Chapter 7

Monday was uneventful. The boys stayed in their room and didn't try anything. Tuesday would be the real test of my theory. There were several periods in which none of us would see Joey; we had to hope he wouldn't try anything stupid.

Monday night was the first night of the full moon for January. Troy and Ryan went to Troy's house to help Gabriella with her first change, or whatever, so Kelsi and Jason came over to help me with guard duty.

My alarm went off at 5:40 Tuesday morning. I got up and showered, and banged on the captives' door to make sure they were up before going downstairs for a light breakfast.

Someone had cooked up a large quantity of bacon and eggs. Under normal circumstances I tried to avoid animal products, but these weren't normal circumstances. I tried to resist, but the scent of the bacon was too much. My light breakfast became a decadent feast.

Ryan and I unlocked the boys' room and led them to our cars. We'd decided to separate them rather then try and cram four people in either of our cars. Ryan took Joey in his Mustang, while I unlocked my car door for Jesse.

Jesse sat in silence and fidgeted with his backpack.

"Ready for school?" I asked.

"Uh… not really. I didn't finish much of my homework."

"Well, I suppose it was a busy weekend."

"Yeah."

When we arrived at school I walked with Jesse to homeroom where we met with Gabriella.

I spent the morning avoiding Chad and Taylor. I imagined they'd both heard of Zeke's disappearance by now, and wasn't up to answering their questions.

The auditions for Kelsi's new musical were that day during free period.

Gabriella brought Jesse with her, forcing him to take a seat in the front row. He spent the period with his nose buried in a book attempting to catch up on his homework. Well, except during Joey's audition.

A number of freshmen tried out. Most of them were horrid. Maybe three had some actual skill, but even they weren't up to the high standards Ryan and I had set.

Gabriella's audition was unnervingly flawless, and I could tell by the way Mrs. Jewls was smiling at her that I'd have to compete against her in the callbacks, again.

Even worse I could tell that Kelsi had written the part for her.

The musical had three leads, one female and two male. It was about a love triangle, two boys fighting over the same girl that discover a budding romance between each other. Kelsi claimed to have been inspired by Ryan, Troy, and Gabriella, and had written the parts accordingly.

After the fiasco that was Twinkle Town, I didn't try to alter Kelsi's vision too much for my audition. I made just a few essential changes to her slow paced sound. For a composer who'd objected to playing slow music at Lava Springs over the summer, she wrote a lot of elevator music.

Joey's voice surprised me. He was good, there was no denying that. His vocal range was identical to Troy's but much better practiced. Troy wore the hat he'd stolen from Ryan for his audition. His voice wasn't up to Joey's, but he put far more passion into the lyrics and already knew the choreography for the part. An objective observer would've found the two evenly matched. I wasn't in the mood to be objective, not when the boy who tried to shoot my brother in the back three days earlier was involved.

Ryan's audition was fabulous, of course.

After school let out Ryan and Troy took Joey home. Jesse had scholastic decathlon practice with Gabriella and Taylor, so I spent the afternoon in the auditorium preparing for the inevitable call back.

When we arrived home I was surprised to find Joey in the living room with Troy and Ryan.

"You let him out of the cage?" I asked.

Troy shrugged.

Ryan smiled at me. "Reward for good behavior."

Jesse followed me into the living room, and sat down next to his boyfriend.

"Are you two going to Troy's tonight?"

"No, Kelsi's mom is on first change watch tonight." Troy said.

"How'd she do last night?"

"As well as could be expected; I just hope she doesn't get fleas." Troy laughed as he said it.

I rolled my eyes and went into the kitchen to look for a snack. The bacon from that morning was gone, devoured by Ryan and Troy no doubt. Sighing to myself I picked up the phone and called Domino's.

"What do you four want on your pizza?" I poked my head into the living room.

"Meat." Came Ryan and Troy's synchronized response.

I rolled my eyes.

Joey and Jesse didn't speak.

"And you two? I don't have all day here."

Jesse looked surprised. "Uh… mushrooms?"

I nodded and looked at Joey, he said nothing.

"Fine, have it your way. Well, his way, whatever."

I ordered three large meatlovers' and a large mushroom.


The next morning was a repeat of the previous day.

I forced Jesse to come check the callback list with me. Callbacks were scheduled for that Friday, and I was unsurprised but still furious to find that I'd be competing with Gabriella again.

The only other call back was Troy and Joey; Ryan's audition guaranteed him a part in the production already.

"Can you imagine how awkward it'll be if Joey gets the part?"

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked.

"The final scene."

"Uh… I haven't read the script."

"It's a story of how two boys fall in love, Jesse; and I don't know about you, but I can't really see my brother and your boyfriend kissing."

"Kissing?" Jesse blushed.

