As I drifted off to sleep, I could've sworn I saw Marcus Marble's reflection in the mirror. My pulse quickened.

But it wasn't him. It was just the shadows that caged me.

When I awoke the next morning, Giles was leaned against my old dresser, watching me.

"I thought I'd lost you for good," I said.

"It's getting time for your first mission."

"You really are deluded. You know that?"

He strolled across the floor, the boards underneath, creaking. "Since you do not believe me, I will leave it up to you to decide to follow through. A Corvidae has been released to our world, hiding amongst us. It's your job to destroy him. If you don't, then you'll be killed. Either the Corvidae will rip you apart, or the other hunters will seek revenge on you for letting him live."

"As crazy as this whole thing sounds, I believe you," I told him.

Making a Scene Madison approached me at my locker. "You need to start focusing on your future. It's still not to late to join the squad and help us win nationals. It'd look good on your college application. Show that you're determined, focused, pa.s.sionate. You could even get an athletic scholarship. I can overlook your lashing out and moody att.i.tude you've gotten lately. But you seriously need to get your s.h.i.t together."

"I don't want to be a cheerleader anymore, Madison."

"Oh, that's right. You want to hang out with creeps in graveyards and kiss them. Do you want everyone to know about your little cemetery love song?" She crossed her arms over her chest and gave me that daring look that usually gets her what she wants.

I glowered. "How'd you know about the graveyard?"

"I followed you. That's beside the point. You need to drop the freak. He even in school? He's probably a dead beat with no goals in life. He's a bad influence, Ellie."

I slammed my locker shut. "Shut up, Madison. You don't know him." I started to walk away, but she blocked me.

"Oh and you do? You need to stop hanging around him and get your act together. The girls and I will be waiting for you in the gym. Be there." She stormed off.

Maybe she had a point. Maybe it was time to quit being so gloomy. I should give myself a chance. Maybe cheering again would be a great way to start feeling normal again.

This is why I showed up in the gym in my blue shorts and yellow tank top. Upbeat music blasted. Practice had already began.

"Oh my G.o.d, our girl is back!" Madison ran over to hug me. "Everyone doesn't get second chances, Ellie. I did a lot of talking with Coach and Mr. Delaney to let you back on squad, considering what you've been through. We'll have to order you a new uniform, and you won't be captain this year because I am. But I'm so glad you're back!"

"Rah-rah. Go Tigers." My voice was tired and flat.

"Say it with more spirit."

I ran and did one of my favorite flipping routines and when I landed my last flip, "Go Tigers!"

"See," Madison said. "Bet you're feeling better already."

But I really wasn't. Being here seemed false to me. It didn't feel like it used to. I didn't feel like myself. It was almost as if I were forcing myself to be someone else. I went through the motions of cheering, but I really wasn't there with the team. My mind was elsewhere. My body was in the room with the cheerleaders, but my consciousness had floated back to the world of Marcus Marble.

By the end of practice, I'd worked up both a mental and physical sweat, so I headed to the locker room to take a shower. After the shower, after I got dressed, I walked down the empty hallway to my locker to get my books and homework. I swore I saw that cloaked figure eying me again, from the end of the hallway. I was almost positive it wasn't an illusion this time. The red hood was unmistakable. I kept my eye on the figure, which paced back and forth, watching me. I closed my locker and picked up my book bag, but when I turned my attention to the end of the hallway, the figure had disappeared.

I stepped outside the school building and stood under the awning. I needed to breathe the fresh air. The grey skies, rain, and cold air rejuvenated me.

A cold hand touched mine. I jumped. When I turned to look, Declan was standing there.

"It's just me. Football practice is over. You need a ride home?"

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"You still hate me? I said I was sorry. I was stupid."

"I don't hate you. I don't feel anything toward you at all. It'd all be wasted energy."

The theatre wasn't busy so it gave me time to think. Too much time. During the last showing, a cute guy with sandy blond hair came in. He wore a red pullover sweater. He approached me.

