by Holly Hook
Olivia's jaw falls again. "What?" She looks at me as if I'm a freak. "Do I need to call the mental hospital on you? My mother can give you a good reference. And the police will want to know about you breaking into my house."
"You held onto the pendant," I say.
"I thought maybe it was from—never mind," Olivia says. "I don't know what to think anymore. Get out of my house and leave me alone!"
"Not until you agree to put on the necklace and keep it on. We can't have you turning and attacking people. The bad werewolves want to infect more people in Breck and ruin this town and they're doing it by making new werewolves. They even stole your medical records from the hospital to see if you're infected."
Olivia pales. Even her purple lipstick seems to lose a shade. "How do you know about that? And werewolves aren't real."
I grip the computer desk. She's leaving me no choice but to prove her otherwise.
I reach for the tug, and I search and search, but there's nothing but a scared, embarrassed Brie within. So I grit my teeth, tensing, as Olivia scoots back against her headboard.
The animal inside stirs.
I grab on and pull.
Pain explodes through my limbs as my muscles seize, going into spasm as Olivia's room spins, tilts, and grows. The cracking and popping of my bones eats everything, leaving agony for the eternal two seconds. My sweater falls over my face and blocks my view, but scents intensify and I wiggle out of the baggy clothes, now in full wolf form, and face Olivia.
Her eyes widen.
And then she emits a high-pitched, terrified scream. A wave of metallic terror enters my lungs, choking out even the makeup.
Olivia screams again and again.
And then she chokes and manages two hoarse words: "Get out!"
I turn and run, leaving her with the truth.
Bolting down the stairs, my nails click across the kitchen floor as I dart for the open back door and into the night. Bounding across the yard, I wonder if Olivia's watching me go.
Chapter Twenty-One
"You can be a lot more menacing than that."
Mr. Saffron shuffles through the gymnasium the next day, during "rehearsal." He stops in front of Cayden's table and locks gazes with him. I watch as Cayden shrinks back, test tube in hand.
He has no clue what I did to Olivia.
We haven't spoken since our argument.
I man the table across from Cayden. It turns out Mr. Saffron and the dance crew expect us not only to patrol around the parking lot, but to serve refreshments, too. We hadn't known about that part.
And Cayden and I stand across from each other. He's the mad scientist and I'm the witch.
Cayden adjusts his lab coat. "Sorry," he mutters, keeping his gaze off me.
I want to tell him he doesn't have to worry about Olivia anymore and that he can find happiness again. But the dance crew—mostly the Key Club and volunteers from the nerdier side of the spectrum—mill around and hang decorations from the walls of the gym. Two janitors push the bleachers out of the way while the guys who manned the lighting crew for the play mess with wires. The gym's a flurry of activity. The dance happens in just twenty-four hours.
Cayden's feet away and we can't even talk.
But if I tell him I shifted in front of a human—
Olivia's infected. That might not count. She deserves the truth.
But if I tell Cayden, not only might he get angry, but he'll feel worse about himself and my situation.
"A crazy accent would help," Mr. Saffron says, checking his watch. "And while you pour that punch from one vial to the other."
I eye the cookies under plastic wrap on my table, in the shape of cats, ghosts, and...wolves. A paper sign will tell everyone they're made from brains or something. My costume itches in the back and I pull at the big black dress which hides my form. It's as if the dance crew wants no one to find the volunteers attractive.
Cayden lifts a vial of kool-aid. We're not rehearsing with the actual punch. "And I need volunteers! This concoction might only result in a minor loss of internal organs..."
I can't tell him that Noah will ask me to dance.
But I also can't refuse my best friend the only comfort he'll have during this event.
Mr. Saffron turns, tapping his foot. "I need a good, witchy line from you."
He wants to get out of here and enjoy his Saturday.
My brain's not working. I keep drifting back to Olivia and her screams.
"A witchy line," Mr. Saffron repeats.
He brings me back to reality. "And would you children like to try these brain cookies? They're only three weeks old. The best age!"
