Serena

"EW! MOM! MOM!!! GET IT OOOOOOOOUT!!! THERE’S A SPIDER!!! MOMMY! GET IT OOUT! MOM! DIDN’T YOU HEAR ME? I SAID THERE'S A SPIDER IN OUR POOL!!!" I jumped out of the pool as quickly as I could and appeared in our living room. "Mom! Didn't you hear me? There's a bug in our brand new pool!" I steadied my erratic breathing. Where was she anyways?

I looked at the cluttered mess that was our new home. We really needed to unpack. Only the basics like the T.V. and beds were unpacked so far. I peeked upstairs. "Mom? Are you still taking a bath?" She had announced she was taking a bath about 25 minutes ago. I found her bathroom door still closed.

"Mom! I can't believe you're still taking a bath! I'm giving you 5 minutes to get out before I decide to make your water cold."

I could almost feel her glaring from behind the door. "Serena Amber Poseidon! How dare you threaten your mother like that? Where did you learn that?"

I replied in my sweetest voice. "I learned from the best, momma."

I heard a small chuckle. She had used that particular threat on me since I was 5 years old. Since we could control water we could make it cold or warm. This was particularly fun during the winter when we could make hot chocolate. "I’ll come up in 4 minutes mom. Then we're going shopping!"

"Fine", I heard her grunt.

I felt the familiar purple lights that surrounded me for a few seconds before reappearing next to the pool with a discarded shoe I had picked up off of my mom’s floor.

"Ou es tu? Where are you? EVIL SPIDER! Ha I bet you forgot about me right? Well no sir! I’m not gonna let you make MY POOL dirty with spider germs!!!" I searched for the evil 6 legged creature. "AHA! Now I’m giving you 30 seconds to get out of my pool before I pounce. Ok? Now! *ahem* 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …" I heard a muffled laugh.

Startled, my head followed the sound. Looking at me over the fence was two blue eyes belonging to a boy about my age. "Hi, my name’s Matt." He said in perfect English while still laughing.

I looked up and standing up in all of my 5'3 and asked, "Do you normally spy on innocent girls who are getting rid of evil creatures in their pool?" This only made him laugh harder.

Finally he managed to spit out, "Do you normally talk to poor spiders before you are about to kill them?"

I looked at him very offended. "I wouldn’t kill it! I would…" He motioned for me to continue. "um. Shoo it to your yard?" He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. For some reason that made me laugh.

He looked at me and jumped over the fence messing up his brown hair. I stopped laughing. "Hey! You can’t just jump over the fence into my yard!"

He blinked twice very confused and asked, "Why not?"

I said in my most proper English voice, "When you greet someone you say…"I started to bounce around him and shake his hand," How do you do and shake hands, shake hands, shake hands, how do you do and shake hands, shake hands, shake". I stopped and nodded my head," That’s proper manners."

He tilted his head like a puppy. "Huh?"

I stared at him in disbelief. I said in a very slow voice. "You’ve NEVER seen Alice in the Wonderland?"

He looked a little hesitant as he slowly said, "No?" I looked overjoyed and flashed him a smile. "Well then! You simply MUST watch it! I'll show you all the secrets in it!

Are you free now? 'Cause me and my mom were gonna go shopping but seeing as you're a neighbor I'm sure we can rent Alice and Wonderland instead and eat popcorn!! Come on!" Without waiting for an answer I pulled him along with me into the house.

I called out to my mom before she teleported into clear view or used any magic. I still wasn’t sure whether he was a muggle or a wizard. "MOM, we’ve got a guest!" I waited patiently while my mom got ready. He looked around at our boxes with interest. He turned to me and asked, "So you just moved didn’t you?"

I replied," Yah it’s kinda obvious."

"We moved too!" He told me.

"Oh! So that’s why you aren’t speaking French! We moved from America. Where did you move from?"

He responded," We moved from America too! It’s me, my dad, my mom, and my sister. What about you?"

I said," It’s just me and my mom here."

"What about me?" My mom had just entered the room. I had seen light turquoise swirls in the corner of the room but Matt hadn't noticed her appearing.

Matt looked up startled. I could see Matt was stunned by her beauty. Everyone she met was startled by it. She made the light blue sweater with jeans she wore look haute couture. I was frequently envious of her good looks. She told me someday I would be as pretty as her but I doubt it.

I took the chance to look at what Matt was wearing, jeans and a grey t-shirt. It was simple yet looked oh so cute on him.

Mom finally held out her hand. Aha there he went. Yup, 8 seconds, since he wasn't my mom's age he didn't stare so long.

He held out his hand, "Matt Anderson I live next door and just moved from America."

I looked at his face closely. I could tell he was thinking about me, jumping around imitating Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and shaking his hand. I saw a flicker of mirth.

"Amber Poseidon, I'm Serena’s mother." I shot him a glare that meant don’t you dare laugh about my name. He managed to keep a straight face.

I butted in, "Mom, instead of shopping, we’re gonna rent Alice in the Wonderland and see it with Matt."

Shock overcame every feature of her face. She turned to Matt, "You’ve NEVER seen Alice and the Wonderland?!?" He looked worried about what she would say as he hesitantly said, "No, not really…" My mom turned back to me and said, "He’s such a poor deprived child." I nodded my head solemnly. She broke the pitying glances toward a terrified Matt first with a grin. "Well! Let’s go then!" I matched her grin and ran out to the car dragging a slightly bewildered Matt.

Mom went into mom mode. "So do you do drugs?" She started the interrogation.

"No."

"Drink alcohol or smoke?" She looked in the rearview mirror.

"No?" Matt looked at my mom happily driving her new convertible.

"Ok then! That’s very good. Now I won’t have to worry about Serena when she hangs around with you."

Matt looked at me raising an eyebrow.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Mom looked at the rearview mirror. "Serena?" She sounded confused.

I explained it to her very logically, "He…HAHA…did….HEHE …that thing…. Giggle…with his eyebrows….hiccup"

Matt looked perplexed.

*hiccup* "Oh gre*hiccup*at, now you *hiccup* gave me the *hiccup*hiccups."

A mischievous look came into Matt’s eyes. I tried to ignore it as best I could.

I heard distant music coming closer and closer. "MOM STOP! IT*hiccup* CODE I, I REPEAT CODE I!!" I tossed Matt and my mom a pair of sunglasses.

She parked the car as fast as she could and we made ourselves look inconspicuous.

Matt looked puzzled but went a long with it, even whistling with us as we glanced around over our sunglasses.

I realized my hiccups were gone. With the surprise of Code I my hiccups had gone away.

It finally came. "Est-ce tu veux?" the person asked. What do you want?

This is such a hard decision I thought to myself. "One frozen strawberry lemonade" I said in French glancing around. That’s right. Code I means THE ICECREAM TRUCK!!!

"Matt what would you like?” my mom asked politely.

"I didn’t bring any money," he mumbled.

"Its fine, we’ll pay for you", my mom said.

His eyes lit up. "I’ll have a lemon Italian ice", he informed my mom.

My mom ordered two of those and my frozen strawberry lemonade.

We happily ate our ice cream while heading back toward the car.

"So Serena, where are you going to school?"

I knew if he was a wizard then he would pick up on the hint. "I’m going to go to Beauxbatons."

He smiled. "So you ARE a witch."

I pretended to be offended. “Hey! Watch who you’re callin a bitch.”

I saw a concerned look come upon his face as I saw him consider that he might be wrong. I smiled and poked him in the side, “Aw, so I assume you’re a wizard then?”

He rubbed his side, “Ow that hurt.” and we continued to the movie store. Mom and I had already found it the first day we got here.