Scene 4 [Timer's on: 60:01]

The two weeks between The Big Move and the beginning of school were fairly uneventful. It was turning out to be a lot harder to talk to the twins and Angela than Thea had anticipated, though. She had only talked to each girl once, and their conversations had been cut short. The girls didn't sound quite right to Thea, but as soon as she'd asked, they'd been interrupted and had had to hang up. Thea knew something was wrong with her friends, but she couldn't find out what it was. It was the first time in her life she'd truly been helpless, and she hated it.

Thea's mom had taken Thea to the school for a tour the week before school. She couldn't believe how small it was. And no air conditioning except in the Principal's office, "To protect the computers," she'd been told by the school secretary who had been typing up the first newsletter for the new school year. She had been willing enough to let Thea and her mom poke around the school, but then the Principal came in and gave them the "four dollar tour," as he called it. It was all Thea could do to keep from rolling her eyes.

They followed Principal Wiggins around and listened to his stories of what a great education Thea would receive at Hopeton High, and how she should try out for Cheerleading, and join the Art Club, and FHA, because, "we're all Homemakers, you know." Just when she didn't think she could stand it anymore, they had circled around and ended up back at the Office. Principal Wiggins shook Mom's hand, and then he took Thea's hand, peered into her eyes, and said, "I know you will learn a lot here at Hopeton. Your path is secure." Huh?

"Uh, yes, well thank you, Mr. Wiggins, but we've taken up too much of your time already. Come on, Thea, let's go." Mom actually took Thea's hand, pulled her down the hall and through the door, and didn't let go until they reached the car. Thea noticed her hands were shaking as she unlocked the car. Mom giggled a little. "I guess I didn't really need to lock this thing, did I?"

"Mom, are you okay? What's up with that guy, anyway? 'Your path is secure?' Who does he think he is, professor Dumbledore?" More giggles. She started the car, and pulled out of the parking lot. Mom had never giggled in Thea's life. When she thought something was funny, the woman laughed. Loudly. She threw her head back and let it erupt from her soul. This weird, nervous titter was starting to grate on Thea's nerves. She was about to say so when she saw something out of the corner of her eye that looked like it was heading straight for the car.

"MOM, LOOK OUT!" Tires screeched, and a very surprised looking boy stopped right in front of the car. Mom wasn't able to stop the car in time, and the car bumped the boy in the legs hard enough to make him fall onto the hood of the car. Somehow, he held on and didn't go flying onto the road, but Thea heard the air whoosh out of him and felt like the air had been knocked out of her as well.

"Oh God, oh God oh God ohGod." Thea looked away from the boy on the hood to see her mother rocking back and forth, chanting "Oh Gods" and shaking her head. Thea was more freaked out by that than the boy on the hood. She didn't know what to do, so she slapped her mom on the side of the head.

"Mom, stop it!" Her mom stopped and looked at Thea as though she'd never seen her before. She seemed to remember then that she was the adult in the situation, and managed to open the car door on the first try. Thea got out as well and went around to the front of the car where the boy was leaning on the hood and rubbing his left knee.

"Are you okay?" The boy sucked air through his teeth and nodded once.

"I will be. I can't believe I didn't see you there. It was like one second the road was clear, and the next, you were there. Weird, huh?" Just then, the boy, who had been looking down at his injured knee, glanced up at Thea, and they both froze.

The boy was Thea's polar opposite in looks. He was rail thin and pale in a ratty old too-big Metallica t-shirt. Thea was slender but had a glow of health about her that the boy lacked. He had chocolate brown, wavy hair, and Thea's was long, straight, and honey colored.

But when they looked into each other's eyes, they each felt like they were looking into a mirror. Identical eyes, almost too big for their faces (definitely too big for the boy's face, Thea thought) they were clear blue, with green and gold flecks. Thea felt like she could have been looking at her twin.

Her parents had talked for years about where Thea had gotten her unique eyes. She certainly hadn't gotten them from her parents, because they both had brown eyes. They had decided it must be Great Auntie Ida, which was a joke, since neither one of them had ever had an Aunt Ida. They had told her that no one in the entire world had eyes like hers, and yet here she was, staring directly at her own eyes gaping out of some one else's face.