Lost in Hollywood

The Order of the Phoenix

"Welcome to the first official meeting of We Hate Kyler -Club." Said Devon sounding way too excited. Her dark eyes sparkled, as she happily glanced around the small group of girls seated in a ring on Sky's four-poster bed.

"We hate Kyler Club?" Asked Sam with a frown. "That's the best we've come up with?"

"I am open to all suggestions," Devon replied cheerfully, flipping her black, shiny ponytail over her shoulder. "So far I've got that, or Justice League, which has a nice ring to it, considering—"

Sky let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Come on, no DC references in my room. If we're going to pretend we're superheroes, I'd prefer Avengers. 'Cause that's what we're doing, right? We're avenging. Or revenging—"

"No way are we going to call ourselves Revengers," said Sam. "That's just ridiculous. Why do we need a name, anyway?"

"We don't," Sky replied, leaning her elbows to her knees as she glanced from Sam to Devon. "But it would be cool. This is, after all, a secret society. And Kyler is the villain in this story."

Devon flashed her a smile. "The order of the Phoenix? I mean, it fits. You have a phoenix tattoo, and all."

The Phoenix—

As if she could feel the ink in her skin, Sky glanced at her tattoo. It was partly visible under the loose, black tank top she had paired with her dark jeans. It felt surreal that she'd had the tattoo for almost a year now - the symbol of a new beginning, of rebirth.

So much for that. Since getting that tattoo nothing had gotten better. Her heart was broken, she had tried to kill herself, had gotten severely injured and attacked multiple times - and she had watched Luke and Cody die. During this year she had crashed and burned so hard that it was a miracle she was alive at all.

"It's actually an X-Men reference, not a Harry Potter one. You know, Jean Grey, Phoenix," she said silently, her fingers brushing the phoenix's tail feathers that curved down her upper arm in arcs of gold and fire. It brought memories of the day she'd gotten it tattooed, the day that now felt like it had happened a thousand years ago.

Hawk had been there with her. He'd been holding her hand, his fingers entwining with hers, so gentle, so warm, so loving—

An emotion squeezed Sky's chest, taking her breath away. She wasn't going to think about that now, not about Eli, or the day she'd gotten that tattoo. It was gone, it was ancient history. Nothing of it remained, except for the ink in her skin.

"Not that I don't love X-men, but we can't call ourselves that, since we are all girls," Devon replied. "And X-girls—"

"Makes us sound like strippers," Sky pointed out, making the other girls laugh - all except for Yasmine, who sat next to her, looking bored and annoyed. She had been examining her flawless, blood-red nails as if they were way more interesting than anything anyone had said so far, but now she looked up, her lips curling down with distaste.

"We're not strippers or superheroes and we don't need a name for our lame club. It's not like we're twelve years old," She snapped, rolling her eyes. "Can we just get on with this, please? Some of us have a life, you know, and plans."

Yasmine's remark brought a short silence into the group. She was sitting next to Sky, leaning her back on the wooden headrest, her long legs crossed at the ankles in a very ladylike way, but her posture was stiff, and she was twisting a loose curl around her finger, releasing it and twisting it tight again. Sky could tell she was uncomfortable, but she wasn't quite sure why. When she had asked all her female friends who wanted to participate in this meeting, Yasmine had been the first one to say yes - but now it looked like she was having second thoughts.