CHAPTER ONE: SMILING FONDLY AT NOTHING AT ALL

Fallen leaves shuffled across the pavement. Those still in the trees swayed to a steady rhythm as the wind played puppeteer. The bell rang for students to get to class. In the distance a car door slammed.

Booted feet walked toward the main entrance to the prestigious Spencer Academy. The air was still, and everything was quiet, except for the few students left hurrying to class and of course the soft footsteps of a new face.

Falon Spade had only arrived in Ipswich three days ago. So far she found she liked it. It was quiet and simple compared to her previous home in San Francisco, though she had to admit, reasonably colder. She hugged her scarf a little closer and walked through Spencer's main doors.

The outside of the building was beautiful. All old brick and aged stone. The inside was inviting. Rich mahogany and old world paintings. Portraits of important people watched from knowing eyes as Falon followed the map from her "new student handbook". She was looking for the main office.

Fortunately, she is fabulously lousy with directions, so it only took her one failed attempt to realize she needed help. She looked for another person and soon found one. A boy who looked about her age was just leaving the restroom.

"Hey!" Falon shouted from down the hall. The boy turned and watched as she approached him. When she was close enough for him to see her clearly a little smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"Hey", the grin on his face far too evident. Falon winced at how strongly he reeked of smoke.

"Could you tell me the way to the main office?", she looked him in the eyes, not at all liking the way his traced her body.

"Yeah, its this way." He lead her down the hall to their right. "My names Aaron, by the way. Aaron Abbot.", they turned another right.

"Falon Spade, I just moved here", She could almost hear the wheels moving in his head.

"So, where'd you move from"?

"San Francisco".

"How do you like it here"?

"Its nice". She really just wanted to find the main office and be done with this Abbot boy. He smelled so strongly of smoke and his ora radiated bad energy.

"If you'd like I could show you around, make sure you fall in with the right crowd?" Aaron said with a coy smile just as Falon's destination came into view.

"Oh look! There's the main office. Thanks a lot.", she said and had just started walking away when a hand grabbed her arm.

"Hey, don't be like that." he said in a pleading voice, "We could have a lot of fun together. There's loads of stuff to see around here".

She didn't like the suggestive tone in his voice, in fact, there was a lot she didn't like about Aaron Abbot. Falon only looked at the hand still attached to her arm. The silence of her disapproval loud enough. Eventually he let go. She looked back into his eyes, "Are you always this desperate? Or am I just special?" With that, she walked into the main office. Oh she had wanted to slap him! The nerve of some guys.

Not so terribly far away, four boys were momentarily distracted from their history class. For just a second, each felt a slight shift in the air around them. but it was dismissed as no more than a passing thought.

Caleb Danvers turned his attention back to the lecture, Tyler Simms continued trying to finish his homework, Pogue Parry turned his game-boy back on, and Reid Garwin went back to sleep.

"Yes, here you are miss Spade" The office secretary had just pulled out a paper from her very organized filing cabinet, "your class schedule."

"Thank you."

"We are happy to have you here, hopefully you'll find Spencer a helpful tool in shaping your future academic success." The secretary said with a bright smile it was much too early for.

"Aww, I'm sure thats what you say to all the new kids." Falon replied with a smile of her own, the secretary never got the joke.

However, her smile never faltered as she stood up and went through the cabinet marked, housing. "And here is your room assignment, looks like you'll be rooming with Miss Kate Tunney".