Behind the corner by Nestor's Mechanics, you whirled around upon feeling a hand land on your shoulder, holding onto your freshly repaired motorcycle and coming face to face with…

"Claire!!" 

The brunette laughed lightly, pulling back her hand from your shoulder and stepping to a comfortable distance for a chat while you were still rather shocked.

"Dear heavens, don't scare me like that!" you exclaimed, making her chuckle more at your flabbergasted expression.

She gave another small giggle, appearing happy to have surprised you successfully, "Hello to you too, (Y/n)!"

You wanted to get mad and yell at her, tell her that you might've punched her out of reflex or that you could've dropped your bike. But when you looked at her carefree smile, you didn't find the motivation to raise your voice anymore.
Those faint, sunlit freckles were just too hypnotic to look at.

Claire soon noticed your lack of a response and opened her eyes to look at you, slightly titling her head while still smiling.
"Did your bike get damaged last year? This is the first time in months that I've seen you with it," asked the girl with a worried tone, "I remember you had been injured shortly before winter break, right? Was it a traffic accident? Are you ok now?"

Baffled by her fitting observations and her voiced concerns, you stumbled over your tongue for a few moments, needing some time to catch up with her.
Damn her smartness.

"Oh, uhm, yeah. A.. uh, boar ran into me while I was on my way back from training. The bike took most of the damage though. Was quite a while ago so we're all healed up now."
Giving a loving pat to your bike's seat, you breathed a small sigh before looking back to your classmate.

Showing a relieved smile, Claire folded her hands behind her back when she spoke, "That's good then!" 

"Mhm, yeah," you answered clumsily, unsure of what else to say while your eyes went and wandered off again, unable to stay on the brown-eyed girl for long.

A short moment of silence filled the space, some birds flying above your heads and chirping in the pleasant afternoon sunshine.

"Say, (Y/n)," Claire began, wearing an expectant smile while a few people passed by on the sidewalk, "I was just about to get some ice cream. Would you like to join me?"
Jabbing her thumb over her shoulder, the slightly shorter girl motioned toward one of the cozy cafés in Arcadia that was just across the street.

You hadn't been to that one before so, admittedly, you were curious to check it out but alas, you still had things to do.

"Thanks but, as you can see, I just picked up my bike and would like to return it into my garage," trying not to sound like you were making an excuse or trying to brush her off, you cracked an awkward and stiff smile, scratching your cheek with your free hand. 
You hoped she wouldn't be insulted or feel let down by your refusal.

"Oh, that's alright! We can pick something to take along and walk back together, if you want!" Claire immediately suggested, already moving to the side of the street, as if knowing that you would say yes.

A bit surprised at her quick solution, you stuttered again but then shut yourself up and simply nodded with a 'yeah, sure', turning your bike around to follow Claire over to the other side of the street.

It was no use trying to shake her off. You knew how headstrong this girl could be. And it wasn't like grabbing something to eat with her was a bad thing either so why would you fight against it? 

Well, maybe to avoid awkwardness. Or embarrassing yourself somehow. Or making her uncomfortable. Or- 

"Are you coming or not?" Claire's voice suddenly snapped you out of your overthinking and as you looked up from the ground -which you had been intently staring at- you realized that the girl was already by the café's door while you hadn't even crossed the street yet.

With a few hurried steps, you moved yourself and your bike over to the other side. There wasn't any traffic around this time of the day so you didn't have to watch out for cars or the like.

"Yeah, sorry, spaced out a bit there," you mumbled an apology to Claire, avoiding her amused look and pretending to be really focused on setting down and locking up your bike at an empty parking spot.
The girl simply chuckled as she waited for you to finish before she went ahead and entered the café with you in tow.

About ten minutes later, the both of you left the small business again, holding your choice of food. Claire had settled with some mint and chocolate ice cream while you bought a (f/fl) milkshake.

During the waiting time, you had begun to do some simple smalltalk, chatting casually about school and how annoying the amount of homework was, especially now that the weather was getting warmer again and all one wanted to do was enjoy this nice spring. For once, it wasn't searing hot either since you even had some snow this winter, which was already super rare in California.
Mentioning to her how weird the weather was getting, Claire agreed and told you about an article covering climate change she read in the newspaper not too long ago.

The more you talked with her, the more relaxed you became.

