Thanks to 1DRTWINS and Whippit for the Beta work on this chapter!
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Claire turned 8 on the 5th Aug 2011, Quil is still physically 16, but his ID shows that he's really going to turn 22 on 2 Feb 2012.
Chapter 9 Sweet Sixteen?
Pink, glittery decorations proclaiming "Sweet Sixteen" and "Happy 16th Birthday" were covering the front room. They were sort of a tormenting type of running joke for each of our birthdays. We had tons of them, enough to almost cover every inch of wall in the front room. Oh, we complained pretty heavily when it was our birthday, but we sure enjoyed putting them up for the other guys when it was their birthday. I'm sure I had purchased at least twenty percent of the decorations myself. I just hadn't ever thought it would bring up an issue with Claire. I also didn't anticipate her cooking breakfast for me at eight years old either.
I grabbed my keys and headed towards the door to pick up Skye and Claire from school. As I drove to their school, I tried to firm up the plans in my mind. I still wasn't exactly sure what to say to her, but I knew I could begin by taking her for a ride in my wolf form. It had only been about a week since the last time, but it was my birthday, and that definitely qualified it as a special occasion. If I took her for a ride it would seem more magical or mystical, and far-fetched ideas like staying eternally sixteen seemed like they made more sense in that environment.
I pulled up in front of the school and only had to wait a few minutes for Claire and Skye. Claire got in the truck and slid over to the middle with Skye climbing in after her. "Happy Birthday, Quil," Sky said. "How old are you now? Still 'old as dirt' like last year?" She asked with a laugh. Claire looked up at me with her eyes wide and her lips tightly pressed together.
"Yeah, pretty much," I answered Skye with a wink at Claire. Claire giggled at me and quickly glanced over her shoulder to see if Skye had caught on to the inside information we shared, but Skye was just looking out the window partially bored.
"So Claire, are you all ready to go for a ride like last week, or will you need to change your clothes?" I asked her looking up at the thin layer of clouds to see what the chance of rain looked like for this afternoon.
She gasped and whipped her head around to look in my direction, "Really?" She asked me in shock, "We can really go for a ride today?"
"What's the big deal? We're going for a ride right now. I don't see how you can get so excited to ride around in this crummy old truck anyway." Skye responded still looking out the window.
I winked at Claire and she giggled answer Skye with a quick, "Well, I like to go fast."
Skye shrugged and said, "Whatever," in a way that left it clear she was both clueless and bored with the conversation. At times I had wondered if she might be a little jealous of the attention I paid to Claire, but it almost always left Skye with more time alone with her parents. She had a very close relationship with them.
We pulled into the driveway and Skye hopped out the instant the truck came to a full stop. I turned to Claire and asked her, "So do you need to change, or just put your bag away and get a snack?" She hesitated a bit too long.
"I would bet that you are hungry, but so excited you're thinking about going without any snack," I suggested. "Am I right?"
She hung her head down and answered with an almost inaudible, "Yes."
"Why don't we go inside and make a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we can eat them in the truck on our way?" I said, "I'll race you inside…"
With that she let out a squeal of delight, grabbed her backpack and ran inside.
We ate our sandwiches on the way over to the Cullen's house and parked there to go for our ride. I once again followed our routine of going into the forest to change and quickly coming back for Claire. She climbed on my back and held on for speed. I didn't think I could ever get used to how comfortable she was about everything that was so strange and unusual in my life.
We traveled into the forest a short distance until we came to a fallen tree that would work well for a bench as we had our conversation. I set Claire down carefully, and quickly went to change. Coming back to where Claire was standing, I lifted her up onto the makeshift bench and hopped up to join her.
"So Claire, why don't we start by you asking what you want to know about, and I can answer your questions," I began.
"This morning you said that you keep turning into a wolf so your body doesn't get any older and that it's like you turn sixteen every year. How does that work?" She asked.
"I'm not exactly sure how it works. I do know that our blood helps us heal really fast. I would guess that it helps all the parts of our body heal so fast that we never actually get older, but that's really just a guess."
"Are you always going to be sixteen…forever?" She asked, her head cocked to the side, looking inquisitively into my eyes.
"No. If I stop changing into a wolf for a while, I can get older." I paused before adding, "But I don't really want to get any older right now." I told her with a slight shrug.
"Is it because you want to be like Peter Pan?" Claire asked with a laugh.
I smiled down at my little Claire; she was so cute and silly. There was no way at eight years old that I would fully explain to her my hopes for us to one day be married. I answered with a simple, "No."
Claire narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to the side pulling her mouth into a contemplative pout. She looked at me for several seconds before she said, with a thoughtful tone, "You know, if you keep being sixteen, and I keep getting older, I'm going to catch up to you." She suddenly sat up straight, her eyes getting wide and a huge grin spreading across her face showing her deep dimples. She raised her eyebrows and said in almost a teasing voice, "I could be older than you, Quil!"
