23rd October, 2006.

"Did you hear the news? Caleb Danvers and Sarah Wenham called it quits."

"No. Fucking. Way."

"Way."

Jasmine smoothed down her woollen yellow pullover before stepping out of the cubicle. A small group gathered by the washing area of the of girls' room. In it were her best friends, Mia Twoberry and Ashley Bedford. Mia saw her first and turned her startling blue-eyed gaze towards her.

"Caleb Danvers and Sarah Wenham broke up."

Jasmine gaped at her as she washed her hands. "Oh. They were dating?"

No wonder she often saw Caleb in the dorms. Her and Mia's room were on the same floor as the popular new girl's.

The blonde girl named Trish rolled her eyes at her in disbelief. Mia and Ashley exchanged knowing looks.

"Have you been living under a rock since school started?"

"Dude, they were practically the new It couple," Ashley added.

Jasmine shrugged and dried her hands with a paper towel. "That was quick." It wasn't the first time that she was the last person to catch wind of school gossip and it wouldn't be the last. Mia and Ashley were all too aware that her gossip radar left much to be desired. And whenever they pointed it out, she always countered that she had too much on her plate to notice who's happening to who, what with soccer practice, library work and their endless stream of homework.

"You have to admit, Wenham is an overachiever isn't she?" Mia pointed out from where she sat on the sink. "Barely a week in Spenser and she already snagged herself a Son of Ipswich."

"And broke up with him two months later," added another girl named Sidney whom Jasmine shared fifth period with. "I guess being roommates with Kate Tunney helped."

Kate Tunney was the dark-haired beauty dating Pogue Parry, the second-oldest Son of Ipswich who was also a campus heartthrob.

"Hey Mia. How long have you been trying to make Tyler Simms look your way again? Perhaps you should be borrowing notes from her," Jasmine teased earning a wad of napkin to the head from Mia. Her best friend was a family friend of the Danvers and has had a massive crush on the youngest Son for as long as she could remember, which went as far back as first grade.

After exchanging a few more playful banters with the girls, Jasmine excused herself and headed to the school library. Being one of the oldest private schools in the state, the Spenser Academy Library housed tens upon thousands of books with topics ranging from Greek Mythology to Molecular Biology. It was managed by a handful of librarians, majority of which were well into their fifties. Though they did not advertise it as such, they relied heavily on volunteers to get most of the physical part of the job done. Jasmine was one of their student volunteers. She came in to help on Monday evenings and Saturday afternoons when soccer practice didn't get in the way.

That chilly October evening was just like any other Monday. So at six on the dot, she showed up in front of the librarian's desk and gave Martha a toothy grin.

"Good evening, young lady," the grey-haired woman greeted her. With a puffy bun, a pair of half-moon spectacles and a light pink cardigan, she looked every bit like the soft-spoken librarian that she was.

"Good evening Miss Martha," she replied. "What do you have for me today?"

Martha nodded at the three trolleys of books on her left. "Deidre has returned most of them in the shelves. But with the prelims just a week away...well, you know how it is."

"Say no more."

It was unusually quiet for a Monday evening. Jasmine noted that there were less than a dozen students and teachers scattered around the wood-panelled room. More people often stayed late in the library on weekdays, either to do homework or simply to take power naps. She concluded that perhaps it was the drab weather that made most of them pack up early.

She turned towards the first shelf on the left and started putting the books away, checking the sequence of numbers and letters on each book's spine to make sure it was put away in its rightful shelf.

A book on Aerodynamics was assigned on a shelf at least two feet above her head. The foldable step ladder was resting against the windowsill a few yards away. She eyed it for a few seconds before deciding to try her luck by tiptoeing and reaching as far as she could to put the book away. She even hopped a few times. All attempts were unsuccessful.

"Here let me," a familiar deep voice said from behind. A hand gently took the book from hers and effortlessly placed it on its shelf. Jasmine looked up and came face to face with the eldest Son of Ipswich himself.

"Oh! Thanks Caleb," she said, taking a side-step away from him. Her thoughts went back on her conversation with the girls just minutes ago. With the few seconds that she had, she tried to gauge how he was holding up in the aftermath of the breakup. He looked tired. There were dark bags under his eyes and he looked paler than he usually was. Nevertheless he smiled down at her.

