A/N: okay, so this is my first Covenant fanfiction…it's currently nameless; I haven't got any ideas for it as of yet…enjoy, and pleasepleaseplease tell me how it is! Any constructive criticism is appreciated – constructive only! I can't take too much plain old battering, as it is the equivalent of a Scandinavian war hammer striking my soul! R&R! And I don't mean rest and relaxation!

xxx – Shadowseeker

Chapter One

"Everyone please sit down, class is beginning…." the professor droned at the sound of the bell. The students climbed to their respective seats while the teacher started his lesson for the day, the students quickly losing interest in the subject.

"…and his most famous book was…" Reid Garwin tuned out the monotonous voice of the teacher, allowing his eyes to rove over the students. He finally sat back in his seat, bored. There was no one interesting in here, if you didn't count his friends.

Reid glanced over at the younger Tyler Simms, who also seemed incredibly bored. Reid turned towards the door in confusion when Tyler's eyes lit up as the door shut with an audible click. There in the doorway, looking disinterested and aloof, was this total babe. Even more of a babe than Caleb's girlfriend Sarah, and Sarah was pretty hot, if you asked Reid…

The girl spelled badass, from her very beanie covered blonde head and the many rings in her ears and nose, all the way down to her combat boot-clad feet as she clumped her way to the professor's desk. Annoyed at the interruption, Professor Danby looked up from his notes at the newcomer. His face changed in record time from annoyance to admiration as his eyes raked over the girl appreciatively.

God, Reid scoffed to himself as he took note of Danby's face. And everyone thinks I'm the pervert…

The girl rolled her eyes at the teacher and said loudly, "Professor Danby? Hello? Earth to Danby!" When he still refused to give her a response aside from his ogling, the girl walked up to him and snapped her fingers in his face, the sound loud in the quiet that had accompanied her arrival. Danby jumped, his ears turning pink at the tips.

"Uh….can….can I help you?" he asked, trying his hardest not to look at the girl anymore. She sighed to herself and rolled her eyes again at the class. A few chuckles broke out from the crowd, Reid's being one of them. The girl looked up at him and their eyes met for a brief moment before she looked back at the professor, disinterested. Needless to say, Reid was feeling the opposite.

"I'm Quinn," she said, her voice both husky and clear, as she tried in vain to get Danby to take the slip of paper she held out to him. "I just transferred in." After shaking it in his face for the third time, the girl – Quinn, Reid reminded himself – made an exasperated noise in the back of her throat and dropped the paper on his desk. "Now," she started, as if speaking to a very dense child, "I'm going to go find a seat, and sit down." The professor shuffled his feet nervously. "Then you can start your lecture again. Okay?" Danby cleared his throat once, twice. Three times. Talk about phlegm.

"Yes…" his voice was small as he peeked up at her, then glanced away again. "That….that would be fine, Miss….Quinn."

"God," she muttered as she walked away from him, towards the tiered rows of desks. Reid watched her interestedly, noticing the way her slim and very tan legs moved gracefully between backpacks as she walked up the stairs. He was jolted back to reality when he felt a sharp jab in his side.

"Ow. That hurt, you douche." He turned to glare at Tyler, who was glaring right back.

"Move your shit, idiot!" Tyler hissed, indicating the desk next to Reid that was covered with various school items. It was the only empty seat in the class. Reid realized this and smirked to himself, shoving the numerous books and papers onto his side of the desk as Quinn appeared at the end of the row, also having noticed the seating predicament. She dropped her book bag on the desk with a thunk, slumping into the chair behind it as she did so. Reid watched her, secretly glad that he had been a dick to the last kid to sit there. After all, it had cleared the seat for Quinn, hadn't it? And Quinn was much easier on the eyes.

"Hi," he said, lifting a hand off his desk in a carefully casual wave. Quinn glanced over at him, tedium and disinterest showing clearly in her very blue eyes.

"Hey," she said apathetically, before glancing towards the front of the room. Intrigued, and deciding not to take the hint, Reid continued.

