Chapter 1
Chris sat at the back of his history class, staring out the window, watching the clouds float gently past. Sometimes he wished he could just orb right out of his school and leave everything and everyone behind, dedicate his life to saving people and kicking some demon ass. But there were too many reasons to stay. As his mom and dad had told him often enough, he needed to be able to support himself and still have some form of a normal life until he graduated and could do as he liked. After all, being a guardian angel didn't exactly pay a salary.
He glanced at the front of his class to check that Mr Grant was still talking about the topic they were on. Chris scribbled down a couple of lines and glanced up at Allison sitting in front of him. Well, Allison's back anyway. Allison Green was another the main reason Chris stayed in high school. He'd fallen for her the moment he met her and she didn't even know. His heart skipped a beat whenever she spoke to him, but she was way out of his league. To everyone in the room, he was just Chris Halliwell, Wyatt's little brother who kept himself to himself. He seemed to be Wyatt's polar opposite socially - unpopular (by choice), preferred staying in doors than participating in sports, and quiet. Wyatt had finished school a year previously, but he'd something of a legend, leaving Chris to struggle on in his shadow. It was partly because of this that Chris felt so un-nerved around popular people like Allison. People could never know the real him, so he saw little point in making close friends because it would always reach the point where they'd ask questions he couldn't answer, and not by choice. It was safer for everyone that way. So that was how Chris lived, as the school outcast. But hell, even his little sister Melinda had a circle of friends. Sometimes he couldn't help but envy his siblings.
The bell rang and everyone bolted to get home. Chris gathered his things slowly as the room emptied. His stuff packed, he sat on his desk for a moment and sighed. A noise behind him made him jump. That was another thing about Chris: he was a little bit paranoid. Ready to face something demonic, perhaps huge and hairy, Chris wheeled around, only to freeze in a fleeting moment of shock. Allison stood a couple of meters away, looking like her usual amazing self - her dark hair gracefully swept over her shoulders; her magnificent eyes glistened in the daylight. Her clothes looked perfect, and yet gave off the impression that she didn't try too hard, like anything would look good on her. She wore deep blue jeans, with a patterned t-shirt, finished with a casual jacket. He felt scruffy in comparison, in his old jeans and a hand me down shirt of Wyatt's.
"Hi," he finally said, breaking the silence. He cleared his throat. "What are you doing here still?"
Allison glance down at her feet quickly, and looked back up to face him. "Mr Grant said he'd give me back my essay he's marked early… I nearly forgot it, and didn't ask him for it before he left. You?"
Chris searched his mind frantically for an excuse, but his mind had drawn a blank - a regular effect of Allison being in the room with him. He shrugged, feeling out of his depth. Kind of ironic, he thought bitterly. "I was just about to go," he managed to say. Before he could stop himself he offered: "Can I walk you to the bus?"
Allison hesitated. "Actually," she said, tucking her work from the teacher's desk into her bag, "I have to run to the store, and catch another bus by four to get back home, so I'd better run if I'm gonna make it. Raincheck?"
Chris managed a smile to hide his disappointment. "Sure." With that she was gone, and once again he was alone in the empty classroom. "Smooth, Chris, real smooth." he muttered to himself, swinging his bag over his shoulder. He heard a familiar jingling in his head that meant the Elders were calling for his presence. A moment later, all that remained in the classroom were fading white particles which within a second dissipated into nothingness, leaving no sign that Chris Halliwell had ever been there.