Chapter 2

After a few weeks at Crestwood, Hayley was settling in nicely. She still missed the solitude of having her own space like she did when she was living with her grandmother, but the school wasn't so bad. If you forgot about the students. Hayley was still using the invisibility spell, weakening it little by little every day. People knew she existed, but no one really seemed to care very much about her existence. She was able to go on about her business without worrying about anyone making fun of her for wearing the wrong clothes or for being alone or for talking to herself all the time. It may have been a while since she'd had to go to school with other people, but she still remembered how cruel kids could be to anyone who was even remotely different.

By teenage standards, Hayley was definitely different; and it wasn't just her clothes. All the khakis, pastels, and diamonds in the world would not have been enough to make Hayley like her new classmates. She had always been something of a loner. She had a few friends when she was in public school back when she was still just a normal kid, but even before she moved in with her grandmother, she had generally preferred to spend time either alone or with her family. She couldn't understand why people here seemed to be so afraid of being alone. You were hard pressed to find anyone walking down the hallways or eating alone. But Hayley enjoyed solitude. It was the only time she could concentrate. Usually.

She had to admit though that there were times when she almost wished she had a group of her own; times when she thought she had just a little bit too much "me time"; times when she wished that she could fit in. But those thoughts were quickly suppressed. She wasn't willing to sacrifice her personality for popularity.

Unlike some people.

Hayley looked over to the bunch of students standing next to the door of the classroom. Of all of the packs that traveled together at this school, Aidan's was, without a doubt, the largest. The closest she had ever seen him to being alone was that night at dinner with the twins. Since that night, Hayley had yet to see him without at least 3 cheerleaders hanging off of him or half of the rugby team trailing behind him as if he was their king and they, his loyal subjects.

Hayley didn't know why it bothered her so much. So he was popular? It wasn't a crime to have people like you, right? So why did she cringe every time she saw him with his friends? Probably because, as much as she hated to admit it, she was really disappointed that Aidan had turned out to be just a typical Crestwood student. To be honest, if she had an ounce less self-respect, she'd probably follow him around like a little lap dog too. Okay, so she wouldn't, but she could almost kind of understand why people might want to. The boy was crazy hot, and he actually seemed to be pretty nice, though she was loath to admit it.

Sometimes, she caught him looking at her in class or as she walked down the halls, and she'd think that she felt that thing, that ... spark that she'd felt that first day in class. But it would only last a nanosecond before one of his followers recaptured his attention and he went back to holding court. Super intense eye contact or not, Hayley didn't know what made her think there could ever be anything between her and Aidan. Royalty only fell for the peasants in fairy tales. And Hayley knew her life was no fairy tale.

She looked over at the group again, a look of longing briefly flashing in her eyes before she pushed it away. Before anyone was given the chance to catch it, she had cleared her face of emotion, straightened her shoulders, and raised her head with her nose in the air. She told herself that things were best this way. She had no time to deal with love and relationships anyway. She had training to do.

"The worlds need you Hayley. All of them. Not just this one you live in. You have to be ready. Do you really want the entirety of existence to be destroyed just because you were 'too tired' to learn another spell?"

Her grandmother's words echoed through her head as she ran. She tried to block it out and concentrate only on putting one foot in front of the other; on keeping her breath even. She wanted to block out the pain in her legs, in her chest, in her heart.

She'd forgotten how much she missed running on the beach. As much as she tried to suppress it, the image of that last summer with her family at the beach continued to haunt her. She remembered how her dad had decided he was getting a little thick around the waist and wanted to start exercising. Hayley was such a daddy's girl; she would've taken any excuse to spend time with her father. Even if that meant waking up at 5:00 every morning to go jogging on the beach. She thought about how her mother always had breakfast waiting when they came back from jogging: waffles, eggs, bacon, and freshly squeezed orange juice with just the right amount of pulp. Just what they needed to counteract any benefit jogging might have had in the weight loss department. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, trying futilely to stop the tears she could tell were on the brink of breaking free. Dear gods, she missed them so much.

Hayley kept running, trying harder to block out the memories. Left foot, right foot. Breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth. Focus, Hayley. She should be able to concentrate better than this. She should be more serious, more dedicated, more ... just more. If there was anything her grandmother had taught her, it was how to stay focused. How many times had she gotten yelled at for daydreaming in the middle of a lesson?

"For most kids, daydreaming during a lesson means very little. For you, it could mean the difference between life and death. And not just yours Hayley, but that of every living creature in this world and in every world that exists. You can't afford to make any mistakes."

No matter what Hayley did, her grandmother's voice just wouldn't go away. Hayley stopped running and bent over, hands resting on her knees. Her breath was labored and the ache in her chest had become nearly unbearable. She took a few seconds and breathed in a few shaky deep breaths to regroup, then she looked around to soak in her surroundings.

