Chapter One- What is Normal?

"Wake up!" A teenager with pink hair shouts as she jumps on top of a bed. Underneath her is a body covered by a mountain of blankets. A pair of feet stick out at the bottom of the covers, revealing fuzzy socks with little ghosts designed on them.

"Come on! You said you'll go!" The pink haired girl plops down onto the legs of the body underneath the covers causing it to stir.

"I need sleep!" A voice says from under the covers and the pink haired girl pulls them back.

"What?" Laying underneath the covers is a girl of the same age with dreadlocks and tattoos covering her right arm. 

The two girls look nothing alike and share nothing in common except for the star shaped birthmark along their collarbone.

"Sleep!" She tries to pull the covers back over her head, but the pink haired girl is preventing her from doing so.

"Hero Claudine Henderson! You get up right this instant!" Hero sits up quickly, nearing knocking the pink haired girl off the bed.

"Never say my full name out loud." She wipes at her eyes and glances at her window. 

There is barely any light shining in and the room is almost completely dark except for the lamp on the other side.

"I don't know why you hate your name so much. I like it. It's unique." The pink haired girl jumps off the bed, her heels making a loud clicking noise when they hit against the wooden floor.

"It's stupid." Hero rubs her head and then the back of her neck. When she does, she is met with a explosion of pain.

"Get dressed sleepyhead." The pink haired girl opens up the drawers of Hero's dresser pushed against the wall and is met with barely any clothing inside them.

"Where's you clothes?" She asks and Hero points toward the corner where dirty clothes are piled up on top of each other.

"Why didn't you tell me you needed you clothes washed?" The pink haired girl, Sabrina, asks and Hero shrugs.

"Why didn't you tell me you washed clothes?" Sabrina frowns and abandons the idea of helping Hero to get dressed.

"Can you please hurry. It's going to start soon." What Sabrina is referring to is their school's winter festival. Usually Hero would never go to any festivities that their school holds, especially on one of her rare off days from work, but she owes Sabrina.
        "Fine." Sabrina claps her hands excitedly and Hero forces herself out of bed.
        She slowly makes her way to her window and peeks out it where she sees first hand the aftermath of the snow storm they had last night.
        Everything is covered in inches of snow, it makes the world outside her window look white. It is one of the things she loves about winter; the way it make everything look so beautiful.
       She glances at Sabrina and notices for the first time her attire.
       She is wearing high heels almost the same length as Hero's arm, a plaid skirt with black leggings and a cashmere sweater with a kitten design on the front.
        "Dear lord what are you wearing?"  Hero begins plucking off her own pajamas and Sabrina does a twirl before facing away from Hero.
      "What do you mean? This is very cute." She plays with the edges of her skirt and Hero shakes her head, knowing nothing she will say will make Sabrina change her clothes.
       She opens her dresser and pulls out her last clean black sweat-shirt, faded jeans and a pair of raggedy glow-in-the-dark shoes that she's had forever.
       Reminder to self, buy new shoes. She turns around to speak to Sabrina, but finds that she is gone.There is a loud honking outside and she already knows who's making it.
      She brushes her teeth and washes her face. When she is done, she examines the large bruise that has begun to form on the back of her neck. When she touches it, it hurts. She is glad her dreads are long to cover it or it would cause too many unwanted questions.
        There is more honking, followed by shouting that she can barely understand.
         "Hold on!" She shouts down the steps and is met with a cool breeze. She kneels down and finds that Sabrina has left the front door opened.
         "Jesus." She mumbles as she grabs her backpack filled with many things other then her schoolwork and heads down the steps.
         Grabbing her key from its hook, she locks the door and is hit hard in the face by a gust of cold wind.
        She rummages in her book bag and at the bottom of it is a lime green beanie with a puffball at the end of it. It is designed to resemble a owl. She is glad no one will able to see her ghost socks or she'll just be ridiculed even more then she already is.
        Sabrina sits in her new mustang (a gift from her father as his way of apologizing to her for her not being able to let her stay with him and his new step family) lip singing to the radio. If she was hurt by his actions, she doesn't show it.
        Sabrina honks the horn again even though Hero is inches away from the car.
        When she slips into the seat, she immediately turns down the stereo. Sabrina is constantly blasting Kate Perry. Hero is sure that Sabrina owns every album ever put out by Kate Perry. She even owns a few albums that have Kate Perry featured on them.
        "I'm afraid I missed it!" She shrieks as she presses on the gas pedal and the car lets out a loud roar in response.
        "Maybe you should take the car out of parked." Hero instructs and Sabrina's cheeks turn a bright red.
         "Woopsie." She mumbles as she puts the gear in drive and takes off down the street. She is going sixty miles per hour as she whips the car over a bend. It is a surprise to Hero how she doesn't have a speeding ticket yet.
         Instead of focusing on Sabrina's dangerous driving, she directs her attention outside where they past things in a blur.
         She barely gets time to focus on anything, until a raven appears in the sky. It is a dark contrast against the white background.
          Hero whistles low and the raven flies right beside the car. Sabrina doesn't notice as she gets a call and is left driving one handed in order to answer it.
          Hero rolls down her window, letting the chilly air in and the raven gets so close to the window, that she gets the brief thought that it is going to fly in, but instead it tosses a rolled up piece of paper with a red ribbon tied around it.
         The message falls onto her lap and the bird goes screeching off. Sabrina finally stares at Hero, but the raven has already disappeared.
          "Oh my gosh, are you trying to freeze us to death." Sabrina rolls up Hero's window, taking her only free hand off the steering wheel to press the button on her left to roll up Hero's window.
          "Yeah, I'm almost there! He's what? Never mind, we're here." Sabrina speeds into the parking lot, ignoring the fee to park and whips the car into a parking space.
          She touches the screen of her phone to hang it up and without warning, goes running from the car. She doesn't even turn it off.
          Hero takes the keys out of the ignition, pays the toll and then slowly makes her way over to the grand building where the festival will be held.
         It is one of the fanciest banquet halls in the city and has a sign posted outside explaining where the festival will be held.
          Hero walks inside and is immediately met with the sight of a line of roses on long glass stands along the wall. There are large windows at the end of the hallway and low hanging chandeliers that provide little light.
          The double doors at the end have velvet cloth on them and golden doorknobs. The right door is held open by a brick that allows some of the warm air into entrance. 

