A/N: Does anyone know any Spanish dishes? I’ll need a few for the next chapter.

*****

Nathaniel’s POV

“You have trash on your desk?” My twin asked incredulous, knowing how much of a cleanfreak I was.

“What? Where?” She pointed to a small rectangular object; it was the wrapper from the lollypop Hunt had brought me. “Oh, that… I’ll throw it out later.”

She shrugged just as our mom’s raised voice came from downstairs:

“Kids, if you don’t hurry, you’d be late for school.” It was supposed to rain today so she’d offered to drive us there.

“We wouldn’t that now, would we?” Val sneered and left my room to get her backpack.

I picked up the wrapper and reread the inscription “JBJ’s Two-taste combo”. The lollypop itself had been half white, tasting like milk, and half red, tasting like strawberries. But the best part was the surprise in the middle: a juicy filling with a strawberry jam taste to it.

Strawberries.

I wondered how Hunter had found out that they were my favorite. Or was it just a coincidence?

He’d promised he’d give me a special lollypop so maybe he did know. I was sure I had not seen this brand in our local store but then again I couldn’t imagine Hunter crusading through town for an exceptionally good treat just for me. Then again he had left the party earlier that Saturday so he could come and bring me the painkillers and the lollypop…

I was making too big of a deal of it; it had been just a lollypop and now it was just a wrapper and I should throw it away.

“You ready, bro?” Val banged on my door.

“Yeah,” I replied, reaching down to get my messenger bag. I slung it over my shoulder then opened the sliding drawer of my desk. I put the wrapper next to my diary.

*****

“We’ve arrived,” mom chirped, shutting off the engine. “Oh, and look who is already waiting for you, Nathaniel!”

I turned my gaze away from the strap of the messenger’s bag which I’d fiddled with during the journey and prepared myself for a rendezvous with a pair of grey eyes; grey with little specks of green as I’d realized the last time he was in my room so close to me that I blushed at the memory. Instead I was met by a pair of dark brown ones.

“Hey,” Irene greeted when I stepped out of the car.

“Hey,” I saluted back, greatly relieved, but also slightly disappointed. I’d barely seen Hunter after Irene and I started dating a week ago; a week, if you count our first date and not from the day she’d asked me to the dance.

“Hi, Mrs. Reed,” she then waived at my mother.

“I told you, sweetie, that Lydia would do,” mom insisted with a smile. “Now you kids go and have fun at school… Except for you, Vallery; I know what your idea of fun is.”

“It’s not like I’ll set the school on fire and hang a teacher upside-down through a window,” she shot back, walking away from the car. “Maybe Matthew, but not a teacher,” she then murmured but even if she had spoken louder, our parent would not have heard her; she had already brought the engine to life and was driving away.

Irene giggled at my sister’s words, but I rolled my eyes; it wouldn’t be the first time Val would hang someone upside-down through a window. True, she and Raiden had been at a constant war when we were kids but my twin had sometimes gone too far with getting back at our childhood friend. And even though he seemed to have grown out of it, Val had not.

I smiled as we climbed the stairs outside our school, remembering some of the pranks they’d played to one another. Even back then, I had been the mature one, telling them to stop and trying to reach peace between them. It had sometimes worked, temporarily, then they’d be back to pushing each other into the pool, or throwing mud, or having food fights, or booby trapping our houses… Unfortunately for me, I’d been on the receiving end of some of those booby traps; unfortunately for them, sometimes our parents got caught in those.

I missed Raiden.

Chatting to him through skype or facebook just wasn’t enough for me. It wasn’t enough for Val either; he had been her arch frenemy and would always stay that way, no matter where we’d moved to and no matter how many new people came into our lives.

“What are you thinking about?” Irene asked, tilting her head to the left; the same side her braid was on.

“Your hair looks good that way,” I couldn’t help but note and her smile at my comment was radiant. “And I was thinking about Raiden.”

“The redhead boy?” I must have seemed surprised because she added: “Your mom showed me photo albums the last time I was at your house, remember?”

“Oh, yeah… I forgot about that. And I’m sorry; I know she can get carried away with those,” I apologized, opening the door to the hallway for her and Val.

“Such a gentlemen,” Hunter’s voice murmured and I barely saw him wink as he trotted past me.

“Hunt, wait!” I shouted after him and he stopped and turned around, one eyebrow raised.

“Hi,” I muttered, realizing I didn’t have anything else to say.

“Hi,” he replied, the corner of his left lip twitching. “Are you going to hold the door for everyone?”

