Chapter One: Hello, Good-bye

My mother’s 2011 Volt glided gracefully across the long curves and bumps that was the highway leading out of New York. My head was to smushed lazily against the cold window. I was deeply upset about leaving my home town, but what can you do? My dad had been offered a top notch job in the Mid-West. Now I was being relocated to East-Jesus-No-Where Iowa.

I wanted to be furious, I wanted to scream at my mother and demand she turn this car around immediately, but already I could feel the effects of the sleeping pill I took before setting off. I decided to give her the silent treatment, so I did my best not to snore.
In my dreams I was flying over my precious city, looking down at all the things I loved; like the coffee shop over on 5th, the huge library just across the street, and everything in between.
I couldn’t think of anything more peaceful than staying here forev-
“Hey, Stupid. Get up we’re at McDonald’s,” My older brother, Caine, yelled in my ear.

“Mmmmm?” I mumbled intelligently.

I heard Caine grumble something that sounded like ‘Lazy whore’. I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face, I was sure my brother was very

hungry and I was also sure that Mom wouldn’t start without me.

The next thing I knew something hard had me by the elbow and was thoroughly dragging me from the car. My eyes flew and the air was knocked out of me when he swept me up into a ‘fire man’s’ carry.

“Caine! You big lug, put me down this instant!” I shouted angrily.

“Hun

gry

, ”He made the two syllables into two different words.

I sighed and allowed myself to be carried, mostly because the pills hadn’t completely worn off. Plus there was no point in arguing with living breathing Testosterone.

He pushed through the front door of the restaurant. Using my feet as his occupied arms. When we finally made it through the door my nose was assaulted with the grease filled scent of a fast food joint.

“Alright, you can put me down now. I’m inside.” I scolded, wriggling in Caine’s arms. I was then dropped on my butt, wiping down the floor of the place with my embarrassment. I got to my feet, my face burning from all twelve pairs of eyes on me, I made my way to the table Mom had chosen. I was just glad that it was at the back of the restaurant.

Sliding quickly into the seat next to Caine, I gave him a swift kick in the shin. My mood brightened slightly when he winced in pain.

I stared blankly down at the tan colored table, this had to go into my top five worst colors ever.

“Give it a rest,” he groaned, “we’re not going home. You’ll just make Mom feel worse.”

My jaw practically hit the floor, I mean it’s not like my brother didn’t have his moments but they were so few and far between you forgot what they looked like. What was most shocking to me is that Caine had been thoughtful were I had been childish, I’m usually pretty mature for my fifteen years. Were Caine with his seventeen could have been four for all he acted.

My eyes gazed over towards Mom, she looked like she always did with her respectable, (but not too flashy) designer clothes. Mom had grown up poor, but despite that she fit well with Dad’s wealthy crowd. She had poise, manners, and knew a thing or two about fashion, it was only times like these when you found her eating at McDonald’s that you could guess anything was different about her.

Examining her closer I could see the dark bags under her eyes and I tired look she gave the cashier who hadn’t heard our order correctly.

I snapped my gaze back to Caine, thinking I should take this rare opportunity to talk to him.

“Are you going to miss New York?”

At first he seemed surprised that I had actually just tried to start a conversation with him, we didn’t talk much anymore, not like when we were little.

“That depends on how many hot girls this new town has,” he said with all seriousness.

I rolled my eyes, “Don’t you only need one

hot girl?”

“One girl! That’s crazy talk.”

“Man whore,” I muttered.

He looked a little shocked that I called him on it but he soon regained his facade, “Ah, Cassie, poor young immature Cassie.”

I scowled. “Me? The immature one? Look in the mirror hypocrite!”

Just then the chair across the table scooted out and our mother sat down food in front of us. Thoroughly appeasing the animals.

“Children,” she scoffed, “can’t we all just get along?”

We both nodded vigorously, our mouths stuffed to the brim with greasy food. I hadn’t realized til that exact moment how hungry I really was. I glanced over at Caine who was inhaling a Big Mac, he was like a bottomless pit.

In a matter of seconds, at least it seemed like that, we had eaten everything. In the back of my mind I noticed that Mom hadn’t eaten anything. I decided to store that for later reflection.

When we had finished, we were about to get up to throw away the trash, when I realized Mom was just siting there. I had to say her name a few times before she finally glanced up at me.

“Hey, are you ready to go? We can wait if your not finished.” I said, trying to analyze the expression on her face. I heard Caine let out a groan. I knew that he was standing behind me so I jerked my elbow back, happy to feel it connect with his stomach. He shut up after that.

“Oh, no. I’m fine, ready to go. Are you ready? I’m fine.” Mom started to mumble to no one in particular. I took her uneaten food and threw it away. Caine grabbed the keys and headed out to the car.

“Yeah, we’ll just meet you out there.” I called out, knowing he couldn’t hear me. I walked over to mom, who was gazing off into space. I tapped her on the shoulder, she about jumped out of her skin. Getting up out of her seat, she searched the table for the keys. Her eyes met mine, panic filled, I told her that Caine had the keys. She seemed to have to think when I said his name, almost as if she didn’t remember who he was. It freaked me out.

