The world is held together by bonds.

From a mutual agreement between a tree and a bird, to the fierceness of a mountain lioness for her cub.

Humans share a bond with a person they've talked to, passed by, maybe even stole from.

Bonds between brothers, sisters, lovers, fathers, sons, mothers and daughters have been known as a most sacred.

Those bonds we must protect at all cost.

Chapter One: Transferred

Spenser Academy, a prestige private school that only the best can attend. The best or the rich. Evelyn Cortez was one of the few struggling to stay as part of the best. If someone had recently caught her between classes and her dorm room, all they would receive was a small polite smile as a hello and a nod of the head as a 'see you later.' Of course, that's what she would do if anyone tried.

Evelyn strolled down the hallway, making her way to her first class of the day. English Literature. Going over last night's homework in her head, she nearly walked right passed the classroom door if it hadn't been for an arm stretching out and pulling her inside. Instinctively pulling away from the grip that held her, she looked up to see who had pulled her in.

"Good morning, sunshine." Her roommate, Alexis smiled brightly in greeting. Alexis was a slender girl, blessed with palm olive skin and beautiful silky brown hair that at the moment was pulled back into what barely qualified as a bun. Even though she was brilliant and beautiful, her coordination with picking up hair was, well, sloppy.

"Morning," Evelyn breathed with a smile, embarrassed at having been startled.

"You okay?" Alexis tilted her head to the side as her sparkling blue eyes studied her. "I tried waking you up this morning, but you wouldn't have it."

Oh yeah. Evelyn remembered telling someone to go away that morning. Must've been Alexis.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just wasn't ready to get up." Evelyn dodged before leading up the stairs to their seats.

As Evelyn dropped into the blue stiff cushion, the teacher, Professor Jordan walked into the room, closing the door behind him. And so the lecture began.

Alexis pulled out her notes from the lecture the day before as Evelyn pulled out a small blue notebook. Once in awhile, when the teacher wasn't looking, she would scribble a little something in the notebook that had absolutely nothing to do with class, but with what ever popped into her head. Before long, she had a page filled with quotes, lyrics, doodles, and numbers.

Evelyn sighed as she leaned back in her seat. It seemed that today was just a review day for the test Monday. If she was lucky, maybe the rest of her classes would be like this too. Today was after all, a Friday. Not even she was crazy enough to feel like doing work on a FRIDAY.

"Cortez." The drone of Professor Jordan's voice met Evelyn's ears, causing her eyes to snap up to the front of the class room. "The headmaster would like a word with you." He said dismissively, waving a small square paper in his hand absently before continuing on with whatever he was going over. Evelyn glanced at Alexis, who merely shrugged.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Evelyn gathered her things and stepped down the aisle, making her way to the door.

Why would the headmaster want to talk to her? She hadn't done anything worth mentioning to anyone that she knew of. Maybe by some chance of luck, she had earned a free day? No Classes? Yeah. Like they allowed that sort of thing. She couldn't pull that off at her old public school, what were the chances of it happening here? Z.E.R.O.

Reaching the headmaster's door, she hesitantly knocked. When she heard the gruff noise of an 'enter' from the other side, she slowly turned the knob and peered through. The headmaster sat behind his wooden desk, with papers seemingly scattered all around. It almost looked as if he were one of the students at the library stressing over calculus. Which reminded her, she had calculus homework due that day. She knew she'd forgotten something the night before. She mentally cursed her scatter-brained self. There was another girl seated across from him, with a duffel bag at her feet. Short brown hair obscured her face, though, so Evelyn couldn't tell who she was.

"Ah, Evelyn. Have a seat, won't you." He indicated the green pleather seat directly before his desk. That's when the girl looked over, flipping the hair out from her face and locking gazes with Evelyn. Evelyn's jaw dropped as she froze mid-step.

"Josie?" She blurted for lack of any other thought.

The smaller girl smirked. "What's up?"

Evelyn sat down and looked back and forth between the headmaster and her cousin. "What are you doing here?" She questioned, her eyes roaming over Josie's appearance. She looked fine. Actually, she looked different; dressed in a pink button up blouse and a black jacket, with wavy hair, probably from the rain outside, she looked grown up. It was disturbing in a way.

