Saint Joseph School

Ingrid followed the others to the dining room, but it took some effort not to stop and gawk at the decor and furnishings of the magnificent New England mansion. Superficially it bore a strong resemblance to her own home in Portland, but there was an indefinable quality to the real thing, a feeling ...

The train platform was crowded, wet, and cold, but Ingrid barely noticed as she slipped through the throngs of late shoppers and holiday travellers to the taxi stand outside the station. In spite of her nickname and magical predilictions, she was no more immune to the discomfort of winter weather ...

Ingrid did her best to keep the crowd pumped, but inside she felt weird being out there without Brianna. Fortunately, the Flyers' fans needed little encouragement, even when the Panthers appeared to be dominating the game for stretches at a time. She hadn't seen this much energy in the stands since ...

Ingrid jumped and waved and cheered with her squadmates, doing her best to keep the crowd motivated, but tensions were getting high as the third wore on. There was a growing sense that momentum was slipping away from the boys in blue.

Or maybe it was just that damn bird.

The penalty call to Noah ...

"Tonight, I'm going to wear something warm, dammit!" Ingrid called back with a laugh as the cheer squad headed out to the field. As the Flyers' players passed them on the way to the lockers, her eyes followed one boy in particular.

"Or maybe something downright hot ..." she muttered.

Ingrid watched the Monarch's cheerleaders perform at half-time with a bit of a sneer, poking fun at various botched moves with her squadmates. They weren't that bad, really, but where was the fun in saying that ?

The game was still close, with the Flyers down by only three. She was confident that ...

From her place on the sidelines between Brianna and Maureen, Ingrid did her best to keep the crowd motivated in spite of the cold weather and the low-scoring game.

Suddenly everyone was on their feet screaming, and she nearly broke her neck spinning around to see what had happened on the field ...