ok, so this chapter is from Lucan's point of view. Enjoy!

Chapter 2 - Stunned

Another collage, a fresh start. Nobody knew me here. I did my last semester across the country. This year I was registered with my real name. Well half of it, really. Lucan. That was the name my father had given me so many years ago. I liked my name, it was pretty rare, especially for this century, and I was really sorry when I had to use a different one from time to time. I have been called David, Andreas, Felix, Lucas, Thomas, Edward and a bunch of other names that didn't belong to me and I didn't remember. So for the time being, my name was Lucan Mason. I liked the whole name too. It went well with my personality. Masculine, full of power, mysterious.

I was told at the Students Information Office that I'll be sharing room 313 with Chris Hunt. His roommate just transferred to another university. The room had a view towards the park, to the west side, so that we could see the sunset every evening; 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 computers, a whole lot of other pairs of stuff and no bathroom. There were two at the end of the hallway, one for girls, one for boys. Though from what my roommate told me, nobody cared about the gender.

Once I was settled in, clothes in the closet, books on the shelves, things on the desk, I started asking my roommate questions. I was lucky. This guy was pretty popular, so he could tell me a lot of gossip, just like a girl witha big mouth could, but it was more interesting coming from the same gender's mouth. It wasn't full of sentimental and bitchy stuff that came out from the girls. This guy went straight to the point, giving me information that was essential and going into details only if I was interested in the subject.

I started easy. Classes. He hated them, obviously. Still, if you knew the right geeks, you could get your homework done and no teacher would have anything to complain about. Good grades, happy geeks, happy because you had to keep them out of trouble in order to get any more information from them, and happy teachers and parents. Not that my parents cared a lot about my grades, since they had been six feet under for a while, but no one knew that, so the façade must go on. I wouldn't need a geek, not because I was one myself, but because I had had a this course done 2 times before, so I knew the subject by heart.

Then I wanted to know the guys he hanged out with. Mostly football players and rich spoiled VIPs from campus. He was both part of the rich and the players. Coming to think of it, almost every kid I'd seen in here was rich, so that didn't surprise me much.

Girls. Now here is something he could go on and on about. The ones that were available, the ones that were playing hard to get, the coupled ones, the interesting, the boring, the geeks, the cute, the nice, the bitchy type, the sweet but sour type, the cheerleaders, the volleyball players, and the list would go on, and on, and on…

I told him to start with the hard to get type. There was no hard to get for me, so it would be priceless to watch the other guys faces once I got them all. Being able to manipulate minds was a really handy thing, especially when you had to get yourself out of stupid or risky situations. It was also very helpful if I wanted to get a girlfriend. If my looks wouldn't do it, then my mind would.

"So, there's Samantha Utley, she's in my chemistry, really cute girl, went out with some losers, but never went with someone worth it. Jessica Perry, forth year, smart, sexy and looking for 'the best quality on the market'. Her dad's some rich inventor or something. She's was with only one rich kid, Jeff Owllen, and we never got a word out of him about her, and a football player who didn't dare even mention her name after she broke up with him. Really weird girl, that one. There's also Kitty Pegg, second year, short relationships, nothing to last, and also second year Alexandra Maxwell. I tried to get her one time, but she didn't bulge an inch. All the girls that we asked said that she told them she was hard to get just because she wanted someone smart and interesting and no one, I repeat, no one had been any of that in her freshman year. Not one single guy. And there were dozens, really."

I didn't want to look to interested, but this was just the kind of girl I needed to get my hands on. The one that nobody got, so that there would be nobody to claim her, nobody to pick a fight with me because of her. The poor guy wouldn't be a match next to me, but if there was a first one, there would be another, and a couple more... So act cool. No need to get their heads through the wall.

"Ah, sounds hard. I would like to have a go. I love a challenge. Is there any waiting line for her, or I'm ready to go fetch her?" I was amused. This would be easy. Like taking a dog for a walk.

"Your head. Think Mayer invited her at the party tonight. Yeah, he said something about it, like he was going to have another go at her. Guess your not the only one after all. But still, I would like to see you try. You look like you know what your doing."

You have no idea, my friend. "So, do you have a picture or something so I can see her? Or I have to wait till the party?" I hoped she was at least pretty, but if that many guys were after her, she must at least look good.

"Yeah, I have an yearbook. She signed it, I was proud." He started laughing while he went to his shelves, looking for it. "Here it is. Take a look"

He gave me the black book opened at a page where there was a nice little paragraph written in and small curb-like script.

"Hey, Puff, looks like another long year passed! Hate that they didn't put that pic in here, it would have been in this yearbook that I would of looked every time I was sad. See you next year, Max"

Above the text was a photo. It showed a brown haired girl, with an oval face, nice features and a long, elegant neck. Her eyes were hazel, with a really strange tint of green on the outside iris. She was pretty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

"Puff?" I scoffed. They clearly were friends, or she was just teasing him. Better yet if he knew her, we could meat casually.

"Yeah, I had a little accident at a game, some guy put his foot in my face and it got all puffy. Nice to remember it every time I look in this. She never lets me forget." He sighed and went to put the album back.

"You friends?"

"Yeah, sort of. Her friends hang out with the football players a lot, and she joins them sometimes."

"She looks good, nothing too fancy."

