Chapter 4

"Miss Branwen!" the professor's voice thundered quite loudly throughout the entire classroom. Everyone had fallen into a dead silence. The outburst had gotten all their attentions quite quickly.

Faith felt a sharp, painful stab go through her ribs and awoke – disgruntled and very annoyed. "Hey!" she spat out unknowingly to the person beside her, the obvious culprit. "Miss Branwen." The professor thundered even more threateningly this time, which jerked Faith out of her grogginess and knocked some sense into her. Oh, crap. She thought. "Yes, Mr. Cromwell." She said quickly. Mr. Cromwell was her English Professor. He was an uptight, 40-year-old British man with a slight accent and in Faith's opinion, was too dedicated to his job and loved it way too much for normal standards.

Mr. Cromwell bore his eyes into hers. She gulped. "I'm quite sorry that my lecture has not captured your interest. Perhaps something a bit more advanced can keep your mind working." Mr. Cromwell loved to ask immensely difficult questions on English Literature as punishment and humiliation to anyone who even thought about doing something else during his class. He chose questions that weren't even covered in his lectures or the text book that the school provided. "Much Ado About Nothing, Vortigern and Rowena, A Lover's Complaint. Tell me, what exactly are these three titles of?"

Faith tried very hard not to crumble on the spot. Leave it to Mr. Cromwell to ask the most ridiculous questions ever. She pulled herself together and cleared her mind. There was no way in hell she could ever know the answer by herself. She needed a little 'assistance'.

She entered his mind, sorting through memories of fuzzy cats prowling around his home to that tearful day he finally left his parent's home. Somewhere in between his memories, she struck gold. Thousands and thousands of pages filled with Shakespearean history, quotes, stories and facts were laid out before her. Man, this guy really DID love his job too much.

"As expected, you don't have an answer, do you?" he said with a look of triumph spreading all throughout his face. "Just to illuminate you – and everyone else in this class - "

"Shakespeare." She said blankly.

"What?" Professor Cromwell muttered. His thundering tone suddenly lowered its volume.

"The three titles you've mentioned were titles of some of Shakespeare's works. Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy; Vortigern and Rowena - or Vortigern, a Historic Play – was said to be a newly-discovered play written by Shakespeare. However, it was later revealed to be part of Shakespearean Apocrypha.; Lastly, A Lover's Complaint is a narrative poem." She explained calmly. For a moment, the professor looked like he was about to explode from all the emotions recurring all at once. Faith simply sat there, trying hard to look calm but fidgeting below the desk.

"That's… That is… absolutely correct, Ms. Branwen. Er – excellent work. Excellent." At the mention of her 'excellent work', Faith began to relax a little bit. "Although, you still get detention - for today, at least."

"What?!" she unexpectedly blurted out.

"I've had quite enough of you dozing off during my bloody class." his British descent was shining through brightly at use of the word 'bloody'. For a moment he glared at her, as if telling her not to push her luck. She bit her lip.

"Yes, sir." She mumbled quietly.

-

The school bell rang, signaling the end of morning classes and the beginning of lunch period; Tyler was rummaging through his locker and putting away some of his books.

"You know what I've noticed lately?" said a slow and taunting voice from behind Tyler's locker door. It was Reid, his hands in his pockets and a smirk firmly plastered on his face. Tyler rolled his eyes before replying. "No, and I don't think I'd care."

"That crazy chick that's been trying to kill you these past couple of days seems to be giving you the oogle eyes." Reid continued, not bothering on paying his friend any attention.

"What?" Tyler asked, slamming his locker door shut and looked at Reid for the first time.

"But I guess she needs to stalk you now, seeing as she is trying to kill you and all. You know, planning the perfect murder and shit."

Just then, Kate approached them. "Who's planning the perfect murder?" she asked. Kate was ever the curious gossiper.

"You know, I really didn't quite catch her name." Reid said to Kate before turning to Tyler. "What did you say Ms. Crazy-stalker-girl's name was?"

"I didn't and for your information, her name's Faith." Tyler said, sounding more offended than he'd intended to be.

Reid raised his hands in mock surrender. "You know if I didn't know you that well, I'd say you had the hots for miss… whatever her name was." Reid elbowed his friend's ribs, winked then clicked his tongue against his back teeth in a teasing gesture.

"oh, stop giving him a hard time, Reid. A girl should be good for Tyler." Kate said with a wink. Did everyone think he was that lame?