Heading for the door, I had to jog to keep pace with her. We got to the car, Caine was in the drivers seat. I was planning to sit in the back, but Mom beat me to it. I was stuck up front with Caine. Once we were all buckled up and ready to go, he revved the gas, almost literally scaring the shit out of me. I was fine with mom driving, but Caine, he craved speed. He is what most people would call a thrill seeker, I just called him stupid.

Before I knew it, we were on the freeway, going at least 20 miles over the speed limit. I was grasping the hand holds so tightly, my knuckles were white. I glanced back at mom, expecting her to be just as nervous as I was. She was fine, or appeared to be. Her eyes were slightly glassy as she just gazed out the window into nothingness. My eyebrows scrunched together in worry. The car swerved dangerously to the left. I glanced over to Caine.

“What? The idiot was going to slow, I passed him. Ha! You’re as white as a ghost! You’re fine, we’re still alive right? Right, so stop looking at me like that.”

That was just like my brother, always looking on the bright side of things, while he sounded like a blubbering idiot.

I was just starting to relax when the loudest horn sounded. I flipped around in my seat, facing my mom. She had found Caine’s air horn. I felt like I was babysitting a two-year old. I was starting to worry about mom. I took the air horn and replaced it with the ring I bought a few years back.

Turing back to Caine, I asked, “Hey, Mom is really worrying me. Can we stop by a hospital? Just to make sure that everything is in working order?”

He glanced in the rear-view mirror, and nodded. We drove for about another half hour until we exited. Pulling up into the Urgent Care wing of the hospital, Caine parked the car in the front row. I got out of the car. Opening the back door, I helped my mother out. As we walked through the doors, Mom started to fight me. Clawing at my hand where it rested on my arm. I knew that she didn’t like hospitals.

As we reached the front desk, the nurse glanced up and had us come around to the other side. A look of surprise crossed her face as she checked Mom’s blood pressure.

She looked at Caine, “Does your mother have any history of high blood pressure, or any stress-related illness?”

I made eye contact with him, it made me slightly angry that he was at a loss for words. “No, she has been healthy for as long as we can remember.”

A quizzical look passed over the nurse’s face. She asked more questions that Caine and I did our best to describe as fully and honestly as we could.

“Well,” she sighed as she stood up, “we can run some blood tests, but the system is backed up. It could take a couple of days, didn’t you kids say you were traveling?”

I nodded, “Is there anyway you could call us or mail the results to our local hospital?”

She bit her lip, “I suppose, what are you kids in such a hurry for?”

I shared a knowing look with Caine, “Our father will worry if we’re not home on time.”

It wasn’t a direct lie, I just don’t know if worry would be the word I would have chose to describe Dad’s mood.

After a long hour of signing forms: explaining that we were leaving against hospital regulations and all that crap, we were finally back on the road.

Caine went just as fast, if not faster, only this time I didn’t mind. I had other things on my mind.

Chapter Two: Short Crappy Vacation

We had stopped for the night at this ratty, back street hotel. The beds weren’t even made when we walked into the room, and a few flies were buzzing at the window. It smelled like old, stale cigarettes, even though there was a no smoking sign on the door. I turned around before anyone could enter the room. “We are not sleeping in here tonight.”

Caine being the brother he is just had to look into the room and agree with me. I picked up the bags that I had set down and started back for the car, Caine and Mom following shortly behind.

We drove around for a while before finding a Holiday Inn with our name on it. Mom was still pretty shaken up so I slipped her Platinum Mastercard out of her purse with no one the wiser, except for Caine of course.

I strode confidently up to the front desk where a man in his late forties greeted us with a raised eyebrow.

I gave him the credit card without blinking, “Two connecting rooms, please.”

He frowned and ran the card through the cash register, when it took he smiled and gave us our keys. He probably figured who was he to argue with money?

I grabbed Mom by the hand and drug her over to the elevator, leaving Caine to get the heavy bags.

Smiling to myself I hit the up button and waited for a few seconds before the doors opened revealing soft but aggravating music. Caine was in last so he hit the 4th floor button and leaned against the wall.

“If you think your sleeping in my room-”

` “Wouldn’t dream of it, deary,” I spit back sarcastically.

We road the rest of the ride in silence. I was mostly thinking about Mom, about the tests, and about how strange she’d been acting.

The doors opened with a ding and I dodged past two children on their way to the pool.

I practically sprinted down the hall to room 434, with Mom in tow the whole time. Sliding the key in the slot I waited for the light to turn green. It seemed to take half a century, but finally I closed the door behind Mom and me. Caine could bring the bags around later.

It took a lot of work, but I convinced Mom to sit on bed near the bathroom and the door, so that I could take the one by the window and closest to the TV.

A few hours later there came a knock at the connecting door. A little annoyed that I had to get out of bed, I made my way over and opened it.

“What?” I hissed. Caine looked a tad surprised at my hostility, but he hid it well.

“I’m heading to the bar, if you need anything,” he shrugged.

“Your not old enough,” I trailed off realizing that I sounded like a total dork.

