Chapter Three: Waiting to Exhale

Spenser Academy was as far from the real world as one could get and still remain on planet earth. Spenser was ruled by the reigning clique, which unsurprisingly was the clique that I had found myself in. The Sons of Ipswich and Salem, my brothers, the Walkers and I were a pretty giant group and while most people deemed us as the all-powerful group that really wasn't the case. We had all grown up together, so close that we were family and you frequently never found one of us alone. I understood that it was intimidating but honestly I sometimes wished we were more obscure, living in the limelight got tiring after a while. All the guys ate it up at least in some way but I just never saw the reason.

I got up before my alarm clock for the first time in a long time. I quickly put on the Spenser uniform, which was the same as nearly every other private school. It was a moss green vest, over a white oxford shirt, and a green plaid skirt. I put on white knee socks and black flats before grabbing my messenger bag. I locked the door behind me before walking towards the dining hall.

Breakfast hours weren't as populated as lunch and dinner but still a there was a sizable amount of people. The same tables were always taken by the same people. Honestly you'd think this was the set of Mean Girls or something. Seating never changed throughout the year. I walked over to the table that Tyler and Reid were already sitting at. I dropped into the chair across from them

"Morning, Trish," Tyler greeted pushing a muffin and a cup of coffee towards me.

"Thanks, Ty," I whispered. "How was the rest of your night?"

"Short," Reid muttered.

"Not from the looks of you," I responded.

I was saved from Reid's angry retort as Caleb and Pogue joined us quickly followed Dino, Ben, and Tristan. The conversation followed around me as all the guys discussed the party last night. I was about to join the conversation when two people I had never seen before come into the dining hall. Conversation seemed to still as these two people walked in side by side. One was a tall guy with spiky brown hair and bright green eyes. The girl was small and petite with light blonde hair and blue eyes. They weren't related but they definitely knew each other.

I shrugged it off as normal transfer student but then the girl locked eyes with me and I felt a chill run up my spine. I had been taught to never discount my instincts especially when they were this strong. I looked up grateful to see my brothers finally walk into the dining hall. I rocketed out of my seat so fast that the chair clattered to the floor. All the guys looked at me in surprise immediately asking what happened and if I was okay. I watched as my brothers closed the distance quickly.

"Trish?" Jeremy asked.

"We have to talk," I responded looking at Max, Luke, and Jeremy. "Now."

"What's going on?" Caleb demanded.

"What's going on, Trisha?" Max soothed.

"No, we have to talk but not here," I replied.

"You're causing a scene," Luke whispered.

I looked around where everyone seemed to either be starring uneasily at our table or purposefully looking away. I was too concerned with what I felt to be embarrassed at the moment but I still felt annoyed that we had the absolute center table, so everyone could stare if they wanted too.

"That's not important," I hissed. "I need to talk to you guys and call Dean and Sam. Where's Joe?"

"He's still sleeping," Jeremy shrugged.

"We have to go back to your room," I said this time talking Jeremy. After all it was Jeremy that Joe shared a room with.

I began walking out of the dining hall already knowing that my brothers were at my heels. The rest of the guys stayed seating, if only just to keep up appearances. I didn't stop moving until I burst into Jeremy and Joe's room.

"What the hell, Trish?" Joe demanded.

"We have to talk," I repeated as Max, Luke, Jeremy came into the room.

"What's so important, Trisha?" Max sighed.

"You know those two new transfer students?" I started. "Well, the girl looked over at me today and I got the worst feeling."

"And?" Luke demanded.

"Dad always told us to trust our instincts," I retorted. "If you don't want to listen to me fine. But I know I'm right."

"What was the feeling?" Max asked.

"Outsiders," I whispered. "The families that had been ostracized from the covenant are back."

"That's a big thing to say, Trisha," Joe said.

"It's the truth," I stated firmly.

"Joe, call Dean and Sam," Luke responded not dropping his eyes from my own.

"And tell them what exactly?" Joe muttered.

"That the covenant might be in jeopardy," I stated.

"Yeah, that's gonna go over wonderfully," Joe rolled his eyes before dialing his brother's numbers as ordered.

After a short conversation he closed his phone and looked at me, "Trisha, you better be right about this whole thing."

"I am," I replied.

"Dean told us to stay put," Joe said.

And that's exactly what we did because when Dean Walker gave us an order we listened to it immediately. That was because Dean was the oldest in this generation of guardians and as the oldest he was our leader, which was the primary reason why we had Joe call him in the first place. Despite the fact that classes we about to begin we stayed put waiting for Sam and Dean to come. A sharp knock at the door ten minutes later signaled that Dean had come. Joe opened the door and moved aside for his brothers to enter.

"Someone please tell me what is going on?" Dean ordered. "And why it has both of us missing work?"

"We're missing school," I pointed out.

