Hey, guys! It's Wednesday!
Well, it is for me when I'm uploading this, anyway. Alright. For those reading my other story, Skandian Slaves, this is really just fluff, and this is way pre Royal Ranger. Heck, it's pre Sorcerer of the North for the canon characters, so... yeah. I was inspired whilst reading past the fanfictions that existed since Royal Ranger(Yes, I went to the 2010 stories out of utter boredom and need for fluff). So, this is literally just fluff... also, anyway. That goes for everyone. The part to the readers of my other story now:
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SKANDIAN SLAVES. It's also going to take my Wednesday updates(Sorry, I came up with the idea the day after I posted the latest chapter there!), so Saturdays are Skandian Slaves, Wednesdays are How Did This Even Happen. Yeah. Uh. Right.
If you're not reading Skandian Slaves and want something with a bit more plot and storyline to it, go check that out! As said before, that one updates on Saturdays. Okay, now I'm done advertising that story.
Anway. Uh. Yeah.
Disclaimer: I'm not Australian, so I'm not John Flanagan. He owns Ranger's Apprentice, not me.

One: Snow Days Save My Sanity!

The first thing I'm going to tell you is this. I have no idea how the following happened. If you can come up with any plausible ideas, please tell me. I've been trying to figure it out since I woke up at five-thirty in the morning when it's windy, snowing, and cold, to the trio of Araluen Rangers on my living room couch with snow melting into the carpet on a Monday morning before school. I had stood there blinking for a good ten minutes before I got up the courage to bother any of them, after going upstairs and finding the most shield-like thing I could - which just happened to be a wooden chair. Great.

I had gently tugged on one's cloak before realization tugged at my muddled consciousness, mind still half asleep, that I had Araluen Rangers in my living room. As soon as I can, I am going to my room and hiding the books, I told myself grimly. It wouldn't do for any of them to know that I knew the deepest, darkest parts of their pasts - and, depending on when they were pulled from their literary existence, futures. Then the realization struck as the saxe knife cut cleanly through the chair that I had bothered quite possibly the least understanding of all three. Great.

I dropped the chair and promptly tripped on the sleeping form of one on the floor, banging my head on the coffee table. I groaned, and managed to roll away from Halt's angry gaze to turn on the light. They were masters at unseen movement - it would help nobody if I left them in the shadows, their natural habitat. I temporarily blinded Halt - a feat to behold, I realized dimly - and startled awake the other two. Or, at least, startled them upright, since I was certain the one I had tripped over was awake as soon as Halt's saxe was out. Before any of them could attack me, I held up my hands in surrender and decided to abandon any pretenses of not knowing the slightest thing about the males in my living room.

"I have coffee. Just don't kill me."

Things went much easier for me after that, to say the least. Three cowls went down, and I realized that I was faced with a sixteen-year-old Will, Gilan, and Halt. All Three were armed, and I stared sadly at the floor now, realizing that they may have tracked in slightly more than just snow from outside. I groaned slightly - I would end up having to clean this mess up. Will was the first to speak up.

"Coffee?"

I sighed. I realized Halt's pain immediately now.

"Yes. That's what I said. Just… be quiet, please? I have sleeping neighbors who will not be nearly as okay with you three being in my house."

Two heads - Will and Gilan's - nodded. Halt didn't respond at all.

"You too," I said, directing it at Halt. He slowly nodded once he realized I wouldn't be letting this go, and I had apparently magic powers - I had turned on the lights in the room without fire or candles, after all. I was going to use this lack of modern knowledge to my advantage until I could explain it to them and not be in a situation where they were so extremely wary of me. Especially Halt.

"Also, I would be much, much more comfortable if…" I trailed off, realizing how ridiculous the request I was about to ask was.

"If?" That was Halt.

"Nevermind. Uh… just, don't freak out, please," I said. The fact that I wasn't already dead meant that they would probably give me time to explain, and it would be pointless to tell them to leave their weapons behind. I led them into the kitchen, and glanced at the coffeepot. I won't lie - I never drink the stuff, but my mom had coffee addiction problems as bad as any Ranger. I had watched her enough times, however, that I could probably figure it out.

My parents weren't even at home right now - my dad had already gone to work, and my mom was out for a few weeks on a school-related trip, since she was a teacher. I had full reign of the house. It was a good thing I had my license, then. A thought struck me, and I covered my ears for a moment as the coffee grinder started up. The three Rangers looked a little startled, too.

