Chapter 2

Theo's hands wanted to shake, but he wouldn't let them. He held the curved sword in front of him, both hands on the hilt of the weapon, ready to use it if he needed to. The stranger in the middle of the clearing stared at him calmly, displaying none of the nervousness of the teenager standing across the clearing from her. Suddenly, before Theo could react, she leapt forward, wrapping her hands around the blade of his katana and pulling it from his hands with an inhuman strength. The razor sharp steel didn't seem to bother her.

Standing at arms length, Theo had a clear view of her face. The stranger who had appeared to meet with him in the woods had the red, furry face of a fox. Theo screamed in terror...

... And woke up. It had all been a nightmare, he realized. His fear about the strange email that had plagued him all last night had followed him into sleep and haunted his dreams. He slid out of bed. It was still night, and Theo could see the starlight through the window. Across the room from him, Thad slept. His twin brother, so angry and hurtful while awake, looked strangely peaceful in his slumber. Theo looked away from his brother, realizing that his skin was soaking wet with sweat. He walked into the bathroom to clean up. Glancing at the clock in the hallway on the way to the bathroom revealed that it was 5AM. His usual morning routine was to wake up at 6, so he decided to stay up. He quickly showered, and then ate a quiet breakfast of cheerios. Gathering his books, Theo was out the door and on his way to school before Thad even woke up, which pleased him.

Theo got on his bicycle and started riding to school. He enjoyed the solace of being on his bike and loved to feel the cool wind on his face. It made him feel free to travel places on his own, under his own power. He had ridden the bus all through middle school, and the contrast was great. He pitied all the kids who took the bus.

Looking ahead, he powered forward as fast as he could, making the little plastic speedometer on his handlebars move up rapidly and finally stop on twenty-five miles an hour. It pleased Theo to be able to move this fast; when he first started riding he could barely break fifteen. Before long he was passing the woods that were the focus of last night's dream, which he had by now mostly forgotten. Still, a little chill went through the young man as he looked at the green trees standing motionless on that windless morning. He almost felt like he should go into the woods now, instead of school, like something he couldn't understand was calling to him. Scared now, Theo tore his eyes from the forest and once again rode as hard as he could, looking straight ahead. Something didn't feel right.

Theo made it to school in less than ten minutes, panting as he dismounted and locked up his bike. There were no other signs of activity besides his own. He looked down at his Casio watch: it was 5:42. He was almost two hours early for his first class. He was often early, but never more than an hour or so. Somehow, though, the young man didn't feel odd about being at school so long before classes would start. It felt right, somehow, like there was something he needed to do. The morning dew on the grass shone in the fist rays of morning light creeping over the horizon as Theo walked to the library building. He stopped and looked at the sunrise, awed by its beauty. Somehow the fear he had felt earlier was melting away, being replaced by something warmer and happier. Good will permeated his being, and in this new state of emotion Theo decided suddenly that he would go to the woods later that day and confront whomever it was that wrote the mysterious email.

This decision made the teen feel a lot better. Theo had always been a man of action, and sitting and brooding about a problem was not his style. He walked through the double doors of the library and stopped. In addition to the one aging librarian that seemed to inhabit the building at all hours, someone else was here. This was unusual, as Thad, and rarely other members of the school's outcasts, were the only ones to use the library this early. All of the early studiers were male. The person sitting quietly in the back of the large room, reading quietly, was a girl. A girl he knew. It was Thad's ex-girlfriend Ashley.

Ashley was beautiful, popular, and a member of the cheerleading squad. And while she got decent grades, (Theo graded papers for several of the school's teachers) she was by no means a serious student such as himself. He didn't recall ever seeing her in the library before, let alone at this hour. Theo wondered why she was here, but felt too embarrassed to ask. It was none of his business.

Ignoring her, he walked quietly to a bookshelf and pulled down a tome on biochemistry, a subject he found fascinating. He sat at one of the many unoccupied tables and buried himself in the thick book, reading rapidly and mentally digesting the information as he went. He went on reading for a while. Suddenly, he felt something touch his shoulder. Moving quickly, he jerked away from the hand and bolted up, assuming a combat stance and turning to face whatever was behind him. It was a shocked looking Ashley.

Smiling in embarrassment, Theo dropped his karate stance and gave her a sheepish grin. He felt like an idiot. "Uh, sorry," he managed to say.

The blond girl gave a tentative smile and a weak chuckle. "You sure can move fast. Playing karate-kid, huh?" Ashley smiled to let him know that her words were not an insult. Looking at her like this, standing face-to-face, Theo realized that his brother's ex-girlfriend was almost half a foot taller than him.

Theo's face reddened anyway. "Well, uh, I do a little karate." He tried to smile. Deciding he wanted to be off his feet before his embarrassment made him keel over, he sat down at the table. Ashley joined him, taking a chair not quite opposite his. She looked at him uncertainly.

"I heard you might be in here before class." She said. He didn't reply. "You're a little shy, aren't you?" she asked, more seriously.

Theo just nodded. He wondered why she had approached him and where this conversation was going. It unnerved him, and yet he was enjoying it very much. He hardly got a chance to talk with anyone since his shyness prevented him from initiating a conversation, and Ashley was a very beautiful girl.

"I'm glad you told me about your brother yesterday. He always seemed so nice, until I asked him about..." she trailed off, not certain about how to continue, "... about what you said," she finally decided. "He looked angry, like he wanted to hurt me. It was really scary. I'm glad I broke up with him in the hallway, with all those people around. If we had been alone I'm not sure what he would have done." She looked sad and a little hurt. Theo realized that she had probably cared for his brother quite a bit. It must have been a shock to her to see the accusations he had made confirmed.

Her eyes, which Theo realized were a bright green, had steadily been falling as she spoke, and by the time she was done with her oration the teenaged girl's face was pointed down at the table. He felt a little bad for destroying her relationship, but only fleetingly. Thad was bad news. Ashley straightened her posture, and her eyes once again rested on the face of the young man sitting across from her.

"I guess I just wanted to say thanks," she finished, standing up. She walked across the table to Theo, leaned down, and gave him a little peck on the lips. Theo's breath stopped and he felt like his face was on fire. With a hastily spoken goodbye, Ashley was gone.

He sat there for a long time, replaying the incident in his mind over and over; savoring the memory of the split-second her lips had been on his. Finally he put the book he had been reading back onto its proper stop on the shelf and left the library. Theo was late for class for the first time in his life.

His first period teacher had been very understanding of his tardiness, thought Theo, considering his perfect performance in class and his, until now unblemished record of attendance. The rest of the day had flown by in no time at all, with Theo caught in the warm haze of some pleasant emotion he couldn't define. He wondered if he loved Ashley. Probably not, he answered himself. But he definitely had a crush on her. He hadn't been able to think of anything else but her beautiful eyes and soft lips all day. He sighed as he walked out of his last and favorite class, AP chemistry. His day was over, nearly two hours before most of the other students. Because he had already completed more credits than were required to graduate he could pretty much do as he pleased, and he had decided to end each school day with an off-campus open period. He walked to the bike racks and unlocked his machine, with the intention of his usual afternoon routine: homework, Tanaka-Sensei's lessons, dinner, Internet, and then bed.