Chapter 1

Abby POV

The cold breeze gusted through the doorway as I opened the front door, making my long brown curls bob. The New York morning air smelt fresh, something much out of the ordinary. My gray eyes closed as I whiffed another breath of air through my chilled lungs then stepped onto the sidewalk outside.

"Close the door! The heater's turned on in here!" my mother called out sweetly from the kitchen.

"Ok, mom!" I replied while clicking the door shut. I adjusted the shoulder straps of my backpack for the hundredth time on my shoulders then twirled and ran toward the awaiting school bus.
I took a seat on the bus next to my best friend, Sonia. She was a girl of a lean stature and her hair was shoulder length and coal-black. Her eyes were a hazel brilliance and her skin snowy white like mine. I had met her when I was in fourth grade, three years ago. Since then, we were the best of friends.

Somebody pulled on my brown locks from behind me and I twisted my head around and smiled at my other friend, Tim. He had red curly hair and was never seen without his blue cap. He had a crooked smile and his eyes were a light blue. Freckles dotted his round baby face. When he met us about a year ago, he somewhat stuck to me and Sonia. At first we found it sort of freaky but we soon got used to it as we realized how great a friend he was.

"Hey Abby," he squeaked. His mind seemed distracted as he moved his eyes away from me and toward someone else in front of me.

"Hi Tim," I replied then turned and followed Tim's stare only to reach another set of eyes that were staring at me with curiosity.

I frowned, not recognizing the boy who had the ice blue eyes. His hair was a dark, sandy blonde and fell slightly in front of his eyes. His height was probably a little taller than me, not that I could measure that much with him sitting.

As soon as our eyes met, he turned away with a sad frown on his face. I turned back around and gazed at Tim who was now looking at the new boy through small slits of eyes.

"Who's he?" I asked Tim quietly.

"Not sure. We were trying to figure it out through the whole bus ride till the bus got to your house," replied Sonia from next to me, cutting into the small conversation.

"I don't think I like him," mumbled Tim as the bus halted at the front of our school. We all got up and headed out of the bus. As I left my friends and headed for my first period class, I noticed the same boy looking at me again but instead with a small smile playing at his lips. I shot a quick grin back at him then ran to my first class, English.

When English started, I got bored immediately and started doodling on my notebook. When the tardy bell rang, last-minute students stumbled into the room and took their seats in a hurry. I kept my mind busy with drawing and after seconds, I noticed myself drawing the beautiful eyes of the boy.

My focus moved away from my doodling when Mr. Peters cleared his throat in the front of the class and clapped his hands for everyone's attention.

"Class! Settle down! We have a new student who will be joining us for the rest of the year," he yelled above the whispering voices, "Everyone, please welcome Derek Castellan." A surging headache randomly hit me as soon as I heard that last name. I felt like I heard it before but I couldn't remember where. My breath caught when the same blue-eyed boy from the bus gaited into the classroom with a shy smile on his face. He scanned the room quickly and his eyes locked with mine as soon as he saw me.

"You may choose out an empty seat," said Mr. Peters while heading back to his desk to take roll. Derek trampled across the room toward me and that's when I noticed an empty desk next to mine. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes as I heard him take the seat next to me.

After Mr. Peters took roll he began his new lecture on the story from our literature books that we were supposed to read the night before. I sluggishly took out my book and flipped the pages till I reached the story then began doodling on the corner of the page lightly. I picked up my head when I felt a light tap on my arm and turned to see Derek's blue eyes gazing at me.

"What page is it on?" he whispered. I drew in a breath in awe as I heard his melodic voice. It sounded warm to my ears so without knowing it, I took his book from his hands and flipped the pages smoothly till I reached the right page.

"Here you go," I breathed back. He smiled an enchanting smile which kept me staring till with full-blown embarrassment, Mr. Peters called on me to face forward.

As soon as the teacher retreated back to his boring lecture, I took out my notebook to start taking notes.

"Nice picture," whispered the same, melodic voice and I looked at my notebook, my cheeks burning bright red, as I noticed the drawing of his eyes lay smack on the front of the spiral. I heard him chuckle lightly and I smacked my hand over the drawing and quickly flipped through the notebook to the next empty page.

