Chapter 1
Ok so I guess life’s going pretty good ever since I moved into the small town of Galien, Michigan. And when I say small I mean it. You can go for a bike ride and in three minutes be in the next town over. The population, 554 people. Why my parents chose such a small town I have no idea. My first day of school is already today and I am in one of the absolute worst places possible.
The middle of the woods.
Whenever I have something important going on I wake up somewhere that is definitely not my bedroom. It’s always the same too, I go to bed, I have a dream of me running through the woods at speeds people can only imagine of , running after some kind of wild animal. Mostly a deer though, they are the most fun to chase. I always say, “The faster they run. The more fun they are to catch.” When the dream is over I normally wake up at least three miles from my house or sometimes even more.
Today had to be the absolute worst day though. Luckily this time I ended up in my neighbors back yard. The bad part, I was in shorts and a tank top, with one of their husky’s chew toys in my mouth. I guess being a werewolf has a lot of disadvantages but then again it does have its perks. One of them being I can get to my room and get dressed in four minutes before the bus comes to take me away to an eight hour prison known as school. The only good part about school would only be that I get to see my friends (when I have some) and it gets better as you get farther in to the year.
Knowing I have no option but to go, I resentfully get up and amble back through the cold woods with its wet dew covered leaves on the ground every where I turn. Autumn, isn’t it fun. When I get to my house, as usual every door is bolted shut so I have to take the old fashioned way. The tree. For my sake it’s good there is one directly out my window. It’s a Japanese cherry blossom with thick branches all the way up to my window. Every fall it will drop its crimson leaves only to re-grow them in the spring along with tiny white flowers smaller than a tack. The climb is a rather small one but the leaves are wet so I need to watch my hands as I clamber up the tree. As I’m climbing I reach out for a branch and when I grab onto it I prick my finger. Immediately blood starts to trickle down my finger like a shiny red caterpillar.
By the time I reach the window I can see my alarm clock once again didn’t set off and it was 8:15 which means the bus would be here in less than five minutes. Not Good.
I squeezed myself through the window careful not to get blood on anything so my parents wouldn’t start asking what had happened when I got home because no doubt I would have a ton of catching up work to do. All I keep doing is wondering why we had to move half way into the school year. I had no time for that now so I grabbed random sweatshirt from my closet that was grey and had a little red M on the left shoulder. Next, a pair of jeans which I had no idea if they were clean or not. Honestly I didn’t care at this point so I grabbed my bag and grabbed a banana for my breakfast on the way out the door. Just as I got out the door the bus was leaving and stop was up the street. Looks like I’m running to school.
* * * *
Galien high, home to the Galien Wolverines was a good school if I could only find my Biology classroom.
“Room 13, room 13, come on. Oh here it is, finally.” I don’t know why I chose to talk to myself but it just seemed to help which it did... I think. Mr. Fellows gave me a smile when I walked into his classroom that read, I’m happy to see a new student in my room but upset she was late.
His classroom was like others, two windows on the left side, a big desk front and center, other smaller two person lab benches along with a sing in the back of the room for any “incidents” with chemicals.
“Ah, you must be Meghan. Our newest wolverine, we were just talking about predators of the forest. This week we will be talking about one of my favorites, the gray wolf. So why don’t you go take the empty seat next to Emma right over there.” Mr. Fellows made a gesture with his and towards Emma who waved hello. Emma had dark red hair that was almost burgundy and held not a single wave or curl. Her eyes were light blue with a hint of green giving them an aqua appearance from a far distance. On her eyes she had a dark eye shadow with a tiny bit of eyeliner and mascara Right below her eyes was a light dusting of little tan freckles that matched right with a little nose. Something on her face captured my attention more than anything though; she wasn’t wearing any lip stick or gloss but her lips were the color that was un-explainable. Which is exactly why I’m not even going to think about it.
“Hi, it’s Meghan right?” Emma’s voice flowed like water from her mouth as if she had planned her words before she even knew I was coming.
“Yea that’s it. So did I miss much in my, not so fashionably late entrance?” Emma laughed so that was good. I am sure I almost have a friend but I don’t know how Michigan people are since I’m from Georgia.
“No he actually was about to start when you walked in.”
“Great, first day and I already made a scene.” Emma made a face so I take it she caught my sarcastic in denial tone. Mr. Fellows starting talking so we had to stop and pay attention. Or at least Emma paid attention while I couldn’t stop thinking about what seemed so strange and mysterious about her.
“Alright, now who here knows of the saying about a wolf and its pack along with their strength?” Mr. Fellows looked around and his beady brown eyes locked on me. Fire, hit, and sink. “How about you Meghan? Do you want to take a stab at it?” In my head I was thinking about how I would rather stab at my tongue so I wouldn’t have to answer.
“Um, I believe the phrase is, ‘The strength of the wolf is the pack and the strength of the pack is the wolf’” As I said this I felt every set of eyes staring at me like where the heck did this girl come from, but the only ones I saw were Mr. Fellows in complete joy. I didn’t even bother to look around when I could sense them all on me. Thank you mom and dad for all of those wolf lessons while I was growing up. But I wouldn’t say it’s my fault that my family has been a long line of werewolves since forever. While I was growing up my parents always taught me about wolves and the whole time I thought it was pointless. On full moon nights they would always hire a babysitter and say they were visiting my grandma and that they would see me in the morning when I woke up. Sometimes I might have been a little curious, I just think that I was too busy not caring enough to find answers or ask questions. That is, until my 13th birthday. On that day I wished I had paid more attention in my parents’ lessons because it turned out that I was a werewolf and on a kid’s 13th they would turn into a werewolf that night if they were born into the curse like I was.
“That… is one hundred percent correct! Bravo, Meghan!” Then in that moment I knew I was already looked at as the teachers pet.
So now I’m making a mental list of what I have accomplished so far in less than half an hour in a new school,
1. Late for class
2. Made a scene when teacher was about to start talking
3. Said dumb sarcastic things to a girl I just met
4. Stated an old saying about wolves that no high school student would or should know
5. Became teacher’s pet
So much for a good start.
