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The poster

The rest of the day sped past. I spent lunch in the courtyard with William. I tried to look for Evelyn but she was no where to be seen.

"Have a good day at school?" My dad asked as I closed the doors behind me.

"Yeah, it was fine." I could see Rose, Oliver, and Isaac sitting the kitchen table, surrounding a piece of paper and arguing. They were all in high school too but Rose had a nice car so she drove them to school. My younger siblings, Hazel, Liam, and Luna were still in school. For some reason the middle and elementary school got out later.

"That's good. Did you hear, its a full moon tonight." He blocked the stairs so I couldn't get to my room before responding to him.

"Yeah, William's mom told me." I held tightly onto my backpack strap and he stepped aside.

"Oh, okay, great." He smiled at me as I walked up the stairs.

As soon as I got into my room I threw my bag onto the bed and took off my shoes. It was the first day of school and I already had homework. I sat on my floor, just listening to all the sounds around me. The house was warm and quiet, but it wouldn't stay that way for long the second the younger kids get home. My room smelled like dust and books and there were still a few unopened boxes shoved in the closet.

"How was your first day of high school?" Isaac stood in the doorway, a crumpled paper in his hands.

"It was fine." I looked at the floor.

"Did you have any problems with anyone?" I could tell something was bothering him.

"Um. No. I mean, kinda?" I stood and made my way over to my desk.

"Well glad you didn't lie to me." He walked over and stood behind me. "Have you seen this?" He angerly smashed the crumpled paper onto my desk. A blurry photo taken in the woods sat in front of me, with the words "WE ARE IN DANGER" and "SEARCH PARTY TONITE @ TOWN SQUARE" I could almost make out a figure in the photo, a huge, fuzzy, figure.

"What is this?" I knew exactly what it was, we had barely gotten here and this town already had people spotting the werewolves here and apparently, planning on hunting them.

"They know. We just got here and they know, Maddie." I could hear a mix of anger and fear in his voice.

"It's fine, this is one of the most werewolf populated towns in the state, I doubt they haven't had people suspicious before."

"Look closer." He pointed to the photo, then I saw it. The wolf. The big black wolf that I had seen my first day in town. "That wolf is not one of us. Even though you spent most of the party in your room, I didn't. At the very beginning we played a game that required everyone to be in wolf form and that wolf was not there. Everyone was there at the time too."

"Maybe it is just some big normal wolf, we don't know that it is even one of us." He pulled the piece of paper off of my desk and walked away.

"Maybe." he said as he walked out of the room.

I know that wolf is one of us, the way it looked at me, it's eyes. Because of the search party tonight none of the wolves would be able to go out unless we are willing to risk being hunted down, which I am not. Buzz. "Oh it's William."

"Did you see the posters?"

"Yes." I texted back quickly, "Guess we'll have to wait until next week."

"No, I have a plan." He responded. "We can join the search party and sabotage them."

"That would be hilarious. And we would be able to protect any of us that decided to go out."

"Yeah. Meet @ 4, your house?"

"Yeah, ttyl I have homework." I set my phone down and grabbed my math notebook out of my backpack. I only had a couple problems to solve but they were hard. Missing the first week of school really did put me behind I guess.

"Maddie!" Half way through my second problem Luna burst into my room.

"How was school?" Her short blond hair was pulled up in pigtails, tied with sparkly purple hair-ties.

"We have a class pet! His name is Purple and he's a chameleon!" It was definitely named by the students.

"That's awesome! Did you make any friends?"

"I made a lot!"

"That's awesome! I have to finish my big-girl homework so I need to be alone but I'd love to hear the rest of your stories at dinner." She grinned in reply and skipped out of my room, closing the door behind her.

After another half hour I had completely finished my homework, leaving me with absolutely nothing to do. It would be getting dark in a hour and a half so I should be safe going on a run in human form, or even wolf form if I stayed on the uninhabited part of the mountain.

"Maddie your boyfriend is here!" Hazel chimed from the bottom of the stairs.

"Fuck, I forgot William was coming over." I jumped up from my desk and ran down the stairs, nearly tripping.

"Hey." William stood in the doorway. He followed me up to my room.

I flopped down onto the bed and he followed, turning to face me. "I kind of want to go on a run, want to come?" I turned to face him as well

"In human form?"

"No, uh-"

"It's too dangerous to go in wolf form today, you saw the posters, they might be leaving early!" He sat up.

"I doubt it! Besides we can just stick to the empty side of the mountain, the forest is too dense for them to even want to go there!" I argued.

"No." He grabbed my hand, pulling me close to him so I could feel his breath on my face. "No, I won't let you risk that."

"William I'll be fine! I've lived in some very populated areas and been able to go out at night. I lived in New York City for goodness sakes and I never even got spotted!"

He let go of my hands. "Maddie, I said no." He hissed.

"You don't get to boss me around William!" I stood and walked over to my desk, facing away from him.

"I'm just trying to make sure you don't make some stupid decision!"

"It won't be stupid if you come with me and protect me!" I turned back to him.

"Fine." He walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek. "But if we get killed its your fault." He smiled shallowly.

"Fine."