Chapter 3: NATALIA

"The sun will come out tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow..." I rolled my eyes at my sister and looked at the red dot on the calendar that hung on the wall.

Our family pet, a Spix macaw named Patrick slept with his head tucked beneath one of his wings, or he was pretending to. He's been known to eavesdrop on conversations only to repeat them at some later inopportune time.

I guess her little ditty is a way of reminding me that the big change is about to come. It's the same month after month and have been going on for so long now that I've grown used to it.

Well long is relative, this new phenomena has only started happening in the last year or so. When held up against hundreds of years of my existence, it was a little less than a drop in a bucket.

I pretended great interest in the book I was reading for the upcoming test and gave her no leeway to pester me, but the constant stares from across the breakfast table was too much to ignore. I dropped the book in my lap and glared at the three of them, my sisters in everything but blood.

"Okay what is it this time? Do you need me to beat up on someone or get you out of some scheme the three of you cooked up while I wasn't looking?" I waited, hoping that this time it was nothing too serious.

The last time I got suspended for a week, and had half the female student body out for my blood. Apparently I'd kicked some ass and flirted my way through half the male students and maybe a couple of the male staff as well.

Something I'm still having a hard time believing, but from the looks I've been getting this past month I'm starting to think might be true. Though I don't really remember much of it. I never do.

You see; I'm a strange mix of nymph and fairy, with two very distinct and vastly different personalities. The fairy in me is very reserved and ladylike, never speaks above a whisper and always dresses appropriately.

But every month like clockwork according to my menstrual cycle, I go through this drastic change that turns me into the complete opposite of myself. And for five or six days every month I become this other being that I can't seem to control no matter how I try.

She's bold, brash and well...apparently very seductive. Not to mention it's the only time I use the fighting skills I'd learned over the centuries. Something my fairy self does not condone.

But, my sisters, to hear them tell it, prefers that side of me. They think she's fun and outgoing, a nice change from the norm. And knowing what they're like, especially the songbird, I find that a bit troubling.

Of the three of them, she's the one who gives me the most headaches. The one most likely to stray and take the others with her. So if she likes this other personality as much as it seems, I can only despair.

I listened as they talked to and over each other, regaling one another with tales of my supposed exploits. I smiled wanly, looking on indulgently as they joked and laughed without a care in the world, wishing it could remain like this.

I looked back down at my book to hide the worry lines that appeared at that thought and my mind drifted as it has been doing more of late to these nagging feelings that have been pestering me.

"Alright you three, time to get ready for school." I ignored the moans and groans of complaint and headed up the stairs to the largest bathroom. There were five bathrooms in the old farmhouse, but for some reason we all like getting ready together so it had been decided by the parents years ago to knock down some walls to make this monstrosity to accommodate us.

"Why do we have to go to high school? I'm tired of the same mindless drivel year after year."

My friend and sister Annalise pulled the mascara wand through her lashes one last time before glossing over her lips and moving away from the mirror.

"Because we're two thousand year olds in eighteen year old bodies. Soon we'll head off to college and then we'll move away. In seventy years everyone we know here will either be dead or moved away and we'll come back to start all over again."

"I know, but aren't you tired Natalia? Why can't we just go do something fun? We know everything already. And if that snit Amanda bumps into me one more time I just might feed her liver to Patrick."

"You will do no such thing, you know she's just mad because you went to the movies with her boyfriend. Something I warned you not to do I might add." I gave her a stern look of disapproval which she ignored.

"Oh, but it was getting so boring around here I needed to shake things up a little." I walked into my bedroom, which was right next to the bathroom and looked over my books for the day before throwing my backpack over my shoulder.

My other sister-friends, Zoe and Patrice were already downstairs waiting and I knew if I didn't move towards the door Annalise would be here another fifteen minutes. It's the same thing everyday though she doesn't need it with her porcelain skin and red tainted lips that always look like she's waiting to be kissed.

Of the four of us I'd have to say she's the most aesthetically beautiful one, though the rest of us are nothing to sneeze at. But of the four of us, she's also the one who doesn't know her worth. Maybe that's why I spoil and indulge her as much as I do.

"Let's go, and try to behave yourself today. I don't want to be called into the principal's office again." Our mothers were still in Europe, leaving me in charge as the oldest by a few short months. If anyone in authority here ever found it strange that one eighteen year old was in charge of three others, they never said.

Maybe because I've always portrayed myself as the most responsible one. Plus the fact that there's a slight trance over the whole town that keeps them from seeing too much. Nothing major, we try not to be invasive, but just enough to stop tongues from wagging.

Downstairs I climbed into the front passenger seat of the old Rolls 25/30 and strapped in as Zoe, the best driver of the bunch tapped the steering wheel in a sign of frustration that she had to wait yet again. We'd decided against a driver and caretaker because none of us wanted an elder looking over our shoulders and the parents had barely agreed to let us have our way with that one.

Annalise finally made an appearance and took her seat in the back next to Patrice. As usual she was antagonistic, "Get a move on Zoe, we want to get there sometime this century." Zoe huffed and I patted her arm to stave off the war that was about to begin.

I looked back at Annalise who was still primping in her little hand mirror and the little brat grinned facetiously at me. Patrice had her head stuck in a book as usual, probably something she'd read a thousand times. As the more sensitive of us, she finds such pleasure in the littlest things.

We drove down the long drive as the deer and fox came out of hiding to say goodbye. I waved and smiled as they galloped along beside my window, their eyes alight with excitement and was reminded that it had been a while since I'd gone for my usual run in the woods.

Lately I've been feeling too out of sorts and didn't think it wise to get too far away from home. So it's been school and home for me. Zoe honked the horn at some of the elderly town's people as we drove by and they all called out warm greetings as they went about their business.

Our town is a little picture perfect paradise in the Northeast well off the beaten path. There isn't much to do here, but it's been perfect for us. The miles of woods surrounding our home is just the perfect place for us to exist without bringing too much attention to ourselves.

One of our ancestors had found the place a few hundred years ago when it was still new and undeveloped. It hadn't changed much over time, again thanks to a little bit of magic on our part.

We have homes all over the world like this one, where we retreat to-to pass the time while the people we knew lived and died. It was something we had to do to hide the fact that none of us ever aged. It could be stressful and repetitive as was obvious by Annalise's new attitude, but there was no hope for it.

As we drew near the school I got that feeling again, the feeling that something was hanging in the air just above my head. Something I could not see, nor touch, only feel.