Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Classes ended slower than I expected as l learnt few things about what the AP biology teacher was teaching. As soon as the lunch bell rang, Shade whisk me out of the class for the lunchtime as if it's going to end as soon as it began.

We grab our luncheon and try to find a seat in the crowded room when the frame of the stumbled girl comes to our view. She's sitting alone on a table. Shade and I walk over to her. Seeing us, she cheers up, wave and smiles, ushering us to come and sit.

"You arrive faster than us. Why?" Shade ask and drops her head to start eating her food. On my plate is a simple food, containing two toasted bread, stuffed together with a maple syrup in between and a pineapple juice.

Shade's friendly, that's certain. The way she's already getting used to the girl whom she just met today makes me feel a bit jealous. I wish I wasn't too introversive.

The girl shrug and gulp down half the bottle of water in front of her. "The math class ended up faster than possibly expected." She turns to me. "Sorry about the earlier stuff. We never got to introduce ourselves. Mia's the name."

"I'm Rayne. Yeah, that was something. And are you okay?"

"From the fall? Yeah." Mia chortle and passes her hand to me. I shake it.

"You're a new student?" She adds.

"Yeah. I started today."

"Wow. You are so lucky that Lydia hasn't played any tricks on you yet. For me, she pours ketchup on my white shirt, on my first day here which if I remember vividly is last week."

"Sorry. She must be naughty." I sound sympathetic, as my face is no difference.

"She's more than naughty." Shade chimes in, digging into her food. "Anyways, math class never ended up faster."

"Yup. But the math teacher has been changed." Mia replies. "I guess that's why."

Deciding not be the third wheel nor a non-sociable person, I quickly ask. "To whom?"

Before Mia could answer, Shade gasp and freeze. "To Mr. Jamie, from the Originals family." Her eyes almost poke out. "Perhaps, they are finally wanting to stay here for a bit more time."

"The Originals family?" I ask almost immediately. They seem to be popular.

Breezes from outside the cafeteria fans on my skin as the door to the dining hall opens widely, releasing a fresh scent. A masculine frame enters followed by a girl gaiting behind him.

"Look who's here. The original Originals." Shade announces, whisperingly. She sounds like she's cheering up their presence.

"The Originals? Is that even a thing, not to say being someone's surname?" I ask again.

"Seriously?" Shade is surprised. She pauses for a while. "Like for real, you don't know them?"

"We just moved here, remember?" I whisper back to Shade before I look behind me once again. "Why are we whispering?"

"They seem to hear things. They are a real weirdo. No doubt they might be hearing us still." Her eyes widen like in the movies.

With what Shade's finished saying, I turn my head to look at the family. The guy's wearing a blue jeans, black shirt and leather jacket on it which seems odd to be worn in this harsh, noon weather. His dark blonde hair is well parted to the left, revealing more of his pale ivory skin and chiseled features.

The girl has a beige skin, veiled under a jean-pant and white, long sleeved shirt. Same dark blonde hair, pinned to be rested on a shoulder, and sharp features.

They sit opposite from us, and their back are turned towards us.

"The bad guy and the bad girl." Shade continues to praise.

I focus my attention back on her. "You seem to know a lot about them. Tell me some." Curiosity is getting the whole of me and I've no choice than to satisfy that part.

"Well, first of all, I'd warn you not to fall for the guy. He's a womanizer." Shade says.

"Hm." I tilt my head at her in jocularity. "Why do I have a feeling that..."

"...she's asked the boy out and he doesn't agree, so Shade, here." Mia directs the back of her thumb to Shade. "is angry or probably jealous that he's going out with the other girls but not her." Mia makes a slight bow and spread forth her hands before her. That's odd for her to make such a joke.

"Easily explained like a, b, c. Well, I didn't think that far but it sure explains why Shade will warn me like that." I tease further and join Mia in a fit of laughter.

"What? You guys are unbelievable!" She groans, jabbing her arms at her sides.

