A/N: Hey guys! I'm amazed at the really quick reviews that I received during the past few days. Seems like I'm doing better than I thought. Which is a good thing, definitely. This chapter is slightly longer than the others and I hope you'll like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers

Chapter 3: Vanishing Roommate

As a sharp pain at the back of my head woke me up from my exhausting sleep, I peered lazily around my room, only half-awake. Slowly, I rubbed the back of my head as I looked up to my bed, with the covers half concealing me and half off the bed itself. As I blinked for a few times, I started to realize that I had fallen off the bed and had hit my head against the bedside table that held my alarm clock. Speaking of alarm clock... I slapped my hand around the bedside table until my hand hit a familiar object and turned it to face me.

My eyes suddenly widened in horror at the time. It was already 8:15 and classes started in ten minutes! "Oh shit! Derek! Why didn't you wake me up?" I near-yelled as I scrambled off the floor, wide awake.

There was no reply. I looked furiously to my roommate's side of the room and once again, the guy was no where to be found. Cursing some more, I grabbed my bag of tolietries and rushed to the bathroom. It was only the first day and I was going to be late. I quickly did my humanly necessities and brushed my teeth in record speed, my heart thumping wildly against my rib cage. Once slightly proper, I ran back into the room and grabbed my new uniform, thankful that I had draped it on the back of the chair yesterday evening. Taking a quick glance around the room to make sure that Derek wasn't around, I quickly pulled down the blinds and changed, throwing my tank and sweats off and pulling my uniform on.

Although I was short on time, I could help but stop for a look in the mirror. It wasn't the first time I had worn a uniform, but every uniform did have a slight variation, a unique touch from their school. Now, I wore a white button down blouse underneath a royal blue blazer that buttoned to my left side. For the school skirt, it was made from blue plaid material that hung three inches above my knees. But it wouldn't be anything new if some of the girls here enjoyed toying with the school's dress code. Some of the girls from my previous schools had their skirts pulled up at least above mid-thigh and showed off their long, silky legs for everyone else to see. Though of course, they were the ones who were usually landed with detention slips, but I don't think they care, since that only added to their reputation.

I also wore black knee high socks paired with black ballerina flats. At Lyle Academy, they accepted any kind of shoes as long as they conceal your toes and since they were a popular choice with the girls at my previous schools, I decided to stick with them. Lastly, there was a green ribbon tied into a bow at the collar of my white blouse. The school's colours were mainly royal blue, emerald green, and pale yellow, and so, our school uniforms were the same. I decided to leave my wispy hair down as it wasn't quite long enough to tie up yet and grabbed my messenger bag before heading out the door.

As I rushed down the stairs, I saw that the entry way was blocked by someone in a Gen-Ed uniform. However, I had gained too much momentum to stop and collided into the figure. The person in front grunted in surprise by the collision, whereas I, unfortunately fell back. As I closed my eyes for the impact of the hard staircase, I realized that someone had prevented me from falling. Tentatively, I opened my eyes to see a pair of washed-out green eyes looking at me in concern. "Chloe?"

I blinked. It was Nate. "Are you okay?"

Stunned, I nodded my head at the turn of events. "S-sorry," I stuttered as my face lit up in embarrassment.

Nate gave me a small smile. "Nah, it's no big deal. Didn't mean to block the stairway, but as you can see, it's like a herd of animals out there," he gestured behind him.

Leaning around him, I could see that he was right. Most of the residents of dorm C were heading out the door, in the direction of the school. However, some were moving quickly whereas others weren't. "I'm going to be late on my first day," I muttered miserably as my eyes darted from side to side, looking for a possible way to get out.

"Hang on," Nate said as he looked for a way. Then he shouted to be heard over the student body. "Hey! Move! Some of us want to get to class on time!"

Almost instantly, the crowd cleared a small path for him, as though they didn't want to get on his bad side. "Whoops, sorry Nate!" a girl giggled, not looking sorry at all as she darted out of the way.

Nate rolled his eyes down at me as he eased out of the doorway and made an after you gesture. I rolled my eyes at him as he responded to that with a brilliant grin. Definitely popular,I thought to myself as I saw his friends gave him high-fives and fist-pounds as Nate followed behind me. "Catch you guys later," he called out as we headed out the door.

Once out of the dorm, we power-walked together towards the school. "So, what do you have first?" Nate asked as we entered the school building, the sound of busy bodies bouncing off the walls.

"Visual Arts."

"Ah, I have Info Tech as my elective as a Gen-Ed kid." Nate gestured to his uniform.

At Lyle Academy, because there were two different programs, each program got their own uniform. As a Gen-Ed student, Nate wore an open emerald green blazer over a white school shirt, with a royal blue neck tie dangling in front. His school pants were also emerald green and he wore black athletic sneakers to complete his look.

"When do you have lunch?" I asked as we traveled down the busy hallways, with many of the girls looking dreamily at Nate and envious towards me.

"After period B. You?"

"Same."

Nate shot me another brilliant grin as we stopped in front of my locker. "That's awesome. Anyway, I gotta get to my class. See you later, Chloe," he said as I smiled back at him and he disappeared down the hall.

