The Dirt

Chapter 9: The Dirt

 

I woke up to the loud obnoxious sound of the lawn mower the next morning; it was as clear as day coming through the only small window in my room.

Without yet opening my eyes, I stretched out my arms and legs to see if June was still in bed. I was surprised to hit the ends of her feet with my shins.

“Hey…” She moaned, her curved pink lips moved clumsily and turned herself around to face away from me.

I reached and felt for my cell phone on the nightstand to see the time. When I got a hold of it, I forced my eyes open, it was only eight o’clock.

“Ugh…” I groaned. “Why does dad have to do the lawn now?”

Slowly raising myself from my pillow, I went to the window to stick my head out. I was squinting out into the drastic change of lighting. It made my eyes burn, even though it wasn’t sunny outside. 

I saw my dad mowing in front of the woods, some sweat trickling down his forehead, looking painfully concentrated.

When he noticed my red head sticking out of the window, he turned off the mower.

“Sorry hun, but I got to get the lawn done before it rains, the weather channel says it’s going to pour pretty bad.”

“It’s M’kay.” I said practically half asleep. I was still tired after last night and its craziness… it wore me out in so many ways. I closed the window so the mower would muffle, and plopped back in bed, curling myself in the covers happily.

But then something ticked, and inside I became wide-awake.

I shot my eyes open. Remembering that last night really wasn’t a dream... All I could think of was to go see Cody.

I sat upright, and went to open the closet.

Looking at all the clothes wedged on the hangers, it would just take too much time in putting on.

“Oh screw it.” I muttered to myself and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

About to exit the bathroom, I stopped myself when I saw my reflection in the corner of my eye through the full-length mirror.

I had my short loose pajama shorts on with my wrinkled maroon T-shirt, which had small yellow paint splats and a small hole on right sleeve. My hair was a strawberry blonde mane of mess, looking thick with some strands sprawling outwards.

My legs looked tanner in the bathroom light, but I knew once I was outside they would look like their natural Ivory. They looked shorter than usual from the sneakers and shorts combo, when usually my legs looked longer. And my white sneakers were mudded on the bottoms from hiking. The Indian beaded necklace I got from Cody’s store was still on, and that was the only thing that really looked descent.

I breathed a laugh at my reflection and went to get my cell phone from the room. Leaning against the log wall, I put my shoes on and began dialing Cody’s number. 

 

“Mm…Hello?” A sleepy voice mumbled in the phone, I couldn’t make out whom it was.

“Sorry if I woke you, it’s Desiree, who’s this?”

“S’Cody… oh! Des? Des! You’re talking to me?” He asked surprised.

I sucked in through my teeth. “Of course I’m talking to you… don’t you remember last night?”

“Yeah, but you never kn-“

“Oh my god! Cody! Last night! Are you okay? Is that why you left? Because of the Mountain Lion?” I asked suddenly remembering, anxiety filling in my chest.

“Des, I’m fine… and yeah I could smell it coming, but I took care of it.”

“I know you did, wow… you really fought with that thing?” I gawked.

He laughed weakly. “Yes, I did. Now we can keep talking about this stuff when you get your a*s over here.”

“That was the plan.” I grinned.

“Good. I’ll see you soon then, bye Des.”

“Bye.” I snapped my phone shut, and wrote a note for dad so he knew where I was and headed for the jeep.

 

My dad was right, it was going to rain; the clouds farther east looked an ugly shade of blackish gray. Soon enough they were going to trail along this way. The humidity was the only way it was still warm outside.

The ride to Cody’s got me to wake up, my mind was still two steps ahead of my body, but I was becoming more alert. It probably wasn’t smart to just wake up and go driving right after, but I had to get there as soon as I could possible. I wish I could have made some coffee or ate something quick before I left.

When I pulled over by Cody’s house he was already outside on the bench in front of the door, leaned over eating a bowl of cereal.

“Hey.” I said walking towards him a little two quickly. I grasped onto the pole that held the broken light in front of his house.

He looked me over with a curious expression, and it turned to a grin. “Nice.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I said and walked over to go sit down on the bench next to him, but he stood up and put his hand on my shoulder to stop me.

