iJesus Christ, that's a pretty face,

The kind you'd find on someone I could save.

If they don't put me away…

Well, it'd be a miracle.

And I, will die, all alone

And when I, arrive, I won't know anyone./i

Jesus Christ © Brand New

Maddy had been at the Lodge for about two months now, and she felt she had settled in quite a lot. Everybody was being on their best behavior for her, especially Dax, now that he had found he was in the presence of another shapeshifter, with the exception of Spook. Even Lisa had offered to give her a manicure last week. The only other person who hadn't gone out of their way to make her feel welcome was Luke, although she had begun to suspect that he was a bit shy and nervous. She couldn't blame him, really. The other day, one of Barry's experiments had exploded; she'd very nearly had a heart attack. Clive, of course, had instantly launched into a lecture on how Barry should have added the hydrogen iafter/i the metal, otherwise how would they get any proper results, did he iwant/i the whole school to explode?

Dax's leg had healed up quite nicely, and he no longer had to wear crutches, although he still hobbled along quite slowly. They were sitting now on a short wall overlooking a field of grass, watching Gideon chase Jacob and Alex all over the grounds for impersonating a very sexy and lovable Lisa behind his back. Gideon had gone bright red as 'Lisa' teasingly asked him if he wanted to spend the night at her dorm.

The atmosphere was very quiet and slightly awkward. Dax kicked his good foot against the wall, rubbing his hand through a mop of fluffy dark hair. Clutching her chest, Maddy gently allowed her hair to fall in front of her eyes and wondered if she should make an excuse that she had homework to get on with.

The sound of footsteps jerked her head upwards. Luke was walking towards them; he made to sit down next to her, before stopping and very pointedly sitting next to Dax instead and rapidly signaling to him.

Dax watched him with a frown. "Uhhh…sorry, mate, I'm not too good on the whole sign language thing."

Rolling his eyes with a grin, Luke just pointed towards the kitchens and then mimed drinking. Dax's eyes lit up. "You mean hot chocolate?"

There was a nod.

"Yeah, okay then. Are you getting some for everyone?"

Luke quickly counted the students on his fingers before nodding again. Dax watched his fingers. "There aren't eleven anymore-twelve, remember?" His smile was slightly uneasy as he gestured towards Maddy. Maddy smiled and gave a shy wave, which was ignored.

"Did someone say hot chocolate?" a voice suddenly called, and Gideon came rushing up the hill, clutching at a stitch in side and looking very red faced. Jacob and Alex, after having their T-shirts pulled up over their heads telekinetically, were now making a quick getaway. "If you did, make sure there's the fluffy cream on top. And sprinkles. And maybe a Flake."

"Any other requests, Your Highness?" Dax laughed, jumping up off the wall. Maddy followed suit.

Gideon considered this for a moment. "And a bar of Galaxy," he added, completely oblivious to the giggles around him.

They were all in the common room, sipping hot chocolate and relaxing, watching a slightly fuzzy magic act on the television. Spook was getting incredibly wound up about it, muttering under his breath all the mistakes the magician made, and how any fool could see that she wasn't ireally/i disappearing, you could see her slipping down into a secret panel, the moron…

Maddy was actually interested in the whole thing. Leaning forwards, she flicked hair behind her ear and watched intently as the magician effortlessly cut a woman in half before reattaching her to her limbs. It looked amazing. How the hell did they do it? Where did they come up with this stuff?

Spook, who was sitting opposite her, noticed her expression and scowled. "iPlease/i," he hissed, gulping down the last of his drink, "You think rookie tricks like that are any good? Let me show you some ireal/i magic."

Maddy blinked. "Uh…okay…I guess?"

Jennifer sniffed. "Don't be silly, Spook. She won't be able to see it anyway."

Spook's face fell.

"I won't be able to see it?" Maddy echoed, blinking and guessing she must look like a rabbit in headlights.

"You're a shapeshifter," said Dax. "Animals aren't affected by Spook's little…games."

"That's a good thing, right?"

Dax shrugged. "Depends on which way you look at it. I mean, Spook can't annoy you-"

"You shut the hell up, you deserve most of-"

"-But sometimes you do miss out on something really great. Like Alex in a sparkly bikini."

Almost instantly, Alex fluttered his eyelashes and put on a high, girlish voice. "Do you think it was too much?" he cooed, putting a hand to his mouth in mock embarrassment.

Ignoring him, Spook glared at Maddy and stood up straight, fists clenched. "You think you're so ispecial/i, don't you?" he snarled, before sweeping out of the room. There was a short pause, before an apologetic glance from Darren as he scurried out after his best friend.

