Truth- Shadow goddess seris(COMPLETE)

Chapter Three

It turned out the dining hall was not very far from my room. Well, my tower. And I was thankful for that. Food was life, I loved food. And if the smell coming from the other side of that door was any indication, I’d love being here. If only for the food alone. 

“Here you are Rose.” My uncle smiled. “I’ll leave you from here, no need to have your uncle walk you in.” 

“Thank you.” I sighed in relief. 

My uncle just laughed, patted my shoulder gently and walked back the way we had come. I watched him go, hoping me not wanting him to come with me didn’t hurt his feelings. I mean yeah, he was an adult and I was a teenager. I hoped he understood that him walking me into the dining hall full of other teenagers was probably the worst thing that could possibly happen on my first day. Talk about embarrassing. 

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the doors open. Thankfully not many heads turned my way. I wasn’t nervous, and I didn’t mind having attention on me, but having a room full of curious onlookers was irritating. So when only a few heads turned I breathed a sigh of relief. 

I looked around the room, finding where the line for food was. It was a buffet-like setting and had foods of all kinds lined up. Even some that looked slimy, some of the fish still had the eyeballs and scales. And so many other things I have never seen and honestly didn’t want to see again. No one else seemed to have the same problem, just passing over the food they didn’t want laughing and talking among their little clique. 

My eyes scanned the rest of the room, landing on the black haired guy from earlier. He sat at a table with six other guys, two of which looked like they could be his brothers. A girl was hanging off the guy's arm, almost in his lap, running her fingers over the side of his face that was scarred just hours ago. He seemed uncomfortable, and irritated she was touching him the way she was, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. 

When his eyes met mine I raised a brow and smirked, flicking my eyes to the very obviously shallow girl clinging to him. His body stiffened and I snorted a laugh, shaking my head. Okay, so he was obviously one of the “Popular kids” Meaning I wanted nothing to do with that group of people. So, I turned away and made my way to the line to get food. 

I didn’t even get halfway there when I felt a presence behind me. I hung my head with a sigh before turning to facethe girl who had been all over the guy who was now sitting at the table, his hands clenched into fists and his jaw grinding. Huh, wonder what that’s about?”

“He’s mine.” The girl sneered, making me turn away from the guy and face her. 

“Excuse me?”

“He. is. mine.” She repeated, enunciating each word.

I rolled my eyes. “You are going to have to be more specific. Who?” 

“Him.” She said pointing to the guy. Okay I could not keep calling him the guy. I don’t know his name though. I’ll just call him Mr. Tall, dark and handsome. I smirked, yeah, that’ll work. 

“You mean Mr. tall dark and handsome over there?” I questioned. “Does he know that?” 

The girl seemed to turn into a tomato right in front of me. “Of course he does.” She spat. “So keep your eyes and hands off of him. He is mine.” 

I was growing tired of this girl already, and I hated how she kept calling him hers, like he was some kind of possession. I wiped my face clean of all emotion and stepped towards the girl where we were barely two inches apart. “Now you listen to me Malibu Barbie. I don’t know you and I don’t know him. But I can tell from my two seconds of observing you he deserves better than a conceited shallow wanna be barbie like you.” 

“Wha..I...How dare you?” She screeched. 

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Tell me something. How many times did you hang off his arm or touch him like you just were before he was healed? Huh? Or was your attention on one, or all of the other broody men at that table?” 

By this time all eyes were on us. The hall fell quiet other than a few snickers, whispers and murmurs here and there, but I ignored them all, keeping my attention squarely on the girl before me. The girl stared at me in shock. Her mouth opened and closed like she wanted to defend herself but couldn’t find the words to do so. 

I just smirked. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I said and turned my back on her walking away to get some food. 

Again, I had barely got my tray in my hand when I felt the air around me change. It seemed to have been charged with electricity as her aura glowed. Really? Was I really doing this on my first day? I flipped the tray around in my hand and waited a split second until she was close enough. I could feel her aura as it came right up on me. And in one quick motion I spun and swung the tray knocking the girl in the side of the head sending her splaying onto the floor. 

Gasps erupted in the crowd. I twirled the tray in my hand as I walked over to her and squatted in front of her. “I don’t know you, and I don’t know him so what the two of you do is none of my concern. But you try to touch me again, try to attack me while my back is turned. You will get more than a lunch tray to the head.” I warned. As I turned to walk away I cast her one final glance over my shoulder. “Oh, and stop claiming men as if they are some kind of prized horse. He does not belong to you or anyone else. He is his own person and by the looks of him, perfectly capable of speaking for himself.”

The girl stood slowly making me shake my head and turn towards her. I watched her carefully, watching her aura. The aura can tell so much about a person, what they’re thinking, what they’re planning. And this girl was definitely planning on attacking me again. So I crossed my arms over my chest and arched a brow. The girl roared, making the chandelier shake as she charged me. When she was just inches from me, I struck out like a snake and hit her neck sending her crumpling to the floor in a heap. The girl's eyes widened in fear as she lay on the floor unmoving. “What did you do to me?” She cried. 

“Your paralized.” I shrugged. “It will wear off in about ten minutes.” 

“How?”

“Pressure points. I could have killed you without even trying. So maybe think about this before you try and approach someone. I have trained since I could walk in every type of hand to hand combat I could. Anyway, maybe you should try and shove your teenage obsession onto someone who cares. Your petty claims, and mean girl attitude does nothing but piss me off. And I will not lay down and take it like I am assuming others here do. So next time, maybe go try and bully someone who will let you.” 

