Two days later I was sitting in my room, staring at the uniform that was laid out on the end railing of the bed. It was a black collared shirt, ivory cardigan and black skirt, also with white tights and a pair of black converse.
It was my first day of school, at Forest Terminal High School. I wasn't excited about it, not in the least. In fact, you could say that I would rather jump off a cliff then go to school today. Not only was it a new school and the middle of the year, but the only people that went there were werewolves. The uniforms were apparently to differentiate between the three packs.
Yesterday John, Talia and I had gone shopping to buy clothes that I could wear when I wasn't in my uniform. Actually, it was more Talia and I shopping while John just paid for everything, and since he was an Alpha he got a discount of pretty much everything that we bought. I never had any of those perks, Kieran did, but I was the exception to the Alpha rule.
I knew I wasn't going to be alone at school, Zander would be there, but I was still nervous. Natalia and Josh were still in elementary school, so I was almost basically alone. Especially since Parker was going to be there as well.
With a sigh I stood up and walked into the bathroom. I wasn't exactly ready to get dressed yet so I jumped in the shower and waited for the water to warm up before I started to wash my body. Somehow the water always calmed my nerves and settled the rampage that went on inside of me.
When my fingers began to prune I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with the towel and wrapped it around myself and walking back into my room and staring at the uniform again. I really didn't want to put it on, skirts never looked well on me and the cardigan was so boring and it was basically a blank canvas.
But I changed into the uniform anyways. Before I put on the shoes I had a brilliant idea. I rushed into the closet, which was giant and packed with all my new clothes. Talia and I had spent the time after we got back from shopping to organize my closet; it was organized by colour so it looked like a giant rainbow.
My shoes were in a separate cabinet that was specially designed for shoes. They were organized by style, such as heels were on one, sandals on another, sneakers, converse (yes, I have so many converse that they need their own section) and boots. There was also a sock drawer that was located at the base of the compartment, which was handy when I needed socks. But I wasn't allowed to have normal white or black socks, oh no. I have socks every colour of the rainbow, along with actual rainbow ones, ones with crazy patterns as well as multi-coloured prints.
Considering what my wardrobe was before, this was absolute bliss.
I opened my shoe cabinet and pulled out a pair of shin high dark pink converse with a paint splatter print on the lip and back seam. When I had seen these shoes in the store there was no question that I was getting them, it was a mandatory thing. I also had a pair of black ones the same style, but they were fairly boring.
I laces up the green laces on the shoes and walked towards to mirror hanging from the wall. All in all it didn't look too bad, and the shoes brought a splash of colour to the otherwise black and white outfit. The one thing missing was a little accessory. I smiled and ran towards the bag that I brought with me that contained the few precious belongings that I owned, minus my jewelry box and the one of the few pictures that I had from my childhood.
Kieran, Brettly and a few others had burned all the pictures that I was in years ago, on my tenth birthday. I was devastated, but they didn't know that I kept the pictures that I loved hidden from them in my underwear drawer where no one dared to look in fear of seeing something that they would never be able to unsee. The reason I left behind my jewelry box was because there wasn't anything I really wanted in it, but before I had every intention of bringing it with me, but when I found my mate I thought that it would be better for him to have it.
There are only two people that can open that box, me and my mate. It's been passed down through my family for years, from mother to daughter. To everyone it was locked, but to the girls in my family and their mate it was always unlocked.
Anyways, I began to search through my bag for the one piece of jewellery that I had kept with me no matter where I went. It was a necklace that my grandmother had given me on her death bed. It had a long gold chain that come down to around my belly-button and as the accent was a heart shaped locket encrusted with diamonds. Inside the locker was a picture of her and her mother. My father’s mother was one of the few people that treated me like a human being and not an object, I never really knew my mother’s family because they were across the country and difficult to get to, especially since my parents ran the pack and weren't allowed to leave or else who knows what might happen.
