[right][color=f28500][h3]Jamie Drummond
5:40 AM[/h3][/color][/right]
	It was hard to sleep at Northwood, especially on the first night of the year, and Jamie was never quite sure why. All he knew for sure is that it wasn't homesickness; he didn't mope around wishing he was in his own four-poster with the never-ending buzz of traffic coursing beneath his bedroom window and nor did he loathe the independence of boarding school. Cold dawn air rushed in while he smoked "just a wee cheeky" cigarette. No, it wasn't that. 

	He wondered how to describe it, the insomnia, casting a nervous glance over at his room mate who realistically could wake up at any time and grass on him. All the colours of the world were wrong at Northwood, he could say that. Learning tinged with musty enlightenment filled the halls, imprinted itself on the stone, but there was something else – something so obscure that Jamie couldn't quite pinpoint it – that lurked beneath.

	Perhaps he was being fantastical, melodramatic, but something [i]was[/i] wrong. Perhaps he'd ask Aveline – [i]Miss Standiford[/i] – about it, or better yet someone unbiased, like the theatre teacher. Maybe. Jamie didn't want to rock the boat, if he was honest. He was quite content not to be the one drowning next. He stubbed out his cigarette and padded out barefoot towards the showers.

	If he allowed himself to sway with the cacophony of noise and the overwhelming sensations brought about by dreams that filled the dorm hall even now, calming him down, well, nobody up that early would understand why. He could smell sharp sulphuric acid – someone must be having a nightmare – and frowned, reeling himself back in.

	Maybe he’d go for a run first to get away from all that.

[hr]
[right][h3][color=f28500]Jamie Drummond and[/color] Ash Mareino 
[color=f28500]6:40 AM[/color][/h3][/right]

	Jamie sauntered into the main building and the cafeteria itself later than he normally would, hair still wet at the back from the shower and skin still flushed from the exertion of near non-stop running, first a lap around 	the building (that took longer than expected) and then a race to make it to breakfast in time.

	His tray was piled up with enough items to make a grown man weep. Not only did [i]exercise[/i] burn calories, but the mental gymnastics he went through every day was better than any track practice, that was for sure. Still, he downed his two white pills in their little plastic cup before anyone could see – smaller and less potent than the ones his aunt took – and the sharp edge that the entire school’s collective feelings held dulled to a more bearable murmur…

	Unless he was looking for it.

	Ash was over at an empty table near the corner, lit by the faint light that managed to break through the clouds outside. Even before he saw her, Jamie knew where she was: he heard the rumbling of a dark, isolated bay to his left, not stormy (at least not more than usual) but undoubtedly not the happiest of moods. It was hard to tell what was neutral for Ash… but it was easy, for Jamie at least, to determine happiness, in this case like a golden sun reflecting and refracting over a serene ocean.

	It was like night and day. If he was a little more egotistical, he might’ve even thought that he alone was responsible for it.

	“Morning!” He greeted with a little wave, his porridge nearly slipping off his tray as it tipped to the side dangerously. With haste, he put his tray down before he ended up dropping it all and took a seat. “Sleep well?”

	“Jamie.” Ash smiled, “Morning. I slept okay. Except Katalina’s alarm went off at six.”

	“Ooh, God forbid someone wake up Ash Mareino early,” Jamie said, already halfway through shovelling porridge down past the lump in his throat that had been stuck there ever since his early-morning wanderings. “I don’t know how you can do it – I feel sick if I get up that late. What if, like, the showers are broken one morning? Or...” He couldn’t think of another example, or a more concrete reason-slash-lie. Mostly he was feeling the spillover from other people who had anxiety over being late and the natural result was to become anxious himself.

	Ash shrugged, “I don’t know I just don’t worry about things like that. I mean, what’s going to happen if I’m a little late for class. Nothing they haven’t already done to me right?”

	“No swimming,” he said in a mock-up of Ms. Reese’s tone as he tore open a roll and haphazardly spread marmalade on it. “Take it you’re in Music for first today, then? I guess if you were in Swim Class I wouldn’t be seeing you at this time, so…”

	Ash nodded. “Mom isn’t letting it go, but whatever Ms. Reese’s announcement has her at the lake today, during free period, so I’m taking advantage of that.” Ash glanced over at the board. “I’m surprised they’re even opening it for that, so few people want to go anywhere near the lake now. Everyone thinks she was killed there, but..” Ash trailed off. There hadn’t been blood at the site where they’d found the body, everybody knew that – the rumour mill was probably [i]still[/i] circulating it.

	“Yeah, she definitely wasn’t,” Jamie interjected quickly, almost suspiciously. He felt it, the night it had happened on – three days before her body had been discovered. He’d been out on the lake during that discrepancy, trying to get some air after the daggers of sheer panic he’d felt (mixed with clear-as-day understanding, and hopeless inevitability) sparked an Episode.

	It was luck that he’d managed to wake Miss Standiford up before he screamed the place down. Almost belatedly, he continued, “Someone would’a seen it before then and… You know.” A weak excuse.
	
	Ash seemed to believe it and nodded. She looked up at the time. “We should probably go. Have fun in Home Ec.”

	Jamie looked up at the clock almost in sync, rubbing the back of his neck and glad of the distraction if nothing else. “Yeah.” He downed his glass of orange juice before saying anything further, the last item on his tray. “Yeah, you too. In Music that is. If they knew how rad I was on the guitar they’d be begging me to take their class.”

	He gave a little wave either way, leaving his tray on the table. Ash stood, waved back, and headed toward the music room.