Chapter 21
Ali and I fell asleep watching Were-Dreams, a television show which is more soap opera than anything else. I didn't usually sleep with any electronic stuff running. I liked the computers off, the television off, the lights off...everything off. This night I was just exhausted enough not to care.
I stayed with Ali for a couple of days. Nothing exciting happened on Thursday, unless you count getting your paw stuck in the couch cushion exciting. Rob left a message that he'd spoken with Tyler who would meet us in the park on Saturday. Ali worked Saturday evening, so she and Rob decided that I'd go to his house on Friday night.
Friday morning was a different story. Grandma stopped at the office. When I wasn't there, she called on Ali. Did she use the telephone? No. Not Grandma. She had to see Ali and make sure I wasn't hiding in the bathroom or something.
The smell gave her away. Grandma has a vanilla smell, very light and soothing, the kind of scent a werewolf could tolerate. When she rang the doorbell, I froze because even through the door, that scent trumpeted the announcement of her arrival.
Before I had even decided whether to hide or not, Ali answered the door. She's not one to care what anyone else thinks. If it was up to her, she'd just as soon tell Grandma the whole truth and be done with it. Thank goodness Rob already helped set the precedent for hiding me.
But then, there I was, grinning at my grandma with canine teeth and wondering if she recognized me.
“Ali, where's Jen? Something's up and I want to know what it is.” Great! Now what do we do?
Ali must have been thinking the same thing because she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. I shook my head.
“Wow, you're out early. Have you met my new dog? Her name is Spoof. She does a lot of cool tricks.” Ali was still wearing pajamas, the fuzzy, flannel kind with large pink and blue snowflakes. It was ten o'clock in the morning, which on a night shift schedule is far too early to be awake—which is probably why Ali looked so tired. Normally she would have gone to bed at 8:00 and slept until early evening. Her schedule was totally screwed up thanks to my problems.
Grandma didn't seem to notice or care about Ali's new dog. “Ali, is Jen in danger?”
Ah, an easy question, but Ali smiled sweetly when she answered. It was the smile that she gave when she was covering something up, her lying smile. She said, “No.”
Of course, my grandma didn't believe her. “Ali, if you don't tell me where Jen is this instant, I will see to it that you both regret it for years to come.”
I could only imagine what kind of punishment she would dream up. I may have whined. It was a slip of the tongue. Ali tucked a curly strand of hair behind her ear, a deadly earnest expression on her face. She did not take threats well. This could turn into a full blown battle. And Grandma would call in the troops. I could just imagine my parents and Andrea and of course my brother all lined up to harass Ali and Rob until they spilled.
“She has Chicken Pox.” Ali blurted out.
It was probably a good thing Gran didn't look over at me just then. I'd put my paws over my head. Chicken Pox. That was the worst explanation ever. The worst. Seriously.
She was my best friend. I could let this disaster slide. One had to have allowances for a best friend's quirks.
“She's at her apartment?” Grandma asked.
“Well...”Ali hesitated, “Not exactly.”
“Well exactly where is she?”
“My mom's house.”
Here I stood over the abyss, the large pit of lies that Ali had dug in an attempt to keep my Grandma off my scent. It occurs to me that the reason Ali so frequently blurts out the worst truths is because she's so horribly bad at lying. It's the drama. Her poker face is great, and she can weave a fantastic tale. Unfortunately, no one in their right mind would believe her.
Grandma sure didn’t.” Well, then, we're going to see your mom.”
“I'm sorry. I can't do that.” Ali said.
Grandma is not only a werewolf, but the matriarch of the family. Her piercing stare is enough to make the strongest wolf crumble. It's a good thing Ali changes to raccoon. With the whole pack dominance thing, she'd be telling Grandma about the time we cut school in fourth grade to sneak into the zoo. Not the safest thing we've ever done. The zoo is full of the kind of animals that would love to eat a mouse for dinner. You'd think the were-people wouldn't allow the entrapment of fellow animals, but the majority see animals the same way people do, as dumb beasts without emotion or reason. I'm more of a rebel.
Back to Ali and Grandma. Grandma's eyes had bulged and her face transformed to a feral anger. Oh dear. “What did you say?” The words were enunciated very carefully. Ali had better have a different answer this time.
I cringed.
“Grandma Ann, A woman your age can't be too careful. Shingles aren't anything to play with.”
“Jen does not have chicken pox.” Grandma took a step forward. I could see now why Grandpa always let her have her way about things.
“Okay, you want the truth?” Ali looked at me again. The way she was glancing at me after every question, I'm surprised Grandma didn't figure it out anyway.
