Stranger Yet

Chapter 12: Truth Be Told

Chapter 12

The next day at school was about the same as the day before for Ayra. The only difference was that Ashley joined her group of friends for lunch.

Mitchell and Kimmi interrogated Ashley. It was all gentle probing, but probing nonetheless. Ayra could tell that Ashley was glad for the offer to take a walk.

"Yes, that would be great!" Ayra stood and offered Ashley her hand. After they had walked a few paces away from Ayra's friends, Ashley began with, "Well, your friends seem... Nice!" she tried to sound sincere.

"They're so obnoxious, I'm so sorry." All of the questions were embarrassing and Ayra was just as glad as Ashley was to escape them.

Ashley, at least, found it in her to laugh.

"Yeah, so... That wasn't the best experience I've had with new groups but they're friendly at least. Possibly a little too forward, but I can learn to appreciate that. You know, with time." The two intertwined their fingers, but Ayra noticed Ashley grimace at the contact, before trying to cover it up with a smile. Shortly after, Ashley pulled her hand away to put her hair up, and she didn't put it back down.

Ayra tried to turn the focus back to conversation. "So what are your plans for the weekend?" Ashley spent a moment thinking before she said, "Well, I'll be working almost all day Saturday, but Sunday I only work a few hours, so I might go see a movie or something with my dad. He's back in town, and I've really missed him. What about you? Any big plans?"

Ayra shook her head. "No, I'm just going to laze around all weekend. It feels like its been forever since I've had time to just be home." She laughed at that. "Only one full week into school and I already miss being home."

They enjoyed each other's touchless company until the bell rang, then they went their separate ways for class.

After school, Sarah picked Ayra up. She hadn't allowed Ayra to ride the bus yet, and Ayra wasn't complaining.

"How was work, ma?"

"Oh it was fine. How about you? How was school."

"It was good..."

There was a long silence.

"Well, did you spend any time with Ashley today? I really like that girl." Sarah smiled at her daughter then turned back to the road.

"Yeah, we did. And yeah, me too..." Ayra knew that something wasn't clicking the same between her and Ashley but she couldn't figure out why.

She decided not to worry about it for the moment, but instead got to thinking about the desire she had to run freely as her wolf, which made her think about how it was that she COULD turn into a wolf. They were pulling into the driveway before Ayra shifted her body towards her mother.

"Ma."

Sarah looked at Ayra expectantly.

"You know I love you, right?"

Sarah looked over at her daughter again, putting the car in park. "Okay, what'd you do?"

Ayra laughed. "No, ma. I didn't do anything bad... It's just. I wanted to ask about, well... My adoption... I just wanted to know if you knew... well, if you knew about my birth parents, or where I came from or anything like that... But it isn't because I need them. I am so glad you're my mom, and I'm so glad for dad. I'm just... I'm just curious. That's all." She was rambling, and sarah couldn't help but laugh at her daughter.

"I don't mind you wanting to know your parents, baby girl." She sighed. "I just wish I knew more to tell you. The truth is, and I didn't want to tell you when you were too young, and I know was elusive about it, but its only because we tried for so long to find your birth parents. We never found them. We didn't find anything. We put you in the newspaper, and we asked all the surrounding towns. I thought it might be too hard then to explain your... well. To put it bluntly... your abandonment. You already know about where and how we found you. What we didn't tell you was that we tried for years to find your family. We didn't have much to go on. You cried out for someone pretty frequently but when we searched for that person, we couldn't find much... there were no missing child reports for you."

She looked at Ayra with such sadness in her eyes. "My poor baby. I wish I knew more. Really. We had to have a birth certificate made for you. We had to guess your age because you wouldn't tell us much of anything back then. You were so distraught. I can only imagine what you'd been through." Sarah caressed her daughters face. "I'm sorry, sis."

"Don't worry about it mom. I understand." She tried to smile, but it felt contorted. Her eyebrows bunched up a bit in thought. "You said I called out for someone? Was it a name or... was it a title, like mom or dad? I don't recall you mentioning that before and I cant remember it at all..." Ayra trailed on.

"You called for your mommy and daddy a few times, but more than anything, You just kept saying, 'Mer' over and over. Or 'not Mer'. I cried a lot during that time for you. I couldn't understand how anyone could do that to a child... I'm so glad you're with us now. I'm so glad you're so strong, and kind, and intelligent, not to mention beautiful to boot, and I love you so, so much. Let's get inside, hmm? I was thinking fettuccini alfredo for dinner. What do you think?" With that the conversation ended, the two made their way inside. Ayra's heart sank as she processed what her mother had said. Ayra had been calling for Meredith. Ayra tried not to think about the implications, but the thoughts lingered in the back of her mind.

Micah, alone in the trees, relayed to his brother that he had some new information, and that he would prefer to talk about it in person. Though Tiernan was eager to know anything, he agreed that they could talk about it further the next day, after the swap with Tristan took place.

After dinner (Fettuccini alfredo it was), and after an episode of Survivor and a rerun of America's next top model with Sarah, Ayra clambered up the stairs and began getting ready for bed. She had decided to let the information her mother had given her rest for the time being by blaring her music.

For the most part, Ayra felt good, regardless of what her mother had said, and as another Chevelle song came onto her pandora, she happily sang out loud, pretending her long wooden scrubber handle was a microphone.

"HOLD -ON TO CHANCE-

LEST WE BLEED OURSELVES!!!!"

Tiernan, whom had just swapped places with his brother Micah, was outside in the treeline, when his ears were assaulted by Ayra's 'singing'. He threw his hands over his ears and grimaced.

JESUS! THAT'S AWFUL!

He hadn't meant to send the thought through the link, but when Ayra suddenly stopped singing, he knew what he'd done. His only thought: SHIT.

YOU! YOU DON'T GET TO JUDGE MY SINGING- YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!

He stayed silent, hoping she might think she'd imagined it. But he had no such luck. He heard, faintly, the sound of a shower turning off, then her music was turned off.

I know you can hear me! Don't pretend you can't. We had an agreement. It was a verbal one, but I swear it was still an agreement we'd made. You stay away from my home, and I would stay away from yours. She sounded furious. Calm furious. Like she was tired of this but ready to personally come out and deal with it.

Hey. Creeper. I know you're there. He could hear the sound of drawers banging shut. He knew she was getting dressed to come out.

He sighed. Technically, I didn't agree to anything...

Don't be sly, wise guy. Give me two seconds, I'm not doing this like this shit. Meet me at my door or else.