Authors Note:

Hey guys! Thanks so much for all your support this far. I've been busy with exams and stuff so that's why I've been kind of absent on here, but now I'm back! And I'm ready to rumble:) So Rate and Review, even if you hate it, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Same goes if you have any questions, if something doesn't quite add up, I'd love to clarify. It's totally a possibility that I forgot to mention something, so don't be shy! Love you guys and thanks again for your support! Lets continue with the story shall we?

I made an impromptu decision the next morning to cut class and visit the mortal high school. I figured I needed to gather as much information on they boy as I could. I couldn't even recognize his face, let alone his name, and keeping him safe from some crazy vampires was going to require some insight knowledge of the kid's behavior. I needed to know who his friends were, where he went after school, what kind of people he surrounded himself with and most of all, whether he had any siblings. A brother or sister would likely have the same dilution of witch blood, and would need equal protection from the rogue vampires.

I arrived at the school early, knowing my only chance of pinpointing the boy was to use what I already knew about him, that was, the make and model of his car. When the blue sedan pulled into the lot, I was ready with my iCoffin to record his face. I snapped a few photos of him as he got out of his car, and then stopped to really take in his appearance.

He was undoubtedly attractive, in the same eerie way that most witches were, now that I could see his face, I could practically feel the Magic coming off him. How could he be so oblivious? He had short, wavy blond hair and an even olive complexion. I hopped out of my car and followed him into the school. He was well built, but not hulky, he had the lean, strong muscles of a swimmer, or a long distance runner, not a football player. He walked with confidence, his faded jeans just clinging to his hips and his gray hoodie open. He probably had to beat the girls off with sticks. I followed him through the foyer into the gym and watched as he met up with the group from the other day. A boy with dark brown hair and a shy smile, a girl with a goofy grin and a million freckles, whose tight, strawberry blonde curls reached her waist. There was a somber looking girl with an angular purple bob wearing red and purple striped tights. The gloomy girl was standing next to a boy with chocolate skin and a letterman jacket. The jock was trying to interest her in some weird knot he'd managed to tie, but she just rolled her eyes and shrugged him off, looking exhausted. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I left the gym and searched the school for the administrative office.

A dumpy woman with gray hair and wrinkled eyes worked in the office. She looked up when I came in and smiled kindly, reminding me of my grandmother. A plaque on her desk read, 'Ms. Liza Davies.'

"What can I do for you dear?" She pulled a little glass bowl full of caramels out from her desk and popped one into her mouth. She offered me one, but I refused.

"I'm new to this city, and I'm thinking of coming to school here. Is it okay if I sit in on a few classes today to get the feel of this place?" I lied smoothly.

"Of course dear." She smacked her lips. "I'll just write you up a guest pass. Where are you moving from?"

"Redbridge? It's just outside of London." I gave the current name of my hometown.

"How nice." She hummed while she made the pass. "What did you say your name was hun?"

"Audrey Whitman." I pulled the identity out of thin air. "My parents are helping with the movers." I gave her what I hoped was an innocent smile. Liza handed me a little card in a laminated slipcover and a blue lanyard. "Thanks." I strung it around my neck.

"Er, I just have a few questions before I go. How many students about do you have here?"

The secretary tilted her head from side to side and thought for a second. "About twelve hundred students. We're a fairly small community here."

"Years 10 to 12?"

"Yes."

"One more thing?" I asked. "Can I have a schedule of the Grade 12 classes today?"

"Oh of course! Silly me, it completely slipped my mind." She pulled out a sheet of paper from her desk and began highlighting. "I swear, I'm getting older all the time, I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders." She smiled sweetly and handed me the schedule. "The pink ones are the courses mandatory for all Grade 12 students, the blue are electives. Have fun dear!" She waved as I thanked her and left.

The morning bell rang loudly, the halls completely empty, my footsteps squeaking against the hall floor. I examined the schedule, not recognizing a single thing on the list. Calculus? Chemistry? Woodshop? None of these classes were familiar, and there were so many! With at least four electives per timeslot, how was I to know which one my guy was taking? I decided to hang around the halls until the kids were let out of their first class. I knew there was no chance I could find the right blond head amongst 1200 students, but I was hoping I wouldn't need to. How many purple heads could there be in this school? I was praying the gloomy girl would lead me to what I wanted to find. The bell rang, and the halls almost immediately filled with kids. I searched the crowd for purple hair, moving quickly up and down hallways as I did so; it was only once I reached the second floor that I saw her ducking into a classroom followed by the heavy jock. Excitedly, I slipped in just before the door closed.

