A/N: This is a completely from scratch story. I know this probably shouldn't go onto fanfiction, but hey. It was inspired by the Twilight Saga and carries a similar plot-line. I hope you enjoy the first chapter as I've really enjoyed writing it, for once. It's about Catrin, she's the main character. Hopefully you'll guess that as you go along. There is supernatural stuff in this, just not yet. I have no idea how long this will be. This all belongs to me, thanks. Please don't copy it without my permission. And believe me there will be some wicked surprises further along. I know first chapters can sometimes be boring and I'll stop rambling now ;)

Here is a short summary:

Falling in love with a jerk isn't good. Falling in love with a jerk who isn't human is worse. But not knowing who you've fallen in love with and that they are not human can get just a little confusing. Catrin Yates is about to go on one roller coaster ride she'll never forget!

Chapter 1 – A Friend in need is a friend indeed

"Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who,

for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage…"

"Are you reading that again?" I heard the voice next to me.

I looked up. "You know I love Jane Austen, mum." I replied.

"You love every book, Catrin." She replied chuckling

"That's not true." I argued, I liked most books and this was my favourite.

She let it drop. I sighed and looked out the window. It was getting dark. I closed my book.

"Where are we, anyway?" I asked.

"According to Tim we'll be there in about an hour."

"Who's Tim?" I asked, puzzled.

She pointed at the dashboard. "Our sat nav."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you two engaged yet?" I asked sarcastically.
She stuck out her tongue at me, playfully. I laughed.

"Tim, do you take Eva, to be your lawful wedded wife?" I asked the sat nav expectantly.

"Take the exit."

We burst out laughing. "How convenient." My mother added.

We were returning from our weekend trip to my Nan's. It had been my mum's birthday recently and Gwyneth, my grandmother, had insisted on us driving up to see her. She was very kind and gentle and loved talking with me about various books, however the time flew by and before we knew it we were heading off again. Visiting Gwyneth always exhausted my mother. I never knew quite what the reason was, but I guessed that that it had something to do with the interrogations Gwyneth put Eva through. I remembered my mum once calling her the 'Spanish Inquisition.'

"You never really told me what it was about?" My mum said.

"What, what was about?" I asked confused.

"The book." She pointed to my lap and squinted with her eyes. "Per…sua…sion. Persuasion."

I rolled my eyes. "Honestly, I don't think I'm at all related to you. You're my complete opposite when it comes to reading."

She laughed then shrugged. "Must've got that from your father." She mumbled.

I looked up at her. Her eyes looked pained. This was a sensitive topic. We never really talked about him. Eva hadn't withheld information about him, from me. She just didn't like to mention him so casually.

She looked at me. "So? Tell me."

I smiled. "It's about love."

Eva raised an eyebrow. "Love." She stated.

I sighed. "Okay, it is about a man and a woman who are in love when they are young. They want to marry but the girl, Anne, gets persuaded to break off the relationship. Therefore breaking Frederick Wentworth's heart.

Years later they meet again by coincidence and have to spend a lot of time in each other's company. They don't know if it's too late and too much time has passed to try again, but they realise they still love each other get back together and live happily ever after." I looked at my mother.

She laughed. "Well, it sounds like a fairy tale, if you ask me."

"Mum, the words 'books' and 'reading' together with your name in one sentence do not make sense."

She chuckled. "I can't help it. Why would you want to be stuck inside all day staring at pages of writing? Just the thought of it makes me yawn."

"Alright, alright. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion."

"Look we're nearly home." Eva said tiredly.

I smiled sleepily. "That's good. After all, I do have school tomorrow."

When we got home I unloaded, Meg, our Border Collie from the boot and dragged myself up the stairs to my bedroom. I got myself ready for bed quickly and envied Meg, who was already lying in her bed in my room watching my every move.

I sighed and threw myself on the bed, drifting off quickly.

The alarm clock woke me; annoyed I turned it off and tried to roll over. Meg was licking my face. Telling me to get up. I'd always understood Meg well.

