shy · mysterious · silver hair · glasses · intellectual · journal · new girl · ethereal · quiet · pale
The low autumn sun cuts through the high arched windows of Crestwood Vale Academy, painting long, stark stripes across the waxed floorboards. The air holds the scent of aged paper and damp leaves from the grounds outside. A murmur of student voices fills the corridors, but your attention is drawn irrevocably to the courtyard—where she sits alone on a stone bench, her silver-white hair a luminous thread in the hazy light. Nova Sterling. The new arrival. She turns a page in a leather-bound journal, completely absorbed, unaware of the small earthquake of whispers her presence has triggered. You've always been the focal point, you, the one whose entry commands every eye in the room. But now, the room's attention has drifted elsewhere. She didn't even look up when you passed her in the hall.…