Hero slips the paper into her pocket making a mental note to read it later.

When she climbs down the steps into the ballroom, it has been set up with different booths and a large white tent hung up just outside.

People ice skate on the frozen lake and a few students she recognizes from school walk around in purple shirts which means they are running the festival. It was originally meant to be held outside in the State Park not far from here, but after the snowstorm it was moved into the banquet hall.

People crowd into the tent where a stage has been set up with large speakers on either side of it.

Hero hates being around so many people she goes to school with. They are rich and wear the fanciest designer clothing. She, on the other hand, gets most of her wardrobe from the local Wal-Mart.
"Oh, look, the poor b***h is here. I hope the bus fee didn't cost too much." Hero rolls her eyes as Georgina comes strutting over to her wearing a outfit just as skimpy as Sabrina's despite the cold weather.

"Who you calling a b***h?" Hero has never been the one to back down to anybody. She can feel her temper rising at Georgina's name calling. 

Georgina smiles smugly. She knows that she is getting under her skin.

"What? You don't know your name poor b***h? If it wasn't for Sabrina's daddy's money, you would still be living in that run down shack in the ghetto." Georgina mocks, flipping her long red hair.

 She dyed it red when Sabrina dyed hers pink. They used to be best friends, but now they are more enemies then friends. They smile in each other's face, despite bashing each other with behind their backs. Hero doesn't understand it, she has always been upfront with the people she doesn't like. She doesn't feel the need to smile in Georgina's face, because they both mutually hate each other. She has no reason to pretend as if their friends. 

"I see your usual a*s kissers aren't following behind you. Are they taking a break from swallowing your bullshit?" Hero retorts and Sabrina frowns before smiling again.

"Oh, you made a funny." She rolls her eyes and takes a sip from her drink. 

"You should watch who you talk to." Hero says as she walks away and she taps the bottom of the cup causing the liquid inside to spill onto the front of Sabrina's blouse that is unbuttoned low enough to reveal her hot pink bra underneath.

"You-" Sabrina is drowned out by the sound of music as four guys begin playing what rock music. She isn't a big fan of rock or any other genre of music besides rap, but she will endure it if it satisfies Sabrina.

She walks away from the still bitching Georgina and finds Sabrina dangerously close to the stage. Hero is sure that if one of the band member sweat, it will fall on her.

"Look how delicious he looks." She shouts, gawking at her boyfriend who is the guitarist.

 He is also one of the most popular guys in their school and the captain of the soccer team. Ezekiel is one of the few people in the school that don't get on Hero's nerves. He isn't the usual rich boy nor is he the over confident jerk, he is the type of guy that goes with the flow. He and Sabrina balance each other by being complete opposites.

He stares up from the guitar and locks eyes with Sabrina. They are stuck in this trance, it is a wonder to Hero how he is still able to play the guitar so well while staring so intently at Sabrina. 

After a minute or so of watching the both of them undress each other with their eyes, Hero has enough and decides to leave. She is glad that she doesn't cross path with Georgina or her lackeys.

Ever since she's moved in with Sabrina and transferred to her new school, Georgina has had it out for her. She is the one that got most of the up-tight rich kids to hate her. Sabrina explained to her that Georgina has always been hostile to people who become close friends to her. 

Hero takes a seat on a bench half covered with snow. She wipes it off before getting comfortable.

The music is still blaring from the tent and even from here she can see the couples making out in the forest. It is not hard to see them since the trees no longer have leaves and the forest is so close to the banquet. Luckily for them, there is no teaches supervising this festival. Well, there are a few, but they're the type of teachers who would rather sit around then actually make sure everyone is following the rules. 

She takes out the piece of paper and glances around before untying the red ribbon.

On the paper is a list of symbols meant to be a code that she easily understands.

Go to usual meeting. Bring others. Keep Quiet

                                                             -The League

"Always so dramatic." She mumbles under her breath as black flames shoot up from the palm of her hand and burns the letter to ashes.