Full Moon

[PancaKe]

Okay, I've decided not to continue with LVH2. I'm very sorry to those who were readers and fans of the LVH series but I've decided to disbandon the idea and go for something new. This time I'm going for a similar idea to LVH 1 and 2, witht he same characters and storylines. It's just basically going to be a non-pokemon one, that way if I ever wanted to hand it in for an assignment, or actually send it to a company -.- I could. (but i wouldnt send it to be published HOW EMBARASING). But I hope that those of you who were fans of LVH 1 and 2 arent too dissapointed as this even though it follows a similar storyline has a more complex plot and is actually (in my opinion) better. :P but thats for you to decide. Please enjoy.

I'll also be putting up chapters VERY slowly, because I've got to catch up on so much school work after being away so long. -.- schoolwork sux.

Please enjoy anyway.

~Mist

Chapter One: A Howling Rage

“Honey I have to leave for an emergency at work.” A woman, tall, with a slim figure, turned at hearing this news. Her eyes soon lost that sapphire sparkle, and showed evident signs that she was experiencing a mixture of feelings.

“Is everything all right?” she asked. She stood up fully, picking up a small child in her arms and brushing loose bits of carrot colored hair out of her eyes. “Why are you being called into work so late at night? It’s-“

“Almost nine, I know,” her husband answered. “But Emily, Sandra Hellensberg called and by the sounds of it, it sounded urgent.”

“What could be so urgent working in the Anti Werewolf League?” Emily McGregor questioned. She sighed, walking over to the kitchen and picking up a lukewarm bottle of milk and handing it to the infant in her arms. “Can’t somebody else fill in for you Kyle?”

“I don’t know, but Sandra did mention something about a sighting,” Kyle answered, trying to sort through his briefcase and talk at the same time. He hurriedly picked up items from his desk and shoved them in, before looking at them quizzically and taking them out again.

Emily put the child she was holding down and walked over to the desk and opened one of its many draws and reached right in to the bottom, and pulled out what looked to be a sniper rifle. Handing it to Kyle she kissed him on the cheek. “Its not loaded with bullets, but with tranquilizer darts,” she told him. “But please be careful Kyle, if something happens to you then there’s only me and Sally-Anne left.” She looked up into his dark green eyes pleadingly. “I worry about you,” she told him.

Kyle put the sniper into his suitcase and locked it. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. And if you do happen to be called in, bring Sally-Anne with you. If you are called everything will probably be fine anyway.” Kyle grinned a cheeky grin at her and kissed her, before picking up the suitcase. “I’ll see you later. Bye-bye little Sal, Daddy will be home later tonight.” He ruffled the thick reddish hair on top of Sally-Anne’s head and exited out the door. Emily walked over and watched him out the window walking down the dark street before blending into the dark shadows.

“Right missy,” Emily smiled, picking up Sally-Anne while she suckled on her bottle still, the milk slowly disappearing into her tiny mouth. She carried her across the narrow hallway and into her bedroom, decorated in a style, which you could call cute for a three year old.

The room was loosely based on the color scheme pink and white. The only visible non pink and white thing in the room happened to be the clothes that Emily was wearing, baggy tan pants and a grass green hooded sweatshirt with words in yellow block script across the chest reading “Warrogish National Running Club”, Warroga being the country in which they resided.

Warroga had only become settled in the last fifty to a hundred years, but was still a very empty country despite the six million people living and immigrating into the country. It had very little land, and what land that wasn’t settled and civilized with cities and towns was covered in a mass stretch of forests and meadows. In the area that the McGregor’s lived, most of the forest had been cleared away for the installation of a city where people lived almost on top of each other. The houses weren’t in one big row and all together like the English style terraced houses, but were apart and each had a small backyard. But Quentside wasn’t the nicest of areas to live in, it was a big area for those who were immigrating out of either third world countries, or with little money to live, and despite the fact that both Emily and Kyle McGregor had high positions in the Anti Werewolf League, they still couldn’t afford to raise Sally-Anne and move to a better area.

At least they didn’t have to live in the Mount District. Emily always put it like that when houses in neighboring streets were robbed, or gangs had attacked somebody and left them to bleed for hours until morning, or syringes were left pointing upwards in bus station seats. Somehow, the Mount District seemed to top this bad reputation with a worse one, involving muggings in broad daylight, drug addicts running around and shooting other innocent people with syringes, nobody bothering to work or pay any attention to the law, and people living on the streets once they were kicked out of their rental properties with three months of overdue notices.

Emily had always dreamed of one day getting a transfer at the Anti Werewolf League to a nice place, maybe in the Northern Residence. This was the area in the North and Northeast, which contained the suburbs packed with mansions each with a swimming pool, two tennis courts and a butler or maid. It was in this area that contained the capital of Warroga, a clean street city by the name of Norton, named after the last son of Warroga Smitherton, the discoverer of Warroga.

That was many years ago, and now Warroga had a different threat to its nation. Twenty years ago, a group of young business majors at a university were camping out in the woods when they awoke and discovered that a wolf had decided to join them in their tent. The group had screamed, but quickly realized that this wasn’t an ordinary wolf, the teeth seemed smaller yet more pointed, the tail was longer and much more bushier, and the general build was more delicate than a regular wolf, and to top it all off the eyes were bright blue.

That group had feared being attacked and sat cowering at the back of the tent until sunrise, when the wolf turned and bounded. Carefully, they peeked out the tent flaps after the wolf and watched as the wolf ran and watched the wolf slowly changing with every bounding leap it took. The body became slimmer, the fur disappearing in a quick motion, as if it were shrinking back into the skin, and clothes reappearing. The tail shriveled up, the paws changed from paws to hands and shoes, and before changing the course of its mad dash into a thick clump of trees, the group watching timidly from the tent saw in the place of a running wolf was a running boy, of about nineteen.

They had realized that werewolves were not just myths but real creatures, and real threats. The Anti Werewolf League started a year later. Its aim; to remove the werewolf population in the hope for a safer country. Emily and Kyle McGregor held very high positions in the Board of Directors for the Quentside Division, under the ruling of the current President of the AWL for all of Warroga, Sandra Hellensberg.

Emily sunk into these thoughts as she put Sally-Anne to bed, thinking about how her life was now devoted to more than just the AWL, but to her daughter as well. And for the safety of her daughter, she would have to work harder at the AWL.

She jumped as the phone gave a shrill ring, and got up from Sally-Anne’s bed to go into the next room to answer it. “Hello?” she said into the receiver, looking around the room and out the windows. She felt uneasy answering the phone late at night all alone, especially after seeing a few horror movies.

“It’s me Emily,” Kyle replied, his voice shaking with uncontrollable excitement. “Look, there was a sighting, and between me, Michael Kent, Christopher Laskey, Wendy Esteen and Sandra Hellensberg, we managed to capture a werewolf.”

“Really? That’s great!” Emily cheered, her spirits soaring. “So are you going to test it and do research?”

“Not us personally, but they’re shipping it off to the Kilbourne AWL. There’s much more advanced facilities at that division. But I’m just so excited.”

“Me too. Can you imagine what this means?”

“Yes of course I can. Oh and also, there’s a celebratory dinner tomorrow night at the nicest place in town, the Quentside Quay. It’s supposed to have a really high reputation, considering the area its in.”

“Where is it?”

“Dragoness High Street.”

“I don’t think that’s safe, going into the main street of town at night.”

“We’ll be perfectly safe, don’t worry about a thing. I’m coming home soon so don’t wait up okay?”

“Okay, bye.”

Emily sighed as she put down the phone. As much as she wanted to have a celebratory dinner she knew it would be dangerous just thinking of going to Dragoness High Street at dusk, let alone night going in at night. She shuddered at the thoughts of recent headlines. Night attack on Dragoness, Guy found guilty of mutilation, All twenty shops empty next morning. She didn’t want to think about what went unreported.

A howl outside, floating into the silent room, caused Emily’s thoughts to shift from unsolvable murders to the joy that she had shared only moments before. For the first time in history the AWL had a captured werewolf, which would help them in finding other werewolves and finally ridding Warroga from all werewolves. She stirred the cup of cocoa she had been absentmindedly been making and sat down on the lounge, taking a sip.

A world without werewolves, she liked the thought of that.

*

“Are you ready honey?” Kyle called from the living room, holding a dressed up Sally-Anne on his knee, trying to desperately do up her little pink denim jacket. He smoothed back his wild hair with his hand, in a hopeless attempt to keep it lying flat. His wife walked out the room, not dressed up as you would if you were going to be attending a business dinner, but to give the impression that she was just an ordinary person going to an ordinary night out in Quentside, an ordinary person who shouldn’t need to give the impression that she was wealthy, or had a reasonable amount of money. An ordinary person trying to give off the impression that she wasn’t to be targeted.

“I’m ready,” she replied, taking Sally-Anne off his knee and grabbing her bottle from the kitchen bench. She stopped in the front mirror to fix up her hair. Kyle rolled his eyes as he pushed her out the front door and onto the porch.

“You’re not supposed to be dressing up, and it still takes you at least half an hour to get ready,” he commented jokingly. Emily rolled her eyes and buckled Sally-Anne into her booster seat.

“Mummy!” Sally-Anne cried, pulling on Emily’s hair. She squealed with excitement and waved her arms around. Emily laughed at how cute her daughter was and uncurled the small fingers that gripped tightly around her hair before shutting the door and getting in herself.

Kyle had already started up the car and was drumming his fingers in beat with the song on the radio while waiting for Emily to get buckled up. The heavy riffs blasted out from the speakers as he nodded his head to every smash of the drum. “Turn that music down,” Emily told him, before sighing and doing it herself. “Honestly, with all this noise I’m not sure that Sally-Anne will grow up knowing what real music is.”

“You mean that stuff that sounds like a hundred cats yowling at once?” Kyle grinned as he backed the car out of the drive and began to head down their street for the main town.

“It’s called Mozart,” Emily snapped, annoyed at the rude accusation placed on her favourite music. “And it’s not yowling either. It’s classical orchestra.”

“Yeah its classic all right,” Kyle scoffed. He cast a sideways glance while driving at his wife, whose quick temper had flared up and lead her to keeping her mouth shut but sitting quietly with the look of somebody biting into a sour lemon upon her face. “Look, I’m sorry that I offended your music, but you offended mine first.”

“You are so immature sometimes, do you realize that?” Emily scorned, before turning and looking out the window. The car was quiet for about a moment, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife and serve it in between two slices of bread.

“Mummy and Daddy don’t fight.” The car halted to a stop at red lights and both Kyle and Emily turned around to look at Sally-Anne. “Don’t be mean. Be friends.”

“Wow,” Emily said quietly as the car started once again. “I didn’t realize we were having that effect on her.”

“So do you accept my apology?” Kyle asked her.

“Yes,” Emily grinned. “But it doesn’t sound like cats yowling.” She stayed quiet for the rest of the car journey to control her temper. She had no idea that her daughter had a mind as clever as hers; she had no idea that what she said and did had an effect on her at all. “Sally-Anne? I’m sorry Daddy and I were fighting.”

“Fighting is bad,” Sally-Anne nodded from the back.

“She talks a lot for a three year old,” Kyle commented, grinning. He drove around the block once more, trying to find a parking spot near to Quentside Quay.

“Like you!” Sally-Anne squealed to Kyle. Emily laughed, and Kyle, who tried not to find that funny, couldn’t suppress the wide grin it put on his face.

“She’s really smart you know,” Emily told him.

“Oh shut up,” Kyle snapped, but the grin on his face clearly told everybody who looked that he wasn’t mad at all, he was just pretending.

“Can you find a parking spot?” Emily asked as they circled the block for a third time. “It’s getting close to dinner time.”

“Sal hungry!” Sally-Anne cried from the back.

This time neither of her parents paid attention to that cry of protest from the backseat. “There’s one!” Kyle quickly swerved the car into the freshly made spot as another car, this time a rust bucket road unworthy car, drove out, most probably stolen.

They stepped out the car and holding Sally-Anne’s hand, they made their way around the block. “It’s almost seven,” Emily panicked, looking at her watch. “We can’t be late, especially since one of the executives from Kilbourne division is supposed to be there!” She began to fasten her pace, but Kyle merely grinned at her frantic attempt to be there quickly. “What are you doing Kyle?!” she yelled at him furiously, stamping her foot and glaring at him. “We’re going to be late!”

“No we’re not,” Kyle grinned, thoroughly irritating Emily. “I know a shortcut,” and he took her hand and led both her and Sally-Anne down an alleyway and emerged at the other side. Down the street from where they stood was a brightly lit formal eatery, with thick black security bars surrounding the windows and glass door. They opened the glass door and stepped inside, feeling the warmth of hot food, candles and heating snuggle them and defrost their frozen faces and hands.

“Name please,” a waiter in a suit questioned, looking over the reservation book, searching for a name, which he did not yet know.

“McGregor, Kyle, Emily and Sally-Anne,” Kyle answered him. “We’re here for the AWL party.”

“Party!” Sally-Anne cried, and began to jump up and down. Emily bent down to calm her hyped up daughter.

“This way sir.” They followed the waiter, Sally-Anne still bouncing, to another room where a long table with about fifteen or so chairs was set for them. Sandra Hellensberg was at one end, seated with Michael Kent and his wife Angelica Kent, and down from them sat Christopher Laskey with his son Jamie, and on the opposite side of the table sat Wendy Esteen and Randal Esteen. Emily and Kyle took their places across from Wendy and Randal and began chatting away about such subjects, which did not interest Sally-Anne to hear about.

She got down from her seat and crawled under the table to join Jamie Laskey who had already made himself comfortable down there with a handful of bread sticks. “Want one?” he offered handing them out. Jamie Laskey was two years older than Sal; he was five whereas she was only three. Even so, Sal would still be the bossier out of the two.

“Mine,” she grinned, taking one and eating it.

“Sally-Anne you look beautiful,” Jamie told her as she ate her breadstick. The smile on Sal’s face looked as if it was wiped off with a cloth and replaced by a menacing frown.

“Don’t call me Sally-Anne!” she yelled, and going for him with his fist. “Sal!”

The table shook from above and in an instant reaction, both Emily and Christopher Laskey dived down and picked up their children. “Sally-Anne what are you doing?” Emily demanded.

“Jamie Laskey what did you do to Sally-Anne?” Christopher Laskey questioned.

“He called me Sally-Anne!” Sal cried, tears of frustration appearing in her eyes.

“She got angry and yelled at me when I said Sally-Anne you look beautiful,” Jamie told his father, his large eyes showing signs of confusion and fear.

“He called me Sally-Anne!” she cried, louder this time.

“Excuse me for a minute,” Emily apologized, before picking up Sal and carrying her to the bathroom. She sat her down on the vanity next to the sink and looked at her hard in the face. Sal stopped her crying, realizing that her mother wasn’t the usual cheery person she was. “Sally-Anne McGregor I am ashamed! You cannot yell like that especially when we’re at a dinner party! Do you understand? I don’t want to hear another word from you all evening! Don’t yell at all again okay? Your name is Sally-Anne and you cannot go changing it and yelling at other people for calling you your real name! You are Sally-Anne McGregor, and a dignified McGregor doesn’t go around embarrassing people at dinner parties!”

Sal sat there, taking all this in. Her mother, the one who she thought would always love her, seemed to be yelling at her, just for being herself. Sal didn’t want to be called by her full name, she didn’t want her room pink and white, she didn’t want to have her hair in pigtails and her clothes all pink and white and looking cute. She just wanted to be who she was, drop the name Sally-Anne and be known as Sal by everybody.

Sal made no response to this outburst of her mothers temper, and allowed her mother to carry her back, as much as she didn’t want to go. Her mother sat her down, and with a last sharp look at her, turned back to the conversation.

More and more people came to be seated, many whom Sal did not know, but her parents knew very well. Emily and Kyle spent the rest of the evening greeting people such as Pauline Notting and her boyfriend Todd Hanson, career focused Olivia Bell and others. The waiter reappeared and orders were taken from everyone.

“And for Sally-Anne I’ll order –“ Emily began.

Familiar rage rose up in Sal. She was still furious about what her mother had said to her in the bathroom and decided that nobody was going to stand over her anymore, even if it meant she was going to be rude. “A hotdog and chips,” Sal finished.

Emily glared at Sal while others around her laughed. “I can bring a hot dog for your daughter if that is what you want,” the waiter offered.

“Thank you very much but she will be having the kids size beef and vegetables please,” Emily forced herself to grin and gave the order to the waiter who shrugged and walked off, muttering something that sounded like “that’s what leads them to rebellion.”

Sal frowned and sulked quietly, not daring to open her mouth again. Silence swept the table as Sandra Hellensberg stood up. Emily and Kyle looked over in awe also. “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the Head of the Kilbourne Division, Lucidia Balloise,” Sandra spoke.

Lucidia smiled, her dark red lips moving upwards at the corners. Little Sal looked up and instantly a wave of bad feeling washed over her about Lucidia. She didn’t know whether it was the orange color of her hair that was darker and a more business like shade of Sal’s hair, or the icy blue eyes that seemed to be able to shoot shards of ice across at people. Perhaps it was the way she stood there, tall and in a navy pinstripe business suit, jacket and skirt with a white blouse and dark brown stockings. Whatever it was about her, Sal had an odd feeling.

“Hello, I’m sorry I’m so late,” Lucidia began, beaming a toothy smile at everyone before taking a seat. All eyes were still upon her when she continued talking. “There was some important business at the Kilbourne Division that I had to attend to. I’m not sure if they can handle it on their own so if I have to leave tonight then I’m very sorry in advance. Waiter!” She raised her hand and flagged down a waiter and gave him her order before turning back to the table. “So shall we discuss this business now?”

“Well we’ve sent the werewolf across,” Sandra told Lucidia. “But I won’t be coming down to Kilbourne Division for quite a while yet, I’ve decided to stay up here for a while until the next full moon at least. Kyle has volunteered to do a watch for more werewolf activity and I would like to be around for that.”

Lucidia scowled but then quickly smiled once more. “Well that’s okay then, I’m sure we can handle the progress of a werewolf for a month at least, I’m sure that’s very well. Do you mind if I make my way back up here in the next full moon or the day after depending on the progress at the Kilbourne Division to see what findings you have made?”

“Certainly,” Sandra nodded. “Oh good, food.” The waiter set down the meals in front of everybody and wishing them a ‘Bon Appetite’ left them to eat. Sal poked her tongue out at the food in front of her, refusing to eat. Conversation carried on around her, even though she took no notice of what the adults were saying. Sal was very mature for her age in some ways, and in other ways you wouldn’t suspect she had the slightest bit of maturity in her. She could understand what the adults were planning to do, she knew that her father and mother would be the only two members of the AWL to go out on the werewolf stakeout, and she knew that Lucidia wanted to come and view a capture.

She really didn’t care about any of this. She was too young to understand, so thought her mother. Sal knew that the werewolves were ordinary people with a disease and they shouldn’t be killed as if they were going to hurt others. She didn’t dare share this point of view with either her mother or father, just thinking about the response gave her nightmares that sent chills down her spine and woke her up in a cold sweat.

“Ah.” Lucidia suddenly gasped as she glanced down at her watch. She looked up at the table, where everybody had stopped at her sudden cry to watch her. Emily’s fork was half way to her mouth when she stopped. “I’m dreadfully sorry but I’m going to have to go, I have to be back at the Kilbourne Division by eleven thirty at the latest and it’s already getting to be late. Please do excuse me. I will be seeing you all shortly though, when I return to keep on standby with Sandra for the next werewolf stakeout. Thank you for this lovely dinner.” She stood up and picking up the small leather handbag which Sal had not seen her carry in, she pulled out a hundred dollar bill and placed it on the table. “This should cover more than my share of the bill,” she smiled. “Good night to you all,” and on these departing words, she exited the building.

*

The tranquilizer gun that captured the first werewolf for the AWL lay on the desk, waiting to be picked up and used tonight. Or so Kyle hoped anyway, as he headed out the kitchen and into the room in which the desk resided, picking up the tranquilizer gun and a packet of tranquilizer darts and shoving them into his backpack. Emily handed him a hot thermos flask with coffee and a thermal mug, before kissing him on the cheek. He snatched the walkie talkie, and his mobile phone from a draw in the desk and placed them into his bag also, before returning the kiss.

“You’ll be all right won’t you?” Emily asked.

“I’ll be fine, you should worry more about Sally-Anne,” Kyle smiled back. “Are you going to bring Sally-Anne to see me and say goodbye at shift change?” Emily nodded. “Well rug her up then, it looks as if it’s going to be a chilly night.”

Sal wandered into the room, now a month older and wiser. She knew the hunt was on tonight; her mother and father would always discuss it in front of her, unaware that she could hear and understand them. “Bye Daddy,” she said to Kyle, hugging his leg.

“Bye Sal,” Kyle grinned, ruffling her hair. She beamed up at him; her father was always her favorite, especially seeing that he called her Sal instead of her given name.

Emily glared at him. “Her name is Sally-Anne,” she growled through clenched teeth, trying to suppress her anger. Sal had learnt about her mothers temper as quickly as Kyle had, and had learnt that it was no use crying in front of her, crying in her mothers eyes was a sign of a sissy.

“Bye Sally-Anne,” Kyle corrected himself, kneeling down to hug her. “Sal,” he whispered playfully in her ear. She giggled.

Hours uneventfully passed, but Sal held a glowing inside of her, one that whenever her mother lost her temper (which was often) she would be able to let it slide off her back like water off a ducks back. It felt good to know that her father disagreed with her mother as much as she did about certain topics.

“Mummy, can I go to bed now?” Sal asked, yawning. Her mother had wanted her to stay up late so that she could take her down on the shift swap, but aside from being tired, Sal wanted to annoy her.

“No you have to stay up,” Emily answered. She glanced at the clock and got off the lounge. “Come on, put your jacket on, we’re going to go see your father.”

“Yay!” Sal cried, leaping off the lounge, then cast a look at her mother, who was fuming. “Sorry Mummy, inside voice.”

Still a firm scowl on her face, Emily nodded. “Put your jacket on now,” she managed to say calmly, fighting her urge to explode with anger. Sal followed this instruction, and they headed out the front door, with a fresh flask of hot coffee in Emily’s other hand. Walking down through the streets of Quentside Heights spooked Emily, and her tight grip on her daughters hand was beginning to affect the blood circulation.

They had taken a detour, instead of taking the main road, which lead around the whole city, Emily lead Sal through the side streets and the alleyways for the quickest way to get across to the other side of the city where her husband was. The moonlight their only light through some parts, scattering shadows wildly.

Suddenly Sal felt herself being yanked back, and she realized that her mother had stopped short. She looked up to Emily’s face, and saw the expression upon it. Emily was stricken with horror, her mouth open slightly, eyes wide and pupils dilated. She looked like a ghost, bathed in the moonlight, with her skin so pale. Sal turned to look at what made her mother so scared.

It lay in the middle of the pathway in a shallow pool of blood. Bite marks were all over it, but not human ones. Human bite marks didn’t rip chunks of skin out of the arms and legs and chest. By the looks of it, it had come as a surprise; the eyes were wide open, but moved not at all. Sal felt her insides tearing apart as she stared at her father.

Kyle lay dead on the sidewalk. On top of him sat a bloodstained werewolf, its lips up, teeth bared, growling. Emily took a step back, dropping the flask of coffee she had been holding. Sal fought the urge to cry and scream and run towards the werewolf at once. Emily pulled her daughter harshly back and behind her. Sal had no objections in following her mothers orders this time.

“What have you done? You FILTH! This is why we do what we do,” Emily announced, trying to be brave yet her voice quivered as she spoke. “You’re nothing but a useless freak. A freak of nature, a danger to society. You’re the reason, this” (clearly indicating her dead husband) “is the reason that the Anti Werewolf League of Warroga was set up!”

The werewolf got up and stepped off Kyle, towards Emily and Sal. Emily quickly moved backwards. “You’re not brave are you,” the werewolf uttered, in a sleek voice that seemed to go totally against the harsh impression. The voice tingled the hairs on the back of Sal’s neck as she watched from behind Emily’s shaking knees. “I can see you knees shaking.” The werewolf shook her head. “Maybe next time you want to go locking up people you should lock those up with hearts of coal, just like yours.” Her voice had dropped to a hiss now, and a low snarling was coming from the pits of the werewolf’s throat.

“Get… Get away from me,” Emily stammered her order as the werewolf advanced. She stepped back before turning and bolting, picking up Sal and running as fast as she could. The werewolf jumped on her back, tackling both her and Sal, and horrified, Sal got up and tried to pull her mother out of the werewolf’s jaws. “Sal, leave me, go and run!” Emily shouted. Sal turned and ran as fast as her short legs would carry her. Tired, she stopped and glanced around the corner she had just run around. The werewolf had finished with her mother and was advancing after Sal.

If Sal hadn’t been overcome by her instinct, she would have wet her pants. Instead she turned and ran as fast as she could the other way. With a bounding leap the werewolf appeared in front of her. Sal turned to run the other way, and came face to face with the werewolf again. “Are you…”

“No I’m not going to kill you,” the werewolf simply answered her question. With a smile the werewolf continued. “You don’t deserve to die. You weren’t the one who put Nade in a cage and sent him off for testing. You had nothing to do with it. But, I do think that it would be a danger to the werewolves of Warroga if I let you just wander free.”

Sal stared at her, her face blank. The werewolf in front of her grinned. “Hold out your arm or leg, which ever one you would like to be bitten.”

[mistysakura]

Aw... no more LVH2... unfair!!:( *boo hoo*
Nice fic though, and I do like non-Pokemon fics. I could kind of see where this was going, thanks to LVH, so I kew what was going to happen all along. Plus, my friend's name's Sally-Anne, and she's really sweet, and her image kept popping up whenever "Sally-Anne" was mentioned... funny relaly.
Great description and stuff, I think you've improved since you left (or maybe it's just because I haven't read your stuff for too long.) I hope that the rest of the main characters will be in this too, though I kind of doubt it. But atl east Sal's still in there.

[classy_cat18]

Whoo! Now this is kind of non-Pokemon fic that I like. Werewolves maiming people. Keep it up!

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

Freakin' sweet. I love this story. If you plan on publishing this in a novel, let me know so I can send for your autograph :P. This is an awsome story--werewolves (And I am one of those people who feels sory for the werewolves in stories and stuff), the very intelligent little girl. Quite honestly, I'm glad you killed off her father when you did--one more chapter and I'd have been too attached to his utter coolness to keep reading :P. I have quite a few ideas as to the identity(ies) of a character, but I won't say it in case others didn't quite catch it ;). Keep it up :yes:

[Last Exile]

Ah, a prequel. Very innovative! ;) And now we understand why Sal became the way she is. Or at least, part of it. This should prove interesting. Good start!

And it's great to have you back, Tara! :)

[mr_pikachu]

Augh! No more LVH?! *cry cry cry* :( I loved that series, too! Oh, well... I'm sure you'll make this every bit as good as the Lapras Valley High series was!

I hate to make any critical points to a brand new fic, based on one of the great ones, but I do have a few things to point out. Firstly (and least importantly), there were one or two normal typos in there, just changing words like "they" to "the", etc. Those really aren't too big of a problem. What could really be better, though, is the use of punctuation. There are many cases, for instance, when a comma to break up a sentence would have been prudent. In addition, there were times at the end of some quotes where there was no punctuation used or a mark that seemed a bit inappropriate for the situation. However, I must commend you: Your writing style, as usual, is superb, and you've done a great job of adapting this as a non-Pokemon fic. Keep it up!

I'm still sad that LVH is gone, though... *sob* Well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Anyway, keep going with this project! It looks great so far! :D

[PancaKe]

Mistysakura: Thanks ^^ That would be weird, having someones personality appear whenever Sally-Anne was mentioned. I was working at my dads shop and some woman came in and said her name was Sally-Anne and i almost fell over because I instantly thought of Sal >.< and she lookd nothing like Sal. I'm just as sane as you though. I dont think I've improved too much, I'm trying to get better though and making my writing more formal instead of the usual casual stuff I had. Because thats what lost me marks in a fantasy writng thing I did for school. The speech wasn't formal enough so I;m trying to cut out the stuff that would like, count against me.

Classy_cat Thank you very much! ^^ This is gonna probably be one of the first non pokemon fics that I'm gona try finish anwyay so I hope its good and you guyz lyk it.

DK: I'm calling u that because I cant even pronounce that K word in your name let alone spell it. Lol about the father thing. I dont know why I made him like I did but I guess I wanted to have the fatehr the more happier character so that if I wanted to totally change Sal I would have her pick up her parents traits. I mean, I'm already using her mothers anger in her... but that sort of relates to chapter 2 which I'm halfway through writing now.

Ryan: Yeah I hoped one, to help understand why Sal is as angry as she is and as disturbed as she is, and two, sort of show the little memory she has of her parents, especially her mother. ^^

mr pikachu Yes no more LVH *hands tissue* I loved writing it too but I feel that its time to move on. :P Yes I know there are typos, but unlike other wriiters, I am not perfect. I'm not denying that I'd love to be though. I know there are things I have to work on so please give me time, but thank you so much for the critical points. What i wouldnt' give for a dozen of "you stuffed up here here and here" because I NEED THEM!!!!! dont ask... I'm sane... i think.

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Mmm, yeah, she did have the worst type of ending and the guilt to go with it! I mean, she hated her parents all night, defied them and so forth, then sees them mauled apart. That would weigh down heavily on a person to the point I don't wanna know what that's like.

[Chris 2.1]

Well, I never actually got around to reading LVH1/2 *gets tied up and whipped with shoelaces* but.....I had en excuse! My dog ate my mouse -__-;; *cough*

But seriously, nice seeing a non-Pogeymans fic around here. It was a friggin-HAYUUUGE (huge) Chappie, and if they're all this length, i might just skip lunch! ..

Thats all from me, toodle-pip as we say in the Uk!

[Lady Vulpix]

Hmm... I got here a bit late, so, everything everybody else said. :D

I'll miss LVH, but I'm sure I'll enjoy reading this fic. It was good to know more about how it all began, though you could fix some typos and word repetitions. It will be interesting to read this. :)

[PancaKe]

Ryan: ^^ no comment

BritChris: Nah I dont think I can keep them up to that length. Hurt my hands typing it, hurts my brain. It just hurts.

Gabbi: Thanks girl. :P Yeah I know Iv'e got a lot to fix up. Man JK Rowling, how the hell does she do it?? She is like so perfect -.-

~Mist

Chapter Two: The Unusual Interview

Many years passed since that night where Sal lost both her parents and her pure humanity. She was now a werewolf and had kept it a secret for many years. Only one other person knew, but you really couldn’t call this creature a person. Being a werewolf Sal could share her secret with another wolf, and this she did with a wolf named Fury. Fury wasn’t an average wolf either; she had a sarcastic attitude most of the time, and somehow knew the answer to every question as if it was something as simple as two plus two. Sal couldn’t understand how Fury was able to talk, but she knew that it was something that other people shouldn’t know about too soon.

Sal was now twelve, reaching the age of thirteen very shortly, and she had certainly grown from the short cute four year old she once was. Cute was a word that could not be uttered in the same sentence as Sally-Anne McGregor, and if she heard it said, she would be twice as angry than if she just heard Sally-Anne McGregor mentioned. She still hated to be called by her full name, and she had also picked up her mothers fierce temper, and when she was disagreed with it was not a pretty sight. Only one person in the whole orphanage knew how to handle Sal, even though being with Sal was like spending time with a ticking bomb.

This one person was Ashley Lien, trusted friend of Sal and fellow orphan. Ashley Lien had been with her father, moving from a Chinese town to Warroga, when her father had been killed. They had only been in the country less than a month when he was killed in a car accident. Ashley Lien had gone to the Quentside Orphanage where she had met and befriended Sal. Nobody knew how she had done it either; Sal’s temper was one to be wary of. Especially when she was in a bad mood.

Sal stormed up the stairs of the smashed and wrecked building. The windows, which were barred with thick iron bars, had their panes smashed, and the walls were forever being repaired of holes that were kicked in by the orphans or by Sal in a bad mood. Her orange hair was cut short and still got into her eyes; she cut her own hair and as a result didn’t care at all how it looked. The emerald eyes she had glared out to people who dared to look at her and wonder why she was so angry, even though they knew it was probably another fight that she couldn’t win.

Opening the door to her dorm at the orphanage with such force that it hit the wall and bounced shut behind her. She flopped down on her bed, the springs groaning under years of having her jump and flop on them, and she screamed to herself. Ashley opened the door and walked in after her, her black hair tied up behind her, looking too neat for a place like Quentside, and sat down on the bed next to Ashley. “What happened this time?” she asked patiently, knowing that with Sal’s rage meter on high she would need all the patience she had.

“That Joanna Gordon,” Sal growled, looking over at Ashley. “She was going on, saying stuff about how we’re all going to be sent away and stuff and how I’m probably going to be sent out of the country and how I’ll probably end up in some country doing time by next year…” She punched the pillow with rage.

“Um…” Ashley bit her lip, not knowing where to begin. “That’s true… not the part about you being deported,” she corrected hurriedly, “but the bit about we’re all going to be sent away. The orphanage is being shut down.”

Sal’s temper suddenly stopped, confusion overwhelming the fires of anger. “What? No way,” she said. “The orphanage? Being closed down? And what the hell are we supposed to do?”

“Calm down, don’t get angry at me,” Ashley told her. “What’s happening is that we’re supposed to be going to different places. Various families have opted to adopt some of us, and others are opting to foster us through foster programs. There are a few schools that have also chosen to take in a few orphans.”

“So what’s happening to me?” Sal questioned. “What about you?” Hidden in between those two questions was the real question, what’s going to happen to us, are we going to be split up?

“I think there are spots left at a school called Kilbourne Shorelines High,” Ashley said, racking her brains to remember. “Either there or Mount Karper Boarding School.”

Sal pulled a face at the mention of Mount Karper, compared to the things that went on in Mount Karper, Quentside was a walk in the park. “Can we choose where we go?” Sal asked Ashley. “Otherwise knowing that bloody” she said a string of swear words before continuing with regular language “Hughes probably will put me into Mount Karper straight away.”

“There are representatives coming to interview people who want to make it into that school or family,” Ashley explained. “Mr Hughes asked me to explain it too you seeing you would be the one to most likely bite his head off for asking questions.”

Sal digested this and nodded. “When are the interviews?”

“They’re being held for Kilbourne Shorelines High in a few days, Thursday afternoon,” Ashley replied. “Unless you want to choose another place. But there are only two spots for Kilbourne Shorelines High, so even if you make it in chances are extremely slim of both of us being chosen to enter.”

Sal glared at Ashley. “You know what,” she began. “Even if they choose you and not me, you have to go for it. I can handle life fine, with or without you.”

Ashley could read right through these words, and as much as Sal hated to admit it, Ashley knew how to decipher these words to their true meaning: If you get chosen go for it because I want you to be happy. Sal rarely spoke her emotions, and when she did she said it in such a way that if you weren’t trained at deciphering as Ashley was, you would think she was just selfish and stubborn.

“Same here Sal,” Ashley grinned, letting Sal know that she understood. Sal scowled, then gave the slightest grin, hardly recognizable for a small smile. She punched Ashley lightly on the shoulder then lay back down on the bed, hardly remembering when she had sat up. Ashley left to get dinner for the both of them, giving Sal at least twenty minutes on her own.

She ducked down the stairs once again, this time without a ferocious scowl on her face, and out the front doors of the orphanage. Running down a few streets and around a few corners, she came to face one of Warroga’s many forests. “Thought I’d be seeing you, has Ashley gone to get your dinner?”

Sal turned and faced the wolf behind her. “You already know the answer,” she replied. “Caught anything Fury?”

Fury the wolf shook her big furry head, the fur swinging from side to side. “Did you hear about the orphanage closing down?” she asked Sal. “I do assume that’s why you’re here, to get advice once again.”

Sal pulled a face of both anger and annoyance at Fury. “The pack are actually mainly from Kilbourne aren’t they?”

“And what makes you say that?” Fury asked, mockingly confused, a sly grin upon that wolfish face.

“You bloody well know why I’m asking this so are you going to answer or not?” Sal yelled, furious. Her short fuse had once again run out. “I’ve got to be back in about five minutes so will you just freaking answer me!”

“You do realize that by screaming you are giving us extra time,” Fury sarcastically advised Sal. “Yes there are pack members down in Kilbourne, that’s where I was before going there, but why do you care anyway? It’s been ages since you actually went to the pack. Most of the time you spend on full moon is running around with me, avoiding human contact.”

Sal contemplated this. True, it had been years since she left the pack, so why was she so worried about pack being down in Kilbourne. Perhaps she did not want to be alone; maybe she was scared of being the only one there. The only werewolf, she corrected herself.

“You’d stay here anyway,” she announced after a moments thought on how to word the question. Sal was very skilled at hiding emotions, it came in useful at times also. There was a gift she had where she could mould the words around her question to make her sound selfish and uncaring, even though deep down (not that she’d let anybody else aside from Fury and Ashley know) she did have feelings and she did care a lot.

“You go, I go,” Fury grinned in a wolfish way. “Better get back before she comes looking for you, otherwise you’re about to have the best day of your life.” Sarcasm had crept back into Fury’s vocabulary, and she knew as well as Sal that if she had to explain everything to Ashley it would be very difficult, even frightening.

*

“You will be called into this office one by one, in alphabetical order,” one of the two representatives from Kilbourne Shorelines High explained. “Alexia, Jason.” Jason Alexia got up and went into the office and came out five minutes later, looking even more nervous than he had before he went in. Sal and Ashley sat next to each other, neither talking, yet their minds racing. Neither were prepared, neither of the two knew what lay in that room waiting for them, although as Ashley was very logical and levelheaded she had a good idea it would just be an interview.

She stood up and walked into the office before her name was called, Ashley was that nervous, yet she had to walk back out and wait for another ten minutes as she walked in, pushing in front of two people who were waiting to do an interview. It seemed that Kilbourne was a highly popular place for the people to go, practically half the people who stayed at the orphanage wanted to get in, even though there was only enough room for two.