"Can I buy a ticket?" He smiled and leaned on the counter.

"Sorry. We're sold out. We're also about to close in forty-five minutes. Plus, the ticket booth is upfront. Back here we only sell beverages and snacks."

"Can I get your number then?" He smiled even bigger. "Bet you get asked that all the time."

"Not really." I watched him carefully. His mannerisms seemed familiar, yet odd.

"Can I get a soda cup?"

"Sure." I handed him one. He scribbled something on it and pa.s.sed it back. It was his digits. How lame.

"That way, if you don't want it later, you don't have to scrub it off your hand. Just toss it in the trash."

"Right..." I would never call him.

"You go to Hollybrook Heights?"

"Yeah."

"I'm a new student there. I start tomorrow."

"Awesome."

"I hear they're home of the Tigers. But they should be the bears, or the wolves."

Me: Blank stare.

"See you there?" He stood up straight and walked slowly backwards.

"Maybe."

He smiled, turned around and left. Awkward. My co-worker came through the side door carrying a bundle of napkins, cups, and straws. I took the cups and napkins from her and began to restock. She opened the straw dispenser and filled it with more straws. "So who's the cute guy you were talking to?" She began.

"You know, I didn't get his name. I only got his number."

"No name, but a number? Well, that's weird."

The next day at school, when I slid into my seat during English Lit, Mr. Awkward strolled in and sat next to me, as though he'd always sat there. A minute later he extended his hand. "h.e.l.lo, I'm Paul." I should've gotten this introduction last night, minus the formal gesture.

I ignored it, and he let his hand rest on the table. "I hear this school has b.i.t.c.hin' pep-rallies."

I rolled my eyes. He just formally introduced himself, now he's tossing around words like "b.i.t.c.hin'?" I was glad when the teacher came in and began cla.s.s. When the bell rang, I bolted and headed for my locker.

The side entrance to the school hallway flew open and let in a draft of cold air. A second later, Marcus's breath was at my neck. "Ellie, I can't be away from you any moment longer."

"Marcus, you need to leave." I felt everyone glaring. Marcus was drenched in rain. He gently spun me around, pressed me against my locker, and kissed me pa.s.sionately while everyone stared. Afterward, I was breathless, my heart somersaulted.

He smiled. "I've been waiting to do that for days." His hair hung down in his face, which was still extremely close to mine, blocking out the view of everyone in the hallway. "Hey, come with me."

"Can't. I have a pep rally."

"Skip it."

"Can't. I'm cheering in it. I'm a cheerleader." I said it like I was trying to convince myself I should be here.

"Okay. Tonight then."

"Can't. Game."

All of a sudden I heard Declan yell, "Hey! Hey! You're the b.a.s.t.a.r.d stalking my girlfriend."

Marcus looked at me, then at Declan. "Who's your girlfriend?"

"Ellie, and you know it."

Marcus gave a half-smile. "Ellie doesn't have a boyfriend."

Declan slammed Marcus into the lockers. "Leave her alone, or I'll kill you."

Marcus just smirked. "Good luck with that." Then turned his gaze on me. "I have the shovels, Ellie."

Declan slammed his fist against the locker. "What the f.u.c.k, man? You got shovels? Good. I'll bury you with them in that f.u.c.king cemetery you creep about in. What's that supposed to mean, 'I got shovels?' Trying to get my girlfriend to dig graves or resurrect bodies? What kind of f.u.c.ked up s.h.i.t you into?"

What Marcus had meant was that he was ready to unbury my heart. Madison entered scene. "I told you to dump him."

"Madison, take these pom-poms and shove them up your a.s.s, 'kay?" I threw them at her.

She stepped in my face. "What's your problem?" she said with indignation.

"I don't have a problem, Madison. You do. Cheering is juvenile. You're plastic. All of this is fake. An illusion to get you through the day. High school will be over soon. Who or what will you be then?"

