Crystal Claw

Wednesday

The unthinkable had happened.

Jake, Helen and Daria as well had been so sure that all of these dramatic changes in their daughter and sibling were the result of some kind of drug, that the sudden discovery of no drugs at all had been truly devastating for all of them...

Just what on Earth was happening to Quinn?

She had just woken up one day with a whole new personality, a different voice and a totally foreign accent, just about everything in her had changed all of a sudden to a point that they could barely recognize their daughter and it seemed that there would be no explanation at all...

There were no drugs involved here, no peyote, no berries and no mushrooms, not even a bit of marijuana in her system, and yet the teenage girl displayed wit, sarcasm, imagination and hostility the likes of which the Morgendorffer family had never seen before.

Quinn was gone, and something new and unknown was now living in her place.

Ella Anne Morgendorffer had all of her personal documents adjusted for her on Tuesday according to the deal, Lawndale High would soon be active once again now that the repairs had been completed and then it was Wednesday at last...

It was already twelve days after Lawndale had been shaken by the great storm, the weather was quite nice and peaceful and it was a sunny morning when Ella Anne emerged from the Morgendorffer house all of a sudden, looking a lot more confident, cheerful and sincerely happier than she had ever been so far.

Ella still looked all untidy and weird, and yet she was somewhat stylish thanks to her dark blue jeans, light brown Jeep footwear and a long, violet cardigan on top of a dazzling orange blouse... her fiery red hair was a mess indeed, but somewhat of a good mess somehow, her hazel eyes were dazzling and almost everything in her spoke of confidence and happiness.

The birds were singing happily as a rather soft wind whispered between the gardens and trees, it was indeed quite a beautiful day and Ella would not venture into school alone that day...

"Hello, Grace!"

The entity called Grace showed up between the trees at that moment, wearing a black leather trench coat and looking quite different to Stacy thanks to her free messy hair, a cold and eerie smile and those bright, deep and glassy blue eyes.

Apart of all these clear and striking differences the rest of her clothing, looks and style were still those of Stacy, so after all she looked kind of normal at least if compared to Ella Anne...

"Hi Ella!" Grace cried out in sheer happiness, dashing to hug her friend as she spoke her name- "Wow! What a great name you have chosen this time! Ella Anne, yeah, that's perfect! Look, I have the new papers too! I never thought this would be so easy!"

"I have mine here as well, have a look!"

Ella continued to speak with her Catalan-like accent, and yet Grace sounded normal, just perfectly American as they talked and walked together on their way to their first day at Lawndale High. In contrast to the cold and eerie Ella Anne, Grace was sweet, bright and cheerful... there was almost nothing strange in her apart of her smile and her eyes, and yet anybody who had known the real Stacy would know that this was indeed somebody else.

Grace and Ella Anne were like two eerie shadows that were not supposed to be there, two invaders in this world, quite a pair of metaphysical anomalies and yet they were just walking on their way to school together exactly like all of the other students would do every morning...

"Can you believe that Stacy thought this was a hard life to live?" Grace asked, now stuffing her new birth certificate and Lawndale High ID into her small brown backpack as they walked between beautiful streets, gardens and trees- "I am still like, really!? I mean, just look at this place, Ella! Stacy's house is like... Huge!"

"You should see the kind of things that Quinn thought about her life" Ella replied with an emotionless tone, and after that she released a rather sinister laugh as they passed below a particularly sweet canopy of trees- "I know, what poor stupid wrecks! Anyway, we should be thankful for all of that stupidity! They left, so we moved in, and now we can enjoy all of this beauty..."

"Oh, I am thankful like you have no idea! Ella, we have to work on your accent... you sound too foreign! Are you not even trying to disguise it a little?"

"Well, I am foreign Grace!" Ella said, not even caring to soften at all her sharp, harsh and obviously very foreign accent- "This shall be easier for you, it's your country after all... No worries my friend, I already have a story to explain my accent at our sweet Lawndale High!"

"I cannot wait to hear it!"

The dogs would bark quite alarmed from the gardens, the cats hissed in angst and fear and even a few birds would cease to sing as Ella and Grace walked past all of them... even the air felt a little colder as these two passed, and perhaps all of those wild barks, sickly birds and angsty hisses allowed two other girls to follow the invaders in secret.

Daria and the cunning Jane Lane followed Ella and Grace from a safe distance, always cautious to avoid accidental discovery and yet remaining close enough to hear every word that the mysterious freaks would say...

"Daria, just what the freaking hell is happening here?!"

"Watch out! Grace almost heard us!"

Ella Anne and peaceful Grace soon arrived at the grassy, weird and somewhat wonderful High School of Lawndale, the day was quite windy and cold after the sunny snap was over and nothing at teenager life would ever be the same after that fateful day...