“Lien, Ashley,” the representative called, a smile upon her face. “Its your turn now.” Flushing, Ashley got up and walked into the room, the door swinging shut behind her. Sal watched the door with interest, not saying anything to any of the other waiting people. Ashley walked out of the room five minutes later, and she seemed less nervous now that the interview was over. Sal began to ask how it was when the representative, calling her name, interrupted her. “McGregor, Sally-Anne.”

“I’m talking, you can shut it for a second,” Sal snapped rudely, shocking the representative.

“Sal, go!” Ashley hissed. “You might miss your chance.”

Glaring, Sal got up and walked past the representative, saying to her “And by the way, my name is Sal”, before entering the room and slamming the door shut so it banged quite loudly, startling the people who hadn’t been watching Sal’s latest scene.

“I guess you’re Sally-Anne then,” the second representative grinned, her chocolate eyes sparkling. Sal turned and glared. “Relax, I’m only joking,” she continued. “I know you like to be called Sal. I’ll put that on the interview form if you like.”

Sal surveyed this laughing, joking woman carefully. Since when did people joke with you when you were in a bad mood, and had just bad mouthed their work partner? But this woman seemed different; perhaps it was those eyes that looked as if they were made of fresh dairy milk chocolate, or maybe it was the way her dark red hair seemed to shine like diamonds if the light hit it right. Maybe the smile was what did it, Sal rarely saw others aside from Fury and Ashley smile at her, and they never really smiled as broadly as this person did. Maybe her mouth was bigger.

“You can have a seat you know, I’m not going to attack you or anything,” the woman told her. Sal cautiously took a seat, still keeping her mouth shut for once, and her defensive guard right up. “Well Sal, I’m Jacquelyn Taylor, but I’m known as Jackie Taylor. But I don’t bite everyone’s heads off if they call me Jacquelyn either. Now why exactly do you want to come to Kilbourne High?”

Sal opened her mouth to speak, but mind blank, closed it again. Jackie rested back in her chair after writing in messy scrawled handwriting ‘Sal’ on the form in front of her. “Um…”

“Oh and also, there’s a five minute interview time,” Jackie interrupted before Sal could utter a word. “So if you do think of anything to say, you’d better say it quickly.”

“Why cant you just shut your mouth?” Sal asked, almost yelling. “You think you’re so cocky don’t you, just because you’ve got the idea that you’re better than us, because you work for some rich snobby school down south in the upper class area! The only reason I put my name down was because of Ashley and her going.”

Sal was once again, interrupted by the cocky Jackie, who seemed unbothered by this sudden verbal attack. “You’re wrong on a few things there, Sal,” she began. “I’m not better than you even if I am the principal of Kilbourne High, and the south isn’t upper class. Anyway, I’m not actually from South Warroga, I’m not from Kilbourne or Topaz Central even though that’s where I live during holidays with my sister. I’m from the Mountain District.” Sal’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You’ve heard of Mount Karper I presume.” If possible, Sal’s jaw dropped lower than it already had. On the other hand, Jackie’s grin continued to broaden. “So is there anything you need to tell me about why you wanted to come to Kilbourne High? Aside from the fact that you couldn’t let Ashley come alone, which is a very noble thing to do. What if something happened for instance, and you were coming all by yourself. Now its not up to me to decide who comes or not, I get a small say in it with the other teachers. But for fun, let’s say you came and Ashley didn’t. Would you be happy or not?”

“No I wouldn’t be happy,” Sal replied, loudly and angrily. “Far out who would,” she swore loudly and continued talking “want to leave their” she swore once again “best friend and go halfway across the country to some stupid boarding school to live for the rest of their lives.”

“Hey, even if you are selected its up to you if you want to go or not,” Jackie shrugged. “But otherwise you’ll probably be tipped on the streets, either here or in Mount Karper, and if I were you I’d choose the safer option of boarding school.”

“So do I still have to come up with these stupid reasons on why I want to go or do I have to lie?” Sal asked.

“You’ve asked a reasonable question and honestly, you’re a pretty good person,” Jackie judged. Sal’s shock a few moments ago upon hearing that Jackie was from Mount Karper was nothing compared to the state of shock she was in now. “You’re a very honest person even if you twist your words so it seems you’re not. I used to know someone who was like you, you remind me very much of them. Angry little person they were but deep down, they were nice. Of course we dug really deep down, they’re buried like, twelve feet underground now.”

Sal stared at Jackie, the joke going right over her head. “Ashley has to make in, whether I do or not,” she said, controlling her voice from any more shouting incidents. This Jackie was so happy it seemed strange to loose temper and start screaming.

“I’m not promising nothing,” Jackie shrugged. “All I’m saying is, do you want to answer any more questions, shout at me or leave?”

*

“I don’t want to even think about it.” Fury nodded in agreement as Sal strolled the forest alongside her, this time in an unrecognizable form. The moon was full, and it shone down right onto the city, and onto its forest boundary. Sal and Fury were carefully avoiding those of the AWL who were out looking for werewolves that night, and were careful to keep their voices down to keep away attention.

“I know Ashley will get in to that damn school, but what if-“

“Sal you are being way too emotional,” Fury replied. “What do you normally do when you’re feeling all girlish and emotional?”

“Attack someone or something…”

“Right, and are you feeling hungry tonight?”

Sal caught on to what Fury was saying and began to walk softer, watching out for any signs of animals to attack and eat. Something in the bushes behind them moved and both sets of ears pricked up. Sal nodded to Fury to be quiet, while she slunk up, low to the ground as she could, before jumping into the bushes and tackling whatever was there.

The dojer squirmed underneath Sal’s weight. Fury ran up behind Sal, and shook her head. “Let it go,” she told Sal. “Go attack a pidgeon or something, those things are endangered or something.” Dojers were one of Warroga’s few native animals, small dog like creatures that were about the size of a badger but much skinnier, with long rabbit like ears and two wagging tales, the same camoflage green as the rest of its fur. It bounded off quickly and silently away from the two wolves, not understanding why it was freed but glad that it wasn’t eaten.

“Why on earth did you do that? You know that wolves don’t let things go?” Sal hissed. “You should have attacked that yourself even if I didn’t!”

Fury grinned. “Maybe I just wanted to eat it later.” Sal growled at her threateningly. “Chill, Sal. Do you want to go see what the pack are doing if you’re bored?”

“The pack can keep to themselves, and so can we,” Sal answered before stalking off. Fury ran a bit to catch up to her. “I don’t want to go to the pack, the pack can take care of themselves.”

“Then what do you want to do?” Fury asked, stopping. “Its not as if the forest has an arcade or anything.”

Sal sat down and put her head on her paws. “I can’t go to that school anyway,” Sal suddenly announced after a moment or two of silence. “There’d be too much security to break out every full moon, somebody would be bound to see and anyway –“

“Well if you do go to that school,” Fury interrupted quite rudely, making her voice override Sal’s. “There’s the Shady Thicket right behind the school, and part of it is on school grounds anyway so its not as if you’ll be deliberately breaking rules. Is there a rule to say that you have to be in bed at a certain time?”

Sal looked at Fury as if she was stupid. “Do I go to the school yet?” she asked impatiently.

“Will you let me continue?” Fury demanded.

Sal looked up to the sky, which was slowly growing lighter, from the deep midnight blue to a purple bluish hue, which to anybody else would have looked beautiful. “No,” she said simply turning back to Fury, watching, as Fury seemed to grow smaller while she grew taller and lost her fur and her tail. They shrank into her smoothing skin, as for the fur around her head; it became much thinner, and took on its usual reddish carrot colour.

She shook herself once the transformation was finished, and left Fury shouting after her.

*
“How do I tell her this? Do I just go, congratulations you made it and I didn’t? Or should I say something like, well I guess I’ll never see you again. No I cant say that, she’d be so angry she’d knock down a wall or something.”

Ashley muttered to herself furiously as she walked back up the stairs. She had just walked downstairs, checking out the results of who made it into Kilbourne Shorelines High and the results weren’t good. They were to some body else, but to Sal they would just be like running past her and yelling “SALLY ANNE!”

“Um… Sal, are you awake?” Sal stirred at Ashley’s voice, tired from her night roaming the forests with Fury.

“What the hell do you want?” she snapped, before realizing who spoke. “What is it?” she asked again, this time in a much more civil tone.

“I’ve got to tell you something,” Ashley said, uncertainty creeping in her voice. She didn’t know how to word it but it didn’t really matter, because anyway it was put would be bad news and would have the same effect. “You’re going to Kilbourne!” she announced excitedly, trying to make it sound better than it was.

Sal eyed her, demanding the full story. Ashley sighed, and braced herself. “You’re going to Kilbourne Shorelines High with some guy who’s eighteen. Do you know Jason Alexia…” She stopped once she saw Sal’s face twitching. “I’ll go get some breakfast, shall I?” and with these departing words, dashed out of the room, closing the door behind her, still able to hear the scream of rage.

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

Very cool. Sal's a teenager now, and the anger and rebelliousness it multiplied 10 fold. Excellent. I'll be watching :yes:

[Last Exile]

Okay, wait a second. Sal was in a school in which Jackie was associated with, but she didn't remember Jackie in LVH? Okay, strange. And looks like pack mentality is set to pick up again. Being sent with an 18 yeard old? Hmmm, the 18 year old had better pray! :D

[mr_pikachu]

Nice chapter. The tension was high in this chapter (well, as high as it could be for me, since I already know what happens from LVH). The only thing I have any criticism about are the spelling and grammar errors. For instance, in this sentence:

Opening the door to her dorm at the orphanage with such force that it hit the wall and bounced shut behind her.

...there's not a noun used in the correct way to be considered a subject. If you started the sentence with "She opened the door to..." then you'd be fine, but in this case there is no correct subject. You might want to think about re-wording it. There were also numerous errors that were mostly typo-like stuff and could probably have been corrected with one or two quick edits. There was stuff like "too" instead of "to", "mothers" instead of "mother's", etc. You get the idea. It might be worthy of another quick edit just to make it look really sharp. After all, with a great work like this, you don't want to leave any doubt about your abilities! Anyway, you did a good job with the writing. Keep it up! I can't wait till we get back to where we left off with LVH2! Or even just when we meet Sal's friends! :wave:

[PancaKe]

^.^;;Thanks guys. I know I've turned REALLY bad at grammer and spelling, but like, eh. Lol I just sometimes couldnt be bothered to write properly.

And yeah, Ryan, what do you mean by this:

"Sal was in a school in which Jackie was associated with, but she didn't remember Jackie in LVH?"

Confused me. ^^;; But knowing you you're just going to go and explain it SO SIMPLY. -.-;;

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Jackie ran Kilbourne High when Sal was young. Then she was principal of Lapras Valley High. I jsut find it weird that Sal would forget Jackie despite the fact that she met her at that interview 3 years before Sal went to LVH. Oh well.

[mistysakura]

Lol Ryan.

Really, that chapter was pretty good, with the way you describe Sal's personality and everything. But one weird thing was, since when were wolves allowed in dorms?

[Orion]

Seems the chapters I like the most receive the least comments...:rolleyes: Oh well.Thanks for your comments,Courage!I,too,wish pokémon were real...

Here's Chapter 9 at last!Wonder why I took so long?This chapter was longer than I thought it would be!I'm not sure, but I felt it's the longest chapter I've written!Ohh well.I've added a new concept in this Chapter,which may come back in some upcoming ones:the multi-person viewpoint.In this chapter,not everything will be from Charly's perspective...

Anyway,here it is,after such a long time!Enjoy.
-------------------------------------
Chapter 9: A bloody encounter.

-“Charly, wake up…are you OK? Please, don’t leave me like that…”
I could hear Amy’s voice…she sounded very worried, and weak…I was very weak to get up, but I made the effort…
After opening my eyes, Amy helped me to stand up. I was very confused: we were inside a cage. The bars were of pure steel; all I could see around were some boxes and loosened stuff all over the small room we were at. The place moved eventually, as if we were going in a ship of some sort…everything around the cage was gray, and only a tiny bulb illuminated the place.
-“Unhhhh…my neck hurts…”
-“Glad you woke up, Charly…that Golbat really took a bite out of you.”
-“Now I remember…these guys attacked us with their Pokémon. What happened then? Do you know, Amy?”
-“I know…after you fell to the sand, they claimed we knew too much about them, and that they wouldn’t let us escape. That girl’s Arbok wrapped me as soon as they said that, and the guy took you with him. I couldn’t move, and we were locked up in this cage. You’ve been unconscious for about 1 hour. Our Pokémon were unable to fight back, and these people caught them…I ignore where they could be now.”
-“Damnit! We must find them, and get outta here as soon as possible.”
-“I know…but as far as I can see, there’s no way out of this cage.”
-“No way! If we only had a Pokémon with us…”
-“I brought one, but I don’t know how she’ll help us…I also managed to grab your remaining Poké Ball before they caught me.”
Amy gave me the Poké Ball. Obviously, it was Pidgeotto, the only one that was safe from the attack…I had to think a way out.
-“Hmmmm…what can we do?”
-“I don’t know…I just hope Horsea and your Pokémon are OK…”
-“I hope that too…”

Meanwhile…
Wartortle, Oddish and Horsea are lying on a cage next room, sleeping, while Karl and Karla are thinking on what to do with them.
-“What should we do with those Pokémon, Karla?”
-“Not sure. They look very well…maybe we should give these to Giovanni and keep the Lapras.”
-“That’s a good idea indeed! Maybe we should do that.”
-“Yep, we can’t give Giovanni all the good stuff.”
-“I agree. OK then, let’s get going!”
Suddenly, the caged Pokémon woke up, and started to look at the aggressors with anger. They even shoot some attacks. Wartortle and Horsea shoot two powerful Water Guns from their mouths, and Oddish loosed some Sleep Powder from his leaves. All the attacks were going towards the bad guys, but they got a weird apparatus that neutralized all the attacks. After pressing a button on the apparatus, which looked like a long rod with a weird, morphing end, Karl turned it into an electric rod; Karla’s turned into a flamethrower. The caged Pokémon turned back, looking at these things with a high fear.
-“You’d better not mess with us. We don’t want to maim you so soon.”
-“We can ensure that your Trainers won’t want that to happen. So, you’ll better hear and do whatever we command.”
The three Pokémon were all scared, and had to nod so they would be safe for now. The evil Team turned back, and kept on sailing.
Back on the room with Charly and Amy…
I had a bad feeling…my Pokémon were in danger, but we couldn’t do a thing. There wasn’t any way out, and I didn’t know what to do.
-“And well…which Pokémon did you brought, Amy?”
-“It’s one you don’t know. Let me show you.”
Amy took her Poké Ball, and threw it to the floor. A sheep Pokémon appeared. Its face, feet and tail were blue. Its eyes were black. Its body was surrounded by yellow, fluffy wool. Its tail had a shinny orb on its point. It made a nice sound while rubbing its body to Amy’s.
-“She’s Mareep. My dad gave it to me after his travels on Johto. She’s very cute, don’t you think?”
-“Yep. She’s very cute, and lovely!”
-“Hehe. Too bad she won’t be able to help us…if only I had brought Vulpix…”
Amy was right…Mareep didn’t look that strong, and Pidgeotto didn’t had a way to blow the jail. While thinking, I saw upwards, and noticed something: the cage was uncovered on the top! Maybe there could be a way. It was risky, but if it worked…
-“Hmmmmm…can you see the roof, Amy?”
-“Oh! It has no cover!”
-“Yeah. Maybe we can get out, but it involves some risk.”
-“What’s your plan, Charly?”
-“I could send Pidgeotto. He could fly over the roof, and find the cabin where these guys are. They must have the key for opening the door…”
-“Hmmm, that could work.”
-“But…if they get Pidgeotto, he’ll get maimed for sure, and I don’t want Pidgeotto to get hurt…”
-“The risk is big, Charly, but you should send Pidgeotto.”
-“Do you think so?”
-“Yes, I swear. I know Pidgeotto will be intelligent enough to deal with them and bring the keys in one piece!”
-“Guess it’s true. Pidgeotto is very smart…I hope he’s not down anymore, though…he seemed so depressed back in the beach.”
I decided to use Pidgeotto to get us out of here. I grabbed the Poké Ball, which was lying in the floor, and I threw it. Pidgeotto appeared in the floor. He seemed a bit tired still, but after noticing the place we were at, he got in all his senses.
-“Hear carefully, Pidgeotto. We need you to go out of that cage through the open spot above us. Then, go through the ship and find the bad guys. When you do it, try not to get caught; you’ll regret it…try to find if they have some keys with them. If they have the key, take it and come here as fast as you can. I know you can do it…now, are you up to it?”-Pidgeotto nodded. His face was full of decision.
-“OK then. Take care.”
Pidgeotto made his cool cry, and then he took off. He flew over the cage, and went on the other room. It was all up to him now…

We waited for a while, hoping that Pidgeotto succeeded…we couldn’t even hear anything outside, and I was getting worried. I had to trust Pidgeotto, even if the risks were so high.
-“I wonder how Pidgeotto is doing.”
-“I feel he’ll do a great job, Charly. Let’s just be patient.”
-“I think so. We’ll have to wait, but we must be prepared.”
-“OK then. Mareep, get ready for anything.”-As Amy said this, Mareep looked all over the place, very focused, and ready for the unexpected.
After some minutes, I heard Pidgeotto’s cry. He entered the room in a swift way, and dropped the keys inside the cage. I grabbed them, and opened the door. We were out thanks to Pidgeotto, but there was a bad thing heading: Karl and Karla noticed Pidgeotto, and they entered the room in few seconds.
-“So, you made it fools.”
-“You could have gotten out of the cage, but you won’t be able to escape!”
After saying that, they took their Poké Balls out, but they didn’t noticed our attack.
-“Throw them away with Body Slam, Mareep!”
-“Wing Attack now, Pidgeotto.”
Our Pokémon were fast enough. Mareep moved her body backwards, and charged in a fast second, tackling the goons far away! My Pidgeotto flapped his wings twice, sending attacking waves towards them. The guys went all the way back to the other room due to the attacks, and we followed them.
As we entered the next room, we noticed a bigger space. There were some couches and even windows on the sides. Probably, this was a Team Rocket ship, where more members could get in if they wanted. There was a door on the right side, which took to the deck; and a door in the front, which took to the cabin. Hanging in the roof was a jail, which contained our Pokémon. Wartortle and Oddish were happy to see me at last. Amy’s Horsea was happy too.
I looked at these guys deceptively. They were so evil, and ready to hurt every Pokémon they saw…I had to teach them a lesson.
-“As you hurt the Pokémon, our Pokémon will hurt you!”
-“You’re not ready for us, kid. Karla and I will beat you all.”
-“Yeah. And we’ll give your Pokémon to our boss.”
-“We won’t let you do that!”
-“Amy has talked for me. Cut that rope down with Quick Attack, Pidgeotto!”
Pidgeotto moved so fast that the Team couldn’t see him. He crossed the rope where the cage was hanging in a fast aerial dive. The rope was cut and the cage fell down. It broke as son as it hit the floor. Wartortle and Oddish came with me immediately, and Horsea went with Amy.
After being hugged by Wartortle and Oddish, I turned back to Karl and Karla. Amy turned to them too.
-“Well, guess we’re ready enough for you two!”
-“No, you aren’t…that’s not over yet.”
-“Who says so?”-We both said.
-“Team Rocket Blood! We’ll get you all for this!”
Karla and Karl got their Poké Balls out again, and threw them towards us. Golbat and Arbok appeared again, and they looked very mean. Golbat made a pleasure face when he looked at me.
-“You’ll get a bite again, Golbat. Go!”
-“Go and bite these suckers, Arbok!”
Both Pokémon ran towards us. Our Pokémon and we didn’t have another choice, but to get back to the exit door. We went through the deck as the two vicious Pokémon followed us. The sky was calm, but it was getting dark. We were so far from the shore that we couldn’t see it…and night was approaching. We had no way to get back, though.
The two Pokémon stopped as their Trainers told them to stop. Karl and Karla came towards us, looking with an evil glance.
-“You’ve gone too far…guess we’ll have to give you two a lesson in pain.”
-“You’ll regret messing up with Karl and me…your parents will be so sad for you…but don’t worry, we’ll give them your bodies when we finish you off!”
-“You’re insane! Are you gonna kill us?”
-“If we have to, we’ll do it…but we won’t fill our hands with blood, as far as our Pokémon can do it!”
-“You’re so…”
-“Shut up! Now, receive your punishment!”
Karla got a Poké Ball out of her wrist, but it was very different: it was purple on the top, and white on the bottom. In the top, it had two pink circles on both sides; and a white M was at the top center.
-“Silph CO’s prototype has helped us a lot in this operation…these fools don’t realize that their inventions will revolution the concept of catching Pokémon!”
-“Now, feel the wrath of a possessed Pokémon!”
Karla threw the Poké Ball through the water, and it popped out, leaving the Pokémon in the water, and returning to Karla’s hand. In the water, the same Pokémon that attacked the beach some hours ago appeared. It was Lapras, and it looked at us with its angry, red eyes.

-“OK, Lapras, destroy them!”
As they commanded, Lapras looked evilly at us. Karla commanded Lapras, but Karl was holding a weird gadget, that apparently sent signals to Lapras’ black thing on its head. Lapras shoot a powerful blue beam from its mouth as Karla commanded. We dodged it, but we noticed the floor getting frozen. I remembered that attack: Giselle’s Nidoqueen used it too. Ice Beam, a very tough attack that could be deadly, even more if a Lapras used it!
-“It’s getting worse, Amy…you’d better get as far as possible. I’ll deal with it.”
-“No, I’ll help you. Mareep can inflict good damage on it.”
-“OK then, be careful.”
-“Mareep, use Thunderbolt!”
-“Stop it with Hydro Pump, Lapras!”
Mareep charged her body, and as her static built, blue rays appeared on the surface of her wool. She shoot all this energy in a blue thunder towards Lapras. The giant pokémon received it directly, but was able to resist! I was amazed in the fact that Mareep was of the Electric type, but even more amazed at Lapras’ resistance. Lapras looked back with its red eyes, and shoot a powerful pump of water from its mouth. Mareep wasn’t able to avoid it, and was hit hard in the side! She bounced back, fainting instantly.
-“No, Mareep!”
-“No way! How can your Lapras be so strong?”
-“He’s an experienced fighting machine we found lying in the sea. And our Possessor makes him even more powerful! You’re hopeless now. Just receive his wrath at full!”
I shouldn’t resign so easy, but Lapras seemed to be invincible. His evil eyes and his powerful attacks were too much for us to handle.
-“What can we do now?”-Wartortle was scared of Lapras’ huge powers, but Oddish was looking at it with desires to fight him. Oddish had the edge due to Lapras’ Water type, but his Ice type would be too dangerous, and Oddish wouldn’t stand an attack from him.
-“Oddish…are you sure you want to fight against Lapras? You could get hurt badly!”
Oddish nodded when I said that. He didn’t mind getting hurt. Oddish was strong, but what if Lapras hurt him for life? I couldn’t afford to it…but Oddish looked so sure, with such high hopes of beating him…I couldn’t deny.
-“OK Oddish. Be careful, as you can get hurt badly. Use Absorb!”
-“That’s as painless as possible. Finish it off with Body Slam!”
Oddish jumped towards Lapras, but he was too short to reach him, and we were too far…Lapras wasn’t able to do his attack too; if he had, the ship would have sunk with such a powerful tackle…
-“Oh damn! Use your Blizzard then, Lapras.”
-“Try to avoid it, Oddish!”
Lapras’ eyes shone intensely in a mystic blue, and then, the air around us cooled down. After that, Lapras blew a bit of air combined with some water drops, which at the contact with the cool air, turned into a devastating blizzard that was going towards Oddish. The blizzard was too powerful, and very accurate. Oddish wasn’t able to avoid it, and was hit! He went cool instantly, Oddish could barely move after that…
-“Oddish! Don’t try to fight back again.”
Oddish ignored me…he stood up with much effort, and looked at Lapras, as if it was a life goal to beat him…it was like when Wartortle fought Kino’s Magnemite back then…maybe another miracle could occur. But I couldn’t take the risk, and harm Oddish for life!
-“Don’t do it, Oddish…you’ll get hurt too much if another blizzard hits you!”
-“And you say you love your Pokémon? Oddish doesn’t even hear you.”
-“OK then, if he wants to die so early…let’s grant his wish. Use Blizzard!”
Lapras did it again: cooling the air around us, and shooting a blow with some water drops. The blizzard was approaching, but Oddish didn’t stood back. He got up in a jump, ready to receive the blizzard. I couldn’t let this happen.
-“I won’t let this happen!”
I stood in front of Oddish, and the Blizzard hit me…I went frozen in a second.
………………………………………………………………
-“CHARLY!”
It was too bad! Charly was hit by that blizzard, and he got badly hurt. I didn’t knew what to do…Mareep was badly hurt, Oddish was too cold, but after Charly saved him, he was even more ready to fight Lapras…I had to do something…
-“Mareep, come back to your Poké Ball.”
Mareep returned to the ball, she needed a lot of rest…I had to help everyone, and the only way was to defeat Karl and Karla.
-“I know it’s almost impossible, but I’ll defeat you, so I can save everyone!”
-“Bring it on, girl! You’ve got nothing but your puny Horsea to protect yourself!”
-“You’ll see I’m stronger than I look!”
-“But first off, we’ll finish that Oddish!”
-“Use Blizzard a last time, Lapras!”
It was an unexpected move. Lapras cooled the air again, and shoot that misty wind. The wind turned into a blizzard, which was going towards Oddish. I couldn’t do anything. Even Horsea’s strongest Water Gun couldn’t stop that overwhelming Blizzard…but I realized it when I saw it: Oddish had a plan. He jumped through the blizzard, as if he wanted to get hit with such a devastating attack.
-“Don’t do it, Oddish!”
It was too late…Oddish got inside the blizzard, and was suffering a lot! I wondered what he could do now…he made a sacrifice, but why for?
Suddenly, a silent light appeared inside the blizzard. I was very confused, but it seemed as if Oddish was evolving. I just waited for the end of the attack…and then, I saw it: lots of petals were spreading from the place where the white light was starting to fade! These petals started to spin faster, fusing with the blizzard where Oddish was in…well, maybe he wasn’t Oddish anymore.
The twister of blizzard and petals was swirling with force, and then, it went in the opposite direction: it hit Lapras! The combination of his own force and the petals was so overwhelming, he fell to the water. However, he got up fast.
The mystery was solved after that: a purple Pokémon fell to the ship. He had a funny face; his eyes were closed. From his mouth, an oozy liquid was flowing. His various leaves were gone, and there were just four longer, orange leaves. In his head, a weird, round flower could be seen, and he had grown two small hands. Oddish was now a Gloom!
-“No way! How could that damn plant even hit our Lapras?”
Gloom seemed ready to defeat Lapras, but I thought of something beforehand. If that worked, we could get Lapras out of his mental prison, and we could defeat Team Rocket!
I went near Gloom, and told him something.
-“Let me take charge of it now, Gloom. You’ve done so well today. Charly will be proud!”
Gloom smiled, and as he went near Charly, I called Horsea.
-“OK Horsea, try to hit that black sphere on Lapras’ head with your Water Gun. Go into the water, you look very dry…”
Horsea nodded, and I sent her to the water. She looked way better now, that was good! She went underwater for a second, and came back up with her mouth filled. Horsea shoot a blast of water through the black sphere on Lapras’ head. Lapras was still out of himself due to Gloom’s attack, and Horsea hit it without problem. The black sphere broken in a hit!
Lapras’ red eyes changed as soon as the sphere broke down. His cute, black eyes could be seen now. He looked around, and saw the ship. He looked with anger at Karl and Karla. He probably remembered all they did to him.
-“Damnit! Attack him, Golbat!”
Karl’s Pokémon flew towards Lapras, but he used a move to stop it: his eyes shone in an intense white. Golbat floated in the air, unable to move. Lapras moved his head, and Golbat was thrown away back to the ship.
-“No way! Come back, Golbat!”
-“You’d better get back to safety, Arbok…”
Lapras was still angry, and his eyes shone again. He threw Karl and Karla to the wall covering the ship’s dock. The very Pokémon they caught beat them!

I went with Charly, which was surrounded by Wartortle, Gloom and Pidgeotto. They were worried about him, and me too…even so; I could notice Lapras’ eyes shinning again. This time, he lifted us all and putted us on his back. Wartortle and Horsea went down to the water. Gloom, Pidgeotto, Charly and I were on Lapras’ back. He was helping us!
-“Oh no! We must escape, Karl!”
-“Let’s get to the cabin!”
They couldn’t move fast enough. Lapras let out a loud cry, and a huge wave appeared in his back! A blue aura protected him and us from being drowned away by his own power. The tidal wave hit the ship, which went along with the wave through the sea.
-“You’ve won this time, but that’s not all.”
-“Be expecting more of us. Team Rocket Blood Division is now after you!”
Their ship went away…I was happy. The menace was away now, but they took that weird Poké Ball with them…Lapras calmed down after this, looking at me with such a sad face. He was apologizing for all the bad things he did to us…
-“Don’t worry, Lapras. It’s not your fault.”
We stayed there for a while. Charly was still cold…how could we help him? We wouldn’t reach the beach in time, and he’d die from hypothermia! I was losing hopes, but then, Gloom went near Charly. I wondered what he wanted to do. Gloom’s mouth secreted some drool, and Gloom went near Charly’s mouth, dropping a bit of that liquid in Charly’s mouth. It smelt really foul, and I knew how could this help. I’m not sure, but judging by the stench, I wouldn’t like to be Charly, hehe.
Indeed, Charly woke up! The foul taste made its work. Gloom was happy to help Charly on such a hard moment. Charly was still cold, though.
-“Ewwww! What happened?”-He said.
-“As for now, Gloom dropped some of his drool in your mouth. The foul taste really helped you waking up. As for the rest…I’ll explain later.”
-“I see…it tasted horribly! But anyway…huh? Gloom? Did my Oddish…?”
-“Yep. Well, as for now, we must think a way to get back to the beach, and we must get you warmer. It’s night already, and you’ll die if you don’t get your temperature back…”
-“OK…I wonder how we can get back…”
Lapras looked at Charly, and started to talk. I couldn’t understand very well, but our Pokémon could. My Horsea made some moves, as if she meant to mimic what Lapras was saying. What I got is that Lapras would take us to the beach.
Charly talked with his shaking voice, due to the cold:-“No, Lapras…don’t worry. We’ll find our way out.”
Lapras denied Charly’s kind offer, as if he wanted to pay for all the harm he did. It was very nice from him.
-“Let’s accept his help, Charly. We’re too tired now. We wouldn’t make it with our weakened Pokémon. Let’s allow Lapras to help us.”
-“OK…I want to apologize, though…we harmed you back there, Lapras…”
Lapras moved the head, as if he said-“Don’t worry about it…”
Lapras started to move towards the beach. The sea was calm, and a beautiful moon was starting to shine in the water’s surface. Charly was so cold, his whole body was shaking…I called Mareep, so she could help Charly on getting warmer. Gloom, Pidgeotto and Wartortle went near him too. They loved Charly so much, and they wanted him to get healthy again. I was worried about him, but I knew that with his Pokémon, Charly was safe.
After a long swim, we reached the beach. It was all empty now. I knew our parents were very worried, but we would find them after getting there…Charly was better now. It was nice to be back in land…even after so much trouble, we made it safely. A lot was thanks to Lapras, though.
………………………………………………………………
At last, we were at the beach. It was as calm as when we first came…it was pretty dark, but we could see well enough. I was back to my regular temperature, which was good…it had been a hard day, but I’m happy everything went good. Oddish evolved after seeing my sacrifice, we were more united now. Amy was such a nice friend, helping me in the moment I needed the most. Even Lapras helped us, in a way to apologize for something he didn’t want to do.
After reaching the shore, we went down from Lapras’ shell. He looked at us, as if he wanted to come along.
-“No, Lapras…you’ve done too much today. And you must be worried about your family…thanks for everything. You were so nice with us.”
Lapras’ head went down, and I hugged it. I’d love to get a Lapras, but he needed to be free. I told him to go, even though it seemed as if he wanted to stay with me.
-“Now go, Lapras…thanks for everything. I’ll never forget what you did! Hopefully, we’ll meet again someday.”
Lapras nodded, and turned back. He left towards the sea, crying in a nice tone. I was happy for him. He needed his freedom a lot…Amy and I waved our hands, as Lapras left towards the horizon.

After saying good-bye to Lapras, I went with Amy and my Pokémon. Amy gave me the Poké Balls we left in the sand after Karl and Karla caught us. I called back all my Pokémon, they were very tired…Amy called her two Pokémon back too.
It was very dark already, but the lights on the city made it easy to make our way out. Amy said that I should follow her, and so I did. After some walking, we reached a parking lot. Most cars were gone, and there was only one, which was Amy’s parents’ car. My mom and Amy’s parents were waiting for us. As soon as they noticed us, they ran and hugged us.
-“You’re safe, Charly! Thanks God! I was so worried about you!”
-“Amy, you’re back! Why you took so long? Are you hurt or anything?”
-“No, dad…let’s just get in, and we’ll tell you everything.”
-“Well Amy, guess it’s time to say good-bye.”-I said.
-“What are you talking about?”
-“We’ll take you home!”-Amy’s mom said.
-“No, miss. You shouldn’t.”-My mom said in embarrassment.
-“It’s too late, and we wanna help you. We’ll take you, so, get in!”
-“OK, if you insist…”
As we got in the car, we told our parents all the things that happened. They were so amazed to hear all we were saying. My mom was especially worried after I described Karl and Karla…
-“So, it’s just a lucky strike you’re still there!”
-“It seems…if our Pokémon hadn’t helped us in the right moment…”
-“We should punish you, but seems you’ve proven to be tough Trainers. We’ll forgive you.”
-“Hehehe, thanks?”
-“It’s a good thing you’re grateful, Charly! I’ve been thinking a harsh punishment, but I’ll leave it for another moment.”
We went happy all the way home, even if our parents were so worried. They were happy to have us back. We passed Saffron City as soon as we finished telling our adventures. The forest was very deep, but the way was open enough. The car crossed the path very fast, and we were home in less than 3 minutes.
-“There you go, Charly.”
-“How could we thank you?”-My mom said.
-“You don’t have nothing to thank. We wanted to bring you home, so you could get resting right away.”
-“And we wouldn’t feel good if you had returned all alone, and a wild Pokémon attacked you…”
-“Thanks a lot!”
My mom went to the house door, and started to open it. I just said good-bye to Amy.
-“Thanks again, Amy. See you on Monday!”
-“You’re welcome. Until then, Charly! Good bye!”
Amy and her family left as son as that. I went home; mom had opened the door already.
We went to the kitchen. Mom seemed very worried still…could she have something with the Blood Division? I thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to ask that…my mom didn’t even talked the whole time we stayed there. After eating a fast dinner, I went up. Mom didn’t move, looking at her coffee cup.
-“Mom, won’t you come?”
-“Don’t worry, Charly. Get some rest, you need it more than me…I’ll go up a bit later.”
-“OK then. Good night, mom…”
-“Good night, Charly.”
I went upstairs as soon as this. I was so tired…everything went well, but we were in such a big danger. I wondered what mom could be thinking…
-“Karl…Karla…could they be…back?”-I didn’t know why these words popped up all of a sudden in my mind…maybe my mom was related in some way with them…
--------------------------------------

I hope you like it.Please reply,every comment will be very appreciated!If you don't reply,I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.Until next time!:wave:

[Chris 2.1]

Maybe the Sal-wolf dressed in a sterotype students clothes like cargo pants and a funny white t-shirt saying 'my other t-shirt is clean', and since the wolf could talk it could say "dude! like, stop knarking on me" and maybe everyone would believe it was in fact a person? Meh, you can't blame me for trying...

Great work as usual, Mist! I nominated for this fic in 2 different catagories, best Non Pokey and Most Promising...OH and Best Newcomer, so thats 3 ^^;;

Umm...so yea, fruity. Keep up the work Mist, geez, I repeat myself more than a kerrazy cd player thats been in water... o_0;;

[Lady Vulpix]

Great chapter, Tara!
Now, on to Ryan, may I? I take it this is the equivalent of chapter 1 of LVH, and Kilbourne Shorelines High is the equivalent of Lapras Valley High on the other fic. :P

[PancaKe]

Thanks guys for your replies. I mgiht not seem like I aprreciate them sometimes but they mena a lot to me. (TYPOS) oh yeah and also, i might not be very visible for a hwile, because mums computer got a virus and she rekons that if i stay on net too long the chances of me getting one is big too. so to save my computer im not allowed on the net much. but im still writing full moon and ill come on and post it too. newyas gotta be quick. luv yaz all.

God bless

Chapter Four: Bottler

“You know what I love about boarding school?” Nayia whispered to Sal, who stared at the dimly lit ceiling, getting a little irritated with the constant talking from Nayia. Nayia meant no harm by this constant chatter, she was quite used to it whereas Sal was not. But Sal let it happen, she was glad that because Nayia liked to do most of the talking she didn’t have to say much at all, which suited her fine. “The fact that you get to share a room, even though its empty at the moment. There aren’t any bed times but I like to go to bed around eleven normally. What time is it? Oh its about eleven fifteen anyway, that’s cool. Can you remember what I was saying again?”

Sal closed her eyes, letting Nayia’s voice continue to swim around her. “Kayla must be sleeping in Tower Two. That’s another good thing about coming to school early, when nobody else is here you can switch dorms. Kayla I think is the only other person from Room Four here. I don’t know about anybody else, I’m not even sure of the list. But normally I go and sleep in Martin and Craig’s room, even though this year they’re up in room seven. That’s a far way to walk.”

Sal had fallen asleep by now. Nayia looked over at her, her face lit by a half filled moon, her eyes closed and her hair everywhere once again. “Gee that’s a really nice shade of hair,” Nayia sighed quietly. “What I wouldn’t give for hair that colour. If I had hair that red I wouldn’t stop brushing it, but she never brushes it and it STILL looks good. I am so jealous.” Nayia grumbled herself to sleep.