"Wonderful," he says without enthusiasm before moving on to the DJ platform. He drills the guy, a college dude, who will work the playlist. As if fearing all the girls will gravitate towards him, the school's making him wear a full-body gorilla costume. He stands there, sweating with the head piece under his arm.
"Cayden," I ask. "Have you seen Olivia?"
He snaps his gaze to me. "No," he says, all business. "She didn't meet me at Teeyah's for coffee."
He means his words just to communicate information, but they stab me in the chest. I ball my fists, wanting to throw the stupid cookies at him. But I also have an urge to jump over the table, embrace Cayden, and kiss him. To beg him to come back. I should, but with all these people around here, he'll push me away, fearing Olivia will find out.
I can stop it all with a few sentences.
Or make things worse.
Footsteps echo in the hall where the ticket tables are getting draped in Halloween colors. A whiff of clay makeup follows. Olivia's here.
Cayden raises his eyebrow at me. "Brie, please stay away until she's gone." His eyes fill with pain. But he hardens his gaze, masking it with business. Cayden will still take care of this and I'm not to interfere. I'm here to stand aside and watch.
Olivia lifts the lid to a trash can. I hear the bag crinkle. "They took it out," she says.
"Why are you bothering?" Tiffany.
"I need it," Olivia says. "Stupid Matthew."
I grip the table.
Cayden nods. "I need to check that out." He frowns. I'll be able to hear everything he says to her in the hall and there's no stopping it, unless he takes Olivia far from here.
After checking for Mr. Saffron, Cayden pushes the gym doors open.
He leaves me with the trays of plastic-wrapped cookies. Mr. Saffron's still talking to the lighting guys and the DJ while Ellie and Sarah hang ragged ghosts from the wall. A photographer wheels in a castle background through the parking lot doors. For now, I'm on my own.
So I follow Cayden, stopping at the doors.
"Cayden," Olivia breathes.
"Hey," he says. "Why are you digging through the trash?"
Tiffany sighs.
"It's nothing," Olivia blurts.
"Did you lose your purse? Money?" Cayden asks.
"I'm looking for my phone," Olivia says. "Matt got mad at me after I said I didn't want to date him, so he took my phone and then I heard he threw it in one of the trash cans. I'm trying to find it, but I think I'll be okay."
"Oh. Maybe I can help," Cayden says. I don't like the tone of his voice. He's worried.
Olivia shifts, making the linoleum squeak. She's standing at the corner of the hallway, but I can hear every move she makes. "I'm good. Thanks, Cayden. I know you have to rehearse for your part. I bet you make a great mad scientist." She wants Cayden to leave.
Olivia suspects the truth about him, too, and she knows all about me.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Cayden says. "I have to spend time making punch with my mad science, but Mr. Saffron says I'll have time to dance. After the first half hour I'm pretty free."
"That's fine."
Cayden stalks back down the hall. His feet drag as if he's weighed down.
I don't back away from the door. He already knows I'm here. When he pushes the door open, he faces me and shakes his head before
going back to his table.
"What happened?" I ask.
His look tells me Olivia's problem is more than a lost phone. "She's not wearing her pendant."
"But didn't you tell her it was from you?" I ask.
"I did. She said she'd wear it to the dance," Cayden says, walking past me. He still can't bear to look at me.
"And you think she lost it."
Cayden sweeps past me, white coat flapping. "Yes. She's lying about it being her phone. Don't worry about it, Brie."
"I'll be here tomorrow and my friends are coming, too. I have every right to worry about it."
"Cayden," Ellie shouts, struggling with the ghost garland. "We need someone tall over here!"
"Coming," he says, turning his back. He shoots me one last look, and I feel the power in it even though it lasts only a second. I'm to stand down and not worry.
Though he'll figure it out, I leave the gym and enter the hallway where Olivia stood moments before.
She and Tiffany have moved on, turning the corner to look in more trash cans. "We can check the Dumpster," Olivia says from around the corner.
