Synopsis: An AU world where Caleb is a transfer student at Heatherfield from a very isolated, Eastern part of Russia. Of course, as a transfer student, he needs a place to stay… The characters are a little older here; all of them are now juniors (16 years old).

Pairings:

Cornelia and Caleb

Will and Matt

Taranee and Nigel

Irma and Martin

Hay Lin and Eric

Elyon and OOC

Disclaimer:

Q: W.I.T.C.H. is owned by –

A: What? It's not for sale? Well, I guess it's not mine then. (sad)

When We Meet, Sparks Fly

By lianneharmony

"Hey guys! By the way, Caleb, this is Eric, Martin and Nigel," Elyon told Caleb, as they met up with Eric, Martin and Nigel, once they entered the class.

"Hey, Elyon. Who's the newbie?" Martin – that was the name, right? – asked her.

"The newbie would be Caleb Samarin," Caleb introduced himself.

"Not a bad-looking guy, Els? You already over Freddy?" Nigel – Caleb thought – said in a toneless voice.

Caleb noted how Elyon blushed, and asked, "Freddy?"

"The guy you met before," Elyon said, still blushing.

"Oh, well, I suppose your levels of –" the last guy, who was probably the one named Eric, started blabbering off some hormone-related thing (was it called serotonin?) which Caleb knew he had heard of in Bio class, but forgot.

"Oh, God, get a life Tubbs!" Eric said, jokingly.

"Yeah, well, Tubbs, your levels of serotonin are way too high, yet Irma has so got the hots for Joel."

"Joel?" Caleb inquired.

"Another guy," Nigel said.

"Yeah, whatever," Martin was scarlet in the face by now. "Anyway, Caleb. What's your last name again? Samarin? Isn't that Russian?"

Oh boy, tale-telling time.

ø ø ø ø ø ø ø ø

"Whoa, where are Elyon and the guys?" Cornelia was saying once it was lunch.

"Well," Will pursed her lips. "Matt's not feeling well, so he didn't come. No idea where Elyon is, but I think she's with the guys. They had double Pol. Science."

"Well, here they are, and –whoa! – with a hottie," Irma said, as Elyon, Eric, Martin, Nigel and the hottie headed their way.

"Sometimes I regret going for Nigel," Taranee remarked, earning stares from the other girls.

"Gee, but who can blame you?" Hay Lin said.

"A looker, huh? Hey, that's the guy who asked me for directions yesterday," Will said, as she caught sight of the guy.

"Hey, which guy are you talking about?" Cornelia asked.

And then she saw –

Him.

ø ø ø ø ø ø ø ø

Caleb wasn't affected when he saw Cornelia Hale at lunch. Why should he be? He wasn't even worried if Elyon was a friend of Cornelia's or not.

"And there's the bitch," Elyon muttered. "Cornelia Hale."

So he didn't even need to be worried about her at all.

"Hey, Hay!" Eric called.

Again Caleb heard Elyon mutter, "Why the hell am I connected to the gang?"

"You have issues with Cornelia Hale?" Caleb whispered back.

"You heard that?" Elyon said sheepishly. She was clearly embarrassed. "Wait, how did you know it was Cornelia Hale?"

"And there's the bitch, Cornelia Hale," Caleb quoted.

The look of embarrassment simply wouldn't fade away from Elyon's face. "We're supposedly best friends. Yet she's stolen the heart of a guy I like, and is now sleeping around with another guy."

Whoa! Cornelia did what?

"How'd you know that?" Caleb inquired.

"I saw a guy in her room from outside a couple of times."

Oh wow, so they think Cornelia's sleeping with me?

God help me.

"Ri-ight. So you talk to that girl about it?"

"No. You think I'm stupid?"

"It could help –"

"You don't get it, do you? Cornelia's perfect. Wonderfully so. She really hasn't done anything wrong."

"Perfect?" Caleb raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, she does have faults. She sometimes is arrogant, impatient, overconfident, you know – she's sort of a narcissist."

"Ri-ight."

And this is your best friend speaking, Hale!

"Well, which one is she?" Caleb, although he already knew.

"The uber-pretty one. Golden hair, radiant skin – you know, fairytale princess come to life. No wonder Freddy's smitten with her."

"Freddy's a jerk then."

Of course, that would make me a half-jerk too, since I have very platonic feelings for Elyon and – hell, I don't know how I feel about Cornelia Hale.

ø ø ø ø ø ø ø ø

"Hey there, you guys!" Martin waved enthusiastically.

"Gee, that guy can be quite an embarrassing –" Irma began.

"That's mean, Irma," Hay Lin began.

"No, it's being honest. I can't believe – well, it doesn't matter. I think that guy there with Elyon is hot. Definite eye-candy. Don't you think so, Cornelia?"

"Where's Matt?" Cornelia turned around, speaking to Will.

But she just said where he is! Hay Lin wailed.

There was definitely something fishy afoot.

ø ø ø ø ø ø ø ø

"Hey guys," Elyon said as soon as they got near the table. "This is Caleb, girls. Say hello to everyone, Caleb."

"Say hello to everyone, Caleb," Irma parroted.

"Haha, very funny, Irma," Cornelia said, rolling her eyes. "Ignore that empty-brained girl there, Caleb."

"Gee, what a nice way to talk to your friend, Cornelia. I'm Irma," Irma said, with a flirtatious smile, holding out her hand to Caleb.

From behind, Caleb thought Martin was going to faint.

Caleb took the hand and shook it. "Hi, Irma."

