Rise of the Moon (Moonlit Series Book 1)

by Rachel Hera

  She was right again. If I could rewind to this morning, I’d change into –at the very least –a pair of capris. I was never quite fond of my thighs, though I did wear shorts and bikinis in the summer. Wasn’t quite fond of my love handles either, hence the high-rise jean. I wasn’t fat, by any means, but the only good ‘muffin top’ came off an actual muffin.

  “Hey Maddie,” Philip called out from the back of the bus. The two of us glanced back over our shoulders to see him and Cole sitting in the very back seat. They didn’t have cars either. Marissa did, but I’d never seen her give a ride to her brother.

  “I’ll be back,” she grinned, touching my arm quickly before standing up and going to the back of the bus. I watched her as she went, catching Cole’s eye momentarily. He sneered at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  Just one more semester.

  I glanced at my phone to check the time. The bus route to the high school was a long one for me and my sister. It picked us up in the village and drove the long way around to pick up kids out in the country –including Maddie –and took us to the nearest elementary school, which was several country blocks away from where I lived. There, we were shuffled from that bus to another that would take us to our high school. A few of the kids from the village had decided to go to rivaling schools, so they got on other buses. Essentially there were three schools they could choose to go to: Eiden Composite School, Hightown District High School, and Reidman High. Hightown was the closest school, a fifteen minute drive north of where I lived. Eiden was the largest, and only twenty minutes west of my house. Reidman was the furthest away, being twenty-five minutes south.

  As the bus pulled up in front of the school, she came back to my side. I stood up, and the two of us filed off the bus with the other students, grades nine through twelve. My little sister had sat near the front of the bus with her own friends, and through the rectangular windows I watched her hop off the last step and head to her first grade ten class. Maddie stretched as our feet touched the pavement, waving to Philip and the other guys as they walked away.

  “Ah, sweet, sweet high school,” she sighed, looking up at the large building. “Three floors of kids we’ll never speak to again as soon as this year ends.”

  “I can live with that,” I grinned.

  “You say that, but you’re pretty popular right now. I’m pretty sure more people know your name than mine at this point,” she laughed.

  “I think that’s mostly due to my sister,” I said. “Her friends adore me.”

  “She’s taking mechanics this year, right?” Maddie asked.

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “I think she’ll enjoy it. She’s always liked things like that. Sophie used to help my dad all the time in the garage.”

  “It’s pretty cool. She’ll be catching the eye of all the boys,” she pulled her cell phone out and looked at the time, “Well, the bell’s going to ring, and I don’t want the front seat in calculus. See you later.”

  “Bye,” I waved to her as she headed off.

  “Evelyn,” someone called from a distance, and I turned to see Kristy approaching. She was short, but her blond hair came down to the middle of her back. Hazel eyes with tiny green fragments shined in the September sunlight. She was so bubbly that it was impossible to not like her on most days. “Was that Maddie running off?”

  “Hey,” I greeted before answering her question. “The one and only. She’s making a mad dash to Ezak’s homeroom. I don’t think she’s prepared for the day, let alone the semester. What about you, ready for Gym?”

  Kristy stuck her tongue out, “Gym in the morning sucks.”

  “It could be worse,” I shrugged as we fell into step together. “We might actually have to use our brains first thing every morning. Besides, I don’t mind the class.”

  “I’m kind of surprised they let you into the grade twelve class, since you ended up giving up grade nine gym for grade ten science.”

  “I think being on the volleyball team helped,” I said.

  I held the door open to her and then headed for the gymnasium. Our school had three floors, but the building was both long and wide. On the east most side of the building was the gym. On the west side was the music room –which meant I’d have to book it when class was finished. No dillydallying with friends between the first two periods.

  Kristy and I walked into the gym, not surprised to see a plethora of friendly faces. After three years in a school, you tended to know nearly everyone, and became friends with, well, nearly everyone. Grades eleven and twelve meant a co-ed class, though the males outnumbered us females.