“We’ll go down to the dock.” He said with an unreadable look on his face. 

“Alright.”

 

When we got to the dock, we dangled our feet over the edge. The chilly water touched the tips of my toes. Cody was able to get up to his ankles in water.

“So, I know you got a lot of questions to ask me… so ask away.” He said looking down at his feet. He looked ready for anything.

I skimmed through my head, thinking of the first one to ask, there were so many.

“Are you the only werewolf, or are your family… werewolves too?”

He stared ahead, “They are too, yeah, except for my mother… she isn’t. Werewolves can mate with humans and still make werewolves, its still going to turn up in their DNA, but not as much as werewolf to werewolf mating, you see the difference about my family, is we age like humans, normal werewolves don’t age. It runs far back in our family. My father told me that my great-great-great grandfather, Al Howell, was who started it in our family. A ‘rabid’ wolf apparently bit him when he was out hunting in the woods with his friends. But he soon figured out it wasn’t rabid, it was worse… a werewolf.”

“So he didn’t know what was happening to him. He was sick for days, his body was different, and his DNA changed. He was going through pain; the bite of a werewolf is not a pleasant feeling.”

“You’ve felt it?” I asked cutting in.

“No. I was generically brought into being one. Al Howell, being a werewolf, could then sense all the other werewolves that lived amongst the woods. He found them, and joined their pack. They told him it would be smart for him to join his own kind, which is… its stupid to stroll along with no one whose got your back, and it gives you a sense of unity, that he wasn’t alone. And so he later ended up marrying one of the members of the pack, they had kids; their kids had kids and so on. So I was born a werewolf, always have been. The only person who had to deal with the change in my family was Al Howell.”

“So you and your family are in a pack together?”

“Yes, but not just my family and I, you remember Jacks friends?”

I raised my eyebrows surprised. “They are werewolves too?”

“Yep. And they are the great-great-great grandchildren of the people in my ancestors pack.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, but that’s all who we know in our area. We haven’t met any others from anywhere else.”

There was a pause, as I was thinking for another question.

“Was it hard,” I asked. “Or, I mean, is it hard, being one?”

He squinted into the sun that broke through the clouds. “Well, no… not really. Like I said, I’ve always been one. It’s who I am, who I’ve always been. But I did need to learn how to control when I changed when I was young. My parents and Jack helped, just like they got help when they were younger.”

“So how do you change? I’m guessing not by the full moon…”

He laughed. “No. We just… do it when ever we want to.”

I tilted my head at him. “Really?”

“Yeah. But we only do it when we want to get somewhere fast, have to go guard and protect, or sometimes we just enjoy the run.”

“Guard and protect?” I asked.

He exhaled. “Remember the mountain lion last night?”

I shivered, remembering the noise it made, and its gleaming gold eyes glowing in the shadows. “Yea.”

“Those things have caused us nothing but trouble for the past 100 years.”

I furrowed my brows for more.

“Back in the older days where my great-great-great grandfather had his pack, hunting became very popular. The hunters killed all of the mountain lions pray, lowering the population of deer, and elk. Their what they call their “pride” was starving, so they came out of their natural habitat, and began to feast on humans."

This made me cringe. I thought of the large wailing lady running for her life at the carnival… Nick and I running from it, not knowing what it really was looking for. We simply thought it was out of its habitat, roaming the wrong place. But it was actually there for a reason, to have some dinner. Oh boy.

My stomach churned unpleasantly.

“So, no one knew why they were acting like that, hunters tried hunting them down, but after eating hundreds of humans, they seemed different, more... indestructible. They would try to shoot but they would get away too fast, faster than a blink of an eye. They moved like cheetahs through the forest, dodging trees like you have never seen. These hunters were mind boggled, but they did not know why they were acting this way. It was out of their hands. And only one thing could stop them.”

“The pack.” I said softly.

“Exactly.”

“So your saying, they still are like that, you still protect the town.”

“Yes. We come across one almost 4 times a week, trying to get a human. My father is the alpha, the pack leader.”

“Cool… but then why can’t people just stop hunting so they can feed on their old pray again?”

