Chapter 91 Chapter 1: Anna

Chapter 91 Chapter 1: Anna
Anna:

I don’t get pissed off easily, when Elva borrowed my favourite shirt and ended up spilling paint on it, I didn’t get angry, instead I washed it and borrowed her the next time she asked. Even when people smiled at me and whispered cruel things behind my back, I shrugged it off.

When the school rejected my application to join the academy’s scout because I wasn’t ‘manly enough’ I shrugged and said ‘Maybe next year,’ 

But now, as I stare at my test paper with the sharp ink scribbling of a ‘C-’  on my history test, my blood boils with so much anger. Damn it! I almost scream in the class, I studied, stayed up all night, highlighted with three different colours, all of that only to get a C negative? History is my favourite subject, I know more about the werewolf regime than even the professors themselves and now, as I stare at the paper. I feel hurt, pained and pissed off as hell.

The professor, Mrs. Marrs, is still handing out the test papers to the remaining students, complimenting them on their job well done while I just seethe quietly on my seat. Unfortunately, Elva and Nixie aren’t offering the class, so it’s just me.

Instead of going to meet the professor immediately, I wait until she has handed out the papers and explained a few concepts.

“Well, thank you for the class. I guess we’ll meet next week.” The electric bell rings loudly and soon, everyone is trooping out of the class.

This is my chance.

I grab my bag from the seat and meet Professor Marrs in her seat, she’s grading some papers. She looks up at me and smiles.

“Miss. De Luca, how can I be of help to you?” Professor Marrs and I are quite close, well we became close because in the beginning of the term, when I signed up for history, I kept sticking to her. At first, she was irritated by my constant jabber, but later on, I think she just got used to me.

“I got a C.” I flash my paper in front of her, blinking. Maybe if I close my eyes and open it again, the grade will morph into an ‘A’ or perhaps a gentle ‘See me after class’. Or a small sad face, but nope. “I looked over my concepts and I explained each point perfectly, yet you gave me a C. This could affect my overall grade, it isn’t fair.”

“Oh.” She furrows her brows, dropping her pen on the table. I estimate Professor Marrs to be around her thirties, she’s beautiful, no doubt. But with that scary look of hers, sometimes I wonder if she has ever found love.

“I didn’t grade that,” she says casually, as though it’s supposed to fix that. “Adrian graded that. I was busy over the weekend, so he offered to help me grade the test questions. I am sure he has a point for giving you a C-.”

Oh right. 

Adrian Thorne, my worst enemy.

He’s only a year ahead of me, but of course, he gets to be a student professor because has basically won every history award this academy has to offer. 

He’s arrogant. Overconfident. Cocky. Smart, and worst of all? He knows it. He walks like the hallway belongs to him, and all the professors adore him. He’s got this way of looking at you like he already knows what you’re going to say and whatever it is- It’s always wrong. Also, he’s kind of....attractive. If you are into cold, calculating, part nerd, part jock, pretentious academic gods with annoyingly perfect hair, which I am not.

Mostly.

Whatever.

“I need to speak to Adrian; I spent hours on this essay!” I might be throwing a tantrum right now, but I don’t care. Miss. Marrs adores Adrian, of course, she won’t bother to check if the mistake was made on his end.

She pushes her glasses up a bit. “You can look for him and explain your thesis, and perhaps, if you want. You can write another test, but Miss. De Luca, Adrian will grade it again.”

Of course she will want to give that cocky bastard. “Yes, ma’am.” Writing the test again doesn’t really affect me. Right now, I need to see Adrian and let him have a piece of my mind. Who cares if last week he reprimanded me for sneezing too loud in his class? Yes, I am also his worst enemy too.

Still clutching my paper, I come out of the history class. Thankfully, this is my last class for the day. I am supposed to head to my dorm but I have an Adrian to destroy. It’s four in the evening so I think I might have an idea where he is.

Footballers, basketballers, track runners all gather in the courtyard by this time to practise and I know that he will be there. He’s also the captain of the football team. Very annoying.

As expected, the wide courtyard is packed with students, some having a panic, some studying and then the athletes. 

