The Teacher's Mate

Part 1

"Ok, Audrey, breathe. It's only school, you can do this." Audrey gave herself her usual morning-before-school pep talk while she waited for her windshield to defrost. "Nope, never mind, I can't do this." she groaned into the steering wheel of the 80s Marquis her dad and her had renovated together.

You're My Best Friend by Queen rang out and Audrey mechanically answered the phone without picking her head up from the steering wheel while mentally preparing for the screech about to come across the line, she wasn't disappointed.

"Come on Audrey!" Missy squealed, "I've been waiting for you for ages."

Audrey sighed. "I'm coming." she picked her head up and put the car in gear.

The drive to Missy's place wasn't a long one and it was also on the way to the school. Missy didn't have a car and so had ridden with Audrey since they were younger and Audrey's dad had seen Missy walking in the snow. Once Audrey had finished working on her beloved Marquis at the age of sixteen, she drove them. Her baby was painted a shiny black and last Christmas her dad helped her install a new sound system. The Kill 'em All album never sounded so good. She skipped to "Anesthesia -- Pulling Teeth", Cliff Burton's bass always helped soothe her nerves.

Missy was waiting at the door for her and wasted no time jumping in the car, almost scraping her rhinestone-butt jeans on the rear door. "Watch it, you're going to scratch the paint."

Missy rolled her eyes before launching into an excited chatter. "You know there is going to be a new English teacher!" she squealed. "I hope he's cute!"

Typical Missy, mooning over boys. "I wonder why Ms. Pulley quit." Audrey responded as she turned up "Phantom Lord". It was just getting to the lullaby part.

"Why do you always listen to this stuff! It's so old." Missy whined.

"If you don't like it you can always walk to school." Audrey replied coolly with a shrug, she would never actually make Missy walk, but it was a good joke.

They pulled up to the school right when the song started to pick up speed again, the music shook the windows in their frames. Missy jumped out of the car as soon as it was parked. Audrey just stared up at the building. "I don't want to." she grumbled.

"Come on, we are almost halfway through the year," Missy encouraged, "and you need to finish this year. Don't you want to go onto college and become a world-famous car designer?"

"I'm going into Engineering to maybe get to work on that, yes."

"Then you need to get up and come inside with me. Come on, it's never as bad as you think it is." And this is why Audrey kept her around. Missy was always so optimistic, and it helped keep her grounded.

Audrey climbed out of the car and opened the rear door for her backpack. Everyone was staring at her, or more specifically, her baby. As much as she loved her car, it drew so much more attention to her. She needed to see about putting the new tires she bought on.

"Come on," Missy beamed and grabbed Audrey's arm. There were a couple of guys she had never seen before staring at her car. They smelled... wrong. Not bad necessarily, just... off. She couldn't place her finger on it.

"Oh don't glare so, Audrey." Missy scolded lightly, "otherwise, how are you supposed to get a boyfriend?"

"All the boys here are worthless," Audrey grumbled.

"Those ones are cute," Missy whispered conspiratorially. One of the guys smiled.

Audrey gave a long-suffering sigh, "I guess. Boys don't want to talk to me, you know that."

"That's because you scowl all the time."

"It's because I know more about cars than they do."

Missy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe, but you still need to lighten up."

"Ok, Melissa." A ghost of a smile touching her lips as Missy scowled.

Once they put everything in their shared locker, the girls parted ways. They would only see each other in passing until lunch and then not again until English Lit seventh hour.

"How has the day gone so far? As bad as you thought?" Missy asked Audrey at lunch, as she waved to one of the "cute" boys that smelled wrong she would no doubt inform Audrey on.

Audrey grumbled a reply that it wasn't too terrible, before Missy went on a rampage about how she couldn't wait for seventh hour because she had caught a glimpse of the new English teacher and he was sooooo handsome. Audrey just listened patiently as her friend rambled on, at least listening to her helped keep her mind off of her anxiety, even if she was annoying.

"Have you seen some of the new guys?" Missy asked after she finished talking about the teacher. Audrey gave a start while Missy exploded into words. She had noticed them, but not in the way Missy had.

"I heard that they all came as part of the new pack," she began, "Apparently they are wanting to build a hospital here, can you believe that? A pack of werewolves wanting to build a hospital for humans?"

Audrey's breath hitched as the puzzle pieces finally fell into place. They did smell wrong, and she now knew why. What would a pack be doing building a hospital? It's not like they ever needed very much medical attention.