The Turn of a Page

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

            I hated Fridays; I had an almost free afternoon while my whole friendship group (including Baz) had lessons. I sat around on the picnic benches, trying to do my best at practicing my lines for the play. Now and again, I averted my eyes up and scanned the vicinity around me; there were other people around but I didn’t want to be disturbed. I did this every twenty minutes or so; doing it now, I realised I hadn’t been looking behind me. When I did, I heard some shuffling and looked down, only to see a grey and black wolf scratching behind his ears.

            ‘Hello, can I help you?’ I asked, feeling a little foolish as I knew wolves couldn’t talk (not even werewolves as some fictional books seem to say). He walked over to my side, and hopped his front legs onto the bench beside me; he nudged my script papers with his nose which made me realise who I was talking to. ‘Oh, um. Hello, Cayleb. You really shouldn’t be here you know.’ To that, he huffed and shook his head (almost like he was sneezing); I took this to mean that he didn’t much care. ‘What if someone sees you here or worse recognises you?’ He shook his head more; I had to do my thinking out loud as he wasn’t going to co-operate. ‘So no one’s ever seen you as a wolf round here, or in school, or whatever?’ He nodded in agreement. I found myself stroking between his ears, which he seemed to like. ‘Whether anyone knows that or not, you really shouldn’t be around me like this. Though I know you really don’t care at all. Barry will be out soon, so when the bell rings, I highly suggest that you get your arse off the field and back to your office or wherever you hang out when you aren’t teaching.’ He sniffed again, and moved his head off the table.

            When his fur was out of the way, I saw there was a folded message on the table; I picked it up and hid it in the pages of my script. ‘I’ll read it when I’m alone,’ I reassured him, when he dropped his ears. I had gotten so used to being around werewolves I had picked up on what feelings or type of thoughts they were expressing by just looking at their ears or body postures.

            Pricking his ears back up, he looked around while smelling the air and then jogged off inside; I watched him go, wondering why.

            The bell rang, but that wasn’t what made me jump. ‘There you are,’ Baz called out.

            I looked over and smiled, while I carefully put my books into my bag (making sure nothing fell out). I stood up and wrapped my arms round his neck. ‘Yeh, you found me,’ I said, trying not to snap. ‘Now what?’

            ‘Could you do something for me?’ he said questioningly.

            ‘Anything,’ I smiled, hoping he wasn’t going to ask what I was afraid he might.

            ‘Walk with me to the car?’

            With an internal sigh of relief, I picked my bag up and put my arm round his waist. ‘Of course, it’s my car anyway so you’ll technically be walking me to it.’

            ‘Suit yourself.’ And we headed off to the car park.

            Desperate to see what Cayleb had written, I made up the excuse that I had work to do and went up to my room and locked the door. Shuffling through the pages, I found the folded piece of paper and leaned back into my desk chair before I read it.

            Once I had read it, I wasn’t totally convinced I had read the words right so I read it again. My eyes bulged realising what Cayleb was asking me to try to do: go to meet him at the school, tonight. Part of me was relishing at the fact of how much thrill I was going to get out of the whole sneaking out at night without Baz (or anyone) catching me in the process. Also, I had to dress myself so it wasn’t clear what I was getting up to.