"Okay. Jokes apart, what do you know about them?" I ask with seriousness, lacing my words and look back at the Originals.

"They are used to keeping to themselves most of the time; has no friends." Shade whispers to me.

"As how? Why do they do that?"

"As I said earlier, no one knows anything about them."

To my surprise, I catch the guy looking back at our table. More specifically, his gaze is fixated on...me? I turn my gaze down to the table. His eyes on me are intense with an unexplored purpose.

"He's looking at me, Shade." I whisper, having a weird feeling inside my body. I lightly shake my head to drop my hair and cover my head, pretending as though he doesn't intimidate me.

"What? Wait..." Shade turns her gaze to the guy's table and shift back to me.

"Yes, he is. Maybe he likes you. But wait, why is he watching you like he wants to eat you?" As though the situation doesn't involve laughter, I can't help it.

"Maybe he wants to." Mia teases.

"Oh, yeah. My girl, Mia is dirty."

"Girls, you don't know that." I protest.

"My guesses never tricks me."

"Focus." I whisperingly yell in frustration. "Is he still watching me?"

"Yeah. Just act like you don't notice, hopefully he'd stop. God, he is damn yummy."

"Are you even yet to clock eighteen?" I ask Shade. She rolls her eyes.

"So what? I have to be eighteen before I drool on a guy?"

"Maybe." Even myself isn't sure. I'm not in the situation to judge her, because I'm as flushed as she is. Wait... is she even flushed? Oh, no. I can't be flushed then. I can't be!

I raise my head, focusing on the pineapple juice before me. I sip it and for an odd reason, I blink up at him.

Shade doesn't seem to notice anymore as she and Mia indulge into another, laughing-like-crazy conversation.

He's ravishing. There's something about them that makes them beautiful and their skin, crystal clear, attracting them to one's sight. They seem paler than normal, their skin, lightening up in the ray of light. Their skin's snowy in some ways, making them look extraordinary and different.

Suddenly, a squeal erupt from the door as it kicks open. I roll my eyes, seeing as Lydia's eyes brightens up as soon as her artificial eyelashes lands on the guy. She pace towards their seat and in the process, stopping the somewhat staring contest between the guy and I. Lydia waves to his sister, but she doesn't respond — only continues to play with the bottle of water in her hands. They didn't order any food either.

I suddenly feel a strange feeling of fury in the pits of my stomach when Lydia bumps into his frame and gives him a kiss which he replied to.

The sensation fuel through my body and quickly, I return my gaze back to my food. I haven't even eaten much of it yet.

"And the bitch is his next target." Shade says, referring to Lydia.

"What do you mean?" I ask, my anger seems to be fading gradually. Why was I angry in the first place? I don't know him and he doesn't know me. There's no string attached.

"Like I told you, he's a womanizer. The bad boy of our school, known by all." Shade says. Mia pushes her plate forward and I almost gape.

"You're through with your food?" I mention in astonishment. No surprise, she wasn't talking much before.

"Hm." She hums and gulp down her apple cider.

According to the explanation, given to me by Shade and from what I could gather. The originals are a popular family known around this place. They moved to Murrysville about two months and a few weeks back and they've managed to gain influence. The guy and his sister started attending Franklin few weeks ago and he's almost dated all the girls in the school. He's a serious man-whore in my opinion.

They are a family of four. The parents of the originals own a hospital in this town which is one of the main thing that made them well-known in the community. Their hospital is said to focus and treat people with issues patterning to blood. They also do other clinical services but donation of blood to receivers seems like their main job and there seems to be a lot of people who receive blood here. This place should have been named Sickle cell anemia town.

As far as I know, their uncle is the new mathematics teacher. The guy may seem like a play-boy, but still he's attractive to me and it will be an utter lie if I say he doesn't have an effect on me. My imaginations tells me that he's still staring at my back, but I wouldn't dare want to look back at him; the reason why, myself wouldn't tell me.