I see the football team practising and I spot Adrian’s back (Yes, I dislike him to the extent that I can recognize him anywhere, from any position) he’s wearing a hoodie and trousers that hug his waist.

It definitely will be impolite if I storm all over there and demand an answer, so I just stand in my lane and yell out his name. “Adrian!” my voice is shrill as ice, I go again. “Adrian! Adrian! Adrian!” Some of the girls present stare at me weirdly. Goddess, this is so embarrassing. They must think I am hitting on him or something.

He doesn’t hear. I keep shouting his name to the extent that other students help me in screaming out his name. Only then does he look back and spot him. I wave like a frantic lunatic.

He better gets over here and explain why the fuck he gave me a C-.

He starts to jog towards me, squinting his eyes to see if he can recognise me, when he reaches me, I am caught off-guard by his handsomeness. No doubt that Adrian Thorne is handsome, literally all the girls on campus have a crush on him. He has those very dark blue eyes that feel as if you are gazing into a deep ocean, his hair, in between the shade of brown and dark is stylishly styled, a few strands framing his face.

“What?” He asks, his chest heaving. He doesn’t recognize me, well. My familiarity with him only strikes in the classroom, he doesn’t teach us history every time. In fact, it’s not very often, he only takes the place of Professor Marrs whenever she’s busy, which is very rare.

“Anna De Luca.” I decide to start this approach by my name. The first time he got introduced as our student professor, he had called me ‘Anne’ even when I corrected him that it was Anna. Since then, he still sticks with calling me Anne, it’s either he thinks my name is Anne or he is doing it to spite me, we will never know.

Even after I say my name, there’s no sign of familiarity on his face. Fuck, I guess I am doing this.

“Anne De Luca.” I say and he nods his head, that means it is the first one then.

“Yes?” His voice is gruff. “Anything the matter?”

‘Yes, there’s a freaking problem!’ I want to scream out but I restrain myself and show him my paper instead. He stares at the paper with a confused expression, for a second, I think he is going to shove the paper back at me and tell me to fuck off, but if anything, he seems utterly confused.

“You didn’t grade it well. I am not meant to get a C negative.” He looks down at me and I look up at me because he’s so freaking tall (yes, he excels at height too)

“I believe I graded it well. Clearly, you didn’t expand on the thesis, so it reduced your points.” He seems confident and cocky, “I am sorry, Anne, but there’s nothing I can do.” The way he emphasizes on the ‘Anne’ makes it feel like he is mocking me, maybe he is.

Who knows? Fuck him.

“I deserve a re-write.” I say with boldness, folding my arms. The way he looks at me makes something flip in my stomach, I don’t like this feeling. “Professor Marrs wants me to have a re-write.”

“Let’s not forget, you aren’t the only person that scored a C negative, Anne.” He slowly says, “Can we end this conversation? I have something to attend to.”

Of course, because you are the captain of the freaking football team and I am just a girl complaining about some history paper.

He makes to leave but I grab his hand, he looks at me with widened eyes. With panic, I drop his hand and say, “I am not hitting on you!”

“Right.” There’s a small smirk on his lips and I want to slap it out of his face.

“Adrian!” We both look up to see someone approaching us. Oh wait, I know her, she’s Gina or something, she’s a pretty big deal on campus, head of the cheerleading deal, amazing in maths competition. She and Adrian used to date since their freshman year, it was everything the school could talk about, they never left each other's side until they broke up for unknown reasons, though there has been rumours circulating around about one of them cheating.

“Gina.” Adrian says, his voice tight. I take a glance between them, the atmosphere is thick with tension. “What brings you by?”

“Nothing much,” she replies with a tight smile, eyeing me. “You’ve been talking to her for so long and the whole team has been speculating. So, I came to see if she is disturbing, you know, in case she’s a fan girl.”

In cases like this, I usually keep my mouth damn shut, because only Goddess knows what I will spurt out if I open them but with the way doll face over here is looking at me, I just can’t take it. “I am not his ‘fan girl’.” I say, gritting my teeth.

