Chapter Four

High School

The half of the gang were sitting outside the school gates, though only one of them was going to be going into school today. The others hadn't wanted to show up for Courtney's big day, they were mostly still mad at her.

Courtney was nervous. Bridgette kept a tight arm around her shoulder while they waited for the bell to ring.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" The blonde asked. Bridgette's parents had offered to home school Courtney like they did with their own daughter. Courtney had refused. She had come back to Scarlatina to face her fears and her biggest fear was High school.

"She'll be fine," Trent told Bridgette. He was sitting on the wall opposite the two girls with Geoff at his side.

The Pack leader spoke up, "You remember how to use the Beeper?" Courtney nodded. Geoff had given her his old Beeper that had everyone's number already programmed into it. They didn't use Beeper's at the Academy and she had never had a chance to ask her father for one before she left. "And you won't be totally alone," Geoff continued.

"I-I won't?"

Geoff raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend who gave a shrug. "I forgot to tell her."

"Tell me what?" Courtney looked between the two fo them.

"Leah's your age, so she'll be one or two of your classes," Geoff explained. Courtney groaned. Trent laughed. "And Ellie takes some classes here-"

"I thought she was like, almost thirty?"

"She is, but don't tell her that," the blonde boy chuckled. "But she dropped out of school when she sixteen and she's been taking classes part-time this last year."

"And..." Trent encouraged with a knowing smile on his face. Courtney looked curiously at her Pack leader who wore an embarrassed expression. Geoff wasn't offering the information up freely, so Trent did. "And Geoff here, is a teacher."

Courtney's eyes widened in surprise. She raised her hands to her mouth. Bridgette and Trent were holding back laughter while Geoff nodded his head along with their joke.

"You're a teacher?" Courtney asked, trying not to join in on the contagious laughter between her friends. "But I thought you were a doctor."

"I am," Geoff replied keeping his eyes trained on Courtney. "But there's two other doctors in Scarlatina and not as many injuries as you'd think. So we all work part-time at the office and I work part-time at the school teaching gym, and I'm also studying to become a full-time doctor at St. Maria's hospital down in the Center."

Courtney wanted to say something, but a loud ringing came from inside the building. Bridgette squeezed Courtney tighter than before and it took Trent to pry her away. Geoff had volunteered to show her around the school on her first day-and now Courtney knew why he had-so the two took off towards the doors. As they walked Courtney noticed that no one was really looking at her and that she didn't actually recognise half the teenagers around her.

"Although it's called Scarlatina High School, it's actually shared with Nishnaville and some parts of Indicenta." Courtney nodded. She knew where those places were and they were fairly close by. At the Academy they were made to study maps of Growlen. "What class do you have first?"

Courtney pulled her schedule out from her pocket and studied it. "Magic. Great." It had been so long since Courtney had used her powers, she wasn't even sure she could still use her powers.

Geoff and Courtney walked down a lot of corridors. Courtney realized her biggest concern should be remembering her way. It had taken her three months to find her way around the whole Tracker Academy, though the high school was about half the size of the castle. Courtney noticed it wasn't that different from her old school on Earth. Same graffitied lockers, same shouting from teacher's, same gross smell coming from the cafeteria. suddenly Courtney found herself feeling more confident and comfortable than she ever thought she would be.

"This is it, your first class," Geoff told her as he stopped outside one of the many classrooms in the hallway. The door was open and the students were already seated. Courtney could feel the nerves-and bile-rising in her stomach. Geoff turned to her with a dopey smile. "You'll be fine, I'll meet you back here in one hour, and if you need anything you have everyone's number's in the Beeper, so just send us a message if you need anything. Though, as your teacher, I advise you not to use your Beeper in class." That made Courtney smile just a little. She nodded her head at Geoff and he knocked on the door as the two of them stood in the doorway. The young female teacher looked up at the door and smiled at Geoff who gave his friend a gentle push in the right direction.

