This latest abscence of the new chapter is due to the fact that my father was on a website that he shouldn't have been on and picked up a nasty virus that ate it's way into our motherboard. Lovely. Thanks dad, you alaways now how to fuck up life!
Anywho, sorry if i sound bitter, but you would be too if your computer was gone for a good three or more weeks. Oh well, ENJOY!
When the Wind Blows
Chapter 10
Life Doesn't Need A Reason To Come Back Around & Bite You In The Ass
I find it absolutely fucking hilarious that someone would mail this to me. Let alone waste the time and money to pay for the shit load of stamps stickered to the front.
The plastic bag was roughly the size of a composition notebook and weighed next to nothing. It had been torn and duck taped back together multiple times, resulting in the effect that it literally looked like a truck had run over it.
The said package was sitting on my lap where I was lazily slumped over on the porch steps, staring at nothing in particular wondering if death would be any more exciting than this. I still haven't seen Seth in god knows how long, but alas, my father has returned from the dark side.
He's in the kitchen attempting to make something edible as we speak. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and found him in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the paper.
I almost had a shit fit.
"How's the yard captain; keeping a weathered eye out?" He laughed as he plopped down next to me, a dish towel stained with what looked like green snot thrown over his shoulder.
"I don't know, why don't you go out and ask it?" My sarcasm obviously went over his head because he merely laughed and clapped me on the back.
"Always the kidder, eh? Whatcha got there?" He grabbed the package from the lap and rotated it in his hands, inspecting it as if it were a rare gem I had dug up from the beach.
"I don't know, it came while you were out getting groceries. There's no return address or anything on it and I don't even know if that's our address." Dad plopped it back on my lap and just shook his head, laughing at nothing.
"Open it and see what it is; it's not like it's going to kill you."
~*~
If I wasn't so fucking pissed right now, I'd find my father and ram his last words to me down his fucking throat. My knuckles were white from gripping the frail piece of white paper so tightly that it could have spontaneously combusted.
Earlier I had taken my father's advice and opened the package. While I was doing that the phone had rang and dad ran to answer it and came back to say – surprise! – he was going to Billy's for some kind of emergency. I waved him off, thinking this was the typical lifestyle right about now, and didn't think much of it. Dad turned off the stove and told me to feed myself and he'd be back in a bit.
I continued to open the package, even less excited than when I got it, and had a shit fit that brought the grand total of the day to two.
Laid out before me were three letters, all in official-looking envelopes that were blindingly white and crisp.
It's easy to say I was fucking confused. Who would send three regular sized envelopes in a package that looked like King Kong had gotten a hold of it?
I grabbed the first one off the top of the pile and tore into it; slipping my finger under the fold and slicing it open and pulling out the paper inside in one fluid motion.
The letter was folded in thirds and upon opening it I saw the University of Hawaii crest in the top left hand corner, the cheesy gold color of the font sparkling feebly in the porch light.
"Dear Miss Mavnik," I read out to no one in particular, "we regret to inform you that your early acceptance to the University of Hawaii has been terminated."
Oh.
My.
Fucking.
God.
"We accepted your application under the conditions that you required full financial aid and had obtained numerous scholarships and sport related sponsorships that would enable you to attend our university. However, it has been brought to our attention that the mentioned scholarships above are only valid for in state students and expire within a year's time. It is also in our knowledge that you are no longer a residence of the State of Hawaii and have also been dropped from the VZP sponsorship program. We are sorry for the late notice and any convenience this may have caused on your part. We strongly recommend that you reapply for the next school year seeing as you are an above average student that we would love to have in our community.
Thank you for your time,
Lanolin Hoi, Admissions Director"
As if in slow motion the letter fell from my hand and seemed to take forever in floating down to rest at the bottom porch step. I stared at the space in once occupied in front of my face, my hand still poised as if it were actually holding something. Blinking as if in a daze, I deftly took the second letter from the pile and tore it open in the same fashion as the first, this time holding my breath for what was coming.
This letter was from my sponsorship; mainly the man that was my manager and had helped me get to where I was since I was eight.
