Chantel hadn't mentioned to her mother about her encounter with the scruffy man or her mother would've freaked the hell out, and might just lock her inside the house. Chantel could still remember the horrifying look in his eyes when he'd pointed at Roman, and hear him say: I saw the Cheerleader! I saw her get killed! And he even mentioned something about a dragon and ouroboros, whatever that was.

A notification popped up; Roman had tagged her in a photo. It was the photo of them, that her mother clicked. But the caption made her blood boil 'the snake got loose' with a smirk emoji. People will take it the other way. When is Roman ever going to learn?

She put on her earpiece and tried to sleep but she couldn't shake the image of the man off. She barely got four hours of sleep as she yawned and entered the kitchen, Susan was already dressed up and ready to leave.

"Morning mom," she wished.

"Good morning honey," her mother zipped the bag. "I'll be home by dinner."

Chantel nodded as she stretched her arms. Her mother gave her a quick peck on the cheek and walked out of the door.

Chantel had the overnight oats for breakfast and checked her social, almost everyone had posted about the dance. Ashley Valentine's story caught her attention, it was a selfie of her and Tyler seated inside a car. Was Tyler with her last night?

She dived into Tyler's social but he hadn't posted anything about the night before. She checked the time, she had to get ready for school asap. She quickly took a shower and wore a denim on denim outfit. Gia had informed she'd pick her up because she wanted to give her the halwa, her mother had made for lunch.

Chantel could smell the deliciousness even with the lid closed. "Thank you," she thanked Gia as she slipped the tiffin box inside her bag.

"My pleasure," the girl smiled as she drummed her fingers on the wheels, to the tune of 'Jai ho' by A.R Rahman & The Pussycat Dolls.

Chantel had learned about many different kinds of Indian artist and their beautiful songs from Gia. She had even watched a handful of Bollywood movies from their place as Aditi, Gia's mother was a big fan of the superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

"Anyway," Gia asked. "What happened with you and Tyler last night?"

"Nothing." Chantel responded.

"Mmm," she said. "This morning on my run, I saw him and Ashley leaving the motel together."

Chantel turned to her a bit surprised, she wasn't expecting that but okay. Guess, she should thank Roman Godfrey or she might have made a decision she'd be regretting by now.

"I thought you should know," Gia mentioned.

"Thanks," she thanked her. "Talking about boys," she said, "what's up with you?"

"The guy from Cali." Gia said. "He's flying over to NY over the weekends, will see how it goes from there."

Over the summers Gia had been talking to a guy name Zayn from San Jose California. Chantel had seen his photos and he was darn hot, with tattoos.

"Good for you," A little smirk appeared on Chantel's face.

"Let's hope my mom doesn't find out and kill me." Gia let out a chuckle.

Chantel pursed her lips, "so you planning to just vanish into thin air?"

"I'm just going to tell her, I've a weekend sleepover with the girls." Gia smirked widely.

"Nice," Chantel nodded. "I'll be using your technique very soon."

Gia winked, "the student becomes the master."

🏴🏴🏴

As Chantel was walking up the stairs with Gia, she caught sight of Letha and Roman at a distant. "I'll see you in class," she told the girl as she headed towards the Godfrey's.

Letha was a pretty seventeen year old girl with honey blonde hair and blue eyes, she was sweet and kind unlike her cousin Roman.

"Morning sweetheart," Roman wished a cigarette placed between his lips as he saw Chantel gliding towards them, fiddling with her double strand gold necklace.

"Hey," Letha beamed as she saw her friend, the two girls embraced.

"And you," Chantel turned her attention towards the tall boy. "What's up with you and captions?"

He took a puff of the cigarette. "It's creative."

"It isn't," she shook her head.

"What are you guys talking about?" Letha asked curiously, Chantel pulled out her phone and showed Letha what the deal was about. The blonde girl had laughed hysterically, but Chantel didn't find it funny at all.

The two girls excused themselves and headed towards the empty classroom, hand in hand. As they were away from the eyes and ears of the other students. Chantel asked, "so?"

Letha had reached out to Chantel and told her about her pregnancy. Letha and her boyfriend Eddie Johnson who was in college had called it quits over the summer, in the week of their breakup after smoking a joint at the annual bonfire party—she had a one night stand with Peter Rumancek. And now she was pregnant with his baby but Peter had no idea about it and she had already crossed her first trimester. She'd informed her parents about her situation and they were seriously not happy with her decision to keep the baby.

Her parents suspected it to be Eddie's because they had no idea about her fling with Peter and Letha didn't know how to tell Peter or her parents that it was Peter's baby instead of Eddie's. But she wouldn't be able to hide it any longer because her belly was growing with each passing day and no amount of oversized outfits would be able to help.

"Tonight, I'm going to tell my parents it's Peter's." She put a hand on her belly.

"Okay," Chantel nodded.

"And maybe, I'll tell Peter by the end of the week," she huffed. "I don't know."

"You sure it's Pete's?" Chantel asked again, she'd asked this question over a dozen times.

Letha reminded her again, "I told you how it was with Peter."

They both got high and Peter didn't have protection, Letha had explained it all to Chantel and the joint really fucked Letha's system up as she got nauseous for the entire weekend, so it totally skipped her mind to get plan B from the chemist.

Letha's decision to keep the baby might seemed odd because she was still a teenager but Chantel could relate to her, if she was in Letha's shoes, she too would want to keep the baby.

