She let her toes squirm within her obscenely bright lime green tennis shoes.

The girl sighed and reflected on the fact her mother, whom once worked for the illustrious Burke Fashions, gave little care to what she dressed her own daughter up in.

Paul.

Yes, Paul would take her around to one of the shopping centres in Cottered and help her pick out something nice for her to wear on her first day.

She shivered with excitement over the thought.

On second thought the shivering could be more attributed to the growing cold of the room. Sheila began to panic once she was able to see her breath form little clouds of vapor as she exhaled.

'Not again', Sheila thought as her thoughts began blurring into recent memory of a cold, blank expanse...

Sheila Torrance, a desperate and lonely girl who is fast approaching that ever so confusing cusp of teenaged adolescence, is uprooted from her beloved hometown of Pacific City and thrust into the continuously changing city of Cottered. Here she finds herself in the midst of a power struggle between three entities each with different plans for her and the pair of recently discovered statuettes that remain in her charge.

by Matthew Cavazos

- greyangel1@juno.com

#0 - "Pale Green Stars"
#1 - "Disarm"
#2 - "Cold Brains" (Schoolyard Blues: Prelude)