He looked at me with understanding. There was a glint in his eyes that I didn't understand. "That picture is nothing. You have to see her in reality to get what's the big fuss about her." He went for his bed and laid down, looking at the ceiling.

"Oh, well then I'll wait for tonight. At what time does this party start?"

"Fifteen past eleven. But we'll go around midnight. Why?"

"I was thinking of going outside for a bit. See the place. I'll see you later, then." I got up from my bed.

"Yeah, see you!" he called after me, just as I was closing the door.

So, this Alexandra Maxwell was the biggest challenge. The way Chris, or Puff as she called him, talked about her, something was off. Well time to get something in motion.

I walked into the main hall, looking for some girls who were chatting loudly. I needed information, and where to get it better than from the source? A group of four was heading my way and I walked up to them.

"Good evening, ladies." They all looked at me, and I caught the eye of the one that was at the left end. "Would you happen to know in which room does Alexandra Maxwell stay this year?"

"Sure, she's in 507. 5th floor, second on the right from the elevator." She told me everything I needed to know. I released her. "Thank you. Have a nice evening." I walked past them, smiling, while the other three stared from my back to their friend, confused. They would never find out what had happened since the girl wouldn't remember my suggestion into her thoughts.

I had my bag with me, so I got out a pen and a piece of paper and left her a message on the door. I didn't stop to see if she got it. I didn't care. This was going to be easy anyway. Why try too much? I was going to meet her at this party. From what I heard from Chris, it was some great annual party that everyone popular got invited to. Since I was now his roommate, I had gotten an invitation too. I wasn't too excited about parties because it was always the same thing. People getting drunk and smoking cigars just to prove a point. People dancing like sausages next to each other. All of those scents mingling together, it made me sick.

I got out of the building, heading for the fountain I saw there on my way in. I spotted a nice secluded bench under a big tree that I liked. It was a place from which I could see the park and most of the other students couldn't see me.

I got lucky, it was empty. I sat down and looked around. Almost all of the benches were full of couples, all showing exactly how in love they were. Ah, humans were so predictable. Once you give them a long plan to live to, they'll take it, no questions. When I had a girlfriend, something that I didn't permit myself for too long, it was hard to get connected to her. There were too many secrets on my part and it was hard to act like nothing was wrong, since it was exactly the opposite. I was not normal, not human and I couldn't pretend otherwise for too long. Never allowing myself to get too close to someone, even others like myself, I had never experienced anything emotional towards nobody, except my parents. When they died, well they were murdered actually, it was like someone put my heart into a container, the container into a vault and had left the vault to sink in the middle of the ocean. It all went down and never resurfaced.

I laid my back on the bench and looked around at my surroundings. There was a girl alone on the bench, playing with her phone. I suspected she was waiting for some one too. Life in campus was going to be hell on earth.

The park was huge, possibly big enough that if students wanted, they could all get out of the housing building and study in the grass, at the shade of a tree. There were a lot of black benches, just like mine all over the place. The fountain wasn't working. There were only little waves disturbing the silky water when a breeze would find a way between the trees.

As I looked again around the place, the girl that had been sitting alone caught my eye. She was sitting with her elbows on her knees, face in her hands and looking around, just like me. Her head stopped as I caught her gaze and mine did to. I stared in her big eyes, recognizing them at once. Alexandra Maxwell's hazel eyes looked curiously into mine. Only one second had passed and as I narrowed my eyes to concentrate on her gaze, she blinked and looked away.

I froze in shock, stunned. What the - how - why - how -

I couldn't make myself think. It was impossible. My mind worked 100 miles per minute, trying to find an explanation. I was still staring at her when her phone rang and she quickly got up and walked up to the housing building. She never looked my way again, and I couldn't stop the feeling that she did it on purpose, like she knew what I could do. But how she was able to escape my gaze was beyond me. I had never, in my whole life, seen a human who could brake my gaze. Not one. And I lived enough to know. So how could she? Could it be the distance? Or maybe I wasn't concentrating enough…

No. There was nothing wrong with me. It was all her. Like I said, something was off and now I was really getting into the story. It troubled me to realize this, but she had caught my attention. Maybe she wasn't human after all. Maybe she was like me and had some gift that could stop me from entering her mind. But then, I could have seen her aura. She could be very old and hide it though. Or maybe she was something else, something that I haven't encountered yet, in all my years of being.

She was still in my eye sight as I tough all of this. I could picture her eyes in my head, intelligence bright in them. I was so mesmerized by them that I haven't looked at her face properly. I knew it from the picture, but now that picture had changed. It was still her face, but her eyes were the ones I had seen 1 minute ago, brown, sparkling, no longer plain like in the photo. She was now in a different light with those eyes, so much more attractive. Now that I looked at her body from behind, I had to admit she looked really good. Skinny, not unhealthy, but natural with nice curves. Her hair was loose on her back, a cascade of brown silk. She was tall and I was sure she didn't have to look up too much to meet my gaze.

Well, so much with the 'I'm no interested' part. It looked like I was really going to act on the message I left her and watch her carefully at the party. Now that I knew what to look for, I was eager for the party to start so I could see her again. If I could get closer to her, maybe some of the secrets would be unrevealed.

I got up from my seat and headed for the brick building. This party was going to be one I might even enjoy. It all depended on Alexandra Maxwell now, as much as I would have wished it differently.