"C,
Sorry to do things like this, but the director says that we can't sponsor slackers and that your school of choice is too expensive to handle. You haven't been answering my phone calls or other letters, so I'm hoping nothing has happened to you. I'll try to see if I can get the director to reconsider, but right now he's leaning more towards kids going to a community or minor state college. Tough luck kid, but you'll knock them down eventually. Hang in there!
Todd"
Figuring it couldn't get much worse than it already was, I ripped open the third and final letter with the utmost confidence that it would some sort of happy news.
Guess what? It wasn't!
Why would it be!?
All it took was a simple skim of the first paragraph before I was sprinting through the yard and peeling out onto the street, my flip flops smacking against the wet pavement and my left palm bleeding from where my nails were digging in from holding onto the letters for dear life.
I knew I was nearing Billy's house because our car was parked in the driveway. I was fucking soaking ass wet when I finally slowed to a jog and then eventually a pissed off speed soon as my foot landed on the first square foot of the property the front porch door flew open and two people I really did not want to see stepped out.
"Hey, Hawaii, don't you know you can't surf in the rain?!" Embry was practically mocking me from where he stood. Next to him a smirk slowly crawled onto Paul's face. Both were clad in just low slung shorts and seemed to be gate masters to Billy's front door.
Bracing for impact I marched across the yard and up the steps, my shorts and sweatshirt plastered to my body and flip flops quacking like ducks.
"I need to see my father," I received blank looks. "It's an emergency." Even more blankness.
"Fine, be walking dicks, I don't have time for this!" I attempted to squeeze through the two human towers, but got nowhere.
"You can't go in there right now. Your father and some of the elders are having a meeting. No outsiders." Paul was practically stiff arming me from getting to the door.
"What do you mean 'no outsiders'? My dad hasn't been here since he was a teenager; doesn't that make him an outsider?" Embry shot Paul a worried glance and reached around me to grab my hood, resulting in a large tug to pull me backwards.
"Dude, what the fuck!? It's an emergency and I demand to see my dad! What the hell is going on around here? Aren't you two supposed to be camping?" My voice was growing louder and louder by itself, which made the two meatheads advance forwards to make me back down the stairs.
"We just got back from camping Caroline. No need to freak out. Just go home and your dad will be back in no time."
"Do you not fucking understand the definition of 'emergency'? What the hell is going on?!"
"Dude, bitch, calm down! What's going on around here in none of your fucking concern, so just go the fuck home!" Paul was practically screaming in my face, which didn't set well with me and resulted in more screaming.
"Don't tell me to go the fuck home, Paul-whatever-the-hell-your-last-name-is, because I want to know why everything and everyone in this whole goddamned place is acting like its on crack!" Our faces were inches apart and boiling red, something Embry must have saw as a warning sign because he quickly placed himself between me and Paul.
The humor and Embry-ish gleam were gone from his eyes.
"Just go home Caroline, everything's going to be fine."
"The last time someone said that to me they fucking disappeared without a trace for weeks, so forgive me for thinking that you're lying!" Embry was now corralling Paul back up onto the porch, both of them shaking like they had shivers or something.
I was about to follow them up when a sudden fog-horn like bark came from the woods and stopped me dead. Turning my gaze I saw my sandy colored wolf from the beach joining us in the yard, followed a smaller, gray wolf with the same chocolate hued eyes.
"I just can't get a fucking break today can I?!" The two wolves slowly maneuvered until they were at the end of the porch, watching my every move.
Practically growling in frustration I stormed the porch stairs until I was right up in Embry's face. Paul was off pacing to the side, still shaking like a tree in the wind.
"You listen to me, Embry Call, and you listen good. I literally ran all the way over here because I just got kicked out of college, dropped from my sponsorship, and am living in a house two months behind on rent. You let me through that door this instant or I will personally guarantee that you never have children as long as you live." We stared off for what felt like hours until he finally broke his gaze from mine and turned to look over his shoulder.
"Billy." Sighing in anger I retreated a few steps and watched as Billy silently rolled up the porch screen in his wheel chair and set me with an even gaze.
"I need to see my father. It's an emergency." The porch grew quiet except for the panting of the wolves.
