed out the short, relatively young teacher to the new student.

“Thank you.”

Tanya turned back to her drawing and picked up the pencil to add the final details to the picture. She sat hunched over the piece of paper and sketched the final lines of the tree's branches.

Tanya leaned back and examined her handiwork, comparing it to the picture she had to use as a guide. She gave a satisfied nod and signed her name in the lower right hand corner of the paper and placed it on the drying rack for finished projects. When she turned around, she jumped back, nearly knocking over the rack, because the new girl was standing right behind her.

“Yes?” Tanya inquired, somewhat irritated.

“I thought I should introduce myself,” she said, looking considerably more cheerful. “My name is Angelica.”

“Tanya,” Tanya replied somewhat shortly.

“Pleased to meet you, Tanya,” Angelica chirped. “What year are you in?”

Tanya thought about the wording of this question for a moment. “Oh, I'm a junior.”

“I am a sophomore.” Angelica pronounced it soph-o-mor-ay.

Tanya studied the girl. She had flaming red hair and clear green eyes. Her sharp facial features hinted at foreign origins.

“Where are you from?” Tanya asked her.

“Samara,” she told her.

Tanya narrowed her eyes in thought.

“It is in Russia,” Angelica supplied.

“Oh, cool,” Tanya said. “What brings you here?”

Angelica shrugged. “I wanted to see more of the world. Last year I went to Australia.”

Now Tanya was really impressed. “Are you going to see a different country every year of high school?” she asked.

Angelica nodded. “Next year I am going to Brazil.”

Tanya shook her head in disbelief. “You are so lucky,” she told the redhead.

Angelica shook her head fervently. “It's a lot of hassle to just expand cultural knowledge. You have to get a passport, and deal with planes.” She shivered. “I'd much rather fly the old fashioned way.”

Tanya looked at her, somewhat bemused.

“I mean...” she began hastily, “Like how birds fly, they are used to it since they do it every day, if humans could fly naturally and without the help of machines , it would be much more, what's the word? Comfortable.”

Tanya shrugged. “Ok, I guess that makes sense.”

Angelica smiled and nodded, willing the brunette to believe her.

Tanya went to the table where she'd set her things and started consolidating them in her bag. She stood by the table, watching the second hand on the clock wind down. When the bell rang, she walked to her locker to grab a book she needed for homework and walked through the band room to reach the street she lived on. Kan caught her on her way out.

“Hey, Tanya, you want a ride?” he asked.

“I don't need one, I live just down the street,” Tanya told him.

“Ah, it's no bother, really, do you want one?”

Tanya shrugged. “I guess.”

Kan led Tanya to his car and opened the door for her, shutting it when she got in.

“How was your day?” he asked, fastening his seatbelt.

“Good, I guess,” Tanya replied, doing likewise. “Did you meet the new student?”

Kan started the car. “Which one?”

Tanya looked at him, startled. “There's more than one?” she asked
incredulously.

Kan looked at her and nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“Oh.”

Kan laughed and pulled out of the parking lot, waiting patiently for the school buses to pick up the few high schoolers that rode them.

“Well, did you meet Angelica then?”

Kan's grip on the steering wheel tightened almost imperceptibly.

“Yes I did,” he said.

“I think she's so lucky, getting to see a different country every year of high school. Her parents must be filthy rich to let her do that,” Tanya spouted. “Seriously, a foreign exchange every year?”

“Yeah, she's lucky alright,” Kan agreed absentmindedly as the buses pulled out of the school lane.

“I could hang around here if you want me to,” Kan offered to Tanya as he pulled up in front of her house.

“You don't have to stay here for two and a half extra hours,” Tanya told him.

“It's no problem, really,” Kan insisted.

“Ok, if you're sure.” Tanya unbuckled her seatbelt and started getting out of the car.

“s**t.”

Kan looked up, his hand resting on the handle of his door. “What?”

“I don't think you coming in right now is a good idea,” Tanya told him in a strained voice.

Kan looked around Tanya at the front of her house. It looked like a typical white-picket-fence style home, but without the fence. The light blue house had dark blue window trim and neatly sculpted hedges bordering the driveway and house. The driveway had two cars in it, one dark blue minivan and a one small black sedan.

“May I ask why?” Kan persisted.

“Let's just say that if you come in now, you're going to get ripped to shreds,” Tanya told him in that same strained voice. “Why don't you go home and put on a nice shirt and tie and we'll see exactly how much or how little blood is shed?”

