"We turn into poofy fucking poodles."
"Okay well if anything I'm a manly poodle."
"You just spat gum in my hair!" Azazel scowled stabbing a index finger into the chest of a classmate. She could see Leah in the distance running off to call Sam. That however did not register as a priority in that moment however.
The campus 'hot boy', and somehow already her high school bully shrugged and waggled his fingers. "Mistook you for the trash can babe. Can you really blame me?" He sniffed in distaste before walking away. Did this fucker just flip his hair?
Now were this boy to have met younger Azazel, the one before all the trauma's they would have been in a much different situation. Perhaps Azazel would have shrugged it off and accepted that sometimes kids go through a rough time, and that's why they were bullies. Perhaps Azazel would have reported him to the school counselor so that the counselor could force the boy to talk about his feelings. Perhaps she would have gone home to her father and asked what the mature and right thing to do would be.
But this wasn't pre-trauma Azazel.
This was post trauma Azazel.
And post trauma Azazel saw red and threw an apple at the back of the boy's head.
The boy opened his mouth to argue but was interrupted by a voice in commanding authority that Azazel immediately recognized as Sam and she dropped her fists. "Hey, no fighting!" Behind Sam was Leah Clearwater and Azazel crossed her arms at the girl. Snitch.
"Aww Golden boy Sammy."
"Come on Todd. We all know violence isn't the answer." Sam smiled trying to be polite although Azazel knew he was inwardly fuming at the gum he could clearly see in Azazel's hair. "I would tell you two to shake hands and be done with it but you two seem about as childish as toddlers." Sam scowled crossing his arms. "Let's go Az." Sam grabbed Azazel by the wrist tugging her back with Leah still holding his hand when Todd made a scathing remark that caused Sam to stop in his tracks and Azazel's eyes to narrow.
"Didn't know you were collecting whores Uley. I wonder how much do I pay you for a night with Leah?"
For once Sam was the one who lost his temper moving and shoving Todd into a locker roughly to which the boy punched Sam in the face. It was almost as though it was in slow motion as Todd's hand shifted into a fist and slammed into Sam's face and the loud sound of cracking occurred as Todd's hand broke.
Sam's head however was cocked to the side as though Todd had only slapped him. Todd fell to the floor cradling his hand and Sam, although silently fuming, no longer wished to fight. Perhaps the fact that his face broke Todd's hand he remained silent. They could all see the rest of the kids staring in disbelief and awe as he led the two girls away. The sound of a shout caused Sam to turn to be ready to react but it seemed Azazel had beat him to it.
Azazel grabbed Todd's outstretched unbroken hand and yanked him forward slamming an elbow into his face, eliciting a 'CRACK" from a nose she knew meant she broke it. With the steady stream of blood from him nose Todd lifted his broken hand as though to stem the bleeding and with a final smirk Azazel tilted her head. "Sneak attacks don't work if you yell Toddy boy."
Todd's response to that was to spit in Azazel's face.
Sam wished he could have prevented what happened next. Azazel's eyes darkened before using the arm in her grip twisting it and with a sickening pop he knew she dislocated it and then let him go watching as he fell to his knees again. Sam could see her gearing up for an attack again and gripped her shoulder. "That's enough." Once more with that command, her cloud of rage disappeared and she stilled.
"What on earth happened here?!"
The three turned and Sam paled as he could see the Principal of the School rushing forward.
"He stuck gum in my hair." Azazel answered honestly.
Leah and Sam both simultaneously face palmed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Azazel and Sam sat in the Principal's office with varied expressions. Charlie Swan arrived first causing Azazel to sit up in surprise. Legally, Ms. Uley was the only one responsible for Azazel so it would make no sense for him to be here. "What happened?" He asked taking off his hat and looking to Principal Lamone.
Principal Lamone seemed briefly surprised to see the Chief of Police as well and cleared his throat and fixed his tie. "These two have beat one of my prized athletes-"
"Your prized athlete is a bully!" Azazel interrupted, returning back to icing the gum in her hair in an attempt to take it out. "Sam didn't injure him."
With a deep sigh Charlie Swan pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to get rid of the headache he could sense coming on. Sam looked like he was about to shit himself, obviously not used to being in trouble while the girl next to him seemed completely certain she hadn't done anything wrong. "What's the extent of the injuries?" He asked hoping it'd be a black eye or a busted lip.
"A broken hand! A broken Nose! And a broken shoulder!" cried the Principal, his gaze turning even sterner. "Those two should be spending the night in the jail cell-"
"I dislocated the shoulder, I didn't break it." Azazel interrupted again, "And Sam didn't injure him."
Charlie suddenly recognized the placement of her words and exactly what her confidence relied in. Before he could speak again a girl he vaguely remembered as Sam's girlfriend entered the office. "Someone caught the fight on camera! You were right Az."Leah grinned and Azazel winked. The Principals nose wrinkled as he followed Leah out to watch the video and Charlie walked in front to sit on the desk.
"Wanna tell me what you two did or should I go see the video myself?"
"I- I shoved him into a wall after he called Leah a not very nice word... but I didn't do anything else. I'm sorry sir. I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. I just got so angry and-" Sam leaned forward placing his face in his hands looking absolutely grieved. From the corner of his eye Charlie could see Azazel's jaw tick and she looked away.
