Time After Time

Chapter 2

Erik

Walking into school, Erik Spencer lets out a large sigh. This is the last thing he wants to be doing. Someone as old as he is should not be subject to something as trivial and mundane as high school. Orders are orders though and being that he is the younger one, he gets the grunt work, Erik grumbles to himself. Dante just gets to " supervise" which basically mean do whatever he wants. As the hallway fills up, the pressure of everyone's thoughts and emotions tries to crowd his mind. Forcing his mental wall up, he blocks them out, over a century of practice has made it much easier. He doesn't need to hear what they are thinking or feel what they are feeling anyway. None of them matter. Only whoever is projecting the faint sense of power that attracted Dante and himself here in the first place. He should be able find them easily enough, even while blocking the majority out.

Walking first to the front office, he heads over the front desk, where a middle aged, slightly heavyset woman with horn rimmed glasses sits, surrounded by mounds of paper. The nameplate on her desk reads Mrs. Collins. As he approaches she looks up, her smile friendly but harried.
"May I help you?" She asks.
He turns his brightest smile on her, and she looks a little stunned. " Hello, my name is Erik Banwell, this is my first day. I am here to pick up my schedule."
She smiles at him again and begins digging through her stacks of paper. Her smiles fades as she looks through his folder. "It looks like you are missing some required paperwork, we won't be able to let you be enrolled until it is completed." She says, while handing him, the list of things needed. Birth certificate, immunizations.
Looking around to make sure they are alone, he hands the list back to her, and looking deeply into her eyes, he says slowly and with conviction "I think there has been a mistake, please check again."
Mrs. Collins takes the papers back as if in a daze and looks again, not really seeing what it in front of her. " Oh yes, my dear, I see it now. Sorry about that."
Erik smiles at her " No problem at all."
She hands him his schedule, telling him " I hope you have a great first day. Welcome to Everwood."

Erik thanks her and turns to head toward his first period. Rolling his eyes, exasperated at having to compel someone within the first half hour of school. Between he and Dante, they should have thought of things like records. Of course, they wouldn't believe his birth record if they saw it. He promises himself he will try to keep compulsion to a minimum. He really doesn't like having to do it. Forcing the encounter with Mrs. Collins away, his mind wanders to why he is here, wondering where he will find the source of power. Dante assumes that since the power is so faint, it would have to be a mortal and probably a teenager, not fully aware of the power growing within them. Hence the reason he is walking around a high school. Entering the first period classroom, he gets his answer. There is an absolutely stunning dark haired girl sitting in the back of the room. She looks up as Erik enters and her piercing blue eyes lock on his own. Keeping his face neutral, he doesn't permit himself to continue looking at her, instead quickly take an empty seat in front of her, one row to the side. The complete lack of mental noise coming from her, is a pretty good indication that she is the source of power that attracted us here. It's extremely uncommon to encounter someone who's thoughts he cannot hear, or at least a sense of the emotions of their thoughts.

Erik stays facing the front of the room, keeping his back turned to her the whole class, carefully tuning in to see if he can pick up anything from her. The tiniest glimpse comes through, and he looks back, turning his head almost imperceptibly. She is staring at a red haired girl across the room intently. He realizes she is probing at the other girl's mind, probably without even fully realizing what she is doing. Her concentration on her task has lowered the shield, that Erik is assuming she doesn't even know she has, to slip just enough to attract my attention. Erik feels just a glimmer of annoyance, then sadness, then confusion, come from her before her attention leaves the girl and the mental wall flies back up. Interesting. He continues trying to probe to see if he can pick up anything else for the rest of the class period, being careful, as he isn't sure if she will be able to tell what He is doing, but nothing comes through. He did go ahead and pick the thoughts of the red headed girl, Jade, and managed to discover the girls name. Alexia Lightfoot, who goes by Lexi. That is not the only thing he got out of Jade's thoughts. She is not fond of Lexi at all. There is jealousy there, and something more. He doesn't dig further because it doesn't seem relevant to what he is searching for.

Erik spends the next few classes just casually looking into people's thoughts to see if he can learn more about Lexi. It appears she is quite well liked, for the most part, although some people seem to view her as standoffish or cold. Snobby even, he catches from a select few people. By lunchtime he is worn down, sifting through peoples thoughts is exhausting. And most people think the most inane, useless things.

