The thought of the girl was slowly eating away at my sanity. We'd been at Wrickenridge High School for two weeks now, and already, we'd upset the balance of things. It wasn't unusual to hear mine or even Grace's name being muttered in the halls. No one could understand why Yves Benedict, a straight-A overachiever on the straight and narrow, had taken such an interest in a girl like Grace. From what I could tell, the only subjects she bothered with were Chemistry and English Literature, and the rest were just there to make up the hours in the days. She didn't socialise, she didn't smile, and she wasn't a particularly pleasant person to most people.

But what seemed to be bothering most people was the dynamic between me and Zed. Since finding out my sister was his age, Zed had been becoming more and more unstable, spending more time out of school alone and less time talking to the people normal crowding around him for his attention. The cheerleaders especially were not best pleased. It didn't help matters that since my dream about the unknown girl in trouble, I'd been edgy, short-tempered and incredibly impatient. No matter how hard I tried to make sense of it all, nothing worked.

By the time we reached our third weekend, I thought I could feel myself start to implode with the pressure.

"Are you still sulking about that girl?" Cassandra sighed irritably when she finally made it home from work that Friday night.

"Well, you'd know all about sulking," I muttered dark at her, flicking impatiently through the channels on the TV. Grace was curled into the armchair beside me, her Chemistry textbooks propped open on one arm of the chair and a Charles Dickens book resting open on her lap. I wasn't sure if she was trying to multi-task, or if she was just showing off, but I didn't care enough to ask.

"The two of you need to get a grip," Cassandra told us both, holding her head a little higher as though she was the standard we should be aiming for. Grace lifted her gaze long enough to shot her a withering look, but quickly lost interest and returned her attention to her books. "There's a charity dance being held in Denver next month. Darwin says that almost everyone will be there."

I scoffed, scowling at her. "Darwin? Who the hell is Darwin?"

"Don't be childish," she snapped at me irritably. "Darwin is the man I was telling you about last week."

"And you think I remember that?"

She ignored me. "He runs an executive company on the other side of Denver. We've been out for a few drinks, not that either of you two would notice. Too wrapped up in your own petty little dramas to bother noticing anyone else."

"Petty?" Grace glowered, her eyes flashing angrily.

"Don't raise to the bait, Gracie," I sighed, repeating something she'd told me a thousand times or more. Her jaw locked as she met my gaze coolly. "It'll only make things worse."

"Something you'd know a great deal about," she scowled back. "Have you not spoken to Zed about that dream yet?"

"Oh, we're back to that," Cassandra groaned. "Why do I bother trying to have a mature conversation in this house?"

"We weren't sure you'd be able to keep up, Cassie!" I called after her as she stalked out of the front room and up the stairs.

"Alex!" Grace snapped. "Focus! Zed and the dream. Why haven't you spoken to him yet? I thought you said you would."

I stared at her, scanning her perfectly serious expression with a little difficulty. "It's hard to take that kind of advice from you, Gracie. After all, we are talking about the guy you can't stand to be within twenty yards of."

She shifted awkwardly in her seat, and I felt a pang of regret for that particular comment. I knew she'd been having a difficult time keeping herself focused. Despite everything she'd ever told me, I knew she wanted to find out if Zed really was her soulfinder more than anyone, probably even more than Zed himself. But she was too good for that, too selfless to drag him into our mess. And now here I was having a go at her for it because I couldn't figure out what one dream meant.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "I shouldn't have-"

"Forget it," she instructed hurriedly, pulling a face as she dropped her eyes back to her text books. "But I do still think you should talk to him. He might not be able to tell you much, but if it is a premonition you had, then he'll know better than anyone how to deal with it. Besides, even if you can't do anything about the dream, then you could at least ask him to protect his own mind a little more and stop this thing happening again. In fact, if you don't tell him, I'll tell Yves."

"What?" I blurted. "Why?"

She shot me a cool look. "Because the last thing we need is you to accidentally tap into another one of their abilities and start causing havoc with that. I mean it, Alex. Speak to him, before I do it for you."

Though I was fairly confident that she wouldn't actually mention the dream to Yves and was just using that as leverage to get me to do something about it, I resolved to finding a quiet moment to speak to Zed about the girl in my dream. Whatever I thought about him and his current situation with Grace, she was right. He was my best bet at helping the girl before she got hurt.

Unfortunately, that plan went out the window the very next day. Saturday night saw me stood outside on the porch of Sheena the cheerleader's house, unable to remember how exactly I'd been roped into coming to her birthday party in the first place. The backdoor had been thrown open, and the thumping music could be heard from halfway down the street. Most of the other kids were still crammed inside, moving awkwardly to the sound of some pop-punk band I'd never heard of before. The only other people out here were either too busy making out in the darker corners of the garden to notice me, or vomiting violently into the bushes after a sneaking the poorly concealed bottles of vodka out of the cupboards in the kitchen.

"Hey, Alex!" a cheerful, giggly voice came from the doorway, and I looked up to see a blonde cheerleader beaming at me. "Are you coming back inside or what?"

I couldn't remember the girl's name, but for some reason, she was irritating me. "Actually, I'm heading out," I frowned. "I'll see you at school."

"Aww, come on!" she complained loudly as I pushed myself upright, starting for the exit. "You've only been here a few hours!" It had actually only been two, but I wasn't going to correct her. Despite my best attempt at ignoring her, the cheerleader scurried forward and latched her hands around my wrist, smiling at me as she tried to drag me back toward the house. "Just one more hour," she pleaded, batting her eyelashes at me. "Then you can take me home."