“The thing is, is that they didn’t just kill people.”

I looked at him, and he looked back at me. “What do you mean?”

“Their claws, became venomous after eating humans. Who the hell knows how… something that would have to be studied deep in the science curriculum I would guess, but it was something that also was added to their new abilities. So they would scratch people, and they would turn-“

“No!” I said in disbelief. “Werecats?”

He snorted. “No, they don’t have a name. But they are calling themselves Sphinx’s.”

“Like the Egyptian statue? With the Lion body and human head?” That was stupid. I thought.

He shrugged. “Stupid isn’t it? I don’t know why they are calling themselves that, but whatever.” He splashed the water with his foot. “I don’t call them that though, because that’s what they want us to call them, like they are of higher authority or somethin’.”

“So what do you call them?” I asked.

“A bunch of things. There’s puss, Snagglepuss, they hate that one.” He smiled to himself, probably thinking of old memories. “Kitty, or kitty cat, Stuff like that.”

I chuckled. “Nice.” I turned to look at him, and was taken aback to see he was already looking at me. His warm and deep brown eyes were so concise, so passionate. Just looking at them gave me butterflies. We stared at each other for what felt like centuries.

I cleared my throat. “So they are pretty rotten I’m guessing.”

He widened his eyes. “Oh yeah, they’re nasty creatures, or should I say, catty.”

I laughed as he continued. “They don’t give a rat’s a*s about anyone but themselves and their stomachs. They don’t care about killing a bunch of harmless humans.” He said releasing some anger. “They are helpless… if they never ate a human they wouldn’t have had this huge uncontrollable addiction, that’s all they want. They wouldn’t have been a problem to us if they weren’t desperate for food. So in a way its really all those damn hunters faults.”

“But see the thing is, when you get scratched. You at first are still the person who you were before. But once their pride drags you in… it’s like they brainwash you, and there’s no coming back.”

“And how would you know that?” I asked curiously.

He paused for a moment. “Because… Leroy gave me this scar.”

He put a finger to the thin pinkish white scar that slashed along the side of his neck.

 

 

I starred at his scar, not sure what to say. I was speechless. Leroy seemed so nice, so close to Cody. Why would he hurt him? Before I could ask he continued.

“When Leroy was younger, he was attacked by those cats. It cut him deep on the back. And the venom made him able to turn.” He licked his lips from all the talking. “We were still the best friends when this happened. Although I did not tell him I was a werewolf, because I thought it to be not really important. I was only twelve, and so was he. But the pride lured him in… he was told not to tell anyone about what happened, because he’d be alone, and no one would believe him or understand him, they said if he joined them, it would be his only way to fit in with the world again, which was what got him to join their pride.”

My heart was racing at all this information. I couldn’t believe it.

“So he was with them, setting off to kill humans… he didn’t like it of course, but they intimidated him, made him feel like it was the only way. So after school one day me and Leroy were talking on our walk home like any day, and once we separated, I got home and my family said the pride was on their way for another attack. We all went like we usually did, and I got into a fight with one of them, who was younger like me. My parents only let me fight with my own size. It was actually my first year that they allowed me to actually fight one of them. So I was trying to block it from the clearing out of the forest as the others took the rest. I bit him on the arm pretty good, and then to my surprise he scratched me on the neck, although werewolves are immune to its poison, I was still howling from the pain, bleeding insane amounts. And to my surprise it scarred him off, he walked away ashamed, scared of what he did. And I didn’t understand why, I only assumed he was new to his pride.”

“Then the next day of school, since we werewolves heal fast, I didn’t have to go to the hospital. But I came to school patched up pretty good. When I saw him at school the next day, we just stared at each other. I looked at Leroy’s arm, which was in a brace. And Leroy looked to my neck, and saw all the bandages covering it.”

“At that moment we both knew that we had done this to each other. And Leroy had begged for my forgiveness, and how he didn’t like his pride, and how he was scared to kill people and how he didn’t want to, but they tasted too good, and he like the power they gave him and how he was afraid he couldn’t go back. He said he wanted to eat human food because he still liked it as a human. Even though the cats said that he was forbidden to, because it would make him weaker.”

