The Royal Twin Alphas and The Witch

Getting to know each other (Part 2)

Kimberly POV

“Who said we will be leaving you. We are going to sit here with you.” River pulled a seat for me, leaving me to sit in between the twins. I was surprised that Ryder went with us. He was not exactly friendly towards me.

I lowered my eyes to the table and played with my fingers. I didn’t want to see the accusing eyes of the other students, especially those who sat at the center table. They must be thinking that I was taking their favorite twin from them.

As I think of myself lowly, I could hear River and Ryder greeting the other students at the end of the table. I was glad that they were not the snob ones. But definitely, they are the most popular students in the academy from what I have witnessed a while ago. I haven’t met anyone being treated like a celebrity. I mean all of them were from royal families and celebrities in their own kingdoms but the cherry on top would be these two boys beside me.

I did not see Alice being treated the same way in our kingdom. She may not be adored by her own people but she was given respect as the King’s daughter and the future queen of our land.

“Earth to Kimmie.” Ryder was snapping his fingers in front of my face.

I was startled and immediately went out of my reverie. I smiled sheepishly towards Ryder.

“I’m sorry. My mind was preoccupied.”

“Looks like it.” He said as he stretched out his arms with one landing at the back of my chair.

“We want you to meet our friends.” I heard River announce from my other side. And at that moment, I had realized that there were other people already seated around us. I must have really spaced out to not notice them come.

“As you know, Ryder and I werewolves. These are our friends. Drake is a werebear from down south.” He said as he pointed to Drake. No one could miss him. He was so huge! Taller and beefier than the twins. His hair is on the longer side, tied at the back. However, huge as he may be, he has a sweet smile on his face. He nodded and mouthed a hello. I did not know that werebears existed and could not even believe that I met one. I reciprocated with a nod and smile before River could point to the other people seated in front of us.

“This is Clayton and Kira. They are siblings and werewolves like us. They are our cousins but they live outside the kingdom. Their father heads a pack from the West. Kira is also on the same level as you.” Clayton and Kira smiled and waved their hands at me.

Clayton and Kira really looked like siblings. The same dark-brown hair and hazel eyes.

“I hope we get the same classes,” Kira said as she beamed at me.

“I hope so, too.” I feel a light aura around her and I like it. I think I will be having a friend in Kira.

There were other people at the table that I was waiting for River to be introduced to. But he did not do anything. I started to get confused.

“Anything wrong, Kimmie?” He leaned close to me with his breath fanning the side of my face. I could feel shivers ran down my spine.

What the heck?

“No. No. Nothing’s wrong.” I would wait until the end of dinner to ask about the other people around us’ those who were not there when we sat down. They were looking eagerly at our group and I thought they were part of the twin’s crowd.

“Feel free to ask anything, okay?” River’s voice was so soothing. It was like he was talking to a child.

Perhaps I am a child to him. Yeah, probably that’s it.

He pulled away and sat properly on his seat to my relief. I could not breathe properly when he was too close.

A minute later, the sound of a bell could be heard throughout the dining hall. I was looking around to look for the source of the sound.

“That means the buffet table had been filled and people could already line up.” River explained. “Usually, the food was served early. The moment you step in, you could already get your food. People are just eager to come to the dining hall today, I think. We were earlier than the food.”

He pulled back from the table and helped me up. There were two buffet tables, who were manned by servers. The lines were not long considering there were a lot of students.

Looking around, there could be a hundred people enrolled in the school. I wonder how many kingdoms were out there.

Royal families could not be that many, right?

As if he could read my thoughts, Ryder whispered from my back.

“There are way too many kingdoms out there. There are a lot of shapeshifters other than werewolves and werebears. You must probably know about vampires. There are also dragons, elves, and mermaids.”

River, who heard Ryder explaining, joined in too.

“The school also scouts for extremely talented students. So they accept even if they are not of royalty. They are like the scholars of the academy.”

“Wow.”

Our conversation was then cut as we were served our food. We got back to our seats and I ate silently while listening to the banter of the twins with their friends. I would have liked to talk to Kira but the boys were too noisy as if they were not royals. I could not put in a word in between. It looked like Kira was also thinking the same thing. She smiled at me, pointed to the boys before rolling her eyes. I giggled at her action and I just shrugged my shoulders.

Finally, dinner was done. Ms. Blaire came to the front of the hall and announced the activities of the academy during the weekend.

“Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, new and old students. Welcome to Royal Senior High Academy. Please be informed that booths will be put up in the morning around the field by teachers for those who would like to the academy’s clubs. There will be a photography club, dance club, glee club, and so on and so forth.”

“There will also be a barbecue at the field tomorrow evening to welcome old and new students alike. You are all encouraged to be there at five in the afternoon to mingle with everyone. The barbecue will end at ten in the evening. Sunday will be a rest day for all of us.”

“Dear students, please be reminded of the curfew. All students must be in their rooms by nine in the evening, except for activities that will be organized by the academy. That is all for the announcement. Thank you.”

Murmurs of excitement could be heard around the hall. I could not also help but feel excited.

“Kimberly, where’s your room?” Kira asked.

“She’s with us,” Ryder said before I could open my mouth to reply.

“What?” Kira looked confused.

“Um, yeah. I’m at the boy’s dormitory. My room in the girl’s dormitory is still being renovated. There were no other rooms available, so I was given the room beside River’s.” I could feel my face blush telling everyone that my room is near the twins. I could feel the heated stare of the other students at me, especially the females.

“Wow. That is incredible. You lucky girl!” Kira’s exclamation did not help. “Or should I say, good luck!”

Good luck with what, I don’t know. It could mean good luck with the twins and other boys in the dormitory or good luck with the girls who follow the twins.

“Ready to go back to our rooms?” River asked. I nodded and followed them. Other students had already filed out of the hall and so we were able to go out without getting much attention.

Before Kira and I could go different ways, we made plans of going to the field after breakfast to look at the booths.

“It’s good that you are making friends.” River said smiling. Ryder was talking to Drake and Clayton.

“Yeah. Thank you for introducing me to your friends.” I said shyly. Here we go again. I did not want us to feel awkward with me getting shy, so I thought of asking some questions to get the conversation going.

“River?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you tell me about werewolves?”

“Sure. You like to hang out?”

“When and where?”

“Now. Perhaps in my room or Ryder’s.”

He must have seen the shock on my face.

“Hey, don’t think badly of us. We are generally nice people. And I think it should be us that should get worried, don’t you think? You could burn us to ashes.” Both of us laughed at the last part.

Drake and Clayton were on lower floors, so we also had to separate at some point.

“Hey, Ryder. Do you want to hang out? Kimmie wants to know about werewolves.”

“Uh, sure. But I won’t do the talking.”

“Fine. So your room or mine?”

“Yours,” Ryder said. “Nearer Kimmie’s room…” I thanked him in my mind for thinking about me. “She could go to her room faster if she wants to run away from us.” He then laughed out loud at his own joke.

“Don’t listen to him.” River’s face was filled with worry. I didn’t know why. “We’re not scary.”

“I didn’t think you are.”

“So, do you still want to hang out?” River scratched the back of his head.

I could not understand but there was a pull that was telling me to go.

“Sure.”