"So, where's Nigel?" Taranee asked.

"I'm here. What happened?"

Everyone turned to stare at him. Cornelia rolled her eyes again. "Nigel, you're so droll."

"Cornelia, you're so les."

"Hah, you wish!"

"Well, I guess the only people who're missing are Matt, Eric and Freddy now. So let's eat up!" Hay Lin interrupted them.

At that exact moment, Hay Lin caught sight of Eric behind her, eyes raised. "Was I the only one who didn't understand that?"

Hay Lin blushed at the sight of her crush.

"Nope, I didn't understand a word. But I suppose that I wouldn't understand a single word that she said." At this everyone was taken aback, for this was Freddy speaking. "Hi Cornelia," he said, ignoring the others.

Cornelia ignored him, but smooth-speaking Freddy seemed to ignore this and sat next to her.

"Hey pal," Caleb began, furious at the way Freddy was treating everyone, especially Elyon, who was now teary-eyed, and seemed angry at his indifference.

"Oh, it's the Samarin guy. What's up?"

"Could you be a little more decent?"

"Could you be less of a prick?"

"Could you be less of a jerk?"

"Could you?"

"This Caleb guy's right, Freddy. Could you stop trying to start trouble around here?" Taranee interrupted.

"Shut up, four-eyes."

Hay Lin gasped, and Eric's knuckles whitened, and Irma began, "Think you're smart now? Eh?"

"What about you and your nerd-of-a-boyfriend?"

"Martin and I aren't together, FYI, so I guess you're just to dumb to function," and Irma gave Martin a high-five.

"Why are you being such a jerk, Freddy?" Cornelia began, as Will stood up, looking really worried. This seemed to throw him off guard.

"Why, Cornelia?"

"Hey, don't get into this, you guys. This is between me and that jerk over there," Caleb interrupted, as he looked as if he were going to punch all of them.

"What, and let you have all the fun?" Cornelia crossed her arms. "No way, that jerk has been tormenting both me and Elyon from day one. I've heard you talk to yourself about how annoying Elyon was, and how lowly we all are, and how unpopular. Well, you know what? Popular in Sheffield Institute means you're either a bully or a slut. Don't you think we could all choose to be popular if we wanted?" Cornelia paused for effect here.

"And what's with your insulting of Elyon? The others might no know it, but I've heard people say that you think she's a – she's a – well, you know what you said. And all because she was trying to be friendly with you. She's like the only one who would put up with you. No one else here cares for egoistical, status-concerned guys like you, so buzz off."

Freddy was shocked by this outburst, by what Caleb could see. And Cornelia looked pretty pissed. And Elyon –

Where was she anyway?

As if she read his mind, Hay Lin whispered, "Eric, Martin, Nigel and Taranee are with her."

"What happened to her?" he wanted to ask, but Hay Lin put her fingers to her mouth to signal him to keep quiet.

"Well, you do know you're one of the most popular girls here, besides Miss Will here (a little bow to Will). And you know what? I think you're a little steamed and not feeling really well, so I guess I'll call you later, and then we'll talk." Here Freddy ended, giving her a wink, which resulted in a little shudder on Will's part.

"See you," he waved to the remaining members of the group, and sauntered off.

Everyone was quiet after he left.

ø ø ø ø ø ø ø ø

And it seemed like everyone was going to be quiet for the rest of that day.

Will clenched her fists at regular intervals. That Freddy guy was really getting on her nerves.

She remembered a conversation she had earlier with Matt, about that guy.

"Matt," she had told him, whilst he was walking her home from one of the weekend dates.

"What's it?"

She was mesmerized by his visage, but she shook out of it.

"Look, I know this might not be the best time to talk about this, but –"

"What is it, Will?"

"Your friend, Freddy."

Matt stiffened. "About him."

"I think he's a selfish, egoistic jerk. How come he's your friend?"

She clasped her mouth as soon as those words came out. "Oh my, Matt, I didn't mean it that way." She mentally cussed for being so stupid to insult his friends.

"It's okay."

"It is?" She stared at him questioningly.

"Freddy and I are closed, so I am, you know, kinda pissed at you (here Will hung her head), but you know, I can understand how you feel. Freddy is – well, let's say he's got a bad past. And don't expect me to tell you," he ended, looking at Will's face, "Because no way will I tell you. So – just cut him some slack, okay?"

"There were these rumours that people say that he insulted Elyon using every-letter-of-the-alphabet-words. Are those true?"

Again, Matt stiffened. "If I tell you, you won't tell anyone, will you?"

Will gasped. "But, why?"

"I don't know. Something to do with his friends, allegiance – he told me about a guy named Cedric once. I think that was his brother or something – but I didn't really listen –"

"I can't believe he'd call Elyon that."

"Oh, he called her worse stuff than that."

Will Vandom didn't know how, but that Freddy Larsen –

He was so going to pay.

ø ø ø ø ø ø ø ø

Author's Note:

Awww… Not so many reviews for last chapter… (unhappy)

Anyways, would like to thank coolgirl800 and bla8 who were the only ones who reviewed although I took forever in updating this chapter (hey, I did have trials okay. For IGCSE, which is the most important exam I'll probably take – for now. By the way, bla8, IGCSE stands for International General Certificate of Secondary Education, which is like SATs and GCSEs and O-Levels, hence the grave importance). You guys rock, and this chapter is dedicated to you. Sorry about the lack of C/C, but that'd make it too long. And aren't you guys interested on how Will is going to make Freddy pay? (evil laughs)

And for the rest of you – start reviewing!