He guffawed in amusement, “That’s not what my fake ID says.”

I stepped back and slammed the door in his face, I could still hear him laughing from all the way across the room.

I settled in to watch pay-per-view movies all night, hey not my dime

. I glanced over at Mom who I had tucked in a few minutes ago. She seemed to be sleeping soundly, which was good. Maybe all she needed was a few good hours

, was what I wanted to believe.

I went back to watching movies. I realized that the movie that I was previously watching had ended. I exited it and went on to flipping through the other options.

I’m going to rack up a huge bill

, I thought with a smile on my face.

I drifted off to sleep while watching a sappy ‘chick flick’ and the next thing I knew someone was shaking me awake.

“Hey kid, get up. The open road’s calling our name,” Caine’s annoying gruff voice called from just outside my mental bubble.

I glanced quickly at the electric clock on the night stand. 5:54 AM, I groaned and covered my head with the nearest pillow.

“Rain check for noon,” I grumbled, hoping against the impossible that he would let it go.

“You can leave here with your dignity or you can leave over my shoulder, either way get up.”

“Fine! Sleep Natzi.”

I shrugged off the covers and shivered as the cold air hit me like a ton of bricks. Sprinting to the other side of the room I grabbed up some warmer clothes and made a bee-line to the nearest bathroom.

I tugged on the jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt, not my usual outfit by any means. I was like my mother in that aspect, clean cut designer clothes nothing to show off, but never out of place in the life my family lived.

Opening the door slowly, I poked my head out. Empty.

Frowning to myself I walked through the two rooms, without luck. I was completely pissed, this was always happening to me! He got me up, called me names, and then left without me.

Thinking back now I realized he hadn’t called me any names and with everything that was about to unfold I’m sorry I was mad at him for even a second of the time we had left.

Chapter Three: More Weight

Back on the road again, I was still mad that Caine was driving, but slightly relieved that it wasn’t Mom behind the wheel. I swear, before this trip is over I will have one of those ass rashes that you need ointment to treat, from being flung back and forth in this freakin’ car. Fun. The only good part was that you could tell when he was about to start something, he flipped his longish brown hair out of his hazel eyes and then next moment BAM!

I was starting to get used to Caine’s driving. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time I still reached for the nearest hand-hold when he accelerated ‘and or’ turned, which was often. I think he got got a thrill from just upsetting me.

Pretty soon the constant beating became a comfort, like as long as I was being thrashed, I knew my brother was right there beside me, being thrashed around too. I started to relax into the seat and let my body go limp, with in minutes I was fast asleep.

One thing you know to know about me and cars, they put me to sleep like an overdose of NyQuil.

Not to soon later, I felt more than saw, street lights passing over head, the constant light made it hard for me to sleep. After about five more minutes of trying to drift back off to Lala land, I gave up. Opening my eyes I found that we were crossing a huge flooded river.

Glancing over to my brother, I asked, still some what groggy, “Where are we?”

Caine keeping his eyes on the road answered, “Just now crossing the Mississippi, heading into Iowa from Illinois.”

I was confused, “Weren’t we just in Indiana?”

“Yeah, like four or five hours ago.” he said, reaching over to put his hand on my forehead. I knew that he was just trying to piss me off. He also knew that I hated to be touched. I swatted his hand away, only to see that he was wearing a smug smile.

Staring out the window I couldn’t see anything but forest the city lights had disappeared a few minutes ago, leaving only eerie silence behind.

“How long til we get there?” I asked in an off hand tone. What I really wanted to know was how long before my life as I knew ceased to exist.

“Ten minutes tops,” his voice was unreadable.

I’m pretty sure that my eyes bugged out of my head. “TEN? Are you serious, or are you just shitting me?”

He glanced at me, a small smile tugging at his lips. Just as he looked back to the road, something huge, furry, and black jumped out from the forest. Caine swerved to try to miss it, if only he would have stayed going straight. We hit the thing. I saw sweat start around his hair line, making his dark brown hair a glossy black. The air bags had inflated, crushing my arm to my chest, I swore that I heard something snap. There was a sharp pain, then nothing at all. I had lost all feeling in my left arm. Once my vision came into focus, I saw Caine start to get out of the car to go and see what it was that we hit.

As soon as the door shut on Caine’s side my brain went crazy. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, everything in my body was in hyper mode and it was all saying ‘Caine’s in danger! Save Caine!’.

I tore out of that car faster than a NASCAR driver who just found out that they won. With in seconds I was standing in front of Caine, blocking his path. A look of surprise flashed on his face, I think it was because he didn’t think that I was fast. After the surprise came the pissed. Shoving me out of the way with a grunt, he started towards the giant pile of black fur.

Kicking it, Caine declared it dead, whatever it was. Turning around he started to walk away. At first I though that I was seeing things, the lump appeared to be twitching. I took a step forward as if to pull Caine behind me. At that exact moment the lump of fur jumped up, landing on all fours with a thud. It was the biggest animal that I had ever seen.

It was all black with sharp grey eyes, like ice. The teeth were long knives with drool dripping down from them. It stood towards me, slightly tensed like it’s about to pounce. Probably because it was.