"I am not going through garbage," Tiffany says. "You're on your own for that."
I follow, keeping my footsteps quiet as my heart races.
"But if I'm not wearing it tomorrow, it'll send the wrong message," Olivia says. "People...Cayden will think the worst about me. Who knows what will happen? This is important."
"It's just a necklace."
"But it was a pure silver necklace. Rare," she says. "I need it back by tomorrow night or Cayden might think I'm some kind of, well, slut. Can you carry my purse for me while I go through this next can?"
"The janitors changed them all already."
"I can't let Cayden know I lost it. He says it was expensive. I didn't know it was from him when you had me ask Matthew to the dance. I thought maybe you and Alesha had told him to get it for me."
"Maybe Matthew has it," Tiffany says.
"Well, he took it, and I never saw him throw it away," Olivia says.
The air smells of adrenaline.
Olivia's scared.
And so am I.
Tomorrow, Cayden will have to deal with her the traditional way.
He won't have to go out with her, but messing with me, Noah, and everyone else connected to this will put him over the edge. It's in his eyes. He can't even do the thing he promised me he'd do. And it'll break him.
I blew my cover to Olivia for no reason. I made things worse.
And tomorrow, I might lose Cayden forever.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I spend the rest of the rehearsal sifting through garbage in the Dumpster, most of which is papers and cafeteria food.
Nothing.
I climb out of the metal box and put the witch dress back on over my regular clothes. Retrieving the hat, I go back inside the school and meet Mr. Saffron, who's tapping his feet by my table. I get back behind it, glad I have enough grace to avoid a garbage smell all over me, though some lingers on my shoes.
Saying a few more witchy lines about brain cookies and worm soup, I get him to nod and leave me alone. Music blasts as the lighting crew sets up near the photo shoot in the corner.
"You can go, unless you want to help with the dead trees," Ellie says.
I jump. Lost in thought, I didn't hear her come up behind me. "I should leave. Aunt May needs my help at the store."
And Cayden's already gone, out to solve the missing pendant issue. I know he realizes what's wrong, and he's slipped out, without telling me what he plans, to solve the problem. I hope he can find the pendant.
But I suspect where it is, and that's with Matthew. He'll hold on to it and give it to some other girl, saying he bought it himself.
So I slip off the witch dress, take it to the props room, and hang it before leaving the school without telling Ellie goodbye.
Matthew lives on the same side of town as Olivia, and I jog through the blustery chill, crunching leaves that have gathered near storm drains. I can confront him without an issue and demand the pendant back. He won't tell anyone a short girl stole from him.
But when I reach his house, I find his BMW gone. His father's Hummer has vanished, too. The BMW might still be in the shop, but a few sniffs tell me that no one's home. Matthew and his dad must have gone out for the day on some expensive trip.
I pace, waiting and waiting as the daylight dies.
Soon, the moon peeks over the horizon. Only a tiny sliver is missing, and already the pull tugs at my insides, begging me to run on four legs. I shrug, casting it aside, but it'll be stronger tomorrow night. Much stronger. It's just another reason I don't want to go to the dance.
After waiting and pacing and looking suspicious for an hour, I depart from Matt's house and head to Noah's. Noah lives two streets over, in a more modest two-story home, and I knock on his door. He answers with a grin but the pain's still in his eyes.
"Hey," I say as he lets me in. I glimpse his parents watching TV. "You still want to go to the dance tomorrow?"
"We're going with you," Noah says.
"You know, Olivia might not even be there," I say. "I overheard her talking about losing the necklace she thinks Cayden gave her, and she doesn't want to look bad in front of him. So she might not go. And there won't be a point to our revenge." I have to save Noah and Ellie. Even if Cayden's going to handle it, I can't stand aside and do nothing.
"But we don't know," Noah says. "And I'm still going. Ellie and I agreed to keep you company."
"Thanks," I say. A part of me doesn't want to drive them away, but a bigger part has to protect them. "But I'd rather be at the dance alone for this. I need to think about Cayden."
