A/N: Thank you for the reviews, this is my first fanfic. This chapter is twice as long as the last. Please tell me if you prefer the chapters longer or shorter and whether or not you think I've captured the characters personalities well. Hope you enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own the Circle Song. Although if you haven't heard it before you should really look it up.

Chapter 2

(Tessa's PoV)

Tessa Gray stared up at her new home through the dirty car window, gripping her angel necklace tightly with one hand. The large stone townhouse was very different from the small flat she'd lived in with her Aunt Harriet and brother, Nate. She sighed, everything was changing.

"Well? Hurry up and get out girl! I don't have all day," snapped Mrs Black, her evil social worker. Slowly, reluctantly, Tessa climbed out of the car and trudged around to the boot to grab her suitcase. It was quite small. She didn't have much stuff.

"Come along now," barked Mrs Black, who was already marching determinedly up the path to the front door. Hastily wiping away a tear she followed but kept some distance between them, mindful of the social worker's pincer-like grip. Tessa sincerely hoped that her new foster parents, the Branwells, were kind and welcoming.

A noisy clanging sound suddenly rang through the air and she jumped before realising that Mrs Black had merely rang the doorbell. Apprehensively she tried to peer through the windows but was unable to see anything without stepping into the flowerbed.

Then the door opened to reveal a tiny woman with a gentle smile and a tall, gangly man with shockingly ginger hair who looked far too excited just to be meeting a new foster child. Behind them, perched on the banister of the stairs was a pretty young girl. She looked about Tessa's age.

"Hi. You must be Mrs Black," the woman greeted her social worker with a handshake.

"Yes… Mrs Branwell?" returning the handshake with an uncharacteristically bright smile.

"And you must be Theresa? It's nice to meet you," Mrs Branwell turned to her as she was pushed forward by an old, gnarled hand almost causing her to stumble. She certainly hoped it was nice to meet her since they would soon be living together.

"Um… I'd prefer Tessa if you wouldn't mind please… um, Mrs Bra-,"

"Please call me Charlotte," she interrupted.

"… Charlotte," Tessa finished awkwardly.

"And this is Henry and Sophie. Our other foster daughter," added Charlotte motioning to her left and glancing over her shoulder, beckoning the other girl to come forward. All of a sudden she found her hand gripped firmly by Henry and shaken up and down enthusiastically as he said, "I hope you like it here."

She nodded quickly, slightly shaken by the fervent greeting. Then, smiling like the angel she wasn't Mrs Black cleared her throat, "I'm so glad you're all getting on! Now, I just have some paperwork we need to clear up and then I'll leave you to it."

The Branwells looked quite bemused by the sudden turn of events, especially Henry, but Charlotte recovered her composure quickly, "Alright. Why don't you come into the dining-room then, and Sophie, perhaps you could show Tessa her room."

…

"Henry dear, please do pay attention. You've already put jam in your tea there's no need to spread Nutella over the newspaper!" Charlotte admonished the next morning over breakfast. Her husband, who had previously just looked distracted now looked quite flustered, "I'm sorry darling, it's just that this article on the new space probe is so riveting."

Sophie bit back a grin as she dug into another pancake. Tessa was too nervous to smile, although she was already feeling surprisingly at home with her new family, today was her first day at her new school. She wished Nate was there but he'd already signed up to the army before their Aunt Harriet died. She knew the army would be good for him since he tended to be ignorant, spoilt and reckless but she still missed him. She also missed her aunt's pancakes, Charlotte's were good but they weren't the same.

"Are you looking forwards to school Tessa?" asked Charlotte. She shrugged half-heartedly and replied, "I'm not sure. There aren't normally many new students at a school in year 11 and everyone will already have their friends, but I'm looking forwards to English."

"Is that your favourite subject?" Sophie looked up.

"Yes. I love to read," she replied simply before adding, "What are you taking for A-levels?"

Sophie was in the year above her. "Er… French, food tech and, I think, art."

"You'll need to leave in five minutes, girls, if you don't want to be late," warned Charlotte. Sophie stood up and began to clear her plate away while Tessa checked for the third time that she had everything she needed. As they made to leave the room Henry waved and said cheerily, "Bye. Have fun," without even glancing up from his paper.

…

Tessa was sitting alone at a table in the middle of the classroom waiting for her maths teacher to arrive. Being alone didn't bother her; she was reading her favourite book, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She was just getting to the bit where Sydney Carton was about to sacrifice his life so Lucie could be happy when her maths teacher banged the door open. Sighing she slipped the book back into her bag.

"Good morning class. I am Mr. Abbadon and I will be your maths teacher this year. We will be starting with quadratic Nth-terms but first we have two new students who have just joined us. Will Isabelle Lightwood and Theresa Gray please come up to the front and introduce themselves?"

Ok, Tessa definitely didn't like Mr. Abbadon. First he'd interrupted her in the best bit of her book and now she had to talk in front of the class. The one thing that she'd most wished to be able to avoid. Hesitantly she stood up and made her way to the front of the room. The other new girl, Isabelle, was beautiful. She had long, glossy black hair, her jumper was oddly sparkly and her skirt outrageously short. Tessa's grey eyes caught Isabelle's obsidian ones and Isabelle nodded, understanding that Tessa really didn't want to go first.

