I do not own Virals. Kathy Reichs does. But she is still awesome.
Tory's POV
Bolton Prep in the afternoon was my favorite time of day. It was the time when you were counting down hours and then minutes until the bells rang and you could escape the snobby people that had to breathe the same air with you. Not that I mind, but they seem to hate it.
I was at my locker, tucking away books I didn't need, when Hi showed up.
Hiram Stolowitski was one of my pack. Kind of sounds strange, but there aren't any other words for our closeness and connection. Shelton Devers, Ben Blue, Hiram and I all were one pack, even though they are all boys and I'm the only girl. Not my fault there aren't any other XX chromosomes in the area that are my age, so I had to go with the boys.
Why did I say pack? Only because when we found a dog tag on Morris Island, we accidentally uncovered a murder mystery involving Katherine Heaton (a girl who discovered a flock of bald eagles and was stalked), Chance Claybourne (the hottest guy in school), his father, and Hannah Wythe (Chance's girlfriend). But at the same time we had found a dog tag that Katherine Heaton's father owned, which lead to the biggest change we've ever changed. My wolf-dog, Cooper, was contaminated with a strain of parvovirus by Karsten (who had something to do with the murder) that totally messed up our DNA and gave us wolf instincts we were able to call on by will. Most of the time.
Those instincts we call flaring, which is when our eyes go gold and our senses go into super high-drive. We have our different abilities too. I have an amazing nose while Ben has super strength and speed. Hi has eyes that can spot you in a half second while Shelton could hear you before seeing you. All of us though, can speak to each other with our minds, and lately we've realized we can see into each other's memories and see what other people are seeing. Kind of weird, I know, but it is true.
In our last near-death experience, we met a man called the Gamemaster, who had been Ben's 'friend' for a while before setting up the Game. The Game was a quest basically, where we could either cooperate or die. Tell anybody about the Game, and our loved ones would die. In the end, we defeated the Gamemaster during hurricane Katelyn, then afterward Ben told me all he did was for me.
And then he got kicked out of Bolton Prep, which was like a punch to the gut, even though I should hate him for almost killing us. I remembered his broken-hearted confession in the hospital, where we stayed after Kit found us and brained the Gamemaster. He told me that he wanted to be more than pack mates, and at that moment everything clicked. Why he had been so territorial around Jason when he would ask me to the cotillion and debutante stuff.
But I still wasn't ready to forgive him.
"Earth to Tory!" Hi snapped his fingers in front of my face, and I snapped out of my reverie. While I was zoned out, Shelton had joined us at my locker and was bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Sorry Hi." I said.
"Come on Tor. Ben's meeting us at the docks. Let's go!" Hi grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the double doors before I could protest.
"Woah." I said, pulling my arm out of his hand. He turned to stare at me, and I folded my arms and glanced away. I was suddenly uncomfortable.
"What's wrong Victoria?" Shelton asked.
"Umm…nothing. I just have stomach cramps." I murmur, and Hi tosses me an Advil.
"Thanks." I pretend to swallow it but when they turned around I threw it over my shoulder. I lied to them since I hadn't exactly told him about what Ben said about liking me.
Suddenly somebody shouldered me right in the back, and I stumbled. "Watch it jerk!" I yell, and the attacker turned to me.
It was Jason. Great.
Jason was Ben's polar opposite. Literally. Jason had golden blond hair with piercing blue eyes, was a jock and a total gentlemen with the ladies. Ben had bronze skin, black hair, and deep brown eyes and was way too quiet to pick up girls. He never seemed interested in anybody (well, I guess I could make an exception of myself) anyway, and he was normally referred to as 'island hick'. So were Shelton, Hi, and myself, but Ben actually had a chance of popularity if he ditched the boat and took up football and an interest in driving sports cars.
Jason smiled at me, flashing his pearly whites. "Sorry Brennan, didn't see you there." He said, walking up to me.
"It's okay." I couldn't express how much I wanted to walk away from him and this conversation. After Ben told me he liked me, I didn't know who I liked, Jason or Ben. So I just decided to stay away from the both of them and sort it out later.
That turned out to be harder than I thought.
"Hey, while I have you here, I wanted to ask you something." Jason said, sticking his hands in his pockets.
"What?" Dread was settling in my gut.
"Want to go to the dance with me?"
Oh shoot. The dance.
I thought it was all over after the dance in the Citadel, but no. Whitney told me I had to do this 'Falling Stars' dance where I had to at least dance three numbers, get a picture taken for the yearbook, and had to bring a date. Stupid cotillion.
But I didn't have another choice besides Ben, who got kicked out of Bolton, so chances of him being my date are low. Kind of depressing I know, but I wasn't a big fan with the other students of Bolton Prep. I would be amazed if they even knew my name, people other than Jason.
"Ummm…I have to think about it. I'll text you when I have my decision." I say, and he smiles and tries to play it off cool, but I could see the disappointment in his eyes.
"Okay Brennan. See ya!" With that, he turned and followed the rest of the jocks out the door.
"Smooth Tor." Shelton said, shaking his head.
"Shut up." I said, and followed them to the docks.