13

I remained sat in my chair. I had to shake myself out of the trance that the dark haired girl with the deep voice managed to create.
Students were filing out of the class, I realised I looked out of place by sitting here alone. I grabbed my bag and swung it over my shoulder, catching up to the group of students. Students were barging past me while I tried to fish my paper out of my bag, my timetable was still a mystery to me.
"Move over!"
"Why would she just stand there? Idiot."
People muttered to their friends as they passed me, either unaware I could hear or hoping I'd hear and move. I stumbled over to the side of the corridor, my head still deep inside my bag. I couldn't find the damn timetable, not wanting to be the student that had their head stuck behind the paper all day, I had foolishly thrown it into the depths of my bag.
"You have Literature next," her smooth voice was in my ear again, she was pushing the boundaries. I turned my head to face her, realising she was a lot closer to me than I had anticipated. I felt her warm breath on my cheek and leaned in closer, unable to resist. She raised a hand to move a tendril of my hair out of the way, pushing it gently behind my ear. Her cold hand moved on to my cheek, holding it still but gentle. She brushed my cheek with the back of her hand, and closed her eyes in contentment. Suddenly, she snapped them open again and abruptly turned on her heel, stalking off. Leaving me alone and confused, and very aware of the stares I was receiving from other students.
I stumbled into literature, hoping to see a friendly face. I could see Aurel, but she was hardly a friendly face. Still her scowling face was much more desirable amid the sea of unfamiliar faces, so I made my way over to her. I was relieved to see there was an empty seat next to her. I hovered behind it, unsure of my next move.
"This isn't Kendra's seat, by any chance?" I joked weakly, hoping to break the thick tension we had let build up. To my surprise she flashed me a genuine smile, and started chuckling.
"She can move."
I sat down aside her, and pulled out a pen.
"So, uh... What are we studying in lit?" I was praying for something I had already read. I'll admit it, I wanted an easy year.
"We're doing poetry right now," despite her resting scowl, nobody could ignore the excitement and warmth in her voice. I loved her passion, I couldn't wait to hear her read some out loud.
"I bet you're happy!"
"Yeah," she blushed and looked down, avoiding my gaze. Why would she be embarrassed to like poetry? It made no sense. I didn't have the chance to probe further, our teacher strode in.
She was very commanding, we worked in almost total silence as we analysed poems and chose one to read out loud. I was stuck between 'Lamia' by John Keats and 'The Giaour' by Lord Byron. Looking over at Aurel, I noted that she was absorbed in 'Touched By An Angel' by Maya Angelou. A beautiful poem, well picked. I was weighing the pros and cons of reading them out loud when Aurel turned to me. She skimmed her eyes over my poem choice and raised her eyebrows. I raised mine in return.
"Lamia? Giaour? Good choices." There was that secret smile again, inside jokes.
"I love the stories that the poets convey," I tried to keep excitement out of my voice. Gushing over poems was not the most attractive move.
"Vampire fan?" She was smirking but her voice was cold, reserved.
"Yeah, I guess."
She turned her head back to her poem and continued highlighting. She didn't pick up the conversation for the rest of the lesson, I tried hard to focus on the poems. I decided on 'The Giaour', it was the shorter of the two which I knew would be easier to read. Our teacher, Imara, hovered behind us to read our selection.
"Good choice, girls. We'll be reading them in a few weeks time so you better start practising them." She strode to the front of the class, peering around excitedly.
"I've seen an excellent selection of poems, I'm expecting an excellent presentation of them. You are dismissed."
The room became alive as students picked up their bags, discussing poems with their friends and rejoicing that we only had one lesson left. I remembered that I had French, with Aurel. To my surprise, she stood up and waited next to me as I gathered my papers together.
"I thought I'd show you some of the courtesy that my brother and I were raised with," she flashed me a smile, so charming that it stunned me momentarily. She raised her eyebrows at me, clearly worrying about my mental state. I shook myself out of this daze, it was idiotic. She was human, just like me. No need to get so worked up.
I walked alongside her, arms brushing against each other. Although we walked in silence, it was a comfortable silence. There were many things that were obviously left unsaid between the two of us, and we were both comfortable not voicing our issues. What would we say anyway? She was pissed that Felix had flirted with me, or was it that I had denied anything between us? We met yesterday, and most of our conversations were full of hostility, so  I wasn't exactly lying to Felix. But I knew that in her situation, it would upset me to hear that we had nothing.                                                   "So, what do you think of Felix?" As if she had read my mind. I reminded myself to remain neutral, I didn't want to annoy her more but I wouldn't sell Felix out after he had been way nicer to me than she had ever been.                                                                       "Yeah, he's nice! I didn't speak to him much though, but he seemed friendly enough."      "You spoke long enough for him to hit on you, but that's none of my business." She was pissed.       
