Chapter Two

Charlie was looking forward to the first day of school. She had barely left the house all summer, and her parents wouldn’t let her get a job. She mostly spent her time reading books and marathoning TV shows on the Internet.

            The rest of her family did get jobs. Her dad got a job as an electrician for some real estate developer. Her mom was the new manager at the restaurant of some fancy hotel, and Casey worked at the  front desk of the same hotel.

            Charlie didn’t care whether or not she made any friends at school. She just needed to get out of the house, and away from her mom and sister.

            Her only problem was that she had only ever gone to public school. She needed to get used to the whole uniform thing. The uniform for Alpha Omega High School was a white collared shirt, a black skirt for girls"black pants for boys"navy blue sweaters for the winter, navy blue sweater vests for early fall and spring, and navy blue socks"knee highs for girls or navy blue tights. She seriously got a whole sheet of paper informing her of the uniform rules. Shirts always had to be tucked in, and skirts couldn’t go higher than the knee.

            She would have to get the hang of praying, church, and religion classes.

            She also had to take the bus. She had her own car in Maine, but not in Delaware.

            The first day of school was only a half-day. Mostly an orientation day.  Charlie was told all the grades would be divided into their individual homerooms, which was also first period. Once in homeroom they’d get their schedules, locker information, and various amounts of paperwork. Then they’d go to each of their classes for fifteen minutes to get each class’ syllabus, and get acquainted with the teachers.

            A few months before, Charlie had to take several placement tests. She knew her math class would be Statistics, and she tested out of a language"Italian. She was annoyed that she would have to take gym with all the freshmen. She hated gym.

            Charlie didn’t talk to the other kids on the bus. She just read a book. When they arrived at Alpha Omega, she got off the bus and followed the other students to the cafeteria that doubled as an auditorium. She went to the area a teacher told her was for the seniors. She found a lone chair and sat behind two girls"one with brown hair, one with black"who were chatting.

            The brown haired girl had one headphone in, and appeared to be listening to music while talking. The girl with the black hair was drawing a picture of a guy in a notebook.

            The brown haired girl peeked at her friend’s picture. “You’re pathetic.”

            “Shut up, Xana.” The girl shut her notebook. “You know I can’t help it.”

            “Well, Roxy, you don’t have to be a creeper about it. And maybe you’d be with him if you made it obvious you have feelings for him.”

            “You know it’s more than that. And how could I explain to him what I am?”

            “If he gets weird about it then you just fall in love the way everyone else does.”

            The Roxy girl was about to speak again, but the principal asked for everyone’s attention. The principal had the whole school say a prayer, and then she gave a small speech especially welcoming freshmen and new students. After that, she allowed teachers to come up and call their students’ names so they could go to their homerooms/first periods. The seniors were called last.

            Charlie was kind of pleased to be in the same homeroom as the two girls she was sitting behind. Something about them was kind of alluring. The Xana girl had lovely pale skin and pink cheeks. The other, Roxy, was tall and thin like a model. They were the kind of people who drew others in. Or at least Charlie. She found herself wishing she could be in on their conversations and shared looks.

            Charlie’s homeroom and first period was Literature. That made her happy since Lit was one of her favorite subjects.

            She sat through the first period introduction silently. Everyone else knew each other, and was catching up. All except the girls Xana and Roxy. They weren’t sitting near each other, and didn’t talk much to the other students. Not many students made the effort to talk to them either. Charlie wanted to know why that was.

            Charlie wondered if she’d be able to befriend those two. She needed to keep a low profile, and having only two friends that didn’t appear super social seemed like an okay idea. Her aim at school wasn’t to have friends, but it would be nice. Hopefully, she could find a way to get them to let her in. Maybe she could observe them, and discover something in common.

            Once first period and homeroom business was finished, it was time to move on to second period. Charlie was pleasantly surprised to see that she had her Stat class with Xana. The teacher had seated her in front of Xana, and when they were given permission to talk, Charlie decided to make a move since both of them remained silent, and didn’t bother with other students.

            She turned to face Xana. “Hi. I’m Charlie.”

            Xana made what looked like a guilty face. “I know who you are.”

            “Right.” Charlie felt silly. “We have two classes together so far.”

            Xana shook her head and lowered her voice, “Milo Vinni told me about you.”

            Charlie felt a surge of panic, and backed away from Xana as far as she could in a desk. “What?” This Milo guy went on and on about keeping a low profile to stay safe, but he was telling random teenagers about her? “Why?”

            “My family’s known him for a long time,” Xana said. “He asked me to keep an eye out during school hours. I promised myself if you spoke to me I’d tell you.”

            “Are you a Hunter?” Charlie glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

            “Halfie, actually.”

            Now Charlie was filled with a bit of wonder. She scooted closer to Xana. “Really? Marco said he only met a handful. He even Turned one.”

            Xana shrugged. “Yeah. Most do that sometime after turning eighteen. Some are killed by Rogue Hunters for being abominations.”

            “Are you gonna Turn?”

            “Nope. I don’t wanna live for hundreds of years. Life is more precious when you have a deadline.”

            “Marco promised to Turn me,” Charlie mumbled. She was finding Xana easy to talk to.

            Xana snorted. “So you two could be together forever?”

            “Yeah.”

            “A lot of times that’s bullshit.”

            “Whatever.” Milo had basically said that in nicer terms during one of their weekly meetings. “Does anyone else know about me?”

