The First Day

You’re woken up by your mother pounding on your bedroom door. Bang Bang! “Olivia, wake up you’re going to be late!” Your mom yells through the wooden door. You let out a grumble, rolling out of bed your hairs messy, pyjama bottoms longer than your legs following you as you slump to your closet. “I’m almost ready” you yell in response. You weren’t in fact ready at all. You grab your favourite black laced top and matching black ripped jeans, you throw them on, lazily. ‘I better sort my hair’ you grab your brush and begin combing your hair, your long black hair fell beside your face, with the red tips laying naturally on your shirt. You grab one final item to complete the ensemble, a black leather jacket, you throw it on quickly along with some combat boots and head downstairs to the kitchen.

You enter the kitchen, your mothers waiting for you, “I made pancakes.” Your mom chirps. you head over to the grey marble countertop and grab a plate of your mom's famous maple pancakes and eat them hastily before your brother Sam drives you to school. You finish up the plate and turn to your mom “You’re the best.” You beam at her.

“i do try sweetie but it’s not the same since your father passed away.” She tried to hide her grief.

“You never actually told me what happened.” Your voice cracks a little with sadness.

“It was a tragic accident; I’ll tell you the whole story one day but right now you have to get to school.” Her voice soft. 

As if on cue your brother strolls in, “Why’s it so depressing in here?” Sam glances at your mom a moment. “Olivia was just asking about your father.” She explained sweetly.

“Oh, he had an accident, I’ll tell you one day kiddo, come on.” Sam tugs your arm a little beckoning you toward the door.

“Fine.” You follow; hurt you can’t know what happened to your father.

‘I’m so sick of secrets.’

You climb into your brother's car, the ride is deathly silent, he seems angry that you asked about your dad. You pull up in the schools parking lot. You turn to him to finally break the silence.

 “I’m sorry for asking about dad, I just would like to know.” You remark, softly and a little sadly.

Sam lets out a sigh “Okay, I think you should know the truth, Dad was killed by Nate’s dad, why do you think you hate him so much?” Sam explains.

“Wait, I thought I hated him because he used to be a stuck-up rich kid.” You gasped, miffed at your brother.

Sam rubs his temple, as though he’s trying to find the correct phrasing “Tell you what, let’s skip the first half and I’ll tell you everything.” He smiled at you.

You nod in agreement, Sam drives out of the parking lot and after a little while you reach a secluded area it’s nothing but a cave out of the way set back in some woods, where no one would think to go.

“Welcome to Sam’s spot!” Sam beamed, gesturing to the giant stone behind him.

“Do you come here when you need to think?” You ask, politely.

“Mostly thinking, yeah.” Sam smiles at you. You sit on the grass in front of the cave entrance. 

“So why this spot?” You question.

“This is where I’m safest.” Sam explains.

“Okay, so about dad?” You press Sam for information.

“I’m getting there. I need to tell you something, but you can’t freak out.” Sam’s expressions unreadable.

“Sure.” You nod, waiting for the news.

“I’m a werewolf.” Sam’s expressions serious.

“Are you drunk, am I being pranked?” You laugh.

“I’m serious Liv, I’m a werewolf.” Sam’s expression still neutral.

“Sure.” You’re still a little skeptical about the news Sam just gave you.

“Dad was one too, you’re a werewolf.” Sam explains.

“What about mom?” You ask.

“Ask her if you don’t believe me, mom and dad met in high school. Dad was learning how to control being a werewolf so humans couldn’t find out, mom however figured it out, but instead of ratting him out she helped him keep it under control, when we were born it was the happiest moment of their lives, dad explained about the whole werewolf thing to me when I was thirteen.” Sam clarifies.

“Why did he tell you at thirteen, but mom and you have been keeping this from me for so long?” You glare at Sam.

“I came to dad about it, stuff was happening, some weird stuff, I was excelling in sports, hearing stuff from further away than any average human, my senses were heightened.” Sam continued.