“I told him it was okay, and that I could have him stay with my family, and be apart of our pack, and that we could help him to hunt the normal stuff, like deer. And not be obsessed with hunting humans.”

“But what’s the difference when he’s in his human form? Does he still want to hunt?” I asked a little confused.

“When the ‘sphinxes’ are human, they don’t crave humans, they will be like I am… bigger appetite, naturally strong and stuff, but when they turn… that’s all they want, well once they’ve tasted it.”

“So there are sphinx’s, which are like werewolves, who change into an animal and then there are just normal mountain lions that have advanced abilities because they’ve eaten humans… and the ones they just scratched are the ones that are sphinxes?” I asked trying to get it all together.

“Exactly. We call the original ones mountain lions, but the ones that get scratched and can change are sphinxes. And they can change whenever they want to too, but usually if they get dragged into the pride… the leader can convince you to stay in the cat form.

“The thing is that there is enough deer and elk around for the mountain lions now, but they discovered that humans are so much better, so they won’t go back to the natural food chain.”

“But anyways, Leroy agreed, although he was scared about the pride and what they would do… and yes they were furious, and they still are. I’m sure they want nothing more than the pleasure of killing my family, and more specifically me. So they can get Cody back into the pride, because to them that’s the only place where he belongs.”

He finally finished and the last of what he said seemed to echo off in the silence. He said it with surprisingly no fear at all. He sounded more amused that they wanted to kill him and his family. I was as still as stone; leaning on my arms that were spread behind me, balancing my body. My muscles were tensed; my nails were digging into the wooden dock.

“Cody.” Was all I could whisper.

They wanted to kill Cody, and his family. And it was because of Leroy. The thought sent a chill throughout my body.

“That why Jacks friends, the pack, doesn’t like Leroy or talk to him?” I asked but it didn’t come out like a question.

“Yea, they don’t trust him… and they don’t appreciate what he caused for my family and I. But my family isn’t angry with him, we don’t think it’s fair for them to ignore him and hold a grudge… you and Leroy are my best friends, I would do anything for you guys… even if it sacrificed my life.”

What he said touched me, my heart felt like it melted into my stomach.

“I would do exactly the same for you.” I said looking up at him.

“I know you would, Desiree.” He said my name with such affection it made my elbows weak and give out, and I fell back onto the wooden dock.

“You alright?” He asked startled.

“Mhm.” I mumbled a little embarrassed, not getting up. I looked at the fluffed clouds, slowly moving in the sky.

“I want to ask you something else.”

Cody lay back with me with a sigh that sounded like the noise you make after taking a refreshing gulp of water. I felt his shoulder brush mine. “What would that be?”

“How come, the times I ran into you in the woods as a wolf, it seemed like… you wanted to eat me whole?”

I saw his chest shake, his plain white t-shirt going up and down with silent laughter. “Because you were nearly about to get killed.”

I felt my eyes widen. “What are you talking about?”

“The first time, when you were snapping those pictures on your hike… I was deeper west, and I smelt the cat. So I followed its scent, and I saw it was crouched down, literally ready to pounce at you.” I gasped but he ignored it.

“So I hid in the bushes, and I didn’t know what to do so I tried scaring you off so you would run, but you didn’t run you were backing away, so I decided to keep walking towards you so it would get the idea you were mine. I hoped it knew it wouldn’t have a chance in getting to you if I was around… and before it decided to go, you tripped on the tree root, and that’s when it took a chance and lunged at you. I got to him just in time, and uh… let’s just say I took care of it.”

I felt the shocked look on my face before I said, “Uh, well… thanks.”

He laughed. “And the other time with your sister- I just don’t get why your always in the woods… but another cat was right behind you, coming your way, and I jumped through the air as fast as I could and chased it off. Once I… took care of it-“

“You can say kill I don’t care.”

“Once I killed it I ran off to make sure you were getting the heck out of there. And I felt like I needed to redeem myself from my bad first impression.”

I choked a laugh. “And then you licked my face.”

“Yep.”

