There are many people in this world who don't belive in destiny, or fate. They believe they are in complete control of their lives with no help from outside forces, but I know better. How do I know? I'm someone who is known as a "Weaver". Weavers are individuals who can see each person's life threads, and can even manipulate them so that a specific person's destiny changes. The catch is that only one Weaver is ever born in a generation, and another won't be born until I pass away.
My only job is to protect the tapestries that make up each person's life, and prevent others from manipulating the threads just to gain control over others. However, that doesn't come without a few ground rules and there is only one I have to follow. I can never change a person's destiny, or it will cost me my life to do so. Harsh rule I know, but that's to ensure that Weavers don't abuse the power they have been given, so I can only use my ability to manipulate the threads if it is absolutely and unquestionably necessary. Luckily, that's only in extreme cases so I don't have much to worry about there.
The only thing I do have to worry about? There are people out there who believe Weavers shouldn't even exist and hunt us down like we're some kind of cursed human beings. We call these people "Hunters" for the simple fact that that is what they do. They hunt people like me down just to kill us, which is why I have to keep my ability a closely guarded secret from everyone. So far I haven't had much trouble slipping underneath their radar and keeping myself from being found out. However, I guess if I'd paid more attention I'd have realized sooner that my time going undiscovered would soon end.
And it all had to happen because of one chance meeting.........


The hallways were filled with students as they all pushed and shoved to either get to their lockers or their first class of the day. The usual first school day chaos filled every part of the school as teachers checked and rechecked over their student lists, and students kept glancing over their schedules as they searched for classes or raced to claim a locker before all the best ones were taken. A few announcements blared over the intercom but no one paid them any attention, after all it was just the usual first day news that was repeated almost every year. In fact a few students could say word for word what was being said over the intercom, so no one really gave it the time of day as they continued with the usual first day routine.

"Sheesh I keep forgetting how crazy this gets." Calla muttered under her breath as she kept fighting her way through the swarm of bodies before finally reaching the right classroom. Her golden brown eyes glanced down over her schedule for what felt like the hundreth time as she brushed some of her waist length, dark brown hair away from her face. She wanted to make sure she had the right room number before looking for a seat, but her schedule confirmed that thankfully she was in the right classroom. Now that she had that straightened out the tiny, pale-skinned girl quickly made her way to the first available seat she could find.
She noticed a few other students give her a brief glance when she walked inside before going back to their own activities, but Calla ignored the stares as she slid into her desk. It wasn't unusual for half the classroom to look and see who came inside whenever someone walked in, but then they would go right back to whatever it was they were doing before the brief interruption. At least it meant that Calla wasn't the center of attention for very long, which in her opinion was a very good thing. She wasn't to fond of being the center of attention to begin with, not that she was anti-social per se she just got nervous being in the so called 'spotlight'. Having everyone focused on her caused her to feel edgier then normal, but thankfully no one really cared that another student had just walked in.

With a brief glance at her watch, Calla realized she had some time to kill before the teacher would be coming in and calling the class to order. So since she had gone over her schedule enough that she had it almost memorized, she grabbed a book she had been reading earlier and flipped through until she found her place. At the same time she casually glanced up as more students came in, almost as if she were trying to memorize who was in what class just so she would have an idea of who her classmates were this year. However, what she was really doing was keeping a lookout for anyone she didn't recognize. New people were the students she had to look out for, but so far she hadn't noticed anyone that caught her attention. So it looked as if for now she was in the clear, but Calla wasn't going to let down her guard until the school day came to a close.

Addison Patrick slammed right into a much bigger, much taller boy on his way to his first class. Both of their bags slid to the floor, and Addison's burst open as his things spilled out on the floor in a surprisingly neat line. Expecting a knuckle-sandwich, Addison was instead pulled up off the ground by the collar of his shirt (as if he weighed no more than a raggedy Ann doll) and was dusted off forcefully by hands the size of dinner plates.

"Oh man," the guy said. "You okay?"

