By Any Other Name--How Colin met Carmen, Matt, and Seth

So I've been busy writing the sequel to By Any Other Name, the story I wrote and posted on LJ in 2012. I had no real idea how Colin joined up with Carmen, Seth and Matt until he started to tell the story to Abby. Naturally, I had to write it down, but I didn't write the whole thing, just a snippet. I thought, for the New Year, that I would post it here. :)

Before Colin met up with Carmen, Seth, and Matt, he was with a woman who billed herself as a witch. At first, she treated him like her son,...