"Ms Cortez, you're cousin here, Ms Gellar has just transferred to Spencer." The headmaster informed.

Evelyn's eyes widened as excitement began to well up inside her. "Really?"

"Yup." Josie nodded.

"Since she missed the entrance program last week, I'm handing her over to you to give her a tour. Answer any and all of her questions and make sure she gets settled in. You will be missing the rest of your classes for the day, but you'll still have your assignments to do over the weekend, understood?" His eyes pierced straight through her, daring her to object to the work, but she didn't really care. She understood and it wasn't as if she was considering not doing it.

She nodded her head in agreement. The headmaster then turned to Josie and stood up to shake her hand. Both girls stood up as well. Josie took the offered hand.

"Welcome to Spencer Ms Gellar."

Josie smiled politely. "Thank you sir."

--

"What the hell! What gives?" Evelyn exclaimed once they were a good distance away from the headmaster's office. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? And why did you come? You told me you hated private schools, that all they do is stick a ruler up your ass."

"Yeah. I see they've stuck one up yours."

Evelyn frowned which made Josie chuckle and shrug.

"You left me alone back there. Did you really expect me to survive my family to graduation?"

Evelyn thought it over. "I guess not." As they walked, they passed a glass window which Evelyn pointed out led to a court yard. They walked in silence for a few minutes when Evelyn spoke up, "You're wearing pink. That's a big change."

Josie's eyes widened. "Shit! I forgot about that! Quick-help me take it off!"

"We're in the middle of the hallway!" Evelyn looked around to check if anyone was walking their way.

"I don't care." Josie snapped as she continued to shrug out of her jacket. "Here, hold my bag." She threw her duffel bag which Evelyn caught before it hit her square in the face.

"Josie, stop." Evelyn sighed, dropping the bag to her side.

Josie pulled her arm out of the black jacket before tossing it at Evelyn as well. She unbuttoned the pink blouse, revealing a green t-shirt underneath, slipped it off and balled it up.

"My mom made me wear it. She wanted to make sure I was 'dressed properly' for the school's headmaster. Freaking lame." Evelyn held out the duffel bag so that Josie could unzip the side and shove the shirt in.

"You done now?" Evelyn questioned with a bored expression.

Josie shrugged back into her jacket and slung the duffel bag around her shoulder. "Yup."

Being the middle child of three, Josie became an individual who spoke her mind and couldn't care less about what strangers thought about her. Having few friends that she trusted and a family she felt strongly independent from already, Josie was looking toward a smooth transition from a dull life in Texas to a new life in Massachusetts. Her cousin already attending Spenser was both a cover and a bonus for Josie tagging along.

Josie inspected her new room and realized it was shared with a girl who obviously had school spirit...and a boyfriend.

"Ah." Josie kicked a piece of clothing away from her with her foot and crinkled her nose. "I think my roommate wears briefs."

Evelyn hid a smirk by ducking her head. "Yeah. Either that or your roommate is very outgoing."

"Shit. Are you roomed with anyone?" Josie asked hopefully.

"Er. Yeah. Alexis."

Josie's shoulders slumped. "Damn it." She cursed under her breath. She dropped her duffel bag on the unoccupied bed and looked out the window. She'd forgotten about the warmingly bright girl Evelyn had once written about in an email.

"Come on." Evelyn clapped and rubbed her hands together to shake the mood. "I'll show you where you're classes are."

--

As the two walked down the gloomy, silent hall, Josie felt a bubbling thrill in her gut. Unable to contain her enthusiasm, she broke into a silly grin and bounced on her toes. "Oh my God; it's like: so dark and spooky, and old! I love it!"

"Keh. Yeah." Evelyn agreed with less enthusiasm.

"Hey," Josie jumped up to land beside Evelyn and put a hand on her shoulder. "Which jail cell is my first class?"

"Um…" Evelyn trailed her finger along the wall as they walked before reaching a door and stopping. "This one. This one?" She consulted Josie's schedule which had been printed out on paper and turned back to the door. "Yup, this one: Mr. Brenamen's class."

