Wolf #1: The Pack [COMPLETED]

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The silence that ripples through the hallway as I walk by the groups of students is deafening. They all stare at me as I pass them and mumble quietly among one another as soon as my back was to them. The walk to my locker feels more like I'm on death row.

Richard is waiting there for me. He opens his arms as I approach him. I hug him tightly. I need a moment. I just need a moment to shut my eyes and take a deep breath to calm myself down.

"I wish they wouldn't stare," I break away from him to get my things from my locker. I stare at the photo of Steph and I that I have hanging up on my door.

It had been sophomore year and we had gone hiking in the national park and had run into a bear. Steph, being "the genius" she was, had insisted that we climb up a tree. I had reminded her that they could climb but amazingly enough, he had ignored us and gambled onwards. Steph and I had stayed in the tree for hours and had taken the photo. She has a copy in her locker.

"I have to empty her locker," I shut the locker and turn away.

"How're you holding up?" He asks as we walk towards science class.

"Better if people would stop asking me that," I snap. He follows quietly beside me until we reach the classroom, and I grab his sleeve, "I'm sorry, Richard. I know you're going through a lot as well...she was your best friend."

He smiles stiffly. He tries not to cry in front of me—only blinks a couple of times. I know just as well as him that it doesn't stop the tears from prickling your nose or blurring your vision. I pull him towards me and hug him again, and he squeezes me in his arms.

"I keep forgetting," He whispers, "Every time I check my phone or head out for lunch...I keep anticipating her. And then it's like losing her all over again."

"I know," I swallow the lump in my throat, "I know."

The bell rings and we both head inside. I grab my seat by the window, acutely aware of everyone's eyes on me. The teacher goes through his lecture, and we carry on with the science experiment. I cast looks at Richard every time my clumsy lab partner apologizes to me.

The apologizing and stepping on eggshells attitude continues with everyone I interact with. The teachers are better at acting normal, but they still pull me aside after class to let me know that I can talk to them. It isn't that I resent how careful people are around me now, but it only makes me feel like I'm on spectacle. I was a nobody who has suddenly become known to everyone as Stephanie Kenzington's sister.

Gym class is by far the worse, which takes me by surprise since it's one of my favorite classes of the day. We had just finished running laps up and down the bleachers—a welcome distraction and way to vent out my frustration—when the coach tells us that we will be completing an obstacle course. It's straight forward; we move in groups to each station and complete the exercise or obstacle. Everything is fine until she mentions that we will have to climb the ropes suspended from the ceiling.

Everyone stares at me as if I'm an armed nuclear warhead.

"Amelia, I'm sorry," The coach clears her throat, "You don't have to do that one—"

"I'm fine," I try to avoid everyone's eyes.

She nods and continues her lecture, but it's all lost by then. I can feel the probing stares and hear the mumbles. Waiting for me to break. Not a single one of them aren't thinking about how Steph must have looked from her window, a rope around her neck.

They will never know. No one's imagination can ever truly picture the horror of someone's head being stretched away from their body—the way their neck is bruised and bloodied, or how their eyes bulge out of their sockets. No one should ever be able to picture it.