Hidden from the eyes of mere mortals, Dispatch suddenly loomed into view, a dozen huge buildings towering above the city were closely knitted together in rows separated by tree lined lanes winding in and out; the whole campus was extremely extensive and anyone would have easily been able to get lost if they hadn't been there before. Shinigami were walking to and from dispatch and new initiates could be seen asking for directions from the qualified members; today was the start of a new batch of trainee's at the academy and there were a lot of hopeful candidates looking quite excited and nervous, not all of the would make it in the end.

Walking slowly down one of the tree lined lanes between two of the huge buildings were a boy and a girl who looked like they knew exactly where they were going, they were both dressed in black, wearing glasses and deep in conversation. They were both quite tall but the boy was a little taller than the girl, he had jet black hair with his fringe lightly sweeping his forehead and his eyebrows were drawn in making him look quite serious if it hadn't been for the slight smile he was wearing when he was talking to his companion. The girl had dark crimson hair swept up on her head with a long sweeping fringe and loose strands of hair falling down the back of her neck; she was very attractive with long lashes and pale almost white skin.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" The girl said with one raised eyebrow as she eyed the boy suspiciously, "I'm sure we've been this way already."

"I know where I'm going," The boy said assuredly quickly looking about to confirm to himself that he actually did know where he was going, "You would too if you'd come to the open day with me."

"I didn't need to; I knew I wanted to be here anyway." The girl said brushing him off and eyeing up two qualified field agents that were passing her by, they looked extremely handsome in their uniforms and carrying their death scythes that she couldn't help but stare.

"Yes but it would have been good for you to see what you were getting yourself into. You always dive into things headfirst without thinking about them. You might not like it here after all, you're not suited to sitting around shuffling papers at a desk in my opinion." The boy said pushing his glasses up and smiling as he saw the girl's expression of irritation she was trying to hide.

"Thanks for reminding me." The girl said unenthusiastically and then she crossed her arms and huffed, "Who says female Shinigami can't be field agents, it's stupid, everyone knows that women can be just as good as and most times even better than men. I don't get it, it's just...sexist." The girl stamped her high heel on the ground and stopped in her tracks in annoyance, the boy put his hand on her shoulder and she eased up, "Sorry."

"You always get like this," The boy said, "Just forget about it, the rules aren't going to change so stop getting so stressed and just be satisfied that you might be a part of all this." The boy gestured around to the buildings with a proud look on his face but the girl grimaced at him and raised an eyebrow again.

"Might?" The girl said flatly, "Will, I'm going to get into Dispatch whether you like it or not."

"With your grades, you have a better chance than me." The boy, Will, said looking serious, "You pick things up so easily, there's still so much I have to catch up on."

"Well then! It's a good job you've got me!" The girl said flinging her arm around his shoulders and squeezing him into her side tightly.

"Ah Alex, stop it." Will said wriggling away and walking hastily off ahead of him with a slight flush in his cheeks, "Come on, its nearly nine, we'll be late." Will headed for a building in front of him not daring to turn round for fear of her seeing his face; Alex shrugged and followed him with a slight smirk, roll of her eyes and shake of her head.

William T. Spears and Alexandra Rose Winter had known each other for a few months now, their parents had been acquaintances from Dispatch and they had met a meal and had immediately gotten along, they shared the same passion and interest for Dispatch and wanted to follow in their parents footsteps and join the academy. They had both agreed to keep each other company during their training and help each other along as much as possible; they had been speaking very regularly and eagerly swapping revision notes and holding long conversations on what they thought they were going to experience when they got there. It had seemed years away that the day would come but now they were finally here and as cool and collected as they looked they were both wracked with nerves.

Will and Alex finally found where they were supposed to be, Lecture room 1, when they entered the room there were rows and rows of desks leading up the back and already there were quite a lot of initiates waiting patiently and chatting away nervously amongst themselves. Will and Alex found a seat near the front and waited patiently, Alex kept swivelling around in her chair looking at all the other initiates, there were a lot of male Shinigami but not a lot of females but this didn't bother her, she didn't really get along with other girls.

A few minutes passed and the clock locked on to nine, all the initiates were murmuring quietly as the doors were shut and about four qualified Shinigami stood at the front and addressed them all, they explained who they were and then set about giving them a brief welcome to Dispatch and explaining what the course entailed and what was expected of them. The three months training they were there they would be set assignments and coursework which would be graded and be taken into account with their final exam. The final exam would be a practical verification of souls for the field agents and the female Shinigami would have to process the record and details effectively without any mistakes. Both examinations were demanding in their own way.

