Oliver
After a few moments of sitting in the office, two students walked in. One was a guy, his eyes glued to the notebook in his hands as he scribbled something down—probably finishing up an assignment. The other was a girl with wavy hair and blue glasses. They were about the same height, and from the way they moved together, I could tell they were close.
The girl approached the receptionist I had spoken to earlier. They were too far away for me to hear what was being said, but I had a strong feeling it was about me since the receptionist pointed in my direction. After a short exchange, she handed them a piece of paper, and they both turned toward me.
"Hello, my name is Ava, and this is my brother, Owen," the girl said with a friendly smile."Hey, how's it going?" Owen greeted, holding out his hand.I hesitated. Were they werewolves? I had no way of knowing. But I needed to blend in, so I reached out and shook his hand. "Hi, I'm Oliver. Are you guys giving me the tour?"
"Yep! We’re the official unofficial tour guides," Ava said, adjusting her glasses. "We give everyone the grand introduction."
"That’s great, but I don’t have a uniform," I said, glancing down at my clothes."Don’t worry, we’ll stop by the uniform shop. They always have extras," Owen reassured me with a grin.
"Well then, shall we go before we’re even later than we already are?" Ava said. Owen and I nodded, and we followed her out of the office. She skimmed my schedule and raised an eyebrow. "Looks like you’ve got some pretty advanced classes. You must be smart."I shrugged. "I just like studying, I guess." I had to be careful not to sound suspicious.
"So, where are you from, Oliver?" Ava asked as we made our way down the hall."Yeah, are you from another planet or something?" Owen added, making weird hand gestures. I chuckled. "No, I’m from Virginia." It was a lie, but I couldn’t risk telling them the truth.
"That’s pretty far," Ava said with a small smile. "Hope you like it here."
As we walked, Ava and Owen explained that the school was over 150 years old—at least the building was. They told me most people were friendly and easy to get along with, though there were a few rich, stuck-up students here and there. I wondered if any of them were werewolves.
After a few minutes, we stopped in front of locker #394. "And this is your locker," Ava said, opening the door with ease.
I frowned. "How did you—?" She smirked. "Relax. We’ve done so many tours, we’ve memorized most of the locker combinations."That was... unsettling. But I let it slide.
After dropping off my bag, we headed to the uniform shop. Inside, racks of blue and purple jackets lined the walls. Ava and Owen spoke to the worker, who disappeared into the back and returned with a box filled with uniforms.
"These have minor imperfections," Owen explained, lifting a blue jacket to my chest to check the fit. "This one’s logo is misspelled, but no one will notice. Just take off your hoodie and try it on."
I quickly changed. The fit was almost perfect, except for the logo on the left side—it read "Danzel" instead of "Denzel." I changed into the rest of the uniform, swapping my jeans for black pants and my sneakers for black shoes.
"Wow, you clean up nice," Owen teased."Yeah, you look good," Ava agreed, blushing slightly.
I ignored the warmth creeping up my face. "So, what’s next?"
"Now that you’re dressed, we can finish the tour!" Owen said excitedly.
They showed me around—my classrooms, the cafeteria, the library. Everywhere we went, the school was pristine, like it belonged in a movie. The library was enormous, filled with more books than I could count.
"And that concludes our tour," Ava announced, glancing at her watch. "Ironically, we have the same homeroom and made it just in time before second period started."
Owen held the door open as we stepped inside. The room fell silent. Every eye was on me.
"Good morning, Ms. Garcia," Ava said. "Sorry, we’re late. We were showing the new student around and getting him his uniform." She handed over my schedule.
Ms. Garcia, who looked young for an English teacher, glanced at the paper before turning to me. "So, you’re Oliver Pines?"I nodded."Wonderful. Welcome to Denzel Academy. You can take any empty seat."
Ava and Owen quickly took their spots in the front, leaving me to scan the room for an open desk. After a moment, I chose a seat three rows behind them, next to a guy with reddish hair and glasses. He seemed friendly enough.
"Can I sit here?" I asked. "Sure," he said with an accent I couldn’t quite place. "I’m Miles. How are you?"
"I’m good. Oliver," I replied, setting down my notebooks. As I got settled, a strange sensation crept over me—like someone was watching me. I glanced up. Two rows ahead, a guy with black hair was staring at me. His fingers toyed with a necklace around his neck. After a few moments, he turned his gaze toward the window, his expression unreadable.
He seemed... mad. Did I do something wrong? I wished Harper was here. Having her around would’ve made this first day easier. I sighed and forced myself to focus on the lesson. Hopefully, things will get better.
.
