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" ’Kay"

"We should hurry, though, ’cause, I don’t know about you, but I have to eat breakfast or I feel like I’ to starve to death before lunch"

"Cereal?" I suddenly perked up I seriously adore cereal, and have an I [heart] CEREAL shirt somewhere to prove it I especially love Count Chocula--yet another vampyre irony

"Yeah, there’re always lots of those tiny boxes of cereal and bagels and fruit and hard-boiled eggs and stuff"

"I’ll hurry" Suddenly I was starving "Hey, Stevie Rae, does it ain "Just pick one of the sweaters or jackets that show our third former syh I was really nervous about not looking right and I wished I could take hours doing and redoing my hair and makeup I used Stevie Rae’s makeup mirror while she was in the shower, and decided that under-doing was probably a better choice than over-doing It eird how e the whole focus ofand round and dark, with lots of lashes So much that Kayla used to whine about how unfair it was that I had enough lashes for three girls and she only had short little blond ones (Speaking of I didready to go to a new school without her Maybe I’d call her later Or e-mail her OrI remembered the comment Heath had made about the party, and decided maybe not) Anyway, the Mark soer and darker I lined them with a smoky black shadow that had little sparkly flecks of silver in it Not heavily like those loser girls who think that plastering on black eyeliner ht They look like scary raccoons I s power over loss (to hide the fact that I’d been nervously picking at my lips)

Then I stared at ht, and evenall up crazily like it did sometimes I still lookedummdifferent, but the same The effectthat was ethnic about h Cherokee cheekbones, ht nose, and even the olive color of randma’s The sapphire Mark of the Goddess seehted those features; it had freed the Cherokee girl within reat," Stevie Rae said as she ca dry her short hair "I wishIt doesn’t It just frizzes out and looks like a horse’s tail"

"I like your short hair," I said,my cute sparkly black ballet flats

"Yeah, well, ithair"

"I noticed, but I don’t really get it"

"It’s one of the things that happens while we’re going through the Change Vaernails"

I tried not to shudder as I reh jeans and skin

Thankfully, Stevie Rae was oblivious to

"You’ll see After a while you won’t have to look at their symbols to knohat year they are Anyway, you’ll learn all about that kind of stuff in Vah so for and handed it to me "Here’s your schedule We have third hour and fifth hour together And check out the list of electives you have for second hour You can choose from any of them"

My name was at the top of the schedule, printed in bold letters, ZOEY REDBIRD, ENTERING THIRD FORMER, as well as the date, which was five (?!) days before the Tracker had Marked y 101 R Arts Center Prof Nolan

or

Sketching 101 Rm 312 Prof Doner

or

Intro to Music Rm 314 Prof Vento

3rd hour--Lit 101 R Gymnasium Prof D Lankford

LUNCH BREAK

5th hour--Spanish 101 Rm 216 Prof Garmy

6th hour--Intro to Equestrian Studies Field House Prof Lenobia

"No geometry?" I blurted, totally overwhel to keep a positive attitude

"No, thankfully Next seh But that couldn’t be as bad"

"Fencing? Intro to Equestrian Studies?"

"I told you they like to keep us in shape Fencing’s okay, even though it’s hard I’et paired with upperclassmen a lot--kind of like peer instructors, and I’m just sayin’, so the horse class this semester--they put me in Tae Kwan Do And I have to tell ya, I love it!"

"Really?" I said doubtfully Wonder what the horse class would be like?

"Yep Which elective are you going to pick?"

I glanced back down the list "Which one are you taking?"

"Intro to Music Professor Vento is cool, and I, uh" Stevie Rae grinned and blushed "I want to be a country music star I mean, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, and Shania Twain are all varew up right here in Oklahoest vamp of them all So I don’t see why I can’t be one, too"

"Makes perfect sense to me," I said Why not?

"You want to takeor play anything rese an instrument I can’t"

"Oh, well,about the drama class I was in dra about Prof Nolan?"

"Yeah, she’s from Texas and has a major accent, but she studied drahed out loud when Stevie Rae ed so bad she sounded like an ad for a trailer park, but no as I gonna hurt her feelings by rab your schedule and let’s go Hey," she said as we hurried out of the room and skipped down the stairs, "uess being the next Nicole Kid and then porcing a uy) Now that Stevie Rae ht much about my future career since the Tracker had thrown my life into co about it I still really wanted to be a veterinarian An obese long-haired black and white cat sprinted down the steps in front of us chasing a cat that looked like its clone With all these cats you’d think that there would definitely be a need for vamp vets (Hee heevamp vetsI could call my clinic Vamp Vets, and the ads would read: "We’ll take your blood for free!")