Chapter 8- A New Student

The rest of summer passed as July had passed. The girls took Verlen and Jurn bowling and were quite surprised at how good they were. Verlen later confided in Christa that there was an angel game much like bowling.
They took them to Jen's cottage for a weekend where they learned how to fish and how to tube. Jurn began swimming with them once they got him in a lifejacket. They had a big bonfire on their last night there and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.
The last week in August found Verlen, Jurn, Christa and her friends at the mall doing their back-to-school shopping. The girls had a great time picking out clothes for Verlen and Jurn, They'd take turns picking an outfit for each of them and then deciding whether or not it looked good.
Finally on September 2nd,school began again.
Christa woke up early and had her shower before waking up Verlen for his. Christa's father was gone again, this time he was in Mexico, selling his paintings and making more.
Verlen and Christa got dressed, had breakfast and then went outside and waited for the bus. Christa was wearing the necklace Verlen had given her for her birthday. She never took it off.
Finally the bus came trundling up the road and the two of them got on. They got to school and went looking for Christa's friends. They found them in front of their old lockers and were surprised to see Jurn there as well.
"Your grand-parents have finally realized there is no way they can force you to come home so they've decided I'm to stay with you in case something happens." He offered by way of explanation.
Verlen sighed with relief. "I was worried that they would send someone to force me back. This is most welcome news!"
Jurn laughed. "I thought you'd be happy to here that."
They spent the rest of the time before class started talking about this and that. When the bell rang, they went to their respective home- forms. Verlen was in Christa's. They'd signed him up for school in August.
Jurn was in Lee's home-form, so she explained his schedule for him, which turned out to be the same as hers.
The first class for Christa and Verlen, he'd taken the same courses as her, was English. After English was Anthropology then lunch, then Biology and finally Math.
Christa and Verlen chose seats beside each other. They were talking about Lee's new hair colour; her hair was now bright purple.
"So this is the girl you left home for. Not much to look at now is she." Came a faintly venomous voice.
They both looked up at the same time. "Ria?" Verlen said in surprise, while Christa stared at the newcomer. She could tell the girl was an angel by the shimmer, but unlike the other angels she'd seen this girl gave her a very bad feeling, very like the one she'd felt when she'd first met Prastis.
"Ria why are you here?" Verlen asked in his native tongue.
"I was so worried about you. All alone here with the humans. Something awful could happen to you and we'd never know!"
"That is the reason Jurn is here, but that is beside the point. There is no danger here for me. I believe you should leave."
Ria shook her head. "No. I'm staying. If I stay, you may yet come to your senses and leave that stupid ground-pounding bitch sitting beside you and come home with me."
Christa raised an eyebrow at the girl. "I may be a ground-pounder, but at least I'm not some slutty bitch who doesn't know when she's not wanted."
The angel girl was dressed in a way that invited indecent thoughts. She was wearing a black tube top that looked more like a bra then a top and a black mini-skirt. When she had been talking to Verlen, she had leaned forward showing off a fair amount of cleavage.
Ria was a little taken aback with the fact that she had spoken in angel. "Shut up you little monkey-whore!"
"What precisely led you to the deduction that I'm a whore? Is it my low shirt or the fact that my pants show off more of my bare legs then your skirt?" Christa replied sarcastically, gesturing to her high-necked t-shirt and her black jeans.
Ria was so shocked that when she opened her mouth to reply nothing came out. Furious she stormed off to her seat.
"That was amazing!" Verlen said. "I cannot remember Ria ever being outmatched by another female before. You truly are incredible."
Christa smiled at Verlen. "I've dealt with girls of her sort before." She said, embarrassed by his praise.
Before Verlen could reply, the teacher came in and class started.
The rest of the time before lunch passed normally enough. Lee, Jurn and Jen were in Anthro with them. Turns out that Jurn and Lee had the same schedule as Verlen and Christa, except for English, which made them all happy.
Neither Verlen nor Christa got a chance to tell Jurn about Ria, so when lunch came and they sat down, Jurn was shocked when he found Ria sitting down with them.
"What the fuck are you doing here you miserable bitch?!?" he all but shouted.
Ria glared at him. "I'm here because Verlen's here you bastard. And I can't trust you and that monkey-whore to protect him."
"I thought we went over this in English. I am not the one who screams raging slut by the way I dress. If I were you, which I'm glad I'm not, I would try and at least leave something to the imagination." Christa told Ria calmly.
Ria turned her glare on Christa. "No one asked you, you, you bitch!"
"Oh how original." Christa replied sarcastically.
