U.H Book One // Hegemony {ON HOLD}

• Chapter Ten •

I took it respectably and gazed at her. Leila sighed and swallowed, then looked at me. I felt myself tense up. I had never seen her so serious.

"Ok." She said, simplistically, "When I was younger...my parents would...they would whip me and..." she paused, her face a bit red as she looked away. My heart was racing. There was no way...she was always such a jokester and she was always so lighthearted...

"And they would carve things into my back with...with a knife."

I gasped and covered my mouth. She looked at me as if she felt guilty.

"L..Leila..I had no idea..I'm sorry." I said quietly. She shrugged and forced a smile.

"It's ok, I don't live with them anymore, so it's ok." She said, then looked at me sternly.

"But a promise is a promise."

I sighed, already regretting my decision. "Ok, but will you come with me? ...please."

She nodded, then lead me out the door to the cafeteria.

"I'll be entering anyways, so." She pulled a piece of paper with her name on it out of her pocket.

"You...had that prewritten?" I asked amusingly.

"Yeah, I enter every year." She grinned, and walked up to the table which Greg sat on. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote my name down on it, then folded it. Leila held hers out, and Greg sucked it up, then it was gone.

I held mine out with a slightly shaky hand, and Greg sucked it up. I jumped a little and jerked my arm back, scared he was going to take it off.

"Scared he's gonna eat your arm?" Leila joked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed.

"He doesn't even have any teeth." She responded, grinning. I frowned.

We made our way to the upstairs lockers. Silas was right next to mine, and Star's was right across from mine. I had no idea where Violet's and Leila's was. As we walked up the stairs, we saw students gathering their bags and notebooks...and bus students sprinting down the hallway. One of the bunny hybrids even morphed into their animal and was hopping swiftly down the stairs.

Leila said she'd meet me outside, then went to her locker which was a few hallways down from mine. The hallway was pretty empty now, besides a few students here and there. I felt slightly nervous and paranoid, for no reason in particular.

I began grabbing my stuff quickly, hoping to get out of the school fast, shoving my books in my bag. I just never like when public places are empty...it makes me nervous.

"Hey timebug!" I heard an unpleasant voice from behind me. I spun around, nearly jumping out of my skin. I was lucky to see just Cedric there, and not his whole "crew". He grinned at me.

"Joining the competition?"

"Uh..yeah..are you?" I asked, trying to be nice. I knew he was trying to be my friend so I would do stuff for him...but I couldn't ignore him. He was a bully to others but not to me...I mean at least he was nice.

"Hell yeah I am. You know I won last year?" He came and rested his arm against the locker next to mine, as I closed mine, book bag draped over my shoulder.

"Oh..no..I didn't know that. Was it scary?"

He chuckled. "Nah..not at all. I'm sure you've got nothing to fear. You'll win this year, timebug. You've got an advantage."

"Hey..I wouldn't use it if it's against the rules." I said quietly.

"It's not." He smirked.

That caught my attention. I felt my ears jerk up, and his smirk grew wider.

"So I'm allowed to use my element?" I asked, cautiously. He nodded. I thought for a moment. I remembered how Cedric had cornered Silas...

"So..so why are you so interested in this?" I asked, looking up at him.

He shrugged, "I'm not. Just because your friends hate me doesn't mean we can't talk, right?"

"Well-"

"Plus...you've only known them for two days and they're already spreading bad rumors about me. I've not even said a bad word about them."

I thought for a moment. Every single word he spoke was true. That made me mad.

"I'm sorry but I'm still not going to trust you, if that's what your trying to gain...and I won't do anything for you. Ever. Not after the way you treated Silas." I exclaimed, I sounded far more confident than I felt.

Cedric frowned, and his eyes narrowed. I suddenly felt I shouldn't have done that. Then to my surprise, he shrugged.

"Well this talk gave you two options. To be my friend...or to be my enemy. There's no in between with me, timebug..and you chose the wrong path."

I felt a shiver run down my spine. But it wasn't from fear...it was actually cold. There was ice forming at my feet. My heart stopped and I stared down, attempting to move, but unable to. Cedric smirked at me.

"Cedric...please let's just leave. Let's just both go home..I don't want to fight." I said, my voice wavering. My heart was pounding against my chest...the temperature was still dropping.

He grinned. "You should've thought of that before."

Suddenly a huge ice shard slammed into the side of his face. Cedric flew back and slammed into the lockers across from mine. I stared at his unconscious body twitching on the ground, my throat dry.

"Bea! You ok?!"

I looked up to see Star running towards me.

"That jackass!" She said, "He was trying to intimidate you, you know?"

All I could do was nod in stunned silence.