AN: I'll be posting Wes, Jack, and David sometime tonight on my profile hopefully. Jack and David, though deceased, will play major parts in the story later on.

Change of Season
Out

Catherina restrained from kicking in her door when she returned to the dorms, choosing instead to open it civilly. She shut it just as the small bathroom door opened, revealing a short haired blonde girl dressed only in a tank top and boy shorts. A heavily ringed hand was sweeping the platinum hair to one side, a long yawn drawing the girl's mouth open as sleepy blue eyes came to rest on Catherina.

"You must be Griffin." The girl greeted at the end of her yawn. "I'm Wes." Her blue eyes rolled. "Wesli, actually. Wesli Andirs."

"Catherina." Catherina shook Wes' hand and walked to her side of the room.

"Newbie, huh?" Wes nodded to Catherina's unpacked boxes in the corner of the dorm room. Catherina nodded. "You plan on staying here or are you ditching me like my last roomie?" Wes cleared her throat and plopped down on the edge of her bed, lifting up one corner of her mattress and extracting a pack of cigarettes.

"I think I'm here for awhile." Catherina said quietly, picking up her picture again. Wes nodded.

"You don't mind, do you?" Wes asked, prompting Catherina to turn her head towards the other girl. In Wes' lap were rolling papers and a small plastic bag stuffed with something Catherina knew was illegal. Catherina just shrugged. Wes grinned. "Awesome. Last girl caught me blitzed out of my fucking mind and blew her shit."

"Just as long as the room doesn't smell like that all the time, we're good." Catherina grinned a little bit as Wes quickly rolled a joint, moving to the window and opening it. "So wait…You didn't get kicked out?"

"Nope." Wes smiled and lifted the joint to her mouth, firing up smoothly. "Told her I'd strike her a deal. She agreed. Just said we didn't get along well enough to be roommates and I gave her a couple hundred on the low."

"Oh." Catherina nodded and looked down at the picture in her hands.

"Those are some cuties you got there." Wes said as she noticed Catherina looking at the picture.

"Yeah." Catherina smiled, agreeing softly. "They were."

"Were?"

"Accident." Catherina mumbled, setting the picture back on her desk. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Understandable." Wes held out the joint to Catherina. "Hit?"

"No thanks." Catherina stood up and kicked off her shoes, her jacket quickly following. "Never was one much for smoking."

"Drinker?" Wes asked, letting the joint sit between her lips. Catherina shook her head. "Oh, you were one of those damn pill heads, weren't you?"

"Only for fun."

"Good luck with that shit here." Wes flicked the ash from the end of the joint. "All we've got here are drunks and potheads, such as myself." Catherina laughed softly. "You got plans for tonight?"

"What?"

"That's what I thought." Wes let a huge smile take over her face as she hopped off the windowsill. "You can borrow some of my clothes. We're going out."

"Out?"

Tyler watched as Reid and Pogue raced each other, both of the boys trying to slam back their fifth beer of the night. Reid was ahead, his ice blue eyes locked onto Pogue's golden ones. Tyler shook his head as Reid gasped and slammed his empty glass on the table. Pogue set his glass on the table, sourly glaring at the mouthful of beer left in the bottom.

"Told you I'd win." Reid stood up and tossed his coat over the back of the chair. "If you need me, I will be robbing Abbott and company blind." He gave the group at the table a sarcastic salute and then walked off, showing no signs of having been drinking since he arrived. Tyler shook his head. Reid's capacity for alcohol was both outstanding and scary at the same time.

"Hey, isn't that the new girl?" Pogue nudged Tyler with his elbow and Tyler turned around, watching the slender girl walk in, her hand being held captive by one of Spenser Academy's most well known abusers.

"She must be Wes' new roommate." Tyler mumbled under his breath, turning back to his own beer. Pogue shrugged.

"Caleb was looking up stuff about her earlier today." Pogue mentioned casually. Tyler paused in his sip, staring at Pogue over the rim of the glass in his hand. "Remember that paper Maydem had us write? About those kids? Well, she was one of them."

"The papers said there were no survivors."

"That the cops knew of."

"There were two holes in the ice. There were three kids, and one of them was found torn to shreds at the edge of the woods. Logically, there were two kids in the river."

"But after dragging the river for that long, don't you think they would have found more than one body?" Pogue asked, pointing one finger at Tyler. "Here's my theory. She fell in, but not all the way. She was able to crawl up the bank and get help."

"She would have been shot, just like that other guy." Tyler shook his head and threw a glance over his shoulder to see the girl laughing almost timidly with Wes, who was carrying on like she normally did with Aaron. "She had to go into the water."

"Well…" Pogue shrugged and finished his beer, turning his attention to Kate as she sat beside him. Tyler sighed and rubbed the side of his face, his mind spinning out of control.

Reid lined up with his shot, a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips as he set up the hit perfectly, one eyes squinted shut and the other following his movements. He had just swept his arm back and hit the cue ball when a small hand slid over his shoulder, making him turn. Two nimble fingers plucked the cigarette from his mouth, replacing it in a painted red mouth that turned upwards in a smile.

"Well, well, little miss Wesli." Reid felt his grin grow wider as he watched her take another drag. "Haven't seen you around lately."

"Same goes for you, sweetheart." Wesli offered the cigarette back to Reid and he bent down, taking the paper from her fingers with his lips. Wesli laughed and began walking backwards away from Reid. "You know I'm not here to play with you."

"Shame." Reid chuckled. "You're missing out."

"You wish. Play nice with her, she's my newbie." Wesli winked at Reid and then bounced off, both of her arms going around Aaron's waist easily.

"Play nice, yeah?" Reid turned slightly and did a double take. "You."

"Me." Green eyes rolled sarcastically. "Don't sound so thrilled."

"I'm trying to curb my enthusiasm." Reid retorted.

"Try harder, will you?" She shot back hotly. "And if trust me, if I had known Wes was bringing me here and you would have been here…"

"You barely know me and you hate me. I've been nothing but nice to you." Reid leaned against the table. "Reid." He extended a hand and she looked at it hesitantly.

"Catherina." Finally she shook his hand, startled when his grip tightened and he pulled her close, grabbing her wrist and holding her hand under the light. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Checking." Reid mumbled. "This afternoon, when you ran into me, my cigarette went out with ice on the end. Was that some kind of fancy trick?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"This town doesn't take nicely to things, or people, that aren't in perfect order." Reid said lowly, releasing her wrist. Catherina took a step back. "So if I were you, I wouldn't pull another prank like that."

"Fine." Catherina huffed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you'd be freaked out by a little ice."

"Seeing as how there was no ice anywhere around us, yeah."

"There was ice on the ground. I could have picked it up before you got there." Catherina spat defensively. Reid shrugged.

"Whatever. I'm just pissed I only got halfway through that cigarette. You owe me one." Reid bent back over the pool table, lining up his next shot. From the corner of his eye he noticed how her posture seemed to relax.

It only confirmed that she was hiding something.

So...If you'd like, Review.