I got a request to write a story where Rapunzel is some sort of Were-creature that Jack accidentally brings home :)

As always, sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes!

Jack Overland lived a painfully ordinary life that he regularly wished was extraordinary, hence the reason he stayed out past curfew and skipped class. He was well acquainted with the police, a known troublemaker, and despite his charming smile, a loner.

"Jack," His mother said with a sigh, "Not again."

Jack waved at his mother, no easy feat with an officer holding onto each of his arms. She gestured for him to come in after apologizing to the officers for Jack's latest antics. Tonight he was found on a rooftop with a handful of eggs. What he planned to do with those eggs was unknown, but the stink bomb in his pocket suggested nothing good.

After yet another lecture from his mother, who grounded him for three more months, and having his videogames taken away, Jack crawled into bed and slipped on his headphones.

From his window he could see the moon, it shone so beautifully in the starry sky that he almost wished he was up there with it. It was one of Jack's more whimsical thoughts, to be part of the sky and see the whole world from the top instead of below.

"No headphones." His mother, who'd been yelling at him from the doorway, snatched them off his head leaving Jack with nothing but his thoughts. His mind wandered to how stars were formed, and not the scientific explanation, but rather his own version where stars formed from wishes. It was his bedtime story for Emma, his sister.

She'd always ask him what the stars were, at first he'd say plasma, hot gas, any other jargon he'd picked up from school, but it never satisfied her. That's when he started to make up stories; the wish tale was her favorite.

"Wish it was real." Jack mumbled, but that wasn't the only thing he wished, he wanted adventure in his life, he wanted purpose. Day in and day out he got up, went to school, came home, did his homework, ate at the proper times, showered when he remembered and then slept. It was all too boring, too lonely, and extremely uneventful.

"I wish," He said with his eyes on the moon, "Something interesting would happen, something life-changing."

He shut his eyes and tried to sleep but the wish lingered on his mind, he didn't mean to make his mother worry, he'd never wanted that. It's why he offered to do the laundry, and cook dinner for himself and Emma whenever his mother had to work late, he tried hard, he really did. But there was this impulse, especially in the night that made him want to experience the world in ways everyday people refused to.

"I wish," He whispered, "for my life to by changed forever."

He fell asleep after that, and his dreams were full of chasing cars and explosions. By the time he woke up it was morning and everything was still extremely ordinary.

Jack dangled his keys in front of the kitten sitting in front of the local market. He could tell by its meows it was starving but he only had enough money to buy the groceries his mother asked him to get.

"Maybe I can spare a slice of bread?" He told it. The kitten rubbed against his leg and he smiled. Giving food to the street animals was nothing knew for Jack, there were dozens of them all around the neighborhood and even more deeper into the city. Emma especially loved taking them home with her for a night or two before their mother would send them out.

"She learned that from you." His mother would say, and she was right.

"Wait here." He gave it a stern look and the kitten sat where she stood. Jack nodded at it and walked backwards toward the store with his eyes on it, "Stay."

He roamed the store fairly quickly, picking up milk, bread, eggs, juice, cereal, chicken, cheese, yogurt and a can of green beans. When he reached the clerk he glanced outside the store's glass doors to check on the kitten and saw she had a friend. The friend was human, blonde, and kneeling over with both hands on the kitten's head, gently petting it.

"It's rude to stare." The clerk said, he thought Jack was looking at the girl's assets rather than wondering who she was. Jack hadn't even thought to look in those places, he was more taken aback by the girl's bare feet. It was something Jack did often, especially in the summer but he'd never known anyone else to walk around the neighborhood without shoes.

"Never been one for etiquette." Jack said with a smirk, once he had all his bags, he dashed outside but by then the girl was gone.

"Strange." Jack mumbled. He opened the bread and tore it in pieces for the cat to eat. The cat purred gratefully while Jack checked the corners of the store for the girl. He thought he was crazy but he was sure she was wearing a sack instead of actual clothing, and her hair was so long…

After a few minutes of looking he gave up, shrugged his shoulders and said, "A mystery for another day." He petted the kitten one more time before heading home.

Once the groceries were put away and he'd reheated leftovers for Emma to eat, Jack grabbed his headphones from his mother's dresser, where she kept all her confiscated items, and blasted his music again. He cleaned the bathrooms and vacuumed the living room; he checked the mail and slipped the dirty laundry intro the washer. Then, he curled onto the floor and shut his eyes. It wasn't until he felt Emma poking his cheek that he realized how late it'd gotten.

