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Chapter 5

My school bag slips off my shoulder as I walk to school on Monday morning. I haul it back up and rub my puffy eyes. My surroundings blur then slowly straighten back up, nearly making me dizzy. A car passes by then, so very loud as its tires push against the warn-down road. I can't think right now—when I try, my head starts to pound.

I wander into the main school building and flinch at the sound of slamming lockers and blaring voices. The day passes slowly. At lunch, I spot Vivian and her friends. She looks as if she wants to call my name and talk things over, but before she can, I turn and walk in the other direction.

I meant it when I said I was over them. Even back home—where friendships seemed so shallow and meaningless—the few friends I had treated me better. At least they tried to include me.

My mom doesn't know what to do about my sleeping habits. But it's not just that now—my appetite has vanished as well. Grandma can't get away with giving me extra waffles anymore, not when I can barely finish the first one. My grades are dropping as I constantly forget about homework, and most days, if I'm not at school, I'll be struggling at the diner. And Laura can only be so forgiving.

I trudge home with aching legs. The only good thing about today is that the weather has been kind. My first two weeks of being in Waindale consisted of rain and clouds and more rain, but today the clouds are white and the sun shines through them. I glance up at the sky for the few seconds I can. When my eyes come back down, the forest beside me looks dark, and the creature in it stares.

I freeze in place. My throat clogs up. The giant brown wolf watches me. Utterly shocked, I look over its thick warm-toned fur and vicious paws. It moves slightly, and suddenly I know it is not a statue. Clenching my jaw, I steadily turn away and carefully take a step, then another, and another. I can feel its eyes on me, taking in my limbs that it can so easily tear apart. My chest vibrates as I slowly make my way down the sidewalk, ready for it to pounce at any moment.

Curse words repeat in my head. I hesitantly look around for other people or a passing car, but I'm alone. My eyes begin to water as the intense fear settles in the pit of my stomach.

Eventually, I'm walking onto Grandmas property and up the porch steps. I open the door and rely completely on muscle memory to set down my bag, take off my shoes, and enter the kitchen. Grandma is there, bent over large bowels, making something. She says, "Wrenley, how was school? Feeling any better?"

When I don't answer promptly, she turns. "Wrenley? Dear? Is everything alright?"

My eyes rise from the tiles and land on her worried face. "I-I think I'm going to take a nap."

My mom drives me to school the next day. When she asks why, I tell her it's because I don't feel well enough to walk, which isn't really a lie. In the car, she brings up the option of seeing a doctor. If my lack of sleep and other issues are causing this much trouble, she doesn't feel right just waiting to see if it gets better. My mother is worried that there may be an underlying cause.

When I walk into school, before I can even take three steps, Vivian appears in front of me. I halt and suck in a breath. When my lips part, ready to mutter whatever words come to mind so I can ditch, she says, "I know what you saw, Wrenley."

Vivian takes my hand and leads me to a quiet corner down a quiet hallway. "I'm going to get into so much trouble for this. I may as well be digging my own grave."

"What's going on?"

She stops and turns to me. "You saw a wolf in the forest yesterday. It was watching you, right?"

I nod, wrapping my arms around my body.

"Did you tell anyone?"

"I-I thought I was just seeing things. I haven't been sleeping much lately. I thought I was hallucinating or something. But you're saying that it was really there? And how do you—" 

Vivian's face scrunches before she says, "That was me."

I stare at her. "Uh, what? Sorry, I don't get it."

"That was me. I was the wolf."

"Um. How were you the wolf?" I ask, not believing a word she's saying. I didn't take Vivian for the day-dreaming, fantasy, I'm-special type.

"I hope you understand the consequences for what I'm doing," she dramatizes. "Me and Imogen and Eli—we're not human. Not really. Well, sometimes. Most of the time, actually. We have this ability to shift into something else. Are you following?"

I grip my sweater and say nothing at all.

"Well, we shift into wolves. Big wolves," she says, making me reconsider my decision to follow her. "What you saw yesterday was me in my shifted form."

I open my mouth and take in a breath and say, "So you guys pretend to be werewolves is what you're saying?"

Comments (2)
goodnovel comment avatar
Josie Powell
lol ... love the way she explains it!
goodnovel comment avatar
Darlene Mello
enjoying story
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