"I'm Reid. Garwin." Reid heard Tyler's resigned sigh on his left and waited for an answer from Quinn. She glanced back over at him, no longer hiding behind a mask of indifference. Now her expression was annoyed – this Reid was obviously checking her out, something she had hoped wouldn't happen at this school. So much for the idea that prestigious schools meant that students would be too dedicated to their studies to care about her looks.

"Quinn," she answered, allowing her slight annoyance to color her tone. "Pope." Reid smiled in excitement. Tyler elbowed him in the side again, causing Reid to wince. Tyler leaned in front of Reid, offering his hand to the new girl.

"Hey," he said, smiling genuinely. "I'm Tyler Simms. You can ignore the idiot," he added, earning a rueful smile from Quinn as she shook his hand. Tyler was surprised to find that her grip was strong and firm.

Reid's face darkened at Tyler's words, despite the fact that his best friend was saying them in jest. Reid rolled his eyes at Quinn as she glanced at him again, waiting for his answer to Tyler's jab.

"He says that to every girl we meet," he said apologetically. "Baby Boy here thinks he's quite the lady's man." The corners of Quinn's mouth twitched in the beginnings of a smile as he rumpled Tyler's hair.

"Really. Somehow I get the feeling that it's the opposite," she answered, an evil glint in her eye. Tyler sat back in his seat, grinning openly. Before Reid could retort, the professor began the lecture where he had left off, finally recovered from the sight of the new student.

It took him long enough, Quinn thought to herself. It seemed like everywhere she went, there was always someone leering at her. None of the teachers at her old school had paid any attention to her work; all they liked about her were her looks. And with good reason – Quinn really was beautiful, at least to the rest of the world, with her one hundred percent natural platinum blonde hair, amazingly bright blue eyes (which, upon further discretion, actually had little flecks of gold and green in them), flawless complexion, and sharp, modelesque features.

But all of this was meaningless to Quinn. She was tired of being judged by her looks and actions – teachers and peers saw her as stupid (because, really, only in an ideal world can someone be extremely smart and beautiful); half the time it didn't matter what she did – she could have been simply walking through the cafeteria – and girls would call her a slut, thinking she liked to flaunt her looks.

Quinn sighed, recalling these painful memories of her old life. Scooting her chair back so she could lean her head against the wall of the upper tier behind her, Quinn vowed to forget all those memories – especially the ones she had of her best friend's death. That was the real reason she had moved so far away from home, which was all the way on the West coast. After inheriting their magic at fourteen, she and her best friend Devyn had thought their lives would be so much better…how wrong they had been. Quinn chuckled dryly to herself, remembering the excitement she and Devyn had felt when their magic developed.

But no one had told them that using too much could kill them – and Devyn had found out the hard way, using the magic so much that she was brought within an inch of life. She had finally willed her magic to Quinn, choosing to end her life at an internal age of seventeen rather than live it out in a hospital room at an external age of eighty-seven. So Quinn left, since Devyn's death had only caused her to become more of an outcast. She sighed again, miserably, and closed her eyes to stop the tears welling there from overflowing.

Something warm touched her arm suddenly, startling her. Quinn's eyes snapped open, her depression temporarily forgotten in her shock. Reid's hand was resting lightly on her forearm, the playful look on his face replaced by one of concern.

Shocking, her subconscious voice was sarcastic as ever. He has feelings.

"Hey," he said, his voice surprisingly soft. "Are you okay?" Quinn looked into his eyes for the first time, really looked, and was surprised by both the absurd clarity and depth of the twin blue orbs, as well as the intense worry that filled them. He stared back, and Quinn realized he was waiting for an answer.

"Oh. Yeah," she answered awkwardly, her voice even huskier than usual. "Thanks." Reid leaned back into his seat, his hand leaving her arm to rest once again in his lap. Cold air rushed to fill the space where he had placed it, making Quinn feel oddly forlorn. He gave her a small smile before facing the class once more, his expression sliding into the mask of polite disinterest it was before.

Quinn turned her own face towards the front of the classroom, but allowed her thoughts to stay on Reid. It was the first time since Devyn's death that she had thought about something other than her life prior to moving to Ipswich.

A/N: Well? Whaddya think? Review, if you please! I'll love you for most of forever and give you a virtual cupcake besides!