Maddy was slightly upset by the sudden outburst, but had come to realize that that was just how Spook was. She wasn't going to go out of her way to try and make up with him when she hadn't done anything wrong, she decided.

There was a sudden poke to her left. Jacob was grinning at her. "Spook's a jerk, isn't he?"

Maddy hesitated before answering. "I guess."

"Yeah, that's just how it goes. I actually think he has anger issues." Sitting up straighter, he addressed his audience and mimicked a perfect imitation of Spook's oily voice. " 'No, Mr. Therapist, Sir, I don't have any issues-well…I have been lumbered with a terrible fashion sense, I suppose…"

"I don't think his fashion sense is all that bad," Mia piped up, before a scathing look from Lisa toned her down again.

" 'And I'm just isooo/i jealous of shapeshifters," Jacob continued. " 'I mean, iI/i want to turn into a doggy or a birdy too! It isn't ifair/i!"

Everybody was laughing. Maddy felt slightly bad for poor Spook, before remembering that he seemed determined to insult her every ten minutes. The sympathy stopped.

"I love the magic though," she chipped in, raising her voice slightly to be heard. "I mean, the normal stuff-coins and card tricks and all that."

Everybody turned to stare at her. Grinning, Alex raised his hand for a high-five. "Hey, you're good!" he exclaimed, as Maddy curiously high-fived him back, not having a clue why she was doing so.

"Watch out, Jake," Dax grinned, leaning back against the cushions. "You might have another mimic on your tail."

Maddy hadn't even known her voice could go deep…but then again, she had enjoyed acting out plays when she was little with her childhood friend Chase (who had unfortunately moved very far away). She had always been shy, even as a kid, but performing in front of her family, with Chase, who was extremely talented at acting, she felt happy and confident as she played evil old hags or damsels in distress. She supposed her hidden talent for acting had simply sprung up again.

But still…Luke didn't have to look so grumpy about it.

Maddy was sitting in the boys dorm room, fully engaged in a pillow fight. Feathers were flying everywhere, Gideon was screaming his head off with laughter, and Dax had fallen off the bed. She'd been mildly surprised when they'd invited her, but they insisted she was the most fun out of the lot. She still marveled at how effortlessly Gideon whizzed pillows about, hitting her and Dax square in the chest.

Luke was sitting in a secluded corner, sketching something on a piece of paper. He didn't look up when the boys stood up, still howling with laughter, looking at the mess of their bedroom.

"Hey!" Gideon suggested. "Maybe we can go and…borrow…some pillows off of Mia and Lisa. I'm sure they won't mind," he added innocently at Dax's skeptical look.

Sighing heavily, Dax shook his head. "Nah. We'd better clean this up. I'll go down and see if there's any binbags we can use."

"I'll come with you," Gideon immediately offered. "Save you from the teacher's wrath." As the two set for the door, he glanced behind him. "Mads, you can stay here if you like. Luke, make her feel at home…but do not, I repeat, do iNOT/i let her find my chocolate stash!"

Luke rolled his eyes and hunched up into a smaller bundle.

Now alone with someone who quite clearly did not want her there, Maddy was at a loss as to what to do. Sitting down on the floor, she took a deep breath and addressed Luke.

"Can you talk?"

iWow/i. That came out wrong. Luke's face confirmed this, as he glared at her with hatred.

"I…I'm sorry. That wasn't supposed to…I'm really sorry. Are you okay?"

Luke just studied her face for a moment. After a while, he returned to his sketchpad and began scribbling away.

Vaguely, Maddy wondered why he was being so….well…rude. Sighing, giving up, she stood up and made to turn away, before a loud thud on the wardrobe bought her attention back to the boy, who was now also standing up. He was slightly taller than she was, and eyed her coldly. The sketchpad was outstretched in front of him, the paper facing her; in the center where a few sketchy words.

iYou're one of them, aren't you?/i

Maddy paused and stared at the words for a bit longer before answering. "Erhmm…one of what, exactly?" she asked, desperately hoping this would all turn out to be an incredibly unfunny joke.

Luke scribbled in the sketchpad a bit more. This time only two words came up, and they held no meaning to Maddy whatsoever, but the look on Luke's face made her blood run cold for a reason she could not explain.

iA borrower./i

iHello! Well, I didn't actually update this. I'm still not sure I'll continue it, but I will try. Still, I decided you should all get at least a glimpse of why Luke hates Maddy so, so much...

Thank you for all the kind reviews! :D I really appreciate them! It's so surprising that people actually like this story..o.0 Thank you!

As I said, I will try to continue this, but I just haven't had much inspiration to write for a long time.

Also, here's a game-look back through the chapters and see if you can guess when Maddy was accidentally 'borrowing'. ;)/i