The hurt in Noah's eyes deepens. He narrows his gaze at me. He's lost all hope of Olivia and now his best friend is pushing him away, too.
This is what it means to be a werewolf.
And it will for the rest of my life, no matter what Leonora and Remo say. Instead of being a part of things, I'm locked away all over again.
"Brie, we're still going, even if you don't want us to," Noah says. He forces a grin. "You can't stop us. And with Cayden treating you the way he is, you deserve to have someone in your corner."
Everly and Remo are the approved people, and they won't even be there.
I'll be alone.
"I'm not saying I don't want you to go," I say. "It's just...I'm worried about things and don't want you to get caught up in them."
"Worried about what? Matt? He's out of the picture at least with Olivia."
"Noah, you're a great friend. I couldn't ask for a better one," I say. He won't give me yes for an answer. He won't stay away, so the best I can do is make his final safe night one where he isn't in too much pain. "I'd love to have you in my corner."
* * * * *
"Is the day of the full moon always going to feel like this?" I ask Aunt May the next morning.
I'm ravenous. Even my nerves about tonight don't stop me from getting out four pans and making a huge breakfast for the two of us.
"I imagine it is," Aunt May says. Her own stomach rumbles. "This is the first one I've experienced, to be honest."
I keep forgetting Aunt May never allowed herself to turn at all until the Baltic Wolves. She shuffles around the kitchen, nervous, and gets down a coffee mug. Then she shakes her head and returns it to the cabinet.
"You know, you fought pretty well at the clearing," I say. "And that was the first time you turned?"
"Yes."
"Nobody commented on how you fought," I say, intrigued and terrified. "You killed a Savage, and you were just as new as me." What if my father's family were some kind of super werewolves? Maybe that's why the Savages keep trying to get into Breck: they fear us. They want to eliminate every trace of our line. My thoughts turn to Leonora and her family's desire to find a cure for the condition. And that my father's family paired with my mother's, the hunters. There's more to my hometown than I ever thought. Maybe the Savage
s' fear that the Nobles are trying to clear the world of werewolves has a basis.
"I'm not young anymore, so the Lowes didn't expect that to be my first shift," Aunt May says.
"Makes sense. What if we're, like, more powerful than other werewolves?"
"I don't see why we would be," Aunt May says. "Then again, I--"
"Never asked about it. We have something here that the Savages want to get rid of."
Aunt May gulps and gets her coffee mug back down. "You're too smart, Brie. I fear the same. I've been thinking about it for a while now."
"And Leonora says she's working on a way to make werewolves normal," I say. Though I won't mention it to the Lowes, I will to Aunt May. "Remo was asking about it."
"The poor boy used to be human," Aunt May says.
"Everly told me his story."
"She told me the truth, too. But Remo doesn't like to talk about it."
"And neither does Cayden," I say. My mind hasn't stopped spinning with ways to help him. How do I make him realize he did the right thing?
And how do we get him back?
I'll prove myself. Again.
It will all end tonight.
“Cayden was the one who turned Remo, right?”
“Yes.”
“The two of you are having problems because of it.”
“That, too.” I face Aunt May. She leans on the counter. “I wish I knew what I could do to help him. Everly doesn't know how."
“Sometimes, people are hard to help,” she says. “It might be Cayden's responsibility to work things out. Maybe Everly isn't relying on you. She might not know what else to do. Cayden only listens to you.”
“He used to. I can't even tell him anything anymore,” I say.
“Brie, you always want to solve everything for everyone else. Me included.” Aunt May gives me a weak smile.
Who else does Aunt May have? As far back as I remember, it's only been the two of us. No pressure.
“It's my nature,” I say with a grin. Then I go back to frying and I stir the gravy. The kitchen fills with breakfast scents. “Maybe Olivia won't even go to the dance.” Perhaps I should try to relax for a couple hours after the dance begins. I won't be the only one on patrol tonight.