"Oh God, Kate, you did not just say that. I mean yeah, I agree, a chick would take Tyler here up a notch but geez that chick is nuts."

"Hey!" Tyler said, defensively. "She's actually pretty cool, if you just got to talking to her."

"Speaking of which…" Reid trailed off. Faith had just walked passed, at first with a disgruntled look but then it changed very quickly into a weird smile when she had spotted Tyler. She gave a small wave at him and he returned the gesture. She was so busy looking at Tyler that she had bumped into the garbage can around the corner. Reid laughed hysterically at this and clutched at his stomach. "Do you see what I mean?"

Kate stifled a giggle before becoming a bit more serious. "Wait, you mean that was the Faith that's been crushing on you?"

"She is not." Tyler squeaked; he was beginning to turn red.

"Reid's right for once, Tyler."

"He is?"

"I am?"

"He is." She said finally. "She does have a reputation for being kind of weird."

"Oh really? How so?" Reid asked, now very curious to know about Faith.

"It's like she knows exactly what goes on in your mind or something."

"What, like a mind reader?" Tyler asked.

"Exactly." Kate snapped her fingers and pointed at him.

"And there's one more thing…" she paused dramatically, "I can't really describe it, but weird stuff happens around that girl. I don't know exactly what but from what I've heard, it's pretty freaky."

Tyler and Reid exchanged knowing smirks at each other. Like they weren't freakier; oh the things Kate never knew about her dear Pogue.

"Anyway, have you seen Pogue?" she asked, changing the topic completely.

"He should be here soon Kate, I mean he is just a locker away from mine." Tyler assured her.

-

Class had been long over when Faith stepped into the detention room. It was mostly filled with Juniors and Seniors since Sophomores and Freshmen were still too wimpy to break rules at the beginning of the year. Although, for Faith, the detention room was becoming her hang-out spot after class.

"Your late." The teacher in charge of detention said in a boring tone.

"Sorry, I had a run in with a garbage can back at lunch and had to get my ribs and wrist checked at the nurse's office after class." She said, knowing that her excuse was useless since the teacher had stopped listening at 'Sorry'.

"Just take a seat, Ms. Branwen." The teacher droned on.

Faith took a seat next to a girl with dark hair and wave-like curls. She didn't quite manage to get a look at her because the girl had her face on the desk, asleep and her hair was covering her anyway but still, she made Faith double-back. She didn't know why, but she had a funny resemblance to her. In fact, Faith could have sworn that that girl was her and that she could just probably be dreaming. Freaky.

Faith finally took her seat, all the while not even daring to take her eyes away from her 'twin'. She was surprised when the girl seated next to her began to speak. "Piss off." She said groggily. She reminded her of her when she fell asleep during class.

She could no longer stand the mystery. She quietly began to reach for the girl's shoulder but stopped when the girl lifted her head to look at her. "Yeah?" she asked and a surge of relief went through Faith as she realized that she wasn't staring at herself. Instead, the girl she was staring at was actually rather pretty. She had hazel colored eyes and her slightly mocha-tanned skin went well with her hair.

"Uhm, Hi!" she squeaked, embarrassed for her own paranoia.

"Yeah… hey." The girl replied.

"I'm Faith, Faith Branwen." She introduced herself while holding out a hand for the girl to shake.

"Rebecca, Rebecca Morrigan, but call me Becks." The girl said, shaking her hand.

"So watcha in for?" Faith asked, trying to break the ice. She could be on the verge on making a new friend and she was hell bent on making sure she finally got one this year.

"Slept during history." Rebecca answered as if she did it all the time.

"Seriously? Me too! Except, I slept during English." she replied with a chuckle.

"Girl, you don't even need to tell me what you're in here for. I was there when you humiliated Mr. Cromwell." She smiled, "Good going on those titles. I never thought I'd see the day that that tight-panted loser was going to get his."

Faith smiled at her compliment. She seemed like an alright person after all. At least she wasn't freaked out by her already. "Thanks." She said simply.

"Hey, why don't you come by Saturday night at New Tree Café?" Rebecca said, shuffling through her bag for something. She took out a bright, neon yellow colored flyer which had her name and the address of the cafe on it. "I do gigs there every other Saturday night. You should come."

Faith took the flyer from her hands and examined it. "That'd be great!"