Takashi, Taki's older brother, arrived today with their younger sister, Rin. She stood about three feet tall and looked up at me with bright eyes.

"You're Girl." She said.

"What?!" I took a step back. Was it really so obvious? Would anyone believer her? "I'm not a girl."

"You're Girl." Rin repeated with more force. She turned to Neil. "You're Pomegranate."

"Pomegranate?" He repeated.

"Sorry, Neil." Taki said. "But Rin is going through a phase or something. She renames everything."

Rin wrinkled her little nose at her brother. "Nii-chan is Lilac."

"Rin." Taki hissed at his sister, blushing. "Stop embarrassing me in front of Ethan."

"Girl?" She asked. "Girl is called Ethan?"

"Yeah."

"I like Girl better." Rin smiled once more at me. "Bye-bye, Girl. Bye-bye, Pomegranate."

Neil and I waved as Rin dragged "Nii-chan" away.

"That was weird." Neil said, watching their retreating backs.

"Just a little." I replied.


"What's up, Lilac?" Hans jumped into the seat next to Taki.

"Shut up, Monkey." He replied.

"I consider the nickname of 'Monkey' to be a complement." Hans stated pompously. "Now, if little Rin had named me something like 'Lucy,' I don't think I could ever show my face around here again."

"Good thing I have more balls than you." Edmund (Lucy) replied sourly.

"Could we not be so crude?" Frans (Monkey 2) asked with mock politeness. "We do have Girl in our presence."

I didn't have time to retaliate. Rin came into the lunchroom, dragging Matt and Jake, two sporty boys off the soccer team. "Vivian and Moondust." She declared.

The room erupted in laughter.

"So who else has been named?" I asked Taki after the noise had died down. "Have the Zachs been caught yet?"

"No, they haven't. Come to think of it, I haven't seen them in a while."

"Yeah." Hans agreed. "Oh well."

And just like that, the disappearance of three of our friends was dismissed.

"Princess!" Rin shouted, and her childish, high voice carried over the babbling of the lunch room, which quickly quieted. "Princess!" She waved from her vantage point atop one of the tables.

And no other than Adam waved back.

Rin scrambled off the table to Adam's side. "Princess, what are you doing here. You should wait in the castle."

"I'm sorry." Adam bent down and pinched her nose affectionately. "But I have important, royal duties to attend to."

"OK." Rin said energetically. "I'll come with you."

"I'm sorry, Rin." Adam said sweetly.

"But--" She began to retort, but Butterfly stepped between them.

"The princess has work to do." He said, the first real sentence I had ever heard him speak, and the look in his eyes would have probably given me nightmares for a month, had I a had a weaker mind.

Rin stared at him for a long time. I thought she would start crying, but, in a slightly hesitant voice, she said, "Butterfly?"

He nodded.

"Have they met?" I asked Taki in a whisper, pointing at his sister and Butterfly.

"No, they haven't."

"I guess his persona just screams 'butterfly' at you." I said, just as Alex rushed into the room.

"Adam--" He began, but stopped at the sight of Rin. He bent down to her eye level and asked, "Are you the little girl who's been renaming everybody?"

Rin nodded.

"Well, then." Alex smiled. "What's my name?"

Rin thought for a moment. "Root."

Alex looked as if she had stabbed him in the heart. His legs shook as he got to his feet. "Alright then." He said in a soft voice that I had to strain to hear. "I'll take the ugly name. The only ugly name."

Therefore, when Damian was dubbed Rainbow, I found it very ironic.


Later, in the Four Lords club, I took the rare opportunity to get back at Adam.

"So, Adam," I asked. "If you're the princess, who's the prince?"

"Shut up, Girl."

"Hey, don't talk that way to a lady!"

"You shut up too, Root."

"Cool it, Princess."

"Don't order me around, Rainbow."

And Butterfly just stood back in silence.


I had a sinking suspicion that the troubles with Rin would not be over....