Astyr Tyr was losing her patience. The boy in the seat beside her had a hold of her wrist and wouldn't let go. He was studying the carving on her silver bracelet, the bracelet that she had been found with when she was a newborn, abandoned on the side of the road. Her bracelet had a woman on one side with a spear in one hand and a shield in the other and with an ornate crown atop her head of long flowing hair. On the other side was engraved only her name, Astyr Tyr. This small piece of silver was the only clue that Astyr had to who she was. She had no idea what it meant, but it was hers, it was her, and it was all she had. And the dark haired guy next to her was holding on to her like it was a matter of life and death. Astyr felt threatened and she wanted him away from her bracelet. She was really mad and so she looked up into his eyes to tell him so.

The problem was, Astyr couldn't just look into someone's eyes. They say a person's eyes are a window to their soul and for Astyr that was in fact quite literal. When Astyr looked into someone's eyes, she saw deep into their heart, and deep into their soul. Every thought that they had ever had in their life and every thing they had ever done was as clear to Astyr as if it was written in a book for her to read at will.

But it wasn't at her will. She had no control over this talent. When she looked into someone's eyes, she saw it all whether she wanted to or not. And in almost every case, she definitely didn't want to. And even worse, was that Astyr couldn't ever forget. Everything she had ever seen, and felt and heard was still crystal clear in her mind. It was a macabre crowd that she carried around to torture herself with.

She didn't want to know that the first foster parents she ever had only took her because they were drowning in grief from the loss of their own baby a year before. She didn't want to see what her second foster mother did with other men when her husband was at work. She really didn't want to know that one of her second grade teachers, Mr. Nelson, had thought she looked "delicious". She didn't even know what it meant, but she knew the feelings he had when he thought that and she didn't like carrying that around with her.

So Astyr was very careful about not looking into anyone's eyes. It was much easier to get along if you didn't know how petty and spiteful and scared and mean people were in their own minds. She put up with the tags of "shy" and "snobby" and "pathetic". She didn't care what people said about her, just so long as she didn't have to see what they really thought and how they really felt.

But she was mad and she wanted this jerk to let go of her arm so she raised her eyes to tell him off, forgetting for a split second what that would mean. She remembered at the last minute what she was doing and braced herself for the worst. His worst. Every thing he had ever seen and done and said and felt. It would now be forever a part of her whether she wanted it or not.

She looked up into his deep sapphire blue eyes, beautiful eyes, really. They were surrounded by long, thick, dark lashes that made the blue of his irises stand out like jewels. The face around those eyes was quite handsome even though his skin was pale. At least it was clear skin, Astyr thought. His nose was straight and maybe just a little too long, but it went well with the rest of his face since his face was a little long, ending in a very nice point at his chin. Above that chin was a mouth that softened the edge from his well-defined jaw line and his razor-sharp nose, his lips were full and soft and perfectly even and symmetrical. Even his brows were perfect, lush and dark and with just the right arch to focus your attention back to his eyes. His really beautiful eyes.

Astyr was so busy noticing how nice those eyes were that she didn't notice that she wasn't watching a play-by-play of his entire life. When she realized what was missing, she gave a jolt of surprise. The boy tilted his head slightly to one side and gave her a searching look. Whatever he saw must have agreed with him because he shifted his grip so that he was shaking her hand rather than clutching it and introduced himself.

"I'm Gunnar." That was all he said. Astyr continued to look him in the eyes with a vaguely quizzical expression on her face.

"If you two are done can you take your book now?" The sandy haired boy sitting one chair ahead and to the right of Astyr was looking at them both funny and holding out Astyr's new Geometry book. Flustered, Astyr turned to him to take the book and looked up into his hazel-colored eyes.

Immediately she began to see flashes of him. His birth, his childhood, his life, his every thought, feeling, word and deed. And she didn't like it. She didn't like the way he treated his younger brother. She didn't like the way he talked back to his parents and stole from them whenever he thought he could get away with it. She didn't like the way he had a cheerleader girlfriend but hooked up with another girl whenever cheerleader was away. She didn't like the way that he thought acting tough and making others feel bad made him something special when he really, deep down, knew that he was a loser. She didn't like that his biggest fear was that people would find out just how big a loser he really was. She didn't like him.

