"No it's not that...um, it's...It's nothing." She made herself smile. "I like you just fine, it's just that it's a little weird being walking home from the rec center one day and fleeing the country with a bunch of people I hardly know the next." It couldn't hurt to be a little more friendly, could it? "Let's go on a walk or something once we get to Italy, okay?" Chloe could hardly believe herself. Agreeing to a date with a [i]stranger.[/i] It just wasn't in her nature!

She was brought out of her stunned self-reflection by a loud noise. It sounded like something big, heavy and metallic colliding with the train, and it sent her into a small freak-out, with her eyes going wide and her face losing a little of its color. She leaped out of her seat, a tendril of faint green-yellow gas flowing from her nostrils and sinking to the ground. She was putting out too much. "Open the window," she whispered to Dan. Her voice shook.