"It's alright son." Charlie Swan smiled looking at the boy who seemed to ease slightly. "And you Ms. Mohinga?" he asked the fifteen year old.
"The only damage I did was break his nose and dislocate his shoulder..."Azazel huffed crossing her arms and after both Sam and Charlie's silence and stares she grumbled, "And I threw an apple at the back of his head."
Charlie Swan pinched the bridge of his nose.
~~~~~~~~~~
The meeting ends with Principal Lamone angrily having to declare Todd as guilty, although he seems to find great pleasure in putting the rest of the blame on Azazel since he can't convict Sam.
"Well think of it this way-" Chief Swan shrugs as he drives them back to the Uley's, "Now you have an extra day to settle into the Uley's house."
"Like how I settled into yours?" Azazel scoffed crossing her arms and looking out the window.
"Thanks for giving us a ride home Chief Swan." Sam is polite. They glance to the girl in the back who, with her bad attitude and dark eyeliner looks like she could belong there. The thought unnerves Sam but he's seen her mind. She hasn't committed any crimes... aside from fighting in a ring that looked illegal.
"Not a problem. Here you guys go. Your mom told me she'll be out of her shift at the hospital in a couple hours." Chief Swan smiles waving goodbye as Azazel picks up Her two bags and gets out of the car without another word.
Sam decides to say goodbye for Azazel with a crooked grin. "Bye Chief. Tell your daughter I said hi!"
"I will!" Charlie Swan grinned before looking at the girl who's grip tightened around herself. "I'll see you next week Ms. Mohinga. Remember should you need anything I'll be here."
He's answered with a nod.
-_-
Sam glances up from his homework looking up at the girl while she sat in the bathroom with scissors having exhausted all options of getting the gum out of her hair. "You know, I'm starting to wonder what else we have now that we didn't before thanks to us.... Ya know... Uh-" he stuttered around for a bit trying to find a subtle way of putting
"Shifting into canines?" She murmured tactlessly. At this Sam yanked out a blank notebook from his backpack and clicked the pen. She glanced at him unimpressed but didn't say anything else, allowing him to take the lead on their investigation.
"Okay number one of oddities we've developed." Sam said lifting one finger.
"We turn into poofy fucking poodles." She states the obvious.
"Okay well if anything I'm a manly poodle. Number two! Major appetites. We're this close to eating Mom out of house and home." Sam says lifting two fingers."Three! Epic healing powers." Sam announces with a final flourish.
"Four! No one can punch you in the face without getting their hands broken" She paused before scowling. "We're gonna need to punch each other to test to see if we break each other's hands when fighting each other."
"Why?"
"Because science."
"I'm not gonna punch you!"
"Do you hear what I'm saying? Punch me in the face!"
"I always hear punch me when you're speaking but that's just subtext."
"For fuck's Sakes!"
"Why don't you punch me? I know you don't want to and might be uncomforta- OW!! What was that for?"
"You told me to punch you!"
"I can't believe you punched me! I should hit you!"
"Oh so now you wanna punch me."
._.
Ms. Uley stood with her arms crossed as she looked at the two sheepishly grinning teenagers. She pressed her lips together looking at the broken lamp, the scattered papers and hair that could only have come from the girl who's haircut was the worst looking thing she'd ever seen. Although her anger came from the girl's busted lip and the boy's bloodstained shirt.
"What the heck happened in here?!?!"
"We were running a science experiment?"
-.-
Weeks passed and after Ms. Uley fixed Azazel's catastrophe of attempting a self haircut the two wolves learned a few things. One being that short hair in human form meant shorter hair in wolf form and second that Azazel really did not like to be inside the house or around people. Something that Ms. Uley had not believed from Chief Swan. If it wasn't for her school backpack and her small suitcase that Charlie had bought for her, there would have been legitimately no proof of the girl living there.
Azazel spent every Sunday having breakfast with the Chief per orders of the state although Ms. Uley suspected that he enjoyed being in the moody girl's company, something she thought would have stopped the moment his daughter came back to town. Another thing that the Uley's learned is that if they couldn't find Azazel on the roof or the porch she'd be on the beach with her toes in the water.
Azazel made it a point to sit on the beach and after a while she seemed to have reached her decision and turned snapping at an old man she could feel standing behind her. "What do you fucking want?" she snarled.
There was a low chuckle and the sound of the sand shifting informed her that he was walking towards her and she immediately stood facing her completely. She shifted into a stable stance her hands balling into fists when the man wheezed struggling to sit down. "Got a bit of a bite to you don't ya? I'm Quil Ateara, but everyone calls me Ol'Quil." His voice had a raspy hoarse tone of a man fighting age and illness. Knowledge of this brought her to ease knowing she could run if necessary.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Ateara. If you'll excuse me the Uley's must be wondering where I'm at." she bit out having met enough on the reservation to know that he might be holding some stigma against her and was not willing to wait to be proven correct.
As the sand crunched beneath her feet, the raspy old voice suddenly caused her to freeze in her tracks. "I know what's going on with Samuel."
"What the fuck are you on about?"
"I can help him and have what's going on with him explained but you need to bring him to me."
"You want to talk to Sam , you find him and talk to him yourself. An outsider like myself has no place in your tribe's business correct?"
"Correct."