Claxton, GA

It's a Monday, the worst day of the week. But it was looking up for once. Last Friday we had been told that a new girl would be joining our class. Her arrival had generated unprecedented attention. The only thing people were talking about all weekend was her. Her family, the Lexingtons were reclusive to say the least. They hadn't been seen in years and they were the subject of constant assumption by the people of my town. There were all sorts of rumours going around from her parents being psychopaths to her being a witch that practised black magic. But it was the only thing people could talk about. I on the other hand appeared to be the only one who didn't care about her arrival.

The rest of my friends seemed to be thinking of whatever convoluted rumour they were going to come up with next. I guess they were under the impression that she actually was gonna be a witch. I had made bad assumptions in the past and it had come back to bite me in the ass, so this time I'm going to make sure I don't judge this book before I've even seen the cover, not that my friends need to know this. I just want to have a friend who isn't constantly taking the piss or at least one that isn't a complete asshole. These guys were once decent, but they had changed over the last couple of years, and I feel like I need someone new to hang out with. Unfortunately, in a small town like this, that doesn't happen often.

To avoid any headaches, I just go along with it listening to my friends say stuff like 'Dude, what if she like turns us all into frogs or 'She probably doesn't even eat real food.' I feel genuinely bad for doing it, for going along with my friends, but it is basically a death sentence into irrelevancy if you spoke up. And I don't want to be the next Julian Lopez. We settle into homeroom and our tutor, Miss Denver, announces that our new student's name is Cassandra Lexington, as if we don't know already. She tells us that she prefers to go by Cassie, and she invites her into the classroom. She gestures to the girl outside of the door and the class is silent with anticipation. She walks through the door, and we finally get to have a look at her. She looks beautiful.

Her head is down, but that doesn't stop me from trying to get a glimpse of her. Her hair drapes itself over her shoulders, a chestnut brown that fits perfectly with the seasonal theme. She is Caucasian, with big brown eyes, but something is off about them. It's almost as if it's a false brown, masking a true colour. Her outfit looks completely out of place. She wears a long flowing orange skirt, decorated with small flowers on the sides. She also wears a long-sleeved plain cream top. She has a black cotton bag over her left shoulder with no discernible pattern on it. I turn to my friends, but they look solemn. I know what they are thinking. 'How sad it was that someone so pretty was a Lexington.' Associating with them was just one step below consulting with the Devil in this town. Luckily for me, my parents had raised me to be more open-minded than these people.

She looks like she doesn't belong here, but for some reason I am inexplicably drawn to her. The teacher beckons her closer to the desk. Then, Miss Denver turns to the class and speaks. 'Cassie here is going to need a volunteer to show her around the school and complete her orientation. Make her feel welcome here.'

My hand shoots up. No-one else's does. 'I'll do it' I say.

Cassie looks up and her face goes white as a sheet, and her eyes start to water.

'Him?' she says to Miss Denver.

'Yes', she replies. 'Go sit next to him.'

Meanwhile, my friends glare at me as if trying to telepathically ask what the hell I just did.

'Mr. Carter' she says looking at me. 'It appears you're the only volunteer so you will be showing Cassie around the school during her first couple of days here.' She looks at her computer for a few seconds, the class still in complete silence. 'It appears you share most of your classes with her. You should be a perfect tour guide for her. Make sure she enjoys herself.'

'I will' I say, feeling the sea of eyes burning into me from all directions. I don't care though; I want to get to know her. As I said, I wasn't able to stop looking at her. She wouldn't meet my gaze though. Or anyone else's. In fact, she seemed to be going to great lengths to not look at me.

'Why don't you take a seat, I'll let you pick where' says Miss Denver, and went about trying to find the register.

She takes a seat near the back. Immediately, those in her near vicinity move over to different seats away from her. It doesn't seem to affect her though. In fact, she doesn't once look up as she gets out a notebook and begins to write. The teacher looks over suspiciously and then stares at me, as if saying 'You're her guide. Make her feel welcome.'

So, I do something that I know will ostracise me out of my friend group for sure. I get up out of my seat and walk over to sit with Cassie. I sit down, pull my books out, and try not to stare at her. But we have first period in the same classroom with the same teacher as homeroom, English Literature. The first 10-15 minutes goes by relatively easily, even though she again doesn't look at me at all. I think at one point I hear her crying softly, but I'm not sure so I don't say anything even though I really want to. Something about this girl is different, she seems so familiar, like I've known her for years. Yet I can't figure out why. Every time I try to, my head goes blank.

