3 Chapter 3- Rika – Time with Some Friends (VOLUME 1)

*~*Rika's POV*~*

Despite the way that I had felt recently, I wasn't always a mopey mess. And I didn't always feel like I had nowhere to fit in. And the place that I felt the happiest, and the most at home lately, was wherever my friends happened to be.

I love my family, and I always will. There was nothing at all wrong with them, and they loved me so much. Not to mention I especially loved spending time with my baby sister. And by baby, I truly meant she was a baby. She was just five months old right now, and she was practically changing by the day.

Still, the people that I loved to be with the most were my friends. Since this was a girl's trip, it would only have female friends at the mall. Not that I didn't have plenty of guy friends. Then again, they were all like family to me. Even the guys. We were all one big unofficial family. Well, aside from Elias, and his younger brother and sister, Waylon and Nina. They were actually family. And so were CJ, Leah, and Bryson. Those six were cousins from my uncles Noah and Carter.

My uncles were my mom's cousins turned brothers. Because she was raised by her aunt and uncle, their boys were like her brothers when she grew up. Regardless, they were still my cousins, just a different position in the pecking order I guess.

Today, as we headed to the mall, I was taking my sister Talia with me to meet up with Alyssa, Alexandria, Fauna, Ashle and Ilana. All of the others were already away for the start of the school year. I mean, it was starting so soon that they needed to be settled in before it all started.

Alyssa, Alexandria and Fauna were all sisters, and they were only two years apart in age. Ashle and Ilana were friends from other people that were really close to our family, and we had spent our entire lives together. We were all literally born with in months of each other. Ilana, Ashle and I were less than a month apart in age.

"Rika! Talia!" Alyssa, or as I called her, Lyssa, came running toward us as we walked toward the mall. It was a very nice summer day in the middle of August, so they had been sitting outside as they waited for us. Lyssa was the person that I was closest to, and just her being here was already calming me a little bit.

"Lyssa!" I caught her in a hug as she got close enough to me.

"I am so happy that you agreed to do some shopping. I so need this before classes start." She wrapped her arm around mine and then around Talia's as she stopped next to us. She had been working on her 'proper' way of speaking. It was her attempt to sound more fancy and regal, even if it didn't sound all that natural. "Come on, ladies. You're the last to arrive."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Talia looked behind us at the man that was following us. "I had to bring Alexio with us."

"Ha ha ha, no worries, Tally girl. We have all been there with the overprotective dads. Just be glad you only have one dad, we have two." Lyssa and her two sisters laughed at that.

"Oh my Goddess, if I had two of my dad, I think that I would die!" I said the words dramatically.

"I guess it would be bad. Anyway, at least it was Lex and not Dad that came along." Talia giggled. "Lex can be OK, I mean, he isn't the worst." I could tell that she was trying not to hurt his feelings, probably because she had to take him with her to the university every time that she was there. That was the price of being a princess and future ruler of an entire realm.

"Come on, let us stop talking about all of this." Ashle said as she spun lithely in a circle. She looked so much like a ballet dancer when she moved.

I contributed that grace of hers to the fact that she was half Fae. And a wood Fae, or nymph, to be exact. The other half was a wolf, like the majority of us had. Ilana was probably the only one here that didn't have mixed breed parents. Although she wasn't the only pure blood. Because of the magical way that she and her siblings had been born, Ilana was a pure wolf and the daughter of my mom's best friend. We were both born in December, just a couple of weeks apart.

My friends were quite unique looking. Way more unique than I counted myself as being. Lyssa and Alexa both had black hair, like I did, and while they had blue eyes like Reagan did, theirs was so light that it looked almost white. At least, that was how Lyssa's had been when she was younger. As she got older, she developed a red tone to her eyes. I figured that was because she was a Vampire.

Ashle was the most unique of them all. She used to hide her hair when she was younger, but now that we had shown ourselves to the humans, now that we weren't in hiding anymore, she showed her natural coloring. She had hair that was pale purple with a leafy, vine-like green patterns that decorated it. I loved her hair, and her vibrant green eyes that looked like gemstones.

Ilana also had blue-green eyes, they were bright and beautiful and paired well with her wavy ash blonde hair perfectly. That and her natural tan, that was just perfection to me. Both Ilana and Ashle had a natural tan that the rest of us pale faces envied. They were so beautiful and never looked washed out.

"What are we just standing around here for?" Alexa said as she came to my other side and wrapped her arm around mine. "Come here, sis." She beckoned Fauna over and took her arm as well. Once Ilana and Ashle joined the line, we were seven people wide. And consequently, we needed to walk sideways through the door into the mall.

We didn't care if we took up a lot of the walking path, we stayed that way as we started to shop. We were considerate. We would form a bit of a whip and snake through people when there were others that were around us. However, if the coast was clear, we decided to be silly and just walk that way. It was fun, and the smile I had wasn't faked at all.

We all had different styles. We were similar in age, and we were all in university now, but we all had our own way of dressing and doing things, so we needed to hit up a bunch of stores. Lyssa and I were probably the closest to being the same, so when we stopped at the first trendy shop, it was mostly us that were looking for things there.

The others managed to find at least one thing each at that store, my sister in particular, who favored dark colors, primarily blue, purple and black, found a sleeveless purple t-shirt with a black silhouette of the universe on it. She paired that with a black leather half jacket that actually looked really good on her.

The next store that we went into was a little more sporty and this was where Alexa, Ilana, and Ashle had more in common. They were more of the athletic types, but still different in the colors and the styles that they chose. In this store I found something, a cute little lilac workout outfit that would do well for my training sessions. I needed range of movement, and the sports bra and spandex shorts definitely offered that for me. Talia, Lyssa, and Fauna didn't really find anything in that store at the moment.

The next place that we went to for clothes was one of the more punk boutiques. They had shirts with bands and anime and other pop culture things. They had a lot of dark colored clothes, things with rips and tears, chains and spikes, all of that. However, they also had a lot of other things that I loved once I was actually in there. They had a lot of really pretty jewelry that were of various styles. And don't even get me started on those accessories. Those were amazing.

This store was where Talia and Fauna really started to shop. Fauna loved all the band merchandise, new and old bands, and Talia loved everything else. I had noticed that she had gotten really into Anime and Manga over the last year, and that was good for her. She was always so serious, she needed an outlet somewhere.

We all found something in that store, but Talia got the most. It almost seemed like she was wanting to supplement her whole wardrobe. I wasn't upset. She needed this as much as I had needed to go shopping. And she didn't have to carry her bags like the rest of us had. The moment that she had paid, Alexio had come up to take them for her.

"Allow me." He had said, which caused the female clerk to look up at his nearly seven feet of height and gulp. She was both intimidated and turned on by him. I mean, I guess that he was a good looking guy. He had silvery hair with dark red eyes. He was definitely exotic looking, that was for sure. And he was chiseled in more than one way. He just wasn't my type. Though I didn't know who my type was yet.

Oh well, we would figure that out later. Right now, it was time to get back to shopping. There was still a lot for us to do, so many more shops to visit. And, I mean, what could possibly go wrong while we were here at the mall?