"So what's your name? I don't think I've been well acquainted with Elizabeth's friends." He asks a polite smile that screams nice to every other person in the room, but whipers out its evil intentions me, rolling into the next syllable smoothly as if he hadn't just hinted at something obscure which I know nought of for as far as my knowledge allows me to and is mocking me for it. His smile is distrustful and unnerving.

I turn my eyes away.

His emphasis on friends doesn't prevail in escaping my observation, however, nor does his use of my full name instead of my nickname Eliza, or any really, just as long as it's good, that I would only permit the use of such nicknames to close friends. Realization begets smug knowledge that lifts my lips into a hidden smile behind my warm blooded hand.

At least he's right about that.

Daisy, as if sensing my internal conflict, sought out my hand, blindly reaching out, and calming disturbed feelings and stray thoughts as her hand clamped onto mine in embraced warmth that reminds me again, to torture me perhaps, of Eberlyn and instinctive thought to comfort people who need it, whether they realize they need it or not, in the form of a hug or a kind smile at a passing saddened passerby with a patient affectionate heart that never seemed to cease it's giving.

I quietly sniffle and squeeze her hand back. She raises her menu, to hide a secret smile no doubt, up to the front of the mouth.

I turn my head to face him with protest and open my mouth to answer and he out of what I can only call felt necessity pins me with a look that has me squirming in my seat, uncomfortable under his piercing dark sights on me.

"I want her to tell me, not you Elizabeth." He states simply as if that one simple sentence doesn't hold malicious intent coded into its words directed at me, eyes on the prize, elbow-deep into the table, a pose that I know means business and business only.

After setting my eyes into narrowed slits at his indirect order to pipe down, I flicker my eyes to Daisy to see how she feels about being pushed into the spotlight and being interrogated like this.

I hope she isn't fooled by his mask and sees through it. She doesn't deserve any of this, nor does she need it.

She stiffens and slowly turns her head to look at him directly in the eyes. I guess I shouldn't have worried about this then, I muse.

I try not to feel so smug about her obvious dislike for the boy in front of her, fighting off the triumphant grin making its way up onto my lips, glad that she saw right through his deceitful personality.

Curiosity hit me on why she should see his faked persona when they had never met before.

"It's Daisy. Nice to meet you." She answers, a low curt response dipped in a clear tone of distaste which she makes no effort in hiding. Her lips purse when she sees his curl up in a slow smile that reveals nothing to any prying eyes, but confesses everything from young ignorance to plain planned sociopathic intent, underneath its mask sly and calculating as always.

"Nice to meet you too. How long have you two been friends? You seem close."

I clench my hands into fists, anger bubbling up inside me like a ball of fire in a volcano, but don't say anything for fear that clouds my sense of judgement.

Besides, Daisy looks like, I think, able to handle herself in this environment. I bite my lip as I lower my head in concession, still spurting from the decision that I was forced to make.

"I don't see how that's any of your business, or of any importance to you for that matter."

She clicks her tongue, eyes set on him. My head jerks up to meet her gaze, shocked by the sheer confidence she's saying those words in.

That's new.

"I see. Well," Chair scraping against the polished hardwood floor grates at my ears, a sound I hope I never hear again. I wince and mice to cover my ears. It, for some reason, reminds me of the sound white chalk makes pressed against a blackboard. It occurs to me then that they both have something in common; irritating and excruciating to hear.

I tip my head up just as he lays a hand on her shoulder. Hot red rage rushes at me.

How dare he!? He has no right!

I feel tears of scalding anger builds up atop my lower lid at the sight. I clench my jaw.

He smiles around the both of us, a free open face to be beheld by those who dare to wander past the sign screaming danger which is unlike any face changes of expression of his that I've ever seen. I purse my lip, suspicion brewing deep in my belly like a hot cauldron.

"It was nice meeting you." His eyes shine in a vivid luster as they flicker to me briefly but he takes too long to drag them away that I notice.

