Mutation

Surprise

The next three days were considerably calmer than Monday had been. The group had become diligent at making sure to include Nate in invitations and conversations. They moved seating arrangements in class to sit next to us and even made him sit with us for lunch. Nate was visibly shocked by the recent developments, but he was no where near as surprised as the general population of Clement High. It was obvious they had no idea what to do to Nate now that Jason, the Beta's brother, was playing nice with him. They had decided, it seemed, that playing in the middle of what they had been doing and what they were seeing was the best bet. Ironically, they were now acting like Sophie and the gang had when I had first gotten here. They didn't throw things at him and hit him but they grudgingly noted his existence and nodded in thanks. I would probably never understand why Nate didn't just beat everyone up to a pulp, these kids were not just werewolves, but mostly humans! He was three times their size. He could break them like twigs, but that was Nate, the gentle giant.

Everyday was the same; Eat, school, train, hang out, sleep. Beta Andrew was really teaching me great moves and we had moved on to marine style combat. This was probably one of my favorite styles, as it was calculated, fast, and brutal. Of course, Nate the Prodigy was already great at it, so he had to do double the reps of whatever I was doing.

My grandparents were so happy that I was integrating well that they hardly imposed any rules. I had to be home before one on school nights and I could stay out as late as I wanted on weekends as long as I called them first and told them where I was going at midnight,

Thursday, Nate gave me his fan jersey, a red, black, and white jersey that said "Clement High School Wolves" on the front with a vicious wolf snarling through a fake rip in the material. On the back was the name "Searing" and the number "86" below it.

"The wolves? Really?" I had asked.

"Ironic huh?" he chuckled and walked away.

Now, it was Friday, game day, and the school was ridiculously hyper-active. Apparently, we are playing our biggest rivals, the Region County Devils, tonight. Clement High and Region High had been alternating state championship titles for years, except the last three years, we had won State. Every player on that football field knew it was because of a certain, massive middle line backer named Nate Searing. He may be a sweetheart in school but he was an animal on the field, or so Jason was telling me during lunch.

"Yeah, it's like he doesn't want to hurt anyone in school so he just takes out his vicious anger on opposing teams. You'll see" Jason ended with a smile.

"I'm right here, you know?" Nate mumbled with his head down and cheeks red.

"Yeah, I know. I've always wanted to know how you flip that switch. How you magically change into a quarterback killing machine" Jason said off handedly, fixing his Game Day jersey which had gotten crooked. All the players wore official looking jerseys to school that day in order to be "mentally prepared".

"I don't know, I just do" Nate said with a shrug.

I glanced at the twins, who were oddly quiet, and found that they were asleep, faces down, on the picnic table.

"Why are they asleep?" I asked curiously.

"Football talk 'puts them to sleep' apparently. If you want their attention, start talking about basketball" Sophie said with air quotation marks and rolled eyes.

'Hmm, what, basketball? Yes, we are the kings of basketball" Brett said in a tired voice. I could understand that. They were both pretty tall and very lean. Not really built for hitting people or taking hits. I looked at Sienna, who was wearing a hoodie, despite the unseasonably warm weather, and saw she was reading "Wuthering Heights", a fantastically sad story. I decided not to disturb her, as she could get grouchy if you interrupted a good part in her book.