Chapter 2. New Day! New Life! New Friends!

Victoria’s POV

Today was my first day of university. I took a shower early in the morning and dressed neatly with a crop top paired with a washed denim jacket, high-waisted jeans, and boots. Tying my hair in a high ponytail, I was ready to venture out of the house, practically towards my new life.

To be honest, I was super nervous. I didn’t want to read people’s thoughts, which has always been my biggest concern.

Yes, you guys got that right, I am telepathic. Sometimes, if I concentrate a bit, I can read people’s thoughts with 99% accuracy.

It is pretty much exhausting, and well, downright annoying.

I always feel like I am invading someone’s privacy, and I hate the idea of it.

Until the age of 16, I didn’t even have any friends. The sole reason was that I would always find some fault in their attitude and thinking when I read their thoughts.

After that, I tried controlling this gift/curse of mine as much as I could. And now I can read someone’s thoughts only when I want.

Earlier, I didn’t have any control over it, and most of the time, I would come home screaming in pain and agony because of my head pounding with unbearable pressure.

Sighing loudly, I locked the door before breathing in the fresh air.

Since the university wasn’t that far away from Marla’s place, barely 10 km, I decided to walk down there.

Walking has always helped me clear my mind, and looking out at the forests and this naturally beautiful place, I feel more at ease.

Plugging in my headphones, I was tuning in to my favorite songs when I saw a blur pass in front of me, making me freeze in my tracks. It appeared like a silhouette of a giant animal to me.

Pausing my song, I nervously looked to my left, where it went, but didn’t find anything suspicious or any sign of a big animal going there.

‘It’s just my hallucination,’ I consoled myself before taking deep breaths to even my heartbeat.

Maybe it's because this place is named Pearly Canines, and Marla had been telling me ancient stories about why this town was named that, that I am imagining things now.

Wolves living with humans as their friends?

Really? Give me a break!

Looking at my old-fashioned watch, which my mum had gifted me, I noticed I had only half an hour left to get there, so I decided to sprint the rest of the way.

Though I consoled myself that it was nothing, the image of that blurry figure kept popping into my mind.

Reaching the university, the first thing I noticed was its grandeur. I don’t know why a university this big and reputed isn’t popular and is in a secluded town like this.

I heard from Marla that it only accepts a select group of students, and the criteria for that selection are a mystery to everyone.

And here, let me make it clear: I am not an academic type of person, though my IQ is always said to be above average, making it easy for me to score marks.

“Hey? Victoria, right?”

I turned around to see who had called me and saw Daniel walking toward me with his friends.

“Yeah..you are Daniel if I remember correctly.”

“Yup! That’s me. Last time you left in a hurry. Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Kayla, this is Aiden, this is Chris, this is Angela, and this is Tina. And those two guys, who are rushing towards us, are Sean and Matt.” He introduced.

I just gazed politely at everyone before muttering my name.

“I am Victoria, Victoria Gibberson.”

With that, I turned around to leave for my class when I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder.

‘Let’s talk about personal space.’ I thought, rolling my eyes.

“You live in our town, and we have a rule that no one is to be left alone. If you are one of those geeks who like to live in their bubble, you are in the wrong place, dear. And thus, we proudly include you in our group.” Sean muttered.

I looked at others who were just smiling, shaking their heads at him. To be honest, it was really sweet how they wanted to include me in their group without even prying about my whereabouts whatsoever.

“Haha..he is right. We heard about you. You recently moved here to pursue your further studies because you wanted a so-called less crowded place. However, we don’t like anyone living alone in our town and being shady, and we will make sure to bring you out of your shell. Because we believe we are a family.” Daniel said, gazing at me deeply as if he knew my darkest and deepest secrets.

Breaking the staring contest with me, he looked at his phone and then at his friends before shouting,

“Guys! Guess what? Alexander is coming back from his trip. He should be here by tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow. This calls for a celebration, ain’t it?”

Everyone started cheering at the mention of this new person, Alexander, and I unknowingly felt a shudder run down my spine.

This name, why am I having a weird feeling about it?

Reaching the class was a chore for me.

Even though I was moving with this group, people still hit and commented on me.

What was much worse was that, because I was trying to avoid those comments, I had to concentrate on walking, which led me to hear more colorful thoughts about myself.

One was even thinking about an aisle and me being his bride. That made me laugh internally.

I was naturally gifted with long, light brown hair that reached below my hips, with a lot of volume. My height was 5’10”, and I had curves in all the right places.

I won’t call myself extremely skinny or fatty; I was in between, I guess. My eyes were an amber-brown color that looked hazel in sunlight or bright light.

