The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (155 page)

             
“You definitely have a partner in crime,” Josie smiled, leading Cassidy into the auditorium.

             
“Okay, so who was that?” Cameron asked.

             
“Come on, I’ll explain,” I said, walking inside. I panned the room in search of Roman and instead I found Riley. I waved at her and she came running up and threw her arms around me.

             
“Ella, I missed you so much. How was your summer? What happened? Are you and Roman okay?” she said in a rush.

             
“Riley, take a breath.” She stopped and inhaled deeply and then let it out and smiled. “Summer was good and yes Roman and I are back together and I missed you too,” I said. With everything going on and everyone coming back to the school I didn’t get to see any of my friends yet because it was so hectic, but I knew I would see everyone today.

             
I found Roman near the middle with Justin where he saved us seats. Shortly the auditorium was filled and the teachers were filing in. The students quieted as Aidan took the podium. He went into welcoming all the new students, rules and regulations and blah, blah, blah. I tuned out somewhere around dress code violations. In my defense I was too distracted by Roman’s hand on my knee and the way he would slowly move it up and down wandering dangerously close to the inside of my thigh. Not able to take anymore I grabbed his hand and held it tight in my lap. He looked at me from the corner of his eyes and I could see the cocky smile pulling at the corners of his lips.

             
I elbowed him and turned back, trying to pay attention this time. “And one last thing,” Aidan announced. “Will the following students please rise. Roman Ashby,” I looked at Roman while Aidan rattled off more names. Roman just shrugged, not knowing any more than I did.

             
“Lauren Becker, Josh Dickenson, Cameron Cowell…”

             
Someone mooed and Cameron turned to the culprit. “Good job Kerns. I see Playskool made a toy easy enough for even you to learn. Now can you make an oink, oink sound? You know it’s that sound your girlfriend makes when they fill her trough.” The boy glared at Cameron as she earned a few snickers and cat calls from her classmates.

             
“Enough,” Aidan yelled, silencing everyone. When he had everyone’s attention again he continued reading the names. “Mackenzie Hilliard, Dean McCallister, Ella McCallister…” My stomach churned at the sound of my name as I stood up wondering what the hell this was all about and why we were getting signaled out. By the time he was done, there were about twenty students standing total.

             
“For those of you who are new this year, these students standing will be your advisors. Any questions you have or assistance you need you can ask anyone of these students.” Aidan paused for a moment, letting everyone get a good look at us and making me want to crawl under my seat. “You are all excused and may proceed to your classes.”

             
I turned to Roman. “Okay, I know why I have to be an advisor, but why are you?”

             
“They asked me and I said yes,” he shrugged. I didn’t argue. I could understand why they asked him. Roman was the type who got along with everyone and was very outgoing.

             
We walked together to our first class and sat in the back as usual. The day went by slowly. All our teachers just did a review of last year and explained to us what we’d be working on this year. Having just spent the summer catching up, I zoned out during the reviews.

             
I had spells and casting with Dixon and Cassidy this year. Dixon nearly flipped his lid when he saw Cassidy. He instantly linked to her side and made her his partner. Roman wasn’t in this class with me this year and I was a little disappointed. In fact, as I looked around the room I started to notice that I was the only one in there who wasn’t a witch. I pulled out my schedule to double check and see if maybe I got my classes mixed up. Nope, according to this I was supposed to be there.

             
Unsure of what was going on, I walked up to Ms. Kraft, who was sitting behind her desk observing the students. “Ella, how can I help you?” she said, smiling pleasantly at me.

             
“I think there might have been a mistake,” I said, referring to my schedule.

             
Her smile widened as she pushed back the slip of paper. “There’s no mistake. This is where you are supposed to be.”

             
“Then why is everyone here a witch except me?”

             
“I requested that you be in this class. Your level of expertise is greater than the rest of your kind and with all the powers you possess I feel you will excel better in this class.”

             
“Oh,” I said, returning to my seat. I looked around the class worried Ms. Kraft was wrong. These students definitely appeared to be more skilled than I was and the only two people I knew were already partnered together.

             
I sighed and rested my head on my hand and waited for class to begin. I guess I was luckier than I thought, because just before Ms. Kraft started class, Sienna came dashing through the door out of breath. I waved to her and she smiled, running over to sink down in the seat next to me. “Woo, that was close,” she said, panting. “I had to high tail it here from the other side of the quad.”

             
“What were you doing across campus?” I asked.

             
“I promised Ms. Kraft I would pick up a few herbs for her while I was home.”

             
I was glad to have Sienna as a partner, but I still felt like an outcast being the only vampire in a class full of witches.

             
I only had one class with Roman this year and none with Riley. Since we weren’t new anymore, we got moved to regular powers classes and with our special training sessions I no longer had to take self-defense. This left me with a full hour to do whatever – I wasn’t complaining.

             
At lunch, Dixon, Cassidy, and Josie were scoping out all the new guys while Riley and Sienna chatted about their summer. Cameron and Dean kept throwing each other guilty looks and Austin sat there like he was ready to explode. Mackenzie had already recruited some new members for her coven so Sienna was out and we had to move to a new plan. Dean said he would help to get information out of her but I told him that was so not necessary. His way of extracting info was not something I wanted to know about.