'I want you to consolidate the notes you've been making and share them with the person sitting next to you' says Miss Denver. Since I am, in essence, an island surrounded by a sea of empty chairs, my inevitable partner was Cassie. I see a couple of my 'mates' look my way and snigger. I ignore them and try not to look like an idiot as I gather the minimal notes I have made on Of Mice and Men and turn to face her. As I do so, I can once again sense the waves of attention flooding my way. This isn't going to stop any time soon I figure, so I just try to ignore the piercing looks from around the room. Instead, I look down at her paper and notice it has so much information on it. She starts to speak. Her voice is soft and has a tinge of a Canadian accent. It wasn't nasally or high-pitched, her voice just seemed to fit her.

She starts telling me her notes, so I quickly grab a pen and start to write down what she has to say. She has so much more insight into this book than I do. Then it happens. She looks up to say something and I meet her gaze, but it feels deeper this time somehow. It feels like an age-old connection, the likes of which I have never felt before. But as I feel this, I am transported away. Like a teleportation. Only it doesn't feel like I have gone anywhere. I still feel like I am sitting, but instead of seeing any Cassie, or any of my classmates, I simply see fire, or what I thought was fire.

There is something about it, something which draws me into the shapeless splendour. The orange flecks of light almost beckon me towards them. The brightness and the smoke make my eyes well up, but I keep moving. They have a sort of transcendental quality that make me think they can't possibly be real, and yet here they are. The beauty of the flames, its composition fascinates me, and it's a sort of controlled chaos, a beautiful danger. In its presence all I can do is stare in awe at the natural beauty of such an elemental substance.

Then, there is fire no more, in its place the antithesis of fire, water. The colourless, yet vaguely blue liquid shimmers in front of me. It shares the same quality of the fire, yet with much less vigour than the fire. It is almost inviting, not captivating in a fascinatingly dangerous way like the fire, but cooler, calmer, and almost spiritual. I feel like I am in an aquarium, surrounded by creatures of the ocean. The elemental intenseness is there again, but much less ferocious than the fire. The water starts to ripple, the sphere starting to almost destabilise itself.

Then the water drops, cascading over me and I close my eyes. When I open them, I am no longer surrounded by water. I am standing on a grassy plain, on a hill with rocks sticking out of it, the jagged edges threatening me with their mere presence. The earth begins to wobble, and shudder, and a crack starts to appear, right between my legs. I jump to one side, but the crack continues to expand. Soon enough a hole has opened up, like a gateway to hell. The earth splinters and sent rocks in all directions. I shield myself from the rock but when I put my arms down, the rock and the earth is no longer there.

All of a sudden, I hear nothing but the sound of rushing wind. I open my eyes and look to my left. That's when I see it. A tornado headed straight for me. I start to run away from it, but it keeps following me, I turn 90 degrees to the right to run away but it follows me 90 degrees to the right. It's like the tornado has a vendetta against me. The column of air continues to pursue me, and I am running out of breath. Eventually I can't run anymore, and I know I have to surrender. Pure terror is flowing through me as I give myself up to the tornado. The column of air hits and then…

Then all at once, I feel myself return to normal and I am sitting back in class, still staring into her eyes, but now they are no longer a false brown. They are burning orange, the same colour as the fire. Unbeknownst to me, the whole class has picked up on our locked gaze.

'Hey look, Carter's in love with a Lexington' shouts someone at the back. This appears to bring us both back to reality.

'Wh… what the hell?' I say, breathlessly.

Cassie looks away from me, but not before I catch the sight of pure terror in her face. She starts to quiver. When I go to put my hand on her, she cowers away.

'Are you okay?' I ask quietly, still aware that the whole class is watching us.

'Yes', she answers quickly, which was so obviously a lie.

'But-' I start to say before I am cut off.

'I'm fine' she says, a little surer of herself this time. Then she raises her hand and asks to go to the toilet.

'Of course,' says Miss Denver, and gives her a hall pass as she left.

I am left by myself, the class having now gone back to their work now, if by work you mean that they are now probably gossiping about her even more. I start to look over her notes for Of Mice and Men my attention is forced away from it and back to what just happened. Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. The four elements as it were. And I had just seen them all, in a primal form. The shimmering water, an earthquake of sorts, the tornado, and the fire.

Had I imagined it? It felt like I was there, and I was out of breath when I got back. But no time had passed. I was out of breath from running away from the tornado when I returned. I must have been there. But the one thing I remember is locking gazes with her and then I was gone. I am going over the events again and again in my head. Trying to notice any details. I think about it until my head hurts but there is one thing that won't escape my mind. The look of terror on Cassie's face and those orange the moment I came back. It was like she was frozen in motion. I hear the door open and in she comes, her cheeks flushed and still looking a bit shaken up. She looks like she has definitely just seen what I had just seen. But that's impossible, right?

I can't figure out how to move on. I want to ask her, but she looks like she doesn't want to be asked. In the end, I concede. I have to find out. There is no way I can go through the day without knowing what just happened. She sits down in her seat and its clear she is going to try and get things back to normal by starting to talk about the book. But I'm fast to change the topic of conversation.

