Strangers▪ Matei Covaci imagine

Three

Aria offers me gum for the thirteenth time as we leave the classroom for break. I finally give in and take a piece, immediately overwhelmed by the rush of fresh mint in my mouth. Is this what humans like to eat now?

I stick to Aria like glue as she guides me through the bustle of teenagers who all give me funny looks as we pass. The scent of a familiar wolfblood is lingering somewhere behind, but I'm too scared to turn around, or I'll be swallowed up and loose Aria.

She leads me outside to paved area littered with tables and benches. It's not difficult to identify the cliques; the gamers, the fit sporty boys, the arty-alternative-hipsters. My eyes then fall on two girls with giant hooped earrings and black bomber jackets. No guesses for which group Aria's heading for.

"Who's this?" One of the girls asks. she looks exactly the same as Aria, only with fairer skin and much shorter hair. The other girl silently looks me up and down, judging me before I've opened my mouth.

"Y/f/n" Aria replies "this is Hannah and Danielle" she says to me, indicating first to the girl with a short brown ponytail and then to the one with a long, blonde, tight ponytail. She might be smiling by now, but I cant really tell because of the industrial amount of makeup. I'm not sure how to react, so I just sit down with Aria on the opposite side of the table.

"So tell us about yourself." Danielle speaks up, narrowing her eyes at me. Way to put me on the fucking spot.

I shrug. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Do you like coffee?" Aria asks immediately "We're going to this place called the Kafe after school. Wanna come?"

"Oh, I have to go there anyway. I'm a friend of the family." I explain.

"Do you ever wear makeup?" Danielle asks "Cause I reckon you have the right kind of face for some of my new stuff."

Are we at that stage of friendship already? And how can you have the right kind of face for anything?

"Ignore her" Hannah says "she only cares about makeup, that's why she's so bloody good at it."

"Excuse me, I have other talents."

"Knowing everyone's business is not a talent, Dani."

"But knowledge is power" is all Danielle replies with, flicking her ombre ponytail and smiling mischievously. She catches me looking at her and leans closer across the table.

"But seriously, I could tell you something about anyone at this school."

A familiar person passes as she's talking, sitting a few benches away with another boy. Well, now would be my chance.

"Oh yeah? What about them?" I ask innocently, pointing towards the tall dark haired boy.

"Matei Covaci? Book nerd, used to be normal but went all quiet, dark and mopey a few weeks ago. So did his sister actually... Why do you want to know about him?"

"I swear to god he wouldn't take his eyes of her in class" Aria says, nudging me. "And I saw you looking back." she adds teasingly.

Well, there's a pretty damn good reason for that.

"You already know him?" Hannah asks, wrinkling her nose at the fact I may know someone so unbelievably below her.

I shake my head. "No, never seen him before until today." I lie.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" she asks. Whatever my response is, I know I'm about to get judged.

"Um, no I don't. I just moved here. What about you guys?"

"Don't get Ari started on the subject of boys" Danielle starts "on, off, on, off. It's like you're playing a game of bloody hopscotch." she says to Aria, who just blushes and pops a new piece of gum in her mouth, sticking the old one under the table. Gross.

"Y/n, let me tell you this now" Hannah addresses me directly "only a selective few boys here are worth it. And there's always something wrong with the acceptable ones. Of course, we'll be your guides, I'm sure Dani would love that." she adds, glaring at her friend who looks ecstatic just at the notion of starting some drama.

These girls already want to play matchmaker? I'm not afraid to say that I don't know the first thing about relationships. Never have I once been in any kind of serious relationship. I'd probably embarrass myself horrendously and be out of this group faster than I got in it.

The bell for final lesson goes before the girls can start seeking out future husbands, thank goodness. The English teacher, much like Mr Newman, couldn't give any less of a shit about my existence, meaning that I'm free to yet again sit at the back of the room with Aria.

Even though I've only known her for a few hours, I'm fairly certain that (unlike the other two) there is more to Aria than what meets the eye. Sure, the chewing gum obsession is a bit weird, but she just seems so much more understanding, even if she is just as vain as the others. I guess that's one unfortunate aspect of the human world that I'll eventually have to accept.

I make a mental note to try harder on my appearance tomorrow as I continue to ignore the teacher and chat to Aria about everything under the sun.

Author's note

Hey guys! I hope you're enjoying this story so far, if you are then please comment, vote and tell me what you like, I really want to make this story the best it can be :)

If you hadn't already noticed, I'm not doing an authors note on every chapter but I wanted to clarify that the Hannah mentioned in this chapter and more in the future is the character Hannah from wolfblood series 4 and 5. the other two (Aria and Danielle) were created by my friend :)

See you soon with a new chapter xxx