"Hi. So I'm Isabelle. I've just moved here from the States to live with my cousins, that's Gabriel in the corner over there," she pointed and took a deep breath before continuing with lots of animated gestures, "but you already know him. I have a white Persian cat called Church and two brothers. I like fashion and sport and I think it's really weird that my brothers only like the second one of those things even though they totally go super well together if you want them to."

She looked like she was only pausing for dramatic effect but Mr. Abbadon stopped her there, looking alarmed and surprised that anyone would want to say so much in front of a class on their first day or that it was possible for one to speak so quickly. Then he turned his intense gaze on her.

"I'm Tessa. I've just moved here too, but only from Southampton. I love to read and my favourite book is A Tale of Two Cities."

Thankfully she didn't have to say any more than that because just as she'd started to speak a boy burst noisily into the classroom. Mr. Abbadon was glaring at him murderously so Tessa and Isabelle hurried back to their respective seats. (Isabelle was sitting next to a boy with brown hair, glasses that kept slipping down his nose and a t-shirt that read 'Schrödinger's Cat is Not Dead'.)

"William Herondale! How dare you interrupt my lesson?!" thundered Mr. Abbadon.

"Sorry I'm late sir, I forgot to set my alarm," the boy, William, didn't even flinch once under the murderous glare, Tessa was impressed. Instead he just shook his unruly black hair out of his face, revealing breathtakingly deep blue eyes and met the maths teacher's gaze evenly.

"What do you mean 'late'? You're not part of this class, these students are a year younger than you and I remember with exceptional clarity that last year you assured me you would not be taking mathematics as an A-level."

"Yes, I remember that too sir. But that was before I'd found out I'd failed my maths GCSE. And since it's maths, I have to retake it so unfortunately for you, you have to deal with my ever so troublesome presence in class for a few more months!"

"You failed! Go… go awa… I mean go sit down this instance," spluttered Mr. Abbadon and pointed to the empty seat next to Tessa. William sauntered over to the desk and dropped gracefully into his chair as Mr. Abbadon turned to the whiteboard. As soon as he'd turned his back Will leant over and whispered in Tessa's ear, "Hey, I'm Will."

"Tessa."

However as luck would have it Mr. Abbadon had extremely sharp hearing, "One more sound out of you this lesson Herondale and it'll be detention."

In a few minutes everyone had their heads bent over their books and all that could be heard was the scratching of pens and a few quiet groans. Then Will put his hand up abruptly, "Sir? I was wondering if you knew the circle song?"

"How is that relevant to today's work Herondale?" he growled.

"It's not really."

"Then we most definitely do not need you to inflict an awful rendition of it on us, do we?"

"Unfortunately sir, I am inclined to disagree," and with that he stood up on his chair and burst into song,

"Here is a circle
it knows how to get around,
it has a radius…"

Tessa had to stuff a fist in her mouth to stop herself from laughing aloud, she didn't want to get in trouble on her first day here. Then she noticed a note that Will must have slipped her before standing up. She opened it subtly while Mr. Abbadon's attention was still elsewhere. It read, 'Wait for me after class.' She screwed it up into a ball, slightly confused, obviously he was going to get a detention but what did Will want with her? Then she noticed he was still singing,

"Pi-r-squared sounds like area to me,
if I need a circumference I'll just use Pi-d!"

"WILLIAM HERONDALE! YOU GET DOWN OFF THAT CHAIR THIS INSTANCE! DETENTION FOR BEING LATE AND DISRUPTING THE CLASS! SEE ME AT THE END OF THE LESSON!"

…

Tessa hovered in the corridor outside the classroom at break. She was just wondering how much longer he would be when Will strolled leisurely out of the classroom, "I see you've met one of the Nine Princes of Hell then?"

"Who?"

"One of the nine evil teachers from the maths department," he clarified.

"Oh."

They were walking down the corridor together, or rather Will was walking and Tessa was just following when out of the blue he asked, "You like to read?"

"Yes…. How do you know that?"

"I heard you speak at the start of class. You're favourite book is A Tale of Two Cities?"

"Yes," she replied slightly defensively.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"And your favourite book is by Charles Dickens?"

"That's what I said isn't it," then Tessa collected herself and continued, "I also like the Bronte's. What's your favourite book?"

Will shrugged, "I like Otranto."

"The one where the helmet falls out of the sky," Tessa nodded, then realising she hadn't seen this part of the school yet asked, "Where are we going?"

"The library. I thought you might like to see it, besides it's also one of my favourite places in this school and as far away from the fiery hell that is the maths department as possible!"

"Hell can also be cold," retorted Tessa.

"What?"

"In Dante's Inferno, hell's ninth ring is a frozen wasteland. Hell can be co-… aaaahhhh," Tessa bit back a scream as she tripped at the top of a flight of stairs but before she could tumble forwards an arm wrapped round her waist catching her just in time. Will pulled her backwards causing her to stumble into him as she twisted around. Suddenly they were looking into each other's eyes and she could see that his had darkened. Will's hair had fallen over his face again and Tessa had to resist the irrational urge to push it back. Realising she was blushing and that they were standing in the middle of a corridor Tessa tried to push away but his arm kept her in place as he bent his head towards her and spoke lowly, "A word of advice. The handsome young man who is rescuing you is always right, even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs!"

Tessa stared at him a while longer thinking him quite mad before he eventually pulled away. They continued their walk to the library as if nothing had happened, she couldn't think of anything to say until they reached the door when she retorted, "I corrected you before you caught me."

He didn't say anything, just looked at her with an unreadable expression in his eyes until, inexplicably, his face broke into a wide grin.