"You are never going to believe this!" Quinn, my best friend, tracked me down between passing periods. I had done my best to avoid her for most of the day, since that seemed to be the best solution to having to keep secrets from her. But Quinn isn't someone you can hide from for long, she always has a way of figuring things out. Her blonde hair bounced around in a high pony and her cheerleading uniform, donning the colors of our school--blue and white, twirled upwards as she walked. Quinn's brown eyes pierced into mine and she scrunched her freckle covered nose at me. When I saw her, immediately, a wave of guilt washed over me. "Rachel's throwing a party tonight. And guess who's not invited?" She smiled so widely I thought her face was going to melt off.
"Um, me?" I guessed, not understanding why she was so excited by this news.
"Exactly!" She clapped her hands together excitedly. Her perkiness can be overwhelming at times, but I've gotten used to it over the years. "You know what that means, right?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me, waiting for me to reply with an answer. "It means that we're totally going!" She finished, too impatient to wait for my response.
"I thought you said we weren't invited."
"Even more reason to go!" She grinned. "I've got the whole thing planned." She explained, intertwining her arm with mine and leading me down the hall. "You're going to have to tell Chase to come with, because you know how much Rachel hates seeing you two together."
"About that..." I paused in my tracks. "I sort of broke up with Chase yesterday."
"WHAT?" She slapped her hands to her cheeks in shock. "Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?"
"Remember how I told you we were going to the movies?" Quinn nodded. "Well, I caught him hooking up with Rachel when I left to buy popcorn."
Quinn's mouth curled into a snarl. "Are you kidding me? Who does he think he is? You are a hundred times hotter than Rachel." She rambled on, trying to cheer me up. "I've never liked him anyways." She added.
"Sorry to ruin your grand plans about crashing Rachel's party." I apologized.
"Are you kidding? This gives us even more reason to crash! Don't you see? We have to go. This could be the perfect revenge."
"I'm not sure if I'm feeling up for it." I shrugged. We stopped directly in front of my locker so that I could pause and grab my books.
"Who are you and what have you done with my best friend? You've never turned down a party before." She pointed out plainly, leaning against the locker adjacent to mine. "A little fun has never killed anyone."
"Are you sure about that?" I laughed.
"Did someone say 'fun'?" Eric, self-proclaimed "ladies man" and star of the Lacrosse team slid into place besides me. He twirled his crosse in his right hand, while raising his eyebrows at me. Eric was adopted by Quinn's parents from Ethiopia when he was six. His dark skin complimented his Lacrosse uniform, and his buzz cut hair blended well with his green eyes. When we were younger, we used to be the best of friends, but once he grew up--and gained a six pack--he turned into a self-absorbed jerk. "I heard about you and Chase." He sighed, slinging his arm over my shoulder. "I guess that means I can finally have you all to myself."
I rolled my eyes in disgust, pushing him off of me. "Can you please stop hitting on my friends?" Quinn begged.
"I can't help being this good looking." Eric shrugged. "So what's this party that you two were talking about?"
"How about you go bother some freshmen girls? I think I see some over there!" Quinn suggested, pushing him away from us.
"You have to go!" She told me. "Pretty pretty please? For me?" She fluttered her eyelashes and pouted her glossed lips.
"Fine!" I gave up. "But I'm not driving."
"Deal." Quinn agreed, just as the bell rang. "Catch you later." She winked playfully, heading off to class.
I turned back to my open locker and reached for my books. One of my heavier books, my chemistry textbook slid off the shelf and toppled onto the ground. I groaned in annoyance, bending over to pick it up. "Need some help with that?" An unfamiliar voice asked from behind me. He leaned over and grabbed my textbook off the floor.
"Thanks." I smiled, tilting my gaze towards him. He had dark brown hair, so dark that it was almost black. His eyes were a bright green and he had the scruffy remnants of a beard on his well-defined jaw line. "Are you new here? I don't think I've ever seen you around before." I pointed out, giving the stranger a good look over. He was muscularly built and towered over me. I pressed my back against my locker, feeling cornered.
"Actually, I've been around here for awhile. Used to be homeschooled." He explained with a soft smile. When he smiled, I was able to spot the dimples on his cheeks. My heart fluttered in my chest.
"Well then, welcome to Bayside."
"I guess it can't be so bad here with you around." He said, causing me to blush and drop my pencil.
"I'm so clumsy." I sighed, bending over to pick it up. "I just realized that I never caught your name." I said, standing up to face him. But when I finally got to eye-level, he was gone.
*****
"The weirdest thing happened to me earlier." I started to tell Quinn as we sat down at our regular table for lunch. I placed my tray down on the table and slid onto the bench underneath it.
"Before you continue, I just want to warn you that your ex-boyfriend is approaching." She said, slurping her Diet Coke loudly.
"Am I interrupting?" Chase asked, his signature smirk plastered across his face. Without giving me any time to respond, he slid into the open space besides me. "For me?" He gestured to my tray of food.
"What do you want?" I asked, watching in disgust as he grabbed the apple from my tray and bit into it.
"You're not welcome here." Quinn told him matter-of-factly.
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe that I was talking to you." Chase smiled at her, before turning towards me. "We need to talk." He muttered under his breath.
Quinn's mouth gaped open. "It's okay." I told her, trying to calm her down before she started a scene. "Can you give us a second?" Quinn glared at Chase, but honored my request.
"How can you stand being around her? Her voice gives me migraines."
"Did you come over here to insult my best friend or do you actually have something important to say?"
"I want you to meet me in the back fields after school."
"That sounds extremely sketchy."