“Hmm, it all makes sense now.” I said looking at a cloud that looked pretty gray and ugly.

“But why are you black? And your eyes are a different color too.”

He squinted one eye. “Really… no one knows why that is. Jacks got black hair and his is a light brown. And the eyes, all wolf eyes are a yellowish gold like that.”

“So then what about the sphinxes?”

“They are opposite, you can tell the difference between them by their eyes. They are all different colors. Their fur is different in pattern slightly but it’s always the same general tan color.”

“Hmm. So Leroy had green eyes.” I said remembering his strange light green eyes, reminiscent of a cat.

“Oh, and were you really busy working and gone on a hunting trip that week when you were gone?”

“Nope. I dedicated that week to Leroy. I went with him to go hunt, not people of course… he is still to this day trying to get used to it. He hasn’t eaten a human for almost 3 years.”

“Congrats to him.”

“I think it might rain.” Cody said after a big obnoxious exhale.

And right when he said that it was almost on queue. I looked back at the sky and the ugly clouds I saw driving over here seemed to catch up to us. I felt a drop of cold wet hit the center of my forehead, and then more came down, hitting my bare knees, neck and arms. I felt them hit my T-shirt, poking the wet fabric down to my skin.

“Eh, it’s just a little.” I said shrugging, making my shoulder blades rub against the rough wood. And it was like I jinxed us. Rain started poring down, quickly soaking my whole body.

I sat up open mouthed and saw Cody sit up in the corner of my eye. I looked out to the water and could barely see anything there was so much rain. Then I heard a load rumble of thunder that filled the sky. I thought it might shake the ground.

“Ah!” I yelled as Cody laughed, looking at my expression. I started running down the dock hunched over towards the grassy land, my yells drowned in the hard sound of the rain. I could hear Cody’s feet behind me splashing on the soaked dock. My hair was already soaked and sticking to my face and neck. The T-shirt and PJ shorts I was wearing were soaked, sticking wet to my skin. When I got to the grass the patch of mud made the rubber of my sneakers slip against it in the wrong way. I pain shot through my ankle and I was falling forwards, my face plunging towards the ground. I cowered my face with my arms last minute and hit the wet grass with impact. I heard Cody yell my name through the loud rain hitting the lake and trees, and I started lifting myself with my arms.

I felt Cody’s hands around my waist pulling me up. I got to my feet and realized I couldn’t put pressure on my right foot.

“Ow.” I said as if I was just saying the word. I could barely hear myself in the rain, my eyelashes were wet and I saw Cody in front of me blurrily through my vision. Behind him everything was fuzzy because of the rain.

“You hurt you ankle didn’t you? Here let me carry you up the stairs to the house.” He scooped me up unexpectedly and was cradling me in his arms before I could say anything and started jogging to the stairs, making me hop a little. I felt pretty like a pathetic little toddler. His hands were gripping my waist and underneath my legs, holding me like I weighed nothing. Which surely wasn’t the case, hey I might have been fit, but hey I wasn’t a feather, last time I checked, I was 128 pounds. He seemed like he wasn’t putting any effort at all into it. Well, must be another werewolf thing.

I buried my head into his shoulder so my face wouldn’t feel anymore of wet drops of rain. As I was bouncing while we were going up the stairs I on purpose made those noises little kids do when they are on their parents lap as they shake their leg. I felt Cody’s laugh from his chest and I lifted my head up to see him smile and roll his eyes. His brown hair stuck to his face like in the canoe, water was falling down his face and dripping off his nose and chin.

 

We got to the deck and he pushed the sliding door open with his foot. Our breathing became enormously louder than it was in the hammering sound of the rain. It was weird to so quickly go from the rain to inside.

He plopped me on the hunter green couch. I looked around and saw Cody’s dad, George looking up from his morning newspaper.

“Glad you both got in before you could get soaked.” He said amused and broke into a funny chuckle.

“Yada yada.” Cody breathed. “Desiree twisted her ankle on our way up. We still got ice?”

“Yes, use the baggies instead of the paper towel this time.”