"I'm sorry Ca—"
"Lemme handle this Billy." My father suddenly appeared behind the paraplegic, a small trace of anger on his face. As if in slow motion he opened the door and stepped out, holding the door open for Paul and Embry to enter behind him. He stepped out further on the porch and let the screen door slam shut with a deafening 'snap' and fixed me with an even gaze.
"What's the meaning of this Caroline? I don't have time for your melodramatics." I freely let myself snort in disbelief.
"That's rich coming from someone like you, but then again I'm not really surprised."
"Oh yeah, and what exactly does that mean, young lady?"
"You moved us here in the first place because you were afraid of old age and death! How's that for drama?!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in a 'what-the-hell' kind of gesture. This only provoked my father to march forwards and grab my upper arm and drag me out into the yard and freezing rain.
A wolfish whimper reverberated across the yard.
"I did what I thought was best at the time. Don't go blaming your problems on me, Caroline, just because you can't get your way." That was the final straw. Wrenching my arm form his grip I whipped around to face him full on.
"Save your bullshit for some other asshole because you know damn well I'm not mad about moving here!"
"Then what are you mad about?"
"This!" I screamed, flinging the three envelopes into his chest and stomping the ground in anger. He slowly peeled the paper from his wet t-shirt and turned them in his hands.
"You told me you gave Todd our new address and notified the school." I tried to bar all emotion from my voice as he continued to slowly handle the letters.
"You promised me that everything was taken care of."
"It is."
"NO, IT ISN'T! If everything was fine then I'd have money and an actual college to go to." He grew quiet once again and shuffled the envelopes like poker cards, stopping at the third and final one.
A sadistic laugh bubbled in my throat.
"That's the best one, you know why?" He shook his head.
"We have two weeks to pay two month's worth of rent or we get kicked out." His fingers finally stopped moving as he looked up to meet my enraged glare.
"I'm so sorry Caroline…I've been busy."
"Been busy with what?! God knows you're not busy being a father because you're never home! You're always over here! Even in Hawaii you were off doing whatever the fuck it is you do by yourself so why should it be any different now?!" I stepped forward to snatch the disintegrating papers from his hands and started for the car.
He once again grabbed my arm.
"What are you doing?"
"What the hell do you think I'm doing? I'm getting in the car that I paid the bill on last month and I'm going to go pay the rent for the house that I live in by myself! That's what I'm doing! If you have a problem with that then I can pack up your shit and leave it on the front porch and you can pick it up whenever you get the time to wander back around that way! Now fuck off!" With that I ripped myself free and practically tore the door off its hinges in my anger to get in and go.
I only halfway succeeded due to the fact that my door was immediately pushed back shut and I was pulled away from the car. Expecting it was my father I turned around with a mouthful of words that would make a sailor blush only to have them to melt like snowflakes on my tongue.
"You need to calm down. Why don't you come over to my place and we'll get this sorted out." On any other day I would have been over the moon to see Seth.
Today however was just not my day, so of course everything just got ten times worse.
"Oh, nice of you to finally show up! Sorry, but you missed the fireworks." He was latched onto a fist full of my sleeve.
"C..."
"Let go Seth, I have shit to do." I averted his gaze and surveyed the yard, noticing the absence of my father and wolves.
Of course, why would they still be here?
"Please calm down, please?" Dear lord, was he begging me?
"I know exactly what you're going to say because my father tried the same thing."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"The whole 'it's okay, don't worry Caroline' spiel he spouted earlier. Just do yourself a favor and save it. I'm pissed off, soaking ass wet, and not in the mood." I finally looked back into his eyes and together we had a stare off, his gaze eventaully faltering beneath mine. He released my sweat shirt only to move both hands up to my shoulders as if to brace me.
"Can I tell you a secret?" I threw back my head in annoyance, anger still fresh in my blood.
"Really, Seth, really? Right now? Here?"
"Yeah, it's important." I reached up to smack my face and hopefully massage the pissed off expression out of my muscles so it wouldn't look permanent.
"Fine, fire away then. How much more hellish could this day possibly get?"
"I'm a werewolf."
Bwa ha ha ha!! Fianlly, a good and juicy cliffhanger!!! ....well I think so. If you lemme know what you think then there might be a quicker update!! Bwa ha ha ha!!