Summary: Nora's existence up to her senior year in high school has been pretty uneventful and unremarkable. That is, until she met Toby Weiss-Harman. There's something about him that catches her attention from the start (crashing into someone can do that) and, surprisingly enough, there's something about her that's caught his eye. But there's that whole Night World rule where humans aren't supposed to know about the Night World and Night World people are not supposed to fall in love with humans.

But there's an unknown Weis-Harman rite of initiation that is about to become very known to Toby, and Nora will be the only one able to help him through it. So how is he going to be able to uphold the Night World laws then? Well, he can't.

So he's going to break them.

Chapter 1 – The Beginning of the End of Nora's Quiet Life

Nora didn't know it, but today was the end of her quiet, unexciting and untroublesome world. See, Nora had been planning on finishing her last year at high school the way she had been finishing the previous 12 years of school: with straight A's, no marks against her and nothing really remarkably accomplished. Sure, she yearned to do more than that, like be in a school play or have one night of wild partying, but for some reason, she never got around to it.

Nora was not a girl one could call popular or overachieving or a wild child. Nora didn't want to be that. She liked getting her homework done on time and done properly. She liked having enough time at home to sit and read a book or hang out with her mom. The life she lead was orderly. Yes one could call it dull, but Nora liked it.

Suddenly, Nora was ripped out of her reverie by a harsh impact with a fast-moving object. She fell to the ground, feeling a sharp pain rocket up her leg; her books spilled across the sidewalk, the contents of her notebook flying out.

Nora lay still—partly because of shock and partly because of the heavy body that weighed her down. After a few moments, her brain restarted and she pushed at the person on top of her. The body slowly straightened up, revealing a pair of bright eyes, the color indeterminable because of the bright sun shining directly into Nora's eyes.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I haven't crashed like that in a long time." Nora's eyes widened as she realized that the person on top of her was a guy, and, from what Nora could see of him, a good-looking guy. Still laying on the ground, she somehow managed to squeak out, "That's fine".

Perhaps because her voice was a bit small, the boy seemed to realize that he was on top of her. He turned slightly red and pushed himself off the ground and off of Nora, getting to his feet. He reached down to help her up, apologized again and busied himself with picking up the scattered books and papers and placing his skateboard back on its wheels. She busied herself with dusting off. Once she sensed that most of the awkward moment had passed, she looked up to grab her books that the skater boy was still holding. Nora was slightly startled as she found that she was looking into a pair of violet eyes, and took the books out of his hand a little clumsily.

He flashed her a smile with teeth so blindingly white she almost squinted. "I know I've said this a couple of times, but I'm sorry," and so saying, he pushed off on his board and rode into the sunset (which was actually occurring in the particular direction he was going).

Nora tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear and smiled slightly, amused at the romantic turn her mind was taking when nothing really had actually occurred.

She got to school without further incident, and took her seat at her first class of the year. A quick glance around the room showed her some familiar faces from the previous year and some new ones. The teacher, Mr. Thornby, was sitting at his desk, logging in the names of the students there for roll call. She took a seat close to the back and waited for class to start.

Busying herself with writing her name and the class title at the top of the first page of her notebook, she didn't notice that she had a neighbor until said neighbor shoved a hand across the notebook she was writing on. Nora looked up and was confronted with the most extraordinary amount of jewelry she had ever seen to decorate a human being (aside from the Africans from Ripley's Believe It or Not). The girl connected to all the metal was dark-skinned, petite and wild-haired. She had two piercings on her nose, earrings all along the edge of one ear and three in the other, two on each eyebrow and one on her tongue, which stuck itself out for Nora's inspection at which point Nora realized she was staring and shifted her eyes nervously back to her notebook and the hand that covered it.

"Hi! I'm Zen. Saw you got smashed earlier by Toby. I've never seen him do that before but I guess you did look a bit out of it so probably didn't see him yourself. Don't think I've ever met you. Are you new?"

Nora was back to staring again. She had never actually experienced such an explosion of words directed at her from anyone before. Normally she got a polite smile or greeting with eyes that never really met hers. This girl, Zen, was looking straight into her eyes, pouring words out of her mouth almost as if she felt that if she didn't say it all now, she would never be able to. Nora slowly moved her hand and put it in Zen's, giving it a small shake. Satisfied, Zen sat back in her seat.

"No, I'm not new. I've been here since freshman."

Zen's eyebrows lifted. "I could've sworn I knew everyone here."

Nora gave a bird-like shrug of her shoulders. "I'm not that noticeable." This was said matter-of-factly, Nora having accepted her lot in life.

Zen made a non-committal sound, waving her hand in the air as if to brush that comment aside. "You're new." That was that for Zen apparently.

"Okay." Nora did not know how to respond.

"Listen, there's a quote-unquote 'back-to-school celebration' happening at Melissa D's house (as opposed to Melissa K) on Friday. Since you don't really know anyone, you should come with me. I'll get you in and introduce you to everyone. Don't want you starting off the last year of high school without becoming legit with everyone else, you know?" Nora shrugged again, not wanting to contradict Zen but also not wanting to confirm she was new to the school. This satisfied Zen who gave Nora a pleased smile. "You have History next right?"

Nora nodded.

"Good. Me, too. I'll give you the needed info on what you need to do to survive Sherville High."

The teacher called attention and started taking roll. Nora stared ahead thinking it might not hurt to stick with Zen the human tornado. She'd at least give some zest to her quiet, unexciting life.

Author's Note: This is me indulging in some teenage fluffle. Oh, and by the way, when you read this, (voice deepens into a mesmerizing tone) you will feel compelled to leave a review…