"Um... yeah, actually," Addison said, smiling. "I'm fine. Sorry. I didn't see you." He knelt down to pick up his things, and the other guy scooped up his own bag and put it on his shoulder.

"How the heck did you not see me?" he asked, laughing. His voice reminded Addison of the guy from the CNN announcements. Puberty was sometimes intense and early, he figured.

"I'm blind in my left eye," Addison said without breaking stride as he scooped the rest of his things into his bag and zipped it. He supposed he had forgotten to zip it earlier. "No biggie, you don't have to say 'Oh, I'm sorry.'" He looked up at his classmate, tilting his head slightly so he'd come into his line of vision better and smiled.

"Oh. Okay," he said, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly. "See ya."

"Bye," Addison said, waving at the guy as he dashed off. It was then he noticed the Varsity number on the back of the guy's jacket. 'How refreshing. A polite and considerate linebacker. But I'm going to be late.'

Addison slipped into his classroom just in time and sat down in the nearest vacant seat. There just so happened to be a little halo of empty desks around him, save for one girl who was nearest to him. He noticed her peripherally as he took out his composition book and battle-worn pencil (he'd always been a pencil biter.) So far so good for his first day in a new town, all-in-all. Hopefully the people here weren't nice due to a town-wide conspiracy to lull newcomers into a false sense of security before scalping and disemboweling them... Addison smirked at the thoughts running through his mind and shook his head as he wrote down his new teacher's name.

Calla had just happened to glance up briefly at the same time some guy she didn't recognize walked in and grabbed the first available seat that was empty. From the looks of it, and the fact that she didn't know who the heck this guy was, she had to figure he was new and that sent a few warning signs blaring in her mind.
"New guy, looks like I'm on guard duty again." She thought to herself since she could never tell whether a new student might be a hunter or not. She wouldn't know unless she figured out a way to scope him out and get a little more info on him, but for now she waited and just acted as if she hadn't noticed much of anything at all. Of course that was easier said then done when the same huge student from earlier walked into the classroom.

"Hey Calla think fast!" He called out before tossing what looked like a can of soda right at Calla. However, before it could hit her by any chance she reached up and quickly snapped it right out of the air once it was within reach. Needless to say she must have been use to that trick by now for her to pull off a stunt like that.

"Nice try Dare, but you're going to have to think up something a little more original then that." Calla said with a smirk before she shoved the soda into her bag for later and the huge football player, who she had identified as being called 'Dare', just laughed at that before slapping her a high-five as he walked past to his desk. The other students just snickered or laughed at this exchange, giving evidence that this had to be a regular occurence between the two students and if anyone had asked her Calla wouldn't have denied that it did happen pretty often. Then again just seeing what Dare could come up with to try and fool her did make the school day a little more interesting, but that was really the only interesting thing she found about being stuck in here for most of the day. Unless a new student showed up, which seemed to be the case now, and that would make things even more tricky until Calla had a better idea of whether she should be on edge around him or not.

Addison glanced over at the girl and smiled. "He a friend of yours?" he asked quietly under his breath. "Nice guy, huh? Where I come from linebackers only come in two flavors... idiot and jerk-off." Addison normally wound up putting his foot in his mouth spectacularly when it came to talking to new people (especially girls), and had learned to simply be himself and see what happened. "I'm Addison," he said. "And you appear to be the only human being close enough to me to contract my bubonic plague," he finished, gesturing to the halo of empty seats in their general area.

"Well when you've know someone most of your life, you can get away with more then usual." Calla said with a shrug since to her, that was an understatement. She and Dare had known each other since.....well she lost track but that's what happens when you live in the exact same neighborhood. Actually she knew at least half of the students here, and those that she didn't know well that was mainly because they didn't live in the same area as she did. So yeah she had some connections almost everywhere.

"But even though you probably already heard I'm Calla, and as for contracting a plague I think I scare viruses off before they can hit most of the time." She added in just for kicks, and because It was more fun seeing how someone reacted to a comment like that. True she may not be very high on the sociable scale, but she did know how to talk when she felt like it. Not only that but if she acted normal then nine times out of ten she could spot whether or not a student was a hunter without much effort involved.

