Forgotten (In The Shadows, Book One)

by Catherine Gardiner

“Have you always been stupid or is it something that’s happened since you became a werewolf?”

  Starr began to shake in fury. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

  “Someone with the IQ of more than, say … five.”

  “I could rip your throat out before you even acknowledged what was happening to you!”

  “Yeah, if you were a wolf, maybe.” Suzanne paused, eyeing the gun again. It had dropped a couple of inches. “But you’re not! You’re just a girl with an attitude problem.”

  “You think I’m bluffing?”

  “In a word …” Suzanne hesitated for effect. “Yes.”

  “Oh, you do!” Starr smirked, raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

  Suzanne felt the bullet pass her head with a soft and silent whoosh. Birds scattered from the surrounding trees, calling warnings, before leaving the world eerily silent.

  “Next time I won’t miss,” Starr said, still aiming the gun at Suzanne’s head.

  “There won’t be a next time.”

  “And how are you going to stop me?” Starr asked.

  “Like this!” Suzanne snarled, then launched herself at Starr.

  Starr dropped the gun in surprise and put up her arms to block Suzanne’s ferocious attacks. Suzanne leapt at Starr again and knocked her to ground. Starr hit the woodland floor hard. Before she could clamber back up, Suzanne had pinned her, her claws ripping through Starr’s sweater.

  “Should I tell you the difference between you and me?” Suzanne growled into Starr’s ear.

  No reply.

  “I’m no killer,” Suzanne continued regardless, “but if I hear that you have hurt my sister, I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb!”

  Suzanne backed away from Starr to let her get up and turned away to find the gun.

  There was a noise. Suzanne turned and looked up; Starr was stood behind her with a thick branch in her hands and a wicked smile pasted on her lips.

  Starr swung; Suzanne instinctively ducked out of the way and backed up. Starr poised to swing again and Suzanne leapt out of reach.

  “I’m going to kill you!” Starr screamed, rushing toward Suzanne, her eyes filled with hate and rage.

  Another swing; this one connected with Suzanne’s right shoulder, knocking her backward and to the ground with a grunt.

  “Ouch.” Suzanne shook her head, dizzily.

  “Aww, did I hurt you?” Starr mocked.

  Suzanne got back onto her feet and felt a sharp pain shoot up her front right leg.

  Oh God, I think it’s broken, Suzanne thought. I need to get out of here!

  She began to limp away. Starr made to follow for a moment but then stopped and instead watched her go. “This isn’t the end!” she shouted behind her as she lost line of sight.

  Suzanne began to cry, her head and leg hurt and, overcome with pain, she fell onto the woodland floor unconscious.

  Seventeen

  Katrina stood on the steps of Sycamore Heights High; it had been nearly a week since cheerleading try-outs and she was feeling nervous. Students pushed past her on their way to their lockers.

  “Excited?” a voice asked behind Katrina.

  Katrina turned around and broke out in a relieved smile. “Jess!”

  “You know you’ve got to stop leaving the house so early!”

  “Sorry, I don’t want to get lost on my first day.”

  Jessica laughed. “You won’t get lost. It’ll just take you a few days to get used to the place. You’ll be fine.”

  “I’m glad you’re here to reassure me!”

  “No problem, but after a while you’ll know this place as well as I do!” Jessica looked at her wristwatch. “Jeez, we’d better find our homeroom. We don’t want to be tardy on the first day back!”

  Katrina followed Jessica up the school’s steps and through the main glass doors. The corridor was filled with students opening their lockers, catching up with friends and trying to find their new homerooms.

  “So where’s ours?” Katrina called to Jessica.

  “Hmm. Room 161, I think. At the end of this corridor, we go up the flight of stairs and it’s the second room on the left.”

  “Okay, but first can we stop off at the principal’s office?”

  “Why?” Jessica asked.

  “I just have to go and pick up my new schedule.”

  “A new schedule?”

  “Yeah. There was a mix up in a couple of my classes.”

