The bell rang and the class sprang to their feet before her eyes. In frenzy Ember grabbed her bag and attempted to open her schedule to find the next room number.

"Come on," Victor urged.

"I don't know where I'm going. I only know I have Ms. Lovett next but I don't-,"

Victor appeared beside her. "I'm going there as well. Come on follow," Awkwardly they shuffled out the door, Karina following as well.

Clutching her books to her chest, Ember made her way down the ancient hallway. Students causally bumped into each other as the tried to keep up with one another. Every couple of seconds or so Victor would turn around and give her a wide smile.

The effect was dazzling. His whole face lit up when he did and though Ember had never experienced these problems, she found it hard to think when he did. Once or twice she found herself falling into someone, mainly Karina.

"When we sit down," Karina whispered as we rounded an almost empty corridor. "Sit in the back and don't announce you're new. She won't care. She expects you to keep up and if you do not then you are punished most cruelly. Lines are not the only things she administers,"

"I would know," Victor joked. "She really does love to watch kids suffer,"

Ember's stomach dropped as they entered the classroom. There writing on a chalkboard was an older woman. Her gray hair was pulled back in a bun, revealing a softer face. Her eyes were a light blue like Ember's and paired with the woman's blue cardigan they were really brought out. The wrinkles in her face were not deep at all, in fact she looked only fifty.

Victor and Karina froze beside her.

"Come in," the woman urged. Her tone was almost musical not strict at all.

Slowly Karina moved and found her way to the front where she sat down. Nearly as slow, Victor found his way and sat next to her. Taking the queue Ember followed and sat behind Karina.

"Bonjour classe," announced the woman. "Je m'appelle Francine Mason,"

"Are you," Karina's voice cracked. "Are you, the librarian from the Windsor librarian?"

"Oui. I will be your temporary teacher until your new teacher arrives,"

"New?" The voice belonged to the girl from homeroom.

"Ms. Lovett will not be returning to us," Her tone was bitter and implied that the subject was closed. As soon as that was said, she proceeded to split them up to do partner exercises. To Ember's enjoyment she was partnered with Karina.

"I want to know where Lovett went," she whispered. "Near the end of the year she was more hot tempered and would be absent for days on end. Then I heard, around a month ago she left to travel. They say she went up coast near Hayver,"

"Hayver?" Ember looked up form the exercises shocked.

"That's what I heard. Why?"

"No, I though it was something else," Ember shrugged. A month ago one town over from Hayver she had lived.

Siren Class

This was the class Ember had been dreading, the last class of her day she spent shut up in the upper rooms, the air stifling. Furthermore Victor was a mage and Karina was behind a bit due to a vacation, and was therefore still a witch. This left her completely alone. Or as alone as you could be without a boy three rows back staring, she thought.

Ember couldn't remember when she had first felt his eyes upon her back but once she felt them it was rare that they left her. She had looked back once or twice but the mental picture of the boy changed each time in her memory.

Once she thought he had short brown hair, a second time it looked like it was longer and blonde. A third she could have sworn it was red. Was it the light? The fourth time was a bit of a disaster. For the fourth time she had looked up he had winked at her.

Distressed she had looked down abruptly trying to concentrate on the chapter in front of her. Barely five inches from her she could not make out the words such was her chagrin.

Her teacher, Ms. Rimes, hadn't seemed to mind. In fact last time she looked up, her hazel eyes had smiled at Ember as if it was certain joke. Was this boy a troublemaker or was he just silly?

Near the end of the class she announced that to further their educations her students would be assigned pairs to practice with. These pairs would last as long as she saw fit.

Though Ember had heard of Ms. Lovett, she rather disliked Ms. Rimes and her short perky hair once she was partnered with the boy. At least Ember concluded that his hair was a medium length darker blonde with some hint of red. She had not been crazy.

Thank goodness a dispute aroused when two girls were partnered. Annoyed Ms. Rimes was forced to reorganize almost every group but her own. But due to some justice the last bell rang.

Blood rushing through her, Ember vacillated between being really slow or really fast. Picking up her bag she moved towards the door. But then on a caprice she stepped backwards and examined the flyers on the board beside it.

Ever so carefully the boy hovered in the doorway where he casually stretched. At last it became necessary that Ember would have to move, there was nothing else to possibly due in the classroom. Sighing she walked towards the door where he caught her like a spider on it's web.

"You're new here," he said.

Ember tried not to let her tears of frustration leak out. All day long, people asked the same thing. Never "How are you?" or "Do you like this author?" not even a simple "Hello,"

"My names-,"

"Marc Hewett, I know," she told him. This was what usually followed.

"Hey are you alright?"

"Wonderful," she replied.

"How do you like this school so far?" Surprisingly it was a question she had not been asked. The fact that he even thought of it lightened her mood.

"It's empty," she said.

He shrugged. "It's old. Say do you live with your Aunt?"

The question that everyone always wanted to know the answer to.

"Ember!" cried a voice. "Ember we're going to be late," Karina pulled up instantly besides her.

"Oh, we are!" Ember cried out playing along. "I'm so sorry. I have to go,"

"No, it's okay," he told her. The look on his face seemed to state the opposite though. "I'll see you later though,"

"Okay," she called back.

"I hope for your sake that Marc Hewett hasn't taken a liking to you," Karina giggled.

"I know,"

"No you don't. That's just it. But if it helps, it'll get better once he stops with his theories,"

"What?"

"Marc Hewett, is sort of what you'd call our school conspiracy theorizer,"

"So?" she asked. Ember had met much odder people.

"Well his best known theory sort of involves your aunt," she confessed.