To be honest, I was so used to getting those sympathetic looks that I forgot I once had that life where I was a party girl and a girl most of the guys in my high school wanted to have.

“You got some pursuers, Vic.” The girl, I guess named Kayla, said while bumping into my shoulder playfully.

“I don’t understand. I am walking with the hottest girls I presume, then why am I the only one who is being commented on?” I asked, genuinely confused.

In my eyes, I was an average girl, and compared to these hot girls walking beside me, I must have looked like a beggar walking with celebrities.

Why were those guys not even looking at these girls? Do they suffer from myopia or hypermetropia?

“Hahaha…that’s because these girls are already taken,” Matt said as if annoyed by the fact that he didn’t have a girlfriend yet.

“Yup! And you are kind of fresh meat in the town, right now.” Chris said, earning a glare from Daniel.

I chuckled awkwardly at this comment. This was the same line I had used to describe myself in front of Marla. It looks like I wasn’t entirely wrong.

I entered the class with Daniel, Kayla, Aiden, and Sean because we had the same lectures.

Before I could even place my book on the table, a guy randomly came to my side and asked me.

“Hey, babe! You look hot! What do you think about coming to my party tonight at the beach? We’ll be having a lot of fun with everything you could ever imagine. And we too can have some fun, if you want.” He said suggestively.

I looked into his eyes and could read nasty thoughts about me, which made me feel squeamish.

I wanted to cringe and roll my eyes at this. Like really? Can you get any more straight to the point?

I saw Daniel stand up from his seat and come towards us with an angry expression, maybe to help me out of the situation.

Looking back at the guy, I answered him politely.

“Sorry, mister. You are handsome as well, but I only want to use my reproductive organs with the one I want to reproduce with. And you surely are not that person.” I said, clicking my tongue to show my dissatisfaction.

Everyone around me paused and started looking at me as if I had grown two heads. Suddenly, the chit-chat of the room stopped, and there was a pin-drop silence until Sean started laughing.

He was laughing so hard that he would’ve fallen out of his chair if not for Aiden using his hand to hold him still.

Everyone in the room started laughing at my remark.

I don’t understand what was so funny about it. I mean, I just politely declined the guy. I even took the pain to call him handsome.

Rolling my eyes at his retreating angry figure, I opened my textbook and focused on the text written on it while keeping my mind barrier up so that I won’t hear anyone’s thoughts around me.

The rest of the 3 lectures went uneventfully, with only the professors giving me weird looks because they didn’t expect many people to shift in this town, and I was new.

I don’t understand it.

Well, this town is covered with forests from all sides and wasn’t the safest place to live with all those rumored wolves and wild animals, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t beautiful.

I found it extremely beautiful, calming, and tranquil when I came to university today.

Currently, I'm sitting in the canteen with the so-called group I was added to without my permission, although I don’t mind it and kind of like them already.

They were like a fresh gust of breeze for me right now. And the most important fact was that they weren’t too judgmental or prying.

Right now, I was busy sipping my chocolate milkshake while Sean and Aiden were busy recreating the scene of me rejecting that boy earlier.

I still couldn’t find what was so wrong with the way I rejected him. I know I was too straightforward, but I don’t think it was rude or anything.

“Hahaha…. that’s so funny, I wish I were there to watch the scene unfold with my own eyes. These skunks had been too proud of themselves, hitting so many girls. It’s good to see someone rejecting them.” Chris laughed.

“You are one hell of a sassy girl, I must say that,” Kayla said, laughing along with him.

“True. From her face, can anyone judge that she would come up with a comeback like that? More like softly saying no with a sorry. But you amazed us.” Angela said, winking at me.

“Okay, stop it, guys. Look at her face, she is getting all red with so much attention. Let’s change the topic now.” Daniel said, and I smiled at him thankfully.

The rest of the day went in a blur for me.

Going back home, I decided to take the path through the woods. I don’t know why I felt like something was calling me, and I, being the dumb ass, followed my heart even though my mind knew that this wasn’t safe.

Yes, I was probably acting like the heroine of those chick-lit movies where she knows there is danger out there but still goes into the woods because she is probably dumb as fuck.

Telling myself it was the shortest one with only a 3–4 km distance, I started walking along the tall trees with my headphones plugged in. I set the volume to the minimum so that I can also hear any other sound near me.

It was not dark yet, as it was only 4 p.m., so I had plenty of time to wander around. So I decided to take a look at the lake that Marla had once told me about.

Reaching the lake, I inhaled deeply in the fresh scent of the water, wet soil, and different flowers.

It was beautiful scenery.

After standing for 10 good minutes, I decided to go back home when I felt a shiver run down my spine from the evening wind.

Sighing loudly, I started walking in the direction of my home, promising myself to come back.