Introducing Tom Avery, Katherine's Boyfriend

When Katherine stepped out of the dormitory building, she nearly collided with Tom Avery. As it turned out, Tom was coming to see her. But he never thought he'd ever see her like this.

Katherine saw Tom and blinked, for a split second not recognizing him. But then she remembered that this was her boyfriend. Though, judging by what type of person he was, maybe she should rethink that relationship. He was just too ... plain for her. She needed someone with more of an edge. Too bad everything at this crappy college was ultra-vanilla.

Tom stared at her. "Katherine? Is that you? What are you wearing? What happened to your hair?"

"Nothing's happened to my hair. It's been this way for a while now. Maybe open your damn eyes once in a while, huh?" She moved past him.

"Katherine, what's gotten into you?" he asked, confused and worried. What had gotten into his girlfriend to make her behave and dress this way? And was that blue lipstick she was wearing? Wait, was that there a moment ago? And when had she gotten so pale?

"You know what? I was going to wait, but I think I'll say it right now," she said, stopping and turning towards him. "We're done."

"Done? What are you ..."

"What are you? Dense or something? I'm breaking up with you, dumbass!"

Tom was stunned. "You can't break up with me. Not like this," he said. He walked towards her, reaching out his hand. "Let's talk about this."

She practically snarled at him, very unlike her. "Fuck you, Tom. I don't ever want to see you again. Get lost!" she yelled, giving him the middle finger, before turning around and walking back in the direction of Rachel's dormitory building, her destination.

Tom just stood there, unable to understand what was happening.

Lindsey looked through her dorm-mate's wardrobe, admiring it. Katherine had such great taste in clothing. Lots of black, of course, but red, blue, and purple too. She was so good at adding color to her gothic look and still look like a Goth. Lindsey wasn't sure if she could pull off something like that.

Suddenly, she heard she sound of knocking on her dorm door. "Ugh, who's that?"

She walked to the door and opened it.

"Tom? What do you want?" she asked, seeing that it was Katherine's boyfriend. She never noticed it before, but Tom seemed so plain. This college really needed a lot more diversity.

"Who are you?" Tom asked, a look of confusion on his face.

"What the hell do you mean 'who am I'? It's me. Lindsey," she said.

"You're not Lindsey. She's a white girl. You're Asian," he said.

"A white girl? What the hell are you talking about? I've always been Asian, duh," she said. Man, this boy really was dumb. Couldn't he tell the difference between a white girl and an Asian one? Why was her dorm-mate even dating a dumbass like this anyway?

"Okay, I don't know what's going on around here, but I want some answers. Where's Katherine's dorm-mate?"

"I'm Katherine's dorm-mate!" Lindsey yelled, annoyed. "I just told you that!"

"But you're not!" Tom said. What was going on? Why did this girl think she was Lindsey? Except for her hair color and her gender, she had nothing in common with Lindsey at all. He was about to say more, but right there in front of him, he watched as her hair color changed! It was black, then suddenly, a green streak formed through it. How did that happen?

"I think you should leave," she said, about to close the door.

"Wait a minute," he said, grabbing a hold of her wrist to stop her from closing the door. When he made tactile contact with her, the same branding that Rachel, Katherine, and Lindsey had was now on the palm of Tom's hand.

"Don't touch me," Lindsey seethed.

Tom yanked his hand back, suddenly feeling afraid. A moment later, the door was slammed in his face.

Walking down the hall, Tom played the events over in his mind. His girlfriend going Goth on him, then breaking up with him, and an Asian chick living in Katherine's dorm, thinking she's Lindsey. Something weird was going on here. And he was going to get to the bottom of it. At least, that's what he thought. After all, he now had the branding, meaning he would definitely change in some way, probably forgetting that anything was out of the ordinary in the first place.