"Smell it," I demanded as I raised my arm slightly and shoved my shoulder discretely into Damien's face.

He scrunched up his nose and jerked back. "Ew, no," he said as he pushed my arm back down. We were standing next to row of lockers, not my locker unfortunately.

It was lunch time and Damien decided to come with me as I hunted down my locker because I needed to shove some of the heavier textbooks I received from my classes in it to lighten my load.

We'd only had four lessons but I was already weighed down with the sheer magnitude of stuff I was given. We might have taken a wrong turn somewhere because we were lost in the maze that was the school and instead of retracing our steps, we stopped where we could comfortably talk. There were very few students milling about, most choosing to converge in the dining hall for lunch.

"Why do you want me to smell your armpit anyway," he said.

I threw my heavy bag on the floor with a sigh and leaned against one of the lockers, working out the kinks in my muscles. "Some boy in one of my classes sat at the edge of his seat, as far as he could get from me." I stared at Damien glumly, "He had his hand pressed over his nose for the whole lesson! If that's not an indication that I stink, then I don't know what the hell is."

The mock scowl he had morphed into a real one and 'protective Damien' came out. "Who the hell is he? I swear I'll-"

"-Seriously?" I cut him off, "That's real sweet bro but not what I need."

Damien didn't look convinced. Ever since the 'accident', he's taken things more to heart than usual. It wasn't his fault that I was stupid enough to- no! It wasn't my fault either. It took me a long time to get there but I finally came to the understanding that I wasn't responsible for what happened.

He was.

He was unstable. But for some reason, I never quite believed that. He seemed completely sane to me as he slowly and sanely, may I add, cut into my flesh with the blunt knife every time I told him I couldn't create the potion. I wasn't the witch!

He never believed me though.

I blinked myself back into the present and stared at my brother with sad eyes. "It's not like last time," I told him softly.

I wanted to shift the gloom; I hated to see Damien so sad. He was in his own world, head down, and gaze off to the distance.

I wanted to tell him a joke, anything to get that wounded look and slumped demeanor, like he failed, away from him. My mouth snapped shut and I squinted as an extremely large shadow rounded the corner.

That was the only reason I could come up with for why he didn't see the couple advancing towards us, deep in a heated conversation. The girl's pixie features were scrunched up in a scowl as she gestured wildly at the guy. He had a similar scowl, arms crossed over his huge torso as he glared down at her intently.

I gulped in horror and apprehension when I recognized the guy. His mammoth frame easily dwarfed her much smaller one as he bent down to hear what she was vehemently whispering about. Hell, even I was dwarfed when he sat next to me in biology...then proceeded to scoot as far away as the restricted table would allow.

I looked around, hoping to find a nook or crevice to hide in while they passed. The couple were already a few feet away and I would look odd if I randomly decided to start sprinting, so I quickly tucked myself in the gap between two lockers. I grunted as I squirmed, contorting my body so that I could fit almost all of me in without people noticing I was there.

I had nothing to prove, and yet somehow, I felt I did. Like you didn't stink! flitted through my thoughts, but I chose to ignore it.

Damien shot me a questioning look, his forehead creasing as he took in what I was doing. "What-" he began.

I cut him off with a quiet hiss, "Shh! I'm hiding."

He moved closer and cocked his ear to the side to hear my reply, "From what?"

I went to reply but the couple came into view, standing directly behind Damien. The girl flipped back a curl of strawberry blonde hair that was in her eyes and shoved her pink satchel at the guy. If the tiny space wasn't cutting off my air supply, I would have laughed at the surprised expression on his face.

Moving forwards, she removed a key that hung from a chain around her neck and unlocked the locker. Pulling her bag back with a soft curse, she threw in a few books and turned to the guy, who was currently in a staring contest with Damien.

Damien and I weren't identical but we had pretty similar features so it didn't take long for people to figure we were related. I could practically see the cogs in the guy's mind working overtime to fit the missing puzzle pieces together and realize that Damien was my brother.

