Oh my goodness. I can't even begin to explain how undeniably happy I was when I read all those reviews. Some people might say they are not that many, but it is a lot more than I had ever dared to hope for. Especially the content of the reviews made me very, very happy. I would love to just write everyone's name here, but I'm afraid that would be a bit much... I wrote replies though, to convey my happiness. I hope you liked it :)

This chapter came easily to me. I edited it only once, so please excuse mistakes. I'm just so excited to get it up here!

So I want to thank everyone, like I said, but I want to give a special thanks to Emmoria since I used her idea. I asked for permission though!

Disclaimer: Do I look like I might own Darkest Powers? If I do, then I must disappoint you. It's not mine and never shall be. Unfortunately. But this plot I found somewhere in my evil mind and it came out to share. Isn't that nice?

Chloe PoV:

Two weeks passed before anything else interesting happened.

Not that those weeks hadn't been interesting! I had spent most of my time with Simon (and Lily, who was practically glued to him). Don't misunderstand me, Lily was a great friend, but she seemed to lose her ability to think or focus on anything beside Simon when he was around. And after school she rather spent her time with Simon then with me.

So, the only time I had really spent with Lily was in class, where she was most wanted company. Though she'd had severed the ties between her and her former friends – or they with her, I wasn't entirely sure about that – she could still tell me all sorts of stories about everyone and everything. I wasn't usually one for gossip, but it helped me not stand out too much with all the knowledge I gathered about these people. For example, whenever someone approached me to talk, the first topic would always be some gossip and it was easier to follow when I actually knew the background stories.

Admittedly, some things I really mustn't know, and I just tried to ignore stories about sexual escapades of my new 'peers'. That was just knowledge that made me uncomfortable.

Lily really got into telling stories, especially when it was about relationships. Whenever she had 'juicy goodness' (as she called it) about couples to report, her eyes got wide and sparkled and she flailed her hands around to illustrate what she was talking about. It was fun to watch.

Simon, too, was really nice. And I wasn't the only one to think so. I had learned that he had something like a personal fan club of girls who unsuccessfully try to get his attention. Several of these girls had tried to get me to stay away from him the very first day after school. I had thought it very strange, especially since the girl who was obviously in charge was maybe two years older than Simon. As far as I knew Simon was something like the star of the basketball team and in a school as small as this one it must make the girls crazy.

After that not so nice encounter I had made it clear that I wasn't interested in Simon, to him and everyone else who thought I might snatch him. He had laughed it off and given my shoulder a friendly squeeze, so there were no hard feelings between us. A little embarrassment was there, but he hadn't dwelt on it. He was still really nice and helpful, always smiled at me and showed me his drawings, which were really good. Since I was such a movie freak myself, we found there were several topics we could talk about. After all, what picture comes after which in a comic is very similar to where to cut a scene into shots, when to have a close-up and stuff like that.

And then there was Derek. Derek, Derek, Derek. I don't know where to begin with Derek!

First I should mention how absolutely appalling showing me around had been to him. He hadn't even really tried to be polite about it, but I thought that was due to his shock at the prospect of having to spend time with me. Derek had choked on his food and stared at his brother as if he had gone insane. Then he said something along the lines "You know that's a bad idea", grabbed his stuff and practically ran out of the cafeteria without ever looking at me. It hurt. I had tried to soothe Simon and Lily, who had seemed incredibly sympathetic with me, with an excuse about having to unpack anyway. Technically, it wasn't a lie.

Simon and Lily had given me a tour the next day after school, but there wasn't much to see so I won't bore anyone with details of the small mall, the cute little diner and all the other things any normal town has. Derek hadn't come with us.

Derek hadn't talked or apologized to me either, but that was strangely fine with me. I liked watching him though. I don't think anyone had really noticed, thankfully. Mind you, no one can argue with me about the fact that Derek is a very interesting character.

There is, for one, the fact that he doesn't talk much. It makes him mysterious and I had always been far too curious for my own good. Sometimes, when I had dared ask him a question at Lunch, he had looked as if he might want to reply but can't decide whether it is advisable or not.

That may not actually be considered interesting enough to watch someone for some people, but for those who had a faint idea about Derek and his character it was highly fascinating. Or maybe only for me. Derek, as far as I had gathered, never showed emotion; not on his facial features and not even in his eyes. You can rarely see them, which is rather seldom since a person's eyes often gives away emotions they try to hide. But not with Derek. These few, short moments when he struggled with himself for an answer (or no answer), every emotion he felt flew over his face for a split second. And that was most

certainly worth watching.

My second reason are his eyes. Derek's eyes were captivating. The few times he had looked at me had taken my breath and my thoughts away. It felt as if through his eyes he penetrated my very being, could see every thought I had and could feel exactly what I felt. With just a short look at me, Derek could shake my whole world up. And I loved it.

Even with a lack of emotions shown in them, I felt convinced that sometimes I could detect a shimmer of emotion in those emerald eyes. I admit, it had been more annoyance than anything else, but it had given his eyes a certain sparkle that made me weak in the knees. Which is quite an accomplishment, since I had always been sitting down when Derek spared me a glance. It was never more than a quick glance, unfortunately, but it still had that power I described and provoked more unfathomable emotions that I cannot explain.

So these two weeks had been fairly normal, very nice, but probably too normal to be considered exciting enough to hear about in detail. Even saying that during those two weeks I had seen several more ghosts, which I most certainly had and had successfully recognized them as such (ghosts) during an encounter with an old lady.