The girl growled, but I just laughed at her. Picking my tray up from beside her I walked away. I sat the now warped tray in the trash and grabbed another one before grabbing some food. Food that looked at least decent to eat. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cornbread and pinto beans. Nothing can beat a good southern comfort meal. 

“That was amazing.” A girl gushed as she rushed me at the end of the line. She was small, maybe only five foot three. Her brown hair flowed to her chest in spiral curls and her gold colored eyes twinkled under the lighting of the room. Her excitement was over riding every other part of her as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, her hand clapping together in glee. She was enthusiastic, I’ll give her that. Her aura was bright pink, telling me just how innocent this girl was. 

“Uh..Thanks?” It came out more like a question, but I didn’t know what else to say. Her bubbly demeanor was overwhelming. 

“Rose.” A man’s voice said from behind me. 

“Hey Mathew.” I said before turning around to face him. “I didn’t know you were a student.” 

“Yeah.” he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “The headmaster asked me to help him by picking you up. He had run into some trouble in the Academy.” 

I nodded and looked between him and the bouncy girl. “Do you two mind if I sit down and eat?” 

“EEEK!” The girl squealed, making me wince. “You’ve got to come sit with us.” She beamed grabbing onto my elbow and pulling me to a table in the back.

I allowed her to drag me along, not willing to pop her happy bubble. Though it was hard to keep my tray in my hand and keep it from tipping over as she bound up and down like a rabbit the entire way. She has to be ADHD, there was no other explanation. Mathew sat in one of the empty seats, making me realize this was his group too. 

“Okay, so my name is Lexi.” She placed her palm on her chest. “This is Amanda.” She pointed to a lean girl with a pixie cut. She was kind of lanky, her arms longer than most. Her makeup was plastered on her face thickly. She gave me a shy wave before Lexi moved to the next person. 

“This is Gauge.” A muscular blonde guy waved smiling up at me. He had almost blindingly straight white teeth. His canines were a bit more pointed than most but not concerning. 

“Hey there new girl.” he said huskily.

“Uh, hi.” I furrowed my brow at him before following Lexi as she introduced everyone else. 

There was Mathew of course. He had shaggy sand colored hair and brown eyes. His skin was a beautiful bronze color and he had a swimmers build. Lean but not over skinny. Muscular but not bulky. His smile was pure and playful. He had to be the goof ball of the group. 

Then there were the twins. London and Paris. Yes, their names were London and Paris. I can not even begin to imagine the hell they got for that. They were identical. Both with flaming red hair, porcelain skin and bright brown eyes. Freckles dotted across their noses. The only real difference I could see was London had darker brown eyes, while Paris had light brown eyes. 

“It’s nice to meet all of you.” I smiled, taking the seat in between Mathew and Lexi. 

“So you’re Rose Calebs, the headmaster's niece right?” Gauge asked. 

“My name isn’t Calebs.” I furrowed my brow. “Yes I am Rose and the headmaster’s niece, but my surname is not Calebs. Is that what he told everyone?” I questioned. They all nodded. 

“If it’s not Calebs, what is it?” London asked. 

“Let me talk to my uncle before I answer any questions. I want to know why he lied about my name. What else did he tell all of you?” 

“That your parents died and you were coming to stay with him. But that’s all.” Paris shrugged. 

So he lied about my name and told them my parents died, not that they were murdered. What was he trying to hide? Why should it matter if they know that they were murdered? Dead was dead no matter how you looked at it. I didn’t correct them though. I just ate my food, nodding and humming along as I listened to their conversation. Which mostly revolved around me and Malibu Barbie over there. 

Who had managed to get herself up after the effects of the pressure point wore off and stomp her way back over to where she was before.This time though she was not hanging all over Mr. Tall, dark and handsome. His eyes were burning holes in the back of my head, along with all the others at his table. I tried to ignore them but the intensity of their eyes had me turning around, glancing over the entire table.  

I was right. All of them were staring at me with various forms of curiosity, interest, intrigue and anger. There was also hunger in some of the guys' eyes. Hunger I had no intention of reciprocating. I did not want a relationship, a one night stand or a fling. I vowed long ago the one and only relationship I would be in was with someone I truly cared for. Someone I could see myself loving and spending the rest of my life with. 

I raised a questioning brow at the group, but only got a variety of smiles in return. I shook my head at them before my eyes fell on Mr. Tall, dark and handsome cold blue ones. He was openly studying me like he was trying to figure out who I was. His cold blue eyes blazed with an icy fire, they were hard and guarded. A stark difference to the open and amusing ones surrounding him. 

“I'm going to go.” I said turning back to the group around me. “I have to finish unpacking and settling in.” I stood and made my way across the room, dumped my trash and sat my tray on the conveyor belt that took all the dirty dishes to the back. 

“Do you want help?” Lexi chirped as she skipped over to me. I looked over at her, her eyes blazing with hope and found I couldn’t tell her no. 

“Sure.” I relented, motioning for her to follow me. 

“So where is your room? Who’s your roommate?” 

“I don’t have a room or a roommate.” I told her honestly. “My uncle had a tower remodeled for me.”

“You have an entire tower to yourself?” She gaped. 

I laughed at her shocked expression. “Yes, I do.” 

“Wow.” She breathed. 

I laughed. She seemed so excited just to see my tower, so surprised that I had one entirely to myself. When I started explaining the layout and describing the rooms to her she squealed again, making me promise we would have a sleep over this weekend. I’ve never had a girl friend, or any friend really. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, maybe I could actually have friends. Have a somewhat normal life. I never allowed myself to get close to people, it was too hard, too much work. But maybe, just maybe being here wouldn’t be so bad.