The Ando-Gaia Project is a companion story to my original story. its about a pyro named Shadow and her adventures. i actually started at the begining of this one!
Go back to --> The Red Hibiscus
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“Hey we almost there?” I asked. Shadow looked over shrugged and stared at the road again. “can I at least have a clue as to where we’re goin?” 
“Broadvale” she said without looking over.
“oh yeah that helps. I could at least use the state were going to..” I grumbled. She didn’t answer and I didn’t expect her too. Shadow had been driving for about 12 hours now, and none of us had a clue how she did it. How shed ever done it was the biggest thing. We were on the road traveling to a new town, new home, and new school for about the 6th time in almost 2 years. None of us where adults, and some how no one noticed.
“you two smell like smoke you know that?” came Rorys bored drawl behind us.
“oh and you don’t?” I countered.
“course, but not as bad as you two.”
“what does it matter, theres more than one shower at the new house” Shadow said, breaking our argument.
“dunno, im bored Dow, we need something to do.”
“if you go through my case, you’ll find the house plan up top, fight over wich room you get or something.”
We all dove for the case and were pretty much occupied for about 10 minets before we were bored again.
“Are we almost there now?” I asked, in the front seat again. Shadow pointed to the east as we went over a hill. A huge city sprawled over the hills, causing us all to flock to the windows, finally after 12 hours we were there! My stomach twisted into a million knots , a familiar fealing. You’d think that after the 6th time it’d wear off, but the way shadow did her stuff, you just couldn’t help it. She made it exciting, and a little scary too, but by now we trusted her. She is tons tougher that she looks. We all gabbed excitedly over what kind of time we were going to have, especially ecstatic over the fact wed be staying her for almost 5 months, and all time record, and had been allowed to dress, act, look like we did before we left the first time. My hair was dark brown again, good thing for me cause five months of bleached blond wouldn’t have been good for it. Looking back behind me I saw the smiling face of one of the girls wed picked up in our travels, Brooke Langer, who was above all happy to settle down. She and Ariel Zanthe were run aways, although they were cool about moving all the time, it showed that they didn’t trust Shadow like we did. 30 minets of driving through traffic brought us to a nice two story house in one of Broadvales suburbs. Pulling into the drive way, Shadow pulled out the garage door opener, that she somehow already had, and pulled into a two car garage. Moment Shadow put it in park we all burst out of the cramped car and ran in, already knowing were our rooms were. The house was furnished, and smelled new. There were windows everywhere, something you didn’t see all that often in the houses Shadow got for us. I ran into my room on the second floor and marveled at just how cool it was, too much like my old room, it was weird in a way, but awesome none the less. Dropping my bags I went to go see what the other girl’s rooms looked like, wich confirmed what I was thinking. Shadow had anticipated wich rooms we’d pick, and had them furnished to look like our old rooms. After a while we got bored looking at bedrooms and explored the rest of the house. The house plan hadn’t done the place justice in how cool it was. The couches in the living room were HUMUNGUS and cushy, but not too cushy, there was a t.v. on the wall, big screen with a ton of games, DVD’s and other things around. Chillin out watching whatever was on we waited for Shadows typicall new residence breifing. Walking in, it was clear the Shadow had showered, and napped by the smile on her face. In her hands she had two new cases, obviously loaded to the max with goodys as too who we were now. Sitting on the coffee table she set them down on top of each other and opened the first one. She pulled out a freakishly thin, super light laptop with some stapled papers on top of it. Reading the paper she handed it to Rory whos eyes got wide and started scrolling the paper. We were just as equally shocked when she pulled out a stack of papers and laptop for each of us. Giving us time to oh and ah over our new gifts she went into the kitchen and got some food for us. Looking down at my paper, I saw the name Denver Rae Charles typed out on front written below was “school records.” I almost started crying when I relized what it ment. Shadow was giving us 5 months of “as normal as possible” that she could. We wouldn’t have to go by fake names, fake identities, and fake storys for almost half a year. Brooke must have relized this too, cause when Shadow got back into the room she was almost knocked over by a hug. Prying Brooke off of her she resumed sitting on the table, and helped herself to some summer sausage. Smiling again, she said “I figured you might like that. The laptops are for school, wich normally people board at, but I managed to well, you know” and we did. Shadow was possibly the best programmer in the group ever since we left, her skills popping up almost over night. We talked excitedly when she interrupted. “ I have some more good news”
“more, dang you went all out this time didn’t you Dow” Gina smiled
“yeah well firstly, all out shopping spree, any thing you can get for 1000 dollars each.” squeels and smiles all around interrupted. “and after a lot of thought, you guys can, well, you can date” we were big eyes all around. Normally this wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but 2 years of a strict no dating rules, this way a serious break through. Every one took turns hugging her and running our new stuff to our rooms. About an hour later we were down stairs, all redressed, and showered, and ready to go on this shopping spree she had told us about. She showed up and we all piled in. the city was huge, and was possibly the nicest one we’d ever been in. the mall was massive. The second day we spent at the mall, we ran into some of our future classmates, well more Rory and Shadow did. In the food court Shadow was acting like her old self, and was goofing off with Rory, when all of a sudden she ran into a kid with dark brown hair. He grabbed her arm with his strong grip and kept her from falling. We all laughed, and so did his friends a guy with black hair, and another with sandy blond. “you alright?”
