Chapter 4

The park loomed ahead of us and I could see the orange flames creating shadows on some of the trees around, of people arriving. Mom found a space outside the park for the car. We moved together with the throngs of people who radiated a kind of excitement for the event about to take place. Every family had a basket of something to share.

As we moved closer I noticed how large the circle where the fire was built was. The entire area was extremely large enough to take seven houses. Beside the raging fire, people dropped their baskets of food and wine and others helped in sniffing and sampling what the baskets contained. Everyone laughed, every kid present seemed content playing around the fire as if there was a kind of trust between them and the fire.

Mom collected the basket from me and went to drop it. To my right, a group of men sat together watching the younger kids run about, one ducking his head to drop a comment about something from time to time. Some worried mothers ran after their five-year-olds.

"What do you think?" a familiar voice boomed behind me. Logan.

He took my hand again and pumped it up and down like he had done this morning, his grip tight on my hand. He was not alone, some equally muscled men were behind him drinking from cans of beer and they were all smiling at me. No doubt Logan introduced me already. They took turns shaking my hand, each grip firmer than the other but friendly enough not to break my bones. 

Mother slipped a hand around my shoulder and Logan led us to where he was sitting, there was already a space prepared for us. There was a group of people there laughing, talking, and eating from paper plates. Some of the talks lightened as mom and I took our seats on the grass, nobody looked at me with suspicion, they looked more intrigued seeing the Hunter who ran away from home to be with his mother. For me, it is the sissy who could not own up to his own mistake. Dad still doesn't know about my affair with Camilla.

Someone took my hand and shook it lightly.

"Welcome home son," the old man in a blue sweater said, and just like that the talk resumed and soon everyone was shaking hands with me and patting me on the back. I almost fell forward at the strength of some of the friendly pats.

Mom leaned over to introduce a family coming to greet us

"That's the Evans," she said and my mind went back to Cara Evan who she mentioned this morning. The family drew nearer, a family of four led by a man with thinning black hair and a round smiling face.

"Lily!" he called out in a cheerful voice as he went to hug mother, next moment he had me in his tight hug. 

Mom was smiling so hard it looked like her face hurt. I guess she's just glad that everyone was eager to welcome me.

A plump woman with equally dark hair came up behind Mr. Evan and hugged mom kissing both of her cheeks, she hugged me too but must have sensed my uneasiness about the kisses because she didn't bother pressing her lips to my cheek, but she gave a knowing smile and took a seat beside mom. 

The next to come up was their son, a 14-year-old boy with an air of manliness about him, at his elbow was who I assumed to be Cara Evan, dark-haired like the others and unlike her brother, Melvin was incredibly shy. She nodded at me with a smile.

"Welcome to WhiSare," she said shyly.

"Thank you."

She was seemingly nice and all but I couldn't help noticing the color that burned her cheeks whenever she talked to me and the glances she as the night progressed. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes. But the worst of the night was over, the people were happy to have me, they made me feel at ease, and then and only then did I let the tension in my shoulders leave. 

Mom passed me a paper plate with a huge slice of vanilla cake on it and a mug of chocolate cake.

"Try to ease up a little," she whispered with a wink. "Cara, why don't you take him to that spot where you teenagers like to hang out?"

"Uhm... okay." She glanced at me. "Do you want to come with me?"

I shrugged. "Yeah sure."

She stood with her own cake and chocolate mug and led me away from the group towards the opposite side where a small group of people was gathered. It was the only space in the park that had a fewer number of people. One of the 5 people seated, munching on a piece of fried chicken looked up and waved Cara and me over. His eyes shifted from Cara to me and they widened slightly. Then he squinted and lowered the halved chicken from his mouth. 

"You are new here."

I nodded. The remaining four, a short sandy-haired dude with three girls reclining on a trunk of a tree turned to me. They were curious. 

So far, everyone I met was welcoming. It is important to me that I'm welcomed here. I want to make WhiSare my new home, a place I can stay with mom and not feel like an outsider. 

