Chapter 1

                “Hey Dark!”

“Hm.” A black cat turned in response to his friend’s call. He smiled with a wave. “Hi Burton. What’s up?”

The orange cat crossed the yard in front of the school to Dark, who was waiting by the door with a backpack over his shoulder. Burton smiled in reply, “Nothing much, but did you hear about the new girl?”

Dark, for a moment, looked puzzled. “Ah, no.”

As Burton was about to explain they heard the tone ring. “Ah snap!” The two ran as fast as their legs could travel. Upon reaching their assigned classroom, they were stunned to learn the teacher had not arrived. Dark and Burton were relived as they plopped into their seats.

The other students in the classroom was talking loudly and goofing around without the supervision of a teacher’s eyes. All the classmates had relatively the same clothes on, a white shirt and some dark colored pants or shorts.

Another student walked over to Dark and Burton. She was another orange cat, which was known as Melissa. With a grin underneath her yellow eyes, she sat down on the top of Burton’s desk.  

“Hey guys. Ready for second semester?” Melissa grinned. Burton hit his head upon his desk in agony of the thought of more homework, less sleep, and teachers. Dark felt the same way, but he just nodded at Melissa unconvincingly. She chuckled.

One student was standing by the door, peering out to see if anyone was coming. Suddenly he yelled, “Hey! Mrs. Thornma is coming! Quiet down!” With a final yell of despair, everyone quickly ran to his or her seats. Mrs. Thornma was not the teacher who puts up with students very well. Most students feared her, if not all.

As she walked into the classroom, everyone straightened in their seats. This was gonna be a long semester.

Reading glasses hung on her nose as she turned to the class. Mrs. Thornma held tightly to a ruler in her hand. “Class, pardon my lateness, but I had business to attend to.” Dark’s eyes drooped, with a yawn. Mrs. Thornma’s voice was plain, yet strict. But her voice sometimes had such a boring tone; it could make one fall asleep if you listen too long. Most students struggled to stay awake, for fear of her wrath.  “Everyone, for the new semester I’d like to welcome our newest student. Come in!” Mrs. Thornma said through the door.

Burton whispered to the oblivious Dark, “That must be the one I was going to tell you about.” Dark nodded, and slowly turned his head to the opening door.

Walking out from behind the door came a brown hedgehog. She was wearing a similar uniform as they were wearing, along with a simple style of flip-flops. Her quills had been placed into a ponytail that swayed behind her as she walked in. The hedgehog walked next to the teacher and turned toward the class. Her bright blue eyes seemed to shine away the darkness Mrs. Thornma possessed on the students.

The class stared at her for several moments, before the teacher began to introduce her, “Class, this is Sara. She is an exchange student that has come to our school. Please welcome her, and show her around.” As Mrs. Thornma was going to continue there was a knock at the door. The teacher sighed, “Until I come back you may ask Sara questions about herself, but in an orderly fashion!” With that she stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

For a moment the class didn’t know what to do. Sara stood in front of the class, starting to turn red. Slowly, then very sudden, all the students raised their hands in a commotion of questions.

                “Where are you from?”

“How did you get here?”

“How old are you?”

The questions were blurted out by many of the students. It came at such a rush that Sara took a step back. Gaining some composer she smiled at them with small bow, and began to answer their questions.

“I am 15 years old. I live in America and I am apart of a worldwide student exchange program which allows me to travel to other schools in a variety of countries.”

Sara pointed to Burton, who had raised his hand. “Where are you currently staying now that you’re in this country?”

“I’m residing in a house a few blocks from school with a friendly couple, that is apart of the exchange program too.”

From the back, a kid raised his hand. Some of the girls turned to look at him with their hidden smiles. Sara called on him. He grinned as he pushed some bangs from his eyes. He was a White Mountain lion with shimmering blue eyes, quite similar to Sara’s.

“Do you have an American boy friend, babe?” He asked with confidence.

Sara was startled a bit, and twisted her foot on the floor, “Well, ah, no…”

Burton snorted and whispered to Dark, “What an ego Ace has...” Dark nodded, giving a glare toward that kid.

After a few more questions, Mrs. Thronma walked in and placed Sara in a seat toward the back. She sat in-between Dark and Ace, but behind Burton. Sara looked around at them for a moment, but for some reason stared at Dark. Dark blushed a little and gave an awkward smile. She replied with her own small yet flawless grin.

“What’s your name?” She asked, stunning Dark that she was actually talking to him.

“Ah, my name? It's Dark.”