I stiffen, unsettled and apprehensive of the promise of something malevolent, glassy and restricted by the kaleidoscope of green of his irises. "I hope you two enjoy your friendship and your outing." He bows as he wishes us well, a small wispy grin licking its way up to his lips. He stalks by past out the door, a preppy-cherry gait to his steps that I don't like, the bell overhead tintinnabulating as the door swiftly opens and closes in one forceful push.

I share a look with Daisy before she asks the dreaded question I knew she was going to as soon as I noticed he hadn't told her of his name.

"Who was that? What was that?"

I grimace and bite my lip. Bearing around the bush isn't going to get me anywhere and isn't going to help anyone but I didn't see any other way else to tell her who he is. Anything werewolf related is obviously out of the question. I'm not even sure how she would react to that.

I mean yeah sure she likes fantasy but does that go as far as bringing what was thought to be fantasy into reality?

I close my eyes. I don't want her to think I'm a monster.

What if I lost her over it?

What if she told the whole school? I mean, granted its majority and werewolves as opposed to the ratio of humans but still.

It's not my fault I'm made the way I am.

I spring my eyes open and raise them up to meet hers. Her open and curious face. Her concern shadowed face mocks me, saying that im overthinking things that haven't even happened yet. I snicker inside my head, the humourless sound bouncing off the walls of my skull.

I'm an overthinker. If not I don't know what else you want me to do.

Lie to her, my sub-conscience whispers to me like an intoxicated lover of temptation. I shake my head.

I don't think I can do that. But that's the only option I have, isn't it?

I take in a deep breath and expel it from my lungs. "Um, he-he's from around the neighbourhood. We see much of each other though....." I quickly add when I see her worry deepen. A sigh of relief passes from her lips as her shoulders lowered, tension leaving them. "His name is James."

With an inaudible inhale of uncertainty, I wait for her response, fearing for the worst.

'You're treating this as if this is an intervention. Aren't both of you friends?' Fern asks, muddy brown furry tail swishing up and down.

I give her a shrug. ' I don't know. I just want to make her uncomfortable and she closes herself off from me.'

A thoughtful silence. 'It's only been what? 4 days? I'm sure she'd understand your reasoning with time. Plus, she looks like she trusts you a lot, at least give her the benefit of the doubt.' She advises.

I nod and let out a sigh. 'Okay, you're right.'

She uses her claw-like paws to slick her none existent hair, competing it with the sassy head turn.

'Of course I'm right, I'm always right.' She boasts tail swishing in every possible direction, proud of herself. I giggle.

"Okay, just stay away from him okay? He gives me bad vibes." She finally let out after a long silence of contemplation, lips twisted down in a frown. I blink, taken back by her quiet question that was asked in a way that wasn't really in a request, and jerk my head up in a nod.

"I was planning to keep avoiding him anyway." I state casually plopping our joined hands back onto the table with a distracted smile. "Wanna get out of here?"

"Let blow this popsicle stand!!" She exclaimed then burst into little cute giggles behind her hand. We stand up and I grab both cups in my other hand to toss them away into the bin at the entrance and exit. I scrunch my nose up at her.

"Really?" I tease, not at all expecting her to have said that. Or rather, her to know about Descendants. She shrugs, smiling that bright and beautiful smile of hers that animated her complexion.

"Descendants is a good movie."

"Matte did it better though." I point out, lips struggling to round up into a smile.

Her eyes brighten up to life, excitement now tinting her irises as she grabs onto my forearm as we stroll out of the parlour. She makes a point to wave at an incoming couple of customers. I shake my head but can't help becoming more fond of her antics and her sensitive good-natured persona.

"Ooh, who's your favourite character?"

I think it over. "I think Cedar wood. She's good at thinking on her feet, especially in times of crisis and I like that. You?"

"Good choice. My favourite is Raven Queen. Although she does like making people she likes happy, she will not have you stomp on hers. She's kind and she's brilliant. I like that in a person." She gushes on as we walk back to school.

