You Seem Different

ALORA

I walked into the cafeteria and all eyes suddenly whips to my direction. Some eyes were filled with fear while others with blatant hatred and irritation. I shiver internally and try my very best to ignore the persistent stares coming from every corner of the room.

Their reaction towards my presence was enough proof that Caden wasn't on anyone's good books around here. They all have some sort of bone to pick with him cause I could almost cut through the tension with a knife.

How am I supposed to blend in for the rest of the semester when his records aren't even good to begin with?

"Hey, Caden!" I heard someone holler from behind and before I could turn to see who it was, I was jumped on and his hands wrapped around my neck playfully.

I push him away forcefully only to see Noah staring at me like I've gone nuts.

"Relax, it's just me." He tells me, hands raised in surrender. I wasn't my intention to be mean but I can't risk having anyone this close to me especially in this state.

I cleared my throat. "I had no idea it was you, sorry." I apologize as I look away and tuck my hands into my pockets.

"You seem a little different Caden." Noah blurted out, earning a curious look from me.

"W-What do you mean?"

"You're sorry?" He inclined his head at me. "Since when are you sorry about anything? That accident must've really done a number on you hasn't it?"

I force a strangled laugh. "I guess. Makes you wonder what's important and to appreciate life even more."

He nods slowly but I can still see the doubt registered in his eyes.

"So, what's for lunch?" I ask, trying to change the subject so that we can move on to other discussions and not dwell on this one for too long to avoid suspicions.

"I doubt you'd want to eat anything here. It's a different lunch lady serving today and you don't like her meals. I'll order pizza. Marshmallow toppings as usual right?" He asks, pulling out his phone to order.

How do I tell him that I don't eat marshmallows? That's Caden's favorite topping. This is exactly what I meant by saying that we are only identical but different in every areas.

"How about pepperoni?" I suggest and he brings his eyes to look at mine.

"Pepperoni? Since when? Why? I've never seen you order that before. You always go for marshmallow. You even tried to kill me once when I messed up your order so what changed now?"

"I just..." I trailed off, masking myself in sadness. "It's actually Alora's favourite and I miss her a lot so I just wanted to have something of hers. Something that she likes to remember her by." I say, letting the lie roll out of my tongue easily in hopes that he actually believes it.

I saw his face soften at my reason. "Oh I get it now. It's okay man." He hit my shoulders in comfort and I subtly rub my hand over the place where I had been assaulted while screaming internally.

"You've always had a deep love for your sister and I know how hard it must've been for you when she died but you'll be fine. It gets better with time." He assured me and went on with the order while I watched him tap away on his cellphone.

He was right about one thing though. It's definitely hard to lose someone you care about and it's more harder when you're twins that share an unbreakable connection with each other.

Caden's death will probably go down in history as one of the worst things to ever happen to me.

Noah orders the pizza and it arrives an hour later. I follow him outside to take it when I saw some group of boys screaming while running towards our direction.

Noah grabs my hands and pulls me over to the side so that they don't knock me down. I am actually grateful for that. He stopped someone to ask what was happening and they only mentioned one word, "Molly," before running away.

"Let's go Caden, this way!" Noah beckons and started running towards another direction, leaving me to follow. I am confused about what's happening so I just stand still trying to process what was going on.

Why is everyone running away? What's chasing them?

I hear growling sounds behind me and slowly turn around to see what it was and just then, I come face to face with a huge wolf with grey angry eyes and tongue sticking out of its mouth.

"Oh no!" I blurted out, my skin already breaking out in a sweat as I took a step backwards. I recognize those eyes. It's the eyes of a wolf that has gone wild. It's a savage wild rogue.

The wolf stalked towards me and with each step it took with his paw, I took one backwards. Just then, I accidentally missed my step and fell to the ground on my butt.

The wolf jumped on me and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for impact but Instead of hurting me like I had anticipated, he sniffed my face licked me with its tongue.

I opened my eyes to see it staring at me intently. Instinctively, I ran my hands through its fur and it backed down. I heard murmurings and whispers from behind me only to see more than half of the entire student body, including Kalix, staring at me from a distance.

"I'm sorry Prince Caden." A man who I assumed was one of the workers apologized as he collared the wolf. "Are you hurt? Do you need to see a doctor?"

I shake my head negatively. "I am fine and I'm not hurt."

"Are you sure?" He urges and I could see the terror in his eyes as he uttered those words. "Maybe we should just visit the clinic to make sure that you're really okay."

"I promise that I'm okay. Nothing happened to me and I am completely fine." I assured him again.

He nods and walks away, pulling the dog along with him.

Noah pushed to the front of the crowd to where I was standing. "Are you mad? Were you planning to get eaten alive? Why didn't you run when I did? especially when you know how dangerous Molly can be?

Molly? That's the wolf's name? That's why they were running away? How is she dangerous when I didn't get bitten or eaten alive like Noah had said?

"But I'm fine." I say pointing to myself. "I'm not injured or eaten alive in any way so you can calm down."

"And that's my next question. Why weren't you?" He went on to ask, catching me off guard.

"What?"

"Molly is a savage wolf that goes berserk when she comes in contact with anyone that's not properly equipped to control her. They use her to scare us most times and that's it." He went further to explain.

"More importantly, she doesn't like boys and always chases after us which is why everyone was running away from her but you just stood there and she didn't hurt or harm you in any way. Why is that?"

I am tight-lipped and don't know how to respond to that.

"You of all people know that Caden." He went on. "You always stay away from Molly no matter what. You always run away just like the rest of us. Hell, she almost bit you one time so why didn't you run knowing that you might be injured or wounded by her? Especially in your state of recovery?"

"Do you care to explain?" Noah pressed on and I notice everyone staring at me. "Wha

t exactly is happening right now Caden? Who exactly are you and why did Molly spare you?"