As Cody was rummaging through the kitchen getting the ice ready I pulled off my drenched shoes. There were pieces of grass stuck to the sides with mud. I looked over to George questioningly not sure where to put them where their floor wouldn’t get mudded.

“Just drop’em there, not like our house is squeaky clean anyways.”

I smiled gratefully and put them in front of the couch. Putting my feet up on the other cushion, I wrapped my hands around my right aching ankle. My socks were damp and smelt like mucky pond. Looking at my shorts and shirt, I found out that not only were my clothes wet, but also patched with brown muddy dirt in some spots from slipping. Jack came from down the stairs looking like he just woke up. He had bags under his eyes, a light 5 o'clock shadow and for the first time I’ve seen, his shoulder length dark brown hair was out of his ponytail, His dark eyes looking annoyed. Clearly the rain had woken him up without his permission.

“Damn did god give us the next great flood? Let’s go look out and see if we can find Noah’s ark floating around.” He said with a yawn and scratched his head. “I need Advil…” He mumbled to himself and slid his feet towards the kitchen where Cody zipped up the bag of ice.

Cody snorted, “You look like hell.” He shook his head, smiling amused at his brother while passing him and walked towards me.

He squatted down in front of me and placed the bag of ice on my ankle gently.

“Oh!” I made a small gasp. The ice was freezing against my skin.

He grinned. “I knew you would do that.”

He looked me over quickly. “You need dry clothes…and so do I. So if you want I’ll help you to my room and I can give you some of my clothes and you can change in there.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

His eyes fell down to my ankle. “I can tape that, so you can walk with it on.”

“Yeah sure.”

“Ight.” He said and rose up, walking to the kitchen again. His jean shorts a dark navy blue from being soaked, and his white shirt was see-through, making the muscles in his back visible.

He came back with duct tape.

I burst out a laugh. “What are you going to do? Hold me hostage?”

He stopped walking and looked taken aback. “What? I don’t have that first aid stuff, my apologies but we all heal on our own.” He said and gave a crooked smile.

“Well whatever just tape me up.” I said impatiently, lifting my leg up while holding the bag of ice on my ankle.

He came closer and ripped off a piece of duct tape in one pull, and wrapped the bag around my ankle.

“Sturdy?” I asked.

He grabbed my shin and shook it cautiously. “Looks like it.”

I got up and leaned on my left leg. My wet clothes all stuck to my skin, I pulled my t-shirt away from me and adjusted my PJ bottoms, which were about to have a malfunction.

Cody securely wrapped his arm around my waist for support as we walked along the thick brown carpet. Once we got in front of the stairs he stopped.

“Want me to carry you?” He asked. His face looked so reliable, like he could take good care of me. And I knew I wouldn’t doubt it.

“Nah, I got this. Thanks though.” I said with a small heave as I clenched onto his side to pull myself onto the first step, once we got to the top I released myself from him and hopped down the small hall, and across his room to sit on his low bed, hearing his silent chuckles behind me. It looked like it did before, regular size with a dark blue sheet over it. If it was a twin size, he wouldn't of been even close to fitting on it. I sat down clumsily.

"You made it." He teased and started going through his dresser drawers.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you not to make fun of the crippled?" I said adjusting myself on the bed.

"Yea, but your the exception."

“Sorry if I get your bed wet.” I said already knowing he didn’t care.

He made a funny noise like what I said was stupid. “I don’t care. It’ll dry.” 

“I knew you would say that.”

 

While he was looking through his dresser drawers I gazed around at what I didn’t notice before in his room. There was a hockey jersey nailed over his dresser. On the nightstand were beef jerky with a bunch of wrappers covering the house phone. In the corner was a bicycle wheel, and there was a stereo with a bunch of Spiderman stickers all over it, with a stack of CDs next to it.

“Okay, does the size matter ‘cause all my shirts are generally the same size.”

“No, I don’t care.”

He tossed a worn in, thin dark red T-shirt my way. It had gold lettering on it that said ‘Northville High Varsity Hockey’ on the front with decorative font; there was a hockey stick and puck in the center, and on the top of the back it wrote ‘Howell’.

“And you can just wear my Pajama bottoms.” He said grabbing plaid fabric and handing it to me.

