by Lou Grimes
“My side,” Cara cried, giggling still. She clutched at her side as if to stop the ache from her overactive muscles. Louvette shook her head, speechless.
“Let’s do our nails. I’m tired of this kid game,” Cara teased as if the whole idea had been Louvette’s when it had in fact been her own.
The remainder of the evening was as much a wild ride as Cara was a wild person. She was constantly going 90 to nothing to the point that a crash was coming. Louvette did a manicure with olive-green nails. Cara had black nails, except for her middle finger which was hot pink.
After Cara came to a screeching halt and passed out, Louvette could not. She tossed and turned for a full hour before throwing the covers off. She mutely slipped up to her room, choosing to do something productive in her free time.
Louvette closed her door and went to her sketching table to pick up on her project. She put her pencil to the paper, but was unsure. Her mindset was nowhere close to one that she needed to be working on such an important piece in her life. It could help get admittance to college and she didn’t feel like working on her entrance piece when her mind was troubled. She sighed, frustrated, throwing the pencil away like it was the pencil’s fault. She decided to text Arsen, not expecting a response until the next day.
Louvette: I need to go run tomorrow. Well, I guess tomorrow is today now.
Much to her surprise only a few minutes passed before her phone chimed.
Arsen: Can it wait? I don’t think I can tomorrow.
Louvette: No, it is imperative I run for the sake of the residents of Whitefish. I can’t be a productive member of society because I’m tired, but I can’t sleep because my mind won’t quiet down.
Arsen: I’ll find someone I trust to go run with you if I can’t.
Louvette: Do you mean a babysitter?
Arsen: I didn’t put it that way, but if that’s what you would like to call it then go ahead.
Louvette: I don’t need a babysitter.
Arsen: Well if you can’t wait, then you do.
She paused, deciding to let him think she was caving on the matter.
Louvette: Whatever you say, my Prince.
Arsen: I’ll tell you once I set up the playdate.
Louvette coughed. She was slightly willing to accept her fate at first, but not after the playdate comment. He wasn’t going to tell her what she was and wasn’t going to do.
Louvette almost felt sorry for whoever was going to agree to play babysitter.
Louvette: Thank you, goodnight.
Arsen: Anytime, goodnight Winter.
Sneaking back downstairs, Louvette crawled back on the couch. She needed as much sleep as possible to properly execute the dispatching of her babysitter.
The door opening woke her right before she slipped into an exhausted slumber. Her mother walked in. She looked worn out from her long day of waitressing.
“Louvette, are you awake?” she asked in a whisper. Louvette sat up and then headed to her mother’s side. Her mother turned and walked into the kitchen so she could talk more freely.
“Yeah, what’s up?” she said.
“I got a call from your principal,” her mother said with a tight-lipped face.
“They called you?” Louvette asked, perceiving exactly what the call had been about. She hadn’t expected them to.
“Normally, they don’t, but your record …” her mother trailed off in a sad tone, as if Louvette had been already kicked out of Whitefish Academy.
“I swear that was not my fault. It was this real witch of a chick in my class that got me in trouble,” Louvette explained.
“Did you tell the teacher?” her mother wondered.
“No, because she wasn’t listening to me,” Louvette said.
“If you’re sure. I just don’t want this to be the beginning of the end of your time at the Academy,” her mother said.
“It won’t happen again,” Louvette promised. Judging from the way the irritableness fled her mother’s face, she believed her daughter.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been so hard on you and I’m sorry I doubted you,” her mother said out of the blue.
“I understand, Mom. You were only doing what you thought was best,” Louvette said.
“I didn’t know any better. My parents weren’t exactly the best role models to go off of. There’s a reason I don’t talk to them and why they don’t visit,” she admitted.
“I know, Mom,” Louvette comforted her.
“We both have something good here,” her mother said. The something good here was Arsen for Louvette and perhaps Thomas Hollows for her mother.
