A/N- Okay, so I found a fanfic that is super similar to this one, Undercover by Jennie-x, it's actually pretty good, but at this point, my fic might seem really similar- just a little note, it's not, at this point it might be, but I'm not trying to copy said fic… just a little thing I wanted to say, also, I found said story a week after I started my story but I noticed the similarities... so yes… on with the story!

Chapter 3

A Strange Start to a Strange Day

7:32 am- St. Aquinas' School

Seventh Grade History Classroom

"Right, hello!" The new teacher stood at the front of the room, grinning like it was Christmas, "I'm Mr. Smith, your new…" He looked down at the textbook, "Recent World History teacher. Now, I just want to be able to know your names, so let's start with you," He pointed to Kevin Merits who sat at the front, "Give me your name please."

"K-Kevin Merits," Kevin stuttered. Michael sighed, Kevin was afraid of everything- people, insects, birds, public speaking… you name it, he was afraid of it.

"Hello Kevin," Mr. Smith grinned, then motioned for Caleb, who sat behind Kevin, to say his name.

"Caleb Strong," Caleb said. Michael returned to his binder, which was opened to the notes section and started doodling. Caleb was part of Jack Richard's entourage. Jack Richard's was their grade's Bully, although he seemed to think of himself as the 'leader' of the seventh grade.

"Jack Richards," Jack sneered, he was of medium height, but broad-shouldered. It was obvious that as he grew up, he would become a large, strong teenager. The same went for the rest of his entourage.

"Ryan Colmes," Another of Jack's 'friends'.

"Mark Dreves," The last of the entourage.

"Trent Halflings," Michael smiled to himself. Trent was one of the nicest kids in the school, nicest in the seventh grade without a doubt.

There was a pause. Footsteps came up next to Michael's desk.

"Nice drawing."

Michael's head shot up. Mr. Smith was standing over him, looking down at Michael's doodles.

"Sorry sir," Michael said.

"It's alright," Mr. Smith said with a smile, "What's the drawing of?"

"Don't know," Michael lied, trying to subtly cover the drawings with his arm. He had drawn flowers. A couple days before, some of the older boys had found his math binder, which was covered in similar small drawings. They had made fun of him until Miss Trails, the Headmistress had told them off. He didn't want the same thing to happen again with his grade.

"Right, so… name?" Mr. Smith asked.

"Michael Coles," Michael said.

"Nice to meet you Michael Coles," Mr. Smith said, "Thanks for the directions by the way."

Michael nodded and returned to his doodling. Mr. Smith went through the rest of the class- Thomas Lines, Corman Keils, Joshua Gorban, and Chase Coolis. After Chase said his name, Mr. Smith moved back to the front of the classroom.

"You lot are the seventh grade, right?" At their nods he grinned, "Right, since it's my first day of class, how about we do something fun. History-oriented fun," He added. "Soooo… let's see," He flipped through the textbook, "Well, this all seems intensely boring," he tossed the book over his shoulder. The other boys in the class glanced at each other, not knowing whether to judge this man crazy, or to laugh.

"How about something…" Mr. Smith thought for a moment, "Ah! I've got it… ghosts."

Everyone in the class twitched. Michael felt the blood drain out of his face.

"Or… apparitions, something that couldn't possibly be there, but is," Mr. Smith said.

The rest of the boys froze, even Trent, the bravest boy in the class, seemed to be close to fainting from fear.

"Or… not," Mr. Smith said, his smile slipping off his face, "Why don't any of you like that?" He seemed genuinely curious.

"Just don't like ghosts," Jack Richards spoke up.

"Well, alright," Mr. Smith gave up, "How about myths, then."

The boys relaxed visibly, and Mr. Smith started talking.

An hour and a half later, the seventh grade walked out of history. It had turned out to be a fun class, Mr. Smith seemed to get into the lesson, although Michael wasn't the best at history or myths, he was sure Mr. Smith had mixed up a few myths. Michael was positive Zeus never sailed a barge down the Nile to save Ben Franklin from an alligator Goddess on rampage.