*

Days passed wearily, and even though Nayia, Martin and Craig were nice to her and tried to include her into their conversations and activities, she was still very wary of them and scared if they possessed as a threat to her. Sal stayed the outsider, and she was quite happy with it being that way. The group that Sal had reluctantly found herself a member of worked nicely around her. There was no real leader from what Sal observed, they were all equal, unlike the groups (or gangs) of the Quentside Streets.

Nayia was obviously the loudest, being the most talkative one out of them all, if she was quiet for more than three seconds it was a new world record for her, according to Craig. Nayia was also one of the shortest, and even though Martin and Craig disagreed, she was quite pretty, with the blonde hair blue eyes look she had going on. Martin was absolutely right though when he pointed out that the blonde hair seemed to run to Nayia’s brain; the girl was rather dense at times, forgetting what she was talking about halfway through a conversation, not understanding some insults, and falling for most of the jokes Martin and Craig played on her.

Martin seemed to be a hero to Nayia, from what she said he had nice hair and she would talk about him for hours on end. He did seem down to earth and genuine to Sal, but as learnt from past experience, you cannot go on purely impressions. Along with Craig, Martin would be the one to prank people when he wasn’t skating. Nayia constantly talked to Sal about the way Martin and Craig could skate, and how Martin was a really good skater, doing grinds and other moves.

Surprisingly, Nayia didn’t talk about Craig much. She did mention some things about him, about how he hates people making fun of his ears, which looking at them now were a bit oddly shaped as one was smaller than the other. Craig also seemed to break a lot of rules, already after one week of being at the school Craig had been caught going out of bounds and trying to climb out of one of the second story classroom windows. Craig and Martin were still boasting about it.

“I was halfway out the window,” Craig continued speaking. “When of all people, the vice principal catches me. And there aint no angrier than her,” he informed Sal. “She started yelling at me while I was half in half out, and in the end she grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.”

Martin, at this point, burst out laughing and grasped his stomach while doing so. Sal stared at him, wondering what on earth was making him act this way. Climbing out of windows was no big deal to her, it was her way of escaping at times. “And?” Nayia asked.

“And you know how my shoelaces are never done up? My shoe came off and rolled halfway across the roof and I think it’s still on there.” Craig joined Martin on the ground, laughing. Martin’s face had turned red from loss of breath and as Nayia giggled along with them, Martin laughed harder.

“Why didn’t you get it then?” The three laughing hyenas stopped and stared at Sal, who had spoken voluntarily for the first time. “What are you looking at?” Sal tried to stop herself, but she could feel her temper rising up inside her. For a week it had been calm, for a week she had been good, but now…

Now she was getting angrier by the second. Craig had lost his shoe by being weak to the bully, by allowing himself to be told what to do. Sal failed to see the point in that.

“She’s the vice principal,” Craig answered, stressing the word vice. “I mean, she can suspend us from school and then what do we do for a month? Go home? I break rules, yes, but I know when to stop.”

“You’re letting yourself be told what to do by somebody who thinks they have authority over you?” Sal exploded. “Why? You are WEAK!”

“I’m not stupid,” Craig shrugged.

“I am,” Nayia giggled, still remembering the shoe on the roof.

“You know, Sal has a point,” Martin began, a grin spreading across his face. Craig looked at him and a grin began to grow on his own face.

“Yes she does,” Craig nodded. “Hey Sal, do you want to do a bit of rule breaking with us?”

Sal found herself following Craig, Martin and Nayia as they walked up the stairs and through the almost empty hallway. Here and there was the occasional student, fixing up their locker with posters or cleaning out their locker from last year, or visiting a classroom to knock off some chalk lying about. They stopped at a classroom door, which Nayia knocked on innocently, Craig and Martin looking around for teachers.

Nayia opened the door and closed it, moving a chair behind it to lock it shut from any wandering teachers. Craig and Martin dashed forward to the window and slid it open. The shoe sat their, on the fibro awning, in the sunlight as if God was shining a holy spotlight on it. Craig looked at Martin. “You or me?”

Then they both turned to Sal. “How about you Sal?” Martin asked.

Nayia frowned. “Don’t be mean to Sal, don’t make her get in trouble already.”

Sal tried to suppress the rage inside by telling Nayia simply, “If I don’t know what trouble is already, I’m not from Quentside Heights.” Leaving Nayia for once quiet, she hoisted herself up and out the window onto the awning and walked across to retrieve the shoe. Throwing it back, she walked back up near the window, but instead of climbing through it, lowered herself and sat down.

Craig and Martin applauded this with great enthusiasm. Nayia frowned, but then decided not to be such a bossy goody two shoes and clapped as well. Sal got bored of the idea of sitting on the roof rather quickly and stood up again to enter the classroom, but froze and focused her attention to the door where Nayia, Martin and Craig now stared, speechless.

The handle jiggled up and down, and the chair rattled as someone from the hallway tried to enter. “What do we do?” Nayia whispered.

“Escape out the window,” Sal replied, unfazed by this. “The window in the classroom next door is open.” Despite the trouble they could get into, Craig loved this side of Sal, and followed her out the window. Martin climbed out after Craig, but Nayia wore a worried look on her face, as she testily put a foot on the windowsill.

Martin held out his hand and Nayia took it, getting out the window and running across the roof with Sal and Craig and Martin over to the other window and all climbing in at once. “What the?” cried a voice, and a very startled woman whom Sal recognized got up and picked up the papers she had accidentally knocked off her desk.

The woman stood up out of her chair and surveyed the four standing there, before grinning. “Climbing on the roof again Craig?” she grinned; flashing the mint fresh smile similar to those on toothpaste adds. “And Martin? Nayia, I’m surprised to see you so quiet. And of course, how could I forget Sal?”

“Hey Miss Taylor,” Nayia breathed a sigh of relief in unison with Craig and Martin. Sal just stood there, no expression readable on her face. “What are you doing in here?”

“What have I told you about calling me Jackie?” Jackie sighed, rolling the sparkling chocolate brown eyes. “And anyway, seeing I am the principal I can ask what are you doing here first. And you have to answer me.” She poked her tongue out at them.

Nayia smiled and walked over, leaning on a desk in the front row. Craig pulled out a chair and sat on it backwards, his legs around the back of the chair, and Martin sat on the desk next to where Nayia leant. Sal just followed and stood closer to Jackie.

“Jacquelyn, class room next door is locked and by something inside,” Ms Balloise told her, sounding rather out of breath. “I’ve been trying to open the door but it wont open.”

Nayia looked away from everybody, afraid she would burst out in giggles. Jackie raised her eyebrows, understanding completely. “Just leave it,” Jackie replied. “I’ll see to it later, okay?”

Ms Balloise scowled and walked out. Nayia let out a hoot of laughter, followed by Martin, Craig and then Jackie herself. Sal didn’t laugh at all. “Well I’m in here, trying to get away from the office,” Jackie told them with a sigh. “But work just chases me around. You guys better get out of here anyway, before she realizes that the shoe is gone.” She grinned at Craig. They got up and moved to the door when Jackie spoke once more. “Sal, can I see you please?”

“Want us to wait for you?” Nayia asked, pausing in her steps.

“No,” Sal replied shortly.

“Well we’ll probably be in Tower One living room if you want to catch up with us,” Craig replied. Sal shut the door and turned to Jackie.

“You might want to sit down,” Jackie said, pointing to one of the many seats in the room. Sal sat on a desk in the front row instead, and stared at Jackie, green flames in her eyes, flickering dangerously. “Do you remember the interview we had…”

“Yes,” Sal growled. “I remember.”

“Well, I remember you were saying about a girl named Ashley… very interesting interview, bright child and all… but, under the circumstances that we had, my decision was not entirely… my own.” Jackie seemed to be holding back something.

“You were supposed to take Ashley instead of me,” Sal snarled.

“The thing is, Ms Balloise has more… more authority over some aspects than I do,” Jackie tried her hardest to explain. She sighed. “I can’t tell you very much, you being a student and all, but I must say, just please try to be careful around Ms Balloise, she has the power to make your life at Kilbourne High good, or bad.”

*

Ashley, with her straight jet-black hair, dark eyes and pale skin, swam around Sal’s memories of Quentside Heights. As much as Sal had become accustomed to cleanliness, she missed the rough and the tough of Quentside Heights. She missed the going out in the middle of the night and having Ashley to vent frustration out with. Fury, where was she? Fury also was not in Kilbourne either; two of Sal’s best friends had been left behind when she had been selected to travel halfway across the country.

Jackie thoroughly irritated her at the moment – she had been right, Jackie’s niceness was not genuine, and she was probably not being genuine at the moment. Of course she could make the decision, and now Ashley would be probably on a train over to the Mount District.

Where Jackie supposedly came from. Sal scoffed at the idea of someone like Jackie ever growing up in an area like that. She kicked the stone in front of her and walked, ignoring the people around her She hadn’t gone back to the tower, she had forgotten all about meeting Nayia and Craig and Martin there. Sal had one thing on her mind, aside from not believing a word Jackie said, and that was to head to the Shady Thicket. Nayia had mentioned it the other night, on her first day here, and her mind focused on how much she disagreed with this place she wondered whether Fury would be here for her to accompany her in disagreeing.

The Shady Thicket was unmistakable once she saw it. After walking for about five minutes under a shelter, then on the path past the basketball courts, path to the bay, pool and sports oval she came to a place right at the back of the school property. To one side there were big steel gates and a bunch of sheds and rows of plants growing. Chickens clucked in a pen to the side of what looked to be a steel cowshed. To the other side, fenced by barbed wire was a small area of overgrown grass and a murky looking pond in the center. A duck swam through the muck in the pond and waddled out into the grass.

Sal looked at the path she was standing on, and followed it with her eyes as it wound past the pond and past the farm and its glass house and into the beginning of a forest. The path went on deeper into the forest where Sal assumed it ended at a gate out of the school grounds. She walked into the beginning of the forest, looking around. This part was light, sun could escape through the tops of the trees easily, and it was very similar to being inside a park let alone a full-grown forest. The trees in this part, as Sal walked deeper, did steadily get darker, but approaching the boundary fairly quickly, she could see through the high fence that the trees were not as dark on this side as those on the other.

“I wondered when I would see you.” Sal jumped, but smiled none the less at the shadow walking out the forest. Fury emerged, looking quite tired and messier than usual; the brown tinge was much more visible in her gray fur as her long shagging fur was quite ruffled and messy, and there was a healing cut to the side of her eye. But Fury still stood there, smiling as best as a wolf could and wagging her bushy tail slightly. “It’s been so, funfilled, traveling. And getting this gash was the best birthday present either.”

Sal looked at her, and shook her head. “This place is so freaking annoying, I need to loose my temper.”

“But you cant in a place like this?” Fury filled the words in for Sal, cocking her head to one side and staring at Sal to see whether the fiery preteen would answer truthfully.

“Yes!” Sal growled furiously. “I cant. Jackie, she told me that it wasn’t her decision entirely. What a load of” and a string of swear words followed along nicely. “I cant believe it, I wanted to punch her but something was holding me back – and I don’t know what but its annoying the heck out of me!”

“You know, I can’t think of what it could be either,” Fury began, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “I don’t think it could possibly be a memory of Ashley. I mean, you weren’t that attached to her.”

Sal allowed Fury’s sarcastic message to sink in and decipher before giving any form of response. She closed up her fist as a first response and let it fly at the fence, her only reward a red cross from where her hand struck the wire. “There’s no point in being here anymore!” Sal fumed, raising her voice.

“You should watch your voice, there might be others in here,” Fury informed her.

“Ashley is long gone, probably off in the Mountain district or to some school in North Warroga, where she’s got everything she wants, and shipped me across the country! I bet they would have sent me to some place far away if they really wanted to get rid of me that badly!”

“But they didn’t did they?” Sal stopped at Fury’s words, which seemed to have a marvelous effect on her. Almost every time Fury spoke, Sal would have to think about what she said. The wolf had great wisdom; it was clearly visible to all who spoke to her.

“I hate talking to you,” Sal snarled, walking off. Fury merely chuckled, knowing that once again she had proved Sal to be wrong, and just like her mother she stormed off into a grumbling mood when she could not win. Fury simply let her go off, then turned and walked deep into the forest, where she could not be seen. Fury herself needed to be careful, she had the same traits as a werewolf and knew the dangers as well as Sal about being werewolf and being called a freak by the world. That though, was not the least of the danger. If the Anti-Werewolf League ever got a whiff that they were werewolf…

Fury shuddered at the thought. The Anti-Werewolf League would be armed with more information than it had been almost ten years ago with the capture of the very first werewolf. With this, the Anti-Werewolf League had gathered information on werewolves, but not enough to ensure they caught another one. The werewolves had their own sources and had found out that the AWL had information on them and were extremely cautious not to be seen outside of the depths of forests, although there were times when they took risks.

Like Sal and Fury.

Fury sighed, thinking about Sal’s situation. She knew what would happen, especially seeing that Full Moon was near, she had the worst feeling that Sal would fall into the werewolf trap that all werewolves must avoid.

“What’s the werewolf trap?” Sal had asked, years ago while they were in Quentside Heights. She had just released all her anger and was not so worked up as she was now, but she was still curious about the werewolf trap.

“It’s something that happens to werewolves when they are particularly emotional during the full moon period,” Fury had explained patiently, as when this had happened Sal had only been young, maybe five or six. “Whenever a werewolf gets really angry, upset, frustrated and just cant tell anybody or let it out, it comes out at full moon. While they’re werewolf, it takes over them, the wolf instincts take over and they loose control.”

“Loose control?” Sal asked. Fury remembered the look of surprise on Sal’s face as though she had never lost control before.

“They get a craving,” Fury tried to explain. “It’s rather hard to explain to you. You’re so young, but I’ll try. When a wolf is too over emotional, they loose control and get a craving to attack humans. Non-werewolf humans.”

Fury sighed; knowing what would happen if Sal didn’t vent her frustration soon, and full moon was less than a week away. Sal’s birthday was also less than a week away, on the 6th of February. Fury closed her eyes, trying to block out the thought in her head.

“Please Sal, loose your temper…”

[Craig]

“I’m not stupid,” Craig shrugged.

“I am,” Nayia giggled

Best. Quote. Ever.

Haha, I liked this chapter :) It was all funny and stuff..

J/w is Mrs.Balloise sopposed to be Miss Bal-loisse or like Bal-woah.

Hmm..

[Lady Vulpix]

Great chapter, Tara! And with interesting turns too. This is getting quite deep. I like it. :)

Though I must admit I'd still like to know what the other Fury's story was.

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

Very nice. Yeah, I'm still readin' :P. The werewolf trap thing is very interesting, and so is the fact that Sal seems to be a little less...angry, shall we say? Keep goin' :yes:

[PancaKe]

Craig XD I love that quote too. Its just pretty much how I act at school. I loose myself halfway though a conversation >.< and then go say something stupid. XD XD XD I felt up myself when i laughed as i wrote that but its funny! Oh yeah, and gee, Bal-woah? Where'd you get that. I never thought of how to say Balloise (i normally say it in my mind as Bal-loisse) but I dunno. *quick thought* its Bal-loisse. Unless you dont like that., then go Bal-whoah or something.

Gabi: Fury's other story? Which part was that, where'd I mention that in? Lol soz I'm just confused.

DK: Yes Sal is very "less angry" :yes: well I'll explain that more in the next chapter, which I have to finish properly yet... *thinks*

~Mist

[mr_pikachu]

Yahoo! New chapter! :D New criticisms! :( Aw, c'mon, it can't be that bad!


Days passed wearily, and even though Nayia, Martin and Craig were nice to her and tried to include her into their conversations and activities, she was still very wary of them and scared if they possessed as a threat to her.

Shouldn't the "as" be before the "if" toward the end of the sentence? It seems to make more sense that way.


She did mention some things about him, about how he hates people making fun of his ears, which looking at them now were a bit oddly shaped as one was smaller than the other.

First, hates is present tense, so you switched tenses. Second, the tail end of the sentence, "which looking at them now were a bit oddly shaped as one was smaller than the other." was a bit oddly worded. You might want to consider re-writing the sentence.


“And there aint no angrier than her,” he informed Sal.

"Ain't" has an apostrophe. And I guess I could give you trouble for "ain't" not really being a word, but I won't. ;)


“She started yelling at me while I was half in half out, and in the end she grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.”

"half in half out" should be separated by an apostrophe, making it "half in, half out".


The shoe sat their, on the fibro awning, in the sunlight as if God was shining a holy spotlight on it.

The word "their" should be "there".


“Climbing on the roof again Craig?” she grinned; flashing the mint fresh smile similar to those on toothpaste adds.

In this case, "adds" should be its homonym form, "ads".


She kicked the stone in front of her and walked, ignoring the people around her She hadn’t gone back to the tower, she had forgotten all about meeting Nayia and Craig and Martin there.

It's just a typo, but the two sentences should be separated by a period, or at least a semicolon.


Nayia had mentioned it the other night, on her first day here, and her mind focused on how much she disagreed with this place she wondered whether Fury would be here for her to accompany her in disagreeing.

This becomes a run-on since there is no punctuation breaking up "and her mind focused on how much she disagreed with this place" and "she wondered whether Fury would be here for her to accompany her in disagreeing."


This part was light, sun could escape through the tops of the trees easily, and it was very similar to being inside a park let alone a full-grown forest.

"Let alone" isn't exactly the right term to use here. "Rather than" would be more appropriate.


“And getting this gash was the best birthday present either.”

If you're trying to say what I think you're trying to say, either should be ever. If not, either's not the correct word for the situation; too would be better (with a comma beforehand, in the latter case).


“This place is so freaking annoying, I need to loose my temper.”

"Loose" should be lose...


“But you cant in a place like this?” Fury filled the words in for Sal, cocking her head to one side and staring at Sal to see whether the fiery preteen would answer truthfully.

"Cant" should be "can't" with an apostrophe. Also, I'm not certain, but I believe the proper word is "pre-teen". Again, I'm not positive on that, I'm a bit fuzzy on that particular rule.


“I cant believe it, I wanted to punch her but something was holding me back – and I don’t know what but its annoying the heck out of me!”

"Cant" should be "can't" again, and "its" should be "it's" - remember, this time you're using the contraction for "it is" rather than possessive, as in "belonging to it".


“While they’re werewolf, it takes over them, the wolf instincts take over and they loose control.”

“Loose control?” Sal asked.

“When a wolf is too over emotional, they loose control and get a craving to attack humans.”

“Please Sal, loose your temper…”

Incidents numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 of misspelling lose as loose... aiyiyi! :o



Anyway, the writing, as usual, was superb, but the grammar, punctuation and spelling left something to be desired. Don't worry, though; much worse has gotten by on great fics, and as long as you correct these, no harm done. Just try to edit yourself next time, k? For me? *pants* :D


EDIT: I predict at least one of two things will happen over the course of the next month. Either I'll win the "Most Dedicated Reader" award, or I'll be assassinated by an enraged TPM member. Please, don't let it be the second one...

[mistysakura]

Hey, this has a really strong hint that Ashley's still in it! Yay! And I think "Bal-woah" has something to do with French.

As CCC said, so far it's practically the same as LVH, except the characters are more in-depth this time. Or maybe I was just slow, as I said in my previous post. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what original plot development this will have.

mr_pikachu: I'll bet on both.

[PancaKe]

Mr Pikachu: Rihgt, another post lie that and you'll be getting a forum ban! Lol jk. I realized, I forgot to go spell check and grammar check before posting, and just doing it yesterday i realised half those mistakes there. -.-;; I'm smart arn't I. ^.^ Stuff to work on wee!

MistySakura: Yeah I'm kind of following the LVH thingy for this fic, but without so many plotholes this time, and for FM2 (yes there will be a sequel) its gonna be diff to what i had in mind. ^.^

God bless.

~Mist

[Lady Vulpix]

When I sais the other Fury's story, I meant the Fury from LVH/LVH2. You'd hinted that you were going to say more about her past and her background.

[PancaKe]

Oh... well about that... I cant really say. It'll come out if I write a sequel to this - which I plan to do a lot of. I'm actually planning to write a few "books" more like stories, about the whole Full Moon thing, like it wont be as good as the Harry Potter series but itll be good I hope. ^.^

So I'm not saynin nothin.

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Hmmm, the differences are slowly mounting. Having read LVH, it's so weird that Martin and Nayia get along so well, but it's nice to. :) And that bit about being stupid with Craig and Nayia, that is classic! ;) Nice ending, really set it up well for the next bit. Just one thing I noticed though. I think you've been meaning to say 'lose', not 'loose'! :P :P :P Hey, I gotta let 'loose' a little, I'm almost losing my mind in teaching prac! *screams!* I'm gonna be glad when it's over, 100 young teen girls are a handful. No offense, Tara. ;) :P But some of them do take things a bit too far.

Edit: And Tara, don't drool over the guys in Wolf's Rain too much! XD And I'll get my mum to digitise a recent photo of me so I can finally send you one.

[PancaKe]

Lol Ryan. Yes send me a pic as fast as you can. And lol at the whole lose/loose. Damn my absentmindedness. Well I've got chapter five, been finished for a while, just forgot I didnt post it. I'm halfway through chapter six at the moment but here's chapter five to chew on first.

God bless!

~Mist

Chapter Five: Sick and Twisted

“This is geography class, and I am your teacher, Ms Balloise,” Ms Balloise introduced, her icy eyes darting around the class room, eyeing anybody who might even be thinking of talking in her class. Nayia was quiet even; the only person who dared to talk was Teresa, her slightly upturned nose turning this way and that as she moved her head. “In my class room there is to be no talking while I am talking, there is to be no horseplay, no rudeness and I will not tolerate backchat. Is that understood?”

A few in the class nodded. Nayia was to busy drawing in the school diary she had received this morning. The students who attended Kilbourne Shorelines High had all arrived, and Sal’s dorm had filled with many of the girls in the class. Only a small handful had been shoved into a combination dorm in Tower two. Nayia had spent at least half an hour trying to explain who everybody was and whether to like them or not, but Sal could only be bothered vaguely remembering the names of the girls in her dorm, who seemed to either be part of Teresa’s group of friends or scattered in clumps of two and three around the room.

“Teresa, could you please stop your talking,” Ms Balloise requested politely of Teresa, who looked at her and smiled, before whispering the minute Ms Balloise turned her back.

“Teresa and her friends are favorites of Balloise’s,” Nayia pointed out in a low voice to Sal. “It’s just because Teresa is her niece that she favors her.”

“Nayia Waterflower!” Ms Balloise thundered, stopping her talk on the land structure of Warroga. “Stand up!” Nayia gulped and got to her feet, grinning meekly. “Can you please repeat what you said to Sally-Anne McGregor?” Ms Balloise’s voice was dangerous, it wavered with rage and every syllable seemed to scare Nayia as she stood there, not knowing what to say. She couldn’t repeat what she said about Ms Balloise, she would just be in more trouble than before.

The whole class now had their eyes on what was happening between Nayia and Ms Balloise, all except Sal who had frozen once she heard Ms Balloise utter her name.

Her full name.

Hatred burned inside her, she longed to jump over the desks in her way and break that rather thin nose on Ms Balloise’s pale face. Another delightful thought was to break a table or chair over the deep red hair that seemed to glow in the fluorescent light. Sal stood up quickly, her chair toppling over behind her, but she didn’t notice. The chair clattering next to Nayia distracted everybody else on the other hand, and they all turned to watch her.

Sal didn’t care, she was quivering with anger – an anger that had been bubbling in her slowly every day, waiting for the point where it would burst out the top like an active volcano and drench everybody near enough in hot boiling lava.

“What do you want Sally-Anne McGregor?” Ms Balloise demanded, ticked off greatly with Nayia and now her and the chair, which had finished clattering by now and was lying abandoned behind them. “Nayia is already in trouble, and you don’t want to land yourself in trouble as well.”

“What is your problem?” Sal yelled back, ignoring all rules stated at the beginning of class. “What is your” and she swore “problem?”

“My problem?” Ms Balloise questioned innocently. Then she changed, and if possible, her eyes became colder than they already were. Sal didn’t back down even though these eyes were sending cold shivers down her back as if there were ice trickling down her neck. “I do not have any problem aside from you interrupting my class!” Her voice had become so loud that students passing stopped to listen, students in classrooms moved their chairs and watched through the open door. Neither Sal or Ms Balloise paid any attention.

“If you couldn’t read, I suggest you learn,” Sal told Ms Balloise sharply. “But if you can read then you will probably notice that my name is written down quite differently.”

“Your name states Sally-Anne, your birth certificate is Sally-Anne and therefore you ARE SALLY-ANNE!” Ms Balloise roared. Nayia stifled a laugh, watching these two fiery redheads sort it out. “It is not I who has the problem because I am not denying my real name!”

“Is not I, you act like you’re so pompous!” Sal yelled, taking out all the frustration out of her system as she could. “Just because you’re a teacher, heck just because you have the vice principal plaque in your office you think you’re all it!”

“I’m beginning to see it was a mistake bringing you here,” Ms Balloise commented, this time not yelling.

Realization took Sal’s mind, and it was as if Ms Balloise had thrown a bucket of icy cold water over her. She gasped as she understood that what Jackie said was true, it was not entirely her decision, but the decision of Ms Balloise.

“You,” Sal growled, and beginning to climb over the desk towards Ms Balloise, who stood at the front of the room. There were four rows of desks along the classroom and Sal was climbing over the third as she continued speaking. “You brought me here. You LEFT ASHLEY TO BE SHIPPED OFF! You left her to go to some school in Mountains! You left her life to be RUINED! Jackie KNEW that she had to come here, SHE HAD TO! And you…” Sal had climbed over the second now, and was about to climb onto the first row when Ms Balloise spoke.

“Perhaps this Ashley would have been better than bringing a wild and untamed wolf like child into this class,” Ms Balloise commented.

“She’s going to attack her!” Nayia whispered to Martin and Craig. “She almost attacked Kayla – Kayla told me about it! Hold her back, don’t let her get into trouble!”

Sal had now reached the top of the first desk, and was standing up on it, towering over Ms Balloise even though Sal herself was not extremely tall. Martin and Craig ran around the rows to the front desk and as Sal leapt to grab and cause as much pain to Ms Balloise as she could, they seized her by the waist and tackled her to the floor where she landed with a thud, shrieking at Ms Balloise.

“You left Ashley ALONE! You left her with NOTHING! I told you to swap me for her but YOU DIDN’T LISTEN! And my name is NOT SALLY-ANNE!” Sal screamed, struggling to get out from under the tight hold Craig and Martin had on her.

“If Craig Curtis and Martin Jackson were not holding you down then you would find yourself in the worst trouble you had ever been in,” Ms Balloise told her.

“I’m from Quentside Heights! You think I don’t know what trouble is?” Sal bellowed.

“Quentside Heights does not mean a thing!” Ms Balloise thundered over the top of her. “You are now in Kilbourne Shorelines High and you had better start acting like a Kilbourner before you let your Quentside habits make you act as feral as this. I’m surprised we actually took two from Quentside Heights, I regret taking you. This school is no place for feral monsters. Jason Alexia on the other hand is a fine example of WHAT NOT TO BE IF YOU COME FROM FERAL LAND! Get off her Craig and Martin! STAND UP SAL! We should not have even taken any student from Quentside if this is how they will behave. Ashley would have certantly been acting like you if we had taken her. You seem to be talking about her a lot – is she anything as atrocious as you?”

Sal stood up and glared, green flames flickering dangerously in those forest green eyes. She was met by an equally, if not more evil, glare from Ms Balloise. “You don’t insult Ashley,” she said, her voice barley a whisper yet filled with danger and uncontrollable hatred. “You insult me however you like, but you don’t ever call me Sally-Anne, and you NEVER insult Ashley!”

“I’m the teacher, you’re the student,” Ms Balloise grinned wickedly, and Sal felt a surge run though her blood, loathing spreading through her veins. “In this world, those high up have authority over the little runts who have a long way to go and have to be taught. In Kilbourne Shorelines High, you, Sally-Anne, are a runt. And you have a lot to learn. And I, I am high up, high up where if I wanted to I could toss you over the side of a cliff and let you become almost dead and it would not scratch me at all. Are you understanding how Kilbourne works?”

“You’re mind is sick and twisted,” Sal replied, before pushing past her and walking straight out the door.

*

“That was so wicked!” Nayia exclaimed. “After she walked out, Ms Balloise was too stunned to do anything, and I didn’t even get into trouble!” Nayia punched the air in triumph.

“But did you see how angry Sal got?” Craig asked, still in shock of what had happened. “I knew she had a temper but not one that wild, she can become really aggressive when she wants.”

“She’s smooth when she yells,” Martin commented.

Nayia looked worried for a split second, and then grinned. “Does Martin have a crush?”

Martin turned red. “No!” he scoffed, pushing Nayia, who tripped over a bin and toppled down, taking the bin with her and ending up with rubbish in her lap.

Craig and Martin laughed hard while Nayia picked the rubbish off her, shaking her head. “Why do these things happen to me all the time? I mean, I’m surprised I didn’t fall out that window.”

Craig only laughed harder at this. Martin, on the other hand, reached out and helped Nayia off, before picking up the bin, still chuckling. “Sorry about that,” Martin apologized. “To tell you the truth, I think that Sal is a bit of a danger to herself. She bottles up her anger, at least when she doesn’t have reason to explode she goes quiet and stays out of most things. But when she does have reason to explode, she goes full out crazy. It’s scary.”

Nayia thought about this. Craig looked at his watch. “Five… six… seven… eight…” he whispered.

“You know – “ Nayia began, but was rudely interrupted by Craig.

“Nine!” Craig yelled. “You beat your record of being quiet!”

“Oh would you be quiet?” Nayia demanded, frustrated. “I had something very important to say that I wanted to say but now I’ve gone and forgotten it and its all your fault! Did you know that? It’s all your – oh I remember now. I was going to say…” But she had forgotten again, and screwed her face up in frustration before going and jumping on Craig’s toes.

“I think that Sal is a danger to herself,” Martin continued talking to himself, as Craig and Nayia began a toe stamping competition. “Maybe…” But what Martin had been about to say nobody ever found out, as he stopped mid sentence and finished with a loud “Ouch!” as Nayia accidentally squashed his toes.

“Hey Nayia, you’re friends with that… freak,” Teresa said, walking over and without the slightest bit of politeness barging into their very strange conversation. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, I’m Sal’s friend,” Nayia answered honestly. “And don’t call her a freak, that’s so mean.”

“Yeah whatever,” Teresa waved her hand around offhandedly, dismissing what Nayia said about not calling Sal a freak. “What was with her? She almost attacked Aunt Lucidia and she was just, psycho. Should she even be at our school if she’s like that?”

“I don’t care,” Nayia replied. “I found that to be really interesting, it was really fun watching the fight. Yeah sure I was worried, a bit, but we didn’t get any work done after Sal and Balloise stormed out the room, did we? You know the best bit was when Sal was about to attack her then Martin and Craig tackled-“

“You know, you should tell Sal that she’s not welcome here,” Teresa interrupted once more, looking down her nose at Nayia, Martin and Craig. “She’s just… freaky.”

“Anything else mean to say? Because, no offence or anything but I do have better things to do than to hear you talk crap about someone behind their back,” Nayia bluntly pointed out. “Oh sorry, forgot, its just the way God created you.” With this she poked her tongue out and walked off. Teresa called something out behind her, but she waved it away with her hand.

*

“Sun’s almost down,” Fury commented. “It’s been a week since the blow up, you know I don’t think you should go back at all.” Sal looked over at her. Sal had hardly talked at all this week, ever since she blew up at Ms Balloise she had turned relatively quiet, quieter than she appeared next to Nayia. Fury had been trying to get information out of her all week, but the most she had found out was when she was still keyed up about the whole argument. Fury was actually relieved, it meant that Sal was out of danger of the werewolf trap, but was still worried about Sal’s silent behavior. Even on her birthday, the most Sal had spoken was a grunt.

“Hmmph.” Sal grunted once again in response.

Fury was beginning to loose her own temper. “Sal go back! Go back! After tonight of course, but its time you went back. You can’t just loose your temper here and sulk forever! I don’t even know why you’re sulking, you never did it in Quentside Heights.”

“Quentside Heights was different,” Sal snapped. “So are you happy?”

“Not really,” Fury answered, thinking about it. “I’m more worried about what’s been bugging you for the past week. Even your birthday came and went with no comment.”

Sal sighed. “Do I have to tell you? NO!”

“YES!” Fury yelled back. “You either tell me, or you’re going to fall into the werewolf trap. And that’s the LAST thing we want seeing that Kilbourne Anti-Werewolf League District has the werewolf that was captured about nine or ten years ago. These people are smart Sal. Smarter than you, heck, smarter than me.”

Sal grumbled under her breath something that sounded like “Damn stinking Fury knows everything.” She raised her voice to hearing level and began to speak, thoroughly annoyed. “You really want to know what’s been bugging me, been eating me out? It’s so damn hard to get accepted here! Nayia, she’s nice enough but even she judges me! Here, here you can’t just blow up like I did. Here, if you do that it’s not acceptable. It’s what people like Teresa and Ms Balloise look down on.”

“And who said you had to be good enough for them?” Fury asked innocently.

Sal’s look was enough to not only kill the cheeky wolf, but burry her six feet under the ground also. She knew that Fury was right, but didn’t have time to argue. The moon, full and round, was rising ever so slowly, but its beams of dim moonlight shone through the dusk and onto Sal.

Her face grew longer, her eyes widened and changed shape, her legs grew shorter and her bone structure in her arms and hands began to change until she was a werewolf. She bared her teeth and snapped at the air, before stretching and half smiling.

“The freedom of a wolf,” she announced gruffly. Fury raised her wolf eyebrows and rolled her eyes. If only Sal knew.

They began to stroll around the Shady Thicket, this time on the other side of the fence. Sal had climbed over it a week ago and had no intention of going back aside from following what Fury said. Fury did have a point, as much as Sal hated to admit it.

Less than an hour had passed and it had already gone dark in the forest, it was becoming very hard to see further than five meters ahead of you. Especially seeing the only light was the dim moonlight shining through the thick leafy canvas overhead. This may have been the reason that Fury and Sal did not see them until they were surrounded.

“Fancy meeting you here, Reishe.”

[mr_pikachu]

Ooh! Nice ending to the chapter. Major cliffhanger - to those of us who haven't read LVH, that is. But hey, it's still good.

Anyway, there were a few things I wanted to point out about this chapter.


“Perhaps this Ashley would have been better than bringing a wild and untamed wolf like child into this class,” Ms Balloise commented.

Several times after this (including the next quote), you forgot the period after the “Ms” in “Ms. Balloise”.


“If Craig Curtis and Martin Jackson were not holding you down then you would find yourself in the worst trouble you had ever been in,” Ms Balloise told her.

It should be “the worst trouble you have ever been in. Remember, it’s within the quotes, and present tense makes sense in this situation.


“You don’t insult Ashley,” she said, her voice barley a whisper yet filled with danger and uncontrollable hatred.

“Barley” should be “barely”, as in “almost” rather than “the agricultural product”. ;)



“I think that Sal is a danger to herself,” Martin continued talking to himself, as Craig and Nayia began a toe stamping competition. “Maybe…” But what Martin had been about to say nobody ever found out, as he stopped mid sentence and finished with a loud “Ouch!” as Nayia accidentally squashed his toes.

This is a good quote, but it should be “mid-sentence” with a hyphen. Also, “Ouch!” should probably be lower case, since (as you said yourself) it is the end of the sentence, not the beginning.


Fury was beginning to loose her own temper.

“You can’t just loose your temper here and sulk forever!”

AARGH! Did you learn nothing from last chapter? ;) I’m sure you know what’s wrong, just remember to check for it next time, k? It makes my job a lot easier. :D


Sal’s look was enough to not only kill the cheeky wolf, but burry her six feet under the ground also.

“Burry” should be “bury” with one r.


Also, when you end the sentence with a hyphen (for an interruption), remember to manually change the direction of the quotes. It takes a while to get used to doing that, but it makes the punctuation look better in general. Also, there were many instances where you neglected to put the comma at a natural break in a sentence. I’m not sure; you may have just been trying to show fast talking, but I thought I’d mention it.


Now to the good stuff! My favorite quotes of the chapter!


Another delightful thought was to break a table or chair over the deep red hair that seemed to glow in the fluorescent light.

Great quote! XD “Delightful thought,” heh. For some reason, this is one of my favorite quotes of the chapter.


Nayia thought about this. Craig looked at his watch. “Five… six… seven… eight…” he whispered.

“You know – “ Nayia began, but was rudely interrupted by Craig.

“Nine!” Craig yelled. “You beat your record of being quiet!”

Brilliant! :D I love how you finally addressed the issue of Nayia’s time record! Nice one!


Anyway, this was a very good chapter. There were moments of both intensity and relaxation, and the dialogue was superb. Just remember your grammar, punctuation and spelling, k? I'm still laughing about the "loose" bit. :D See ya!

[PancaKe]

Mr Pikachu: The whole "Ms Balloise" with no period . dot thingy is the way I'm used to writing things like Ms Miss and Mr and Mrs cuz dats da way I and everyone else I know in Aus doz it. ^.^;; Australian grammar is a bit diff 2 US and England and whatever other countries there are. And oh damn. You make my writing look like its from a ten year old! (but some 10 year olds are really good tho ^.^) but you make it look so sucky! :-P at least I cant say you didn't read my fic thoroughly. :P Oh yeah, and Martin's "maybe..." was to show that he was trailing off in thought, otherwise it would have been replaced with a "maybe-"

God bless.

~Mist

[mistysakura]

mr_pikachu, you're getting yourself into some big trouble here! :D

Anyway, everyone's still the same as ever. Wolf-like child, huh? (Yeah, it's wolf-like, not wolf like, but that could just be my browser suffing up on me again... random blanks where apostrophes are meant to be and stuff.) And feral too. :yes:

I used to do Ms Balloise instead of Ms. Balloise. Now, I still put Ms Balloise on paper, but Ms. Balloise on the computer because I'm sick of the grammar check. As far as I'm comcerned, it doesn't make that much of a difference.

