Marked By the Hunter's Daughter

Chapter 11: Damn

The silence they were expecting didn’t occur. Mr. Arnold took pleasure in the mocking of Douglas, so he didn’t quiet down the noise. This was the ‘one in a million’ moments he liked the two rascals as they did their job well. Quite well! As no other person could dare mock the bully with expectation of the two, and he himself couldn’t do much.

After being satisfied, he was about to reduce the noise when the noise died down, so he returned back to his teaching. Meanwhile, Alex and Ray were not about to return to the boring state of the class, so the background laughter continued.

“Hey, Ray, you can keep me company in detention for laughing,” Alex uttered in a low tune.

“Fine,” Raymond did the mocking face and mimicked Douglas who was at the peak of busting in rage and then the two burst into laughter.

Alex turned and sighted a bright stunning curve smile that brought out the beauty of the face, taking it to another level of attraction. Never in his life had Alex fallen deep into this hole of abyss with just the sight of a smile.

Layla Hunt tried canceling her smile, but the more she listened and stole glances at the two handsome boys, the more her smile widened. Well… it was more suitable to say hot and cute boys Alex was the former while Ray was the latter.

She stood up when she heard the bell and decided to steal her last glance before leaving the class. The moment she did that, she regretted it.

“f**k! He caught me.” Layla grabbed her bag and walked out of the class without looking back this time around.

“Damn, she is hot!” Alex muttered under his breath.

But Ray behind him heard it loud and clear.

“I know right?” Ray replied as they both headed to their lockers to change their books for the next class.

Ignoring the red faces that shot lasers at them from behind, they kept their conversation going, and Douglas and his gang became more infuriated.

“So, you’re going to meet her?” Alex questioned Raymond, anxious for his answer. And when he got it, his expression changed for the better and he didn’t know why.

“The new girl? No, no, no, you see this little heart of mine is for, ahem, you know who.”

“Hmm…” Alex replied with a swift rising eyebrow.

“And why will I go for the new girl when you yourself are falling for her.”

Alex choked from the surprise, and before he could reply, a weight pressed on his back as a hand swung around both of their necks pressing them down to the female height.

“Did I hear you say Alex is in love?” Daisy Quinn added.

She was the missing person in their circle. Alex, Raymond, and Daisy were childhood best friends for like forever. She left at the beginning of summer and was back to resume school. Though unlike the two, she isn’t a rascal but she is crazy. Not mentally ill but the type that did whatever she wanted according to her mood kind of ‘crazy’.

Releasing her grip, she wrapped her hands around Alex, hugging him tight before retreating back.

“I’ve missed you, Alex.”

“Missed you mum… uh, I mean Daisy.”

She interrupted with a slight punch on the arm before turning to hug Raymond.

“Missed you too, Ray.”

“Woah, you’re hot, you went all the way for summer to become hotter, mehn it’s worth it.”

“Shut up and come here.” Daisy hugged Raymond also, and the lover boy was mouthing “I feel good” behind Daisy.

Alex was preparing his pity face for Raymond if eventually Daisy heard him, but to his luck, he avoided this trouble.

“Did you just cut your hair? Because I can scent your lemon hair spray you use after getting your hair trimmed,” Alex asked, as he could inhale every bit of her fragrance. It was all over his nose every breath he took he inhaled it in.

“What? No, I trimmed it on Saturday and I haven’t applied it on my hair since.”

“Really? What about you, Ray, do you smell it?”

Alex asked, but Ray shook his head, so he dropped the topic.

“So, when did you arrive in school?” Alex asked, slamming his locker to close after selecting his books for the next class not as if he would actually open it to read but to serve as his cover-up. The two behind him also did the same, but compared to Alex and Ray, Daisy was much more serious in study.

But you see, first week of resumption… No one was going to take studies seriously.

“Very early, that is what happens when you have a detective chief inspector as a dad.”

They chuckled at her words.

“He was called off from work about some new case that occurred in the woods, so he decided to personally drop me in school, for you know…”

“Safety reasons.” Daisy added with an air quote, which led to another laughter.

“So, you deliberately skipped out on mathematics class?” Ray questioned.

“Exactly, you can’t blame me for missing out on ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger’ boring class. I mean Schwarzenegger is way better than that man.”

“Ha-ha, you’re right. I would compare him with Commando but that is an understatement he is a freaking Terminator.” Alex uttered, and their laughter got swallowed in the loud sound of the bell as they moved to their next class.

The next class was English language and it was much better than the previous class. The three of them paid more attention to it or more specifically, the two boys paid more attention to hot Ms. Claire. It was normal that Daisy listened to the teacher’s lesson, but Alex and Ray the only reason they weren’t busy sleeping was because it was Ms. Claris’s class. But that lasted only for some minutes before they found something else to do.

Raymond was pretty much reading novels online on his phone I mean that was the top novel app trending on the net right now. So Ray couldn’t be blamed. Even Alex too was constantly reading novels on g********l, Dreame or Ringdom and they were both competing on who discovered new authors and good interesting novels so they could each read and discuss about.

While Ray was sneakily reading his novel, Alex was with a black pen and a book. With utmost concentration his hands motioned around the book. Looking at him, one would think he was jotting down the words of the teacher but Alexander Marshal was actually drawing.