“Thanks Cody.” I said appreciatively.

“No problem.” He said with a hand full of clothes. “I’ll be in the bathroom.” He closed the door behind him and I got up to change. It was quite tricky to get off my shorts with my ankle, but I managed. The plaid Pajama pants were flannel and extremely comfortable, but extra long so I had to roll them up a few times. The t-shirt was loose and big in that comfortable cozy way I liked. Wearing dry clothes felt so refreshing. I bundled my wet clothes and I heard a light knock on the door.

“I’m done.” I said and Cody walked in, with a dark green muscle shirt and jeans and took my clothes.

“I’ll but them in the dryer so you an put them on before you get home.” He said, extending his arm out for me.

I hopped forward, his loose clothes jumping around my skin, and let him wrap his arm around me; I grabbed his waist for support as we went down the stairs.

Once we reached the bottom, Cody’s mom Anne was at the table with George, sipping out of freshly made coffee, with her feet up on the table. Jack was on the couch flicking through the Tv channels.

After explaining my ankle to the worried Anne, Cody kicked Jack off the couch and I rested on the green love seat again. Jack was on the rocking chair as Cody sat on the floor in front of me, his back against the couch. That 70’s Show was on; I found out that they loved the show as much as I did.

“Man I got to try that sometime.” Cody said, his eyes glazed on the screen.

“Just try and put me in a dress while hammered, I’ll kick your a*s.”  Jack warned, his morning funk still prompt.

The thunder and lighting continued to crack and growl outside with the heavy rain, looked like we were going to be stuck inside for a while, and I didn’t mind that. I loved thunder and lightning storms… they were thrilling to me, in a safe but reckless kind of way. And to make it more perfect, Anne made everyone hot chocolates. While the three of us were sipping away, cozy in the living room, George scuffled about how she forgot to make him one and she babbled how he was being a big baby and could make his own.

A smile effortlessly spread on my face, they were so normal, so human.

I glanced at the back of Cody’s head and ruffled his hair so it fluffed up and was sticking out in some spots. He turned to me and raised a brow. I mimicked him and he cracked a smile.

 

His heart melting, jubilant face was then suddenly swallowed by darkness. The only lighting was the dim, gray stormy morning light that bled through the rain washed windows.

 

Author's Note

Just in case you don't get the title:
The title "The Dirt" is meant in the way as in 'the information.' or 'the scoop' not like actual dirt ;)

Reviews

[lawrence bear]

Hey Alyssa,
sorry for the late review, i have been busy with my baby and all. I really loved this chapter. made me laugh when I found out the mountain lions are part humans too, I liked that part, snagglepuss. made me laugh out loud, and my kids looked at me like I was crazy. lol. there a lot of info in here about the lions, or as they like, sphinxes. awesome job, you have me in suspense for the next chapter.
I'll try to keep up, as I am not on here as often now. so keep up the awesome story. i look forward to the next one.

[Kayla]

I thought everything was great!! I think this was a rlly good chapter. And I loved the rain!! Cuz like the weather can only be the same for a certain time. Eventually it's gonna change!! And I thought that the title of the chapter was very fitting (lol even though, before I read the author's note I thought u were talking about soil)!! And I love it how Cody calls her a kangaroo!! It totally lightens up the mood even more!!
And now onto the "sphinxes"
That was a rlly unique idea!! And it just totally explains everything in the story!! Like how Leroy seems to be disliked by Jack's friends!! And why there would be a mountain lion at a place full of ppl!! The whole thing is ingenious!! Loved the chapter!!

[veronica.voodoo]

ahhh...i thought i had already rated this....
anyways, i liked this a lot, but i was slightly....ihh.idk.i mean it was great, just not as high pace intensity as the other chapters.but thats good, because as a reader, we need a break from all the barrage of action.idk.
good job though!

[Jason]

To comment in response to your Author Note, "The Dirt", I feel was a very fitting title. I think this chapter is very well written and full of suspense. I really like all the character dialog you used as well. As a writer myself, I tend to have a heavy character dialog in most of my work. I think it just involves the reader a little more. Great job!!