Astyr quickly looked away and took her book. She placed it on top of her desk with both of her hands on top to try and still the shaking she felt. Her mind was racing and she knew too many kids were still looking her way. Mrs. Morgan was asking her a question and she tried really hard to find an answer somewhere in the swirling mass that was her mind at the moment.

"We were up to chapter three at my old school". This seemed to be what her teacher wanted to hear because she started saying that Astyr would have no problem since they were just starting that chapter here and that everyone should open their books to said chapter and start reading the introduction. Since Astyr knew perfectly well what every single word in the book was she flipped it open to a random page and took the opportunity to look at the rest of the class without worrying about catching someone's eye.

She saw most of the students looking down and reading the books on their desks but Gunnar was turned toward Astyr and was staring straight at her. He had a small smile on his face that made Astyr curious more than anything. Why didn't she get a flashback of his life? What was different about him that blocked his mind from her? Was he the only person like this? And why was he so interested in her bracelet? She was going to have to try and find a way to ask him what had grabbed his attention about it and see if he knew something about the strange carving that could help her find out where she came from.

Mrs. Morgan stopped everyone and started showing them practice problems on the board to help them understand what they had been reading. The rest of the class time passed quickly and when the bell rang, everyone jumped up and started shoving books and folders into their bags.

Astyr grabbed her schedule and map and checked to see what her next class was and how to get there. "You'll be coming with the rest of us. Stay with me and I'll show you where to go." Astyr looked up and saw Gunnar standing beside her desk. "How do you know where my next class is?"

"Easy," Gunnar grinned at her. "At this school there are two different levels for each grade, honors and regular. All of the kids in honors level have all the same classes together and all the kids in the regular level have all their classes together. There aren't really enough kids here to make it worth the effort for the school to make more classes, so if you're in one class with us, you're in all your classes with us, except for elective of course. But that's fourth period so right now, you're headed to history with all the rest of us." Gunnar was saying all this while they were making their way through the hall and almost everyone they passed was staring at Astyr. She put her head down and just made sure that she was still beside Gunnar.

He led her into their next class and went to take his seat while she went to the teacher's desk to hand him the slip of paper he needed to sign. Mr. Henry handed her a thick book and waved her away from his desk. He didn't bother to announce her name or tell her which seat to take. She saw an empty seat in the back of the room and headed over to it.

The next two classes went by quickly and at the end of third period Spanish, Gunnar asked her what her elective class was and Astyr checked her schedule again. "I have chorus with Mrs. Kane." She told him. "Oh, I have to go to Agriculture so I'll have to get someone else to show you where your class is. Jenny!" He shouted over to a girl with long shiny brown hair. She was one of the two who was wearing a denim skirt and when she turned and came over to us, the other girl in a denim skirt came over, too.

"Jenny, this is Astyr. These are Jenny and Ginny" He introduced us all and Astyr nodded slightly in their direction being very careful not to look higher than their chins. "Hi" she said to them. "Jenny, Astyr has chorus next. Can you take her with you?"

Jenny and Ginny glanced quickly at each other and then they each grabbed one of Astyr's arms and dragged her off with them.

"So do you know Gunnar from somewhere?" Jenny didn't waste any time in starting her interrogation.

"Where would I know him from? Is he from the city, too?" Astyr was a little perplexed and since she didn't know anything about anyone except for the sandy-haired boy that she didn't want to know, she decided to just ask questions whenever she got the chance to.

"We don't know where he's from. He just showed up a couple of years ago with his brother. They don't really mix with anyone so we thought you must have known him from before." Jenny said to Astyr.

They were walking across the courtyard and heading around to the side of the gym opposite from the cafeteria. Ginny pulled open a door and they entered a large room that had a piano at the front and two rows of chairs on risers around the rest of the class.

