CHAPTER ONE

The bell rang for break and I walked out of the class without saying a word. It had been an uneventful morning, no lectures; just some homework and study. The throbbing in my head subsided after rubbing my forehead a few times.

The migraines came as they liked, followed by a ringing sound in my ears. The atmosphere was charged with cheering and consternation, but none of them was the cause of the migraines and the ringing. I needed to pour some water on my head.

In the restroom, it was erringly quiet. Relieved that I wouldn’t have to share the space with some entitled self-conscious teenager, I made for the wash bowl and dipped my head in it. The water ran over my forehead. I didn’t mind that it touched my hair. The pounding subsided as I poured more water on it. Then there was creek, and the sound of a door opening. When I raised my head it wasn’t the front door but the door of one of the cubicles. It was the one directly behind me.

What I saw next froze my blood.

A hooded figure walked out of the cubicles. Two other came out. Then together, they transformed into ferocious wolves with jarring teeth and saliva dripping from it. I opened my mouth to shout but I didn’t hear any sound come out. So, I fell to my knees. The wolves walked towards me but as they neared me, someone dashed me and stood in front of me. I had already buried my hands in my arms when I heard someone say.

"Move out of the way you fool."

I looked up and saw that the person was standing between them and me. It was a boy, a little taller than me, judging that he didn’t crouch as low as I did. He had a tattoo on his left arm and wore a red pull up shirt. I couldn’t take in anymore details of this boy because I wasn’t well coordinated.

"Move away from there, or I won’t hesitate to have both of you killed."

I heard the voice again. I didn’t see anyone move their mouths but my instincts told me that it was coming from one of the wolves. I held onto the boy tightly, but he pulled himself from my grasp.

Then he jumped and when he landed, it was a large brown wolf, as large as the other three that faced us. This boy/wolf had come to save me.

The other wolves snarled. My wolf snarled back; and suddenly I felt the space around us changed and were in the woods.

In one sweep, my wolf charged at the other, hitting one on the jaw with its head, taking aiming for the neck of another wolf, and charging at the third. The third wolf caught him as he wanted to land a nod and the two of them tumbled and rolled on the floor. Leaves ruffled and dust was in the air. The other two had left the fight and came for me. He wrested himself from the other wolf he was fighting with and came for the two.

He grabbed one by his tail. The other, he gave a head butt. One of them winced in pain, while the other charged at him. He dodged and bit the tail, while the last one, the one he was fighting before, charged at him. The fight raged until all four of them were on the forest floor, wincing in pain.

I walked over to my wolf, rubbed his nose and head and I was back to the toilet.

I shook my head. Was this a trance or an imagination? I asked myself. I didn’t get the time to answer that as the school bell rang again.

It was time for the game. It was a school day and since the school year was coming to a close, it was a period dedicated to sending forth the seniors.

As part of the send forth, there was a yearly tradition at Silverwoods High school for the senior boys to have a basketball match before senior prom and send forth party. It was an avenue for them to show the freshmen their alpha maleness and leave a mark in the freshmen’s hearts forever. Though, there have been times in the past, I have heard, where the freshmen won the senior year, resulting in the senior men calling for a rematch.

When I walked out of the bathroom, Angela called out to me.

"Luna, where have you been? I have been looking all over for you," She said.

"Sorry, I was at the bathroom."

"Let's hurry; else we won’t get the best spaces to sit," She said and pulled me to run with her to the basket ball court.

As the match wore on, I couldn’t take my mind off what happened: the hooded figures, the boy who came in to defend me and how all four of them turned into wolfs. The freshmen had just scored a goal and a small part of the student body went wild with jubilation. I suspect it was mainly those in first year and second year.

The whole school was at the match. Mr. Rose, our games teacher, was the referee for the match. Tall, Hispanic and well-built, he towered over many of the teachers in height.

Angela called him her sexy goliath. He is the only teacher at the school that had a tattoo that covered the length of both hands up to the wrist. Could he be the one who came to my rescue in the bathroom?

Ms Greenleaf, our principal, sat in a conspicuous part of the basketball arena. In her brightly coloured clothes and overdone makeup, she clapped eagerly when the freshmen scored, as though trying to make her clapping known.

Last year, she got into some trouble when a woman stormed the school with a gun and demanded from her to leave her husband alone. Ever since, she had earned the moniker, mafia bimbo. The woman and her husband were Russian.

And there was the mysterious Ethan who sat on the opposite end of the arena from where I sat. Our eyes, having crossed some minutes ago, crossed again. He removed his gaze almost immediately. People say he is shy, but I sense there is more to his avoiding looking people to the face and being alone. He always wore dark cloths and on days when he wore a sleeveless top to school, one could see the big R tattooed to the sides of his biceps.

Another thought crossed my mind about the possibility that he might be the guy. He had the size and build of the boy in the bathroom.

The freshmen scored again. Angela, who sat beside me and was my seat partner in class, went wild with joy. You could the frustration on the faces of the senior men.

Ethan’s eyes and mine met again; this time they lingered. He wore a questioning look that lingered, and then looked the other way. I stared at him as he bent his head and then looked at the scoreboard.

The referee blew the whistle and it was time for a break. I watched as one of the freshmen walked past a senior man and the latter pushed. The freshman pushed back, making another senior man give the first blow. Another freshman, in a big to help his teammate rushed at the senior man and a fight started.

Mr. Rose rushed in the middle of the squabble to separate the boys, but my curiosity took the better of me. Ethan had left the court and I couldn’t make out where he had gone. So I decided to look for him.

Ethan was sipping some water from a fountain in the courtyard when I found him. He stopped, straightened up and looked at me.

"You have been staring at me throughout the game." His voice was cold, not the harsh kind. I felt my mouth dry up instantly, again.

"I've also caught you staring," I said with an effort.

He smiled a wry smile.

"What is your name?" he asked, rocking from side to side.

"We have been in class together all term and you don’t know my name?"

"Why? It has only been a couple of weeks since transferred here from my old school. I haven’t been here for long."

"It is long enough for you to know my name. Let that be an assignment for you." I said, felling a little audacious.

"I'm serious. Tell me your name," his smile had disappeared and I felt that he was getting pissed.

"I will tell you on one condition."

"What is it?"

"That you tell me about your tattoo. I have always been intrigued by it."

He was silent and his piercing gaze prodded mine. When he delayed for a while, I gave up and then said.

"Give me your hand. I want to write it down." I said.

He looked at me, expressionless, as though searching for something in my face, but I felt something flow between us. For a moment, it felt like time froze, our eyes locked in a game of looks.

Slowly he brought out his hand. I took out my pen and wrote on his palm. He looked at it and read out loud.

"Luna, like the moon," I nodded and he continued.

"I won’t forget it." he bit his lip and I knew he meant it.

He smiled. His teeth were white as snow. I noticed he had a tattoo on his arm, but he was not wearing a red shirt. The mood changed around us again. The hooded figures were back. And when I looked around, we were back in the words again.

"Get away from the girl. We want nothing to do with you." I heard them say. I was sure that it was them this time because was beside me and he hadn’t said anything.

Ethan moved from my side to the front and stood between myself and them. The figures didn’t waste time to change into wolfs again and this time, it came with a ringing sound in my head.

It rang with such a fever pitch that I held my head and felt to my knees. The last thing I saw was Ethan running towards me.