Chapter 6 Meeting the team

Meeting the team

ELARA

I got up from the bed with a wry smile adorning my lips as the twin sisters stared at me awkwardly.

I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but looking at them now, with the bright morning sun shining in, they really do look alike.

“Are you good?” Sophie asked, her eyes boring into my skin.

I chuckled lightly, touching my neck as I bit my lip.

“Are you off to school now?” Sonia giggled from her bed.

“Why would you ask her something so dumb when she literally just woke up?” Sophie fired back, sighing despondently.

“I mean, she could go take a bath…” Sonia suggested.

“Why don’t you do that first? We are going to be late for class,” Sophie cut her off.

Sonia pouted at her.

“Try that one more time,” Sophie threatened.

Sonia did it again, which angered Sophie enough to leave her bed and go to Sonia’s side. She started playfully hitting her with a pillow. I just stood there smiling as I watched.

I somewhat missed my younger brother, Eddie-he’s naughty but cool; I never get bored being around him.

He cried a river when I was leaving for school.

With a deep sigh, I turned around and walked into the bathroom to get ready for class, leaving the sisters at loggerheads with each other.

---

“Wouldn’t you like to show us around or something? Arghh!” Sonia exclaimed, and suddenly gasped, then started running toward the poster of Kael and his teammates in the hallway.

“Aren’t they just gorgeous?” she giggled, hugging the poster.

“I’m sorry for the embarrassment. She’s always like that,” Sophie whispered to me before walking away to meet her.

I grinned.

Sophie tried to pull a reluctant Sonia away from the poster to avoid the already staring eyes from students nearby.

They all looked at Sonia weirdly, and I think I was the weird one, because I actually found her cute.

The way she clung to the poster, hugging it as if it were a real person—like her life depended on it—was endearing.

Murmurs started, and I could see Sophie almost dying from embarrassment.

But then, the hallway suddenly turned silent. That eerie feeling on my neck came with a wave of deep emotions.

They were here.

I didn’t need to turn to know. I could feel them. I could sense them.

And then the cheering, giggling, and praises began.

I turned to see them coming down the stairs—Kael at the front, his cold eyes unreadable. Luca was on his right side, and Rowan and Jace trailed just behind them.

I caught my breath in my throat.

My eyes met Kael’s, and I quickly looked away, but he had already seen me and began walking toward me.

“Elara!” his cold voice rang through the hall.

The elated look on Sonia’s face turned into pure astonishment.

Her lips flew open and then closed again.

Geez! Couldn’t he just act like he never saw me?

“Why do you look that way?” As if to make matters worse, Kael held me by the shoulders and spun me around.

“Hey, Elara!” Jace waved, his arms around Rowan, who only threw a warm smile my way.

“We always seem to be running into you here. No brunette today?” Luca teased with a chuckle.

The hallway was silent, and everyone watched, which made me uneasy.

“Don’t you have something to say to me?” Kael pressed.

I cleared my throat and took his hands off my shoulders.

His expression fell, and I heard a loud murmur echo through the crowd.

“I need to get to class,” I said nervously.

“Well, that’s where we are headed as well,” Jace interjected.

“Why don’t we go together?” Rowan asked.

I shook my head vigorously.

“No, no.”

“Why? Unless you’re avoiding me,” Kael’s eyes never left my face while Luca glared at me.

“No, I mean…” I walked over to Sonia and Sophie.

“I’m with them,” I said, clutching my books to my body.

“I thought you would never introduce us,” Sonia said, clearing her voice, tucking her hair behind her ear, and stepping forward.

“Hi, I’m Sonia; Elara’s new friend and roommate,” she introduced, her palm stretched out for a handshake.

Kael stared at her with a void expression, then turned his gaze to me, as if searching for something, completely ignoring Sonia’s outstretched hand.

“Hi, I’m Jace.” Before Kael could say anything, Jace stepped in and accepted the handshake.

“Nice to meet you!” Jace added, all smiles.

“Nice to meet you too. And you’re…?” Sonia pointed to Luca.

“He’s Luca, and this is Rowan,” Jace introduced, while they both smiled at her.

Kael huffed and came back to me. He grabbed my hand and dragged me away, against my will.

I turned back to see Sonia smiling at me as she walked behind us, while Sophie walked in front—she looked like the whole world was against her.

---

“Sorry about Sonia,” Sophie whispered in my ear from behind.

She was sitting in the second row behind us, having refused to sit on the same row with us.

I understood she was pretty upset about Sonia's behavior, especially since Sonia had basically been all over Luca, who looked like he was being suffocated.

“I know he’s tolerating her because of you. Are you friends with them?” she asked on a piece of paper she passed to me.

“Not really,” I wrote back.

"Gosh! I feel so ashamed. Please excuse Sonia; she’s my sister, but she can be a little overbearing," she wrote again.

I chuckled.

Kael stared at me oddly.

I was sitting next to him on my right side, while Rowan was on my left. Close to Rowan was Luca, and next to Luca was Sonia, with Jace before her.

Sophie had refused to sit with us.

She said she was dying of embarrassment. I laughed when she told me that, even as she turned down the request to join us.

I didn’t want to sit with them either, but Kael insisted, and I didn’t want any trouble—eyes staring at us, or ears listening in.

"You really don’t have to feel that way. I think she’s just a really free person," I wrote back and was passing the note to her when the teacher's icy voice cut through the chatter.

"What’s that?!" Mrs. Sarah, a gray-haired woman with a short bun and large glasses, demanded.

It was my first time meeting her, and I could already tell she was not someone to mess with. She hadn’t smiled once since the start of the class.

She moved with an authority and precision that demanded attention.

"Get up!" she said again, and I froze, quickly withdrawing my hand from passing the note.

I fervently prayed I wasn't the one she was referring to, but who was I kidding?

"The girl with the bushy brows, near Kael," she emphasized.

The classroom was arranged in a circular formation, with chairs set up in a circle, leaving the teacher standing in the middle, able to face different sides at intervals.

And she just happened to be facing us.

Oh great! Now I’m cooked. I stood up sluggishly.

TBC