  “Oh.”

  Katrina noticed the look on Jessica’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” Jessica paused. “Well, I mean, you didn’t mention it, and you should have.”

  “I didn’t think you’d be interested!”

  Jessica opened her mouth as to say something then, changing her mind, closed it again.

  “What?” Katrina asked, noticing Jessica’s unease.

  “You still hate me, don’t you?”

  Katrina looked at Jessica in surprise. “Hate you? Why should I hate you?”

  “Because of what I said about Doctor Clairmont.”

  “Jess, that was nearly a week ago. In fact, I’d forgotten all about it until you just reminded me.”

  “Well, keep on forgetting about it!” Jessica laughed, relieved. “Do you know where the office is?”

  “Erm …” Katrina looked up and down the busy corridor and frowned.

  “You want me to show you?”

  “If you don’t mind, that would be great, as long as it won’t take up too much of your time. I know you said something about you meeting Billy in the quad.”

  “I don’t think Billy will miss me. Besides, it will give him a reason to catch up with the guys on the basketball team,” Jessica said, grabbing Katrina’s arm and linking it with hers as both girls headed toward the principal’s office.

  When Katrina and Jessica entered the small outer room of the principal’s office, the first thing the girls noticed was a woman in her mid-forties sitting behind a desk, typing at a computer. She looked up as Katrina approached her.

  “Can I help you, dear?” the Principal’s secretary asked, smiling.

  Katrina looked around nervously. The door to the Principal’s room was ajar, and hushed voices drifted out from within.

  “Dear?” the secretary repeated.

  Katrina snapped back to attention. “Um, sorry,” she muttered nervously. “I’m here to pick up my new schedule. There was a mix-up.”

  “There’s no need to be nervous,” the secretary smiled and patted Katrina’s hand.

  Katrina smiled. “It’s my first day and I’m still getting used to everything.”

  “I just need your name,” the secretary said with a smile, noticing Jessica stood by the door.

  Katrina cleared her throat. “Sinclair. Katrina Sinclair.”

  Once the secretary had located Katrina’s details on the computerized filing system, she printed out a new schedule and handed it to her. “There you go, dear.”

  Katrina smiled and took the sheet of paper, read it and gave a little squeal.

  “What’s wrong?” Jessica rushed over to Katrina.

  “Nothing, I’m just happy we’re both in the same classes,” Katrina said excitedly.

  Jessica gave Katrina a quick hug, “I told you we would—” she started, but was interrupted by the shrill sound of the first bell.

  “I don’t believe this!” Katrina muttered.

  “Don’t believe what?” Jessica asked as they raced up a flight of stairs, taking two steps at a time.

  “That we’re going to be late for homeroom! And on the first day, too,” Katrina breathed.

  “Katrina, you worry too much! The second bell hasn’t even rung yet and you’re already panicking!”

  Katrina looked up from the small map of the school’s layout that the secretary had given her along with her school schedule. “You do you know where you’re going?”

  Jessica took the map, turned it around, and handed it back. “Yes, and
so would you if you had this the right way up!”

  Katrina pouted and continued to follow Jessica down the corridor until they reached the room they were looking for.

  “Here we are! Room 161,” Jessica said, opening the room door.

  Jessica stepped inside, and sunk down into a chair beside a girl that had been at the cheerleader try-outs with them. Katrina lingered on the threshold, but Jessica waved her over to the empty seat beside her, and Katrina crossed the room to join her foster-sister.

  I wish they’d stop looking at me! Katrina thought as she slid past a group of staring students. Jessica was deep in conversation with several girls in nearby seats.

  “Hi there!” a voice at the other side of Katrina said.

  Katrina turned toward the voice and was confronted by a girl with long blonde hair with electric blue streaks who was wearing faded denim jeans. Something about the girl was strangely familiar, but for the life of her she couldn’t place the face.

  “Hi!” Katrina replied, smiling.