“Oh aren’t you now?” She tilts her head, who knew Gina could be such a bully? She’s always smiling, always saying nice things about the academy, I guess she’s two-faced.

“Leave her alone, Gina.” Adrian finally butts in. “We are just talking.”

“You have to be careful of the girls on campus, Adrian, they all want to get into your bed and you know that they will do anything to achieve that.” Gina argues, still smiling. “She looks like a freshman.”

For Pete’s sake, just because they’re going to graduate next year doesn’t mean they have to rub it in our faces. They are just a year ahead, and so what?

“I am not his freaking fan girl.” I say, facing her. Whatever happens should happen anyways.

“Then what are you then?” She asks.

“She’s my girlfriend.” Adrian says and I freeze.

\--

Adrian:

It just sort of slipped out to be honest, I wasn’t thinking, Gina was doing her thing again and it was annoying. I just wanted her to know that I am over her and the games she played with my feelings.

The look both women give me is enough to make me melt.

“Your what now?!” Sputters Gina.

“What did you just say?” The girl, Anne, stares at me in shock, her face is red, either from anger or something else I can’t place.

“I am sorry, Gina, but you have to start minding your business. It’s not that hard.” I say, looking at the now confused Anne. “If you excuse me, I need to speak with my girlfriend, alone.” Gina widens her eyes but before she can say a word. I am already pulling Anne out of the courtyard.

“Leave me alone, you psycho!” Anne screams as I drag her along the hallway, students glance at us but I nod as if to tell them ‘All is well, folks, mind your damn business.’

When I see a slightly open, empty classroom, I push it open and we enter. Tightening the knob, I lean against the teacher’s desk, wiping my palm against my face.

“What in the hell was that for?” Anne asks, rubbing her hands together. “Girlfriend?! Seriously. You better go back there and tell your ex that I am not your freaking girlfriend.”

I shut my eyes and open them back, studying her. She has pale copper brown hair that reaches her shoulders, and her eyes are sharp, boring right through me. I won’t lie, she’s attractive, but with the way she is looking at me, if she has an option to burn me right now, I am sure she will.

“Please, I might sound like an asshole right now with what I am able to say.” I say, shutting my eyes again.

‘Don’t you sound like an asshole right now?’ My wolf, Xane, says. I discovered him a year ago at the mating ball. He is aggressive sometimes but he also teaches me to be calm. Though we have our differences, years later, we are still strong together. As to discovering my mate a year ago, I also thought I was going to discover my mate.

Well a crazy part of me also thought that Gina was going to be my mate, but it turns out, she wasn’t. We still continued dating hoping that in the next year we would be mates, last year, the Goddess still didn’t grant us to be mates. Though, it’s normal not to find our mate, some people discover their mate later than others, either that or my mate is half way across the world.

“I need you to pretend to date me for a while.” The look on her face right now is camera worthy; she looks like she wants to slap me. “For a while, that is. Just to get Gina out of the way.”

“Fuck you.” She spits out, “What in the fuck do you take me for? Do you think I am one of your fan girls? Do you think I will be begging to date you? Perhaps, you think I want to climb into your bed?”

“No, it’s not that!” I say, “She cheated on me with my best-friend; I just want to give her a taste of her own medicine.”

“Your best-friend? Damn, the rumours were true.” She whistles.

“Former ex best-friend, we still play in the same team though but no one knows, apparently, the whole school thinks I cheated. So please just do this for me, I promise I won’t do anything inappropriate.”

She seems to consider this for a moment, I can tell in the stiffness of her shoulders. “I will do it, only on my terms and conditions.”

Relief floods through my bones. “Thank you very much.”

“I get to re-write my thesis, I only do this whenever I am free and available.”

“Done. Consider it done.” I blab out.

“Good, I’ll text you.” She walks towards the door. “Oh and Adrian?”

“Yes?” I ask hopefully.

She looks at me dead in the eye. “My name is Anna.” And without any other words, she pushes the door and leaves. 

I like her confidence, and I am pretty sure this agreement is going to go according to plan.