There weren't that many kids inside, about fifteen boys and girls sitting in single file. The purple haired girl and her boyfriend sat in the back, beside the wall. I looked around at the mortal kids, and took a seat behind the jock. The teacher rapped on his desk with a yardstick to quiet the class. He started calling out names as I observed the classroom. Posters were hung on all of the walls, a cartoon depicting the human body, a list of colours, a large map, and the most peculiar, a poster with a list of numbers from one to one hundred.

"Mademoiselle?" A voice called out, snapping me back. I realized the entire class had turned to look at me. The teacher was looking at me expectantly. He consulted his notes, and dissatisfied, asked me once more. "Mademoiselle? What is your name?"

Suddenly the strange posters made sense, although I had never seen it taught like this, I knew exactly where I was.

"Pardon Monsieur, Je m'appelle Audrey." I explained in rapid French that I was a prospective student, and held up my guest pass to prove it. "Excusez mon interruption s'il vous plait." I apologized.

The teacher looked surprised, but pleased. "No problem, I am happy to have a student so dedicated to the French language for once. A little more notice next time would be appreciated. However, we are glad to have you Miss Audrey." He spoke in French.

"Damn." A boy said. I looked over at him and winked. I could practically hear his heartbeat accelerate. I'd forgotten how easily mortals were affected by me. The teacher smoothed his shirt and straightened his tie.

"Tout le monde, this is Aubrey. She is touring the school today, so let's all be as welcoming as possible. Perhaps you'd like me to assign a student to show you around?"

"Oh that's not necessary." I declined as every boy in the room shot his hand into the air. A few of the girls rolled their eyes, one even glared at me, but I only smiled.

"Okay then." The teacher assessed his notes. "Okay, so you all know, today is your final day to work on your projects, use this time wisely, they are due on Monday. Commencer!"

The class got into groups of three and started working on their projects. I joined purple bob and her boyfriend's group. There was another girl in their group with short blonde ponytails and pink lipstick. She made a face as I approached, but purple bob didn't react.

"Hello, Bonjour." I said, offering them a choice. The jock looked like he wanted to say something, but purple bob glared at him until he looked away. I rolled my eyes, grabbed an eraser and started rubbing out the verbs on their poster.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ponytails shouted, standing up. I looked up at her.

"All of these verbs are in the wrong tense. They're supposed to be in the passé composé, you have them written in the present tense. And did you actually just stomp your foot? I thought mor-people only did that in movies."

Purple bob laughed as ponytails turned a bright shade of red, looking very much like she wanted to stomp her foot again, but thought better of it and resorted to storming off in a huff. I shrugged and finished erasing. Picking up a pencil, I re-wrote the verbs in the correct tense.

"There. Done." I stepped back and looked at the poster. It was actually a large comic strip, depicting a story about alligators in the sewer system. "This is really good art."

"Thanks." Purple bob stopped laughing. "Hey, that was pretty cool, what you did just now. I've wanted to tell Tanya off for a week now, but she's kind of the brain behind this whole project. I just do the drawings."

"Do you think she'll be angry?"

"Nah, she'll get over it. She's just not used to being out-smarted in this class. Her mom is from Quebec."

"Oh." I said, not really caring whether the mortal girl liked me or not, Tanya was hardly a problem.

"I'm Rebecca by the way, but my friends call me Beck. This is Derek." She gestured to the guy in the letterman. "He's my boyfriend." She said firmly. "He's kind of an egghead though."

"Hey! I'm not an egghead." Derek protested. He extended his arm to me, his dark hand swallowing my pale one. He blushed and pulled it back. Beck rolled her eyes.

"Get a grip Derek, you're embarrassing yourself." She smirked.

"Sorry." I said. "So, what class do you guys have next?"

"Chemistry." Beck made a face.

Derek groaned. "Did you get the rest of those questions done?" He ripped through his binder, searching frantically for his homework.

"Mmhm, they were easy." Beck laughed at her boyfriend's panic. I smiled too.

"Oh no! I must have left them on my desk at home! I can't find them anywhere!" He slumped his shoulders and made puppy dog eyes at Beck.

"No way! I gave you my answers to the last homework assignment."

"Please Beck? I did them, honest, I just forgot them at home." He whined.

"No. But I'll lend you my textbook, you can re-do them now, and I'll help. Is that fair?"

