In Our Blood

Chapter Two

New Scents 

       After getting off of the bus, Maddy pulled Beca over to Tom, who was kicking a football halfheartedly in the school yard. He picked it up and smiled once he saw the two, but his eyes turned to confusion when he examined Maddy's outfit choice.

        "What are those? You look like a right idiot," he said, walking over to the pair.
        Beca pulled her arm out of Maddy's grip, walking backwards towards the school while the other two followed. "Werewolves ate her shoes, right Mads?" She said with a wink.
        Maddy decided to play along. "Yeah, Tom, didn't you see the full moon last night?"
        He rolled his eyes with a groan. "Don't you start. I've already heard this all from--Oh, Shannon!" Tom's face lit up with a forced smile as the redhead ran over to join them.
        "Tom!" She greeted quickly, before turning the conversation to all of them. "Did you hear last night on the moors? Howling."
        They all mutually suppressed a groan.
        "Shann," Beca started. "Don't you think it could've just been a dog?"
        "That's why I'm comparing this to dog prints," she said, pulling out a picture of an unnaturally large paw print. "I found it on Drayman's lane."
        While Maddy and Beca exchanged a weary look, Tom raised an eyebrow, already exhausted with Shannon's morning antics. "What, every type of dog?"
        "This is proof, Tom."
        "Beca," Tom suddenly said warningly. She sidestepped before glancing over at the person she was about to run into, still walking backwards through the halls. "Maybe if you turned around like a normal person--"
        "And thanks to you I have never run into someone," she said with a grin, turning back to Shannon. "I'm sure it's proof of the existence of a dog."
        "Whatever, I'll show everyone," Shannon mumbled, before stopping to glance at the photography club sign-up. "Yes! New club members!"
        "Finally," Tom muttered, but the smile on his lips proved he was more than disinterested.
        Beca raised an eyebrow. "You're going to need a bigger darkroom," she said, reading the list more carefully.
        The trio looked at her, when suddenly Mr. Jeffries shoed up beside her. "Apparently, the Incredible Hulk has taken up photography, so has Superman. There is some awful handwriting in this school," he said.
        "We're going to get new members, and even if we don't, photography's still a vital part of school life," Shannon argued.
        Jeffries shrugged. "We can only fund clubs that have a cross-section of pupils. You have three members, and these two only joined to keep you happy."
        Maddy narrowed her eyes. "The darkroom houses the official archive for the football team. You can't just cancel--"
        "And the Stoneybridge Zoological Society!" Shannon interrupted, completely ruining Maddy's plan to persuade Jeffries into keeping them open.
        "What?" He asked, confused. "Look, I'm glad you have passions, but it does not entitle you to a room on school premises to use as your own personal den. You have until tomorrow to find three new members or I'm closing you down." He got distracted then and yelled at a kid to stop running before chasing after them.
        All eyes immediately turned to Beca, who raised her eyebrows. "What? I'm not joining."
        Tom put on his puppy-dog face. "Please?"
        "If you join, we'll only need two more members," Shannon said, her face equally as manipulating.
        Maddy nodded. "And if you could get Callie to sign up, too, then..."
        "Yeah, I get it, I can do math." That got Beca a group of shocked looks. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "But I'm still not signing up. I told you guys this club wouldn't last more than a few months, and I'm just waiting for the opportunity to say 'I told you so'."
        Maddy huffed and tucked her hair behind her ears, muttering something about finding out who did this. Beca took notice of how her friend still had to strain her hearing to listen in on the conversations going on around the hall.
        "Nice one, boys," Jimi's voice rang loud and clear.
        "Serves her right," one of his friends said.
        "Stupid club."
        "Yeah, stupid."
        Maddy and Beca shared a look before she let Jimi's name slip through her lips.
        "How did you work that one out?" Tom asked, looking curiously over to his friend across the hall.
        Maddy seemed lost for words, so Beca jumped in. "Have you ever seen his handwriting? It's terrible."
        Maddy nodded before seeming to get distracted again. It was then that Beca caught an all too familiar smell, one that definitely should not be in this school. Wolfblood.
        Maddy took off after the scent trail and having no other choice, Beca followed. Okay, she did have another choice, but what if Maddy found another Wolfblood and they were dangerous?
        "Mads, what are you doing? Its time for class," Tom spoke up from behind them. Maddy stopped in place and Beca grabbed her arm to pull her over to Jeffries' class.
        They each went to their tables. Maddy was in a seat next to the window with Tom beside her and Beca was right behind her. Maddy pushed her chair back so she could talk quietly with Beca without anyone overhearing.
        "I swear, I smelled..."
        "I know, Mads, but maybe it was just a coincidence. We're both maturing, maybe our scents are getting stronger as well," she tried to convince her friend. Truthfully she just didn't want to face the fact that the scent from the hall wasn't anywhere near there's
        She shook her head. "The scent trail, it went down the hallway--"
        "That we came from," Beca said, trying to reason with her. There was no way a Wolfblood was on the territory and the Smiths didn't know about it.
        Maddy sighed and pulled out her english books, deciding Beca was right. Beca hoped that she was right, too. And she was confident that she was. At least until a boy walked into the class and Jeffries began to talk with him loudly. 
        "Welcome aboard! My name is Mr. Jeffries, I'll be your head for this year. Everyone, this is Rhydian Morris," he said, directing it towards the class, though his voice couldn't really get any louder. Jeffries wasn't much of a whisperer. "Who I'm guessing is from Wales."
        "No," Rhydian responded, looking uneasy. Beca's eyes narrowed on the boy, taking in his features as she waited for his scent to waft over to her. He had spiked up blonde hair and thick, brooding eyebrows. His eyes were darting around the classroom, occasionally catching Beca's eye. His lips were parted and his jawline was catching the shadows in the room.
        "No, he's not from Wales. Okay. Sue me." He directed Rhydian to the back of the classroom and Beca glanced around swiftly, noting that her table was the only one with an empty seat. Everyone began chatting about the hotness level of the new kid, wondering if he was single, why he had moved to Stoneybridge of all places.
        Beca discreetly took in a deep breath through her nose and felt her pulse race at the scent, blinking quickly to dispel any signs of changing and looking over to the window. She had never met another Wolfblood she hadn't lived with, and assumed it was her instinctual way of trying to assert dominance. She called her body off, though, not wanting to expose them in the middle of class or scare away this new potential pack member.
        "You smell like my parents," Maddy said, standing up as soon as it got quiet. Giggles and laughter rang out through the classroom as Maddy came to grips with what she had just said.
        "Maddy, sit down," Jeffries said before turning to yell at other kids. Beca reached out and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, pulling her back down into her seat. She looked at her accusingly, to which Maddy just shrugged, sending an uneasy stare to the boy who sat down next to her.
        "James, if I hear one more sheep noise coming from the back of the class, you'll regret it!" Jeffries yelled.

