The Cravers

16. Popularity

Apparently, the prospect of meeting new people would not be granted to me because the Coven made sure I was on track. They have purposefully put my schedule together so I had all the suspects in my classes. I walked into English and took an empty seat. My eyes traveled to behind me where an obvious clique was huddled up.

Stella smiled at me. "The new chick, huh?" Her green eyes sized me up, her tone wasn't as sincere as I expected. "I'm Stella." Her eyes settled on my neck then back in my gaze.

I grinned, "Diana." She looked stunning in a white knitted sweater with her sorbet pink jeans. The colors complemented her green cat eyes. "I love those bracelets." I told her.

She glimpsed at her jewelry, admiringly. "24 karats gold. Tiffany's," she smirked back with a full blown smile. For a girl who has been crying seconds ago, she sure got her face situated with makeup fast. "Nice to meet you."

I was taken aback by her sincerity.

"Nice to meet you, too. I'm new around town. " I crossed my legs. "I don't know how things run around here, and its different. Scary almost."

"You can hang with me and my friends if you like." She smirked, hiding unknown secrets. "For a girl who is new, you sure made a show out there." She lamented questioningly. " We're going out for lunch. I wouldn't mind having another friend." She turned around, acknowledging a pretty girl with hazel eyes. "Amy. Meet Diana."

Amy gave me a thin-lipped smile. "Hey, Diana."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ben giving me a thumbs up. For a particular reason, he chose a seat away from the back of the class with other people. Something was going on with him too, because he was giving Stella the stink eye which she clearly ignored. He sure was a popular guy who belonged in Stella's VIP. Maybe not anymore.

"Hey," I murmured to Amy, my thoughts drifting.

Soon enough, Stella introduced to me the whole back of the class, aka, the Popularity group in minutes. Before I knew, I had party invitations, hangouts, mall shopping lists thrown at me with scribbled addresses for all the locations. I had numbers of cute, hot Juniors, being recorded in my contact list. I marveled at the scene. And I couldn't help enjoy it a little more. 

Stella flipped her hair, speaking loudly over the growing voices. "Hey, Diana." She smiled wickedly at me. "I think you could be my new best friend."

And I smiled back, trying to hide the motive behind my words.

===

When the final bell rang, I couldn't have gotten out of the school any faster. Forget the mission but doing calculus homework in the morning gave me enough headache for a day.

I was about to call uber when I saw a familiar black Mustang pull over the curb. I was breathing fast, trying to convince myself that it wasn't who I thought it was.

The window rolled down, and I felt all the bile rise up my throat. I clutched my notebooks tighter.  Kingsley's face appeared with dark sunglasses. 

"Kingsley?" I whispered. "What are you doing here?" My eyes darted to the side nervously.

"Well, I was passing by and I thought I would be generous enough to pick you up. I mean, I ditched you today." He smiled. "Come on."

"I'm actually, I was just about to call Uber. It's okay. I had to stop somewhere anyways." I lied.

He sighed. "Diana, I contributed to global warming by coming here and I want to do it for a generous cause."

I bit my lip. Should I go in? Would that make me look weak? Maybe I can pry some information out of him to see if he was connected to the hooded guy at my hotel.