I sighed and got up.

It was cloudy outside, but at least it was dry. I ate breakfast, took Meg for a quick walk and got ready. Eva had already gone. She was a nurse at the local hospital. Hours were tough and unpredictable, but she enjoyed it.

I grabbed my bike, put my coat on and rode off to school. Most kids thought I was weird for riding my bike to school. After all 'I wasa girl'. I didn't really care what they thought, walking would mean I would have to get up even earlier and Eva couldn't drive me because of her job.

It was quite chilly this morning and I could feel my hands on the handlebars going numb. I'd forgotten to wear my gloves, but then again I didn't actually know their whereabouts at the moment.

It was the first day back, and the new kids would be arriving. This was my least favourite day of the school year, everyone was always very noisy and over excited.

As I expected, the newcomers stared and whispered as I rode past them on my bike. It's not like it was embarrassingly cheap or a horrid colour. It was a very expensive mountain bike. I'd heard those were 'in' at the moment. Not that I cared.

I chained my bike in the school's appalling bike shed, grabbed my bag and walked towards campus. The school was ugly. It was old and the buildings looked like they hadn't been a repaired in a long time.

I stowed my coat in my locker and made my way to class. There was an air of excitement around me as everyone caught up with their friends and told stories about what they had done over the summer.

Our form tutor Mr. B. smiled at us as we came in. I smiled in return. He was one of my favourite teachers. He always seemed to glow with positivity.

"Good Morning, Catrin." He greeted me, showing off his perfectly white teeth.

"Morning Mr. B." I replied. More whispers were heard behind me. I was often referred to as Mr. B's pet. I didn't actually know his full name. He'd always been Mr. B.

He wasn't your average teacher. With a crop of jet-black hair, deep dark grey eyes and his extremely handsome face. He was often referred to as the most fancied teacher, which was lucky for him as he was already married. He looked like he did exercise on a regular basis, he was toned and his fashion sense wasn't bad either. All in all a perfect teacher and he was pretty young, when it comes to teachers anyway. He couldn't have been older than thirty.

I took my place in the front, as always next to an empty seat. People were still filing in, but eventually Mr. B. managed to settle everyone down. I looked up to see an unfamiliar face standing next to him. The whispers struck up again as everyone else spotted him. I wondered who he was and realised he must be a new student, come to join our class. I smiled at him tentatively; I knew how he must feel. He stared back, his dark green eyes penetrating mine and sending a shiver down my spine.

"Everyone this is Rhys Gobel. He's the newest addition to our class." He waited in silence for the class' reaction. There was an unpleasant silence but then suddenly everyone erupted into conversation, remembering that they still had things to discuss.

Mr. B sighed with relief. "Now then, where should we put you?" He asked Rhys, surveying the classroom. He spotted the empty seat next to me and walked towards me, Rhys following behind.

Oh, no! I thought. This couldn't be happening. I liked being on my own. Ugh, why did I have to smile at him like that? No one else seemed to notice, or rather no one else cared.

I sighed and started to shift my things out of the way, to make space for this newcomer. I felt sorry for him in a way, but in another way I regretted ever laying eyes on him.

"Catrin, would you mind showing Rhys around the school a little, you know, make him feel welcome?" He smiled at me expectantly.

"Um, sure Mr. B, why not?" I replied Rhetorically.

"Thanks, Catrin." He replied and turned to Rhys who was fiddling with his clothes. "Rhys, this is Catrin. Catrin has been here a while and she'll show you the ropes and tell you how things work around here." Rhys nodded and inclined his head towards me. Again those eyes bored into mine, and I wondered what secrets they concealed.

"Well, I'll leave you to it." Mr. B broke the uncomfortable silence that had erupted between Rhys and me.

I smiled again at Mr. B, and he walked back to the blackboard. That's one of the things I loved about this school. No high-tech White Boards, attached to computers with an in-built cinema sound system. Just a plain old blackboard, with chalk and a sponge. It was those little things that I liked most.