Now what happened next I blame entirely on the fact that I’m pretty sure I had been infected by all those bad action pay-per-view movies. My legs moved of they’re own accord, closer to the wolf.

I was so close I could smell the grime coming off him, like decaying animals, and see his breath in the frigid night air. Somewhere in all the fear I decided it was male.

I made eye contact with him, in his eyes I could see the anger, pure animal instinct. The next moment he was air born and the next his weight was crushing me.

It felt like I was slowly being crushed to death, like that man during the Salem Witch Trails, the one who kept saying ‘more weight’. There’s only one difference I can see between him and me, I couldn’t make a sound.

I wasn’t scared though, I had a feeling, like when you know you’re in trouble, but you will still get out of it alive. I was sure that I was going to see daylight again. I was right. All of a sudden the weight was removed. I heard Caine’s yelling, previously muffled by the fur in my face, and I was able to breath again. Gasping for air, I glanced around confused by the scene going on.

My vision was swimming, and I was seeing double, but I still had a pretty good idea of what was going on around me. Caine was sprinting towards me, screaming, his eyes locked on my face. I then looked to my other surroundings. There were now two wolves, the second was about twice the size of the one that attacked me. It looked as if the wolves were arguing, but there were no words, sounds, or movements of any kind. The hackles on the smaller wolf were standing straight up. When he glanced over at me and saw that Caine was helping me to my feet, he took a step forward, only to be stopped by the bigger wolf. Glancing at the bigger wolf, the first let out a menacing growl.

I was surprised, he looked as if he was trying to protect me from my own brother. A small smile tugged at my mouth, even through all of the comotion. My instincts told me to nod my head. I did, it was almost like I was reassuring him. The wolf backed down, letting the larger one hide him from my view. I got to my feet, only then realizing that it had just been seconds in which the entire scene happened.

In moments Caine and I were back in the car, Caine was driving. Giving the car gas, we were gone, headed to our new home. I hadn’t realized that Mom had been in the car the entire time. I turned around to see if she was okay, she seemed fine, although slightly dazed. Turning back around to face the on coming road, I wondered what the hell had just happened.

Caine jerked the car right heading off the road. I thought that he had swerved to miss something, but I then realized that we were heading on a dirt road.

On the left a huge house appeared, blotting out the moon. Turning on to the drive way, I took the final step into my new life.

Chapter 4: If glares could kill...

When the car came to a complete stop outside our new ‘home’ nobody moved. Nobody but Mom. She jumped from the car like someone throwing a hot potato and sprinted inside. I guessed Dad wasn’t home due to the lack of light coming from the house, probably off on a business trip or something.

My eyes found their way over to my brother, who was sitting there with his large fingers pinching his nose. I stifled a groan, not this. For as long as I could remember Caine took up this position when he was about to lecture me, which happens a lot.

He blames it entirely on me, of course. His reasoning- ‘if you didn’t act like a reckless idiot all the time then I wouldn’t have to raise my voice at you’.

Which is absurd! I don’t take risks...much.

“You should have stayed in the car,” he breathed angrily.

“I was just following your top notch example,” I retorted. Hind sight says that that was pretty stupid, I mean why bait the rabid dog anymore than needed?

He still wasn’t looking at me, and he didn’t even try to bicker back at me. It sobered me a bit to know that he was really upset about this.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, Caine has always been the ‘over protective’ type. Like it was all on his shoulders if something happened to me on his watch. It pretty strange the sense of responsibility he seemed to feel towards me, considering how immature he can be.

“You could have been hurt,” he finally looked up and met my gaze, his eyes were filled with fear.

I instantly felt guilty for baiting him. “I’m sorry,” I know it kind of sounded lame, but it was the best I could come up with. It seemed to have an effect on him and he relaxed into the seat, most people underestimate the wonders that a good apology can bring about.

“We should get inside,” his voice sounded even more husky than usual, probably from all the emotions running through the air. What can I say? He’s still a guy.

***
I awoke the next morning to the annoying sound of the radio DJs laughing and just being their aggravating selves. Rather than pushing the dismiss button on my alarm clock, like a normal civil person, I smacked it and sent it flying across the room. Yeah I know a little rash, but nothing could break that old thing, believe me I’ve tried.
“Honey,” Mom called from below, “breakfast is ready!”
I shot out of bed like a rocket and the mention of food. I wasn’t like those popular girls who turned their nose up at carbs and calories, I’m an athlete and I need nourishment. I was mostly into running, like track and cross-country, anything to get me away from the cheerleaders.

I know, pretty strange for a rich girl with designer clothes not to fit in with the preppy crowd. I just found their shallow conversations really boring. Not that it mattered, even if I avoided them they seemed to radiate themselves toward me. Eventually I would just give in and join their clique, if for no other reason than to get them off my back.

I descended the stairs into the brightly decorated dinning room where Mom had set up plates stacked high with pancakes and waffles.

Mom was bustling around the kitchen in an apron like she hadn’t totally gone psycho on us yesterday. She flashed me a brilliant smile and tucked her red hair behind one ear. I decided to just let it go, what’s the point in ruining a perfectly good morning?

