Chapter 5
Ace The Alpaca
"You didn't tell me you knew Luhan!"
"I didn't even know he came to this school," I threw my hands up in the air desperately. "Until, he paraded down the aisle, all high and mighty, before stopping and embarrassing me in front of the entire school."
Grace laughed merrily. "Oh c'mon, don't act like you're not happy he 'embarrassed' you." She winked flirtatiously. "Everyone probably thinks you two're together now!"
"Oh yeah!" I faux squealed. "Because that's I totally want. For everyone to be gossiping behind my back-" I steered to a halt abruptly.
Kris was standing directly in front of me.
Don't ask me where he appeared from. Apart from being breathtakingly gorgeous, that guy seemed to have a knack for disappearing and appearing acts. This time, he wasn't surrounded by his signature 'Cullen clan' - as I had named them. Instead, Kris stood alone, his hard eyes watching me like a hawk.
"Did you undergo plastic surgery?" I blurted before I could help it.
I clamped my hands down on my mouth. Oh, good lord, I did not just say that. Basically, I just asked Mr Popular and Gorgeous, 'Were you actually an ugly kid?' At least I didn't say, 'Is thou a vampire?', or something equally stupid, but my question wasn't much better.
Cue the clash of thunder, and the flash of lightning.
"Does this face look like it underwent plastic surgery?" Kris's tone was unamused. A shiver raced up my spine.
I wasn't sure if he wanted my answer to be yes or no, so I randomly picked one. "Uh... yes?"
Wrong choice.
His cold eyes darkened dramatically. Grace clung on to my arm tightly, her nails digging into my flesh, and I was surprised that the brave girl hadn't sprinted off for her dear life yet. In fact, I was pretty surprised that I hadn't attempted that either.
"No, you silly girl," He said. "I never underwent plastic surgery. And if I hear a stupid rumour like that circulating, you'll be the first one I'll punish."
The first one he punishes? What an . Figures. The hot ones were always jerks.
"S-Stop a-a-acting like you r-rule Korea," I refuted, stammering. "B-Because you don't. K-Kim Jong-un does."
An amused expression lit up his soulless eyes. "You're right, Kim Jong-un rules Korea. But I, rule this school."
If I had any feelings for this guy at all (all complete physical attraction I guarantee), they vanished immediately, just as fast as they had come. Indignance surged through my veins like a plague, ridding me of my initial fear. Since his Mother had failed to teach him manners, it was about time someone imbued some of it into him.
"Oh, supreme ruler," I snapped sardonically. "What brings your Highness here? It's not everyday you appear before any lowly peasant, am I right?"
Kris's lips curled upwards. "That's more like it. Just remove the sarcasm, and that'll be good."
"Look, -"
"Actually," He said in that same bored tone of his. "It's Kris. But for lowly peasants like you, I'll make do with Your Highness. You were doing rather good job just now."
For one second there, I thought about socking him in his pretty face, and maybe rearranging his perfect dental alignment for him. I imagined Kris with crooked and missing teeth. I grinned, liking the mental image immensely. Sure, he would still be gorgeous - that guy would even be gorgeous with a skirt on-, but at least he wouldn't be too perfect.
I was really tempted to do that, but the thought of having a black mark on my straight A record stopped me at once. Instead, I swivelled around, and grabbing Grace along, I began to make a show of stomping down the corridor.
"Wait."
I rolled my eyes and continued walking.
"Wait, Sophie."
I stopped. "What does the want now?" I sang aloud to no one in particular. "If it's to poke fun at me, tell him I'm not going back."
A cool hand wrapped itself around my arm, causing me to yelp in shock, simultaneously jumping three feet into the air. It was like experiencing an electric shock there and then. Hot, undaunted currents cackled and tingled on the surface of my skin.
Alarmed, I immediately pulled my arm back from my attacker.
"So you're part my fan club, huh?" Kris's neutrally-amused (if possible) voice echoed from behind me.
"Are you crazy?" I sneered, rubbing the spot his iron grip had touched my skin. I swear I felt a bruise blossoming there. Did that guy work out or something? I couldn't say he was Taylor Lautner sort of buff, but muscles - he definitely had a good dose of those. And speaking of muscles, his chest was pretty well-defined too-
Stop it, Sophie. STOP IT! STOP OGLING AT THE ENEMY!