“yeah, geuss so.” Shadow said blushing., obviously embarrassed at her clutzyness. An odd moment passed in silence till Rory pipped up. “im Rory” she said putting her arm over Shadows shoulders, “and this is Shadow Lee.” tilting her head over towards Dow. “hey, Rory and Shadow, my names Logan this “ he pointed to the dark haired boy. “is Daren and this” he ponted to the blonde one “is Sam” they both nodded and said hey. “so where do you guys go to school?” Rory said giving the guys a smile. “Karstean High, and you?” Rory looked over at Shadow for answers, obviously having skipped out on her packet “yeah us too.” Shadow said getting over her embarrassment. “you guys wanna eat with us?” sounding a little out of character. “yeah” they joined us and and we were introduced. “Brooke, Gina, Denver, and Ariel“ Rory said motioning to each of us. The Sam caught my eye and smiled at me. “so you guys new here?” Logan asked, staring at Shadow. “well, I am, and so are Brooke and Gina, but the rest of us are transferring from other schools, are parents were friends when they were younger, and so weve known each other for a pretty long time.” cutting off all other questions for her. It didn’t work though. “so how long have you had your do’?” Daren asked, obviously not digging her half boy-short half sholder legnth blue and purple hair, some thing shed done before torching the old house 3 days ago. “about a year” keeping her cool with the rude guy. “and how long have you had yours ?” she asked tilting her head to the side. “since I was born” he said annoyed. “really, well it turning red this late in life is a rather weird aging thing.” she said pointing at his barley visible roots.” obviously annoyed he started to get up but both logan and Sam grabbed him and sat him back down. “lighting” he mumbled but no one believed him. Once the guys finished they got up and started walking off. “hey we’ll see you at the beginning of the semester.” logan said walking off. Daren looked as if he couldn’t be happier. The next few days went by smoothly, and all of us had to get familiar with our packets. Shadow would even sometimes drill us on it! Also, 3 days before school started we got our uniforms. Rory came in already wearing hers. Twirling around in it, i was the first one to have an opinion about it. “its just like in Japanese anime!”
“im not wearing that!” Gina said “I don’t wear skirts, specially not ones that short.”
“oh come on guys, its this or a small school with us being here for 2 months.” shadow said crossing her arms. And anyways, I can always make it longer.” they all looked at her funny.
“you can sew?” came Brookes surprised voice.
“more or less” Shadow shrugged. “and anyways, try it on, 3 days is still enough time to get it fixed professionally.”
Everyone went to their rooms, got changed and came back in. Gina told Shadow that unless hers was made longer that she would absolutely not wear it. Shadow nodded and took Ginas extra skirts elsewhere. The day before school started Shadow got up early and brushed her hair so that it looked like it was all one length dressed up in a nice shirt and dress pants. Walking out of the house she was gone for about 5 hours. When she got home everyone wanted to know where shed gone. “oh you know, out.” no one got a straight answer. so they dropped it. It wasnt that important anyways. The next morning Shadow woke us all up at 6 and no one was happy about it, since we didn’t need to be there for two hours. Once we got to the kitchen we were all curious as to why they were up so early. “what the heck, why do we gotta get up so dang early Dow?” Ariel said between bites of cereal. “were walking today.”
