Natureborne

III. Strange New Kid

Huge shout-out to kaciam for the new cover. Shout-out to the supportive ProjectPr1de , thank you for waiting. Also a big thank you to @Nlght_lock and @dee_please for the votes. To those who added this book to your reading lists, I'm so thankful to you guys. Anywho, let's get on with it!
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Sunlight shone upon Aerin's face from the large windows. She didn't mind it, though she did let out an amused laugh seeing her best friend turn over to lie on her stomach and bury her face into the pillow with a loud grumble.

The plethora of indecipherable grunts and grumbles were instinctive because Darya did not seem to be waking up anytime soon. Aerin knew better than to be within proximity when the girl does decide to wake up. Honestly, the other girl was unrecognisable in the mornings.

Aerin got off the couch turned bed. It was a pull-out and they always knew they'd end up sleeping halfway through a movie so they made sure it was already set up. Otherwise both of them would have stiff backs and necks from the comfortable-but-not-really-for-sleeping seat form of the couch. Aerin winced as she stepped on a wrapper with a really loud crunch. She looked to her friend and, as expected, a second later she received a pillow to the face and the annoyed voice of Darya say, "Stop being so fucking loud, you dweeb!"

"She-demon. She's a she-demon in the mornings," Aerin muttered, setting the pillow down slowly and shaking her head when she saw Darya go back to sleep as though nothing happened. Oh well, they still had three and a half hours before school. Aerin figured her friend would wake up soon enough. If she didn't, well, Aerin saw a pretentious poker near the electric fireplace.

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Halfway through her coffee and breakfast, Aerin watched as Darya dragged herself into the modern kitchen. The normally prim and proper girl looked like she had a bad case of hangover. Her wild curls were fluffed and looked like a lion's mane, her eyes had bags under them, and Aerin was pretty sure Darya was actually walking with her eyes closed, when, suddenly, a large crash resounded through the penthouse. "FUCKING HELL! OW!"

Darya had just collided with a perfectly still chair. This is actually quite a show. Aerin watched the other teen pour herself a cup of coffee and sigh in relief when she took the first few gulps of black liquid. Almost immediately, the heiress lit up and chirped, "Good morning Aerin!"

Aerin smirked and raised her mug in acknowledgement. There was the Darya that she knew.

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The moment Aerin stepped out of Darya's car and onto the cracked asphalt of the school parking lot, she felt eyes on her. It unnerved her. She gazed warily around the vicinity, but couldn't spot anything different. A group of popular kids were talking near a bright red convertible that she knew belonged to one of the football players whose father was a CEO.

She spotted the junkies huddled by the dumpster. Probably to hide the smell, Aerin mused with a shake of her head. Everyone else was either scattered individually or in smaller groups, walking to the doors of the school. It was a normal scene all in all, but she still couldn't shake the feeling off.

Aerin felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped, looking to her left to see a worried Darya. "You okay?"

Aerin brushed her off. "Oh... Uh... Yeah. It's probably nothing. Let's just head in."

The heiress was still looking at Aerin with worry but knew better than to push her so Darya removed her hand from the swimmer's shoulder and fell into step with her. "If you're so sure..."