I realized that was not the best thing to say when Dean turned to me and glared, "From everything Joe just told me on the phone this whole thing is what you believe. And what was that again?"

"Outsiders," I replied. "From on of the ostracized families of the covenant."

"Really, Trish?" Sam asked. "After three hundred years you think they decided to come back now?"

"Why not?" I retorted.

"And how exactly did you come to this brilliant conclusion?" Dean growled.

"The girl looked at me and I got chills," I sighed. "She just felt different."

"Did any of you feel anything?" Sam questioned.

"No, she was gone when we went down to the dining hall," Luke answered. "But Trish looked freaked."

"What should we do?" I asked.

"What we were trained to do," Dean ordered. "We'll watch the covenant and the outsiders and see if your claims are well founded."

"Yes, sir," We all said.

"Now that all of this is taken care of get to class," Sam said. "We'll meet at Nicky's tonight. Be on you're guard."

"We will," Max, said. "Come on you guys."

By the time we had all gotten back to the academic quad we were twenty minutes late for first period. I slunk into my first period European History class and grinned sheepishly at the Professor.

"You are twenty minutes later, Ms…" The Professor glared.

"Ms. Clark, sir," I replied.

"Please, take a seat, Ms. Clark," the Professor ordered. "I trust this will never happen again."

"Of course not, sir," I replied taking my seat next to Reid.

"What's going on?" Reid hissed.

"Nothing," I whispered back.

"You don't just miss twenty minutes of our first class of the year for nothing, Trish," Reid stated

"Reid, it's private," I hissed.

"Ms. Clark!" The Professor growled. "Since you seem to be ever so talkative this morning can you tell me what exactly was the Defenestration of Prague?"

"It depends which one you mean, sir," I replied. "The first defenestration involved the killing of seven member of city council by a crowd of radicals in 1419, the second was critical to the start of the Thirty Years War in 1618."

"Very good, Ms. Clark," The Professor said, sounding completely surprised.

"Thank you," I stated.

As our first class ended I got up and followed Reid out of the door. I shared every single class with Reid and had since elementary school. Sometimes our friends wee in our classes too but sometimes it was just the two of us. In the class of our English class, everyone was in it. Right before I moved to go into the classroom to sit with my brothers, Reid placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Reid?" I questioned.

"Tell me what's going on, Trisha," Reid ordered. "And how'd you get Burton to back off your case?"

"Who?" I asked.

"The professor that tried to embarrass you?" Reid rolled his eyes. "Did you even read your schedule?"

"No," I responded. "And I'm not gonna be late for this class too. So, if you wanna know what's going on ask one of my brothers."

"So, you admit something's going on?" Reid grinned.

"Shut up," I snapped.

I huffed and rolled my eyes as Reid smirked at me. I slid into my seat next to Jeremy and waited for the professor to show up. My brothers as well as Joe glanced at me before reverting their attention back to the front of the room. The Sons were in the two rows in front of us and seemed to be just talking but I knew that they were discussing what they knew about what happened this morning. Before anyone could ask the Professor walked into the room.

She was a small women, short in stature but she had this presence about her. She marched into the room and took her place behind the podium.

"My name is Professor Watson," The women addressed us. "I am your Professor for English 140: The works of fiction. We will start with works from Stephen King."

"Yeah!" Reid whooped. "Dream Catcher was the shit!"

I rolled my eyes and my brothers stifled their laughs unlike the rest of the class. I glanced cautiously at the professor who didn't seem to take kindly to her classroom being turned to circus. Some professors couldn't reign the classroom back in after Reid Garwin made a comment but Watson was different. She put two fingers in her mouth releasing an ear-piercing whistle.

"Mr. Garwin since you seem to think that Dream Catcher is the 'shit' as you say than you'd have no problem writing a ten page paper on why Dream Catcher would be considered as King's best book."

"Ooh," The class hissed.

The ball was now in Reid's court he could just allow himself to shut up and take the punishment Watson was giving, or he could say no and get sent to the Headmaster's office.

"No," Reid retorted.

"Then that's the door," Watson responded.

"Why thank you for telling me that," Reid snarked as he got up and walked out the door.

I rolled my eyes as the class returned to some semblance of order. I was relieved that no one nudged me to go after Reid because I wasn't about to get in trouble just because Garwin didn't know when to keep his mouth shut. When we got out of class I quickly found Reid in our Organic Chemistry class. He plopped down on the seat beside mine and looked at me.

"What?" I sighed.

"I got a weeks detention," Reid frowned.

"That sucks," I sympathized.

"Tell me," Reid groaned.

"It's a new record, though," I smirked. "Not even in school for two hours and you're already in trouble."

"Shut up," Reid scoffed.

I smiled as Reid knocked against my arm and once again we were fine again. Sure we fought a lot but we both knew when it came down to it we had each other's back and we might need that especially if my assumptions on those new people were right.