I continued taking notes absentmindedly with my face still a crimson red till the bell rang out the charm of first period freedom. As soon as I left the room I felt a light hand grasp my shoulder. I twirled around to face Derek with his hypnotizing stare.

"Could you help me get to my next class?" he asked.

"Yeah sure." I cleared my throat as I took his schedule from his extended arm and studied the page. "You have History next. It's over here near my next class. Let me take you." I started walking with the beautiful boy walking side-by-side with me. It earned us a couple stares and all I could do was look down.

"So what's your name?" he started, cutting through the silence.

"Abby Jackson," I replied quietly. I could feel his eyes on me so I decided to keep my head down.

"Jackson? That sounds familiar. Who's your father?"

That question caught me off guard and I halted and looked up into his curious eyes. "He left when I was young," I whispered. Not having a father always got to me for some reason. My mother was sweet and kind but I always felt the incomplete family we had in our house. No one ever asked me a question like that so straight-forward so the thought of it got me to start tearing with sadness.

"Let's keep walking, I don't want you to be late," I whispered as I stepped ahead of him. My feet stopped when his hand grasped my shoulder, making me turn to face him.

"I'm sorry," he spoke softly. Though I've heard those words millions of times throughout my lifetime, this was the first time I had ever heard them spoken with such honesty. Just looking into his eyes, I knew those words were totally what he felt inside.

After smiling happily back at him, I turned back and headed through the receding crowd and to his class.

"Here it is," I announced.

"Thank you," he replied then patted me on the head before entering the class to be introduced once again. Running to my class, the only thoughts that went through my mind were those of Derek.

By the time it was lunch time, my stomach was growling uncontrollably. As soon as I spotted my friends on a table on the far end of the cafeteria, I scurried over to them.

"Hey," called out Sonia. Greeting them, I sat down and started gobbling down my lunch, only to be interrupted when a figure emerged next to me.

"Hi Abby," I looked up and smiled at Derek who stood there shyly.

"Hey Derek," I replied joyfully. I veered my head toward Tim when I heard him shuffle in his seat. His eyes were glued to Derek and he had an angry look on his face.

"Derek what?" Tim asked with strange venom in his voice.

"Derek Castellan," I replied uneasily, "Why?" As soon as I spoke his last name, Tim's jaw seemed to clench tighter. "What's wrong Tim?"

"May I sit with you guys?" Derek asked, staring nervously at Tim.

"No," Tim answered grumpily.

"Yes," I said, ignoring Tim and scooting over to make room for him.

"So you know Abby?" Sonia began, looking at Derek with awe-filled eyes. "By the way, my name's Sonia."

"Yeah, Abby's in my English class," he replied while pulling out a candy bar. Sonia made an "o" shape out of her mouth and waggled her eyebrows at me while Derek was looking away. I rolled my eyes back at her and shook my head.

"Where did you come from?" Tim asked huffily while staring at Derek, probably deciding to join the conversation.

"I came from uptown New Jersey," Derek answered skeptically. Tim let out a low noise that sounded somewhat like a growl then went back to munching on his food. His eyes never left Derek.

After moments of silence, Derek finally began speaking.

"So, Sonia, have you seen Abby's doodles lately?" he asked with a fake, serious face.

"Oh my gosh, shut up!" I yelped as I clamped my hand over his mouth. He let out a low chuckle and Sonia stared at us with a confused face but with a smile on her lips.

We sat there joking around while Tim stayed quiet and angled steady glares at Derek till the bell rang. I went through the rest of the day without seeing Derek except in my thoughts. During art when I had Tim he never spoke to me except for when he warned me to keep away from Derek. I only ignored him and continued on my painting the class was working on.

That night, my dreams were filled with images of Derek. But the frightening part of it all was that they weren't the good dreams I would've rather had with him, but scary ones that caused me to wake up crying, trembling, and screaming in terror in the middle of the night.

Somehow, I felt like somebody was trying to forewarn me a message, a grave one that had to do with Derek. Was I missing some piece of information that was obvious to Tim? Was I in danger?