I pop on one of Matilda's black hoodies and a pair of trackie shorts with some plain socks that I had in my suitcase.

"Alright we ready?" Frankie questioned us all, the other girls nod and we all head towards the door.

I'm quite nervous to be meeting the rest of the so called group, just means more social interaction which if you can't tell, I suck at but I'm learning. I'm not used to people speaking to me without hitting me and trying to make me pass out.

We walk out the door, and notice a big digital clock at the end of each hallway, it read 8:03pm. I'm already really tired, so I hope I can sneak away from the group pretty quickly.

We walk down the spiralling staircase, I was at the back with Frankie in front of me, Adira in the middle and Matilda at the front.

We walk past the quiet area and make our way in the lounge room, it was still quite busy, the couches were all filled with people and the table was half being used and other people sitting by the fire.

I follow the other three until we reach the two black couches that were facing each other. Four boys sat on both couches, 2 on each side.

"What's up, what's up, what's upppp" Matilda brings the energy to the group for sure, the boys sit up from the couch as they notice me trailing behind them,

"And who do we have here?" A boy questions, they all look up to me, I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks with the eyes on me, I didn't like it.

"Her names Octavia, she arrived today" Frankie spoke, smiling at me with warmth, the boy who asked who I was got up and lifted my hand and kissed the back of it while looking at my eyes.

What the hell was that? That was fucking weird

"The names Henry" he says clearly flirtatiously,

"Oh shut up Henry, she doesn't want you" another boy spoke as they all laugh at him, and he clearly enjoys the joke and sits back down on the opposite couch of the guy who told him to shut up.

"Here come sit down and we'll introduce ourselves" the same boy spoke again, he moves across making space between him and another boy, with Frankie on the other side of him, Matilda and Adira were on the opposite side of the couch with other two boys.

It was pretty squishy but it felt nice to actually sit on something with cushioning.

The same guy spoke, "as you know now, that's obviously Henry, reject him as many times as you want but he'll still come back as long as you've got a heartbeat-" he pauses as Henry gasps sarcastically like he was offended but knew it was true, everyone else laughed, apart from one. "-and thats axel, he'll eat any food that you put on his plate" Axel just smiled with a laugh as well with a little wave towards my way,

"And my names Flynn, lovely to meet you" he gives out his hand to shake, even though he's seated next to me, he has quite a glowing tan from the sun, light brown hair which looked very soft, and light blue eyes to match. He was wearing a grey oversized shirt with baggy denim jeans. He was very attractive.

"And that's my older brother" he gestures over to the guy sitting opposite me, he just sits there, glaring at me, not a smile, not any look of comfort.

This man knew he was attractive. He sat there confidently, laying back a bit on the coach with his arms up above the cushions, with his legs spread slightly. He was tanned, very dark brown messy hair with the sides slightly shorter, that matched with his very dark brown eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie and black cargo paints.

And my thought from before becomes true, Everyone here is so god dam attractive.

"Okayyy well that just got awkward" Adira chuckled at the awkward silence as she looked at me and towards the guy that gave absolutely nothing. He didn't even give me his name.

Which I think the group didn't pick up on, We're going to call him brown eyed boy until I find out his name.

The group started talking all within each other, I just sat there, listening to the conversations but my eyes kept spotting the brown eyed boy from before glaring at me.

What was his problem, ugh

"So what made you want to come to this academy?" Axel asks, catching the groups attention, making my cheeks turn red once again. Dammit.

I contemplated telling them, for one I don't know any of these people, two I'm so tired I can barely think and three I didn't really understand the question, I didn't have a choice, I just got told to go. Not like I had anything else going for me you know

"I didn't chose to come here" I say with zero confidence, furrowing my eyebrows waiting for a reply, my eyes looking around for a reaction within the group,

"What?" Henry asks "what do you mean you didn't choose?" He sat up a bit more listening in to my answer,

I stuttered before I tried to talk again but I was cut off,

"Oh so that explains why you didn't pack your own bags and the security guy did" Matilda mentioned, I nod in response which seemed to spark a few confused looks that they shared with one another,

"But you have to apply to get in here, only the lucky ones get accepted" Flynn spoke, looking straight in my eyes, I turn from looking at him, not used to the strong eye contact and shrug my shoulders not knowing how to reply, I mean what do I say,

'Well I didn't apply, I got forced here after I was kept in my basement all my life and enduring life threatening abuse from my loving parents'

Yeah I can't exactly just bring that up.

As much as I didn't think it was possible, the brown eyed boy scowled at me even deeper. I roll my eyes at him, now getting annoyed by his presence.

Towards the end of my time in the basement, I gave up complying with my parents, trying to make them love me, to see if they'd stop, but I eventually gave up trying to win them over, I gave up with their shit, so I'm starting to get really annoyed at this boy.

I could hear the group go back into their conversations, but all of them were about me and what we just talked about. Great.

"Hey it's okay if you don't want to talk about this, I can tell the group to shut up" Flynn whispers in my ear as he sat next to me, he pulled back after he finished his sentence and looked at me, I pull a little smile,

"It's okay, thank you though" my words dribble out slowly, which Flynn definitely picks up on, he could tell I was tired.

"I suppose you've had a pretty hectic couple of hours, if you want I could disguise your departure, so it doesn't look like your just going to bed? If that helps" he asks me with a soft voice, even though I didn't even think of the situation, I knew I'd be too scared to just get up and leave. I nod my head slightly, and he smiles back.

He takes a breath in and stands up, rather randomly which grabs the attention of the group, "we're just grabbing a snack from the kitchen, anybody want anything?" He asks, a few people said they were fine, but Matilda and Frankie both asked to bring back some chocolate.

After they finished talking, he looked down at me and gestured for me to get up and go to the kitchen, I follow him through the people, and we make our way to the kitchen.

He pulls open a big cupboard, and reaches for some milk chocolate that was sitting high up on the shelf, he closed the door and came back to me,

"You want some chocolate before you head to bed?" He asks with his hand out with a bit of chocolate on there, I smile

"I'm okay, I think it might keep me up if I eat too much sugar" I say with a little chuckle, and he does as well

Hey maybe I'm not so bad at socialising

"Yeah that's smart, I'll be up by the time it hits midnight with how much I like chocolate" he laughs again, it's quite a cute laugh he's got, and a lovely smile to go with it.

I didn't really know how to reply, Maybe I'm not so good at socialising...

"Alright I won't keep you up any longer, goodnight Octavia" he spoke softly with a smile as he left for the kitchen, once I saw his body disappear with the other people in the common room, I head up the stairs and into my room.

I sleep in the clothes Matilda gave me, not wanting to ask for anything more and I try and get some much needed sleep.

—

Authors note:

Sorry for being so inactive with publishing chapters, been a very busy week trying to sort out studying stuff!

Hope you like this chapter :))

- A