“I haven’t experienced any of that stuff yet why?” You pressed Sam for an answer.

“Not that we know, have you noticed anything unusual?” Sam asked.

“The heightened senses but I thought that was normal.” You remark.

“It is normal for us but not for humans.” Sam laughs a little.

“I’m a werewolf, you’re a werewolf and mom’s not a werewolf?” You wanted to clarify what you were just told.

“Correct, this brings me to dad, the whole reason we came out here.” Sam smiles, sitting beside you on the grass.

“You said he was killed?” You start the conversation, your voice shaky.

“Yeah, Nate’s dad killed him, there was a pack war when I was fourteen, me and Nate had no idea what to do, I watched dad die, in front of my eyes, Nate’s dad killed him.” Sam’s voice breaks a little as he explains what happened, his eyes glaze over a little.

“Why’s Nate’s dad not in prison?” You question, slightly confused.

“Because we can’t go to the police, it would jeopardise the werewolves and they would also think we are crazy, so at fourteen I swore to protect you and mom, to try and keep you away from that.” Sam explains, calmly.

“Oh.” You’re stuck for how to respond to the information you’ve been given.

“I get so angry around Nate, but I can’t help it, it brings back memories.” Sam admitted.

“And I hate Nate why?” You pressed to know the reasoning.

“The day it happened, you were there, you were just so young you don’t remember it all, not fully but a small part of your brain remembers hating Nate and that’s where it’s came from so now you have a hatred for him, we just used the reasoning of you hated how spoilt he was whenever you asked us why you disliked him.” Sam responded.

“But Nate and I, we were best friends.” Your voice sad.

“I know but after what happened to dad you refused to speak to him.” Sam remarked.

“I won’t ever forgive him for what he’s done!” You exclaimed, filled with rage.

“That’s perfectly okay.” Sam soothes the anger, trying to calm you down.

“If I’m a werewolf, is there anything I should know?” You asked, curious.

“You’re going to need to learn to control it, but baby steps little sis.” Sam beamed.

“Sure, shoot it’s almost lunch, should we head back?” You flip your phone around to Sam to display the time.

“Good idea.” Sam nodded at you, and you head back to his car.

You arrive back at school; you walk into the cafeteria with Sam. Madison approaches you. Madison is the schools queen bee, head cheer leader, queen bitch if you’d prefer, she struts up to you and Sam, her blonde hair styled perfectly, she gets so close to you that you can smell her tacky perfume.

“Sam why are you with that freak.” She stares you up and down.

“She’s, my sister.” Sam growls at Madison.

“Oh.” Madison shrivels with embarrassment.

“I’ll see you later, I gotta go catch up with Tara.” You burst out laughing and breeze past Madison.

As you’re walking away you hear Sam telling Madison off, Tara’s waiting for you on your usual table, that one table out of the way of the rest of the students in the cafeteria, the table for outcasts if you will, the outcasts being you and Tara in this instance.

“Olivia, where have you been?” Tara wraps you in the biggest hug.

“Sam wanted to talk about my dad.” You laughed as she’s hugging you.

“Oh right, it’s almost the anniversary isn’t it.” Tara gives you a sympathetic look.

“Yeah.” You shuffle on the spot for a moment, hoping anything would distract from the dad conversation.

You notice Tara is staring off into the distance, a little off to the side of you, you turn your head to see what she’s staring at.

“My brother really?” You mock her, playfully.

“What, he’s cute.” Tara blushes a little.

“Gross!” You burst out laughing again.

“What about Nate?” Tara grins, flicking her gaze behind you.

“What about him?” you pressed her for information.

“He’s been watching you this whole time.” Tara remarked.

You turn your head in the direction in which Tara glanced for a moment to see Nate looking over, he quickly turns away when he realises you noticed him watching you.

“Nate and I don’t get on.” You dismissed even the mere thought of you and Nate.

