~Casey~
The next morning I woke up in a partial trance, probably because it was morning and I was tired. I swear, if schools in Florida get to have school at nine, why does my school start at eight in the morning? I contemplated this as I went through my usual routine. I hopped in the shower, brushed my teeth, made strange faces in the mirror, and then I remembered yesterday's events. I was in the middle of trying to copy the face of the man in The Scream painting when it hit me. I saw my 'Scream' morph into my own version of 'oh, my ever loving God, what the Hell?' I splashed cold water on my face just to make sure my life was, well, still living.
After a few splashes of cold water on my face I calmed down and made myself a resolution that I would limit these kinds of morning experiences to five for the entire year, which leaves me now with four. I wanted to make it no more, but let's face it, with my luck I'm going to need at least four more of these 'sessions' just to get me through to Christmas.
Well, luckily today is Friday, so I'll have the whole weekend to freak out as much as I want to. For once I'm very glad that my school never started off the new school year on a Monday. This year we started on Wednesday, hence why today is Friday.
I continued to get ready as I thought about the day ahead of me. I wonder if Payne will talk to me, if he’ll still be a jerk to me? Well, he'll always be a jerk. The question is, do I still dislike him for it?
Good Lord, I feel like I've just gone on a first date and I don't know if that means we are a 'thing' or not. Funny how awkward relationship scenarios are relevant to everything these days.
Do I like him now? I asked myself as I contemplated what to wear for the day. I felt my heart flutter in response, but my head wasn't so sure. I admit that my heart rate picks up when I think about him, and no other guy I've ever laid eyes on compares to him. Not to mention how his eyes are just these endless vacuums trying to suck me away. But my head was the definition of mixed emotions towards the guy. I refused to forget the fact that he and his posse have caused a lot of unnecessary grief towards my circle of friends and I. I also can’t forget that he's never even taken any notice to me specifically, always hating on my general group, without even knowing the people in it.
Whether I like him or not I'm wearing what I want to wear, I decided as I pulled out my black high rise shorts and my dark red T-shirt my mom got from Second City in Chicago. I loosely tucked my shirt into my shorts and finished off my look with some old grey converses. I left my hair to air dry on my shoulders finding it pointless to blow dry unless I got up an hour earlier. I like my sleep.
I finally made it down stairs just in time to see Marie coming down my driveway. I quickly grabbed my purple rucksack backpack and met her outside.
"Case!" Marie said as I buckled my seat belt. "What happened to you the other day? You disappeared off the face of the Earth! I swear even Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t have tracked you down yesterday."
"Yeah, well," I stammered coming up with an excuse as close to the truth as possible. "Did you hear about the egg incident?"
"Uh-huh, that one where some smuck nailed you with a bucket of eggs strategically placed on top of the gym room door?"
"Yup, that one," I replied, happy that I didn't have to explain all of that. "I was covered all over in egg yolks and stuff. I couldn't get it out of my hair, and I swear it stained my shirt. So I decided to go home, kind of thinking that if a girl has eggs dumped on top of her that she deserves the rest of the day off."
"Good point," Marie agreed. "I still cannot believe it! I swear, if it weren't for Tim being there none of us would have known."
The rest of the car ride consisted of Marie's disbelief to the whole eggs situation yesterday and me nodding my head and making sounds of agreement.
Soon enough I was in homeroom, and it was like the first day of High School all over again when I didn't know where to sit. I didn't know if I was obligated to sit with Payne now, or if I was still not 'worthy' of a seat with the 'cool kids.' Finally I said screw it to myself and sat where me and Bells sit every morning, deciding that I'll never abandon my friends over some guy that only accomplishes to cloud my sense of reality. So I pushed the awkward situation between Payne and I away, at least for homeroom.
I know that a situation is truly only awkward when you make it awkward, but in my defense I think there should be an exception where a situation can also be awkward between a boy and girl when said boy talks to said girl for one of the first time in more than eleven years only to then turn into a canine. Then said female starts developing these weird things called 'feelings' towards this canine boy. Excuse me, but that is awkward. Well at least in my head it is.