“Yeah, we do,” Louvette murmured.
“Anyways, get some sleep for tomorrow. Night, sweetie,” her mother instructed.
“I’ll try. Night, Mom,” Louvette said, sighing since it was like all the fates had aligned to not allow her one second of rest tonight. Louvette returned to the couch.
That night, her dreams were teeming with cartoonishly impossible plans to pull one over on her appointed guard.
Chapter 5
Louvette ran through the woods in wolf form. Each step hit the wet earth at a speed too fast to emit sound. She was a spectral being with no true solid body, floating through the forest. Her lines were blurred to any eye gazing upon her, but there was no one. The only one around was her.
Breathing in the scent of the forest, that combination of fresh evergreen, dirt, and moisture flooded her nose.
The trees reached high into the sky on all sides of her. She wove between them expertly. The kind of expertise one would see on a nature video slowed down to show power and deftness. The brushes snapped as she whipped past them.
Her heartbeat was one with nature. She was nature.
Time blended. As she ran, the sun rising and setting was a constant. The trees grew taller as they aged. At first the passing of time was slow, but then time sped up until it was the speed of a cyclone of magic.
Once she came upon her destination, she recognized she was at Arsen’s cabin. Her subconscious had brought her to the place where she had first shifted.
Louvette’s body slid back into the skin she was born into. The vibrance of color drained from the world. Everything turned grey.
Terrible loud sobbing echoed painfully in her eardrums from behind her. Louvette realized who it was.
Cara stood at her car, which was parked next to Louvette’s. She wore a blood-red blouse that had arm ties. The blouse popped amongst the green and shadows of the forest like something that didn’t belong. Louvette desperately wanted her to belong. Louvette wished she could be right at her side, running through the forest, for her to be someone like her so that Louvette wouldn’t be the only female wolf. However, she perceived that would not come to pass.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, Cara’s face contorted from the pain of Louvette’s betrayal.
“You lied to me!” Cara screamed.
“I tried to tell you, but your father wouldn’t let me,” Louvette attempted to console her wild friend.
A racking wave of sobs went again. She was wild and angry. This wasn’t Cara. She had never seen her friend this enraged.
“You’re a monster. You’re all monsters,” Cara bawled. Cara searched around behind her.
Louvette followed her gaze to find Arsen, Garrett, Ian, and Matt at the clearing of the woods, watching them. They hadn’t changed from being wolves.
Turning back to Cara, Louvette took a step forward. Her hand was out in the same way as she would attempt to soothe a wild mustang.
Her friend stumbled back, losing balance on a rock.
Cara grabbed something beside her and threw it at Louvette. A rock clunked, announcing its landing on the forest floor.
“Stay away from me,” she shouted, crawling into the car as if Louvette might eat her. Her car peeled away.
“Cara, I’m sorry. Please, come back,” Louvette pleaded. Her voice echoed. Her sobbing continued to echo until it consumed Louvette, sending he
r to her knees.
***
Louvette jerked up, still searching for Cara blindly. Her heart was thundering for a second when she couldn’t find her. A bit of peace came over her when she found her friend.
Cara scrambled awake too, confused. Her hair was twisted and knotted in all kinds of ways. Louvette’s rough awakening hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“What’s wrong?” Cara asked in a bleary tone. Louvette doubted that if she spilled her guts about being a Lupine that Cara would understand or believe her. She was half asleep still.
“Bad dreams. We still have like thirty minutes,” Louvette murmured, checking her time.
“Oh, great,” Cara said before rolling back. She was asleep before Louvette finished her sentence.
“I’m getting up,” Louvette said, aware she was talking to an empty room. There was no point in going back to sleep; thirty minutes was more of a tease than anything. The time left would get her within reach of falling back into deep sleep, but she would then have to wake up. A deep sleep either full of terrifying dreams or a return to the same dream. Louvette didn’t feel like going through that again.
