I couldn’t remember anyone ever telling me that bluntly how they felt about me. It was obvious that Verina Crow and the Parker pack hated me. That was fine. They were my sworn enemies. I’ve had incidents with other kids at school before, too. There were girls I wasn’t so fond of who didn’t exactly find me to be the most pleasant person in the world. This was different. This was someone who was supposed to be a member of my pack--at least in theory--someone who was supposed to be loyal to me and do whatever needed to be done to preserve the pack telling me, point blank, to my face, that she hated me.
I almost wanted to laugh.
But Sam didn’t think it was funny. “You don’t mean that, Starla,” he said, taking a few steps back into the room, toward her. “Really, you shouldn’t joke around about stuff like th
“How did that go?” Ben asked, holding me close as I tried my best to control my tears. I really didn’t want to let Starla’s mean comments get to me, but it hurt to have anyone yell such awful things at me, especially someone who I’ve tried so hard to be nice to. It’s all so wrong, it makes my heart ache, and I had no idea how to answer Ben’s question without making my tears even more prominent.I sat up and swiped the single tear that had escaped off of my cheek. “That Starla is a bitch,” I said, trying to control my anger but not getting much of it under check. “I hate her.”Ben gave me an empathetic look but then said, “Tell me how you really feel,” trying to get me to laugh. I appreciated the effort, I really did, but it didn’t work this time. “What happen
I don’t know how long I stared at Sam with my mouth hanging open, but it had to be several minutes. I could hardly believe what he was telling me was true. How could Starla be pregnant? I knew that Sam wouldn’t have ever slept with me if I wasn’t on birth control. I wanted to ask what sort of contraception they were using, but I didn’t because it seemed too personal, not my business, and a moot point. Instead, I just gaped at him, trying to comprehend what all of this would mean.It made kicking Starla out of the house I’d just made for her a lot more difficult, that was for certain. How could I possibly ask a scared, pregnant teenager to go out into the world and fend for herself? Or go back to the grandfather who’d hit her in the face because he didn’t like her dating Sam? I never would’ve thought I’d think that Mr. Hudson had a point, but I had to as
The forest has a way of calming me unlike any other place, any other person, in the world. So the next day, I spent a great deal of time sitting on my favorite stump, my eyes closed, feeling the forest’s power flow through me. Everything that had happened in the last few days had begun to accumulate inside of me, and my nerves were a wreck. After sitting outside for a few hours, I was beginning to feel a lot better about the situation with Ben. I still hadn’t come to terms with how Starla had treated me and how her delicate condition was going to affect the rest of the pack, but the more time I spent in the forest, the more I was reminded that we would all be okay.The crunching of feet on leaves and snow had me opening my eyes and peering off through the evergreen trees to see who was approaching. It wasn’t a cadence I recognized. When Starla stepped into my line of sight,
Things were weird at home, but it was almost Christmas, and that helped to take my mind off of all of the craziness with Starla and Sam. It also helped me not to think about Fionna, even though I got a new message almost every day from someone at the School for Mages who told me something about how insane she was acting. Most of the time, it was Kayla or Lluvia who lit my phone up with, “You’ll never guess what she did today!” but sometimes it was Sean or Liam. I always shared the messages from Liam with Ben so he’d know exactly what we were saying to one another, even though he constantly told me that he trusted me. I knew he was still worried about Liam, that something was going to happen to make me feel like I’d rather be with him than Ben, so I tried to keep my distance from Mr. Finch. It wasn’t that hard since he was on the other side of the ocean. After I told him what Maggie had said and what Brice had added
Francis Flamingo looked odd, standing in the snow wearing a bright pink cloak, the hood over her dark hair. Snowflakes accumulated on the fabric, making her look like a strange symbol of summer lost in a wintry mix.I took a few steps closer to her, Ben following me, even though I didn’t want to speak to her. I could tell by the way she was standing there on the sidewalk outside of a hardware store that she wanted to speak to me. She wouldn’t have stopped walking if she was just saying hi. “How are you?” I asked as I stepped back on the curb to match her height.“Not good, I’m afraid,” she said, shaking her head. “This is our first Christmas away from Fionna, and I’m not sure how it will go. I am missing her desperately.”I nodded. “I can understand t
Francis Flamingo didn’t look like the deranged tropical bird in a snowstorm she had a few moments ago now that I was hovering above her eye level and she had to look up to see my face. If anything, she looked more like a frightened child. I could certainly see the resemblance between her and Fionna, her own daughter, who had been terrified so many times in my presence, I wasn’t sure what to think of her parents. For all I knew, her off-balance existence might be because her parents were just awful to her.I didn’t have time to dig into the psychosis of the situation at the moment, though. I needed to set something straight. “Listen here, Mrs. Flamingo,” I said, refraining from wagging my finger in her face, but just barely. “You don’t get to threaten me or my pack. I’ve done more for you and your family than anyone else has, maybe ever, unless y
What was meant to be a fun day of giving back to our community was quickly becoming something else--a day full of conflict. I didn’t like that idea at all, but here Starla was, standing on my front porch, waiting for me.I tried not to make assumptions that she was there to mess with me, but after interactions we’d had recently, I had zero expectations of it being anything other than her here to gripe at me about something. “What’s up, Starla?” I said, the words practically falling out of my mouth in a sigh.“Hi, Harlow. Sam and I heard that you are helping some of the kids and elderly people in town with Christmas presents, and we want to help.”I could only stare at her, my mouth agape, for a few seconds. “You do?” I asked her. It didn’t sound to me
Shopping was so much fun! Even though Ben isn’t much of a shopper and usually doesn’t like this sort of thing, we had a great time picking out the toys for the kids and other items, like warm blankets, for the elderly people on our list. By the time we had collected everything we needed, including a ton of wrapping paper, and got it loaded back into the truck, it was snowing pretty hard outside. I wasn’t worried about us making it home safely because I could make sure that nothing happened to the truck, as I had that one time when Sam and I had almost gotten hit head on going to the jewelry store, but I was concerned for everyone else. I sent them a text telling them to be careful going home, and once we had Raven and Tony loaded up in the truck, we headed out. It would’ve been a tight fit if we hadn’t put everything in the back of the truck secured from the weather beneath a large tarp.