Children of the Moon

Three

Alec

We had chemistry last with Mr Parker. I took my usual seat in the last row, next to Maddie. She didn't look up at me and she looked deep in thought.

"Earth to Maddie" I said waving my hand in front of her face

She blinked several times before looking up at me. She smiled. The kind of smile that lights up her entire face and makes you feel like your insides have turned to liquid. The kind of smile you would burn villages to see.

"Did you do the homework?" she said

"Mr Parker never checks" I shrugged

"You do realise if you don't get at least 60% on the next test, you'll just have to keep redoing it until you get a C"

"Then I'll keep redoing them" I stopped caring about grades a while ago, especially after last summer.

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her exercise book. Her focus didn't last long because before Mr Parker had even started the lesson, she was back into her daydream.

"Are you alright?" I asked, getting my own books out of my bag.

"Fine" she said quickly coming back to reality.  I knew from years of experience that she wasn't but I also knew she didn't want to talk about it. So I didn't bring it up again

I glanced over one row in front and two seats to my right. Veronica Black was smiling wickedly as Chloe talked to her. Veronica only EVER smiled when she was ruining someone's life. She ran a twitter page where she posted embarrassing stories and pictures of people at the school (these were usually exaggerated or taken out of context). The only way to get her to not post something about you was to do something for her. These things never benefited her but just liked to play with people like pawns in her game.

She once made a boy run naked through the lunch hall in exchange for not posting his story. In the end she recorded it and posted it anyway. The only way to be safe from her was to stay away from her. Chloe was almost as bad. She was the information source for Veronica. You always had to watch what you said around her as EVERYTHING got back to Veronica. We all followed her twitter page. We were too scared not to.

"Mr Christopher" Mr Parker stopped in front of my desk "Your homework?"

Damn it! He picks today of all days to check the homework.

"I left it at home" I lied "Can I leave it on your desk first thing tomorrow morning."

He shook his head "If it's not on my desk by 9:00am tomorrow, you will do it in detention." He walked away and went around the rest of the class asking for the homework.

Maddie looked at me "You're not going to do it are you?"

"Nope"

The past year and half homework had been the least of my worries. The only reason I came to school at all was because of Maddie.

"What's your mum gonna think if you fail another chemistry test" Maddie said

I tensed at the mention of my mum

"My mum stopped caring what happened to me a while ago"

It was true. I had stopped considering my mum family by now. I trusted two people in the world only; Maddie and my 13 year old sister, Erin. Maddie meant well but she simply didn't understand. No one did.

*****

After school I walked Maddie home, stayed at hers for a couple hours and wandered around the neighbourhood long after the sun had set. I always left the house early in the morning and came back late at night to try and reduce the amount of time I spent at home. The only reason I came home at all and didn't stay out all night (like I would prefer to do) was because of Erin. Erin was the only reason I did a lot of things lately.

When I entered my home I was immediately greeted by the smell of beer and vomit. I scrunched my nose in disgust. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my mother passed out drunk on the sofa. I went straight upstairs, not bothering to check her pulse like I had the first few times. It happened so often that I wouldn't want to waste my time worrying.

I walked into my sister's room to see her clutching a drawing pad, similar to mine, to her chest. She was smiling up at me but I'm pretty sure I could see tears in her eyes.

"Mum's passed out again. Should I call Dr Patel?" she asked, beckoning for me to sit down

I sat down on her dark purple duvet, "Erin, she's drunk, not having a heart attack"

"I just worry that..."

"Don't. She doesn't deserve your worry"

Erin always sympathised with our mother more than I could ever bring myself to.

Trying to lighten the mood I asked "What you drawing?"

She shyly offered me the drawing pad saying "It's not very good"

She had drawn a picture of the symbol that was on the pendant that hung on her neck. It was the very last piece of jewellery that our mother hadn't sold for alcohol money. It was a jay bird necklace that our father had given her before he died as her middle name was Jay.

"It's lovely" I said because it was.

"I know the shading's wrong, and the line is too but-"

"it's perfect." I said. I rose to my feet and walked over to the door.

"Dinner time. Come on, aren't you gonna help me?" I asked

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help," she laughed, rising to her feet as well.

*****

London

When Julian and I got home, we went straight into the garage. Damien was already there, hitting a punching bag that hung from the ceiling, sweat dripping down his back. When he heard us he immediately turned around and smiled at us.

"Hey guys. How was your day?"

I said "Rubbish" at the same time that Julian said "Great"

"So what was it? Rubbish or great?" He said laughing and shaking his head.

He grabbed a towel to dry himself off.

"Great. Vanessa Whitehorse, you know her right London?" Julian looked at me waiting for an answer and when he didn't get one he carried on "Damn, she's hot. So I'm on my way to English Lit, right? And then I see her. She'd been eyeing me up all day. So I give her one of my signature smiles" he smiled at us almost as if he was showing us what he meant "and she winks at me. I swear by tomorrow we'll be up in Tongue-Toilet"

"What the fuck is a Tongue-Toilet?" I asked

"You know the one at the back of the science block? Well nobody ever uses it so that's where people go to you know-"

"In a public toilet? Very classy, Julian" I said raising my eyebrows and making my way to the door, having heard enough

As I left I heard Damien congratulating Julian on his success. Hearing your own twin talking about 'scoring' with a girl was almost as bad as your guardian encouraging him. I walked to my room and got out of my school uniform. I opened my wardrobe and pulled a grey adidas sports bra and black sweatpants.

When I got back to the garage, Julian had changed into his own workout clothes and was sparring with Damien. Damien being our alpha meant he was bigger than Julian with a lot more muscles. He was black and at least 6 foot tall.

"Oh, so you decided to grace us with your presence" Julian joked

"I'll grace you with a punch in the face if you mention Tongue-Toilet again." I resorted walking past them to the pull up bar.

We worked out for our usual hour and a half. We did this every day after school as well as our 3 mile jog. Against popular belief werewolves don't just get super ripped automatically. We had to work for the physiques we had. We finished the day of with dinner that I had to make. We ate a lot half of the meal being meat alone. Protein was essential for us.

I took a shower and went to bed at 11, leaving Julian and Damien still playing on the PS4. We had to get up early every morning so I went to bed no later than 12 on a weekday whereas Julian sometimes wouldn't even sleep at all. I wished him good luck getting out of bed the next day and climbed the stairs to my room.