In Our Blood

Chapter Eight

        Beca stared at the maths test paper as it landed on her desk, going through the instinctive motion of writing her name down and the date. She was so out of it right now that she had written Haring instead of Smith. Her mind was wandering to Callie as soon as she looked at the first question. How was she expected to focus when the full moon was in five days and she basically just got reverse friend-zoned by her best friend?
        She didn't notice her grip tightening on her pencil until the loud snap of the splintering wood echoed through the now quiet classroom. She flinched and looked around nervously, receiving glances from annoyed students and the stern look of her teacher.
        "Something wrong, Miss Smith?"
        Beca shook her head. "Just exam stress, Ma'am."
        The teacher handed her another pencil and turned away. Beca placed the piece of wood on her desk where it would stay intact and held her hand up to her head, sparing a glance at Maddy and Rhydian. That was when she noticed Maddy looking worse than she was and remembered this was Maddy's first time dealing with the pain of a full moon.
        "Rhydian," Beca whispered under her breath, grabbing her pencil and scribbling down nonsense on her paper to look less suspicious. 
        He must've heard her, because when she glanced back over, they made eye contact briefly before he glanced at Maddy. She was breathing heavily and clenching her fists, letting Beca catch a glimpse of her veins darkening.
        "Do something," she hissed fervently towards Rhydian, who looked to his right and lunged towards the wall. The wailing of the fire alarm rang through the school and the teacher urgently rushed kids out of the classroom as Beca and Rhydian ran to help Maddy.
        At this point she was under her desk and her irises were taking on an orange tinge.
        "Mads, look at me," Beca instructed, though she wasn't the best person to be doing this. She was having her own inner battle, trying to keep the feral side of her hidden. "Deep breaths, okay? Remember what Mam told us."
        The two watched as Maddy slowly calmed down before joining the rest of the students in their journey to the schoolyard.
        They walked out of the school and Rhydian cracked a joke about the test, making Beca let out a loud laugh and Maddy lighten up a little. Of course, as soon as they neared their class' line and Beca calmed down from the joke, her eyes met the bright green ones in the class line parallel from theirs. Her smile dropped and she stepped away from Rhydian, closer to Maddy.
        Shannon stomped up to them and glared at Rhydian. "You're in big trouble, Rhydian Morris!" She shouted, gaining eyes from majority of the students. "Why did you go and do that? You are mental! If you want to waste your own time, fine by me, but don't go around wasting everyone else's!"
        Jeffries stopped the rest of her rant as he announced that the rest of this exam time could be used to revise, as there was no actual emergency. Then he turned to their line and walked towards them. "You, young man, are coming with me to see the head teacher," he said, grabbing Rhydian's arm and dragging him away.
        "Why don't you just back off of him?" Beca said sharply, turning back to Shannon.
        "What?"
        Maddy glared at her friend. "Jumping to daft conclusions. You--"
        "You're one to talk! You've been treating Tom like dirt! How many more times are you going to let him down? And you," she said, turning back to Beca. "You haven't talked to your best friend in weeks, not since Rhydian showed up."
        "How would you know?" Beca shot back. "You don't even like her enough to give her the time of day."
        Before Shannon could retaliate, Maddy was beside herself. "And I'm sorry I've more important things to do than babysitting Tom all day!"
        They were about to go on, but each found themselves staring at the exact person they were insulting, both looking disappointed. Shannon looked behind her and turned back with a slightly satisfied look hiding behind her glasses. "Well, you two know where to find us when you consider rejoining the human race."
        Unable to stop herself, Beca raced after her friend. "Callie, wait!"
        The schoolyard was now mostly deserted, but Callie didn't stop walking away until Beca grabbed her arm and forcefully spun her around. She glared those green eyes like daggers into Beca. "What?" She snapped bitterly.
        "I didn't mean to--"
        "To what? Cozy up to Rhydian? Choose him over your best friend that you've known since you were eight? Flat out lie to me how you feel and then insult me? Because frankly, I don't care."
        "Callie, please, you have to believe me, I--he's Maddy's cousin and--"
        She scoffed and pushed loose strands of brown hair out of her face. "And he's not your cousin, so that doesn't make me feel any better about the situation. All I know is that he's going to be the reason why I fail my chemistry exam, so be sure to thank him for me."
        "He had his reasons, okay? He didn't just do it to be a jerk."
        "Then tell me, Beca!" She yelled, exasperated. "Tell me why you avoid me more sometimes than others! Tell me why you kissed me! Tell me why he just had to pull the damn fire alarm!"
        Beca was frozen to the spot, shaking her head slightly, her lips parted and her eyebrows brought together. "I can't, Callie. I wish I could, believe me, I do. But I can't." Her voice was weak and quiet, knowing that the words may push her friend away for good.
        Callie's shoulders slumped and she stared defeated towards Beca. "Then I can't keep accepting your excuses." She turned and walked away hesitantly, but Beca knew she wouldn't be able to hold the wolf back at all if she got into a fight with Callie.
        She stood there thinking of how if this were a movie or a book, the sky would cloud over and it would start raining. But the sun continued to shine in the bright blue atmosphere. Everything around her was constant. The simple things and subtleties stayed the same. Her heart was the only thing that felt broken and battered.
        She flinched when a hand fell on her shoulder. She inhaled and caught the homely scent of cinnamon and damp leaves. Maddy. "You heard all of that, didn't you?"
        The gentle, reassuring squeeze Maddy gave her shoulder answered her question. "Hot chocolate and movies when we get home?"
        Beca gave a nod before turning around to face the girl who was practically her sister. "Did you fix things with Tom and Shannon?"
        "I had about as good of luck as you," she replied, shrugging. "Anyway, Rhydian's hear for detention and I'm staying behind to try again with Shann. You want to wait?"
        Beca sighed. "I've got nothing better to do."

