Alice POV

It was Monday again. I was heading towards Homeroom when I saw the back of a familiar blond head in front of me.

"Morning, Ash!" I greeted when I caught up with him.

"Morning, Alice!" He smiled down warmly at me.

That was what I liked so much about Asher: he was always polite and affectionate unlike the other two boys.

"Did you manage to sneak in unnoticed?" I saw his genuinely worried expression as he asked me this.

"No. One of my aunts saw me but I told her I had been out for a walk. She bought it," I hurried to reassure him.

"That’s good!" He nodded opening the door and letting me through first while holding it for me like a gentlemen.

I smiled at his gesture. But my smile vanished the moment I saw Mrs. Allen’s worried face. What did she think Asher will do? Attack me from behind?

I felt anger boil in me at her attitude towards the boy.

I didn’t care about the guys’ reputation. They have never done anything to try to hurt me; on the contrary: they’ve been nothing but nice ever since I moved here. Except for the time I shouted at Caden when he let go of the fence. That had been scary.

I tried to ignore her while taking the same seat as before, the one between the boys. Those three were the only ones I’ve befriended last week. If you call my relationship with Keegan “friendly”.

He spent the whole time while we were at school the previous week to flirt with me. To be honest, I found that kind of annoying. I wasn’t interested in him that way. Not because he wasn’t good looking. Quite the opposite: he’s got to be one of the most handsome guys around. His long reddish-brown hair, that he usually kept in a ponytail, was shiny and silky; his eyes were a lovely, deep shade of green; his nose was straight; his lips were full; he had a fair skin tone; he was a bit over medium height… And his body was almost as good as Caden’s!

So no, it definitely wasn’t because of his looks.

I guess it was an attitude problem. He just wanted to score with me. He didn’t actually care. Although he did call me Sunday afternoon to apologize for his behavior at Asher’s when we did the sleeping arrangements. And now that I think about it, he was more open and less flirty at the pub. Maybe we were heading towards friendship after all.

The bell rang and I looked around me; neither Keegan nor Caden were here yet.

"Are those two ditching today?" I turned to Asher.

"No, they’re just gonna be late." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"How come?"

"They… They just have something to do," he uttered a bit nervously and looked away.

I briefly wondered what they had to do but something told me I probably didn’t want to know. I nodded and turned to the teacher but kept on sneaking peeks at the boy to my right.

Ash was a looker as well. The combination of tanned skin and blond hair wasn’t my favorite but I had to admit he that looked good. His lips weren’t as full as Keegan’s but they looked very soft. And he had a set of beautiful chocolate-brown eyes.

"What is it?" He asked. Guess he must have noticed I was glancing at him.

"I was just thinking how good you look," I casually admitted.

He seemed uncomfortable with my answer because he shifted in his seat.

"Umm, Alice," he began nervously. "Are you coming onto me? Because if you are… then I’m flattered but… I don’t think of you in that way…"

I chuckled quietly at his reaction.

"I didn’t mean it like that," I reassured him. "I was simply pointing out a fact."

"Oh, good!' He relaxed visibly. "And thank you for the compliment! I can honestly say the same for you." He smiled at me.

"Thanks!" I smiled back.

Just then the door opened and in came our two companions. Caden took the seat to my left and Keegan smiled warmly at me before sitting behind me. I was so surprised by his gesture that I barely managed to return it. I looked at the front of the room again and saw the crease that had formed on Mrs. Allen’s face. Other than that she did nothing to acknowledge the boys that came in late for her class.

Homeroom passed quickly. Or maybe it just felt that way because I spent it talking with the guys. We spoke quietly so that the others wouldn’t hear us. What did we talk about?

Well, nothing in particular. The topics varied from how we spent the rest of the weekend to Keegan’s story about how he flirted his way out of a speeding ticket when a female cop stopped him a few days ago.

The bell rang signaling the end of Homeroom and I expected the boys to just dart out of the room like they usually did at the end of a class. To my utter surprise they stayed behind to wait for me. The four of us walked out of the room followed by the worried gaze of Mrs. Allen.

*****

"What’s the matter with everyone in this school today?" I asked irritated after joining the boys on the roof for lunch.

"What do you mean?" Ash furrowed his eyebrows.

"They are acting all weird," I explained. "The teachers keep on looking anxiously at us. That I get because every single one of them warned me against hanging around you… I don’t like it, but I get it. But what’s with our classmates? They all stare at me and whisper when I pass by them. And the moment I look at any of them they stop talking until I’m gone."

