Another F***ing Werewolf Story

normalcy and shit like that

Chapter 1

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Ever since I could remember, I despised being the center of attention. I watched Disney movies like all other girls my age but found myself sick of the idea of being some damsel in distress that some prince charming would have to come to my aid and save me. Why couldn't women just save themselves? 

And why was a man the only one who could do it? 

Fuck that. 

Alright, so the odds hadn't been stacked in my favor. I was the youngest in my soon to be graduating class, with a birthday digging its heels in deep into May. Strike one. 

Strike two, I was tall. Dammit, I was a freak of nature. I was probably pushing five-ten now, and I kept my hair long. Mom loved my hair long and always told me she would cry if I cut it. The thought of my mother in tears made my throat stricken. She would spend hours when I was a child, brushing out my blonde locks and speaking beauty into me until I oozed confidence in every word I spoked. 

There went strike three, my parents spent years grooming a knockout. Literally. I shied away from ballet slippers and pom-poms, but the second my dad dropped a pair of his old boxing gloves into my hands...it was game over for having a dainty, sweet little cheerleader or dancer. My dad was all giggles and grins as he watched me dance around the boxing ring my first time at eight years old, already missing one tooth and sporting gear too big for me and my first busted lip. 

What could strike four possibly be? Well, I'm adopted. 

My parents are black. Strong and successful people of color. They took in a baby when they did not have to, when they were at the pinnacle of their careers, traveling and vacationing at a moment's notice. But when I showed up, they readily dropped everything and changed their lives. 

My mother, Ashlee, and my father Cam, were college sweethearts who had been together since their freshman year. Ashlee was a Social Media Manager for a big name brand company and Cam held an esteemed position as a marketing executive. Both were well respected in their positions in their companies. 

I asked mom a few years ago if she ever thought about having children of her own, and I wished that I hadn't. She told me she had a medical condition that prevented her ovaries from producing any fertile eggs and actually began to cause cancers on her reproductive organs. She had to have a full hysterectomy before she was even 35. She called me her miracle baby instead but I never asked her why. I just hugged her and cried. 

Even now, they are still so young to have their only daughter graduating and getting ready to move away for college. I recalled just last week, dad was bouncing back and forth across the ring with me when he began to get winded and caught my leg to his stomach and dropped. He groaned, "I'm only 42, I'm not supposed to be this tired yet!" 

Yet to the present, here I stood in the middle of History class staring at the flickering slideshow with waning eyesight. I could see the map of the United States, outdated, brown, the West Coast calling my name like a breathy sigh...and I closed my eyes. 

To think, in a matter of weeks...I will graduate and be gone from this little craptastic school...lying on a beach in Cali...

Alice...Alice...Alice...

Wow, the beach is so realistic...

My eyes flew open. 

Mr. Taylor was staring at me with his head cocked to the side in amusement. 

"Taking a nap?" He asked. 

Shrinking violet: activate! I felt all eyes on me and my skin broke out into a feverish red. It was typical in this situation that I couldn't muster a response so I merely shook my head. He pursed his lips and turned around to face the slideshow. 

"Well, if you were daydreaming about California, you still have to survive my class and finals. Then you can worry about college." 

Dammit, mother! I internally cursed her for blabbing at the PTA about me traveling across the states for school. There was a unison of low laughter and my ears began to burn and I sank lower in my desk. Oh, please kill me now... 

It was later that evening and I'd finally collapsed into my car after a long training session at the gym. It was the rabbit punches, thirty seconds on and ten off that did me in at the end. My coach tried to focus on my footwork a little more, but nonetheless, I left covered in the same amount of water that I'd ingested. 

The AC was too cold, so I rolled the windows down and peeled the shirt from my skin, allowing my body the courtesy of exposure for the ride home as I played some soothing 2000s R&B in the background. 

It was late, past 10 p.m., and I knew I still had a paper I had to finish for Mr. Taylor's History and some ridiculous chemistry assignment. 

But I allowed my mind to do something dangerous as I drove my 2015 Nissan through the winding backroads...I allowed it to wander...What a shy, yet abrasive girl I was that I thought the best idea in the world was moving all the way across the country to California? Why was I so eager to run away? And why were my parents so eager to help me? 

I chanced a look at my clock. It was almost eleven. 

I looked up at the cloud muddled night sky and saw the beaming moon piercing through the thick throng of the clouds...Strange...It looked so much...bigger...

My hands-free speaker went off, startling me so badly let out a yelp. I gasped and tried to calm my heart, laying a heart to my thrumming heart and answered the phone. 

"Hello?"

"Honey?" It was my mother. "You...you almost home? It's getting a bit late."

"Yeah! I'm fifteen minutes away. Practice ran late."

"You should have called, bug!"

"I'm sorry, ma!" I groaned, knowing she was worried. 

"Please, just hurry and get home before midnight? Okay?"

"Yes ma'am."

"In the house before midnight."

"Geez, I got it."

"Love you bug, drive safe..."

I'd always had a strict curfew. No staying out past midnight. No being out of the house after midnight. It the only rule they cracked down hard on. They told me when I moved to Cali, I could stay out however late I wanted, which gave me more incentive to get the hell out of this shit hole. 

I kept my hands on 10 and 2 and made the remainder of the drive home without issue. 

Because that's how my life was. I liked to fight and keep to myself. Normalcy and shit like that. 

(A/N) And that's chapter 1!

How do you feel about Alice's background story? 

Also, how are ya'll handling this social distancing and quarantine? I need to go to the store but I'm scared they don't even have anything... 

All feedback is appreciated!