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. 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 . 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 . 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

[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!

[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. 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.

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. 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

[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!

[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!

[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... 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!

[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.

[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' . 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'

[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" well I'll explain that more in the next chapter, which I have to finish properly yet... *thinks*

~Mist

[mr_pikachu]

Yahoo! New chapter! 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!



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*


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'! 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. 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.


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! 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. 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. 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!

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.

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.
Great chapter, Tara! And yes, I loved the whole thing about Naiya's record too.

[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 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!