Jason Gere shifted in his seat, wishing that he could burn the uncomfortable plastic chair that was to be his spot in English for the rest of the year.  He was a junior, seventeen years old with close-cropped brown hair and bright blue eyes.  At six feet he was about average height, tan, and well muscled from years of playing sports.

He sighed, bored, as Mr. Trebond lectured about diction and syntax.  He had heard it all before – twice.  This was his second time to repeat freshman English, and over the past few years he had become known as just another dumb jock.  Behind his façade of glassy eyed stupidity, however, he watched the world with sharp eyes and an intelligent mind.  He had no clue what compelled him to put on such a show – maybe it was boredom, or maybe it was some work of fate.  He only knew that it gave him a feeling of superiority to fool so many people, so easily. 
            Suddenly he remembered the girl from yesterday and realized she had moved to a seat on the far side of the room.  Scowling, he cursed silently to himself.  She wasn't supposed to do that, he thought angrily.  Now it will just take me longer to figure out why she looks so dang familiar. 

On the first day of class, he had been struck by an unshakable feeling that he had seen Skye somewhere before when he had glimpsed her as he strode into class.  He had stared at her the whole period, racking his brain for any scrap of memory that would help him place just where he had seen her, but he couldn't.  That evening he had tried to forget about it, but it seemed to hang over his head like a storm cloud, giving him a feeling of urgency he did not understand.  Now he stared at her once again, frustrated that still nothing came to mind.

"Mr. Gere, could you give us an example of some of the diction used in the excerpt I just read?" Mr. Trebond asked casually, breaking through Jason's thoughts.  

"Dict…what? Sorry, I wasn't listening," he said, hearing snickers from some people in the back.  Mr. Trebond raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.  "How about Skye? Can you give us what this young man could not?"

After answering correctly, Skye glanced uncertainly at Jason. Was he really as dumb as he seemed to be?  To her discomfort she found him staring at her again and looked away.  For some reason she couldn't bring herself to believe that he was stupid enough to fail Mr. Trebond's class twice.  The kid was hiding something, she was almost sure of it.  I'll get to the bottom of this, even if it takes me all year, she decided as the bell rang for lunch.

~

Later that evening, as Skye was channel surfing her family's big screen T.V., she remembered the book Mr. Trebond had let her borrow.  Curiosity getting the better of her, she flicked off the television and went to her room, where she plopped down on her bed and reached down into her backpack for the book.  As she pulled it out, a wave of energy pulsed into her hands, down her arms, and throughout her body.  Stunned, she stared at the book for long moments until tingling in her nerves faded away.   Still not sure what to think, she did the only thing that came to mind and opened the book to its first page.  Before long she was so engrossed in its contents that she forgot about the strange incident when she had first picked it up.  Even as her eyes began to droop she kept reading, and she soon fell asleep with the book lying face down on her chest. 

Little did she know that this was going to be the longest night of her life.

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woohoo, a cliffhanger! Exciting :) Now the fun will really begin.