Kyle sat on the little swing on the porch and sighed. How was he supposed to be happy here away from his home, away from his friends, away from his team? He couldn’t be, he knew it, but he couldn’t just tell his father no. So he would spend this one year away from everyone so that in a year he could be back in California for college. He was startled out of his thoughts when a twig snapped loudly in front him. He turned his head and saw the small group of teenagers from earlier step out from behind the car’s shadow in the driveway. “Hi,” one girl, who had to be the most stunning creature Kyle had ever seen, said as she took the initiative and stepped forward. The girl smiled and a dimple winked in her left cheek. “We saw you drive in earlier. You’re Mr. Valenti’s son right? The new Sheriff?” The girl tossed her long perfectly straight honey colored hair behind her shoulders where it tumbled halfway down her back in a shimmering golden waterfall. “Yeah,” Kyle said as he stood up and brushed his hand off on his pants before extending it to the girl. “My name’s Kyle.” “Well,” the girl said as she shook Kyle hand, “mine’s Isabel Guerin. This is Alex Whitman and my twin Michael,” she turned to the two guys immediately behind her. Kyle turned to shake their hands. Alex was the first he saw. The young man had bright laughing blue eyes and short dark hair that looked like if he let it grow it would fall wildly in his eyes. The next was Michael who had hair that was the color of autumn leaves, that odd mixture of auburn, brown and gold, and even cut short was unruly, sticking up everywhere in spikes and his eyes were a piercing light brown that almost looked amber. Truth be told, Michael kind of scared him. How in the world was he related to the vision in front of him? They both shook his hand, Alex first and then Michael. “Nice to meet you,” Kyle said as he grinned easily at them. “It’s nice to meet you all,” he clarified with a disarming grin at Isabel. “Well,” Isabel said with a grin of her own. “You haven’t met all of us yet.” She turned to the girls that were hidden by Michael’s large frame. “These are my best friends Maria Deluca and Tess Harding.” The first girl stepped forward and Kyle turned toward her with a polite smile in place. The girl was just as stunning as Isabel, if that was even possible. She had long straight honey-blonde hair and bright green eyes that sparkled like emeralds in the sunshine. “Hi,” she said as she grabbed his hand and shook it, “I’m Maria. This is Tess.” Kyle turned to the other girl with yet another grin in place. When he got his first look at the other girl the smile faltered. She was even more perfectly beautiful than her friends. She had white blonde hair that fell in curls to her shoulders, and the most hypnotic blue eyes that Kyle had never seen on anyone before. They sparkled and were the color of the sky overhead. Kyle felt like he was drowning in them. Kyle’s hand was extended and when he grasped hers with his, his world disappeared. “What the hell is this?” Tess thought as her hand made contact with his and her world shifted violently on its foundations. A not so small electric current seemed to move from one body to another, neither knew which, but both felt it. Immediately they dropped hands and moved violently away from each other. “Nice to meet you,” Tess said when her friends looked at her oddly. “Yeah you too,” Kyle mumbled in return. He quickly turned his attention to Isabel. “Do you guys all live around here?” he asked as he tried not to look at Tess again. “Yeah,” Isabel said as she stopped looking at her friend and turned her attention back to the young man that Tess had reacted so strangely to. “The house we came from is Alex’s. Michael and I live across the road from him. Tess lives about five houses down from us and Maria lives on the corner that intersects your road with ours. There are a few others our age or around it that live on this road to. We all go to West Roswell High. We’ll be seniors when we start in two months.” “I’ll be going there too,” Kyle said as a look of sadness fell across his features. “I’ll be a senior too.” “That’s got to be harsh,” Alex said as he sat down on the porch steps. “I’d hate to move away my senior year.” “Believe me,” Kyle said emphatically, “I didn’t want to. But even worse than moving away from all my friends and the only home that I’ve ever known.” They all looked at him in sympathy. “Well,” Isabel said finally, “you now know five people here.” She paused and seemed to agree with herself about something before continuing, “We have a tradition of meeting for breakfast on the first day of school, kind of a last summer thing before the hell starts. Why don’t you join us Monday morning at seven?” “I’d like that,” Kyle said as he shook his melancholy off and smiled at the beautiful girl. “I don’t think I could handle much time with just my dad in his ‘let’s move in’ mode, so I’ll take you up on that offer if you really mean it.” “Oh,” Michael said as he looked at his watch, “Izzy never asks anything unless she means it.” “Can you be any more rude Michael?” Maria demanded as she glared at him, forgetting again that she was supposed to be ignoring him. “We’ll see you then Kyle,” she smiled sweetly at him, her emerald eyes sparkling even more with warmth. Michael’s eyes narrowed at that. “We’d better get back the parental units probably have the food prepared by now,” she added to the rest of them. “Our parents are all really close, so we have these cookout things like twice a month,” she explained to Kyle. “So we’d better hurry up and get there because my mom decided that us poor corruptible teenagers need to eat tofu burgers so that’s what she sent over because she couldn’t make it tonight.” Kyle nodded and waved as the group turned as one and left him alone yet again on the porch. As they made their way down the street, he could hear Tess and Maria plainly. “Jesus Maria,” that was Tess he was sure. “You didn’t tell us your mom was on another vegetarian kick this week.” Kyle heard Maria’s tinkling laughter in response. He smiled softly to himself as he turned and let himself into the house. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. It wasn’t like the reason his dad was here really existed anyway…who believed in witches really? TBC

Part 3