(‘Scent’ Excerpt Chapter 1)
I arrived at the bonfire in
Ben’s back yard just before seven o’clock and found a large crowd of young
people, between the ages of 12 to 22 already here.
Ben was two years older than
me and was a mechanic along with Declan and Uncle Finn. The garage they worked at was beside the
general store/gas station. The boys called themselves ‘grease monkeys’ and
played loud rock music all day as they worked on a car or motor bike or boat
engine. Declan may have been an arrogant
asshole, but Ben was pretty cool. He was human, funny and charismatic. He’s been holding bonfire parties in his
parent’s large back yard since he was 14 years old.
“Hey Ben.” I greeted him
first, since this was his party.
“Hey B!” He smiled
exuberantly, as he shook my hand. “Welcome! Grab yourself a soda. My Mom and
Dad are over there, doling them out.”
“Thanks.” I walked away to
let him continue his conversation before I interrupted. Ben was talking to Feather, one of the
tribe’s prettiest girls.
“Hi B.”
“How’s it goin’, B?”
“Good to see you, B.”
I smiled as I said the
expected pleasantries back to the familiar faces that I grew up with as I
walked to the drinks table. I saw Derik
was talking to Pan, a boy who was a year older than us. He noticed my arrival and waved me over. I waved back and mouthed ‘in a minute’. He understood and turned back to continue his
conversation.
“Hi Mr. and Mrs. Shallow
Water.” I greeted, approaching Ben’s parents.
“Hi Bianca.” She smiled
warmly. “How are you? How is your
mother?”
“Good thanks.”
“Say hi to her for me, won’t
you.” Mrs. Shallow Water said. “Now what
soda would you like?”
I looked at the bottles of
root beer, creaming soda, lemonade and cola.
“I’ll go the cola please.” I
pointed.
“Wise choice.” Mr. Shallow
Water smiled and then he jokingly went on. “It’s a good year and was picked
during a good harvest. It has a sweet flavor with a fizzy bouquet. Perhaps
madame would like to sniff the beverage before consuming it?”
“Oh Cliff!” She laughed at
her husband. “Take no heed of him
Bianca. Here, enjoy your drink.” She
passed me my plastic cup with the soda inside.
“Thank you.” I giggled at
the both of them and then I turned around and I was about to head towards
Derik, when I almost ran into Daniel.
“Bianca!” his eyes widened.
“Oh, Daniel! Sorry!” I
laughed. “I didn’t mean to walk into you.”
“No harm done, you can walk
into me any day.” He joked.
OK… I thought that was a bit
of an odd thing to say.
“So, what are you drinking?”
Daniel asked, looking at my cup.
“Um, cola.”
“Good choice, I think I
might have the same.” He looked at Mr. Shallow Water who nodded and poured him
a cup. He passed it to Daniel who
immediately took a large mouthful, before he asked, “what have you been up to,
B? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Oh um, I’m studying a lot.”
I shrugged.
“That’s right.” Daniel
nodded. “History, right?”
“Yeah.”
“When was the last time you
went swimming in the river?” He next asked.
“Wow, what a good question…
um, since ages?” I pondered.
“I’m going tomorrow with the
usual gang.” He nodded towards his small group of friends standing off to the
side, who like Daniel, were two years older than me. “You should come along.”
“I don’t know…”
“Come on, before it gets
cold.” He recommended.
“Um, I’ll see.” I smiled
uneasily.
Daniel has never asked me
anywhere before, he’s always just been a friendly acquaintance and nothing
more.
“OK then.” He half turned
away. “Well, I’ve gotta go back and join
my friends. Feel free to come and say hi
to them. You’ll see that we’re actually not that scary.”
“OK.” I laughed lightly.
“See you around, Bianca.” He
squeezed my arm and gave a meaningful look, the same kind of look I had seen my
Dad give my Mum only half an hour ago…
I stood still to watch him
walk off, but as soon as he rejoined his friends he looked back my way. That IS weird! Why is Daniel, this older boy who I hardly
talk to, who I thought has never noticed me before, paying attention to me
now?