“Why is that exactly?” Tara pressed for a reason.

“He’s a stuck-up rich kid.” You explained.

“isn’t half the school?” Tara chuckled.

“True. But I still don’t like him.” You laugh it off.

“Okay.” Tara giggled. You see Sam heading your way.

“Hey Tara, Olivia.” Sam grins at the both of you.

“What do you want?” You laugh, dismissing Sam.

“Well, I was coming to see if my lovely little sister would be attending the game.” Sam chuckles.

“Are you playing?” You joked.

“Of course, weirdo.” Sam chuckles again.

“Then I guess I could make time in my busy schedule for it.” You mock Sam.

“Great, Tara you’ll be there too, right?” He turns to Tara, grinning at her.

“Oh-erm I...” Tara falls over her words.

“She’ll be there.” You interjected.

“Awesome.” Sam swaggers off and you burst out laughing at Tara.

“You were so tongue tied.” You chuckle.

“Shut up.” Tara blushes, redder than a tomato.

You and Tara finish up lunch and head over to the football field, you find a seat in the front row which is surprising because it’s usually either filled with the cheer squad or the band, you take a seat beside Tara, the match begins, there’s a few passes, a couple of goals scored by the opposing team, you can see Sam start to get angry. You watch as Sam sprints across the field, he’s the fastest there, the game goes to half time and Sam runs up to you.

“You both made it!” Sam beamed.

“Yeah, can we talk for a sec?” You whisper to Sam.

“Sure.” Sam nods, you pull him to one side.

“How do you keep it under control? I saw you getting stressed?” You asked.

“I’ve had years to practice.” Sam explained.

“Oh.” You nod and head back to Tara, Madison had been watching you the whole time, staring daggers into you.

“What’s her problem?” Tara giggled.

“I don’t know, I was only talking to Sam, she needs to chill.” You laughed.

“Don’t look now but I think Nate and Sam are about to fight.” Tara gasped, gesturing to the football field.

You look over to see Sam and Nate, staring each other down. Thankfully the coach blows the whistle, and the boys continue to practice, you breathe a sigh of relief, once practice is over you decide to try and speak to Nate and Sam and find out what happened on the field, you head towards the gym, to wait for them outside the gym since the boys have to pass through the gym to their locker room. Sam appears from the locker room.

“What are you doing here?” Sam snaps.

“I’m trying to speak to both of you.” You explained.

“Why do you want to talk to Nate?” Sam’s voice was firm when he asked this.

“Because what I’m about to say affects all of us.” You replied.

“Fine, I’ll grab him.” Sam goes off and grabs Nate.

The boys come back out, Nate stands opposite you, he stares at you for a moment.

“What do you want?” He snapped.

“When you were on the field you were getting pissed at each other, but your instincts were coming out, I could tell.” You smile as you share that thought.

“You know nothing about me.” Nate hisses.

‘That’s where he’s wrong, I know a lot about him.’

“I know your dad killed mine.” You snap back at him.

“You told her!” Nate’s expressions a mixture of hurt and anger.

“She would have found out eventually.” Sam dismissed an angry Nate.

“Whatever.” Nate huffs.

Nate edges closer to you. “Speak a word to anyone even that freak friend of yours and you can join your father.” He whispers, his eyes glowed with rage.

You can’t let him talk to you like that, you decide to put him in his place, you step closer to him, you’re toe to toe at this point.

“You think you’re better than everyone else, but you’re not. You’re just a bully and a coward!” You almost yell at him.

“Little girls got brave.” Nate mocked. 

You step closer to him; you drop your voice to a whisper “Not so big now, are we Beta?” Nate is visibly annoyed by your comment.

“Cat got your tongue?” You add, laughing.

Nate doesn’t respond he just barges past you; he walks off angry.

“Why’d you have to say something?” Sam snaps at you.

“He was being a jackass; you didn’t defend me.” You replied, sadly.

