Full Moon

CHAPTER 2

Life didn't change for Ernest during any of the weeks following the murder. School was just as bad, his grades didn't improve, people still mocked and avoided him...Speaking of avoidance, his mother seemed to have permanently gone into oblivion ever since her son's last transformation, as if she knew exactly what had happened on that fateful night. The tension in the room was now almost unbearable whenever Ernest was around her, and as a result he tried to avoid his mom even more, something which he knew she was most likely thankful for. It wasn't like she wanted him anywhere near her.

The boy was busy scribbling random words and letters on his notebook when all of a sudden he felt more than he saw someone sit next to him. Without even looking to his side he knew who it was.

"How are you?" Dana asked cautiously. She seemed very eager to make conversation with someone. As it turned out, people avoided Dana almost as much as they stayed clear of him. Ernest stole a few glimpses in her direction. She was bent over, her red curls mostly falling down her face, covering part of it. Her clear green eyes seemed extremely worried, her complexion even paler than usual.

"Why does she act as if she was worried about me?" he wondered.

"Why do you care how I'm doing?" he replied a bit aggressively, getting up by the same occasion and snapping his notebook shut.

"I could kill you, don't you know that?! I could fucking kill you. So why are you always after me?!"

Dana shrugged, as if the boy's attitude didn't bother her in the very least.

"Because you're the only nice person I've met so far." Ernest looked back at her, flabbergasted. He was nice?! Was she completely insane?

"I must have imagined things the other time when she...guessed what I was. She probably said some other word I didn't really hear..." He stared at her. Dana, arms behind her back, with her big questioning green eyes; that weird girl who had somehow guessed his secret simply wouldn't leave him alone, and he was starting to wonder if there really was something wrong with her.

"Look, I know we kind of joked and all when you first came here, but I'm not what I seem."

"I know you're not," she responded patiently. "but I still appreciate you. I'm usually pretty good at figuring who I'm going to get along with, and I got that impression the second I saw you." She smiled sweetly at him, but Ernest remained grave.

"Well then I'm sorry, but you were wrong," he concluded before walking away. Dana watched him leave with a mixture of hurt and sadness in her eyes, before sighing and leaving in the opposite direction. All the while she told herself not to be sad and angry. The boy was obviously miserable, and people who were sad tended to be mean, even if they didn't intend to be. The girl decided that she'd simply be patient, and wait for him to realize that she only wished to be his friend.

Suddenly she stopped, a look of consternation spread all across her face. It was quickly replaced by a beaming smile, for the redhead had just figured out how to win Ernest's trust. She just had to organize a little something, that's all.

--

"BEN! GET IT!"

A blond young man with curly hair suddenly bolted into the air, catching the soccer ball being thrown at him with expertise before kicking it back on the field.

"ALRIGHT HETCHSEN!" another one congratulated him. Just at that moment the coach blew the whistle, and a bunch of guys came to slap the blond in the back, congratulating him from preventing the other team from scoring.