Fated To The Lycan Brothers
Chapter 26

Suri Nightingale

I'm pleased to see a familiar-and pleasant-face out of a room filled with judging and confused stares as I walk through the door of my first class - English Literature. Surprisingly, there was no teacher yet so I took my time taking in my surroundings.

The classroom is just as expensive-looking as every other thing in this whole place is with a see-through ceiling, wide circular windows, and blue shadow marble slabs as flooring. With the sunlight coming from the windows directly hitting the blue marble, the whole place looks like we're floating in outer space.

I don't know what they were going for here, but if it's an advanced spaceship like the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek then they did a pretty damn good job. Never in my life would I imagine myself studying inside a freaking spaceship though. This academy is so weird.

"Suri!" An excited squeal comes from the girl at the table in the middle. She's waving her hands excitedly while two girls around her look at me curiously. At the very least, it's genuine curiosity, not morbid.

I walk past the other long tables with the other students, but even then I can still feel their eyes glued on my back. Have they never seen a new student here? Jesus, why are they all so nosy?

I'm convinced little miss queen bee earlier taped a paper on my back that says 'ugly duckling' which can only explain why, but then again, I don't think she's that creative enough.

I relax a little when I'm standing in front of Elleana's table. Emphasis on 'little' because there are still two unknown eyes staring right at me.

"Hey," I say as casually and as not terrified as I possibly could.

"Hey yourself! I didn't know we would all be in the same class. This is going to be so much fun!" Elleana claps her hands together and her light gray eyes beam like they did that night I met her on the fourth of July party.

She was the one person I actually enjoyed hanging out with. We watched one whole movie-Pretty Woman-together until the fireworks started and after that, she had to go. I was bummed out because I forgot to ask for her number, but seeing her now makes me happy. Finally, a friend.

Hopefully.

The girl next to Elleana loudly cleared her throat, obviously asking to be seen, and honestly, she didn't have to ask. She was completely hard to miss with her rebellious, sultry style and disheveled hairdo.

Think Brigitte Bardot, the French icon back in the fifties and sixties, but with a little more edge to it as her hair was cut into a wispy bob with bangs, finished off with purple highlights at the tips; a nice touch to the overall dark black shade. "Oh, right! So silly of me. I forgot to introduce the girls." Elleana apologized with a shy smile before turning to her right.

"This is-"

"Polly Antoinette," she cut her off as she stuck her hand out for me to shake and a grin plastered her face, as her hazel eyes-lined with the blackest eyeliner that looks like it could cut-crinkled into genuine friendliness. Antoinette? Why does that sound oddly familiar? My mind tries to backtrack on where I've heard that name before when she speaks up again.

"I know what you're thinking and yes, I am related to the Antoinettes from France. My parents, unfortunately." She rolled her eyes before letting out a loud chuckle. "I'm just kidding, they're cool. Sort of."

France! She was French, obviously. Now I understood what her accent was. I then remembered why Antoinette was familiar because of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France. Does that mean she's also royalty? God, is anybody normal in this school? "So... you're some kind of Princess, too?" I couldn't help but ask.

First it was Destiny, then Elleana, and now her? I wouldn't be surprised if the blonde girl sitting with them turned out to be related to the Queen of England at this point.

Polly shakes her head while the other two girls laugh.

"Oh she wishes, but the monarchy would burn down to the ground the day that happens," Elleana comments, which earns her a 'tsk' from Polly.

"Okay, maaaybe she's right, but I won't admit that in court. I'm not directly related to that Antoinette but in a way, my life is a little bit like royalty when your parents are the most famous French celebrities. I kind of just soak in their fame. I'm camera shy, you know?" Another loud laugh came from the two girls.

"Even a blind man would know you're a whore for the cameras, Polly. You're not fooling anyone here." The blonde girl spoke and I couldn't help but chuckle a little.

Polly then pulls out her phone from her pocket and directs it towards her. "Say that again on camera, please. You know how much they'll pay to hear America's sweetheart say something so vulgar?"

"Oh frick off, Polyester!" She exclaimed before slapping the phone away from her face.

If they hadn't burst out into laughter I would think they actually hated each other, but surprisingly, they all seemed to just be having fun. They all seemed like... real friends.

"I'm Ariana Evans, by the way." The blonde girl finally introduced herself, giving a name to the face.

In this case, her face did remind me of, in Polly's words, an American sweetheart. You know those photos of a happy girl you would see on billboards back in the day? Or plastered everywhere in shops? Maybe even in newspapers?

That was the kind of face she had. She looked like she could be part of Charlie's Angels from the seventies that women and men fawned over and wouldn't stop staring at if she was just out walking in the mall. Something about the innocence in her face, but the adventure in her gorgeous light blue eyes.