Cool chapter overall, not 10-year-old like at all, and sometimes you can't blame Balloise -- I would have totally done the same thing.

[Lady Vulpix]

That was a cool cliffhanger even for those of us who have read LVH and know who Reishe is. :D
Great chapter, Tara! And yes, I loved the whole thing about Naiya's record too. :D

[Last Exile]

Martin, Nayia and Craig are definitely stealing the show here. ;) But the Sal thing is still fairly stale. I hate saying that, but it is true though. You need to get into new territory with her soon, or this might tread too much familiar territory. All said, good chapter, but yeah, this fic now needs to separate itself from LVH for its own good.

[PancaKe]

Well I'm lazy tonight. Soz I have lots of stuff to do so replys will maybe be skipped :P I'm so mean!

~Mist

Chapter Six: Warned and Dangerous

Sal recoiled as she heard this, the cool smooth voice slicing through the silence, but backed right into another wolf. Werewolf, she quickly corrected her thoughts. Werewolves and regular wolves had great differences, any werewolf knew that, but they were not as visible to normal human eyes unless they had been trained. Werewolves had much smaller, and slightly pointier teeth that with any bite could cause the victim to either be killed or become werewolf. Their tails were normally longer, although Fury’s tail was rather short for even a wolf, and their eyes stayed the same color as their human forms. The overall appearance of a werewolf was much leaner and skinnier than a real wolf, not as well built as regular wolves.

“Reishe, Furocity,” the voice spoke once more, its smoothness like a blade that not only cut through the air but through their ears, sending a shiver down their backs. “It is quite a surprise seeing you here. Not here to rejoin the pack, are we?”

Sal gulped. The pack that her and Fury had left so many years ago, it was back. Asking them to join again. Using her werewolf name… Reishe. Sal shuddered at the hearing of her name. A name, linked to a past of being forced to be part of the pack. All she wanted was her independence, and now she was thirteen, she wasn’t about to join the pack, loose everything she had worked for.

“I’m not rejoining the pack,” Sal growled in reply. She wasn’t about to loose her temper fully, only one with no brain would loose their temper to the Alpha of the werewolf pack, and Sal had half a brain. “So take your pack Canis and go bug something else.”

“But what about the AWL?” Canis questioned. “Surely you knew that the Kilbourne District has one of the finest Anti-Werewolf Leagues in the whole of Warroga. Aside from Quentside, which used to be quite top of the line until about eight years ago.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Sal snapped rudely.

“Reishe, you still have your temper. It’s no wonder you and Furocity get along so well,” Canis commented, shaking her head.

“The AWL will be hunting for lone wolves, as their information points towards werewolves not having packs,” another werewolf, this one named Nafeti, answered for her. Nafeti was quite an old member of the pack, such as Canis was, and Sal could remember them from when she was a member a long time ago. “Staying in packs is our only option now, otherwise the AWL will have found out where werewolves roam and we will be in great danger.”

“Look,” Sal began, and was thoroughly annoyed now. “If you really think I’m stupid enough to let myself be caught by the Anti Werewolf League then you’re wrong! I’m not that stupid, and even if you guys think I am, I’m NOT!” She was on the verge of attacking, but Fury put her paw in front of hers to warn her, and she backed off.

“I’m not calling you stupid,” Canis replied simply. “Neither is Nafeti, neither are any of us in the pack. We are merely saying that it is dangerous to be wandering alone. It is the perfect conditions to be targeted. It is how the werewolf Nade made his last mistake.” Nafeti scowled at this comment.

“We don’t have to bring that into the conversation,” Nafeti growled to Canis. “We’re here for the pack, not to dwell on the past.”

“Right,” Canis nodded. “You must come back to the pack, things are getting dangerous again. We have information that the Anti-Werewolf League is going to start again, worse than before. And we need to stick together.”

“I don’t want to be involved.” Sal turned and tried to walk out of the circle with Fury but was blocked off by two snarling werewolves.

“Reishe, Furocity, have some sense!” Canis barked. “Furocity, you know much more than this foolish one knows, you must know that it is time to join the pack again! Especially being in Kilbourne.”

“Hey, would you ditch the pack?” Fury asked Canis light heartedly.

“No,” Canis answered instantly.

“Well I wouldn’t ditch my best friend either,” Fury grinned. “Now have you finished lecturing us?”

“You can’t go unless you rejoin the pack!” Canis ordered.

“Will you let us GO? We are NOT rejoining!” Sal yelled back.

“Let them go Canis,” Nafeti sighed. “They will never remain faithful to the pack unless they are willing to join and not forced.” Nafeti’s voice sounded tired, like it was a major deal to say this.

“You will change your mind,” Canis called after us, her voice still piercing the air. Fury looked worriedly over to Sal, who was storming around, before leaping and ripping apart a neatly caught rabbit.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Fury commented, looking down at the dead rabbit.

“And as if you don’t eat these,” Sal snapped. “What was with them? What was WITH them?” She got angrier every time she asked the question.

“I honestly don’t know,” Fury replied. “But if you find out, tell me won’t you?”

*

“Where were you? I was so lonely without an actual girl to talk to and now that Martin and Craig have become friends with these guys, one who came here last week, one who has always been here but not actually been part of our group, so I’ve been left out! It’s so mean, don’t you think? Oh yeah, you’ve got a heap of work to catch up on, Teresa reckons you’re a freak, and the two guys that now hang out with us want to meet you.”

Sal nodded, not really understanding half of what Nayia had just said, but glad she didn’t have to do much thinking, she was still pondering on what had been said to her by the werewolf pack, especially Canis. There were many things that had been spoken by her that Sal just did not understand.

“The new guy’s name is Greg Parker, and he’s so polite! He’s a total gentleman, and he’s friends with practically everybody!” Nayia babbled on and on. “I think he’s black American, he’s got dark skin but its such a lovely color! Unlike mine, euch.” And she pinched her pale skin in disgust. “He’s really smart, he’s only in our Geography and Math classes because there was no room to put him in the highest ones. He’s really good friends with Sean Smith and Craig, but Martin gets along with him well. He’s also a bit of a worrier but I think he’ll get over that when he starts to get a full dose of Martin and Craig’s tricks.”

“Mmhmm,” Sal nodded, pretending she was interested in hope that she could keep her talking while she stayed in deep thought about what Canis had said. The Anti Werewolf League may find out she’s a werewolf. She wasn’t dumb enough to make it obvious.

“Werewolf skin, its so gorgeous!” Nayia continued talking.

Sal snapped out of her trance and frowned at Nayia suspiciously. “What did you just say?”

“He wears wolf skin,” Nayia repeated. “I’m talking about Sean and how in the winter last year he had a wolf skin coat which must have cost him a fortune to wear wolf skin, why? Bit touchy about wolves?”

For somebody as blonde as Nayia, she was rather smart. “No,” Sal glared.

“Okay whatever,” Nayia shrugged. “Sean is a bit weird in my opinion, he’s really shy unless he’s around his close friends. Hopefully Martin will drag him out of his shell, he doesn’t talk much but when he does its about either animals or in small discussions. I heard he’s got stage fright, because Craig told me that last year when they were doing a drama performance, he had a nervous fit on stage. I wasn’t there though, so he might have been pulling my leg.”

“Oh would you look at that, the freak is back,” Teresa loudly announced as she followed Kayla into the dorm.

“What are you doing here Teresa?” Nayia asked, peeved off.

Sal was more than peeved. “Whom you calling freak, tart?” she demanded. “Or to you, anybody who isn’t a tart is a freak, right?”

Kayla raised her eyebrows but kept her mouth shut. From the last time she had almost fought with this angry Quentside Heights girl, she had been worried about whether Sal might snap in her sleep and get back at her for teasing her on the first day. Teresa, of course, had no worries as such. She had a whole different tower to Sal, didn’t she?

“Anybody who dresses and acts like you, is a freak,” Teresa answered. Sal stood up and got off her bed. Nayia stayed put, and Kayla joined her over there, away from where Sal was walking towards Teresa. “And just because you’re walking closer to me it doesn’t mean I’m scared. Oooh I’m so scared, she’s walking!” And Teresa began to mock cower.

Sal didn’t say anything to this; she just closed her fist tightly as she walked, preparing it. When she was face to face with Teresa, she spoke. “If you think I’m just going to SIT there and take that CRAP coming from your mouth then you are SO WRONG!” she yelled. “You don’t even belong in here, get the heck out of our dorm! You stupid little cow, what the heck do you think you are? You look like a piglet in a miniskirt, what living thing would even think about going anywhere near you? You sicken me; you give a bad name to tarts! And aside from that, the only thing you can speak is CRAP seeing your head is so far shoved up your butt hole!” Sal raised her fist threateningly, glaring at Teresa, who seemed to be shaken by this.

“Well seeing you think you own this dorm, I wont come anymore. It’s got freak germs,” Teresa snubbed. Nayia snorted at this pathetic comeback, and even Kayla couldn’t suppress the tiny grin that appeared on her face. “Kayla, come on, we’ll grab the magazines and go back to my dorm where at least its freak free.”

“Take the magazines and go,” Kayla told Teresa, before smiling. “Aren’t you worried I’ll have ‘freak-germs’ too?” Teresa fumed at this, before going over to Kayla’s draw and opening it, to find a pair of pants and the magazines on top of them neatly.

Teresa chuckled meanly as she held up the pants. “What’s with these pants Myssina?” she asked cruelly. “Do you fancy looking like you’ve got an elephants pair of legs when you wear these, or do you just like the fashion of the eighties?”

Kayla fought back tears, not used to being spoken this way by one of her best friends. “Did you find the magazines? Because if you did get the hell out of this dorm!” she shouted at Teresa. “I don’t want to take that crap from you as much as Sal does.”

Nayia was beginning to wish she had brought some popcorn along, all these fights were quite entertaining as long as she didn’t have to get involved in one.

Teresa snatched up the magazines, two of which met her standards. A third fell out the pile and onto the floor, which Teresa held up, looking amazed and disgusted at the same time. “What is this doing here?” Teresa asked, holding it as far away from her upturned nose as she could, between her thumb and forefinger.

“Leave my craft magazine alone,” Kayla told her, walking over and snatching it out of her fingers. “What I do is under no ruling of yours.”

“She got that from a movie, I bet,” Nayia whispered to Sal, who had walked back to her own bed and was sitting on it, still watching, interested in this fight.

“Kayla, you’re pathetic sometimes,” Teresa sneered. “I don’t know why I’ve wasted so much time being nice to you.”

Kayla laughed at this. “Being nice to me? Is that what you call it?” she exclaimed. “All those times you’ve told me how bad I dress, how bad I’ve done my hair, and I’ve done it EXACTLY the way you said to! All those times you teased me, and you spread that rumor last year about me and Luke Hallaby didn’t you? All those lies, you were never a friend! I’ve wasted so much time trying to please you, hoping you’d have some nice words for once! Well I feel stupid now.”

“You look stupid too,” Teresa, who couldn’t help herself, commented.

Kayla’s brows fused together, creating one heck of a frown. “Listen you, get out of this dorm. Don’t come back in, don’t talk to me. You haven’t got anything nice to say to me ever so go find somebody else to be a stupid tart to. And keep the magazines.” Angry, Teresa turned and headed for the dorm door. As she was halfway through it Kayla called her. “Teresa!” Teresa turned and looked at Kayla, her eyes narrowed. Kayla smiled. “You’re just jealous because I’m a real freak and you have to wear a mask.”

Teresa stormed out the room and down the stairs. As they sat in silence, resting in what had just happened, they could hear Teresa shout at somebody for walking in front of her as she thundered out the tower.

“That was so cool,” Nayia finally spoke. “Both of you on Teresa. Woo hoo! That tart deserved it all! Oh yeah, but next time tell me in advance so I can go get popcorn.”

“I don’t believe I just did that,” Kayla commented, shaken.

“Congratulations,” Nayia held out her hand and shook Kayla’s hand, which was quivering just as Kayla’s body was.

“Now I’ve got nothing to stay for, nobody to hang around with,” Kayla continued talking mindlessly, consequences creeping into her mind.

“She deserved it, the stupid” and Sal adder her comment, with the usual stream of swearing and cursing.

“Dudette, hang around with us,” Nayia shrugged. “Bet the guys wouldn’t mind having a pretty girl next door type in the group. It’s growing bigger so you may as well expand it.”

As Kayla and Nayia talked, they soon formed a relationship, which looked very familiar to one Sal remembered. And as she thought of Ashley, she wondered where the heck Ashley was.

*

Days passed, and Sal grew tired of the school and its familiar cleanliness and attitude. It was beginning to get cooler, as the hot month of February drew to a close and a slight decrease in temperature was noticeable at the beginning of March. Nayia, Martin and Craig were still as close as when Sal had first met them, but Craig seemed to be getting along well with Greg and Sean. Sal still hadn’t really talked to even though she had seen them over two weeks ago, and was hanging out with them on an every day basis. Martin and Nayia seemed to be forming a different relationship also, Martin seemed to be spending much more time with Nayia than usual, but every time he got too close she would back off and make some excuse to go somewhere else, often dragging Sal or Kayla with her.

And Kayla, Kayla fit right into the group and made herself right at home, being the third girl. Her and Craig would often spend hours just talking, and if either had to go somewhere, the other was sure to accompany. Nayia was sure she could see something happening, and often babbled on to Sal about it, but Sal had no interest in playing Cupid or matchmaker.

Geography lessons had been going smoothly, which Sal was very thankful for, but she noticed how much Quentside Heights was disadvantaged as she was taught and taught and crammed her mind with information. Nayia and the others had an easier time dealing with this amount of learning but Sal soon found she was slipping behind in her homework, and assignments, mainly due to the fact that she didn’t bother starting them.

“Why isn’t your assignment in?” Ms Balloise demanded, looking down at Sal.

Sal shrugged. “I haven’t started it, that’s why,” she snapped back.

Ms Balloise composed her temper, but behind those icy eyes, flames of anger were flickering. Still, she managed to clearly give Sal instructions. “I would like you to stay behind after class.”

Sal rolled her eyes, and careful not to loose her temper at a student again, Ms Balloise moved on to Nayia, then Greg, who handed in his assignment. His alone looked as if it was double the thickness of the stack handed in by the rest of the class. Greg sighed as he handed his over. “How much work do you do?” Nayia whispered as Ms Balloise continued around the classroom.

“A lot,” Greg sighed in a soft reply. “I’ve been staying up late all the time in the computer room in Tower One trying to get all these assignments done.”

“You would have topped the class with half of what you typed,” Nayia whispered back.

Ms Balloise finished collecting assignments, the lesson resumed and so did the boredom that Sal usually felt in other lessons. The only lesson that did not cause her to feel bored and uninterested was Physical Education, which they had recently been studying self-defense and fighting moves. Miss Fisher was extremely pleased with Sal’s effort and participation in those classes.

The only reason, Sal assumed, that she was good at self-defense and fighting was because it was the key to survival in Quentside Heights. She was far more advanced at self-defense than the others in her class, as most came from nice, safe, clean areas where you didn’t have to watch for syringes and bongs lying about on the street.

Sal was jerked out of her thoughts by a loud thump on the table next to Nayia’s. Nayia leapt out of her seat in shock, and then, looking embarrassed for a moment, sat down quickly as if she had never jumped in the first place. She looked down where everybody else’s eyes were focused, on a sound asleep Gregory Parker, his dark dreadlocks lying all over the table. Nayia poked him in the side. “Wake up,” she whispered.

Ms Balloise was looking over at this commotion also, raising one thin red eyebrow, her eyes piercing through the classroom to Greg. Greg looked as if he was out cold; from the other side of him Craig jabbed pencils into his dreadlocks, poking his scalp with no reaction whatsoever.

“Gregory Parker,” Ms Balloise demanded, ticked off. Greg didn’t move a muscle, except for his mouth muscles, which were used to emit a loud snore. Martin reached over behind Craig and stuck a ruler deep into Greg’s side, below his ribs but above his hip. Greg, startled by this, leapt out of his sleep and upright, looking around wide-eyed in shock.

“What happened?” Greg asked, unsettled. He glanced around, his eyes wide, trying to get a grasp on what was going on.

“You conked it out into slumber land,” Nayia filled in, talking as fast as she could. “One minute you were awake next minute you were asleep and landing on the table in deep sleep. You must be working way to hard. Oh yeah, and another thing, since when did you put pencils in your dreadlocks?”

Craig and Martin snorted; Sal just stared at the pencils and over at Ms Balloise, not really caring about the reaction either would have; Kayla laughed with Craig and Martin, although it was a bit obvious that she didn’t find it as hysterical as either of the jokers and Sean just gave a small chuckle but no real outburst. Sean was very unusual in Sal’s opinion; it was as if he were too quiet, perhaps silently plotting against them.

But Sal had always been a bit precautious hadn’t she?

“Sorry Ms Balloise,” Greg apologized quickly, trying to take out the pencils in his dreadlocks while talking. “I didn’t realize I was this tired. I must have stayed up too late doing my assignments. I’m sorry about this, can I make it up to you at lunch time or on Saturday?”

Ms Balloise was taken back by this suggestion of punishment from a student. Rarely did students admit they were wrong, doing assignments or offer to do detentions, and yet here was Greg doing all three of these. Ms Balloise frowned once again. “If it happens again, then there will be serious action, but for this time you will be let off with a four o’clock detention in which I expect you to bring your books and you will be personally catching up all this plus more from your text book.”

“Okay, thank you for that Miss,” Greg replied, still removing pencils. Ms Balloise couldn’t believe this, but she had no choice but to believe that Greg was sucking up to her, and move on with the lesson.

The lesson dragged on until lunch, and the door was once again crowded with pushing and shoving students trying to escape all at once. Craig gave a laughing glance over to the window, him and Martin both thinking the same idea – could always use that exit. Martin snorted, and Nayia looked back at him from the pushing mass like he was a crazy animal.

Sal fell forward, being pushed by another student, Evan Bates, and growled, pushing him back. Evan stared at her, then tried to squeeze past her out the door. This was pointless anyhow, everyone had managed to get through the door at this point and only those who were waiting for Evan and Sal were in the room.

“What’d you push me for?” Evan sneered. “Huh?”

“Sal, let’s go,” Nayia announced cheerfully, her blond roots and her dense mind defiantly not preventing her from seeing that Sal would attack if provoked any further. She grabbed Sal’s arm and tried to drag her out the room, where Martin and Craig looked in. Kayla looked out the room and waved to Craig to come back into the room, and Craig entered, Martin following him, Greg and Sean following him.

“Craig your hair needs re-bleaching,” Kayla mentioned, out-the-blue. Craig looked down at her, and she grinned back up at him cheekily.

“Let’s go Sal,” Nayia repeated.

“Oh would you look at this,” Evan chuckled, as Ms Balloise walked out the classroom and down the corridor away from the room. “She’s being held back by the pretty little blond. Hey Nayia, want to go out with me?”

“I do?” Nayia asked. “No I don’t, do I? No – I’m sure I wouldn’t want to go out with you. Don’t put ideas in my head dude, especially ones that suck as much as that one did.” Her hands still clutched Sal’s quivering arm, as Sal stood there.

“Check her out,” Trent Faulkner, one of Evan’s group of friends, s******ed, pointing to where Sal stood, eyes flaming green, jaw locked furiously, trying to hold back. “Are you holding back?”

“Yeah I bet she has to go toilet,” Evan joked.

Martin blinked, and missed it. Sal jolted her arm forward, and out of surprise Nayia’s grasp became loose and so did Sal. She leapt forward, her fist striking Evan’s cheek. Evan’s head seemed to swing slow motion from the impact of Sal’s powerful punch, and he stumbled backwards into a desk, and leant against it rubbing his cheek. He looked over to Sal, where she stood glaring at him. The flaming green eyes seemed to be roaring with wildfire.

Surprisingly he didn’t feel as brave as he did before.

“She lost it,” Nayia shrugged, moving back away from Sal and bumping into Martin. Martin went to lean on Nayia’s shoulders, but she ducked out of his grip and went over by Sean instead.

“I dare you, try that again,” Sal growled in a threatening whisper. “Or are you all talk?”

Evan got off the desk and walked over to her, fists up as if he were about to fight in a boxing ring. He aimed for Sal with his left fist then his right in a jab-jab action, but he was only armed with boxing skills. Sal was armed with experience.

She ducked and caught him from the legs with her arms, tripping him up and letting him fall heavily on the ground. Winded, he tried to catch his breath, but opened his eyes just in time to roll quickly to his left. Sal’s shoe landed on the ground with a thud, her other shoe in his back as she made contact with force. He reached up and pulled Sal down on the floor next to him and went to kick her in the chest. She grabbed his foot and pushed him back.

He got up and so did she, both of them facing each other. They only had a very narrow area to fight in, the tables and the teachers desk hadn’t been moved since Evan leant against one of the front row desks. Greg shut the door and pulled down the blind in case any passing by teachers peered in. Sal swung for him, but he stepped back and then punched her, landing squarely in her stomach. She grabbed her stomach and looked up at him, where he was preparing to punch again.

Too slow for Sal. She grabbed his arms and kneed him in a very sensitive area, and watched him grind his teeth in pain, trying not to show how much it hurt.

“That has got to hurt so much!” Martin commented softly. Sean, wincing, agreed.

Sal had lost it now, just as Fury had hoped she was loose, not tense anymore and free from the danger of losing her temper. She kicked Evan’s legs once again and he landed on his back on the ground, where Sal kicked him neatly in the side and stood, gloating, over him for a moment. She turned her back on him as he got up slowly, struggling to stand properly. He walked over to her, fist raised and tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned around, and Martin blinked again, missing another lot of action. Sal’s jaw made contact with his fist and she went flying, unprepared for this type of comeback. She tripped on the small classroom bin and stumbled, the side of her head making an unnerving sound as it hit the blackboard. Chalk dust went flying, and the chalk writing was smudged as Sal’s face was dragged down. The flaming green eyes were shut tight, and from what the others could see, Evan had made a spectacular comeback.

Until Evan found himself on the floor, once again clutching in agony his manhood. Sal’s eyes were burning, positively howling with rage and anger. Evan’s nose began to bleed from the punch Sal threw, but he was not the only one dripping blood. Sal’s encounter with the black board had left a nasty cut along her cheek that blood ran out of nicely. With the back of her hand, Sal wiped away some of the blood that trickled down her cheek and let Evan have a nice backhand.

“Whoa!” Nobody in the room had been paying any attention to the door, for if they had they would have noticed that Jackie was now closing it. Evan could only see out of one eye at this moment, his other had swollen up from one of the many well-placed fist collisions. Sal could see out of both eyes, but her face was becoming bruised already, and her cheek was still bleeding. Evan took this opportunity to block both nostrils and tilt his head back to stop. Sal went for another kick, but Jackie yanked her back and away from Evan. “This looked like it could have been a very interesting fight-” she began.

“But I blinked and missed two of the most exciting bits!” Martin complained loudly.

“But it is breaking school rules and staining the carpet!” Jackie finished, raising her voice to drown out Martin. “Now why Ms Balloise didn’t stop you I don’t know but you’re very lucky because she would have been a lot more tough on you lot than I’m going to be.”

“Even us?” Nayia asked.

“Yes,” Greg answered for her. “The school rules state that those involved in a fight, including spectators, will be receiving forms of punishment.”

“Did you swallow the school rules guide?” Martin asked.

“I showed them to him when he first got here,” Sean spoke. This was one of the few times Sal and the others had heard his voice. His voice was quiet, soft and clear, every word he said was distinguishable unlike Nayia, who often talked so fast that her words rolled together like a snowball down a hill.

“Anyway, enough about eating school rules,” Jackie shut them up. “I want you all to come to my office, except for you two. Sal, Evan, go get some treatment from the sick bay.”

“I’m fine,” Sal snapped.

“Right, suit yourself,” Jackie shrugged. “All of you, in my office now. Trent, don’t you dare go with Evan to sick bay. Sean, you go with him instead, and Evan, if you dare run off you’ll see another side of me that nobody has ever seen.”

[mistysakura]

Am temporarily taking over mr_pikachu's job, but I'm sure he'll find even more mistakes.


Her and Craig would often spend hours just talking
She and Craig.

All she wanted was her independence, and now she was thirteen, she wasn't about to join the pack, loose everything she had worked for.

I'm not rejoining the pack,?Sal growled in reply. She wasn't about to loose her temper fully, only one with no brain would loose their temper to the Alpha of the werewolf pack, and Sal had half a brain.

Sal rolled her eyes, and careful not to loose her temper at a student again, Ms Balloise moved on to Nayia, then Greg, who handed in his assignment.
Lose, not loose... lose/gain, loose/tight.


Martin blinked, and missed it. Sal jolted her arm forward, and out of surprise Nayia's grasp became loose and so did Sal's.

and free from the danger of losing her temper..
Yay!

Until Evan found himself on the floor, once again clutching in agony his manhood.
I don't quite get what the "Until"'s for.

Great chapter, as usual, but new stuff would be appreciated. But then, there was new stuff in this one, and really, sometimes you can't blame Balloise.

[Last Exile]

Okay, you're going somewhere different now, Tara. I like that. ;) And yeah, Nayia is still ruling the place. However, Kayla's coming out was well handled. As for these new guys, yeah, it'll be interesting to see what influence they have.

Interesting description of school. Is this what it's like where you go to school? If it is, then I'm fairly intrigued. Straight out detention for not handing up homework isn't standard procedure in the majority of schools. In fact, detentions are only reserved for the most severe of situations. So yeah, I'm interested as to whether you based this on your own experiences or merely your own perceptions.

Basically, great chapter! :D

[Lady Vulpix]

Interesting chapter. I'm not into fight scenes much, so I guess I must have blinked just like Martin did, but everything else was great! And I liked the introductions of the new characters, and the whole thing between Kayla and Teresa. :) And you're giving Greg a new dimension. It sounds interesting. :rolleyes:

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

**Blinks a few times, causing his eyes to burn** Owwy! I didn't want to blink myself. That is something I would have paid to see for real. Keep goin' :yes:

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah, you're right, mistysakura. I am going to find more. ;)


Sal shuddered at the hearing of her name.

This doesn't sound very good... you could just say "Sal shuddered at hearing her name," and I think it would be a bit better.


She wasn’t about to loose her temper fully, only one with no brain would loose their temper to the Alpha of the werewolf pack, and Sal had half a brain.

First, loose should be lose (twice). And, the half a brain joke was kind of... I don't know... very low compared to the normal power of your writing.


“Staying in packs is our only option now, otherwise the AWL will have found out where werewolves roam and we will be in great danger.”

Should be "will find out" instead of "will have found out", since the dialogue situation here is suited to present tense.


“If you really think I’m stupid enough to let myself be caught by the Anti Werewolf League then you’re wrong!”

Should be "Anti-Werewolf League", with a hyphen, like you wrote it earlier. Unless, of course, the way you wrote it earlier was incorrect...


“It is the perfect conditions to be targeted.”

Should either be "They are the perfect conditions" or "It is the perfect condition". "It" matches a singular noun, whereas "They" is for plural nouns.


“You will change your mind,” Canis called after us, her voice still piercing the air.

You're switching to first-person view with "Canis called after us".


“He’s really good friends with Sean Smith and Craig, but Martin gets along with him well.”

"but Martin gets along with him well," doesn't make sense, because it isn't unexpected, since we already know that Sean and Craig get along with Greg.


The Anti Werewolf League may find out she’s a werewolf.

"The Anti-Werewolf League," with a hyphen again.


“Whom you calling freak, tart?” she demanded. “Or to you, anybody who isn’t a tart is a freak, right?”

I really don't think Kayla would bother to say "whom" when she's angered like that. Besides, I don't think it makes sense in the sentence anyway, but I could be wrong. Anyway, it doesn't fit the situation.


“Well seeing you think you own this dorm, I wont come anymore.”

There should be a comma after "Well" and an apostrophe on "wont".


Nayia was beginning to wish she had brought some popcorn along, all these fights were quite entertaining as long as she didn’t have to get involved in one.

The comma should be a semicolon or a period, since it separates two independant thoughts.


“She deserved it, the stupid” and Sal adder her comment, with the usual stream of swearing and cursing.

and Sal adder her comment... what the heck? ;)


And Kayla, Kayla fit right into the group and made herself right at home, being the third girl.

You don't need to say Kayla twice. Yes, someone's speech might be like that, but you're the narrator, and you don't need to use dialogue.


“Sal, let’s go,” Nayia announced cheerfully, her blond roots and her dense mind defiantly not preventing her from seeing that Sal would attack if provoked any further.

"Defiantly" doesn't fit into this situation. It's an improper use of the word, unless I'm missing something.


Evan’s head seemed to swing slow motion from the impact of Sal’s powerful punch, and he stumbled backwards into a desk, and leant against it rubbing his cheek.

Shouldn't Evan's head swing in slow motion?


Greg shut the door and pulled down the blind in case any passing by teachers peered in. Sal swung for him, but he stepped back and then punched her, landing squarely in her stomach. She grabbed her stomach and looked up at him, where he was preparing to punch again.

This sounds like Sal was attacking Greg. Wait, she wasn't was she? You never know with that girl... ;)



Anyway, even with all that, this was an excellent chapter. The action was great, and you did a great job of moving the plot. And there were some awesome quotes, too...


“But it is breaking school rules and staining the carpet!”

:D Love it!


Great work, and it'll be even better when those errors are looked at and manipulated! I can't wait to see where this leads... even though I already know... *gasp* the twilight zone! Augh! ;) Anyway, see ya! :wave:

[Craig]

I like how Greg is now, he adds more multi-cultural ness to the group :> LOL Anyways yeah, Furocity? I thought she didn't have that name and Fury was just her full name:P

I kinda liked this chapter, the introduction of Sean (a new character :O) And also the classic how Kayla ditched Teresa because she called her legs fat XD

keep up teh good workz


before you all kill me, my sig was a dare >_<

[EVme15]

Yay! I'm good again! ^_^ That was a good fight. Very interestin. I would have loved to see how it turned out... ah well...

^_^ Good job, keep going!

[PancaKe]

MistySakura: Mr Pikachu cloned you didn't he. Lol you and him are really good at finding mistakes!!! :P

Ryan: At my school its a school standard to get detention if homework isn't handed in, and if the teacher needs to give one out then she or he will. Its different in other schools but this is loosley (I used the right word, yeah???) based on my school and the way my school works. Except if we went dressed however we'd be in big ****. I got in trouble because I wore a dice necklace and it was locekd away for like three days, stupid teachers. *growlz*

Gabbi: Yeah I tried to give Greg more of a personality, but still keep some of his old traits. He didn't really seem to have much of a personality in the other one, as did Martin, Sal, Craig, Nayia, Ashley, Fury etc etc. He and Spike were the two bland ones in my opinion and I wanted to explore their characters more.

DK: Thanks. Fight sceens are hard for me to write, because I haven't actually experienced a fight, only verbal fights.

mr_pikachu: I hate you. ^.^ You make my stuff look sooo bad!!! so many mistakes!!! By the end of this fic there aren't gona be anything for you to pick on! - except the loose/lose thing.

Craig: Sean is actually a diff version of Spike. Had to keep him in the fic but couldn't name him Spike. Just think of Sean as Spike's replacement, if you may. ^.^ Its hard to xplain, but Spike had an, unrealistic personality if you get wat i mean. So i made him realistic. Oh yeah, I hate your sig. I DETEST YOUR SIG YOUR SIG SUCKS ***.

EVme15: Thanks! As i said, I dont like writing fight scenes because I cant fight and never been in a fight. Closest I've come to a fight is wrestling with my best friend, and ending up with his foot in my mouth. Yik! It tasted, toey.

~Mist

[Lady Vulpix]

Hey, you double-posted.
It's good to know you're planning to explore their characters more. You know how intrigued I was about Spike and all the unexplained things around him. It will be interesting to see what he and Greg really are like.

By the way, are you planning to post at Charmander Central (http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22708)?

[mr_pikachu]

So you're altering some of the characters, huh? It should be interesting to see the contrast between their current personas and how they were during LVH/LVH2. The name changes will be hard to get used to, though. And I hate Ms. Balloise even more, now that her name's been... er, shall we say, poorly translated into the real world. You really didn't have to keep the same sort of characters, pronunciation, etc. I would've been happier with "Ms. Umbridge". ;)

And by the way, you still used the wrong word. It's loosely, not loosley. :D I know, you hate me, you're going to kill me. Believe me, I've heard it many times before. ;)

[PancaKe]

*strangles mr pikach* *loosens grip* FAR OUT ... typo yeah it was a typo. Anyway, I kept most of the same character names because I find if i change names, I change their characters. I dont know why but thats how it works. And I didn't want to change characters that were already very well developed, so I just made minor changes like last names and apperances n stuff. Thats why this time Greg is a dark skinned guy with dreadlocks (which is totally sexy!!!) and why Craig has bleach blond hair that spikes everywhere. And anyway, thats also why I loosely translated names like Lady Blastoise to Ms Balloise. So I dont loose the character in the process.

Anyway, this chapter isn't really as good as I would have hoped, but it does have a few revelations... *shrugs*

~Mist

Chapter Seven: A Few Revelations

Although Evan had been in sickbay for most of lunch, and their entire group, including blabbermouth Nayia, had been in Jackie’s office, everybody in school somehow knew of the fight before the last bell rang. It was big news; a fight in Ms Balloise’s classroom didn’t happen everyday.

Especially a fight between the top boxer of the year and a street rat from Quentside Heights. This fight had woken something inside of Sal, she didn’t know what it was, but she suddenly felt more at home than she had ever felt before.

As if there was still a reminder of her old home, of old drugged out, litter lined, run down Quentside Heights. She was much happier than she had ever been, even cracking a smile at one of Martin and Craig’s constant pranks. Time passed quickly for the rest of the day, and even though Sal had grown sick of explaining what happened in the fight, she didn’t get sick of Nayia talking about the fight (or anything else) for quite a while.

They were relaxing after dinner in the common room on the second floor in Tower one. This common room wasn’t used much by others, as it didn’t have the facilities of the other common room. Nayia had unofficially named it their common room, as a piece of paper stuck to the door read in scrawled marker.

Nayia had seated herself on the couches next to Martin and Greg, and was talking to them at a rapid speed about something or other. Kayla and Craig had made themselves quite cozy in the corner on the floor, engaged in a soft and serious conversation. Nayia pointed in their direction and whispered something, which was met by a loud burst of laughter from Martin and Greg.

Sal sat, solitary, on the tables, just happy in her space. She was extremely calm, not edgy and nervous like her first two months had been here. Ashley would have been proud of her, very proud. “Hey Sal.” She looked over to her right. Sean had seated himself next to her and was smiling. “How’s that cut on your cheek?”

Sal shrugged. “It’s nothing,” she replied.

“Doesn’t it sting?” Sean questioned her, staring.

“I’ve had worse,” she answered. “Why, haven’t you ever had a cut before?”

“Yeah, I’ve had a few,” Sean replied. “But none like that.” He pointed to Sal’s cheek and winced. The cut, although still raw and bad, had stopped bleeding. “So is that what it’s like in Quentside Heights?”

“What’s like Quentside Heights?”

“What happened today, because you seem more at home now than you did when you first came here. Is this what it’s like at Quentside Heights, fights and not taking any crap?”

“What do you mean, at Quentside Heights? There are always fights, and nobody takes crap of anybody for long, anywhere,” Sal replied, as if it were obvious. “You want to know what it was like at Quentside Heights? Today was just a little snippet of a simple street collision. Not everybody is like that, but if you don’t watch your back a knife is going to go through it, if you don’t watch where you tread you’ll tread on a nail. In Quentside Heights, you look out for one person only and that’s yourself.”

“What about your friends?” Sean wondered quietly, trying hard to imagine what it would be like to ditch Greg in a fight situation to ‘look out for one person only’.

“What about friends? You stay with them but you don’t sacrifice everything for them, it’s a weakness,” Sal snapped, impatiently. “Friends are a weakness. Someone sees you’ll do anything for your friends and boom; your friends are involved in any type of danger that you’re in. Whether you or they like it or not, that’s the way it works.”

“It must have been dangerous,” Sean contemplated.

“You don’t even know danger,” Sal flatly informed him. “You don’t know danger until you’ve lived in Quentside Heights, or Mount District.”

“I lived near the Mount District,” Greg piped up, turning away from the conversation with Martin and Nayia. Those two didn’t even notice him begin to talk to Sean and Sal.

“You do?” Sean and Sal asked together.

“Yeah, it’s a bit north of the mountains, but its horrible,” Greg sighed. “That’s why I was glad to come here, Kilbourne is such a lovely place, and it’s really a privilege to be here.”

“How did you get here then, if you’re from such a shonky area?” Nayia asked, suddenly interested. Martin sighed and rolled his eyes. This conversation, to him, was going to be a boring one, but with a glance over at Kayla and Craig, decided to stay anyway and not interrupt anything that was going on with those two.

“Shonky?” Sean asked.

“Crappy,” Nayia replied. “So are you going to answer my question or not? Because if you’re not then I’ll just talk to Martin again-”

“I’m sure he would answer your question, but you’re talking to much!” Martin yelled over the top of Nayia’s babbling. Nayia promptly shut up to hear the answer.

“I won a scholarship,” Greg explained. “My school was running a scholarship to Kilbourne Shorelines High, and there were only two that actually got high enough marks to even be considered for a position. Obviously, that was I, and another Asian girl. I didn’t really know her, but she got really good marks and you could tell that she really wanted to come here.”

Sal studied Greg as he spoke of this Asian girl.

“She was going on about seeing someone from an orphanage or something,” Greg continued. “I don’t know which orphanage but it was from a rough area. Anyway, we filled in applications and we both got letters back. I got in and she didn’t. She was so disappointed, she started crying and I felt really bad. I offered her my position but she refused to take it. I don’t know why really. If I hadn’t gotten this place I would have been disappointed too.”

