CHAPTER 16

KATHERINE. It was the day of the club fair and Blackwood’s campus was more active than I’d ever seen it. Booths had been set up all over the quad and on my and my friends' way through, a couple of students looking for freshmen to join their clubs had tried to waylay us a couple of times. “Unleash your inner warrior by joining the athletic club. We provide members with the tools and resources they need to become the best version of themselves, both on and off the field. Become the athlete you were meant to be!” “Join the drama club and express yourself with us. With us, you’ll have a safe and supportive environment to express yourself creatively, whether through acting, writing, directing, or any other aspect of drama.” “Develop your musical talents and abilities, and explore and express your love of music in the music club.” “Make a real difference. Sign up with us and get the opportunity to make a meaningful and lasting impact on your pack and beyond. We provide members with the tools and resources needed to become active citizens and leaders and who knows… we might also get you alliances with powerful packs.” I almost signed up for the last one because of the latter sentence, but changed my mind when Josie whispered in my ear, “They’ve never actually gotten one pack an alliance with another one and none of their members make impacts on their packs.” It took the four of us a while to finally get out of the quad and begin to head to the recreation center where Lenore and Josie would be trying out for the swim club. The path to our destination took us right past the soccer field where some boys were playing while girls in the stands cheered them on and when my gaze latched onto one of the players, I slowly drew in a breath. It was Blake. He was standing off in a corner of the field and using the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face, revealing his ‘very’ sculpted abdominals. I stared at him for longer than I should have with my lips parted slightly and the moment he let his shirt drop, I averted my gaze and cleared my throat. He had had a constant presence in my thoughts ever since that damn activity during which he hadn’t sensed any magical current running through me yesterday, and not thinking about him wasn’t as easy as thinking about him. When we were almost past the soccer field, I decided to glance at him once more and found him staring in our direction. ‘Oh!’ was the first thing that popped into my mind because I thought he’d caught me staring but when he didn’t react like he had, I realized he wasn’t staring at me, he was staring past me. The only people in front of me were Lenore and Priyanka and the way Priyanka reacted to him yesterday immediately came to mind. “Does Pri dislike him?” I asked Josie and she raised her brows before I gestured at the boy who was now running back toward the other soccer players. “Oh, Blake. No. No, she doesn’t… She ‘hates’ him.” I tugged my brows together. “Why?” He had been nothing but nice to me and he was friendly to everyone, but Priyanka hating him made me wonder if he was secretly a bad person. Josie shrugged. “I don’t know. The five of them used to be as thick as thieves until the semester started.” “Five?” “Blake, Lenore, Pri, Theo and Hunter. They grew up together,” she explained and I muttered an ‘oh’ before she tugged her brows together and glanced heavenward like she was thinking of something. “Well, they’re still friends but things are kinda weird between them and Blake… Why’d you ask?” she added and I told her what happened during Elemental Science class yesterday. “Ah… Oh well.” We got to the recreation center moments later while I pondered over what I just learned from Josie and stepping into the air-conditioned lobby of the building felt like a blessing. Students moved around, heading to different sections of the building, and there was a stand close to the door that had directions to places like the gymnasium, the dance studio, the yoga studio, the cafe, the pool, and others in the building. Our group then made our way to the pool room and walking into the spacious and luxurious room left me in awe. There were a lot of eye-catching things in the room such as the jacuzzi and the bar but the pool itself was the focal point of the room. A long, serpentine shape that stretched out before us. The large windows surrounding the room allowed the sunlight to pour in, creating a warm, inviting atmosphere, while the water sparkled in the light, reflecting off the white tile that lined the pool walls and I had to tamp down the urge to get into it because it looked deep and I couldn’t swim. Some people were doing laps in the pool while others were lounging around and among the swimmers resting on the benches next to the far wall of the room, I spotted Poppy. “Ugh.” We took a seat in the front row of the stands and after talking about the time tryouts would be starting, which was in a couple of minutes, Josie turned to face me. “Why’d you come to Blackwood?” The sudden question threw me for a moment and I reminded myself that I shouldn’t tell anyone the true reason why I came to Blackwood, I replied. “To study?” The corner of her mouth turned up at the confusion in my voice before she gently nudged me. “You could have gone to Irving to study.” “Does everyone else here have an agenda apart from studying?” I asked and she let out a laugh. “Why are you here?” “Everyone at Blue Blood has to pick between Blackwood, Dumein, and Staerdale. It’s the norm. I picked Blackwood because my girls picked it.” She pointed at Lenore and Priyanka when she said ‘my girls.' “Oh,” I muttered and I couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous because of how easily she said that. The norm for people who wanted to attend university in my pack was picking Irving because my pack didn’t have the prestige or the money to send everyone to any one of the three schools she mentioned. “So, why’d you come to Blackwood?” she repeated and I heaved a sigh because she wasn’t going to drop it unless I gave her an answer. “Honestly… I couldn’t resist the buffet.” She grinned at that before the sound of a whistle filled the air and we glanced at the direction it came from to see a dark-skinned woman dressed in a tank top and shorts standing at one end of the pool with a clipboard in her hand. “If you’re here for tryouts, go change into your swimwear and join me here. You have five minutes,” she announced and Lenore and Josie got to their feet. “We’ll be right back. Try not to miss us too much,” Josie said and Priyanka rolled her eyes before they made their way over to the changing room.