“Mmmmm food,” my brother groaned in ecstasy, with his hair matted everywhere he resembled one of the ‘wild things’ and his eyes were crazy with hunger. I realized that my own chocolate hair probably looked just like his, how icky.

After finishing my own portion, which was anything but small, I rushed to the bathroom for damage control.

Yep, definitely a good idea, I thought as I stared aghast in the mirror. For starters my light brown hair looked like a hay stack, complete with grass and dirt in it from last light. My usually calm icy blue eyes were erratic, probably from seeing my hair.

I hopped in the shower and turned it up as hot as it could go, something was going to have to burn away the ugly.

After my second rinse cycle, I searched around for a towel and found a pink one resting in the closet. I dried everything vigorously and then pulled out my toiletries.

***

Half an hour later I was finally presentable, now all I need was somewhere to go. My brother and I didn’t start school til tomorrow, so I guess there was nothing to do but explore the town.

I swung by my brother’s room to sucker him into driving me around, I so didn’t want to be around Mom when this little ‘high’ that she had going crashed into the ground.

“Look alive, Mills, you’re driving,” I shouted from his door.

“Busy,” he grunted from his bed were he was napping.

I rolled my eyes, yeah he looks really busy. I was currently the bane of Caine’s existence; just two weeks from my 16th birthday and being able to drive myself. He hated being my chauffeur, partly because it was so uncool, but he’d keep doing if he didn’t want me to tell Dad where he really went for spring break.

We were suppose to go visit Grandma Sanred over spring break, she was seventy years old and in the hospital for a hip replacement. Caine on the other hand couldn’t go because he ‘caught the flue’. Ha! As if! When we were all at Grandma’s bed holding her hand through all the pain, his buddies and him went down to Mexico all for the sake of getting laid. He said the best part was that he couldn’t understand a word she said, so it was easy to pretend she wasn’t talking. Pig.

Our eyes met, he quickly remembered that I had dirt and until he found something to use against me he was my slave.

He groaned and buried his face in his pillow, “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

I happily bounced down to the car, it was nice to have the upper hand even if I knew it probably wouldn’t last long. I hopped into the passenger seat and thought about were I wanted to go.

A frown crossed my face, I had never seen the town and neither Mom or Dad had mentioned anything. So, for all I knew it could be Bumkinville. I sighed, great.

The drivers door opened and my brother plopped in, “Where to?”

“Uh, well-”

“Perfect, tour of the town it is.”

I sank back in me seat and prepared to die. Okay, maybe a little over dramatic, but really? How was our life going to be any better by getting there a few minutes faster? It’s not like we even knew where we were going!

Caine put it in drive and we sped down the long windy gravel road.

***

“First stop; Grocery Store,” I sighed when we pulled into the almost empty parking lot next to ‘Elmer’s Stop-And-Shop’.

“Caine needs nourishment,” my brother grunted.

“If by nourishment you mean junk food, then yes, Cassie needs nourishment too,” I copied his tone.

I didn’t wait for his response, instead I walked into the small store that resembled a log cabin and walked to the candy aisle.

Sure, I know that everyone now-a-days is all about ‘counting those calories’ and that fat and candy are bad for you. My only argument is that I knew they were helping me into an early grave and I was down with it. Those people obviously don’t get that ‘ah’ moment when you bite into a warm chocolate bar or a sour gummy worm. Heaven.

I started at the far end and started shoveling into the cart at least three of all my favorites, I had a feeling that when school started I would be in need of some major comfort food. This was one of the many times I wish I had a best friend, someone to watch movies with, gossip about bitches and cute boys, you know normal stuff.

Deep in thought I made my way to the check-out, barely even noticing that everyone was staring. No not staring that sounds to polite, they were ‘I want to slit your throat you vapid whore’ glaring.

It wasn’t until everything had been charged and paid for that I really started feeling uncomfortable, like I had preformed some kind of huge public ‘no no’ I grabbed the change and ran to find Caine.

I was to busy looking behind me to make sure no one was chasing me with pitch forks that I didn’t pay any mind to were I was going.

BAM! I found myself sprawled out on the floor after colliding with something human like.

“Damn, Cassie, watch were you’re going,” Caine chuckled from above.

Did I say human? I meant stupid ugly slug monster.

“Hurry up, we need to leave.”

“Why?” He sounded completely confused, so I guessed no one was giving him the evil eyes. Maybe it was a chick thing...

“Never mind why, just go,” I sighed impatiently as I shoved him towards the check out.

He shrugged and carried his items to the front. I looked around at the people who had been so vicious, but now with Caine’s appearance they went back to being regular friendly towns people. I rubbed my temples, it was like I had been zapped into a strange horror movie where the monsters only appeared when I was the only one looking.

Back in the car Caine sensed my distress, so instead of asking me about it he decided to cheer me up. At first he was unsuccessful, but them he turned on the radio and mimicked Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This”. Before long I was rolling on the floor hold my stomach in an extreme laugh attack.

