Beyond the Horn

CHAPTER 1: KARA

"You go to Saint Finbar's."

Kara Rems' dark head lifted; Susan Pevensie glanced up from her newspaper, her pretty gray eyes focusing briefly on a boy with glasses wearing the colors of Hendon's House. "That's right," she said, her polite tone holding a certain edge of annoyance.

Next to her, Kara rifled through a second newspaper, biting back a wide smile. This was going to be good, the sixteen-year-old girl thought as she adjusted her glasses, which were always sliding down her nose.

"I go to Hendon's House, across the road," the boy continued, his face lit with a hopeful glow. Susan was beautiful, one of the prettiest girls at school, and it was no wonder that boys were constantly flocking around her. It was just that she was a solitary soul, and preferred the company of siblings or close friends.

"Yes, we know," Kara interjected, deciding to try to help her friend out of this awkward situation. "You're wearing your school uniform too."

The boy looked at her for a second before turning back to Susan. "I've seen you," he smiled a little cockily, "sitting by yourself."

"Yes, well, I prefer to be left alone." If that wasn't a direct 'please go away' signal, Kara didn't know what was. The boy had to be an idiot if he couldn't catch on that Susan just wasn't interested.

"Me too!" the boy grinned wider.

He was an idiot.

"What's your name?"

Susan shot Kara a quick look, and Kara nodded. "Do it," she mouthed.

"Phyllis," Susan lied easily, with a sweet smile at the boy.

"SUSAN!"

"KARA!"

Two voices yelled in unison, and the boy quickly realized the truth as their sisters pounded towards them.

"You'd better—"

"Come quickly!"

Those two were like twins. Susan's younger sister, Lucy, and Kara's younger sister, Annaliese, were inseparable, and had been ever since the pairs of sisters met about three years ago when they all happened to be attending Saint Finbar's. Kara, the older one and a bit more perceptive, had seen clearly that the Pevensie sisters were going through a hard time, what with the war going on and their father being away.

Though naturally clumsy, stubborn and headstrong, Kara had a gentle heart that longed to help people. She first befriended little Lucy, who always sat alone, and introduced her to Annaliese—who was by nature a shy and quiet girl and needed a friend—and then managed to break through Susan's barrier she put up to ward off emotion and people. Somehow Kara's fiery spirit mixed with a deep kindness managed to open Susan up, and now the only people Susan trusted more than Kara was, perhaps, her own family.

Kara and Annaliese were from America but had moved to England with their parents. It had been difficult during the first few months, especially when it came to adapting to a school full of English girls. The Rems sisters stood out, to be quite frank.

"What's happened now?" Kara asked, fixing her glasses again as she and Susan abandoned the newspaper stand to chase after Lucy and Annaliese.

"It's Peter," Lucy said over her shoulder, and Annaliese nodded vigorously.

Peter was Susan and Lucy's older brother; the Pevensie sisters had two of them, both of whom Kara had only seen a few times, usually at the train station when all students were returning home on holiday or vice versa, like right now, when they were headed back to school. Edmund was the third oldest of the four Pevensies, the same age Kara, but he was the one she'd hardly ever seen. Both boys had definitely stared hard at her and Annaliese when their sisters introduced them.