Strong Spirits

Chapter One

"Richalyn!! Your going to be late for your first day of high school honey!!!" My mother's voice carried up the wooden staircase, waking me from my peaceful sleep. Not wanting to get up, I rolled halfway over and checked my phone. '3 new messages'. One was from Dixy, my goofy redneck best friend. The other two were from Madi, my goth friend. I sat up begrudgingly and began searching my room for clothes. I settled on a rusty tee-shirt and some faded jeans. My sneakers hung off my bed and my snap back hat lay on my desk. Getting dressed, I grabbed my bag and put my headphones in my pocket. Grabbing my phone,  I walked downstairs and grabbed some toast.

I ran outside and pulled my dirt bike out of the garage and put on my black helmet. My blue hair stuck out the visor as I hopped on the bike. Fixing it I made off down the driveway and into the street. The golden Washington morning sky was dotted with fluffy amber clouds. Crows and robins flew across the sky and I could just see the sun shining off the ocean from the grassy hill I rode down. The view was amazing. At least, to me.

As I pulled in front of the school, I locked my bike up and took off my helmet, letting my short, spiky, blue hair stick out, and squashed my spikes down with my hat. Sticking in my headphones,  I turned on some 90s punk rock and walked in the doors. Not stopping as people met up with friends. Other kids looked scared as hell to be starting school here. But it was just another day for me. I saw my friends sitting on a table in the commons area and laughed as they tried to act cool. 

"Yo Ricky! What are you doin' here. You look like you just got up man." James called.
"At least I look better than you James." I smirked. His black basketball shorts and baggy old hoodie hung loosely on his wide frame as he sat on the table. "Screw off Ricky." He laughed. Madi and Dixy sat on the floor. They gave me a hug and we began to compare schedules. We had 3 out of 5 classes together. Before we had relaxed much, the bell rang and everyone split up.

The day went as you might expect. I slept in 2nd period, and 3rd. In 4th, I doodled in a random notebook. I covered the entire cover in a mass of vines growing in the head of an old robot, and birds, and graffiti. My music took me away, far away. It took me to a place no one could ever see, except in my art. A place where the trees grew in the ocean, and the mountains blew in the wind like leaves. Where nothing was the same. I lay my head back and the ceiling seemed to reach down towards me, drowning me in the blank white. The bell rang, freeing the talkative class. 

Madi stopped at my desk. "Hey Ricky, you wanna skip 5th man? You hate PE. Besides, Miguel has some buds and a few joints for me. We could go smoke. You always draw cool shit when your stoned." I laughed and nodded, grabbing my bag. Standing, we walked out of the class and into the crowded hall. Passing some over our other friends, I stopped to chat. "Yo Panda man, we're gonna go smoke 5th period, you wanna come man?Joey and Liz, you can come too." Nodding, they followed us out back and we walked down the bus route to the park that was nearby. When we got there, Madi bought her stuff from Miguel, and Panda started blazing it up.

 Liz got her car so we could hotbox. After about twenty minutes of everybody smoking their joints and pipes, the air got so thick it was hard to see. Panda called Domino's and everybody pitched in $10 and we ended up buying five large pizzas. The shitty thing is, we ate them all. We sat in the car for nearly two goddamn hours. When Dixy texted me, we all walked back to the school. Everybody was headed for their buses and cars, but my group hung together as we wandered around. I walked inside to buy a soda, but as I was walking back, I crashed into some weird guy. He was tall, a little stretched looking, and tan. His shaggy dirty blonde hair and faded T-shirt gave him the look of a stoner. He looked at me closely, then walked away into the men's restroom. 

Unfazed, I walked outside again. As I came off my high, the crew blazed it up again. Not me though, I was the elected driver. Once I was sane again, we walked over to Madi's truck. I tied down my dirt bike onto the trailer as everybody hopped in the bed. Madi sat shotgun and turned on some Trap/Rap as we pulled out of the parking lot. She had an awesome stereo, it shook the whole truck. We drove down to the beach and the heat grew pretty intense. 

