Disclaimer: I do not own the Mercy Thompson series or any of the characters. However I wish I did own Silver Bourne, I heard it's supposed to be really good!

Chapter 8

It seemed like forever, but the weekend finally came. It had been two weeks and already Amy had learned to hate school with the same passion of any self respecting teenager. School was a lot harder than Amy had ever considered it might be. Of course, when she had dreamed about mundane classes and carefree classmates she hadn't taken into consideration that those classmates would hate her by association or that the classes would include hours of listening to lectures about material she had already taught herself.

The only classes in which she found relief were the ones she had with Jessie. The girl was a genius, literally, so they both spent their first class together passing notes. Their PE class was spent chatting away as they did whatever activity was required of them that day. Needless to say, it didn't take long for the girls to become inseparable. Even after school they usually ended up going home together. If Sam was at work, Amy went with Jessie and if Adam was at work vise versa.

Both of their fathers were busy today so the girls were going to Mercy's garage. Amy was nervous but she kept her face neutral and politely listened to Jessie's chatter about how happy she was that she'd finally meet Gabriel. Having Mercy around was strange. She wasn't use to the brash behavior of the woman or her kindness. Having Jessie around helped, but Amy was still unable to fully relax.

They entered the shop and Jessie abandoned her, practically tackling the kid behind the desk. "Hi Grabriel!"

"Hey Jessie." Gabriel replied with a laugh.

Jessie released him and turned to Amy. "This is my friend Amy I told you about. Amy, this is Gabriel."

Amy nodded politely and the two teenagers almost immediately fell into a conversation about something or another. Amy was having a hard time understanding what they were talking about but she sat there and smiled. Mercy came in not too long afterwards and smiled at the group.

"Hey guys. How was school?" Both girls shrugged which caused Mercy to laugh. "I think you're wearing off on Jessie, Amy." She said. Amy smiled at her, just a little bit. She knew Mercy wasn't bad but she just couldn't get over the feeling that she was hiding something. Her instincts were good, they saved her more than once, but maybe just this once they were wrong. She really hoped so. She liked Mercy.

"I'm locking up soon. I'll take you girls home once I finish with this bucket of bolts over there." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the garage and Amy peeked through the open door to see some sort of car. She wasn't sure what kind it was but it looked old.

"Can I help?" She asked. Mercy cocked her head to the side with a surprised look. "Well more like just hand you tools and ask questions." Amy amended.

Mercy smiled and nodded. "Come on kid."

Amy hurried off the chair she was sitting in and followed Mercy into the garage. Mercy quickly explained what the problem was, apparently something with the wiring. Amy took a look at the wires but was at a loss to describe what could be wrong. It looked good to her…

Whatever the problem was, Mercy had it fixed before the end of the hour. Amy had watched absently as Mercy rewired. Maybe it would be okay to ask. She doesn't seem like someone who'd fly off the handle because of a silly question… An image of an angry woman flashed through her head and she closed her eyes to dispel the unwanted memory. Mercy, who was wiping her hands off, noticed the small action.

"Is something wrong?" She asked with a hint of worry.

Amy gave her a small smile and shook her head. "I'm fine." She didn't feel fine but there was nothing Mercy could do about that unless she had a way to erase memories. Besides, Mercy wasn't a werewolf. She couldn't smell lies. Then why is she looking at me that way?

Although Mercy didn't look like she believed her she dropped the subject and opted for, in Amy's opinion, a much better subject. "How do you like living here so far?"

"It's wonderful." Mercy was happy to see the smile growing on Amy's face. She'd noticed that she was steadily becoming more and more open with her emotions around them.

"And what's so wonderful about it?"

Amy shrugged as she watched Mercy putting the tools back into their proper places. "Everything I suppose."

"Anything you don't like?" Mercy pressed. Even though the kid had been more forth coming in her answers Samuel and her were still clueless as to what Amy was really like. They had no idea what her hobbies were, what kind of music she liked, if she'd had any friends before Jessie and most importantly what her life use to be like. Amy shook her head but then seemed to change her mind.