Michael, lost in thought, didn't notice a couple of boys standing in front of him.

"Hey!" Michael jumped as Trent Halflings turned around, "Oh, sorry Mike."

Michael nodded to him, hiding a smile. Of course, Trent would be the one to put the blame on himself, even when it was obvious it was the other person fault.

"Hey… Mike?" Kevin Merits poked his head around Trent's large backpack.

"Hmm?" Michael moved over to the side of the hallway the two boys were standing on.

"You seen it?" Kevin asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, me and Kev… well, when Mr. Smith mentioned the… apparitions…" Trent let the sentence hang. It was perfectly clear to all the boys in the school that something was going on, and the others felt it, but no one had come out and said it. They were all too afraid, especially after what had happened with the Headmaster.

"What about them?" Michael asked. Even though he had known, it still made him feel just the tiniest bit better. He wasn't the only one seeing ghosts.

"I'm gonna tell one of 'em," Kevin said suddenly, "We've got to."

"That's what he was doing though," Trent argued. Michael could now see what the two boys had been so intent on. Kevin wanted to tell the investigators what they knew, and Trent didn't want him to risk it, "Mike, isn't that what it was? He was gonna call the cops."

Michael nodded, but Kevin shook his head.

"But we've gotta tell them, maybe they can stop it," He said, he looked terrified.

"You might end up like the Head," Michael muttered.

Kevin paled at this, "I'll just get Malcolm to do it."

"Yeah, then you won't have your big brother to protect you," Jack sneered, ramming his elbow into the smaller boys side.

"Hey, shut up, will you? Go pick on someone your own size for once," Trent said. He was the biggest of their grade, and towered over the bully.

Jack rolled his eyes, "On second thought, you'll just lose one of your bodyguards." But he didn't do anything else. If Trent said to stop, you did.

"I'm gonna find Malcolm," Kevin said, Michael nodded and headed off to his next class.

The introductory chemistry class was even more boring than usual. Michael couldn't concentrate, distracting himself much too easily with his small drawings of flowers. He didn't know why he loved drawing them so much, they just seemed so…intricate.

As soon as the bell rang, and hour and a half later, Michael jumped up and started towards the mess hall, hoping to find an empty table to eat his lunch at. It was eleven, which meant lunch time for the middle schoolers. Michael didn't know anyone from the other classes and other than Jacob, none of the other boys in the seventh grade had reached out to Michael. They all seemed happy with their own friends. This left Michael on his own, the closest people he to friends were Trent, who would talk to anyone, and Kevin, who on the first day had noticed that Michael wasn't interested in joining up with 'The Entourage', the overly confident seventh graders who followed their leader, Jack Richards, everywhere.

Michael was almost to the mess hall, late as usual(he liked to walk slow, looking out at the gardens), when he felt a tap on the shoulder. He looked over his shoulder to see a tall man wearing a sharp suit with a dark red collared shirt with a dark tie underneath.

"Yeah?" Michael asked curious, he had to crane his neck to look the man in the eye, he was almost six feet, while Michael was barely five- small for his age.

"Can I have some help?" The man asked, he had a funny accent.

"Um, sure," Michael said, looking back to the doors to the mess hall, there was a certain time you could gain entry, then the doors closed until the next lunch slot- the teacher's. He didn't want to miss lunch, it was eleven fifteen, and the next meal open to seventh graders was at six, with only a short break at three where they could grab a snack from some snack machines in one of the lounges on the senior hall.

"I'm a bit lost," the man said, "Looking for the… biology lab." He looked down at a folder in his hand.

"Oh, it's that way," Michael pointed down the hall the man was standing in, "It doesn't say bio. Says something like physics or marine science, not sure, they're senior classrooms."

"Right, thanks," The man said, before turning and heading back the way he had come.