Louvette got ready as Cara slept. The alarm rang as she finished. Cara got up, still in zombie mode. Her hair was going every direction but the right way. There were red lines across her face as if someone had slashed her in the night, but no, they were just proof of a good night’s sleep, which was something that Louvette didn’t have much experience with lately. The most she could get out of her were a few grunts of acknowledgement.
“I’m going to make some coffee,” she said, in the hopes of perking up her grumpy guest.
Before she had finished brewing coffee and warming up some breakfast, the sounds of footsteps had Louvette turning. It wasn’t her mom. A high school band could be playing in the kitchen and her mother would never even toss around after her graveyard shifts.
Her jaw dropped as an active and glowing Cara stood before her, dressed and sporting a face full of makeup. She placed her hands on the cold countertop in front of her, determined for Louvette to channel her inner detective television series.
“How did you do that?” Louvette interrogated.
“The power of awesomeness,” Cara bragged. Louvette’s hand went to her hip and her eyes grew round like they were magic and would never stop.
“Uh huh, how did you get ready so fast?” Louvette asked. Cara had to have used some type of magic to be this ready in the time that she had, or time traveled. The savory scent of bacon had started permeating the air.
“No, I used to try to beat my time for getting ready so that I could sleep in as late as possible before school. The lowest I’ve gotten, short of losing quality, is eleven minutes,” Cara admitted.
“That’s awesome, I need at least twenty minutes myself,” Louvette divulged, smirking at the thought of Cara’s varied results when she had first started to beat her makeup time.
“Thanks for cooking breakfast,” Cara said.
“All I did was microwave. My mom made these breakfast burritos for the week,” Louvette explained as she pulled two burritos out. Placing them on their own plates, she handed Cara one.
“We have hot sauce if you want,” Louvette added, walking to the fridge to grab some for herself.
Louvette loaded the sauce on hers before Cara grabbed it from her. She took a bite of her burrito, and then glanced at Cara. Cara delicately poured a small trail of hot sauce across her burrito. Louvette’s mouth tilted up.
While they were eating, Louvette couldn’t help but note their differences. It was hard to imagine them as friends, but their differences made each of them like the other more. Louvette was the wilder one of the two, or at least she could be. Cara was more refined. She’d still get in trouble, but she would wait for the right time to do it.
“You ready?” Louvette asked after checking the time.
“I’ve been waiting on you this whole time,” Cara said, putting her palms up facing Louvette.
“If you’re waiting on me, you’re going backwards,” Louvette teased.
They headed to school shortly after that. She and Cara parted ways for a second while Cara ran to the office.
When Louvette saw Arsen back at school, she didn’t wait to greet him sweetly. Her lack of a true night’s sleep had made her cranky. Cara had been able to keep her in a decent mood until now. The need to be aware of who to avoid had her interrogating him first thing in the morning.
“Well, did you find a babysitter for me?” Louvette asked. He grimaced. Her statement had caused him pain, and she felt satisfaction at his reaction. She was pleased that he didn’t like to assign her a babysitter, but not pleased enough that she was still getting one. An element that she needed to change.
“Quinn Redbears is going to tag along on your run,” Arsen said, staring into her eyes.
“Not that I don’t like Quinn, but why can’t you go?” Louvette questioned. At least if it was Arsen, she could pretend that she wasn’t being babysat.
“You know why, Louvette.” Arsen sighed as if he wished for the ability to grant her a different answer, but couldn’t.
“Still?” Louvette asked, exasperated. This lack of ever seeing him was getting old quick.
“Yes, still. I actually had to convince my father to come to school since this is really the only time that I have time to see you,” Arsen answered heatedly.
Louvette hesitated at this tone. The tone was one she’d heard before, but it had never been directed at her. It was not every day that Arsen Whitecreek got angry. She saw her error in that tick because she was only seeing her own self being alone. She hadn’t grasped that Arsen might be going through more than she was seeing.
