FoxTails

Chapter Two

Vanessa kept him in a close range, her eyes on his right ankle at all times. The damp air smelled of cedar and spruce, obviously because of the trees that grew from all sides. She pulled a small Motorola phone from her pocket and pulled up her GPS. Renolds High School was just one mile away now.

It was just in the middle of fall, leaves of different colors littered the ground, wet from the morning dew and the air was crisp and cool. The wind seemed to quicken abruptly and howled in excitement. Vanessa pulled the hood harder over her head and brought a hand over her face to shield her eyes. For a split second, the boy's jeans moved, but that second was all she needed to see the paw tattoo.

She sucked in her breathe. It wasn't quite identical to hers though, larger and shaped differently, but still something. Maybe Vanessa was crazy, just eager to find someone like her. Perhaps she was jumping to conclusions or thought she saw something that she didn't, but Vanessa was ready to dig deeper.

They neared Renolds High, a large, grim building surrounded by weeds. She stepped onto the side walk that circles around the rough gravel drive through, stepping over cracks that trailed like lightning through the concrete. The boy had already gotten in through the heavy doors, falling into a group of kids, whom Vanessa suspected we're friends of his.

All of which were boys, five of them in total. They seemed new and although worked their way through the hallways in silence, attracted the attention of everyone. There was a sort of powerful aura that came off of them.

Vanessa swung by her locker, A31, rotating its lock clockwise to 26 then 16 counterclockwise and clockwise again to 6. She pulled it down hard and it clicked open. Her locker swung open and she tossed her bag in, she wouldn't need anything but her gym clothes for her first period class.

************Time Skip***************

The girl's locker room was packed. Vanessa found a corner to change in and slipped inti her gym shoes quickly. She brought her hand back and tightened the ponytail with a swift yank.

Outside in the gym, a tense tennis match seemed to be going on. It seemed the the new students had the same first period as her and they were having a doubles match. Two people played on each team with one boy as ref. To her disappointment, they worried long socks pulled up high.

"What's happening here?" Vanessa questioned a boy next to her.

"It's been going on for ten minutes now."

"How many matches? Whose winning?"

"It's just one long rally, no one winning or losing."

Suddenly, a hard ball was hit over the net and instead of hitting it,the boy on the right side caught it. He had red hair, darker than Vanessa's and twinkling green eyes. "Let's add a player. James looks lonely sitting over there."

"Splendid idea, Enzo," A boy with dark brown hair, almost black and flashing blue eyes responded with a grin, "we'll take James, you can choose another player from the crowd.

James, the boy from the bus, grabbed a racket from the ground and reluctantly walked over. Now it was Enzo's turn to choose. The crowd shrieked in excitement while Vanessa folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

He stopped at one girl and she screamed in delight. Enzo shook his head and then went back to scanning  the crowd. The girl's excitement faded, replaced with embarrassment and disappointment. Then Enzo stopped again, looked directly at Vanessa. She expected him to continue on scanning, but he didn't move.

"You," he said, his eyes lighting up.

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