I had met her in the grocery store, completely unsuspecting and blissfully unaware that the old lady that had been talking to me was among the dead. Sure, some people had looked at me strangely, but I had thought that had been due the fact that I was talking to someone more than five times my age, at least. When I had arrived at my new home and the very same woman I had been talking to stood in my kitchen, I had been scared to death. Or almost at least. She had still been nice though, and had explained how she was dead, but wouldn't hurt me. She had just wanted someone to talk to. So there I go, I was seeing ghosts.

Don't let my cool demeanor while telling this fool you: Some night I had cried myself to sleep, disturbed by what had become of me and the face that nobody would believe me in case I wanted to tell. And all Internet research had been in vain. There wasn't anything to be found. At least not until I knew what exactly I was looking for. I simply guessed I must be something like those people in those shows, Ghost Whisperer or Medium. But that still didn't help me much.

No, those two weeks hadn't been successful enough to be important. What came then will be surprising to you, probably.

Because I had changed schools so often in the past, I had missed several sections of math that were crucial to what I needed to know. The counselor had said I was behind in most my classes, but too far in math and if I didn't prove that I could catch up somehow, I would need to repeat the year. I'll explain why this is interesting for you:

At the Lunch with my usual companions Lily, Simon and Derek, I was quieter than usual, brought down by the idea of having to graduate a year later than anticipated. There was simply no way I could catch up in math. Insert a heavy sigh right here.

But with me so quiet, the amount of conversations being held at the table equaled zero. I wasn't even in the mood to analyze other people's behavior – cough, Derek, cough – or compare ordinary school life to movies I'd seen.

Chloe Saunders – that's me, in case you didn't know – was in a rather bad mood. You would be too, if you were in that situation. It didn't take a genius to notice the change in my mood and Simon, who might be no genius, isn't stupid.

"What's up Chloe? You're awfully quiet today." He tried not to show his concern by stuffing French fries into his mouth right after he spoke.

I fought hard not to roll my eyes at him. But I didn't. I just said: "I'm kind of in bad mood" and pulled my face into a grimace. Simon looked at me and waited. When I didn't say anything, he poked me. He poked me!

"What was that for?" I asked, as innocently as I could and batted my eyelashes like those pathetic girls in movies. I was playing now and he grinned. "Mission accomplished." He poked me again and Lily looked slightly disgruntled about him moving around. The way she was clinging to him, it must have been uncomfortable.

"Holy Moly, Chloe, don't make me pull the reason out of you word for word. You can talk to me" He opened his eyes as wide as he could and his bottom lip quivered. It looked completely ridiculous and I couldn't help but laugh at him, which – I concluded by the grin on his face – was clearly his intention.

I sighed heavily like he expected the impossible from me and told him the story of me being behind in math. And then I whined a little about not wanting to repeat a year, but I only whined a little. Simon looked very thoughtful for a minute, then pointed his finger in the air and acted as if he was turning on an imaginary light bulb above his head.

"How about you get a tutor. Surely you will be able to make up anything you don't understand when you just try hard enough and have someone who can explain it to you. Just take an hour or two everyday for a couple of weeks and you're even smarter than anyone else in your class. Better sacrifice some afternoons than waste a whole year, right?" Simon looked rather proud of himself and I had to admit, I hadn't thought about that possibility. But then again: "I don't really know many people here. Especially anyone who could tutor me."

"Derek usually helps me with math. He's really good at it, very smart and a good teacher, too, even if pretty impatient. And I think he owes you for being so rude anyway. Derek?" Derek didn't look happy. Actually, he looked downright furious with Simon. He glared at Simon like he just told me his biggest secret or something else private. If that look had been directed at me, I might have spontaneously burst into tears, I'm sure.

"Derek would love to help you Chloe, right?" Simon didn't even blink. The way they were staring each other down, it seemed a little strange. It felt almost as if they had been talking about me, had they? My heart did a little jump in my chest at the thought of Derek talking about me, but I won't admit to myself that it might be because I felt flattered. From the few words he ever spoke one can't say that I had a foundation to liking him. I'm just too curious for my own good, I told myself.

"Sure." Derek shrugged, looked at me for moment and went back to concentrating on his lunch.

"Great! Just come over after school and don't forget your math stuff. Dad won't mind. He'll be excited to meet you, really. And I can show you my new comic project I'm working on when you're done with math. You can use my cell to call your parents and ask if you can stay for dinner. Actually, never mind. I forgot you live alone. Sound good though?" I just smiled and nodded.

"Thank you for the invitation. And thank you Derek, for helping me. I really appreciate it." I smiled at him, trying to convey that he didn't necessarily have to help me, but I'd still like him to. It was a sad attempt, considering that he wasn't looking at me and I hadn't expected him to. He shrugged again, though, which was more than I thought I'd get.

I shook my head to clear my mind from irrational disappointment and turned to Simon to strike up another conversation, but unexpectedly Lily did first.

"We could have a 'welcome Chloe' Party at your place this Friday, couldn't we? That would be a lot of fun. Just us and some movies and pizza and chips and whatever else you want. I volunteer to plan it, If you let me, Chloe." Lily had a hopeful little smile on her face, the excitement clearly visible in her eyes as she looked at me pleadingly.

She wasn't the only one though and only a moment later the whole table was looking at me expectantly. "Well, sure. As long as we don't call it 'welcome Chloe' Party I'm fine with it. Sure sounds like fun!" I waved my fist in the air in mock enthusiasm. Lily's attention turned back to Simon after flashing me a happy smile. She would probably spend the time until Friday planning the not-for-me Party with me in class.

I told it got more exciting, didn't I?