Having unlocked your bike and using one hand to steer it while the other held the cold milkshake, you sucked up some of the refreshing sweetness while Claire complained about her cat scratching up her door again, walking slowly down the sidewalk toward the bridge over the canals.

After a few streets had passed, you eventually started talking about the school's play.
"You know," Claire said, looking up to you and eating some of her already melted ice cream, "I think you and Thomas would fit well into the play."

"Really? I can understand Thomas fitting well since he can also sing and all, but me? As a backstage worker maybe," came your unsure response. Having a whole audience's attention on you wasn't exactly a thrilling thought, much less if you had to wear some silly costume. You didn't want to tell Claire that though since you were pretty sure she'd get offended if you called their theatre attire 'silly costumes'.

The brown-eyed girl gave a small laugh, "Hey, if you don't want to be on stage, that's fine. We need all the support we can get… Wait, Thomas can sing?"
With a surprised expression, Claire stared up at you. You stared back just as surprised. 
"Uhm, yeah? Didn't he tell you at some point? He does talk about it a lot," you responded, shaking your milkshake cup to check how much you had left and realizing it was nearly empty.

"(Y/n), Thomas doesn't really talk to anyone but you. Or, well, Jim and Tobias now too but that happened only recently," Claire informed you, wearing a look that was quite hard for you to read.
Concerned, maybe? 

You took a moment to think, sipping your last bit of milkshake.

You had seen Thomas occasionally chat with Pepperjack before and always assumed he had a bunch more friends that you didn't know about since he was so social but now that you actively tried to think back on seeing him talk to your classmates, you only drew blanks.

Did he seriously only talk to you? Doesn't that get boring? After all, you were painfully aware that you weren't the best at holding conversations.

"… Damn, you're right," you eventually said, furrowing your brows and throwing your now empty cup into a trashcan as you walked past it, "guess I shouldn't hang with him anymore so that he'll be forced to find other friends, huh?"

Claire let out a subtle chuckle next to you, probably thinking you were joking. Well, you were.
Sort of, at least.

As you turned your head to look at her, you thought you saw something move at the edge of your peripheral vision but when you focused on it, there was only the shadow of a tree by a narrow side alley.

Must've been the wind.

"You should definitely join the play with him then 'cause there will be lots of potential friends there, haha!" laughed Claire as she stuffed the last bit of her ice cream waffle into her mouth, drawing your attention back to her.

"I can't make any promises but I'll definitely try to check it out," you told her and nodded, adding in your thoughts 'If only for the sake of Thomas getting a few more friends'.

The rest of the walk back to your house went by rather quickly, you didn't talk as much but that wasn't necessary anyway. At a crossroad shortly after the bridge, you and Claire parted ways since she had to go a different path from there.
Although you were pretty sure that she usually would've went a different path much earlier. Perhaps she just wanted to get some more movement. 

The thought that it was your company that kept her didn't cross your mind.

Watching Claire walk around a corner with a last wave and smile, you gave a small wave in return before setting your hand back onto your bike's handlebar. The sun had nearly sunk by now, reminding you of Kanjigar's constant nagging of not being outside when there was no sunlight.
You weren't too worried anymore since you hadn't seen anything of Bular in a long time but you still couldn't help the anxious gnawing in your stomach. 
Which was why you didn't waste much time and continued on your way back to your house. 

Without Claire to keep you company on your walk, it felt strangely empty and quiet.
For some reason, you had the urge to look over your shoulder, as if there would suddenly be someone behind you.

Obviously there wouldn't be. Right?

Just to make sure, you turned your head. 

Like you had expected, there wasn't anything or anyone.
So why did you still feel so... threatened? 

It was probably just the contrast of being alone after having a friend by your side along with the fairly recent memory of a bigass troll nearly mauling you to death.

Feeling slightly more reassured with that -somewhat- logical reasoning, you soon reached your house and stored away the motorcycle in your garage, locking the large sliding gate from the inside. You didn't leave yet though.
For quite some time, you simply looked at your machine, enjoying how it filled the previously empty space in the garage and how the lights reflected in the beautiful paintjob.

Once you were done fawning over the vehicle, you used the door at the side of the garage to enter into the hallway of the house and make your way up into your room again. 
You glanced at the clock in the upper hallway and realized you still had plenty of time before Kanjigar would come for your nightly session.
Your door made its familiar click as you closed it and you went to your desk, deciding to check over the notebook of Trollspeak again. 

