When Cordelia got to school Monday morning, she saw her friends around the old cement benches that face each other across the brick the brick path by the west-side door.
"I cannot believe I missed it!" Hailey pouted as Cordelia reached the group and sat down on a bench next to Kyle.
"Missed what?" Cordelia asked curiously.
Everyones heads snapped around to look at her curiously.
"What?" Cordelia frowned.
"Cal's party. The circle." Hailey answered with a dramatic sigh.
Jordan threw his arm around her and whispered something unintelligible into her ear. Even if she couldn't hear what they said to each other, Cordelia guessed by the looks on their faces that after all, they weren't too sorry about missing it.
"It was amazing." Tiana gushed, her girlfriend's head resting quite comfortably in the crook of her neck.
"I wish I'd been able to stay." Vanessa said softly, playing with Tiana's fingers.
"What did you guys even do?" Kyle asked with the slightest hint resentment in his tone.
"We just held hands, got into a circle, went around the fire, and talked about things we wanted to get rid of." Kendra answered.
Cordelia couldn't help but notice the fact that she was perched on the arm of the bench, next to Ethan.
"It was amazing." Cordelia added.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kyle make a face, but elected to ignore him.
Mike whistled, "So you guys didn't worship Satan? Didn't sacrifice a virgin? Or are you guys going to sacrifice Cordie later on." He smirked.
Heat climbed Cordelia's cheeks, and she slapped Mike across the head, just roughly enough to get him to shut up.
She wasn't exactly ashamed of being a virgin, but she didn't exactly love talking about her non existant sex life.
Thankfully, Ethan completely ignored Mike's jab at Cordelia. "No. It was really chill. Cal seems really cool." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"And hot." Hailey added, then shrugged when Jordan gave her a funny look. "What? He is." Hailey mumbled.
They continued chatting about Cal and the party when Cordelia sensed someone walking up to her. She didn't hear footsteps or anything, she just felt it.
Sure enough, two seconds after that feeling, Cal's warm body was right behind her. "What do I have behind my back?" He whispered into her ear.
Something about his voice seemed to reach inside of her and scramble her thoughts. Or perhaps it was how his breath whispered against her jaw line, the soft, sweet tickle right below her ear that made it impossible to think.
But Cordelia didn't need to think. To make an educated guess. She knew.
"An apple. Green and red." She answered, it was as if she had seen it in his hand.
Cordelia could practically feel his smile, and imagined his expressive gold-coloured eyes crinkling around the edges.
He brough his hand from around his back, and he handed her a greenish red apple with a leaf still attached to it's stem.
And then he walked away.
Cordelia looked around at her friends, who all had their jaws dropped. As soon as Cal was out of earshot, they demanded to know what he had said.
Kyle just glowered, he was sitting next to her, and had heard every word.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
At lunch, Cordelia and Ethan spotted Kendra, Cal, Indigo, Nina, Tiana, and everyone else who had been at the circle sitting at the same table. When Cal saw them, he immediately waved them over, and after the slightest hesitation, Cordelia followed Ethan and sat down across from Cal, sandwiched between Ethan and Madeline.
"Hi Cordelia." Marisa greeted, sounding friendly.
"Hi." Cordelia replied, a little caught off guard by how friendly Marisa was being.
"We're talking about our next circle," Indigo said, "That is, if you've recovered." She added nastily.
Today, Indigo was wearing a boned leather corset, a black skirt, and chunky lace up boots.
"I'm fine." Cordelia said through gritted teeth, tugging her bomber jacket.
"It's normal for certain people to have some kind of reaction at first. I did." Cal offered in his low voice, as if to reassure her.
"So when's the next circle?" asked Jade, flicking back her chestnut hair.
Cal looked at her evenly, "I'm afraid you're not invited," he looked at Wyatt and Nathan, "Neither are you two."
The three of them stared at him, and Cordelia remembered how snide they'd been Friday night. She was glad they wouldn't be coming back.
"What are you talking about?" Nathan asked, "Didn't we do it right?" He asked indignantly.
"No." Cal said calmly, offering no other explanation. Everyone sitting at that table knew why they weren't invited.
After several moments of awkward silence, Wyatt finally stood up, grabbed his tray and stalked away, with Jade and Nathan in tow. They all looked humiliated and angry, and Cordelia almost felt sorry for them. They weren't used to being excluded. Almost.
And then there were ten.
A half hour later, Cordelia was done eating lunch and was standing in front of a cork board with a sign up sheet for the latest school play, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
And at the very top of the sign-up sheet was the name Nina Pentergast.
And speak of the devil; there she was! Beelining towards Cordelia. "I hope you weren't planning on auditioning." She said snidely, staring Cordelia down as if daring her to sign-up.
Cordelia rolled her eyes, "Nina...since when are you even into theatre?" She asked exasperatedly.
"Since Elliot, the director, told me I was perfect for..." Nina trailed off, and frowned in concentration, trying to remember.
Meanwhile, Cordelia sighed and rolled her eyes, and scribbled Cordelia Bishop, in neat cursive.
Nina looked like she was about to give Cordelia a serious tongue lashing, but then she smiled.
"You know what? I'm happy you're auditioning Cordie, we need supporting characters as well." She said with a smirk, before prancing away, hips swaying.
Oh it was on.
A/N: Heyyyy! I updated like two days ago and i'm updating again today, hopefully I can keep this up!
This chapter was on the shorter side, but recently chapters have been long so...
I know not much happened but everything that happened is important trust me!
This chapter is dedicated to mc_starlight and cinders75 because they read, vote, and comment on every chapter and readers who show that amount of support for the book. Readers like them gave Wicked 1.1k reads, and a ranking of 300 or something last time I checked. I'd love to thank all of you individually and maybe I should...
If you liked this chapter please vote and comment, telling me your thoughts and reactions!
Have a lovely day,
~Liz