Unable to think of a good enough excuse to get out of it, I let the girl led me back into the house with a wry sigh. She beamed. "You get some drinks, I'll go and change the music. I hate this band, don't you?" I shrugged at her, but she didn't care. Spinning around, she weaved her way through the mass of people until she'd disappeared from view entirely.

Taking a deep breath, I shoved my way back toward the kitchen, trying to force the image of the girl from my dreams out of my mind. What are you doing, Alex? a small voice at the back of my mind kept asking me. She's hurt and alone, and you're out partying with some ditzy cheerleader?

I shook the thoughts out of my head with a locked jaw, shoving the kitchen door open irritably. Unfortunately, the first sight my eyes met was of Zed and Sheena. "Oh, come on, Zed!" Sheena was pleading. "One more dance? It is my birthday."

I barely noticed the annoyed look on Zed's face, snorting sourly at the two of them. "You two look very cosy," I glowered, and Zed's eyes flashed.

"What's it to you?" Sheena sneered back at me. "I thought you were with Lucy?"

Was that the blonde girl's name? Didn't matter anyway. "No, I was just leaving," I scowled back. "Since I seem to be interrupting."

She looked ready to snap at me again, but Zed straightened out, glaring at me dangerously. "You're not interrupting," he grumbled. "Sheena was just getting a drink."

The cheerleader was not impressed. "I thought we were going to dance?"

"Find someone else," he instructed coolly, without even bothering to look at her. She huffed indignantly, spinning on her heel and stomping out of the room.

I snorted darkly, holding my hands out. "Don't let me get in your way, mate," I shrugged. "It's not like you've been after my sister for the past three weeks or anything."

An expression I couldn't figure out clouded his features, and his fists tightened angrily at his sides. "You weren't interrupting anything," he repeated through his teeth. "And your sister hasn't even looked at me in weeks."

"Ouch," I winced dramatically. "The one girl you want is the one girl who want give you the time of day. I'd feel sorry for you, if the others weren't all over you the moment Grace's back was turned."

The anger was starting to get the better of him. I could see it in his eyes. But I'd been bottling everything up for too long, trying to figure out a puzzle that had no right answer and I was sick of it all. Knowing Zed was so close to breaking, to reaching over here to hit me in the face, caused adrenaline to rush through my veins. I needed a release, a way of venting my frustration, and it looked like Zed had drawn the short straw.

"Get out of my face, Alex," he warned quietly.

"You know I almost convinced her to talk to you," I snarled at him, my anger pounding in my ears furiously. "Guess it's a good job she has more common sense than I do."

"I said stop!" he snapped at me, now literally shaking in anger.

"Or what?" I spat. "Grace is right to stay away from you. She deserves better than some arrogant, American jackass who thinks he can get away with anything because he wears a leather jacket and rides a motorbike."

I'd barely finished talking when Zed's fist collided with the side of my face. Pain immediately exploded from the point of contact, radiating across my skull and down my neck, disorientating me for a second as I staggered back a few steps. Before I could even think about hitting him back, he landed another punch, straight into my gut.

Somewhere, some girl screamed. Adrenaline was still coursing through my body, and my anger seemed to have clouded my vision almost entirely. Vaguely aware that people were scrambling to separate the two of us as blood started to trickle down my face, I managed to throw a punch straight into Zed's nose and a well-aimed kick to his stomach before two sets of arms latched around me tightly and dragged me away from him.

"Christ, Alex!" Sean cursed as he and another guy I didn't recognise dragged me backward. Two guys I thought might've been called Michael and Ryan had hold of Zed, struggling to keep his arms behind his back as he fought against their hold.

"Get him out of here!" one of the older teenagers snapped at Sean, pointing an excusing finger at me. "Take him outside and calm him down. And Zed, get a hold of yourself! Some idiot called the police, so unless you want your big brother to show up dragging you out of here kicking and screaming, I suggest you relax. Quickly."

They weren't kidding about the police. At the mention of the word, most of the other kids disappeared as quickly as they could, and Sean ended up dragging me through to a small dining room that sat opposite the front room, shutting the door behind him. He didn't look at all pleased that he'd been the one left in charge of making sure I didn't do a runner, but I wasn't about to push my luck. Though my anger wasn't for fading, I was starting to seriously reconsider my actions. Zed hadn't deserved that, and I was more than a little positive that Grace would kill me if she ever heard half of what I was accusing him of. Forget the fact that she was trying desperately to have nothing to do with him, but if it turned out he was her soulfinder, neither of them were going to thank me for this later.

And still, despite everything, it was the girl in my dreams I felt worse for. Here I was provoking a guy into a fight and getting into trouble with the police while she really was in trouble and needed help. I'd been aggravating myself with the questions about her for weeks now: who was she and why was she in trouble? Why of all the people in the world had I seen her? And finally, I'd found someone who could help me find the answers. Unfortunately, I'd just punched him in the face.

The police arrived about fifteen minutes later. Since neither of us were badly injured, I was pretty sure they weren't going to do anything about the situation, and frankly the officers looked more bored than anything else. Still, they said something about informing our parents to pick us up from the station and slapped handcuffs around our wrists, piling the two of us into the back of the police car.

Zed still looked furious. I didn't blame him. I'd been way out of line, but I wasn't calm enough to admit that to him yet. I could barely look at him. There was a cut across his lip that was bleeding slightly, and there was an awkwardness to the way he moved after that kick to the stomach. All in all though, he didn't look too worse for wear, which was more than I could say for myself when Grace got wind of this.

Three weeks in Wrickenridge, and I'd already been arrested once. She was going to kill me.