  “Evelyn,” Chantelle called out to me, waving me over to the benches. She was even shorter than Kristy was, and the two of them couldn’t have been more different. Chantelle’s hair was dark, short, and cut into a smooth bob, and she was quite a bit quieter and less outgoing. She, like me, wore glasses, though she wore contacts more often than I did.

  I looked around at the rest of the class, recognizing everybody. Including Philip, which meant I could rub that in Maddie’s face when I saw her at lunch.

  “Welcome back, Evelyn,” the teacher, Mr. Alan greeted me as he passed out first day handouts. The pages mainly outlined the course and the basics of school protocol, not like any of us would spend much time reading them. They didn’t change much year to year.

  The teacher gave us our locker assignments, and we put all our things there immediately, sliding our locks into place before heading for the locker rooms. The thing about gym was that there was no “let’s just talk about the summer since you’re not going to listen to my lecture” time. It was immediately go-go-go, and today it seemed like we were going outside for a game of soccer.

  “It’s so hot outside I almost wish that we’d stay inside,” Chantelle groaned as we got changed. “How on earth are you wearing jeans?”

  I didn’t reply. What was there to say? I regretted it more just knowing that it would be even worse to get back into the jeans after running around for an hour.

  “Oops,” One of the girls said, ramming me into a locker. I recognized the auburn hair of Marissa as she walked away.

  “If you’d asked, I’m sure she would have made room for your fat ass, Marissa,” Kristy called out after her.

  “Just leave it,” I told her.

  “I just hate how much of a bully she is. This is grade twelve. Like, she needs to grow up,” Kristy muttered, shoving her clothes into her gym bag and zipping it up.

  “Well, she wants a rise, and she’s not going to get one,” I zipped up my own bag. We left them there on the bench, just like all the other girls. I wondered why we didn’t have lockers in our change rooms like they did in the movies, but the teacher would lock the change room after we were all done in here anyway.

  “As far as I can remember, you’ve never given her a rise,” Kristy pointed out. “So I can only wonder why she keeps at it.”

  “And it’s not just her,” Chantelle reminded me.

  “Well, Cole’s a jerk. Simple as that,” I sighed as we filed out of the change room. “And Marissa’s a bitch.”

  “Such is the way of the universe,” Kristy laughed.

  An hour or so later, the bell rang, and I was glad despite the easiness of the class. I got changed quickly, towelling off the sweat and letting Kristy spritz me with her body spray. Gathering my things, I said bye to Chantelle and Kristy, then headed across the building.

  Maegan was in my class, one of the girls I’d more than likely be hanging out with at lunch, along with Maddie, Kristy and Chantelle. A few people waved as I headed over to her, and I called out greeting and age-old jokes drawn out from three years of music classes. It was the one thing I hadn’t sacrificed –I needed a moment of peace somewhere, after all.

  “Hey, Evelyn,” she greeted with a smile. Her mother was Japanese, giving her gorgeous brown eyes and black hair. Her father’s side gave her the Angelina Jolie lips. She was an inch taller than I was, though she was just as curvy as Maddie. Honestly, Maeg
an had the potential to be the sexiest girl I knew, only she was often distracted and clumsy.

  “Hey,” I returned the gesture.

  On the first day of school, none of the classes seemed to start anything big. We didn’t play any instruments, though it’s not to say we didn’t work, because we were handed sheets containing the boring part of music; naming notes, counting beats, etc. We were a grade 11/12 advanced music class, I was sure we knew our notes by then.

  “How was your summer?” Maegan asked as we settled down with the worksheets. Most people used the music stands –including myself –while others used their binders from first period.

  “Good. Yours?”

  “Mine was great,” she began, “Kristy and I went to…”

  I stopped paying attention as Evan walked into the room, which sounds bad, but I had the biggest crush on this guy. When I first met him, I wouldn’t have called him attractive; he was nerdy, short, baby-faced –but he was outgoing, and the more you got to know him, the cuter he became. And as the years passed, he grew taller, broader. He was late for class, which wasn’t typical of him, especially on the first day of school, but he handed Mr. Jordan a late slip and sat down beside me, brushing his dirty blond hair out of his face so that I could see his blue eyes. He had braces, but that didn’t stop him from being cute. I would have sighed happily, but he was within earshot. So I just smiled at him.