Addison nodded, and was about to say something else when the teacher continued speaking. "Class, as I'm sure you're aware we have a new student with us today. Mr. Patrick, would you care to come up and say something about yourself?"

Addison coughed into his hand as he stood up from his desk, catching his food on the book rack beneath it. Ouch, he thought briefly before he headed to the front of the classroom. It was almost unbearably chilche` how clumsy he could be. "I'm Addison Patrick," he said after a moment. "Girly name, yeah. So if you need to poke fun I ask that you get it out of the way now. I'm from Honolulu, and before you ask, yeah, there are white people there and no, I didn't live in a grass shack and yes, I DID have electricity and the internet and McDonalds." He smiled as one or two people chuckled. This was a warmer crowd than his last school.

The teacher seemed to want him to go on, but that was really all he had. Besides being from Hawaii, Addison was a pretty vanilla kind of guy. He nodded his head at the class and moved to take his seat again. He'd recited that same paraphrase for about four different highschools so far.

Once the entire introduction was over with, the teacher again tried to get as much of the student's attention as possible before starting the current lesson. Most of it was the usual notes and major assignments that would make up the school year, nothing Calla hadn't heard before and she'd already almost memorizied everything the teacher had given them at the start of class. So needless to say her attention span was soon drifting to other things.

"So if you're from Hawaii how'd you end up down here?" Calla asked as she glanced over at Addison with a clearly curious look. What could be so special about some town where the weather was only agreeable about two months out of the year she certainly didn't know. In fact if she had a choice she'd get out of here and go somewhere where it was warm all year round. She hated the cold and when it rained that only made it worse. Cold and wet were two words that certainly did not belong together, and here it seemed to be a perfect place for that ungodly mix.

Of course most people here in this city didn't really think twice about it or notice much, but even though she had grown up here she still didn't like it. Although people did often wonder why she loved summer so much when she never tanned during those two months when the weather was actually warm. Yes she stayed pale year round, unless she ended up getting sunburned by any chance then there'd be red blotches all on her skin but it'd turn right back to its usual light tone after it had healed over. She could almost swear there were some albino genes somewhere in her family and she got stuck with most of them, that is if staying pale all the time was any proof of that.

Addison made a face. "It IS pretty cold here, I'll give you that. I'm all acclimated and pansified. But Honolulu isn't always sunshine and rainbows. It rains like crazy during the 'winter' and can get pretty chilly at night. But, for someone who's spent most of their life here, I'm sure that would be nothing for you." He shifted his head ever so slightly so that she would come into view of his good eye. He hadn't really felt like announcing the fact that he was near-blind (and going blinder every day) to the whole class. He didn't care what people thought of him, so long as they didn't pity him.

The teacher cleared her throat in an annoyed way, and Addison sheepishly smiled at Calla. 'Whoops,' he mouthed, and stayed quiet for the rest of class until the bell rang.

"Acclimated and pansified? Sorry but you don't seem that way to me." Calla said in a low whisper while trying not to laugh at his description of himself. Actually just from the way he talked about things he was....well interesting for lack of a better word. Not only that but she didn't want to laugh because she thought his description was stupid, it was more like she had never really heard someone talk about themselves that way and it was just funny to listen to. Although since she had no idea what he would think of her laughing, she refrained from doing so for the time being.

After that there weren't many other opportunities to talk since the teacher was more interested in making sure the class paid attention to another boring lecture. With that said she ended up either daydreaming or just taking notes whenever necessary, and that was about it. Once the bell rang signaling the end of class she felt a surge of relief run through her that she was actually able to stay awake during class, and she quickly gathered her things together while the usual wave of students headed for the door.

Addison scooped his notebook and pencil back into his bag and watched as Calla gathered her things up. Dare waved at the two of them as he headed out of the class, where he was promptly tackled by four or five of his football buddies. Addison laughed at the sight.

