At school, Amanda socialized with a growing number of peers, thought at lunch and during her classes with Sicily, it was pretty much just the two of them. When Sicily finished her book, they took to going outside and taking turns reading for whatever terrifying piece of literature Sicily had lent to her, making a big show out of it, like they were putting on a stage production just for the two of them. After school Sicily usually had to go home and get ready for work so they would walked home together, and when Amanda got home she would go to work on the backyard.

And that was work, but Amanda enjoyed it. There was something about being surrounded by nature, carving a path into it, that was adventurous. She was making some serious ground and had probably only another half a mile before she hit the property line, a shoddy wooden fence that led to thicker brush. After a few hours of that she would do homework, have dinner with her mother and grandmother, and then go to bed to do the same thing over.

It was a comfortable routine.

Amanda found comfort it in.

The only thing that was different was that Dennis boy. Every day he seemed to be inching closer to her, his expression growing more and more curious by the day. On the twentieth day since meeting him he began to look expectant, almost challenging, like she was supposed to do something, like he was daring her to do something.

It was unnerving.

Amanda chalked it up to her just being jumpy after the traumatic read through of the horrible tale of Pennywise, which she had started and finished over the weekend after Sicily having finally convinced her to read it. After reading that, everything made her jump, though one the two occasions when someone asked if she was alright - her english teacher and Judith Miller, the girl who had the locker next to hers - they seemed to understand when she informed them that she had just read IT.

Sicily, however, theorized that Dennis's behavior meant he liked her, but that wasn't what Amanda felt like. It was more like he was trying to communicate something to her, but she wasn't picking up on it. He was in four of her classes – Math, Biology, English, and History - though she hadn't noticed the first two weeks because he sat in the very back while she sat in the very front. Once she figured out he was behind her, she would purposely put her backpack on the back of her chair and wait until class started to get her things out to see if he, indeed, was still staring.

He was.

In all of her classes.

It was creepy. Very, very creepy. Though she didn't always dream, she found herself dreaming of him staring at her, and it wasn't comforting or romantic in the least.

Today, the twentieth day since see him for the first time, he seemed impatient. She thought he was going to approach her in the hallway this morning, but he seemed to change his mind at the last second and changed direction.

She tried to not let it bother her.

She was beginning to understand why Sicily thought he was weird. She had seen him interact with several of their classmates and there was definitely a strange sort of distance in his manner of speaking, not really addressing the questions asked of him. He was polite, but there was a coldness to it.

As her math teacher walked down the aisle her latest test was returned to her.

A zero.

An actual zero, made into a frowny face.

She stiffened at the sight of it. She had been so freaked out about that stupid book Sicily had lent her and wondering about Dennis that she had completely forgot stressing out over her test results. She knew when she was taking them that it was going to be bad. How could it not? She was awful at math, always had been. Still, seeing the zero was not a good feeling.

She groaned and folded the paper in half, glancing over to where Sicily was to see her friend happily slipping her things on her bag. Amanda did the same before she stood slowly – when she caught the gaze of the teacher and he hooked a finger in her direction she flinched before dragging her feet over to him.

He sighed. "That was..." He nodded mournfully as she did. "That was just not good, Amanda. What happened?"

"I...I'm just, I've never been very good at math." Amanda admitted sheepishly, offering him a little smile.

He nodded. "Not uncommon...but we can't keep getting zeros if we want to pass you!" She shook her head. "Have you thought about getting help from one of your friends? I know there are some students that offer tutoring."

"I-I'll do that. I'll find someone to help me."

He smiled and nodded before waving her off and she scurried over to where Sicily was waiting for her in the hall.

"How are you at math?" Amanda asked in greeting. Sicily's eyes rolled up to the ceiling in contemplation before she reached into her bag to pull out her own test. A five percent. Her frowny face had little 'x' on the eyes. Amanda grimaced. "Shoot. We need to get help."

"Oh. I have help - you know Bradley?" Amanda pursed her lips. An image of a boy who she had seen Sicily mooning over once or twice came to mind and she nodded. "He tutors me. He's...not very good, but I like to hear him talking, so I keep going."

"Is it...helpful?" Amanda asked with a nervous little laugh.

"Not really, but I'm not all that concerned about my grades...." Sicily said vaguely before she looked down the hall with a guarded look. "There's usually some page on the announcement board in the library that offers tutoring. You should check that out."

"Alright." She chewed on her lip, "I'll pop in before lunch, so meet me at the bleachers, okay?" Sicily agreed and they parted for their next class.

