♥ Look Before You Leap ♥

Look Before You Leap ~ Chapter Eight ♥

Chapter eight

"I know what you are." I froze as I heard Tristan's familiar voice.

It was just a murmur, a quiet pitch. Everyone else was in class, I had had to run to my locker after having a nice little 'thank you' chat with the head teacher. I had had to leave Tristan earlier waving a small wave goodbye as he watched me leave. Now he had caught me up. I shut my locker, my body tense and turned around. I could feel his body heat radiating out of him, he was so close. I stared into his eyes and smiled slightly.

"And I know what you are." I said calmly. He didn't look so surprised.

"You're a were-wolf."

"You're a were-panther." I replied quickly.

He frowned slightly at me then it smoothed away. "So what do we do?"

"Don't enter my territory, I won't enter yours." I said honestly.

"Fine." He said.

There is supposedly meant to be a war between the were-cats and were-dogs... just like in real life. We're supposed to hate each other. That why Lupe had been so worried. Me? I didn't feel the hate. Me and Tristan actually got on quite well. Well... we had been getting on quite well - not so sure anymore.

He hesitated. "Still want to be friends?" I was surprised but didn't show it.

"Yeah." I said in a cool, calm voice, not showing that I was pretty happy about that.

We began walking to our next class together; not really speaking or anything, just enjoying each others company. Once we got to our next lesson - maths, I was used to the silence. This class was very big in contrast compared to my first one. Everyone was very quiet, down to work.

"And you are?" Said the youngish teacher.

I knew it instantly this time. No confusion and whatnot. He was a were-panther. He had short brown hair, a lean face and dark, pine green eyes. He was quite handsome but there was something very dangerous about him...

"This is Raven. New student." Said Tristan, abruptly.

The way he talked to this guy... there was clearly a feel of intense dislike.

"Welcome to my class Raven. Since you and Tristan know each other so well already you can both go sit over there." He waved a hand, dismissing us, in the direction of two empty seats. Beside one of them sat Matt, his head down, scribbling furiously. As I sat down beside him I ruffled his hair affectionately. He looked up at me, frowning.

"Oh," His frown smoothed away to a smile. "Hey Raven." His voice was a whisper.

"Hey Matt." I paused. "This is Tristan. Tristan this is Matt." They regarded each other in silence for a few seconds. I blinked in surprise. Normally Matt was so friendly. "Um... Matty?" I asked, but his eyes were on Tristan, like he was sending a message to him.

"Hello." He said smoothly, sitting back from his tensed position.

"Hey." Said Tristan, sliding into his seat silently.

Must be the whole dog-cat war thing. I sighed. "As you could probably have guessed by now, because your quicker than me, that Tristan is in fact a were-panther."

"Yeah." Said Matt.

"And that Matt is a wolf - part of my pack." I said to Tristan.

"Yeah." Replied Tristan.

I rolled my eyes at them, looking down at the sheet of paper on my desk. The questions were simply enough - formula. I blocked out the testosterone in the air and began to work on it.

The lesson went quite fast. Mostly we worked on paper - there wasn't much talking going about. Everyone seemed to be able to... somehow sense the authority ringing from this young teacher - Mr. Williams. I got up at the end. Matt grabbed my arm and steered me away from Tristan before I could even say a word or remotely show my distress. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw him narrowing his eyes. I waved and shouted a goodbye and then somehow stopped Matt.

"What is everyone's problem today?" I growled.

Matt didn't look one bit happy. "What the hell Raven?"

"Huh?"

"A were-panther? Seriously?"

"Um, yeah." I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

"I never once thought you were quite so stupid Raven." His eyes glowered.

"Hey!" That stung. "I'm not stupid. He's my new friend." Okay, that right there sounded very stupid.

"Jesus. You don't know anything about the were-panthers! You could get seriously hurt with that jerk back there!"

"Yeah! Like you know anymore than I do!"

"I've actually read up on them. I know what happened in our past between the two species."

"Like I would ever trust a book! That's like trusting the Bible... you have no idea who the hell wrote in that book and why they wrote it and if its been exaggerated or even -"

He cut me off, a hand over my mouth, his eyes hard. "I don't want you to hang out with him anymore."

My mouth was agape from beneath his hand. I couldn't believe him! "Hell no! You do not get to decide who my friends are!" My voice was muffled but heard.

His mouth was a straight, tight line. "He's dangerous Raven."

"So what, you suddenly know him now?" He didn't reply, his hand slipped from my mouth. My mouth dropped once more. "You do know him, don't you?" I was astonished. His eyes hardened further he remained silent. "How? How do you know him? When?"

He sighed. A big, exaggerated sigh. "It was a long time. But just know that he's not the best person to know."

"But -"

"I don't want to talk about it." He growled.

Without another word, he turned on heel and stormed away. Matt never gets angry with me. We bicker occasionally but never as bad as this... he seemed really mad.

"Shit." I muttered.

I turned around and walked back the way I had come. I was hoping to find someone, maybe Jade or one of the pack members or even Tristan but suddenly it was like I was lost. Suddenly an incredibly overpowering smell hit me, making me dizzy. My arm shot out, my hand smacking into a locker to keep myself upright. I was fine in a matter of moments... it was just that first impact... I looked around me urgently... and there they were. I swallowed hard. Blood suckers. Vampires. Demons. I felt a growl build up as I surveyed them. They had just walked to a locker and were standing around, laughing and talking. The tallest was incredibly lean and very beautiful, what with dark thick hair falling into his face, he had wide dark eyes and long lashes, pale, pale skin. There was some kind of... unearthly beautiful to him. There was a girl, small and fragile looking but again - incredibly beautiful. Her long blonde hair fell in pale ringlets, her light green eyes twinkled as she laughed - a light tinkling noise. She looked so frail it was unbelievable... and yet I knew that a single twitch and she could snap someone's neck. There was a third and final one, a boy, very skinny, with long blonde dreadlocks... Adam... the boy from before. How did I not smell him!?

As I stood there, my chest heaving, feeling physically sick, one of them began to notice me. I saw his head tilt upwards slightly, his nostrils flaring - subtly scenting the air. Then he turned to look at me. His dark, dark eyes bored into my own and make my breathing hitch. I was terrified and yet I was calm, it was something to do with those eyes... something... I was losing myself, more and more dizzy. I saw him begin to walk towards me and I was feeling overwhelmed. My breath came in gasps, dots danced in front of my eyes... I slumped forward, hitting the floor hard.