The girls arrived at the Savoy train stop three hours later. They
wheeled their trunks off, and then bodily carried out Alana, who was
flopping and squeaking from her espresso.

They were greeted
by a fairly short woman with a light tan and deep green eyes. Her hair
was straight and dark brown, to about her shoulders. She had Jade's same
pert nose and bright smile, and she was clad in black glittering robes
made of a soft material. She had a large, fluffy red shawl draped around
her shoulders, and a pair of cherry red cat's-eye glasses were perched
on her nose.

"Jade, baby!" She hugged Jade, who smiled and embraced the woman for a moment before pulling away.
"Mom, this is my friend West Skyfaul. She's in Lammasador at school. And over there, the comatose one, that's Alana Wincastle."
"Oh
yes, you sent Tater Tot to warn me that they were coming. It's
wonderful to meet you, dears." The woman, Jade's mother, turned to Alana
and West. "Hello, girls. I'm Jade's mom."
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Pevensie," West chorused politely. Jade's mother laughed.
"Please, call me Miriam. I love your hair." Mrs. Pevensie turned to survey Alana. "Is your friend alright?"

"She
had a travel mug full of espresso, and she's kind of zoned out. She'll
be okay." West poked Alana on the side of the cheek and got a slap in
return.
"The world is sparkly," Alana whispered, reaching out to grab at things that only she could see. "The fairies are so beautiful."
Jade lifted her friend and began to pull her along. "Let's go, fairy girl. You can hallucinate in the Floo network."
"Don't
WANNA go!" Alana began to kick at Jade like a small child. West secured
her feet, and the two girls dragged her to the station's
Floo-compatible fireplace.

****************************************************************************************
Jade's

house was set onto the side of the mountain, by the side of a lake and
surrounded by emerald green trees. Alana didn't get to see any of it.
Jade and West dragged her to Jade's room, which was huge and white, with
a fluffy fake-fur runner and about a thousand multi-colored pillows.
Everywhere, in the massive room, there were touches of color- a hot pink
old-fashioned alarm clock, glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, a
bright mural of psychedelic flowers on the wall behind the bed.
The room was perfectly clean and with nothing out of place, until
Alana was dropped on the bed.

Jade circled the room, drawing
the thick white blinds one by one and closing out the light. The stars
on the ceiling, shaped into all of the constellations, began to glow
with a soft light. "Let her sleep off the caffeine. Caterina gets like
this sometimes, when she's had too many triple-mocha-whipped evaporated
lattes from the Muggle coffee shop, and we just send her to her room for
a few hours. Meanwhile, I'll take you on a tour of the house."
*********************************************************************************************
The
kitchen was where the two girls started, as the best smells were coming
from there. Mrs. Pevensie was mixing something with one hand and
casting a spell with the other, sending a pot of pasta draining into the
sink. There was flour in her dark hair and on her nose, and a large dot
of tomato sauce splashed across her apron.

"Hello again,
girls! I'm making dinner now, but if you're hungry, there's cheese and
baguettes on the table that your cousin helped me make."
A loud
sound of pots and pans smacking together echoed from the other side of
the kitchen. Jade turned to see a small boy of about six banging on
saucepans with two wooden spoons. He had a mop of curly hair and a plate
of cookies next to him, and when he saw Jade, he hopped to his feet and wrapped her in a hug.

"Jay-Jay! I missed you."
"Gideon!" Jade grinned, but there were tears in her eyes. "I missed you, too."
"Want a cookie?" Gideon offered her a slightly crumbly chocolate chip cookie, still warm.
Jade
took the cookie and bit down, her vision getting a little misty. She
hadn't had a home-baked cookie from her mom in almost a year, and she'd
never been able to find anything as delicious and perfect.

