Chapter 13

Larissa

"Surprise!" I shouted and dropped my suitcase, which I had laboriously dragged up the stairs, to the floor with a crash. My arms ached from the dragging, but when I saw my lost best friend standing five feet away, I forgot all about the arrival crap.

When I had seen that fierce lodge a few minutes ago, I had looked exactly like Bay was doing right now.

A big grin spread around the corners of my mouth, and I couldn't help but fall around my best friend's neck. It had only been ten days, but I had missed the hell out of her, and the network in this backwoods town was a disaster.

"Larissa, what... What are you doing here?"

I quickly broke free from the embrace.

What I was doing here? Couldn't she tell by looking at my suitcase?

"Do you think I'm going to let my absolute best friend languish here in the middle of nowhere all alone?" At that, I made an all-encompassing gesture and then pointed toward the hallway. "And living in a house with people like that.... What was the administration thinking, man?"

Apparently, girls of a special kind lived next door. Anyway, they thought they were something better.

First, they wanted me to stay with them, and when had I said that I was looking for my best friend, they had looked at me really stupid and pointed outside.

Bay, still looking at me stunned, closed the bedroom door. Then she looked at the suitcase for two seconds and then back at me.

"And then you just decided to study here?"

"What would I do at some highly prestigious university without you? Babe, I'd die of boredom," I exaggerated, continuing to grin.

I had been serious. Life was half the fun without Bay.

"Sometimes you just have to do crazy things," I replied, smiling.

It took a moment for her speechlessness to fade. Then, finally, she returned my smile.

It was good to be with her again. Especially when you had no one else in your life. I found it damn hard to have to keep looking for new people, and yet inside, there was still this feeling of loneliness.

I tried to focus on Bay.

"So, what's it like here? Have you met anyone yet?"

Bay rolled her eyes and I knew immediately it was about a guy.

"Tell me!"

I sounded a little demanding. Bay was used to that, though.

"My neighbors are pretty nice. They have a son. But he's an arrogant pushover."

Immediately, I had to grin again. Although her last boyfriend had been the biggest asshole on earth and I had always wondered when she would finally break up with David, she usually didn't fall for guys like that.

I had thought well of David at first, but in the end, it had been him who had slept with Olivia fucking McConnell. Lucky me had caught them in their hookup and then when Bay had found out about it, she had burst into tears.

I had threatened the guy that if he ever came near my best friend again, I would prove to him that I had mastered several martial arts.

I – unlike Bay – had been on more dates. But they had all been the same in the end: daredevils, troublemakers, aspiring drug dealers, or some sick combination of all three. Apparently, some part of me was looking for just such people. And there had to be something about me that attracted them like flies.

"And otherwise?"

"I'm as new here as you are," Bay laughed.

God , was I glad to have her near me again.

"This town is bigger than I thought," I just remarked, looking around the big room in amazement. In general, everything here was so damn huge. The internet said small town , but there was a port, a market, a city center, as well as its own prestigious university in the middle of the forest that looked like a gothic version of fucking Hogwarts, and a glassed-in high-tech research district of skyscrapers! Just like that in the middle of nowhere!

"Why does everyone keep saying that?"

Bay and I wheeled around at the same time.

Standing in the doorway, eyeing us suspiciously, was a slightly indigenous-looking girl with deep brown, almost black hair, brown eyes, and a pretty face.

I recognized her immediately from the campus, where she had hung out with a couple of muscular guys. I had taken an instant liking to her and her smoking hot company – except for this guy who had shot the cute girl down with a football.

"I'm Emely and you guys are...?" she finally asked in suspicion.

"Larissa Champson and this is my friend, Bayla Adams. We're both new around here."

Emely's gaze lingered on Bay.

"Do we know each other from somewhere?"

Bay seemed a little confused.

"No, not that I know of...does your last name happen to be Copeland?"

"Yes. That's who I am."

Emely's words sounded like she was someone pretty famous in town, and now I was wondering what Bay already knew about this place, which maybe I should start finding out before it got awkward.

The unsettled look was still on Bay's face, and I wondered if she really didn't know her.

She probably had all sorts of typical Bayla Adams musings tumbling around in her head again, and sooner or later, I would get them out of her.

A few footsteps in the hallway distracted me. More people?

My suspicions were confirmed when two girls entered the room who couldn't have been more different.

One had a Brazilian tan, and her black corkscrew curls framed her heart-shaped face. She looked very pretty, and the simple gold jewelry she wore accented her warm skin tone.

In complete contrast, the other girl had very pale skin. The slightly flushed cheeks contrasted sharply with the light turquoise irises. Robin Egg Blue. In addition, there were the light blond, almost whitish hair waves, which she had tied into a braid. On her delicate cleavage, a white crystal held by a silver chain.