Taking up a pencil and the little book, you flopped onto your soft bed and snuggled into the pillows, beginning to reread your notes, starting from page one.
There were a lot of mistakes in your older attempts so you marked them and wrote what you thought to be the correct spelling or grammar down.

Kanjigar could look over it and see how well you improved on it later today.

Satisfied with that plan, you focused on your studies as the day slowly came to its end, letting the night take over.

---

Thomas had simply went out to fetch some porridge for his little sister, who had developed a mild fever after spraying herself with their water hose and playing outside until late evening a few days ago. 
He was tired and still had homework to catch up on, wanting to get home as soon as possible.
It wasn't exactly fun to have to take care of a sick child that refused to stay in bed unless it was sleeping. And yet he still was the only one in his family with the time and ability to look after her. 

Exhausted, the lanky teen let out a sigh and picked up the paper bag with ingredients from the belt by the cash register. He felt like he might fall asleep on the spot any moment now.
But when he left the store and looked up, his tiredness gave way to a mild startlement.

He didn't expect to see (Y/n) walking on the other side of the street with a milkshake in one hand and her motorcycle in the other.
The dark-skinned boy's expression lit up like the sun breaking through clouds on a rainy day as his fatigued mind caught up to what he was seeing.

His previous exhaustion washed away into the usual light feeling whenever he was around his best friend and he immediately felt much better.

Raising his arm to wave, Thomas parted his lips, inhaling air to call out to the girl.

That's when he noticed the other girl, walking next to (Y/n) with a smile and some ice cream. 

Thomas froze, the words getting stuck in his throat as he watched the two have a lively chat. He wasn't sure what to do now. 
Should he still call out? What if he was interrupting something? Would they get mad?

Hesitantly lowering his arm again, Thomas furrowed his brows. The wound on his arm -where that strange cat had bitten him- was pulsating unpleasantly.

However he barely took note of the dull pain, too busy racking his confused teenage brain.

Why was Claire together with (Y/n)? And more importantly, why did (Y/n) look like she was having a grand time? 
She hardly ever looked that at ease when he was with her. 

It was that same nagging feeling from before that crept up the boy's skin, leaving a cold trail.

The tall boy didn't really understand why but he felt like he had to follow the two.
Before he was even aware of it, his body moved and he snuck behind some other pedestrians crossing the road, bringing him to the same side that Claire and (Y/n) were walking on.

Trailing quietly behind the girls at a distance that was safe to not get caught, Thomas tried to listen to what they were talking about. Their words didn't fully reach his ears, seeing how they were rather far away.

Just as he was about to give up and turn around, he walked past a shadowy side alley and suddenly felt something brush around his legs for just a moment.
He didn't even have the time to look down or jump away when a sharp pain shot through his left calf, drawing a wince from him and nearly making him drop his porridge bag.

Luckily he kept his arms around it to prevent the freshly bought ingredients from spilling all over the sidewalk. 

Once he was sure he didn't drop anything, he looked down to his feet, expecting to see an angry cat hissing back up to him. 

But there was nothing. 

What was it with cats randomly pulling a 'bite and bolt' on him these days? Yesterday one bit his elbow and now his leg too? 

Ugh, even the strays of Arcadia were beginning to dislike him, it seemed.

Thomas' eyes widened when he remembered what he was doing before the cat-attack, hastily looking up to check if Claire or (Y/n) had noticed him. They were still just walking. Probably too far to hear him by now.

A weird feeling tugged at the boy's mind when he saw the two girls walk side by side, laughing and smiling at each other without a care in the world.

He wanted to- No, he had to hear what they were talking about. 
After all, it might be him they were talking about. Making fun of him, gossiping, spilling secrets, maybe worse. 

A mix of anger, fear and foreboding bubbled up in the curly-haired teen's chest and with a glance to the sunbathed streets, he turned his back to them, heading into the darker alleys.

Somehow, he had the feeling that using them would get him close enough without the girls noticing. 
Strange how sure he was about that when he had never walked in one of them before.

But Thomas was too focused to think about that. He took a few turns, dodged around trashcans and some scared up rats and, really, when he reached the other end of the alley, he could hear Claire's voice coming closer. 

