First Encounters

He first saw her almost three days ago. Though not exactly where things had gone wrong, it seemed to be where those things had begun. Before then, he hadn't seen any other weird things. Before then, he'd been just a normal guy.

His name was Tristan Young. He was seventeen years old, with curly black hair that was forever falling into his hazel eyes. He was a good student, kind of quiet and distant. He focused on his studies to the exclusion of almost everything else, with the goal of being a lawyer in mind. He'd been that way for years, but not forever. He just didn't care to socialize, and could usually be found reading over his notes before a class, instead of talking and joking like the rest of his peers.

Tuesday was no different. It was first period, and though class wouldn't start for another seven or eight minutes, Tristan was ready to take notes on the lecture of the day. He shut out the noise of everyone else as he always did, but for some reason he heard the door open. He glanced up, took note of the slender girl that walked in, then returned to his notes. She was unfamiliar, but there wasn't anything unusual about that. For all he knew, they'd been going to the same school since the seventh grade.

Then he frowned and looked up again. She was talking to the teacher, again not unusual, but there was something different about her. Something he couldn't put his finger on. It was a kind of...aura? Was that the right word for it?

She shook the teacher's hand, and he could have sworn something passed through the contact. She tossed her thick, golden-brown braid over her shoulder and met his eyes, green-gold to hazel. She walked to his table and said, "Hi. My name's Destiny. Destiny Hunt. Mr. Richards said you'd be able to help me catch up."

He blinked and shook it off. "Um, yeah. What've you missed?"

"I just transferred here, actually. I'd be grateful for any help you can give me." Destiny smiled, a small grin that made him smile too.

"Sure. Got some time?"

"Nothing but." She sat in the chair next to him and put her bag on the floor. Something on her forehead glinted, but before Tristan could take another look she said, "Where should we start?"