I drove up onto the tougher sand and drove down close to the water. Everyone hopped out and sat in the warm sand. The girls all put on their bathing suits behind the truck, except Madi. Then the guys changed and we went and started jumping off the rocks into the water. Some of the guys tried flips and tricks. Most of us sat back and let the cool sapphire water lap at our feet as we listened to our music and stared into the distance, or the sky as we started having some scientific conversations. We made jokes, we laughed, we had fun. We always had fun. 

Live was good. There's less problems when you're relaxed. Our school days continued like this all through August and September. Until it started getting cold again. As the clouds darkened the sky, we began to go out less. Instead, we started taking Panda's car into Seattle and we would cruise around and it was just as fun. That first part of the school year was so much fun, maybe some of the best times in my life. 

I sat up alone in my room in the attic, watching the sun set atop the black and silver pines. It turned their tips to crimson and gold and the sky turned a russet color. Everything the sun's loving rays turned to gold, almost as though saying goodbye to the sun until it rose it the morning. I sat in heavy silence, until the rose gold sky was thick indigo blue. It was like ink with nothing piercing it but the thousands of silver stars. The moon seemed to hang there, watching over the sleepy little town of Lynnwood, Washington. 

I sat in the big window and simply stared into the massive sky for hours. The wolves howled and cried at the moon, as though begging her to come down to them. As I watched, two wolves walked out of the trees and sat in the grass below the window and looked up at me. Our eyes met and we sat there, thinking. The tan one I made eye contact with was more slender than the muscular black one beside him. After they had left, I laid down on on my bad and slept. 

I woke with a start. I threw on a black T-shirt and some jeans, grabbing my backpack and coat as I put in my head phones and left. I rode down the road and watched as people went about their lives. How happy they looked, with their wives and children. They all had close families. They were all happy. I got to school with a few minutes to spare. I walked over to Dixy and pulled her aside. "There were wolves outside my window again Dix, I don't know why. Do you think we could ask your grandmother? She IS the shaman of your tribe, she would know why this keeps happening." Dixy contemplated this for a moment before replying, "Yea, let's do that after school today. For now, check out some books from the library about the legends my tribe has about wolves. That'll keep you busy." As the bell rang, I hugged her and headed towards homeroom. I sat there for the next seventy minutes, doing my math assignments and thinking about those weird wolves. 

After Geometry, I walked to the library. I paced up and down the isles until I found the "Native Legends" section. There were three books about wolves, one on whales, four on eagles, and two on salmon and bears. I grabbed the ones about wolves and checked them out. Since I had a free 2nd period, I sat in the library and read some of the books. One legend told about men that worshiped the moon, and that she would grant them the power to become a loyal servant to her, by allowing them to turn into wolves. At first they were only allowed to do it at night, but one day, their clever chief convinced her to allow them to change whenever they wished. She allowed this but made it so they could only love one other. 

Another legend told of how these "wolf-men" would follow women and lure them to the men's homes, where they would give they women they blood of they wolf and they would make the women like them, into what they natives called "Lichens". It was a weird story. Before I read anymore, the bell rang and lunch started. I showed Dixy the legends and all she had to say was "I've been told about lichens my whole life, this sounds strangely realistic." and that was it. The rest of the day dragged on slowly. When it was finally over, me and Dixy hopped on our dirt bikes and made our way to her place. She lived with her father, brothers, and grandmother. 

As we pulled up to their house, she jumped off and ran inside while I grabbed my books. By the time I finally got inside, Gran was already informed and sitting at the table. "So, you want to learn about the wolf men, eh?" She squinted at me and laughed with a grin missing some teeth. "Then you better sit down Ricky. It's quite a tale." I laughed and pulled up a chair. "As you know, men used to worship the moon." She began. She explained in better detail what the books couldn't. When I told her about the wolves following me, she grew quiet. She suddenly looked old and frail. Perking up, she said simply, "Well, perhaps they are wolf-men! Hahaha. Perhaps one wants you as his mate, eh? Haha."

"That's all I know Ricky. I hope I've been of some use." With that, she stood and left the room. Dixy turned to me and we left. My lead, was some story. Fan-fucking-tastic.