I put the necklace on and returned to stare at the mirror. It wasn't that bad, but my hair and my sweater kinda blended together, which actually sucked big time. When we had gone shopping I had gotten a haircut for the first time in five years, well first professional one done by someone that knew what they were doing and not just me with a pair a safety scissors until it looked like I got most of my split ends. My blonde locks now come down to my elbows, which was a fairly good length, I think.
Declaring myself acceptable to be seen in public, I walked out of my room and made my way towards the kitchen. I knew how to get around fairly well, I knew how to get from my room to the kitchen and how to get from the kitchen to the theatre, and how to get to John's Office, but other than that I was completely lost.
When I entered the kitchen Talia, Josh, Zander, John and Parker were there in uniforms, except for John, and eating their breakfast. As I walked in they all turned to look at me and instantly all their gazes turned to my feet. It wasn't surprising, I should have expected that to happen, but that didn't make it any less awkward to have five people, ten eyes staring at my feet.
John cleared his throat and walked towards me with a mug in his hands. "You can't wear those to school," he stated, almost sadly.
It made me sad as well that might have to take them off, but I stood my ground. "Why? Are my shoes offending anyone?" That was the one thing that I didn't understand. Why weren't we allowed to wear hats or jackets in school? Who could we possibly be offending by wearing these things, or wearing overly vibrant clothes? I think it was just a load of bull that the teachers came up with so that they would have more control over what the students could wear. But yes, when people wore hats in school it kinda pisses me off, but I wasn't offended by the fact that he had a flippen hat on.
John stared at me with a slack jaw, but then he smiled at me. "You have a fair point. Carry on." He waved his hand in a circle and motioned at the untouched plate set up on the table.
I smiled triumphantly and began to eat my breakfast. Surprisingly I wasn't nervous about my first day anymore; it couldn't possibly be that bad.
.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
I entered the schools secretary office with Zander. Parker had gone off to hang out with a few of his other friends, which he apparently had but I refused to believe until I saw them. When we walked in, all the secretaries went into a frenzy looking for papers and throwing papers through the air. It was like watching chickens run around with their heads chopped off, if such a thing could happen without them dying.
Zander walked up to one lady, who seemed the most calm in the room. He leaned on her desk and smiled genuinely at her. "Morning, Margo. I have a new student that needs her things."
When he said Margo I froze. My gran used to call me that, a shorter form of Marguerite since it had always been such a mouthful to say and she had lost most of her teeth when she turned seventy. Just hearing that name brought so many memories bubbling to the surface, most of which were good.
Anyways, Margo smiled at me and passed me two slips of paper. "Here you are, my dear. If there are any problems don't be afraid to come back and ask."
I nodded and took the papers. "I will, thank you," I replied with a smile.
Zander waved and began to turn and walk out, but not before Margo said something that made my blood run cold.
"She looks so much like her mother, doesn't she?" she commented, making the two of us stop.
Zander looked confused as he switched between looking at us. I, on the other hand, was petrified. How could this woman know my mother? I hadn't even known which pack she had belonged to before she met my father, I just always assumed that they had been in the same pack when they meet. Now, I didn't know what to think.
"Excuse me?" Zander asked, confused. He stood in front of me, almost protecting me from the words this woman was saying.
Margo looked at me and I shook my head. If she knew my mother, I didn't want her saying anything. If Zander or anyone else found out I was as good as running away without a trace.
She seemed to understand my silent message and shook her head at Zander. "Sorry, I must be thinking of someone else."
Though I could tell he was reluctant, Zander walked out of the office, but I stayed where I was. The two of us stared at each other in baited silence.
"So," she said, enticing me to walk closer to her desk, "you truly do look like one of the former Ivory Sun pack members."
A shiver ran down my spine. I was fairly certain that I knew the answer to my next question, but that didn't stop me from saying it anyways. "What was her name?"
"Judith," she replied.
I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest. "Yeah, I used to get that a lot," I replied bitterly. That was gone. Those memories belong to someone else, someone that wasn't me. I scratched the back of my neck and avoided eye contact. "Can you... um, not mention it... please?"
