Her mind stopped as her memory trailed back to that night. Her hand clenched over her pen as she thought back to how careless the two of them had been. Jason had been so sure he could help the blonde with her fear of water and he had succeeded. He'd taught her how to swim and they'd played around, despite how cold it was. She felt her cheeks heat up when she could picture herself back to that point when Jason had pulled her onto his lap and cuddled her for the first time. She had been so nervous about it and Jason had known. It was then that the two of them opened up a little about their pasts and Raven silently wished she could go back to that time when she didn't have to worry about the problem lingering between her and Jason now. Maybe if she had of just avoided him and stayed away from him and the other werewolves like he had wanted then she wouldn't have ended up in the mess she was in now.
Mr. McDowell quickly reminded them of the final ten minutes and Raven pulled her head back into the present and turned back to her tests, risking a glance up at Jason who was sitting at the other end of the room. He was sitting casually in his seat, not even writing on the piece of paper. Was he finished his test already?
The blonde bit her lip when the green-eyed boy turned his head and locked eyes with her. He had his shield up so nobody could see the true emotion in his eyes, but Raven could see it. What was he worried about? Was he that scared? Raven turned her head back to her test and finished it as fast as she could.
The bell rang and everyone had to pass their finished tests to the teacher and they all went to recess. Raven found Elaise, Gwen and Allison sitting on the side of the basketball courts, chatting away happily and talking about the previous three tests and how bad they thought they did. They greeted Raven as she sat with them and they had a quick chat. Raven pulled her books out of her bag and did a bit more revision for her next classes. Her three friends did that same as the werewolves showed up and played a game of basketball. Jason wasn't with them, of course, and everyone seemed to miss him. They continued however and Raven shook her worries away. Jason could have his private time and Raven could study.
When it was time for class again, Raven didn't quite feel ready, but she walked into the classroom with Lupo and everyone waited for the teacher. Lupo looked relaxed and Raven felt slightly jealous.
"Aren't you worried at all?" she asked the lycan.
"Nope," he smiled and lowered his voice. "Us werewolves can memorize things easier than humans so I've got an advantage."
"No fair," Raven grumbled.
This test was different, Raven thought. For the first half an hour, the class had to do a theory test. After that, they all went for a five minute practice on their instruments and the teacher moved around to see all the students and observe how well they could play. Raven chose to play the piano and the teacher had been impressed with how much emotion the blonde had put into it. Without realizing it, she had chosen a sad melody to reflect how she was feeling about Jason. She cursed herself when it was over and she wanted to slap herself in the face. Why couldn't she stop thinking about Jason at such an important time? She needed to focus otherwise she was going to trip up in her exams!
She struggled through Science but it had been just like Music. The class did half an hour of theory, then they got to work in pairs to complete an experiment. Raven had the chance to work with Elaise and the two girls had been able to relax a little bit while they were together.
Art had been easy too. Raven was surprised at how much she had been able to memorize and she confidently answered each question. She had to thank Eliza for some of the help with her studying and she smiled when she finished the test and handed it up to Miss Peterson. The teacher was shocked by how quickly the blonde was able to finish and Raven almost skipped out of the class when lunch came.
She found her friends at the basketball courts again and she sat with them. Eliza joined them and Raven thanked her for helping her with her Art studying and the golden-eyed girl looked happy. She told them that Physical Education was going to be even easier; all the students had to do was a fitness test. Elaise had asked what that meant and Eliza was happy to explain.
"Remember how unfit you were compared to everyone else when you first came to White Grass?" Eliza giggled and Elaise nodded with a frown. "It's just a test to see how much more you've grown since then. You have to prove that you're not as unfit as you used to be."
"Makes sense," Elaise smiled. "These tests have just been getting easier too! The ones before recess were super hard and then everything else has just smoothed out to a simple level."
"That's how the headmaster likes having the mid-terms," Der told them, abandoning the basketball game to sit with the girls. He pulled Elaise onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. Raven pushed away all thoughts of jealousy as she wished Jason was with her and she sighed.
"Why?" she asked.
"It's kind of like a confidence tester," the blonde boy chuckled. "For the first three tests, the headmaster wanted them to be really difficult to try and shake everyone's nerves. After that, the tests get easier and the students can chill."
"I don't know about easy," Raven breathed. "I still have to get through my Home Ec. exam with Jason. If we can make the dish then we'll fail."
"Keep your chin up," Eliza encouraged. "It will all be okay. After it you'll be asking yourself why you freaked out so much and you'll laugh about it."
"I'll take your word for it," the blonde smiled, happy to have support.
They rested as much as they could during lunch and when the bell rang, Raven knew she was going to be out of breath by the time PE was over. She followed Elaise, Eliza and Der to the meeting point and found Jason there. The green-eyed boy talked to Eliza and Der but Raven kept her distance with Elaise.