"I won't be a freaky loser, who f.u.c.ks random guys in graveyards just to feel alive."

"No, you'll just be the back-stabbing b.i.t.c.h who ditches her friend after her sister dies so she can sleep with her boyfriend all summer and pretend it never happened."

I froze after I'd said that. I didn't know where it was coming from. I'd never suspected Madison had been the one Declan had s.e.x with. It'd never dawned on me before. But when I saw her reaction and saw Declan's face, I knew it was the truth. I was right. But how was I right? It was as if someone else was speaking for me. Somehow, at this precise moment, I'd just known.

"Oh my G.o.d, so it's true. It was you. You both lied. Declan said it was some girl from out of town. I knew better than that. I knew it. I've been lying to myself this entire time." The entire hallway watched. Some laughed. Others yelled out things. "d.a.m.n, that's some messed up s.h.i.t right there. Better than pep rally."

A teacher came to clear the hallway. "All right students, please report to homeroom. Show's over." Everyone gathered their things and shuffled into doors of cla.s.srooms. I remained frozen.

Then I said aloud to myself, "She wants me on squad, I'll be on squad."

"What?" Marcus said. I realized he was still there.

"Nothing. Hey, I'll see you later." I scurried down the hallway before the pep-rally began and broke into Madison's locker and stole her yellow and blue cheerleading uniform and crammed it in my bag. Their routine would be screwed if Madison didn't have her uniform this afternoon. Plus, she wouldn't be able to cheer this afternoon. But I didn't want to mess up a silly cheerleading routine. I wanted to prove a point.

I left school early, but I showed up at the football game wearing her uniform. She sat on the bench in front of the cheering section. Since she didn't have a uniform, she wore her blue shorts and yellow tank top. Her cheerleading comrades were trying to figure out how to go about the cheer without her.

I entered scene, in beat with the band's cadence. Madison spotted me first. "What are you doing here, and omiG.o.d you have my uniform?!"

"Ready to cheer, girls?" They really didn't have a choice, now that it was time and they didn't want to embarra.s.s themselves in front of the entire school and their opponents. Madison wanted me on the team, I'd be on the team. The other girls submitted and I took Madison's place. She was shocked I even remembered the routine.

"I'm just showing you that I could be just like you. But better."

Then I took the routine to an entire different level which caused the other cheerleaders to stop cheering. I made it a little s.l.u.tty. s.e.xier. The crowd was cheering me on. Madison's face turned red.

"Give me back my uniform! Right now!"

I stopped cheering, and stood in her face, as though I might slap her. "You want it back?" Then I ripped it off my body, revealing my black bra and underwear. "There. You can have it back."

"Oh my G.o.d!" A dude yelled in excitement. "This is so going in the yearbook!" Camera lights flashed on and off.

"You suck, Madison!" Some guy from the bleachers yelled. I smiled to myself and walked away from the football field in my undergarments. I had no idea what I was even doing. I just felt liberated. And then I ran into Marcus Marble.

"Hey," he said and looked me up and down. And though I'd just shown my entire body to every boy in two entire high schools, it wasn't until Marcus was standing there that I felt naked.

I scrambled for an explanation. "I was...Just..."

"I saw," he said.

"You saw?"

"And I see." He looked at me again like that and smiled. My face turned red. He removed his coat. "Here. You need my coat. You might get...cold." He watched me, carefully as we walked down the sidewalk outside the stadium. And even though other people were looking at me, the only eyes that mattered were his.

"What?" I asked.

"It's just...I feel so alive with you."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything. Sean's car pulled up to the curb, right on cue. "Let's go, Ellie."

"I'll see you later, okay?"

He smiled faintly, like the departure made him sad. I climb into the backseat of Sean's car and he sped off. "If that guy has anything to do with your sudden leap into awesomeness, you should definitely keep him around. You were so boring and predictable before."

"Gee, thanks Sean."