Kan studied Tanya's face. Was she serious?

One look told him she was.

Kan put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him.

“Don't worry about it,” he said.

Tanya smiled faintly and sighed.

“My brother's too protective of me,” she lamented, “He doesn't realize I don't need it.”

Kan moved his hand up to the base of her skull, pulling aside her thick, dark brown hair with his thumb. He brought his mouth close to her ear.

“You may not need it, but you deserve it,” he whispered. His breath tickled her ear.

Tanya suppressed a shiver. Whether of fear or pleasure, she did not know.

“I'll go home and make myself presentable to your insane family,” Kan said, pulling his face away from hers and his hand more slowly.

“I wish I didn't have to ask you to do this,” Tanya sighed.

Kan leaned forward again and kissed her hair.

“Anything I can do to make this easier for you,” he said.

Tanya smiled and made a contented noise in her throat. She leaned closer to Kan.

“Go on,” he said, pushing her towards the car door a little bit.

Tanya sighed but picked up her bag from the floor and slung it over her shoulder, she stepped out of the car and shut the door. Kan winked at her and sped off, his car making an awful racket in the quiet suburb. Tanya shook her head and smiled.

She trudged up the driveway to the front door of her house and opened it. She dropped her bag by the coat rack and entered the kitchen.

“Hey, Matt!” she called.

She heard thundering footsteps and her brother’s deep baritone voice.

“And how’s my lovely little sister!” he said rather loudly and he careened into the kitchen from the living room.

Tanya braced herself for the impact as her brother picked her up in a massive bear hug.

“Good,” she squeaked.

Matthew put her down and stepped back to beam his dazzling smile at her.
Tanya’s brother had the same chocolate brown hair and eyes as she did, but he was taller and heavier set. Not fat, but he had a large frame and plenty of muscle to fill it. Where he got his build, Tanya didn’t know. Both of their parents were of slender physique.

Matt’s face turned serious.

“I hear you’ve been consorting with boys?” he asked.

Tanya rolled her eyes. “Relax,” she told him.

Matt frowned disapprovingly at his beloved little sister while she pulled grape juice and ginger ale from the fridge, grabbing a large plastic cup from a cupboard as well.

“Kan’s really sweet, Matt, you should have seen him last night.”

“And what was last night?” Matt inquired, almost glaring at Tanya now.

“First date. He was terrified he was doing the wrong things,” Tanya replied.

“He was probably afraid of losing a potential victim,” Matthew muttered.

“Matt!” Tanya cried, whirling around to face her brother, spilling some ginger ale on the counter.

“What?”

“Kan’s not that kind of person. He’s caring, sweet, and probably scared shitless at the idea of meeting you!” Tanya shouted at her brother.

Matt raised a single eyebrow. A trick that made Tanya shudder every time she saw it.

“Who could possibly be afraid of me?” he asked.

“Anyone who knows you,” Tanya muttered. She turned around and mopped up
the spilled liquid with a dishcloth.

“Why, little sister, I'm offended!” Matthew exclaimed. “So I assume you are afraid of me?”

Tanya turned a piercing eye to her brother. “There have been times,” she told him.

“Name one,” he said. “Name one, and maybe I'll admit I'm scary.”

“When what's-her-face broke up with you, and you were shut up in your room for a month, and you reeked of pot and alcohol,” Tanya said without hesitation. “When you thought you were being followed by wooden crows or something, there’s more, you want me to list them all?”

Matt looked down at his feet. “It’s ODIN’s RAVENS,” he mumbled.

“So do you admit you’re scary?” Tanya demanded.

“I have my moments, but everyone does.” She had her brother on the defensive now.

“Your 'moments' scare off any chance of a social life I have!” Tanya exclaimed, raising her voice.

“You don’t need a social life,” Matt countered. “You’re just in high school, you’ll have plenty of time for that in college.”

“But I need to develop social skills so I CAN have a social life in college, so I might as well have a social life now,” Tanya argued.

“It's a natural ability, same as breathing, you don't need to develop it,” he told her dully, turning away and heading back into the living room, and to the waiting TV.

His little sister sighed and mixed grape juice into the ginger ale. She stepped into the living room and gave him a one-armed hug from behind while he sat on the couch. Matthew playfully nipped at her fingers when they passes his face, but Tanya smacked the back of his head and headed upstairs to her bedroom.