Counting Our Stars • Tyler Joseph •

Chapter 20

• Claire •

"So, Claire, are you from Columbus?" Kelly asked as she stood at the stove, stirring the pot of noodles meant for their spaghetti.

Claire glanced up at the blonde and set her knife down on the cutting board where she had been instructed to make the salad. "No ma'am, I am originally from Orlando. My dad got offered a job here as an electrician and I go to Ohio State."

Kelly half-turned in her direction and offered her a smile. "Is that how you met Tyler?" She asked.

"Yes, we met in Biology class and we were paired up as lab partners." Claire explained, smiling.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't very thrilled when he discussed the possibility of being with a human. With Chris being Alpha, he makes laws for our pack to protect us. If the humans found out about our kind, we would be slaughtered because they would fear us. We were against him being friends with you because we were afraid he would slip up and we would have to fix a mess that he created." Kelly said, her eyes fixed on Claire.

"he has been really careful. He made sure I didn't know anything for the first few weeks. He even attempted to push me away." She said.

"Well, now that we have properly met, I'm sorry I judged you so early." Kelly frowned, turning back to the stove.

"I get it, you are protecting your family. I hope I can be a good influence on Tyler." She admitted, hopeful Kelly could hear how genuine she was being.

Kelly turned one final smile in her direction. "Oh, honey, I've never seen him fight so hard on something like this. So I should thank you for helping him find his purpose again."

• • •

As the pack members filed into the dining hall when it was time to eat, Claire was seated in between Ryan and Alice, two wolves that Kelly had introduced her to earlier in the day. They were siblings, twins, around her age, maybe a year younger.

Ryan had been chattering on about a video game, Claire hadn't been paying attention to his eager banter.

"Just nod like you're listening and eventually he'll shut up." Alice whispered. Claire gave her a relieved smile and gave her an amuse grin which Alice returned. She could already tell she was going to really like Alice, maybe they would even become friends.

Soon after she began following Alice's advice, Ryan did eventually get the hint and quiet down. She felt bad but she wasn't in any mood to be energetics and chatty. Her mind would still drift back to the other wolves who were supposed to go with Brad and rescue Tyler. How was it going? Did they find him?

She found herself distractedly chewing one of her fingernails as her thoughts circled her brain. She was so worried for a boy she hadn't known for a long period it was true they had only met just a month ago and so much had already happened. It seems like she knew so much about him but in a way, She still knew hardly anything.

After dinner Claire and some of the other wolves cleaned the kitchen and dining room. Many insisted that she didn't have to help but Claire knew she needed something to distract her thoughts. They seem to pick up on that with how often she was lost in her thoughts.

She was led to a large living room with a huge U-shaped sectional leather couch and on the wall in front of it a large flat screen TV with a fireplace mantle below that. The TV was playing some sort of basketball game with several guys, ranging from teens to adults, crowded around on the couches, eyes glued to the screen. Claire followed Alice to a small two person table in the corner of the room where a stack of playing cards were set up.

"Care to play a game with me?" Alice asked. Her body halfway turned towards her and her brown eyes were filled with curiosity and happiness.

"Of course." What game is your favorite?" Claire asked.

The pair sat across from each other and Alice grabbed the stack of cards, splitting them into two halves before she began to shuffle them.

"Some of the younger wolves made up a game called 'Trash'." Alice explained as she set ten cards down on the table in front of Claire. She then laid ten cards down for herself, putting the remainder of the cards in the middle between them.

Claire glanced curiously down at the ten cards in front of her, there was two rows of five cards. "So, how do we play?"

"Okay, we take turns drawing a card from the center pile then if you pick up a card that is from one to ten, you swap that card with the card in front of you. So for example, I just picked up a two so I will replace my number two card in front of me with the card that I picked up. And you keep flipping your cards with each turn until you get ten. then whoever gets ten first, that person goes to nine and then eventually someone will get to one card and they win. She said.

Claire nodded in understanding. The rules seemed simple enough. "Okay."

"And as long as you keep getting numbers, it is still your turn. But, if you pick up a face value card, then you put it into the trash pile. You can't use those. Oh, and the ace card represents one." Alice added. It seems like she flipped her cards for forever until she set down a king card next to the center pile. So that must mean that was the trash pile like she had explained. Claire gave Alice an inquisitive glance, silently asking if it was her turn. Alice gave her a single nod as a gesture.

Claire drew a card from the center pile and flipped it over to look at it. It was a number seven. She found her seventh card in the second row, the second card in that row and replaced it with her number seven card that she had drawn. The new card was a three. She repeated the actions until she had flipped a queen card. She discarded it into the trash pile.

"that was pretty great! You have flipped over five cards so far" Alice beamed excitedly. Claire smiled at her.

• • •

The pair continued playing their card game, laughing anytime one of them would win a round.

Their fun was cut short when one of the older wolves, Sam Claire recalled, burst through the door. His face was flush red and his breath came in ragged bursts as if he had been running for a long time.

"The Alpha is dead!"

(A/N: Dun dun dun!!! Hey, look! A chapter!! I hope you guys liked this one! Until next time!! ❤️)