YAY!!!! Finally we are getting into Grayson's mind! Enjoy! Also look out for the <>!

Grays POV

Walking out of homeroom was just another painful reminder that I had another six more hours here. I wasn't sure if I could take it much longer, but it brought comfort to my mind knowing that this was my last year of this dreadful place. Before long, I would be finished with all this high school life and would never have to come here again.

When I first arrived in this city, there was a small time when school wasn't so bad, but that moment of enjoyment ended as soon as reality kicked in that no one liked me and I never belonged here. It was then I realized I was only wasting my time doing assignments that held no real value. It didn't help that no one liked me here, and no one understood my story, nor did they want to. In all honestly, I didn't want to understand them either. They were full of simple and basic ideas with no true notion of the real world, not like I had seen.

As I walked towards my next class, my attention turned to a glittering smug in the corner of the hall. It sparkled like a soap bubble and caused me to stop and stare at it for a second. The sight of the Starring caused me to frown since I had never seen something like this so far from the magical gate that I was in charge of. 

Starrings was what the little sparkling blotch was called. It was showing proof that some magical being from the Churchwell realm casted a spell. But the realm that I was from knew that no magic should be used on earth for many reasons. 

Seeing this was concerning to me, not just because it didn't belong here, but because here out of all places was in such a popular place of interaction. Even though it was completely harmless, it stood their sparkling as if warning me something would come, and we had to be ready.

At this moment, I felt something warm and solid collide with me, causing me to take a step back. With a frown, I looked at the girl with curly brown hair in surprise, since everyone avoided me like a plague. I couldn't remember a time when someone ran into me like this.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry," the girl said in a flustered tone as she tried to clean up her pens that she just spilt on the squeaky polished floor.

I looked down at the at least 12 different colored pens and wondered how many she actually needed for school. She couldn't have used all of them, could she? "It's ok," I said, brushing her off as I reached to help clean up her pens.

"I really should watch where I'm going," she frowned as she stuffed her pens in her backpack with haste, as if she didn't care about her colored pens at all. She fought blush that came to her tanned sun kissed cheeks as she looked at me, almost as if she was embarrassed. Probably embarrassed of talking to me. She was the new girl and by now she must have known the rumors about me. 

At first, I was unsure what to say as I stared at her. She could have ran from me but she stayed her ground, looking at me with concern. This girl had said more to me than almost anyone else in the school since the start of the semester. "Happens to the best of us."

She nodded with a small smile, taking ease in my comment, then held out her hand. "I'm Stella."

I looked at her hand but refused to shake it knowing what would happen if I touched her. There was a reason we needed to stay away from humans. We were too different and if she just touched me, she would know I wasn't like her. 

My thoughts took me back to Easton that befriended me when we first moved here. I was stupid to think that I could be friends with a human no matter how kind they were. He shouldn't have died, and I vowed that I wouldn't let that happen again. Stella would know soon enough that I did not interact with anyone in this school.

A second passed as if she was waiting for me to say more. Stella was clearly new, and maybe she didn't know the stories around me. But the quicker she realized the danger that followed me like a shadow, the quicker I could move on with my life. It was easier for the both of us if she didn't talk to me no matter how much I wished for some kind of interaction. Instead of shaking her hand, I put mine in my pockets, showing that I wasn't friendly. "I know."

Stella Scott from LA who now lived with her father in this richest part of Jackson hole. Word spread quickly about the girl that move here from warm and sunny LA. And even though I didn't talk to anyone here, it didn't mean I knew nothing about the gossip of the new girl.

"And you are Grayson."

So she does know of me, at least a little. I wonder if she knew about how Easton died. "I just go by Gray," I replied, cringing slightly at the use of my full name. She was new, she didn't know, but that full name was like salt in the wound, still too fresh to think anything but bitter feelings towards it.

"Ok, Gray..." she hummed, trying to make a mental note about it as if she cared to remember. But she didn't, just like no one else in the school did. They all thought I was a psycho forest killer and you know, if they wanted to think that, let them. It was probably better that then the truth anyhow.