Just then Justin and Leaf
walked past to the drinks table.
“Hey B.” Justin greeted.
“How’s it goin’, B?” Leaf
asked politely.
“Oh um, what?” I snapped out
of it. “Oh, I’m fine thanks. How are you
two goin’?”
“Not bad.” Justin shrugged.
“I can’t complain – no one
listens.” Leaf said the old joke. Then
he paused to look on closely. “Are you wearing mascara?”
“No.” I gave him a funny
look and so did Jack.
“Oh, sorry! It’s just that your eyes looked different for
a second then.” Leaf blushed and looked down.
“Were you going to try to
get some beauty tips or something there Leaf?” Justin laughed and nudged his
friend.
“Aw, shut up!” Leaf nudged
him back.
“So B, what have you been up
to lately? We don’t see you around as much anymore.” Justin asked.
“Studying.” I answered.
“What are you studying?”
Leaf asked.
“History.”
“What kind of history?” He
asked again.
“All kinds of History. I’m reading
about Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and Rome
“Rome
“Yeah, something like that.”
I sipped my drink.
“Do you have a favourite
part in History that you like?” He inquired.
“Um no, not really.” I
shrugged. “I like all of it.”
“And how did you get
interested in that sort of stuff?” Leaf looked on with wide eyes, almost as if
he were drinking in the sight of my face.
I looked from him to Justin,
wondering what was going on here? He appeared
just as surprised at his friend’s sudden interest in me as I was. Justin and Leaf were cool guys, who were two
years younger than I was. Leaf was like
a little cousin since he was Uncle Ian’s son.
His father was my father’s best friend and another Lokoti Werewolf. But like Daniel, they were just casual
acquaintances. Until tonight, I had
hardly said ‘boo’ to them except for polite acknowledgements at social gatherings
such as this.
“How did I get interested in
History? Um, I don’t know… I’ve always enjoyed hearing the stories about our
tribe. I also liked finding out about my
Mum’s family line from England
and Australia
“So what are you doing
tomorrow, B?” Leaf asked. “Justin and I
and a couple of the guys were going to have a game of soccer…”
…but before he could finish,
he was interrupted.
“Alright small fry.” Declan
suddenly appeared beside me. “The lady’s
taken. Skedaddle!”
Justin and Leaf’s eyes
widened by the sudden appearance of the tribe’s most dangerous Werewolf, even
if he was in human form. They quickly
turned around and left to talk to someone else.
“Declan!” I whacked him on
the arm as I felt my cheeks burn.
“What?” He gave a funny
look.
“What did you do that for?!”
“Oh, you mean you like
having all the guys at this party fall over themselves for you?” He looked on
unimpressed.
“I don’t know what you’re
talking about!” I felt my cheeks turn from red to crimson.
“No?” He arched his
eyebrows. “Either you’re the most popular
girl here that everyone’s inviting to swimming in rivers or to soccer games…but
I’m thinking that these guys aren’t exactly inviting you to these events for
the sport, or that kind of sport anyway.”
Declan was looking about
with his eyes narrowing and I looked around to see what he was looking at. Beside Leaf and Daniel’s eyes looking my way,
I actually noticed two other boys doing the same.
“Your popularity has
certainly gone up around here.” He said stroppily. Then he gave me a peculiar look, “are you
wearing a new perfume or something?”
“What?” I took a step away
from him. “No!”
“Hey, don’t flatter yourself
princess.” He sneered at my reaction.
“I’m here looking out for my brother’s interests.”
“Excuse me?”
“Derik is just a human so he
can’t smell the elevated testosterone around you.” He sneered as he looked
about again.
“Don’t be disgusting,
Declan.”
“Go and stand with my
brother and stop flirting with the other boys, would you?”
“Drop dead Declan.” I said
icily before I walked away.
Instead of walking to Derik,
I went over to Rachel and Mandy, two girls my age whom I used to hang out with
in school and I still got together with.
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