I am not who you think I am. Forget anything you thought you knew about my kind. My name is Carletta and this is how I became who I am today.
Chapter 1
You may think you know what it means to be a werewolf. Well you don't. My chapter of life starts when I moved to a small, old fashioned town in the middle of Texas. I was fourteen and I will remember that day for the rest of my life.
"Carletta, honey get up it's time for your first day of school, isn't that exciting?"
I gave my mom a contemptuous glare but it had no effect since I couldn't see her without my glasses.
"Come on Car! It's a new school you can be whoever you want to be here." My dad cooed.
"Ugh, fine. I'll get up what's for breakfast?"
"Just like you Big C, askin' fo food first thing in mornin'"
"I told you to stop calling me that! And talk like a normal person half-wit!" I said throwing a pillow at my brother.
I got to my feet and looked around the room. When you can see clearly, my newest room was barely unpacked and one set of cubbies inherited from my aunt and uncle. I went to my set of owl filled cubbies for my glasses and bracelet. My glasses were "secretary's glasses" with silver rims. Rummaging through my closet I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and went into the bathroom to fix my bed head. Slowly I brushed my long bangs to frame my face and sprayed hair-spray in the back spiking it up making my face look like a miniature sun sticking up from the collar of my shirt. I grabbed my eyeliner and lightly traced my green eyes with black.
I then rushed into the kitchen to eat my last good breakfast before summer started again. My dad was fixing the eggs and Helix had started on the toast.
"Carletta? Could you serve up the eggs? I gotta get the bacon done."
"Sure Dad" I grabbed up the frying pan and scraped the eggs onto the paper plates we'd used since moving. Helix finished up the toast just then and placed the slices on the plates artistically as my Dad put the bacon with it.
"You three are so in tune when you cook it's scary." my Mom said with wide eyes watching us work.
"Alright guys it's time, come on get up, stop eating Carletta, it's time for school!"
I looked down at my half eaten plate, then over at my mom's anxious face.
Great, I thought to myself sarcastically, this is going to be wonderful.
I grabbed my bag and hopped into the car next to Helix watching the houses go by. Helix scrambled out of the car to the sixth grade with his messy blonde hair the same color as mine.
As we drove down the street to the high school my stomach churned. I'd never liked moving and with all my friends back home this was going to be hard.
We pulled up to the front and as I grabbed my bag my mom leaned out her window, "You be careful Car, I love you, have a good day."
I hugged her wishing the day was already over. "I love you too mama."
I turned and faced my new school. Well I had better get this over with. I walked with as much confidence as I could muster toward the door. The first thing I heard was a lady on the overhead say, Students please report to your homeroom to receive your schedules. Please do not loiter in the halls but make your way straight to your homeroom class.
Papers were posted all over the halls pointing students in the direction of their homerooms I looked for my name and found it in Mr. Carvel's list in B hall.
I pushed my way through the loiterers and found B hall in the far back. Walking up the isle Mr. Carvel's room was at the far end in a dimly lit corner and had some of the shadiest people going in.
Of course put me in the room with the trouble makers.
Opening the door as quietly as I could, I made my way to the back of the room in the darkest corner. For being the last door in the hall Mr. Carvel's room was actually extremely bright. It was a history room and had dead presidents on the walls with their names and what they did for our country underneath the pictures. The desks were in neat little rows facing the front each with its own little candy on it. Mr. Carvel himself was a squat little man with short silver hair and a clean shaven face.
"Now class," he said passing out little orange pieces of paper, "these schedules are only for your first semester, they will probably change as the second comes around. You will probably not have my class except for big things like this or school-wide tests. You will have a couple of minutes to look over your schedules before the bell rings so feel free to talk quietly."
As he said that the class roared with the sound of people complaining about classes they got and celebrating the classes they had in common. I looked down at my schedule.
Band-band hall
Algebra---W7
Biology---F5
Russian---L4
lunch
Geography---B4
English---L8
Heath---T9
Ok, pretty alright schedule, wonder what my teachers are like. I thought as the bell rang. I pushed my way through the halls making my way to the band hall. On the way I caught a lot of people watching me. ugh they act like they've never seen a new person before.
Finally finding the band hall I walked through the double doors and saw the rest of the band geeks sitting around talking and laughing.