I shook away my thoughts as I made my way over to Bells. I remembered she was crying yesterday, but today she acted as content as ever. She was in her seat reading a book when I decided to interrupt her.
"Hey Bells," I said in a sing-song voice, "What you reading?"
"Oh, um," she stated as she checked the cover of her book. ""By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead.""
"Huh! Bels," I whined, "Why would you read that depressing thing. Isn't life depressing enough?"
"But it's so good!" Bels protested.
"I know it is! They always are," I agreed. "I read those books in a night and I cry over every one of them. But, why be depressed now? You and I both know that we read these books when we need a real outlook on life and a new perspective to our problems. Well, scratch that, we read those book, and we also read trashy teenage fantasy romances to make us think about how at least other people have 'Happy Endings,'" I said putting quotations on the words happy endings for enfasis.
"And your point being?" Isabel asked as she closed her book and looked at me with her eyes conveying that I hit the nail on the head.
"Why are you upset? What's wrong?" I asked in a gentler tone. "I thought everything was going great, last time I checked you and Tim suck face whenever we see you, and as surprising as it may be with the amount of saliva that no doubt passes between the two of you daily, he's made you really happy."
"That's the point," Bels said with frustration laced through her tone. "He makes me happy, but what exactly about him?"
"Wait," I said, finally catching on. "Is this seriously what I think it's about? Oh, come on," I said as I yanked her up from her seat. I forcefully and quickly lead her out of the room telling Ms. Thatch we need to use the restroom much like I did yesterday, only this time instead of having a crying Bels, you've got a peeved off Casey.
I finally stopped her in a secluded corner of the school by an empty science room and Tim's homeroom just down the hall.
"Isabel Giovanna Lucia Costa!" I yelled Bels's full name at her, practically broadcasting to her how incredibly ludicrous I thought she was at the moment, as well as how angry I found myself to be. "You sit your cute little ass right down, here in this God-forsaken corner of the world and wait. Don't even think about moving, you know as well as I that I get pretty pissy when I have to chase someone down, and the pissier I get the easier it is for hateful words to be thrown about and for someone to get hurt. Now sit," I barked at her as though I was her military commander and she just shot a fellow soldier. To her credit she did as she was told as I took a few deep breaths in order to make myself seem of tolerable sanity as I marched over to Tim's homeroom.
"Excuse me Mr. Narvaez, but can I borrow Tim here for a moment? Bels gave him her keys and she needs to move her car. Apparently she parked in a visitor's spot by accident, and for the first time my existence, we have a visitor." I said hurriedly, hoping if I just threw out my excuse at him he'd just believe it and let Tim go. I guess he mistook my previous flabbergasted look for one of desperation because he quickly let Tim go.
"Bels didn't give me her keys," Tim quietly mentioned as he passed by me on the way out of the door. I just gave him a 'No shit Sherlock' look and followed him out.
"Nope, you caught me, she doesn't need you to give up her keys, nope, she needs you for more then that," I replied as I pointed to where Bels was sitting in the corner playing with her fingers, laying her back against the wall. In her position she looked even smaller then the was, with her knees pulled up and her head hung low staring at her fingers, she looked closer to the size of an eighth grader than a junior.
Tim quickly ran to her, with a look of worry clouding his features. He stopped himself just in front of her. She shyly raised her eyes to meet his and he kneeled down and took her hands.
"What's the matter?" Tim asked in a barely audible voice, making me feel as if I was intruding in on a very private moment. Then I remembered, I kind of was. However, they would never get to that intimate moment if they didn't have a little push to do so. Also, a preferable setting that wasn't so easily viewed by Mr. Narvaez if he decided to walk past his door anytime soon.
