To sum it up. This place reeked of drama. 

“Why do we always have to be stuck with idiots like these?” It came snappish from Vivienna. 

I ignored her reference because it was obvious, she meant us too, even though she looked at the guys on the other side, who immediately stopped talking and turned to face us.

Great job, Vivienna...

A couple of them looked at Nash as if waiting for a reaction from him. He rose from his chair.

Really great job, Vivienna....

“You think we like sitting here with you?” Nash looked at them challengingly. His blue eyes sparkled with threat. “Just because your parents own a third of the town, you think you’re something better, or what?” 

He sounded upset and snorted with disapproval.

“Just ignore them, Nash.” 

Emely apparently wanted to keep the peace, which she wasn’t so successful at, as Nash ignored his sister as much as Vivienna did, who wasn’t about to take Nash’s accusation sitting on her head.

“You just have to be qualified to do something like that. And not...” she paused theatrically before gesturing to add the word “feral.”

Her friends laughed, and even Grace, who had looked tense until just now, had to stifle her grin.

Nash, who didn’t seem to find this funny at all, moved toward Vivienna, who jerked back at her table, startled. 

For a second, Nash’s eyes flashed yellowish. 

I froze.

Had that been the sun?

Startled, I squinted my eyes. When I opened them again, my gaze was still on Nash. His eyes were normal.

My brain often played tricks like that on me when I got nervous. It was time to take the pills, but where were they?

“Now pay attention, witch. You should control your loose mouth because the place you’re in right now is obviously not your territory.” 

He looked deep into her eyes, and I couldn’t help but get scared myself.

Everyone here was so aggressive and hateful toward each other. No wonder these big groups were forming.

But was I really any better? I had treated Julian the same way, and just like Nash he also called me a witch. Maybe that was the everyday tone in Blairville.

But it shouldn’t be. I had behaved so wrong. Because even if Julian was a jerk, I didn’t have to be. 

Instinctively I looked behind me at him, but he wasn’t looking at Nash like everyone else was, but at Emely. She in turn was about to jump up to do whatever.

“Our university, our rules. Isn’t it the same at your place?” Nash provoked the now frightened Vivienna.

I saw that Larissa was about to say something, when the big double wooden doors at the end of the aisle opened.

Immediately, Nash turned away from Vivienna to go back to his seat.

In walked a man in his early forties, wearing black jeans and a navy-blue knitted sweater. A light blue shirt peeked out from underneath, giving a somewhat chaotic, though academic, impression with its crumpled ends.

The man looked like one of those actors who had given up his career to teach English to bored students.

In addition, there was the brown, slightly curly hair and the three-day beard that surely made him a ladies’ man.

Friendly, he smiled at me, as I was the only one who seemed to be looking straight back, and I couldn’t help but automatically smile back.

Then I turned to the electronic board that was fully embedded in the wall.

“Glad to see all of you made it to the first seminar on the very first day. I’m impressed!”

The professor looked around with a grin, and a united groan sounded from the guys’ corner. I didn’t miss Nash’s annoyed look. 

If I remember correctly, he was somehow related to the professor…his nephew? I wonder if I could get something out of him about my mother’s doctor. Probably not a good idea.

“You all have just finished school, and here comes another guy who wants to teach you about English. But it’s really important that you learn to express yourself and...” 

The professor didn’t get any further because the massive wooden door opened again, and three nobly dressed figures entered.

The DeLoughreys.

I recognized them immediately from the campus. Not only because they were well and expensively dressed, but because everyone had been staring at them earlier. They had put on quite a show, though. They also had striking, very memorable faces. Even though their overall appearance had seemed rather odd to me.

The black-haired of them headed for the last row, where everything was still empty, and all three of them finally sat down.

Between them and Nash’s guys, there was still one row of seats free. Thankfully, because immediately I noticed the tension in the room reaching a new height.

Nash pulled his horrified gaze from the young men who were looking at him with hostile coldness and looked at the professor. 

“Tell me this is a bad joke, Alarik, and throw them out!”

Alarik?

“I’m still Professor Copeland to you as long as we’re sitting here in this seminar.”

“Damn it! Throw them out!” Nash snapped in a rude tone. His jawbone pressed violently against the taut skin of his face.

“Afraid, Copeland?” it came playfully from the guy with the chin-length deep brown hair on the far right, who leaned back in the chair with his hands behind his head.

Nash jumped up and clenched his fists.

“Can they keep their gang shit off campus? This is unbearable,” a girl from our row I didn’t know muttered quietly to her friend with an eye roll, yet loud enough to be heard.

Professor Copeland, who didn’t seem to like the conversation much either, walked over to the wall and turned on the whiteboard with a button.