            “My parents. Roxy and her dad.”

            “Is Roxy something?”

            “A Werewolf.” The bell rang and Xana stood, leaving Charlie wide-eyed. “See ya later.”

            Charlie went about the next several periods wondering what to do about Xana and Roxy. Having friends would be great, but should she get involved with more Supernatural people? She didn’t want to put her family in danger again. Though it was possible Xana and Roxy were trustworthy. Apparently Milo knew Xana, and did speak to her about Charlie after all.

            Charlie was briefly distracted in gym class by two girls who started talking to her. They were named Lucy and Eden. She thought they were related, but the girls informed her they weren’t. They seemed Human, but it was hard to tell. Either way, Charlie got along with them. Maybe they could be her friends, even if they were freshmen. Not that there was anything wrong with freshmen, but if she wanted to see an R-rated movie, she couldn’t go with them. But they could find other things to do. And they were probably safer than Xana and Roxy.

            Charlie was still considering the friendship thing when she settled into her Religion class. A few seconds later, Xana and Roxy sat on either side of her.

            “So, news is you know about us,” Roxy said to Charlie.

            “Um, yeah. So?”

            Roxy was about to speak, but her nostrils flared, her cheeks reddened, and she stared at her desk.

            “Hi, Larry,” Xana said breezily. “How was your summer?”

            Charlie looked up at the tall boy. He was pretty skinny, and had light blond hair. He looked very familiar too.

            Larry sighed. “My mom came perilously close to discovering Lucy’s real sexual orientation.”

            Xana grimaced. “S**t. She has a girlfriend now?”

            “She’s had several over the course of the summer.”

            “Wow. Your little sister has more game than you.”

            Larry glared playfully. “You’re hilarious.” He looked at Roxy. “Hi, Roxy.”

            Roxy met his eyes and smiled shyly. “Hi, Larry.”

            “Larry, please take a seat,” the teacher said.

            Larry gave the girls a salute, and went to take an empty seat across the room. As he walked away, Charlie placed him. He was the guy Roxy had been drawing earlier. When they were allowed to talk, Charlie asked about him.

            “We’ve been going to school with Larry since pre-school,” Xana informed her. “We’ve always been sort of friends. When Roxy and I were little, we couldn’t hang out too much with other kids because in high emotion situations we may have revealed ourselves. In grade school his dad died, so he didn’t talk much to other people for a while. Then puberty hit both Roxy and Larry, and she realized he’s her Mate. Now she can’t speak to him.”

            Charlie actually had a lot of questions. Marco’s Clan hadn’t associated with Weres or Shifters. She wanted to know more about Were-creatures. But their classroom was kind of small, and people might’ve been able to overhear.

            “What does your schedule look like, Charlie?” Roxy asked, changing the subject. She read through it after Charlie handed her schedule to her. “Sweet. You have Physics with me.”

            Xana groaned. “Physics is gonna be so boring. Who do you have?”

            “Miller,” Roxy answered.

            Xana laughed. “Sucks for you.”

            Once the bell rang, Charlie and Roxy parted ways with Xana. Roxy led Charlie to their Physics class. They sat in the back of the class, so Charlie felt comfortable asking questions.

            “Are you able to turn into a wolf from birth?”

            Roxy shook her head with a grin as she doodled in a notebook. “As a baby and into childhood it’s only partial. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands change. Some think it’s so the body can get used to the pain of it. Once puberty hits, the first full Change happens on the soonest full moon.”

            “So you look just like a wolf?”

            “Nope. Shifters are exact copies of animals. Weres are more of a … fucked up version, I guess. We stay the same size we are as Human. We just turn more animal-like. We have to stay hidden because we’re more monster looking.”

            Charlie nodded. She liked learning about other Supernatural people. Marco would only ever answer questions about Vampires. “And Mates?”

            Roxy let out a breath. “Mates are what help a Were keep in touch with their Human side. Sometimes the animal side tries to take over. A Mate can be another Were, a Shifter, a Vampire, a Human, or a Hunter.”

            “But how do you know a person is your Mate?” Charlie wondered.

            “There’s something about their scent,” Roxy explained. “It’s, like, a super calming smell. You can hear their heartbeat over everyone else’s. They make you feel right. They bring out the best in you. You’ll never do anything to hurt them. Well, hurt feeling happen without intention. You’d kill for them.”

            “So why not just start dating Larry?”

            “How could I tell him what I am?”

            Charlie shrugged. “Marco just told me.”

            “Well. That may have been part of his manipulation technique.”

            “He didn’t manipulate me,” Charlie said, offended. Her dad and Milo kept saying that too. But she chose to be with Marco.

            “You were fourteen, and he’s significantly older. Supernatural Law doesn’t let Vampires be with anyone sexually under eighteen. Marco knew that.”

            Charlie shook her head. Why did everyone keep trying to dirty up her first love? Yeah, he had lost his mind, but the love was real. Right? “Whatever. So are you guys only talking to me to help keep an eye on me?”

            Roxy looked away from her notebook to Charlie. “Nah. You need friends. And it’s nice for Xana and me to meet someone who knows what we are. The secret keeps us from making new friends.”

            “Just being me kept me from making friends.”

            “Well, now you got two.”

            “My mom wouldn’t be too pleased I’m friends with a Halfie and Werewolf,” Charlie admitted.

            “Meh. She doesn’t need to know.”