  “Hey, Evelyn,” he grinned at me. He looked passed me to Maegan, the smile extending to include her, too. “Hey.”

  “Hi, Evan,” I was surprised at how smooth my voice came out.

  “How was your summer?”

  “Great,” I told him. “I spent a week in Thunder Bay and a week in Edmonton, visiting my older sisters.”

  “Sydney and Bree, right?” he asked.

  “The only sisters I have,” I grinned. A pause and an eye roll, “Well, besides Sophie.” I could die of embarrassment. How lame could I be? “And what about you? How was your summer?”

  “Good,” he stretched, and spread his arms over the back of my chair and the empty one on his other side. I fought the urge to smile. “In the last two weeks my parents took me and my little sister to Florida. The rest of it was Philip, Cole and I spending most of our time at the beach.”

  “I hate him,” I muttered, scowling instantly. My scowl deepened when I made a simple error on the paper in front of me.

  “Cole? I know,” he tossed his head to get the hair out of his eyes again. Admittedly, he could use a haircut, but I felt he realized that himself. “But you shouldn’t care about what he thinks.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind when he’s being a creepy little snot,” I said, grabbing my eraser and getting rid of my mistake on the worksheet.

  “He does have a tendency to act that way,” he nodded.

  “And you’re friends with him, because…?”

  “I like being popular,” he cracked a smile that made me melt. He was joking, of course. He was sociable all on his own, but he didn’t really care what others thought of him. Or, I would have said that once upon a time. It was harder to tell these days. Just like I couldn’t assess his feelings, I couldn’t assess his morals. I liked to think that Evan liked me. Maybe. Probably not. “He’s… he’s not as bad as he seems… though I’ll admit that he’s changed over the years that I’ve known and hung out with him.”

  “You should stop,” I told him. “There are other people to hang out with.”

  “Like who?”

  “Well, you have Philip,” I answered. More courageously I said, “And, come on, aren’t we friends?”

  “Best friends,” he nudged me, and I felt a little dissatisfied with the brotherly motion.

  I didn’t get a chance to respond, because the class was getting too loud, and Mr. Jordan had to come out and tell us to quiet down. When he went back into his office, I changed the topic.

  “There’s a new person living down the street from me,” I told him, not knowing what else to say.

  “Cool,” he replied, borrowing my eraser. I noticed Maegan glancing over at us, but didn’t say anything to her.

  “They have a son about our age,” I went on.

  “Is he here today?” he asked.

  “I haven’t seen him,” I shook my head.

  “Hmm,” Evan murmured. “Well, if he moved in recently, perhaps he’s still unpacking.”

  “Is it that vampire kid?” Maegan asked. “I’ve heard stories about him already. Jody said she saw him at the grocery store with his younger brother. She said she saw fangs. And not fangs, like Andrew in physics has, like honest to god I vant to suck your blood fangs.”

  “Well, he does have fangs, yes, but I’d hardly call him a vampire,” I muttered.

  “Evelyn would know,” Evan teased lightly.

  “Whatever,” I rolled my eyes, elbowing him in the side. When I knew he wasn’t looking I cast a quick glance his way. I felt my heart squeeze, knowing that despite our good relationship, it probably wouldn’t go any further than this. Neither of us wanted to risk our friendship.

  Stupid boys.

  * * *

  “I’m going to grab a bite to eat,” Olivia told me, wallet in hand. She was one of the girls I commonly closed with at the ice cream parlour. She was thin and tall, and apparently absorbed the sun like a sponge absorbed water. I was more than a little jealous of her even tan. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

  “Stop,” I said monotonously. “Don’t go. Don’t leave me to all this chaos.”