“How come?” Nayia suddenly interrupted. “I mean, what about your friends? Didn’t you have any or something?”

“Nayia don’t be rude!” Martin scolded her.

“What?” she shrugged back.

“Who was this Asian girl?” Sal interrupted.

Greg, who had been about to answer Nayia’s question, stopped and turned to Sal. “How come? Did you know her?”

“What was her name?” Sal repeated, more threatening this time, her inherited temper rising.

“I’m not sure,” Greg paused, trying to think. “Anne? Ashton... no I think it may have been Ashley.”

*

The time would not pass. No matter how many times Sal blinked, looked over at the luminous red numbers on the digital wall clock in room four, the digits seemed frozen, only melting once every hour. Ashley was near Mount District; she was in a bad area. Ashley was no good all alone.

Worrying thoughts filled Sal’s heart, as she lay awake, the same worrying thoughts that ate away at her, never leaving her alone. She didn’t know what to do, or when she was going to get to sleep on the other hand. Greg hadn’t been much help, but luckily for her, Nayia had stepped in with impatience and demanded her questions be answered rather than bombarding Sal with a truckload of inquiries about Ashley.

Not able to sleep, Sal got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. The fluorescent light flickered on and off before remaining on and lighting the bathroom. A shower dripped from the corner in a constant pattern, Sal could hear it as she splashed water over her face to try and calm down.

She leant against the sink, feeling sick with worry and knowledge that Ashley may be in trouble, and stared into the mirror. The changed Sal stared back, the Sal who had just begun to settle into Kilbourne before becoming restless with news of old friends. The dark green eyes were tired and bloodshot, water droplets still clinging on to her eyelashes. Her lightly tanned face was flushed and pink patches were covering her cheeks, while her hair seemed to look worse than ever before, in desperate need of a haircut.

“Ashley,” Sal moaned to herself quietly.

Nayia looked over from her bed to the clock. She too, could not sleep and like Sal, desired to get up to the bathroom. Upon seeing the fluorescent light escaping from the cracks in the door, she got out of bed and tiptoed into the bathroom, glad she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep.

“Sal, are you okay?” Nayia asked, scratching her thin blonde hair, which stuck up in all kinds of directions. Nayia looked trashed. Her pale face was extremely pale, her eyes dark, giving her the raccoon look. She shuffled over to Sal, tired yet in no mood for sleeping, her feet barley moving above the linoleum floor. “You look tired.”

“It’s freaking one forty five and I can’t sleep. No wonder I look tired,” Sal snapped back. She sighed and stared down the drain hole in the sink, not wishing to make eye contact. “How come you’re up if it’s so late?”

“Because I can’t sleep too,” Nayia answered mindlessly, looking around the bathroom in a state of confusion. She shuffled into a toilet stall and walked out again with no clue of what was going on. “So why are you up again?” she questioned, clueless.

“I can’t sleep, I already told you,” Sal growled. “Now why don’t you go to bed?”

Nayia looked at her. “You know, you look tired. Maybe we should both go to bed. That’s a good idea, yes? Or no?” She looked overtired, the raccoon rings around her eyes beginning to appear darker. An intimidating grin appeared on her face, as she beamed her white teeth. Her smile, did not reach her eyes, which remained dead and tired. “Yeah, lets go to sleep.” She took a shuffled step towards Sal, still smiling.

Sal took a step back and raised her fists. “You move any closer,” she threatened, wishing she hadn’t let her guard drop since the fight with Evan. Nayia took a step forward, and gave a huge yawn. She closed her eyes and fell to the floor, lightly snoring.

Sal stared at the floor where Nayia lay, extremely confused. She stepped around Nayia, not taking her eyes of her and left the bathroom.

*

The weekend was a time that Sal couldn’t help but enjoy. A two-day break from any schoolwork, classes and teachers was a good enough reason for Sal to be as happy as she could in a situation like hers. A situation where her best friends were both stranded in different areas in different situations of their own.

One was stranded in the middle of a forest, seeing Sal every other day, trying to avoid being seen by humans, the AWL and the threatening werewolf pack. Fury had to be very careful, only feeding off rats and small birds, trying not to cause any noticeable disturbances. The other, stuck in the middle of a town possibly worse than Quentside Heights had been, all alone and crying because she had not been able to travel to Kilbourne to see Sal again.

Just the thought of Ashley brought tears to Sal’s eyes, what was she doing? How could Sal stand up for her if she was not here to be stood up for? How could Sal let her survive on her own? Sal didn’t know the answers to any of these questions, but was determined to find out.

Nayia, on the other hand, did not see any reason to enjoy the weekend. She did not see any reason to be glad, and like Sal, was thinking of situations where she was left floating in the middle of an empty ocean with no answers. Nayia had woken that Saturday morning to find she was lying in the middle of the bathroom floor, with no recollection of going there to sleep Trying to compose herself, she had gotten ready and by mid morning was about to exit the dorm and face the day with a smile.

“A necklace!” she triumphantly cried, clutching her neck with her hand, coming to the decision that today would be a good day to wear a necklace. Opening her drawer, she tossed clothes onto the floor in search for a necklace.

Kayla entered the room to find Nayia sobbing on her bedspread. Concerned, she ran over to the sobbing heap. “Nayia! Are you okay? This is like, the first time I’ve ever seen you cry!” she exclaimed. “What’s the matter?” Nayia sat up, looked at Kayla and burst into tears as she grabbed Kayla and held her tight for security.

Kayla looked at the tear stained pillow, spotting a wooden photo frame, keeping a photo of Nayia and two guys safe. One of the guys was tall, with spiky bleached blonde hair, just a bit darker than Nayia’s, and the other was about the same height as Nayia, with a beanie and pale face with large eyes that seemed to sparkle with happiness. The three of them stood on what looked to be a ships dock on a sunny day, the sky bright blue and cloudless, the water deep cerulean and sparkling.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kayla asked, before rolling her eyes at her own question. This was Nayia she was talking about.

“It’s probably best,” Nayia sniffled, wiping her eyes and looking up at Kayla.

“Who are those guys in the photo?” Kayla questioned, pointing to the guys either side of Nayia.

Nayia’s eyes filled with tears once more, but she blinked them away hurriedly. “Andy and Steve,” she answered. “It’s a long story, but it’s a Saturday, there’s always time on a Saturday. Andy and Steve were very close family friends, and for years I had a crush on Andy.” She pointed to the beanie-wearing guy next to her. “He and I were close friends, same as Steve and I. With Andy, it was different though. Once I started coming to Kilbourne we hardly saw each other, and I used to go home every public holiday weekend and school holidays to catch up with those guys. They were like my best friends.

“But then, something happened, I’m not sure what, but I found Andy and myself alone one night while camping. It grew cold, and as my jumper had gotten wet when it fell in the toilet block of the camping grounds, Andy leant me his jacket. He was cold though, and before we knew it, we were sharing body heat in the playground of the camping grounds. We stayed up all night talking, and around four AM he shared a deep secret with me.

“He told me he liked me, and I was just blown away because for years I had liked him to.” Nayia broke down, and waved Kayla away when she reached out with a tissue, preferring to sniffle whatever began to run out of her nose.

“So what happened, did you two begin to go out?” Kayla asked.

Nayia looked as if she was going to begin bawling again, but she started talking instead. Kayla couldn’t decide which one was worse. “No,” she struggled to continue. “We didn’t go out. Andy knew something very important, it was so important it changed the rest of our camping trip. Steve liked me, liked me a lot. I mean, like more than you like Craig.”

“I do not like Craig!” Kayla protested angrily. “I so don’t like him, he’s so not my type. And anyway, why would I like a punk like Craig? His hair is-”

“Anyway,” Nayia interrupted, wanting to continue with her story. “Andy and I began hanging out together more, but trying to make it not obvious. We would pretend to go to sleep, then meet up in the toilet block to talk and spend time together. Steve didn’t know a thing, which was good.

“Our families decided to go out for a last celebratory dinner, and we didn’t have anything against it. We went to this really nice five star eatery near the campgrounds, and Andy, Steve and I were having the best time. Steve seemed a bit distant though, as if something was bothering him. I didn’t care, I had to come back for fourth term in two days and I just wanted to be happy while I was with them.

“Later that night, Andy and I went outside the building onto the street. It was dark, I remember that much. And I remember telling everybody we were going toilet. Andy and I ended up kissing under the streetlight, and this was my first kiss right. Tongue and everything, don’t even bother asking Kayla. And then…”

Nayia burst into tears. Kayla leant over to comfort her, but Nayia waved her away with one hand, waving at the tears with another. “I have to get on with this,” she told Kayla. “Steve came out of the shadows and said something like, ‘Andy, Andy, perfect Andy. Gets everything, looks, attention, and now my girl.’ Andy and I were scared because Steve was never jealous. He looked so scary too. His face was all smiley like normal, but there was something in his eyes, a shadow behind them if you know what I mean.”

“Like when Sal gets angry her eyes have fire?” Kayla suggested.

“Like that,” Nayia agreed. “Anyway, Steve was so scary. He kept going on about how Andy was perfect. ‘You shouldn’t have stole my girl Andy. After all, you have to learn, you can’t have everything. You think you can, but I’m sorry. You can’t! Life lesson here! You CAN’T HAVE EVERYTHING!’ I was so scared I clutched onto Andy. Wrong move for me to make, Steve pulled out a pistol and aimed at Andy. ‘You like being first to have everything? You like ruining my life, don’t you! You stole her from me Andy, you knew I liked her! You did!’

“Steve was almost in tears now, it was like he was about to cry. He wasn’t smiling anymore, his hand was shaking, and the gun was shaking. ‘You want to ruin me so that I don’t become perfect. This is all some revenge thing isn’t it? ISN’T it?’ Steve was losing control. He kept on saying things and accusing Andy. ‘You’ve ruined my life, just like you planned. You stole her away, just so you could have everything I’ve ever wanted! I liked her first and you cant have her!’

“He killed Andy,” Nayia bawled, this time not bothering to wave at the tears running down her face. “Andy was dead before he hit the floor, Steve had good aiming. I screamed, but nobody seemed to hear me! I was all alone with Steve, and I was crying more than I am now. Andy was gone! I loved him, I swear I did. And Steve took him away. ‘What did you do that for?’ I yelled at Steve. I don’t know what I was thinking; after all, the guy had a gun. ‘Why’d you go and kill him! I loved him and he loved me and you went and killed him!’ Steve looked so hurt; I wish I had never said that. But it’s what I felt and I just had to yell, I wanted to scream and chuck a tantrum! Andy lay on the floor, bleeding, and I had gone and hugged him.

“Steve cried. Was the only time I’ve ever seen a guy start crying, and he was bawling his eyes out. He was sobbing, looking over at Andy. ‘What did I do?’ he asked me. The gun was lifted, and he pointed it at his head. ‘Nayia, I loved you. But Andy just took everything of mine, Andy got everything first. He even got to die first!’”

Kayla didn’t ask any more questions. She held the shaking, sobbing mess in her arms, trying to sooth her, but Nayia was too overworked right now. “Is this why you don’t get closer to Martin?”

Nayia looked up, surprised. Her eyes were red and puffy and water filled. “You’ve noticed?”

“It’s obvious you like him, and he likes you back so much,” Kayla told her. “But every time he tries to get closer to you, you back away. Is this why?”

“Yeah,” Nayia replied. “I’m scared to get close to another guy. The last time I did, Andy got killed. And what would happen if Martin got hurt too? I loved Andy, but I’m moving on. There are just some things you can’t forget.”

*

Craig eyed the writing on the bathroom stall. There really wasn’t much to do while sitting on a toilet if a book or newspaper was not taken in, as Craig had discovered. The only thing occupying Craig at the moment was staring at the scribbled graffiti and adding to the collage. He pulled out his marker and scrawled on the toilet stall wall C.C 4 K.M. He laughed as he read other comments people had made about his last addition.

‘Who the heck is KM?’ one had written, and drawn a disgusted face next to it.

Craig scanned the wall until he was finished his business and standing up, he flushed the toilet and went to exit. Something caught his eye on the back wall of the stall, and turning around, Craig burst out into a surprised laugh, which scared the other occupants of the bathroom.

M.J 4 N.W

[mistysakura]

Whee! Chapter!
By the way, "So I dont loose the character in the process." Oh dear. :no:
Anyway, I liked that chapter. The thing with Andy and SEteve was a bit confusing, but I got the drift of it. The jump from Nayia trying to find a necklace to crying on the bed was a bit unclear, but I got it in the end, and I wouldn't have a clue how you'd fix it anyway.
Ashley was a surprise, although I guessed it at the "Asian girl". You probably expected that anyway. So Ashley misses the scholarship so narrowly again... poor girl.

[Craig]

cool :> Although the bit with Nayia and her story was a bit sad :< Only a bit.. :< Although the part where Craig was writing on the stalls was funny because it reminded me that I do that all the frickin time. LOL.

One thing got me.. wasn't Greg awake during Sal's fiasco in the class, where she is yelling out the name Ashley!? Wouldn't Greg have wondered.. o.O

Don't hate me Tara :< Its not my fault my sig is like this! Blame Link 10! BLAME HIM it was a dare, and I have to keep it for a few days longer.

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

Yaaaaaaay! **Does the chibi dance** Very nice chapter. There's some evil stuff, which is always good :P, and the bathroom thing is just hilarious. Reminds me of a message board ;). Anyway, keep goin'

(P.S. Just call me Noah, it's easier than trying to pronounce my nick :P)

[Lady Vulpix]

Ooooh! Much more detailed than last time. This fic does have its surprises!
But... M.J.? Wasn't Martin's last name Naeco? I remembered it after you told me on AIM.

[EVme15]

^_^ Good chapter... and now the tragic past is back in a different form... poor Nayia. Again.
'Who the heck is KM?' lol, that's funny. ^_^ Keep going, this is the only fanfic I read that's being updated regularly.

[PancaKe]

Okay, I accidently deleted the fic from my computer -.- I know, smart move yeah. But this means that chapter eight will be posted like, later. Cuz I have to restart it. And I've got no idea where I want to go with this one, which is always helpful. :-P

~Mist

[mr_pikachu]

Nice chapter! The writing was superb, and it'd be just about perfect IF YOU TOOK THE TIME TO EDIT! ;) lol. Anyway, I have a few things I'd like to point out. And as mistysakura said, that intro line was just... sad. Really, you should know by now, after I've ribbed you about in just about every chapter thus far. :D


This common room wasn’t used much by others, as it didn’t have the facilities of the other common room.

If I'm not mistaken, it should be "common rooms".


“I’m sure he would answer your question, but you’re talking to much!” Martin yelled over the top of Nayia’s babbling.

It should be "talking too much!"


“Nayia don’t be rude!” Martin scolded her.

Unless you're trying to show "speed talking", Nayia should be separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma, since it's introductory.


“I’m not sure,” Greg paused, trying to think. “Anne? Ashton... no I think it may have been Ashley.”

The word "no" needs to have a comma after it, since it's a natural pause in the sentence.


A shower dripped from the corner in a constant pattern, Sal could hear it as she splashed water over her face to try and calm down.

The comma should be a semicolon, since those are two independent thoughts.


Her pale face was extremely pale, her eyes dark, giving her the raccoon look.

You don't need to say "pale" twice.


She shuffled over to Sal, tired yet in no mood for sleeping, her feet barley moving above the linoleum floor.

The word "barley" should be "barely". Unless you're talking about agricultural products.


“It’s freaking one forty five and I can’t sleep.”

"Forty five" should be connected by a hyphen. "Forty-five" is correct.


Nayia had woken that Saturday morning to find she was lying in the middle of the bathroom floor, with no recollection of going there to sleep Trying to compose herself, she had gotten ready and by mid morning was about to exit the dorm and face the day with a smile.

Um... you forgot the period... :rolleyes:


“A necklace!” she triumphantly cried, clutching her neck with her hand, coming to the decision that today would be a good day to wear a necklace. Opening her drawer, she tossed clothes onto the floor in search for a necklace.

Yeah, as mistysakura already mentioned, this transitioned very poorly. We went from Nayia trying to be happy and deciding to wear a necklace to her sobbing on the floor, with no explanation. You could have at least put something like, "Suddenly, her eyes grew wide, and she slumped to the floor as the memories rushed back."


The three of them stood on what looked to be a ships dock on a sunny day, the sky bright blue and cloudless, the water deep cerulean and sparkling.

"Ships" needs to have an apostrophe, since it's possessive.


“He told me he liked me, and I was just blown away because for years I had liked him to.”

The word "to" at the end of the sentence should be "too".



And I noticed you didn't put any mention of "lose" or "loose" in the chapter. Smart thinking (I guess), but you'll have to remember those eventually if you want your introductory remarks to be normal! ;) See ya!

[Last Exile]

Nice info about Ashley, but you did tread familiar ground again. But then agian, Nayia's story of tragedy is always moving. The toilet block scene was amusing though. ;) Okay, the chapter was okay, but it didn't do as much for me as the last one did. Seriously, Tara, you gotta split from the original. It's holding this fic back. But hey, who am I to judge?! :P Look, it was an alright chapter, but this fic will really go places if you go on a different path to LVH, that's all.

[Lady Vulpix]

Well, Ryan, this is an adapted version of LVH, so it makes sense that the main plotline is the same.

[Mystic Latios]

This is really good so far. You just need to take the time to edit it. Can't wait to read the next chapter.:)

[PancaKe]

I know I should be taking the time to go over my writing, and to fix up little mistakes etc. And I know that chapter was almost exactly like LVH, and I know that it wasn't up to my normal standard. -.- Ive just been a bit sidetracked latley thats all, things have been going on that have had more attention than the attention I've given to this fic.

My best friend for the last three weeks has been hinting that he likes me, and my other friend had me convinced that he had. Then he went and asked this chick out and now they're boyfriend girlfriend, even though (and I've talked to both of them) they both arent taking it seriously. his girlfirend (a good freind of mine) is going on about how she misses him etc (because he left his fone at my house and he got messages) and like, he slept over my house and on wednesday night we pulled an all nighter and we were talking and he's only going out with her for the heck of it and although he likes her he doznt like her THAT much to be going out with her. And now I'm confused, because he doesnt really want to go out with her now and my other friend reckons that he likes me still and its just been taking all my attention.

And thats my reason. Lol.

But i wont be posting a chap next week as i wotn be here, and also, Mr Pikachu, if you DARE fix up every grammer mistake I'll have you banned :P

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Ay yay yay! Yes, you did tell me about that the last time we spoke! Hell, that is big if it's come to that! Arrgh, the crazy and many faces of love.

This coming from someone that's never been in love, fell in love or properly felt it. *sigh* I feel weird that someone almost half my age is having the experiences I should have by now. :rolleyes:

[Lady Vulpix]

Originally posted by Mist But i wont be posting a chap next week as i wotn be here, and also, Mr Pikachu, if you DARE fix up every grammer mistake I'll have you banned :P

~Mist

And what about typos/spelling mistakes?

[mr_pikachu]

:o Whoa! That IS a lot to be dealing with, especially in addition to school (I assume it's in for you guys in Australia as well as this side of the globe)! Confront the lying sneak! Or just go out with Ryan for a day. :D Hey, hey! OW! It was only an - OW! - idea! OW! Stop it! OW! Please! OWCH! I'm begging you! OWW! No... PLEASE! OWWW! Not that! AIEEEEEEEE!!!

:rolleyes:

Anyway, were you serious about the banning thing? Lately with the chaos that's ensued in my life, I've lost the ability to tell the difference between sarcasm and a threat. But that's another story. Because if you were serious, there's a little thing LV missed in the first paragraph... ;)

Anyway, good luck with your "friends"! (Yes, it's a bad sign when you have to put them in quotes. But don't worry, my "friends" are like that, too. :yes: ) See ya later! I could quote Bjarni for this situation, but I'd prefer not to. ^^;;

[PancaKe]

yeah I dont like him as in luv him but I think he luvs me or at least likes me. He dumped the chick right, and he was talking to me on da fone about how he liked da chick but didnt like her at the same time and also, he goes "i like u more than i like her" and imlike :o woah. And my spelling spacing and typing is bad right now cuz im on a laptop. ^^

And I wasnt' beingserious about the thing pika. Dude I luv u why would i want u banned?! *hugz* and oh yeah, i luv u 2 ryan, lets take the advice ;) jk.

But i got an idea and i should have a chap up hopefully before i leave for dubbo on tuesday!!!


~Mist

[PancaKe]

No more chapter names! They're annoying me! Lol.

~Mist

Chapter Eight

“Reishe is a danger to this pack,” Canis announced, glaring around to the watchful werewolves. “Reishe and Furocity are young immature children who do not yet know the dangers of being independent werewolves! We clearly hold images of what happened nine years ago, when the Anti-Werewolf League captured Nade. We cannot let any more be captured! We must protect ourselves by getting them back!”

Werewolves listening murmured amongst themselves, nodding in agreement.

“For the sake of not only us, but werewolves around the country, we must make sure that Reishe and Furocity return to the pack,” Canis declared. “Is this understood?”

“Yes,” some werewolves replied, while others nodded. One decided to wolf whistle in response, but was met with glares and looks that could kill. He uttered a meek sorry, wishing the ground would swallow him whole.

“And this must begin as soon as sun rises,” Canis continued. “I will inform each one of you what you will be doing in order to get her to rejoin, but rest assured, it shall be done. If not, she will be eliminated.” The werewolves did not know what to say to this.

Canis grinned, enjoying the authority that was held by being Alpha of the pack.

*

A tanned hand closed around the mug of hot coffee, and it was lifted to a pair of dark lips, where it was sipped and placed down again. Lucidia Balloise was seated nervously in the soft and comfy chair, but even with the comfort of cushions and padding, she twitched and shook uncontrollably. The person sitting across from her smiled, those dark lips rising up her face, and opening, allowing pearly teeth to shine out. “So Lucidia, how is everything going with the captured wolf?” she asked.

“The same as it was three months ago,” Lucidia answered, her hand unconsciously smoothing her skirt. “There has been little progress for the last six months, although I believe if we test a bit further we will uncover more results.”

“You know, I haven’t been president of this league for thirteen years for nothing,” the woman across from Lucidia informed her patiently. “And during this time, I will say that no doubt we have seen some significant progress, but really, we are in the same situation we have been for over a year now. Any longer and the government funding will cease to exist. Two years ago, I would have said no to any further testing, but right now, I wouldn’t be a true Hellensberg if I wasn’t going to go to the extreme.”

“Sandra, I’m just worried that’s all,” Lucidia replied. “What if the government finds out about this? Can’t we be jailed as it is, for keeping a human captive for so long? If the government finds out, wouldn’t they shut us down for actually capturing a person in the first place?”

“Lucidia, will you be quiet!” Sandra shouted, her fist flying down and slamming on the table. “The government are going to shut us down if they find out any of this, therefore we hide ALL information from them during government inspections! You know all this all ready, why are you even questioning it?”

“So, back to what I came to discuss.” Lucidia changed the subject conveniently. “What type of aim is the Kilbourne AWL taking? The other divisions are still hunting and baiting forests, but I do feel that we are above that. The countless times I myself have been involved in searches of the forest in full moon, and still we have come up with nothing. I am beginning to doubt that there are any werewolves in Kilbourne at all.”

“You will still be searching,” Sandra told her, shifting through files in her briefcase. She selected a manila folder and opened it on the coffee table. Out slid a wedding photo of two people, happily in each other’s arms. The male was taller, with a dazzling smile that made his dark green eyes light up and shine. His hair had been gelled into place, layers upon layers of gel molding his hair down at the back and on top of his head. The only part upwards was his fringe, which he had spiked. The woman next to him came up to his ears, and had a lighter shade of skin than he did; hers was more of a honey roasted peanut color, while his was tanned. The orange hair on her head was twisted at the front, all the way up to the back where it was flowing down nicely, the sun giving it a warm glow. Her blue eyes shone with happiness, as she held onto her husband.

“Emily and Kyle…” Lucidia whispered. Snapping out of her trance, she continued. “But what do the McGregor’s have to do with anything now? It was nine years ago that it happened. Nine years since the tragedy. Why bring it up now?”

“The bodies, as you very well know, were inspected and researched thoroughly,” Sandra began. “And the team came to the conclusion that they had been attacked by a wolf or numerous wolves. Now what night did this happen? It was a full moon and they were doing the intense lookout, both Kyle and Emily on standby. Emily and her daughter, Sally-Anne, found Kyle, and then Emily was attacked. Sally-Anne survived with only a bite on her leg, but the will had left no careers for her, and she was put into an orphanage.”

“I know this very well,” Lucidia nodded. “I was not very close friends with Emily but Kyle and I had gone to high school together, and of course nobody could forget the McGregor’s now. Kyle McGregor was there in the capture of the first werewolf.”

“But that’s not why we’re here,” Sandra interrupted. “Their daughter, Sally-Anne, she should be about twelve or thirteen now. We need to track her down.”

“Track her down?” Lucidia questioned, taken back. “Whatever for?” Her hand jerked, the biscuit she was holding falling to the ground and breaking.

“Because, not until recently has information been released,” Sandra continued, keeping her voice straight and serious. “Withheld information. There is a chance that the wolf or wolves that attacked may have been werewolf.”

Lucidia frowned on this. “So what does this have to do with Sally-Anne?” she asked, her foot moving up and down unintentionally. Whenever she was around Sandra, she was jumpy. People with more authority and power than Lucidia scared her, it meant that they had the power to boss her around, and make her do some things that she may not want to. When she was in power, she felt calm and relaxed.

“You have a very good AWL division. It is there job, as well as combing the forests, to search for Sally-Anne.” Sandra paused, and then smiled at Lucidia. Lucidia looked around nervously, and smiled back. “I want to question her.”

*

Sal swung back on her chair, landing her feet on the desk. Her arms remained folded across her chest, and she looked around the class room, almost smiling. Geography had changed, Lucidia Balloise no longer was the teacher of their class, and instead they had a short Indian teacher with a thick accent and such a gentle soul that she couldn’t possibly put any of them on detention. Therefore the class took geography as an opportunity to muck around and not do any work but sit there and throw paper airplanes at each other and giggle. Miss Kumar didn’t mind, she helped correct wrong paper airplanes when she wasn’t trying to explain work to them.

The only person that did work anymore in their class was Greg, who would slave away copying notes from the board, highlighting and answering sheets, and studying in his spare time. Only once did he not study after his work was done, and that was after an exam.

“So how much work do you actually do?” Nayia bombarded Greg with her countless questions. “Like, I never see you in our common room. Is it because you’re always working? Do you reckon that they’d let us take a computer into our common room so we can talk to you while you work? Or do you think they’d just tell us to clear off?”

Martin gave her a punch on the shoulder. “You shouldn’t ask so many questions,” he told her.

“Why not?” Nayia demanded.

Greg sighed. “I’ve got to finish an assignment for English, I guess I’ll see you guys later.” Nayia began to protest his departure, but he was gone before she finished her yelling. Nayia shrugged, and began to talk about something else.

“Where’s Craig?” Kayla asked, looking around.

“I don’t know,” Sean replied, shrugging.

Nayia pointed to the doors of Tower One. “Does that answer your question?” Martin punched Nayia’s shoulder harder this time. Kayla turned to look, and her mouth dropped open in dismay. Teresa walked in, holding Craig’s hand, talking earnestly to him.

“Nice one Nayia,” Martin hissed. Sal stared in confusion, not understanding fully the concept of going out and holding other peoples hands. She did understand, however, what Kayla assumed.

Kayla’s lower lip quivered, and she took a deep breath in, her hands shaking slightly. Teresa saw her, and pulled Craig over to gloat over Kayla. “Hey Kayla, how are you?” Teresa asked. She was acting so sweet it was making Kayla sick to watch. She leant forward and did the girly ritual of kissing on the cheek as a greeting. Kayla returned this with a glare. “How are you doing?”

“I’m good,” Kayla replied. “How are you two? I can see that you must be going out, who asked who?” She showed no emotions on her face, and her reply was as stiff as cardboard. Teresa didn’t deserve Kayla’s respect, and Kayla made that clear to everybody.

“We’re-” Craig began, but was cut off by Teresa.

“Oh I don’t think you should go sticking your nose into anybody else’s business.” Teresa turned around, her dark hair whipping around behind her, and pulled Craig off. Kayla stared at them, breathing deeply in and out, before turning out and storming out the doors, despite the fact that it had started to rain. Craig turned his head back, and glanced at Kayla walking out, a look of agony upon his face.

“Okay, this is a girly job,” Nayia told Martin and Sean. “Come on, Sal.” Grabbing Sal’s forearm, she pulled Sal out the door and after Kayla in a hurry.

“Trust Nayia to pull a stunt like that,” Martin sighed, shaking his head.

“Craig doesn’t like Teresa, does he.” It wasn’t a question from Sean but a statement. Martin nodded. “I think he likes Kayla more and I think Kayla feels the same way,” Sean continued.

“Dude, its obvious that those two have got a thing going for each other,” Martin grinned, walking over to the stairs and going up to their common room. Sean followed him. “Nayia is just so insensitive to their feelings.”

“You talk about Nayia a lot,” Sean observed.

Martin rolled his eyes. “Do you wish to question that any further?” he asked, sitting down in an armchair. Seam sat across from him, and studied Martin with his dark eyes. Neither talked to each other very often, they didn’t have many things in common and ended up with nothing to say most of the time.

Today was different; Sean had become more inquisitive to this particular topic of discussion, and wanted answers from Martin. “Yes,” Sean answered Martin’s question. “Do you like her?”

“Like her as a friend? Heck yeah, she’s one of my best friends!” Martin exclaimed, his eyes lighting up at the topic of Nayia. “Even if she does talk too much, and even if she does have a big mouth, I still love her as a friend! Heck, if she didn’t talk as much as she did we wouldn’t get any talking done.”

“What about more than a friend?” Sean pressured, smiling. Something about the way Martin smiled nervously and bit his lip made him enjoy his position. “You do, don’t you?” Martin avoided eye contact for the moment.

“If I do, then too bad,” Martin finally answered, trying to act cool about it. His face began to flush. “Anyway, do you like her or something if you’re so interested in whether I do or not?”

Sean looked back at Martin, shocked. “No way do I like Nayia!” He answered honestly. “Anyway, she’s such a blabbermouth. Sometimes she can be such a-”

Martin stood up slowly from his chair, giving Sean a menacing look. “Such a what?” he growled. “Are you going to finish that sentence?”

Sean cowered down, not as strong or big as Martin was. “No,” he replied meekly, scared.

Martin frowned, then beamed at him. “Good.” He sat back down. “You know what though, whenever I try to get close to her, she always backs away. I wonder why that is? I mean, I’ve never hurt her in the past – physically I mean. Sure I’ve punched her but you know what I mean, don’t you?”

Sean stared at Martin, shaking his head. “You talk almost as much as she does,” he replied.

*

“Kayla, please don’t cry,” Nayia whispered, holding her. “You know that Teresa just wants to get back at you for dumping her friendship.”

“I know, but what if Craig really likes her?” Kayla asked.

“Why are you crying over it? Craig is just a guy and if he doesn’t like you then too bad,” Sal shrugged.

“Sal, there are a lot of things you need to learn about guys,” Nayia replied. “When somebody special comes along, who is able to make you feel as though you would float away if they weren’t holding onto you, then you’ll know why Kayla is crying.”

“I don’t understand that,” Sal replied. “Craig is just a guy, don’t freaking cry when he holds some other girls hand.”

“I like Craig a lot though,” Kayla told Sal. “I like him a lot, and it hurts to see him holding another girls hand because it might mean that he likes another girl, and then that means that there is no chance of him liking me.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Nayia agreed, nodding.

Sal pulled a face that plainly read, how pathetic. “That is so pathetic, if he doesn’t like you then there’s nothing you can do anyway. It’s just the way it is. But why waste your time, I mean, what’s the chances of two people falling in love? If they fall in love then that’s just luck.”

Kayla decided not to bother to respond. Nayia rolled her eyes. “You’re not really helping, Sal,” she replied.

Sal shrugged. “It’s the truth though, that’s just pathetic and stupid.”

“You don’t understand! You’ve never loved before!” Kayla yelled at Sal.

“Don’t yell at me!” Sal yelled back, standing up to advance on the crying mess of Kayla. Nayia gave her a warning look, which was met by a glare from Sal. “Don’t you yell at me, just because you’re upset over some stupid guy who holds some stupid girls stupid hand!”

“Wow, you say stupid a lot more than I do,” Nayia commented.

Kayla ignored Sal’s outburst, and wiped her eyes with a tissue instead. “You don’t understand, Sal, that’s all. You haven’t experienced it yet; you haven’t experienced the pain of somebody who you care deeply about being taken away. Ever second I spend away from Craig, he’s on my mind, I think about him, I feel him in here,” she touched her heart while pouring this all out to Sal. “I feel him inside of me, and I need him to be beside me all the time. I need him to hold me down so I won’t float away when I’m with him, he is my world and I need him to be here with me. And seeing him with Teresa just tears me inside. It breaks me, and I just don’t feel like its worth being here now.”

“Over that?” Sal exploded, losing the plot totally. “If you leave then what do you think is going to happen? If you like Craig as much as you mush on about, then you’ll stay, and anyway, once you go that Teresa is going to be able to get closer! Right now, you’re about the only thing that stands in their way, and if you go, then you might as well go jump!”

“That was nice,” Nayia input pointlessly.

Kayla scowled at Sal. “You’ll never understand,” she told her. “You’ll never love anybody to know what it’s like.”

*

Sal contemplated these final words from Kayla for days, pondering on the meaning behind them. Of course, it would have been much easier to ask Nayia or Kayla, but it would show a sign of weakness, and she didn’t need them to explain anything. Those words though, they had been hanging over Sal’s mind, and they were the focus of her stray thoughts.

“You’ll never understand; you’ll never love anybody to know what it’s like.”

Did she mean that to be true? Sal couldn’t climb over it; it bored into her thoughts, driving her crazy. Did it mean that Sal would never find love; did it mean that Sal would never know what it’s like to lose somebody? Because Sal knew that much already.

Sal had been through so much more than Kayla could have ever guessed, her parents had been ripped apart in front of her when she was four, her best friend was on the other side of the country and she was all alone, no matter who was around her. Sal would always be alone, whether she was surrounded by Nayia’s group, or with Fury on another full moon night. Sal always felt alone.

She felt alone in yet another geography lesson. The weeks seemed to crawl by, only pausing for long enough for somebody to become upset, hurt, happy or have a geography lesson. The classroom roared with noise around her, as she sat in a silent shell at her desk, her feet resting on the desk, her chair against the back wall of the classroom.

Greg plowed on through his work like usual, but this time, instead of Kayla talking to Craig, she sat there, making little conversation with Sean, glaring over at the sight of Teresa talking to a nervous looking Craig. Craig was sitting rigid in his seat, glancing around nervously, while Teresa talked to him sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes and twirling her hair. Craig looked over to Kayla to see if she was looking at him, but she looked away and began to talk to Sean, trying to ignore Craig.

Nayia blabbered on with Martin as usual, talking at the top of her voice and laughing hysterically with him at the jokes he made. Sal could barely hear herself think as she sat there, quietly observing everybody else.

The door at the front of the classroom swung open suddenly, and Miss Kumar jumped in surprise. Two women entered, one identifiable to Sal and the others as Ms Balloise. The other though, Sal had no idea who she is, though she looked vaguely familiar, as if Sal had met her somewhere else.

“What is all this noise?” Ms Balloise bellowed. The class instantly stopped their talking, and even Teresa, Ms Balloise’s favorite, stopped her chattering in interest to find out what was going on. “Thank you.” Ms Balloise looked around the classroom before continuing. “For those of you who do not know, I am president of the Kilbourne District of the Anti-Werewolf League.”

Something froze inside Sal’s chest, most presumably her heart or stomach. Perhaps both, she felt as if there were a big block of ice freezing a knot in her stomach, and her heart seemed to be beating at a faster rate.

“This next to me is the president of the Anti-Werewolf League for Warroga, Ms Sandra Hellensberg. This week she is visiting the school on a business trip to talk to me about private business matters. While she is here, she is taking this opportunity to talk to the classes about the Anti-Werewolf League and inform you all that there are werewolves out there and…” She glanced over to Sandra Hellensberg, who was giving her an impatient stare. “And I’ll let Ms Hellensberg continue on,” Ms Balloise finished.

Sal felt her temper rising, but she knew inside her that there was nothing worse for her than losing control and exploding. It would raise suspicion for one thing, she may be kicked out of school (although at this current point in time, Sal could not see the downside to that), and what would Fury think?

“Thank you, Lucidia,” Sandra Hellensberg began, her voice sounding not at all thankful, if not, annoyed with the fact that Lucidia had talked for so long. “I want you to all pay attention and listen closely,” she began. “Werewolves roam this country, whether you like it or not. So you can either be attacked and bitten by a blood thirsty werewolf with an appetite and hunger for normal people, or you can learn from what I am about to say.” The class looked mildly interested in this, although not everybody cared. Sal, obviously, was close to exploding, close to picking up the nearest thing to her and throwing it right at this Sandra Hellensberg’s head.

“The Anti-Werewolf League has been, for years, researching and studying werewolves, and even has a captured werewolf captured in one of the AWL buildings. The AWL is all over the country, because we know that just as we are everywhere, werewolves are everywhere like us.” Sandra looked around the classroom while talking, catching Sal’s eye. Sal looked away instantly, not wanting to even look at her in fear of blowing up. “Werewolves come out at full moon, so before and after full moon, the werewolves act strangely, perhaps a bit more secretive, perhaps a bit nervous. If you see a werewolf you are immediately to report it to the nearest AWL worker, for you it would be Ms Balloise. If you have any suspicions then they are to be reported immediately.”

“We should move onto the next class, Sandra,” Lucidia whispered from the doorway. She took a step back out the classroom, and observed Ms Hellensberg from the corridor.

Sandra looked over the class once more, her eyes resting upon each and every student seated. She paused briefly as she saw Sal, staring at the familiar crop of carrot orange hair, green eyes and fierce attitude. “Remember, any weird werewolf suspicions and report them immediately at once!” she concluded, before walking out the room.

