Gregeri looked out the window of the car as she was driven to school. The lady that had adopted her was going on about something, she was only catching bits and pieces of it though. Her mind was clearly somewhere else. Rain began to hit the glass that she had been staring at so intently and she let out a quiet sigh. 'I wonder how long it will be before William shows up today...' Of course it was always 'when', not 'if'.

"Gregeri? Did you hear me?" The lady next to her asked.

"No." She didn't have emotion in her voice as she spoke to the woman, she didn't even redirect her gaze from the window.

"Oh... I just wanted you to know that if you stop in the office they'll tell you everything you need." Of course she had said much more than that. Things like 'have fun', 'you're going to love you're teachers', and, of course, 'I'm sure you'll make lots of friends'. The thing is, Gregeri didn't plan on making friends, she planned on being invisible.

Unlike how she was in her old school she wasn't going to talk to William when people were around. In her old school she had been doing it since she was little, so there was really nothing to lose, but here... she just wanted to be normal. She wondered if William already knew that she was going to ignore him.

The car came to a slow stop in front of her new high school. "Do you want to borrow my umbrella? I know you said you didn't want one back at the house but it's raining awfully hard now." A smile was plastered on her face as she held out the umbrella.

Greg took a look at it. "No." She got out quickly, carrying her backpack on one shoulder and her purse on the other. Rain soaked through her jeans and 'Skindred' t-shirt before she was even halfway to the door. She went to the office, followed by her locker and then her first class.

She walked in late, "Hello!" A perky lady stood, "I'm Miss.Roger, would you like to introduce yourself to the class?"

Greg didn't stop walking, having her sights set on an empty chair in the back. She tucked the wet hair that was clinging to her face behind her ear before she sat. 'This is going to be a long day.'

The rain was coming down that day, and it was coming hard, much to William's pleasure. He loved the sound of the downpour as it splattered on surfaces around the city and the beautiful colorless sky shrouded with clouds that accompanied it. This was all he could love of the rain, after all; for what people would find a nuisance, a driving hazard, a blessing or just something common and taken for granted, William found undeniably enchanting.

He stood beneath the protection of an illustrious chapel gazebo, though there was no need: he couldn't feel the rain. As he stepped out from underneath the tarp, the millions of tiny crystalline droplets passed through his very being as if he weren't there at all; instead, they made contact with the asphalt road beneath his feet and shattered like glass. His translucent, pearl-white complexion remained as a marble figure's while he made his way toward a schoolhouse.

It didn't take long for him to find Gregeri among the throng of excited students; he moved quickly and easily directly through them like a cold winter gust, eliciting the same shudders and shivers in his wake. Only when he found the classroom in which Gregeri resided did his statuesque expression reveal the faint curl of a smile playing at his lips. For several moments, he stood in the threshold of the room and just watched the girl, disregarding the teacher and the other students as they did him. When enough time had passed, he approached Gregeri, allowing his smirk to broaden ever so slightly.

"Good morning, Gregeri."

Greg stared at the white board as the teacher began to write meaningless things. It was a bit into the class before she noticed William. She didn't look at him as he made his way towards her desk. 'Don't slip up. You can't be invisible if your talking to your self. Just pretend like he doesn't exist.'

She bit her lip slightly as he spoke to her. Whether she would admit it or not, she considered William a very good friend, she just couldn't ruin this. This brand new opportunity. She rested her chin in her hand as she continued to avoid looking his way.

An audible chuckle escaped through his nostrils as he watched Gregeri for several moments, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his head to one angle. He raised his brows in amusement at her inattentive antics, knowing they would be futile in the end - or hoping they would be, anyway.

"Oh, how long do you imagine you can ignore me, sweet Gregeri?" he inquired impishly, his tone quite sarcastic.

He dared to stand directly in front of her, though he knew this would do little, considering he was practically transparent. Still, he stared down at her with dark brooding eyes and an expectant smile.

Gregeri still stared ahead. She knew that if he didn't leave her alone she was going to end up speaking to him. It was like some horrible addiction that you just couldn't stop yourself from doing. She grabbed her purse off the floor and dug out a pencil. There was already a notebook on her desk where she had been mindlessly writing down notes from the class. She took the pencil to the very top of the page and began to write something for William.

