You can’t always be nice. That’s how people take advantage of you. Sometimes you have to set boundaries.
-Unknown
“Angel! Hurry up or you’re gonna be late!”
“Coming!” I yelled as I grabbed my shoulder bag and ran down the stairs.
“Let’s go,” my brother shoved me out the door and towards the car. I immediately reached for the radio as soon as I got into the car. “Hands off.” Tyler slapped my hands away.
“Come on, Ty. I wanna listen to the radio.”
“You are,” He pointed out.
“I don’t want to listen to this!”
“My car, my rules.”
“But Ty!” I reached for the radio again.
“No! Now stop, we’re almost there anyway.” I pouted and looked out the window and saw he was telling the truth. We were almost there. I sighed. I didn’t want to go here.
“When do you get your car back?”
“Shut up, Ty!”
Ty glanced at me. “Do you want me to come to the office with you?” He pulled up to where the visitors guard was.
I looked at him in relief. “Would you?”
“Not a problem. I think I have to anyway.” He rolled down the window and greeted the guard.
“How can I help you?” The guard asked.
“My sister is starting here today. She transferred over from Belmont. Could you point me to the office?” I leaned forward to look around my brother and waved at the guard.
“What’s your sister’s name?”
“Evangeline Fabbro.”
“One minute.” The guard tilted his head for a minute then focused back in on my brother. “The office is that way. Go straight down then make a left.”
“Okay thanks. I drop her off occasionally so do I come in through here every time or…?”
“I’ll give you a pass so the normal gates will open for you and there’ll be an area that says Student Drop Off. You go there. You’ll be able to pick her up there too.” He handed Ty a metal card to put up on the dash. “The gates will automatically open so you can go through.”
Ty pulled through the gate and made his way to the office and parked. “Do want me to pick you up in the Drop Off?”
I shook my head. “Pick me up outside the gates.” I opened the door and looked up at the school for the first time. Ty whistled.
“When people ask you where you go to school you can now officially say you go to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.” I snorted but couldn’t help but agree. “You ready?”
Not really, no. “Yeah. Lead the way.”
“Can I help you?” The secretary asked as soon as we stepped inside. I looked at her and saw she was looking more towards my brother. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat.
“I just transferred in this year. Evangeline Fabbro,” I said.
“Oh yes. We’ve been waiting for you Miss Fabbro. Here’s your schedule and someone will be here shortly to show you around. We made sure they had as close a schedule to you as possible. I just need you to sign in here.” She handed me a piece of paper and turned to my brother and smiled. “And you are?”
My brother smiled charmingly. “I’m Tyler. I’m Evan’s brother. I was told I needed to come in when I dropped her off?” He phrased it as a question.
“Ah yes. You just need to sign after her. We asked for her guardian to be here, I take it that’s you.” I averted my eyes and Tyler cleared his throat.
“Our father is her primary guardian. He travels often for the family business so I act in his stead when he’s gone.”
“We’ll make note of that in her file. Letters and emails will be addressed to you. If you could just fill this out please,” She accepted the explanation. My brother was just handing back the file when there was a knock on the door and it opened allowing a student entrance. He was rather short for a guy, matching my 5’2”. He had blonde hair that fell into his bright blue eyes, had a lean build, and looked to be a rather easygoing guy. The secretary, still don’t know her name, smiled at the boy. “Just in time, Mr. Lucas. Miss Fabbro, Mr. Lucas over there is going to show you around for the day. Just go to him if you ever need help finding anything.”
“Hey,” Blondie said, smiling at me. I nodded my head in return. “What’s your locker number?”
“Uh,” I looked down to see a card with my number and combo attached to my schedule. “S17.”
“That’s right next to mine!” Blondie smiled. “Come on I’ll take you there first.” He headed back out the door. I turned to Tyler and tried to give him a reassuring smile. He grabbed me and pulled me into a hug.
“Text or call whenever you have lunch okay?”
“Okay,” my response was muffled in his chest. He gave me a squeeze and let me go. Guess I wasn’t that reassuring.
“Have a good day, Angel,” he said to me then pushed me toward the door. I walked out and saw Blondie waiting for me. He started to lead me down the hall and into the hallways where people were just coming in. I turned and saw Tyler looking at me. He noticed me looking and waved. I waved back and when I turned to follow Blondie I saw him looking at me curiously. He looked past me to Tyler.
“Is that your brother?” I nodded. “I thought so. You both smell like electricity.” I froze.
“Excuse me?” He looked at me weird then realization crossed his features.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you or anything, it’s just weird. I’ve never met anyone who smelled like electricity and then I meet two? Weird.” Okay. He just ignored how weird it is for him to tell me how I smell. He didn’t know what the electricity meant either, I had a pretty good idea though.
“Your locker’s this way, Angel. My name’s Chris but you can call me Luke like everyone else.”
“My name is Evangeline,” I hissed at him.
He looked confused. “But I heard-“
“I don’t care what you heard. My name is Evangeline.”
“Sorry, sorry,” he held his hands up in surrender. “I apologize Miss Evangeline.”
“Just lead me to my locker, Blondie,” I muttered under my breath, ignoring the fact that he could hear me. He looked away from me and frowned.
“You’re locker is this way, stay close I don’t want to lose you in the crowd.” He pulled me into what looked like a main hallway that had several branching off of it at the other end to where we were standing. He avoided looking at me. I think I hurt his feelings. I tried not to feel bad about it but it was hard: he was only trying to help me and here I was being a bitch. It wasn’t his fault I was being forced to come here. He pulled me down into a hallway that branched off and was mostly empty. For now at least. He stopped and I looked at the locker and saw that it was mine. I opened it and my stuff in it.
“What am I going to need?”
“Just a notebook, a pen and folder. If you end up using the notebook for actual work, we’ll come back and get a different one.”