Michael thought over what he, Kevin and Trent had been talking about minutes before. This man was one of the investigators.

"Uh, sir?" Michael said loudly, before he could stop himself.

The man turned around, expectant.

Michael froze. He couldn't tell. He'd be dead within minutes if he did. Just like the Headmaster. He had to come up with a lie, quick.

"If you're looking for Mr. Crane, he's the bio teacher, he isn't in his room right now, he'd be in the teacher lounge, or the middle school science lab, it's right next door," Michael said, glad he had walked into Mr. Crane talking to the middle school science teacher a few days before. Jacob had told him Mr. Crane hated his lab, said it was too stuffy for his liking.

"Thanks," The man smiled and walked away.

10:48 am

Tosh watched as Owen pulled the scanner out of the case.

"Won't hurt a bit," Owen said to the woman sitting in front of him at her desk, "Just a quick check, want to make sure all your medical files are in order, so we can tell if all your files are up to date."

"And you're gonna get it from an iPod?" Rebecca Neil, the math teacher asked.

Tosh hid a smile, that's exactly what she had thought Owen was showing her when he had pulled it out in the autopsy room one day months before. It was an amazing piece of equipment, it could find out a majority of medical facts about the person being scanned in seconds. She had a similar piece of technology in her laptop case, they actually believed the two scanners were invented by the same species. At least, that was Jack's guess.

Tosh wished her scanner would work sooner, but it needed time to familiarize itself with the school and all the biological factors of the area they were in. It would then use the immensely large data base she had loaded with information about Planet Earth to check to see which factors were from Earth and then use the information for Torchwood's data base about alien species to pick out any aliens.

Luckily, it already had a large portion of memory taken up by information taken long before it had floated through the rift. Sadly, Tosh couldn't access it without destroying the device, so she and Jack had decided on using the device for scanning unless they desperately needed information that could be found in the device.

"It's a special sort of iPod," Owen smiled an obviously fake smile. They had already been to four other teachers, all of whom had questioned Owen's ability as a doctor if he relied solely on a piece of technology used to listen to music or surf the web. It wouldn't help to tell them it was a piece of alien technology though, so Owen sat through it.

The teacher rolled her eyes.

"Right, done," Owen stood, he looked at the screen, "Everything seems to be fine Ms. Neil. We've got a couple friends coming round, going to ask a couple questions about what's been happening."

Tosh had been surprised at first, Owen was being surprisingly polite, but after the second teacher she realized why. They were pretending to be a special police division, not a super secret alien fighting agency with their logo on their van.

"Thank you for your time," Tosh smiled sweetly and exited after Owen.

"Right, two more teachers?" Owen asked, "Then lunch for you? It'll about twelve when we're done."

"That's very considerate of you Owen," Tosh said, "I think that'd be great. My scanner might be working by then."

Owen nodded, putting down his medical case to pull a slip of paper with a list of names scribbled on it. "How 'bout the nurse? Rory… Williams."

Tosh nodded, "I think the nurses' office was this way."

Owen picked up his case and followed after Tosh. A minute later, they were standing in front of an open door, showing a small room taken up by a desk with four doors leading to small rooms, two behind the desk and one on either side.

Tosh knocked lightly on the open door, "Hello?"

"Oh, Hold up! Sorry, one moment!" Came a surprisingly accented voice from one of the adjacent rooms. "I'm sorry," The door on the left opened and a young man walked in holding a large cardboard box, "Sorry, getting the medical forms… Um, yeah… what do you need?"

"Hello, Rory?" Tosh asked, smiling politely, "Rory… Williams right?"

"Uh, yeah… why?" Rory asked, putting the box down on top of the desk, knocking a few papers to the floor, "Darn it… sorry… first day…" He knelt down and hurriedly grabbed the papers, shoving them into the box as he stood, "I'll organize that.. later…" He stood awkwardly, waiting for them to speak.

"You're from England?" Tosh asked, noting his accent.

