“Ugh!” Lia groaned lifting her weak and heavy body. She frowned at the somewhat familiar surrounding and suddenly sprang up almost toppling over from dizziness.

Ah yes, she remembered coming to the acceptance party, she recalled other events that occurred including the egoistic barbie encounter but she couldn’t remember going to sleep.

The last thing she remembered…. “Damn” she cursed rubbing her temple. She had a splitting headache the moment she tried to recollect what she did last and how she fell asleep.

It was suspicious .It was not like her to fall asleep in a unfamiliar place moreover in a party, the noise wouldn’t allow her to sleep a wink at all but she somehow felt she fell in a deep slumber in such a short time.

Strange enough she felt weak and sour especially in her neck region . It felt like a large needle was pierced into her skin, retracted and then stitched up but no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find evidence of such speculation on her body .

Was she being paranoid?

“Lia ! ”

Hearing her name being called snapped her back to reality and she found Cassie coming her way huffing and puffing.

“Where the hell have you being?!” Cassie roared drawing people’s attention. She was so fluttered that even Lia noticed and bit down on her lower lip .

Cassie was angry.

“I’m really sorry, I got carried away ” Lia apologized with her gaze lowered. she couldn’t just tell Cassie of her stupid speculation else she’ll think she’s crazy.

Heartbeat slowly returning to normal, Cassie glared at Lia but her pitiful pout made her anger melt right away.

“Come-on let’s go, the ceremony has already started ” Cassie said reaching out a hand for Lia to grab on but her eyes suddenly narrowed when she saw a red stain on Lia’s neck.

“Is that blood on your neck?” Cassie reached out but Lia subconsciously jumped from her touch .

“Sorry ” She smiled bashfully at Cassie’s shocked expression. Lia mentally facepalmed at her attitude , why was she behaving like this? The girl was just trying to help.

Cassie in return smiled like nothing happened.

“It’s OK ” She waved it off

Lia strained her neck trying to get a view of the so-called blood.

“It’s almost at your back ” Cassie from a distance directed her .

Thankfully she had worn a black off shoulder little black dress so after stretching and straining her neck for a while, she located it. There was a small patch of red on her neck which had being smeared down her back.

It wasn’t so much that Lia wondered at Cassie’s sharp sight. What would’ve taken others a closeup view, she saw it from afar clearly. wow, she envied such sight.

“I don’t think it’s blood cause I’m clearly not injured moreover I saw some teens carrying cans of paint earlier . I think one of them with a red paint might have touched me with their smeared hands ” Lia lied smoothly without blinking an eye though her heart thumbed badly that she thought it would leap out of her chest.

“Ah, must be ”

Cassie bought her idea or so she thought.

She brought out a handkerchief out of the pocket of her jean short, dabbed it in water from one of the water can on the table and started wiping away the stain.

“You don’t have to ” Lia said feeling awkwardly with someone rubbing her skin like that with body pressed closely to her’s. Lia was straight but this was the first time a girl was this close to her aside from her mother. The little girlfriends she had back in her old Town were too sophisticated and turned out to be scheming backstabbers she eventually abandoned in the end.

Head bent shyly, she decided to look up and discovered with great shock that Cassie’s skin was really good. Her skin was so soft and smooth with no blemish.

Did she have pores? Lia was curious. She stared at her inquisitively coming closer and closer.

Suddenly a soft breeze blew and wafted Cassie’s scent into her nostrils. She smelled like vanilla with a hint of mint . Was that from her cologne or hairshampoo? she pondered.

” What are you doing?” Cassie asked, brow arched suspiciously and that was when Lia realized she was unconsciously sniffing Cassie’s hair.

She froze. Did she just smell her hair?

Creepy .

“Umm ” She cleared her throat awkwardly dusting off invisible dirt from Cassie’s hair. ” You got something on your hair ”

And as usual, Cassie believed her.

“Done, you’re good as new ” Cassie announced stepping away from her. “We should be going”

Replying with a nod, Lia went along with her noticing with minimal details the newly set up bonfires, much larger than the previous ones . For how long were they planning to party? She wondered.

A few minutes later they arrived the initiation ground but lia was dazzled at the large crowd that gathered around blocking the entrance.

They were stucked but that was until a man in front noticed her and gave way for her to pass.This kind gesture caused a domino effect that lasted till a path was created for her to go through.

Sucking in a cold breath, she started walking through the cleared path realizing for the first time how nerving it was to be the centre of attention. She suddenly wished she was wearing a tinted glass atlest, their gazes were scorching.

Trying not to show she was breaking out in sweats, she doubled her steps reaching her destination in a flash.

She saw her mom already going through her own “acceptance “. A middle aged woman wearing a long brown coloured fox fur dress that literally sweeps the ground whenever she walks stood before her mom. She murmured some inaudible words which Jenny said yes to before rubbing some slimy stuff on her forehead followed by a loud shout from the crowd.

Lia flinched when she noticed how hysterical the crowd was. Was this the acception ? she thought. She suddenly wondered if Trevor went through the same initiation considering his negative stand on this acceptance of a thing.

Maybe he wasn’t entirely wrong with his belief. This acceptance ceremony did look a tad occultic. She just hoped they weren’t getting themselves into trouble .