Josie stepped up to the door and peered through the small glass window to study the room and maybe catch a glance of the teacher. The teacher was a lost cause seeing as he insisted on standing by the chalk board that remained out of the door's view, so she resigned herself to study the students.

"They look pretty bored." She muttered, her eyes scanning the different lazy bodies. "Look, that guy's asleep! Dude, this class is going to be easy."

Evelyn raised her eyebrows and tried to peer through the window as well. "Who's asleep?" She demanded.

"That blond one at the top." Josie stepped aside to let Evelyn have a clear look.

Evelyn's eyes roamed the top row of seats, looking for a blond head. It irked her that others had it so easy to actually be able to sleep in class while nerves of missing something kept her awake even if she was sleep deprived.

It wasn't in the top row, but the third row from the top. There was a head face down on the desk with blond hair cascading over the arms that created a nest for the snoozing teen. Suddenly there was an annoyed pair of eyes staring back at her through small spectacles.

Evelyn jumped away from the glass and cursed out loud. She pushed Josie and hurried away from the door.

"What are you doing?" Josie snapped, trying to draw away from Evelyn's pushing hands.

"The teacher is at the door, damn it, now move!" Evelyn whispered fiercely. The two then took off at a sprint down the hall.

--

"Okay, I've shown you everywhere you need to know, the rest you'll learn eventually. And it is now…" Evelyn glanced at her watch, but just as she did, the final bell of the day rang. "…Time for me to go to sleep."

Classroom doors opened and students began to leave them in a swarm of conversations and laughter.

It didn't keep Josie from being skeptical, however.

"Wow, you lead a glamorous life." She remarked sarcastically.

Evelyn grimaced and sidestepped when people began to walk between them, but didn't take Josie's remark to heart. "It's been a long week for me. Besides, a day with you is enough to leave anyone exhausted." Evelyn began to turn back to her dorm room.

Josie furrowed her eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean?" She demanded.

Evelyn stopped and turned back to Josie, searching for the right words. "I don't know. I'm tired, I'm blabbering. This is why I need to sleep. You know where to find me if you need me." She turned to walk away again, but stopped to look over her shoulder.

Josie stood frozen on the spot, unsure of what to do; at least that's how it looked to Evelyn. "Come. Meet my roommate, hang out for a bit. Whatever you want." She lazily invited.

Josie considered the offer, but scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "No thanks. I have to go meet my 'roommate.' Plus, if I hang out too much with just you, I'll look like a retard."

Evelyn smirked. "As if you don't look like one already," She called over her shoulder.

Walking back to her dorm room, Evelyn hoped that Alexis would be out doing something so that she could just go in, fall onto the matress, and let the world of darkness and dreams consume her. The door was locked. Evelyn looked up in praise after unlocking the door to let herself in. As soon as her body sank into the covers and her face buried into the cotton plush pillow, there was a knock on the door.

"Oh, for the love of-!" Her muffled voice growled into the pillow. "WHAT?" She called out, not caring to cover her frustration.

There was hesitation from the other side which only resulted in Evelyn groaning. If she had hurt another person's feelings, the guilt would hang over her literally for the rest of her life. There was still an incident in kindergarten that she couldn't forgive herself for, and that was because she had spit out coke on another kid when someone had tickled her from behind.

Evelyn pulled open the door and froze when she saw who had knocked on the other side. Aaron Abbott stood with his hands in his pockets, looking down at Evelyn as if she were crazy. His idiotic stare just fed to her annoyance.

"What do you want, Aaron?" She questioned, leaning her head against the door which she held close, ready to slam it in his face if she needed.

"Where's the other one?" He questioned, looking over Evelyn's shoulder and into the room.

Evelyn bit her lip. "She's obviously not here. Wanna leave a message?" She offered without much hope.

"No." Without a glance toward the one he was actually talking to, he turned and left.

