"ARE YOU feeling better?" Kyle asked, first thing. They sat in the cafeteria, and Andorra was staring down at her plate. She didn't want to eat it, was almost afraid she had been drugged on Friday, but she was determined. If she had been drugged, she needed to be sure.

She eyed the cafeteria ladies. No one was watching her. Would a school employee really drug their students anyway?

"I guess." Andorra's voice sounded despondent, even to her own ears. "I'm sorry about Friday."

Kyle shook his head. "Don't be sorry. I'm sorry you were going through that. Whatever it was." Kyle placed his hand on top of Andorra's, smiling at her. It was warm and comforting, and Andorra found herself falling into it a little bit.

She enjoyed his presence. Enjoyed feeling welcomed. For once, someone was talking to her, befriending her. It warmed her chest to finally feel included.

"How bad was it?" Andorra asked in a whisper. She had been too embarrassed to ask, but she could feel the looks on her as people came in and out of the cafeteria. The morning bell would ring in a few minutes now, and Andorra was dreading it.

Kyle shifted. "You were pretty loud. You looked terrified."

Andorra rubbed at her arms. A chill crawled up her spine. "I... I thought the walls were melting. It was like a sick hallucination." She closed her eyes, trying to fight the scene in her head. "Again, I'm just sorry you had to see it happen."

"Don't be. Seriously. Hey, how about we go to class early. Avoid some of the crowds." His eyes were sympathetic. He stood and offered his hand, waiting patiently as Andorra bit her lip and thought about it. Part of her wanted to go home. Part of her wanted to never come back to school.

She took his hand. "Yeah, okay." She took her tray and threw it away, releasing Kyle's hand as they entered the hallway. Andorra was hoping for a quick and easy walk to class, but there in front of her locker was Shaniah. She smiled over at Andorra and Kyle, but it was anything but kind.

Andorra took a step back, but Kyle wove his arm through hers. "It'll be fine. It's just Shaniah."

Kyle propelled them forward, but Andorra could hear the laughter. She could hear Shaniah's whispers about her. "What a freak."

Andorra ripped her arm from Kyle's. She took a stumbling step back, her chest growing tight with anxiety and panic. Watching as Shaniah grinned at her had Andorra spinning to run back to the cafeteria.

But as she turned, Andorra ran head first into someone else. Like a frightened animal, Andorra pulled herself away and hunched in on herself, trying to make herself smaller. But when she saw the person in front of her, she let out a whimper.

It was the boy from the pond. He looked a little bit different, with his eyes a normal shade of blue and his body dressed in school clothes. He tilted his head at her, as if to challenge her to say something. Something about her dream, something about Friday, anything at all.

Andorra felt Kyle's hand at her back. "Andorra?"

"You-" she started, but didn't finish.

"Me?" His voice held a hint of humor, but there was something cold about his face. Something cold about his sharp features, his expression, his voice. He was toying with her, he had to be. Andorra found herself staring at his eyes, wondering if she had dreamt him into reality.

"Come on, let's get you to class." Kyle said, his tone nervous. He slung an arm around her shoulders, ushering her away from the hallway and from the boy. He was watching them, eyes dark and mouth flat. She barely noticed him as she let Kyle steer her towards her class, dazed and certainly confused.

The last place she wanted to be was math. But she was delighted at least to find the new boy was not in her class. Perhaps the only reprieve she had.

* * *

She couldn't break eye contact as she stared at the pale boy from across the room. He looked regal and in charge as he sat there, peering at her like she was some sort of animal in a cage. He leaned his chin on his hand effortlessly, and didn't turn to look at Shaniah, who placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned into his ear to whisper to him.

Andorra wanted to pretend she couldn't hear Shaniah speaking, but she could. She could hear everything that slipped past those cherry red lips, and it sent her cheeks flaming in embarrassment.

"I think it's so cute how the new girl is so obsessed with you. Isn't that just adorable?"

Andorra wanted to tell Shaniah that this boy was newer than she was, but that would require crossing the cafeteria and admitting that somehow, she had just heard those whispered words, meant only for the boy to hear.

The boy didn't move from his position. He leaned back in his chair and continued to regard her, a single dark eyebrow raised. His clothing screamed rich, but they weren't unlike the clothing that other boys at the school wore. Perhaps more clean than the others, more tailored to his body.

Andorra jumped when Kyle placed his tray across from her at the table. Her concentration and her focus on the boy shifted to the blonde across from her, his easy smile putting her in a state of jumbled confusion.

Shaniah, noticing where Kyle was sitting, glared at him from afar, but Kyle didn't seem to notice or care. He just smiled at Andorra, his fingers reaching for a fry on his tray. "Hey."

She couldn't force a smile. Instead, her eyes looked back to the boy, whose gaze was still on her. She felt her cheeks warm as her eyes found Kyle's again.

He didn't look back. "So, you're interested in the new guy?"

Andorra busied herself with the sandwich in front of her. She couldn't actually answer that, because no, she wasn't. Not really.

"I wouldn't say that," she offered, biting into her sandwich. "More like he's so much different from the other people here that I can't help but look." She wasn't about to share what had happened after school on Friday.

Kyle let out a bark of laughter. "I think he's ridiculous. I mean, look at him. He looks like he belongs on a clothing magazine cover."

Andorra didn't say it, but she wanted to tell Kyle that he too looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine.

"I think he'll adjust well here. All the girls love him."

Kyle's grin turned cocky as he leaned towards Andorra. "Except one, right? Miss, I'm too good for any boy."