I quickly grabbed my sketchpad and pencils from my locker before digging out my map of the school. Shoot, should have asked Nate where my class is. I glanced at my watch, there was only a minute until class began. I quickly studied the map before realizing that my locker had been strategically placed in the arts section, which meant that the art classroom had to be somewhere nearby. Glancing around, the hallways were emptying as students slipped inside their classrooms. Crap! I thought to myself. Okay, calm down. Relax, Chloe. You're get to class eventually... just not in time. I swallowed thickly as the seconds passed on my watch. Finally, I heard the sound of fast footsteps echoing down the hall behind me and I spun around.

It was the guy that Liz and Tori had pointed out yesterday in the cafeteria. It was Simon, my roommate's brother. My breathing hitched as I saw his hands were holding a sketch pad tightly along with various pencils and other art supplies. Before I could stop myself, I hurried over to him. "Excuse me, do you have Visual Art with Madame Lafontaine?" I asked.

He glanced at me in surprise, though he didn't stop his power-walk. "Yeah, I do. Why?" he asked as I struggled to keep up with his quick stride with longer legs.

"I do too and I don't know where her classroom is," I told him as the muscles in my legs were starting to protest at the strain.

"It's just right around the corner, though I should warn you that Madame Lafontaine doesn't like people being late," said Simon as he stopped abruptly and opened a door.

As I slipped in behind him, the class stopped doing whatever they had been doing and glanced curiously in our direction. Stepping beside Simon, I saw the teacher looking at us with a stern frown. She had greying hair, tied in a tight bun. Madame Lafontaine also had the unfortunate resemblance to a vulture. "Monsieur Bae! You are late again!" she screeched in a french accent.

Simon gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry, Madame. It happens, you know?" he said with a shrug.

The teacher looked at him through narrowed eyes behind her spectacles. "It 'appens too often! Zat's the second time, alveady. Don't let eet 'appen again," she snapped.

Simon's grin faded as he plastered on a fake sorrowful look and headed towards an empty canvas. Then Madame Lafontaine turned her piercing look on me and I flinched. "And you are?"

"C-chloe Saunders," I answered. "I t-transferred yesterday."

"Vell, mademoiselle, I do not tolerate tardiness, but since eet is your first day, I vill ignore eet this time. Now go join your classmates."

I gave a curt nod before hurrying over to the empty canvas beside Simon. Madame Lafontaine repeated her instructions that I had clearly missed and it seemed that we had to sketch a drawing of the bowl of fruit that sat on the stool in the middle of the classroom and hand in whatever we had by the end of the period. Once she had finished, the room fell into hushed whispers as the art students got to work. As I got out my set of pencils, Simon leaned over to me. "Didn't get a chance to introduce myself," he whispered. "I'm Simon."

I gave him a smile. "Chloe," I whispered back.

Simon gave me a blazing grin. "I already know that from your introduction just a few seconds ago."

My face flushed in embarrassment. "I'm usually not late," I told him, my voice dropped a notch.

Simon shrugged. "It's no problem. I just feel bad that you had to be chewed out by Madame Lavulture," he murmured quietly.

I looked at Madame Lafontaine and hid a smile. She really did look like a vulture with her abnormally large nose that resembled a beak. "I don't think that's a french word," I told him.

Simon's grin returned. "Whatever, but hey, you gotta agree, she does look like one."

I giggled quietly at that before turning towards the bowl of miscellaneous fruit. "A bowl of fruit? Seriously?" I murmured.

Simon rolled his eyes at the teacher. "Despite being an art teacher, she doesn't have much originality," he muttered as he took out his own set of pencils and began sketching.

We worked in comfortable silence as Madame Lafontaine went around critizing the work of others. Though my specialty was in theater, I had to admit that sketching was quite enjoyable. Enjoyable with a friendly neighbour that is. "I've heard that you're rooming with my foster-brother, Derek," Simon whispered as Madame Lafontaine passed our canvases and returned to the front of her class.

My drawing hand paused in the middle of drawing the apple. "Yeah. Did he tell you?" I asked as I turned to look at him.

Simon nodded. "Yeah, I bumped into him before dinner and he told me," he answered. "Has he been okay with you?"

A small frown crossed my face as I thought of yesterday's meeting. "I met him briefly, but I still don't know him well," I said truthfully.

Concern flickered in Simon's eyes. "He... he can be a little hard to get along with, but if you're patient, he'll come around. But don't let him push you around; he's used to getting what he wants," he told me.

I tilted my head as a question popped in my head. "How come the two of you aren't roommates?"

Simon scowled, though it seemed that he wasn't angry at me. "Blame the school. roommates are chosen at random and it turned out that I was roomed with someone else. When I protested, Mr. Davidoff said that it'd be better this way," he said angrily. "Since there were an odd number of dorm C residents, Derek ended up getting the room to himself."

"Until I came," I added. "Is that why he doesn't like me?"

Simon's dark expression faded as he studied me. "No, that's not it," he said quickly.

