Pic Of Nymph -->

~Chapter 4~

"Now let's see." I mutter to myself. Lying comfortably on my bed with my laptop, I scroll through the list of local schools with my right hand while gently caressing Roma's head with my left.

There had been a bit of an argument after I had announced we were going to school as nobody actually liked the idea of it. However I'd managed to convince everyone after promising to take care of everything and take everyone out shopping tomorrow.

I sigh as I lay on my bed kicking my feet against the head board. Roma is asleep next to me, breathing softly. One of the school names catches my eye and I click on it, bored (this wasn't as much fun as I thought it'd be).

'Heavenswood Highschool, until recently an all boys school!' it reads.

"This looks promising." I scroll through the information chewing on the inside of my mouth distractedly, and discover to my delight that the school in question is just at the edge of the woods, not too far from our house. The images showe a giant school building with beautiful out front hedges neatly trimmed and vines growing up the side of the wall. The uniform is very cute with an optional blazer, ash grey red skirt and striped tie of two different shades of blue. The male uniform has black trousers and a jacket with a white polo shirt and either a red or blue tie. Somehow the images remind me of something, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Anyway, we could start school in two days, giving us tomorrow to buy the uniforms and other necessities. The shopping trip will work out both ways.

"Arrww." Grumbles Roma in her sleep, and kicks a long furry leg into my stomach unconsciously, causing me to flinch.

I check the sleeping dog wearily, then turn to my clock on the bedside table and realise it's nearly five. I've spent all day walking Roma and searching the internet. I quickly memorise a route to the school and close my blue laptop.

"Chinese for an early dinner I think."

I leave Roma on the bed and go to the kitchen. Nymph hasn't started cooking yet which is good and I find Vivian and Amanda in their room.

"Guys we're having Chinese for dinner tonight. Your usual I take it?"

"Sounds good to me," says Amanda grinning, floating down from her bed situated atop of the wardrobe.

"Vivian?" I turn looking at the slumped finger rocking back and fourth in her swinging basket of a bed. She has her headphones plugged in but waves a hand vaguely in my direction in acknowledgement, her bright green eyes glassy as her mind is elsewhere, probably drowned out by the music. I turn back to Amanda who is distractedly checking herself out in the mirror, "can you let Nymph know so she can order it. I want to take a quick soak in the tub."

"Righty o." She says, giving herself a final pout in the mirror, and then floats off through a wall as smooth as a knife through butter, the last glimpse of her astral body being her veil of blonde hair as it glides after her.

I make my way back to my bedroom and push open the door to my ensuite. Quickly filling my large porcelain tub with steaming water and bubbles as I undress.

My bathroom is laced with light blue tiles decorating the walls, and there are various seashell themed accessories adorning the walls and surfaces as Nymph had been insistent on designing my bathroom. To be honest I love how she matched the colours in the room, with the whites and blues making me feel like I've stepped onto a beach with a calm blue ocean and white sanded beach.

I slip myself into the warm water, now hidden under a blanket of soapy bubbles, and was immediately knocked into a light sleep. Sleeping in the bath tub was a terrible habit of mine, and by now I should've known not to add bath salts or bubbles as that only encouraged me to drift off. But I guess old habits die hard.

"Astria!" A voice yelled in my ear, and I wake with a start, sloshing a good deal of the water over the side and splattering my stone floor with bubbles.

"What?!" I asked loudly, now very awake as my large teal eyes dart back and forth around the blue room, then eventually up.

"Food's here," Amanda states casually, "everyone's wondering where you are," she's lead on her stomach suspended in the air, watching me intently with two piercing blue eyes.

"Okay...I'll be right there," I announce slowly, not taking my eyes from an oblivious Amanda as I sink under the bubbles even more, "......um, do you mind?" I ask eventually after she clearly doesn't get the message.

"Hmmm? Oh right!" She gives me a silly grin and vanishes with a faint pop, purposely covering me with a light splatter of ectoplasm. Gross.

After waiting a few seconds to make sure she really has gone, I quickly wipe off the translucent goo that had begun to glow eerily and rush to pull on a sky blue dressing gown, also picked out by Nymph.

Vivian, Phoebe and Amanda are chowing down their food in front of the TV and I guess Dena has taken her food to her bedroom. My brown hair is tied back in a messy bun as I pick up my sweet and sour.

"Where Nymph?" I ask looking around.

"She's out back tending to her plants." Replies Phoebe.

"That girl should've been born an elf not a mermaid. She has such a way with nature."

