-Rain-

As soon as I arrive back on campus, I beeline to my room. The facilities are cleaned due to the sensitive senses of our people, but it's the amount of people that worries me. Everything still feels heightened and I am not used to crowds of people.

I gather my school supplies. I am already late for my class. I sprint to my lecture hall, which is on the opposite side of campus.

I make my class just in time, due to my newly awakened abilities. I am still the last person to arrive in the lecture hall. I keep my head low and make my way to the very back. The hall is already filled to the brim with students.

For a moment, I am taken aback by the volume of voices. I press my earplugs tightly to adjust for the noise.

..psst! ...psst!

I turn my head toward the noise as I look for a seat.

A pale girl with a sleek bob waves at me from the last row. There is an empty seat next to her.

"Thank you," I tell her.

"All good. I'm Aster," she sticks out a manicured hand sanded to sharp points. I admire her nails for a second.

"I'm Rain," I respond in turn with a firm handshake. "I like your nails."

"Thanks. I just did them." She wiggles her nails and grins.

We sit and listen as the professor begins. A lean, old man walks out slowly. Rumor has it, that he has been teaching here since the university opened.

This course is required for all Kindred--Kindred History 101. Otherwise, all my other classes max out around thirty students.

For all intents and purposes, Ember University is as legitimate of a university as others. Humans just think it's an exclusive, private school for the rich.

Today's lesson is stuck in the prehistoric age. We have a lot of history to cover. I try to keep myself focused by typing down my notes.

"Do you want to collaborate on the notes? Professor Vaundy is boring, but he's famous for pop quizzes." Aster nudges me. I barely pick up her low voice.

Before I respond, she points to her computer screen.

Sure. I type out onto my screen in case we get yelled at for disrupting the class. Last week the professor threw his whiteboard marker at a kid in the back row for making a stupid comment about the lesson. It was quite amazing to see the marker hit the kid in the middle of his forehead with dead accuracy.

The two-hour-long class flies pretty quickly as Aster and I get to know each other in the chat log of our shared file document. I learned that she is a local to New York, but lived in London for half her life. She is a year older since she took a gap year traveling the world before coming here.  She is double majoring in photography and business.

"I'll see you around. It was lovely meeting you."  I notice her posh accent more as she talks in a normal tone. "Let's get some tea tomorrow!" She grins before heading to her next class.

I grin. Did I just make a new friend?

Despite my initial anxiety, the day is looking up and continues to be uneventful.

As I finish up my third and final class of the day, I think I hear someone faintly calling me. I look around but don't see anyone.

"Rain!" I hear my name off in the distance. I squint to see my brother Roan sprinting over to me. He lifts me like a little kid and swings me around.

"How was home?" He puts me down and pats my head. 

"You need to stop that," I bat him away but hug him to greet him. His raven hair shines with his bright blue eyes as he smiles at me. "It was good. Mom is good."

"How do you feel?" He gives me a quick lookover in case I am missing limbs or something.

"I'm good." I flex my biceps. "I can probably lift a car for fun." Roan rolls his eyes as if he doesn't believe me.

"My baby sis is strong. Who knows, you might be able to best me in a fight." He punches me lightly in a teasing manner. "I meant to reach out to you but luckily I saw you pass by me. Let's get dinner if you're done with classes today." He walks in pace with me.

"Sure, what should we eat?" EU is located in the sleepy town of Eldridge, where there is more nature and land than people. The downtown area is limited in selection and only a few streets wide. We are driving distance from Rochester so many students will go there for excitement.

"We can get some takeout pizza at Curly's." He decides. "We can bring it back to my place and watch something as we eat. The twins might be home to join us."

"I'm cool with that." I didn't admit to my mom but I have been hanging with Roan instead of socializing with my peers. He and I are close in age and have always been close. Through him, I have met his roommates and friends.

As he drives us to the downtown area, I can see him glancing at me a few times.

"You got something to say?" I arch an eyebrow in question.

"You haven't sensed anything different with any guys?" He casually asks.

"Dude, you'd be the first to know if I found my partner!" I punch him in the shoulder.

"Whoa there, you could break something there," he pretends to rub his shoulder.

"Have you run into yours?" Though I know the answer, I still ask.

"I haven't, but I am in no rush." He has always been nonchalant. "It will happen when it happens."