Derek looked up at the clock, and then at me. "I don't suppose you're as good at chemistry as you are at French?"

"Sorry, no." I held my hands up in surrender; trying to look like I knew what chemistry was, when really I had no clue. I sat awkwardly watching as Beck tried to explain to Derek how to convert from volume to moles.

The blond boy wasn't in chemistry, and Beck was too busy tutoring her boyfriend to socialize so I had to settle for listening as the mortal teacher explained all about dilutions and solutions. It turned out; I was pretty good at chemistry. I was totally lost in all the vocabulary, but the concepts were the same as potions. Of course, the mixtures made in this class wouldn't be able to cure boils or cause memory loss, but to the mortals, they unlocked the universe. I wondered if chemistry was a branch of ancient witchcraft, if mortals had somehow adapted this science from our original magic and I wondered exactly how far down the path of human progress the Magic was lost. There certainly was no such thing as a Periodic Table when I was growing up. Hell, when I was a child, mortals still thought that the world consisted of only four elements: air, earth, fire and water. I listened intently to the teacher, fascinated and amused to learn about all that mankind had accomplished while still remaining so ignorant.

Kids started to pack up their books, a low murmur of chatter rising in the few minutes before the bell ended class. Derek glanced up at me, jammed his hands into the pockets of his blue jeans and smiled sheepishly.

"So, we get a break now before our next class. Do you want to come, I dunno shoot hoops or something with us?" He said, not making eye contact.

"She doesn't want to play basketball with you Derek." Beck came over to where we were standing and rolled her eyes at him. "I mean just look at her." She gestured to my outfit. I frowned slightly, but agreed. My skinny purple jeans and black pumps wouldn't serve well on the basketball court.

"Come on, let's go meet up with the others. Make a plan for lunch." She took his hand and started walking away, turning towards me as the bell rang. "Well come on then."

Beck led us through the hallways, maneuvering the sea of teenagers with surprising ease for such a tiny girl. I followed close behind her, ignoring the stares and whispers that greeted me at every turn. Someone whistled as I passed by and I smiled, gaining confidence with every step. Finally, we reached the senior locker hall, which was practically empty; a group of girls stood around one of the open lockers and taller boy with thick brown hair leaned against the lockers, clearly excluded from the huddle. One of the girls broke from the group and ran over to Beck, bouncing her long strawberry blonde ringlets and stretching her freckled cheeks into a grin as she did so. I recognized her from this morning.

"Hey Maj, what's up?" Beck smiled slightly.

"Oh nothing new, just trying to get Emmet to fall hopelessly in love with me. It's not going so well." She smiled at me. "Hi! I'm Majorie, but you can call me Maj, everyone does. Are you a new student here? I love your hair, how do you get it to stay like that? Mine's impossible." She tugged on a few curls, trying to press them flat with her fingers.

"Er, I'm a prospective student. I'm here really just to test the waters." I said passively, looking past her icy blue eyes at the cluster of girls that was surrounding the open locker. There must have been at least five or six of them there, all chattering to one another.

"Hey Cain, get over here and meet…" Majorie looked at me apologetically. "I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?"

"Audrey."

"Audrey. Cain meet Audrey, she's new." Maj looked expectantly at the dark haired boy until he joined us. Cain looked up at me and shuffled his feet, a red flush rose on his neck as he introduced himself. He looked back at his sneakers and remained fascinated by them while Majorie rambled on about what she was planning on wearing to the Sadie Hawkins dance, whatever that was.

"Don't you think it will be fun Beck? Getting all dressed up, asking a boy for once, I can't wait!"

Derek laughed. "You're crazy Maj. Beck hasn't even asked me to go with her yet, she says it's a mockery of women's rights or something like that."

"It is!" Beck proclaimed. "You get one dance a year, one night really to choose your own date, and suddenly its like there's no such thing as sexism. I mean really, one dance is so not evening the playing field. Do you know that women still make 70cents to every dollar men make working the same job? Sadie Hawkins my foot." She scowled, but her friends just laughed.

I was beginning to feel as if this whole day had been a waste of time when Beck spoke again.

"Like check out Emmet over there." She gestured to the flock of girls, "He's got his pick of the lot, even though they're the ones asking him, he still gets to choose one to take."

My ears pricked up. I focused on the girls and saw that one, the one standing right up against the locker, with her face tucked inside, was not a girl, but a boy with short, wavy blond hair and a gray hoodie.