"Well, before my counseling session officially begins," I stated as I went to test the empty science room door, " we had best move into my office." With that I opened the classroom door and posed as if I was the lady on Jeopardy showing off the newfound letters.
Bels quietly got up and moved into the room, all the while with Time following close behind. Tim's eyes never left her form, and it’s a wonder how he didn't bump into a desk or trip over a chair as we made our way to the back corner of the room. The worry lines on Tim's face certainly got a work out, and when she sat herself on the counter with out looking at him, they only got worse.
The bell rang signaling the start of morning announcements. "Well since we only have about fifteen minutes, instead of letting you two beat around the bush and then just start making out, I'm going to jump straight to the point for both of you. Bels," I said, pointing at her, keeping up a no-nonsense charade, "You cannot just leave Tim to figure everything out on his own. I understand that you would like him to be more perceptive to the things going on around him so that you don't have to embarrass yourself by informing him of what's happened and that you need reassurance from him that you are worth more anything those tramps want you to believe. You need to understand that telling Tim about this type of stuff is not embarrassing, it's not a sign of weakness where you believe you need to be strong, it's a comfort that you and every other human on this Earth needs. If you truly like Tim, then you need to be able to talk to him about this, instead of letting it eat away at you, forcing you to read 'By the Time You Read This I'll Be Dead,' just so that you cry for a different reason. I know we talked about all of this yesterday and I could make you feel better, but subconsciously you know that the only way you're going to be able believe any of the things I have told you is if you two talk about it. And don't you say that it was a onetime thing. I'm smarter then that, and I know you better. If it only happened once then you would never have brought out the tear-inducing book."
During my rant Bels started to tear up, and Tim put his arm around her, soothingly rubbing her arm.
"Bels," Tim said, trying to make since of all of this. "What is all of this about?"
Bels tried to answer him, but she couldn't make out any truly audible words.
"And that's my cue to get to you," I said as I pointed to Tim. His eyebrows flew up in an even more confused look opening his mouth to reply, but I continued on before he could interrupt. "Some skanks have been telling Bels that she's not good enough for you, and that you must be such a weakling to be stuck with her. They're even saying that it's a shame that such a perfectly good guy got stuck with such a not perfect girl, all of which are horrible lies. That being said, I know myself that those things hurt worse then a slap to the face, and they gnaw on your very being until there's only your outer shell left. That's why I couldn't wait for Bels to off handedly mention it next week, maybe even next month, because it's affecting her now, and far more then I thought when she brought of the book of tears."
The last part of my speech went to concerned ears as Tim stood in front of Casey and took her face into his hands. I took that as my cue to leave, seeing that I'd done all I could do, it was up to them now.
"I'll see you two later," I voiced out as I left the room, having no doubt that they didn't even know I had said a word.
I made my way back to homeroom, thinking back to Bels. I must seem a terrible friend; I didn't even call to check in on her last night, knowing she would need the late night reinforcement. If I had called her, she would have never have pulled out that book. The last time she pulled out that book was sophomore year, on the second anniversary of her mom's death.
I know I definitely freaked out back there, taking very unnecessary precautions and making a huge deal out of it, but sometimes that's just the kind of person I am. Although, I think I was already high strung enough at the start out the day, worrying myself over the trivial dilemmas of what to do with Payne now, when the true answer has always been, live life how you normally would, only now he's there too. Let Payne walk on his ground, and see where the path leads. Something I've learned about myself is when I worry too much, I latch onto something to keep me sane, and tend to go insane with it. Oh well. I'm still going to lean onto the fact that I'm not emotionally stable at the moment considering my very recent exposure to the supernatural world. Seems fare enough to me.
If I were to be honest, I think this whole supernatural business may have put my life in perspective a little bit, the perspective of 'this teenage drama shit is nothing when Payne in my ass turns furry.' That new perspective definitely cut my fuse short. Then again, I'm not much of a morning person either.
I internally groaned as I rubbed my temples, already feeling an oncoming headache.
