Chapter One

I woke up sleepily, when suddenly, a thought hit me.

I'm eighteen. It was the first day of the quarter.

I sighed, whereas most people would jumping for joy right now. I wasn't ready for this. I was leaving some today, and wasn't returning until who knows when.

Suddenly, something jumped up onto my bed.

It was Jayda.

I rolled my eyes and shoved my head under my pillow. "Go away," I cried, although it was muffled, and she probably didn't hear a word of it.

"Nia, come on, you know what today is, right?" she asked excitedly.

I sighed. "Yes, Jay, I know what today is. Now can you get off my bed?"

"Not until you get up, Niagara," she said sweetly.

I rolled my eyes. She may have been my best friend, but she still drove me insane sometimes. I sighed and rolled off of my bed and onto the floor. After throwing on some warmer pajama bottoms, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. There was an unexpected surprise there.

"Jayda!" I called over my shoulder. "Why are the twins here?" I demanded, wishing I had more than a cammie to cover my shoulders.

She entered the room shortly after I did and went over and kissed her boyfriend. I rolled my eyes, disgusted. How could you kiss someone like Alaric?

And there stood Ahren. I gave him a simple, shy smile, which he returned. I wish I could just randomly kiss him whenever I wanted to. But I sighed inwardly, knowing that would never happen. Did I like Ahren? Well, I would say no, considering that it's a bit of an understatement. And he was the exact opposite of his brother. As in, he was nice, funny and smart, unlike Alaric. But I don't just mean in personality. Their bodies and faces may have been built the same, but they weren't identical by any stretchy of the imagination.

Alaric had short, black hair that stuck up all over his head, while Ahren had straight, scruffy blonde hair that fell in his eyes. Alaric's eyes were a deep ambery- yellow color. Ahren's were a bright blue color. Alaric wore dark colors and hoodies while Ahren wore any colors and t shirts. Total opposites, although they were both attractive.

Suddenly, I shook my head. What was I thinking? Did I really just call Alaric attractive? I walked over to the Keurig coffee machine and turned it on, slipping a mug underneath it.

"So, is everyone ready to become invincible immortal Eons?" Jayda asked excitedly, clinging to Alaric's torso like a piece of moss to a rock or something. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah!" called Ahren cheerfully.

"Whatever," Alaric said with a shrug.

"No," I droned, but no one paid attention to me.

Yes, that's right, you heard her. Invincible immortals. Well, we call ourselves Eons. We were part of a race that couldn't ever die. Well, except for certain circumstances even I had yet to discover.

I finished making my coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. "Why are you guys all ready so early?" I asked them, glancing at the clock. We didn't need to leave for another hour.

"Cause of that one," Alaric said, pointing to Jayda, who was grinning a really wide, stupid smile. Ahren just nodded.

"I see," I said. "So, Alaric when are you going to start being the male in this relationship?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, well excuse me, Ms I've Never Kissed a Guy. When are you going to get in a relationship?" he asked.

I frowned at him, knowing I didn't have a comeback. He smirked at me knowingly.

"So," I asked, trying my best to ignore Alaric, "When are we leaving?"

"Ten minutes," she replied cheerily. But I was the opposite of cheerful.

"What?" I shouted. "I thought we still had, like, forty five minutes!"

"We have to get to the train, Niagara," said Ahren sweetly.

"But… I'm not even ready yet!" I cried, exasperated.

"Then get ready, idiot," Alaric said.

I rolled my eyes. Idiot was more like a nickname than an insult, coming from him. I quickly got up and ran to my room, picking out a simple outfit from my suitcases, and throwing it on, exchanging it with my pajamas. After wetting my hair and pulling it into a tight bun, I grabbed my luggage and hauled it all downstairs.

"Come on, guys we need to put our stuff in the car," I called. I heard a simultaneous groan from all three of them in the kitchen. They were soon in the front foyer where all of our bags were. I slipped on my boots and went over and opened the door before going back, picking up my suit cases and dragging them to the car. I hauled open the trunk and shoved my two bags in, then went and sat in the front seat.

I guess you're wondering where my parents are. Well, to be honest, I do too. When you're born as part of our race, you are taken from your parents and put in a Home, where they take care of you until you grow up, well at least until you turn sixteen. Then, you are told to pick one other person in that Home and move out. They pay for the homes some way or another, and then when you turn eighteen, you are shipped off to Musekia Institute for The Eternally Living. MITEL for short. And there you learn not only your regular classes, but other things you need to know to survive as an Eon.

After we had all packed our things, we piled into the car. In about ten minutes, we were at the train station. I dragged my stuff out and into the large building, leaving our small red car behind. But someone would be here within half an hour to pick it up from the Home, so it was okay.