"Are you okay, Jay?" He asked, then giggled at his rhyme.
"Yeah.
I'm just really, really glad to be home." West made a little
harrumphing noise. Jade laughed. "Oh, yeah, this is my friend West.
West, this is my little brother Gideon."
"Can I have a cookie too?" West accepted one as well, then walked out with Jade and on to the living room.
The living room was empty, but mostly sky blue and silver and white, with flowers and candles everywhere.
"Usually,
this room is a mess," Jade confided, laughing a little and licking
chocolate off of her finger. "We've got my books and my mom's books and
my dad's papers and my brother's action figures everywhere. But Caterina
took some, like, feng shui retreat over the spring break or something,
and she likes to rearrange the house to make it clean, so we get a free
cleaning every time she comes to visit."
"Can I meet this Caterina?" West inquired, messing with the fabric flowers on a pillow.
"Sure! She's Floo-chatting our friend Lilac right about now, though. Lilac's nice, too."
The
two walked up the hallway, and Jade knocked on the farthest door, which
creaked open a second later. The room it revealed was clean, white, and
empty. There was a white rug on the floor, a white bed in the center of
the room, and a white fluffy blanket draped across it. There was a huge
mirror against one wall, candles scattered on the little tables, and
white gauzy cloth draped over the windows. Everything was clean and
simple.
"I mean, I can't believe Henri would ever be that rude. Bon debarras aux ordures. Je ne l'aimais de toute facon."

A
blonde girl with a cheerful smile was lying on the bed in a set of soft
gray robes with little white puffballs hanging from the bottom. Her
hair was long and fell in loose curls over her shoulders. She was
talking to someone's head that was in her fireplace.
"Je lui manque vraiment, cependant. Il etait mon tout." The girl in the fireplace sighed and sniffled. "I loved that boy."
Jade jumped onto the bed and tackled Caterina. "BOO!"
"Mon
dieu, Jade!" The blonde rolled over and hugged her cousin. "I haven't
seen you in so long! You 'ave grown so much!" Caterina's voice was
thickly accented, turning each of her words into something floral and
lyrical. "And who is your amie?"

"She's West. My other friend, Alana, is asleep in my room from too much of le espresso."
Jade laughed, dropping a few of the French words Caterina had taught
her over the years. She was nearly fluent from years of hard lessons and
exhausting homework, but it was a little rusty. "West, this is my
cousin Caterina, from France. She's studying to be a Healer. Caterine,
this is mon amie West."
"Enchante, West," Caterina said, smiling. She turned to the fireplace. "Desolate, mon amie. Au revoir." Lilac, her hacked-off brown hair wavering in the light of the fire, waved and disappeared.

"I'm going to go and see if Alana's awake yet," Jade said, grinning and helping her cousin straighten the bedspread.

Alana was awake, and she was going through a huge book on the floor of Jade's room. It was sending plumes of dust onto the carpet every time she turned a page, and she kept sneezing.

"It's geneography," she explained, tracing the line of a family tree with the tip of her pinky finger.

"Genealogy," West corrected, laughing.

"Same difference," Alana scoffed. "Anyway, this one has records of your family, Jade, dating back to like 69 A.D. You were related to someone named King Peter Pevensie the First- you're like a princess."

West dropped a bow. "All hail Lady Jade Pevensie, Queen of Choir Kingdom, Princess of the Mountains!"

Jade grabbed a yellow bedazzled candy-box and placed the lid on her head. "Bow before me, royal subjects!" Alana pelted her with a bit of cheese.

Someone rapped on the door, and Jade's mother poked her head in. "Girls, dinner! You might want to change out of your traveling clothes."

Jade reached into her closet to find her old favorite dress- a sunny yellow sundress trimmed in white tassels. She hadn't worn it since September, and it reminded her of home. Alana donned a pair of white leggings (which would be filthy by bedtime) and a blue tunic with waves printed on it. West had a pair of jeans and a green blouse, and Jade tucked a pink flower behind her friend's ear.

**************************************************************************

Jade's father was at dinner as well. He was average height, with dark skin and short dreadlocks. He wore a business suit with a purple tie that had Jade's crookedly drawn hearts decorating it in white ink. He smiled at all of them, hugged Jade, and then began to help Jade's mother set out the food.

The dinner looked incredible. There was a massive salad, fresh pasta with tomato sauce and alfredo, garlic bread and pitchers of iced tea.

West beamed around a mouthful of bread. "This is delicious, Mrs- I mean, Miriam. I haven't had this in a long time."

Jade's mother looked extremely pleased. "Why, thank you."

Caterina entered the room and took a seat, primly adjusting her hair and carefully scooping food. "'Allo," she said, smiling at everyone as she shifted her chair.

"Mom," Jade said, twirling some pasta with her fork, "could the girls and I take some walks or go swimming or things like that at some point?"

"Of course, ma cherie," her mother said, smiling. "Don't go terribly far away, and please not without asking. Maybe tonight you could go on a starlight hike."

Jade nudged her friends and grinned. "Looks like we have some exploring to do," she whispered.