I had never before felt as overwhelmed as I did in that moment. I leaned back against the wall, finding myself next to the corner I made Bels sit in earlier.
"Ok Case," I said into my hands, trying to talk myself out of my hysteria. "Just breath, you are freaking out over nothing. Everything is okay, the world is not ending, unless we are believing in Norse Mythology, we should be fine."
It took a minute or two, but I eventually pulled myself together in time to realize I had to get Bes and Tim before the bell rang.
"Hey guys," I said as I opened the door, to find them quietly talking. Well, it wouldn't hurt them to be a little late, I thought to myself, not wanting to interrupt their private moment. I was just getting ready to close the door when something Bels said stopped me.
"Are you sure it doesn't matter to you where I rank in the pack?"
"Bels," Tim gently tucked some of her hair behind her hair. "You could be a beta or a human for all I care, I love you all the same. No blasted ranking will ever change that."
"Beta, pack?" I mouthed to myself, not even noticing the look of pure love shining through their eyes. "Oh my gosh, you have got to be joking!" I practically screamed as I ran back to homeroom. I grabbed my bag just as the bell rang to go to first period, and I bolted to that too.
I sat through Chemistry without understanding one thing the teacher said, not even trying to pay attention. The only thoughts passing through my head, ‘Bels and Tim are in a freaking pack, most likely one filled with people that have damn paws and hair,’ ‘What else have my friends kept from me?’ and finally, my favorite, ‘I seriously need therapy.’
When Chemistry ended I reluctantly made my way to P. E. and took my usual seat in the back. Tim sat next to me, but I put all of my attention into coloring a paper in my notebook compltely black, making sure no white was visible.
I couldn’t help but feel hurt and a little betrayed that they never told me. They have been some of my closest friends for years. Bels and I have had numerous sleepovers, and Tim has provided many a shoulder to hide in when Brad forces me to watch a scary movie. I’ve trusted them with some of my darkest secrets, and I thought they did the same. But no, I find out about this world from a guy that I barely know, a have only had a handful of conversations with in my life. Yet, with two people that I thought I knew better then I know myself, I find we are complete strangers. It hurts.
Payne wasn’t in class either, making me feel completely alone. It surprised me how empty I began to feel without Payne here. I realized at that moment I need Payne, of all my friends I would give my life for, I wanted Payne to be here to tell him everything, to rest my head on as he told me it was all going to be alright. I can’t believe my feelings. I can’t possibly be thinking like this. For all I know, Payne would laugh at my face and tell me to suck it up. After all, what did I really know of him?
Finding that theses thoughts hurt too much to think about, I shifted my focus back to Tim. I could not make myself feel the same way around Tim anymore, and not because he belongs to a pack, because I realized Tim might not have ever been who I thought he was, and I’ll never know if I can trust him again. I thought I knew when he kept something from me, but apparently not.
I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice when Coach Danes dismissed us. I felt someone tap on my shoulder, looked up, and saw Tim.
“Casey, are you okay?” Tim looked down on me with concerned eyes. “Coach dismissed everyone.”
“Whatever,” I responded under my breath as I made my way to the locker room with a new realization. Tim doesn’t know that I know. How would he? He and Bels are probably really confused. All they know is that they were having an intimate conversation and I ran in screaming. Well, I don’t care. I’m sure as Hell not going to be the one to explain it to them. They sure as Hell didn’t explain their world to me.
I was the last one out of the girl’s locker room. When I got out everyone was already getting with partners for whatever it was we were doing today, and I wasn’t paying attention enough to know.
I looked around and found that every one had a partner except for Tim and Matt. Neither seemed good options for me. Tim made his way over as I debated in my head which boy was worse. Finally I concluded Matt was worse, considering our history.
I pushed away all of my hurt feelings, leaving behind an empty void, without any emotions except for anger and annoyance.
It didn’t take long for Coach Danes to come in and repeat our instructions. We were to do stretches with our partner and practice for fitness testing. Soon enough Coach Danes blew his whistle for us to spread out with our partners and begin.