"You must be Courtney," she said. Courtney nodded. "Thanks, Geoff." Geoff tipped his cowboy hat and left them to it. They both turned to face the class that was strangely quiet. The classroom looked like any other classroom with desks all lined in rows, a white board at the front with writing scribbled across and all of the students were staring at the new girl. "Class, this is Courtney Black." As soon as the teacher announced that the class burst into a sea of whispers. "QUIET! Go take a seat, Courtney." Courtney made her way to the back of the room to where the only empty seat was. As she passed each desk, the owner would stare up at her. Cold eyes inflicted only more depression on her. Maybe this was a bad idea.

One hour later Courtney found herself outside the classroom with Geoff again. He was high-fiving most of the students as they exited and Courtney assumed he was one of the more popular teachers at the school.

"How was it?" The Pack leader asked giving Courtney a wide grin. He was a very smiley person today.

The brunette shrugged. "If you excuse the whispers, cold stares and the fact that any chance I had of getting a good reputation went down the drain, it went fabulously." She added an eye roll for effect. Geoff chuckled.

"Just think, three weeks until summer vacation."

"Did I have to start school this year?" Courtney moaned as they started walking to her second class of a day.

"Think of the next three weeks as your settling in time," Geoff explained. "And then you have your senior year next year to just relax, have fun, meet some new people, get a new boyfriend." Courtney raised an eyebrow at him. "Not that it's any of my business...But Bridge says you're in need of a guy. A decent guy."

"This is so not the conversation I want to have with you!" Courtney groaned, walking a little faster down the hall, even if she had no idea where she was going.


Courtney took another twirl in front of the mirror while Bridgette smiled softly from the bed behind her. The new dress that her best friend had picked out certainly flattered every aspect of Courtney's body. Lindsay had been round to do her make-up and hair, but she never stayed in Scarlatina for very long. The rest of the girls hadn't been very interested in Courtney's plans for the evening, and one in particular-Leah-had gone as far as telling Courtney how stupid she thought her plan was. Duncan was never going to fall for her charms, in Leah's opinion. Gwen had told her where to stick it, but that was all she had had to say on the matter.

"Duncan's going to fall for you all over again," Bridgette announced proudly. She had been trying her best ever since Courtney had left the Academy a week ago to get Duncan to see some sense and get back with his girlfriend, but to no avail.

The group hadn't really been the same since Courtney had come back. They had all separated off into smaller groups and pairs, with very few of them speaking to each other on civil terms anymore. Bridgette couldn't hide the fact from Courtney that it was her fault, all she could do was reassure her friend that things would work themselves out for everyone. The feuds within the group never lasted long. Then again, they had never had a feud over something this serious before.

Courtney was used to people ignoring her by now. Very few people in town were kind to her and even fewer actually spoke words to her. There was a smile here and there in passing, but most people would stalk off with their noses in the air. Bridgette had told her not to mind those kinds of people, they were the more snobbish of Scarlatina and had high beliefs of a pure system- one that did not include Tracker's and the like. Bridgette laughed at the notion, explaining to Courtney that even the Royal family had Tracker blood and that she should ask Duncan about it. Geoff glared at his girlfriend as if she had just killed the Queen. Courtney assumed talking about the Tracker side of the Royal family was some sort of sin, so she kept her mouth shut and nodded her head.

"I'm so scared," Courtney whispered. "What if he turns me down again? I don't know if I can take one more rejection from him."

"Don't worry." Bridgette jumped to her feet, giving Courtney a quick hug from behind. "Duncan will at least hear you out...before rejecting you..." Courtney groaned, moving away from Bridgette and throwing herself down onto the bed. "HEY!" The blonde cried. "Don't ruin the make-up, hair or the dress. We all worked hard on that. Now snap out of this silliness and go get your guy!"

Courtney hated herself for it, but she laughed. She laughed at her best friends attempt. Bridgette wasn't quite used to having to motivate Courtney, Courtney was mostly self-motivated. But she had never been in so much of a crisis with Duncan before. She felt as if this was her last chance to do something right and if it didn't go well then it was all down the drain. This was her last shot at a relationship with Duncan again.