'Has he always been that tall?' she thought. She wasn't tall but she wasn't that short. And yet she barely came up to his chin.

"You're welcome," he replied. "Don't take this the wrong way but I think you ought to use the ladder." He looked at the metal contraption casually leaning against the far wall like an eavesdropper.

"I tend to overestimate myself," she replied, ducking away to get the ladder. Jasmine suddenly felt awkward and shy. It has been ages since the last time she spoke to him.

Like most high schools, the Spenser Academy student population comprised of the general population of average students from above average families and the students of the inner circle, teenagers who hailed from the richer parts of Ipswich. Caleb was one of them. In fact as a direct descendant of one of the oldest families in Ipswich as well as being captain of the swim team, he was a prominent member of the elite class. She was a member of the former. And yes, she did spend much of her time with some of the rich kids in the classroom and in the soccer field but beyond that they hung out with different cliques.

"Works for you in the field though," he called out. He waited for her to face him before he added, "Left wing midfielder. I've seen you play. You're good."

She smiled at the compliment.

"Not good enough for state championships I'm afraid. Not like some swimmers I know."

This time it was his turn to blush. "Shucks. Anyway, tell Mia I said hi."

Jasmine nodded before propping the ladder wide on its base and climbing on it to put another book on the higher shelves. Caleb turned to go. And the moment was over.

It felt bizarre. That was probably the most number of sentences they have spoken to each other in nearly a decade. Her mom insisted that her and the Danvers' only child had been close friends once. Jasmine herself couldn't remember much of these alleged playdates. They might have wrestled over a ball once or twice when they were really young. Come fourth grade they were practically strangers to each other. It was also around that time when girls began to label him and his three other friends as "hot".

Jasmine shook her head at the silly childhood memories. As she climbed up the ladder, she did not notice that Caleb had fallen to his knees on the mahogany floor. He stifled a groan as a sudden onset of migraine exploded on his right temple. The pain was bad enough that he lost his balance. Within seconds, he was seeing double. Every sound was ten times louder and echoed excruciatingly inside his skull. He clutched on his cropped hair to ease the pain.

With every heartbeat, the pain welled in intensity until it became unbearable. A cry of pain escaped his dry lips. With it was a burst of Power he had desperately tried to reign in.

Jasmine clung on to the shelf by her fingertips for dear life as the ladder swayed underneath her.

'Must be an earthquake,' she thought. She attempted to climb down when the entire shelf lurched forward, sending her and dozens of books sprawling to the ground. She fell on her back. The strong impact knocked the wind out of her. For a second she couldn't move, not even to breathe.

Everything after that happened so fast. She once heard that a person's last moments passed by in slow motion. Whoever said that had been lying. The massive bookshelf that was about to fast track her to the afterlife toppled quickly towards her. Even as instincts kicked in and she attempted back pedalling out of its way, she was certain that she couldn't make it. When the wooden shelf was only two arms' length away from her, she lied back down to the floor as flat as she could and raised both her arms to protect her head. She was moving on pure instinct. Brown eyes squeezed shut as she braced herself for impact.

Three seconds passed. Then five. Ten seconds.

Jasmine pried her eyes open. What she saw next made her blood run cold.

Caleb's face was inches away from her. His hands were on each side of her head. Balancing precariously on his back was the three-hundred-year-old wooden bookshelf that must have weighed at least a ton or two.

"Oh my God!" she cried out.

These didn't look nearly as terrifying for her compared to how Caleb looked at that very moment. It was his eyes. What used to be a pair of soft brown eyes now looked dead and as black as night. The whites were gone. In his sockets were what looked like two pools of endless obsidian abyss that caused fear to leak out of her skin. She could only stare in shock as he shrugged the shelf off of his back like it weighed less than a couple of pounds, could only let him hook his hands under her arms and literally throw her to safety before the shelf came crashing back to the floor once again.

By the time the tremors ended and the people gathered around the ruined shelf, what they saw were books strewn on the floor surrounding two seemingly unconscious teenagers. One was a boy with dark hair while the other was a girl with long brown hair. They were both curled on their sides, one facing the other, both oblivious to the growing number of panicked people gathering around them.