September 27

Well, Kay made the national team. And so did Devin. Devin got her spot because one of the other riders got hurt. I'm really happy for Kay. She really deserves it. She's had some kind of summer, really. Her sister Camberleigh (Cammie) became teen, and Cammie is becoming a show jumper as well. And then the unicorn/Arabian she's breeding, Sun Dancer, was entered in a competition and placed. Speaking of summer, I'm actually pretty sad it's over. It pretty much flew by, and it's back to school, and for Kay and me, that means senior year. After senior year is graduation. I have no idea what happens next. It's like you wait all your life to graduate high school, and when it finally happens, it's, like, what now? Mom insisted on taking this new job in Moonlight Falls. Sierra and I tried to convince her not to, but her mind was made up and she was taking it. Apparently not only is she going to be the main speaker at its annual supernatural convention, but she's now going to run the Library of Lore and Antiquity. On top of all that, she's got this new book coming out, a book she delayed for nearly six months, but she's going all out to promote it. So why is all of this happening now? She turned in her ghost hunting uniform. She quit hunting the specters, which, I never completely understood why she did it in the first place. And apparently, she stopped actively ghost busting when she got this job in Moonlight Falls. And to that point, not only is my mother happy but she is blissfully happy. She's spending her days at the Library of Lore and Antiquity doing stuff, and then she's doing promotional stuff for her book at night. And then I suspect she is dabbling in alchemy too... but that's another story for another time. It's kind of weird, being recognized in the street in Moonlight Falls. I mean, I'm just a teen. I haven't really done anything. The only reason I guess I'm sort of famous is because of who I am, not what I've done. It is what it is, really. Not much I can do about it. My siblings and I have gone about exploring the town while mom and dad are at work and during the time we're not in school. I got my fortune read, and a lot of the mumble jumble didn't make any bit of sense. It was something about I was going to get some kind of new opportunity to do something... I took a ride with AJ after he came in from work. "Why do you want to see this place anyway?" he asked me as he drove me to the Vault of Antiquity. I haven't gotten my license yet, and I'm not sure I actually want to. (Besides, car pooling is better for the environment anyway.) I would have ridden my bike to the library but it was kind of far and I wanted to catch the program on supernatural animals before it closed. That's the way it's always been, he goes somewhere and I trail behind. I don't mind, really. I'm used to it. Although, he's in such great physical shape that it's hard for me sometimes, I'm huffing and puffing The other big thing that's going on is Sierra. She dyed her hair -- again. I'm not happy about it. And Dad is absolutely beside himself. And it isn't just the dyed hair. On our last night in Hidden Springs, mom's last night as an active ghost hunter, Sierra was brought home by the police because she broke into the school and flooded it. I heard the screaming from upstairs. "I am sick of your behavior," mom screamed, "one more infraction and you're headed straight to Fort Starch. You don't want to go there." Sierra stamped her foot like the little spoiled brat that she is and slammed the door. I still maintain that she gets away with much more than AJ and Imsety ever did before they were sent away. Sierra and I are almost complete strangers. We sit in separate seats on the school bus, hang around with different crowds at school, and even though we share a bedroom, we have completely different interests. In fact, our first night in Moonlight Falls, she came in at 3 in the morning after spending the night in the catacombs.... "Holy llamas!" I exclaimed. "Is that a genie lamp?" "Yep. Not even mom has one. And you're not going to tell her I have one either, right???" "Well..." "You can't, Sage. You absolutely can't tell her." "What about Dad? Or AJ?" "I dunno, I really don't want you to tell them either." The other day we were sitting at the kitchen table, trying to do homework together. She has ninth grade algebra (and she's a seventh grader) and I have pre-college trig and calculus. I HATE trig and calculus. But Sierra, she gobbles this stuff up. I think she might be better at math than I am. After all, she's already taking high school math and she's not in high school yet. "What's the square root of twenty?" I asked, wracking my brains over trig. "4.47," she whispered, "you have to round the number to the nearest tenth. I thought they taught you this stuff before you got to calculus." I took a deep breath. I know my little sister is in there somewhere, somewhere underneath the green hair and black lipstick and the sucky attitude. I wish I could figure out a way to bring her back. My other big worry is how all this is looking to Skylar. Sky clearly looks up to us, as her big sisters. I mean, if she sees Sierra with her green hair and black clothes and all her meanness, she's going to want to be like that, and that's not what any of us want. Not even AJ.