Wolves of the Night

Chapter 5: Whose Missing Now?*

Stormie was caught by surprise. William wasn't usually late to lunch. Other than free period, lunch was his favorite part of the school day. Then Stormie remembered how the juniors and seniors now had lunch at a different time than the freshmen and and sophomores. William was a junior while the rest of them were sophomores. Stormie decided she should probably speak up.

Before Stormie had time to speak, Lila said, "Me and Stormie ran into him this morning. Other than that, I haven't seen or heard from him."

"Did he go home sick?" Brooke asked.

Stormie started getting worried. "He wasn't acting sick," Stormie replied, remembering him furiously kicking a vending machine.

Trying to look on the bright side, she suggested a new theory. "Maybe he's decided to skip?" He had skipped school before, so this was a likely explanation for Williams's absence. Though, even if he was skipping he would have had to leave in the middle of the day.

Everybody agreed with her despite knowing that it probably wasn't the answer. They just needed to have something to keep them from worrying. They left it at that and went on with their day.

,'~~~<>~~~',

School ended and everybody went home.

The werewolf kids wanted to get their homework done quickly so they could meet in the forest with the rest if their junior pack. Lila wasn't in too much of a hurry. She had other things on her mind.

She entered her house after walking home through the forest as usual and was almost immediately tackled by her two younger brothers. They were both six-years-old, so they didn't stand a chance at knocking her down.

"What do you pups think you're doing?" Lila asked them playfully. She had a huge grin on her face and was happy to be home. She pulled them off her, trying her best not to be too rough.

One of them, Mark, said, "We're not pups! We're wolves!"

"You look like pups to me!" Lila replied as she ruffled his hair.

The other one, Parker, looked up at Lila with big puppy dog eyes and asked, "How much homework do you have?"

Lila smiled. "Barely any, but I have something else I want to do tonight so I won't have as much time to play."

"Awww," the twins whined in unison.

"Go ask Ms. Clement to play with you if you're that bored."

"But you're the one that hid the ball!" Mark complained.

Lila sighed and went to get the football from her hiding spot, better known as her closet. She came back and gave the ball to the boys who wagged their tails with joy. She gave them one last warning before they went into the backyard. "And no going for the neck this time!"

Lila then went to her room so she could work on an English packet for a little bit before heading into town. She had something she wanted to pick up before the shops closed and forest became frigid. She'd also have to let her pack know she won't be going to the forest with them. There was something extra special that had to be done. The forecast called for snow in a couple of days. Lila needed to this before the snow came, and after all that had happened that day, Lila decided to do it that very day.

,'~~~<>~~~',

Stormie walked up tree lined path to the top of the hill. She was a bit surprised to see that everybody but one person had come. The reason why this was a surprise was because William had come, but Lila had not. Stormie realized she was the last one to come. Maybe I went overboard with the studying, Stormie thought. Lila wasn't always punctual so this wasn't too odd.