"Are you crazy?" I repeated my statement once more. "I'm not part of-"
His amused gaze was meaningfully trained on my upper arm, where I had half-heartedly stuck one of Grace's Alpaca stickers on it. Grace and her bunch of girl-friends had convinced me that it was utmost important for my survival here. There were two main feuding groups, the Black Cats and the Alpacas in this school. The Black Cats already were vying for my execution, so it didn't seem too intelligent in crawling back to them and joining their little cult group.
So I pasted an Alpaca sticker on my forearm.
"I'm part of the Alpaca fan club," I raised my voice confidently. I side-glanced Grace. "She is too."
"I'm the Alpaca." He simply replied.
"Wait," I said. "Was it just me, or did I just hear you claim that you're a furry mammal that eats grass for lunch? I mean," I mocked. "I won't completely put your claim down if you can prove it." I looked to Grace for some confidence. This guy seeped out all mine.
"H-He represents the Alpaca," Grace instead said. I was glad she found her voice (and ball bearings) and all, but I'd rather she hadn't. I didn't want to know that.
"He represents the Alpaca?" I exclaimed incredulously. I tore out the sticker - depicting a pink Alpaca wearing sunglasses, and stuck it on Kris's shirt. I wasn't wearing that devilish thing, not over my dead body. "Wait," I said - happily from getting a scowl from Kris's normally poker-face. "If the animals represent people, then who does the Black Cat represent?"
"Tao," Kris said, his eyes dark. He studied me with a condescending sneer. "Why? Thinking of running to him now, little girl?"
"I prefer Sophie," I retorted. "And yeah, great idea," I mimicked one of those es back in my old school. "I'm going to come tomorrow in a black kitty cap, with black kitty sunglasses to match my black kitty-"
"I don't care what the hell you do," He cut in ferociously. "Just stay away from Luhan."
Kris, meet bush. Finally, he had stopped beating around the bush, and had zoomed in straight on it.
"No." I said defiantly.
His dark eyes jerked upwards, and for second time, our gazes locked. "What?" He had probably never heard the word 'No' in his life. Well, all I had to say was that he should start getting used to it, because I was going to be using it very often.
"Are you deaf, or just stupid?"
"What?"
"You heard me," I said firmly. "I'm choosing my own friends. You don't control my life. And I like Luhan. Unlike you, he's actually nice. Yesterday, I said 'Wherefore thou art' to him yesterday, and he was still willing to talk to me after witnessing my insane weirdness firsthand."
Again, I got that look. The one that spat clearly 'Are you from Planet Zzzyx?' Good, now he thought I was plain weird. Maybe he would finally leave me alone after this episode.
Alright, time to wrap this up. "My point is," I continued. "You're a jerk. Luhan said something about the inhabitants here looking down on the newbies. I didn't believe him at first. I mean, how can something that stupid happen in a civilized community, right? But I see what he means now, you being a prime example of it."
,
"Are you done?" Kris glared me down head on.
"Actually," I thought about it for a second or two. "No. But-"
"HEY!" Another familiar voice forcibly joined in the conversation. It was Luhan, bubbly and bouncy as ever. He slung one arm round Kris, intentionally strangling him, and with his second arm, he attempted to drape it around me and Grace. Seeing the possible outcome of his 'arm-wrapping' action, both Grace and I ducked involuntarily.
Luhan tried again. This time, he managed to pull one arm around unfortunate me. "You guys already know each other?" He exclaimed enthusiastically. "Wow, then we can-"
"We don't know each other," both Kris and I said at the same time. That had to be the first thing we had agreed on so far.
"But, weren't you guys talking one sec ago?" Luhan asked, perplexed.
"Oh, yeah, right, we were." I felt a cheeky little grin spread up my face. I glanced at Kris, who's eyes were narrowed in my direction, studying me with barely concealed curiosity. My being happy must have raised his suspicions. "So, anyway," I continued. "I learnt a great deal of things from the - Kris. Like-" I cupped my hands and propelled my voice till the entire corridor had the luxury of hearing it. "KRIS UNDERWENT PLASTIC SURGERY!"
There were only one or two people lurking at the lockers at this time of the day, but they definitely heard it. One had even taken out a notepad to scribble down the juicy gossip to add to the rumour mill. An evil grin touched my face. This dirty little untrue rumour was definitely spreading like wildfire.
Grace giggled, before catching Kris's death glare and clamping a hand over .
"Oh, ," Kris mumbled. He watched defeatedly as the two people hurried off with their newly acquired news. "You're going to die, Sophie Reinhard." Don't ask me where he learned my full name from.