“I didn’t defend you because there would have been a fight.” Sam explained.

“Whatever, I’m done with this conversation.” Hurt by your brother who lacks care for you, you storm off leaving Sam stunned. You head to find Tara.

You find her after walking through a couple of hallways, she’s waiting for you outside the library.

“Everything okay? You just sort of disappeared after the game?” She asked, concerned.

“Everything is fine, I needed to speak to Sam.” You smile, reassuring Tara.

“Okay, well I was gonna cram and then maybe head to the arcade.” Tara smiled.

“i love your way of thinking.” You laugh; you and Tara spend two hours studying and then head to the arcade.

After a little bit of a walk, you arrive at the arcade at the end of the pier, you head into the arcades with Tara, it’s empty surprisingly so you’ve free reign on any machines.

“I bet you ten dollars I can kick your ass at the basketball hoop game.” Tara smirked.

“You’re on.” You grin, accepting Tara’s challenge.

That’s when it happened your first werewolf experience, the sheer stamina, strength and power you had playing the game, Tara looks stunned, you scored thirty baskets in under two minutes.

“How did you do that?!” Tara stands shocked.

“I have no idea.” You’re too shocked to even figure it out.

“Well, I guess I’m down ten dollars.” Tara laughs handing you the ten-dollar bill.

“Come on, let’s go grab a drink, I’m thirsty.” You grab Tara’s arm and usher her to find the drinks stand.

You head towards the concession stand, you hear two people arguing.

“Is that Sam and Nate?” Tara asked, shocked.

“Why would they be arguing? And about what?” You replied.

“Maybe we should go listen in?” Tara suggests.

“No, you go back inside, I’ll finish getting the drinks.” You smiled.

“Okay, see you inside.” Tara heads off back into the arcade, you approach the boys a little closer.

You move closer to listen to the pair arguing.

“I'm trying to protect her.” Sam snapped.

“And you think I don’t want to protect her too?” Nate asked, angrily.

“If you want to protect her stay away from her, she hates you anyway.” Sam’s word pierced into you.

“She hates me because of my dad!” Nate snapped again.

“Just stay away from her!” Sam demanded.

“She can decide for herself.” Nate’s fists were clenched.

You decide now would be a good time to step in. You approach them both.

“What’s going on?” You look between the pair shocked.

“We were just talking” Sam explained.

“No, you were arguing, about me, why?” You snapped, demanding an answer.

“We weren’t.” Sam stuttered a little.

“I heard you both, Nate I do hate you, the day my dad died, you just watched at least that’s what Sam told me, stay away from me, both of you. I don’t need protecting.” Your words cut into the boys.

“But we live together.” Sam replied, sadly.

“I’ll stay at Tara’s if I have to.” You snap at the boys, scoop up the drinks and head back inside to Tara.

She’s hammering some buttons on a machine; she stops when she realises, you’re beside her. 

“What took you so long?” she asked, her expression a little worried.

“I couldn’t decide what I wanted to drink.” You remarked.

“I realised how late it’s getting do you want to come and hang out at mine for a little while?” Tara asked grinning.

“Sure, why not.” You beam back at her.

You and Tara begin walking back to her house, you’re walking up the main street from the pier, you hear a familiar voice shouting to you.

“Olivia, wait up!” It was Nate.

“Leave me alone!” You yell back.

“Liv, what does Nate want?” Tara questioned.

“No Idea.” You smiled.

“Olivia, STOP!” Nate yells, louder.

“Piss off Winters!” You snarled at him.

“Olivia Yates, stop” His voice demanding.

“Stay away Winters!” You warn him.

You speed up walking, zig zagging down streets trying to avoid Nate, you know this isn’t going to work but you try anyway, you arrive at Tara’s house. Tara’s house wasn’t fancy it was your generic family house; the outside made of pinky/peach wooden panelling, there were some white stone steps which led to a white, wooden double door, sat beside a large wooden window. 