He sits at a cafeteria table alone, carefully listening to the thoughts of two girls eating lunch with Lexi. The curly headed blonde one, Emma, has some of the happiest, purest thoughts he has encountered in a long time. Almost childlike. Refreshing, but not very helpful. He turns his attention to the serious one with caramel colored skin. Cass, is it? Now Cass, she has an interesting mind. Very serious, dedicated and loyal. Lexi had asked her for a favor earlier and Cass is wondering what Lexi will do with the information she has provided her. He can't quite grasp what the favor was though. Her mind is very linear, with one thought process at a time and she has already moved on. All that can really be picked up from their thoughts is that they both love Lexi fiercely and that Cass and Lexi have study hall next period. Which as luck would have it, so does he.

Erik rises, deciding to go ahead and head that way, knowing the bell will ring shortly. He chooses a empty table near the back, so to have a clear view of the whole room. He sees Lexi walk in, Cass in tow. When her gaze lands on him, she turns and motions something to Cass and they head in his direction. Lexi's stride is purposeful, and Cass is waking fast to keep up. Suddenly out of no where, Jade appears and perches in the seat next to Erik, leaning very close. Hiding his annoyance at the interference, he turns and begin polite conversation with her. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Lexi's steps falter and her and Cass stop at a nearby table to sit. Erik spends the rest of study hall pretending to listen to Jade's chatter, while simultaneously trying to tune her thoughts out. She is quite the projector. Jade thinks that he is handsome, charming and best of all, she can tell it will annoy Lexi to know end of Jade can get to him first. Between those two things, He doesn't have the energy left to try to listen to Cass or Lexi. Erik does have an idea, though. Jade could come in useful. He was able to pick up from her thought that her and Lexi used to be best friends, so her brain might be quite handy. When study hall is almost over, he turns to Jade and actually listens to what she is saying.
Running her fingertips along his bicep, she practically purrs "Would you like to have lunch with me? I noticed you sat alone today, and I eat lunch alone in one of the classrooms, would you like to join me?"
He smiles at her " Yes, that would be lovely."
She smiles and says " Okay, meet me in room 120, tomorrow for lunch."
Erik knows from her thoughts that she is lying, that she normally wouldn't want to eat lunch alone in a classroom, that is all part of a plot to be alone with him, but that can work to his advantage so he will go ahead and meet her tomorrow. When the bell rings, he skips his last class and skips out the side door of the school, heading towards the woods to recharge, mentally drained from the events of the day.

Seeing something soaring above the treetops, he looks up to see a falcon, which appears to be scanning the area. The bird looks familiar, so he tries to probe into the falcons mind. DONT is the command that comes through, confirming that it is his brother. Apparently tired of flying, he dives down to the ground and reverts to his true form.
" What are you doing, Dante?"
"Stretching my wings, checking out the town from above." He replies casually, knowing it annoys Erik to no end that he can't change forms like Dante can. But Dante can't read minds, or compel people, only sense power, so oh well, Erik thinks to himself.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" Dante asks, with a smirk.
Erik looks him in the eye "I think I found her, the source of the power."
Dante raises his eyebrows " What do you mean, you think?"
Thoughtfully Erik continues on "I'm fairly sure, I can't read her thoughts or feelings, and believe me, I tried. There was just a moment today when I caught a glimpse into her mind and I believe it was only because she was using her power to try to read someone else, which lowered her defenses."
Pondering what his brother is saying, Dante paces back and forth. "So she was trying to read someone else? That doesn't make sense, I was certain it would be someone who wasn't aware of their power, the sense of power was so faint."
Erik interjects " I don't think she knows that she is doing it, exactly. I don't think she even realizes she has defenses up to keep her mind blocked."
Intrigued, Dante muses "If she can block you without even knowing, imagine the possibilities if she tried. I will have to find a reason to be around her, to see if I get a sense of power from her to be sure. She could just be a shield."
Erik rolls his eyes, annoyed that Dante doesn't trust his judgement. " I don't think she is just a shield, Dante."
Shrugging his shoulders, Dante ignores Erik's last statement and starts off in the other direction, turning back into a falcon and flying away. Well, apparently the conversation is over, Erik muses, turning to trudging through the woods and head back to Hawthorne estate. No flying for me, he thinks to himself.