"Say, um..." he began, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well. I'll see you around."

He slung his bag over his shoulder and headed out the door of the class to his next period, History. He was never good at talking to people, much less asking for help. Calla and Dare had seemed like the nicest people in this place so far, and what's more, Calla hadn't given him the "you belong in an insane asylum" look that he normally got for his offbeat humor. Still though, he wasn't sure if he was ready to make a complete clingy idiot of himself and ask for a tour of school. Glancing down at his schedule, he frowned at the words "History - Mr. Fernandez - Room 27Q." 27Q, huh? He supposed he could find this building on his own.

Whew, he thought, making his way to the left side of the hall, flush up against he lockers so he wouldn't have anyone sneaking up on his blind spot.

"Hmm....he is kind of strange, but for some reason I kind of like his strangeness." Calla thought to herself as she glanced down the hallway where Addison had just gone. Sure maybe his rather, different kind of humor was a little off but she couldn't find much of a fault with that. At least it made for an interesting conversation which was more then could be said for some people she knew. Either way it didn't look like they had the next class together, but now that she thought about it she meant to ask what classes he did have today. Maybe they'd end up in a few more and they could continue their conversation, that is if he didn't mind talking to her. She wouldn't push herself on people who didn't really want to talk, but hey as long as he was fine with her hitting the Q&A sessions then he could ask as much as he wanted about her as well. Call that a fair trade in the conversation department.

"Oh good god.......how long can these freakin' lines get?!" Calla muttered under her breath as she stood in the lunch line. The first half of the school day had gone by rather quickly after that first class, and now they were on the longest break of the day that they had. However, half of that time was taken up by standing here in some huge line waiting for some slowpoke up at the front to make up their mind. Then again she couldn't complain much because she could be just as bad sometimes. However once she finally got her food she headed off to the nearest table she could find that was empty, and thankfully it seems she found one that was rather off to the side where she could at least have some peace while enjoying her lunch break. After all the last three classes were usually pure torture and she wanted to enjoy her freetime before heading for those last few classes.

Addison decided, once again, that the cafeteria system in every single school across the country was atrocious and abysmal.

Jostled left and right in line as people let their buddies cut in front or shoved each other around for kicks, Addison closed his eyes and tried to zen out a little. He often felt he was broken as a male, seeming devoid of the sea of testosterone and dire need to slam himself roughly into people and objects to prove his masculinity.

He finally snatched up his tray of food and squeezed out of line between two girls who were engrossed in thier iPhones. He avoided one more cell-phone zombie (texting and walking with three trays of food, a moving violation if ever he saw one) and took a deep breath.

Okay, so almost every table was occupied. He spotted the football guys over on one table, and a troup of what he deemed the "popular girls" at another. The D&D geeks were tabletopping over at another corner and the stoners were strewn about over two tables near the exit.

Addison was just about to go join the D&D table (they looked like nice people, if a bit absorbed in their Warlock modding) when he spotted a familiar face near a miraculously empty table at the side of the building. Well, he thought, might as well get clingy and annoying now so she can decide the best way to tell me to get lost.

"Hey, Calla," he said as he neared her table. "It's a zoo in here. Mind if I have a seat with you?"

Calla had literally been zoned out in her own world of thoughts when she heard someone speak up from right next to the table she had grabbed. Her first guess was that it was one of the many faces she knew around here asking why she was sitting alone again, but that wasn't the case. Seems Addison had somehow spotted her in the usual chaos of the cafeteria and decided he'd head over in her direction.

"Sure go ahead, and if you think this is a zoo you should see what happens on a game day." Calla said since she knew all to well what that meant. Every person here who was even the slightest bit interested in what happened with the school's team would be on the edges of their seat or taking bets on who would win. Then after the game itself there would either be enough loud celebrating to drown out even the loudest music or it'd be so gloomy in here you'd think halloween had come early.

Needless to say she thought it'd be worth it to at least warn him well beforehand. Thankfully the next game match wasn't until next month since that supposedly gave students enough time to get into the swing of things before the game schedules got thrown into the mix. How did she know all this? Well it pays to have connection and she had some almost everywhere.