I had to laugh at her excitement over that thought. "Would you like to be older than me?" I asked her with a wink.
"That would be totally fun!" Claire exclaimed. "I could drive you around in my car, and stay up later than you do. I could even tell you what to do, and you would do it!" Her maniacal side was in full force today.
"Claire, I already do everything you want me to do now. You don't need to be older for me obey your commands princess Claire," I said in a playful voice, reminding her of our little game that her parents didn't really appreciate.
"Oh, that's right servant boy," Claire said standing up and acting regal. "I command you to take me for a wolf ride, please," She ended with an adorable smile to which I couldn't help but respond.
I bowed low and in a slight accent said, "If her highness will wait here for one moment, I will send the wolf for her." I quickly ran behind a tree removed my clothes, tucked them into the leather cord wrapped around my ankle, and phased. I walked in my wolf form over to Claire and knelt down for her to climb on my back. She seemed deep in thought, so I proceeded at a slow walk so that her inattention wouldn't cause her to fall.
Claire was quiet for almost half of the trip before she took a deep breath and asked, "Quil, are you going to be sixteen when I am sixteen? Please bark once for yes or two times for no."
I barked once, and felt her relax almost immediately. She then positioned herself in her much more standard way leaning down across by back with her face up near my neck.
Claire took in a deep breath and let out a big sigh before whispering, "Good," into my ear. With her face now pressed against my neck I could feel the muscles in her face pull into a wide smile and her hands grab tighter onto my fur. "Can we run now? I feel happy."
I barked once and took off at a fast jogging pace. I was thrilled at how happy Claire was with the idea that, at least physically, we would someday be the same age.
oOo
Sam and Emily threw a birthday party for me at their place that night. Both packs were there along with Claire and her family. I received a few gifts, but the one that stood out the most was the gift from Daniel and Sarah.
"You guys didn't have to get me anything," I insisted as Sarah handed me a large, blue-wrapped box about the size of a case of apples.
"Don't be silly," Sarah insisted, "it's your birthday."
I unwrapped the gift and opened the box to find a present wrapped in green paper and just a few inches smaller in size to the blue-wrapped box. I looked at the green present a little confused and this sent Claire into a squealing fit of laughter.
"There's more! There's more, open it up!" Claire exclaimed jumping up and down clapping her hands with joy.
I chuckled at Claire's obvious enjoyment of the joke, and unwrapped the green gift to find a red one. "There is another one?" I asked with pretend shock which sent Claire into another fit of squealing laughter. This continued on several more times until I reached a small present the size of a one-pound candy bar. I unwrapped the balloon-covered "Happy Birthday" paper to find it was in fact a one pound Symphony bar with almonds and toffee, and had an envelope slipped under the wrapper.
"I picked out the candy bar!" Claire called out bouncing in place and clapping her hands.
"Thank you my little wolf girl! You remembered my favorite," I answered back with a satisfied smile. This was one I was going to really enjoy. I set the candy bar to the side so it wouldn't immediately begin to melt from the heat of my hands.
"Mommy and Daddy got you the card, but I told them it was too small, so they helped me get the candy bar. It was Mommy's idea for all the presents," Claire finished with a hop, pointing at her mom.
I reached for the envelope and opened it to find a birthday card that had a drawing of an Indian maiden with a wolf on the cover and a folded piece of paper inside. I read the sentiment that Sarah had obviously written, and then unfolded the piece of paper. The paper was some kind of form. It took me a few seconds to read through, and process that it was actually a receipt. The form had the return address of the school with the online courses and my name listed with a paid enrollment to my first class.
"I hope you can start school next week," Daniel said. "We were just trying to find out the cost, and discovered that, with just a bit more information from your mom, we were able to enroll you and save you the few hours of duplicating our efforts."
"I…I'm totally in shock. I don't…uh…thanks so much!" I stammered, completely stunned by their beyond generous gift. "Thank you! I can't believe you did this for me."
"Well you do so much for us all the time without ever asking anything in return," Sarah responded.
"Yeah, nothing but your second born," Jacob joked causing everyone to laugh.
I flushed a little at that comment and glanced up at Daniel and Sarah. I was pleased to see they were laughing at my expense along with everyone else. "Well, this affects her too. We figured since it took four years for Quil to decide what he wanted to do, Claire might be done with college before Quil if he didn't have a little push to get him started," Daniel teased.
I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable with the ribbing, but the gift was so generous that I couldn't help but smile and express my appreciation again.
I may be sixteen again, but I was on the road to becoming a more mature, better educated sixteen-year-old.