With that in mind, twenty minutes later she found herself standing outside the Hudson family home. She tentatively knocked on the door, already wondering if she had enough time to flee back to the Dayford's house. Just as she was starting to think maybe she could, the door swung open and standing there was Duncan's older sister, Rebecca. She wasn't smiling like she had been the last time Courtney had seen her, but she looked just as beautiful.

"You."

"Me." Courtney gave a sheepish smile. There was a tense silence between them.

"I suppose you're here to see Duncan."

"Is he here?"

"He just got in from work." Rebecca motioned behind her to the staircase. "You can go up." The older teenager walked away from the doorway and into the kitchen that was beyond the staircase. Courtney was left staring into the house. Her nerves were bubbling up again and just as she thought about turning away, Duncan's voice carried down from upstairs.

"Are you coming up here or what?"

Courtney swallowed hard, trying to summon as much bravery as possible because she knew she would need it all to go through with this. Shutting the front door behind her, Courtney followed the staircase up where she was met with six doors. Five closed. One open. She had no doubt that the darkness held Duncan's bedroom. She hadn't be in there before. The one time she had been to Duncan's house had been spent downstairs.

'How does he see in here,' Courtney wondered to herself, squinting her eyes. They weren't adjusting to the dark room that grew even darker as she shut the door behind her.

"Vampire vision." Facepalm. A simple fact like that had easily slipped her mind. And the fact that Duncan could read her mind at any given moment, so she had to be careful to keep her thoughts in check.

Courtney couldn't spot Duncan in the room, but she felt his eyes on her. She made her way to the window, pushing back the curtain and letting a silver light flood the room. Duncan was sat on the edge of his rather large bed right in front of her. He was dressed in a black tuxedo, the sleek black tie wound round his knuckles, the collar of his white shirt was propped open and Courtney couldn't help but stare.

'Don't you scrub up well,' she said with an eyebrow arched.

Duncan gave her a smirk at the comment. "I just got home from work."

"Bodyguard, right?" Duncan nodded. "Hard night guarding the spoilt brat?" He smirked again. "How long have you been doing your job for?"

"Twenty-seven years," he replied without skipping a beat. Courtney nodded, stepping away from the window, letting the curtain fall back into place, casting them both into darkness once again. "Why are you here?" Courtney shrugged. "Courtney, I haven't-"

"Changed your mind? I know. I doubted you had. But I wanted to change your mind. I was thinking we could go out on a date." Courtney sat down beside him, taking his hands in hers. Duncan's face was stone. "Please. I'm just asking for one more chance, Duncan. You mean the world to me and I...I can't let you go like this." His face remained impassive. Courtney chewed the inside of her cheek. "I wish I could read your mind as easily as you can read mine." She leaned forward, her eyes closing, resting her forehead against his.

"Courtney..." Duncan breathed out slowly.

"I know," she sighed. "I was stupid to think you'd take me back." Courtney pushed herself away from him, getting to her feet and heading towards the door. She knew she should have turned and ran when she could have. But just as her hand clasped the door handle, Duncan's covered it with his own. He pressed his front to Courtney's back, his breath tingling at her ear.

"Don't go," he said. "We can...we can go on a date."

"R-Really?"

"Really." He pulled his hand away for a split second only to use it to turn Courtney around to face him. "You mean as much to me, you know that? I could...I never want to let you go. No matter how many stupid things you do." Courtney could the tears welling up in her eyes, but she urged them back for the sake of her make-up. "And it's a good thing I'm psychic because I have our date all planned out."


A/N: Aww, yay!

DxCness XD

Sorry that this is a little late...I've had a bad week to say the least...

My NaNo story is coming along great! And I am starting a two weeks training course for a job in customer services this week so wish me luck!

Thank you to AHRedDeath for the review!

Thanks for reading, please review (:

Love, ChloeRhiannonX