It was as if Yin and Yang had entered the room, and I would have loved to take a photo of the two of them now and upload it to my page, but my camera was resting peacefully in the small black hard case.

The blonde was wearing a white blouse with light blue denim jeans, while girl number two was wearing a black tank top with fringe, which highlighted her boobs and matched the jeans of the same color. I noticed she wore many bracelets, necklaces of wooden pearls, and gemstones, including a green crystal on her gold chain.

I liked her dark style. However, I preferred the leather jacket I was still wearing because it was not at all damn warm outside as it should be in summer.

Who also moved voluntarily from California to Canada? Right! Ms. Adams…

I was about to say hello when the one with the curly hair started talking.

"What in the world is she doing here?"

Apparently, she had meant the indigenous girl, Emely, because the blonde also looked slightly distant at the sight of her, as if they were facing the devil himself.

"What are you doing here?" Emely pressed out with an aggressive undertone.

"This house was assigned to us," stammered the blonde girl sheepishly, and then looked at me and Bay as if to check if they could have something against us, too. It seemed like that wasn't the case because she quickly looked away again, avoiding our questioning glances.

"This can't be... You guys are..." But Emely stopped mid-sentence and left the room remarkably quickly.

Well , she was in a hurry.

I quickly went to the door to look after her.

But there she was, already standing in the room of these crazy chicks. Her face darkened, and shortly after, a loud "What is she doing here?" could be heard.

Emely came back out and slammed the door. Then she sped to the stairs.

"Wait... Is something wrong?" I called after her, but she had long since disappeared downstairs. The loud slam of another door made me assume she had been in a hurry to get out of here.

"Very kind..." it slipped out ironically, and I quickly looked around at the other girls in the room who had heard me clearly.

"I think she was just here to see if everything was going according to plan," the Brazilian one said with a shrug but avoided my gaze just the same.

I returned to the room where Bay had sat back down on the bed and was staring at me with a questioning face. We both had questions. Plenty of them.

The shrug of my shoulders came naturally because I was just as unaware of what was going on as Bay was.

"According to this, you must be Roberta and Leisel, right?" The Brazilian looked at us with a smile, which only added to my confusion.

Who on earth were Roberta and Leisel ?

Bayla, who by now looked even more confused, dug out a piece of paper.

I raised both brows. "No, I'm Larissa, and this is Bayla."

Now, it was Yin and Yang looking at us in confusion.

"And you're sure you're in the right place?"

"Yes," I confirmed firmly to the Brazilian girl.

The secretary's office hadn't told me my accommodations until I had arrived earlier. Somehow, there had been a gap on my letter and I had already feared I would have to sleep on the street. That would have been nothing new, but in relatively chilly Canada, a not so pleasant experience.

"Are you Ruby and Julie?" Bay finally asked.

"I'm Julie," remarked the elfin girl this time, who so far had only spoken one sentence. She seemed rather silent and reserved, maybe even shy.

Wow, the two of them were really like fire and water.

"And I'm actually Grace..." the other laughed sheepishly. "What's going on here?"

I would have liked to know that too.

"Then there's one too many of us. Because for this room, Julie, Emely and I were split up. And another girl, which isn't here," Bay said, continuing to study her list.

"She might have gotten mixed up with me. Because I asked to come to a room with you."

My words made her face brighten.

What was she thinking? That I wanted to go to some boring Canadian girl I didn't even know?

"It says Emely Copeland on it?" now the Brazilian girl, who had introduced herself as Grace, wanted to know.

"Yes, and that's apparently her bed," Bay replied to her, pointing to the bed on the other side of the room. It was already covered with black bedding and an indigenous looking blanket with colorful patterns lay on top of the comforter.

So, my previous guess hadn't been wrong. She was certainly of indigenous origin.

"But...", Grace was about to start, but Bay interrupted her.

"The secretary said to me earlier that something had gone wrong with the preparation of the letters. I had gotten another list, but it doesn't seem to be correct either."

Okay, that explained a lot.

"So, there's one too many of us," Julie remarked, looking around the room thoughtfully.

"Maybe you're registered in the room next door, Grace?", I said thoughtfully.

And suddenly I felt sorry for Grace. I hadn't meant to say that, but apparently it didn't seem to bother her one bit, because she grabbed her suitcase and just said, "Well, it can't get any worse," as if she had absolutely pulled the ass card with us.

I looked after her in confusion and when she opened the door of the other room, she took a deep breath as if she knew the people in there.

Probably she was familiar with these girls. After all, they had all lived here for half an eternity.

I heard the cocky girls say something, but didn't understand anything because Grace was already closing the door behind her.

Somehow, my brain didn't want to understand what was going on.

What kind of strange people were these?

My fingers closed around the handle. Then I too pushed the door shut behind me.