"Oh, that!" Keegan shrugged.

"That was to be expected." Ash stated. "You’re kind of a phenomenon."

"A phenomenon?" I queried. "Me? Why? I’ve been the new girl for a week; what changed today?"

"You’re with us now, kid." Caden’s voice was even.

"It’s been just the three of us since freshman year," Ash clarified. "Only the three of us. Even while Keegan’s sister studied here – she’s a year older than us – even when she studied here, she didn’t hang out with us. But you do. So it’s only natural that they’d be curious…"

"But it’s none of their business!" I protested.

"Welcome to our world!" Caden said bitterly.

"Are they always like that when you guys are concerned?" I questioned hoping for a negative answer. I didn’t get it.

"Pretty much!" Asher didn’t seem happy about it.

"Whatever!" Keegan shrugged. By his demeanor I could tell this wasn’t bothering him at all.

"Lovely!" I put as much sarcasm in that single word as I possibly could.

"It will stop eventually if you quit hanging with us. Would you prefer it that way?" Caden’s face was unreadable. From what I gathered so far he usually behaved that way when he was one – extremely angry, or two – feeling vulnerable.

"Not really." I answered without hesitation. "I like you guys and I wanna be around you. If I have to put up with people gossiping behind my back…" I looked straight into his eyes "… so be it!"

Caden didn’t respond but his lips turned up in a satisfied smirk.

"Glad to hear it!" Ash beamed at me.

"Yeah…" Keegan smiled as well. "We are just starting to get used to you!"

"Good!" I clapped my hands merrily. "‘Cause I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon!" I was still smiling when I though of something. "You guys don’t have some sort of gang tattoos, do you? ‘Cause I really don’t think tribal is my style," I mused aloud, referring to Caden’s ink.

All three of them burst out laughing.

"No, Alice", Cade answered through his laughter. "We don’t have gang tattoos. Rest assured, you don’t have to put any ink on that fair skin of yours."

"I bet you’ll look pretty hot with tattoos on." Keegan looked me over but then added in a less flirty tone: "Not that you don’t look good now, buddy."

I really didn’t know how to react to being addressed by him with “buddy”, so I just giggled and shook my head at him. He seemed kind of perplexed right now and I had to admit: it looked cute on him.

*****

My second Monday at school was officially over. Now all I had to do was drag myself to my aunts’ house. In the heat. By foot.

They only had one car and Aunt Rose had taken it to drive Aunt Azalea to run some errands around town. The later was the only one of the Green women who didn’t have a driving license.

I usually didn’t mind walking but the school day I had today was extremely tiring. And then there was the heat.

I sighed heavily and began dragging my feet towards my aunts’ house. It was not like I had much of a choice. I just passed the school gates when a car stopped next to me.

"Need a ride, kid?" Caden asked from the driver’s seat.

I thought about it for a moment. I’d usually say no; if my aunts saw them I’d have a lot of explaining to do… But Rose and Azalea wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours and Flora was probably in her room with a book, too engrossed in her reading to pay attention to how I got home.

"Sure!" I opened the back door and sat next to Asher and behind Keegan who was in the passenger seat. I gave Cade my address and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Keegan, switch places with Alice!" He ordered. "I have no idea where that is and I’ll need her to give me directions."

We did as he told us.

"So how come you’re not worried that your aunts will see us?" Caden queried once I sat next to him and he started the car. "There are three of them, right?"

"Yeah… but two of them are out and the other one will be busy."

He nodded at my answer.

It was silent in the car after that until my phone rang to remind me about a birthday of a friend of mine. The tune was “A Whole New World” from Aladdin.

"You use a Disney ringtone?" Keegan asked unbelieving.

"It’s a good song!" I defended myself. "And I like the idea of riding high on a magic carpet."

"Baby, you can ride me any time you want and I promise to always take you high!" Keegan smirked once again back to his old self. I was wondering when he'll begin flirting again.

"Wait a minute... Weren’t you afraid of heights?" Ash questioned, ignoring his friend’s comment.

"I’m afraid of falling from a high place," I started explaining. "But the magic carpet wouldn’t let me fall. Haven’t you guy’s seen the movie?"

"Do we look like a bunch of Disney fans to you?" I swear Keegan looked offended to be taken for a fan of a movie for kids.

"Childish," Caden muttered shaking his head with a slight smirk gracing his full lips. "You do know you’re seventeen and not seven, right, kid?"

I didn’t answer and just stuck my tongue out at him.

"Real mature, kid!" His voice was full of sarcasm. "Real mature!"