“What!!” Brooke said nearly spewing her food. “weve never had to worry about the car before.”
“2 months or five” Shadow said walking out of the room.
“jeez sometimes I swear that shes totally paranoid” Brooke said.
“is not!” Rory Gina and me burst out.
“she didn’t mean anything by it” Ariel said getting up to wash her bowl. “but you guys gotta agree, she does go a little bit overboard sometimes. Its effective I geuss. But, you know, we’re still getting used to it.”


I went into my room, the others were obviously not happy that we’d have to walk. I couldn’t explain my reasons, I did what I felt was best. And so far it had worked almost perfectly. Slipping on my school skirt I sighed. The stupid thing was way too short. I touched my hands together and touched the tip of my skirt. The buzzing fealing rushed out and my skirt was a few inches longer. It was still really short, but a light wind wouldn’t be able to show the world the underneath. I really would have never thought that people actually made uniforms this short. I combed my hair into one lenth and looked into the mirror. Id gotten careless last week and burned myself. Touching it gingerly I began to cover it with makeup. None of the girls knew about it. Putting a band in my hair to keep it the way it was I started cleaning up my room turning to my closet I saw my stuff for work unlocked. Pressing a button on my bracelet the whole thing closed up and locked itself. I knew better to leave it out, but id been tired last night. Sitting down on my bed I leaned over and crossed my arms. My friends didn’t know this, but I really didn’t want to start over at a new school. By now I knew what to expect, but still I was dead nervous. Lacing up my boots, I hoped that I didn’t stand out to much like this, but mabey id have to do something a little later on to change it. Standing up I glanced over to the clock, 6:45. Good, the walk to school was almost 30 minets and I needed a while to find stuff. Walking out of my room I picked up my scattered out stuff from the office and brushed my teath. Twenty minets later everyone else had finally finished getting ready. Walking out the door they had a lot to say, but there was a little tension between the original group and the runaways, obviously something had gone down after id left the kitchen. “whats up with you guys?” I asked. “nothing.” Ariel grumbled. “they think your paranoid” Gina said glaring at Ariel. “really.” is all I said. The group was quiet for a while untill Denver successfully broke the silence by talking about the guys we’d met at the mall. Brooke and Ariel. didn’t get into it very much. They started to hang back, so I started to too. “listen you guys” they froze up a bit. “im not mad at you, this is a little crazy isn’t it.” they relaxed. “listen to me, I know that we don’t know each other very well. But now we have 5 months to get to know each other in a normal situation.” I smiled and so did they. “so we’re cool?”
“yeah cool.” Ariel said as Brooke nodded with her.
We walked to the school, and I was a little taken away by how many people where there. But I just had to remind myself that I had friends, at least one in each class. I rushed to find my locker, getting split up from everyone else. I was almost done putting everything away in my locker when a familiar voice came up behind me. “Shadow!” standing up and turning around I almost knocked into logan. Sam and Darren weren’t with him this time, and I was pretty greatfull about it. He smiled at me and took a step back to save me the embarassment. “Caught any other clutzy girls at the mall?” I said, shutting my locker door with my foot. “none other than you, hey, I like your hair today.”
“Mmhmm, sure you do. Anyways, what your first class.?”
“Physics, but no really I do.”
“hey cool that’s my first class” ignoring his compliment I walked on studying his schedual.
“sooo. What did you do all week?”
“got settled in, you know, im still getting used to this town.” I said meating his eyes. They were so warm they made me feel comfortable. “you”
“oh you know, helped out round the house, got ready for school, got Darren to re-dye his roots.” he said smiling at me as we walked into class. I had to laugh, it was honestly funny!
“whats so funny?” came a girls silky voice from within the class room.
“oh, Darren” Logan said suddenly forgetting about me. The girl- a blond girl that was obviously popular- walked smoothly up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. I was about to walk away and find a seat when Logan spoke up. “uhm hey Mea, this is uh, that girl that I met at the mall.
