Man Gone Rogue

Chapter 1

The shrill tone of the high school's bell was piercing to Jade's ears. Even after all of the years that she had been doing this, it never got any easier. She didn't even cringe at the sound this time, she had learned how to internalize the slight pain. She glanced up at the brick building. A worn down exterior built of crumbling stone stared right back. White letters on the front of the building adorned with peeling paint read, "Stony Brook High School." Sucking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, Jade began a slow pace towards the building within which she was about to be stuck in yet another education system until her family needed to move on again.

She brushed back her auburn hair, sliding in her earbuds. Jade's father had already spoken to the school about the problem with her "sensitive ears." She hated needing to pretend that something was wrong with her, but she'd do whatever she had to if it meant protecting her ears. It wasn't like her parents could just tell the very human-dominated school that she was a werewolf.

Two sets of glass doors met Jade as she finally reached the front of the building. Another bell sounded, telling her that she was late. She supposed it worked out in her favor then that since it was her first day, her teachers were expected to be lenient with her arrival times. Jase pulled her crumpled map from her pocket, scanning the page to find her way back to the algebra two classroom that she had seen once before on her tour.

Jade had been attending human schools her entire life, there wasn't anything particularly special about this one. Her family tended to move a lot to avoid trouble with pack wolves and other packless as well, so she was used to this. It wasn't normal for packless wolves like her to try to live among humans. Stricken from a pack with no access to a mind link and dropped face first in a kill or be killed world, packless usually stayed in the woods, all alone and slowly losing their minds. Those were the typical "rogues" known and expected by the packs. Jade was glad that her family had chosen a different approach, even if her life had a tendency to be quite hectic.

Making her way past the rows and rows of yellow lockers, Jade finally found her class. The teacher had seemed nice enough when Jade first met her. She had dark curly hair and dark eyes, along with a smile that almost felt comforting. Her name was Mrs. Lewis. The teacher in question greeted Jade with a warm welcome as soon as she entered the room. Jade felt the familiar tug of uncomfortableness that came as she anticipated an introduction. She sped through it as fast as she could, assessing the room. As always, it was a bunch of humans, no one supernatural.

Jade was sent to the back right corner of the room, directly to the only unoccupied desk. Jade took her seat, glancing over at who would now be her partner and hopefully saving grace. She had never been the best at math.

"Hey girl! It's nice to meet you. I'm Elora." her new partner introduced, sticking out her hand for a shake. Her skin was a peachy tone, and her hands were soft. Her hair was a rich brunette, and her eyes were the same color. Jade noticed how they seemed to shine as she smiled, full of emotion. Her hair was cut quite short, although Jade thought it suited her.

Jade wore her best I-am-definitely-am-not-tired-of-doing-this smile and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you too, Elora." Elora pulled out her notes from the class, moving them towards Jade.

"No idea how good you are at algebra, but I know that if I was in your place, I would be completely lost walking into a class halfway through the year." Jade's shoulders relaxed at the open gesture of friendliness.

"Oh, thank you so much! I'm so bad at math, this means a lot to me." Elora smiled back.

"Hey, it's no problem. I'm glad I could help." Jade began to take down the notes. Maybe this school wouldn't be as bad as she expected. This was already a new record for how fast she made a friend.