Rhys slid into the seat next to me, a seat that had been unoccupied for a length of time, and got out his pencil case.

Mr. B, was our science teacher as well as our form tutor. Another reason to why I liked him so much, science being one of my favourite subjects.

A few minutes passed, I answered questions directed at me and took notes obediently.

"So, you a science whiz then?" Rhys asked me suddenly.

I blushed and immediately got defensive. I hated it when people called me those kind of names. "Mind your own business." I snapped, rather rudely.

His eyes widened. "Sorry, I didn't mean… I mean I didn't want to offend you."

I looked at him in silence.

"I was just saying, you know, that you seem to be really good at this subject." He hesitated.

I smiled sarcastically. "Well, it helps being good at science if you want to study medicine in the future."

His eyes grew in amazement. "Wow, so you want to be a doctor?"

"A vet." I corrected him. "Not that a vet isn't a doctor."

"A vet. Cool." He said this with so much honesty that I looked at him, puzzled.

"Are you making fun of me?" I asked, annoyed.

"Fun?" He asked surprised. "No, why would I?"

"Humph." I murmured. "Everyone else does." Oops, that wasn't meant to come out loud.

Rhys looked surprised again. "They do? Why?"

I shrugged. "They always need someone to pick on. This time it's just me, I guess."

And just to reinforce this, someone shouted: "Oi, Catrin! You gettin' all cosy with the new kid? I hope you don't think he'll become your friend. That's more unlikely than your father coming back from the dead."

I flinched at the painful memory and turned around. "Well at leas my father didn't cheat on my mother and sleep with prozzies."

The class cheered us on, but Mr. B interrupted us.

"That is ENOUGH!" He yelled and everyone grew quiet. "Now if you don't want to end up in detention this week, Percy then I suggest you get on with your work and keep comments like that to yourself." He shot Percy a warning look. "You, too, Catrin." He added, looking at me. He winked.

I cringed, I didn't like it when Mr. B, made it so obvious that he liked me.

Rhys looked at me. I thought he would day something about Mr. B but he didn't. "Nice comeback." He said simply and the bell went.

xxxx

Mr. B had told me that Rhys should just come to all my lessons with me, as he did not possess a timetable. Rhys tagged along quietly, commenting here and there when I showed him around the school, bur otherwise keeping himself to himself.

Break time faced me with a dilemma; normally I would eat on my own and then go to the school library on my own. I realised what I lonely life I led. I tried to find out what Rhys wanted to do.

"So where do you want to eat?" I asked just after we had left Maths.

"I don't mind really, wherever suits me fine." He shrugged dismissively and I led him to a deserted lunch table, outside. The sun had come out during the day and it was nice to feel it's warm rays on my skin.

I was setting my lunch down when suddenly Rhys stopped me.

I looked at him puzzled.

"You have something on your face." He said, reaching out with one hand, smiling.

I was going to protest, I didn't want him to touch me, it would feel awkward when suddenly, someone rammed into me from behind. Rhys was pushed into a sitting position. My whole lunch flew across the table and landed on the floor. Smothered in sand and dirt.

"Hey watch it!" I snapped and turned around to face whomever had just ruined my meal. It was Seamus. Seamus was a boy in my class. Everyone left him alone. He had an air about him that scared most people. Honestly I didn't know what they meant, so it didn't stop me from accusing him wildly.

"What do you think you're doing, just pushing me over? Do you even have eyes? You know those two things that pop right out of your head every time someone mentions your name!"

He looked at me, like I was a little child. "You what? Oh, yeah… Catrin, isn't it?" He snorted sarcastically.

My anger nearly boiled over. Rhys looked a little shocked, but then shock turned to rage.

"Do you know what you just did?" He accused, loudly.

I jumped, surprised. Why was he defending me?

Seamus looked as surprised as I was.