  She just laughed as she pushed open the doors and headed into the September night; the bell above the door dinged. I wished I could have followed her, considering I wasn’t even supposed to be working that night. If only Kathy, the other key holder, hadn’t gotten sick.

  I sighed, looking around at the empty store. The ice cream parlour, cleverly named “The Parlour,” was unoccupied while the entire town, including Olivia, seemed to be eating dinner, much like Olivia. It’d pick up a little bit later for those who wanted a little something to cool them off in the late-summer heat.

  I grabbed paper towels and the spray bottle, going to clean the tables for the second time this hour. Then, maybe I’d sweep, or wipe down the machines. Restock the cones. Anything to make time pass just a little bit faster. An entire week of school had flown by faster than this shift.

  As I wiped down the tables, I noticed dried drops of ice cream on the pale blue vinyl seating of one of the booths. I sprayed it with the watered-down cleaner, wiping the seat spotless. I noticed something on the far side of the booth, and I crouched to get it. It was a small toy, a yellow T-rex probably left here by one of the groups of kids that had been here earlier. I’d put it behind the counter. If they didn’t come back to get it, I was sure Harry, the owner, would add it to the collection in the back room. Once a year he would get them professionally cleaned and donate them to the local hospital.

  The door chimed and I crawled out from under the booth, “I’ll be right with you.”

  “No worries, I’m in no hurry.”

  My heart skipped a beat, recognizing the voice. I straightened up, hitting my head on the underside of the table.

  “Shit,” I winced, both in pain and embarrassment.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, approaching me. I looked at him, confirming that this was indeed the guy from the driveway. The accent had given it away.

  “I’m fine, fine,” I muttered, waving him off as he drew near. “I wish I could say I’m not always this clumsy, but unfortunately I’m used to it…” I got to my feet, meeting his gaze, “You’re… To think I never caught your name.”

  I was trying to keep my cool. Internally, I was having a cow; my heart was pounding, loud and hard. Though I wondered if that was just from bumping my head. I had taken to walking home from Maddie’s whenever I had the chance, because I felt I was more likely to run into him there than here, at work. Especially since another week had passed without seeing him in the hallways at school. And now that I was
looking at him, he could be a few years older than me, and perhaps that was the reason why he wasn’t attending our high school. Or maybe he was going to one of our rivalling schools.

  “And to think I never caught yours,” he countered.

  “Well, I asked you first,” I shrugged, smiling a little.

  “That’s true,” he smiled. Holding out his hand he introduced himself; “Shayne Van Owen.”

  “And I’m Evelyn,” I shook his hand, “Evelyn Rae Laverne.”

  We lapsed into silence, and I took a moment to gather myself. “So you’re here to get some ice cream, I take it? What can I get for you?”

  He looked at the menu behind the counter as I went around to the other side, tossing the toy underneath the counter and washing my hands quickly before turning back to him.

  “Two scoops, vanilla and chocolate,” he finally decided.

  “Ah, a traditional man,” I felt my face go warm as I spoke. I was embarrassing myself further, wasn’t I? “And, uh, how are you adjusting to the area?”

  “I’m so used to living in the city, but a little town like this is a nice change of pace,” he gave an easy smile, and I relaxed a little.

  “It’s a pretty easygoing town,” I agreed. “Cone or cup?”

  “Cone. Lived here your whole life?” he asked, taking out a ten dollar bill and placing it on the counter.

  “It’s all I’ve ever known,” I scooped out the ice cream. Sydney once told me we moved here when I was three, and that we moved around a lot prior to that after I came into the family. Sophie was the only one that was born here in our family. Handing him the cone, I asked “What brings you here?”

  “I have a friend that lives here. But, I know if my mom had it her way, I would have stayed in New York with her.”

  “So you’re here with your father than?”

  “No, an old fellow named Mr. Smith. My father’s in New York with my mother,” Shayne didn’t meet my eyes for a moment. I handed him back his change. “They travel a lot, though, so James, my brother, lives with me and Mr. Smith.”