"The two of you are weird," Elaise pointed out quietly. "I just don't see why you guys can't get it together. You're a perfect couple so you should be dating already."
"Tell that to him," Raven muttered under her breath but felt bad when she caught Jason's eye. He heard her! Just great! She cursed herself viciously and she felt unexpected tears threatening to well up in her eyes. She blinked them away before Jason had the chance to see them, but when she saw his nose twitch, she knew he smelt them before he saw them. He looked ready to approach the blonde but the teacher made his appearance first.
For the next hour it was nothing but endless exercise. They had to complete four laps of the oval and Raven was almost out of breath by the last lap. Elaise was the same and the two girls pushed themselves until they reached the end. They almost groaned with protest when they had to do fifty push-ups, one hundred sit-ups and many more different exercises. Raven wanted to curl up and die once it was over and she saw the teacher writing on his piece of paper, probably scoring his students by how well they did.
They were given the last ten minutes of class to relax and cool off before next lesson and Raven sat on the grass with her best friend, not looking up at Jason to avoid any possible conversation. She hoped she wouldn't have to talk to him much during Home Economics but she felt bad. She wanted to talk to him, but she didn't want the relationship subject to come up again. If they talked about that before the exams were over then Raven would have no hope focusing on her last test. She had to avoid it as best she could until the exams were declared over at least.
She almost yelped when the bell rang and took her by surprise. She gulped and watched as Jason took his leave and headed over to last class. Raven got to her feet and followed him, but as she passed Eliza, she golden-eyed girl whispered a good luck to her. Good luck for the test? Or good luck for something Jason said? Was he going to confront her in class?
Her heart fluttered with panic as she walked into her classroom and walked to the back where Jason was already sitting. She put her bag under the counter and Jason turned to her.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Raven forced herself not to flinch and she sighed. "Nothing." She sat down and watched the students pile in and get ready for the final te
st. Raven pulled the recipe for the Black Forest Trifles out of her bag and put them on the table.
"I don't believe that," Jason said at once. "You're upset after the other night."
"Jason, I don't want to talk about this right now," Raven bit her lip, wanting to cry. She kept her head low and wished she could melt into the ground.
"Well you're clearly not mad at me considering you're wearing the bracelet," he didn't seem fazed by her words and she jumped when the green-eyed boy moved over to her and hugged her warmly. Raven couldn't help but hug him back. "I'm sorry if I've been distant; I don't mean to be."
"I didn't see you at all yesterday and you've avoided me all day," Raven wasn't able to stop herself in time.
"I wanted you to focus on your tests today, not me," he sighed and Raven felt guilty immediately. "And yesterday I was keeping an eye on Storm," he added in a whisper.
"Storm?" Raven blinked and the two of them broke apart. She looked up at Jason and saw the worry reflected in his eyes again. "Why?"
"He's been acting weird," Jason sat beside her and kept his voice low, glancing around at the other human students. It hadn't taken long for Raven to realize he was the only lycan in this class. "He skipped most of his classes yesterday and he went into the forest. I tried tracking him but it was next to impossible so I waited for him to come back and he's being really sneaky."
"That doesn't explain why you didn't come to breakfast or dinner," Raven wanted an explanation for that despite her thoughts travelling over to Storm. Was she right when she accused him of being Evan's spy?
"If you remember, Storm wasn't there either," Jason said simply, resting his arms on the bench. "I'm not saying he is Evan's spy, but he's not doing a very good job at convincing me he's not."
"So what now?" Raven frowned. "Are you going to confront him?"
"Not until I have enough evidence," the green-eyed boy shook his head. "Storm is still my ally even if he does hate me. I'm not going to accuse him of anything until I'm positive he's teamed up with the coven."
Raven nodded and Jason smiled. She felt bad about doubting him and a little voice inside her head told her it wasn't always just about her. It was right, she thought. Jason had his own life as a lycan and some days he needed to be alone. He didn't need Raven constantly hanging off of him while he had more important things to take care of.
Miss Sally walked into the room with a cheerful smile. "Good afternoon, class. I know you've been working very hard today but I need you all to stay focused for this last hour. I hope you're all ready to cook and present your final exams. Once you've finished your dishes I want you all to write a quick summary of how you prepared the dish differently to the recipe and how you think you went. All of your ingredients are in the fridges, freezers and cupboards so get cooking."
Everyone got to work and began their recipes. Raven glanced up at Jason before they got up and got everything ready. It wasn't long before they were mixing chocolate sauce with custard, making the syrup and layering everything into the small serving glasses with the cut up rollettes. Twenty minutes had passed as they started layering everything up in the serving glasses and had it complete. Raven had a quick glance around and saw the other bays almost finished theirs too.