'NOT NOW'. It was a simple message, but she hoped he'd get it and leave her alone... at least for a bit.

He didn't even bother to read the message, for he already knew what demands the paper contained. He simply scoffed and dared to sit himself atop her desk, bothering her that much further. Although he took some kind of sympathy for the girl surrounded by people she didn't know, he didn't quite care for their opinion or for them at all; he simply treated them as they did him - as if they weren't there at all.

"You are a stubborn one, my sweet," he purred, inspecting his nails disinterestedly. "But I am not leaving you here all by your lonesome. What kind of gentleman would I be?"

He continued his nonsensical rambling for as long as he himself could tolerate, trying desperately to get Gregeri to speak with him for whatever reason. In all actuality, he had a certain fondness for the girl, and even he wasn't sure why; but it probably had something to do with the fact that she is the only one who can see him.

Gregeri moved her hand from the desk quickly moving her eyes now to the floor. She needed to take notes, not that she cared too much. A sigh escaped her as she sat back in her chair. Although he was a ghost, and you could easily move right through him, she hated to do so. She had rarely walked through a ghost because every time she did she got the creeps.

After a moment she looked up to his face, her plan was apparently going to explode in her face. She looked at the kids around her, making sure they were too busy to notice if she said something.

"Please move." Her words were barely audible. She reached her hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear again. It was beginning to dry, her curls returning.

Johnny was, as usual, late for class. As he stumbled down the hallway to find his classroom, he remembered that he had to get his books out of his locker. Turning around and heaving a sigh, he started to head back the way he had come.

"Where are you going?" a loud, booming voice behind him asked.

Crap. "I was uh... I was just going to um... get my books," Johnny replied, dropping his eyes to the floor and turning to face Mr. Winchester, the principal.

"You know we don't allow locker visits during class. Why don't you have them already?" Winchester asked, as if this wasn't an every day occurrence.

Johnny cursed the jerk in his head, and fought against the urge to lose his temper with the man. That would only end badly. "I forgot them," he said after a pregnant pause. "I'm sorry. I'll just head to class now." He turned to go back down the hallway toward the classroom.

As he passed Mr. Winchester, the man reached out and grabbed Johnny's shoulder. "Look, Johnny. I know things are hard for you. But at some point in time, you have to just buck up and become a man. You can't possibly function in the world the way you're living now."

Johnny nodded. "Yes, sir." Licking his lips and tightening his hands into fists, Johnny made his way down the hallway. If he could just clear his head for a few minutes, maybe he'd be okay. As it was, he should have just stayed home. After all, he was barely managing to pass his classes and his boss didn't care if he had a diploma or not. But Johnny couldn't shake his stupid dream to get out of the town and become a writer. And to do that, he needed to at least try. Even if he failed. Then he couldn't tell himself that he hadn't at least made every effort to have his dream come true.

Johnny finally reached the door to his class and opened it softly, hoping to not interrupt. Of course, that didn't happen. Miss Roger turned to glance at him and he inwardly flinched, waiting for her to fire out one of the many insults he heard each day. Instead she just sighed heavily. "Glad you could join us, Johnathan," she said sarcastically, pausing in her lessons to allow him to get to his seat.

The one he usually sat in was taken, however, by a girl he'd never seen before. And it looked like... no. There was no way there was a ghost sitting at her desk with her. Johnny rubbed his eyes and frowned as he took another seat in back and glanced back the new girl's way. Since he'd taken his medication this morning, any spirits he did see would be hazy and out of focus, looking more like discolorations than beings. And sure, the girl had one such discoloration very close to her - but the meds often made him see things that weren't there, as well. As if they made him paranoid.

Instead of gawking, or saying hello, or any number of other things Johnny could (and probably would) have done had he been off his meds today, Johnny instead fumbled in his bookbag looking for a notebook and pencil before opening it up and beginning to take notes as well as he could. He knew that later the notes would be disjointed and hard to read, but he had to try.

