MONSTER OF THE UNKNOWN

AN ATTACK IN THE NIGHT

So, it turns out that apparently you can't get into a fight that catches the attention of every single student in the entire school without also attracting the one of the principal. The news of the whole Mathéo and Aloïs 'dispute' reaches the ears of the mean lady at the top and the two are invited to her office by the end of school. Unlike most principals of nowadays, Mrs Typh is somewhat rational, and considering that Aloïs is the only one that actually damaged school property, Mathéo gets off with only a warning while the idiot jock gets a two-week suspension.

As Mathéo walks out of the office, he's surprised to find the pretty new girl from earlier waiting for him at the reception bench.

"How did it go?" Laura asks him anxiously as she quickly rises from the seat. It's obvious she fears something bad may have happened, maybe an expulsion.

"Awn. You were worried about me," Mathéo teases the brunette, causing her face to redden in shyness. "Thanks, but you didn't have to wait out here for so long. It was just a warning." The boy's phone vibrates all of a sudden as he receives a text from Sara

'Are you still planning on catching a ride with Aaron and me?'

"I didn't mean it like that," Laura tries to clarify her intentions to the brown skinned boy, pulling his attention away from his friend's message. "I also wanted to ask you if you happen to have a car I could follow."

Upon hearing this, Mathéo starts contemplating on who to follow (Lyam is out of the picture since he'll be too busy hanging out with Kate). The only option seemed to be following his friend's ride and bringing Laura along, but there's a certain issue concerning that. He's fully aware that Aaron is still angry about the whole 'rescuing him from a fight' thing and will surely make everything awkward and uncomfortable if he goes with them. After about a minute of weighing the pros and cons, Mathéo comes up with a different idea.

"I don't have my own car, but do you want to take the bus?"

"The school bus?"

"No, the local one," he clarifies. "There's a bus stop not too far from the school, and the bus goes to almost every neighborhood. It leaves in a few minutes, and I can accompany you to help you get the hang of it. What do you say?"

"Um..." Laura thinks about it a little before accepting the offer. "Sure, why not?"

"Great!" Mathéo responds with a smile as he takes out his phone and replies to Sara, telling her that he already has another ride. "All right, let's go," he tells Laura as he leads the way to the stop.

It doesn't take long for the two to arrive at the bus stop, and the main vehicle soon after. Mathéo pays for both their tickets before they proceed inside the bus where they continue their friendly conversation from earlier (when they were in the nurse's office). About an hour later, the bus stops at Etterbeek, Laura's neighborhood, and they both get off. Mathéo accompanies her to her front door 'cause she's still having a hard time distinguishing the other streets from hers, and when the two finally get there, he discovers the girl's house looks very different from what he was imagining. Its collosal. A bit smaller than Sara's, but still impressively large.

The brunette takes her key out of her bag and opens the door, but before she goes in, she stops to ask Mathéo an unexpected question.

"Do you want to..." she pauses for a moment, "come in?"

"Wow! We're skipping to that stage already, huh? I wasn't expecting that," he jokes before accepting. "Yeah, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do for the rest of the day."

"I wasn't trying to... um... I meant..." Laura fumbles her words as she realizes what Mathéo was implying with his statement, but he comes in anyway without paying attention to her clumsy attempt of an explanation.