Wildfire

Chapter One

Chapter One ~

This was not the place to be sulking. Sitting on someone’s kitchen counter, surrounded by beer and various other alcohols, while in the other room a party raged on, everyone celebrating the end of the school year. But not me. I mean, sure I was happy. Hell, I’d just gotten through my first year of high school without any embarrassment all year! That is seriously something to celebrate! But today had not been a good one, and it all started with this morning, when my grandmother and I got into an argument. It was over the same thing we always thought about: My father. Thing is, I never knew the man, I don’t know a single thing about him. And that’s the problem. She refuses to tell me anything about him, not even his name. I guess it wasn’t my best idea to yell at Gran, but her getting mad at me for wanting to know about my father is just annoying. Sighing, I leaned my head back against the cabinet behind me. It figures that when all my friends and my brother are celebrating and having a good time, I’m sulking over the fact that I fought with my grandmother.

“You look happy,” a deep voice said from the kitchen doorway. I looked up and frowned as I tried make out who it was. The guy pushed off from where he was leaning on the doorframe and walked forward, and without the light from behind him casting him in shadow, I recognized him as Jason Callahan, a new kid at my school. He and his sister Christy had just transferred to school a few weeks ago and ever since, every girl in school had been drooling over him. And, I admit, I may have partaken in the drooling, something that my best friend Daniel and my brother Aaron ragged on my about all the time.

“Oh yeah, I’m ecstatic,” I told him with a roll of my eyes, keeping cool.

He chuckled and came to a stop in front of me. My eyes roamed over him: his dirty blonde hair; his light, smooth skin; the black t-shirt that clung to his defined chest and abs. When I met his eyes, I saw that he was smiling at me. “Well, since you don’t seem to be enjoying it here, and I don’t want to be here…what do you say you and me get out of here?” he asked, a look in his eyes that I couldn’t place, but made my heart beat faster.

I bit my lip. I knew it wasn’t a smart thing to do, leaving a party with a boy I didn’t know, but I didn’t care. I’d had a bad day and I wanted to do something reckless.

“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day,” I told him and got down from the counter. He gave me a half grin and took my hand and began leading me out of the kitchen and through the crowded living room. As we made our way through the crowd, I saw Daniel dancing with a girl from my history class. He caught my eye and I pointed at Jason’s back and mouthed, “I’m leaving”. Daniel nodded. Jason opened the front door and we stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind us. And we began to walk, in no particular direction, just away from the party. We passed through the quiet streets of our small town and I wondered what time it was, there was usually more traffic, but the streets were empty except for Jason and I. Eventually, we wound up at the park. Jason smiled at me and walked over to the swings and sat down on one and indicated for me to join him. I sat down on the swing net to him and smiled at him as he twisted his swing so that he faced me. I let out a small gasp as he suddenly hooked his legs around mine and pulled me closer to him, until our faces were only a few inches apart. My heart beat picked up again as I stared into his dark brown eyes. Suddenly Jason stiffened and his eyes grew a fraction of an inch wider. “What is it?” I asked.

Jason shook his head. “Nothing…It was nothing,” he said and returned his attention to me. And right then, something collided into us, sending me flying through the air. I groaned as my head hit a rock. When I opened my eyes, I saw Jason lying on the ground…and a huge brown wolf standing over him, snarling. Without thinking, I grabbed a rock the size of  my fist from the ground and hurled it at the wolf. The rock hit it on its flank and then it turned to me. I cursed myself and got up quickly, but my vision swam as a bout of dizziness overtook me. When my vision cleared, I started to run--though now that I think about it, that was not the best thing I could have done. A sudden horrible, crushing pain overtook my senses as I fell to the ground again, and I saw that the giant wolf was now on top of me, huge, snarling, sharp fangs inches from my face. The wolf abruptly turned its head and clamped its jaws down on my arm, to which I screamed. Then my vision blurred again, and I could feel myself losing consciousness.