[center][h3]Liam Pyne[/h3][/center]

Liam pursed his lips as he surveyed the room. Apparently no one had anything better to do as there was already a girl he recognized camped out in the corner he’d been hoping to occupy. Ashlyn? Ashleigh?... The second name sounded right. Now what was it she could do? Liam stood staring stupidly for an overly lengthy time before he noted her gloves. [i]OOOOOoooh Tactile Empathy that’s right[/i] closing his note book Liam walked over to the one of the tables set out for food and loaded up his plate. As he was doing so the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he looked up listening before he looked down the length of the table. 

“I swear Annamarie if you throw that can of soda I’m going to stuff you in my couch again. Arty told you we will search your last house for your Teddy bear this weekend so please. Try not to isolate me socially anymore than you’ve managed to do.” The spirit in question looked like an eight year old little girl complete with pig tails and long socks. She put the soda can down and pouted. 

[color=teal]I miss Sir Galahad. Hurry up, I’m so lonely[/color] 

The corner of Liam’s mouth twitched up into almost a smile. “I know sweet heart. Arty and I will find him this weekend just hang on for a couple more days.” With that Liam collected his plate and his notebook. Turning around he looked up to locate a fringe table when he noted Vedika slinking into the gym. One of the few non socially awkward individuals the Academy had to offer but also a bit of a troublemaker if the spirits who hung around Liam were to be believed. She looked guilty currently so no doubt she’d been up to something. Chuckling Liam headed for a table relatively close to Ashleigh, she’d already taken the prime real estate but suburbia would do for now. 

As Liam set his notebook down and then the plate of food his ears pricked up at a “Hello Ladies and Gentlemen” from behind him turning he quirked an eyebrow. The cool guy look picked him out as Crown, not a bad guy but another one of those people who’d ended up here because of some final shitshow showdown with their powers. Liam shuddered, he knew the feeling; most of what he knew about the other students had been part of an agreement with an older ghost who in life had been a paranoid ex con burglar. At the time of his death he’d been shot by a young mother whose home he’d broken into because he thought that everyone was gone for the evening. Suffice to say while he was going through their personal files the young woman had shot him four times in the back. This was from the days when people cared less about shooting unarmed people who broke into your home. 

When Leonard had showed up looking for one final information heist Liam couldn’t say no. The old ghost was a master burglar and as a result had Liam’s body crawling through the academy air ducts and through maintenance tunnels Liam hadn’t even known existed. This had been at almost the start of the semester last year and it had netted him the basic personal files on about two dozen students. Suffice to say it was not nearly all of their information since Leonard hadn’t been able to break into the Principal's office but it had landed him things like: names since he was too much of an awkward child to ask people stuff like that, and abilities for a few people. Anyone new he was on his own for since it had only been stuff on part of the currently enrolled students. In the end it worked out as Leonard finally got his rest. 

Blinking out of walk down memory lane he caught Marianne eyeing the sodas again and he pointed at her giving her the universal signal for “I’m watching you”. No doubt the gesture made Liam look absolutely batty since as far as he knew he was the only one who could see spirits at the academy. Liam had stopped caring about four weeks into the semester when he was inundated with a whole new batch of ghostly companions to deal with. As a result most people just thought he was a batshit telepath since on more than one occasion the spirits had gotten pissed off enough to do things like push people down stairs or make lights shatter on people who had given Liam shit for it. It was rare but Liam savored the look on people who were nasty to him whenever a spirit recognized that the offender was not Liam and was someone else.

The only time things had gone south was when Arty had actually stabbed a kid with a kitchen knife who had shoved Liam into the refrigerator in the common kitchen. Something about the bully had triggered something in Arty. As a result Arty had nicked the top of the kid’s kidney with a knife. Everyone blamed Liam but the staff hadn’t done a thing about it since the instructors were aware of Liam’s situation and after reviewing the information and taking Arthur’s testimony via a possession they had warned the spirit that it would be removed from the premise if such behavior continued and then freed Liam. It had all been rather surreal given that any other student who did such a thing would probably have been severely disciplined.

Situating himself at the table Liam opened his notebook and pulled out his phone. Arty was right they were losing time. Most of the five guys who had beaten him had grown up and moved. The problem was tracking them down and there were still three of them. Realistically he need to propose a field trip that could encompass all three of them since he only had two more for other spirits that he no doubt would have to make trips for. Noah could be handled over the course of a few weekends and Annemarie would be easy to take care of this coming weekend since they shouldn’t have much homework from the first week of classes. 

As Liam scrolled through some old news articles his hairs suddenly stood on end again only this time it felt like the room had changed temperature drastically. Looking up from the notebook slowly almost as though he didn’t want to look he shifted to his spirit sight. The feeling was all too familiar…

[i]There was an Outsider nearby[/i]

Liam gulped and looked up at the stairwell. What the hell was it.