"Now we just put them in the fridge until serving time," Raven smiled and Jason helped her get them in the fridge. They cleaned up the dishes and put them away and sat down. Raven wrote down on a piece of paper to explain how she and Jason prepared the dish and how they layered it more thickly than the picture had shown. When she had to write how she thought they went, she answered it modestly.
"Just as well as any other student would have prepared their own dishes," Jason read as she wrote. "No better, no worse… I like it."
"Good," she giggled and wrote their names at the bottom of the page.
It was a relief when there was only five minutes left to have the dishes on serving plates and on the benches. Jason pulled out four little plates and Raven retrieved the Black Forest Trifles from the fridge, putting them all on the plates and grabbing out some spoons, placing them neatly on the side of the plates beside the glasses.
Everyone had their dishes complete and Raven looked at all the delicious-looking food. She prayed that she and Jason had done well enough to match up to everyone else and Miss Sally went around the room, tasting each dish and collecting the papers.
Raven panicked when the teacher reached her bay and the blonde delicately passed her one of the serving glasses. Miss Sally looked it over a couple of times before picking up the spoon and tasting it. Raven held her breath and looked down at her hand as Jason took it in his. She felt new strength and she looked at the teacher, waiting for a response.
"This is beautiful," Miss Sally smiled. "Absolutely beautiful! Well done. All of you have done wonderfully! You may all try your dishes."
Raven and Jason laughed as the teacher took the serving glass with her to finish the dessert with the paper in her spar hand. The two of them tried the dish and Raven was surprised with herself when she realized how good it was! It was delicious!
"Now you can stop worrying," Jason mumbled in her ear.
Raven was going to say something but the door opened and Elaise came skipping in. "Hello," she greeted the teacher. "I'm Raven's friend. My teacher let me go early so I thought I'd come say hi."
"Welcome," Miss Sally smiled. "Your friends just finished their test. You should try their dish, it's very good."
"Don't mind if I do," Elaise giggled and skipped over to Raven's bay. The blonde smiled as Elaise took the last serving glass and dug into the Black Forest Trifle.
"Never pass up a chance for food, huh?" Jason teased. Elaise shot a mocking glare at him and finished the dessert as fast as she could, purposely let out a loud burp.
"Pardon me," she smiled. "That was just too yummy to not voice my opinion."
The three friends burst into laughter and Raven felt completely relieved for the first time all day. She told herself the exams were finally over. All that studying and hard work and she was finally done with it… Until the next set of mid-terms, she told herself.
Bliss
"Elaise, are you sure about this?"
"Just get out here so we can go!"
Raven sighed and quickly messed with her hair, fixing it up and applying a little bit more eyeliner. She put her heels on and stood up, staring at her mirror and peering at her reflection. She was wearing her new black dress and her blonde curly hair really stood out. She made sure she wore her necklace and two bracelets from Jason and she took a deep breath, leaving the room.
She was taken by surprise again when she saw Elaise in her green dress wearing black high heels with her hair half pinned up with loose bits hanging beautifully. She looked like a goddess from Heaven and Raven smiled at her friend.
"Ready?" Elaise asked and Raven nodded.
They didn't bother Speed and they left the room, heading over to the dining hall. Jason and Der had offered to pick them up but Elaise had insisted they would be fine. Raven wondered how the traditional dance would be at White Grass. Now that the exams were finally over, Raven had found something else to freak out about; dancing with Jason and trying not to trip in her heels.
The two girls were joined by Eliza and Raven's mouth fell open when she saw the stunning golden dress worn by the lycan. The end slanted down to the side to form a point and the straps wrapped around her neck. The color of the dress matched the girl's eyes and Raven suddenly felt as though she was just thrown in a patch of mud and was being taken to the dance without getting a chance to clean herself up. If Elaise looked like a goddess, then Eliza looked like queen of the goddesses. When Raven glanced at her friend, she was positive the brunette was thinking the exact same thing.
"Wow, you two look beautiful," Eliza complimented. "You're going to have a great night. These dances are always fun."
"You look great too," Elaise offered. "How do you always manage to look so pretty?"
"I'm
a werewolf," she winked. "It comes naturally."
"I want to be a werewolf," Elaise grumbled quietly. "It's not fair."
"Cheer up," the golden-eyed girl giggled and they made it to the doors of the hall. "Jason and Der are super lucky to have the two of you. They'll be gawking at you all night."
"I don't think you need to exaggerate that much," Raven laughed and the three girls walked through the open doors, looking around.
The hall had been wonderfully decorated with a crystal ball hanging from the roof with the tables pushed to the sides of the room to give enough space for a dance floor. Students filled the room, the girls wearing beautiful dresses and the boys wearing simple jeans and white blouses with loose ties around their necks. It really did look like it would be fun.
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