"But I recognize you from..." one of the girls was saying as she leaned forward. "Wait you are DeShawn Hunter! You were the face of Henty's summer magazine for 2 years."

Oh, yes. That.

I did a modeling gig once because Henty's founder, Helen Henrich would not let me be. She wanted me to do a show for her, dad gave his consent and I was dragged off to her agency. People loved me. Helen made me the face of her fashion magazine until a new face emerged. 

The girl shrugged and laughed. "Well, I devour every fashion magazine. We don't have much of those here, anyway."

"Come on, sit."

I followed Cara. She joined the sandy-haired dude by the other tree and I joined them.

"So why did you leave? Your mom has been talking about you all week!"

Trust mom to do that.

I started to reply when Cara threw a look at the girl and bit out, "There will be time for questions later, Sam." Shaking her head she turned to me. "Sam never knows when to stop. If you give her a chance she will talk your ears out."

Her cheeks brightened again.

Sam laughed. "It's not every day one of the elites comes to stay in little old WhiSare." She nodded at me. "I'm Sam. That's Gabe," the sandy-haired guy. "Debbie and Lisa." The girls leaning on the trunk. "Jay and Dexter." The two other guys. "So, Shawn, will you be attending East WhiSare school or some private school?" There was a smug smile on her face. She glanced at Cara who was scowling heavily. 

"East WhiSare."

"Wow, that's new. I suppose you aren't like the others," she made two quotes with her fingers. "Most elites wouldn't be found dead in our community school."

I shrugged at that not knowing what to say.

"I think that's enough talking Sam," Cara said shortly. "Where's everyone?"

Gabe leaned forward to kick at a clump of grass. "You didn't hear?"

"What?"

"Tessa's missing."

"Yeah well, that's not the first time Tessa's gone missing." Cara emptied her mug and dropped it beside her feet. "Tessa ran off 6 months ago because her boyfriend left town," she explained to me. "Besides, her mom is famous for her hysterics. She's probably exaggerating the situation here. Maybe Tessa wants to be alone to deal with that breakup or something."

Sam shrugged. "Well, whatever. The rest of the school is hanging out at CHOC-IT waiting for Tessa to perform another dramatic show-up."

"Why aren't you guys there?" I asked. I get the idea of staying at the bar or whatever waiting for this Tessa to come back but Cara's friends didn't seem interested in her disappearance which was curious. 

Debbie and Lisa laughed, nudging each other. I glanced at Cara for an explanation but she rolled her eyes at them.

"Because we are the losers club, DeShawn Hunter," she emphasized my name leaning forward to look me in the eyes. "Now you better not be caught with the likes of us. Cara here on the other hand doesn't care about being a loser but you with your good looks and money, you don't want to be caught with us."

I expected that. The classic hierarchy stuff and all that but it seemed a bit backward that the losers club would shun me. 

"Who cares about that?"

"You should Hunter. You are popular and cool so," she shrugged off the rest of her sentence. "I gotta go pee. Cara take care of your new hottie." Sam stood up and walked to a deserted side. 

Cara nudged me. "Come on, let's go back to my parents."

I stood with her and joined her as she walked briskly towards where we left mom and her family. 

"What was that back there?"

"You mean Sam and her friends? Ignore them. I shouldn't have taken you there anyway, they are freaks. They call themselves the Vampire Hunters."

I laughed. "The what?"

Cara smiled. We were already a way off from Sam's group of friends because Cara was walking too fast for me to keep up. "Vampire Hunters. They think WhiSare is infested with Vampires. They are probably out here trying to catch the vampires who took Tessa."

"But Sam thinks Tessa ran off somewhere."

"Yeah, that's what she's thinking out loud. When we first had our missing person case, a middle schooler, Sam and Gabe swore to the moon and back that he was taken off for some vampire ritual or something like that. Sam thinks half the students at school are vampires and wolves. She even claims that the mayor, Jared Storm is an immortal. They are headbangers so just stay away from them."

Right. Another added to my list. Stay away from Sam and her crazy friends.