A High School Werewolf

Chapter 22-Can't Blame Her

Sarah sheepishly returned the training room to return her armor, which she had still been wearing. Mr. Sharp stood with his arms crossed and his foot tapping.

Sarah stared at her feet and muttered, "I... um... came to return this."

Mr. Sharp raised an eyebrow and glared but moved to one side and let her pass after instructing, "Don't let it happen again."

Sarah nodded and opened the door into the locker room. After checking to make sure no one else was around, she changed back into her normal clothes, jeans and a sweatshirt. She carefully hung the armor up in her locker. She made sure to pull the sleeves of her sweatshirt all the way down so that none of her scars were visible. She glanced in the mirror as she left and took out her ponytail, letting her hair fall and obscure the scar on her face. When she finally left, Mr. Sharp was sitting in his office filling out paperwork. Sarah silently left and made her way back to the dorm room, unconsciously blending into the background and make herself invisible. It was a habit she had picked up in elementary school when she had moved around to much and hated the stares she received as the new kid. She had slowly begun to learn to blend into the background, as a result she had very few friends even when she was in one place for longer than a few months. In fact, Taylor and Amy had been her first friends in a long time.

Sarah pushed open her dorm room and collapsed onto it. She felt disappointed, but she didn't know why. Had she really expected Taylor just to be waiting there for an apology? Had she expected some note or some sign that Taylor would be waiting, once again, for her? Some small part of her acknowledged that yes, she did expect that, but most of her conscious thought was dedicated to beating herself. She hated that Jasmine was right. She was just a fighter with anger management issues. Not even a good fighter. Sure, she could swing swords, but did she face the real problems? No. She ran away or hide in the shadows. No. She pushed away the people that cared. She pushed away Taylor. Sarah punched her pillow, regretting it, because she looked over at the dresser and saw the cracked wood of the drawer remembering how she had lost control. How she always lost control. How she really was horrible.

Sarah growled and sat up. These self-deprecating thoughts weren't doing any good. They weren't apologizing to Taylor, and they weren't stopping her from being a horrible person. She stood up and walked to her door. She was going to apologize to Taylor, but she stopped with her hand hovering over the knob Would Taylor even want to see her. She had pushed her away, and she had basically told her to get lost, and she had run away. No, there was no possible way Taylor could possibly want to see her. She sat back down resigned and opted for doing her homework, for at least it would keep her mind occupied.

The next morning, Sarah fumbled with her lock as she closed the door to her dorm. She turned around to come face to face with Taylor, who opened her mouth to say something, but with a tug from Amy next to her she shut it and walked away. Bryan, who was trailing behind them, gave Sarah a quizzical glance before he too continued down the hall.

Taylor avoided Sarah throughout the rest of the day. During the few classes they shared together, Taylor ignored Sarah. Sarah entered the cafeteria at lunch only to see Taylor sitting with Amy. She turned around and went, instead, to the library to do homework. The rest of the day she reverted to her old tactics of hiding and blending into the crowd. Only when she was halfway to the dorm after 6th period did she remember that she had agreed to duel Bryan. She ran back to the training room and changed just into time to see a very angry Bryan waiting and holding a large battle axe.

Bryan barked, angry, "Grab a weapon and get back here. I'm going to kick your butt for breaking your promise." At Sarah's confusion, he continued, "You said that you would talk to Taylor about whatever happened, but instead I found out that not only did you not talk to her, you insulted her and ran away. No wonder Amy doesn't want her hanging around you anymore. You're a complete asshole."