"Story time!" Emma shouted.

Jack grumbled. He lifted his sister up and pointed to the bathroom, "Did you brush your teeth?"

She nodded.

"Okay then, story time it is." After tucking her in he told her the wish story again, she refused to hear any other, kissed her forehead and waved goodnight.

Once the door was shut he heard his mother walk in.

"Mom?" He found her in the living room with her shoes kicked off and a cold cloth on her head.

"Jack, did you get the groceries?"

"Yup."

"Is Emma in bed?"

"Yup."

She smiled at him and then shifted her weight when she saw the bruise on Jack's face, "Jack did you get into another fight?"

"If I had the school would have called you." He didn't want her to know what this fight had been about.

"Jack."

"It's nothing, I promise, and before you ask I'm heading out to eat, I'll be back in an hour."

"Jack there's food to eat here."

"I know, but North invited me to have dinner with him, I think he wants to lecture me on my life choices." His mother smiled at that. He almost felt guilty for lying about it.

"Call me when you get there, and-"

"And when I head back, got it."

Jack left without another word, and he had no intention of going to North, or to anyone he knew. He wasn't even hungry; he only wanted to wander the streets until he found something interesting to do. It's what he did whenever he wanted to avoid his thoughts and the last thing he wanted to do was thing about the fight he'd gotten into or how tired his mom looked or a million other things that made him angry.

After a good twenty minutes he realized he'd forgot to call his mom and he groaned so loud he thought the night itself would shush him.

"I could call her, but if she's asleep she wouldn't have noticed…but if she's waiting on me and if I don't call her…" He groaned again and leaned against the wall of an old building. It looked like it had once been a theatre; from the broken windows he could see red curtains and a wooden stage with holes in the center.

"I wonder…" He lifted his leg to step inside when he heard the sound of trashcans being turned over. He froze in place; if it was a mugger he'd get his cellphone stolen. On the off chance it was the police, it'd do him some good to hide in the theatre until the coast was clear.

He paused, but if was something else, something unexplainable, it was an opportunity for an adventure. Oddly enough, that was enough to compel Jack to follow the noise.

"And if it is the police, I swear I won't go out again for another month." He crawled out of the window and slowly walked to where the sound had come from.

"And if it's a mugger then please let them be a mugger with a knife instead of a gun." He pressed his body against a wall and looked over the corner. What he saw wasn't clear; it looked golden, maybe a dog with bright gold fur? It certainly moved like an animal…

Jack walked closer to the creature and waited for it to jump at him, when it didn't he stepped even closer and whistled at it. The creature pulled its head out of the trash and lifted its paw. It was definitely some sort of dog but it's features were wolf -ike and it's eyes were something else altogether. They looked bright green, no pupils and although it was dark, he swore there was a flower pattern on the wolf's fur. He'd never seen anything like it and under different circumstances; perhaps if the creature were to growl, he'd run. But he only stared and waited for it to do something.

The creature looked friendly enough, although strange. After a few moments of silence, it moved toward Jack, paw by paw, slowly at first and then in what Jack could only describe as a happy skip. When it was within inches of him it sniffed his pants and bowed its head.

"Hmm." Jack bent down to pet it and its tail wagged, he smiled. Despite the smell of garbage from the nearby trash, the creature was smelled like flower shop and he was almost sure it was smiling at him.

"This is strange, very strange, but cool." He had decided that peculiarity of it made the night suddenly interesting.

He sat on the ground and spent another ten minutes gently petting the creature, and only stopped when his cellphone rang.

"Dang it." The creature was so warm and kind, he could spend the rest of the night petting it but the caller ID made him want to run straight home, his mother was calling.

"Sorry, North had an emergency and then I found a dog and…no I wasn't going to take the dog home…yes I'll be back, yes…yes…I'm coming!" Jack sighed and jumped up.

"Sorry," He bit his lip, "But if I want to be alive to see morning I've got to get going." He gave the creature one last pat before he took off running.

The creature let out a small whine and tilted its head, it stared at Jack for a few seconds before jumping up to follow him.

When Jack got back home his mother had a lecture waiting for him and ordered him to take a shower because he smelled like "rotten fish," most likely from spent so much time near the garbage.

"And time for sleep." He stuck out his tongue and jumped into bed, it was then that he remembered he had yet to do his math homework.

"And then it was time for Calculus." He nearly spat out the last word.