I turned on my heels to walk away but was stopped when she said my name again. "Wait, Gray..."

I turned to face her again in silence, waiting for her to say something to me. She looked like she wanted me to stay, but yet refused to say something about it. Maybe she realized she probably shouldn't have said anything to begin with. Maybe she was intimated, and she should feel that way. I continued to stare at her smooth face with gentle features and hazel eyes as she mustered the courage to speak.

"You dropped a pen," she said finally, holding up a pen that was indeed mine.

"Thanks," I said, taking it, knowing I only had one that I brought to school. If I lost it, I would have nothing to take notes with, but then again, was that too bad?

"Of course."

I stuffed the pen in my pocket as I started walking away from her in silence, ready to end this conversation.

"Well, I'll see you around," she shouted out to me as if we were suddenly friends.

I knew I shouldn't get accustomed to this kind of interaction, but for a second, it caused me to smile. It had been so long that someone didn't flinch from me. I almost enjoyed the change. In the back of my mind, I knew that if she knew the rumors, she wouldn't be so eager to see me around. And that thought forced me to continue forward, as my bitter feelings settled back in like sand in the bottom of the ocean. I didn't acknowledging her comment, knowing I shouldn't get used to her friendliness.

"It was great meeting you too," she said with sass in her voice that made me smirk as I headed to my next class.

Her sass showed me she wasn't afraid of me or at least didn't know the stories, and that was all I thought about the rest of the day. For a moment, she made me not dread the rest of the school day. But as soon as I walked into the next class and the student body became silent, I was reminded why I hated this place; it was just a time waster and I needed to get back to my true responsibilities.

<>

By the time I made it home, my sour mood was spilling out like a boiling pot of water. I thought about all the time I wasted in a school that everyone hated me at. I was in school because my guardian, Else, insisted it was a priority, but I don't think I would ever see it as important as she did.

I opened the front door of the ranch house and dropped my backpack off on the couch. I walked into the kitchen and listened for any hint of Else who I called my mother but heard nothing. Figuring she was off working in a far off location, I opened the nearly empty fridge and sorted through it to find something to eat before I headed off to my job that the Churchwell Royal family gave me.

Quickly I found bread and lunch meat and slapped together a poor excuse for a sandwich. As I bit into it, my eyes locked onto a little post it note on the table. I picked it up to read the note Else made about how late she would be and what I needed to do.

Almost as soon as I touched the note, it came to life, shifting into a miniature version of the woman that was familiar to me standing on the table. She stood confidently with her hair pulled back into a high bun and spandex that hinted she went out running. She probably didn't though, instead she had to look like she fit into this silly little town and if that involved looking like a workout fanatic, then she would do just that.

I think that was one reason she was placed in this town with me, was because she was so good at blending into the surroundings, so good that she could help me blend in. Everyone in Churchwell knew I didn't fit in here and I was only in charge of simple tasks when I should have been in charge of more, like my father was. For a long time, he was a leader, and I should follow in his footsteps, leading instead of staying in a middle of nowhere city watching one of the few gates that connected Earth to Churchwell.

Breaking me from my bitter thoughts was when the note spoke, giving me a rundown of the gate I needed to check in the field next to the forest and what I should expect around the area.

She apologized for not being there, but it was halfhearted since she was often late, and this was no surprise for either of us. Ever since we made it here to this town, the patterns were the same. I would check the gate, she would do other tasks that involved talking to far off leaders who I didn't know or the Churchwell Royal family. One day she told me I would be old enough to talk to these leaders, but for the time being I would stay checking the gate, making sure everything was in line.

After the note finished, it caught on fire and burn itself to ashes on the table. I sighed at the thematic scene of it all. She didn't need to make such a dramatic closing, but then again, she was always one for dramatics and eye-catching appearances. I finished the rest of my sandwich, then left the house once again to carry out all the gate checks I needed to do before sundown.