The advertising pamphlet for Saint Grey’s Academy arrived at her house midway through her junior year at high school.  It had engendered any number of ‘discussions’ with her parents.  She knew she didn’t make friends easily.  Heck, she even knew that most of the kids at her school thought of her as slightly creepy and weird.  It wasn’t Katie’s fault that she liked books better than people.  It certainly wasn’t her fault that all the other girls in her school could jabber about was facebook, and clothes, and boys, and iPhones, and all the things that really didn’t matter.  Still, it had been an argument of sorts, until her father pulled out the usual argument-winner at the table.<br/><br/>‘We’re paying for it, so you’re going.  That’s the end of it.’<br/><br/>And of course, her mother had to chime in with her own little attempts to make it all seem better.<br/><br/>‘It will be good for you Katie, and really, how many girls your age get to live in Europe?’<br/><br/>She almost wanted to say Europeans, but she knew that would just start the yelling all over, and mum would end up crying in her room.  That was how she found herself, boarding pass in hand, presenting herself at the airport with her life in a trio of bags.  She’d have a good library there, so she only was allowed to bring a couple of books to read on the plane.  There were connecting flights after all.  Home to Toronto, Toronto to New York, New York to… well wherever.  The plane in New York was a private one, so there would be less messing about.<br/><br/>The first couple of legs were simple enough, as she was largely alone, and the stewardesses were accommodating of a teenager wanting to just be ignored for a few hours.  It was the last one, on a private jet nonetheless, that set Katie’s teeth on edge and had her almost wanting to just have done with it, go back home, and face her parents’ wrath.  Of course, being an obedient girl, she didn’t make a fuss.  No, she climbed on board the jet with the other screaming children, and tried to find a place to herself.  She was probably one of the oldest here, and that already set her apart.<br/><br/>Still, she managed to find a spot, smooth out her plain grey pleated skirt, and pull her plain grey sweater over her plain grey shirt and settle down to the complete works of Poe.  She did her very best to just ignore everything else going on around her, not wanting to cause problems, not wanting to be noticed, and most especially, not wanting to make friends.  Not with<em>that</em>lot.<br/><br/><div align="center">~*~*~*~</div><br/>Stepping off the plane into the drizzle automatically had Katie thinking she was in England.  Or B.C.  Didn’t it always rain there?  She listened to the instructions, getting a little damp, but not really actually wet, and trudged along, as back of the pack as she could get, on her way to the terminal, following a line of rushing and even scampering children.  She obediently waited her turn, fidgeting the whole time, shuffling back and forth on her feet, and watching the toes of her shoes get darker with the moisture.  When her place in line came up, she stepped up, in and onwards.  She had listened to the little speech about the dorm rules, and the info packet.  Hers was still tucked away in her satchel with her books.  She’d read it when she was alone, and not trying to ignore people.  She didn’t want to seem to be a keener beaver even before she got to her new school.  The bit about world views changing was a bit over the top, but really, you carted a bunch of kids halfway around the world without much more than a pamphlet and a few words to the parents, you’d better do something over the top.  The bit about being safe seemed to be a bit much too.  Enough so, that Katie glanced around, wondering if perhaps there might have been lions or something in the mountains that ate wayward children.<br/><br/>Fun.  The least likely thing ever to happen in Katie’s life.  Still, she put on a proper student’s face, tucked the stray locks of light blonde hair behind her ears, and trudged right on inside with the others, prepared for yet another dreary private school.  Okay… that was<em>definitely</em>not going to happen.<br/><br/>Nothing in her entire life had even remotely begun to prepare Katie for the sight in front of her.  They weren’t… HUMAN!  She stared.  She was definitely not the only one.  She stared harder.  Still not the only one.  She blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes.  Nope, still not the only one.  She stood there absolutely stunned.  That just couldn’t be possible, could it?  When she spoke, Katie actually jumped a little, and blushed, knowing she’d been staring at them like they were some kind of animatronic statues (okay, hoping they were).  Without uttering a single sound, not trusting herself to make any kind of sound that was coherent, she shuffled into the girl line, and just kept on staring.<br/><br/>Okay… world-view changing.  Check.  What the hell had her parents gotten her into?