She took a deep breath, the kind of inhalation a person might take before walking the plank. Whatever Ali was about to say, I knew, I just knew, it wasn't going to be the truth. She'd never be able to crawl her way back into Grandma's good graces if she kept going, not that either of us had ever exactly been Grandma's favorites.
I barked and jumped to my feet, placing myself directly in front of Grandma.
Looking over my shoulder at Ali, I couldn't help but notice her relief.
With a weak wave of her hand and a rather ironic and dismal smile, Ali said, “So this is Jen.”
If Grandma's brows drew together any tighter, they'd be up and down on her face. I really didn't know a woman could scowl so much. I should have. After all, I've been dealing with her my whole life.
It's like the boy who cried wolf, except in this case, Ali was the habitual liar who no one would believe, which isn't fair because Ali tells the truth more than most people. She's just a really bad liar and when she lies, it's a rather memorable event. Most people lie softly, with a garnish of the truth to make it palatable. Not Ali.
“Ali, I don't appreciate being lied to. I'm going to be speaking with your mother. And I don't care if Jen is an adult, when I find her, I'm going to put her on such a tight leash she will wish she was young enough to be grounded.” See how unfair it is. Why am I in trouble because Ali is such a huge liar? But I know why. It's as much a punishment for Ali as for me.
Grandma turned to leave, and she was so mad her hands were shaking. Only Ali could get that kind of extreme reaction out of people. I flew past her and put a paw on the door. Then I turned and blocked the entrance.
“Get your wolf out of the way.” Grandma said. Her eyes were lit with fury and I knew
“Wait. I'll tell you the truth.” Ali sank onto the sofa, her eyes down on her lap. That's not Ali's style at all, which will probably make her believable. She gave a huge sigh, “You're not going to like it.”
Grandma turned slowly. In the scary movies, she'd be the bad guy who just discovered the hero hiding in the closet. At least, that was my first impression.
“I already don't like it. Is that boyfriend of hers in on it, too?”
Boyfriend? Oh no.
“He's technically not her boyfriend yet, but they're well-suited to one another if it gets to that.”
“Cut the beans. Where is Jen?”
Ali grabbed one of the sofa pillows and tugged at the fringe, her fingers weaving in and out. A definite change of tactics. “You have to promise not to yell at her when she gets back. She made me paw swear never to tell. This is a serious breach of our friendship.”
“I promise.”
Wow, Ali was totally wrapping Grandma around her little finger. The whole “promise not to yell' an
d “breach of friendship” elevated Ali's lies to truth. But Grandma's promise came too easy. She never yelled. She just slowly lowered her voice and spoke the words ever more clearly until you had to lean in to hear. Then she'd tell you how disappointed she was. This kind of trick works with pack animals. Not so much with mice, but then I always felt a little bad for disappointing her. That aside. When Grandma promised not to yell at me, she could still give me an excessively long stern lecture and not technically break her promise to Ali.
Ali must have been quiet a whole minute. Grandma took the seat opposite her on the couch and waited her out. I hoped Ali was using this time to come up with a really good lie, because the truth sure didn't work. Imagining the trouble chair in Grandma's den, I winced. This could be a losing proposition either way.
“Jen wants to go to college. She's touring schools on the east coast for a culinary arts degree.”
As lies go, that wasn't a bad one, except for the expectation of a follow-through. Culinary arts was a huge stretch, but it was at least believable. Maybe once I was human, I could convince Grandma that I really had been a wolf for a while. Or that I decided not to go to college because it was too expensive. Too bad she didn't believe I had chicken pox.
“Why not WSU? That's a fine school.” Here we go. Just because my dad and brother go, I'm expected to as well.
“Only the finest culinary arts schools will do, which is why she flew to New York.” Ali bit her lip and raised her eyebrows with a hopeful smile, the kind which screamed untruth.
“But New York. That's so far away. We'll never see her.”
Ali actually found a sad face somewhere in her acting repertoire and said,” She needs to be her own person.”
That part was true. Getting a unique identity in a pack family was hard.
“Why can't she be her own person close to home?” Grandma sounded like she was ready to grab the next flight to New York and track me down. Funny, I practically sat at her feet.
This is where I expected Ali to start arguing. She surprised me by saying, “I know. That's exactly what I told her. I wanted her to go to Eastern, at least for a few years. She can always transfer later.”
And then she and Grandma were discussing how hard it would be if I ended up going to school halfway across the country. Ali had to polish it off with a corker, “Of course, if she attends school that far away, there will be no hope for anything with Rob.”
It's rather annoying to listen to your grandmother and best friend discuss your love life. I tuned them out and daydreamed about a move to New York.
Moon Struck: When Were & Howl Book 1 Page 21