Only briefly did William acknowledge the rather disgruntled looking student make his way tardily toward his seat. Although he was mostly certain this person didn't see him, as all of the other students and most of the world's population, something about him seemed a little different. Something oddly familiar to that of Gregeri. Nonetheless, William reverted his attention back to the girl as fast as it had shifted, his lips tightly pursed and dark eyes still brooding.

"Oh, but Gregeri," William cooed, beginning to levitate from the surface of her desk toward the ceiling. "Gregeri, Gregeri, my sweet young friend. Why must you be so rude to me?"

His translucent figure began to float away as though it were as light as paper, but his face remained close to the girl's. His movements were so unnaturally graceful, like that of a bird; but being a spirit probably had something to do with that. He furrowed his brows at her and frowned, but it was still quite obvious that he was taunting her.

Gregeri's attention was brought to a boy as he came in late. She stared at him a moment as he took his seat. She didn't like how her presence had seemed to catch his attention when he first entered, as if there was something wrong with her, 'Because the fact that I'm a knew student couldn't POSSIBLY be it.' She mentally face palmed for not thinking that was the reason in the first place.

She looked back to William who had risen off her paper. She opened her mouth to respond but stopped her self when she realized what she was about to do. She glared at the floating man briefly before continuing to take notes. She looked odd as she wrote, her face farther from the paper than most since William's face was in the way. She wondered how much longer this class could go on.

Johnny kept glancing over at the new girl periodically during class. There was something about her that almost spoke to him, although he couldn't tell what it was. Certainly, she was pretty, but there were many girls in his school that were. Certainly she was new, but Johnny had seen new students before and hadn't felt as drawn to them. For the life of him, Johnny simply couldn't put a finger on why he would feel the urge to simply be closer to her. In the end, he blamed it on the medication and before class was halfway over had given up on trying to keep what the teacher was saying straight in his mind. It was just going to be another one of those days where nothing quite worked.

At one point, when Johnny caught the new girl's eye, he attempted to give her a friendly, welcoming smile. Although he was well aware that his smiles never seemed quite right.

Gregeri looked around the class, watching kids takes notes. She continued to scribble things down on her paper, still ignoring William to the best of her ability. It wasn't too long before she noticed that the boy was one again looking her way. He smiled and, after she though for a second, she returned one to him. She looked back to her paper, slouching down in her chair a bit.

A few minutes later the bell rang, allowing the kids out of class. Greg darted out of the door, grabbing books for her next class like everyone else. She didn't see the kid from first hour in her other classes, though she had only been to three so far. Time seemed to drag on, as if a year had passed before it was time for lunch.

She went through the lunch line as quickly as she could and then looked around the cafeteria. Most of the tables were inhabited by people, and that's something that she didn't want to deal with right now. Finally she found an empty table in a far off corner of the room and she darted for it. She sat down quickly and looked around the room at all the people that were talking and laughing with their friends.

"Gregeri, Gregeri..." William mused, approaching the lonesome student at her table. "Why are you sitting all by yourself?"

He took it upon himself to sit directly across from her, the grin on his face evaporating into that of a straight-lipped frown. He seemed too grave to be playful, almost as if he were agitated even. It was a miracle in itself that he had yet to throw a tantrum for the way she had been ignoring him all day; certainly it hurt his feelings. Although he was a lingering spirit, surely he was still capable of having such, as he would make it quite obvious to the poor girl on various occasions.

He couldn't help but ponder thoughts about the late student in class, however. Perhaps this could be the reason for the unattractive scowl on his otherwise devilishly handsome features. He knew there was something different about the boy, but it irritated him because he couldn't quite figure what it was.

Greg looked up to see William sitting across from her. Lunch was going to be the only time she would be able to talk to him with out people noticing or hearing as long as she was some what discreet about it. She took a bite of...what ever it was that was sitting on her plate. She had heard them saying it was a hamburger but after further inspection she couldn't help but think that they were lying.

"I'm sitting by myself because I have no friends here, nor do I want them." Of course having friends would be nice, someone to talk to, share secrets, but her secrets were the reason she didn't want friends. People here would be no different from the others and there was no way she wanted a replay.

