Nighttail
The thunderous thump against the floor startled me out of deep sleep. With a sigh, I jumped out of bed feeling a wave of wooziness. I steadied myself on my bedside table, feeling the hard icy wood under my fingertips. My eyes passed over a picture, my friend, Samantha and I at a High School fair, before stopping on a glistening silver necklace. It was fairly long, with a beautiful sapphire gem surrounded by five diamonds hanging off the end. I had doubts that it was real, but my parents had given it to me before sending me away to the only boarding school in state.
I sighed, coming back to reality, remembering for the hundredth time that this was 'for my own good'. I pulled on my slippers and robe before leaving my cold and sinister looking room. I heard chatter and laughter in other dorm rooms while I walked past to the bathroom down the hall. The dorm rooms were colder that outside and they were only big enough to fit a bed, chest of drawers and a small table. The rooms were defiantly not a social place.
I ventured to the bathroom, tucking my hands in my pockets. Suddenly I remembered the noise that had awoken me. That's when I stopped. A boy, about 2 years older than me, stood by one of the pillars that held up this torture trap. He had dark brown hair that looked black, he was fairly tall with huge hands. I couldn't see his face as he was struggling to carry an enormous desk the size of a single bed.
I was slightly intrigued by the boy. All the school students had arrived one week before. This was always done because they gave us a chance to explore the school and get used to our dorm rooms, but I couldn't get used to this horrific place if my life depended on it, which was a lucky thing that it didn't. The student that stood before me had arrived a week later.
I watched as he tried to carry the desk, but he took one step and tripped. The desk smashed into the ground but seemed to stay fairly intact. I can't say that for the student. He was crumpled on top of the desk, he sighed but didn't move. I couldn't help myself as I exploded into giggles.
"Hey! It's not funny, this desk cost me a lot of money," he shouted, this made me giggle harder, my eyes filling with tears. He got up then, seeing his face for the first time. I stopped giggling, I think I stopped breathing. All I could do was look at his handsome face. He had amazing big icy blue eyes with lashes that curled up, making them look sturdy yet beautiful. His mouth looked soft and firm. His black hair had been messed up and looked like he had just got out of bed.
"Well hi, my names Mike. You must be miss stares-a-lot," his lips turned up in a half smile, nearly making me faint.
"Uhhh, hi I'm Ruby Wedly," my words came out as a whisper. I felt my cheeks burning up. Mike's eyes glanced into my eyes intensely, making me feel nervous. "So why did you come to Nighttail? I really don't think anyone would want to come here."
"Did you get to pick to come here," he asked gently.
"Well, no," I admitted. If it was up to me, I would live in Russia, maybe even explore the world.
"There's your answer, I was forced to come by my Dad. He was all like "It's for your own good"," I wondered if every student had been forced to come here. He glanced down at his watch, frowning. "I have to get this desk up to my room. I'll see you in classes?"
"Yes, I could fake sick,"
"No! Come, you may be the only person here I know," Mike said, with those last words he turned around, picked up one side of the desk and carefully dragged it across the ground.
I felt slightly giddy as I headed towards the bathroom, smiling all the way. As I walked in I saw Crystal standing near the sink, fixing her make-up. She has been my neighbour for the last week, what pleasure I had explaining the simplest thing as a timetable to her. I must have still been smiling because she said "Wow, you must be in a real good mood today, isn't it the first day of classes. If you ask me, today is going to be horrible."
"Yep, I totally agree with you there," I moaned, "I forgot my towel."
"Well, see you then. I won't be here when you come back," Crystal smiled at me, looking bizarre with only one side completed of her make-up. She was one of those pretty blonde girls; her hair always seemed to be dead straight. Once we went out exploring the school to get a feel of what we had to deal with for the next couple of semesters, it had started raining that day. As my hair poofed up in to a frizz ball, hers stayed perfectly straight without one fleck of hair out of place. For this reason, I was jealous of her.
I ran back eager to shower and get ready. I wanted to see Mike as soon as I could. I tried to make myself look nice but I grimaced as I stole a glance at myself in my mirror. My hair was a dirty blonde colour that ran down to my elbow, I had tried to straighten it but I was left with kinks. My parents had given me the pleasure of dealing with packing 3 coats of foundation on everyday to cover my many freckles. The only thing I did like about my features were my eyes, they were a pretty looking green, the colour of winter grass.
I studied myself in the mirror. We didn't have to wear uniform at Nighttail, which was the only good thing about this school. I wore tight black jeans with snowy colour boots that crawled up to my knee. I had a light blue sweater on. I had a nice figure, slim but not to slim and dangling around my neck was the sapphire necklace. I glanced at the clocked that was placed next to my flower lamp. It read 7:59am. Oh crap, I thought, grabbing my bag.