"Actually…" Mercy waited for the answer to come, hoping to learn more about her friend's daughter. "School wasn't as great as I thought it would be. It's still better than home schooling."

Great. That's the same thing every kid says. Mercy thought. She gave a short laugh and agreed. "Yeah, it can really suck sometimes."

Later that evening the three of them were sitting around the table eating dinner. Both Mercy and Samuel could smell the happiness exuding from the teenage girl they were sitting with. It had started happening not too long ago. Anytime Samuel was able to spend time with her she'd 'light up' in a sense. Her facial expressions would become more expressive and her speech would become more enthusiastic and talkative. It made both of them happy to see her adjusting so well.

When dinner was over, Amy insisted on helping Mercy with the dishes. Mercy was surprised by her actions. Amy had seemed to be throwing herself on the woman ever since she'd gotten back from school. At first she thought it was because Gabriel and Jessie were boring her but even when they got home Amy had continued to ask to spend time with her doing whatever Mercy happened to be doing at the moment. Ever since Amy had been there with them it had become her custom to avoid anytime with Mercy whenever possible. This new development only added to the happiness.

Once the last dish was in its place Amy turned to Samuel. "Jessie asked me to see a movie with her tomorrow night. W-would that be okay?" Neither adult in the room needed the stutter to tell them how nervous she was while asking the question. However, as soon as Samuel gave her that smile of his the nervousness was completely washed away.

"As long as you get your homework done first I don't mind. I'll give you some money before you go." That's when it happened. She ran over and hugged him. Samuel didn't even have time to recover and return the hug before Amy was dashing out of the room.

Mercy couldn't help it. She had to laugh at the stupid smile on Samuel's face.

The day had been wonderful! In fact the whole past week had been wonderful! Amy had never felt this happy or this normal in her life. She had no idea it could be this fun to just talk without worrying about what the other person would hear.

She was currently exiting the theater with Jessie. Through some miracle the girls had managed to get Adam and Samuel to agree to let them go to the movie alone. They'd played the 'poor little girl' card as Jessie called it. Amy called it exploiting but she didn't mind doing it. All they'd had to do was emphasize that they didn't get much girl time and that they were capable of taking care of themselves.

The streets were just starting to get dark now. Jessie called her father to come and pick them up. He said he'd be there in a few minutes. As they waited they talked about the movie and Jessie commented on how the love triangle in the movie reminded her of Mercy and their fathers. Of course Amy asked her to explain in as much detail as possible. The girls were so lost in their fun that they didn't see her until it was too late.

"Look who's here. It's the little wolf girls."

Vivian's voice was as annoyingly high pitched as ever. Since the first day she'd grown to hate Amy more and more. Part of it was Amy's refusal to include herself in Vivian's pack of malicious girls who now surrounded her. The other half of the problem was that Alex, Vivian's ex, continued to hit on Amy. Amy didn't understand how any of this was her fault, she thought it was all idiotic. "Hello Vivian."

"What are you doing here? Looking for more people to add to your pack?"

"Maybe you should stop talking Vivian." Amy gave Jessie's arm a squeeze. She'd asked Jessie to let her do all the talking when it came to bullies. Jessie was being watched much more closely than she was after all.

Vivian was about to come up with another come back when Jessie grabbed Amy's arm and dragged her towards the car that had just pulled up. "Hi Dad!" She greeted brightly as she slipped into the back seat with Amy. Jessie then proceeded to tell her father about the movie in great detail. Amy remained silent during the entire ride. She knew for a fact that Vivian had had plans to be on the other side of town tonight.

A/N: I'm so sorry! I totally forgot to answer all the reviewers! I will do so now!

Maya: Thank you for all the reviews! I'm so glad that you like it and I'll try and finally finish this story this summer. Hopefully it will be to your liking as well ^^

coolchick: Good! It means my plot twist is effective! Sorry it's taken me this long to upload more chapters but I'll try to speed up a little bit.

And to all of you who added me to your watch lists and your favorites, thank you! I promise I'll start getting more chapters out once summer rolls around.