Orchid was slouching so far down in her desk in calculus that her chin just reached over the edge of the desk. She was sure that at any moment the boredom would make its death blow and she would fall dead to the floor. Despite the master's degree that she had neatly framed and hung in the classroom, Mrs. York just couldn't teach. At least not in a way that Orchid could understand.
Mrs. York was saying something about tangents when Orchid drifted off completely. Her mind wandered blankly for a moment and then came to rest on....uhg, no! Not him. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get the white-haired, blue-eyed image out of her head. He made her so angry!
She wasn't even sure what it was about him that set her hair on end. Sure he was a punk, but Orchid had known many punks. He was powerful, but she had also known many other powerful beings in her lifetime. There was just something, something in his cerulean eyes that gave her a very cold feeling. You're afraid of him....a small voice in the back of her head whispered.
"I am not."
What did it matter anyway? She wasn't likely to see him again, unless he was too stupid to take her threat seriously. Very few people messed with Orchid Lynx once they saw her angry.
One of the things that bothered her most was that he had known her name. How had he done that? She was sure she'd never met him before. Perhaps he was able to read minds. She supposed she could have looked into his mind if she'd wanted to, but as strange as he was on the outside she didn't really want to see inside.
She stared down at the ring on her finger again. Perhaps she shouldn't have picked it up. It seemed to bring nothing but trouble. But then, seeing the way that weirdo had looked at it made her all the more determined to keep wearing it. There was still a tinge of red in her eyes as Mrs. York snapped her out of her reverie by calling on her to answer number four.


Julian stared blankly into the twisting shadows, which all seemed to be forming themselves into a girl with reddish black hair and a very sharp tongue. Since their last encounter, he'd had about a million different thoughts about her- the majority of them including the urge to teach her a lesson she wouldn't forget. How dare she treat him like that? He supposed her ignorance of his true identity made up for some things, but still. She was crazy, jumping over tables and leaping onto people! She could have cracked his head open if he wasn't immune to such types of injuries.
And something that troubled him even more was how she had managed to get him to the ground in the first place. He had amazing strength- lightning quick reflexes. He should have been able to throw her across the courtyard before she could even touch him. Yet he had found his face hurtling towards the pavement with no way to stop himself. And not only that, but she had managed to hold him down and pry his ring- Jenny's ring out of his hand and threaten him before he could fully recover his senses.
That ring was all that he had left of Jenny. It wasn't that stupid girl's and he couldn't let her blaspheme Jenny's light by wearing it. At the moment, as trivial as it may have been in reality, that ring was the world to Julian. His sole purpose was to get it back- to restore Jenny's memory.
The question was how he was going to do it. The simple, direct approach had failed so far. Could it be possible that for the first time in his life he was just having a bad day? Was he still weak from being reborn, or had his grief dulled his abilities? Maybe he should just skip the niceties and whack her over the head. He could sneak up on her from anywhere. He could travel through shadows, after all. Or perhaps he should go back to his old ways and toy with her mind until she begged him to take the ring back. He would enjoy that. Something small in the back of his mind told him that her mind probably didn't work like most people's, but whatever the case he was going to get that ring back....and make that mysterious girl pay for her insolence.