Blood Wolf

Meet & Greet

"Leia get up! You're going to be late."

My eyes are already open when my mother's voice reaches me from downstairs. I can't believe she remembered, but the likely situation being her boyfriend had reminded her. To hell with him and his mannerisms. I'm twenty-four and can make my own decisions. If those decisions are going to make me late to my first class at university than it's my choice, not his. Pembroke Ontario isn't exactly Montreal, not even close by a mile. He keeps going off about how his boss's family also goes there, the guy is trying to schmooze through me and it makes me sick to my stomach.

I flip my covers off of me and head for the bathroom. I briefly stop in front of my brother's room with the door wide open and notice he's already gone to school without a word to me. I'm thinking this is also Mark's work, that kid needs a blow horn as an alarm clock. I slip into the bathroom without having to wait for once just as I hear Mark coming up the stairs to check up on me.

My mother has had plenty of boyfriends in the past, but this one is just trying far too hard to be the fatherly figure of the family. My brother and I have been doing just fine on our own.

I speed up my process and get into the shower quickly, I spend very little time in there before I'm out and fully dressed ready to take on the day. I try to put on a smile as I'm heading down the stairs into the kitchen, my mom's cleaning up after breakfast and Mark is watching me from the corner of his eye.

"Morning sleepy head, you excited for your first day?" My mom glances my way as I move for the fridge.

"Thrilled." I roll my eyes and closed the fridge, there's nothing in there that is firing up my hunger which means I'm going to have to eat out again. The fridge has been empty lately and it leaves me wondering why.

"Are you going to be doing some groceries soon? All the stuff in there is what we brought over from the old house and you haven't done groceries since then." There's reproach in my tone because she knows that I hate spending money when there should be food in the house.

"We'll go later, you need to get to class."

Mark doesn't even glance my way as he's reading his newspaper. I keep my smart mouth to myself and leave the kitchen. There's no talking to them, my mother has been spelled by his charm and won't snap out of it. I make my leave before they ruin my day.

Back in Montreal, I had already started my bachelors, I have a few remaining classes that I need to finish here before I can move back. I had a job lined up as a preschool teacher which I'm hoping I'll be able to regain once I'm back home. Moving here really put a dent in my plans but I couldn't afford to live by myself downtown nor did I want a roommate. So I did the only sensible thing, moved to the middle of nowhere with my family until I could graduate and leave on my own.

I hadn't expected anyone to speak to me since I was the new girl in a very small close knit town. What I did find particular was how everyone was acting when they were near me. When I glanced at someone they would immediately look away and if I dared speak a word to someone they would mumble something I couldn't understand and move on before I could ask them what they had said. I did get the vague feeling people are whispering behind my back, I could feel their eyes crawling on me when I walked by.

I know because I've lived with this kind of feeling since I was young. I have always had trouble making friends and this theme has followed me from elementary school to high school and then onto CEGEP and now here in university.

It's nothing new, I can live with it. There is, however, one girl who doesn't bother hiding her disdain for me. A blond bombshell with long limbs and pale skin, the kind of girl who looks like she bullies others. The type of girl that could make any man turn twice if not a third time in her direction. I passed her little posy in the hallway on my way to my seminar class and then again when the class was over. I thought she would drop it or at least keep her distance from me but that wasn't the case.