'What the hell was that?' I whisper to her, catching her very suddenly off guard.

'What?' she asks, her voice slightly quivering.

'What just happened?' I ask again, more confidently.

'I don't know what you mean' she says, obviously lying.

'Yes, you do' I reply. 'I know you do'

'No, I don't, now can we please get back to-' I cut her off.

'Let's start off slow. Why and how do you have orange eyes?' I whisper-ask.

'How? What? That's impossible. Nobody but our kind can-' she stops herself.

'What?' I ask. 'What do you mean our kind?'

'Nothing, I just misspoke' she insists.

'Okay sure' I say, meaning the complete opposite and wanting to shake her till she tells me the truth. 'Actually, no. Not okay sure. I know what I saw. Now tell me.'

'Okay, okay' she says. 'Meet me after school and I'll tell you.'

'Where?' I ask.

'Don't worry, I'll find you' she says.

'I know you will' I say, confidently.

The rest of the day goes by extremely normally. The normality cannot be emphasised enough, except for my constant thoughts of wonder at what she is going to show me later. Given what I had seen, I had started to almost believe she had made that happen, but I dismiss these thoughts quickly and continue to get through my day. The periods go slower, as they usually do when you have something to look forward to at the end of the school day. I was really hoping for some clarity with what was going on, but something told me clarity wasn't the only thing I was going to find. I was apprehensive, but my excitement carried me, as the bell signified the end of the school day and I headed outside, ready to hear what Cassie Lexington had to say.

The school exit is nothing special, just steps, railings and the one piece of graffiti that says 'Mr Robb is a dick' that has been there since forever. For context, Mr Robb retired 7 years ago. Anyway, I make my way to the side of the school. It occurs to me that we did not specify where, but I hear a pop behind me and there she is, standing there with her hair slightly messy.

'Hey' I say.

'Hi' she says back. 'Right, come with me.'

'Okay' I say.

'I never got your name' she says.

'Carter' I say. 'Joshua Carter. Everyone calls me Josh.'

'Okay' she says. 'Right, hold out your hand, and be prepared.

'Okay' I say slightly apprehensively. She touches my hand, makes an X and the shape of an X appears in my flesh, an orange hue. She touches the X with her index finger and the same feeling I had earlier returns as I know I'm not in the school anymore.

Guns go off next to me and I see two people in an embrace. One of which I at once recognise as my ancestor, James Carter, and the other looks strangely familiar. I am often said to look exactly like my ancestor, but the other one, I'm sure I've seen her somewhere. As the lighting becomes better, it's clear to me that she looks exactly like Cassie. Cassie and my ancestor were lovers? As the gunshots ring around me, the man, my great-great-grandfather James drops to the ground. An ear-piercing, inhuman scream erupts from the Cassie lookalike.

'Cass' says James. 'Live for me. Please.'

'I will my love' says Cass. 'I will.'

The sky turns grey as thunder and lightning start to envelop the landscape and turn an already gloomy day into storm conditions. It's clear that he is dead, and that Cass is the one causing these adverse weather conditions. She scours the battlefield, looking for the man who shot down her beloved. Eventually she lays eyes on him. The man loads his gun and fires, but the bullets have no effect, ricocheting off her. Just as she is about to end the man's life, she stops, hesitates.

'No' she says. 'This isn't who I am. This isn't what he'd want. I'm not Genevieve.'

And the sky starts to pour with rain. Within minutes, the ground is saturated with water and the mud becomes so thick, that the men fighting have no choice but to back down, it's too hard to see or do anything. And Cass sits there, her white dress soaked in mud, blood and rain. Her vow stuck in my head. 'I'm not Genevieve.' Who is Genevieve and what did that have to do with my ancestor?

I'm sucked back into the present day, my hands shaking, and I look down at my clothes and I'm soaked in rain and my trousers and shoes have mud on them. I look down at my hand and the X is still there, but in seconds it vanishes, leaving no mark, no scar, not even a trace of it ever being there.

'What?' I stutter out after several tries. 'Just. Happened?'

'You were taken back in time to view both of our ancestors madly in love with each other at the time of your ancestor, James Carter's, death' she says.

'I time travelled?' I ask.

'Not exactly' she says. 'You were still here, just having a vision from 150 years ago.'

'Why did you show me it?' I ask.

'Because, our family is special, you could call it magic, but we prefer the term Caster. We have certain abilities beyond that of a mortal. And it concerns you because our family is the subject of a prophecy that one day the descendants of James Carter and Cass Lexington would fall in love, just as they did, and that they would look almost alike in every single way. And I think that's you' she says. 'I just need to do one more thing.'

'Okay' I say, stunned as to whether or not I believe what she says. She puts her hand on my forehead, mutters something and then it happens. I remember everything.