"I agree with you there." Says Vivian.

"I'm heading back to my room." I walk into my room and find Roma lying on the floor in a funny position, she's chewing at the edge of my rug and shaking it vigorously, her eyes still closed. I leave her to it and wolf down my meal before slumping back on my bed.

The time reads 6:24 and I decide to get to sleep early, that way I can wake up first thing and go shopping. I close my eyes and have sweet dreams about wolves chasing cats and eating dragon liver.

I'm up nice and early the next day commanding everyone to get dressed to go shopping. They're all very pleased about the idea till we finally arrive at the high street and I drag them into the school supplies shop.

My chosen outfit for the day had become a frilly white mini skirt and a turquoise long sleeved top. Typical clothes for a werewolf like myself, and I'd even decided to wear a beret atop my head just incase my wolf ears pop out without me realising.

Luckily, such a mishap had only happened once, and at the time we were all at the fun fair visiting town and I'd gone on the haunted house ride. The moment I stepped off the ride I immediate gathered attention, as everyone in the perimeter was staring at me and pointing at my head. The fright of the ride must've made my ears and tail pop out without me noticing, but thanks to that I'm always extra cautious now.

At present we all look reasonably human. Amanda can control how transparent she is so she currently looks completely normal, and Vivian has tucked her wings into the back of her jacket or also could've asked Dena to make them invisible. Same goes for Phoebe but she can just choose to extinguish her fiery wings and tail whenever she wants.

I glance down at my palm, where I'd written the name of our new school onto my skin and gone on to fill my purse with notes to afford it all.

I manage to drag everyone around to a few supply stores with a minimum of groaning, then finally locate the local store that sells uniforms for all schools in the area, including ours. I leave the others to try on different blazer sizes and go searching through the isles for the ties, finally finding them I return to the changing rooms expecting to see them with their chosen blazers.

Instead, I find a pile of blazers in varying sizes stacked up on a chair, and not a soul (or ghost) in sight.

"Guys?" I ask cautiously, checking the changing rooms and venturing into the rest of the store.

Nothing.

Well dangit, they've left me to pick up their mess and pay for it. Bunch of layabouts.

Gathering the remaining uniforms I all but march up to the cashier and pay the hefty price all uniforms are tagged with. "Excuse me," I suddenly ask the clerk serving me, and she looks up with a smile, "do you know where that group of girls went?"

"I think they were talking about getting some milkshakes." She replies politely, though she seems amused by it.

"Thank you." I pay for the clothes and leave the shop in the direction of Shakeaway, their favourite milkshake place.

"I can't believe they actually ditched me!" I vent to myself as I march down the street, each arm weighed down by bags. I'm so busy cursing them for their childish ways that I don't look where I'm going and bump into a tall figure walking the opposite way to me.

I stumble back and some of the bags slide from my arm, hitting the pavement. "Sorry." I reply distractedly, quickly bending down to gather up my belongings without looking at the person I'd knocked shoulders with.

"No problem." Comes a male voice, and a hand reaches down to pick up the last bag for me, handing it forward. The moment I take it I mentally recoil. This smell of feline!

"Thank you." I say quickly as I try to hide my discomfort, and look straight up into those familiar deep purple eyes, grazed by strands of his dark hair and, annoyingly, barely inches from my face.

I immediately retreat at the closeness and straighten myself up. Looking everywhere but into his hypnotising gaze.

"You okay? You seem distracted," he comments, but I see the smirk behind his eyes. Oh, you know exactly what's wrong.

"I am perfectly fine," I flourish, trying to remember what I had been doing earlier that lead me to this meet up. Oh right! The girls!

"See you around?" He actually smirks this time!

"Not likely." I grumble and walk past him, back on track.

"Oh there you are Astria, we were wondering when we'd see you again." Phoebe comments casually, taking a slurp through her straw.

That's right, I finally found them all, sitting on stools around a table in Shakeaway slurping down mars bar and snickers milkshakes.

"Did something happen?" Nymph chimes in, "you seem slightly red."

"Just trying to hold back the primitive instinct to rip someone's head off," I growl through clenched teeth, earning a wary look from the girls, now all with their attention turned to me. "Come on, were leaving." I say sternly and grab Amanda by her sleeve.

"But my milkshake!" She complains. I ignore her and manage to shoo everyone out of the shop.

I just can't get that boy out of my mind! The nerve of him! That cocky grin and the smugness in his eyes, I know for a fact I'm gonna be having nightmares about him for weeks!

Edited 29/08/16