"I'm honestly nervous about running into mine," I admit.

"That's understandable. When I just awakened, I still didn't feel like I knew what I was doing with my life. I'm about to graduate and I still don't know what I'm doing with my life. We take it day by day and just do what feels right." He pats my head once more. "I know you've always felt skeptical about the partner thing. I'm here for you."

"Thanks, bro." I mean it. I've been expressing my worries about finding my partner. Roan is the only one I've told about the nightmares I have been having. I can never remember all of my nightmares. They feel very fragmented. I can only recall feeling an indescribable pain and anguish as I woke up screaming. I know it's connected to the man I see in my dream but I cannot remember his name or face. His face is always blurred out.

"Are you sleeping okay now?" He alludes to the nightmares.

"I have been okay ever since I awakened, but it's been less than two nights." Sometimes I stay up to avoid the nightmares.

"Let me know." He gives me a side hug before we head into Curly's Pizzaria. The inside is always warm and smells like cheese and garlic. There is always a bit of a crowd no matter what time of day we go, but we never need to wait long.

The car ride back is filled with the cheesy goodness of our pizza orders.

"Hey. Hey!" Roan slaps my hands from sneaking a garlic knot from the bags. "You'll get garlic oil all over my car, but you need to wait."

"Fine." I huff. "Are we almost there yet?"

"Yes, geez, always impatient for your garlic fix." He shakes his head.

"Garlic is love. Garlic is life." I repeat my mantra to him. My stomach is rumbling already from the food smells.

"We're back!" Roan yells as he opens the door and we head into his house. His two other roommates pop their heads out as soon as he comes in.

"Pizza and garlic from Curly's?" Ansel and Quinn immediately say. The two are my brother's closest friends who he met his first day in EU. They are a set of towering bears but are the sweetest guys I've met. They also give the best hugs.

"..and Rain!" My brother points excitedly to me to show me off.

"Rain!" They shout excitedly and pick me up. I'm used to being picked up as the smallest in my family, but I am still average-sized for Kindred. The twins are at least a foot taller than and I'm already 5'-7''.

"You're suffocating me," I huff out as they squeeze me in a big hug. They let go of me and apologized like usual.

"We were too excited to see you," Ansel beams. "And is there enough for us to eat?"

"Oh, we brought enough to feed all of us." My brother nods at them.

"Yes! Let's go!" They cheer as they grab the food and set up the living room to eat.

"What should we watch?" Quinn looks to me for my opinion.

"I'm down to watch White Chicks," I say immediately. No matter how many times I've watched it, it's still my go-to movie. I've watched it enough times with Roan we can almost quote it word for word. Roan is always happy to watch it with me, or at least I think so.

"That's a vibe," Quinn immediately puts it on. The four of us gather on the couch pigging out to the food and watching the movie.

"You doing anything Friday?" Ansel suddenly asks in the middle of the movie. "I just remembered the squad is heading into the city."

"I'm down," Roan nods.

"You want to come? I hear you're freshly awakened too." Quinn cocks his head toward my direction.

I look in Roan's direction. Up to you.

"Is it a large gathering?" I ask hesitantly.

"Nah, it's a house gathering at one of the Kindred's summer lake houses. You should come and mingle," Ansel tries to convince me. They all know I can be reserved, but I've since loosened up after getting to know them.

Since Roan will also be going, I feel more open to going. He'd tell me otherwise if he didn't feel comfortable with me going.

"Sure." I grin.

"It's a party!" The twins clink their whiskey bottles as they take a nice long gulp. Awakened Kindred cannot get intoxicated from just beers, so it's normal to see them sipping whisky from the glass.

"Wear something nice, too. Well, Roan will let you know the details."

A little party never hurt anybody.

"Oh, can I bring a friend?" I think about Aster, who I met earlier today.

"You made a friend!" Roan grins, part sarcastic and part proud.

"Well, we just met, but I have a good feeling about her." I shrug. Growing up, Emily was my only friend, so making new friends did not come naturally to me.

"The more the merrier." The twins nod as they start singing along to A Thousand Miles on White Chicks.

I shoot a quick text.

Hi! Tea tomorrow?

She responds immediately, 'Sure! Meet you at Scout's at 9 am?'

'See you then!"

I decided to ask her in person tomorrow.

I pop the last of the garlic knots in my mouth as the four of us finish watching the movie.