“So, what’s it like here? Have you met anyone yet?”

Bay rolled her eyes and I knew immediately it was about a guy.

“Tell me!”

I sounded a little demanding. Bay was used to that, though.

“My neighbors are pretty nice. They have a son. But he’s an arrogant pushover.”

Immediately, I had to grin again. Although her last boyfriend had been the biggest asshole on earth and I had always wondered when she would finally break up with David, she usually didn’t fall for guys like that.

I had thought well of David at first, but in the end, it had been him who had slept with Olivia fucking McConnell. Lucky me had caught them in their hookup and then when Bay had found out about it, she had burst into tears.

I had threatened the guy that if he ever came near my best friend again, I would prove to him that I had mastered several martial arts. 

I – unlike Bay – had been on more dates. But they had all been the same in the end: daredevils, troublemakers, aspiring drug dealers, or some sick combination of all three. Apparently, some part of me was looking for just such people. And there had to be something about me that attracted them like flies.

“And otherwise?”

“I’m as new here as you are,” Bay laughed. 

God, was I glad to have her near me again.

“This town is bigger than I thought,” I just remarked, looking around the big room in amazement. In general, everything here was so damn huge. The internet said small town, but there was a port, a market, a city center, as well as its own prestigious university in the middle of the forest that looked like a gothic version of fucking Hogwarts, and a glassed-in high-tech research district of skyscrapers! Just like that in the middle of nowhere!

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”

Bay and I wheeled around at the same time.

Standing in the doorway, eyeing us suspiciously, was a slightly indigenous-looking girl with deep brown, almost black hair, brown eyes, and a pretty face. 

I recognized her immediately from the campus, where she had hung out with a couple of muscular guys. I had taken an instant liking to her and her smoking hot company – except for this guy who had shot the cute girl down with a football.

“I’m Emely and you guys are...?” she finally asked in suspicion.

“Larissa Champson and this is my friend, Bayla Adams. We’re both new around here.” 

Emely’s gaze lingered on Bay.

“Do we know each other from somewhere?”

Bay seemed a little confused.

“No, not that I know of...does your last name happen to be Copeland?”

“Yes. That’s who I am.”

Emely’s words sounded like she was someone pretty famous in town, and now I was wondering what Bay already knew about this place, which maybe I should start finding out before it got awkward.

The unsettled look was still on Bay’s face, and I wondered if she really didn’t know her. 

She probably had all sorts of typical Bayla Adams musings tumbling around in her head again, and sooner or later, I would get them out of her.

A few footsteps in the hallway distracted me. More people?

My suspicions were confirmed when two girls entered the room who couldn’t have been more different.

One had a Brazilian tan, and her black corkscrew curls framed her heart-shaped face. She looked very pretty, and the simple gold jewelry she wore accented her warm skin tone.

In complete contrast, the other girl had very pale skin. The slightly flushed cheeks contrasted sharply with the light turquoise irises. Robin Egg Blue. In addition, there were the light blond, almost whitish hair waves, which she had tied into a braid. On her delicate cleavage, a white crystal held by a silver chain.

It was as if Yin and Yang had entered the room, and I would have loved to take a photo of the two of them now and upload it to my page, but my camera was resting peacefully in the small black hard case.

The blonde was wearing a white blouse with light blue denim jeans, while girl number two was wearing a black tank top with fringe, which highlighted her boobs and matched the jeans of the same color. I noticed she wore many bracelets, necklaces of wooden pearls, and gemstones, including a green crystal on her gold chain.

I liked her dark style. However, I preferred the leather jacket I was still wearing because it was not at all damn warm outside as it should be in summer.

Who also moved voluntarily from California to Canada? Right! Ms. Adams…

I was about to say hello when the one with the curly hair started talking.

“What in the world is she doing here?”

Apparently, she had meant the indigenous girl, Emely, because the blonde also looked slightly distant at the sight of her, as if they were facing the devil himself.

“What are you doing here?” Emely pressed out with an aggressive undertone.

“This house was assigned to us,” stammered the blonde girl sheepishly, and then looked at me and Bay as if to check if they could have something against us, too. It seemed like that wasn’t the case because she quickly looked away again, avoiding our questioning glances.

“This can’t be... You guys are...” But Emely stopped mid-sentence and left the room remarkably quickly.

Well, she was in a hurry.

I quickly went to the door to look after her.

But there she was, already standing in the room of these crazy chicks. Her face darkened, and shortly after, a loud “What is she doing here?” could be heard.

Emely came back out and slammed the door. Then she sped to the stairs.

“Wait... Is something wrong?” I called after her, but she had long since disappeared downstairs. The loud slam of another door made me assume she had been in a hurry to get out of here.

“Very kind...” it slipped out ironically, and I quickly looked around at the other girls in the room who had heard me clearly.

“I think she was just here to see if everything was going according to plan,” the Brazilian one said with a shrug but avoided my gaze just the same.

I returned to the room where Bay had sat back down on the bed and was staring at me with a questioning face. We both had questions. Plenty of them.

The shrug of my shoulders came naturally because I was just as unaware of what was going on as Bay was.