The Good Wolves

Chapter 3

I woke up with my alarm at the crack of dawn. Gerald's loud snores still resonated throughout the house.

I leaped out of bed to get ready for my first dreaded day of school, filled with an odd mix of fear and giddiness. I quickly dressed in a pair of black leggings and a gray, long sleeved shirt. I laced up my black boots, and ran downstairs to make breakfast.

"Good morning," Lupe greeted me. She stood in front of the stove. "Eggs?"

"Uh, sure. Thanks," I took a seat at the kitchen table, and Lupe handed me a plate full of eggs. "Is Gerald awake?"

"No," Lupe laughed. "You know old people. He sleeps fourteen hours a day."

I gulped down my eggs, and Lupe continued to talk to me. "Are you hunting after school?"

"What?" I coughed. "You know about hunters?"

"I clean the weapons," Lupe said. "I know everything about hunting."

"Well, no, to answer your question. I can't go hunting yet. I wouldn't know where to look."

Lupe nodded, and started washing the dishes. I wasn't sure I wanted to end our conversation, but she didn't seem to want to talk to me anymore. I grabbed my backpack from upstairs and waited by the door for the bus, where I noticed Gerald sleeping on the couch.

When the bus finally showed up, I felt awkward in my departure. I didn't want to wake Gerald, and Lupe was nowhere in sight, so I left without saying goodbye.

As I stepped onto the bus, I smiled at the driver and walked down the aisle in search of an empty seat. Unfortunately, it appeared as if every seat was filled. I immediately spotted an incredibly handsome boy, and wished there was a spot next to him. Fearing impending humiliation, I reached the back row and breathed out a sigh of relief when I spied an available seat next to a girl with light brown hair. She was thin with a very young face. It was hard to tell while she was sitting down, but she looked to be about 5'5. She half smiled when I sat down next to her.

"I'm Lana," I introduced myself.

"I'm Mim," she said quietly.

"Are you a freshman?" I tried to keep the conversation alive despite the fact that she had turned to face the window.

"I'm a sophomore," Mim said, which surprised me because she looked more like an eighth grader. "You?"

"I'm a junior," I told her. "It's my first day."

"Cool," she said, turning back to the window. I had expected her to ask where I had come from, or why I had transferred in the middle of the year, but she couldn't seem to care less.

Upon our arrival at school, Mim left quickly. I had hoped that she would show me to the office, but that was pretty far fetched considering she would hardly talk to me on the bus.

Topeka High School looked large and imposing from the outside. I ascended the front steps into the school in hopes of finding the office myself, and quickly learned that the school was bigger inside than out. I roamed the hallways hopelessly until deciding on asking another student for help.

"Do you know where the office is?" I approached a tall, pretty black girl.

"Yeah," she smiled. "Are you knew?"

"I just came from Wyoming," I said. "I'm Lana."

"Sophie," she said. "Follow me."

Sophie seemed a lot more social than Mim. Unlike my bus buddy, she did question why I transferred so late in the year. I told her it was to visit my grandpa, who I guess I could say was Gerald. Sophie showed me to the office, and bade me goodbye as she went her own way. I greeted the receptionist, who printed out my schedule and gave me a map of the school, leaving me to find my own way to class.

Once back in the hallway, I groaned upon first glance of my schedule. My first class was one that I loathed, Chemistry. However, I was thankful to see that it was fairly close to the office. I easily located the classroom, and stepped inside, walking up to the teacher as the students talked wildly before the bell rang.

"Hi," I said to the teacher. My schedule told me that his name was Mr. Barton. "I'm new."

"Oh, yes," Mr. Barton said. He reached into his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. "You'll want to look over these tonight to catch up. Take a seat anywhere."

I took the papers from him and looked around the classroom to see that there were only two empty desks. One was in an isolated position the back corner of the classroom, and the other was in the front next to Sophie. Sophie smiled as I sat next to her.

Chemistry went, as I expected, slowly. But Sophie made small talk with me after class, and I was happy to make a friend on my first day. I had three more classes before lunch: History, Calculus (which I had with Mim), and English (which I had with Sophie).

"Sorry you have all these boring classes with me," Sophie said after English. "Are you eating lunch with anyone?"

Relieved she had asked, I shook my head, and she walked with me to the cafeteria.

"Don't be intimidated by my friends," Sophie said. "The whole cool thing is just an act."

Sophie and I made our way through the lunch line, and I followed her to a table near the back of the cafeteria, where five people sat. I recognized one of them as Mim.

"This is Lana. She's new," Sophie sat down, and I seated myself next to her.

"I'm Amelia," the green eyed blonde girl said.

"Calvin," the brown eyed dark skinned boy raised his eyebrows.

"Luke," the boy with brown eyes and blonde hair stuffed his mouth with food.

"I'm Dominic," the last boy, the one sitting directly across from me, said. I recognized him as the handsome boy from the bus, with chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair. I gazed at him a little too long, making him smirk. I turned my head in embarrassment, and he elbowed Mim.

"I met her on the bus," Mim said quietly.

"Excuse my sister," Dominic said. "She's a little antisocial."

"That's okay," I said.

After they questioned me about where I came from, the conversation switched to Friday's basketball game, which Calvin and Luke would be playing in. I came to understand that Calvin and Amelia were dating.

I couldn't help but stare at Dominic a little. He only caught me one more time, but didn't seem alarmed. He actually seemed rather flattered.

The rest of my classes were easy. I had a lot of them with Sophie's friends, which comforted me about the future. I thought so much about the future that I had to remind myself what the mission was.

I wasn't there to make friends and daydream about boys. I was there to hunt werewolves.