We drove around for a while singing along to the radio, but in the end I wanted to go home. At some point you just can’t stop yourself from yelling, “Yo! Got a problem bitches?” So, it was probably best to go before anything like that went down.

I thanked Caine quickly and ran up to my room. My entire body was filled with dread for tomorrow and all the glaring eyes.

Chapter Five: My Kind?

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BEEP BEEP! I was jolted out of LaLa land by the annoying sound of my alarm. Hitting the snooze button I tried to go back to my happy place, but to no avail. My head was filled with thoughts and fears of the day ahead. The first day in my new school. Lugging myself out of bed, I headed straight for the bathroom, only to find the door locked, and Caine’s horrible rap music seeping through the cracks in the wood door.
Pounding on the door with my fist, I yelled, “Caine! What the HELL do you think you’re doing using my bathroom?”
I heard a muffled reply that sounded something like, “Daaterosentworfinyathrom.”

“What?”

Just then the door opened and steam spilled out, Caine’s big head sticking out.

“I said, The water doesn’t work in my bathroom. Something with the pipes.”

Furious that this was how I was supposed to start my school year, waiting on Caine to get his ass in motion, I wasn’t going to take it.
Storming down the stairs, I was surprised to find my dad sitting at the table, reading the Times Newspaper, and drinking his morning cup of coffee. I was almost like our family was normal. It fazed me for a second, seeing my dad there, but I then remembered why I came down.

“Please explain to me why Caine is using my bathroom, and what is so wrong with his, that he can’t walk the three feet it takes to get there?”

Folding the news paper, my dad finally looked me in the eye. “Well it’s simple really, the construction crew messed up the pipes in your brother’s bathroom. They won’t be able to come and fix them for another week or so.”

“Meaning?” I already knew the answer, but I had to hear it from him.

“Meaning, that you will have to share a bathroom with your brother for a while. It’s okay, a little quality time with your brother will do you some good, and you might even learn to share once in a while,” he explained quickly and got back to his paper.

Just peachy. If you’ve ever met a 17 year old boy you’d understand why I so didn’t want to share a bathroom. He’d probably steal my bra and hang it on the flag pole outside the school. I shuddered at the thought.

I grumbled to myself all the way up the stairs. Coming to a stop in front of my bathroom, I pounded on the door.

“Caine Raymond Mills, if you don’t get out of there by the time I get to zero I will kick your butt so hard you’ll need extensive surgery; to remove my foot from your ass,” I spit with just enough menace and volume so that he would hear me.

He opened the door and gave me a quizzical look, “Yeah, keep talk’n like the lady that you are; I’m sure all the guys will come running.”

“I’m not exactly looking for a man as of current,” I chuckled.

He nodded his head in all seriousness, “That’s probably for the best, because if I found out you were I’d have to bury him next to your hamster in the rose garden.”

“You leave Fluffy out of this!” I glared at him. I had never quite forgiven him for the time I went away to summer camp and he had forgotten to feed my pet hamster, some wounds just don’t heal completely.

After I had made myself presentable and gloated a little over my bathroom victory, I was ready for school. Well, mostly. I still would have much rather crawled under the covers and hid, but I didn’t think Caine would allow that.

“Let’s go, squirt,” Caine bellowed.

I rolled my eyes at his pushiness. He didn’t want to do this anymore than I did, he just had to be a ‘manly’ ape about it. Tossing my bag over my should I skipped down the stairs. This day was going to be trying enough without me going out of my way to be in a crappy mood.

***

We drove through the winding roads that lead to the school. Some how, the woods lining each side of the road seemed less menacing then they were that first night. At one point the trees became a blur of green, thanks to Caine’s driving.

“Are you sure that you know where your going? I would really like to be on time for my first day of school, you know... not bring any more unneeded attention.” I jabbed.

With out missing a beat Caine replied, “Nope, I thought that we would just take a drive, may be get lost somewhere and starve to death out here.”

Shooting him a glare, I fumed. For some reason, since I got up this morning, my emotions were everywhere. In the back of my mind I wondered if I was PMSing.

That thought was quickly snuffed out by the building looming up out of the green in front of us. It appeared to be a castle, but at a closer look, you realized it had a really modern look. The outer wall was surrounded with a metal fence, not those ugly chain link ones, but the ones that you saw on some million-air’s estate. Beyond the fence was the most astounding building, more like buildings, I have ever seen. Even living in Manhattan, none of the most prestigious homes matched this. The walls glinted in the morning sun, giving the school a mysterious feel. The spirals seemed to reach the heavens. Pulling up to the wrought iron gate, I wasn’t quite sure what was supposed to happen. We sat there for a moment, waiting for something to happen. Just then a loud voice came over the speaker.

“State your grade, names, and address.” the voice screetched.

Caine and I looked at each other, shrugging he turned his head to the microphone place under the speaker.

“Junior, Caine Mills, 5600 Grand Travese Road.” Caine spoke loudly.

“NEXT!” it scratched. Reminding me of those contest shows that are always showing on TV.

“Sophomore, Cassie Mills, 5600 Grand Travese Road.” I said.

