On the bus ride to school, Ashton felt his eyes boring into the back of her head. From the time that she and Jamie arrived at the bus stop to now, on the bus, he had watched her. Luckily, Alexa, Abigail, and Brian were too caught up in their own conversation to notice. Jamie noticed, though. He tried to keep her occupied. HE made small talk with her, trying to get her to focus on something other than the hot, scary thing that was watching her.

Jamie and Ashton had gotten on the school bus first when it pulled up. They sat up front on the left side, right behind the driver. Ashton sat closest to the window. Jamie had wanted her to sit there. Then he could at least be between her and It.

He (or It, as Ashton liked to refer to him as in her mind) entered the bus last. HE walked slowly down the narrow aisle of the bus, keeping his eyes on Ashton as he went. She tried to look at anything but him, his eyes. But it seemed like some sort of uncontrollable force made her look into his eyes. They were dark. There was no emotion behind them at all. His face was blank. No expression what-so-ever.

Ashton shivered. Looking into his eyes had left her cold. He finally looked away and sat down on the other side of the bus about three seats behind where she and Jamie sat. Jamie had watched as this evil thing stared down his best friend. It did not make him happy.

Ashton could feel him watching her the whole ride to school. She didn't dare to look back though. She was afraid of what she might see. When the bus finally pulled up in front of the school, Ashton was relieved.

Ashton and Jamie hurried off the bus and into the school. They really had the heat cranked up. For the first time in what had seemed like a long time, Ashton was warm. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"You okay?" Jamie asked. He still had a worried look on his face.

"Better now that we're off that stupid bus," she said. She suddenly had the overwhelming urge to hug him. So she did. He tensed at her suddenness but then relaxed and hugged her back. But this hug had brought back a lot of questions from the night before about how they felt about each other. And that just made everything complicated.

Ashton broke the hug. There was a brief moment of awkwardness between them. "So, uh, thanks. for everything," she said.

"No problem," Jamie replied sincerely. "So since my car's still at your house and everything, is it okay if I ride your bus home with you?" he asked. He already knew the answer, though.

"Yes!" she said a little too enthusiastically. "I mean, I would feel a little... safer if you did."

"Yeah, I kinda figured." He smiled at her. Her stomach did a little flip and she blushed. What's wrong with me? she thought.

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you in study hall, then," she said.

"Yep, see ya then," Jamie replied. He smiled at her, then turned and walked toward his locker.

Ashton went to her locker, got books and binders for her first three classes and headed off to first period. She went in and sat in her regular seat, all the way in the back, by herself. She wasn't too fond of most people at her school. Most of them were rich, stuck-up spoiled brats and just plain mean, so she kept to herself most of the time.

Ashton sat there reading The Lord of the Flies, the awful book she was assigned to read for English, while she waited for the teacher to begin class. She hadn't read the last two chapters that were assigned, so she had some catching up to do. She had tuned out all the noise in the classroom, but had noticed when everything went quiet. She looked up to see what had made everyone shut up.

Emery Grayson, that's what. It hadn't even crossed her mind that they might have classes together. For the second time that morning, Ashton felt that strange connection to him. It was like she knew it was him who had walked in the room before she even looked up.

"Go ahead and take that empty seat right back there," she heard her scrawny History teacher, Mr. Gibbons say. Emery nodded and began to walk to the back of the classroom where his seat was. Right next to Ashton. As he walked, everyone stared. The girls checked him out, while the guys sized up their competition.

He came and sat down and looked over at her with a wicked grin on his face. Ashton tried to smile back. Everyone was watching them. She had to try to act normal.

"Class, we have a new student with us today," Mr. Gibbons announced.

No dip, Sherlock, Ashton thought. Emery chuckled a little as if he'd heard this and it had amused him.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" Mr. Gibbons suggested.

Emery stood up, with a slight smirk on his face. "Hi," he said. "I'm Emery Grayson." All the girls swooned. All except for Ashton. Even though she could not deny the fact that he was gorgeous. He sat back down and looked over at her directly in the eyes.

Not impressed?

It was his voice. In her head. His lips had not moved but he spoke to her. A satisfied grin spread across his face as her eyes popped open wide.

Mr. Gibbons began teaching and Ashton moved as far away from Emery as possible. She could not wait for this class to be over so she could get away from this evil, beautiful, strange creature that frightened her so much.