“Nate must really want to talk to you.” Tara nodded behind you.

“What?” You turn to see why she nodded behind you; you see Nate leaning against a tree.

“For goodness' sake, Tara you go inside, I’ll be in shortly.” You smile at her as she heads into her house.

You approach Nate, you pull him out of sight of Tara.

“What part of leave me alone do you do not understand?” You snap at him.

“The alone part.” Nate smirks.

“Maybe you’d understand what it feels like alone if your pack leader got killed.” Nate winces at your words.

“It’s not too late to join us. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.” Nate began explaining.

“I don’t need anyone, I lost my dad, and you think it can be resolved by me joining you?” you don’t know whether to be angry or hurt.

“No, I just want to look out for you.” Nate tries to reassure you he has good intentions.

“You should have thought about that before my dad was killed!” You snarled at him.

“You don’t know the full story, Liv.” Nate remarked.

“I know you stood there, doing nothing.” You snapped again.

“I’m sorry, I know that’s not gonna change what happened or bring back your dad but truly, I’m sorry, I miss my best friend.” Nate admitted, sadly.

“She died the day my dad did, now leave me alone.” Your tone is Icey.

“Please, wait.” Nate goes to grab your wrist as you turn to walk away from him.

“Just go Nate.” You feel tears pricking the corners of your eyes.

You walk away from him, not looking back, you enter Tara’s house and head upstairs into Tara’s room, she’s waiting for you.

“That looked tense, what happened?” Tara asked, worried.

“Just Nate being Nate.” You replied, trying your utmost to change the subject.

“Mhmm, well if you need me, I’m here.” Tara smiled at you.

“Thanks, T.” You hug her.

After a while of gossiping, you finish up at Tara’s and head home, you enter your house to find your mom laying on the couch. She looks pale.

“MOM!” You rush to her side.

“I’m okay, I just needed a lie down, I felt a little lightheaded.” Your mom explained.

“Are you sure you’re, okay?” You asked her, you need that extra reassurance.

“Yes sweetie, have you seen Sam?” She asked, she looked worried.

“No, I thought he’d already be home.” You replied.

“No, maybe he has gone to a friend's house.” She tried convincing herself that was the answer.

“Probably, I’m gonna grab you some water then I’m gonna head to bed, let me know if you need anything else.” you smiled, you rush to get your mom some water and head upstairs to your room.

You enter your room to see a bruised and bloody Sam, sitting at your desk.

“What the...” You trail off.

“Don’t freak out.” He stands in front of you covered in marks.

“What happened?” You pressed as you examined his wounds.

“A pack fight, I snuck in through your window, mom would have lost it.” Sam explained.

“This is getting dangerous Sam.” You rubbed your temple.

“Welcome to the life of a werewolf.” Sam joked.

“This is serious, you need to let me help you.” You practically pleaded for him to allow you to help.

“No, it’s too dangerous.” Sam dismissed you.

“Is that why you and Nate were arguing today?” You responded.

“Yeah, I know we said we weren’t arguing over you but we were, Nate found out I was going to a pack meet tonight, he was trying to persuade me not to go, as though I’d listen to that idiot, then he tried persuading me to let him protect you should anything happen to me tonight, obviously I refused.” Sam explained.

“Which explains why Nate followed me to Tara’s house.” You remarked.

“Did he hurt you?” Sam’s voice on edge.

“No, in fact he apologised, for everything with dad and me and him no longer being best friends, he wanted to try and mend bridges, to protect me.” You explained.

“If he starts giving you trouble let me know.” Typical Sam playing the big bad wolf.

“Let’s just get you cleaned up before mom finds you.” You grab some antiseptic and clean up some of Sam’s cuts, you bathe the bruising hoping it will go down tomorrow and shoo him out of your room. 

‘Why does it have to be like this? I miss dad.’

You change into your pyjamas, curl up into your bed and cry yourself to sleep, that night was a long one.