There was a silence, and then the huge gates opened smoothly without a sound. Pulling through the gates, Caine was directed to a parking lot, placed behind the school, where it wasn’t visible from the road.
Pulling into a parking space, Caine turned off the ignition, and got out of the car. I did the same, even though my instincts were screaming at me to get back into the car and peel out of there as fast as possible. After getting out of the car, I noticed that there were other cars pulling into the lot, all coming from different directions.
Walking towards the place most everyone else was walking to, brought me to a large set of hard wood double doors. Pushing my way through the crowd, I was gifted with some pretty nasty looks, and a few nasty words that I don’t care to repeat. There was a sign pointing me towards the office, turning down the hallway that ‘supposedly’ lead to my destination, saw Caine’s furry head bobbing along with the others in the hall. I ran to catch up with him, some ass hole decided to stick out his foot, right into my path. Catching my foot with their foot, I started to fall. I was about a foot from doing a face plant in front of every one, when something caught my arm. Pulling me to my feet, the face of my rescuer was obscured, partly because he was reaching to pick up the bag that I had dropped, and partly because of the mane of honey-blond hair that surrounded his head like a halo of gold.

Straightening up, he turned to hand me my bag back. I caught a glimpse of the most startling eyes. They were grey, like storm clouds, but had flecks of silver ingrained in them. When he saw that I was staring at him, something flashed in his eyes, to quick for me to analyze what it was. Turning to look at the ass who tripped me in the first place, he let out something that sounded a cross between an animal like snarl and a deep reverberating growl. The guy who attempted to embarrass me, flinched, cowering against the locker, looking like a field mouse facing the hungry stray.

Turning back towards me, he spoke, his deep voice rough, “You must be new, I’ll show you the offices.”

Walking down the hall I was previously headed down, the crowd parted like the Red Sea. As I walked by, I was bombarded with menacing glares from the students. After we passed most of them closed the gap that was made, but some still looked like they wanted to slaughter me.

A moment later, we were standing in front of what looked like a completely different section of the school. What I had refused to notice before, was that there was only him and me in the hall, no menacing students. I came up to the oak door clearly labeled ‘Office’ and turned to my savior.

He was leaning up against the wall with a smirk on his face, how annoying. His facial feature were just as striking as before but this time I noticed the rest of him as well, he was tall at least 6’ if not more with a well muscled tan body. He was the very definition of ‘yum’.

I coughed nervously, “Er...thanks- for earlier.”

His eyebrows raised and looked a little disbelieving, “It was merely the courteous thing to do; for your father that is.”

Can you spell confusion? Firstly, what did my dad have to with anything? Secondly, who says courteous?

I opened my mouth to reply, but he cut me off the second my brain formed words, “Farther more, I take no pleasure in you being here. Your kind don’t belong in our school.”

I think in the moment I had a small aneurysm. My kind? His kind? Was this some kind of woman thing? Thinking back to the hall I quickly shrugged off that idea, there had been plenty of girls.

“You don’t even know me,” I hissed menacingly at him. It might have been classified as over kill, but I sure as hell didn’t care. I had had about all I could take of this shit.

Surprise flashed across his face and he matched my tone, “I don’t need too.”

Who the hell did he think he was? It was like he was saying that my ‘kind’ were all the same, I wanted to scream at him or even better; give him a swift kick in the ass. However, before I could do anything I would regret, or something I wouldn’t, he stood up straight and strode away from like we hadn’t been talking at all.
Usually I would chase him down and make him listen to me, but something about his presence made me stay. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
I stood there for awhile before realizing that I was suppose to be in the Office, quickly I opened the door and slid through, excepting that for the time being I would have to keep my emotions bottled.


Chapter Six: Save My Soul!

