A V I V A

"Aviva, oh my goodness, I love you!" Emma sqeauls in my ear, making me wince. "And I love Leah, too!"

Leah pops up beside us, arching a brow at Emma. "We know we're awesome, but uh, why?"

Emma's eyes grow large. "Yesterday! Harry told me you guys helped with setting everything up. It was beautiful, thank you so much!"

"Girls, lower your voices, please." Mr. Briggs, our Math teacher, scolds us.

Emma sinks back into her seat and curses him under her breath. My lips pursed, I focus my attention back on the questions in the textbook, hopping out of my seat the second the bell rings.

Making a quick stop at my locker, I dump all my books inside and grin when I realize I have no homework, for literally only the second time this year.

Feeling a presence beside me, I shut my locker and say, "Hey, creep."

Alec gasps dramatically and places his hands over his heart. "That hurt, Cupid."

I roll my eyes and swing my light bag over my shoulder. "Oh, shut up. What do you want?"

He shrugs and walks with me out of the school doors. "What time are we supposed to meet at the parlour?"

"Around four, I guess. Weylen should text you." I say, unlocking my car and throwing my bag inside.

Alec nods and walks off, seeming . . . annoyed? Why is he suddenly so irritated? Whatever, he's probably pissed his pants, or something.

Shrugging it off, I start the car up.

♡♡♡

"Faith, if you don't hurry up I'm leaving without you." I knock on my sister's door.

"Coming!" She calls. The door opens a second later and we walk to the icecream parlour, smacking the back of Faith's head when I see everyone already there.

She scowls and walks ahead of me, saying hello to our cousin and the rest of my friends, looking at Alec with confusion.

I really love this parlour, because it looks so luxurious, yet the prices aren't as high as you'd expect them to be.

My friends selected a circular table booth so that everyone would be able to fit in. I'm forced to slide in next to Alec, with Faith on the other side of me.

"Hey, guys." I say, then turn to Alec and point to Faith. "This is Faith, my little sister. Faith, this is Alec, a piece of shit."

Alec narrows his eyes at me and waves to my sister, who's laughing softly. "Hey, Faith. This is my kid brother, Carl."

I don't even notice the kid who's sitting on the other side of Alec, squished in between him and Weylen. He looks around to my Faith's age, wearing a dark blue beanie that covers most of brown hair, and bright blue eyes.

Speaking of which. . .

In a split second, a vision of him and a girl with ginger coloured hair appears. The two are looking at the stars, lying down on a blanket and cuddling.

That girl is my sister.

Carl's eyes grow wide when he looks at Faith, like he recongizes her.

"Faith?" His brows shoot up.

Faith does the same, a gasp escaping her lips. "Carl? Woah, I definitely wasn't expecting you to be here."

"You guys know each other?" Leah ask, shifting away from Allen.

Faith nods. "Uh, yeah." Then, she whispers in my ear, "he's Ivan's best friend."

I almost choke on my own spit. Well, she's in for a ride. Faith has had a crush on some guy named Ivan since third grade, and her Soulmate is his best friend? And from what Faith has told me so far, Ivan's the popular kid in her grade, so I'm assuming Carl's probably pretty well known, too. So much for being "quiet", as Alec had said.

A smirk creeps its way onto my lips and my matchmaking ways kick in.

"Hey, why don't you two go grab that table by the window, over there. I mean, unless you want to die of boredom while you listen to our conversations about assignments." I jutt my chin in the direction of the table and giving Faith some cash for her icecream.

"Uh, okay." Carl says, standing up. He groans when he realizes the struggle of being in the middle of the booth, so he crawls under the table and walks over to the table across from our booth so we could see them.

Faith laughs at his actions and follows after him, and when I turn away from them, everyone's staring at me.

Emma raises a brow at me while Leah, Harry, Allen, and Wey grin like idiots.

"Did you just kick our siblings off the booth?" Alec blinks, looking at me suspiciously.

I look down at the menu, my eyes scanning the different flavours of icecreams and sundaes.

"Nope. Just doing my job." I say coyly.

"What job?" Alec asks, clueless.

Allen facepalms himself. "They're Soulmates, you idiot. Our Cupid here just set them up."

Alec's eyes widen a fraction. "Seriously? I- wow. But they're only twelve."

I nod my head. "The first step of matchmaking? Let them get to know each other. As far as I know, Faith likes another guy. It's best they become good friends, before anything."

A waiter comes, taking our orders. I go with the Rocky Road sundae, my favourite thing to order from here.

"So you're not going to use any of those potions on them?" Alec questions once the waiter is gone.

I shake my head. "No, they're just kids. Maybe when they're older and they're going through a rough patch."

Alec nods, and for the first time, I wonder why he hasn't asked about his Soulmate. If he ever did, though, I wouldn't know how to explain it.

Ten minutes later, our icecreams and sundaes arrive. I glance at my sister and Carl a couple of times, smirking in satisfaction when I see no trace of either of them frowning, only laughs and smiles.

I nudge Alec. "What does your brother do a lot?"

He hesistates before answering, "Well, you'll never catch him without his headphones. See? Even now he's got them around his neck."

I nod, shoving a spoon full of icecream in my mouth.

Well, Faith, don't be surprised when you see a mark of something related to music on your skin.

Then, I remember something. My gaze lands on Allen, who has icecream all over his mouth.

I probably look the same, though. I've always been a messy eater, and Mom always scolds me whenever we have special events going on.

"Allen," His eyes snap up to mine. "You and I need to have a little chat, later." I say, my eyes darting back and fourth between him and Leah.

He gulps, nodding. Leah sticks her tongue out at me but smiles slightly, which I return.

"Hey, Aviva? You guys are coming to next week's gathering, right?" Weylen asks, his icecream finished.

"Yeah, duh. It's going to be so exciting. Acting all posh and listening to the same speech Uncle Gordon gives every year." I roll my eyes.

Once a year, the Marieur family, along with all the Werewolves in Weylen's pack, are invited to a small party that has no particular reason, but we always have to go. That's probably the most annoying part.

"I say we just ditch after the speech." Wey snorts, rubbing his eyes. He obviously hates the gathering, as well.

"I'll hold you to that."

♡♡♡

Finally, I have updated! So what do you think about Faith and Carl being Soulmates? Any ship names you guys come up with?

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote and comment!

❤ Chloe