Addison laughed and nodded. "I can only imagine what it would be like. Sports were pretty intense in Honolulu public schools, but I bet that's nothing compared to here."

He glanced down at his food and poked at it a little. He had to admit, out of most of the schools he'd visited, this food wasn't really so bad. It at least looked edible. He shrugged and took a bite of his spaghetti with gusto. First days of school always made him unusually hungry.

"Are you into sports?" he asked as he finished his first bite and tore off a piece of garlic bread, dipping it into his ranch dressing instead of his spaghetti sauce by accident. He was distracted trying to have good eye contact, something that his aunt had insisted he practice when talking to potential friends. "Or are you more into the arts? I suppose you could be into both... don't get me wrong," he said, already feeling a conversation fumble coming on. "It's just with most people I find it's one or the other." He unknowingly took a bite of his ranch-dressing dipped bread and pulled a disgusted face. "Oh God, ew."

Calla was about to tell Addison that he had missed the spaghetti sauce but he already snagged a bite of his ranch dipped bread first before she could say anything. So needless to say that ended with her just looking at the expression on his face before quickly stifling her laughter behind her hands.

"W-well in answer to your first question, no I'm not really a sports girl and yes I lean more towards the art stuff. Although really I lack talent in either." She confessed once she was almost sure she could talk without her laughter being to obvious to anyone else. The last thing they needed was for someone to see her laughing and ask what was so funny, since she wasn't to sure Addison would be up for telling about what had just happened with the whole ranch dressing scenario.

She didn't even seem to care that he kept fumbling over things as he was talking, but she just chalked it up to first day nerves. She had seen plenty of people like that so she just took it all in stride knowing it would wear off once the school semester continued. Although just the thought of more long weeks like this week seriously made her shudder inside, but she had to deal with the torture so she might as well make the best of it.

Addison couldn't help but smile at his blunder, and also at the fact that Calla was doing such a good job not laughing in his face. Heck, HE would have laughed in his face, and he chuckled now under his breath.

"Well... what sorts of things do you like to do in art?" he asked, dipping his garlic bread in his sauce this time, and double checking before he took a bite. "Painting, drawing, charcoal, sculpture..." He was secretly happy that there was someone here who could talk art with him, even a little. It seemed to be a sports-dominated school (just like in Honolulu) and he wondered if (gasp) he would be lucky enough to be able to discuss musical theatre with her.

Then again... maybe that was REALLY too much to expect. He'd been pegged instantly as gay in almost all of his schools once he revealed his love of Broadway and his wish that schools paid more attention to their fine arts programs. He wasn't particularly looking forward to becoming this school's newest ambiguous-probably-homosexual guy. His gay friends back home constantly made fun of him for it, and Addison felt a small pang as he thought of his small group of friends that he'd left behind. He talked to them almost every night online, but it wasn't quite the same.

"Well I do paint a little, but I'm not that great at it really. Although I will admit something to you that I rarely tell anyone." Calla said as she leaned forward a little so she could talk in a lower tone of voice so no one would hear her. She didn't want anyone overhearing this because if they did, it could get crazy. Having connections could be a good thing sometimes, but in other ways it was a little bit of a hassle since she would often get people asking her to let them in on things.

"There's a huge theater here in the downtown area that always has touring Broadway shows come in at least twice a year, sometimes more depending on how well the season is doing. Well lets just say that if you'd be interested I could get you in and maybe get you some backstage access." She whispered with a sneaky smile. How could she do that you ask? Well her mother use to be an actress and had been in several Broadway shows when she was younger. She didn't act anymore but she did have easy access to that kind of stuff, mainly because whenever a touring show come through here she was the one responsible for helping them get everything set up and ready to go in the theater itself. Because of that her and Calla would often get in to shows either for half price or free, and they'd let both of them in while setting up or visit backstage either before or after performances. Not only that but if either of them knew anyone that wanted to tag along one night, well they'd get in on it to with no questions asked.