Rhys continued. "You are shouting at a girl after you pushed her over! Do you know how rude that is? You could at least offer to pay her for a new lunch. Or simply apologise!"

I thought Seamus looked torn for a minute, but I might have imagined it. Rhys still looked irrationally outraged. I wondered why it mattered so much to him. He looked like he was ready to kill Seamus. Rhys caught me looking at him, puzzled and quickly composed his expression.

I laughed, relieved. "Rhys, it's okay. Calm down, this jerk isn't worth it." I turned my back on Seamus and ignored him.

Rhys gave me half of his lunch, which I accepted gratefully. We were able to talk more freely now, as if the previous incident had cut the tension between us.

"I thought for a second there, you'd punch him." I told Rhys a few minutes later, smiling.

Rhys laughed out loud. "No way, I'd never have the guts!" He confessed, handing me his apple.

I doubted that, his face had told me differently, but then I did often let my imagination get out of hand.

"You didn't need to do that, Rhys. I can look after myself, you know." I looked at him. "But, thanks anyway." I added, smiling gratefully.

Luckily not many people had noticed the confrontation and Seamus had quickly disappeared. Seamus Bolide was an outsider, he talked to no one. He had messy black hair, with a hint of brown. His skin was ashen, but it had a glowing to it that you didn't understand. He had pale grey eyes, that sometimes looked as black as death. His face was handsome, with a pointed nose and long black lashes; most girls would have fancied the pants off him. Were it not for his personality.

Rhys interrupted my thought process. "You've got a bit of temper haven't you?" He asked smiling mischievously and brushing his honey blonde hair out of his eyes.

I grimaced. "Is it that obvious."

He chuckled, a deep sound. "Well, I've only known you for a couple of hours. You might just be having a really bad day."

I considered that. "Nope. This is as ordinary as it gets, I would scuttle if I were you."

His eyes widened in surprise. They seemed to do that a lot. "This is ordinary?"

I nodded. "I've had worse. Much worse." I thought back gravely to the time where Percy and his friends… Never mind, scrub that thought. I'd gotten over that.

Rhys was quiet for a moment. "Haven't you told anyone?"

I rolled my eyes, anger bubbling up again. "Just mind your own business, will you!" I snapped.

He looked at me, hurt.

I immediately felt guilty. "I'm sorry. I just don't like it when people talk to me like I'm a helpless victim. I can look after myself." I added again.

Rhys nodded, understanding and dropped the subject. He didn't bring it up again.

The school day continued and Rhys and I made small talk. We talked about our families, our hobbies and other little things. I was finding it extremely uplifting to be able to talk to someone for once, instead of dwelling in the library on my own. I found that Rhys shared a love of books as well and I was delighted. I hoped that he would want to spend more time with me in the future. Not just with me as his tour guide.

Rhys told me of his abhorrence of maths and I told him about my passion for science.

Rhys was not at all freaked out when he found out that I rode the bike to school.

"It's very economic." He said, winking.

I pushed my bike, as he walked along side me. Soon we had reached his house and I promised to pick him up on the way to school tomorrow.

I couldn't believe that I'd finally made a friend.

When I got home, I was in a great mood. Mum wasn't back yet, so I changed and took Meg into the forest for a nice long stroll. On returning home I noticed the mail, un-opened lying on the floor. I picked it up and sifted through it, out of habit.

A bill, a letter from the school telling us about a fundraising event, a postcard from my brother in Spain and a letter addressed to me.

There was no address, no stamp, not even my proper name. Just 'Catrin'. I wondered what it was and opened it.

Inside was a note. I unfolded it; my hands were shaking for some reason. It read:

We must not look at goblin men,

We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed

Their hungry thirsty roots?

There wasn't a signature. Not even the poet's name, for I assumed it was a poem. Or part of a poem. I struggled to remember, as I was sure I had seen it before, but the memory failed to come. Struggling to keep calm I put the note in my pocket and chucked the envelope in the bin.

Shoving thoughts of the strange message aside I began to read the rest of the mail.