Her mind began to wander, cycling through the different stories that she had invented. The bard who managed to tame a dragon, the hero who ended a war without using his sword to hurt anyone, the queen whose son turned out to be a hero of legend. She was considering letting her imagination toy with a new adventure for the bard, but was interrupted when Mister Harrison leaned over her desk.

“Miss Westminster, as early in the morning as I know it is,” he said in his usual critical tone, “you will have to write more than this.”

Cerys peered up at him, picked up her pencil, and added one more word to her list. The teacher was neither amused nor satisfied.

“Elephants?” he asked her.

“Yes, Mister Harrison,” she confirmed, trying not to sound bored. “Alexander the Great and his army were nor prepared to fight the war elephant that India was proficient at.”

“That is true, Miss Westminster, but is there a reason that you could not write that down?”

“I will on the test. You know I always do. I know the material, Mister Harrison.”

He really had no argument there; Cerys did well on all of the tests, regardless of the way she seemed to space out during the lulls in class. He decided to get on the cases of the students in the back who actually were goofing off.

The rest of the day went on like that, do schoolwork, talking to teachers, not a complete slacker but certainly not a goody-two-shoes like the students who only ever got praise from the teachers. She had a few minutes to see her brother at lunch; the freshman and senior lunches overlapped by only ten minutes. Peter seemed to be having a better day, and nobody seemed to be bothering him– or pretending not to bother him, because, really, she knew how they could fake it– so she finished her afternoon classes without too much worry.

After school, she and Himeko met Peter and Bayani at their lockers, and they all headed home together. They passed by the three-story house on their way, only to find the truck locked up and the house quiet.

“They must have gone out for lunch or something like that,” Cerys sighed, and they headed to her house.

The next couple days were less than exciting. When they stopped by the three-story house in the morning, they were told that James was sleeping in, and in the afternoon it looked like everyone had headed out. Cerys was wondering if she should give up on the idea of him registering at Oak Hollow High School; perhaps he was opting for Pine Ridge instead. She ended up too busy with a newly-assigned math project to keep wondering about him.

On Friday morning, after not even bothering to stop by the three-story house, Cerys was busy convincing Mister Harrison that Alexander the Great was a far better conquerer than Napoleon Bonaparte when a knock came to the door. A young man opened it up and peeked in.

“Excuse me, is this Mister Ford’s history class?”

Cerys instantly sat upright and grinned.

“I am Mister Harrison,” the teacher corrected him. “We do have a Miss Ford, if you are looking for the librarian.”