"I'm sorry I've been ignoring you." She avoided eye contact, partially because she didn't want to draw attention to herself but also because she felt bad. "I just...I want people to think I'm normal here you know? I just want to blend in."

Johnny grabbed his lunch from his locker and headed into the cafeteria. Keeping his head down, he headed to his usual spot. As he passed one table a leg stuck out and he couldn't move in time, finding himself falling and landing face first on the cold linoleum floor. As the laughter of those around him burst out, he felt a blush rising to his face. Standing as quickly as possible, he turned back to the owner of the foot and apologized for tripping over them. The guy chuckled and gave him the finger. "Freak."

Moving on, he made it to the empty table he always sat at only to find it not quite so empty. He sat at the far end from the new girl, not wanting her to think he was trying to sit with her. Although, he wouldn't have minded sitting with her - she was still new enough that maybe she didn't realize he was a total outcast yet. It would be nice to have a friend, even if just for a day. He noticed the discoloration was still near her, but he also knew better than to stick his nose into others' business. It only ended in shame for him.

He opened the brown paper bag he had packed last night, pulling out a sandwich (now more than a little squished from the fall he had taken), an orange, and a bottle of water, and ate quietly, hunched in his chair. As if he could make himself so small that the girl wouldn't notice he had sat at her table.

Greg looked up quickly when she heard the sound of something hitting the floor. She glared as she realized what had happened. 'Don't apologize to them!' She screamed in her head as she watched the boy speak to them. There was a part of her that wanted to go over and chew them out for being mean, but the part of her that wanted to remain invisible was stronger.

She took another bite of her food, still watching the boy out of the corner of her eye. She was contemplating on what she should do. Sure she wanted to be completely looked over but...he looked lonely on the other side of the table. 'No. Just eat your food and ignore him. Don't ruin the plan.' She nodded slightly to herself before eating more.

Unfortunately she made the mistake of taking another glance at him as he sat hunched in his chair. She couldn't take it. 'One conversation won't hurt. She looked at William for a second before picking up her tray and sitting across from him. "Hey...um...are you OK?" She looked uncomfortable as she asked the question, but she was still attempting to make eye contact. That's something... right?

William rolled his dark eyes as Gregeri left him once again; his scowl deepened dramatically as he crossed his arms over his wide chest. Clearly this irritated him - she was being so unusually distant - but he said nothing, simply lingered over toward her and remained quiet. Although he was but an invisible enigma, wisps of his thick black hair dared to stick out of place on his skull and he moved a hand to smooth them down again.

One look at the boy was enough to make William understand the sympathy Gregeri felt toward him: he was surely a mess. It was ammunition enough to feel empathetic toward him as well, which was oddly a first for William. He hadn't felt such compassion for a living, breathing human since he met Gregeri, and even that was waning as the days passed.

"What a strange boy," William muttered sorely to himself, assured he couldn't be heard by anyone else. "Making quite an entrance everywhere he goes."

Johnny glanced up at the sound of the girl's voice as if it were as loud as a gunshot. "Oh, uh... yeah. I'm fine," he mumbled, keeping his eyes down on his sandwich. He smiled a tired smile that looked much older than he himself did. "Just an accident." he began to blush deeply.

He was going to let the conversation end, but it just felt so good to talk to someone face to face. He couldn't stop himself from trying to drag the whole thing out. "So, uh... you're new here, huh? I'm uh.. Johnny."

He paused, hoping that she would actually bother replying to him.

Is it too late for one more player? ^^;

"Not exactly Casanova, huh?" William again muttered, growing thoroughly irritated by this point. "Uh, Johnny."

He seemed to take pleasure in seating himself on the most unorthodox places he could possibly find, because he sat directly in between them, although his dark eyes were locked on the odd boy. His lip twitched slightly and his arms remained crossed, but aside from that he tried to remain as calm as he could. His eyes traveled heavenward to inspect the gray sky that had grown much more pleasant since the morning downpour; then his lids sealed away his eyes and he sighed loudly through his nostrils.