I made my way down the stairs and into the packed hall. Students sprayed everywhere, some alone and some in groups. I spotted Crystal near the back of the hall by herself. I always wondered why Crystal never hung around any other students, she had a vibrant and sweet personality and she could always make you laugh.
"Ruby!" her face suddenly glowing with joy, "I thought you'd never come."
I rolled my eyes at her, "of course I'd come, they would have hunted me down if I hadn't shown up."
"The sad thing is, I think you're right," Crystal giggled and slipped her arm through mine. A high pitched screech came from the front of the hall, irritated students turned to see a man playing with a microphone. He was tall with long brown hair and a moustache that looked odd on his face. When he finally got the microphone working he turned to us and gazed over the crowd. His moustache was irritating me, I couldn't figure out why.
"Good evening students, I expect you to have already explored the school," he said boldly, with a small haunting smile. "Today though, you will be taken on a tour for some of the late arrivals, you will be told the rules on these tours. Tour groups will be in alphabetical order. I assume you can work that out for yourself."
"That was strange," I said to Crystal, who seemed to look slightly bothered. Then I saw Mike, he stood out like a spotlight surrounded him. His dark brown hair glistened in the morning light coming from the windows. It was like he sensed I was looking at him because he turned and stared at me. He gave me a wink, giggling I glanced away feeling embarrasses.
"What's wrong with you, you're the colour of a tomato," Crystal followed my gaze and locked on to Mike. "He's cute. I think he's got the hots for you. Look he's staring."
I looked out the corner of my eye and she was right, he was staring at me. I felt the smile on my face widen and my cheeks burn even hotter. My hand grabbed Crystals and I squeezed so she would get the hint to stop looking.
"Ouch, let go!" She rubbed her hand, giving me a dirty look. I could only stare at the ground.
"Hey, what's your last name," shocked I looked up. A short boy had appeared out of nowhere.
"Mine's Lithsome," Crystal announced. She glanced at me, realising I was still embarrassed to talk and with a sigh she added, "Ruby's last name is Wedly."
"Okay, Ruby, go out to the canteen, that's where your group is meeting up. For you," he said with a smile, "You're staying here with me."
The little boy seemed too happy that Crystal was in his group. I sighed and turned towards Crystal, blocking out the boy. "I'll see you later then. Do you want to meet up for lunch?"
"Yer sure, see you."
I walked extremely slowly to my group, hoping they would go off without me so I could skip, but they were all there waiting for me. I didn't recognize any of the students and decided to wait near the back as one of the teachers called out the role. There were two teachers, one looked way too young to be a teacher and the other looked too old. The young one was the one to speak first, "Hello, I'm the head of the Mathematics department. You will know me as Mr Winson. This is Mr Barson. He'll be retiring at the end of this semester."
That made sense, he looked like he was in his eighty's, and several of scars showed that he had had a violent life.
"We will revise the rules and then we will take the tour." Mr Winson said. "But first let's get to know each other, sit in a circle and one by one introduce yourselves."
Was he kidding? I thought he was joking until everyone started to sit in a circle. Too stunned to object I sat next to a tall and extremely skinny teenage girl. The first to speak was a young man, about 17.
"Hi guys," he smiled, looking around the circle and coming to a stop when he saw me. "My name's Justin Willforth."
I saw the girl next to me wink when Justin glanced over her, I giggled quietly. She gave me a dirty look and turned away, blushing.
We all went around in a circle and told each other our names, Justin looked to enthused when it came to me. The girl next to me said her name was Hannah, giving me a full-size frown. Great, my first day and I already had an enemy.
When we finished our introductions, Mr Winson started the tour. Most of the school I already knew, so I went along quietly, daydreaming most of the way, until someone came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder.
"Hey! Ruby isn't it?" It was Justin.
"Yer," I sighed, Justin had big brown eyes, auburn messy hair and a scar on his left cheek. The scar was shaped in a half moon and it was ghost white. I couldn't help myself, I blushed when he spotted me staring. Justin tensed and turned away so it was hidden.
"So, do you like Nighttail?" He asked, relaxing a bit.
"No, it's so far away from everything," Nighttail was a school that had been placed in the middle of nowhere, only forest surrounded us. It was a fairly big school, though, twice the size of any human school.
"Hmm," he looked me intensely in the eyes. His eyes bored into mine, not really looking at me. His face slowly came closer to mine. I first thought he was going to kiss me. His mouth was inches away from mine.
Just as swiftly as he had leant towards me, he retreated looking embarrassed. I blinked a couple of times, did that just happen? Justin turned and headed towards the male dorm rooms. He vaguely ran, in a hurry to get away.
I felt like I had betrayed Mike. But that was ridiculous, I didn't even know Mike. It felt strange, though, Justin had only just met me.
