Marley and Austin

The complex, intense and central relationship between the third generation Alter, Marley Reilly and the scientific Alter mutation that is Austin Cooper.

Marley Reilly was originally born in Bristol, United Kingdom, whereas Austin Noél Cooper was born in Paris, France. The two would have briefly been in the same country when they were children, as Marley grew up in Orlando Florida, and Austin in Austin, Texas (in which he was named after). However unlike Marley, at the age of nine years Austin was brought to Sedbergh, England, to attend Hallows Edge Boarding School.

Meeting
Marley and Austin first meet in the first chapter of the book. From Marley's perspective she immediately recognises how handsome Austin is upon knocking on his door, in request for his roommate and best friend, Kol. Though it is not explicitly told (since the novel is from Marley's perspective) it can be assumed he is stunned by Marley upon meeting her due to his initial fluster of words and blink of lids during their first encounter. However he remains cold, perhaps more so, as he is annoyed of being woken before he has to be up. Their first meeting his confusing and unsettling as Marley is left puzzled as to the Austin's behaviour. They meet up again when they both have the same chemistry class together. He however sits with Cadence Wateford as his lab partner, whereas Marley has to befriend and become partners with Lloyd Hemmings. She initially hates the fact that he is her alter partner for this specific class (at least one other alter in a class to accompany).

Marley experiences a horrific panic attack that night from a nightmare, and drifts out onto the school oval then towards the track field and begins running laps to calm herself down (sending the pain elsewhere helps her not to think of it; her sister). She crashes to the ground unexpectedly with her leg scraping across the dirt, causing a gash to appear on her shin. Marley is shocked to see Austin on the field as well, having witnessed the fall. Marley is even more confused with his more light-hearted and sarcastic humour/personality as oppossed to how he acted earlier. Whereas now Marley is sharper with her words and is hot-headed over recovering from her panic attack. He offers to heal her, revealing his alter ability, saying that she must promise that Xavier does not find out about his midnight escapades (he is wearing different attire). He does making his golden brown eyes change to a blazingly bright blue. After waking her back to her dorm, Marley is confused about the entire ordeal but finds herself wondering when she'll see him again.

The next day Marley is seated at breakfast, Austin makes his way to the table clearly exhausted and covers his face with his palms. Kol retrieves coffee with him from the front. He barely acknowledges Marley through the entirety of breakfast making her annoyed. The whole group make their way to the auditorium for their first class entirely for alters. Because of the new recruits they have to go over alter history. During this time, Marley repeatedly hears the name 'Adair' mentioned. It sends shivers through her yet she cannot quite place how she knows it. It isn't until they mention the unknown grandchild that Marley puts two and two together. Her kidnappers called her the Adair. Marley goes into full panic, and Kol asks to be excused from class with her; Alana and Oliver follow. They hide in a broom closet as Marley panics over the situation. Austin makes his way in there, and he calms her down by finding a loose paper bag in the room.