"Um, yeah," Rory said, "Yeah, I am. But my- a friend of me and my wife… he got a job here found out there were openings and so we came here."

"And your wife, that's Amelia right?" Owen asked, looking at the form Ms. Trails had given them earlier.

"Yeah, she's the new secretary and I'm the… nurse," Rory added, he seemed uncomfortable in this position.

"We just need to do a quick scan, make sure your records are current and accurate," Owen said, his voice laced with boredom. Tosh couldn't blame him, scanning every teacher in the school would get dull.

"Um, okay," The nurse said,

Owen set about scanning the young man, thankfully Rory didn't make a fuss and Owen was finished in four minutes. He and Tosh left just as two boys came into the office.

Owen paused for a moment, making a show of redoing the latches on his case, making it seem as though something was stopping the case from closing fully.

"Hello," Rory looked up from where he sitting behind the desk, looking through the forms.

"Er, I've got a headache," The older boy said, obviously uncomfortable with the new nurse.

"Um, right, okay," Rory jumped up, "And you?" He asked the younger boy.

"Hurt myself," The boy muttered, holding out his arm to show a nasty scratch going up the length of his forearm.

"Um, kay, here, take these," Rory rifled through some cabinets and found a box of Tylenol. He handed two pills to the first boy and turned to the second boy.

"Got any water?" The first boy asked, not moving.

"Uh," Rory froze for a second before looking around, "No… sorry, there's a water fountain nearby I think."

The boy shrugged and stayed where he was.

"Yes?" Rory asked as he noticed the boy still standing there.

"Don't you have to take a record of this or something?" The boy asked.

"What?" Rory blanked, "Um, yeah… yeah, I do, er, here- write your name down and the time, date and why you were here, I'll put it in the computer later," He handed the boy a torn piece of scrap paper.

The boy left and Rory turned to the hurt boy. He fixed up the young boys arm quickly and professionally, this time remembering to take record of it.

"Kay, I'm good," Owen stood, shaking Tosh out of her reverie, "You?"

"Oh, okay, yeah," Tosh nodded, smiling. As they left, the smile slipped. It seemed as though the nurse didn't have much experience, she thought the person hiring them would have made sure he could handle it.

"You don't think he's a legitimate nurse do you?" Owen asked, "I stopped back there 'cause I wasn't too sure, now I am. I looked him up last night, since Ianto didn't have his forms. Rory Williams- Leadworth, England- worked in the local hospital… coma ward."

"Think he might have something to do with it?" Tosh asked, speeding up so she was walking next to the dead man.

"Maybe," Owen said, "That, or he's checking it out. But I can't think of anyone other than U.N.I.T. doing that, and they've got Martha… so I'm guessing it's more of the first option."

"He is from England," Tosh conceded, "He might've been involved in Emery's."

"Yeah," Owen nodded, "I'll tell Gwen and Ianto to keep an eye on him and his friends."

"All three?" Tosh asked.

"If he's got something to do with it, his wife might too," Owen said.

Tosh nodded and opened her mouth to ask another question but stopped when she heard a loud beeping coming from her side.

"Wait! Owen! The scanner's finished," Tosh pulled the scanner out of the case and looked at the screen, "Oh."

"What?" Owen asked, turning around and walking back to her.

In answer, Tosh held out the scanner so Owen could read.

NO EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL LIFE-FORMS FOUND

NO HIGH READINGS OF EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL TRACES

"So the thing causing this isn't an alien," Owen said after reading and stepping away.

"No," Tosh said, "It can't be, there would be left over… residue I guess. It would leave a trace, and so far, this isn't picking up anything. But there is a trace of something alien, but it isn't causing this… physically at least. But if you went anywhere in the world you would find at least a tiny trace of alien particles. Stuff keeps floating down to Earth, it leaves traces"

"Right, we'd better let Jack know… no aliens," Owen said, looking unhappy.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd be happy, we get to go home," Tosh said, "Unless Jack finds a reason to stay, we should be back in Cardiff by tomorrow."