She sighed and began to fill out a stack of papers on her desk. "I won’t, just know that you're mother is going to miss you more than she'd miss her own mate. For your sake I hope she can cope with that."
"I do, too," I replied honestly. If I ever decided to go back and face them again, one of the first faces I would want to see was my mothers. Even though I wanted to be tear streaked and full of regrets for letting what happened happen.
.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
The day didn't go as badly as I first thought it would. I had met most of the people that were a part of the pack and they seemed nice enough. Everyone was either wearing a cream sweater, a black sweater or a blue sweater, so it was easy to differentiate between the packs. I stayed with Zander for most of the day, and apparently because he was an Alpha he was popular so that made me popular by association. It was a traumatizing idea at first, because I thought that they would be like the popular people at my old school, all high and mighty and full of themselves that they didn't take time to notice the people around them and thought that just because they were popular was a reason to boss everyone around. These guys weren't like that, anyone could sit with them, no matter what pack they were from and it was actually fun hanging with them.
Most of the classes were easy, because since this was a city that only residents were werewolves it meant that we got to learn what werewolves traditionally learned from a young age. So instead of the History of the world we learned werewolf history and legends, how the packs originated and in the class I was in today they were discussing a prophecy.
Our teacher didn't tell us the actual prophecy, but what he summed it up. "Basically," he explained, "it stated that the daughter of the sun and stars would be the reincarnate of Mother Nature and brings balance and harmony back to the world." No one in the class knew what that meant, but it actually sounded a little bit cool. Mother Nature being reincarnated? That was totally something I could get behind.
As well, instead of gym we had pack training. So that meant that each pack had their own periods that they could go train their members, which was something that I was ecstatic about. Zander taught me the basics on how to protect myself and few punch, punch, kick moves that weren't too complicated.
All in all my day wasn't that day. Well, that was until I was walking to Zander's car after school. I had to stay late because, surprise surprise, he and Parker had football practise. So I sat on the bleachers for two hours doing my homework. At one point I got bored and decided to go wait by the car, because then I wouldn't have to listen to the couch yelling at the players, plus sitting on cold metal bleachers wasn't exactly my idea of a good time.
As I crossed the parking lot I passed a herd of girl, gossiping like it was going out of fashion. I guess no matter where you go you're never going to escape gossiping girls like these ones. When I passed they stopped talking at stared at me. I ignored them as best I could, but staring still made me incredibly uncomfortable. When I was about fifteen feet away they began to follow me. Alarms began to ring in my head as I quickened my pace. Whenever anyone followed me it was never for a good reason.
My suspicion was made true when two of the girl’s stepped in front of me, and when I turned around two more blocked that path as well. They had me surrounded, which was basically the story of my life. They were all wearing black sweaters and their skirls were cut so that I could just see their multi-coloured underwear peeking out to say hello. The hems were frayed, so it was easy to guess that the shortening had been a DIY job. Disaster DIY, if you ask me.
After a moment they taunting began, the hitting and abuse. All the things that I ran away from was happening again.
The air around me started to get tighter, more constricted, like it was being sucked away. The punches got weaker and they began to back away. I pulled myself back to my feet and back away a few steps, getting fresh air into my lungs. But that also meant that they were gaining their breath back too, and they marched their heel clad feet towards me like they had every right in the world to be beating to the crap out of me.
One girl, who I assumed was the leader of the group, stepped up and pushed me back like a little kid having a temper tantrum. It was almost laughable how that was how she wanted to start a fight, but being the weakling that I was, I feel to the ground which gave them the opportunity to advance towards me.
Out of sheer stupidity and panic, I pulled my arm up and brought it towards my face. I don't know why, it was stupid and I knew that it wasn't going to protect me, believe me I have tried it. But nothing happened. Literally, nothing. No punched, no kicks, no insults, just silence.
Cautiously I pull my arm away and my eyes basically bulge out of their sockets. In front of me, instead of a hoard of girl, was a giant block of cement
A block that I swore had not been there before.