Ginny and Jenny went to their chairs while Astyr went to the piano to hand her papers to Mrs. Kane. "Are you an alto or a soprano?" She looked up to see the rather blank look on Astyr's face. "Astyr? Do you have any experience singing?" Astyr shook her head and Mrs. Kane sighed. "All right, listen to the notes I'm going to play and then try and sing them back to me." Astyr followed along up and down the scales and by the end Mrs. Kane had a big smile on her face.

"You are a soprano, of course, but you have excellent range. I look forward to adding you to our ensemble. Please sit in a chair to the left there with the rest of the sopranos."

Astyr went and sat beside Ginny and for the rest of the class shared the sheet music on the stand in front of them. When the bell rang, Ginny and Jenny grabbed Astyr again and dragged her off with them. "We have lunch now so it's an easy walk to the cafeteria from here." Ginny told her. "The quickest way is to just cut through the gym, the cafeteria's just on the other side from here." They went through the double doors for the gym and started walking across the basketball court.

The risers on one side were open and a group of boys were sitting halfway up goofing around. They saw the girls walking by and started whistling and cat-calling to them.

"Just ignore them, Astyr." Jenny said. "That's our illustrious football team. They're 1-3 at the moment." Jenny said this last part just loud enough to make the boys go quiet.

Jenny and Ginny took Astyr into the cafeteria and found seats midway down one of the long benches that were on both sides of the room. Astyr pulled out the lunch bag Grima had given her and started eating while more girls came and sat around the three of them. It didn't take long for Astyr to discover that she was in fact sitting with the varsity cheerleading team and soon Jenny was introducing her to the head of the team.

Astyr said hello to Gwen and carefully looked her over. Gwen was wearing an expensive-looking red sweater with a white blouse under it. There was a thin black belt buckled around her waist and she was wearing a denim skirt just like every other girl in the group. She had shoulder length light brown hair that had professional-looking blond steaks in it. She was one of those girls who carried herself like she knew every eye in the room was on her and that was just the way she wanted it. Gwen gave Astyr a head-to-toe glance and then asked her if she was in any way acrobatic.

"Look, we need another girl on the squad so we'll look better doing dance routines. If you can jump and or do any kind of flip, you'd be the perfect addition." Gwen proclaimed to the table at large.

Astyr didn't know if she wanted to be chained down in a group like this or not but she said she'd ask her guardian about it.

"Guardian?" Ginny picked up on that right away. "Where are your parents?"

"I don't have any parents." Astyr told her. "I'm a foster kid and I'm staying with Grima Thorrsen right now."

More than a few of the girls looked around at each other at that.

"Do you mean Dr. Thorrsen?" Gwen asked her.

Doctor? That was news to Astyr "I'll talk to her tonight and see if she'll let me join the squad." Astyr quickly tried to change the subject to cover up her ignorance.

Gwen nodded and told Astyr to do that and then all of a sudden her eyes swept to the door and she sat up straighter and flipped her hair back.

Walking into the cafeteria were two of the most gorgeous guys on earth. They were tall and muscular with the same dark hair and pale skin. The younger one glanced around the room and found Astyr with his eyes. He gave her a small smile and tapped his brother on the arm and pointed to the table full of cheerleaders.

The two of them came up to the table and Gunnar grabbed Astyr and pulled her around.

"Hey. I wanted to introduce you to someone." Astyr looked up to the new guy and kept her gaze on his chin. "This is my older brother Hakon. He's a senior this year." He said this last part with a smile in his voice and Hakon gave him a smirk.

"Hi Astyr. It's nice to meet you." Hakon held out his hand to her and even though she felt a little foolish she reached out to shake it. Hakon glanced down and brought her hand up closer to his face. "That's a really pretty bracelet." He mentioned. "Did you get that somewhere around here?"

Astyr felt suddenly uncomfortable about this meeting and she pulled her hand out of his grasp. "I've had it my whole life." She told him evenly. Then she turned and scooped up her bag and left the room to go wander around and see if she could find her own way to class.

The last thing she saw walking out the door of the cafeteria was Gwen giving her a murderous glare. Astyr was really glad she wasn't looking into that pair of eyes.

***************************************************