"Yeah, but we just wasted a couple days to go to America of all places," Owen complained, "Never liked it here."

"You never like it anywhere," Tosh muttered under her breath as she heard the scanner beeping again. She pulled it out of her pocket and paused as she read the new readings.

Owen continued without realizing his friend had stopped walking beside him, "So there isn't an alien, but we've got a suspicious nurse, a crazy, murderous ghost, U.N.I.T., a Crevian scare… I hope we just leave soon, this sounds less like an investigation and more like something that's going to end up being three weeks worth of paperwork-"

"Owen," Tosh stared down at the device.

"What?" Owe asked, stopping in his tracks to look at her, looking slightly annoyed at her interruption of his rant.

"I think you might be wrong," Tosh said.

"What about?"

"About there not being aliens," Tosh held out the scanner, showing Owen the screen.

"Right," Owen said.

On the screen in helpful bolded, flashing letters was the announcement-

Extra-terrestials discovered

2- known species classification

3- unknown species classification

Please wait for further information

Wait time- 72 minutes

The number of aliens under the 'Unknown' category flipped quickly between three and one, the device didn't seem to be able to decide. The same seemed to be happening with the 'Known' category, but the numbers were switching quickly between two and zero.

"So… we've got at least three aliens," Owen said, " Or one, or possibly four. Well. This'll be fun."

11:39 am

"Well, goodbye Agent Jones," Crane said. The short, chubby man said, organizing a pile of homework papers he had been fiddling with the whole time Ianto had be talking to him.

Ianto nodded, starting to walk away from the teacher's desk before pausing, thinking of something, "If you hear or see anything, please let me or my colleagues know."

"Of course," The older man said. Ianto nodded farewell to him and headed to the door. This was the third teacher he had talked to and they all said the same thing- they had been asleep when the Headmaster died but had noticed the boys seemed more on edge than usual, even before the death.

Ianto smiled to the teacher and walked out of the room, nearly running into a short, young woman. She had short, dark brown hair and dark blue eyes.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She said, trying to keep a hold on the binders in her arms, "Didn't see you."

"It's alright, wasn't watching where I was going," Ianto said politely, "Would you like some help?" He nodded towards the three binders piled in her arms with a large textbook threatening to slide off the top, and her backpack hanging precariously off one shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks, that'd be great," She gave him two binders and the large textbook, she righted her back pack and pointed down the hall, "I'm heading to the science labs."

"I thought this was a boy's school," Ianto said, trying to start a conversation.

"It is," The woman nodded, "Oh! So why'm I going to class? Haha, yeah, I'm in college at the moment, well I'm taking the year off. Getting experience in the field. Basically, I'm studying to be a teacher, and a position opened up here for an assistant, and I took the year off, next year's my senior year. Oh, I'm Katie Merry by the way."

"Agent Jones," Ianto said, he and the rest of the team had agreed that they would introduce themselves as 'Agent'. It was a long shot, but Jack was hoping that if there was a connection to the Emery's case, the person involved might slip up and Torchwood could catch them easily. Again- a long shot.

"Ooh, 'Agent'," Katie laughed, "Sounds fancy. What sort of agent?"

"Special division of the police," Ianto replied. "They didn't list you under the faculty or staff. My job's looking through the personnel and interviewing them." He explained.

"Oh, no I wouldn't be," She said, "This is just for one semester, and when I say 'Assistant Teacher' I more mean Jacobson's apprentice. Jacobson's the science teacher. So… is this about Corinder's death?"

"Yup," Ianto said, Alexander Corinder was the name of the deceased headmaster.

"Yeah… I didn't know he'd passed until that morning at breakfast," She said, "I'm staying in the teacher's wing, not the student's. That's where he died, the entrance hall. The student's room are around that area. Oh, we're here," she nodded to a door on the left.

