Connor eyed the limping girl as she walked in front of him. "Want some help?"
Mey ignored him.
"It looks like it hurts."
Mey still ignored him and kept limping to the bus stop. She bit her lip as the road started to incline.
"Come on, Mey, don't be stubborn."
Mey gritted her teeth and soldiered on.
"Why are you so mad anyway?"
That finally got a reaction out of her, although the reaction was a mere glare his way.
“Fine. I’m sorry that I tackled you in front of Sean Mulberry.” He griped and mumbled under his breath, “What kind of a name is Mulberry anyway.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.” Connor kicked a rock out of his way. “What’s the big deal anyway?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” Mey sniffed, her long pony tail swinging. Connor had the sudden suspicion that her hair was mocking him.
“Of course I do. You like him.”
Mey stopped and glared. “If you knew than why did you embarrass me like that?”
“Like what? Why would you be embarrassed? We were playing football.”
“FLAG football, you jerk. You shouldn't have tackled me in the first place. This was a new shirt.”
Connor’s eyes dropped to the shirt which look like every other shirt she ever wore but he was smart enough not to say that. “You should have been paying attention to the game.”
“Are you trying to say that it’s my fault that you tackled me like that?”
“I tackle you all the time. That’s how we play football.”
“Not in front of Sean. Look at me.” She waved her arms in front of her.
Connor looked at her. “What?”
“I’m all dirty.”
“So am I.”
“Exactly.”
Connor scrunched his eyebrows and scratched his chin. “I don’t get it.”
“I look like a boy.”
“So?”
“I don’t want to look like a boy in front of Sean.”
Connor scoffed. “That’s stupid.”
“Why is that stupid?”
“Because it’s obvious you’re a girl.”
“That’s not what I—OW.” Frustrated, Mey had stomped her sprained foot.
A smirk started to appear on Connor’s lips but it faded when tears leaked out of her eyes and her lips wobbled. Connor's amusement scattered into utter panic.
“Don’t cry, Mey. Come on, I’m sorry, okay? I promise not to tackle you in front of him again.”
“I’m not crying because of that, you noob. My foot hurts.”
“Oh.” Connor grabbed her backpack and tossed it to a nearby pack-kid who caught it without blinking the carried it along with him to the bus stop. He crouched in front of Mey. “Hop on.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just--”
Connor sent a sharp look over his shoulder and Mey was startled to see flecks of amber light inside his brown eyes. “We’ll miss the bus.”
She was so surprised that she didn't fight when he rolled his eyes, grabbed her arms and pulled them around his neck. Mey huffed and climbed onto his back. The easy way Connor unfolded his body and walked up the hill made her stomach churned.
“It’s true, isn't it?”
Connor turned his head slightly to look at her. “What?”
Just in case someone was listening, she bent closer and whispered into his ear. “You’re near your First Change.”
Connor said nothing at first before slowly nodding. “Yeah.”
She tried to figure out something to say but she couldn't. The First Change was a dangerous time for all Pack children, time where they experience a pain so intense, four in five children never survived it. Some only survived it physically but not mentally and would end up as a Wild—a werewolf with no human rationality—that would have to be killed.
Fear tangled inside her and she unconsciously tightened the arms she had around his neck. As if responding to the pressure around his neck, he walked faster.
Mey put her chin on his right shoulder and pressed her cheek to his. She felt his face move when he smiled.
Copyright © 2013 by D.F. Jules