"Are there any further questions?" Lawrence Anderson said, he was one of the instructors and was better known by the name 'Father', he was also in charge of the glasses department which was the heart and soul of Dispatch.

There were a few murmurs but no one spoke at first then 'Father' looked up and caught sight of someone at the back with their hand in the air, "Yes?" he said peering up at them and then down at his clipboard searching through the list slowly for a name.

"Grell Sutcliff." A voice answered high and loud echoing down the room.

Will, Alex and what seemed to be every other initiate in the room turned around to search for the owner of the voice, it didn't take them long before they were all looking at the same boy who was incredibly hard to miss.

The boy was sat at the very far back of the room on his own lounging casually in his chair balancing on the back two legs and wearing his black Shinigami uniform with both of his legs crossed on top of the desk, he was tall, taller than Alex but about the same height as Will and he was very slim, he drummed his fingers on the back of his chair with one hand whilst sweeping his other hand through his shock of bright red hair. The boy was extremely good looking but his smile deterred everyone straight away, his teeth were sharp like razors and made him look very worrisome as he grinned down at everyone staring at him. The boy's eyes scanned over his fellow classmates taking in their shocked expressions, it pleased him.

"So when do we get our scythe's?" The boy said impertinently, he immediately exuded an intractable air of arrogance and haughtiness and gave the impression that he found himself far superior to everyone in this room with him.

Father did not look pleased and immediately averted his eyes down to his list until he found the boy's name and read his entry grades, "Practical classes start tomorrow Mr. Sutcliff, you will be assigned an initiate scythe with your new Instructor. Are there any other questions?" The boy raised his hand in the air again almost instantly and Father sighed, the rest of the class murmured between themselves about his rudeness, "Yes Mr. Sutcliff?"

"Do we al have to use initiate scythe's?" The boy said swinging his legs off the desk and leaning forward, "Can't those who are sure to pass not be assigned their Dispatch scythe?" There was more murmuring in the class and now a few of the initiates and Instructors were shooting the red haired boy disapproving looks.

"Mr. Sutcliff," Father said loudly so that all the murmuring stopped instantly, "You will all be assigned initiate scythe's despite your entry grades, all initiates are equal here and there will be no special exceptions for be assigned initiate scythe's despite your entry grades, all initiates are equal here and there will be no special exceptions for anyone." Father shot the boy a severe look and the boy leaned back with a slight smirk; Father then addressed the initiates, they would now be split into four classes and taken for a tour of Dispatch.

"His attitude stinks." Alex whispered to Will and Will smiled in approval but pressed his finger to his lips as Father began to speak again.

"I will be taking Class A for a tour of the building myself this morning as your Instructor is currently out on duty, please listen carefully for your names and follow me." Father looked down the list and began shouting names, Will and Alex were both surprised to hear that they were in the same group and made their way out of the classroom to wait for Father. There were two other students already in the hall waiting when Will and Alex came out and they were shortly followed by more.

"What was all that about?" Alex said to Will as they leaned against the wall waiting, "His attitude was absolutely shocking, I don't know how he managed to get through the entry process." Alex looked absolutely bewildered by the whole thing and Will merely shrugged.

"I've heard about him," Said one of the other students in the hall, he was sitting on the windowsill looking quite scruffy in his uniform with the collar, waistcoat and tie undone, his hair was chin length and blonde swept over to one side and shaved on the right and there was a small amount of hair on his chin, the start of a rough looking goatee, "That's Grell Sutcliff, he's supposed to be a child prodigy, absolute genius in his practical technique." The boy stood up when he saw both Will and Alex's curious looks; he smiled widely and bowed, "Eric Slingby by the way."

"William T. Spears." Will said bowing back.

"Alex Winter." Alex said not moving from the wall.

"Ah another Winter," Eric said, "My father worked in the same department as yours, he said that I might be in the same year as you, haven't your family been in Dispatch for centuries now?"

"Yes," Alex said shortly, "You seem to know a lot about everyone else." Alex didn't quite like Eric, he kept staring down at her legs and when she spoke he merely raised his eyes slowly up to her chest, "My face is here!" Alex said leaning forwards suddenly and pointing to her head, Eric looked up in shock and laughed nervously.