Pushing through the doors leading to the Office, cold, air condition-ed air washed over me. The hairs on my arms rose, when my eyes adjusted to the dim light. There were to desks cutting the room in half. There were two women sitting behind each desk, typing away madly.
One glanced up from the computer she was looking at.
“Ah! You must be Cassie, we’ve been expecting you.” the woman said.
For some reason the statement sent an icy shiver down my spine. I knew that there couldn’t be that many new students transferring, but the fact that she new my name, well it was just odd.
“Uh...yeah, that’s me,” I said, plastering a phony smile on my face.
Shuffling some papers on her desk, she held up a half sheet of paper, beckoning for me to come forward and take the paper. Taking small, unsure steps, she impatiently looked up from what ever it was that she was doing.
“Don’t worry I won’t bite, well I don’t feel like it today...” she trailed off.
Giving her an odd look, I closed the distance between me and the desk. Taking the paper from her hands I glance at the classes I had gotten. I hadn’t realized how odd the curiculom was at this school.
Wicca101. Vampires, Were Wolves, and Nymphs History. Kick Boxing. Healthy Lifestyles of the Modern Day MC. Controlling the Change. Blending in the Weak. I was insanely confused. Of course there were the regular core classes; math, science, and L.A. Looking up I realized that I had left the office, and had walked up to a door with Wicca 101 printed on the glass window. Below that was a rune carved into the door. I knew it was a rune because when I was younger I was interested in mythology. It appeared to be a crescent moon hanging upside down. Also there were three teardrop designs carved so they looked to be suspended in air under the moon.
Blessed Be. I don’t know where the thought came from, but I had a strong urge to repeat the thought out loud.
Before I could think to stop myself I blurted the words, “Blessed be.”
My hand, refusing to listen to my brain, reached for the door handle. Twisting it, I pushed. The door swung open easily. Stepping through the door, all heads in the class room turned to look at me. A shy smile creeped over my face, when I saw that everyone was glaring at me. Without looking up, a woman sitting at the front of the room spoke, I think her words were directed at me.
“Right-hand side of the room, empty desk next to the wall. It’s yours.” she nodded to an empty desk.
Making my way across the room, I found myself staring back at the glaring students. Looking each person in the eye, I put on a face that, at least I hope, said that I didn’t care what they thought. In a moment I was at my desk. Everyone went back to their work; reading out of the largest text books I had seen. After glancing around the room, I realized that I had no idea what to do. I noticed that there was some one still staring at me. Preparing to glare, I turned in my desk.
He was sitting in the back, almost hidden by the students in front of him. It wasn’t just the students obscuring him from my view, it was also his hair. Long, slightly curly, shaggy and brown. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew that they were staring straight at me.
“Miss Mills, please step up to my desk.” some one spoke, although it sounded like it came from my head.
Looking around, I saw that the woman at the front of the room was staring at me. Following the feeling in my gut, I got up and made my way to the front of the room. Taking a glance behind me, I realized that no one was paying any attention to me. Turning my head back to the woman, I was hit with shock. She was beautiful, long gold hair fell down to her waist, sharp green eyes stared at me through wire-rimmed glasses. She had this look in her eye, like she had seen the worst life had to offer, and had survived. She seemed to be in her mid-thirties, but she could pass for twenty five.

She bent down to reach under her desk, and came up with a ginormous textbook. It seemed to be the same one that the other students were using.
“We are starting off the year by learning about the phases of the moon, the best times for certain things, and magical objects.” she said, looking at me like I ate her first born child.
Giving her an odd look, I asked, “What pages have been assigned?”
Sighing, she pulled out a note pad and scribbled some funny looking symbols on it. Handing the paper to me she said, “Here are the pages, pay attention to detail. We will be having a test over the material, be prepared.”
Glancing at the symbols, and then at the book, I turned around to head back to my desk.
When I made my way to my destination, I dropped the book onto the desk. As the thud from the book connecting with the desk rang out, all eyes in the class turned to stare at me, again. As I sat down a small smile crept over my face.
Ducking my head, so my hair could hide the huge grin displayed on my face, I flipped to the pages listed on the paper.
These people might want to believe that they’re extra ordinary and that I’m an outsider, but their reactions tell a different story. Humans are the same everywhere, posers.
I just need to blend until I can wrap them around my little finger.
***
Entering the lunch room I stifled a sigh. In any other circumstances I would have been looking forward to this hour all, instead of dreading it. Lunch is great, if you have a group.
The cafeteria consisted of a bunch of circular tables with attached chairs. I looked at the people already sitting in them; each table seemed to have a certain kind of student sitting at it. A couple of them had only pale, gorgeous, fashion oriented people in residence. A few more had tanner, sporty, and more conservative dresser’s. Yet another cluster was filled with boys and girls with the most beautiful hair I’d ever seen.
Lastly, the only normal looking kids, was a very small group of students that all looked different and...human. I quickly sat down, with the lunch that I’d brought from home, at they normal student’s table.
Their gazes went to me immediately, they were the first even moderately friendly faces I’d seen all day. Thank God.
I smiled at them, and they returned it hesitantly. I turned to the girl on my left and extended my hand. She took it with a firm grasp. I liked her already.
“Cassie Mills.”
“Jessica June,” the girl said in a friendly voice. She had long, curly, red hair. It shined beautifully under the lunch room lights. Her dark green eyes had a trace of mischief in them. Definitely my kind of girl.
She introduced me to the other students at the table, I only remember some of there names, but I’ll know their faces. We spent the rest of lunch talking about the teachers and how we wished we were home. Typical lunch room talk.
***
The final bell rang and Jessica walked me to my car. We already had plans for me to sleep over at her house tomorrow. Some friendships are just like that; quick like lightning. I’ve learned a lot about her already. She plays a flute in the band, hates grass, and thinks that Ebooks are evil. And that’s just the beginning.
We parted ways with a smile, and I noticed my brother approaching. Placing a hand on my hip I prepared to chew him out.
“Well, long time no see, stranger,” I said sarcastically. “You sure made yourself scarce today.”
We were both buckled and the car was started before he decided to bless me with an answer.
“I was hanging out with the foot ball team I’m trying out after school tomorrow.”
“And the foot ball doesn’t attend class?” He raised his eyebrows at my and I rolled my eyes. “Whatever cranks your tractor. Hey, I’m going over to a friends house after school tomorrow.”
“Don’t you mean ‘can I go to my friend’s house after school tomorrow?’” He teased.
“No,” I said flatly.
“In that case I give you my permission.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 29.05.2011

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