"And your worst character?"

"Um, Apple White. That should have been obvious though." She raises an eyebrow at the second sentence.

I laugh but agree. "I guess it should have been. But same. Like why did she force Raven to be evil? She knows people don't always step out of their predestined character even after their done playing their role in the story. Just take the Evil queen trying to corrupt wonderland just because she was still evil." I point out.

She hums. "Thing is I get your pint but I also get hers. She almost drowned in a well when she was 6 and she was scared that she would have to face that type of danger at every point of normal life that wasn't secured by the safety of her fairytale." She shrugged.

"Confused me why she sought to force Raven to be evil and poison her at every turn though. And pisses me the hell of."

"Oh, why? Almost drowning seems like a good-ish reason as any........"

She wrinkles her nose. "Well for starters, she was already living a normal fairytale life, except living in a castle of course, so how does signing the book of legends change that? And she had to have realized that she was going to continue living outside of her rile in the Snow-White story. And if she really wanted safety, why not just secretly sign the storybook of legends?"

"Apple was a stickler for rules thought so highly unlikely but I yes I get your point."

"My baby Raven served better. And Apple was so much worse in the dragon games. I still can't believe it took her falling off a giant beanstalk to realize that my baby was right but eh, I'll take what I can get."

"Huh. Realizing the world isn't safe and wanting her fairytale to happen quickly so she could safety by falling down a well and then realizing that only Raven was right about her mom, which of course she would she's the Evil Queen's daughter so she's known her longer, but she also realizes that people still had a choice in their fairytale and whether they wanted to follow in their parent's footsteps? I like that parallelism." I notice.

"Oh yeah, it looks like that was meant. I never noticed that before," she says as she eyed me closely. I look everywhere else but at her, avoiding her eyes.

"It's nothing, I just pointed it out is all."

"No it's nothing, you just noticed something I never have and I've watched that movie like 10 times and read the first book just as much if not more."

We continue getting to know each other as we head back to school, minding to keep to the safe sidewalk. We tease each other about our likes and dislikes, we talk out about our dreams; we talk about what we want to be in future and why we chose that career path.

Then I ask her about her fears, one of the things we don't yet know each other but baby steps I guess. Although I don't want to scare her off, I feel like this is also something we should know about each other. But eh, I won't force her to if she isn't comfortable with telling me. I wouldn't want to lose her over something as trivial as this.

Her face clouds over, even though I'd kept my tone extremely lightened, almost jokingly at this point, and turns away, carefully snatched her hand out of my grasp. "I don't wanna answer that."

I give her a worried look all the while kicking myself for asking her such a sensitive question in the first place and now she's probably going to close herself off from me because of my stupid decision.

Guilty thoughts swamp my mind.

Argh! How could I be so stupid? I'm usually a more logical person.

And I should have known that that was a too personal question.

I guess I've been distracted these last few days. At least, I hope so. The fight I had with Riley and Eberlyn floats through my mind almost of its own accord. It could be why I've felt so off-put lately. Or it could be the fact that we haven't spoken to each other since then.

I grimace.

"That's okay. I-uh can ask you about something else?" I offer, happily letting her off the hook on that question that now that I thought about it, didn't really need to be answered, gently placing my hand on hers as I met her eyes.

Besides, there was no rush and we had all the time in the world to become familiar with each other. For whatever reason she had in opting out to answering that question, I was going to respect her and her boundaries.

She smiles and slips her hand back into mine with simple pleased ease but it doesn't animate her eyes in light as much as it used to. I bite my lip but don't say anything about it and instead focus on the feel of her hand in mine where it felt like that's where it belonged.

Plus she's already upset with me and I really do not want to make it worse. She's the only one that I have right now and I don't wanna lose that. The thought of possibly losing her makes me want to cry. I feel my eyes water, as if following the unspoken instruction of my thoughts, and flick away the teardrops threatening to spill over my eyelids with the tips of my thumb.