"Babe?" Her voice was soft and sweet, like warm honey. She pouted her red colored doll lips at him and fluttered her baby blues. There was something off about the motions though, like she was deliberately playing up the dumb blonde act.

"Nate!" she snapped, disapproval coloring her tone. There was the sharp glass behind the honey.

Breaking the stare, he turned to her, "What?" He didn't say it harshly, as I thought he would. It came out soft, like he was angry but just didn't want to upset her so he tried to mask it. Didn't know he had a conscience, I thought bitterly.

I accidentally let out a snort of derision and she yelped, turning around and clutching her throat in fright. The guy, Nate, let out a loud curse and when he caught sight of me, squished as I was, his scowl deepened. Clearly, the memory of our joint lesson was still on his mind.

I plastered a smile on my face for the girl's benefit but from her horrified expression, it must have looked more like a grimace. But then again, that could have been as a result of my being in the teeny gap between the lockers. It's not every day that she sees someone plastered to the side of her locker to avoid being noticed by her boyfriend.

Actually, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like it was a regular occurrence, for her anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if it was, considering his size and open hostility towards me.

"Hello," I wheezed out.

"Hello," the girl uttered meekly. She gave me a wide berth, but her nose twitching in the same manner as Nate's did in that blasted biology lesson.

"Oh! For the love of all things holy, I do not stink!" I shrieked, barely able conceal my fury. Unfortunately, because of unyielding locker walls on either side of me, it came out more as an indignant puff.

Damien, the traitor, snickered. "You'd so win brother of the year award," I said dryly to him.

Nate's chocolatey eyes burned into me, like he could blast me out of existence or something. The girl moved closer to his side automatically, as if she was afraid of me.

They had a yin and yang thing going on; her pale white skin to his mocha one, her blonde hair to his dark brown. But somehow, they suited. Odd time to be thinking such things, I thought.

I tried to stop myself from fidgeting under his heavy stare but I couldn't help the flinch. Damien immediately latched onto the movement and somehow knew that this guy was the one who indirectly hinted that I stank and now, of course, his special lady friend also thought the same thing.

Damien's eyes narrowed as he glowered at the guy. Fat lot of good that would do! Damien was at least a head shorter than him. And leaner. One punch from his meaty paws would knock Damien out cold. 

Red hot lava crawled through my cramped limbs and the sudden burst of adrenaline gave me the strength to pull myself out Samara-through-the-TV style.

Almost immediately, I was free. I stretched my back and heard a few clicks, groaning at the sweet relief it gave me. Damien didn't move from his protective stance in front of me, his scary face aimed at the 'threat'.

I stepped forward as I stretched my arms out and groaned again.

Suddenly, Nate's mocha skin paled and he quickly grabbed the girl by the waist and pushed her behind him. He may have underestimated his strength because she went sprawling onto the floor, letting out an angry 'ooft' when she fell. Snapping up, she dusted herself and punching him hard in the back, probably giving herself bruises in the process. He didn't even flinch, his gazed locked onto my every move.

Damien's scowl dropped and confusion filled his features. I was equally as confused. What did he think was going to happen? I was going to shoot fireworks from my fingertips?

That was absurd!

Or was it? Nana did say we came from a line of powerful witches. I shook away the thoughts; there was no way this guy could know what I was. Because if he did, that meant that the accident before wasn't an accident. And I didn't think I was ready for that just yet.

The boy's hands shook slightly as he wrapped them around the girl. Giving us one more shaky glower, he pulled her away, in the same direction they had come. I watched them leave until they rounded a corner and I couldn't see them anymore. I wanted to find out what was wrong with them. It didn't seem like normal behavior to me. What with her turning her nose up at me like I smelled bad, and her beau almost having a heart attack trying to get the hell away from me.

Also, the rolled up paper was burning a hole in my backpack and I was eager to find out what exactly it was that the elusive 'Mr Wilde' drew.

Pushing all thoughts aside, I linked arms with Damien and we walked off to find a good spot to eat the packed lunch Nana put in our bags. I had no clue how she managed to get things done all the time but somehow she did.

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