"Students that weren't here during band camp come see me in my office." The band director boomed.
I saw a couple of students get up and follow him to the office.
"Now I don't want excuses I want the truth why weren't you at band camp?" He looked at each individual like they were criminals and I knew I was not going to be able to get along with this guy if he didn't lighten up.
The first student he pointed to stammered "I was in Kentucky with my family." and a couple of the others were in other lame states, another was new like me but he didn't know how to play anything. The director introduced himself to the new kid as Mr. Pries and told the kid that they would get him playing as soon as possible. Then he turned to me.
"Let me guess your new to do, you know how to play anything?"
I nodded and opened my mouth to tell him what I played but he stopped me.
"No let me guess……Sax?"
"No."
"Hmmmm French horn?"
"No."
"……Oh I got it flute."
"No sir."
That got him frustrated, "Well then what do you play?"
"I play tuba sir."
"Oh do you now? Well then, I don't have an extra one right now so your just gonna have to wait. Do you have a mouthpiece?" He said contemptuously. Obviously this man thought that girls shouldn't play tuba but something less obvious like a flute or French horn.
"Of course I do" I stated plainly pulling a shiny, just polished mouthpiece out of my bag.
He looked at me venomously, and everyone except the other new kid was dismissed. We walked into the main part of the band hall and the others who were in the office stared at me with awe and started spreading the word that the tuba section now had a girl.
I was approached by some of the bigger boys in the room and was confronted….with stutters.
They pushed the oldest looking one toward me and I glared at him.
"Can I help you, sir?"
"D…do…do y…you…really p…p…play t…tuba?"
"No I just said that and I swiped this from the store." I said waving the mouthpiece in his face. Seeing his fallen face made me feel bad. Gaa these country people will believe anything "Of course I play tuba watcha need?"
His face lit up at that. "Just wondering, we're the tuba section I'm Arthur, section leader." He then proceeded to introduce the six others of the section. "We are so happy to have you here the section's even now."
The others nodded shyly.
"Why did you stutter when you first started talking?" I asked rudely trying to put him on the spot.
"Oh…ummm…Well no offence but y…y…your k…kinda sc…scary." He stammered again.
I looked at him but he wouldn't meet my eyes and neither would any of the other tubas. I thought about going off and being offended but I realized I had seen this coming. I knew there was going to be people who were afraid of me so instead I said softly,
"It's alright Arthur I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look scary, I'm just mad about moving plus I don't think Mr. Pries likes me much."
"Oh I don't think he does either but don't worry he'll warm up to you!" He answered excited that I wasn't mad.
"I doubt that, people don't really warm up to me."
"We have." One of the other boys said quietly.
"You're so sure about that?" I asked him.
"Yeah your another tuba we relate easily."
I raised one eyebrow as Arthur and the others looked back and forth astonished between the other boy and me.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Caleb's never talked before 'cept to his horse." Arthur answered.
The rest of the day went pretty ok. It was a basic first day, the teacher's only plans included introducing themselves and the rest of the students to each other. I had algebra with Caleb and again people looked at me with awe because I had gotten him to talk.
I decided to walk home to clear my head and looked as I passed farm after farm and even pet a cow on my way. I wanted to walk home every day because the view was so beautiful.
I lay on my bed that night listening to my computer play music when I heard scratching at my window. It was like claws on dead leaves. Having read many scary stories I ignored it and continued listening to my music. Then it got louder, and again I disregarded it. I changed the music to my favorite song. That's when the growling started.
I turned my computer off and went to investigate. Moving quietly to the window I peered out and saw two green orbs in front of the window. The growling stopped and I blinked in surprise when I realized they were eyes. They were the same green as mine and I would have thought I was seeing my reflection if it weren't for the fact that the eyes in front of me were surrounded by thick fur. The thing in front of me whimpered and I heard another growl further away. It looked back at me with fear and anticipation. I blinked again and in a flash I was staring at the moonlit field behind the house.
I walked back to my bed trying to figure out what I just saw. It had to be a wolf what else would have fur like that? But a wolf that big it was eye level with me. It could have been standing on its hind legs! Yeah that's it just standing on its hind legs looking for food. I decided to see if anyone knew about wolves in this area tomorrow at school.