She didn't know how long she had been running, but she knew she had never gone this far away from campus before. She couldn't even see the campus from here. As beautiful as the area was, it was the quiet she noticed first. Nothing but the gentle rolling of the waves splashing against the rocks making music in the background. There was a stillness to the place that she knew would help her concentrate. Something about this place soothed her. At the same time though, it felt so ... intense. Standing on this little strip of sand and letting the constant back and forth motion of the waves hypnotize her, she could feel the energy, the power coursing through her.

Yes, this is it, Hayley thought, a slow satisfied grin spreading across her face. This is exactly what I've been looking for.

"Are you almost ready to go?" Brigid was sitting on the edge of her bed, tying her shoelaces. Hayley looked up from her book. She hadn't noticed before, but now that she thought about it, Brigid had seemed to be getting ready to go somewhere for the past fifteen minutes or so. She didn't know what Brigid was talking about though. She couldn't remember her mentioning going anywhere tonight.

"Go where?"

Brigid looked up, eyebrows raised.

"You're kidding, right?"

Hayley shook her head.

"Tonight is our first rugby game. The entire school has been talking about it for the past week. Where the hell have you been?"

For the past two weeks, Hayley had been living in a daze. Running to her spot every day, trying to clear Aidan from her head enough for her to train a little. But, as much as she wished she hadn't, she had known about the rugby game. You'd have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice the school's higher than usual level of excitement. And Hayley was neither of those. Well, she wasn't deaf or blind anyway. Recent developments concerning her irrepressible thoughts of a certain rugby player led her to wonder about the dumb part.

"Sorry. I'm just not that into sports. I can't go to the game tonight anyway; I have tons of work to do. Maybe next time." She gave Brigid a smile, willing her to believe that she really did have a lot of work to do and that she really would go to the next game. Brigid wasn't buying it, but she was too excited about the game to be her usual meddling self tonight. Unlike like Hayley, Brigid actually was into sports. Especially rugby.

Hayley hated lying to her roommate. She genuinely liked her and was glad to have her as a friend. But she just couldn't stand going to the game and watching Aidan around his hundreds of adoring fans. She got enough of that during the regular school day. A girl could only take so much.

"Okay, then. Next time."

He'd been waiting three minutes for her to pass his locker. Not that he'd admit that to anyone. It was embarrassing enough that it had taken him so long to work up the courage to even talk to her. But after that first night at dinner, he was too worried he'd stick his foot back in his mouth. And he had to say, the taste of feet covered in a creamy embarrassment sauce was not as appetizing as you'd think and certainly not a taste he wanted to acquire. After obsessing about it for a few weeks, he'd finally convinced himself to try again. He'd considered trying to talk to her in class, but that never seemed to work. She always looked busy being all smart and studious or whatever. Ah, and she does look mighty cute when she's thinking hard about something. Aidan couldn't help but smile when he pictured Hayley in class, carefully taking notes about imagery or symbolism or whatever such nonsense teachers were forever trying to beat into you, her brows slightly furrowed in concentration, her eyes alight with actual interest.

He'd almost stupidly asked Brigid about her. Luckily, he'd remembered just in time the overwhelming possibility—no, probability—for embarrassment that would entail. He'd never hear the end of it from the little red-headed devil if he actually admitted to being interested in her roommate. Even without his admission, she had already begun teasing him mercilessly. He shuddered to think of how close he'd come to heaping on another ton or two of ribbing from her.

Oh crap, there she goes. I almost missed her. Aidan took a nearly imperceptible deep breath to brace himself and slipped gracefully away from his locker, against which he'd been "nonchalantly" leaning as he waited for Hayley.

"Hey Hayley."

Hayley's confusion was enough to stop her completely in her tracks. Not because she was completely unused to people speaking to her in the hallway or anything as lame as that. Brigid always greeted her enthusiastically whenever she saw her. And Brandon's greetings, though not quite as enthusiastic, were just as frequent and just as friendly.

But she had never before heard her name come from that voice. And yet she didn't have to look up to know it was Aidan speaking to her. Whether she wanted to admit it or not (and she was pretty much leaning heavily towards the "not"), the sound of his voice had already imprinted itself on her mind. The sound of her name from that voice was enough to send a small shiver through her body. Because of that, there was a slight hesitation before she returned his greeting.

"Hi, Aidan." She looked at him with a question in her eyes. On the one hand, she wondered what he could possibly want, and on the other hand, she didn't really care—as long as she could just stand there and look at him. He really is quite beautiful. More beautiful than any man deserves to be, she mused. And yet somehow still plenty masculine enough to make my heart be faster than seems healthy.

"So, umm, I was wondering if..." Their eyes locked and his mind went blank for a few seconds. Neither noticed the rowdy students milling past them or the curious stares some people shot their way. It wasn't until Aidan was bumped by a mousy little 9th grader scurrying to his next class that Aidan was able to break free from the stare. He shook his head slightly, as if to shake his thoughts back into place. Hayley waited patiently for him to finish, fighting the urge smile in amusement at his discomfort. But how could she be amused when she probably looked just as uncomfortable as he did?