“Thanks,” I said as I pulled out the things he listed. He still wouldn’t look at me. I sighed. “Look, Luke,” he looked at me as I said his name. “I’m sorry I was being mean. I’ve had a pretty bad morning so far and I took it out on you. I’m sorry.” He smiled at me and his eyes immediately brightened up.
“Apology accepted. Now let’s get you to-” He peeked at my schedule. “-AP Calculus.” He wrinkled his nose. “You take Calc?”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “Yes, I do.”
“Why? And AP? You do know that it’s going to be harder than it would be at your other school right? I mean the test is the same but the class itself is harder.”
“I know.” I frowned at the mention of my old school. “Math is easy for me.”
“Well, you can keep your math. I have Game Theory then. It’s right next door to your room so that works. Let’s go.” He pulled me through the maze of hallways and into a complete different wing of the school. “This is the math wing. It’s a good thing you have this first because it’s the farthest from our lockers. What are you doing after school? I’ll show you easier ways to get everywhere.”
“I can’t after school.” I watched his face fall. “Maybe lunch?” I suggested and he nodded.
“We get an hour for lunch, by the way.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh. Look we’re here! Have fun in Calc!” He disappeared in the classroom next to the one I was standing at. I walked in and noticed that there were very little people here. I walked up to the teacher’s desk.
“Hi, I’m Evangeline Fabbro.”
The teacher looked up from his book and at me. “You’re the transfer student.” I nodded.
“I hope that you’re prepared for how hard this class is going to be compared to your old high school class. Take a seat anywhere and don’t fall behind.”
I immediately headed straight for the middle seat in the row next to the window. I pulled out my phone and saw that my brother had sent me a picture of our cat, Louis. I smiled. Before I could send him anything the bell rang and I had to put my phone away. I looked around the room saw a large cluster of people toward the back and then everyone else spread out on the other side of the room. No one had sat near me. I shrugged. It was easier this way, being invisible and all that. I won’t get distracted either.
“Alright people. Let’s see which one of you did the summer homework,” the teacher passed out a worksheet.
I couldn’t be happier that I did the homework.
* * * * *
“How was it?” Lucas pounced as soon as I stepped out the door.
I shrugged aware of the eyes on us. “Fine.”
“Fine? That’s it?”
I shrugged again. “It’s math. I have AP Biology next.”
“Oh good. That’s pretty close to here.” He led us both to the Biology room, talking my ear off the whole entire time.
“Luke!” He looked over at the sound of his name and I immediately went to the other side of the room, as far from the large group of people Luke was part of as I could, and sat down. I glanced at his group. Is everyone in this school obscenely attractive? Are there any ugly werewolves? Or are they all attractive on their own?
“Evangeline!” Luke called but I pretended that I didn’t hear him. “Evangeline!” He called again. I still ignored him. I heard him walk over to me. “Angel! Why di-” He cut himself off as I turned my head to look at him and glared.
“What did I tell you my name was?” I heard a few intakes of breath as I waited for his answer. Werewolf or not, I wasn’t going to tolerate him calling me Angel.
“Ev-Evangeline.” He gulped.
“Good you remember. Now go away,” I made a shooing motion with my hands.
“I just wanted to know if you would sit with me,” he whispered. He looked hurt but I wasn’t going to feel bad about it.
“No,” and I turned to face forward. I heard him walk away slowly. As he sat I felt eyes on me and knew it wasn’t just his. But maybe he’ll get the hint that I don’t want to be friends with him.
After class I practically ran out of the room with the map and my schedule in my hand. Damn this school is huge. But I had the map and my magic to help.
Did I forget to mention I had magic? Well, I do. The electricity Lucas said he could smell? That’s the magic. The family business.
But anyway, I forced my way through the crowds to the photography classroom. I hope that this is one of the classes, Lucas isn’t in.
Turns out luck really doesn’t favor me today because in walked Lucas. And not just Lucas but his whole entire posse. Throughout the whole entire class I could feel their stares but I ignored it, listening to the introductory shtick all the teachers do.
During lunch I made my way outside to avoid everybody. I only had one class left since I only had five classes out of six today. Which is really weird because at my old high school we had nine classes a day. Unless you were a senior or one of the really lucky juniors that got to leave early. I pulled out my phone to text my brother as promised when I saw a large shadow pass over me. When the shadow didn’t move or say anything I decided to speak.
“Is there any particular reason you’re blocking my sun?” I asked as I looked up. The moment my eyes landed on the tall form I knew exactly who was in front of me. Damon McKnight, son of the Alpha of the McKnight Pack.
“You were rude when all he was doing was being nice.”
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know exactly who I’m talking about!” And I did know.
“Sorry, I don’t.”
“I can hear the lie y’know,” he bared his teeth.
“Hmm that’s right,” I said as I tapped my lip. “You wolves have built-in lie detectors. Guess I’ll have to work on that.”
“All Luke wanted was to be your friend and you were hurtful.”
“I still don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Short, blonde, one of the friendliest people.”
“Oh!” I said in fake recognition. “You mean Blondie?” I knew I was being a bitch and acting like I didn’t care but I was actually starting to panic. I needed to get myself out of this situation.
Tall, dark, and angry growled. “His name. Is Luke. And I want to know why you decided to be mean to him.”
I cocked my head. “I don’t see how that’s your business.”
“He’s my cousin and my pack.” I shrugged. “Do you have any idea who I am?” I did, who didn’t? But I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“I’m Damon McKnight.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Damon growled again.
“My father is the Alpha and I am future-”
“Last I checked you’re the spare; Mikale McKnight is the heir apparent, not you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere to be.” I turned and made my way inside the school to hurry up and finish up the day.
This day is not going well. Ty is going to kill me.