        Beca had her nose scrunched up at what she pulled out of her lunch bag that afternoon. A ham sandwich with a baggy full of celery. She didn't even know why Emma and Daniel tried to make the girls' diets seem normal. Their friends were well aware of their taste for meat.

       She shoved the bag over to Shannon and opened up her sandwich, peeling the ham off and offering the bread to Tom, who ate anything passed over to him.

        "Have you guys seen Mads?" Beca asked, picking up a piece of ham and ungracefully tearing a bite out of it.
        Tom pointed over to the table across from them, where Maddy was carrying a lunch tray and glaring at Rhydian as if trying to make his head spontaneously combust while on her way over to her friends.
        As soon as she sat down, she let out an angry breath. "Smelly, can you believe it?"
        "Well, you did kind of start it," Shannon pointed out.
        Beca furrowed her brow, looking between her friends as Maddy began talking again. "He was the one that just - forget it. Someone must know something about him. Seen removal vans, something."
        "What did I miss?" Beca asked, realizing something must've happened between Maddy and Rhydian in the five minutes that Beca hadn't been present for to get her lunch from her locker.
        "Maddy and Rhydian got into an argument," Shannon said, biting into a piece of her gifted celery.
        "About?"
        When Maddy didn't answer, Beca's face fell. "You didn't."
        "I had to," she defended.
        Beca looked incredulous. "You confronted him? Are you an idiot?"
        Clearly sensing a fight, Tom interrupted. "As usual, you three missed the most important question. Does he play football?"
        "Is that all you ever think about?" Shannon asked.
        "Basically, yeah," Tom answered without skipping a beat. "Hey, Jimi! You going to ask the new kid to try out?"
        Jimi paused in his conversation with his minions and looked at Tom. "Leek boy? I don't think he's the right sort for the team. Do you?" With that he walked away.
        "He never said you couldn't ask," Beca pointed out, her gaze landing on the blonde boy across the dining hall with his nose in his sketchbook.
        "Good point!"
        Maddy looked at me, then at Tom, seeming to fight an internal battle with herself. "No, Tom, don't!"
        "Come on, Mads, he won't bite," he said, standing up.
        "I wouldn't count on that!"
        As soon as Tom was out of earshot, Beca leaned over to whisper in Maddy's ear, "It'll make it easier for him to fit in."
        "He's not staying," she whispered back.
        Shannon looked at the two with a confused expression but seemed to let it go. She looked at Beca and gave her best adorable face. "All you have to do is sign the paper. You don't have to go to any meetings, or -"
        "Not doing it," Beca cut her off. "Then I wouldn't be able to say I told you so."
        Tom sat back down beside Shannon with a sigh. "Obviously, they don't teach manners in Wales. Next time, you approach the weird kid," he said pointing at Beca and Maddy.
        While Tom started talking to Shannon and Maddy about the amazing picture that Rhydian had drawn, Beca eavesdropped on the conversation the K's were having with Rhydian. Well, more or less. It was pretty one sided until Rhydian asked very unspecifically about a "weird girl".
        "Maddy Smith? Her? Those country families have lived her for centuries," Kay said.
        Kara picked up after her. "Don't like new people, or questions."
        "And the other one?" Rhydian asked. Beca could feel his eyes baring into her back.
        "Beca Haring, same boat. But why are we talking about them when we can talk about you and me?"
        Beca became sick of eavesdropping and didn't feel like catching up in the conversation her friends were having, so she said her goodbyes and left to go hide in the deserted hallways. She hated the use of her last name. All it did was remind her of her parents. Her last name was now technically "Smith", but she had gone to school with the K's since before her parents died, and they never bothered to change her name in their books.
        She found her way to her locker and sighed, sliding down the metal surface until she was sitting on the floor with her head between her knees. She just wish she could remember her parents better. By now she had lived with the Smiths longer than she had lived with her own family.
        Then again, the Smiths were her family. At least, they were now. A slight smile grew on her face and she leaned her head back, closing her eyes to relish in the feeling of belonging.