  The girl held out her hand for Katrina to shake.

  Katrina shook. “I’m Katrina Sinclair. Pleased to meet you.”

  “I’m pleased to meet you too.” There was a briefly awkward silence before she continued, “Oh, and my name’s Sarah. Sarah Monroe. But I prefer to be called Starr.”

  “Starr? That’s an unusual name.”

  “Yeah, I know!” Starr said a slight smirk tugging at her lips. “I just like all nocturnal things.”

  Katrina glanced toward Jessica. She was still talking to her friends. Turning back to Starr, she asked, “So what’s it like going to school here?”

  “Erm, okay I suppose. I don’t really know; I haven’t been here long.”

  “Oh, how come?”

  “I transferred this summer from Clayton Falls High.”

  Katrina felt a chill go up her spine and shivered.

  “You okay?” Starr asked, noticing Katrina’s involuntary shudder.

  “Just some bad memories, that’s all.”

  “I hope it wasn’t anything I said!” Starr said innocently.

  “Oh, no. It’s just first day nerves, I guess,” Katrina lied.

  Starr smiled at Katrina’s obvious discomfort.

  I’ve only been in school for forty minutes and already I’m dreading the rest of the day, Katrina thought as she focused her attention toward the teacher at the front of the classroom.

  Eighteen

  The school’s cafeteria was packed full of students and Katrina had to push her way through the crowd so she could get to Jessica’s table. Jessica looked up and smiled as Katrina sat down, then went back to her conversation with Madison.

  “You new?” a girl sitting next to Katrina asked.

  Katrina looked up from her lunch, consisting of a chicken salad sandwich and chocolate milk, and found a girl with flame red hair and hazel eyes smiling at her.

  “You new?” the girl repeated.

  “Erm, yeah.”

  “You’re Katrina, right?”

  “Erm, yes. I don’t know you, do I?”

  “Sorry, I’m being rude! I’m Amber Elliott. We unofficially met at the cheerleading try-outs.”

  Katrina smiled. “You made the squad, right?”

  “Yep, this is my second year,” Amber said, grimacing.

  “It can’t be that bad!”

  “No, it’s worse!” Amber started laughing. “Seriously, though, cheerleading is okay but Coach Hall can be tough sometimes, especially if we’ve got a big game coming up.”

  “And do we?”

  “Do we what?” Amber asked, picking up her carton of OJ and taking a drink.

  “Have any big games coming up?”

  Amber started laughing.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You are if you can believe any of these guys are ready! The basketball team are, dare I say it, a little on the obtuse side.”

  “What about the other teams at this school? Football, baseball, swimming?”

  Amber pushed back her chair, stood, and made a quick scan of the cafeteria, before sitting back down again and taking another gulp of her OJ.

  “Who are you looking for?” Katrina asked, turning to follow Amber’s glaze.

  “I was checking which of the teams were in here. Most of them are – except the swim team. They practice during lunch.”

  “Sorry for all the stupid and random questions.”

  Amber shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me what you ask. The only stupid question is one that goes unasked, right? But it can get a little confusing, especially when you’re new and not used to it. We do things a little different here; everything seems to be backwards. You may have also noticed that we don’t have teachers that monitor the cafeteria, they have a ‘let the students be free’ approach. This school is like no other, that’s for sure.”

  Katrina glanced around and realized that Amber was true to her word; there wasn’t a single member of staff in the room. “I actually hadn’t noticed, but I think it’s a lot of information to take in at once and I have to admit that I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. I still don’t understand all the sports related stuff though. How can you tell who is on which team? Do you cheer for them all? There must at least two hundred guys in here and only a couple of them are wearing those jacket things.”

  Amber laughed, “I think you mean letterman jackets! And we cheer for the football and basketball teams mostly, so I can spot those guys easily.”

  “What about the swim team? When do they eat? And what about baseball?”

  “If they have been practicing through lunch then they get a free or study period. But that’s not just for the swim team, it can be for any of the ‘jocks’ – same for cheerleaders.”