             
I sat around and watched everyone, intrigued at all the different stories, reactions, and expressions on everyone’s faces. Roman had let me know ahead of time he wasn’t going to make it to lunch. He got stuck helping one of the new kids. Something about an explosion in the chemistry class, not sure, but he promised he would see me at dinner and training.

             
I noticed Jason had walked in to the cafeteria and once again I found myself staring at him. He gave me the look of death and I went back to my spaghetti. “Ella, it’s only the first day and you’re already making enemies,” Dixon said.

             
I didn’t even hear him. “Hello…Ella?” He threw a roll at me.

             
“Hey,” I whined. “You know you could take someone’s eye out with one of things,” I said, pegging one back, totally missing. My aim was a little off and I ended up hitting some innocent bystander in the head.

             
Dixon and everyone started laughing as I tried to hide under the table. My face turned bright red as the poor soul turned to face the Neanderthal who pelted him in the head with a roll. Before he turned all the way around, someone called his name, and he turned his attention to his friend. I only caught the side of his face. His profile was that of an older man, but young in the way he carried himself. His sandy brown hair fell over his eye, but was clean cut around the neck and ears. He was tall and built so my guess was he was a wolf or vamp. I learned that all wolves and male vamps were naturally tall. There wasn’t one that I knew that was less than six foot.

             
Happy to have escaped total embarrassment, I glared at Dixon, and he just laughed. “Ooh, who is that?” Dixon asked, checking out one of the new kids.

             
I looked up to see that it was Trevor he was scoping out. “Oh, that’s Trevor. I can introduce you if you want?”

             
“No, that’s okay,” he said, blushing and looking down at his plate.

             
“When the hell have you ever been shy?” Cassidy said. “Besides, what makes you think he even plays for your team? That boy is too damn fine to be gay.” Cassidy licked her lips and pushed out her chest.

             
“And that there should tell you he’s gay,” Josie said.

             
“You especially should know better than anyone that all the cute ones are gay,” Dixon said to Cassidy in a contemptuous tone. Cassidy glowered back at him and through a little prying into Cassidy’s head I found out that apparently Cassidy’s gaydar was not so good and she had a habit of going after boys who liked other boys. While I was in her head, I decided to dig a little deeper and see if I could find some other things out when she turned on me.

             
“What are you doing?” she demanded, looking at me ready to strike.

             
“I wasn’t doing anything,” I said in a rush.

             
“Yes you were. I could feel the invasion.”

             
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, looking away.

             
“Don’t do it again,” she scolded. I risked a peek and got an awkward smile from Josie. I just shook my head as they went back to their discussion. I decided not to finish my lunch and made up some excuse about having to meet with one of my teachers before my next class. No one questioned it. I didn’t like the fact that Cassidy could tell I was trying to get into her head. She wasn’t the first person either. I was so lost in my thoughts I didn’t even realize I walked right past Roman.

             
He stopped me and I flinched from the shock, pulling away. He frowned. “Hey, sorry, you shocked me.”

             
“I thought you liked that?” he smiled, placing his hands on my hips and pulling me closer.

             
“I do,” I said, placing my hands on his chest. “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

             
He brushed the hair away from my face. “You okay? You looked kind of out of it. You didn’t even respond when I called your name.”

             
“Yeah, just have my head in the clouds,” I smiled.

             
“I was just about to grab some lunch.”

             
“Oh um, I’m not very hungry.”

             
He raised his brows at me. “Now I know something is wrong.”

             
“I promise I’m good. Go eat. I’ll meet up with you later.” I kissed him quick. He pulled me back in letting me know the quick kiss wasn’t enough. I let my lips linger a little longer, feeling better than I did a few minutes ago. I smiled, for real this time. He threw me a sexy half smile and patted me on the behind before he turned around and headed into the cafeteria.

             
I decided to take a walk and ended up at the tree I healed earlier this year. I sat down in front of it, closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. Twenty minutes later I felt refreshed. Although I think Roman’s kiss had more to do with that then the meditation.

For once I was actually looking forward to training. Thankfully Gabe only had us do three laps around the track to warm up. Zane joined us for the after school trainings so he could work with Gabe. I kept stride with Roman while Dean, of course, slacked pathetically behind. Gabe threatened to make him run every morning if he didn’t pick up the pace. That definitely put a fire under his ass. You would think after spending the summer running he would be better at this, but no, not Dean.

             
By the time we were done with Training I had worked up a sweat and an appetite. I told Roman I would meet him for dinner when I was done with my shower and he insisted on waiting in my room until I was done. I also reminded him I no longer had my room to myself, knowing full well what he was thinking. He gave a frustrated sigh and told me he would meet me outside my door in twenty minutes.

             
Cassidy seemed to be in better spirits at dinner and all issues from earlier gone. That was probably because she was currently surrounded by males with Josie at her side. Why I wasn’t exactly happy about them hanging together, I wasn’t worried. Cassidy was a bitch, but she was basically harmless.

             
I grabbed Roman’s arm as we walked to our table. He offered to get me food, but I told him he wouldn’t get enough. He just rolled his eyes at me. “You know I really do love the fact that my girlfriend has a hearty appetite,” he teased.