CHAPTER ELEVEN

"So, rumor's going around that you were assaulted by your teacher."

Nathan looked up to see Kristin and Ruriko standing above him, both holding onto the straps of their backpacks. It was Kristin that had spoken; she drummed her fingers on her backpack strap as she waited for Nathan to respond. His mouth dropped open in shock and now he was trying to think of something to say, effectively making him look like a fish.

"We'll take your silence as that it's true." Ruriko added with a snort.

Nathan motioned for them to sit down in the seats across from him and he pushed his chair as close to the table as possible. His chest was now pushed up against the table so hard that it was starting to hurt, but at this point he didn't care. He looked around to make sure that no one was listening to them. Surprisingly, the library was emptier than he expected. It was close to their winter finals, almost Christmas, so he was using most of his free time studying. He was supposed to be meeting Reed and Christian there later, and didn't expect to be spoken to until then.

"How did you hear about that?" Nathan asked in a whisper.

"It's all over campus," Ruriko replied, dropping her backpack to the ground. She lowered her voice as well. "No one knows what the real story is, some people just say that you three got him mad and that he decided to hit you. Other people are saying that you're making the story up just to get some attention."

Nathan grimaced.

If anything, what they needed was less attention. That way no one else would figure out what he, Reed Jackson, and Christian Manning were up to.

"So what really happened?" Kristin cut to the chase. "Did he really attack you or what? 'Cause either way, if somehow the President hears about this, you're all going to have some sort of a hearing about it." She rested her chin in her hand. "And even if it was a rumor, rumors always start from something, so you're probably going to have lots of fingers point at you."

Nathan sighed when he realized that she was right. But he didn't know what to say to make the two of them go away, so they didn't get too close to what they were doing. He didn't even think they had a clue as to what was going on, they'd only gone out on a date with Christian and Reed once, respectively, and hadn't since then. He made sure none of the guys talked about what they were really studying, that would make them get into more trouble than they would with the school.

They would be in more than legal trouble if anyone found that out.

"I…can't tell you." Nathan replied slowly.

"Well, that's a lame excuse." Ruriko said as she shook her head. "Come on, Nathan, we know that something is up."

"Nothing's up," Nathan replied as he started to gather this things together. "We're just working on our project about psychological-"

"I thought it was about reincarnation." Kristin broke in. "At least," she gave a sweet smile. "That's what Christian and Trethaway told me that you guys were going to be working on." Nathan gave her a look and Kristin's smile widened. "I'm a girl; we hear things all the time. I heard this from Trethaway's teaching assistant."

"Really? 'Cause I thought that all you talked about was who was going out with who and who broke up." Nathan deadpanned. "Because you guys seem to be really good at that."

"That too." Kristin said patiently. She and Ruriko watched as Nathan continued to gather his things, wanting to move as quickly as possible, but his haste causing him to drop his stuff repeatedly. "Oh, I'll just let you off of the hook and cut to the chase here," she rested her arms on the table and looked hard at Nathan. "We know that you guys are studying Elementals." She said.

Nathan froze and looked at Kristin. The young woman looked back at him, slowly nodding. He then shifted his eyes over to her twin, Ruriko, who nodded as well. He wasn't sure if he should call their bluff of believe them, the fact that she just went right out and said it meant that she knew something. That they knew something.

"We know that you're researching them, and we know that you got the info from the government, but they're not going to tell you everything that you're going to need to know." Ruriko continued as Nathan slowly sat down in his seat, looking at the twin girls in shock. "You're dealing with a whole other world out there and you're just scratching the surface."

"So what does this mean?" Nathan asked his voice barely above a whisper.

"You're going to need our help." Kristin and Ruriko replied.

A/N: This was originally supposed to be a longer chapter, but then I got a different idea (this chapter) that needed to go in between the last one and the next one. I hope that you guys don't mind that it's kind of short though.

Cheers,

-Riles