  “And you don’t find it confusing?”

  “No, but I have classes with guys that are in one team or another. So don’t worry; you’ll soon get to know who’s who around here.”

  “I don’t know about that, Amber.”

  Amber once again stood, and waved Katrina up beside her. She started to gesture around the cafeteria. “Let’s see … obviously no one from the swim team are around, but can you see the guy that is sitting by the window in the corner?”

  “The one wearing glasses surrounded by all those books?”

  “Yeah, that’s Justin. But some of the guys call him Lucky Number Seven. He’s in the baseball team. Actually, most of the baseball team eats lunch either by the windows or on the bleachers outside.”

  “Lucky Number Seven?”

  “Yeah, that’s Justin’s number.”

  “Is he any good? He doesn’t really look like the type …”

  “Well, he takes those huge rims off when he’s playing or practicing and wears contacts instead. But honestly, I’ve no idea how well he plays; I’m more of a football groupie.”

  “You don’t go to any of the baseball games? And what about the other girls from the squad? I know that Jessica sticks with football because of Billy, but what about the others?”

  “Not really, baseball doesn’t do it for me. I don’t know about the other girls, but I’m sure none of the teams are short of admirers.”

  “Okay, one last question …”

  “Go on.”

  “Are the guys on the teams nice?”

  “Most of them are. Take Justin, for instance. He tutors a girl that can’t come into school often. If I remember right, she has something wrong with her heart – or maybe her lungs. Something internal, anyway.”

  “That’s sweet of him.”

  “That is not to say you don’t get the odd jerk as well.”

  “You’ll point those guys out to me, right? I would like to avoid those guys,” Katrina replied, nervously looking around the cafeteria.

  “Of course I will. You just stick with the basketball team; they act like a bunch of goofballs, but they’re harmless.” Amber looked across the table at Logan Vickers and Billy Kendle having a heated debate and rolled her eyes. “G
oing back to your earlier question, none of our teams are ever ready, and yet we always pull through the day of the game or meet.” Her eyes focused on another student and a small smirk touched her lips.

  Katrina followed Amber’s gaze across the table and saw that Stephen Bridger, sitting near the others, already had some freshmen girls vying for his attention.

  “I see you’ve noticed Stephen’s fan club.” Amber remarked as she gave a nod in Stephen’s direction.

  “Yeah. You can’t really miss it, can you? Do you know why they follow him around?”

  “Not really! It’s just one of those weird things that happen around this place.”

  Katrina raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Weird things?”

  “Yeah, this place is a magnet for freaks!”

  “Speak for yourself, Amber!” a girl with dark brown hair replied from across the cafeteria table.

  Amber smiled at her friend, then turned back toward Katrina. “That’s Felicity. She’s also on the squad.”

  “Is there anyone here that isn’t on the cheerleading squad?” Katrina asked Amber, laughing.

  “I’m not!”

  Katrina and Amber looked across the table again and saw Logan Vickers smiling dumbly at them.

  “I think I would look good in Ash’s uniform,” Logan joked, pulling his girlfriend into his lap.

  “Sweetie, I don’t think you should tell the whole table what you do on the weekends,” Ashley suggested mischievously.

  Logan gave Ashley a quick kiss before exploding into laughter with the rest of the table.

  “Why do we have to eat lunch in here?” Suzanne asked Emily as the girls walked toward the busy cafeteria.

  “Because that’s where the food is served.”

  Ignoring Emily’s sarcastic comment, Suzanne considered her bandaged arm and sighed. “I wish I could scratch it.”

  “Does it still hurt?” Emily asked.

  “Not really – well, not anymore. But the doctor in the hospital said that I had to keep it bandaged for at least three weeks!”

  “I wonder if you will actually manage that.”

  Suzanne frowned. “What?”

  “To keep on the bandage, silly.” Emily took Suzanne’s good arm and started to pull her toward the cafeteria line.