What did she say?
He was certain he heard his name. Something about hanging out?

"… Damn, you're right,"
came (Y/n)'s voice in answer, clearly audible now and easy to hear.
She was walking right past him but couldn't see him because of the tree that blocked his thin frame.

A light clank noise sounded just like something being thrown into a trashcan.

"Guess I shouldn't hang with him anymore so that he'll be forced to find other friends, huh?"

Thomas heard that. Loud and clear.

He wished he didn't.

Pulling himself back into the alley, the black-haired boy felt as though someone had just shoved a crudely cut block of ice into his stomach.
It was suffocatingly painful but at the same time numb. 

So that was… what she really thought? 

…

She wanted to get rid of him?

Thomas jumped when he accidentally dropped the paper bag in his arms, the porridge falling out and landing on the ground, forcing him back into reality.

Hurriedly he kneeled down to gather up the ingredients again and dust them off while his mind raced.

He must've misheard (Y/n). She wasn't the type to sugarcoat things. Surely she would've told him if he was bothering her that much.
There was no way she was only pretending to like him.

Too caught up frantically thinking and collecting the porridge, he didn't notice the blood on his calf, seeping from the shape of a feline bite wound.

He also didn't notice the sleek black shape that peeled itself from a dark shadow.
Icy blue eyes firmly attached to the boy's kneeling form.

He truly was the perfect prey.

---

Throwing a look onto your phone, you checked the time. 
It was already way past midnight and there had been no sign of Kanjigar yet.

It wasn't too unusual that he was running late. He did have a serious job to take care of. Teaching you was more of a free time activity. At least, that's what you assumed.

You gave a small sigh, once more looking at the glowing screen of your phone and the displayed time.

Maybe if you waited a little bit longer? But it was getting pretty late and you had school in a few hours. Luckily it was Friday tomorrow, or well, today. Since it technically already was the next day with it being past midnight and all.

Five more minutes, you told yourself, shoving your phone back into your pocket and leaning into the comfy chair on your veranda.
Since you normally waited outside on the porch's stairs for your blue troll friend to arrive, you had brought out one of the garden chairs for summer barbeques -the fancy, cushioned kind- from the outdoor storage hut, which was built at the back of your garage.

It definitely was nicer than having to sit on hard wooden stairs, which made waiting a little easier. If only a miniscule amount of easier.

Snuggling into the warm cushions, you thought about today and recalled your conversation with Claire. 
Theatre, huh?
Might be worth a shot.

And that milkshake had been pretty good too. A nice natural flavour, not too sweet and perfectly cooling. You'd have to go there again some time.

You blinked.
Wouldn't this be the third time that food brought you closer to your old friends?

Looks like the way to a person's heart really did go through the stomach. 

Making a small chuckle, you let your eyes wander up into the dark night sky, watching the stars in a comfortable and calm silence.

All you could do was wait for Kanjigar.

So you sat. And waited.

One minute passed. Then two.

The third and fourth were over before you knew it. Still no sign of the trollhunter.

The last minute went by annoyingly slow.

He didn't come.

With a disappointed sigh, you pulled yourself onto your feet, grabbed your Trollspeak notebook and went back inside to go to bed.

You weren't worried. It wasn't the first time Kanjigar didn't appear for one of your nightly sessions.

Of course, you didn't know it then that you had every reason to be worried.
Extremely worried.

After all…

… the beginning was close.

-----
-----

Ooooooh boy!

I'm slowly getting back in the groove of Trollhunters (I plan to rewatch the first season soon) and am excited to get our story to the part where the show begins :D
Trust me when I say that I have many plans for (Y/n)&Co.

I hope y'all haven't crumbled into dust while waiting for me to upload
-v -;;
Truly sorry for my lack of speed. And yeah, I know y'all always tell me to take my time but I can't just.. post one chapter per year π~π

Anyway! I hope you're all doing good and are staying safe out there! I'm excited to see what you think of this chapter and the ones to come in the future, hehe~

OH YEAH!!! Thank you guys soooooo much for over 1.5K votes! I'm literally speechless to see how well my story did in the past few months -sobs- I remember when I thanked you for a hundred votes in Chapter 10 :'D

I hope you'll continue to enjoy this book! And possibly any other books I'll publish >w> -hint hint-

But yeah! Thanks again and have a good night/day!!

-Jade