"You're late." A voice that was definitely not Mr. Brown's was what greeted me as soon as I walked into the classroom. I looked towards the teacher's desk. Rather than the wiry-haired, skinny frame of Mr. Brown, another man was in his seat. This one was a dark-skinned man, with dark brown, almost black eyes. He had short-cropped, silver hair, (like, actual, real, silver, and not metallic grey) and a muscular build, along with an average height. He put on his reading glasses. "And I suppose you have an excuse, along with a late slip from the principal himself."

Looking back down at his work, he pointed to the sea of students. "No need to show it to me, just take your seat."

I was paralysed from shock, and only realised what the substitute(?) had said when he coughed loudly. I rushed to take my seat next to my best friend, Taylor. She had black, tightly-curled hair that reached just below the shoulder blades, same length as mine. Currently, she had it in a single plait down her back. She had an athletic build, like Jade, and dark skin. She also had dark brown eyes, like mine.

Immediately after I sat down, I said to her, "We have a substitute?!"

She had a grim expression on her face as she nodded in reply. I thought it strange, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I was more focused on the fact that we had a teacher other than Mr. Brown, and he had barely spared me a glance, nevermind me being almost 20 minutes late.

"Who is he, anyway? And what happened to Mr. Brown?"

Taylor sighed before explaining. "Mr. Grant," she said this with venom, "as he likes to call himself, has informed us of Mr. Brown's 'untimely accident', and that he should not be resuming a teaching position for a while. In the mean time, Mr. Grant will be teaching us."

I frowned. "Accident?"

"Apparently, Mr. Brown was hit by a car two days ago, and is currently in a coma. And, luckily for us, Mr. Grant here was available to take up the position of being our math teacher." That last part was said with much sarcasm. And I think Mr. Grant must have heard, because he looked up and stared right at us. His eyes seemed to glitter, but before I could examine them further, Taylor elbowed me to grab my attention.

"Rather than staring rudely, I'd suggest that you get on with the assignment. You came in late, and if you don't hurry, you might get it as homework."

So I opened my book and got on with the work.

Later, towards the end of the lesson, Mr. Grant called me to his desk. I got up, and just as I'm about to leave, Taylor grabbed my arm. She looked...worried. Strange.

"What is it?" I asked her hesitantly.

"Be careful," is all she said, then she hurriedly let go of me, and turned back to her book.

I was really confused, and could only mutter an 'um, okay' for a reply.

I made my way past the desks, till I reached Mr. Brown's desk. Or is it Mr. Grant's now? I stood in front of it, fidgeting with my fingers. Mr. Grant had been watching me approach. He looked at me from across the top of his reading glasses.

'Is everything alright?'

I had just opened my mouth to answer, when I realised that his lips hadn't moved. The voice of Mr. Grant, which I most definitely heard, was actually inside my head. When the realisation sunk in, my voice stuck in my throat. I stood there, mouth gaping and completely dumbstruck. Mr. Grant smiled, and repeated the question, vocally this time.

"Are you alright, love? You seem quite pale." He had a vaguely concerned expression on his face.

"I - it's fine. I'm fine," I managed to stammer out.

"Are you sure?" Now Mr. Grant fully looked at me. Through his reading glasses, his eyes sparkled gently. The longer he looked at me, the less I felt he was looking at me, and more of looking into me. I felt chills down my back, and immediately broke eye contact, but the feeling didn't go away.

"Are you alright, Angel?" He asked again, out loud this time.

Was I alright? I was only 40% sure I had just heard my teacher's voice inside my head, or else I was hearing things - and were his eyes sparkling again?

Suddenly not wanting to be there any longer, I replied that I was fine, with more conviction this time, but I doubt either of us was fooled in the slightest.

"Okay, you may return to your seat, now." Mr. Grant glanced behind me and sighed as I turned to leave. He called another kid in the class to his desk. He had thrown a piece of gum at some poor girl, and it had gotten stuck in her hair, making her cry.

I got back to my seat, only to have Taylor immediately all over me.

"What did he tell you? Are you hurt?" she frantically asked.

Could she know what had happened? Earlier, she had warned me to be careful. Was that why?

"I - He just asked me if everything was alright."

Taylor tilted her head, telling me to continue.

"...and I said it was."

"Nothing else?"

"That's it?" I wasn't sure how she would react to hearing that I heard Mr. Grant's voice in my head. I didn't think that she would take it well; she already seemed suspicious of him as it was.

She gave me this strange face, one that I didn't recognise and before I could ask her what was up, she had already turned back to her work. Peeking over her shoulder, I saw that she only had 2 numbers left to do. I looked back at my own work, and grimaced. I still had a lot left to do.

~~~

After our math lesson was over, Taylor and I headed to our lockers to get our books for the next lesson in 10 minutes. Taylor needed to go to the bathroom, so I told her I would pick up her books for her. She thanked me and left. I continued on to my locker, and the next thing I knew, someone's arm was wrapped around my shoulders. Startled, I whipped my head around to discover that it was my brother Luke. He laughed at my surprised face.

"Hey Angie! So, how'd math go?"

"Surprisingly, it went well." At this statement Luke raised his eyebrows at me.

"But you were late."

"But we got a substitute."

"What, why?"

"Apparently Mr. Brown had an accident, so we got a new teacher, Mr. Grant."

"Huh. What's this new substitute like?"

I hummed in thought. "Um, he's dark-skinned and average - except for his hair. His hair is short and silver."

We'd reached my locker by this time.

"Silver?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, like actual, real silver, not grey. And I guess he's nice enough?"

I opened my locker, and by opening it hit Luke full in the face.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

Holding his face with one hand, he used the other to wave away my concerns.

"It's fine, it's fine," he insisted.

I wasn't reassured, and kept fretting over him. I was so focused on making sure he was okay, that I didn't notice the little silver note flutter out of my locker, and into the bottom of my bag. After Luke had finally managed to get me off him, I put my books in my bag, and then crossed the hall to Taylor's locker to get hers. As soon as I had picked up her books, and was already on the way to my next class, I felt eyes on me. I turned around, but didn't see anyone after looking around.

I noticed that Luke had also turned around, and that his eyes were focused on a section of the hall that was cut off from view by the wall of lockers. I looked there too, but I didn't see anything, although it looked like Luke had. I was going to ask him what he had seen, but he had a certain look on his face that made me feel like I'd be better off not knowing. After a couple of seconds he looked away, and sighed before urging me to my next lesson.

~~~

She'd been watching the boy and the girl, as the girl was getting books out from her locker. The girl was her target this time, and as for the boy...she sighed just thinking about it. A protector. The school was full of them. As if the one that trailed her there wasn't enough to deal with already. And now that they knew that she was here, she would have to deal with a lot more.

She'd hid behind the wall of lockers just as the boy had turned around. She didn't doubt that he hadn't spotted her, but he must already know that it was her. She jotted down a few notes on her little book, and then stuck the pencil between her red lips. Just a few more obstacles she would have to deal with, then. She took out the pencil before smiling to herself, then she pocketed the book and pencil and sauntered away.

She vanished after rounding the corner.