I bet she gets a lot of looks because of her voluminous feathered blowout hair, too. She looks halfway ready to becoming a disco queen in true Farrah Fawcett form.

These girls were beyond gorgeous. I felt slightly out of place.

"Nice to meet you guys. You're all so..."

"Cool? Sexy? Mind-blowingly iconic?" Polly comments and I chuckle, nodding my head. "Yeah. Exactly."

She laughs and turns to Elleana and Ariana before saying, "I like her. I like her a lot."

The three girls look at me with a welcoming smile before they gesture to the empty seat on the table.

"You can sit with us."

I smile so wide that I can't believe it's me smiling at all. I haven't felt this ecstatic in a long time and for the first time since I walked into this academy, I was actually quite hopeful.

I just hope that this feeling doesn't betray me in the long run.

-

Literature class wasn't boring like I thought it would be, mainly because I actually do like books, reading, and sometimes even writing.

Second because the teacher, Ms. Hawkins, sounded like she knew what she was doing and actually wanted to teach the class.

Compared to my old public schools where teachers could barely give a crap about giving a proper lesson, this was definitely different and I liked it.

I was also thoroughly surprised when I realized every single one of the students-including my new friends-were actually listening in class. They didn't gossip, didn't throw notes to one another, or played on their phones. They all listened.

It looks to me that Thorne Academy does have a proper education and everyone cares about getting good grades. That was a refreshing thought.

Though the second the bell rang, like every student in the planet, everything else no longer matters aside from getting out of the classroom.

I gathered my things quickly while the other girls did the same. A few seconds later, Polly is linking her arm through mine like we've been friends for more than a year.

She turns to me with a smile that could be mistaken as a smirk. She must be thinking about something good... and maybe bad.

Polly had that aura around her. I could tell that she was a complete extrovert, like being around people, talking to them-or about them-somehow recharges her battery. Maybe she's even solar-powered, I don't know. I just know this is a girl that will be hard for me to follow when I am in no mood to be around the public eye.

Right now, though, I don't mind at all. So I follow her as we waltz out of the classroom and back into the jungle of Thorne Academy's hallway.

"So I'm assuming you've met the boys," she says ever so casually while we walk to our lockers.

"The boys?" I ask because I'm not sure if she meant what I think she meant.

Amusement beams in her eyes before she leans closer and whispers, "the Wolfe brothers."

Oh, so she did mean that.

I nodded my head with less enthusiasm unlike her. "It's hard not to meet them when we live under the same roof," I mumbled.

She giggles. "Right. Of course. I almost forgot you're their new sister. I'm sure it's taxing being forced to commune with the little devils."

"I am not their sister," I correct her without sounding too harsh because I don't want to scare off one of my very few potential friends, though I do approve of the last part she said.

Little devils. That sounds about right, excluding Devon, which is now that I'm reminded of, I haven't seen at all.

Something tells me he's gotten much too busy to hang out with me and that tugs at my heart slightly.

"Okay, my apologies. I didn't mean to touch a sensitive topic, but you're totally right. You're way too good for them." Polly says to me with a friendly smile and I relax.

We reached the lockers and I started fixing my things. Elleana and Ariana do the same, but Polly doesn't seem to care as she's just fixated on me like she wants to say something, but she's waiting for me to give her the go signal to.

"So you know what they're like already?" She asks, curiosity lingering in her eyes.

"For the most part. I really wasn't impressed." I answered nonchalantly.

This makes Polly laugh. "God, I think I love you. You're one of the few girls who aren't charmed by the Wolfe brothers and that is a feat in itself."

I turned to her with a raised brow. I don't understand Polly. Does she or does she not like them? First she calls them the devils, but when she talks about them, her eyes light up like a kid on Christmas Eve, but then she loves me for not being sucked into their charms? Where does she stand, really?

"What about you then? Were you impressed? Do you... like them?" I managed to ask her, expecting a yes or no, but by the way she smiles at me and then looks away as if she's deep in thought, something tells me she's thinking about her answer hard.

I feel like what she was going to say was going to determine if she was a friend or a foe, because if she worshiped the Wolfe brothers the way girls like Stefanie do then there's a high chance we wouldn't get along very well.

"Hm..." She licks her lips before biting them.

"Hm?" I repeat.

She turns to me with a beckoning grin. "When you've known them for three years, the relationship becomes a little bit complicated. I don't like-like them, but I also don't dislike them."

She sounds like she's speaking in riddles. What is it you really want to say, Polly? I wanted to ask her that, but I bit my lip.

"You know what, let me tell you one or two things about these boys, and then you'll know what I mean."

I braced myself for her Wolfe class 101.