"'Thanks anyway though.' 'No problem.' Jerk." Evelyn grumbled as she closed the door and turned back to her sanctuary. She couldn't exactly sleep anymore thanks to Abbott, who had previously throughout the year tried to get Alexis into bed with him. He really was a prick. The only reason he wanted Alexis so bad was because she was too good for him and she always refused to go anywhere with him. And what kept Abbott's face from meeting Evelyn's fist was Alex's plea that Evelyn didn't do anything to get into trouble. Punching another person constituted as trouble, unfortunately.

With her hope of sleeping gone, Evelyn walked over to her desk and pulled out her history notes and assignments. "So history, we meet again. What horrors will you reveal tonight that are being repeated today?" She sat down in the desk chair and leaned over the work, prepared to start.

--

Josie made it back to her dorm with a sigh of relief. There had been a part of her that believed she would've gotten lost on the way back. She reached for the door knob but hesitated when she heard a murmur from inside. Her roommate was back from her classes.

'Well duh. The school day is over.' She mentally berated herself. 'Man. PLEASE don't let it be a girly-girl, that's all I ask.'

She slowly turned the knob and opened the door. On the bed across from Josie, sat a lone girl still in her school uniform. She had earphones plugged into her head and a book in her lap. Long black hair was pulled back into a clip and a pencil dangled from her lips. Green eyes glanced up and immediately studied Josie curiously. Slowly, a tanned hand reached up and pulled out the earphones.

"Er..Hi." Josie greeted uneasily. "My name's Josie. I just transferred and..."

"You're the new student, then." A soft voice came from the girl. "Well then..." She put the book aside, flipped her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "My name is Amanda, and, um...well this is pretty much our room."

Josie bit her lip and nodded silently.

Amanda nervously scratched her arm. "Were you already shown around the campus?"

"Mm-hm." Josie nodded again.

"Okay..." Amanda's voice slowly died. It was silent for a moment before Amanda became excited with another question. "Are you interested in sports? Spenser has so many great teams and I know they're always looking for new blood."

Josie raised her eyebrows at the term 'new blood.' "Why? Are they vampires?" She questioned.

Amanda laughed quietly. "No. I wish they were though."

Josie then smiled. "All right. I have a roommate whose into vampires."

Amanda smiled sheepishly.

There was a bang on the door which startled both girls. Amanda sighed, pulled the clip from her hair letting her long tresses fall down her back, and went to the door to pull it open. There were a couple of guys crowding the door; Josie took a curious step forward, but still remained out of sight.

"Come on babe, are you in or out?" Josie heard one of them ask.

Amanda sighed and leaned her head against the door frame. "Fine. But I have a new roommate so she'll be coming with me."

"New blood? Seriously?" Another voice piped up. Josie tensed. The second time hearing that just made the phrase annoying. Was everyone into vampires or something?

Amanda closed the door and turned back to Josie. "Wanna go to a party?" She asked.

"Well you already said I was going." Josie replied with a bit of an edge. She hated being signed up for something without her consent. It bugged the hell out of her.

Amanda simply went to her closet and began to unbutton her shirt. "Well, yeah. I didn't want you wanting to come and then I didn't have their permission. If I say you're coming and you want to back out, it'll be a lot simpler, you understand?"

Josie remained quiet, trying to asses the girl's reasoning. "If you don't want me there, then just say so." Josie finally concluded.

Her eyes snapped to Amanda, only to see that she was changing out of her school uniform. "Oh, son-of-a-!" She quickly shut her eyes and turned away.

"I never said that." Amanda continued obliviously. "I meant…"

"Yeah, whatever;" Josie snapped, uncomfortable with the situation. "Where are you going?"

"Nicky's. There's going to be a get together to celebrate one of our classmates being released from the hospital."

Josie furrowed her eyebrows. "What were they in the hospital for?"

"Motorcycle accident." Amanda replied breezily.

Confusion swept over Josie as to how she could say that so easily. She was about to ask more about what had happened when she felt Amanda standing right beside her.

"What are you looking at?" Amanda questioned. To Josie's relief, she was now fully dressed.

"Nothing. Yeah, I guess I'll go, even though I don't know anybody…" Just then a thought occurred to her. "Hey, do you know Evelyn?"

--

A/N: The guys aren't there yet, but they will be in the next one, I promise.