Havermouth's Triquetra

Chapter Two

Monday

“This way,” Cameron said cheerfully picking up his bag from the floor and flinging it over one shoulder. “The bell’s going to go soon, but we should be close enough.” He started along the hallway before taking a left, his long-legged strides making Aislen almost have to trot to keep up.

The hallways were emptying as the students went to their first lessons. Those who remained in the hall all seemed to know Cameron, calling out his name or smiling as he passed. He greeted them with an easy, cheerful charm that impressed Aislen. She had never been that suave or confident, and she imagined that she never would.

“Where are you from?” He asked her.

“Kabramatta.”

“Wow, all the way on the other side of the country. That’s a big move.”

“Yeah,” she adjusted the bag strap on her shoulder uncomfortably. “We only arrived last Thursday.” She’d spent most of Friday and the weekend unpacking and arranging the little room in the dingy little cottage that her father had managed to buy sight unseen for them to move into.

“What brings you to Havermouth?” Cameron’s eyes were on her face and not the hallway. His confidence obviously extended to the expectation that anyone or anything in his way would move.

“Dad worked for a sister company to Zeus. A promotion came up, short notice. He applied and got accepted,” she explained.

“Oh, cool.”

The bell went, but Cameron was indifferent. They were suddenly the only people in the hallway. She wondered where the English class was, and hoped the teacher wouldn’t give her a hard time for being late on her first day.

“There’s a party this weekend,” Cameron told her. “You should come.”

“Oh, thanks.” Parties weren’t really her thing. She tended to find somewhere as far away as possible from other people so that she could let go of the wards and relax. Sometimes she just slept the weekend away, recovering from the mental exhaustion. But she was new to town, and she needed to make friends. “Sounds good.”

He suddenly stopped at a door and held it open for her as the class inside all turned to look. “Hey, Ms Walker,” he said letting the door close behind Aislen. “New girl.”

“Thank you, Cameron,” Ms Walker looked at Aislen expectantly. As was the class, all waiting for her to introduce herself.

“Aislen,” Aislen offered tentatively.

“Nice to meet you Aislen. Find a seat, and we’ll get started. We’re recovering Hamlet this week in preparation for exams. I assume you’ve read the text as it’s mandatory for this year’s curriculum?” Ms Walker raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Fantastic.”

“Aislen,” Cameron gestured with his head to a table near the rear with two seats free. Aislen followed him, shuffling between the tightly arranged desks, and blushing as her skirt caught on someone’s books that were precariously perched on the edge, so they had to snatch them quickly to stop them falling off.

Cameron took up a lot of room at the table, spreading his knees wide beneath it and planting his elbow on the surface in order to prop his chin on one hand as he held the book open with another, and Aislen scrunched herself tightly to the side in order not to brush against him.

Ms Walker began to read alound and the minds in the room went quiet, focused on the reading, and with the hectic stressful rush of getting to school and finding her way behind her, Aislen was able to take the opportunity to calm herself and re-enforce the wards. It was going to be okay; she told herself. The worst was behind her.

Her attention drifted to the young man she was sitting next to. f**k he was gorgeous. His profile was perfect, his brown, nose and chin beautifully balanced. She couldn’t resist but to draw it in the margins of her notebook.

Was he a werewolf? She wondered. If he was human, he was supernaturally good-looking. Not only was his face spectacular, but he was tall, and his shoulders were broad and filled out his jumper in a way that made clear he was built beneath it, his arms strong. Altogether he was divinely lickable.

Not that someone like Cameron would ever look at her twice, she scolded herself. Especially not considering all the beautiful girls in the school. And even if he did, she’d only ever kissed one guy, and it had been awful, clumsy, wet, and she’d been so distracted by how he was thinking about whether she’d let him grope her breasts, that she had been repulsed by the whole experience. And him.

She had no idea how any of her ancestresses had managed to get married and have kids. Perhaps they’d learned more from their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and sisters than she had managed to learn in the few weeks staying with her grandmother when she was thirteen, and the writing in the grimoire. Perhaps there was a secret to it, that she had never learned, and she was destined to spend her life alone.

Cameron looked her way and smiled, and she stared at him wide-eyed wondering how to respond. She felt her cheeks heat with a blush, and she dropped her eyes to the books she’d taken out of her bag and realized she hadn’t even opened it.

“Page 54,” he whispered.

“s**t,” she said under her breath and flicked him a glance. “Thanks.”

She opened the book and pretended to look at it. Instead, under her eyelashes she looked around the class at the other students, trying to pick which ones were werewolves from sight. She could find out if she lowered her wards. She could let their thoughts spill into her head and learn all about them. But then she couldn’t control whose thoughts she shared, and everyone’s would fill her skull until it felt like it would explode.

If werewolves were real, it meant that other supernaturals were too, she realized. Vampires, Mermaids, witches… It was obviously a well-kept secret, as humans had no idea. They probably wouldn’t be happy if they found out that she knew.

She was good at keeping secrets though. She’d kept her own for five years, after all.

The bell went, and the students began to rise from their desks.

“What have you got next?” Cameron asked her. “I’ve got a free, so I’ll walk you there, if you like.”

“s**t, I don’t know!” She realized, the stress rising again.

“It’ll be in the envelope,” he pointed out calmly and opened it, pulling out the timetable. “Math,” he pulled a face. “Poor you.” He stood, slinging his bag over his shoulder and picking up her books whilst she fumbled the timetable back into the envelope and the envelope into her bag.

The class had begun to fill with the next group of students, and they had to push against the tide to get out into the hallway.

(f**k, I didn’t do my homework) A stressed-out brunette thought as she hurried to a desk, slamming her books open frantically.

(… Jenny said blue…) From a guy frowning at his phone.

(Is that a cramp? s**t. Did my period just start?) A blonde girl worrying her lip with her teeth.

Aislen kept her eyes on Cameron, his dark russet-curls standing out in the crowd. He was taller than a lot of them, too. The only others as tall as him greeted him with grins, clasped hands, or fist bumps, and they were all impossibly good-looking. Other werewolves.

In the hallway, Cameron slowed, waiting for her to catch up, and then started back the way they’d come, heading towards the office, before taking another hallway, at the end of which she could see an exterior door.

“I should introduce you to my best friends,” Cameron started up the conversation again. “This is your room. We have a spot, just outside here,” he pointed to the door with his free hand as he came to a standstill outside a classroom that was filling with students. “Come meet us there at recess. They’ll like you.”

He handed her the books and their hands touched.

(f*****g lush piece of arse. She’s f*****g begging for my c**k from the smell of her. Bet her panties are soaked through. I’ve been f*****g hard all English) he thought with a very clear mental image of bending her over one of the school desks and ramming his c**k into her from behind. (I bet we can tag-team her by the end of lunch.)

Aislen sucked in a breath. She’d heard s****l fantasies before, moments of lust and raw longing, but what was in Cameron’s mind was… She couldn’t quite put a finger on why she found it so offensive. Maybe because she’d been so attracted to him, and he had been so nice so far, that it felt like a kick in the guts to know how he’d been thinking about her.

She snatched her books away from him, and whirled on her heel, seeking refuge in the classroom as she swallowed back bile, her nausea striking hard. She held it together through the class, just barely and spent recess in the girls’ bathroom, locked in a cubicle whilst she cried.