"Thank you. Now, what about what you're afraid of? If you feel comfortable with answering, that is." She asks drawing my attention back to her.

"Um, losing my two best friends. Although, since I've already accomplished my worst nightmare, I guess I'll have to bump that to last place and have to come up with a new one." I answer, shrugging my shoulders, with a casual tone. That wasn't the answer she wasn't expecting, and apparently not the tone she expected it to be said in as she lowered her eyebrows into a worried crease and frowned upon my casual answer.

"I'm sure you haven't lost them. They're just...upset is all. They'll get over it and you'll have your friends back in no time." She advises kindly and squeezed my hands in equal reassurance.

I stay quiet for a while just as we step back onto school premises. She didn't know them like I did-do? I’m not sure anymore-of course she thought positively about them even after I'd told her in detail about our fight, or at least like to think positive about them I'm not quite sure which, and gave them the benefit of the doubt, something I had not yet allowed myself to do concerning them or the issue that had got to solved soon, but to say that without a hint of doubt?

I was starting to wonder if she was truly trying to console me out of the depths of my despair and beginning to think that she liked my friends, the traitors that they were, more than me and I'm her friend. It wasn't fair.

I'd like to think that I hadn't lost them, I really really did, but for the fact that neither of them had spoken to me since our last fight earlier today or to apologize to me spoke volumes about how they wanted to do neither.

Frankly, I was perfectly fine with thinking the worst than rather be hopeful only to have them dashed away again.

But I didn’t want her to feel guilty for trying to console me to the best of her abilities when I should be doing my own part and not letting myself feel so sad about this. So I do the only thing that comes to mind.

“Yeah, I’m sure they will. We'll probably be back to being with each other again in the next couple of days.” Or at least till Riley and Eberlyn get up the guts to come and apologize to me. I still don't understand why she chose Riley over me when she knows that I'm clearly the one in the right. It still baffles me.

"So I guess my next worst fear would be uh fear of high elevations? And the unknown of the dark." The first half of the sentence comes out as more of a question than I'd like.

I'm horrified. That's basic knowledge that everyone knows about themselves and I don't want it to seem as if I don't know what I'm afraid of.

"Acrophobia." She pushed past the opened front gate and waved at the security guard in greeting as she passed by. I stiffly nod at him.

She pries the school front door open with her nimble fingers, sunlight bouncing off of its transparent glass, converting at its steel hinges and hitting us in the face. I use my hand to shield my eyes against the glare. "Huh?"

We enter the tall establishment, feet barely touching the threshold as we walk over it, and waved at most of them who were students coming from boring classrooms and no doubt more boring lessons, who barely had the energy to wave back. I shared a worried glance with Daisy.

We amble further into the building that hardly matches its uniform in colour, brown painted walls swallowing its white and black mixed colours on its sharp triangular awnings, a prism of brightly lit dull colours that didn't really do the job of enticing one inside its confinement.

“It’s what your fear is called. Although, I’m not so sure the second has a specific name for it but the closest one is nyctophobia.” She explains.

“Ah. Huh. How do you know that?” I ask then quickly add, “don’t have to answer that question if you don’t feel comfortable with it,” as I remember her allowing me the opportunity to do the same if I’d wanted to.

She smiles, leans over, my breathe hitches in my throat at her closeness my heart starts to this against my chest, feeling short out of the excitement, our lips almost grazing each other in an impassioned embrace, and pokes my nose. "Google my little padawan." She giggles as she retracts back into her space.

My heart lurches in my throat at the loss of contact.

Away from her, I again have the space to safely breathe in. I breathe in and out as I attempt to unscramble my jumbled thoughts. I feel confused. What just happened?

I can still feel my heart rattling against my chest. Inhale. Exhale. My eyes of their accord glance towards her only to find her seeking out my eyes too. Started, I look away.

What is going on with me lately?