Kiss An Alpha novel Chapter 2

"You sure about that?" I mused. "Marcus over here sure does sparkle, dontcha think?"

Mason growled, low and dangerous, in a way that was scarily animal-like. How we'd gone from strangers to potential future enemies in less than five minutes, I wasn't sure. Strangely enough, though, it felt good. Satisfying. Not the normal satisfaction that a somewhat sadistic person like myself felt at someone else's upset. It was different; like we were supposed to dislike each other, and we were filling a void by doing so. "Bite me," he snapped.

I knew he didn't have any idea of the weight behind what he'd just said, but I couldn't help but snarl, "Maybe I will," just to mess with his mind a little. It worked, as I saw him falter for a moment in obvious confusion. Marcella turned to me with a warning look.

"Not your smartest move," she leaned in and whispered. I shrugged; she was right, I'd said smarter things. It had been worth it, though, to see that wannabe-big-shot stumble for a quick second.

I audibly groaned when Mason walked into my fourth period. Nobody noticed, though, except for Marcella sitting right next to me, because everyone was too busy staring at him. He stared right back, too, making eye contact with every single person. I internally scoffed when his lips quirked up in a smirk-he was enjoying the attention.

The girl who sat in the desk in front of me turned to her friend and started whispering and giggling. I didn't have to listen to know that they were probably going on about how "dreamy" the new guy was. They weren't the only girls in the room talking about him, either. From the way a pair of heads would duck down and start whispering to each other, occasionally sparing a glance at Mason, it wasn't hard to discern which girls were talking about him, which was pretty much all of them.

Thankfully, he got placed in a desk on the opposite end of the room as me. I could sense him, though, as if his presence was stronger than others'. The more I felt it, the more I hated it. It only added to my suspicion that there was something definitely wrong with him, something that made me predisposed to dislike him.

Every now and then, I'd look in his direction and glare. I wasn't sure why, it just felt right. A few times, I caught him glaring right back. He would curl his lips in a snarl and I would grin, because wow it was fun to piss him off.

Naturally, that couldn't be my last class with him. When he entered my seventh period, drama, his eyes automatically found me. He glared, and I felt a sense of deja vu to first period when he'd tried to stare me into submission. Just like in art class, I refused to back down. I smirked, just because I knew how much it bothered him that I wasn't intimidated by him in the slightest.

"Why hello there!" Chirped my annoyingly perky drama teacher, Ms. Jenkins. "You must be Mason! Welcome to Advanced Theater, I'm Ms. Jenkins, and I'll be your teacher for the rest of the year. I'm assuming you've taken theater before, correct?"

I was mildly aware that every pair of eyes in the class was on us. Nobody had missed that little disagreement. Even if they hadn't seen it, the tension between the two of us was thick in the air, filling the entire classroom. Thirty or so surprised faces stared at the two of us for one obvious reason.

I was Kieran Callisto. I was the guy people avoided eye contact with when they passed in the halls because I was what you'd call intimidating. Yet here Mason was, not even phased by my hostility.

"Okay, reign it in, class," Ms. Jenkins chirped. "As you all know, today we are starting our first big project!" Her voice was so high strung with fake enthusiasm, I almost felt sorry for her. "I had originally wanted to have you all work in trios, but there were an even amount of you so I'd figured fours might be simpler. Now, though, since we have Mr. Mason in our class, there are thirty-three of you! Perfect!

"For the project, each group will be assigned a Shakespeare play. You will be responsible for reading it on your own time. I know that most of you have already read many of his works, so you may be ahead. Your group will need to analyze the text for three specific things: setting, characterization, and theme. You will then be responsible for writing your own short play that mirrors those three things.

"The characters and plot must be completely different, but it must be in the same setting and convey the same theme, and the characters must have similar traits. I will hand out sheets with the rubric and more precise directions. Now, I'm going to give you all two minutes to get into groups. Try to work with someone you haven't worked with before!"