I looked around the hallway, making certain no one was nearby. "I can see it now, the story of a whirlwind romance between a werewolf and the hunter who tried to kill him."

Jesse looked worried. "That'd never happen, would it?"

I laughed and elbowed him. "God Jesse, don't get all jealous. I've seen the way Joey looks at you; you have nothing to worry about."

He gave a nervous laugh.

The warning bell rang. "Come on, let's get to homeroom."


The rest of the week, until the callbacks, was uneventful. Gabriella had no luck in tracking down her father; the two hunters didn't try anything stupid, and though we checked the news everyday there were no reports of anyone else disappearing or being attacked at or near Lava Springs.

Whatever the things were that had taken my Zeke away from me, they were lying low. My anger at those… those things rose each day. I was resolved to see them dead, and grateful to the cat that had bit me that I would soon have the strength to do something about it.

But left with nothing to do but worry about the callbacks, my anger at the creatures fueled my anger at Gabriella. I was a total bitch to her all week.

My anger management issues didn't help me in the callbacks either. I forgot a verse half way through and even my exquisite acting skills couldn't keep my rage hidden.

Gabriella got the part. I was cast as understudy and as a minor part otherwise.

To make matters worse Joey beat out Troy. Even Kelsi seemed upset about that. This musical was not going the way I had intended at all.


"Um… could you slow down a little?"

I blinked. It was the first time Jesse had initiated a conversation with me.

I glanced at the speedometer, I was going over 90.

I took a calming breath and removed my foot from the gas pedal, tapping the break.

"Do you… do you want to talk about it?"

"Everything was perfect until that little whore moved here."

"She doesn't seem so bad."

I snorted. "For a werewolf you think killed your parents."

"I… I don't really think that."

We drove in silence for a while. I considered lowering the top to let the wind whip through my hair, but opted for rolling down the window instead. I wasn't even paying attention to where we were going, I needed to think and driving helped me.

"Uh, where are we going?"

"I don't know yet."

"Won't people be worried?"

He was right. Ryan would understand my need to drive after a day like that, but Joey would be getting jumpy.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Ryan.

"Hey, Sis." He answered.

"I'm going for a drive; I don't know when I'll be home."

"Don't you think you should drop Jesse off first?"

"No. I need someone to talk to." I hung up and turned the phone off before he could respond. "There, problem solved."

"You're kind of scary, do you know that?"

"I'm aware."

"It's just a musical, there's still one more."

I slammed on the breaks. Jesse put out his arms to avoid bashing his head into the dashboard.

"Just a musical? There's no such thing. I've starred in eighteen productions, Jesse, and if it wasn't for Gabriella it'd be twenty."

He looked at me, fear in his eyes, and nodded.

I glanced down the street we were stopped on and spotted a Starbucks.

"Do you want coffee? I want coffee."

He followed my gaze to the coffee shop and nodded again.

"Fabulous."

I parked and we went in. I ordered a tall caffè mocha and a volcano brownie. Jesse tried to get away with just ordering a chai tea latte.

"Uh uh. You're scrawny. Get food."

He ordered a blueberry muffin to go with it. I paid with Daddy's credit card and took a seat.

He waited at the register for our drinks and sat down across from me.

"Is this really about Gabi?" He asked.

"Who else would it be about?"

"Uh… Zeke?"

When the Hell did this guy get so damn insightful.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's only been a week. A week tonight. I just think that if I ever lost Joey…"

"Yeah, well news flash, I'm not you."

He nodded and picked at his muffin.

"We're not leaving until you eat all of that."

He looked at me, trying to decide if I was kidding, and then took a bite of it.

"So, you don't think Gabriella is responsible for your parent's death anymore?"

He shook his head.

"What about the rest of us?"

"I don't know. They're not at all what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?"

"Not this."

"So. You know a lot about all of us, but I still don't know much about you."

"Yeah."

"That's me prompting you to share, Jesse. And the truth this time, no more Colorado."

He nodded. "Alright, no more Colorado. What do you want to know?"

"How did you two meet?"

"We grew up together. His family lived next door, and we were born in the same hospital. We used to play together all the time when we were kids; our parents enrolled us in the same dance class."

"You dance?"

He laughed. "Not in a long time."

"When did you know you were gay?"

"I think I knew a long time before he did. In junior high I fell in love with him, and confessed my feelings. He didn't talk to me for a long time after that, which wasn't hard because we didn't have many classes together anymore. I thought that my being gay had ruined our friendship, so I went into the closet. I convinced myself that I'd never felt that way about him. I hated myself. When we started high school I tried dating girls. I tried dating a lot of girls. I spent every night praying to God that I would find the one who could turn me."

"But you never did."

He nodded. "I even had sex with two of them, thinking about him the whole time. It was, and don't take this the wrong way, disgusting and horrible."

I smiled and he continued.