"Right, there you go," Ianto gave her the binders and text book after she had opened up the door, "I've got to go, more interviews to do."

"Well, see you 'round, Agent Jones," Katie said with a grin before walking into the classroom.

"Yup, see you," Ianto walked off, looking down at the list in his hands. He checked off Crane's name and looked at the next on the list. One of the new teacher's.

Jonathon Smith.

11:47 am

The Doctor sat on his desk, reading through the history textbook.

"Complete rubbish," He muttered, reading through the chapter on the rise of the Roman Empire, specifically Marc Antony and Cleopatra, "She didn't commit suicide! There was a mummy and an alien crocodile, the same one I had to save good old Ben from too! And ooh, I'm rambling again,"

He rubbed his forehead, he was getting a headache.

He thought over the hour before. He had wanted to see the class's reaction to ghosts. It interested to notice that most of the boys, while they flinched when he mentioned ghosts, almost jumped out of their seats at the word apparition and its definition. Except for one.

Michael.

Now, that boy was a mystery. The Doctor couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the boy was off. Michael was extremely small for his age- barely five feet tall, extremely skinny, bright green eyes… nothing that matched any sort of humanoids the Doctor knew of. Possibly a Sericleis, but the boy was too small, the species he was thinking of had an average height of eight feet tall. Maybe he was just a plain old human boy.

Maybe he was the cause?

No.

He'd been too scared at the mention of ghosts. As though he might have had an encounter with one.

The Doctor put that thought in the back of his mind, for later thought. He might go visit the young boy later that day.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. He looked around the room.

"Um, yes! Come in, it's open," He said, snapping the book shut and placing next to him on his cluttered desk.

The door opened slowly and a man walked in.

"Um, hello," The man said. The Doctor hid his surprise. "Mr. Jonathon Smith isn't it?"

"Yes, hello! That's me… John Smith," And you are Ianto Jones I believe. The Doctor added in his head. If Ianto was here that meant…

"Well, I just had a few questions for you Sir," Ianto said, " I'm Agent Jones and I work in a special division in the police force. We got a call a day ago about a death here."

"Oh, yes, I heard about that," The Doctor said, "Is he okay?"

"Um, he's dead," Ianto said, not sure how to go about this.

"Oh, well you can never be too sure," The Doctor said, mentally hitting himself for that slip up.

"Yes… well, I just had a few questions," Ianto said, at the Doctor's nod he continued, "Did you hear or see anything around the time of Alexander Corinder's death? And also- what were you doing?"

"Um, let's see," The Doctor thought about it, "What time did he die?"

"Around one in the morning, on the thirteenth, sir," Ianto said politely.

"I think I was asleep," The Doctor said, then paused, "Oh wait, you thought I was here didn't you? Well, this is only my second day…sorry. Actually… first teaching… second day in Maine, well the United States in general."

"Right, I guess that's all then," Ianto said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir." He turned to leaving, pausing when he got to the door, "And, if you hear or see anything, could you let me know?"

"Yes! I will," The Doctor grinned, then remembered something. Maybe he should tell Torchwood, Jack would be in a better position to question the people at the school than the Doctor was, "Oh, Ianto, I'd try asking some of the children, they know more than the teachers." He glanced at the clock, "Oh! Almost twelve! That's lunch! I've got to run, see you 'round." He jumped up and walked briskly out of the room, cringing at his slip up.

The young Welshman stood quietly in the empty history classroom, listening to the odd history teacher's retreating footsteps.

Maybe Jack's 'long shot' wasn't so far off.

Ianto walked out of the room, off to find Jack.

Okay, so I hope you liked that chapter, sorry for the long wait- been having tons of school-related problems... ah well... so yesh! I also had writer's block in the middle of Tosh and Owen's bit so it might not seem too great, but while having writer's block there, I wrote the next chapter, so I'll probably load that up tomorrow. :D

So, once again- Reviews are loved!