"Nora?" He said from behind her. She hadn't expected anyone to be that close so when she turned to find him beside her, Nora jumped in her shoes.

"Huh? What?" She exclaimed.

Students around them were gathering their books and pens. Some were rushing to put away Mrs. Shaw's art supplies in the grey, metal cabinet at the back of the room. The storage unit was old and had squeaky hinges. They creaked as their doors swung to and fro.

Someone hadn't closed a glue bottle tight enough. Mrs. Shaw was grumbling by the sink while gathering wet paper towels to clean up the mess.

"Are you ok?" The boy asked her. His eyes were a brilliant shade of golden brown. Given his tan skin and jet black hair this boy's eyes stood out.

Unaware of her doing so, Nora lapsed into a daydream. A man was whispering to her. "I'm coming for you," he said. "Wait for me. Stay away from him."

When she felt a warm hand on hers, however, Nora blinked. The boy was staring at her queerly. At first, a bit of fear stirred in the pit of Nora's stomach. Paradoxically, when his fingers interlaced with hers and they looked each other in the eyes, a feeling a liquid calm passed through Nora's system. It told her she could trust him, despite not knowing who he was.

The boy coughed and dropped his hand, which prompted Nora to finally respond.

"Yeah, I guess," Nora said hesitantly. "Why do you ask? Have we met?"

Kaden fingered some thread he held in his opposite hand from the day's lesson.

"I was worried about you."

"You were?" Nora asked with surprise. Thinking further she realized he was speaking about what'd happened between her, Donovan and Eamon. "Oh, ah. You don't have to worry about me. The guys were---I mean-"

"I know," the boy interrupted her. "But, I wanted to ask anyway, to make sure you were alright." Since class was over, Nora and Kaden began walking down the hallway towards the cafeteria. It was only a few steps away from their art studio. They shared a lunch period within their schedules. Nora didn't know this, but Kaden did.

Before she realized what was happening, they were at the double doors to the crowded space full of yelling, laughing, opening wrappers and trays clanging on table tops. "After you," Kaden offered while holding open a door for her.

"Thank you, ah-" Nora said.

"Kaden," he replied.

"Kaden?" Nora continued while mulling it over. "Sounds Irish, but you don't look-" she stammered realizing she was being rude.

"Thank you," Kaden responded  grabbing the back if his neck absent-mindedly. "It is. I'm a little bit of Irish and the rest Native American. Obviously, my Irish is a little more subtle than the rest." He pulled on his hair to emphasis what he was saying.

"That's cool," Nora said shyly and continued, "Thank you for asking after me. I'm ok."

"Are you sure?" Kaden said with concern. "You seemed distracted during class. And then just now when-"

"Stay away from him!" The voice from her daydreams suddenly hissed inside her mind. Nora pressed her palms to her ears and winced.

Noticing her distress, Kaden instantly picked up Nora's hand again. "Nora! What is it?" he asked urgently. "Are you ok?"

Once more a sense of immediate calm blanketed Nora and she opened her eyes in awe. "What did you just do?"

Kaden let go of Nora's hand like she'd burned him. He stepped back immediately to put some distance between them. When two telling marks appeared on her bottom lip Kaden cursed himself. Nora would think them to be new freckles, but he knew otherwise. "Damn it!" He swore to himself.

He couldn't believe how stupid he'd been. How selfish!

Nora was more vulnerable now than she'd already been.

And it was all his fault.

Before his calm demeanor could give way to a growing sense of panic, Kaden returned his focus on present-day Nora. He had to help her.

"Nothing. I was just worried because you seemed to float away on me there," Kaden replied with feigned reassurance.

Nora sighed. "Can you keep a secret?" She asked him and then continued before giving him a chance to reply. She had a gut feeling she could trust this boy with all of her secrets. She had no idea why, but she did. When he nodded mutely, Nora continued. "I don't know what's going on with me."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Lately, I have been having a lot of nightmares," she said frowning. "And during the day, more and more, I have these strange daydreams in which I hear-"

Nora stopped herself midstream.

What was she doing? She had just met this guy not five minutes ago and she was about to tell him what? That she was hearing voices?

Hel. Lo.

Someone send this gal to the funny farm. She has a one way train to crazyville.

Shaking her head, Nora shifted gears, "You know what? Nevermind. Are you hungry?"

Without waiting for his response, Nora tugged on her new friend's shirt and dragged him into the lunch line. As they went, Kaden looked across the room and caught Slate's eye. He'd been waiting at the back of the cafeteria for Kaden.

He had insisted on checking up on Nora. After witnessing the argument between Donovan and Eamon, Slate didn't blame him.

It was a dangerous, however. Kaden was taking a huge risk in talking to Nora this early. Judging by the tense look Kaden had just given him, Slate was sure this had been a bad idea.

If they weren't careful, they could lead death straight to Nora's doorsteps, not to mention their own.