Chantel placed her hand on Letha's belly, it wasn't that big. It feels like she was bloated instead. "Can you feel it?"

"Whenever I'm alone, I can feel a heartbeat...that's not mine," she said softly.

"Wow!" Chantel smiled, "that's beautiful."

Letha looked at her. "If this is a mistake just say it before I continue on this suicide mission."

Chantel said, "a life is growing in you, what's more precious than that."

Letha smiled at her warmly, "you'll be an amazing mother one day."

A wide smirk appeared on her face. "For now I'll be an amazing aunt to your baby."

Letha put an arm around her, "I've already chosen you and Roman as godparents."

"Really?" Chantel chuckled softly.

"Yep." She nodded as they walked out of the room together.

🏴🏴🏴

Every time she and Roman had class together, he'd always sit beside her, it becomes distracting at times because whenever their eyes meet he'd give her that devilish smile of his. And if any of the girls see him do that, they'd just glare at Chantel. Like they were lost in a desert and she had the last sip of water.

But being in the same classroom with Roman and Tyler was making her anxious because ever since the dance, Roman's attention was on Tyler. She'd tried her best to avoid eye contact with Tyler so that Roman wouldn't create another scene, she liked Tyler but after what she'd learned about him from Gia. She realised he wasn't worth it. He was just another player like Roman and Chantel really didn't have time for flings.

As she arranged her books inside the locker, humming. Roman appeared. "Wanna grab something to eat?"

"No, thanks." She said as she unwrapped a green apple from her locker. "I have this."

"Are you on a diet?" He raised a brow, the boy knew her too well, she was a foodie after all.

"Hell no!" She chuckled softly. "I had a tiffin full of halwa, that Gia had given me."

"You didn't wait for me?" He raised a brow.

"I couldn't resist the scent," she mentioned.

He grinned, "when will you ever say that about me."

"When you become a halwa." She muttered.

They walked out of the building together, she was munching on the apple while Roman was smoking one of his foul cigarettes again.

"Want a bite?" She offered.

Roman took a bite of the apple. "It tastes like strawberries," he mumbled.

She laughed. "It's my lipgloss."

"The next time I want strawberries, I'll just suck your lips then." A light smirk passed his face.

She rolled her eyes. When will he ever be serious?

Roman pointed at Peter, "let's have a chit chat with the gypsy."

She asked. "Why?"

He grabbed hold of her forearm and pulled her towards him, "just five minutes."

Peter was leaning on the wall, looking lost and non belonging. He wasn't really a people person and students seemed to dislike him for some reasons. Maybe, because of the werewolf rumour or maybe, because he was a gypsy. But whatever, he was a dozen times better than the other kids she knew.

"You do the reading for Pisaro?" Roman asked as they walked upto him.

Peter narrowed his eyes, confusion flooding his face. But finally he responded. "Nah, I watched the movie."

Roman leaned on the wall besides Peter and Chantel leaned next to Roman.

"You know, I can never keep the Brontë sisters straight." Roman said causally. "Which one do fat goth girls learn how to masturbate to?"

Chantel let out a breath of disbelief. Really Rome, you came here to talk nonsense to Peter?

"Why do I get the feeling that half the reason you talk to me is the way people look at you, when you're talking to me?" Peter turned to Roman.

Roman licked his lips and looked around, people were watching them. People always watch them. Roman Godfrey was the center of attention after all.

Roman let out a chuckle. "Oh, it's more than half."

"The thing is, we don't have the same problem." Peter told him.

"Which is?" Roman raised a brow.

"You're only bored, if you're boring." Peter replied as he slowly walked away from them.

"What was that all about?" Chantel looked at Roman in confusion.

"Boys talk." He said smoothly.

"Next time," she crossed her arms. "Keep me out of it."

"Whatever you say sweetheart, whatever you say." He winked at her.

She blew out raspberry as she peered around, people were still watching them. Like they always do. What goes on in those minds? She thought. On second thought, she didn't want to know.

During literature class, which Peter shared with Roman and Chantel. Roman threw a crumbled piece of paper at Peter as the teacher read out to the class.

Mrs Parker paused and looked at Roman. "Are we passing notes Mr Godfrey?" She asked.

"Wouldn't dream of it mam," he smiled at the teacher innocently as he gestured her to carry on.

Chantel was seated besides Roman and between her and Peter was Gia. She turned her focus on Peter who un crumbled the piece of paper and zoned out. What were these boys upto?

Chantel snapped out of her thoughts and removed her metallic hair claw, letting her hair loose. The heavy claw was making her headache. Roman was watching her dotingly. He almost looked like he was being mesmerised by something.

Gia poked Chantel handing her a note. "It's for Roman."

Chantel took the note realising Peter had passed the note. She handed Roman the note, who hadn't snapped out of his dream state yet. She gave him a little poke, "Rome."

"Miss Channing," the teacher called.

Chantel turned her attention back to the teacher who was watching her with arms crossed.

"Can't you and Mr Godfrey, stay a moment without petting each other?" Mrs Parker said.

All eyes were on her and she was turning as red as a tomato. If Roman hadn't passed the note to Peter, Peter wouldn't have passed another note and she'd not be in this mess.

"I'd like to see you both in my office." The teacher mentioned as the bell finally rang. "Now."

"Shee-it," she said to herself as she followed Mrs Parker out of the class, Roman trailing behind her.