Fighting the Wolves

Chapter One

My legs already ached, but there was nothing to stop that as I ran for my life down the school hallways, my asthma already hitting my lungs full force. No air was going in or out as I wheezed whilst turning a corner and hiding inside the gym teacher's office, locking the door behind me. 

I leaned against the wall, my head beating with my heart as I awaited my lungs to catch some air. I hate running.

Footsteps echoed down the hallway I had just come from, running closer near my hiding place.

"You can't hide from me! I'll find you!" A voice shouted, the footsteps grew distant as my breathing became more even. I slid down to the floor, letting my tense muscles relax. 

A loud pounded started from the door, scaring me as someone's fists rained down their anger on the wooden door.

"Amelia Jamie Walker, if you don't open this door and give me back my phone I swear to God, I'll break it down and strangle you!" I sigh as I get up and open the door for my best friend.

"You can't text Dustin, he's an idiot, and he'll ruin you," I say as my best friend Lexi barges into the room to retrieve her phone from my thieving hands. 

"You've talked to him all of twice Amy, you don't know what he's really like." Lexi argues as her and I exit the gym office, walking back down the hallway she had just chased me from. She clicks the power button on the side, ready to unlock her phone, only to find my handy work.

"You. Locked my phone. For an HOUR!?" Lexi yells, the horrific look on her face reading off her anger as she glared at the locked phone screen. 

"Oh, would you look at the time, I think it's time for us to get to the lobby, the welcome home thing for Jackson Miller is about to start, sooooo..." I trail off, pointing in the direction of the front of the school, before speed walking in that same direction. 

~*~

It's not the easiest thing to be squished into of crowd of people you hate, to welcome back a person you despise, just so you can start the school day, which you hate even more because you have to then sit in hours of classes with those very people you can't stand. 

I honestly don't know how I haven't killed myself yet. 

The crowd around me shifts, causing me to be bumped to the left, still not having a view of where Jackson would arrive, but I don't care. I'm required to be here, otherwise I'd be in the library.

I unconsciously shift the bracelets on my wrists, covering the carnage that remained from the past few days of anxiety and depression, as I tilt my head down, hiding behind my hair as it curtains over my face. I feel my glasses slide down my nose a bit, but I make no move to push them back up.

"Is that him?" I hear a voice call from the right side of the crowd.
"I think that's his car!" Another choruses, followed by another, and another as the whole crowd begins to buzz at the mere mention of Jackson Miller driving towards the school building.

"Students!" The loud voice of principal Kish shouts over the crowd of teenagers, hushing them as Jackson's car pulls up to the front of the building.
"We welcome back to Ridgewood high school, our city mayor's very own son, Jackson Miller!" The principal shouts in correspondence with the sound of a car door opening. 

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up as the crowd around me begins to cheer for the person of the hour. I feel something pull from my gut, causing me to lift my head up. I push my glasses back up my nose as I sudden feel a need to get a glimpse of Jackson, he has been gone for a year after all. He is returning for his senior year. 

I stand on my tippy-toes, still unable to see over the group of people ahead of me. The crowd suddenly rushes forward, pushing me forward onto the ground. Landing face first, I hear something crack, which I'm not sure what it is. As soon as I land on the ground, I feel other students feet on my back, not caring that they are stepping on a person, continuing their mosh towards Jackson.

I squeeze my eyes shut, biting my lip as pain flares through my back with each and every step. My ears begin to ring with the shouts of the people around me, my whole body turning numb as the feet stepping on me start to become far and few in between. Eventually, the whole room clears out, leaving just me alone on the floor. 

Maybe I can just stay here forever, stuck in limbo with this damn numbness.
Would it really be so bad?
The floor is kinda gross though...
Good point.

I slowly push myself up, the front part of me resting on my arms, the back seemingly paralyzed. I whimper in pain as push myself to my feet, swaying from the shocks of pain shooting through my entire body. As soon as I stand up, my glasses fall to the floor, showing me that the cracking noise I heard earlier, was in fact my glasses breaking in half. 

"Thanks for protecting my nose, although you didn't deserve to die." I whisper to the shards of my glasses, I pick them up and shove them into my pockets, my vision completely blurry without my prescription. 

"I don't have anything to hide the ugly for a while I guess." I mutter to myself as I blindly limp down the hallway towards my first hour class, which fortunately has Lexi in it. Although she's gonna kill me for getting hurt. Even though it wasn't my fault...at least not this time.

"Amy?" I hear her voice as I turn down the hallway with my class. I blink as I stare at the blurry glob that seems to be coming towards me. I feel her wrap her arms around me, letting me lean onto her shoulder for support.
"What happened?" She asks quietly.
"Jackson stampede." I chuckle to myself as we reach the classroom, with myself slumping down onto my desk in an exhausted heap, just in time for class as the first bell rings for the day, signalling just the beginning of my new school year of hell. 

It's only 7 a.m...I'll hate to see what else comes our way today.
I'm sure I won't have to wait long.

"Alright, since you're all seniors, I'll cut the bullcrap and skip the stupid formalities that they want me to do every year, you all know who I am, most of you had me last year, yada yada. I know none of you care about getting to know each other so we'll also skip the stupid ice breakers, let's keep it real this year since I'm retiring as soon as you all graduate." My calculus teacher, Mrs. Orringer rattles off. She's 63 now, and honestly has always hated teaching, I'm sure she can't wait till the end of the school year like the rest of us.

But luckily for me and my terrible social awkwardness, we won't have to do the stupid 'get to know your classmates' games that all teachers make you do at the beginning of the year. It's gotten even more stupid with each year.

The bad part, is we're already diving headfirst into math. Everyone's least favorite subject. (Unless you're a mathlete, which doesn't count more than 10 students in the entire school)

"Turn to page 30, the first two chapters are too easy, you could call it middle school math, and we don't need that, so skip to chapter three." Mrs. Orringer says as she starts to write a math formula on the chalk board. 

A chorus of groans sound from around the room as we look at the chapter for linear functions. 

Today is going to be much longer than I thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello! And welcome to the first installment of 'Fighting the Wolves'! I decided to write this story when me and my best friend realized how all of the girls in werewolf stories fall for their mates so easily, I know they're mates and all, but they literally never get to know each other, at all. Honestly, you cannot date me unless you can at least list off my favorite color, and TV show. That's literally the least you can do.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy! 

Also, the song at the top is 'The Good the Bad and the DIrty' by Panic! at the Disco.

I'm going to try my best to make a playlist, meaning I'll have a song for each chapter.