Actually Calla had gotten to know several people within the touring groups themselves, and she'd often talk to them online which was how she would find out when a show was coming up this way. Call it a communication system of sorts where they would give Calla an update on when they were coming, she'd let her mother know so she could start getting things ready, and by the time the show got there all they had to do was set up the stages and the rest was taken care of. Yes it does pay to have those connections, and Calla got a kick out of pulling stuff like that without anyone else knowing. Well until she told Addison but she had a gut feeling he wouldn't go revealing everything to everyone.

Addison was having a hard time believing what she was saying to him right now. "Are you serious?" he asked, rather stunned. "That... is pretty amazing," he finished lamely, taking a swig out of his milk carton. "Are you sure it's not a hassle to offer people things like that, though?"

This school was turning out to be pretty great, he decided. A nice linebacker, a new friend (who also happened to be a girl, and Addison had never before succeeded in talking to a girl for more than ten minutes without her thinking he was mentally challenged), PLUS the fact that, although this was a smallish town, Broadway shows still made a habit of coming through. Not bad at all. This more than made up for the lingering taste of ranch + garlic.

"Does this school have a theatre program too?" he asked, still trying to absorb her former information. The bell rang, and he blinked up at it, scandalized. How is it that this lunch period had passed in 30 seconds? That's what it had felt like to him, anyway. The students who had previously been scrambling all over each other to dash out of their classes now moved at snail's pace, dragging their feet as they gathered their things and disposed of their trays.

"Well it's not really a hassle when I don't tell many people about my connections, and believe me I rarely say anything to anyone about it unless I think they'd be interested." Calla said just before the bell rang signaling the end of their one break of the day. The students sitting around them were already gathering their things and disposing of their trays before heading out into the hallway as slowly as they could go, and Calla really couldn't blame them. The last classes of the day were usually the worst because they felt like they dragged on forever, mainly because by now everyone was ready to leave instead of being stuck in another classroom for close to an hour.
"Well I guess if we end up having anymore classes together during the last half I'll see you then." She said before gathering her things and heading over to the nearby trash can. Although in all honesty she was kind of hoping they ended up in a few more classes together since she had to say she kind of enjoyed their conversations.

After tossing her tray into the trash she made sure she had everything she needed before weaving through the usual crowds. Not that she was in any particular hurry, she just didn't want to end up being late on the very first day of the school year. That never looked good on anyone, and she really did not need to start getting into trouble over being late again. Yes believe it or not Calla did have a habit of loosing track of time and not making it to her classes before the bell rang, but she was trying to keep that from happening again. She'd gotten called on it enough and she really wanted to avoid that scenario like the plague.

Thankfully her next class wasn't far from the cafeteria meaning she wouldn't have to make to much of a rush to get here. As she walked inside most of the students hadn't arrived yet making it easier for her to grab a seat in the back of the classroom. Back there she wasn't as noticeable to the teachers and she wanted things to stay that way for as long as possible. At least that allowed her to zone out without much fear of being called on, and she wanted to keep things like that for as long as she could make it last.

Addison didn't have any familiar faces in his next class (if one could call knowing two people in a new school "familiar faces"), but he was pleasantly surprised to spot Calla in his last class of the day... even if it WAS gym. He headed over to the coach first, handing over his familiar doctor's note. The coach scanned the note, flipped it over, and then read it again, closely, as if checking for forgery. Addison rolled his eyes. He did enjoy sports on occasion, and actually wished that his medical condition would allow him to partake. Yet almost all of the gym teachers in all of his previous schools had assumed at first that he was just another kid with a connection to a family member in the medical field who wanted a "get out of jail free" card from gym.

When at last the coach had accepted his note, Addison was watching the other students pile out of the locker room and dash to the center of the court, preparing for what looked like (shudder) dodgeball. Guess I'm not missing much, he decided as he took a seat on the bench and waved at Calla. Some students were casting him confused looks, no doubt wondering why newbie got to sit this one out.