"You're right! It is none of your business." I sped up my walking, striding past her and into the french classroom ahead of us. I looked round at the filling classroom, looking for someone I knew so I didn't have to sit next to Aurel again. I couldn't deal with another hour of her mood swings. I could feel hot tears of frustration building up behind my eyes, and a sizeable lump was stuck in my throat.  I caught sight of Clover's bright hair in the corner, a few seats away from Jaspar Laurence. I made my way over to Clover, so glad to see someone outside of Aurel's circle.  I was a few seats away from her when an elegant figure swooped in and sat in my target seat. Aurel turned to me and smiled sweetly but viciously.                                                                                                             "Sorry, this is my seat," her tone was nice, anyone would think this was a pleasant conversation.  But I knew better, I could see the cold amusement in her eyes and the cruel tilt to her smile. She knew what she was doing, isolating me from people I knew in the class. I spun around angrily to meet the charming smile of Jaspar. His face was kind as he smiled at me, but as his gaze slipped from me to Aurel, his eyes were mocking.                                                                                                                                               "Care to sit with me, May? I wouldn't want you to sit alone on your first day. Terrible manners, my sister's. I do apologise." I turned to look at Aurel, she was glaring at Jaspar with pure anger. Without a seconds thought, I turned back to Jaspar and smiled enthusiastically.                                                                         
"That would be lovely, thank you Jaspar. It's nice to see that somebody around here has manners." I made sure to raise my voice, admittedly it was immature but so was she. I followed Jaspar to his seat and childishly positioned my seat so Aurel was in my view, and I in hers. She was still glaring at Jaspar, but shifted her glare to me when she caught me looking. I looked past her to give Clover an apologetic look, one she returned. I jumped as Jaspar leaned forward, cutting off my view of his sullen twin. He was smiling at me again, showing the Laurence manners that Aurel had previously mentioned.                  
"How has your first day been, ma chérie?" God, he was so charming. When he spoke, it only highlighted how cold and reserved his twin was.                                                                 "You're speaking French to me now?" I couldn't help but laugh, it was funny how charming he was, especially when I could see Aurel glaring at us behind him. He chuckled, a melodic chuckle not unlike Aurel's laugh.                                                              "Well, it's only appropriate as we're in a french class. You never answered my question, comment ça va?" He leaned in closer, so close I could smell his woody scent, like the forest Aurel and I sat in last night. I sighed in mock exasperation and smiled.
"Ça va bien, merci monsieur,"  I looked around the class to see the teacher. She was sat at her desk and had written on the board 'S'il vous plaît avec votre pratique de dialogue français'. I guessed that was what Jaspar and I were doing. We were having a french conversation. He caught me looking at the board and chuckled again, thinking the same as I was.
"Our conversation is français, ma chérie." He was gradually moving closer, this time reaching out to brush away a tendril of my hair. This was fun, exciting, but not in the way talking to Aurel was. She meant so much more. I looked at her again, out of stupid habit, and felt as if I had been sucker punched in the gut. She was as close to Clover as Jaspar was to me, closer even. She too was brushing Clover's hair, but her hand lingered on Clover's cheek. Poor Clover looked confused and slightly scared, but not uncomfortable. I felt betrayed, although I had willingly let Jaspar do the same to me seconds ago. But then, a wave of anger washed over me. Why should I be so hurt? Why did I expect anything different? She was rude to me, changing how she spoke to me with every sentence. I shouldn't feel guilty about Jaspar, I had no commitment to anybody. I spent the rest of that french lesson batting my eyelashes and exchanging challenging glances with Aurel. I felt no shame.
The bell rang, signalling the end to a roller coaster of a day. Immediately, Aurel was by Jaspars side, waiting for him. Clover trailed behind her to wait beside me.
"Are you coming straight over?" Her voice was cheerful, although she eyed Aurel warily as she came to stand beside her.
"Tonight?" Aurel questioned me, her cold voice sending shivers down my spine. I rolled my eyes internally at my reaction, already sick of how she affected me.
"Yes, tonight. I'm hanging out with Clover and Felix," my voice was slightly too snappy and rude, I didn't want to go to her level.
"And Em," Clover quipped.
"So we won't be seeing you at our party?" She sounded almost upset, or disappointed.
"I didn't even know there was a party tonight."
"At Daisy's. And yours, I guess." Something in me snapped. I didn't even know about a party in my own dorm room?
"Do you see that? This is why I don't want to hang round with you, I wouldn't go to the party even if I wasn't at Clover's. I know I've been here for a day, but I deserve to know what's going on in my own damn dorm room. You're rude and non inclusive and your clique has managed to make me feel like an outsider on day one. Clover, I'm coming straight to yours." I linked arms with Clover and stormed out of the classroom, leaving the beautiful twins stunned behind us.