I realized I still had my hand over the handle and students were passing through.

“Not really…” I let go after a group of four girls had entered.

“Do you have anything you want to tell me?” He then asked.

“Not really,” I repeated and bit my lip, feeling like an idiot.

“Come on, Val,” Hunt nodded for my sister to follow him and quickly walked away with a short ‘See you later, Natty’.

“Are you okay?” Irene inquired, her eyes slightly narrowed.

“Of course, why?” I asked as we walked further into the hallway.

“You look… worried… or something. Stressed maybe?” She suggested.

“I’m not; I just…”

Hunter makes me nervous.

I didn’t want to say that out loud, especially in front of her. She tried again and this time came closer to the truth:

“Edgy?”

“Something like that.” We stopped in front of her locker and she opened it.

“Yeah, he scares me too,” she admitted, sliding her backpack off her shoulder and unzipping it to put in a couple of notebooks and a calculator. “I mean, I try to ignore the rumors but…”

I’d been looking around for signs of my neighbor but my head snapped her way as soon as she said that.

“What rumors?”

She gaped at me for a second, then shook her head.

“Silly me; I keep forgetting you moved here a couple of weeks after the school year started. Maybe I’ll tell you during lunch…”

“No!” I shouted and she startled. “I’m sorry,” I replied in a normal tone, “but could you tell me now?”

“You are really worried about your sister, aren’t you?” She asked with a small, sympathetic smile.

I nodded even though my twin’s friendship with the blond boy was only one of the reasons I wanted to find out more about Hunter; the other was that I… Well, I just wanted to know more about him.

“Okay,” she began in a low voice, looking around as if afraid we might be overheard. She closed her locker and leaning sideways on it, fiddling with her hair band on her braid. “There are many rumors as to why he was in jail and why he moved in with his Aunt when he got out instead of living in his old town. Some are obviously exaggerated,” she snorted, probably enlisting the incredible ones in her mind. “Some students think he actually killed someone in cold blood. Can you believe that?”

I shook my head; I didn’t think Hunt was capable of such a monstrosity.

“That’s also what I think. He wouldn’t have gotten just a year for first degree murder,” her voice was barely above a whisper now and I had to lean closer to hear her. Her eyes were large and troubled.

“But you are right to fear for Val, Nat. Whatever that guy did, it was violent; he himself has implied so several times.”

I took a deep breath and realized my hands were sweaty.

Had Hunter seriously injured someone?

I didn’t want to think he could but I had to admit: he was frightening at times and I didn’t mean with the way he made me uncomfortable with his flirts.

I remembered that first day when I’d found out our rooms were next to each other. I remembered how he had scared me out of my wits and how, in the end, it had turned out to be a joke; he hadn’t meant to harm me. That thought gave me a glimmer of hope until I recollected what he had said to me then.

‘I thought you liked scaring people,’ I had told him and he’s replied: ‘Scaring, yes; terrifying… Not people like you’.

Not like me…

So there were people he enjoyed terrifying. If that was so, what guarantee did I have that there wasn’t a certain type of people he’d put in their place via physical assaults?

He knew how to fight, he was in good shape, so the only thing that would stop him were his morals. His questionable morals. True, he had many virtues that I admired, but I didn’t really know what made that boy tick; I didn’t know what could set him off and how far he’d go once his anger was ignited.

“The thing is,” Irene’s quiet tone brought me out of my daze and I realized she wasn’t finished, “the rumors about him being in a gang are almost certainly true. That said, it’s most likely that he beat up someone from a rival gang. I think they’d give him more than a year for that but it could explain why he moved to another town when he got out; the rival gang would want to get back at him. This is the most probable theory, anyways. You could ask Kara for more…”

“No,” I croaked out and turned around to go somewhere, anywhere; alas, I could not escape the thoughts in my head or run away from what I’d just heard.

“Probably a good choice,” Irene followed me, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. “Her information isn’t the most reliable one.”

I shook my head.

The credibility of what Karen could tell me was not why I didn’t want to hear more; I’d already had too many ideas what Hunter could’ve gotten into and I didn’t fancy any of them.

*****

A/N: Do you agree with Irene or do you have your own ideas as to what Hunt might have done to end up inside?

If you do, comment; I’d love to read them!

Also, do you think Hunt could kill or cause a serious injury to someone on purpose?
What could his motives for doing that be?

Don’t forget to vote if you enjoyed the chapter.

Oh, and I’d really appreciate it if you could enlist a few Spanish meals for me :)