“oh her, the clutzy one? Was she wearing those massive boots of hers?”
“no, she was wearing normal shoes, Mea this is Shadow.”
“Shadow is it? Nice pretend name.”
“its not made up, its my middle name” I grumbled.
“yeah uh-huh, well ill see you later bed-head.” she said in a kinda sick tone. I was so not going to hang out with logan anymore, ‘specially if he had a girlfriend like that! I sat down in back, hoping that someone half decent would sit next to me. For the next few minets I started writing down notes about this place, like I always did. Suddenly Logan pulled out the chair next to me and sat down. Plopping his stuff down he looked over at what I was doing. “whats that?” he asked as I shoved it away. “nothing”
“oh yeah, so that’s why you didn’t want me to see it..” he was in a joking mood again. I wasn’t.
“so why didn’t you go sit with your girlfriend. Shes obviously really into you.”
“oh well, between her army of vane little idiots, and the fact that shes not my girlfriend.”
“you are trying overly hard to make me laugh arent you.”
“its possible” he looked forward and my reply was cut off when the teacher started up.
“now class, this is the start of a new semester, a clean slate for all of you.”
“you could say that again.” Logan whispered. I looked over and felt oddly like he was like me, but that couldn’t be so, no one else did junk like I did, did they? Role call began and I completely zoned out. “Mellissa S. Lee?” I didnt hear him at first.
“Mellissa Shadow Lee?”
“I go by Shadow”
“intresting…..” he obviously didn’t care. The girl in front laughed, and the teacher called her name
“Priccilla Strib?”
“Here” she mumbled.
“Priccilla? And she made fun of my name?” I said giving Logan a look, that was answered with a smile on his part.
“so whats her deal with you?”
“oh I don’t know, I think that she wants to date me or something..” he sighed “right now I cant, im too busy”
“gotta job or something”
“nah, at home I have well…… stuff”
“yeah, me too” he stopped talking and I was glad too, cause he’d gotten a little too close to things. It scared me to think that I wasn’t the only one at out table keeping secrets.
"now class, i hope you like the person sitting next to you, because he or she, as always, are going to be your partner for the rest of the year." the teacher announced. i didnt know weather it was a good or bad thing, but Logan looked over and smiled at me. well then, it was a good thing for him. at least he was happy. the teacher went rambling on about nothing and i zoned out. Logan pulled out a notebook and started writing down something. not wanting to be nosy i looked up at the teacher, but out of the corner of my eye i saw he was writing a note to me. what do you like to do after school?" i almost choked on the suprise. was this guy asking me what id like to do for real? and if so that could only mean he was gonna ask me to go and do whatever i put down. skateboarding i wrote. there, now that was something that couldnt possibly be romantic or datish in any way. smiling at my cleverness i turned to listen to the teacher. truth be told, i was even a fairly good skateboarder. id learned during our stay in california. really, you want to go to the skate park after school? what?! i was hopping he'd ask for friday. but nonetheless. the girls would be proud. sure, sounds great, 6:30 then? he nodded and we went back to pretending to listen to the teacher. finally the bell rang and i got up to go, but logan held me up. "do you want to meet a little earlier and get some food too?" i just smiled and resisted the urge to pull my skirt down as close to my knees as possible. "no" i sweetly replied and walked out of the room. i was still being a good girl. no real dates or anything. mabey if he asks me again. i thought. but i didnt count on it. i did my best to freak guys out, and usually they stopped asking.

the day had gone so fast that i hardly noticed how much i hated being in a new school. Logan seemed to be in all the classes my friends werent. odd, i thought, but it could of only been a coincidence, so i blew it off. walking home she dug through her stuff and finally found her beat up skateboard. pulling her hairback into a ponytail she did her best to find all of the stuff she'd had in Cali that was still warm enough for an eastern winter, as mild as this one was. finally she found some baggy pants and a hoodie. then she sat down with all the other girls to work on her homework.
"where are you going?" asked Rory. "oh you know, im going to the skatepark with this guy, you know the one from the mall last weak" she said monotoned, looking over some geometry. "wow, if you hadnt made that rule before hand"
"then we'd have to say you changed it for yourself." they laughed. they were teasing her, mostly because oh her