1. Welcome to New York

"And that's game!" Fred grinned like he had just won the gold medal at the Olympics.

"Yes, Fred. You have proven for the hundredth time today that you are the champion of flag football," Sam said as he stood up to dust himself off after just being tackled by Fred. He examined a bruise on his upper arm. "You don't think that's broken, do you?" He held it out for Joe to inspect.

Joe gently pushed Sam's arm away. "I think you'll live. And Fred, you do know there is no tackling in flag football right?" Joe, like Sam, was covered in grass stains and bruises from Fred's rough play style.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" He threw the football up in the air and caught it. "I didn't hit you guys that hard. Good thing you two aren't on a real football team. You'd never survive." He chuckled to himself.

"Speaking of real football, don't you have practice in thirty minutes?"

"I was planning on being a little late today."

"Avoiding someone?" Sam teased.

"No." Fred looked down.

"Do you know how many guys would love to have a pretty cheerleader chase after them?"

"I know, but Sienna is just so-"

"Hey, Fred!" A singsong voice shouted.

Fred groaned. "Here we go."

A girl with bleach blonde hair bounced up to them. The sun reflected on her hair, making it look brighter and to see her you practically had to squint. The girl had dark gold eyes and deeply tanned skin that if you looked close enough, had an orange tint to it.

She spoke with a grating, honeyed voice, "I thought we could walk to school together since the cheerleaders have practice as the same time as the football team." She batted her long eyelashes at him. "It was so hard to find you, but I figured you'd be off somewhere doing something sporty. Always the jock." She placed her hand on his shoulder and let out a high-pitched laugh. "I'm so glad I could get you before you left. Not that I'm surprised. I'm used to getting what I want." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and winked.

Fred shrugged her hand off. "Well, actually I-"

"Oh, come on, Fred. She came all this way to find you," Joe snickered behind Fred.

"Yeah, Fred. She just wants to walk with you. You could at least give her that," Sam joined in.

Fred smirked. "Well, I was planning on heading over with Joe and Sam, but I guess you could join us, right guys?"

Joe and Sam's snickering stopped and they glared at him.

"Oh." Sienna looked down. "That's not exactly what I had in mind. You sure we can't go together? Alone?"

"I can't just bail on my friends like that." Fred threw his arms over Joe and Sam's shoulders. "These guys really wanted to come watch the practice. Right, guys?"

"Fine." Sienna crossed her arms and glared at Sam and Joe as if this was their fault. She flashed Fred a quick, false smile and grabbed his hand. "Come on, we don't want to be late." Begrudgingly, Fred followed. He looked back to make sure Joe and Sam were coming too.

"Why did he have to drag us along?" Sam shuffled his feet behind Fred and Sienna, who were moving very quickly. "I have homework to do!" He threw his hands up in exasperation. "Cade and I were supposed to meet up at the library soon."

"I have lessons with Uncle Joe in an hour. I can't go to this." Joe debated on how hard it would be to sneak away and if he was ethically okay with leaving his best friend alone with a questionably crazy girl. He decided he was. "So Sam, if we are really quiet, I think we-"

"Ow! Watch where you're going, freak!" Sienna shrieked and scowled at the female intruder. They had rounded a corner and slammed into each other.

"Sorry. I'm actually kind of new here. Maybe you could help me? I'm looking for an old friend of mine. A few friends actually. Well, 'friend' is a strong word. Acquaintance would probably fit better. Then again we didn't really have the best start and I may have technically kidna-"

"Please, shut up. We're in a hurry." Sienna shoved the girl away and kept marching along, pulling Fred with her. "So, as I was saying, I think the football team is looking great this year, especially you."

The girl Sienna had bumped into blinked her dark brown eyes as if trying to understand what just happened and what she did to make Sienna so upset with her. She ran a pale-skinned hand threw her natural looking light blonde hair that was styled in a short cut with lots of layers. She sighed as Joe and Sam crossed in front of her, trying to sneak away.

"Joe?"

Joe stopped to turn around and look at the girl. He studied her for a couple of seconds. "I'm sorry. Do I know you?"

Sienna and Fred had stopped and turned around. "Do you this energetic girl?" Sienna scrutinized her.

"It's me, Kairi."

"Kairi?" Joe blinked in surprise. "You look different."

Kairi let out a soft laugh. "Yeah, it's a long story. You see-"

"Why don't you tell me later?" Joe stopped her before she could begin another Kairi-speech.

"Okay." She put on a wide grin. "So, where are you headed?"

"Fred's football practice," Joe said at the same time Sienna said, "None of your business."

"Um, Joe? I thought you and I were going to, you know, leave?" Sam spoke up.

Fred frowned. "Hey. Not fair."

"We can stay for a little bit, Sam."

"Not me. I told you, I'm meeting Cade at the library to do some homework."

"The school library?"

"Well, yes but-"

"Then you have to be there anyway. Come on. You want to join us, Kairi?"

Kairi perked up. "Definitely. I was looking for you actually. There's so much I need to talk to you about, and not just about me. I'm sure you're eager to hear about a certain someone." Kairi gave him a teasing grin.

"Who?" Fred and Sam asked simultaneously.

"It's no one." But the look Joe gave Kairi said they would be talking more later.

Kairi smiled. "So, shouldn't we be heading to your school?"

Sienna crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "She can't come. She doesn't even go there. Practices are private."

"It'll be fine, Sienna. We need to hurry." Fred was glad to let another person join the group to help keep Sienna's wild flirting at bay.

Sam sighed. "Now that that's settled, I vote we actually get going. At this rate, I'll never get my homework done."

"You're more worried about missing Cade." Fred teased.

"I-" Sam sighed again. "Can we just get going?"

A/N: So, I'm back? If you're interested you can go check out my profile for a full explanation. But I'm happy to be writing again and I'd love to see what you guys think of this story so please leave a review! I know this is a low-action chapter, but I promise it picks up after this. I just needed this chapter to be a set-up for the rest of the story, which will be really short. By the way, this takes place after The Australian Secret and Crossing Worlds. Thanks for reading!