Shadowed Light

Batie?

{^picture of Adam above}

Toby lead Clara away from the kitchen and into a large room with resembled every single canteen in every single American high school movie ever. Except instead if red benches and hormonal teens, the tables were a dark wood and seated on them were at least a dozen men.

Clara froze beside Toby who had stopped to look around. No one noticed them standing there, that was, until Toby waved at some guy, not only earning his attention, but ever male's in the room.

The guy made his way over to the two of them, a silence falling over the room making Clara's hands shake with nerves. The guy came to stand right in front of her, forcing her to look at him.

She felt her mouth drop open. His eyes were strange like her's! An amber colour, almost yellow.
"So this is the new batie?" He said with a smirk.

Clara felt her eyebrows rise to her hairline. "Batie?" She repeated, looking towards Toby for help.
Toby rolled his eyes. "Ignore him, Clara. Adam has a tendency to speak before he thinks."
Adam put a hand to his broad chest, feigning pain. "Ouch."

Clara found herself rolling her eyes, resulting in two amused looking boys.
"What?" She said, her cheeks flaming.
Neither one of them said anything, Adam just tugged on her arm towards one of the tables.

The table, surprise surprise, was filled with boys who looked between fifteen and twenty five. Some were skinny, some were so muscular they looked like actual living rocks. Clara felt intimidated by all of them.

Adam sat down first and motioned for Clara to sit beside him. When she didn't, he grappled hold of her wrist and yanked her down, causing her to scream in surprise. The boys around the table chuckled at her reaction and went back to eating what looked like chicken noodle soup.

One of them, the one with eyes that burned an unnatural shade of green, pushed a spare bowls towards her. In the centre of the table was a large tank of soup which Adam dunked a soup spoon in and filled her bowl. Clara found herself tapping her shins nervously as he did so.

"What's up with her?" The green eyed boy said pointing at Clara with his spoon. Clara jumped as if it were a gun.
"Clara." Toby, who had remained, said for her.

"I love your jacket!" Another boy said, this one with eyes such a light shade of red they looked pink! He had a sweet face and curly blonde hair. He spoke as if he owned the place and rolled his words slightly. Clara automatically liked him.

The first boy shook his head. "That's Thomas. He loves anything that may be used as an accessory or clothes item."
Thomas looked offended. "And headbands. How many times do I have to remind you about the headbands, Craig?"

Clara found herself laughing lightly. That gained all the men's attention, including Toby.
"Your pretty." Another boy said, making Clara flush immediately. She was really beginning to wish she'd kept her hair down.

"Lay off Rhys, you know the rules." Toby bit out through clenched teeth.
Rhys put his hands in the air as an act of surrender. "Okay, okay, lay off man I was only being a nice host."
Clara gave Rhys a small smile which he returned right away, looking smug.

Clara almost fell off of her chair when Thomas was suddenly in her face, looking her body up and down.
"Um...Thomas?" Adam said. "Please stop doing that, I think your scaring her."

Thomas ignored him, his eyes fixed on Clara. "Why are you wearing that god awful dress? Toby, why is she wearing that God awful dress?"
Clara say up a little straighter. "There's no need to be rude."
"Yeah fashionista," Craig said. "Sit down dog."

Thomas sat back down, crossing his arms over his chest but keeping his strange eyes on Clara. "Sorry."
Clara said nothing. Her choice of clothes wasn't that bad. Thomas was acting as though she were wearing socks as gloves and shoes as earrings! Clara liked her outfit despite what some fabulous teen boy said.

The boys began discussing something about cricket so Clara took a sip of her soup. It was disgusting.
She noticed non of the others were actually eating, so decided to leave it. Her friend from school always told her never to eat the canteen food unless you saw one of the teachers eat it first. School rule number one, she had said.

"So Clara," Rhys began. "How'd you die?"
The spoon Clara had been holding literally fell out of her hand and into the bowl of poison. The soup splashed up onto her face and chest but she didn't care.
That same voice from earlier whispered gently in her mind.
He's telling the truth. You died. But how? That's for you to find out.