Palace of Wolves

Chapter 9 St. Jude High

“How long has it been for you?”

“Twelve years.” She replied casually as the bell rang. “See you at break; I need to give you a tour remember.”

“Well tour me to Chemistry just now.” I said as I looked down at my timetable.

“Okeydokey,” Dora suddenly gripped my wrist and pulled me into the bustling crowd.

The classroom was ordinary as science classes went. Piles of notes on the workbenches encircling the desks showed the teacher was unorganised and the chatter of students showed that the said teacher was missing from the class. The place smelled of dusty shelves and someone’s vanilla perfume.  The first empty seat I saw was in the middle of the class; the occupant of the seat beside it had feathery black hair and dark eyes –besides the grey hoodie he was in uniform.

"Excuse me.” I said to him, “Is anyone sitting here? I'm new here."

"Um yes...but no." He said . "Err...You see Darla was sitting here before the summer but she's off and...Well... Go ahead"

I sat down. From this distance I could tell the colour of his eyes. They very dark grey –almost black– and the pupils where framed by gold specks.

"Where is it you're from?" he asked me, he, like most other pupils, had a Glaswegian accent but it thankfully wasn’t the nasally .

"This town in Aberdeenshire, it's called Dally."

"I think I've heard of it."

"Really! I thought it wasn't that well known and no-offence but I thought Glaswegians had no knowledge of up that north."

"That's just me and my geography skills." He started to silently laugh at himself, his face crinkled up making his freckles jump out and his cheeks and the gold flecks in his eyes seemed to light up.

"So what's a Dally girl doing in Barrglen?"

"My dad got a new job here."

"That's cool. Anyway what's your name? I can't keep calling you Dally girl in my head."

"Sandra."

"Well I'm Patrick. Nice to meet you Sandra," he said as he shook my hand "Although I think I prefer Dally Girl."

"Okay then...Barrglen Boy."

"That's just mean. I'm even originally from here!"

The teacher walked in and we both turned round, Patrick pushing hair out of his eyes. Despite there being so much black about him: eyes, hair and some of his clothes there was still a certain warmth about him.

“You know what Dally Girl, I’m kinda glad Darla wasn’t in today.”

“Why’s that?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to you if she was sitting next to me.”

I looked down so I he didn’t notice if I begun to blush. No-one had ever told me something that sweet.

By break time I was lost; I for some reason had the layout of my old school in my head and got confused over why the English department was suddenly upstairs. Suddenly someone jumped up behind me.

"Tour guide to the rescue!"

"Oh it's you Dora."

"It’s time for your tour." I've been thinking this over for the last three periods."

"Okay then."

"Welcome to St Jude High School, a fine institution named after the Saint of hopeless cases. A fact that speaks levels about the pupils here. This is the English department where they teach you valuable lessons like what a simile is or about Macbeths internal struggles or something. You know all that important stuff that we'll need to remember in later life."

She pulled me further down the corridor.

"This door leads to the library. I'm not going in because I've been avoiding the librarian for the last three years because I'm too scared to hand in my overdue book."

"You've just reminded me I've still got a book out from my old library. It'll be overdue now."

"What book?"

"The werewolves curse." I muttered feeling embarrassed.

"I think Lana's read that one."

"Who?"

"She's one of the pack."

"But I thought there were no packs in real life."

"It's a joke Sandra."

"Anyway, why would a real werewolf read unrealistic werewolf fiction?"

"It's funny stuff. Most of the earlier ones where written by real werewolves you know. It's a clever method, get people to think werewolves are overprotective hot guys destined to fall for their one true mate and they'll ignore signs that there's a different, very real kind."

"Oh."

"Anyway, talking of hot guys, I've heard that you've been checking out Patrick Campbell."

"No I've not! We talked in class, that's it! Anyway, how do you know?"

"Aha! So you're admitting?"

"No!"

"Okay, anyway Ester was in your class. She heard your conversation"

"Who's Ester? Is she another member of your pack?"

"Basically.”

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New chapter and new slightly dodgy cover! I wasn't 100% happy but hey, I sent my UCAS stuff away today, I can put this up. 

I hope you like Dora and Patrick, I absolutely love them and I created them. And one of them may or may not have been named after a member of Fall Out Boy. 

Anyway, in the new cover, the building is People's Palace in Glasgow which is, in the novel, the Palace of Wolves. 

Dedicated to @infinityandbeyond371 for being such a great fan just now and because she's fun to talk to,

I'll upload the next chapter if I get 5 votes.