Wolf's Bane

Back again

Its been 2 months since the bite. Since I last had one of those tearing visions. Since anything really.

Ive been back at school most of the time. I only spent another few days in hospital before Arcea cleared me and Jackson dragged me home.

As a precaution, on both of the full moons, I'd locked myself up with Jack and John in the basement, and even though their clawing, throat rippling night was as usual; I sat there in complete normality the whole time.

I'd seen Arcea around school, but he acted like nothing had happened. Like I was still just his Health student that fell asleep in class one day.

I walked through the doors, pushing past the pack of loud freshmen carrying Lacrosse nets and school books. Of course. Its August. Lacrosse season, hot lazy days. Lots of beach parties, that sort of thing.

I made my way up to my locker, and spurred in the lock-code. "The Dreamers Guide to Biology" I took out the hard covered book, and slipped it into my bag. Great start to the day. 90 Minutes of Bio.

I stepped into class, right on the dot at 9:00 sharp. Most of my mornings went like this. Wake up, drive to school, get to class. Let the day roll past.

The bell went as soon as I sat down, and other people starting filing in and sitting at the steel two person desks.

Might as well start reading. I opened the book to a random page and let my eyes dawdle over the words while the room filled up.

A few minutes later the teacher came in. Mr.Gilbert. My favourite. I didn't look up until Mr.Gilbert coughed and I felt everyones eyes focus on me.

I looked up slowly, closing the book with careful fingers. All the tables were filled, except for mine. "Dear god" I mumbled under my breath.

"Mr.Graveller, is Brent here today?" Mr.Gilbert's classic drone voice.

"Well, uh, he still goes to this school" I was pretty sure that didn't work.

"But he is not here, which means you need a partner" I bit the inside of my cheek "No chance he's, uh, maybe late...possibly maybe?"

"No chance"

That was a bad start to the day. No bio partner means no bio. I didn't even really know Brent, and he didn't know me, but we both lost the lottery on our Bio class, so we partnered.

"Im afraid that means you'll have to go with-" he pointed a long hairy finger behind me "Our new member, Dakota."

What? There isn't even a table behind me.

I looked behind me, and sure enough, there was a table. Sitting at it, was a smallish girl with reddish-brown hair with a blonde streak . Weird combo, but it looked pretty rad. She was wearing a denim blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, looking at me with hard brown eyes and a-

"Graveller"

I blinked a couple of times to shake away that weird feeling. Like I've seen it before. Seen her.

But that's stupid. She's obviously new here.

I can hear her sighing from where I sit, but Mr.Gilbert is staring at me with his best 'morning boredom' face, the rest of the class impatiently clicking and fiddling.

I rolled my eyes, gathered my books, and slipped into the seat next to her.

"Great! Now we may begin! Please open your books to page 48 as we continue our journey through the fascinating realm of blah blah blah"

My ears turned off as soon as he started his regular speech on the wonderful-no, exuberant features of this subject.

The girl seemed to stop listening too, because she turned to me and said something.

"It wasn't my choice to sit here, you know."

I gave a laugh "I know that much. New girl, needs to clarify independence. I'm all about that."

"That's not what I meant."

"What's your name again?"

She rolled her eyes, something about it seemed familiar. Probably just because I do it a lot.

After a while of scribbling notes in her book, she replied. "Dakota" she said "My names Dakota."

"That's a cool name, pretty ironic, girl called Dakota moving to Colorado. My names-"

"Graveller"

De ja veu, my god. Interrupting, the intolerable yelling of my last name, being caught off guard.

"Yes sir"

"Please read out page 50 for us, will you?"

And with that, I read out the page, and another and another until my throat was raw and Mr.Gilbert was pleased at my level of contribution. The cold metal desks seemed to suck all the energy out of me, the diagrams on the walls mushing into a weird set of letters and colours.

Today is not my day.

The period dragged on until finally, it came to an end. As I left, I felt a weird sense of guilt at not telling the girl my first name. I promised myself I'd find her later, before our next lesson, to save the embarrassment of "not knowing your Bio partners name".

The hallways bustled and chirped with life, way too much life for my head to handle.

But I kept moving anyway.

Great to be back again.