Mate

Tony grabs a chair and slides into the seat next to me and I'm now sandwiched between him and Lexi.

They're both staring at me, studying me like I'm a specimen in a science laboratory.

"What??" I ask offering them a confused expression.

"Your facial features are perfect.." Lexi says and Tony nods in agreement still looking at me like I was a specimen.

"I do photography and I would like you to be my muse.." Tony says with a smile, as if that's a normal thing to ask people you just met.

Before I can answer the door to the classroom slams open and a boy barges in, moving his eyes around like he's looking for something.

His eyes land on me and he's staring me deep in the eyes. Is he going to ask me about my hair too?

"Who is that?" I whisper to Lexi.

"That's Reece. He's like one of the hottest and most popular guys in school..." Lexi answers.

"Does he normally just barge into places like this?" I ask her, my eyes still on the boy because he's still just standing there, looking at me.

"Not usually.." She says.

He walks over to where Lexi, Tony and I are seated and now he's towering over us. He looks taller up front. Lexi and Tony bow their heads as if they're scared of him or something.

"You.." He says with a deep voice.

"Me?" I ask him, pointing my index finger to my chest. He gives me a confused expression as if he expected a different reaction out of me.

Just as he's about to say something else the teacher walks into class. "Alright everyone, settle down and open your text books to page 30."

Um.. excuse me. What the hell was that?

Lexi and Tony don't raise their heads until the strange boy is out of sight.

"What was that about?" I ask Lexi and she just shrugs giving me a nervous smile.

******************************

The first two Classes are over and it's lunch time now.

"You can sit with us for lunch." Tony says while packing his stuff into his bag.

"Sure." I say standing up.

I'm about to follow Lexi and Tony out of the class when a hand grabs me and pulls me out of the classroom with so much force I almost stumble in my tracks. Before I know it I'm in an empty classroom with the boy from earlier. Lexi said his name was Reece right?

Is he mental?

"Mate.." He growls.

"Excuse me, what?" I say rubbing my arm at the spot where he grabbed me.

"Mate.. We found you." He says again his voice a little bit deeper this time.

I raise my brows at him not knowing what to say. This has definitely got to be some prank. They probably have a tradition here of pranking every new student who comes here.

Yep, that's what this is...

"What are you talking about?" I ask him again with a raise of my brow, titling my head to the side.

"What are you playing at..?" He asks, a look of confusion on his face.

"What are YOU playing at? You're the one who grabbed a complete stranger into an empty classroom and started saying weird stuff.." I tell him raising my voice slightly.

"How old are you?" He asks moving closer.

"What?" I ask him confused.

"I said, how old are you?" He asks again, his voice more demanding this time and I suddenly feel the urge to give him an answer.

"17.." I state simply.

"You don't know..." He says and storms out of the classroom. Leaving me there in a confused state.

IM SORRY, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!?

****************************

I get out of the classroom and head over to the lunch room, scanning it for Lexi and Tony. My eyes land on them and thankfully they're alone.

I'm not really in the mood to meet any more new people.

I walk over to them and slide into a seat next to Lexi.

"Where did you go??" She asks with a worried expression on her face.

"That guy who dragged me out of the classroom took me to an empty class and started saying weird stuff... Is he like... mental?" I ask her

"What did he say to you?" Tony asks.

"Nothing really...He just said mate and asked me how old I am and stormed out. It was pretty weird.." I say to him.

They shoot each other some weird look and look back at me.

"What?" I ask them.

"Nothing. That was pretty weird indeed..." Lexi says but she sounds nervous.

***************************

"Did you make any new friends honey?" Mom asks as we eat dinner.

"Yeah. A boy and a girl. They were really nice to me and they let me sit with them during lunch." I tell her

"Told you so.." My dad says with a triumphant smile.

"You're turning 18 this Saturday, so I guess it's nice that you made some friends already. You can invite them over or you guys can go watch a movie together or something.

Good thing it's on a weekend so you'll have the whole day to yourself." My mom says with a grin.

We finish dinner and I go up to my room. I grab my phone smiling at the messages that Charles left me.

Charles : Pumpkin

Charles : Hey beautiful, text me.

Charles : Staring at the sunset again, thinking about you.❤

Me : Hey love bird

Charles : Finally... I was starting to think you forgot about me.

Me : Sorry, dinner took longer than expected today.

Charles : How was your first day?

Me : Not bad. I made friends.

Charles : That's great. You'll feel at home in no time then.

I contemplate on whether to tell him about the weird boy from earlier but I then I quickly decide against it. I don't want him to worry.

Charles video calls me and we spend one hour together on the phone before I hang up and start working on my assignments.

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Except for that boy.. Reece.

He had long dark brown hair tied in a low ponytail and his eyes were the same color as mine.