I gave him a look that said that I didn't believe him. "Well, I guess that could be a part of it," Simon added resignedly. "Though we were lucky to be roommates last year, since we enrolled in late and got the room to the two of us."

I nodded, taking in the information. We chatted quietly about other things such as our hobbies and our interests as we worked on our sketches until it was time to hand them in. Before we left, Madame Lafontaine gave us a small art project with the theme of 'opening up a path' that was due next week. The rest of my day went smoothly and I ate lunch with Liz, Tori, Nate and his friends in the cafeteria. However, I couldn't help noticing that again, my roommate was no where to be seen. Initially I had thought that perhaps he had a different lunch hour, but Liz shook her head and told me that Derek shared the same lunch hour as we did.

"I don't know why you'd be worried about him," Nate said distastefully at the mention of Derek. "He probably knows that his ugly face will take away our appetites."

I stopped eating as I scowled at Nate. He was charming and nice one moment, but when Derek's name popped up, Nate would show his darker side, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Just what did he have against Derek? "He can't help the way he looks," I said with a hint of irritation in my voice.

Everyone turned to look at me in surprise. "You sound defensive, Chloe. Why is that?" Nate commented as a few of his friends nodded in agreement.

I was at a loss of words. Why did I defend Derek? It wasn't as if we were good friends or anything. Heck, there were more times that I haven't seen him than I have. Not to mention that he was rude as well. So why didn't I just let Nate bash him? It obviously didn't feel right, the others making jabs at Derek without him here to defend himself. But how would I explain that to Nate? Thankfully, Tori stepped in for me. "Obviously, Chloe would defend her roommate, no matter who they are. 'Why is that?' Because that's who Chloe is," she snapped at him.

Nate's eyes flared with a comeback but when his eyes met mine, he backed off. "Whatever," he muttered as he picked up his lunch tray. "I'm done eating."

I stared at Nate's retreating back as he dumped the contents of his remaining food in the waste bin before heading out of the cafeteria, with his friends following. "Nate is seriously starting to bug me," Tori muttered. "Yeah Derek's not my most favorite person either, but you don't hear me ranting about him."

Liz shrugged. "Other than the fact that Derek's a little anti-social, I don't have a problem with him. He's a genius in most of the academic classes. Could it be that Nate's jealous of that? They are both in Gen-Ed."

I shrugged and soon after that, our lunch period ended, signaling the start of our classes.

The next few days passed quickly and I juggled my life between hanging out with my friends and doing school work. Drama and Creative Writing were my favorite classes, where I got to exercise my creativity skills in preparation for my future as a screen writer. Though Visual Art wasn't too far behind. Simon was great company and we often fell into an easy conversation. Unlike his brother, whom I saw rarely despite being roommates.

Like Liz had told me, Derek was in a lot of the AP (advance placement) programs regarding calculus and sciences so we didn't share any classes with the exception of English 11. But even then, I rarely got a chance to approach him. Most of the kids in class tend to avoid him like plague and those who didn't often soon learned why; Derek liked being alone and would lash out at those who came too close. He sat alone in the corner, spending more time looking out the window than paying attention in class. But despite that, his marks were top-notch.

Our relationship as roommates hasn't changed in the slightest. Derek was rarely in the room. When he was, he was either studying to the point that he had an air of DO NOT DISTURB OR ELSE surrounding him like a neon yellow sign or he was asleep. However, I did learn that he was an early riser. Like really early. No one else I knew would wake up at the crack of dawn.

One extremely early morning later on in the week, I woke to the sound of Derek closing the door quietly behind him. Immediately, I threw off the covers and headed for a quick stop at the bathroom. I had decided to follow Derek to find out where he went at such an early time each day and planned it out the night before.

As I pulled on a hoodie over my tank top, I hesitated with my hand on the door knob. There were many rumors regarding Derek. The majority of them were about Derek being in a gang at his previous school and was also a drug addict. But I just couldn't see him being either. Derek was too smart to get involved into something like that and he was also very dedicated to his school work to earn his grades. Derek didn't look like a drug addict either. Sure, he wasn't very approachable, but I was sure that that had nothing to do with drugs but his own personality.

If the rumors weren't true, then why was Derek up so early every morning? I swallowed thickly as my heart started to race. Only one way to find out... I thought as I opened the door and slipped out after him.

A/N: Another cliff hanger! Sorry about that, but it seemed like a good place to stop here. Sorry, not much Derek again, but like I promised, there will be lots of Derek coming soon! Although Derek wasn't here a lot in person, have you noticed that Chloe thought about him quite often? I know the Nate Bozian described in The Summoning seems like a cute, nice guy, but I decided that since we don't know a lot about his character, I decided to make him different than the one described in the series. You'll see how different later on. Anyway, hope you look forward to the next chapter!

PS. For those who didn't notice yet, Kelley posted up Chapter 8 of the Untitled online novella today! (2 days early! WOOT!) AND even better (for me)... I'll be seeing her real soon at one of the Smart Chicks Kick It stops! I can't wait! (-brings whole stack of books to be signed-)