When lunch came an hour later Amanda made a bee line for the library, where there indeed was a cork board with several colorful papers were tacked to it. None, however, were advertising tutoring, and at that her stomach sunk. She looked around for the librarian but couldn't find her so she went to the front desk to wait there for her. If anyone knew about tutoring, it would probably be her.

It didn't take long before someone came up to the front desk as well.

She was somewhat shocked to see it was Dennis.

Her eyebrows shot straight up and she smiled at him, an automatic response. "Hi." She said shyly then. He gave a jerky little nod and Amanda felt very awkward in the silence between them. After a minute of his staring and her pointedly looking around for the librarian she laughed nervously. She wanted to point out they shared math, ask him if he knew any classmates willing to tutor her, but she didn't want to let him know how much of a moron she was with numbers. "We're in the same class." She said lamely.

He stared at her with an icy look before he leaned forward just slightly. "Do we have history together, though?" He asked in a cryptic tone.

She grimaced. Great. Of course, that would be the one class he'd know her from - the only class she was openly molesting the teacher with her eyes. Mr. Erikson should be the subject of love songs, with a face like that. Who knows? He probably was. "History?" She asked innocently. "We do in fact-"

"When?" He interrupted her in a sharp, questioning tone. She didn't like the look in his eyes one bit. It was hard. Threatening.

Okay. "Second period." She said, trying to remain cheerful. "I'm...pretty awful at history. Dates. Names. I get events - um, but not the names of them."

Dennis just stared at her and nodded his head with a little smile frozen on his mouth. It was like he expected her to say something else. His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward over the short edge of the desk separating them, his smile tightening. "Yes. Names can be quite the hassle. Do you know mine?"

"Your name is Dennis." Amanda said, trying not to step away as he stared at her. He had beautiful eyes, the same color as the thin ring around her pupil, his irises drowning in it, a dark honey brown with gold flecks. It was pretty, beautiful when it wasn't just a little ring like her own.

His eyebrows raised at her response. He was giving her a look like she was a moron. "Right..." He slowly leaned away from her, lifting his chin a little to stare down at her with a frown. "And...do you know what I am?"

Her eyes narrowed in confusion. What a strange question. "A student?" She answered awkwardly. He gave her an unimpressed look.

"While you probably enjoy a good game as much as I do Amanda, I'm afraid you aren't going to win this one. What do you want? Why are you here?"

"I'm just here for help with math." She said honestly.

"Fine. Don't tell me." His lips curled. "But if you're here for what I am, you won't get it. I won't let you." He almost growled.

"I...have no idea what you're talking about." She said with an uneasy laugh. "I just moved here with my family...we're from New York..."

"New York. And why did you come here?" He moved around the edge than to stand a foot's distance from her, too far into her space for her to be comfortable. He was thinly built, but there was something threatening about his posture. "Why are you here?"

She did take a step away from him then. "For a fresh start."

He let out a hard laugh then. "Right. Well – I think I know exactly how you plan on getting that fresh start. Consider this your one warning. You won't get another."

Amanda didn't like his tone one bit. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She tried, holding up both her hands in a sign of surrender.

"Oh, you don't?" He took another step forward, right into her space. She tried to step back again but walked right into a book cart, nearly knocking it over. "You have no idea what I'm talking about?" He hissed.

"No."

"You're not here to reclaim something?"

"No."

He scoffed and narrowed his eyes to dangerous slits. "Out of all the towns in the world, you just happened to move here from New York to, what, live a normal life?"

"Yes." Amanda said as if it was the most obvious thing. What was this guys problem!?

His head jerked back then and his lips twitched. "Oh." His gaze lifted, looked right, left, then to her. He gave her an incredulous look before he turned and hurried out of the library, sparing her one last questioning look over his shoulder, like he'd just realized she was some sort of alien, before he disappeared.

Amanda didn't wait any longer for the librarian. She left the library for the cafeteria right after that and went straight to the bleachers to find Sicily waiting for her there.

"So I just had a really, really weird meeting with Dennis." Sicily looked up at her and Amanda shook her head. "I wouldn't even know how to begin describing it." She sighed. "Are you doing anything after school? I could really use another showing of the Lost Boys."

"I got work." Sicily said miserably.

"Oh. Where?"

"At Blockbuster Video. Ugh."

"Oh, yeah! I remember now. They aren't hiring, are they?"

Sicily lifted her head slowly to smile at her. "Oh. My. God. Yes."