       That afternoon, Beca strolled into detention with a bag of chips, crunching loudly and sitting down next to Rhydian. He gave her a confused look, but forgot the strange event when she offered him some of her food.

        Jeffries walked in and shot Beca a look. "You shouldn't be here."
        She raised an eyebrow at him. "What're you going to do about it? Give me detention?"
        A smile lit up his face and he nodded. "Yes, actually. Tomorrow."
        Beca shrugged, standing up. "See you then."
        As she started to leave, but Jeffries stopped you. "Wait! No, you will serve it now." In a matter of heartbeats she was back in the seat next to Rhydian with a satisfied smirk as Jeffries had an internal battle with himself, before just leaving it be. He'd obviously given up on the no talking rule as the K's were sitting in the back of the classroom, gossiping.
        "How bored are you?" Beca asked with a small smile.
        Rhydian rolled his eyes at her and leaned back in his chair. "I don't think there's a word that describes 'listening to three girls discuss dress sizes'."
        Beca laughed. Then her smile fell as she realized his snark comment was a small reason that she had lost Callie. "How do you describe 'losing all of your friends in the course of a day'?"
        "Depressing."
        An annoyed smile quickly made its way to her face before falling, but long enough for Rhydian to see something underneath it.
        "Tom and Shann are going to forgive you eventually."
        Beca closed her eyes and let out a long sigh, her chest feeling like it had a weight on it. The fluorescent light made all of the veins hiding in her eyelids visible. "Yeah, I know."
        After watching her silently for a few moments, Rhydian sat up straight and looked at her expectantly. "But?"
        She opened her eyes and glanced at him, shocked by the compassion that was clearly showing itself on his features. She didn't think she'd seen any emotion but indifference or boredom unless he was running. The emotion lit up his bright blue eyes even more than usual. 
        "But, I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it. Being friends with them, I mean."        
        He sighed. "And why would you say that?"
        "I don't want them to get hurt. And I know that eventually I'm either going to have to tell them my secret, or leave them behind."
        Rhydian and Beca exchanged a knowing glance for a good moment. The fire alarm ringing for the second time today brought them out of it.
        Only this time, the faint scent of smoke came with it. When they walked out of the room that detention was being held in, Tom was running towards them.
        The next events to Beca became a blur. She remembered running up to the lab, trying to pull her wolf back the moment she spotted the fire and failing, Tom carrying her out of the lab, opening her eyes and seeing Maddy and Shannon beside her. The important thing was, everyone was okay, and no one had seen her yellowing eyes in the lab.
        At least that was what she had thought until the next morning, when Tom announced Shannon's new theory that the two of them were werewolves.