Ria turned bright red with suppressed fury and stormed off to sit at a different table. Jurn stared open-mouthed at Christa.
"How did you do that? I've been trying to make her do that for years!"
"Just stay calm. That will piss her off more then anything else would. Sarcasm works fairly well too, but the calmness is the key."
"Uh. . . What just happened and who was that?" Amy asked, confused.
Christa looked over at her friends who all had similar looks of confusion on their faces and smiled without a hint of warmness in that smile. "That's Ria. She's a bitch who comes from the same place as Verlen and Scott. She seems to like Verlen and really hates me. Not that I care because the feeling's mutual."
Jurn took over the explanation. "She used to go out with Verlen. He didn't know what a bitch she was until later. She gets very clingy and soon Ria had started to try and wrap him around her little finger but of course she failed. She blames me for that because I kept saying what a bitch she was. She's never really given up on Verlen and comes to harass him and whoever he's seeing every now and then. She's a really annoying bitch."
"Oh. Then that's why she's here?"
Christa snorted. "She says she's here to protect Verlen but I believe that is complete and utter bull-shit. She's just here to see if she can screw around with us and make Verlen go back with her."
"Ah. . . on that note, you might want to keep the whole necklace- engagement-mate thing quiet. I have a feeling if she found out she'd do something very, very nasty." Jurn said.
"Like what?" Christa asked, blushing faintly from the reminder of her and Verlen's status as mates.
Jurn winced. "I don't know if Verlen remembers this or not, but one time he was seeing this girl and things were starting to get serious and well Ria found out about and no one's quite sure how she did it, but a few days later the girl contracted some strange disease that caused her skin to turn red and flake off. It was highly contagious so the girl had to be kept away from everyone. And after that she was afraid to even be in the same room as Verlen. You're lucky Ria holds humans in such contempt or she'd have already tried something like that on you."
Christa was shocked. "Jeez, she's more of a bitch then I thought."
"I have no recollection of that event, but I do remember a few more minor though no less under-handed tricks that she authored. I really do believe your advice is correct for this situation, Jurn." Verlen said. It was obvious he was getting nervous, as his speech patterns had become even more formal. Through coaxing and coaching, Jurn and Christa had been able to get him to tone down his formal way of speaking.
"Well we'll just try and stay away from her and not talk to her. Hopefully she'll get bored and go away." Christa said.
The others voiced their agreement while Jurn and Verlen exchanged a look. They both knew that Ria was absolutely fixated when it came to trying to snare Verlen. The only reasons she'd ever left him alone before were when she feared she'd be caught for doing something or Verlen's grandparents gave her something to do.
Verlen, Christa, Jurn, Lee and Natalie headed to Biology together. They were all relieved to see that Ria wasn't in the class.
Unfortunately, Ria was in the same Math class. Verlen and Christa sat in the back, Jurn and Lee sat in front of them and Jen and Amy sat to their side in an effort to keep the angel girl away from them.
The strategy worked during class, but once the bell rang Ria followed Verlen and Christa as relentlessly as a hound on the scent. She followed them to their lockers and followed them right on the bus. She followed them right up to Christa's house, but not inside because Christa slammed the door in her face and invoked the protections around her house to keep Ria out.
Verlen opened his mouth to apologize, but Christa cut him off. "Don't you even dare say you're sorry. None of this is your fault. The blame rests solely on that bitch's shoulders."
"But. . ."
"But nothing! You've done nothing wrong and as for me, I made my choice a long time ago and I still stand by it."
Verlen looked at her, saw the fierceness and stubbornness in her gaze and couldn't help but smile. "You truly are one of a kind." He said before pulling her into a kiss.
The feeling of his arms around her and his mouth pressed against hers, caused Christa to blush a brilliant crimson. She may have accepted the necklace but she still wasn't entirely used to the whole fiancé thing.
Once Verlen broke the kiss, Christa ran to the kitchen under the pretence of getting them a snack. She took a few minutes to fan her cheeks cool and then headed out with some cookies she'd baked the day before and some milk.
The two did their homework first and then went on to Christa's magic lessons. Just because school had started again didn't mean they had to stop her lessons.
Dinner was lasagne and garlic bread. After their meal had been demolished and the kitchen cleaned up, they spent the remaining time before going to bed, watching TV.
As Christa got ready for bed, her thoughts drifted to the problems Ria represented. It's not going to be just her, Christa thought, from what Jurn says, Verlen's grandparents aren't exactly thrilled with me. Though why their opinion matters is beyond me.
Christa sighed and climbed into bed. No use worrying about it. I'll deal with the problems as they arise. With that final thought, she fell asleep.