Sal felt a shiver travel down her spine as Sandra Hellensberg exited the room. She defiantly had seen Sandra before, but the answers to where, when and why had all escaped her. She did not know anything but the fact that a feeling deep in her gut was telling her that she knew Sandra, and that Sandra and Lucidia were both dangerous.

They were both involved in the Anti-Werewolf League.

[mistysakura]

Surprises. Nice to see that Balloise isn't a werewolf -- shouldn't be, since she goes wolf-hunting (presumably in a group) at full moon. Who would canis be then? Or maybe she's somehow a werewolf after all... thoughts.

I liked the bit with Sal totally not understanding Kayla, and acting blunt as usual. it really showed her personality, and how... well, she doesn't know the feeling of attachment, except maybe in Ashley's case. I wouldn't call even that a "best buddies" friendship, though.

I didn't find any mistakes in this one, but just wait until mr_pikachu comes along (if he dares.)

[PancaKe]

Lol. If he dares. How blunt. ^^ Yeah its kind of hard to make the Ashley-Sal relationship work, I mean I should have had more time in the orphinage between them but I think I'll be able to work something out, how she feels torn etc etc. And also, thanks so much for your replies. It shows me that Ive been able to accomplish what I wanted through my writing, which is so cool!

~Mist

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow, an all-new chapter! And a very interesting one at that! Poor Sal, things are starting to look bad for her again. But her life was hell for most of LVH too.

[Last Exile]

Yahoo!

Now this is what I was waiting for! :D

Rock on, Tara, rock on! ;)

Keep it amped up with suspense and all!

And congrats on snagging 10 awards! :wave:

[mr_pikachu]

First of all, congrats on the awards! Second, this was a great chapter! The plot worked out nicely! And third, OF COURSE I DARE, MISTYSAKURA!! Of course I'd want to risk getting banned by a mod of the forum I want to mod someday! Why wouldn't I? ;)

Anyway, here we go once again! :D


“The government are going to shut us down if they find out any of this, therefore we hide ALL information from them during government inspections!”

You also did this in the previous paragraph to this (it’s a bit less subtle there), but you mention “the government” and then use a plural word (“are”) to describe it. That doesn’t seem to make sense logically. Correct me if I’m wrong on this one, because I think I might be able to understand why you put it that way, though I’m not sure.


“You know all this all ready, why are you even questioning it?”

“All ready” should be “already”.


“The countless times I myself have been involved in searches of the forest in full moon, and still we have come up with nothing.”

This sentence doesn’t seem to make sense to me, though I can’t quite place why. It just doesn’t seem like it has all the elements of a sentence. Where’s the action taken in it, for instance? If you’re using “have come up with nothing,” as an example, then what about the part BEFORE the comma? Is in an independent thought? Hmm? :rolleyes:


“But what do the McGregor’s have to do with anything now?”

“McGregor’s” should not have an apostrophe, since it is not possessive or a contraction.


People with more authority and power than Lucidia scared her, it meant that they had the power to boss her around, and make her do some things that she may not want to.

First, the first comma should be a semicolon. Second, you started the sentence in past tense, and ended in present tense. Now I KNOW you didn’t mean to do that. :D


“It is there job, as well as combing the forests, to search for Sally-Anne.”

The word “there” should be “their”… *sigh*


“I’ve got to finish an assignment for English, I guess I’ll see you guys later.”

Those are two independent thought. They should be separated by a period or a semicolon.


“Oh I don’t think you should go sticking your nose into anybody else’s business.”

“Oh” should have a comma after it, since it’s introductory.


Seam sat across from him, and studied Martin with his dark eyes.

Uh, excuse me… “Seam”?


“Craig is just a guy, don’t freaking cry when he holds some other girls hand.”

“Girls” needs an apostrophe; it’s possessive.


“I like him a lot, and it hurts to see him holding another girls hand because it might mean that he likes another girl, and then that means that there is no chance of him liking me.”

Same thing again…


“Don’t you yell at me, just because you’re upset over some stupid guy who holds some stupid girls stupid hand!”

For the third (and hopefully final) time… USE AN APOSTROPHE WITH POSSESSION!


“That was nice,” Nayia input pointlessly.

It should be “inputted”. Make it a past tense verb.


Sal had been through so much more than Kayla could have ever guessed, her parents had been ripped apart in front of her when she was four, her best friend was on the other side of the country and she was all alone, no matter who was around her.

The first comma should be a semicolon to transition into the list.


“Remember, any weird werewolf suspicions and report them immediately at once!”

“Immediately” and “at once” create a redundancy.


She defiantly had seen Sandra before, but the answers to where, when and why had all escaped her.

It should be “definitely”, not “defiantly”. The former is “for sure”, the latter is more like “standoffish” or “resisting”.



All in all, this was a great chapter, though it could have been better with a bit of editing. And again, PLEASE learn these grammar rules! It scares me to see such a great writer miss those all the time! *shudders* See? That's proof, right there! :yes:

[PancaKe]

“Immediately” and “at once” create a redundancy.

Thats how whatzitsname, Sandra talks. She has a habit of repeating herself and saying the same things over and over again. So if she is talking bout the 20th century she might go...

"in the 20th century of 100 years" or something.

Get what i mean? Its just her flaw and habit. Like some people have a lisp (what cruel person decided to spell lisp with an S???) and others just i dunno, talk really fast like Nayia.

And just as I was hoping it would be good, mr pikachu comes and ruins it XD are you like, an english teacher or somethin?????

~Mist

[Lady Vulpix]

Tara, don't get mad at those who make corrections. We all know you're a great writer and we love your fic. That's why you have so many regular readers and so many people comment on your fic all the time. So, you've made some mistakes, everyone makes them. If you correct them, then the next person won't find them while reading and the fic will be even more enjoyable.
I often make a lot of typos in my fic (mainly due to an unwise chose of names for characters and races, some being too similar to each other), so when someone points them out, I fix them and then the chapter looks better. :)

[EVme15]

The plot thickens... Mwahahahaha...

But seriously, this is getting good! I mean, now the AWL is after Sal, they know it, she knows it, everyone else is completely oblivious:P.
Don't be mad when someone corrects your fics. I used to write these huge fics in my notebook. When I showed them to my friends, they'd be like "Hey, you said 'I to do this' instead of 'I need/want to do this'" and I'd get all annoyed. It does nothing, really. ^_^ My only problem was I had written it all in a notebook, which meant corrections were about 300% harder. Lol.

Keep up the good work! </overused encoragement statement>

[PancaKe]

^^ I'm not mad! Lol I'm just like, how do I explain it? Um... when someone offends you and your not really offended yet you act it? I'm doing that. But lol I really dont mind ur stuff sir pika. ^^ its just fun complaining about it and how I think I'm so good. What's the bet that I cant go the whole fic without having you correct every chapter :P lol. That'd be so funny, but I really REALY hope that by the final chapter he wont have to correct anything!!!!

Bwah. I think I can do that ^^. And btw I do like this constructive critizism thingy goin on. its sooo kewl cuz like it just is.

~Mist

[mr_pikachu]

L! O! L!

English teacher?! Are you out of your mind? I HATE English teachers! Of course, this could be due to the fact that I'm usually the one who corrects them, but yeah. :P To be honest, English is NOT my best subject. However, I do have a major penchant for writing and reading these fics, so I've learned a lot from you guys, as well. Since I've been on practically constantly during my free time for the last several months, I've learned just about everything about grammar, and am now teaching you guys. :P Makes you sick, doesn't it? I know, it does for me, too.

But yeah, I really hope that by the last chapter, I have nothing to correct. I know you have the capabilities to do that. You just need to really apply yourself and EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!! (Yes, I know, there was a triple redundancy. It's called repeating for effect. So shaddup. :D) And we all know constructive criticism is always good. That's what we're all here for, anyway. We all want to learn more and become great writers. Or run our mouths off. Whatever.

And don't worry, I know you're not mad. Please tell me in a PM or something if you really do get POed, 'cause I don't exactly want to get banned. :P And yeah, I'm glad you're having fun complaining about my editing. Of course, you could act in other ways... y'know, like actually making a few changes? ;) Well, this was a very long post to not be replying to a chapter, so see ya! :wave:

[PancaKe]

Lol I do change my fic, but i dont edit it on here, i edit the master copy therefore when it gets reposted and when it gets put on my site then it shall be beautiful.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Mist

[PancaKe]

I had writers block. And besides, I couldn't be bothered editing the chapter. I dont know why, I'm not in the mood tonight. And besides, it gives Mr Pikachu something to do ;) Its okay mr pika, i luv ya neway.

~Mist

Chapter Nine

The wind blew coolly through the trees, the leafy tops waving in the breeze, rustling. The moonlight became scattered as the canvas of leaves and branches above moved in and out of the way of moonbeams. The air and surroundings were wet from the light rain earlier on, and although it was not raining now, the clouds still hung overhead, blocking the light every now and again. It was cold, as the months had turned from warm sunny February to cooling March, cooler April and now, preparing for winter, May had sprung upon them.

Sal would have been chattering her teeth and shaking if she had not had the thick furry wolf coat on her. Fury still felt the cold biting into her skin, although she too had a thick coat of shaggy fur covering her. Sal had once again turned to the only person she could turn to, the only person whom she could trust and seek for advice. The only one left, Fury was her guidance on how to survive now that she was equipped with the knowledge that Lucidia was a member of the Anti-Werewolf League.

“This means that you have to be very careful now,” Fury advised. “I mean, of course, if you want to go ahead and be an experimental piece for the next twenty or so years for the AWL then go ahead and just stroll up to this Balloise and go ‘Hey look what I do at full moon.’ That would be so smart.”

Sal growled softly. “You’re too sarcastic for your own good,” she pointed out.

Fury grinned. “I know.”

“But what the freak am I supposed to do? You’re supposed to know what to do, you always do! And now you’re just telling me to go show them I’m a werewolf! Are you so nuts?” Sal exploded violently. Her temper disappeared as quickly as it rose; she sat there awaiting Fury’s response to the sudden outburst.

Fury rolled her eyes. “You know, this is a totally different kettle of fish,” Fury began. She gave a small laugh at the sight of Sal’s expression, angry and intolerant to beating around the bush. “I think that you should have told Ashley all those years ago your secret. You can trust her, and I know that she thinks of you all the time. Not a day goes by when Ashley doesn’t think of you.”

Sal frowned disbelievingly at Fury. “How do you know?” she demanded.

Fury sighed. “Honestly Sal, what do you think I do in the months when you’re normal and I’m still wolf?” she asked, grinning. Sal looked at her then looked away.

“Ashley still thinks of me?” she asked.

“You bet,” Fury nodded. “She’s further than the Mount District though, small town. I cant remember the name of it, but I can get it too you in about a week or two if you wait."

Sal snorted. “Why,” she began, “do you think I need to know the name of her town?”

“I don't know, maybe because you have no intention of knowing where she is, or what she's doing? Maybe because you don't really care where she could be, and maybe you're just rejecting this information because you're being smart?" Fury sighed. "Sarcasm, my dear Sal. Sarcasm is the key to life. You want to know little things about her, so you can still feel like there is a part of her with you."

Sal turned her back on Fury. Why did she even bother to waste her time? But she knew that Fury was right, Fury was always right. Somehow, Fury had a way of knowing everything that was going on in her life, without Sal having to keep her up to date. Sal didn’t have time to think about this conspiracy that was happening anyhow. She decided her own life was interesting enough without having to go wondering about other people’s lives.

And she hated admitting that Fury was right. Fury knew this and smiled to herself, watching Sal grumble and ignore her for the moment. “You know what I should do?” Sal suddenly exclaimed, turning around to face Fury, her green eyes burning with determination and excitement. She didn’t sound happy excited, to Fury it was more of a determined idea that she should follow out, and was excited about following it out. “Train timetable.”

Fury stared, a blank upon her face. “What about the train timetable?” she asked. And then Fury caught on, and a loud groan escaped.

Sal ignored the groan and continued speaking. “If I catch the train up to wherever Ashley happens to be, then I’ll be staying with Ashley and the freaking AWL wont know where to find me! And then neither will the pack.”

“Sal, you can’t do that,” Fury sighed. “Its probably such a good idea you should rush ahead and do it, after having so many fights about why Ashley wasn’t brought to Kilbourne, wow, they may never know where to look for you! And besides, where are you going to get money for a train fare, where are you even going to find out where Ashley is right now?”

“Stop acting like a smart mouth,” Sal snapped. “Just because you don’t have to go to school, just because you get to do whatever you like does not give you the right to even THINK you can tell me what to do.”

“You don’t even know what I was saying,” Fury pointed out, not feeling like battling a difficult temper this particular night. Fury stared Sal directly in the eyes. “You would be stupid to even think of running away. You run, they chase you, and they are everywhere and will catch you. It’s much safer here while you’re at the school, and if things become to dangerous, there is always the pack.”

“You try living as a human for once!” Sal shot nastily, and instantly wished that those words could be reversed back into her. She felt torn when she desired to rip Fury up. Her intense rage was telling her, screaming at her mind to lose it and just go for Fury. Her heart, well, that spoke otherwise. Every time her temper, her instinct, instructed her to attack, her heart began to tear itself into two, slowly and painfully. She couldn’t bear this fight, the fight with not only her best friend, but also herself.

“I think that it’s best you go back to the school,” Fury told Sal quietly. Sal looked up again, and into Fury’s eyes. The golden brown irises were cut; they bled from the inside with a hurt that Sal had never realized she could inflict. Fury was sending Sal away, for their own good.

Sal turned, not knowing what to say; her pride stopping her from saying anything close to sorry, her arrogance stopping herself from admitting that Fury was right and she was wrong. Perhaps if she could remove these faults, then nothing would have happened. But Sal knew that she couldn’t just make them vanish. They were a part of her that she had to deal with.

Her pride told her otherwise.

*

Sal’s bed was empty the next morning. Nayia brushed this off, not really bothering to wonder why Sal did not lie, asleep, in the bed next to her. Nayia didn’t even remember seeing Sal’s empty bed until it was mentioned after the school day had finished.

“Hey, you know, Sal hasn’t been here all day,” Sean commented, looking around, his black hair falling in his eyes. He moved it aside, making a mental note to get it cut.

“I knew something was missing!” Nayia exclaimed, throwing her hands around in the air to try express her feeling. “When I woke up this morning, I looked at her bed and wondered where she was, and was meant to ask you guys but I forgot!”

“Do you think Nayia would forget to breathe?” Craig asked Martin, grinning.

“Hurry up, hurry up!” Martin urged Nayia. Craig laughed as Nayia stared at Martin, glaring fiercely at him. He grinned back. “I’m sorry, Nayia.”

Nayia refused to stop her glaring. “I do not accept your apology, Martin Jackson. I am VERY offended by the fact that you wish me to cease breathing and consequently collapse onto the ground, most presumably dead due to lack of oxygen!” She finished her long string of words, before beaming at him in a childish way. “I used long words!” she giggled.

“So am I forgiven?” Martin asked.

“Yes,” Nayia sighed. Martin hugged Nayia, whose face clearly showed to everybody that she did not appreciate it. Kayla was the only one who understood why. Nayia, unsure of what to do, looked around nervously, before coming to the decision to push Martin off her.

Martin stared at Nayia, hurt and confused. “Why did you push me away?” he asked.

Nayia looked around at the group, who were all watching, waiting for Nayia’s response. “Because…” she began, unsure of what to say for the first time. “Because… I have to go now.” She nodded to reassure herself that she truly did have to leave, before turning and walking off, her flip-flops flapping with every step.

“I don’t understand that,” Martin commented.

“I do, but she asked me not to say anything,” Kayla replied. Martin stared at her, confused. “Look, I can’t tell you what she asked me not to tell you, but there is a very valid reason for that strange behavior.”

“What about her other strange behavior?” Craig asked, grinning cheekily.

“Now’s not the time dude,” Martin replied quietly, before following Nayia.

“You know, every time our group gets together, we end up splitting up,” Craig spoke, out of the blue. Kayla, Sean and he began to walk towards the canteen. Greg joined them along the way.

“Hey guys, what happened?” Greg asked.

“We split up again,” Craig shrugged.

“Speaking of splitting up,” Kayla began, beginning to frown at Craig. “What’s this about Teresa going out with you and dumping Trent Faulkner?”

“What?” Craig asked, shocked. “What? Who said that – what’s – what’s happening? Why didn’t I know about this?!”

Kayla glared at him; in similar fashion to Nayia’s deathly stare to Martin. “You think you’re such a good actor, don’t you?” she whispered, before turning and stalking off, her eyes filling with tears.

Craig sighed. “You know, sometimes I think this group is just together to spite everybody else,” he muttered to himself.

*

Sal did not know what to think, what to feel or how to act. The train station drew closer, the train slowed down and Sal stepped off, sneaking out the platform in her usual stealthy way. The Mount District was behind her, ahead of her lay the town Greg once went to school at, the town where Ashley lived.

But wherever could Ashley be found? Sal had no clues, no leads to where she should start looking, aside from at a boarding high school. Sal struggled with her feelings of intense fury and annoyance, trying to decide what to do, where to go, what her next move was.

“Can I help you, miss?” a stranger asked, smiling a thin-lipped smile at her. She looked up at the stranger, a tall man with gray chin stubble and ripped clothes. He smelt strongly of body odor and urine, and gave Sal the familiar feeling of arriving home, although she had never been here before.

“Yeah, piss off!” Sal yelled in his face. Her anger rose, along with it a strange feeling that grasped her stomach in an icy hand. She lashed out, before turning around and walking off, her anger subdued but the icy grasp still tugging her. How could she explain it? She couldn’t. There was no way of explaining why there was the pulling feeling, as if something was constantly bothering you, pulling you in a different direction.

Darkness crept up on her, the sun set to let the moon do a poor job of lighting the area Sal was walking. This absence of light did not stop her, she continued walking, searching, and looking for something that she did not know. Why she was still continuing to look when she did not know where to begin, she failed to know the answer. But as the hours rolled by, wearier and wearier Sal became, until she gave in. She moved slowly down the alleyway, searching for a warmer area, before curling up in the corner and sitting there.

She did not sleep. The iced hand still clutched her stomach, dragging her into an angry feeling of question. Too many questions bombarding her, no answers to counter with, Sal was at a point of limbo. She could either return, or continue on in finding Ashley. Ashley Lien, the girl Sal had not seen for almost five months, her Ashley, the Ashley that had always been there for her.

The tear slowly traveled down her soft cheek without notice. She could remember, clear as crystal, Ashley always being there for her, always guiding her and protecting her from her most dangerous enemy, herself. And now, Ashley was not here, Ashley could not protect her from her mind, her mind and her memories.

They dragged Sal down, and Ashley was not here to pull her up.

*

Lucidia Balloise surveyed the school records on the monitor, frowning slightly. This was the third time that Sal had failed to respond to a message to report to her office, and wondering why, Lucidia had turned to the school records for answers. Sal had a dorm here and did not reside in sickbay; that was certain. But this evidence was twisted, there was a gaping hole to the story; Sal had not attended any classes for the past two days. None of her friends understood why either, but Lucidia had to know why.

“Where is she?” she demanded.

Greg, Martin, Nayia, Kayla, Craig and Sean all shrugged. “Got no idea, how bout you?” Nayia replied cheerfully.

“When was the last time she talked to you?” Lucidia asked, this time not as bossily as the last. The group stayed silent, not wishing to answer this. Lucidia sighed, realizing that this would take some bargaining. “Look, I’ll make you a deal,” she reluctantly began. “You talk, you tell me everything you know about Sal and where she could have gone, and I’ll let you…”

“Let us not have to go to geography?” Nayia asked, her eyes lighting up in hope.

“We don’t do anything in geography anyway, Nayia!” Martin told her, hitting her on the back of the head.

“No, not missing out on classes,” Lucidia replied, her patience beginning to wear thin with Nayia. “Come up with something you want and let me know, and I’ll let you know if it is possible. But in return, you must answer all questions I ask, without hesitation.”

Nayia shrugged. “What do you guys think? Because I don’t mind doing that.”

“I think we’re getting no where,” Sean muttered.

Lucidia’s eye twitched, realizing she was slowly loosing her authority.

*

Long black hair swayed as the young Asian teen walked through the courtyard. A bin had toppled over, and on the tips of her toes, the young female avoided every piece, her dark eyes flashing around on the ground in front of her. “Hey! Hey Ashie!” a voice yelled from behind her. Pausing, Ashley, or Ashie as she was called, turned around to see who it was that shouted her name. Shielding the sun from her eyes with her hand, she smiled.

“Hello Ling,” Ashley smiled, as Ling ran up to her. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m SO great!” Ling exclaimed, her ponytail bouncing up and down, her brown eyes dancing with happiness. “You know what, it’s so cool, do you remember that guy who asked me out, Juan?” Ashley nodded, not really that interested but looking as if she cared. “Well, apparently he’s going out with Trisha, you know that dark one with the curly hair? I love her hair!”

“Me too,” Ashley agreed, not entirely thinking of what Ling was talking about. Ling’s voice soon faded into the background, as Ashley carefully avoided rubbish.

“Ashie, are you in there?” Ling suddenly exclaimed, waving her hand in front of Ashley’s face. “You know, I’ve never really seen you be anything but quiet. Are you ALWAYS like this quiet?”

Ashley looked up at Ling, and gave a small smile. “I never was before,” she admitted quietly. “I used to be as bubbly as you are-”

“Thank you,” Ling replied, smiling.

“But then something happened, and I just am never going to replace the person I lost,” she finished sadly, looking away from Ling.

Ling scratched her neck, in a state of confusion. “What happened?” she asked bluntly.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ashley answered softly.

“Come on,” Ling said, pushing Ashley playfully. “What happened?”

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Ashley replied with much more force in her voice.

“Ashie!” Ling began.

Ashley spun around and looked up to Ling, her eyes burning with a fire that Ling had never seen before. “I told you already,” Ashley started, saying each word clearly and separately. “I do not want to TALK ABOUT IT!”

Ling fell quiet, staring at Ashley with a blank expression upon her long face. The blank expression vanished as quickly as it appeared, and was replaced with a wide grin. Ling slapped Ashley’s back playfully. “Come on, be serious!” she exclaimed.

Ashley turned around and walked off. Ling stared after her, confused.

*

Sal found the school in a short time, after getting directions from a stranger. She found herself looking through the fence into the grounds, before grabbing onto the chicken wire and climbing up and over. Wherever Ashley was, Sal had to find her, and at the same time avoid being seen by any of the teachers or workers who would know she didn’t belong there.

She kept a low profile, walking around, searching for Ashley or any sign of Asians that might know Ashley. In the middle of the courtyard, walking through a pile of rubbish was a tall Asian with black hair in a ponytail. Sal walked over to her, and stopped her in her tracks. “Right, do you know Ashley Lien?” she demanded angrily.

Ling looked surprised by this sudden outburst but shrugged anyway. “Yeah, we just had an argument,” she replied. “I know her.”

Sal looked shocked, how could Ashley get into an argument? “So where is she?” Sal questioned fiercly.

Ling pointed over behind her shoulder. “Went that way,” she replied. “Anyway, what business is it of yours?” she asked, frowning.

Sal ignored that last question and ran off after Ashley. Ling frowned. “Something isn’t right,” she commented to herself, before following Sal.

*

“Damn Sal, acting so secretive around her friends!” Lucida cursed, pacing Jackie’s office. “If she wasn’t so damn protective we could have found her already, it’s been two days!”

“Two little days,” Jackie shrugged. “We have to find her, I don’t deny that, but it’s not worth going psycho about it.”

Lucidia stopped her pacing. Turning, she stared at Jackie, her eyes cold and hard. “The AWL is after her,” Lucida informed Jackie. “They need to find her, she may have a link to the deaths of Emily and Kyle McGregor.”

Jackie sighed. “Why don’t they just give up?” she asked. “Why don’t you just give up? She’s only a child, one day she’ll grow up and give you any information you want.”

“She’s stubborn,” Lucidia answered.

“I know that,” Jackie replied. “Sometimes I wonder whether it was best bringing her here instead of Ashley.”

Lucidia frowned at Jackie. “Ashley… Ashley who? She was on the list to come down here, wasn’t she?” Lucidia asked. “Sal was screaming at me about Ashley, about how she was at another school across the country…”

Jackie, who had been typing on her computer, looked up. “Got the list of who signed up,” she replied. “Ashley Lien, twelve years of age, turning thirteen shortly. Was in Quentside Heighs Orphinage up until the age of twelve, now instead of coming here she is somewhere else.”

“Where though? WHERE?” Lucidia yelled at Jackie.

“I don’t know, but you’re welcome to find out,” Jackie replied. “I don’t want any part in your Anti-Werewolf League chases, thank you very much. What you decide to do with the AWL is none of my business and I would appreciate leaving it that way.”

“Well good, because you have your own things to run,” Lucidia commented. “Now leave please, I need to do some research.”

Jackie frowned. “In case you didn’t notice, this happens to be my office,” she informed Lucidia. “It even says my name on the door.”

Lucidia scowled at Jackie, her eyes hardening. “Get out of the office,” she ordered, her voice low and threatening. “Get out, I need to use it.”

Jackie stood up to defend herself, but sighed instead. “Fine, I couldn’t be bothered to have an argument over it,” she replied, throwing her hands up in the air and walking out. “I’ve got better things to do.”

[Lady Vulpix]

Great chapter!
I think Ling redefines the term 'tactless', doesn't she?
I'd make more comments, but I have to go now. Anyway, it was great. :)

[EVme15]

It's supportive, not really helpful, same-as-last-and-last-and-last-time posting time by me! ^_^ Don't we all love it?

I hope Sal actually runs into Ashley. It would be such a letdown if she didn't! And the AWL's getting closer to finding Sal... oooooo, suspense! Um... I'm running out of comments now... ^^; this is why I can't write fanfiction...

Keep up the good work! ^_^ </prettymuchsamecommentaseveryotherpost>

[classy_cat18]

Sorry I haven't replied in a while. Your fic is going along great! I hope the AWL doesn't find Sal while she's there with Ashley.

[mistysakura]

Nice diverging from LVH.
It was really well-written when Sal and Fury had their fight, with Sal's emotions and everything. I guess Fury could have been a bit more represented, though. I'm sure he has feelings too.
Poor foursome, each of them confused and annoyed at the others. That was also very interesting, and it was good to put in the chapter.

Keep itup!

[Heavenly Sage HLSOE]

Hi, Tara. It took me a while to read this fic but hell, its worth it! I really like the language use in this stuff, wonderful actually. It streams in very well with the plot. Ur spelling, grammar and punctuation is fine IMHO, doesn't seem 2 have much problems as compared to other fics.

Also, I really like the quotes that mr_pikachu mentioned before, some of them are very cool and I like the cool phrases u injected subtly into this fic. E.g dudette, etc. Thatz my favourite.

To put it short, I love full moon!

[mr_pikachu]

Good chapter. Very dramatic, with some excellent quotes to spice it up. While there were some grammatical errors, they weren't overbearing. However, I'll list what I noticed anyway. ;)


Sal had once again turned to the only person she could turn to, the only person whom she could trust and seek for advice. The only one left, Fury was her guidance on how to survive now that she was equipped with the knowledge that Lucidia was a member of the Anti-Werewolf League.

Erm… is Fury a “person”? And I thought it was Furocity? (I like Fury better anyway.)


“I cant remember the name of it, but I can get it too you in about a week or two if you wait."

“Cant” should have an apostrophe, and “too” should be “to”.


[I]And besides, where are you going to get money for a train fare, where are you even going to find out where Ashley is right now?”

I think the second comma should be a semicolon, though the grammar check isn’t picking it up.


[I]“I think we’re getting no where,” Sean muttered.

“No where” should be “nowhere”.


Lucidia’s eye twitched, realizing she was slowly loosing her authority.

Not… again… *groan* “loosing” should be “losing”. AGAIN. ;)


“So where is she?” Sal questioned fiercly.

“Fiercly” should be “fiercely”, with another “e”.



On the other hand, you had some superb quotes! Here are some of my faves:


“Sarcasm, my dear Sal. Sarcasm is the key to life.”

You know, she’s got a point…


Nayia refused to stop her glaring. “I do not accept your apology, Martin Jackson. I am VERY offended by the fact that you wish me to cease breathing and consequently collapse onto the ground, most presumably dead due to lack of oxygen!” She finished her long string of words, before beaming at him in a childish way. “I used long words!” she giggled.

lol!!! That says it all.



Anyway, this was a nice divergence, having Sal track down Ashley instead of Ashley surprising Sal. However, I wonder if this will end in success... or catastrophe? :o

[Last Exile]

Wowzers! Tara, that was absoulte gold, there, it was! Absolute gold! :) That is the best piece of writing you've evr done. It was a great balance of description, action, emotions, sarcasm/humour and the like. Plus it was fully engaging from beginning to end. Absolutely wonderful! :) Well done! You've definitely moved on, Tara, and well done for doing so. I'm really proud of you. :wave:

[PancaKe]

Thanks everybody. Um, I didn't really think that piece was quite good, because I found it really difficult to write and really difficult to construct. Thanks for all your replies, they were really enouriging, and gave me some ideas of what to do for the next chapter.

Gabbi: Lol. Yep, tactless is right. More like those new Cherry Coke ads we have in australia - where they just dont get the hint. I wanted to have fun with a character, and made Ling up for that reason.

EVme15: Its' okay, at least you can think of better things to say than me. I'm just like "erm... i like that character, hes' funny/hilarious/very mysterious. Oh well, cant wait until next chapter keep up work ~Mist" lol. But dun worry bout makin your replies long, I still know you read it and liked it and thats good enough for me. ^^

Classy_cat18 Its okay - I finished reading your fic by the way and it was really good. The ending was twisted, as if you could play on the last line or just leave it. It was a really good fic, and I wanted to reply but by the time i got round to catching up it had finished. Damn, gotta catch up on ALL THESE OTHER FICS! bah, ignoring it aint gonna help.

MistySakura: Yeah I could've explored Fury's emotions more. Ah well, gives me something to do in the next chapter ^^;;;

HLOSE Heys, nice to see you. ^^;; Thanks for all your nice comments on the fic, and the grammer is not perfect, neither is my spelling of loose and lose. ^^;;; Just ask mr pikachu (joking, dun worri mate) Yeah, I like the word dudette. I use it alot in talking to friends.

mr pika: Okay - Fury is not a person, I just get confused when I refer to her. Because she's got a human personality almost. And the whole Furocity/Fury thing. I'll have to explain that in a bit more detail. Ill just tell you briefly now - in werewolf packs, they have a werewolf name. Fury's name just comes from her pack name, and the alpha of the pack calls them by name. Fury is Furocity, Sal is Reishe. Okay, that's that explained. Now, the reason why I made so many stupid mistakes in the first bit of the chapter is this: when i was rereading it after posting it, I noticed that I made a booboo and had Fury in the first few paragraphs convinicng Sal to go visit Ashley, then had her contradicting eerything she had said, telling her not to go. That didn't sound right. So I changed it - in the TPM edit box. Whcih is where i didn't get a chance to edit what i said. I have no excuse for loosing though. And as for nayia's quote, I say things like that too. Nayia is roughly based on the bubbly side of me. ^^

Ryan: ^^;; I didn't realise it was that good. Thank you Ryan, your proud of me ^^ awww. lol thanks heaps - i was treating it more like a filler more than anything XD but who knows what it's filling in for?

~Mist

[classy_cat18]

Mist, make sure you're reading Knights to Remember!

[Lady Vulpix]

What? A post made solely for advertising? :mad:

She hasn't been reading my fic for a long time either, anyway.

[Last Exile]

Advertising SPAM?

SHAME! :mad:

PS. How are you these days, Gabi? Hope you're well. ;)

[classy_cat18]

Alright, I'm sorry! Get off my back!

[PancaKe]

What's this? Spam, in a MOD's FIC?

^^ its kewl. Yeah Gabbi, and everybody else who I promise to catch up on their fics. It's called end of school yearly exams, I'm swamped. I barely get enough time to come on the net (when i should be studying but ah wells.) But as soon as I'm finished with all this, I'll have all holidays to catch up. There will be days (and nights) where i will just sit on the comptuer and read read read all the fics. ^^

And you've all broken rules (except me) because your posts are evil!!!! ^^ but i'll let this pass... :P I'm so silly.

~Mist

[Lady Vulpix]

My post wasn't evil. :( *Listens to the post cry.*
See? You've made it cry!

Don't worry, Tara, I'm extremely busy too, so 1) I understand you and 2) you'll catch up easily.

And Ryan, I'm fine, thanks for asking. My pressure is a bit down due to the heat, the hard work and the tension from uni, but I'll get over it just as I always have.

Good luck with your exams, Tara!

*Hopes this post isn't considered evil.*

[Nayia Waterflower aka starmie44]

*slowly slips into room, wishing to go unnoticed and surprise everyone. Slips on a banana peel and falls loudly on her butt. Looks around and sees that everyone is staring at her. Jumps to feet and does a dramatic poses* I'ammmmm BAAACCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!! *huggles everyone she knows*

Hiya Mist! ^-^ Now look what you gone and done. Making a non-pokemon LVH. Very nice. ^-^ I read it all and enjoy it very much. Though I'm completely creeped out because some of the things that Nayia did, I did in real live. (running into a pole, saying I'm stupid, childish saying "I used long words", and of course, rambling on and on and on and on) lol, and Nayia is roughly based on your bubbly side? Well, now you will be rewarded with the "Nayia thinks I'm a nut like her" pin. (note: Yes, I'm very, very, very hyper right now.) *huggles Mist* Congrats.

Okay, I'm going to be serious now... You did a very good job and changing it to non-pokemon style. I can see the things that are simialar to LVH, but also the different things that make it completely different. Of course, the character developing is great (and Greg being black w/ dreads is so hot ^-^), and Lady Blastiose's new name is just plain funny. I understands Sal's past alot better now, and the way you are going about her new life at school is nicely done. Though the Teresa/Craig thing confuses me. It's like 'Hey, I think today I'm going to hold Teresa's hand and go see my friends'. I was at a lose there. I would continue my rambling but I have to go work on my many projects now. Byes,

~Nayia~

[PancaKe]

YOU STOLE MY COLOR!!!!!! *glares*

Do you think gold suits me? Please - suggestions for new colors seeing SHE RUDLEY STOLE MINE *glares*

Thank you for your reply *huggles* btw what should I call you seeing that you have the same name as Nayia in the fic. Call you nayia, or something else? Ho hum? Thank you for checking this out, thank you for your nutty replies. I think you're a lostie. ^^ But i'm a lostie too. Why take life seriously when you can have fun? If you take life seriously you dont have fun and just die boring. :P Bleh. ^^ Guess you could say im hyper too :D:D

Yeah, so tell me if Gold makes my butt look big okay?

Oh yeah, and, next chappy I've had a bit of writers block on, restarted it like 5 times now, so I dont know when it'll be up. Hopefully soon. And Gabbi - dont cry, your post this time wasn't THAT evil after all. :P

l8rz

~Mist

[Lady Vulpix]

Oh, good. :)
Hey, are you planning to check Charmander Central one of this days? Someone has called you, me, Amy and Amanda 'girly'.

As for your butt... Sorry, I can't see it from here. :P

[Nayia Waterflower aka starmie44]

Yes... yes I stole your color out off the 11, 000 members here that have 23 colors between them (unless they wish to be creative and type in random colors.) *grins* I don't have pirates blood in me at all, right Mr. Turner?

Will - Damn straight.

Nayia - See. ^-^

Gold is pretty... *stares at gold writing in awe* Oh, gold doesn't make your butt look big... just really shiny.

Meh, well... your could call me by my real name, which is Madonna. Or you can call me by my many nick names... Donna, Dee, Material Girl, Hey You, Dork, Starm, etc... or stick with Nayia... whatever you want cause it doesn't matter to me Tara.

Hoopla! I'm a lostie! Did you hear that Will?

Will - Hoopla...? Is that a name of a ship?

*sweatdrops* Nevermind Will. Nevermind....

Will - What I do? George, what did I do?

George, Will's tapeworm - You're being slow again.

Will - So... I didn't do anything bad?

George - Nope.

Will - Yes! *does a jig*

George - If you did she would get me to blast you with my flamethrower.

Will - *eyes go wide*

Jack Sparrow - *laughs at Will's face* Good job, mate. *George and Jack does high five*

Will - *sobs* I'm going to die...

Jack - Whenever you're ready love, post the next chapter.

George - Nayia said don't bug Tara or I can blast you too.

Jack - ...damn

[PancaKe]

Back to the color that Nayia stole -.- ^^ anyways... Yeah, this chapter I'm not so happy with for the reasons that I felt it was too short, and that I could've done much better. It's just that I'm suffering severe "no time" and "writers block" syndromes. And its hard. :S But I hope you enjoy it - and mr pikachu will have fun editing it again :P

~Mist

Chapter Nine

“Sally-Anne ran away?” Sandra repeated, staring at Lucidia. “Sally-Anne ran away and is not here anymore? Is this what you are telling me?”

Lucidia’s foot kicked continuously. “Yes,” she replied shakily. “Sally-Anne is not here at the school anymore. She… she disappeared three days ago.”

“Three days ago?” Sandra exclaimed, standing up so fast her chair toppled over behind her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that we woke up one morning and she was gone,” Lucidia answered. “We’ve asked her friends, and they have no idea where she is or where she could have gone. I tried to bargain with them, but found out nothing. The most information I have is that she has an attachment to an Ashley Lien, who was at the same orphanage as her. If we find Ashley Lien, then perhaps we may find Sally-Anne around.”

Sandra fixed up her chair, and became seated once more. She placed her hands in her lap and eyed Lucidia Balloise. Lucidia’s eyes were shivering, although she made an effort not to show it, she was shaking inside. Only her quivering, twitching foot made any movement.

“You are still as sharp as ever, Lucidia,” Sandra commented. “There are moments in which I, unfortunately, doubt your skills and your control over them, but once again you have not failed to succeed and to show you are quite capable of your responsibility at the Kilbourne District and as Deputy Principal of Kilbourne Shorelines High.”