"So… uh," I started as soon as the deafening noise had stopped. I would have to act like I knew as little as possible about them, though I had already drawn the coffee card. "I'm Alyssa… what are your names?"

Will stiffened slightly at my name. It sounded a lot like Alyss, I realized. Maybe that could work to my advantage? Probably not. I pushed my short, dark brown hair out of my face as I set the coffeepot on to start.

"I'm Will, that's Gilan, and that's Halt," Will said, pointing to the two Rangers as he got to them. The full Rangers still looked at me warily, though Will seemed a lot more trusting. Which confused me - wouldn't his time in Skandia made him less trusting, rather than more? Ah, well. "How'd you know about the coffee?"

Shoot. I knew immediately that would come back to bite me.

"My mom's really big on it, so… I guess I just said it," I said. I know, it sounded weak. Halt's raised eyebrow told me that he agreed. I sighed mentally, before digging out four mugs and starting the kettle to make myself tea. I started to reach for the cabinet with the honey in it before I remembered that I wasn't supposed to know anything about the trio. That would have made them - especially Halt, I thought with a quick glance to the grim Ranger - more suspicious than they already were.

"Uh… do you guys like sugar, or milk, or… uh…" I trailed off, unsure how to continue that question already knowing the answer. Will seemed to get it, though. It was a good thing the sugar was also in that cabinet, I realized.

"Honey," he said.

"Oh, cool. Though," I said, glancing up with a worried expression at the quarter-full bottle of honey, "I think I might need to get more…" I thought about putting a satisfactory amount of honey into the Rangers' coffee, and then the heaping amounts I usually put in my own tea. "Probably today…"

The kettle clicked, once more startling all three at the table, and I hid a grin by turning around and dumping my tea infuser(filled with black tea leaves - it was the closest I got to coffee, since it had the same amount of caffeine) into the hot water after I poured it. My mug had a bow and arrow on it, and at the bottom on the inside, scrawled words...with one of Halt's more popular sayings, the one about how Rangers practice until they never get it wrong. I made a mental note to not give it to any three. I had painted the words myself, being the immense fan I was, so that would probably be a dead giveaway that I was acting. Thank goodness black tea was dark like coffee, and hid the words until it was empty.

I dumped maybe a quarter of the quarter of the honey bottle into each of their mugs, to their great joy(I thought I was the only one who put that much honey into a drink), and then opened the fridge. I forgot for a moment that the three were utterly, totally unaware of the modern appliances that made my life easier, so I startled them once more when I pulled the tupperware containing my hash browns(I'm a sucker for them) out of it.

"What's that?" Will asked.

"What? Oh, this. It's called a refrigerator, though usually we just call it a fridge… it keeps food and drink cold, but not frozen," I elaborated.

"What's the thing at the bottom?"

"It's a freezer. That's what keeps things frozen."

"What are you holding? Why did light come out of your… uh… fridge? What kinds of things-" Will started, and I held up a hand.

"Calm down! Is he always like this?" I asked, looking to Halt and Gilan. Secretly, I was smiling internally. This was just like Will. Of course, it would startle anyone who didn't know him - and I was supposed to know nothing about Rangers, so I kept the charade up.

"Yes," both Rangers said in unison, and Will glared at them, before turning back to me.

"Okay then… Will, these are like…" I tried to find a way to explain hash browns without further confusing the boy. "Oh, like potatoes, but formed into patties, and they're really oily," I said, then realized I forgot the second part to my hash-brown breakfast treat - cheese. I dove back into the fridge, and pulled out a bag of mozzarella. Will's eyes widened.

"What-"

"It's cheese. You do know what cheese is, yes?" I said, cutting off the inevitable question. Will nodded, face reddening, and I could see the edge of Halt's mouth start to twitch up, and Gilan was making no such movement - his mouth was already in a smile. That was a good sign, that Halt was starting to smile, I realized.

"Also, the light is so you can see in the fridge. And I frankly don't know everything in my fridge," I said, and Will looked doubtful at that.

"You don't know everything in there?"

"No."

"No?"

I stared at him, and did my best to fight off my best Halt impression - don't repeat what I just said back to me. I held back the smile with surprising ability. Will got the idea. I also had to do my best in that period to not let my eyebrow go up. That would probably be a dead giveaway to Halt that I was holding something back, which was not a good idea. I turned back to the counter and pulled my tea infuser out, rinsing it out in the sink - to the shocked gazes of Gilan and Will, and Halt's non-visible shock - and putting it away. I then put together my hash brown cheese breakfast concoction - exorbitant amounts of cheese over the two patties I put on my plate - and threw it into the microwave with the cover on for a minute. I just started to ignore the surprise by this point. I dumped the last quarter of the honey into my tea and waited patiently for the microwave to finish while getting a fork and napkin. I glanced at the clock. It was six now, so if I ate fast…

Now the problem re-appeared in my head.