The door to Lecture room 1 opened and out came the red haired boy with a haughty expression, he scanned over the rest of the group and rolled his eyes sighing and then sat on the windowsill a little further down from them all crossing his arms and looking off out the window whistling. Everyone in the group eyed him with disapproval that now they would have to put up with him for a whole year and went back to their conversations amongst themselves trying to ignore him.

"Oh god." Alex said under her breath. "Why him?"

Will looked a bit torn, he looked over his shoulder at the red haired boy only to find that he was no longer looking out the window but was instead looking their way slyly then quickly he averted his eyes and went back to staring out of the window trying to cover up the fact he had been staring at them.

"He's probably nervous like the rest of us." Will said, "Maybe he doesn't have any friends." Will was generally a nice natured and caring sort of person, he had always been involved with his studies and hadn't had many friends in the past so he knew how it felt to be alone.

Alex gave Will a worried look, she knew what was going through his mind but she didn't want her and Will to be held back by a disruptive initiate like him even if he was a child genius, "No, please Will, don't...I know what you're thinking. It's just us remember, here for each other, we'll both pass together."

It was too late, Will was ignoring Alex, he knew that she was right but he couldn't help feeling sorry for the boy who obviously didn't have very good social skills and was already making himself an outcast on his first day, this boy, Grell Sutcliff, was obviously doing this for attention and to try and gain himself some friends in a strange kind of way. Will walked over past the other students in his class and approached the red haired boy who was now looking down from where he was sat on the high sill with a furtive stare.

"I am William T. Spears." Will bowed for a moment waiting for a reply but it never came, he straightened up and looked at the boy who looking down with a supercilious expression.

"So what." The boy said impertinently.

Will was a little taken aback but he assumed that the boy was merely being defensive to protect himself, "I thought we might introduce ourselves, we are in the same class after all. I thought you might like to join us." Will said awkwardly gesturing over to the others.

The boy huffed and gave Will a bored look, "So, we might all be friends together?" The boy watched as Will said nothing and a smile crept on the boy's face and he laughed, "I don't need to make any friends, after all there's not much point, I probably won't see any of you again after I pass and you all have to go home." The boy slid off the windowsill and raised an eyebrow grinning at Will.

That was it, Alex had been stood watching the scene trying to hold herself back from getting involved but now she couldn't contain herself anymore, she pushed past Eric, who had been trying to stare down her dress, and through the other students storming over to Will's side where she came to a halt with her hands clenched at her sides and a red flush spreading through her cheeks.

"Just who do you think you are speaking to him like that?" Alex said staring the red haired boy in the eyes with a furious look but containing her wish to hit him.

"Alex-" Will said trying to intervene but she stepped in front of him.

"He was just trying to be nice." Alex said watching as the boy looked shocked for a moment but then he leaned on the wall with a smug smile casually keeping his composure; he looked around the side of Alex at Will and gestured to her.

"Is this your girlfriend?" The boy said with a small giggle, "That's a shame." The boy looked Alex up and down with a curious expression until he came to her hair, red but darker than his, the boy's face changed instantly and he looked angry, "There's not enough room in Dispatch for the two of us darling," the boy said crossly but then his face broke into a contented expression, "Well maybe there is, in your case the office."

Alex's eyes widened in fury and she felt her arm rising through the air in the direction of his face, the boy's eyes darted down to it and widened like hers, just in time Will grabbed her by the back of her jacket and pulled her away just before Father came out into the hall and saw what was going on. If Alex had struck the boy in Father's presence then she would have been straight into a disciplinary and probably sent straight out of Dispatch without a second thought. Will could not let Alex and the red haired boy, Grell Sutcliff, anywhere near each other from this point onwards, otherwise there would be more confrontations between the two redheads.

"Are we all here?" Father said eyeing up Will, Alex and Grell with a dubious look. "Good, then lets start our tour of Dispatch without further objections."

Alex and Grell shot each other looks of disdain before Will ushered Alex down the corridor; Will sighed, Alex had always had a bad temper and short fuse and he'd had trouble with her in the past trying to make sure she didn't get into arguments or fights, now he not only had to watch out for Alex but also for this boy, Grell Sutcliff, the spark to Alex's flame.