Shawn nodded enthusiastically.  "Sure, I'll pass the message along."  Her next question made him frown in thought, though.  "A new sophomore girl?  You probably saw Mindy Perez.  She's not new, but you'd hardly know it.  A few days ago she went total Makeover 101, you know?  Mindy used to be a real quiet mousey type; now she's... well, hot, honestly."  Shawn gave an embarrassed smile at that.  "Um... if you're looking for her, I'd find Amalia Graves.  Those two are practically joined at the hip lately."<br/><br/>A quick goodbye and a short walk to class later, Esther was sitting down to Algebra with Mr. Walker: the definition of normalcy compared to the last 24 hours.  As soon as she settled in, she noticed a strange level of expectation among the other students, like everyone was waiting for something.  Surely nothing to do with...<br/><br/>"Alright, can I have your attention class?  As I'm sure you've all heard through the local rumor mill, we have a new student joining our class today."  Ah.  Nothing supernatural, just another transfer student.  Suddenly the atmosphere in the room made perfect sense.  Mr. Walker even sounded almost excited, like he was as glad for the excuse to delay another boring math lecture as his students were.  He waved at the door, and a boy Esther had never seen before walked in.  Her first thought was that he looked like Billy; her second was how patently ridiculous that first impression had been.  True, both were tall and skinny and on the pale side, with unusually dark hair.  But where Billy walked into a room like he owned the building, this boy sidled into the classroom as if afraid a feral desk might leap up and bite him.  Freckles and horn-rimmed glasses framing boring brown eyes completed the image of a social outcast in the makings, even before taking into account that he wore a flannel shirt and khakis.<br/><br/>The aura of expectation into the room turned almost predatory: The wolves smelled a sheep.  Oblivious, Mr. Walker gave the new kid an encouraging pat on the shoulder and introduced him.  "Alright class, this is Marshall Cunnings.  Would you introduce yourself, Marshall?"<br/><br/>Marshall stared at his feet.  "I-I'm Marshall... oh, he said that already.  Um... I'm a Junior a-and I just transferred to this school.  I'm, um, I'm hoping to graduate and to go to, um, to Utah State University as a Linguistics Major."  Laughter spread through the classroom; apparently mistaking it for friendly laughter, Marshall smiled weakly and risked a momentary glance away from his feet.<br/><br/>Just as the laughter was dying down, a voice piped up.  "So, Marshall, would you say you plan on becoming a cunning linguist?"  Instantly the room was in stitches.  Esther recognized the speaker - Jeffery Trevino, unrepentant womanizer and class clown.<br/><br/>Marshall, for his part, blushed beet red and studied his feet even more intently for the long seconds it took Mr. Walker to restore order to the class.  "Alright," the teacher said in between poorly-suppressed chuckles, "that's enough, Marshall.  Why don't you go take a seat... over by Esther, there.  She looks like she could use the company."  More laughter from the class.<br/><br/>Awkwardly, Marshall shuffled over to one of the empty desks next to Esther and slumped into the seat.  In what must have been an incredible show of courage, he glanced in her direction and gave a weak, almost apologetic smile, before turning all of his attention to fishing his books out of his backpack.