Atticus wasn’t allowed to go to school the next day. Ceyden had added to his conditions for not telling their father: Atticus had to wait until his leg was fully healed before returning to school. That would be at least a good three days, and then he’d only have one day before the weekend.

“Great, just great. I haven’t made a single friend and now everyone’ll have made their own groups,” he grumbled into his pillow. Riya had been keeping him company, filling in her notes from the lesson she’d missed, but now she was actually at school, and Atticus had nothing to do.

Rolling onto his side, he grabbed his messenger bag from the floor, pulling his ~special~ notebook out. He wasn’t in the mood to write a spicy scene, but he had a few ideas he wanted to note down about a possible new story.

“Ugh I have so many ideas, I need to pick one and actually write it,” he said, tugging on a crimson strand of hair. Grabbing a clip from his bedside table, Atticus pinned up both sides of his bangs. His red hair normally fell in swathes either side of his face, resting on his cheekbones, with a sneaky little undercut at the back which wasn’t actually visible, due to the longer hair over the top.

His hair undoubtably looked good on him; he actually found pride in his appearance, plus werewolves were just generally more attractive than humans anyway - it was some weird evolution thing which Atticus wasn’t interested enough in to actually research.

Catching a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror opposite his bed, Atticus let out a little giggle. His hair looked ridiculous pinned back with the neon sparkly pink clips. He caught sight of his eyes, and rolled them. They looked exactly like his mother’s, judging from the photos of her in his father’s room.

They were amber with golden flecks in, which were small but if you were close enough, the flecks were beautifully visible. Only, most people didn’t get close enough to him to look at his eyes - it was only his family and Riya; the rest of the pack ignored his existence, or in Daniel and his friends’ case, were always preoccupied on giving him a new set of bruises.

Atticus prodded his notebook, chewing on his pen, before he began sketching a character design on the corner of the page. Glancing at his work afterwards, Atticus groaned. “Oh for fuck’s sake, now I’m drawing Mr Eye-Candy?!” Atticus was about to cross out the drawing, when he hesitated.

It was actually pretty good, and if it was anybody else, he would be proud. So, he left it, instead grumbled “what the hecky-dizzle is wrong with me?!”

—————

Riya sat down heavily in her seat, smiling gratefully at her desk mate. “Thanks for the notes, they were actually, like, super helpful. Shame your handwriting looks like a dead spider though.”

The boy’s expression went from happy to sour in a matter of seconds. “Well fuck you too. And after I tried so hard on them,” he swiped an invisible tear from his eye, feigning offence. Riya only grinned in response, getting out her books for the lesson.

“Everything ok though? You never leave early, for anything.”

Riya shifted her braid from her shoulder to behind her back. “Not quite true - there’s one thing I’ll leave early for, no matter where I am.”

That shocked the boy, and he mockingly took her temperature. “Wow, you sure you don’t have a fever?” Rolling her eyes, Riya pushed his hand away. “Some things are worth it, ya know,” she said with a wink.

The boy suddenly snapped his fingers. “Oh. Ohhh. I get it now.” Riya quirked a brow at him, nodding for him to continue. “You totally have a boyfriend.”

Riya burst out laughing, immediately getting scolded by the teacher. Whispering, she leant towards him. “Yes, you’re totally right. That’s exactly what happened. Booty call, actually.”

Now it was his turn to bark out a laugh, earning him a pointed glare from the front of the room. The two waited until their break to continue that conversation as they both had to focus all their attention on their classes in order to beat the other’s perfect grades.

Their timetables didn’t match up again until lunch, when Riya quickly found the table with her friends on - it was easy to spot them, there were the popular, sporty kids. Riya still wasn’t entirely sure how she ended up friends with them, but they were all surprisingly nice.

There was a second popular group, which contained all the bitchy populars who wanted to be a part of Riya’s group, but the nice members of the football team wouldn’t let them in at any cost. It helped when the ‘leader’ of their group was the football captain himself.

He was also unbelievably popular, because he was attractive, kind and talented. And had the best grades, only second, or occasionally first, to Riya.

Sitting down next to her desk mate, Riya grinned as he responded with a mischievous smile of his own. “Hey guys, Riya left class for a booty call yesterday, told me so herself.” He, Riya, and several of the others all burst out laughing.

“Who knew that was the one thing which could distract her,” a boy named Freddie said with a chuckle. A few of the others laughed, until Freddie’s girlfriend looked questioningly around the table. “Wait, Riya actually left class for a boy?!”

Riya patted the girl’s arm comfortingly. “Listen, Amy? Sometimes a girl has gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” Amy gasped, giggling, before Riya’s desk mate interrupted their banter.

“Wait but seriously, is everything ok? We all know you’d never leave class for something as dumb as a boy.” Riya chuckled, giving them all a wry smile. “I actually did leave class for a boy, but he’s definitely not my boyfriend.”

Someone whistled and Amy wiggled her eyebrows at Riya, before one of the other boys scoffed. “You sure you haven’t got feelings for this guy, huh? Not sure why else you’d leave class for a guy.”

Riya’s expression turned serious, and everyone fell silent. “He’s my best friend. He called me because he got beaten up and his leg was broken. I’d consider that a little more important than class.”

No one said anything until Amy patted her arm reassuringly, and Riya’s desk mate, the football captain spoke up. “Is he ok?” Riya shrugged, accepting the hug Amy offered her. “He’ll be ok. Just sucks because I knew something was up when he didn’t come find me at break or lunch, but I didn’t try calling him to see if he was ok. I feel like I could’ve helped him, saved him some of the pain.”

Amy leaned her head on Riya’s shoulder, rubbing her back. “Aw, honey. You had no way to know. You did your best, and you were there for him as soon as you knew.” Riya smiled thinly, grateful for all her friends’ support.

As she looked around the circle of friends, she decided that as soon as Atticus was back at school, she was introducing him to her friends. She knew they would accept and like him, and vice versa.