Meadow Falls - Book One

06 (SE)

A few teachers make us stand to introduce ourselves. You should have seen their faces when I told them that Nate is deaf. It was priceless! After all, this school never had a disabled student before. Most of the teachers have no idea how to treat Nate. Some of them keep asking me to ask him whether he understands the lesson and some even let him not do anything in class that involves hearing.

This pisses me off. Just because he's deaf doesn't mean he doesn't need to participate in class. I was so close to yelling at the teacher's stupidity, but Nate seems to enjoy the fact that he's treated specially.

During class, I eavesdrop on many werewolves' conversations to know the latest updates in their pack. I might as well learn something about packs during my stay, right?

The human girl who was murdered yesterday was a senior in this school. She is just an ordinary student who gets all A's. The pack's Beta and a few pack warriors found the body of the victim and murderer. Now all werewolves in Meadow Falls know that The Deadly Twins are nearby.

The stupid thing is that werewolves think all hunters are evil and ruthless. They didn't even know that we have rules: Kill only for self-defence or if they are guilty rogues. It's just too bad that Alphas didn't bother to do any research on hunters and only assume that we kill for fun. It's very obvious that we hunters never attack packs except for packs made up of rogues, which is rare nowadays.

Alphas these days are so blind.

The local pack's Alpha is currently tracking down 'The Deadly Twins' in close towns like Great York. He sent many pack warriors just to find us, thinking that we're the ones who kill humans and werewolves.

Can I once again mention who stupid werewolves are?

At lunch time, Nate and I sit with Emma and her friends. They are all human, thank goodness. I also notice that her group of friends is the only human group in this school.

"Hey, the name’s Rick," a boy with cute baby blue eyes and brown spiky hair says. He looks like the type who flirts with girls and fails miserably. He's lucky he didn't attempt to try out his luck on me or Nate would punch someone the second time today.

"I'm Wally," another boy with geeky glasses says in a shy voice. He looks like the kind of person who knows everything and anything.

"And I'm Celine," a girl says with a hint of French accent. She is short and has black shiny hair tied up into a bun. I know based on her sense of fashion and her accent that she's probably from France.

Rick, Wally and Celine, I sign to Nate while pointing at them each by their names.

Nate smiles warmly. "Hi guys. My name is Nate. If you want to go out on a date with me, you better get an approval from my secretary here." With that, he nudges me.

I smack him across his chest. I sign while speak so my friends and Nate can understand me, "My name is Melanie and I'm the most unfortunate person to be this idiot's sister."

Before he can protest, I pinch his cheeks.

Our friends laugh at us. I grin at Nate. He sends me a dirty look.

"Mean," he begins.

"Jerk," I speak slowly so he can read my lips.

"Shorty."

"Grumpy."

"Loser."

"Dummy."

"Nerd."

I huff and show him the middle finger, making him laugh out loud in triumphant. Our new friends keep laughing at us until we reach our lunch table after we buy some food. Emma sits on my right as Nate sits on my left. I am eating waffles while Nate eats his hotdog. Rick and Wally are talking about sports.

The guilt feeling comes back to me. Nate can't join in their conversation without me as a translator.

Celine asks us about ourselves. I had to lie and tell them a story Nate and I made up last night. Our parents are away working and we decided to move in with Uncle Scott. We had to keep the story short and memorable so we can remember the lie.

All of a sudden, Emma says, "Did you hear what happened to Suzie last night?"

Everyone is silent.

What is going on? Nate signs at me when he notices that no one open their mouth.

Suzie is the girl murdered last night, I sign back in explanation. Nate nods in understanding. He too has a sad look on his face.

Rick closes his eyes as he says, "Sheriff says that it was a wild animal attack. They found a dead wolf near her body. The dead wolf has no cause of death so no one was sure."

The pack must have retrieved my arrows as a souvenir. My lips twitch, threatening to smile.

"So how do both of you like this school?" Emma breaks the silence. Always count on Emma to save the day by changing subject.

"I think I'll be fine. No matter what, a school is always a school," I reply before signing Nate Emma's question.

He has an evil glint in his eyes and pretends to interpret my question wrongly, "I'm single and available."

Emma blushes so hard that her face might explode. Rick, Wally and Celine burst out laughing like hyenas. They all know that Nate did it on purpose.

I hit him in the back of his head and huff out loud. "He just can't wait to marry a poor chick who doesn't know what she is getting into at the age of 17. And I can't wait to kick him out of the house and wish my sister-in-law good luck," I mumble out loud.

That does it. Rick is laughing so hard that he falls off his chair. Wally and Celine laughs till they have tears in their eyes. Emma is still blushing but giggling. Nate looks at all of us in confusion. I have a scowl plastered on my face.

"I officially love you guys," Wally announces when everyone calms down. The rest agree with him.

"Hey guys," a girl says. She takes a seat in between Wally and Celine.

"Hey, Gwen," Rick, Wally, Celine and Emma chorus.

Werewolf, Nate alerts me in sign language with a grim face. Nate and I did not meet our eyes with the werewolf's eyes. It is said that if you do, you are challenging them and angers them. Their tempers make them powerful but they will never use their brains which gives us an advantage. However, we don't want a problem in school, don't we?

"We have to go. Bye, guys," I say. Nate and I throw our leftovers and quickly walk out of the cafeteria. Before I left, I saw the werewolf looking at us with a pained expression.

That was so bloody close.

Author's Note

Picture of Wally by the side.

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-M.