“Okay,” I said with my defeated attitude. “Let’s stretch.”
We began with the regular stretches, pulling our arms over our heads and across our bodies, stretching out our legs. An awkward silence settled around our corner of the gym. I sat down and started reaching for my toes, then spreading my legs apart, trying to lay my torso flat on the floor. Tim sat across from me and we put our feet together. He put his hands out to me and I put mine in his. He pulled back so I could stretch out, and I followed, pulling back until my back touched the ground.
“Damn it,” Tim huffed out.
I allowed myself a small smirk as I replied, “What?”
“You know I’m not that flexible,” He said as I came back up.
“So you say, so you say,” I muttered, another smile threatening to come to my lips. Then the moment passed and I felt all of my feeling of hurt and betrayal come back.
Tim could sense it too. We stood back up to touch our toes. I reached for the ground, my palms automatically going flat against the ground. I started to walk my hands out when I heard the door to the gym open. I paid no attention, instead focusing on keeping my feet flat on the ground and my legs straight. I walked my hands behind myself, and heard a growl.
I froze. I froze in possibly the strangest position I’ve ever been in. My butt straight in the air, my face in my knees and my hands flat on the ground behind me, can you spell ridiculous?
I slowly stood back up only to find Payne standing only a few inches behind me. I felt my heart skip a beat as I saw the hunger in his eyes.
“Um, “ I gulped, finding my mouth had gone dry, “hi Payne.”
“Casey,” he replied, in a voice that didn’t sound like him, it was too rough, too deep. It was almost as if he’d gone through puberty a second time and then smoked a pack of cigars.
“So,” I rambled on, not sure how to react to this. “I think I’m all stretched, so, yeah. I’m going to go now.” Quickly exiting the situation with my awkward fast walk, where my arms are by my sides, my hand in fists, and I’m slightly jogging on my toes. Attractive, I know.
“What was that about?” Tim asked as he came up beside me.
“Nothing,” I said, turning to give him the cold shoulder. I realize what I’m doing is wrong. I should just face him and tell him straight to his face why I’m so mad at him, not throw him a bipolar attitude and sticking my nose the air.
Being this coward, I hate it. I’d never say I’m brave. I know I’m a coward, but it’s these kinds of cowards, the ones who won’t face their troubles head on, who keep the people involved dangling on strings, those are the cowards I can’t stand. Yet, here we are.
“Why are you acting like this?” Tim asked, frustration clear in his voice.
I quickly looked around to make sure no one was listening. “How exactly am I supposed to act? No, tell me, how am I supposed to react to two of my supposed ‘best friends’ being werewolves, and not only that, but the fact that despite me telling you guys everything, I learn about this world from some guy I barely know and then walk in on the two of you to find you’ve been a part of that world all along. So yeah, tell me how exactly I’m supposed to act.”
Tim was silent, and I didn’t look at him. I focused my eyes ahead on the bleachers.
“So much for friends,” I mumbled quietly to myself when Tim stayed silent. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I wanted him to contradict me, to tell me I was wrong, it was all a misunderstanding. He didn’t.
_________ Okay, so there is so much more I wanted to do with this chapter!!! I been messing with it for a month, and I’m so sorry it took this long! I could give you excuses, like I had (have) various summer assignments to do, life is getting in the way, blah, blah, blah. I’ll hopefully be getting the next chapter to you in two to three weeks because I’ll be out of town in a place where wifi doesn’t exist, but after that I should start to update more frequently. I’m also sorry to update this so late in the day; lets just say that my sixteenth birthday didn’t exactly go like I thought it would. But that’s all water under the bridge, and here is your long awaited chapter, to anyone who’s still with me. Please stick with my story if you have so far!! Thanks so much for your support, and I’m putting up a cover tomorrow for this story on this chapter for any of you midnight readers who might want to come back to see it._____________________