Truth
A/N: For all of you that read Darkened Moon Version 1, this chapter is going to sound quite similar to Version 1's chapter 2. This was originally going to be chapter 2, but I tweaked some things. =3 Some things are the same and some are left out. =3 But this is really the first official chapter since things are a bit different. XD Next chapter will be fully original, though. =D
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Odd looked at Ulrich. They were in their room again and Odd was sitting on his bed while Ulrich was studying Jeremie's notes with an unreadable expression on his face. Odd pushed his fear from his mind and asked, "Ulrich?"
The brunette spun around and looked at Odd with a twinge of worry on his face. "You don't have to say it, Odd… I understand… You're afraid of me and don't want to be my roommate anymore, right?"
Odd shook his head and gave Ulrich a big smile. "I'm in a room with a werewolf. Why would I want to switch rooms? So you lost control of yourself. It was bound to happen eventually and I'm still alive so whatever!"
"Thanks Odd…" he whispered, after which it was silent for a time. Ulrich looked at the floor and began to speak again. "I really am sorry for attacking you earlier… According to Yolanda, my medicine might not be working because I've gotten stronger. My dosage can't be upped until they do their weekly check-up on us, though… Will you help me keep myself under control for a couple of days?"
"What medicine? What check-up?" Odd asked as he attempted to learn more about Ulrich. He knew that he'd need to know this stuff if he wanted to continue rooming with him… "And yeah, I'll help. Don't want you attacking Einstein and Aelita, y'know."
Ulrich gave Odd a curt nod then began explaining. "All the werewolves that attend Kadic have to take a special medicine that is designed to render us incapable of transforming and changes our heightened senses down to about the same as a normal human. Until I met you, Jeremie, and Yumi I would skip a day here and there. Most werewolves can smell the people that they're closest to easily and more quickly than they can recognize someone they've met once or twice. Due to that I guess I'm kind of drawn to you guys because I don't view you as a threat. That's why when I don't have medicine and have to skip it or accidentally forget I avoid you guys.
"The check-ups are basically making sure that we're not injured or sick or something like that. They do it weekly because our power can spike or go down really low for no reason since we're teenagers. They do that so that they have a weekly chart on our power and change the medicine accordingly."
Odd nodded. "Well, I'll help you anyway that I can. Do you plan on telling any of the others about your being a werewolf?"
Ulrich shook his head and sighed. "I can't tell them… I'd have to get permission from Delmas or Yolanda first and then they'd have to tell you. They don't want the secret that werewolves are at Kadic getting around. They have to be really careful who they tell… If I told them without permission there's a good chance that I'll get expelled…" Ulrich looked around nervously. "Now that you know you need to be extra careful… The others might try to capture and hurt you to get to me, one of them is trying to make a pack…, or the Hunters could get you… There's also a chance that other non-humans will try to attack you… That's why people aren't told out of the blue. It's never under nice conditions…"
"Are there many other non-humans at Kadic?"
"All I know about is there werewolves because I can smell them. I can't tell anyone else, so you'd have to ask Delmas or Yolanda for details and they still might not tell you. There are definitely a few Hunters' kids around here, though…"
"Are Hunters human?"
Ulrich nodded as a knock came from the door.
Odd quickly hid Kiwi and opened the door to reveal Jeremie and Jim.
"Stern, Mr. Delmas would like to have a word with you. I'm supposed to escort you to his office," Jim stated.
Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Scared I'm going to hurt you, Jim?" he asked, walking over to the door with an innocent smile as Jeremie walked into the room.
Jim shook his head and led Ulrich out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Jeremie looked at Odd quizzically and asked, "What was that about?"
"No idea. Ulrich's being sulking around lately, though, so it could be because of his grades," Odd stated as he got Kiwi and sat on his bed. "So, what're you here to talk about?"
"I wonder… Anyway, we need to be extra careful around Kadic. Aelita and I were asking around and during the last attack Xana launched on the core a tower was activated. Other people were saying that they spotted a black smoke wandering around the school."
"Do you have any idea what he did?" Odd asked as Jeremie sat down on Ulrich's bed.
Jeremie pushed his glasses up on his face and pulled his laptop out, flipping it open. "We're not sure. Aelita and I are going to the computer lab later and working there once she gets her stuff together."
Odd nodded and sighed. Now he had two huge secrets he had to keep…
-Ulrich-
"Mr. Stern, do you realize what you did today?" Delmas practically yelled at him.
Ulrich looked at the ground and muttered a 'yes'. Keeping his anger in check would be difficult…
"Then why in the world did you do such a thing?"
"Let me ask you this, Mr. Delmas. If you smell some food that you find the scent too tempting not to eat, what do you do?"
"What does this have to do with what we were discussing, Mr. Stern?"
"Please sir, just answer the question…"
"If circumstances allowed, I would eat it."
"Exactly. Now imagine if circumstances didn't allow you, but you had heightened senses of smell and taste and you couldn't resist. You'd probably eat it now and feel guilty later, am I correct?"
Delmas began asking Ulrich why he was asking about the principal's eating habits, but replied with a yes after some prodding.
"That's the basic situation with me put into terms that you can grasp. I held myself back and got us to the infirmary. If it were one of the others Odd would be dead right now…"
(*)(*)(*)(*) Next Day (*)(*)(*)(*)
"Ulrich, can we talk for a moment?" William walked up and asked as he leaned against the wall.
"Make it quick," Ulrich spat. After being interrogated by Jeremie and Aelita about what he thought Xana's attack might have been he wasn't in the mood to deal with William.
"Join my pack. I overheard Delmas yelling at you yesterday for almost attacking Odd. The other two I've asked agreed to join and some of the stray werewolves in the forest agreed. So why not? If we get a strong enough pack we could take Delmas down."
Ulrich opened his mouth to reply, but saw Yumi walking over so closed his mouth and shook his head.
William scowled briefly before turning his attention to Yumi. "Hey, how are you?"
"I'm surprised that Ulrich is having a civil conversation with you," she replied, looking toward the aforementioned brunette.
"It's only a civil conversation because what I want to do to him is illegal," Ulrich replied curtly before stalking off.
"He's just mad because I told him I wasn't going to keep his secret. He wanted to show you something. It's a real eye-opener…" William whispered in her as he walked off.
A/N: Woooow… That's not as short as I thought it'd be… =3 I thought it was going to be a lot shorter. Granted, I did add some stuff that wasn't in my composition notebook. This time I want to action show one of the werewolves' check-ups. I'm pretty sure they were mentioned in Version 1, but never shown. Any ideas for what different stuff they could be tested on?
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~MoonlitxAngel
