Tied up in ancient history,
I didn't believe in destiny,
I look up you're standing next to me,
What a feeling.

Kate jumped to fast she almost dropped her phone, she began mentally scolding herself for calling, when she realised she hadn't said anything in a good thirty seconds.

'I.. erm, I was looking for Laura, I wanted to see whether she wanted to work on the history project we've been set' Kate forcibly stopped herself before she progressed into full-blown rambling.

'Now correct me if I'm wrong Kate, but don't you have a week and a half to finish the history presentation? Why so desperate to do it tonight?' He sounded highly amused, making Kate more defensive. She envisioned Laura coming home after school and relaying detail upon detail of her day to her brother, a simple, minor task that she couldn't do.

'I just didn't want to sit at home tonight, procrastinating.' Kate sighed, she had done this many a night.

Derek paused for a moment before answering, it didn't make Kate uncomfortable though, she could tell that he was considering a response.

'Well we can't have that, Laura's out training with my uncle Peter at the moment, you could always come over to the house and wait for a while?' He said, leaving the question open to Kate's response.

'Sure, if that's okay with you, that is?' She replied quickly, before she had time to talk herself out of it.

'I asked didn't I?' He said cockily. 'See you soon K' he hung up. It took Kate a few seconds to realise that he had called her K. She usually hated it when her brother said it, but Derek made it sound normal, like it rolled off of his tongue easily, everyday.

Kate climbed into her car and sat quietly for a moment, wondering why on earth she had agreed to go over, Laura could be hours, and whilst the prospect of being alone with Derek was thrilling, it was also incredibly intimidating.

Approximately eight minutes later, Kate pulled up outside the Hale house. She'd envisioned it to be harder to find, but the directions Laura had given her earlier had made it incredibly simple. The house was impressive, three storeys and surrounded by green woodland, recreating that calm feeling she always got in the middle of the woods.

The only problem was that there was no sign of life, in fact the only clue that anybody lived here, was the beautiful black Camaro she'd been admiring earlier sitting in what had been made into a driveway.

Derek's car, she automatically assumed. She remembered vaguely Laura asking chatty Cathy for a ride somewhere earlier.

Kate parked near the car and climbed out, listening intently for any sign of life. The woods were silent, barely a bird tweeting or a branch crackling. Kate thought about how great it would be to live out here in such seclusion, she particularly hated making small talk with her own neighbours, who were inevitably nosy.

She walked up to the porch, conscious of her every step on the ground being amplified by the silence. The large door did not have a doorbell, only a brown wooden knocker in the shape of a lion, or maybe a wolf, she didn't know.
Kate knocked three times and waited, no answer. She was sure he'd said 'see you soon', that implied he'd actually be in, didn't it? She knocked again, this time not exactly expecting an answer. After a minute she gave up, and wandered back down the steps, unsure of where to go from here.

Purely on instinct she decided to go around the back of the grand house, mentally noting that there was likely to be more that one door. She was heading around the back when she heard a voice, Derek's voice, talking in an angry tone, she leaned closer to the decking and saw that he had a phone clutched to his ear.

'I told you mother, she's out with Peter right now.' Kate realised that Laura hadn't mentioned her mother at all today, 'He's doing his best okay? He can't do it all, and neither can I, she needs you and your guidance.' Kate assumed that Derek meant that in a general all teenage girls need their mom kind of way.

'Of course she's scared, she's hiding it well. I think I should train her, not Peter. She trusts me more.' Now Kate was completely confused, was Laura some kind of professional athlete? Another thing she had failed to mention to Kate during their multiple conversations today.

'Fine, I will leave it for now. It really is about time that you stopped running scared mom, she needs you. I need you' And with that he hung up the phone.

Kate lingered awkwardly in the position she'd been in to eavesdrop. She waited a few minutes before rounding the corner and knocking on the front door again.

This time her knocking was answered swiftly, Derek answered the door in dark jeans and a black v-neck, all remnants of the rather intense phone call Kate had just overheard wiped from his face. His smile was confident and easy, and Kate wasn't so sure she believed it any more.

-
Derek had tried hard to clear his mind before opening his front door, he quickly glanced in the mirror before doing so and frowned at his complexion. His eyes were tight, and dark bags were in danger of appearing. For a moment after his mother had called, he had hoped it was her at the door. She'd been gone for a few weeks now, Laura blamed herself, blamed the fact that she was improving everyday, getting stronger, faster, smarter. Derek on the other hand blamed his Uncle Peter, to most people he seemed a quiet, melancholy man, but to Derek's mother it was a whole different story.

He didn't know why he invited the girl to come over, he sensed straight away that she could be infinitely more than she was pretending to be, she was uninterested in high school gossip, and notably quiet unless spoken too.

He opened the door and inhaled deeply, enjoying her intoxicating scent, enjoying the maddening effect this girl was having on him.