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Thorne's POV:

Strange Things

Well, my life has certainly taken a turn for the weird lately.

First there was that party. Since when do wild animals attack a large group of humans? I thought they were supposed to be "just as scared of us as we are of them" or "only attack when provoked" or something.

Then, that new kid, Jacin (or as I like to call him, Jerk-cin) showed up completely out of the blue. I pride myself on knowing all the students in our rival schools, and Jacin sure as spades ain't one of them. I guess he could have just moved here, but whenever I, or anyone else from that matter, asks where he's from, he just gets all defensive. Aces man, we just want to know where you live! What's your damage?

This isn't really right up there with in the weird-factor, but Wolf's been acting very unlike himself. Which is to say, he's been acting more like a normal human being. I even saw him smile! Wolf! Smiling! I was worried that I had food poisoning and was hallucinating! Spades know it's happened before. Man, was that a crazy afternoon…

Talking of Wolf, that brings me to weird-event no.1: he's disappeared. Just straight up vanished off the face of the Earth. The cops are freaking out. Maybe his parents work with them. Must be nice, having parents that care about you… but I digress.

The missing posters started showing up on Monday. They've even stuck them up on the school notice board. Pretty much everyone walks right past them because, well, it's Wolf. If not for the fact that he was a freaking giant you wouldn't even know he exists. I've seen Kai give it a few glances, and Scarlet always gives it a good long look for some reason, but they're pretty much the only ones. Personally, I don't see what they're so worried about. Wolf's pretty much made of muscle, and if those scars are anything to go by he's gotten himself out of plenty of scrapes. He's probably finally just cracked and ran off away from all the nasty bright vitality of civilisation.

A loud rapping on my desk snaps me back to the present. Which kinda sucks because in the present my math teacher is looking at me like he's just sucked on a lemon. "Carswell, I would thank you to actually pay attention in class."

I smirk and lean back in my chair. "How do you know I wasn't hanging off your every word?"

"Tell me what I just said." He challenges me.

I clear my throat and say in a very serious voice. "Numbers, numbers, numbers, fractions, numbers, multiplication, division, numbers, solution."

Around me, the class erupts into laughter and my teacher's face turns a very interesting shade of red. "Quiet! All of you be quiet! Don't make me give you extra homework!"

Magic words. The class falls silent.

Satisfied that there would be no more interruptions, the teacher heads up to the front of the class and continues to drone on about whatever methods we were supposed to be learning.

I just tune his irritating voice out and start doodling on the pages of my exercise book. What? It's not like I'm actually going to use this stuff.

"You know, you're going to flunk the year if you're not careful." Says a snarky voice.

I grin and look over at the person next to me. "Well, unlike some people, I'm not planning to become a mechanic when I graduate."

Cinder smirks. "I think you mean, if you graduate."

"Please, I don't have to pay attention to all of my math classes to pass exams."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about your work ethic. I was talking about your IQ."

I clasp one hand to my chest in mock shock. "Cinder, how could you? I'm plenty smart!"
She snorts. "Tell that to the "F" you got in history."

"I would've gotten an "A", they just couldn't cope with my creativity."

"You called Hitler "Evil Charlie Chaplin"!"

"Come on, you can't argue that he was!"

Cinder rolls her eyes and continues taking notes from the board. I shoot it a half-hearted glance as well. It's filled with random numbers and weird looking "x"s. Why am I not surprised?

"Do you think that all this stuff with the wolves will end up in the history books?" I ask Cinder suddenly.

She shrugs, resolutely staring ahead at the teacher. "Perhaps. They are a new species of wolf after all."

"Wait, they are?"

She gives me a look. "Thorne, they are the size of adult humans and their fur and eyes are weird colours. Of course they're a new species!"

I raise my hands in surrender. "Spades, alright! How am I supposed to know what looks weird for a wolf?"

"Gee, I don't know, how about the fact that it's common knowledge what a wolf looks like?" Cinder retorted scathingly.

I roll my eyes at her irritation. "You're getting way too worked up about this. New species or not, they're just animals."

"Yeah, animals that kill people!"

"Well, they have to eat don't they?"

"They don't eat the people they kill moron, they just leave them there."

"Well, they ate Wolf." I snort in bitter amusement, "A wolf eating Wolf."

Cinder's pencil clatters to the floor and she gapes at me in pure horror. "How can you think about that so… unconcernedly?"

"Hey, I'm concerned and all, but it's Wolf. Most of the time he acts like he doesn't exist."
"Oh, so that makes him dying all right?" Cinder snaps.

I groan in frustration. "No, it doesn't, and that's not what I meant. I just meant that it's hard to be upset about it. Don't pretend you don't feel the same way, I know he creeps you out!"

Cinder glares at me, but doesn't reply.

"Besides, it's just a theory. He might not have been eaten by a wolf." I mutter, still grouchy from the argument.

"That still isn't an excuse for acting so flippant about it." Cinder says sternly.

I have to laugh at that. "Honestly Cinder, it's like you've never met me! You know I'd tell a joke at my own grandpa's funeral!"

She smirks. "Can't argue with that."

"Okay that's it!" The teacher shrieks from the front of the class. He points at Cinder and I with a shaking finger. "I want you two to do two extra pages of exercises tonight. Maybe that'll teach you not to talk in class!"

"Stupid lemon-eater." I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

A/N: Sorry about the nothing chapter. I promise, things will start to get exciting again next week. Plus, I just really wanted to write more Cinder and Thorne. These guys are my BrOTP .

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