Maybe I was getting ahead of myself, maybe he really wasn't going to kiss me. I felt a gaze on my back and turned to see who it was.
"So, you already got your paws on Justin," Hannah was staring me down, Making me feel intimidated.
"Excuse me," I whispered, it was the first day and I already wanted to go hide in a hole.
"Listen Ruby, Justin is my man. If you know what's best for you, stay away from him," she said. I was stunned. Did Hannah just threaten me to stay away from Justin? It all happened so quickly that everyone had been oblivious to the sudden tension. My head ached but luckily Mr Winson was finishing up with the tour.
"Okay, that's the end of the tour. Check your first classes for today and head off to them. I should hope you want to make a good first impression, so don't be late." No one seemed worried about this.
I had already packed my bag in the morning. My first class was transformation class. Basic material, I thought. But I was wrong.
I arrived early and took my seat near the front. I watched as more students I didn't know entered. I waited for Mike or Justin to come, neither of them showed and I was surrounded by total strangers. A tall woman was at the front, her glasses covering her small eyes. She didn't make any move to call the class's attention. She just stood at the front slightly hunched.
Transformation class was here to teach the younger werewolves about keeping self-control. Although, when I was young I didn't need these classes. Only at the age of 16 did you start to get your werewolf powers and turn into a wolf every full moon. This is why this school was invented, not for the safety of us, but humans.
Every werewolf, even the most experiences, couldn't control themselves on the nights of the full moon. We have excursions to a nearby forest where there is no human civilisation anywhere near us. The next full moon was this Saturday. I was terrified, I had no idea what it would feel like to transform. Another reason we needed this class, to prepare us for the change.
"Students, welcome to transformation class." I jumped in my seat, I had started daydreaming again. "I am Mrs Lithron."
Each stroke on the blackboard was piercing through my head like an axe on soft wood. Her voice was extremely high pitched. I grabbed the sides of my desk, telling myself over and over that I could make it through the first day without fainting.
"Today we are going to look at the physical and mental change when you transform into a werewolf. Most of you have probably heard stories from your parents. I can tell you now that they lied to you. To be able to change you must free yourself and let your instincts take over. There are great amounts of pain but you learn to ignore the pain." Great, I thought. Many students around me tensed vaguely, stressed for this Saturday.
"I'm going to get a volunteer up the front to try and let their inner monster out." I tensed then. What was she thinking? Even if we can't transform yet, it still was extremely dangerous. I could tell that Mrs Lithron hadn't been a teacher for very long. She looked us all in the eyes, most of the students trying to avoid her gaze. She stopped on a short boy, I though his name was Michael.
"Oh you want to come up." I could see him start to sweat. "Come on Michael, no need to keep everyone waiting."
Poor Michael. He slowly climbed out of his chair and made his way to the front. He took each step with extreme care and seemed to be too interested with his shoes. He didn't look up at Mrs Lithron when he got up there. Mrs Lithron, however, had amusement in her eyes.
"Okay good, now let go!" She shouted, making everyone jump in their seat. Michael just stared at her, looking scared out of his mind.
"Come on child, free yourself from the world close your eyes and dream." Michael obeyed her and closed his eyes. He first looked intoxicated, but his face relaxed and his face lulled to the side.
"That's it, do you feel the power? Use it, let it come to you!" Michael started to shudder and suddenly collapsed to the floor. Groans and whimpers poured from his mouth. Everyone gaped at the floor where Michael lay, all except Mrs Lithron who was laughing.
With one small scream, Michael went still. Students around me stayed perfectly still, to stunned and scared to talk.
Mrs Lithron smiled and turned her gaze towards us again. Her small eyes like an eagles, searching the room for her next prey. But this time they landed on me. I realised I had stopped breathing and took a deep breath. She wouldn't pick me, would she? She was looking for any sign of weakness. I felt hot, really hot and I could feel the sweat run down my neck, and somehow Mrs Lithron could smell my fear.
"Miss Wedly, so kind for Volunteering." She smiled sweetly, not like she had just cause a boy faint. I didn't know how to move, I didn't know how to breathe. But I didn't want her to see my weakness. I forced myself out of my chair, my muscles protesting every inch of the way. I held my head high. I turned to face the class just as Michael had.
"Let yourself be free." She demanded, threatening me. She made me feel small and I didn't want that, I closed my eyes. I small nudge of nausea coursed through me. A small beautiful feeling of life powered its way down me and back up again. I wanted to reach for it but I couldn't, there was a wall in the way. I pushed against the wall. I wanted to reach the power, I felt it getting closer. I could feel it in me now. I felt the hope in me. But I got ahead of myself, I touched it without being told and I regretted it.
The pain was unbearable, like being struck by ten different bits of lightning all at the same time. The floor disappeared and the power slipped away, as well as the hope.
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