Lucidia breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you very much, Sandra.” Lucidia stood up. “I will continue to search for Sal today.”

Sandra smiled at Lucidia, gathering her briefcase and smoothening her skirt. “I think highly of you, Lucidia. Do not disappoint me.”

*

The burning desire inside of Sal stung, it craved for Ashley. She had been waiting for almost six months to see Ashley, and she had come here especially for that. There was no way possible to make Sal leave without seeing Ashley. Yet she had not seen her yet, after two days of looking, Sal and Ashley had not collided.

Sal had no idea of what was happening, she had no clue that the Anti-Werewolf League was after her, chasing her across the country. She had no idea of what was happening back in Kilbourne. Fury, on the other hand, ran day after day, trying to reach Sal before the Anti-Werewolf League managed to find her. Fury did not know herself how she found out this information, but she knew that they would one day be looking for Sal; and judging from the way the Kilbourne District AWL had been in and out of the school, she figured that now was the time.

The school grounds were empty. Only Sal stayed outside in the teeming rain, trying to stay unnoticed under a shelter. The rain poured down in cold icy sheets of water, and already being soaked, Sal did not wish to go out. Fury found this a problem, she could easily see into the school from the forest, and easily see Sal. Being a wolf, it would be highly suspicious to go running through the empty grounds and talk to the only person outside.

They were at a dead end for the moment.

*

Kayla glared once more at Teresa and Craig, and stormed out the room. Since Sal had been gone, Teresa had not been afraid to enter their common room and intrude on their space. Kayla hated it. Nayia, she hated seeing Kayla hate it, and wasn’t about to become afraid to let everybody else know.

“Excuse me for a second,” Nayia told Martin, Greg and Sean.

“Don’t start a fight,” Martin sighed, as Nayia walked over to where Teresa was talking to Craig.

“Excuse me for a minute,” Nayia began, interrupting. Teresa looked up, glared, and then returned to her conversation. Nayia took a deep breath in and started over. “Excuse me, Teresa, but you don’t belong in this tower, you don’t belong in this common room, you don’t even belong in our group. May I ask WHY you are here, in our tower, in our common room, in our group?” She tried her hardest to sound polite.

Teresa looked back up at Nayia. “Because I can, it’s a free country you know,” she replied harshly.

“Actually, we learnt in history that we are actually not a free country as far as Warrogan history goes,” Nayia began. “Sure we might not be as controlled as other countries, but we still have many rules and regulations that prevent us from saying and doing certain things that are there to keep us safe and ha-”

Teresa’s hand connected with Nayia’s cheek. Nayia, unprepared for this, stumbled over, and fell to the floor, where she held her hand to her cheek to suppress the stinging. “Nayia!” Martin called, and rushed over to her. “Are you all right?”

Nayia ignored Martin, and slowly got up, staring at Teresa. Teresa got off the desk she had been sitting on, and prepared to strike Nayia again. “You can strike me again, Teresa,” Nayia told her. “But you know I wont hit back. The only thing I wanted to say to you is what’s up with your sudden attachment to Craig? Since when has he liked you or anything, and why do you keep hanging around here? You know how upset you’re making Kayla?” She stayed silent for a minute, working things out in her head. “That’s why you’re doing it, isn’t it? Because of Kayla and because Sal’s not here. If Sal were here, you wouldn’t dare come in, and now that she’s gone you can get your revenge on Kayla.”

“Kayla deserves all that she’s getting,” Teresa replied softly.

“Because she stood up for herself?” Nayia cried. “You’re so mean, did you know that? She’s down they’re crying because you’ve been – and don’t say you’ve been befriending Craig, because you haven’t. You’ve been dominating his life as revenge, and I don’t want to see that stuff. You are just so mean and cruel, just because you enjoy seeing other people hurt!”

Nayia was trembling with anger now, but still restrained from hitting Teresa. She knew that her voice could say more than any slap could anyway.

Teresa glared at Nayia. Behind her, Craig got up and left the room quietly. “Well I’m sorry I’m not a blonde who can use big words and stick up for her friends,” she sneered. “I’m so sorry for coming into a common room. I’m so sorry, oh can you ever forgive me?” She continued to glare up at Nayia.

“I would, if you meant it,” she replied, shrugging, her anger slipping away like soap slipping out of somebody’s wet hand. “But you don’t. Now that I’m happy again, do you mind going?”

Teresa glared before stalking out, her nose up in the air. “Go Nayia!” Martin grinned, giving her a hug.

“Thanks,” Nayia smiled nervously, escaping the hug as quickly as she could.

*

“Go away,” Kayla mumbled through her tears, not bothering to turn around. She lay on her bed, her face in her pillow, letting the tears trickle down her face. Craig looked around, checking for any girls, before walking in further. Kayla heard his footsteps, and sat up and turned around. “I said GO AWAY!” she yelled at him. “I don’t want to talk to anybody.”

Craig continued to walk in, and sat at the end of Kayla’s bed. “I guess you want an explanation,” he began quietly, not knowing exactly how to word what he wanted to say.

Kayla glared at him through puffed red eyes. “Why would I want to hear your explanations?” Kayla sneered at him rudely. “It’s obvious that you and Teresa like each other, why don’t you just go and make out and leave me alone?”

Craig sighed. “I don’t like Teresa!” he cried, exasperated. “She’s annoying me so much, I don’t even know why she’s been hanging around me so much lately! All I knew was that she came up to me and grabbed my hand and has been bossing me around ever since, and she’s so annoying and such a brat!”

Kayla stared at him questioningly. “So you don’t like her?” she asked.

“No!” Craig replied. “I like you!” He clapped his hand over his mouth, slowly turning to red.

An awkward silence hung over the room, neither person knowing what to say. Kayla finally broke this silence with a meek voice. “You do?” she asked. Craig nodded, a lump in his throat preventing him from speaking. “I like you too…” she told him, in a voice barely above a whisper.

Craig swallowed the lump, a stinging feeling following down his throat into his stomach. Ignoring this, Craig replied to Kayla’s last comment with a question. “Do you want to go out with me this Saturday?”

*

“Sal!” Fury called, running as fast as she could to reach the fiery red head. Sal turned away from the door and slipped once more into the shadows of the night.

“What do you want, what are you doing here?” she snapped.

Fury glared at Sal. “Even though your really nice to me,” she began, in a ticked off voice. “I thought you would like to know that you have to leave, immediately.”

Sal snorted at Fury. “And I’m going to listen to a runt wolf?” she asked.

“You’d better, unless you want to be put in a cage for the next however many years of your life,” Fury replied, trying to ignore the insult. “Even though you hurt me, I’ve traveled across the country to let you know that the AWL are after you. They’re tracking you down because they want you. They have an idea that you’re a werewolf, and they know where you are.”

“Of all the places on the map they’re going to pick this one randomly and come to find me, is that what you’re saying?” Sal rolled her eyes, ticked off. “It’s my life and I’m not taking orders from you! You trying to come in and rule my life just because you’re a runty wolf?” Sal was angry now, angrier than she had been in the last week. Her anger was beginning to affect her speech and way of thinking.

Fury was hurt once more. The piercing words of Sal struck Fury in a soft spot, in a place where she was vulnerable to being affected by what Sal yelled in her face. She didn’t want to be here, thoughts rushed through her head, her only friend was turning against her, her only companion was abandoning her and her advice. The advice that was always right!

“Sal,” Fury began, trying to control her voice and emotions. “Sal, you don’t know what you are saying. You don’t know what you are talking about. You have to come back, you cannot see Ashley. They know you’ve come to find Ashley because of all the yelling you do about how she was stuck over here and how you were taken to Kilbourne. Sal, they are coming here because they know you’ve come here for Ashley. And if you talk to Ashley, then run off, she’ll be put through tests and lie detectors and they’ll find you and find out that you are a werewolf. Sal, for not only your good, but for Ashley’s good, and my good too, you have to come back now! With me, tonight, you’ve got to come back.”

Sal turned away from Fury, who smiled a hurt smile. She knew that she had gotten through to Sal, but Sal didn’t know that her words had gotten through to Fury. Sal stared in the window of the door, where Ashley sat, combing her hair in a chair, listening to a conversation between a tall Asian girl and a person with curly hair. She placed her hand on the window, and stared in.

Her vision began to change; she felt as though she was looking in the window under water, everything became watery and hard to see clearly. “Come on, Sal, its time to go,” Fury reminded her gently. Sal took one last look, then turned away from the window.

Inside the room, Ashley suddenly stared out the window, pausing in mid-brush. Ling looked over to Ashley, then out the window, confused. “What you staring at?” Ling asked.

“I could have sworn…” Ashley spoke softly, mainly to herself than anybody else.

“Sworn what?” Ling questioned.

“Huh? Oh, nothing,” Ashley replied, realizing she had spoken aloud. “Just thought I saw a face at the window.”

Ling shrugged. “I know a good psychiatrist you could see,” she told Ashley, and then turned back to the conversation with the person with curly hair.

“What would Sal be doing here…” Ashley whispered.

*

“Damnit! What do you mean, she’s not there?!” Sandra yelled, slamming her fist down on the desk.

Lucidia’s heart beat fast, and sweat beads began to escape out of the pores on her forehead. “She has left, our team cannot find her anywhere where we have searched. I will, of course be questioning her if she returns to the school. You have nothing to worry about, Sandra.”

“You had better hope that I have nothing to worry about,” Sandra replied. “I am worried about whether you can still handle two things at once, both at the same time.”

“I can,” Lucidia reassured Sandra quickly.

“I hope so. My confidence in you is not as strong in you as it used to be.”

*

“Hey Sal!” Nayia greeted cheerfully, running over to Sal as she entered the tower. Sal was a mess, her hair was wet, and stuck damply to her neck and face, her clothes were soaked and her shoes were full of mud. One glare from Sal sent Nayia backing off. “Talk to you later then… bye.”

Sal didn’t know where to go. She could go out in the pouring rain once more, or go to take a shower. Contemplating these choices, the last person she wanted to see walked up behind her. “Before you take a shower,” the cold voice of Lucidia Balloise began, “I’d like a word with you in my office.”

Sal turned around, and glared. “I don’t care about what you want,” she spat at Lucidia, before turning around and walking off.

Lucidia had been through enough from Sandra, and was not about to tolerate this. “SALLY-ANNE MCGREGOR GET HERE RIGHT NOW!” she bellowed through the tower.

Sal turned around, more ticked off than she had been before. Just like Lucidia’s week, Sal had not had a pleasant experience. With fighting with Fury and not seeing Ashley at all, Sal was fed up with all these people telling her what to do. “Don’t you EVER call me that again,” Sal snapped back. “What do you have to say that’s so bloody important anyway? I’m going for a shower, because I want one. What I DON’T want is to go and have to listen to you so if you want to listen to yourself talk go find somebody else to sit there and stare at you!”

“Ooooooooh,” Nayia added her sound effects from the side of the room, taken back by Sal’s attack at Lucidia Balloise.

“She is really brave,” Sean whispered.

“Either that or really stupid,” Martin muttered back.

Lucidia and Sal seemed to have not even noticed Nayia talked. “You are to come here right now,” Lucidia told Sal in a quiet, threatening voice. “Right now, with no fighting or arguing. Do you understand?” Her voice began to shake. Nayia assumed that Lucidia was overwhelmed with anger, but Lucidia knew better, feeling her right leg twitch.

“I don’t have time for this,” Sal spat, waving away Lucidia. She swore and turned around and walked upstairs. Lucidia’s left eye gave a twitch, before stalking after her, swinging her arms in anger.

“Wow, Sal is in for it,” Nayia commented, taken back by Sal’s actions.

“I’d say that Balloise is in a bad position,” Martin replied.

“Sal,” Nayia argued, poking out her tongue.

“Fine whatever,” Martin shrugged.

Sean gave a small laugh. “You two make the cutest couple,” he grinned at them. Nayia and Martin looked edgily at each other, before edging away quickly.

*

“Stop right there!” Lucidia ordered. Sal turned around, in the doorway of the bathroom, holding a towel.

“I’m taking a shower,” she snapped back.

“Not until you listen to what I have to say to you,” Lucidia replied.

Sal rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m listening and I can’t hear anything at the moment,” she told Lucidia.

“Sal, you caused serious trouble when you ran away,” Lucidia began, her tone of voice cold and harsh. “If you run away again, you’ll find that you wont be able to come back, because there just wont be a place for you here.”

Sal covered up her feelings with a quick response. “The only reason I’m here is because they forced me to be here,” she sneered.

Lucidia walked over, close to Sal, until they were face to face. In a quiet whisper, Lucidia spoke.

“I’d be careful if I were you,” she told her, the chill of her voice sending a shiver down Sal’s spine. “I’d be very careful indeed. I know information that could give me the authority and power to make you do cartwheels around the school grounds.” Sal rolled her eyes, trying to ignore these words. The next words, on the other hand, froze her heart in mid-beat. Her blood ran cold, her mind stopped thinking, and all that she could hear was the echo of the four words that Lucidia uttered.

“I know your secret.”

[Doomykins]

Yay! A new chappy. And no, this was not a short chapter. At least not in my opinion. Wheee. Eager and ready for more.

[classy_cat18]

*looks around room* I'm not here to advertise. Really!

Good chappie, Mist. The cat's out of the bag now!

[Darkmaster Kagemusha]

YAY! Finally! **Glomps the chapter**. It's a little short, but still very good. I happen to think Balloise should teach a class called "How to be a b*tch," :P

[mistysakura]

Pretty good chapter! I guess it's also people-being-hard-on-themselves season. (Yeah, who am I to be talking? For me, apparently it's more like being-hard-on-myself lifetime.) But whatever. I feel like Nayia now.

Anyway, thanks for doing Fury's emotions! Nice to see that she does have a heart after all. But now it seems weird, because Fury has never been anything but pure wit+sarcasm, and now she's actually got a weak spot... Still, cool personality there.

So Kalya and Craig admit it! That was cool, and the part with Ashley actually seeing sal in the window was good too. seriously, it was such a twist when Sal actually listened to Fury and went back...

Keep it up, it's not that short.

[Last Exile]

Ah, this be so much of a comedy fest as well as a thriller. Nice going, Tara. And Mods like Rainbows?! Yep, we sure do! At least, I certainly do! :D Rainbows are kewl! ;) I'll try and get on MSN some time soon so we can chat.

[Lady Vulpix]

Wow! I don't know how long this chapter was, but it certainly had everything! Including a complete rainbow of emotions.

It was great to see Naiya stand up for her friends against Teresa. The episode with Ashley was quite sad, and I also felt sorry for Fury when Sal turned against her. Despite of other people's comments, I could already relate to her in the previous chapter. As for the final phrase... While it was in LVH too, it was still priceless here.

[mr_pikachu]

:o *jaw hits the floor* Ouch!

Oh, btw, in case you haven't seen my responses to the gajillion other fics here, I'm taking a break from the incredibly detailed reviews. School's weighing me down, so I just don't have time for it. But don't worry. When Winter Break comes, I'll be tearing this fic to shreds again! :D Fun!

This was a great chapter. Seriously. The intensity was high, and for awhile I really thought that Sal would have to make a mad dash to get away from the AWL guys. And that last phrase... ooh! It sent chills up MY spine! ;)

One thing I have to say, and won't stop saying until I get an answer: Whatever happened to TFIBEFTTOU? (a.k.a. This Fic IS Big Enough For The Two Of Us!) That was a truly awesome fic by you and CCC. Are you ever going to get back to writing it? Because that was going places. That was going to be a sweet fic. I'd definitely keep reading if you started it back up. Whaddaya say? :D

Oh yeah, and your spelling sucked too. I know, you're addicted to my insults. :rolleyes: Anyway, this was great, please continue, and start up TFIBEFTTOU again!

[Lady Vulpix]

Yes, that fic looked promising, but it probably went down the drain when Ryan stopped liking pokemon. Sometimes I wish he wouldn't change so much and so often, but well... That's his personality and I'm not here to judge him.

[Last Exile]

I change so much? :confused: And that's bad?

Well, life is full of changes, Gabi. Change is like a great big steamroller, someone once told me. Even if you resist it, it will steam over you and roll on. And in order to develop and become a better person, I need to change continually. Staying the same will prevent one from being able to become a proper adult. You can't stay a kid stuck in a dreamland forever.

But a lot of me is still the same. I'm still an individual who loves reading, video games, anime, walks on the beach. I just happen to have delved into a lot more anime and started playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game (which I happen to be very good at), and as a result of seeing the best of what anime have to offer, I saw Pokemon was pretty lame in comparison, and decided to spend no more time and money on it. Which is fair enough. Honestly, Gabi, if you got to see the anime released over the last two years, you'd see wha I mean. There is so much more out there to see, and I want to see it. My adventurous side compels me to.

Is this the reason you stopped replying to my emails and stopped reading WDC? Gabi, you could've told me. I'm kinda hurt by all this.

And actually, that other fic didn't stop because I stopped liking Pokemon. It stopped because Tara and I both have busy lives and couldn't find the time to devote to it. I'm going to be working full-time next year, so luxuries like that can't be an option that often anymore, unfortunately.

[Lady Vulpix]

Sorry, Ryan. I didn't mean to hurt you.
I've seen much of the anime you've seen, and also much of your wanted list. I've never been too keen on the Pokemon anime (don't you remember trying to convince me that it was getting good?), just like I think Yu-Gi-Oh is ok, but not that original (yes, I've been watching it for a while). My stories and my characters are a whole other thing. While I don't think the Pokemon anime has much to offer, I think pokemon themselves have a lot of potential, and I enjoy exploiting it.
I haven't received your e-mails. As for WDC, I stopped reading it because I didn't like the turns it was taking. It started as a great fic, but I'm afraid I'm not enjoying it anymore. Sorry about that, I'm sure your new audience will appreciate your work, it's just not the kind of story I like.

And I am an adult. Statistically speaking, adults don't change their views, values, priorities and interests as much as teenagers do. Personally speaking, mine didn't change much as a teenager either. I've never followed a trend, nor been passionate about a music band, a TV show, a dressing style, an 'idol' nor anything of the sort. Writing and fantasy were the only things that woke up a passion in me, and that passion has remained with me for my whole life and I hope it always will. Of course, some things will always change. As we live, we learn and gain more experience, and our actions will be affected by that. And it's true that, if you were really into something, having it let you down can cause a big effect on you. Different people may react to it in different ways. That may be what happened to you with Pokemon. It was what happened to me with WDC. Once more, I'm sorry about that. I hope that clears things out.

[PancaKe]

Wow, thats like, so heavy. And I jsut got home from school and everything. :( well as far as I know, I haven't changed that much.

Anyway, the reason why I havent been around latley is because I've had so many assignments to do, I've barely got time for breathing. Its like, okay finished that one, now finish this one. And I've hardly had a break. Sure I go out and I still have a social life, but I've had like, no time for coming and saying hi and doing mod duties. I need to talk to Oz about that but thats a diff storie.

YEah, thank you to all of those who have been reading my fic. Your encouragement still means a lot, when I come back and see that you guys still reply it means a lot to me, and keeps me writing. For this past month or so, I've been struggling to produce chapters, and write. It seems I've hit a block, well, not really a block. I can produce lyrics easily (I sorted out the lyrics that I wrote and I've got 131 diff songs just on the computer ^^;;) but actually writing and forming the next chapter of full moon I'm having a bit of a problem with and I'm not sure where to go next. So please have patience with me as I try to deal with all these assignments etc and stuff in my life. It's not bad stuff, but its alot at once, and its overwhelming. SO please have patience when it comes to the next chapter ^^ I hope to have it up in maybe the next month or so (see I told you i was overwhelmed) but please try to understand - my teachers have gone evil and given me a bunch of assignments all at once.

Thanks

~Mist

[mistysakura]

Don't worry, we understand. End of year assingment rage always sucks. Our teachers have already gone slack, though, because they've got too many exam papers to mark to give us any homework. That's cool.

[Lady Vulpix]

It's ok, I understand. I know first hand what being constantly busy feels like.
Sorry about the heavy stuff.

[PancaKe]

Thanks for understanidng. Things in my life just got heavier, but I'm trying to actually corporate them into the next chapter, so hopefully you'll like it ^^;; Basically, on top of assignments, I started to like this friend of mine as more than a friend, and because the last guy i liked was adam, whenever i think about this new guy, im like in the back of my head "what about adam?" which is confusing, because I dont know if I should go out with this guy or not. And today I found out that he likes me to!! But I know this girl (who apparently is going out with someboyd else) likes him too. So now im just like, smiling and nodding and very confused. :confused: ^^

~Mist

[mr_pikachu]

Sorry things are so confusing right now. Don't worry; things will sort themselves out soon. That other girl getting out of your way would be nice. But if not, you can always go with Ryan. :D

So you'll be using your own life in the next chapter, huh? I've tried that before, and it actually works quite well. I think it's a fine writing technique, as well as a good way to relieve stress. ^_^

Anyway, I'm looking forward to your next chapter! Get it up there when you can! ;)

[PancaKe]

^^ It's so funny my life is - it just doesnt fit in with the whole mood of Full Moon unless I incorperate nayia into it somewhere. Cuz Nayia is based on me in real life cuz im always so bouncy. Boing! Yeah, today I full couldn't keep my eyes off him and bloody how many times did he freaking need to look at me! Lol it was so lost. But I rekon its cute when a guy likes a girl, cuz its hard to tell and i find it extremley funny. :P I'm so mean.

Oh yeah, and mr pika, that suggestion with Ryan is a good one ;) Might think about it for a while ^^

~Mist

[Last Exile]

Geez, can people stop insinuating stuff between me and Mist?! :rolleyes: For crying out loud, she's 14 and I'm 22! That isn't funny at all!

But it Mist finds it funny, okay. Actually, the idea is kind of amusing. ;) Oh well, Tara can mess around with the idea if she wants.

And Gabi, I respect your decision, for it is a valid reason. I just wish you did tell me. To be truthful, the reason I quit Dragon Tamers, stopped reading your fic and changed my tack on WDC was because I found them all too sickly sweet. As LOTR puts it:

There can be no victory without loss
There can be no joy without sorrow

I.e. The positives and negatives balance each other out. There were far too many positives in your stuff. It was too naive for me to handle in the end. Relationships have plenty of problems, but they do work out. Everything ran too smoothly for me to believe it in your stuff. I'm not saying your writing sucks, because it doesn't I just can't like it anymore. And it would be cruel of me to lie about it.

Well, if you can, you could always download anime. If you have a decent connection, you should be able to download full episodes. The whole series of Stellvia is available for downloading still, for example.

PS. For those that don't know already, my Mum won't let me use the net at home. Hence why I probably seem distant to most people right now. Plus she's threatening to take $100 for me a week! However, I scored a job for the weekend, which will get me $150 and stay the threat for a week. But after that, it's back on. *sigh* I don't know what I did to deserve this. My mum has a real obsession with me not having a summer break, claiming other work during the year was light. *sigh* As if!

Typical scenario:

Me: Mum, other people my age don't have their parents to this to them!
Mum: YOU'RE NOT OTHER PEOPLE! OTHER PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS! YOU'RE IN MY RULES SO ABIDE BY THE RULES OR YOU CAN LEAVE NOW!

That's what I get every second day. Any questions?

[Andrew]

Ack, that's awful Ryan, seriously, move out, Lease a place or something for a year, by which time, your job would've been considered stable enough for you to take a mortgage of some sorts.

But if you leave home, you need a driving liscene, I found that driving was scary at first but became cool later.

But now, the actual thread, lol... I wasn't actually planning on catching up on LVH cause I was skimming the replies and saw Ryan's and HAD to reply so I've felt an obligation to read all that I've missed and then move onto WDC tonight lol.

Thanks a LOT :P

*Saw last 2 minutes of Home and Away season finale* HA! Classic! Little kid dies, then the father dies! HUZZAH! Here's hoping the rest of them cark it!

*Tries to find last post in LVH so he can find where to pick up from* *Fails. Starts from Epi 7*

WHAT! Andy's DEAD! ME! ACK! *Goes back and reads some more* Ack, I'll post again later, damn! You have me hooked!

[Last Exile]

Just so everyone knows, I haven't finished my course yet. I've got 1 more thing left early next year. I haven't got my final degree just yet.

[mr_pikachu]

Hey, Ryan, I honestly had no idea about the age difference. I thought all the mods were in college right now. Guess I was a tad off. *recieves harsh glares* Okay, okay, a lot off! :rolleyes: But I'll keep it up anyway, since Tara likes the idea. :D

Anyway, Ryan, I hope your mom eases up some. Slip some Valium into her drink or something. Then again, DON'T. That stuff's powerful. I should know. ...Er, don't ask. Some other time. ^_^;

Well, Ryan, hurry up and finish school so you can move out! And Tara, get the next chapter up already! Move! Move! Mo--- *is strangled by Tara and Ryan simultaneously*

Um... never mind? ^_^;;

[Lady Vulpix]

Well, Ryan, I guess that makes us even. I hope you can sort out your problems soon.

[PancaKe]

Well Ryan, i'm dumping you becauz I lyk this guy at my school anyway. Speaking of liking the guy, I'm putting in a bit of what i'm going through into the fic so you'll have a bit more interest between Nayia and Martin during the next chapter. Well, at least a focus on them. I've lost the plans for the story though! I had them in a book, all nice and neat but I've lost the book! DARN ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Ryan, i think its about time you had a talk with your mum and told her the way you're feelign about these rules. Maybe she just cant see your point of view.

~Mist

[Mystic Latios]

Great story so far.:) *waits patiently for the next chapter*

[PancaKe]

Thank you so much readers, who wait patiently while I struggle with reality and the world of Full Moon. It's been so difficult one, to find time to write this fic and two, to actually put the words down. I dont knwo what is happening, but I htink that its becoming more difficult, as the words dont flow like they used to. Well, holidays are coming up, so I know that I'll get some time to work on chapter eleven during those. And hopefully chapter twelve also. Bye!!!

~Mist

Chapter Ten:

Sal curled up in the corner, soft steaming water falling down upon her, splashing her face and back. The shower was filled with steam, but Sal did not care for the wastage of water. All she wished to do was to sit here and drown in the constant downpour of hot water. Her face, stained with tears, her hair, red and clinging to the back of her neck with dampness. She was cornered, and she felt as alone as she possibly could.

With a yell, Sal swung out and smashed her fist into the shower cubical wall next to her. Her fist throbbed with pain from the connection, but Sal did not care for pain. Pain was nothing to her now, too much had come upon her too quickly, and she was numb from it all. Numb from the constant stinging she felt inside.

She was at her end; Sal would give anything for this to end. To top it all off, she was in danger, and if Canis ever found out. Sal didn’t even want to go there. She was a freak, a freak in her own mind. When she looked into the mirror, all she saw in those forest green eyes was the mind of a freak. She hated herself for it, hated herself for being like this.

If she didn’t have to live a double life, perhaps things would be different. Perhaps she wouldn’t be here now, trying to sink into the corner in self pity. If she didn’t have to live a double life, she wouldn’t have to pretend she wasn’t a werewolf. Then she wouldn’t have to sneak out all the time, lie and now panic, worrying whether she too, would be like Nade and end up living her life as a lab rat.

Just because Balloise knew. Sal burned with hatred at the thought of that name. Her fist once again made contact with the wall of the shower cubicle, this time a small crack appearing in the wall, and her fist beginning to shine red with blood. No pain was felt out of this, Sal couldn’t feel physical pain any more. She had reached the point where she was so overloaded with sufferings that they had turned numb into a dull feeling of nothing, something not new to Sal at all.

Sal could remember clearly the last time pain had gotten this intense, and that was when she had first been placed into the orphanage, without her mother or father. Everybody stared at her, everybody watched her out the corner of their eyes, and Sal hated it. Hated them for trying to control her, hated them for telling her what to wear, and how to have her hair. The only escape she had had at the orphanage before Ashley had appeared was Fury. Good old Fury, who was always by her side, who was always there to offer support and be there for her.

Good old Fury who Sal herself, had pushed away with a series of cruel remarks. Sal hated herself for this, hated herself for becoming selfish enough to cut Fury inside. Something about what Sal had said about Fury only being a wolf had torn the heart Fury bore. Those golden eyes, those hurt and bleeding golden eyes still shone in Sal’s memory. In a small series of sobs, Sal only had reason to become more angry, not with the world, but with herself.

*

Lucidia glared at Sandra, trying to suppress any rage she felt. Sandra seemed not to notice Lucidia’s cold stare, maybe because it was such a common look for her. Sandra sat across from Lucidia once more, in silence they sat, occasionally drinking from the cups of tea in front of them.

“When are you going to come up with new findings?” Sandra questioned shortly.

“When something new is found,” Lucidia replied, her foot giving a slight kick.

“When will that be?” Sandra shot back.

“When there is something new to be found,” Lucidia answered.

They resigned in silence once more, each one staring at the other.

“So when will you be having your next werewolf stakeout?” Sandra demanded.

“When I feel it is necessary,” Lucidia answered. “Now are you finished? Because I have some very important tests to mark for the year eleven, and I heard that they need you over in the Cascade Division.”

Sandra scowled. “I assume you are trying to get rid of me, I think,” she told Lucidia, who simply stared back in response. Sandra stood up and picked up her hand bag. “You know, one day you will go down Lucidia, one day you will overwhelm yourself and drown in everything you do. And then who will be looking out for werewolves? Then who will be protecting the humans from werewolves?” She stalked out the room, not a happy woman.

Lucidia took a deep breath, and placed her head in her hands, tired of this. With one large gulp, she finished off the rest of her coffee.

*

“Are you still working on the assignment?” Sean asked tiredly, walking into the computer room. Greg sat in front of the illuminated computer screen, his fingers constantly moving along the keys of the keyboard, his eyes drooping.

“I’m almost finished,” Greg replied.

“You’re only up to question one!” Sean exclaimed, looking at the screen. “No, stop typing Greg, I want to have a look at this.” Sean quickly read some of the writing on the screen. “Greg what are you doing?!” he shouted, tired and exasperated. “We didn’t have to do half this work! In fact, those first two lines would have earnt you the full marks you needed anyway! Why do you work this hard? I hate seeing you like this man!”

“I have to work hard, I have to keep on working hard, otherwise I’ll be sent back home,” Greg replied sadly. “And I don’t want to go back home.”

“What?” Sean’s mouth hung open. “What do you mean?”

Greg turned away from the computer, and looked at Sean. “My mother and father always forced me to work as hard as I could, and no matter what grades I got, I was never good enough and the grades were never good enough. If I got B’s they wanted A’s, if I got A’s they wanted A plusses, and if I got straight A plusses, they said I should be spending more time on sport and getting sport trophies. And constantly I’ve had to put up with their pressuring me to do well and work hard. And when I had the opportunity to win a scholarship away from them, I jumped at the chance, and I worked really hard, along with another girl named Ashley, and luckily, I won the scholarship.”

“So why do you still work so hard?” Sean questioned. “I don’t get it, if you’re away from your parents, then you can take a bit of a break. No need to work this hard.”

“If I don’t work hard, they’re going to take me out of this school and put me into home schooling,” Greg replied quietly. “And I don’t want to, I’m really scared of that happening. I don’t want to leave, I love it here, I love the people, and I love the place. It’s too nice a place to leave.”

“I think you should come to bed though,” Sean told Greg. “Nobody needs to work this hard.”

*

“So are you two hooked up yet or not?” Nayia asked bluntly, walking up to Kayla and Craig. Kayla looked at Craig and grinned, while Craig turned slightly red and nodded. Nayia gave a squeal and ran off to spread the word.

“She’s so cute, I love her,” Kayla told Craig, smiling. “She’s so blonde!”

Craig put his hands around Kayla’s waist, and placed his chin on her shoulder. “She’s a funny one,” he agreed. “But she’s frigid.”

“She’s what?” Kayla asked, confused.

“Frigid,” Craig repeated. “As stated in the Oxford Pocket Dictionary, it means sexually unreactive.”

“But why would she want to react sexually? And who too?” Kayla frowned, not understanding one bit.

“Just watch for a second,” Craig told her, indicating over to where Nayia was joining Martin and Greg. Martin grinned loudly, and mucking around with Greg, stretched his arm out in a mock yawn around Nayia’s shoulder. Nayia moved away hurriedly, her smile gone for once. Martin’s first reaction was disappointment, but then covered this by smiling again. He said something and did the same to Greg, who moved away and yelled loud enough for Kayla and Craig to hear, “Rejected!”

“Oh you mean to little things like that, not to the big guns,” Kayla nodded, understanding. “Well there’s a reason behind all that, but she asked me not to say anything.”

“You know you can tell me anything,” Craig told her.

“Fine,” Kayla sighed. “But you’ve got to promise that you wont tell anybody at all.”

“Promise.”

“She liked one of her best friends named Andy, and she’d liked him for ages, probably a few years. Pretty much, they stayed up all night, he told her he liked her, she told him that she liked him, and then some other guy, Steve, who was also her close friend, walks out, really upset because he liked her so much. He had a gun, said something about being jealous, shot Andy. Then was pissed off because he knew that Nayia would never like him, shot himself. She’s really affected by it and scared that she’s going to lose somebody if she gets too close with them.”

“Well she shouldn’t be scared to get close to Martin, because he likes her,” Craig commented, before realizing what he said. He clapped his hand over his mouth, uttering out an “oops.”

Kayla turned and stared at Craig. “What?” she gasped, her mouth open. Her dropped jaw slowly changed into a large grin, as she laughed. “You’re kidding! Oh my gosh that is so cute!”

“Yeah but you can’t tell anybody okay,” Craig told her in a low voice. “The only people that know are Sean and me, and we’re supposed to keep it a secret.”

“As if it isn’t obvious anyway,” Kayla laughed. “But okay, I’ll keep it quiet.”

*

“I guess its time we talked.” Sal’s voice was hard and cold, filled with bitter and resentment. There was no way to measure how much she detested going back, admitting she was wrong after all. She hated crawling back to people with such intensity, to the point where she found it impossible to look directly at Fury.

Fury felt the same way, and did not wish to look at Sal any more than she did. Fury was still hurt by the words Sal had yelled at her, hurt by the fact that as Sal’s friend, Sal had simply dismissed her, after she had traveled across the country to warn her.

“I guess it is,” Fury responded, as harshly as Sal.

“Do you-” Sal began.

“Yes I know why you’re here,” Fury replied. She sighed, and rolled her eyes. “Something has gone wrong and you need some help? Or is everything fine and dandy as usual?” Fury sneered. “You don’t realize what you’ve done, do you? No, just wrapped up in your life aren’t you!”

Sal stared at Fury, trying to understand what she was talking about.

Fury sighed once more. “When you’re angry at something else, that isn’t my fault, don’t blame it on me,” she told Sal quietly. “Don’t abuse me, don’t just take it all out on me. I’m not just some stupid little runt wolf who will give you the answers to problems. Okay?” She turned away from Sal, wishing not to make eye contact.

Sal stayed silent for a moment, trying to comprehend this. “I didn’t mean to hurt you!” she yelled at Fury, impatiently. “I was angry! I am freaking mad now! You know I have an anger problem and not to take half the stuff seriously! Anyway I don’t need that crap now that stupid Balloise knows what I am!”

Fury turned around, her tear filled eyes wide in shock. “What? You didn’t change in front of her did you?”

Sal scowled. “You know that I always come out here before changing,” she snapped. “I don’t know how she knows, honestly. But when I find out I’m going to murder them and Lucidia!”

“Not a good idea,” Fury shook her head. “For one thing, police will be questioning about the murders, for another thing, the AWL will be after werewolves even more severly if you kill the head of Kilbourne District.”

“Why are you always right?” Sal demanded.

“Because I’m never wrong,” Fury half smiled. “This is really serious, really serious. You have to watch your back from now on, always be watching. Because the moment you stop watching, is when she’ll pounce.”

*

Lucidia walked into the geography classroom, eyes blazing with ice shards, hair like flames of great power and anger. The loud laughing and chatter died down almost instantly as she walked across the front of the room and to her desk. She glared around the classroom, pausing for a minute on Sal. Sal sunk down in her chair and looked away, not wishing to make eye contact with the demon in front of her.

“Where’d the other teacher go?” Nayia blurted out. Lucidia’s eyes darted straight back to the blonde. Nayia seemed unaffected by the stare and continued talking. “You know, Miss what’ s-her-name?? Oh yeah, Miss Kumar. What happened with her? She fall down stairs or something?”

“NAYIA WATERFLOWER! Have you forgotten the rules I hold in my class?” Lucidia roared. Nayia blinked and shook her head. “Then WHY ARE YOU CALLING OUT? In fact, why are you asking questions that have nothing to do with the topic?”

Nayia shrugged. “I don’t know really.”

“Stop the talk back!” Lucidia yelled.

“But you asked me!” Nayia cried in defense.

“She should give up while she’s ahead,” Kayla whispered to Sal, who gave a small nod of agreement.

“You might find OUTSIDE a much more interesting place,” Lucidia told her, pointing to the door.

“Does that mean you want me to get out?” Nayia asked cluelessly.

“Right, one detention for being a smart mouth, another for talking back, another for calling out in the first place, another for not following instructions when asked,” Lucidia ticked them off on her fingers.

“Hey! I don’t deserve those!” Nayia exclaimed.

Lucidia looked up, and smiled, her eyes still as icy as ever. “I know,” she replied. “You’re on a conduct card.”

Nayia’s eyes almost fell out of her head. “So now I’m on a conduct card?” she asked, her mouth hanging open. “Do you still want me to go outside?”

“Yes, in fact, go to my staff room. Take your books and a text book and start copying,” Lucidia ordered. “You may leave my staff room once you have copied out the first five chapters.”

Nayia picked up her books, and her pencil case, and walked to the door. “First five chapters?” she repeated. “The book only has five chapters!”

“Oh my,” Lucidia stated, not moved by this. “What an excellent punishment! Now GO!”