“I’m sorry I made you angry,” Louvette apologized, placing her hand on his arm to comfort him. His duties to the pack were wearing on him, but she hadn’t grasped just how much until now.
“Thank you for making me worry less by taking Quinn along,” Arsen said, suddenly changing the topic of conversation. He sought to enjoy the small amount of time that they had without his responsibilities chaining him down to the pack, clanging everywhere he went.
“You’re welcome,” she said, feeling small for a fleeting second that she planned to dump Quinn. This could have been avoided if he’d let her go on her own, but no.
“He will meet you in the parking lot after school,” Arsen added. This guy had plans, but as much as Louvette wished to follow them, she couldn’t for her own sake.
“Fine,” she responded. He kissed her forehead before any of the teachers saw, then walked down the hall. Louvette wished she could avoid staring after him, but she couldn’t. His butt was too cute to not appreciate as he walked away.
***
The talk between her and Arsen had made her feel awful about getting rid of Quinn. She needed to make a stand that she could do things on her own or there would always be a life of guards, babysitters, and all kinds of inhibitors. Once nothing happened, she could prove that she didn’t need to be coddled. However, if something did, she had to prove that she could take care of herself.
By the end of class, Louvette had formulated a plan. There were a couple exit routes, but one could only plan so much. She was for the most part winging it. This plan was all about timing. She was enlisting an unknowing Cara in this, too.
Before Cara could leave, Louvette stopped her.
“Hey, Cara. What are your plans for tonight?” Louvette asked her, engaging in small talk.
“I have some homework to catch up on since I went to your house,” Cara responded. Louvette had expected that answer. Cara was always playing catch up. She put everything off to the last minute.
“What do you do with your time if not schoolwork?” Louvette asked.
“I create clothes and sell them on my website,” Cara said, fulfilling her role as a fairy godmother even more.
“I should have guessed that. You’re a fashion designer. Do you wear your clothes?” Louvette asked.
&n
bsp; “No, the clothes I make are too grand for Whitefish, Montana. I would look like I came out of a storybook,” Cara admitted.
“Storybook style means corsets and poufy dresses, right?” Louvette asked.
“Yes, and more,” Cara hinted.
“That’s amazing. You’ll have to show me some time if it’s not too personal,” Louvette complimented.
“Next time you come over I’ll show you what I have,” Cara promised.
“Sounds like a blast. Crap,” Louvette said, searching around in a lost-puppy way, like she didn’t have any idea what to do.
“What’s wrong?” Cara asked, already in fairy godmother mode after Louvette’s compliments.
“I’m supposed to meet Quinn to give me a ride to Arsen’s, but I need to use the little girls’ room,” Louvette said, beginning to hop in place comically.
“I’ll wait and tell him where you went before I leave,” Cara put forth.
“Thank you so much. I owe you one,” Louvette said.
“There is no owing between us,” Cara corrected. Louvette grinned at her, and then made a beeline toward the doors they had come out of.
She caught sight of a familiar jet-black haired guy weaving through the courtyard toward them. Louvette darted behind some trees that lined the sides of the door. Louvette waited, listened, and kept an eye out for her babysitter. Quinn had on a thick grey turtleneck sweater, jeans, and a pair of tennis shoes.
Quinn came up to where they were supposed to meet. He was only hunting for a few seconds before Cara caught sight of him.
“Hey, Quinn. Louvette had to run to the restroom but she’ll be right back,” Cara said. Quinn’s green eyes narrowed a fraction at Cara’s words. Louvette could tell he was dubious that Louvette had told the truth. Arsen must have warned him of her disdain for having a guard.
“Thanks for telling me, Cara,” Quinn said.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Cara responded.
“See you tomorrow,” Quinn said. He stood alone for a few minutes. He bit his lip out of worry, beginning to realize something was up. Quinn cursed, and then hurried through the doors that would have led to the ladies’ restroom the quickest.