"Uh… so, I have school today," I said, to no registering response from the three Araluens. "I need to go there, and learn stuff, and I can't really… bring you?"

"Just leave us here then," Halt said - one of the first things he said all day.

"I don't…" I stopped. I don't think it would be safe to leave you three here all day. Yeah, that would totally go over well. "I don't know how good an idea that is," I quickly amended. I repeated my mental note to hide the Ranger's Apprentice books from them as soon as I got upstairs. This answer didn't have the best response, either, though.

"Why not?"

"I don't want you breaking anything," I said, my gaze slipping over to Will, who was trying to get up without being noticed to go investigate the fridge. "Will, no," I said, and he appeared shocked. Once more, Halt was trying to fight back a smile, and Gilan was trying desperately to fight back laughter. I turned an exasperated gaze to Halt. "Do you see what I'm saying? The last time our fridge broke, we had to buy a new one, and those aren't cheap. I don't want to explain to my mother why we needed to buy a new fridge."

Halt was nodding, while Will sat back down sulkily. I sat down at the edge of the table that had papers, backpacks, and random plastic containers strewn about, balancing the plate on my leg and putting down my mug on a tiny space on the table after draining maybe half of it. The mug was also hidden from the Rangers' sight, in the case that one - namely, Will - got curious and looked over when it was empty. That would go over poorly, I was certain.

"So, uh… I would bring you, but…" I paused, trying to pick my words with what I knew of all three - which was quite a bit. "Two adults going in to school with me - particularly, two adult males in Medieval clothing - would draw attention that I don't want. Also, I would take Will with me, but…" I caught Halt's warning gaze, and realized I was on very, very thin ice. I gathered that Skandia had already occurred, then. "Once again, Medieval clothing. I could probably find something upstairs…" I made sure not to mention either Halt or Will's height. "Uh, at least for Will, while I'm getting my own clothes, and I could keep an eye on him - I could make up some sort of story about how he's from another school, and related to me, and was just shadowing me to get a feel for the school so that he didn't end up being in any other rooms." Also, so that he doesn't get picked on for not knowing what a projector or a phone is, I added mentally. That wouldn't go over well with Halt. Bullying was a sore subject with me, too.

"I don't think I could find anything for you or Gilan, though," I continued, talking to Halt once more. "For one, Gilan's too tall, and for another, I haven't the slightest idea what I could come up with for either one of you being at school with me. Will looks about fifteen or sixteen, so he could blend in as a twin or slightly older or younger brother, or even a cousin, since I'm fifteen right now."

If Halt could actually shoot daggers at someone with his glare, I would be dead over a hundred times right now.

"Why can't we just stay here, though?" He said. My phone dinged, and I held up a finger to check it. There was a lot of snow - the idea just popped into my head that we might get a snow day. Sure enough, I just got an e-mail from my school saying that we had one.

"I guess you could," I said, and all three just looked at me with surprise. Will's gaze was riveted on my phone, though. Probably too curious as to what it was.

"Snow day," I said, and sighed at the confused looks. "It means that I have school off because it's too dangerous to drive, due to snow and ice outside," I elaborated.

"Drive?" Will questioned, and I sighed.

"Yes. It's like riding. But…" Hmm… how to explain cars to him. Luckily, I was spared the explanation when my dad texted me that he wouldn't be getting back that night because of snow. Apparently, there was a blizzard forecasted. Lovely. We never had those in the American Southwest, I thought. Some force decided to give us awful weather so I could educate the three Araluen Rangers sitting in my kitchen right now.

"Anyway," I said, stretching and taking my dishes and putting them in the dishwasher - I also promptly ignored Will's new stream of questions, telling myself I would put up with it after a shower - "I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed. Uh… also, can you three please take off the muddy boots? My parents are going to kill me if they see the carpet like that. Thanks," I said, not waiting for a reply, and dashed upstairs to take that shower and hide any and all things Ranger's Apprentice in my room. That would take a while, I thought with a sigh. O, Cosplay and Sewing Machine, what a cruel twist you have given me, I thought grimly. I had so many custom-designed Ranger's Apprentice clothing pieces that it would take the time the shower needed to warm up and then some to hide it all. The books were the least of my worries.