This ain't a diary, this is a - mirror?

Chapter 45: The 'Infamous' Samantha Rowell, 'Bane of Alpine High'

"Are we moving on to introductions already?" The pale brown butterfly wolf on the opposite side of the table turned to face Samantha. Samantha's eyes widened. "Wait, aren't you...?"

"Yep! Serena Pepper, nice to meet you! And meet Cali, my adorable little kitty!" Serena held up a scarily realistic cat plushie and nudged it across the table. "I love to sew - in fact, I made Cali myself!"

"Whoa. You're really good at sewing... it almost looks like it could jump out and start, like, meowing or something." Samantha complimented her. To Samantha's surprise, she - as in, herself - was able to slide straight into the conversation - there was no awkwardness, no sarcasm, no glares. Maybe I'm actually getting better at socialising!

Serena giggled. "Oh, thank you! You're really too sweet - and yes, actually, Cali probably could jump out and start meowing!" On her word, the orange cat plushie abruptly stood up and trotted across the table to nuzzle Samantha.

Samantha let out a strangled screech of surprise and fell backwards off her seat. Serena giggled, but there was almost an eerie note to her voice. "Isn't Cali adorable?"

"I - I, I thought you said Cali was... a plushie?" Samantha squeaked after managing to sit back upright in her seat. Elena was too busy trying to stifle her giggles to say anything.

"Ah, yeah, she is! Oh, and did I mention what my power was? I can animate - or turn - plushies alive! Well, I've only tried with plushies, since they're the easiest - who knows, I might be able to reanimate a corpse some day!" Serena smiled sweetly as if she hadn't just been talking about... a dead body.

"A - ah, uh, yeah. Maybe." Samantha tried to ignore the slightly creepy expression Serena was making and turned her attention to the other person on her table. "Well, since we're going on with introductions... uh, what's your name?"

The black and vibrant blue furred butterfly wolf glared at Samantha from the corner of an eye but said nothing.

"Oh, that's Jax!" Serena exclaimed. "He might seem intimidating, but he's actually a really nice guy!"

"No, I'm not." Jax growled.

"And this is Spiro and Henry!" Serena continued, completely ignoring the scowling butterfly wolf.

"Uh, hey, Spiro... or are you Henry?" Samantha stared at the dark furred fox sitting next to Serena. He had a patch of vibrant yellow fur on his chest and wide blue eyes. A party hat was perched on his head and he was wearing what appeared to be a decorative mask that covered the top half of his face.

"Hey there! I'm Spiro Page - Henry's the guy behind me!" The fox grinned and twisted around. "Aw, come on, Henry, don't be shy! Ignoring a pretty lady isn't nice, ya know."

Samantha ignored the compliment - if it even was a compliment - and craned her neck in an attempt to see whoever was behind Spiro. "Er... where is... Henry?"

Spiro didn't respond and instead reached behind himself. He tugged once, then again. Finally, he pulled harder - and fell off his chair from how hard he was pulling.

"Oh no, Spiro, are you okay?" Serena immediately rushed over to haul the fox back to his paws.

"Hey, thanks, Ser. Come on, Henry, look what you made me do! You're making a bad first impression here - Henry!"

Samantha watched curiously as Spiro finally settled himself back on his chair. His long, fluffy tail slowly lifted itself - and Samantha's eyes widened as she took in the sight. Spiro's black and yellow furred tail twisted around to blink at Samantha with its own blue eyes. Finally, it opened its mouth - the tail had a mouth?! - and yawned, revealing a set of sharp teeth and a long blue tongue.

"Finally," Spiro sighed with relief. "So, this is Henry! He's my best friend, even if it might not look like it - and he's even saved my life once!"

The tail let out a few clicks and shot forwards to nip Spiro in the ear. "Ow! Fine, it might've been more than once..."

"Their friendship really is particular," Serena whispered over to Samantha, "but they really are close. After all, they've been together since birth."

"I... see." Samantha replied, still taken aback. "That's... nice to know."

"Aw, com'on, Spir, you're completely ignoring the fact that the infamous Samantha's sittin' in front of ya right now." Rascal scolded Spiro. "Stop arguing with ya friend!"

"Uh, really, it's fine... and I'm famous?" Samantha muttered. Rascal simply let out a hearty bark of laughter. "That Riley kid made sure to warn us about ya. But ya know, anything anyone tells me not to do... I can't resist but do it."

"Oh! Me too!" Spiro exclaimed, temporarily breaking off from his argument with Henry. "Much to this guy's -" he nodded at his tail - "- disdain. But now he's cool with it, seeing that you're not that bad of a person!"

"They acted like that around me too for the first two minutes," Elena whispered into Samantha's ear. "Just give them a little longer and they'll get distracted by something else."

"Right... thanks." Samantha nodded. "Uh, that's... good to know. Er, so..."

Henry yipped and poked Spiro. "Hm? What is it, Henry?"

A few more clicks and whines. Spiro turned around and frowned. "Oh, look, it's the queen of the school herself. Spiro didn't like her at the beginning... but he never likes anyone at the beginning. He seems to have taken to you quite quickly, though... Sam, was it?"

His words whistled past Samantha's ears. Her attention had already been snatched away by the approaching dog - actually, three dogs. Her heart plummeted and she tried to hide a gulp.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here. Samantha Rowell and Elena Kitsune, bane of Alpine High... trying to spread rumours around once again, hm?" A scarily pleasant smile spread across Abbey's snout, completely contrary to what she was saying. Behind her, Riley twirled her icicle spear with a nasty smile, and Kiera stood with her eyes towards the ground, apparently too ashamed to even look at them.

Samantha gritted her teeth and did her best to not look terrified - after all, first impressions really were important, and these foxes apparently saw her as some sort of... celebrity. "So, Abbey," she said in the coolest voice she could muster, "What really brings you here?"