With a pencil in hand and a calculator in the other he was ready for the hours of torture. He'd never been good at any of his subjects but he was used to making up things along the way and it earned him decent enough grades. That didn't bother him much, he never expected to go to college.

"Problem 1…looks like it was written in a foreign language." He started to write down the steps he'd learned in class, rolling his eyes along the way.

And then, suddenly, the torture was put on hold by the sound of whining outside his window.

"It can't be." He looked outside his window and some the same creature from earlier. He nearly fainted at the sight of it; it looked even stranger under the light of a streetlamp.

"Shh!" Jack hissed, and the creature was silent. He breathed a heavy sigh and rubbed his head, if his mother saw it she'd have the pound take it away.

That's when it started to scratch at the side of Jack's house.

"What's that noise?" Jack's mother called from her bedroom.

"Not sure, I'll go see!" Jack said quickly. He ran down the stairs and out the door where he pushed the creature under the shade of a tree.

"What!" That was all he could say. He'd had animals follow him home before but this, this was something he couldn't put a name to. Some wolf hybrid, most likely to be put down if found what with its sharp teeth, the only menacing thing about it.

"You need to go!" He said wearily.

But when he saw the sad expression in the creature's eyes he felt guilty for having gotten so angry.

"Okay…okay…just…follow me and stay quiet." He took a deep breath and led the creature into his home and up the stairs to his room. His mother stepped out of hers just in time to see Jack tip toe into the doorway and then shut the door.

"Jack, what are you up too?" In three steps Jack opened his closet door and shoved the creature inside, then jumped into his bed just as his mother came in.

"Jack, what was that noise?"

"The noise from earlier? Raccoons, I shooed them away."

In what felt like an eternity, his mother stared at Jack intently, then the window then back at him again.

"I see." While skeptical, his mother nodded and left the room, he could just made out her words before she shut the door, "Don't stay up too late!"

Jack took a deep breath before getting up from his bed and locking the door. After opening his closet door and gesturing for the creature to sleep on the blankets he'd laid out, he plopped onto the floor and sighed.

"Strange night."

The creature let out a small woof in agreement.

After completing 3 of his 5 math problems, Jack passed out on his desk and awoke to the feel of the sun against his bare back. He grumbled from the morning light and mumbled gibberish about wanting another hour to sleep.

"Jack!" Emma called from the hallway, "I'm going to make breakfast!"

That perked Jack right up, he knew she'd try to turn the stove on and that would only leave to another fire and another visit from firefighters.

"Hold on Emma, I'm going to make the eggs!" Jack yelled. He leapt from his with the intention of running out the door and down the stairs but tripped over his own hoodie he'd left on the floor.

"Dang it."

With a groan, Jack got up and grabbed the hoodie off the floor. For a moment, he debated taking another shower but decided against it having showered the night before and turned to open his dresser for a T-shirt.

That's when he saw her.

"Holy."

Sleeping on the blankets was a young girl, around his age, naked and only covered by the gold of her very long hair. Her eyes were sullen and her cheeks were pink, she looked exhausted.

"Holy." Jack said again before taking a seat on the floor, "What did I bring home."

With those words the girl finally woke up and propped herself up from the floor with her elbows. She rubbed her eyes with one hand and apologized for not waking earlier, she sounded disoriented and he wondered how long it would take her to realize where she was.

Jack only nodded but his face was terribly red.

"I didn't want to be an inconvenience," She said as if this was a normal occurrence, "But the kitten said you were kind and I was afraid to sleep outside again, what with them after me." Her green eyes were so big, so earnest that he only nod again.

She put her hand to her cheeks, "I'm so sorry, was this not okay? The kitten said you sometimes let her kind come home for a meal and a nap, I didn't mean to impose." Before Jack answered she jumped from where she sat, covered conveniently by her very long hair and scurried to the door.

The situation finally dawned her. She had followed him, a stranger home, and had failed to prepare him for her transformation…

"I'm so sorry! I should have known better, what was I thinking! I was just so tired! You probably have a million questions because girls don't turn into creatures or vice versa and…"

"Doesn't typically happen." He said quietly.

"Oh my goodness, you most be terrified, please don't call the police! I was so tired, I didn't realize I was doing and you were so nice and…and…I'll be on my way!" She took a mid-step when she realized she wasn't wearing any clothing.

"Eek!" She put her hands over herself and let out a quiet squeak, "Not again!"

With that Jack fainted where he sat.