Chapter 1
Supernatural creatures for dummies, 3rd edition
extract from Chapter 17: Sparks are people too!
'True sparks are extremely rare, less than 500 have been documented in the recent history, partly explained by the fact that sparks are incredibly hard to detect. The only way to say that for sure is to perform a variety of powerful spells on a person (see Appendix for the whole list of the Spark Trial Tests): if none of them work, this person is considered a spark. Many people think that the main characteristic of a spark is their ability to channel and amplify other people's magic. But not all of them can do that; as a matter of fact less than half of the officially identified sparks possessed this ability.
Resistance to all types of magic influence is what often makes them feared and ostracized in the magic community. Imagine an angel that cannot become invisible to a certain person, or a witch that cannot perform even a simplest of spells to protect herself, or a skinwalker who cannot hide behind an assumed identity. As you can see, a spark can be incredibly dangerous if he or she chooses to hunt magical creatures. Some of the most famous and ruthless inquisitors during the infamous Witch Hunts of the Dark Ages were, indeed, sparks. These inquisitors often considered themselves to be blessed by God with the gift of seeing through sorcery, rather than recognize this as a magic ability to withstand other magical spells.
(editor's notes: actually, debates on this point still continue. No one has yet been able to definitively say whether the abilities of a spark are passive or active in their magical nature).
There are a number of myths concerning the possible ways of making sparks vulnerable to spells. Belladonna, wolfsbane, witch's root are often mentioned as possessing this ability. These, however, are only myths: the only time in which a spark is susceptible to the influence of external magic is the time during which he or she is acting as a channel in a ritual or spell. Since these periods are obviously very brief, being exhausting, and since not all sparks are even capable of acting as a channel, sparks are understood to be impervious to magic for all practical purposes.
All of us grew up hearing stories about the role of sparks in the hunts for supernatural creatures, from witches to skinwalkers to werewolves, and listening to bedtime stories, like "The Little Mermaid and the Evil Spark", "Spark Edwin -the witch murderer". Chances are, you will never knowingly interact with a spark in your whole life, but if you do, try to be understanding and tolerant with them. Remember, sparks are not evil by nature, and introducing them to the magic world early on usually lets them become harmless members of our society. Remember, Sparks are people too!'
Stiles closed the book and groaned. Well, this kind of explained why no students acted friendly towards him once they realized what he was. He was so excited to start attending the Fourth School for Magic and Supernatural Creatures, hoping that this would be a much better experience than his previous normal high school. No such luck. If anything, it was even worse. Everyone was avoiding him, even the skinwalker, who, in Stiles opinion, looked so scary that he should be repelling any human interaction whatsoever. Then again, the skinwalker was actually pretty popular with the ladies… According to the book, they probably saw something completely different from what Stiles saw. The book he was reading was hardly a great intro to the supernatural world, but that was the only one they let him check out of the library before classes started, and Stiles felt very impatient. He knew absolutely nothing about this new world, and he hated not knowing things.
And now he finds out that apparently everyone in the magic community hated his powers. Adding insult to injury, he still hasn't been able to act as a channel, making him feel even more useless. That's what he left Beacon Hills and his father for, seriously? His father didn't want to let him transfer in the first place, but Dr. Deaton was really good at persuading people.
Stiles has been on the campus for a whole week already, and he made no new friends. Everyone just gave him the cold shoulder. The classes haven't started yet, he couldn't check out any worthwhile books from the library… He was bored and annoyed, and life sucked.
That's when he met Scott.