Newborough - Book Three

Loosen Up

The next few days pass by quicker than I expected. Becca steers clear from me, yet it doesn't stop her from shooting glares at me. I try to ignore her and her friends's existences as best as I can. A small part of me suspects that Elise has something to do with Becca's distance. 

Elise keeps herself glued to me whenever she's free. Of course, she tries to hide herself from me and make sure that she doesn't intrude my personal space. 

I sigh out loud and close my locker a little louder than I intended to.

"You don't have to stick around me, ya know," I say dryly, sick of her trying to be my bodyguard. "I doubt Becca is going to try anything after getting her ass handed back to her."

The vampire rolls her red eyes at me. "Becca isn't the only one you should be aware of. I don't know if you have noticed, but some people are curious about the human who managed to beat a vampire."

"That should be enough warning for them to stay away from me then."

Elise sighs. "Eli and I are having a party tonight and everyone's coming. Do you think you can come?"

I raise an eyebrow at her as I walk towards my next class. Elise sticks to my side, which surprises me a little. 

"Does everyone means the whole school?"

Elise smirks. "More like, just our circle of friends."

"Oh..." Parties are basically one of the to-do things in school life and I really want to experience it. The only person I need to convince to let me go is Aunt Beth since dad is working.

"Val will be there, in case you're wondering. Look, know that you don't trust supernaturals yet and I really hope that I can break that mentality of yours," Elise says persuasively. 

"Mentality," I scoff.

"You know what I'm talking about, Mel."

I think  about her proposition. By then, I reach my class. 

"I'll think about it," I tell her. 

My mind keeps wandering about the party during history and English class. Of course, my English teacher noticed that I've been zoning out on her a lot since she asked me a question which I couldn't answer. Seeing how paranoid I was about other people's nature, I can't help but agree with what Elise told me. One of the reasons why I joined public school is so I can fit into society. Now that I'm aware of how small the human population is, I need to be able to know more about the non-humans.

Like the saying goes; keep your friends close, but your enemy closer.

Not that I group all non-humans as enemies, yet they're a bigger threat to me as they are capable of telling me apart from other humans.

Or that's what I think.

Just as long as I don't get close enough to someone new and they get suspicious of me.

Am I overthinking about this? Jeez, I should loosen up a bit, I think to myself.

During lunch, I know that I can't escape Val's insistence to sit with her friends. I was lucky the last few days that she was busy with an assignment. Today, my luck had pretty much ran out.

"Mel!" Val almost shouts across the cafeteria, waving her hands like a crazy person.

I duck my head a little out of embarrassment. A few werewolves who happens to stand in front of me in the queue chuckles at me. 

"Nice friend you have there," the female blonde werewolf says, amusement shown brightly in her blue eyes. "Sorry, werewolf hearing makes it hard to ignore her."

"Uh - yeah," I reply awkwardly. 

She smiles warmly then gently punch her male friend. "Stop laughing at her, Gas. You're embarrassing her."

The male werewolf dips his head a little towards the girl and mumbles a 'sorry' to me. The pair starts to bicker and goes their way to grab their food.

The conversation may be short, but I can't help but overthink about it. They sound so normal, not even asking if I'm human or not. 

"So are you coming to the party tonight, Mel?" Valerie asks once I bought my sandwich and sit next to her. I noticed that her friends are keeping themselves busy, besides Elise who is watching and waiting for my answer.

"Sure," I reply warily. "I still need to tell my aunt though."

Valerie grins. "I'm pretty sure Miss Beth would let you come. She's cool that way."

"You sure about that?" I ask dryly and then munch into my sandwich. 

"You live with your aunt?" Eli - Elise's twin werewolf brother - asks me curiously. That gains me attention from Val's other friends.

I blush at the number of eyes on me. "Yeah..."

"Father's side or mother's side?" Elise prods me.

"Uh - family friend." To be honest, even I don't get why Aunt Beth or Uncle Seb stays with dad and I. There was one time I asked Uncle Seb years ago, and he said he was comfortable around Aunt Beth and he didn't know what he wanted to do in life.

That makes me wonder if he has a crush on her and vice versa...

"Well, if you and Valerie are coming, I can pick you guys up from your houses," Eli offers with a smile. 

Val and I exchange looks. Both of us seem to have a telepathic conversation since we both know that no one should come over to both of our houses. Val's home will expose that she's somewhat related to Minatours and whoever is still looking for Val's mum (aka the current Peacekeeper) can find her through Val. My house is a big no as dad makes sure that our home is off the map and I don't trust Eli or Elise yet.

"I think my mum can send us over. Can you give me the address?" Val smoothly covers for the both of us. Elise busily recites her address. That leaves Eli's full attention on me.

"Ya know," he says softly, leaning towards me. My body freezes instantly in panic. 

"Yeah?"

His head jerks towards the female blonde werewolf who talked to me earlier. "You just talked to a future Alpha."

My head turn towards him with a snap. "What?!"

Eli chuckles at my reaction. "Surprised that she's nice and all?"

"Uh..." is my only response. He's right though; I thought that werewolf leaders would be more uptight, controlling, possessive, etc. "Are you part of her pack?"

Eli shakes his head. "Nah, I'm not a full werewolf like my father. My wolf is content with my family as a pack."

"Wolf?" I ask curiously. 

"Yeah, it's like I have a twin, but inside of me. My wolf is a different personality who has the werewolf instincts. I guess you can say, he's a consciousness," Eli explains.

Eli and I spend the entire lunch time talking, making me less cautious around him. He also knows not to ask me personal questions that pushes me back into my protective shell. We silently agreed to talk about safe topics, knowing not to push each other.

At the end of that day, I got used to the fact that werewolves are not so different as I thought.