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Chapter Five

CASSIE

Double D; that name wasn’t going away anytime soon like the flutter in my mind whenever I think about that man who I had slammed the door into. He looked pretty young, so I thought he might be a senior student, but the thought ricocheted when the door of the classroom flung open, and the class monitor announced that we all pay respects to the English teacher.

Teacher?! My mouth fell agape. That hunk of a man who looked like he was probably two days older than me was a teacher? I bit my lips in frustration and bent my head to avoid any sort of eye contact. I raised the literature book to my eye level and hid behind it. It was embarrassing enough that I knocked him squarely in the head with a door and also housed raunchy thoughts of him in my mind.

“Open to page five, Dawson, Read!”

I didn’t hear him at first because I was lost in my predicaments. I didn’t realize that the entire class turned to me, waiting for me to read.

“Double D!” I heard someone whisper. “Hey, transfer girl.” I looked to my left to see one of the girls signaling to me that the teacher was asking for my attention. I lowered the book slowly to see the cold stare of the teacher directed toward me. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was resting against the table in front.

Dawson, oh shit, that was my name.

I fumbled on the pages of the book and before I could open page five which was the simplest thing to do in life, I felt his presence zoom in on me as he walked towards my seat. I felt a shiver up and down my spine as he leaned forth and placed his palms on the table in front of me. “Stand up!” his voice was cold.

I obliged, and when we made eye contact, his gaze fell on my plastered forehead. I could swear I saw his eyes shift with an emotion I couldn’t fathom, but it could all be in my head. “Remain standing for the rest of the class.” His sultry voice made my insides quiver. I held his gaze for a few seconds. He turned away from me to another student.

The class was dead silent, and I felt that was his charm, his ability to instill fear with just his presence. “Anyone else wants to read page five?”


I felt a bit dizzy when class was over. Not for once after that incident did the English Teacher who I later found out went by the name, Matt Andrews, look toward me. It was as if I didn’t exist. I shouldn’t worry too much about him, but the creativity of his entire build and aura became recurrent episodes in my mind.

I strode through the corridors of the classrooms to the locker space to find Lou, pouting and mumbling as she offloaded books into her locker. I stopped in front of her and wondered what will make a sunray so bright this mad. Was she still pouting because of what happened last night? Was she expecting me to apologize?

“If you keep staring at me like that, I’ll think you are sorry about yesterday.” She said before turning to look at me.

“How long did you know I have been standing there?” I asked. She cocked her head to the side and sighed. “I have known you all my life so I know what you smell like, Einstein.” I was right, she was mad about something.

“What is the matter?”

“Remember the young blood southern pack? The one you got into a fight with yesterday?’ She raised her chin as if to drive home her points. She wasn’t going to let me off the hook easily.

“Yeah…” I responded.

“Guess what, they attend our school, and my seat partner is the one that did that to your forehead.” She pointed to the plaster mess on my forehead.

I didn’t know which was more shocking, the fact that the ones we fought with last night attended the same school as us, or the magnitude of patience it took Lou not to launch at him for the entire first half of the school. “I must have tucked my head in my eyes yesterday,” Lou said. “How did I miss that face in class?”

“Don’t beat yourself up, it was just our first day.”

I felt my chest heave with concern. What if they tried to do something – what if the mother gets a wind of this? Would she ask us to leave immediately? We needed to keep it a secret from her, at least till we understood what that girl said last night. I needed to persuade Lou to keep it from mother because I knew how she never missed the chance to always tell mother about all our affairs. I felt there was no need to let mother worry over something we are not sure of yet.

“And the other two?”

“You mean the ones you almost killed?”

“Lou!”

“What?” She closed her locker shut. “I don’t know yet, but they aren’t that far off seeing that they are a pack.” She later said with a sigh. “We can’t tell mother about this.” She also added, voicing the words in my head. I wasn’t sure I heard her say it correctly but I didn’t probe so she wouldn’t change her mind. “At least not until we are sure there’s a real danger.” Lou sighed again before looking me squarely in the face. “You should take that to the infirmary to have it checked. You won’t let mother touch it last night.” She said, tapped me on the shoulder, and moved along. “I am skipping lunch.” She said over her shoulder. “See you later, Cass.” And she was gone. I stood on the threshold for a second before heading for the infirmary.


The infirmary was a bit homey compared to the infirmary back at my school in River valley. There were flowers on the wall, and there were handwritten goodwill messages on post-its attached to the board for those who were ill. The walls were warm, and as I went to the nurse’s station I couldn’t help but notice how the infirmary was designed to bring comfort to anyone that walked in.

The nurse’s desk was empty, but a boy was sitting on one of the beds, dangling his feet. I thought to myself briefly that Advania high was teeming with good-looking young men. It was almost as if they had all been handpicked to model the walls of these schools. His face was pale and he looked at me squarely like I had dirt on my face.

Although he smelled familiar, I didn’t think much of it. His brown hair was slicked back and his pointy nose stood firmly between his high cheekbones. He looked like he was carved uniquely to steal thoughts from the heads of admirers.

I cleared my throat, looking away from his intent gaze. “Hi, I am… Cassie.” Was the wisest thing I thought I could say?

“I am Eric.” His voice struck a familiar bell. “I think we have met before.”

Yes, we did – yesterday.

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