Luhan only looked confused. More so than just now. "You did?"
"Yes, and I had myself cloned too." Kris snapped in reply. When Luhan's confusion didn't abate, Kris whacked him on his head with the blunt side of his hand. "No, you loser, I didn't ever undergo plastic surgery."
Understanding slowly began to dawn on Luhan's face.
"Pity," I sighed, batting my eyelashes innocently. "I must have heard you wrongly. Oh," I cooed in Luhan's direction, solely to piss Kris off. (Wow, that was a lot of effort I put in in pissing Kris off. It was like a project. The 'Piss Kris Off' project.) "Are you free this afternoon? I thought we could hang out, or chill, or whatever. With Grace." I patted Grace's back. And NOT Kris.
"YEAH!" Luhan pumped his fist in the air, his cute curls flying. "But-" He side glanced Kris anxiously. "We were actually practicing for the upcoming competition this afternoon..."
"Competition?" I asked.
"You never heard of it?" Luhan laughed and shook his head in disbelief. "It's a one year once thing, and really important."
"And it's the reason for all this Alpaca/Cat-fighting-mess," Grace added sourly.
"We have to beat Tao," Luhan shrugged. "Tao won the year before last. And good lord, his head expanded to thrice it's size. We can't let the black cats win again."
"I'll win," Kris cut in icily.
"Don't count your chickens before they've hatched, as- Kris," I told him patronizingly. Then I turned to Luhan, all smiles. "Good luck, okay? I'll buy you cookies if you guys win."
Luhan grinned, before patting me on my head. (I should be doing that to him! He was the cute one, and not me.) "You guys wanna come? Join us this afternoon?"
"No," both Kris and I said in exact unison. That was the second thing we had agreed on. Immature as it sounded, I wasn't standing in the same room as Kris. I wasn't going to breathe in the same air he breathed. It was probably contaminated with cocky-I-rule-the-world-microbacteria that could give you cocky-I-rule-the-world-syndrome.
"AWWW, c'mon!" Luhan practically begged. That kid was completely ignorant of the invisible barrier of hatred that separated Kris and I. "I don't get why."
Maybe because we might end up killing each other before the day ended?
"Well," I tried to bull my explanation. "Because-"
"I want to go," Grace said quietly. Yet, I still heard that. I scowled.
"What?" I said, eyebrows raised. Then, I began to break into nervous chuckles. "Haha, must have heard you wrongly, because I thought you just said that you... wanted to go." With that wolf - Kris - in gorgeous sheep skin, into a wolf's den.
"Yeah," Grace said undaunted. "I want to go."
"Aww, snap," I sighed, feeling embracing my de-ja-vu fate. This happened with again Candace on our first day here, right? I couldn't leave Grace with Kris! - even if Luhan was around. If I perish, I perished. "I'll go, too."
~0~
TO SOPHIE ONLY:
You're aware you're not wearing that Alpaca sticker anymore, right?
Yeah. And my hide's still on me.
But it won't be for long.
I actually have dignity. I'm not pledging my loyalties to a jerk, just because I'm scared of another jerk.
No one said Tao's a jerk. You haven't even seen him yet.
Well, according to rumours, he humps and dumps girls like toys, and he shows up in school like... once a week. I think that counts as a jerk.
>< FINE. You're right, Tao's a jerk. But you better think of something if you don't want to join the Alpacas, before you get mauled by the black cats. Or the Alpacas. Or both.
I sighed at the piece of paper in my hands. My Chemistry teacher, Mrs Vels, was teaching us Oxidation and Reduction, which I already had covered in my previous school. She wasn't exactly a bad teacher, but since I had free time on my hands, I had decided to use it for something more constructive. Like figuring out my route of survival in this school.
When had my life become so complicated? I marked out my path to my current doomed plight on the piece of note Grace had sent me. The small steps toward doom being: coming to this town, attending this school, befriending Luhan, fighting with Candace, insulting the Black Cats on the first day of school, getting recognized by the Cullens, talking to Kris, and... ARGGG.
My brain felt on the verge of exploding.
I looked across the class where Candace was with her two newly befriended buddies, both Black Cats, from the black kittens plastered on their shoulders, and in their hair ties. I hadn't talked to Candace for days, because it was pretty much impossible in school - Alpacas didn't talk to Black cats, and at home, she perpetually had her bedroom door locked.
The stupid Black Cats must have brainwashed her.
We used to be so close... Did Candace hate me now? I didn't think I could live with that.
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