Forest of Imagination

A Surprise Visitor

"TARA??!" I screeched, running to put my arms around her. "How did you unlock the door?"

"Harmony helped," Tara answered sheepishly, and when I looked behind her I saw Harmony, flipping in the air (with wings, cheater). "But we sneaked out of the house to visit you, and we didn't really ask Mom to come because, well, she'd think it was all surreal. But the days you were gone, she explained everything to me and I didn't believe her. I totally believe her now, though, if your friend"--she looked at McKenzie--"would turn into a mermaid. Because Harmony is a fairy who can really fly without invisible cable cords." Tara looked a little embarrassed and even blushed when she mentioned cable cords.

McKenzie slipped off her legs and asked, "Happy?" Tara's eyes grew wide, but she nodded modestly as if it wasn't a big deal...Which it was, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

"OK, so you guys are staying two entire nights in this resort? How did you get all that money?" Harmony asked, and I wondered if she'd lived in California when she was on Earth or if she'd even heard of American dollars. I was pretty sure she had, but you never know.

Sand dollars would also be unfamiliar to her, I realized with a start, and answered, "Mom's a fashion designer for Chanel, and she usually gets a lot of money from her job. Plus, Dad gives me a sand dollar every two days, which means I have two sand dollars right now but I haven't done my second day for the second dollar yet. By the way, sand dollars are mermaid currency...but that's beside the point, the point is that I have a lot of money."

"Right, but you ramble a lot about stuff, jumping from topics and everything," Harmony commented.

"OK, thanks even though I didn't need to know that," I sighed, and Tara laughed, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. "But of course, you talk too little, so I can't be blamed."

"Don't push it," she warned.

"By the way, I think it's time I knew about the prophesied five stuff," I informed everyone, crossing my arms stubbornly. Harmony furrowed her eyebrows, and I knew she probably didn't know about them. She was one of them, after all--but Tara didn't seem to know, so my gaze traveled over to McKenzie.

"What?" she asked, imitating my arm-cross.

"I want to know about the prophesied five, McKenzie Crawford," I replied coldly, raising my eyebrows.

"What is there to know other than, there are five people in a prophecy that I'm not going to tell you about?" McKenzie asked defensively. Okay, so we were going to do this the hard way.

"A lot," I answered.

"I'm not telling you the prophecy!" McKenzie refused, and I tried approaching her in a nicer way.

"Mack, if you were one of the subjects of a prophecy, and I kept it a secret from you, wouldn't you want to know it?" I asked, making her go in my shoes to know how I probably felt.

"Yes!" she gave in, but still didn't give me it. That was frustrating, so I prompted her further.

"I just want to know," I said stubbornly.

"I mostly forgot it, it's something about one rejecting and two going in a cave and one staying sound and one through tragedy," McKenzie rambled, spilling everything out quickly.

Someone new knocked on the door. "Ugh," Harmony muttered under her breath, and I wondered who was there.

"Hey guys, what are we doing here?" the person, a boy who could've passed as Harmony's twin asked, waving. He had brown hair and blue eyes, and a small sprinkle of freckles dotted his face.

"Who are you?" asked McKenzie, standing up immediately. I could sense a crush somewhere....

"Hey, I'm Blake Moore," he answered, at the same time as Harmony replied, "He's Blake, my annoying foster brother that I never visit because he's so much worse than Delilah, my foster sis."

"You could've just said, 'Hey, this is Blake, my truly awesome brother that I never get to visit because he's always off to visit places like London or Paris," Blake grumbled, crossing his arms.

I have to admit, he was cute and everything, but his face seemed familiar somehow. I couldn't put a finger on it.

"Well, where are we going next?" asked Harmony, all of a sudden. Blake looked taken aback.

"You mean you're asking me, Terra Meridian?" he joked. Harmony rolled her eyes and Tara decided to break up the upcoming fight. "We're going to my house, and then Houston to get Charlotte, and then Terra Meridian for these guys and homeward for me." Blake stared at her like she was speaking Elfish (which I've heard, by the way) and shook his head.

"Homeward," I whispered, and I felt Tara's fingers wrap around mine.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, and please remember to comment and vote!