Aiden Callaghan could feel someone staring at the back of him. A lot of people stared and he was used to it. This time, however, felt a little different. It wasn't just a quick little stolen glance here and there, it was a blatant intense stare, he could feel the person's eyes burning a hole through the back of his blazer.
He turned around and saw a small girl with dark-framed glasses standing there. Her brows were tightly knitted together and she was looking at him with confusion. He recognised her face, though he didn't know her name nor has he ever spoken to her before but he had seen her hang around with Aria for the past couple of days.
The girl showed no sign of moving as she continued to stare at him. Then a short boy with dark hair came up to her and tugged her sleeve. He muttered something to her and whatever was it that he said seemed to have snapped her out of her daze.
He and Nick were on the rota for lunch duty today, he was mending the queue outside whilst Nick was inside giving him signals as to how many people to let in at a time.
Then he felt someone tapping the back of his shoulder, Aiden turned around and it was that girl again.
"Hi, are you on lunch duty just now?" She asked. Her voice was high pitched and squeaky.
Aiden nodded.
She digested the information for a moment then she tilted her head to one side and asked, "are you going to be on lunch duty throughout the entire lunchtime today?"
"Yes," he answered. What a strange question to ask? Of course, he was going to be on lunch duty the entire time.
She pursed her lips, "then why did you ask Aria to meet you in the East Quadrangle?" She asked.
***
Towards the back of the school building were the West and East Quadrangles, they were essentially two courtyards with buildings encasing a rectangular patch of grass connected by an undercroft of fluted columns and transversely ribbed vault.
I followed the instructions Molly gave me and was walking up a set of stairs.
Did she meant to turn left straight after the stairs or did she mean turn left as in after I've come out the stairs and into the cloisters then turn left? I found myself asking.
Almost everyone was in the cafeteria eating lunch, there wasn't even a soul around to ask. I walked around in circles aimlessly. I had no idea where I was. The problem with this building was that it was too big and everywhere looked the same.
Then I saw two guys who happened to be passing by. They were deep in conversation and I noticed they both had bronze buttons and green ties.
"Excuse me," I called out, jogging over towards their direction.
They paused and glanced over.
"Sorry to bother you but do you know where the Adam Smith building is?" I asked.
"Adam Smith building? Is that in the East Quadrangle?" One of the boys asked.
I nodded. Yup, that's the one.
"I know where that is." His friend said. "You can follow me."
"Thanks," I said, glad I finally found somebody to ask.
They began walking back the way they came from and I quickly followed behind. We walked through a long corridor with trees then down another set of stairs then out onto the rose garden at the back.
I glanced around and frowned. Before I could still hear the vague sounds of students talking and footsteps moving around but now it was deadly quiet, not even the sound of a bird tweeting. It could only mean we were getting further and further away from the classrooms and the cafeteria. I certainly don't remember Molly saying it was this far.
I gradually slowed down my steps. The two guys seemed to have noticed and they too slowed down their footsteps in an attempt to match my speed.
One of the guys turned around and said to me, "we're almost there. It's this way."
"Ok, thanks," I said. Then as soon as he turned his back on me I started running away in the opposite direction.
"Shit! She's getting away! Get her!" One of them shouted and they both started chasing me.
The adrenaline pumped through my body. I gulped the air for oxygen and my lungs burned as if it was on fire. My ankle hadn't yet healed, it was agony to put this amount of pressure on it, I knew I couldn't run very far, I needed to hide somewhere.
Turning around a corner, there was a corridor with windows and doors. I began to try and open each one. The first door was locked, so was the second one, and the third, and the fourth, it wasn't until the last and final door I tried that it finally opened. I shut the door behind me, fastened the latch and crouched down onto the floor.
Gasping for breath, I could hear them coming over in this direction.
"Where did she go?" One of them asked.
"I think she went that way." The other one said.
"We better find her quick or Kendra will kill us."
"Chill man, she couldn't have gotten very far. Did you see the way she was running? Even a three-legged dog runs faster than her."
They both snorted with laughter.
I frowned. An insult was still an insult regardless of whether or not I was trying to escape or that I had been running for my life.
"Oh, man, I wish I could transform just now, then it would be so much easier to track her scent."
"I know, Kendra said there will soon be a potion available, whenever people wanted to transform they could just take it and then voila, you're a werewolf."
"Wow, imagine being able to transform whenever you wanted to, that would be like a dream come true. We'd rule the world."
"Yeah, man." The other one said, then they high-fived each other.
A potion? I frowned. Surely they weren't talking about the same potion that my father made?