Nayia walked out the room, still smiling, and singing. Her words floated into the classroom as she left. “Oh Ms Balloise, could you be more mean? Now we’re wasting lots of paper and wasting lots of trees. Oh Ms Balloise, could you be crueler, now you’ve taken me away from my little group. They’re going to miss me…”

Her voice faded out as she walked further away.

“Now before we start, does anybody else wish to get on a conduct and copy out the whole book?” Lucidia asked sweetly, sending shivers down Sal’s spine. “Right, turn to page twenty four, read the section, then copy and complete the questions. After you’ve done that, start writing an essay on the section relating to Warroga’s climate. Go!”

Many groans were heard from various members of the class. Lucidia looked up, and smiled, her eyes frozen. “Did I mention the essay has to be five thousand words?” Many more groans were heard. “And the title, and THE END do not count as words!”

“Bugger!” Martin complained.

“Right, Martin, six thousand and not a word less.”

Sal fumed in her seat, trying to concentrate on the work in front of her. The words washed over her, not a single sentence sinking in. It was impossible for her to concentrate, especially with Lucidia watching her every move.

Any moment, any move I make, and the AWL will burst in and take me to join Nade. Any moment now. Sal’s thoughts ran through her head. She constantly glanced at the door, her head moving back and forth from the book to the door.

“Expecting someone?” Lucidia asked coldly from across the room. Sal turned to her and glared before continuing with her attempts to read the words in front of her. The words rolled off her like water on a ducks back.

Perhaps half an hour passed, it felt like eternity to Sal. The minutes, the seconds seemed to crawl past, and as the others moved on from project to project, she sat there. Sal didn’t want to work, and if she didn’t want to do something, she made it obvious.

“So, how much longer would you like to sit there and stare at the book, Sally-Anne?” Lucidia asked.

Sal snapped back to reality, and stared with cold green eyes over at Lucidia. “Give me fifteen more minutes, the period should be up by then,” she replied, just as coolly. “Oh yeah, by the way, don’t call me Sally-Anne.”

Kayla’s mouth dropped, not once had she seen Sal respond in this way. Kayla had only ever seen Sal exploding, but she knew that this was much more dangerous than a sudden eruption.

“I’d like to see you after class,” Lucidia stated simply.

Sal shook her head, carrot colored hair flinging side to side. “No thank you.”

Lucidia’s eye began to twitch. “Sally-Anne McGregor, you watch your mouth,” she warned, her voice becoming harsh.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Sal replied. “In fact, don’t tell me what my name is either. That’s my job, and my name is NOT SALLY-ANNE! I REFUSE to accept that!”

Lucidia stood up, her chair sliding back into the wall, her hands against the desk. “Sally-Anne McGregor,” she began threateningly.

Sal also stood up, imitating Ms Balloise’s stance. “Lucidia Balloise,” she threw back at Lucidia.

Lucidia took a deep breath in, trying to control her temper. In this position, it was not a good time to lose control. “Sally-Anne,” she began once more. “I would watch myself if I were you. I would be watching everything I said and did if I were you. I would be very careful.”

Sal threw her hands in the air, annoyed to the max. “I’ve had it with you!” she yelled. “Seriously, I have had it! How DARE you hold that against me!”

Lucidia began to grin, spying a weakness. “What, so if I were to tell…” she trailed off, watching Sal’s reaction.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Sal growled. “You. Wouldn’t. Dare.”

“Try me and see.” Lucidia’s grin grew even wider. Sal stiffened, knowing she was at a dead end. If she fought back, stood up for herself, Lucidia would alert the AWL onto her, and she would end up living like Nade, living in a cage as a lab rat. If she stopped fighting, she was showing submission, giving Lucidia the advantage, allowing herself to once again, become a pushover, become something that could be walked over easily. She stood there, shaking with uncontrollable rage.

What would Fury think? These four words flashed into Sal’s head out of nowhere, slowing the speed of her shaking. Sal didn’t actually care if she ended up in a cage, she didn’t care if the other werewolves all died, but, she cared about Fury. As much as she hated to admit it, she cared about Fury. And as much as she didn’t care about anything, she cared about Fury’s opinions, and about Fury’s decisions, because Fury was almost always right.

Sal took a step back, not saying anything, her green eyes burning with detest.

Lucidia gave a small chuckle. “Knew that would get you,” she told her. “Now you can get started on your work, NOW! Understand? And if you don’t do all that work, in the next fifteen minutes, then I guess you’ll be in a bit of a tight situation, won’t you?”

Sal sat down, and picked up her pen and began to work. Gripping the pen tightly, she tried to write, but the words appeared shaky, and the pen began to develop cracks in its side. The plastic shell of the pen shattered in Sal’s grip. Kayla slid another pen to Sal. “Don’t hold it too hard,” she whispered nervously, glancing from Sal’s fiery eyes to Lucidia.

Sal understood one thing. Lucidia now had the advantage. Lucidia now held the strings that controlled Sal the puppet. And as much as Sal had freedom, Lucidia now had control of that also. Sal hated her for it.

[EVme15]

First Reply! *holds up peace sign*

Poor Fury and Sal... they keep trying to make up again but just end up salting the wounds sometimes...
I hope everything works out... Remembering the LVH fic you made last time, this story is gonna have even more twists... Or maybe you're changing that and surprising us again! In any case, I'm glad you're able to still write at all. I'm fine with taking the chapters far apart. Just keep them coming at any rate and I'll be happy. ^_^

Happy Holidays!

[Lady Vulpix]

This is what got Sal the most tortured character award some time ago... I still feel sorry for her. Though I wonder how Ms Balloise handles her own life too.
And poor Greg... It must be awful to have parents like those!

Just as Kayla, I don't mind if you take some time between chapters. They're great, so I know I'll love them whenever they come. :yes:

[mr_pikachu]

*whistles softly* This is getting tough on Sal...

So Kayla and Craig both know the secrets of Martin and Nayia, but they have no idea. I wonder how long it'll be before it slips out? I'll get the stopwatch.

And Ludicia's cruelern than ever! Nayia gets to copy the entire book, Sal's got to finish everything in fifteen minutes, and let's not forget the ever-endangering secret Lucidia holds! Poor Sal... I hope this doesn't all explode in everyone's faces... either way, this is shaping up to be a classic fic! Keep it up!

P.S. From reading your log, I'm guessing it won't be long before everyone finds out about Martin and Nayia. Or were you applying that to Craig and Kayla? :confused: Either way, it's looking great! See ya later! :wave:

[mistysakura]

Hard stuff for Sal. Now that Balloise has a hold over her, she's going to have to work really hard to control herself... really hard. It's just not natural. It's also interesting how Kayla and craig know now. It's a rather sweeter aspect of the fic right now, and it's good to have a change from Sal's fiery temper.

I think that this chapter was pretty good. It didn't show at all that you had trouble writing it. Keep it up! And holidays rule!

[PancaKe]

Thanks so much guys! Your support is one of the things that keep me writing this fic.

EVme: Fury and Sal have a love hate relationship happening now. ^^ It's quite fun. And I odnt know if it will have more twists or not, i'm going for a more sinister approach to Lucidia than last time so *shrugs*

Gabbi: Yeah, I remember that award. You brought up an interesting thought - I wonder how Ms Balloise copes with this? Nice insite for next chapter - good work :)

Pika: Lol, you run that stopwatch! Thanks for your comments. Yeah, its time for Lucidia to take her role as the evil person in this fic. She's not relaly the villan though, and you'll find out why in the end. :)

MistySakura: Balloise has the edge yeah ^.~ I didn't think Sal's fiery temper would work int hat situation, so thats' why it didn't actually appear. Remember, she's worried that she'll end up in the AWL as a lab rat anyway, and worried bout Fury. Otherwise she would explode and show the fiery side.

~Mist

[PancaKe]

Chapter Eleven

“She made me copy out the entire textbook!” Nayia exclaimed. “My hand hurts so much! And, she stopped me from going to three other periods! I think that’s a bit unfair, don’t you?”

Jackie sighed, and took a sip of the drink on her desk. “Look, as much as I would also like to shove a broom handle up her… left nostril, I am unable to. For now you are just going to have to try and put up with her teaching techniques.”

Nayia stomped her foot down. “But she made me copy the whole text book!” the blonde wailed.

“Believe me, its much worse to have to work alongside her,” Jackie assured her. “If you really can’t handle it you can either work really hard and get moved up classes, or slack off and get moved down classes.”

“But what about Martin?” Nayia questioned. “And Greg, and Sal, and Kayla, and Craig too!” She added quickly.

Jackie sighed. “Its up to you. For now, I suggest you try to keep in her good books. You know, I know, she plays favorites, she plays dirty, and you want to stay out of the mud with her.”

*

“Sally-Anne McGregor,” Lucidia began, smiling as she spoke. Sal stood, as if she were imitating a statue. Her body was still; only her eyes showing life inside the shell. Her flaming dark green iris’s blazed into Lucidia’s own icy blue ones. “You didn’t finish all your work.”

“Why are you seeing me after dinner?” Sal’s question was cold and alone. No other sounds escaped her angry mouth.

“Because that’s the beauty of it,” Lucidia grinned, her smile not reaching her eyes. “I have the authority to be able to see you at whatever time I wish. I could see you at three thirty in the morning if I desired. Lucky for you, I like to sleep and have no interest in seeing you or any other student at that hour.”

“So why now?”

Lucidia sat down in her chair. “Sit,” she ordered Sal in a sickly nice tone. Sal refused to take a seat. Lucidia’s expression suddenly changed. “Sit down right now! I don’t care if you don’t want to, you have to because I said so!” she roared at Sal. Sal looked at the chair, then back at Lucidia, not making any movement towards the chair. Lucidia stood up. “You sit down in that chair right now, or you’re going to find yourself in even more trouble.”

Sal blinked, forgetting all about keeping it cool and staying out of trouble. “You couldn’t make me sit in that chair if you wanted to!” Sal yelled back. “Don’t you freaking try to tell me what to do, if I wanted a seat, believe me, I would already be in that chair! You shut your mouth, and don’t tell me what to do and how to do it.”

“I am vice principal of this school and head of the Anti-Werewolf League for the Kilbourne District! You will listen to what I say and follow my instructions!” Lucidia bellowed. “And you will take that seat and put your *** into that cushion and SIT DOWN!”

People walking by halted their paces to that of a snail, trying to catch every word of what was happening inside the office.

“You think I’m going to sit just because you tell me to?” Sal asked, with a laugh. “WRONG! How about you sit in this chair, if it’s so special? If what you have to say is so important then why don’t you just sit down and worry more about yourself? I’m sure those legs can’t hold up a person like you for very long.”

Lucidia fumed, her face slowly becoming flushed. Her right eye gave a sudden twitch. “Right, you can stand if you like,” she said quietly, sitting down herself. “But I do have some questions you will need to answer for me.”

“Why would I want to answer any of your questions?” Sal replied dirtily, spitting every word at Lucidia.

“I know you’re a werewolf, Sally-Anne,” Lucidia grinned quietly. All of a sudden, Lucidia had turned from her maniac mood to a quiet, deadly approach to Sal.

Sal took a step back, her face finally showing some emotion. Pale, Sal stepped back once more, before reacting. “What the HELL are you talking about?” Sal screamed at Lucidia. “You *****! You have no proof that I’m such a creature, why the hell are you accusing me? I am not a freaking disgusting creature like… like that!”

Lucidia simply nodded. “You’re in denial. Sally-Anne, I know you’re a werewolf.”

“I am not a werewolf,” Sal whispered to Lucidia, before turning around and bolting towards the door. She slammed at the door, pushing down the handle repeatedly.

“You’ll find that the door is locked,” Lucidia stated from her desk, holding up a pair of keys. Sal turned around, and glared at her, before continuing to attempt to break out of her office.

“Why are you keeping me in here?” Sal screeched across the room.

“Because I need answers, and I’ll be getting them from you now, or later,” Lucidia answered. “And I’m going to get at least some of them now.”

Sal kept a tight grip on the door handle. “Let me out,” she whispered.

“Answers, Sally-Anne, answers,” Lucidia taunted, jingling the keys in her hand. “Answer me one question, and I will let you out.”

Sal growled, but made no other comment. Her body began to shake with intense rage, the hand clutching the door handle becoming sweaty.

“Where is your pack?” Lucidia asked.

“I don’t have a pack!” Sal cried. “Not a pack of dogs, or wolves, or cards!” She lowered her voice. “I am not a werewolf and do not have a pack!”

Lucidia sighed, and stood up. “Well, I’ll keep that in mind,” she replied. “I’ll keep it in mind when the AWL begins its raids.” Sal glared at her while she unlocked the door. “However, you did answer the question, just not with the right answer. So you had better watch your back.”

*

“You know what,” Nayia said, breaking the silence that had hung over the room for the past five minutes. Nayia looked up from the magazine she was reading and looked around the room. In the chair beside her, sitting sideways, Martin’s eyes followed the words on the pages of the geography textbook he had loaned from the library. He had luckily escaped geography class without finishing the essay, but knew that she would be onto him next lesson. Greg had his fingers flying across the computer keyboard, overworking on another assignment. Sean was lying on the floor, tossing a soft squeeze ball onto the wall and catching it as it bounced off.

Kayla and Craig took up the space on the big lounge, Craig in the corner, and Kayla resting her head in his lap, both staring mindlessly at the television. “What?” Martin muttered, not really listening.

“It’s almost winter,” Nayia stated. “Can you believe how fast these months have gone? I can’t believe it, it feels like it was summer yesterday!”

Martin turned around. “I know,” he nodded. “But can you please not talk anymore.”

Craig scoffed from the lounge. “Look who you’re talking to.”

“I know,” Martin smiled. “But, I really have to finish this essay.”

“Why not ask Greg to do it for you?” Nayia blurted out. “I mean, he loves doing assignments.”

“Nayia, you’re a doofus!” Sean yelled, throwing the squeeze ball at her. It bounced off her head and rolled under the television. “Greg’s busy enough doing his own homework!”

Greg made no comment, but his fingers sped up across the keyboard.

“Greg, stop it!” Nayia yelled at him, getting off the seat and picking up the squeeze ball. She threw it across the room at him, but hit the wall instead.

“I can’t,” he replied.

“Why not! Take a break for once!” Nayia yelled.

Greg spun around. Nayia took a step back, for once, worrying about what she had shouted. Taking a deep breath, Greg spoke. “Maybe if you saw things through my eyes you would understand,” Greg told her. “Maybe if you saw things through my eyes, you could just accept that I have to work hard at what I do!”

There was a moment of silence in the room.

“But I don’t,” Nayia replied slowly. “So why do you have to work hard?”

Martin rolled his eyes. “Nayia, would you please shut up! You’re making matters worse!” he yelled at her.

“Oh, so now everybody’s against me?” Nayia cried, throwing one hand up into the air.

“Nayia,” Greg began, with an extreme amount of patience. “I have to work hard at what I do. My parents put so much pressure on me that it isn’t funny. I worked so hard to win this scholarship; I worked so damn hard to get my *** here in the first place! And I am not giving it up for the world! If I don’t work hard, they’ll send me right back to where I came from, right back into the hands of the slave drivers I’m supposed to call parents! Do you have ANY idea NOW?”

Another silence followed, and was once again, broken by Nayia.

“Sort of,” she replied. “Dude, that must suck so badly to have parents like that. But you’re away from them now, and you could get better marks than us with your eyes closed anyway. Heck, you more than double our marks without even trying.”

Greg sighed. “Nayia, for once, take Martin’s advice and be quiet,” he stated, before turning around and returning to his work.

Nayia stood there, blinking, speechless. “Okay,” she commented, blinking once more.

The door slammed open, and fuming, Sal stormed into the room. Her face was flushed, her hair, as usual, everywhere, and her eyes blazing. “Nayia, please keep your mouth shut on this one,” Martin commented.

“Believe me, that’s one fire I don’t want to poke with a stick,” Nayia replied, sitting down. Martin burst out laughing, Nayia watching on in bewilderment. “What?” she asked.

“You say the stupidest stuff!” Martin hooted.

“Will you kindly SHUT UP?” Sal roared at Martin, turning around and driving her fist through a wall. Martin’s loud laughter stopped instantly, as he stared at the hole in the wall.

“Wow,” he whispered.

“Jackie’s going to have to pay for that,” Craig commented.

“She put her fist through the wall?” Kayla suddenly exclaimed, looking up.

“Bit slow,” Craig teased, smiling at his girlfriend.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! Sorry for being too slow for my boyfriend,” Kayla replied sarcastically.

“Did you have to be sarcastic?” Sal yelled, before storming back out the room.

*

Storming down the hallway, Sal stopped, tired and worn. It hadn’t been an easy day for her, she had to put up with the burden Lucidia pushed down on her, plus now everybody was being sarcastic, just like Fury. How she longed to talk to Fury once more, but the stubborn attitude she had prevented her from overcoming the invisible barrier.

Alone, Sal dragged herself up to the dormitory, head throbbing. Ignoring the sharp pain in her skull, she flung herself down on her bed, trying to think things over in her mind. “I don’t understand,” she whispered, talking to herself. “I wasn’t like this in Quentside Heights, I wasn’t like this with Ashley. And yet, these people seem to be like Ashley.”

She closed her eyes, her thoughts continuing.

‘These people, they’re different to others. They’re natural with each other; they don’t put on acts to make themselves sound tough, they genuinely want to be my friend. I push them away. I push everybody away. Why?’

‘Do I push everybody away? Yes. Why? Is it because I’m not happy with myself? I don’t know.’

Sal screamed out in frustration, clutching her hair with both hands.

“Sal, are you okay?” Kayla asked softly, coming into the room. She stopped after a few steps, waiting for the explosion. Sal remained silent, staring at the ceiling. Kayla dared to enter further. “Sal, is everything alright?” Sal blinked, not saying a word. “Do you want to talk about anything?” Kayla questioned.

“No! I do not want to talk about anything!” Sal screeched. Kayla stared, speechless, and took a step back. Sal sat up, and gripped the bedspread tightly with both hands, grinding her teeth. “AUGH! WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!” She yelled at Kayla. “Why?”

“Sal,” Kayla began slowly, approaching Sal cautiously. “Sal, listen to me. Please, stop your yelling and listen to me.” Kayla sat down on the end of Sal’s bed, and took Sal’s hands in her own. “Sal, I don’t know what you’re going through, but from what I can see, every day to you is a struggle. Sal, don’t push people away, because without people, without interaction, you can’t defeat each struggle. If you keep everything inside, you’ll flip.”

“I’ll flip will I?” Sal demanded, her breathing fast paced. “You don’t know what I go through!”

“But I’m willing to listen,” Kayla replied, trying as best as she could to keep up her patience. “Sal, don’t push people away. Don’t push me away.”

“I don’t know!” Sal cried, beginning to sob. She snatched her hands out of Kayla’s and covered her face with them, wishing Kayla was not watching her, experiencing her break. “People are out there to hurt you, to make you feel worthless, and only are nice to you when they want something from you. And… and”

“And you’re wrong,” Kayla stated.

“HOW DO YOU KNOW?” Sal exclaimed.

“Because everybody is different, and although you may have come across people like that in your past, hardening yourself is only going to hurt one person in the end, and that’s you,” Kayla explained. “Sal, it’s okay to let people know what you’re feeling, it’s okay to talk to people. Even if you treat them nicely, they won’t use it against you. Sure, you can’t trust everybody, but you can trust us. And I think you know that.”

Sal looked at Kayla, but turned away quickly. “Why are you so nice to me?” she asked, not making eye contact.

“You’re my friend,” Kayla responded simply, reaching out for Sal’s arm. She touched her arm, and Sal withdrew quickly. “Sal, learn to trust me.”

“No…” It was barely louder than a whisper.

“Sal, don’t push people away,” Kayla reminded gently. Sal turned to Kayla, her eyes red and full of tears, her face pale, dark circles around her eyes, giving her a raccoon effect. “Sal, you’re my friend, and it’s okay to trust me.”

“I don’t know that for sure,” Sal replied.

“You can’t know for sure. Do you want to share what’s been bothering you lately or would you just like to talk?” Kayla asked, smiling.

Sal looked down at the bed, and looked up, a small smile upon her face.

*

“I’ve accomplished one thing, now I can accomplish the other,” Sal muttered to herself, determination upon her face. She marched through the school grounds, trying desperately to convince herself that she indeed, was capable of befriending Fury. She marched straight into the Shady Thicket, and began to look around for the wolfish character.

“Oh goody, its Santa Clause,” Fury muttered, walking up to Sal.

Sal sighed, trying not to lose her temper. “Fury, can you just hear me out for once without using sarcasm?”

“What do you want to say, big mouth?” Fury rolled her eyes.

“I…” Sal stumbled over her words, not knowing how to make it come out. She turned around and drove her fist into the tree before facing Fury once more, knuckles bleeding. “I’m sorry we had that fight and I know that you think I’m a big headed jerk and you know what, I don’t care! The only reason you think that of me is because I don’t listen to other people, which is right! Yeah, Fury, you’re right again! And-”

“Sal, be quiet!” Fury yelled. Sal stopped mid-sentence, and stared at Fury, who grinned back in the shadows. “I knew this would happen someday.”

“What would happen?” Sal asked, confused.

“You’d finally come out of this… this shell you put yourself in when you arrived,” Fury smiled. “Ever since you got here, you’ve been so withdrawn. And I knew that you’d snap one day. Glad it happened before the werewolf trap did.”

Sal sat down on the grass, her ripped jeans absorbing the damp on the grass. “If you know everything then why don’t you just open your big mouth and tell me then!” she exclaimed.

“It’s called timing,” Fury replied. “And knowing the right timing only comes with being around for a long time. Therefore I have a very-”

“Bad sense of timing,” Sal interrupted.

“I’ll agree with you only because you’re saying I’m young.” Fury grinned comically, and was sent rolling along the ground by Sal. Not bothering to get up, Fury asked her next question sprawled out across the grass. “What’s been happening with you and Lucidia lately?”

“She’s horrible,” Sal replied. “Punishes people for nothing.”

“Did you fight with her again?” Fury sighed.

“Yes.”

“And did she inflict one of her punishments on you again?”

“Yes.”

“Well, this punishment that Lucidia has you under, what is it like?” she questioned.

“I swear, she is the most vile, inhumane creature ever!” Sal outburst. “She had me locked in that room, drilling me for answers to whether I’m a werewolf or not!”

Fury sat up, her eyes wide. “Sal, shut up!” she hissed, eyes darting around, searching the surroundings for unwanted listeners. “If she’s been asking you whether you’re a werewolf or not then she must have some idea! Something must have given it away, and you can’t just go yelling it out now! Before wasn’t safe, but if she’s got the faintest idea, then believe me, she and the AWL will stop at nothing!”

“She knows,” Sal informed Fury. “She knows what I am.”

“How! How does she know?” Fury cried.

“I don’t know!” Sal yelled back. “But do you think that I would walk up to her and go ‘Hi, I’m Sal, I’m a werewolf. Nice to meet you’.”

“No, I don’t.” Fury stayed silent, thinking for a moment. “I don’t know where she could’ve got this from,” she told Sal. “But you’re going to have to be very careful from now on. Very careful.”

[mistysakura]

Pretty good. Kayla must have a lot of patience... she's a real friend. I think that the character development there was cool! (And I'm addicted to that stuff. :D) Sal actively trying to make peace with Fury was good, too, because it shows that she's not just 100% hot tempered.

Balloise is so evil. Where are her sources of information? I'm pretty sure this fic doesn't follow LVH, because Balloise would have to be on duty on full moons... She's powerful. Sal going psycho about sitting on a chair was a bit weird, though -- I think that it might have been a bit too extreme even for Sal.

Anyway, good job.

[EVme15]

Wow... that was just so... wow.

Yeah, I'm running low on comments. I had to beta my friend's fanfic last night and it's way too early for me right now. (Damn end of vacations...)
So, I'll just say the obvious overstated stuff: great chapter, keep writing... Um... *brain freezes*

Will most likely edit once my brain thaws...:P

[Lady Vulpix]

Good chapter, and nice going for Kayla. Though I wonder how the conversation finished.
As for the chair scene, I really wasn't expecting Balloise to back off, but I guess even she has her limits.

[Doomykins]

...woah...*is still trying to get over the fact that Sal said she was sorry to fury*

[PancaKe]

Thanks ^^;;; THat chapter was so hard to write, I had to try and totally revolutionise Sal's character, try to make her more like the LVH Sal. Because I was rereading lvh as im reposting it (in completed fiction placE) and its amazing how differeent the Sal's are. I mean, it was easier to write Sal in LVH because it was in first person but I guess I like the challenge. :)

~Mist

[mr_pikachu]

Nice emotion. Not much description, but a lot of emotion. It all worked out fine. Sal's finally broken out... or has she? Only time will tell. Will she be able to share everything, or will she find herself trapped within her own emotions? Hmm...

The relationship between Martin and Nayia is interesting, while Craig and Kayla seem deeply infatuated with each other. Sean's still working his tail off, though. Will that ever end, or is he doomed to eternal slavery? :P

Great chapter. I can't wait for the next one! :wave:

[mistysakura]

Yay! I was waiting for this :) I'll comment properly later, but it's awesome that you've found the inspiration to write again. And it's great that newer readers will get to read this legendary work.

[PancaKe]

Haha thanks Ada. Yeah, I'm happy that I like to and kind of can write again. I guess I'm a lot more humble this time around.

by the way - does anyone know any television shows, or movies with characters that are just angry for no reason? Don't say anger management :P Just because, I feel that the part of me that was Sal has long disappeared since leaving all that made me angry and upset behind. So umm... its a real struggle to write her character now. :)

[Gavin Luper]

Yayyyyyyy Tara, I was hoping this was what you were referring to the other day!

Like Ada, I don't have time to give a full commentary right now (final exam in two hours!!!) but I'm stoked you're carrying on with this and will give you more feedback later.

Back in 2002/3 we were 14 and 15 and stuff, it was a lot easier to be angry at the world I reckon. There's nothing wrong with feeling happier, except you end up missing that part of you that was rebellious and angsty. Maybe it's still there and you just need to access it?

As for the TV shows... I really can't think. Dr. Cox from Scrubs but I don't think that's what you're going for. Drawing a blank other than that sorry.

Anyway, stoked Full Moon is back and I'll give a proper read and reply after my exam's over!

Cheers!

[Lady Vulpix]

Yay, it's back! I like the new ending for chapter 2. I hope you can complete the fic this time around. :)

Just a little note, you've missed quite a few apostrophes. Especially the ones it "mother's".

It's good to see this fic up again. :D

[PancaKe]

Gavin Wow, I feel so old school and professional, starting replies with an underlined name. ANYWAY, I've had my nostalgic moment now. Good luck with your final exam, let me know how you went!! Yeah, I'm feeling much happier at life now which is great, but hard to write Sal. Dr Cox isn't exactly who I was going for, but I can draw like, responses and ways he is angry at the world through him, so that is actually somewhat helpful! :) The reason I worry so much this time around is because ... and I don't remember who... but one person replied to LVH and basically said "Good story but the dialogue is B grade" and I've been scarred ever since. lol. So I guess in that sense, that's why I'm stressing so much over Sal's personality and dialogue, so here I am off to watch scrubs now! :D

Gabi I'm glad you liked the new ending. I guess, aware that everyone now is pressured for time, I wanted to try and write/publish shorter chapters. That way people can sit and read them. That and, the first chapter last time turned out to be 9 pages long. NINE PAGES! Yeah lol that's longer than any assignment I've ever done for university! :D I wasn't sure where to cut it, seeing as there were three main scenes present in the first chapter of the last copy, so I cut it right in the middle. I'm glad you thought it worked :) It's a relief! And ah, yes I will go back and fix those sneaky apostrophies up! xo xo


I'll put up the next chapter tomorrow :)

[PancaKe]

II

Sal made no response to this outburst of her mothers temper, and allowed her mother to carry her back, as much as she didn’t want to go. Her mother sat her down, and with a last sharp look at her, turned back to the conversation.

More and more people came to be seated, many whom Sal did not know, but her parents knew very well. Emily and Kyle spent the rest of the evening greeting people such as Pauline Notting and her boyfriend Todd Hanson, career focused Olivia Bell and others. The waiter reappeared and orders were taken from everyone.

“And for Sally-Anne I’ll order –“ Emily began.

Familiar rage rose up in Sal. She was still furious about what her mother had said to her in the bathroom and decided that nobody was going to stand over her anymore, even if it meant she was going to be rude. “A hotdog and chips,” Sal finished.

Emily glared at Sal while others around her laughed. “I can bring a hot dog for your daughter if that is what you want,” the waiter offered.

“Thank you very much but she will be having the kids size beef and vegetables please,” Emily forced herself to grin and gave the order to the waiter who shrugged and walked off.

Sal frowned and sulked quietly, not daring to open her mouth again. Silence swept the table as Sandra Hellensberg stood up. Emily and Kyle looked over in awe also. “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the Head of the Kilbourne Division, Lucidia Balloise,” Sandra spoke.

Lucidia smiled, dark red lips moving upwards at the corners. Little Sal looked up and instantly, a wave of bad feelings washed over her. She didn’t know what it was that triggered it, whether it was the flaming orange hair or the icy blue, soulless eyes. Perhaps it was her dominating stance, the facial expression the bore, or the navy pinstripe business suit she wore. Whatever it was, Sal was frightened of her and disliked her immediately.

“Sorry for being so late,” Lucidia began, flashing a white smile at the guests. “There was important business at Kilbourne that had to be attended to. I may have to leave early because of it, but we’ll see how things go.” She flagged down the waiter to pass on her order, before turning back to the table. “Shall we discuss business now?”

“The werewolf is on it’s way,” Sandra informed her. “I won’t be visiting for a while yet though. I’ve decided it would be best to stay here for a while to observe citizens and werewolf activity.”

Lucidia nodded darkly. “I’m sure we can handle the werewolf,” she replied. “It would be interesting to observe actually, would there be any issues if I came and observed also?”

“Certainly,” Sandra nodded. She smiled at the waiter as her meal arrived.

Sal poked her tongue out at the food in front of her, refusing to eat. Conversation carried on around her, even though she took no notice of what the adults were saying. Sal understood bits and pieces of the conversation. Share prices and talk of that sort went straight over her head. She understood that her dad and mum would be the only two to be hunting, and that the scary lady might be coming back.

She didn’t really care. She was too young to understand, or so thought her mother. Sal believed werewolves to be ordinary people with a disease. She sometimes felt sad for them, because they couldn’t get better.

“Ah,” Lucidia gasped, glancing at her watch. She looked up at the table, where the others had stopped at her cry. Emily’s fork was halfway to her mouth. “I’m dreadfully sorry, but I do have to run. Sandra, I’ll send you any info we have. Nice to meet you all, hopefully to see you again. Thank you for dinner.” She pulled a hundred dollar bill from her purse and left it on the table, bid farewell and exited.

*

The weapon that captured the first werewolf lay on the desk, waiting to be picked up and used once more. Or so Kyle hoped anyway. He headed out the kitchen and into the study, picking up the weapon and shoving it into his backpack. Emily handed him a hot thermos flask with coffee, before kissing him on the cheek. He snatched his mobile phone from the desk, and kissed his Emily goodbye.

“You’ll be all right won’t you?” Emily asked.

“You should worry more about Sal,” Kyle smiled back. “Are you going to bring her at shift change?” Emily nodded. “Well rug her up then, it looks as if it’s going to be a chilly night.”

Sal wandered into the room, fully aware that Daddy was going hunting tonight. “Bye Daddy,” she said to Kyle, hugging his leg.

“Bye Sal,” Kyle grinned, ruffling her hair. She beamed up at him; her father was always her favourite, especially seeing that he called her Sal instead of her given name.

Emily glared at him. “Her name is Sally-Anne,” she growled through clenched teeth, trying to suppress her anger. Sal had learnt about her mothers temper as quickly as Kyle had, and had learnt that it was no use crying in front of her, crying in her mothers eyes was a sign of a sissy.

“Bye Sally-Anne,” Kyle corrected himself, kneeling down to hug her. “Sal,” he whispered playfully in her ear. She giggled.

*

Sal waited eagerly for shift change. It was no secret that she was Daddy’s little girl. She sat quietly on the lounge, swinging her little legs as far as she could, trying to avoid making her mother angry.

“Can we go now?” Sal asked excitedly. She grinned up at her mother.

“Not yet,” Emily replied.

“Now?” Sal asked again.

“No.”

“Now?” Sal asked again.

Sal picked herself up off the floor, and rubbed her stinging cheek. Scowling fiercely, she refused to cry. Instead she glared at her mother darkly.

“What don’t you understand about not yet,” Emily demanded.

Sal grit her teeth and glowered in response.

Emily looked up at the clock. “Five minutes,” she informed Sal.

Sal gave a small smile, but removed it the moment Emily looked.

*

Without a word, Emily buttoned Sal’s pink jacket, and squeezed a beanie onto her head, hiding the rusty orange hair underneath patterned wool. She grasped Sal’s small hand, and walked outside and down the street, glancing around nervously.

Emily wished she’d driven. There was no point in driving when discretion was what you aimed for.

She gripped Sal’s hand tightly.

Sal took in her surroundings. She liked the way the moonlight bounced off buildings, and the long shadows that were created. She liked the illumination of the clouds, and the depth and layers to them. They looked so fluffy and safe. She desperately wished she could spend all afternoon rolling around in them, feeling their soft feathery texture. There were no stars tonight. Sal looked hard for her favourite constellations, but the clouds covered most of the sky. Flickering street lights and dark alleyways lined the street they were on. Stray cats howled and knocked over garbage bins before dashing down storm water drains. A lone rat scurried its way from one shadow to the next.

Sal felt herself being suddenly yanked back, and snapping back to reality, realised her mother had stopped walking. She looked up to her mother, confused. Emily’s face was pale in the moonlight, her lower lip trembling with fear, her eyes wide and horrified. She looked as though she had been stunned. Confused, Sal turned to look at what was before her.

It lay in the middle of the pathway in a shallow pool of blood. Bite marks were all over it, but not human ones. Human bite marks didn’t rip chunks of skin out of the arms and legs and chest. A surprise attack, evident by still, wide eyes.

It was as though somebody had reached in and ripped out Sal’s heart to hold it before her as she died. She stared at her daddy, unable to look away from his corpse. Sal wanted to howl, wanted to scream, wanted to run and cuddle her daddy and wake him up. She wanted to quickly kiss his wounds better and wrap them up in bandages and her favourite dinosaur bandaids. Surely they made things better, didn’t they?

She didn’t notice the werewolf at first.

It emerged out of the shadows, blood stained, it’s teeth bared and growling. Emily took a step back, dropping the flask of coffee. Sal tried to scream, but couldn’t. Emily pulled her daughter behind her. Sal had no objections in following her mother’s orders this time.

“What have you done?” Emily shrieked at the beast, sobbing and yelling at the same time. “You filth! You dirty, feral, mutant filth! This… This is why we do what we do!” Emily screeched at the creature. Her voice quivered as she spoke.

The werewolf growled and walked slowly towards Emily and Sal. Emily began stepping backwards. “I can see your knees shaking,” it said, in a deep, husky feminine voice. “This is the same thing you’ve done to us.”

“We’re just defending ourselves from this monstrosity!” Emily argued with the creature. “This is the reason we need to hunt you down!”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” the werewolf snapped. “Your people kill each other all the time without so much of a thought. You kill us, without so much of a thought.”

“It’s for the good of the country!” Emily yelled.

“Well this,” the werewolf advanced on Emily and Sal, “is for the good of my kind!”

“Get away from me,” Emily demanded, stammering the order. She stepped back, before turning and bolting, picking Sal up. The werewolf tackled her and Sal to the ground. Emily put Sal on her feet, trying to scramble to her own. “Run, Sally-Anne! Run and get help!”

Sal turned and ran as fast as her little legs would carry her. They ached. She strained to breathe. She dashed down the street, out of the alleyway. She stopped at the edge of the sidewalk.

She wasn’t allowed across the road unless she was holding a grown up’s hand.

She glanced behind her. The werewolf was bounding, catching up quickly. Sal tried to continue running down the path, but with one solid leap, the werewolf blocked her way.

Sal stared, eyes wide, lip quivering. The werewolf stared back, towering over the three year old.

Sal burst into tears. She couldn’t run anymore. She fell to her bottom, and sat in the middle of the footpath, wailing. Daddy was dead. Mummy was dead. Sal wanted to tear her own heart out to stop the agony she was in. She looked up, crying, into the eyes of the werewolf, and knew she was going to die.

“I’m sorry, Sal,” the werewolf sighed sadly. “I can’t think of any other way.”

[Houndoom_Lover]

I always prefered short chapters. It's easier on the reader, but when I come here, it looks just so short. And seeing Dark Sage's massive chapters, it just breaks my artistic heart *hugs you* I'm sooooo glad you started out with that :3 'cause it just put me in a good mood before reading.

That family scene in Chapter one reminds me strongely of the scene in Fullmetal Alchimist where he tells his daughter he has work to do and then TwT so I was all scared and tense as I read, worried for the Dad. Werewolfs are dangerous, and he has a little girl! I was so relieved that nothing bad happened ^_^

Who brings a three year old to a dinner party? : o Parents! Geez. There was this woman who brought her kid to a fancy restraunt I was dining at, and she was on her phone the ENTIRE time. I mean, goodness. And then she yelled at the kid for talking loudly. Maybe if she got off the phone and paid attention. It made my soup almost unenjoyable...*goes back to reading*

Awww, Sal. -insert sad face here-

I'm glad I can catch this story a second time around :3 Yay. Werewolfs and childrens!

[PancaKe]

Yeah. now that you mention it, the chapter DOES look really short. :( Originally those two chapters were one long mama of a chapter - totalling 9 pages on my word document. Hurt my head. I guess seeing as everyone is busy these days, too busy to read, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for people, but if I should keep them longer, then let me know for sure!

Thanks heaps for reading! Without a babysitter, what other option do the McGregors have but to take their daughter to a dinner party? But I guess more about the McGregors is learnt in chapter two, and in further chapters to come =)