We boarded our bus while one of the people (I'm not quite sure what they're called) took our stuff to the back. I entered and sat down next to Ahren who had taken the window seat, across the aisle from Jayda and Alaric, Jayda in the window seat. It was going to be a three hour long trip. I sighed, not quite sure I really wanted to go there, and pulled out my notebook. It was an hour later and I hadn't looked up, although I knew Jayda and Ahren had fallen asleep. As I continued to write, I felt someone's eyes on me. I looked up and found Alaric just watching me.

"Can I help you?" I asked rudely.

"You can if you tell me what you're writing," he replied.

"And why would I tell you?" I snipped, although I was actually quite surprised at his sudden interest in what I was doing.

He rolled his eyes in response. "Fine, forget it," he growled and twitched the hood of his dark green hoodie into place, casting a shadow over his face.

"Already done," I said turning my attention back to my book.

"Whore," he called.

"Asshole."

"Slut-"

"Would you two stop it?" called an elderly woman behind us.

"Oh, I'm sorry ma'am, it won't happen again," I said quickly, turning around.

"Thank you," she huffed, then leaned back in her seat, and instantly, she was asleep.

All was quiet as I went back to writing my story.

"Skank," he called in a whisper across the aisle.

"You know those all mean the same thing?" I called back in a whisper.

"I know. I was just coming up with all the words I could to describe you," he called back.

"That's funny, because last time I checked, you thought I had never been in a relationship," I hissed.

"Of course you haven't," he whispered, matter-of –factly, "They're more like one-night deals."

I growled and went back to my writing, ignoring him for the rest of the trip.

. . .

I opened my eyes to see Ahren shaking me awake. "Good morning, sweetie," I mumbled dreamily.

"What?" he asked, an adorable look of confusion crossing his perfectly blue eyes.

Suddenly, I sat up. "Where are we?" I asked, looking over in Alaric's direction to see him smirking at my comment. I ignored him.

"We're at the school. We have to get off the train," Ahren informed me.

I sighed, then stretched and got up. "Here already? Great…"

I was never really happy about this whole thing. I mean, being immortal was kind of cool, for a lot of reasons. But when you thought about it, it was actually pretty sad. I mean, I had friends who weren't immortal, and I would still be alive when they died, and the cycle would most likely repeat itself. What's so great about immortality if you have no one to share it with? I always thought.

But that was before I learned about the syncing test.

As I got up and brushed myself off, I was hit by something. No, sorry, someone. I straightened up to find a girl my age, her hair a black glossy color. She placed her manicure-tipped fingers on her waist, obviously waiting for something.

"Yes?" I asked, expectantly.

"You hit me," she spat at me, as if she was appalled I didn't find it obvious.

"Is there something wrong here?" Alaric asked over her shoulder.

"Yeah," she snapped. She had a little too much attitude for my taste. "This girl hit me."

"Yeah, well that girl happens to be my friend. Back off."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she snarled, and then walked away.

"Friend?" I asked mockingly.

"Oh, shut up," he snapped at me. "You know I didn't mean it."

It was another hour before we finally reached Musekia, and when we did, we found the outer gates crowded with hundreds of people, many of them different ethnicities, coming from all over the world. The institute looked more like an ancient castle, or Hogwarts, rather than a college. At exactly nine o'clock, the gates opened, and all the excited people flooded in. I started to drown in all the swarming people when a strong hand grabbed my arm, pulling me in the right direction. I turned to thank my savior, when I found it was Alaric.

"Stay with us," he hissed angrily, and then turned and started walking again, Jayda and Ahren with him. I did nothing but frown at him, and then I continued to walk with them. We were finally flooded into the largest room I had ever seen that was filled with chairs, huge stone columns reaching up to the roof. There were red velvet curtains draped along the walls, and enormous stained glass windows. I gasped, guessing it was the ballroom. Alaric shot me an irritated glance, but nothing more. We all found seats together, and waited for whatever was supposed to happen, when finally, a slim woman with dark brown hair entered the room and stood before us.

She started off with the regular "welcome to school" speech, where we learned all of our classes would be held in the enormous castle, so we would have no reason to leave the school grounds. It dragged on for about another half an hour all the way up until the end, when she started on a new topic.

"Every one of us Eons is born with a designated partner who was born in the same year. Now, tomorrow, you will be given the Syncing Test. The Syncing test is something we do every year, where everyone is given a simple personality test. Based on the results, we pair you with whoever it is that is your designated partner. You will be sharing an apartment with them, as well as with another set of Eons. Today, you will be assigned a temporary room. You will get a slip of paper as you leave with your name on it," she finished, but I barely heard her. Did she say what I think she just said? They're going to pair us up? As in, like, permanently? I didn't get to choose who I fell in love with? What would happen to Alaric and Jayda?

What would happen to Ahren?