Life Within Crystalfort: Our Story Continues - Part One [COMPLETED]

Chapter Three

I sat silently on the bleachers in the almost empty gym, reading the message on my phone again. I understood Clawd was going through a rough patch right now and every right to be upset, but why'd he send me a message from a different phone? On the verge of my emotional cliff, I looked at my phone's contacts. "Number Unknown" was actually a contact in my phone. Ad it wasn't Clawd's number. I couldn't, for the life of it, remember whose number it was.

"Hey, D. Are you ready for the game. It starts in fifteen minutes," Lagoona asked, sitting down next to me. I shook my head and handed her my phone.

"Whose number is this?"

"Couldn't tell you, mate. I'm not one for remembering numbers," she stood up and walked back over to the group of my classmates, and my fellow fearleaders, that stood it the center of the gym.

"Laura," a voice whispered from across the gym. If I had been any monster but a vampire, I wouldn't have heard anything. I looked to my left, to my right, and then behind me. When I turned back, Clawd stood in front of me.

"You don't seem so excited," he said, sitting beside me. I shrugged and looked at him, forcing myself to smile. He looked horrible. He had bags under his eyes and had certainly lost a lot of weight, most of, if not all of, he weight he had lost being muscle. Suddenly, he looked like a normal, skinny boy. He wasn't the wolf that I had seen a couple of weeks ago. It was weird. He just looked so different.

"You look....."

"Horrible. Trust me, I know," he smiled slightly. "How are you? You feeling alright? I mean, you don't look like you feel good."

"I'm fine, I think. Just......" I gave up on an explanation and just handed him my phone. He ran his hand through his hair and looked back at me and then back at the text message on my phone.

"I can tell you one thing, Laura. That's not from me. I promise you that," I nodded.

"I know. I was hoping you'd know whose number this was," I said, switching to my contacts. He let out a small laugh and looked back at me.

"Why would you name one of your contacts " Number Unknown"? That's kinda confusing."

"I didn't do that. Someone else did. That's why I want to know if you know the number," he nodded and handed me back my phone.

"It's Deuce's number."

"Deuce? But I....." I paused and then I figured it out. "Cleo."

"Cleo?"

"She's mad at me. Ugh, whatever. Anyways, I haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing?" He shrugged.

"I guess I'm doing as well as you would hope to be doing... Hey, are you really upset about that text message? Because, I swear that it wasn't from me."

"I'm not upset about it. I knew it wasn't from you. It's no big deal. I'll just talk to Cleo after the game. But, hey, good luck. I haven't seen you on he court for awhile," he nodded and stood up. He pulled me into a hug and smiled.

"I have to talk to you after the game. I have something for you."

"Alright. Good luck," he let go of me and grabbed his hat off of the bleaches and set it on his head.

"Good luck to you, too. You cheering makes winning easier," he smiled and ran onto the court, throwing his hands up in the air as the crowd cheered. He was the captain of the casketball team and everyone knew it. I found myself smiling as I ran onto the court with the rest of my fearleading team as we began our first cheer of the night. And, along with our first cheer, came the first points for our team. I looked at the hoop just in time to see Clawd dunk the ball. I smiled and cheered just a little louder.

After an hour the game was over and almost everyone had left. The casketball team remained, continuing to shoot hoops. Clawd stood against the wall, waiting for me to come over to him. Which, I could not do because Cleo was busy talking to all of us.

"And I want to let you all know that we did do good tonight, but not good enough. We almost lost and it's all our fault that we almost did. You guys have to do better. Perform better and cheer louder."

"Cleo, we won by twelve points. We didn't almost lose," Lagoona said, cocking her head in confusion. Cleo half-smiled and shook her head.

"We only gained enough points to win because we finally cheered louder in the fourth quarter of the game. Otherwise, we would have lost. We have to do better at the state game. I plan on two or more hours of practice after school everyday until the game."

"Geeez, Cleo, you're going to run us straight into the ground. We have to take breaks, sometimes. I don't care if we do longer practices, but you can't do them everyday," Clawdeen said, rubbing at her ankle.

"You're just mad that you got hurt. We'll be fine training all the time. Just be lucky I'm only making you all put in two hours a day. Nefera would've had four hours a day!" I rolled my eyes and turned around as she dismissed us. I walked over to Clawd and threw my arms around him.

"Congrats on the win," he returned the hug and steered me towards the door.

"Thanks. But, you know, it was a team effort. Come on, I'll drive you home," I got in the passenger side of his truck as he turned on the truck. "Anyways, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for not talking to you since.... The incident. I guess I was stuck in my own world. Solitude sounded like the best thing at the time. It wasn't. I mean, I didn't even answer any of your texts..."

"It's fine, Clawd. You had every right to be upset and every right to stop texting me. I'm not mad."

"I wasn't done talking, Laura. The other big thing was.... Why aren't you excited?" I looked at him in confusion and shrugged.

"I'm excited about you finally leaving your house. If you think I'm not, you're wrong. And, if that's not what you're talking about, I don't know what it is that I'm supposed to be excited about," he let out a quiet laugh and reached back behind his seat. He placed a small pink bag on my lap.

"It's your birthday, Laura. And Valentine's Day. Happy 1600."

"Oh my ghoul. I didn't even remember. I'm so sorry, Clawd. I didn't get you anything for Valentine's Day. How could I just forget about my favorite holiday?" He held up a hand to stop me, quickly placing his hand back on the steering wheel.

"It's fine, Laura, not like I was expecting anything. I wasn't going to get you much. It was originally only going to be something for your birthday. But, whatever. You can open that whenever," he stopped the truck in front of my house. I carefully removed the tissue paper from the bag and pulled out the little pink stuffed swan, a small card held in its beak.

"Happy V-Day, Laura. Love ya" I smiled and reached into the bag once more. I opened the little box to find a pink necklace. The necklace literally had 1600 on it.

"Where did you get this?"

"If I told you, you'd go find out the price of it," I thought about it and realized he was right.

"Thank you. So much. I love it," he smiled and reached over and hugged me, kissing my forehead.

"And I love you."

"I love you, too, Clawd."