Chapter 27

KATHERINE

I was officially a member of the CMES club.

To say that I was excited would be an understatement – excited because I was one step closer to finding my mate, not because I was looking forward to the club’s activities – and I had a pep in my step as I moved around the room, preparing for the day. The CMES club would be having a meeting this night to welcome its new members and I was looking forward to finding out if some of the new members were boys that didn’t have mates. If there weren’t, that meant one of the boys – Theo, Blake and Hunter – was my mate.

I desperately hoped it wasn’t Theo though and I didn’t even think he was so if the new club members didn’t include mate-less boys, I planned to focus on Hunter and Blake because I actually liked those two. And according to the seer, my mate was ‘the one whom my heart aligns with’. I interpreted that as someone I liked and understood and Theo was ‘not’ that.

The smirk he gave me after I found the golden coin for the test last night and I stopped putting my books in my bag for a moment. ‘Why did he do that? Was it because he was surprised I figured it out or he was glad?’ I snorted at the latter option. ‘Why would he be glad?’ I resumed what I was doing, believing that he had been surprised instead and as I disconnected my phone from its charger, Lenore walked out of her dressing room. I paused again.

I hadn’t spoken to her since last night – when I got back to the room after turning the coin in to the CMES, she had already fallen asleep in her bed, and she had been in her dressing room since I woke up – and I couldn’t help but wonder why she had been crying.

“Morning, Katherine,” she said, giving me a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, and I smiled back.

“Morning… Are you alright?” I asked and she tipped her head to the side, a slightly confused look on her face.

“Yeah. Why?”

“No reason. You’ve been in there for a while.” I gestured at her dressing room and realization dawned on her face.

“I was looking for something.”

“Oh. okay.”

She headed to her side of the room to prepare for class without saying anything else and I frowned because even the way she walked seemed to be low-spirited, but a couple of moments later, she spoke again. “Ah, the deadline. Did you…” she trailed off as I grinned at her. “You got in?” she asked and I bobbed my head before another small smile made its way onto her face. “Congrats.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a little curtsy and her smile widened a little bit but she still didn’t look happy. Interacting with a sad Lenore was odd and as I tried to figure out how to cheer her up, even if it was a little bit, a knock came on the door. “I’ll get it,” I said, quickly moving over to the door when she was about to, and opened the door to a frowning Theo before blinking at him in surprise. “Oh! …Hey.”

He responded with a nod as he walked past me to get to Lenore. “What did he do this time?” He sounded pissed, and feeling like I shouldn’t be here but not wanting to go back to my desk to grab my things so I could leave, I just decided to stand by the open door.

“Theo, I…” Lenore heaved a sigh. “Not now, okay? I don’t want to talk about it now.”

The feeling of being where I shouldn’t increased in intensity and I found myself wondering who the ‘he’ Theo mentioned was. ‘Was this he the reason Lenore was crying? …Does this count as eavesdropping?’

Lenore grabbed her bag from her desk and as she walked out of the room with Theo, I asked, “Are you going to the dining room?”

She shook her head. “I’m skipping breakfast, sorry. I’ll see you in class.”

“Okay.”

****

“Did something happen to Lenore?”

Josie, Priyanka and I were in the dining hall and I had finally decided to subtly ask them if they knew what was going on with Lenore “What do you mean?” Josie asked.

Josie was also a member of the CMES club now. She had been the one texting me repeatedly after I figured out where the coin was and it was to let me know that Zac had finally told her the message on her key meant swimming. Swimming meant the pool and she wanted me to meet her at the recreation center to get her coin because she’d thought I still hadn’t figured out what my message meant. When I didn’t reply her messages or answer her calls, she’d gone to the CMES club house to try to turn in her coin as mine, so yes… Josie was amazing.

“She seemed sad this morning,” I replied and Josie furrowed her brows in confusion while Priyanka didn’t react.

“It’s probably schoolwork,” Priyanka said and I tilted my head. “She told me that Mechanics is particularly nasty.”

Nasty? Yeah, it was for me, but it definitely wasn’t for Lenore. Her notes were perfect, I copied her assignments, and she was tutoring one of our coursemates.

“Yeah, it is,” I muttered absent-mindedly, understanding that Priyanka knew what was wrong with her but didn’t want to let us know. That was fine with me though because it meant Lenore had her to talk to.

Priyanka then changed the topic, asking Josie how she figured out where the coin for the CMES test was while I glanced around. A moment later, my gaze locked on Blake who was sitting at one of the tables, talking to the people around him, and my lips immediately curved into a smile as I remembered last night. If he hadn’t said those things, I wouldn’t have become a member of his club and for that, I was incredibly grateful.

Blake suddenly glanced in my direction, as if he knew I was staring, and my brows jumped before I lifted my hand to wave but his attention was immediately drawn away by someone who called his name while walking past the table I was at. It was Theo and he was heading towards Blake’s table with a frown on his face. Blake also didn’t look happy to see him.

‘What’s happening?’ I thought as I watched Theo get to his table and say something to him. Blake frowned and shook his head sideways before Theo spoke again.

Listening to him and Lenore talk in the room wasn’t eavesdropping but using my super hearing to listen to him and Blake would be, so I just watched them interact instead.

Blake shook his head again and at least half of the people having conversations in the hall quieted down when Theo suddenly kicked the chair Blake was sitting on, sending him to the ground.

“Are they going to fight here?” Josie said, letting me know that she and Priyanka were also watching this now before Blake got to his feet.

Everyone in the hall was quiet now and the atmosphere was tense as Blake and Theo faced off against each other. I half expected one of them to throw a punch first but instead of that happening, Theo turned around and headed for the dining hall’s exit, and a moment later, Blake followed him.

It took a couple of seconds after they were both gone for conversations to resume in the hall while I still stared at the hall’s exit, wondering what that was about.