"Just do it, okay?" He pleaded, taking another bite into my apple before setting it back down on my lunch tray. "Catch you later, babe." He chuckled, pulling his aviators over his eyes and walking away.
"What was that about?" Quinn scowled, returning with more food.
"Nothing."
"You know that you can tell me anything, right?" She looked at me with wide eyes, wanting to help but not knowing how. "I'm always going to be here for you."
"I know." I nodded, squeezing her hand. "But seriously, it's nothing."
"Oooookay." Quinn sighed, realizing that I wasn't going to give her any more information. "Uh oh." Her lips turned upside down. "Incoming: the wicked bitch of the west."
I spun around to see Rachel storming towards us. Her brown hair was flattened stick straight and the heels she was wearing clicked loudly against the tile floor of the cafeteria. Her posse followed behind her, all of them wearing tight mini skirts that rubbed against their legs. "Valerie!" Rachel's lips, coated in thick matte lipstick, curled upwards as she came closer. "Just the girl I was looking for." She smiled, taking a seat besides me.
"What do you want, Rachel?" I was starting to get tired of all these uninvited people sitting at our table.
"What's the matter?" She pouted her lips. "I just was in the mood for some good old fashioned girl talk." Quinn choked on a piece of her food trying to keep herself from laughing. "I don't know if you've heard, but I'm having a little get together at my house tonight."
"Is that what you're calling it?" I laughed.
"I know that we've never really gotten along, but I want to change that."
"Oh, really?"
"Since Chase and I are sort of a thing now, there's no point in us hating each other." She smiled innocently, trying to rub in the fact that she had finally pulled Chase under her wing. "It would mean a lot to me if you came to my party tonight. Think of it as a peace offering."
"We'll be there!" Quinn interjected excitedly.
"Great!" Rachel shot upright. She waved girlishly at us before retuning back to her crew of mindless followers.
"What the hell?" I pushed Quinn jokingly.
"Trust me, you'll thank me one day for this."
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the boy--who mysteriously disappeared earlier--making his way through the cafeteria. "Do you know who that is?" I pointed towards him. He seemed to glide through the cafeteria, his muscles shifting underneath his tight fitting t-shirt.
"No, but I definitely plan on finding out." Quinn chuckled.
I had a weird feeling about him. Not necessarily a bad one, but there was definitely something off about the new guy. So I just nodded in agreement with Quinn and replied, "Me too."
******
The dismissal bell had just rung. Swarms of students filed out of the school, while I was walking in the complete opposite direction. I headed towards the back fields, clasping my books to my chest as I made my way down the halls. I couldn't stop thinking about that boy from earlier. I hadn't seen him since lunch, but I couldn't get his image out of my head. I wondered whether or not to tell Chase about him, but ultimately decided that I would keep it from him for now.
Chase was waiting for me in the backfield as promised. I trudged towards him lazily, the warm sun beating down onto my skin. I could feel a smile forming across my lips as he came into my view, but chose to suppress it.
"I was beginning to think that you stood me up." He admitted, his arms crossed over his chest. "What took you so long?"
"Would you have preferred if I ran the whole way here?"
"Yes, actually."
"You really need to lighten up. You're always so...tense."
"My main priority is keeping you safe, not being your best friend."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Is being a jerk part of your job description?"
"For a girl who barely knows how to use her powers, you sound pretty confident."
"I've beaten you once, I could do it again." I said coyly.
"Are you sure about that?" He raised his eyebrows at me.
"Absolutely." I smirked.
"Lawless are shapeshifters. They are faster and stronger than humanely possible. If you let your guard down for even a second, they'll already have ripped their claws through your neck."
"Are you trying to scare me?"
"I'm trying to teach you that you're not invincible."
"At the movie theatre, you killed one of them, didn't you?"
"That's because I had this." Chase revealed, pulling a dagger out of his jean pocket. A weird feeling rushed over me when the dagger came into my view. I tried to convince myself that there was no way the drunk driver who crashed into my parent's car could've had one. If a Lawless was responsible for my parent's death, then they wouldn't have needed a car. I just had to keep telling that to myself. The more times I repeated the fact, the more likely I was to believe it.
"The Elders gave this to me when I was first assigned as your Protector. It draws from an Enchantress's powers."
"Then how are you able to use it?"
"We're connected, duh." He said as if the answer were obvious.
"So you use the dagger to channel my powers?"
"Something like that." Chase nodded, wielding the dagger in his fingertips.
"If you have that, then why do you even need me?"
"The dagger only works if I'm connected to an Enchantress."
"Oh." My lips parted. "So you're only keeping me alive because then your stupid little toy wouldn't work, is that it?"
"It's not that simple, Val."
"It sounds that way to me. From what you've told me, it sounds like the real enemy are these so-called Elders you always mention. If they are the ones in charge, then why can't they deal with the Lawless themselves? Why are the Elders alive when my parent's aren't? I thought it was their job to protect us."
"You shouldn't question the Elders."
"Why not?" I raised my voice. "They're the ones who gave me this stupid scar. They're the ones ruining my life!"
Chase grabbed me roughly by the shoulders. "You shouldn't talk about things you don't understand."
"I think I'm understanding things perfectly." I said, pushing him off of me. "I'm going home." I decided.
"You can't keep running from me forever, Val." Chase called after me. I kept my back turned to him. "You're going to have to face the truth eventually!" He yelled, but I didn't stop walking.
I was sick of people making my decisions for me. Chase thinks that he can control me, but he's wrong. I don't have to be an Enchantress. I don't have to accept what the Elder's want from me. Suddenly, that party didn't seem like such a bad idea.