Andorra stared at him for a moment, because this had to be a joke. She wasn't too good for boys. She had spent many times in her bedroom wondering what it would be like to have a boyfriend. Wondering what it would feel like to hold his hand, to lean forward and kiss him whenever she wanted. Of course, if she was ever bold enough to even do that.

Many, many nights, she had dreamed of what it would be like to love a boy, like in her books, or the movies. Sometimes, she was chaste about her dreams. Sometimes, she was desperate.

But this, her time in Maine, was by far the closest she had come to even befriending a boy. Befriending anyone, actually.

"I'm not too good for any boy," she muttered into her sandwich, hating the way her cheeks burned.

"Well, are you alright? Any issues this morning?" Kyle's tone was light and almost joking, as if he were afraid of her answer.

"I'm fine." Her voice was gruff and uninviting. For someone who was a little bit excited to be eating food with someone other than herself, she sure was acting cold and bitter. She told herself it wasn't her fault, or even Kyle's. She was just on edge; had been all weekend.

"I'm going to class." She announced, standing up. She stuffed her lunchbox into her backpack, then snatched her trash. "I'll see you later."

Kyle gave her a smile and a wave before she turned and walked out. It wasn't that she wanted to get to class early; it was more that she felt suffocated in that lunchroom. It was too loud, and there were too many people around her, looking at her.

A chill passed through the air around her as she stood at her locker, and she shivered violently. Her hands, which were glove free, looked so white she thought they would turn to ice. Her understanding was that the school was heated, but she couldn't seem to get warm.

As she moved to grab a textbook, she felt someone behind her, and the chill in the air intensified. She wasn't sure if it was from a draft, or that she was imagining the drop in temperature. As she turned around, she was shocked to find the pale boy from the lunch room.

Up close, she could see his freckles again, prominent on the pale skin of his face. His skin looked smooth to the touch.

"Are you cold?" His tone sounded joking, but Andorra couldn't tell if it was a joke or not. Instead, she hugged her arms closer to herself.

"Yeah. I'm not used to this weather yet."

The boy tipped his head back and laughed. "I can tell. You look ready for a snowpocalypse."

Andorra turned back to her locker and reached for the textbook she needed, stuffing it in her backpack. "Maybe I am. You never know."

The boy leaned against the lockers beside her, looking out of place in this dingy hallway of the school. He looked like someone she would dream up, and for a moment, Andorra was concerned that she was hallucinating his existence, like she'd hallucinated his white eyes and the scene from the weekend.

"If you're not from New England, where are you from?" he continued to ask, despite her unwillingness to give him answers, or to even continue the conversation. She wasn't interested in getting to know him, or getting to know the girls that seemed to flock to him.

"California." She said, almost stiffly. "How about you?"

For the first time, she saw him grin. It was dangerous and edgy at the same time, almost playful. He leaned in, almost touching her ear with his lips. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, and her heart beat nearly slowed with anticipation.

"Would you believe me if I said I'm from a place further north than the North Pole?"

She jerked back at the realization that he was playing with her. "Okay, whatever. I'm going to class."

She wasn't even sure why she was so upset that he wouldn't give her a straight answer. That he couldn't be bothered to take the conversation seriously. And of course, she knew why. It was because he didn't seek her out in the hallway to be friends. He'd probably seen something in her that screamed easy, and now he was trying to get her to play the part of a toy.

The boy didn't follow her. He grinned as she stormed off, his fingers brushing over the necklace that hung deep in his shirt. The necklace seemed to warm at his touch as the smile on his lips morphed from a grin to a genuine smile. This though, Andorra didn't see. She was too busy storming off to class, angered and upset more so with herself for thinking that maybe he wanted to be friends.

But even so, as she sat at the desk in class, she wondered if there was more. But of course, Andorra wasn't ignorant, nor was she the sort of girl who would be easily played by a boy with good genes. She was used to people not being interested in her presence, and she was used to boys wanting nothing to do with her.

And because her life was oh so predictable, the pale boy slid into the classroom with the sort of ease and confidence that most people didn't possess. His chin was high, his smirk wide, and he completely ignored Andorra. Like everyone else, he didn't spare her a glance as he slid into a chair in the back of the room, immediately laughing at something another student said.

It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. He made her feel uneasy.

Even when Kyle came in, his presence also just as effortlessly confident, she felt the unease continue to bundle inside, even when he sat beside her. There was something off about the entire situation. About the new boy. About Kyle suddenly taking interest in her after the meteor shower. There was something going on, and she wanted to know what it was.

"Should you be in class? You look pale." Kyle's voice was a hush whisper as he leaned close to her, his head almost knocking into hers.

"I'm okay. Really." She longed to tell him what had happened. Not because they were friends, but because she longed to tell someone. She needed someone to reassure her that she wasn't going insane.

She closed her eyes. "I'm just feeling tired."

Kyle's mouth twisted. "So fatigued is what happened on Friday when you were screaming in the hallway and stumbling around?"

She jerked away from Kyle, flinching at his words. Flinching at how his tone sounded accusing and not like his usual self. She felt her mouth dry at his words, wondering what she had looked like during the whole ordeal. She could picture herself writhing against her locker, screaming as she imagined herself sinking into the wall behind her, trapped. She could imagine how ridiculous she looked.

"Just let it drop, please."

Kyle didn't need to be asked twice, so he shut his mouth. He was making progress with her, and he didn't want to mess it up. Mess up what they had right now.

And he didn't have a chance to do so, as the teacher began to write something on the whiteboard, signaling the start of class.