Imaginations...makes me remember the guy from the woods. He's still mysterious to me and even if I see him, I'm sure I won't be able to recognize him but his voice. I should be able to recall them. They are thick, rich and old-fashioned.

When the unnecessary squeal of Lydia fills the air for the umpteenth time we change the topic to she and her two friends. She's acting like a child. Well, she seems like one. It's good to socialize and even though, we're gossiping about other people's life, it doesn't seem like we're doing wrong things.

Back to Lydia; she's a spoilt brat, that's known already and the fact that her father is the principal only makes her worst. Her dad never seems to see her mistakes but others. Even when she's at fault for causing troubles at school, her dad would still support her. She's the only child though, but that doesn't give him the permission to spoil her this much.

I'm also the only child of my parents and yet, dad always scold me when it's time to. Like what I did the other day, he had me punished really hard because I disrespected mom and he made sure that I was the only one who unpacked the cardboard boxes.

He's the disciplinarian type and I never hate him for being so, even if during my punishments, I use to hate him.

In a somewhat way, I pity Lydia's two friends because even as they're trying to get close to her, she only treats them like puppies; they're like slaves to her.

She's also the soon-to-be captain of the cheer-leading group at school. Shade said that the cheerleading instructor believes in hardworking students and not fame. She'll only give the position to Lydia if she's worth it, genuinely. And since there's no competitor for Lydia, it's certain she'll be the captain.

Maybe I can find a way to get under her skin by joining the cheerleading group. Hopefully, I'd join the competitors once I proved myself capable. How hard can it be to practice cheer-leading?

It's getting unbearable— the shrills that Lydia calls laughter. It's like she's just trying to get attention. I mean, every minutes or so, she'd have laughed over nothing. It's certain she's making it up.

Having enough of it, I look back to the Originals table to find that his sister has left but the most disgusting part is when Lydia leaned closer and kiss him deeply and his hand, streaming down her skin to grab her behind. Lydia giggles the moment she pulls back, unconcerned by the fact that almost everyone is looking at them; amazed.

"God help me, I want to strangle this idiot!" Shade whisperingly yell and Mia giggles.

The earlier scene irks me, halting my appetite for food. I shift my chair backwards and leave the cafeteria. Shade and Mia calls after me but I didn't stop my fast gait. When I get into the hallway, I make my way straight into the restroom, staring at my reflection in the mirror.

I start to breath in and out to relax myself from the strange feeling that's taking over my reasoning. Was this all because Lydia kissed him? I don't even know him from anywhere. There's nothing between us.

I grip my hair and pull at the strands gently, trying to clear my mind. I slid down the wall to a sitting position on the floor. My knees, brought to my chest; my hands, hooking them firmly against my chest and I stare ahead. I don't want to see Lydia nor the guy. I rest my head on my knees and continue to inhale and exhale.

By the time I regain my consciousness, I realize I have slept off while in the sitting position on the floor. Luckily for me, there hasn't been anyone to enter in here.

I pick myself off the ground and look at the mirror again. Sweats are on my forehead due to the earlier cramped position of mine. I rinse my face to clear every bead of sweats and emerges out of the room after drying.

Reaching the taciturn hallway, the bell rings, indicating the closing hours. Chattering start to erupt, nearing the doors and soon, students fills the hallway.

I make my way to the locker when a hand on my shoulder stops me on my track. I turn to my back to see Shade.

"Where were you?" Concern and worry etches her tone. I feel bad, knowing it's all because of my earlier weird behaviour.

"In the restroom." I reply.

"Doing what?"

"I had an headache." I lie.

Shade walks ahead of me to the exit and I follow behind her.

"That's a lame lie, you know?" She says, glancing at me briefly. She focuses back to her front.

Shade opens the door for me to exit before her. I take that inwardly as she isn't that annoyed at me.

When we are outside, Mia meets up with us.

"Rayne. What happened to you?"

