Between Fangs & Claws

Chapter 1

Third POV

The first day of Whitechaple High School, a girl walked into the school, eyes focused on her laptop. She wore a red jacket, blue jeans with the cuffs rolled up to show her rainbow stripped socks. She also wore a pair a light blue vans. Her dirty blonde hair is pulled into a messy bun and she has large  glasses sitting on her nose with bright, excited turquoise eyes shining behind them. She was paying absolutely no attention to her surroundings so it was no surprise that she bumped into someone.

The girl stumbled back and fell on her bum while dropping nearly all of her things. Her glasses even fell off, turning the world into a blurry mess. Immediately, a strong sense of embarrassment overtook the girl and she started frantically apologizing while also searching around for her glasses. She had been in this exact situation multiple times in middle school and the fact that it was happening again, on the first day of school noless.

Just kill her now.

As she was searching, a soft and comforting hand was laid on her shoulder and it started to gently push her up. Looking up, she saw the blurry figure of a human holding something out to her. She assumed it was her glasses, as the thing was small with two big empty rectangular parts. She grabbed them and placed them on them. Crouching in front of her, with an awkward smile on his face was small, thin boy with pasty skin, dark brown hair and warm chocolate brown eyes.

He was wearing a beige graphic t-shirt, faded dark blue jeans, brown sneakers and a denim jacket. All of which was fairly baggy on his small frame.

"You alright?" He asked. The girl nodded. She didn't trust her voice. He nodded and helped her gather all of her things. Standing straight, he held out and a hand which she gingerly accepted. He pulled the blonde to her feet. "Sorry for just standing in the middle of the hallway, my best friend was distracting me." He said sheepishly. "Oh, it's fine. I wasn't paying attention. I'm such a clutz." She said, forcing out a dramatic laugh. When the boy leaned back with a weirded out look on his face, she quickly stopped and cleared her throat.

"Um, right. Well, I gotta go. Bye." He said. "I'm Erica!" She called out to him. He stopped and looked back at her. "I'm Erica Jones." She said, much quieter after seeing that she was garnering attention. "I'm Ethan Morgan." He said, clearly uncomfortable and briskly walked away. Once he was gone, Erica instantly started berating herself. Calling herself stupid and an idiot. She kept her head down and walked away.

Later that day at lunch, Erica was sulking at a table while doing something on her laptop. Just then, she heard a shout. Someone screaming 'Dork, thank you so much'. Looking up, she saw that it was her best friend Sarah Fox screaming at a boy. Specifically, the boy she had bumped into and utterly embarrassed herself in front of. She would've yelled out, but didn't want to get the boy's attention as well. Instead, she turned her body around completely and avoided looking in his direction entirely.

Luckily, Sarah found her an sat in front of her. She was using a few napkins to wipe at a stain on her peach colored shirt. She looked annoyed. Erica made a face at her friend.

"Is that... mashed potatoes?" Erica sniffed the air. "Compliments from chef idiot." Sarah said gesturing somewhere behind the blonde. Erica didn't bother looking back. "Maybe it was an accident." She shrugged. Sarah gave her a look. "Doesn't get rid of the stain in my shirt, now does it?" Erica shrugged. Erica then started talking about the Dusk III premier. Sarah barely listened being distracted with her own things. Erica noticed this and was going to ask her what was wrong, but she was interrupted by a tall lanky boy with brown hair.

"Hello ladies." He greeted in what he likely thought was a smooth voice. "Hey, are you supposed to be babysitting the Morgans tonight?" Erica had completely forgotten about her babysitting gig. "I am, why? Do you know them?" She asked. "Actually, yea! My best friend over there." He pointed over to his table, where the boy she ran into earlier was hiding his face and trying to curl onto himself. Erica giggled. At least she wasn't the only one that knew what crippling embarrassment felt like.

"Ahh, sorry. He's shy. Gotta go." He said and rushed back to his friend. The bell rang for lunch to be over and everyone got up to return to their classes.

Ethan stood with the rest of his freshman class at the rock climbing wall. He was watching as two kids climbed up, keeping his eyes on the blonde girl. She has pale skin with dark bags under her brown eyes. Her hair is all of the place and frizzy, clearly she doesn't bother to keep it brushed. Her arms were shaking and Ethan was getting worried. He looked around and it seemed like no one else was seeing this.

He looked back to the girl and saw her start shaking. He inched forward and sure enough she dropped. Ethan caught her, or at least cushioned her fall. The blonde convulsed in his arms.

"Turn her on her side!" Someone yelled and Ethan listened. Once on her side, she suddenly gripped his hand like it was the only thing keeping her alive. She would occasionally huff out a pain filled whine, but luckily her spasms had stopped soon after. Her breathing evened out and her eyes closed as she passed out. Though, she was still clutching his wrist. "Ew, did she piss herself?" Someone whispered and quiet giggles broke out among the class.

This pissed Ethan off to no end. This girl just had a seizure and they're laughing at her? He huffed angrily, knowing he couldn't do anything about them being jerks. Pretty soon, the paramedics came in and took her to the hospital. Class resumed after that, but Ethan still wasn't in the best of moods.