Yeah, drawing!

Alex was sketching the image in his memory of last night. He was the talented one of the three — an artist, a dancer, and an athlete. But not anymore. Ever since he dislocated his ankle last year during a football match against the neighboring school and his rival decided to rule out the “fair play rule” and crush his leg his dream was gone from that day.

Outlining the red dominating and terrifying eye of the animal that bit him, he tried to continue sketching but his memory was blank. He couldn’t draw further. After a while, the class was over and they all swan out the way they swan in — but much happier and faster.

Alex’s eyes didn’t fail to lock gaze at Layla once again while admiring the perfect carved body God made as she walked out of the class.

“Hahaha, it seems Ray was right after all,” Daisy’s voice was heard from behind him.

“Told you so,” Ray added.

Alex was able to react and turned to face them while hiding the fact that he was shocked by their voice.

“Right about what?”

“That you are in love with the new girl of course.”

“Say what? C’mon ‘don’t of course’ me. Do you know how many girls you two have said I’m in love with in my entire life that I did not end up dating?”

Alex sighed in relief in his mind as he saw that he had pushed them into their thinking zone. But it didn’t last two seconds before they came out of it. Still, it was so worth it.

“That’s kinda true. Damn bro, you need help,” Ray spoke.

“I know right? But still, this is different. I can feel it and I can also see it in your eyes.”

“Really?... sure.” She rolled her eyes.

“Daisy, I’m not a lover boy and nothing is bad in admiring that beauty of a girl. I mean even Ray knows she is good looking and—”

“What?” she cut him off as a bit of anger and sadness flashed in her eye but she covered up instantly.

“Well, she is not bad at all.”

Meanwhile, Ray knew nothing about what just happened. Alex was launching him to pay back.

“The love amongst us is obviously not me for sure.”

“Huh, I’m not in love with anyone… Ray, are you?” Daisy turned, anticipating his answer.

“Uh… What, me? No.”

The comeback wasn’t much but the look on Ray’s face as sweat beads were forming made it so worth it. Now that’s how stars do — you say I’m in love, do the same.

And for that short period of moment it became awkward. Daisy removed her gaze from him which gave Ray the opportunity to mouth ‘FUKE YOU’!

Alex swallowed his giggle and broke the silence.

“C’mon guys, let’s go and eat, I’m hungry.”

“Same.”

‘Hmm, Daisy’s expression earlier… it seems these two ships are about to sail.’

They all went to the cafeteria and got their desired food. Alex got a large-size hamburger and a plastic Coke with an apple. Ray also got the same food with exception of the apple.

While Daisy only got a can of Pepsi drink and she didn’t stay to sit with them instead, she went to the principal’s office to sort out some documents.

They picked a round table seat to have their food, and in the midst of eating, Ray pressed Alex’s hand slightly which he reacted to the pain instantly.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

“Sorry, just wanted to confirm which hand was bitten.”

Ray expressed his intentions but Alex knew he wasn’t done talking, so he questioned him,

“What now?”

“Can I see?”

Alex expressed a confused look but gave up, knowing Ray wasn’t going to drop the subject unless he got what he wanted.

“Fine.” He rolled up his left sleeve and revealed the injury he had.

“Sh*t! It has swollen up. You need to go get this treated, Alex, before it gets worse.” Ray scrutinized for a bit before he bandaged it back and rolled his sleeve down.

“I know and I will. I don’t want my aunt to be worried.”

“You know how she is.”

Ray nodded in agreement knowing how Ms. Laurel reacts to this kind of situation. She wouldn’t let it slide.

“You know what? Let me call my mom and book an appointment. We can’t let the injury get more severe.”

Seeing the concerned, worried look on Ray’s brown cute eyes, even he felt pity for himself.

“Sure, thanks.” They went back to eating.

Alex stared at Ray’s plate hoping to find the burger that was just there, but instead he found only the crunch of the hamburger left.

The full hamburger that was there some moments ago was gone.

Alex grabbed his burger and took a big bite, savoring the bread and juicy meat together with the vegetables and other ingredients, which brought out the delicious flavor of the burger as he swallowed it down.

“Ray, where is the large burger that was here just now?”

Ray took a sip of his drink before tapping his stomach and replying,

“Gone. And it was not large at all.”

“Really, it wasn’t large enough?”

“Yeah, I’ve eaten larger ones.”

“Geez, you food monster!” Alex took another bite and washed it down with his drink.

“So, you gonna finish that?”

“F*ck off!” They laughed.

A wave of silence swept the table as they finished their meal without any conversation.

Alex was thinking about what Daisy said. He recalled she mentioned her father was called on an incident that occurred in the woods last night.

Weren’t they in the woods last night?

Those strange noises and scenes they heard and witnessed was there a possibility they were connected to the chief inspector’s case?

He pondered for a while before his attention was called out.

“Alex, look over there — it’s the new girl, let’s go welcome her.”

“Hehehe, that’s true, c’mon let’s go.”

They both stood up, grabbing the remaining of their meal and heading toward Layla.

Meanwhile, Layla took a bite of her doughnut and looked straight only to sight the two good-looking rascals of the school.

“Oh, f*ck, it’s actually true… I guess it’s about time Layla concealed her blush.”