"Hey, Mia." I face both of them. "I'm sorry guys, the headache was very overwhelming, that's why I couldn't tell you. I don't want you bothering yourselves because of me." I explain, covering my lies with additional lies.

That's a bad thing to do, Rayne. Mom must not know. My subconscious teases me. I slap her back inside.

"Oh, it's no problem. Can I see you, Shade?" Mia shift her attention to Shade, smiling wider than before. They are so cute together, happy and carefree unlike me, who is being haunted by a guy I never knew — someone else's boyfriend to specify.

"Rayne, I will be back."

"Okay."

I stride to Shade's car since I didn't bring mine due to mom, driving me to school. I sit on the bonnet, waiting for Shade. I could only hear Mia's whispers, nothing more when I try to eavesdrop.

Watching the scene before me — friends, talking amongst each other; jocks, teasing themselves from their last sport practice. Everyone obviously seems lively, except me, I guess.

The sound of an engine of a vehicle calls my attention and I shift my gaze to it, catching the frame of a couple, I notice they seem to be in their early twenties. The man occupies the driver's seat, while the woman is next to him on the passenger seat.

I watch them chat for a while, laughing in between sentences. They stop all of the sudden, and place their attention to the entry door.

For some unclear reasons, I follow their gaze, feeling intrigue by their appearance.

Apart from them being young, they have a unique and different features — one that I had just seen from earlier.

The man has a radiant, light copper eyes, so ravishing that I stare at it when I first saw it. Straight, dirty-blonde hair, cascading down to meet his shoulders in its ponytail wear, lustrous, even to sight. His skin is of light, cold-beige demeanor; clean and flawless as of the woman, who's has a beautifully snowy porcelain skin.

I only notice his wear to be a blue shirt, since I couldn't see the rest. The woman, on another account is wearing a pink blouse. Her hair is raven in colour. I couldn't see her eyes though.

The door opens, expunging the frame of the bad boy and his sister. His eyes cut at me, momentarily. Stoic, not giving any expression out and I lower my gaze from his penetrating ones. He affects me too much that even my subconscious goes silent.

His hair is messier now, likely to be caused by Lydia's manicured hands. I look down at my hands, feeling them itch in a kind of disappointment.

By the time I raise my head, they have entered the car. The engine roars back to life and they pull out of the parking lot.

"You have officially met the weird Originals family." Shade's voice says from beside me. I'm startled for a moment and shift to her, hopping down the bonnet.

"That's their parents?" I ask. They seem too young to be parents of children that's up to at least seventeen in age count. The bad boy looks like an age-mate to the man, who's turning out to be his father. Their family are quite quizzical to me. The way they look — so different from people around here in the small town, as if they don't go out in the sun much They appear too pale — paler than I have ever seen anyone pale.

"They don't give out much, but as far as I know, yeah, that's their parents. Get into the car." Shade shrugs, obviously not seeing what I'm seeing, or maybe she has but got fed of it.

"You are driving me home?"

"Obviously, yeah." She replies and glance at me.

"Thanks."

"Neighbours don't."

"I've never heard that from anywhere."

"This is Murrysville — different from anywhere." Shade says, boasting sprinkles into her tone. Hmm. She's like a human billboard, advertising her town.

"That explains much, no wonder there are weirdo family here." I glance over at Shade. "No offence."

"Many taken." She says, snickering in a transferable way. I join her.

"They look too young." I voice out my thoughts. I still can't reel over the thoughts that those couple are parents.People fall in love at young ages. So, they must have married at young ages since they love each other. Advice my subconscious. I have no choice than to agree with her.

"That's their life. Why are you acting concerned?" Her question is firmly directed to me.

Shade walks to the driver seat, while I take the passenger seat. Her question halts my breath for a moment. I don't know why I'm concerned. Not even my subconscious could answer it.

"I don't know. They just seem exclusive." I say, trying to be nonchalant, but failing.

Shade doesn't say anything till she turns on the engine. She pulls out of the parking lot with a responsible speed.