Hello everyone! Sorry for the sort of long wait, I had a horror craving over the past week and have been watching a lot of horror movies. And I also experienced the scariest experience of my life on Wednesday, if you guys want to hear about it now, PM me, otherwise, Casey will talk about it in a few chapters. YAY! I'm on my Spring Break now! I plan on sitting on the couch and watching TV for the whole week! Who else is extremely excited about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? It opens June 18th! I'm so excited! So, I watched the season/series finale of Ben 10: Alien Force while finishing the last part of this chapter. It was fricken awesome! I started screaming when Kevin turned back to normal, because he is a hot cartoon and reminds me of Derek (no he is the perfect Derek, I swear, while I'm watching Ben 10, I call Kevin Derek in my mind), and then when Gwen kissed him afterwards. I didn't even know that they had become a couple yet! And then Ben 10: Ultimate Alien starts on April 23rd, my puppy's birthday! Yeah, so right now, I'm watching Dude What Would Happen? which came on after Star Wars the Clone Wars which was on after Ben 10 so I didn't turn it on. There is nothing on TV so I'm just watching it, and it is the stupidest show ever! The guys are just so annoying and all they do is act really stupid and try to seem cool and I just want to rip their heads off! Okay, one last thing before I get to the chapter, I have officially started my prep for the Reckoning! I started the Awakening on Monday during study hall and am almost finished with it! I'll probably read it again over break before reading the chapters of the Reckoning several times. So here's the chapter, sorry for the usual and I don't own Darkest Powers.
I was sitting on my bed, playing solitaire on my iPod. It was 1:15. I just couldn't get a good night's sleep for anything! And I hadn't even had a nightmare, I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I had been sitting here for about 30 minutes, just playing solitaire, which was not very amusing. I was getting thirsty around 1:30 and decided to go get some water from the bathroom, which was just a few doors down the hall. I slowly got off the bed and tiptoed to my closed door, not wanting to wake up Derek in the next room. I pulled open the door, which surprisingly didn't squeak. I went down the hall, counting the doors to make sure I didn't wind up in someone's room. I reached the bathroom and stepped inside. I closed the door so the water wouldn't make so much noise and then turned on the light. I got out some of the little disposable cups on the counter and filled up two. I drank one right away and then refilled it. I then opened up the bathroom door again and stepped out into the hallway, where someone was just passing by. A someone I would know anywhere, even in the dark.
"Derek?" I said. He turned around slightly so I could barely see his face from the small amount of light coming from the bathroom. He was only in his boxers, again, and I had to force my eyes to remain on his face. I hoped I hadn't woken him up while walking down the hall.
"Hey Chloe," he said. "What are you doing up?" Guess not.
"Um, I couldn't sleep and was thirsty so I got up to get some water. What about you?"
"Oh… Um," Derek said, clearly trying to make up a reason. "I couldn't sleep too and was going downstairs for a snack."
"Come on Derek," I said. "I could tell you were just trying to make up a reason. Not why are you really up?"
"I was just hungry, is that so hard to believe?" he said, shifting his feet a little.
"No, but-" I said before I saw sweat on his back glisten in the small amount of light. I looked at him closer and saw he was completely covered in sweat, his hair plastered to his face and the muscles in his back moving, just like they was when he was- "Derek you're Changing aren't you?"
"What! No, of course not," he said defensively. "Why would you think something like that?"
"Seriously?" I said walking up to him. "First, you're covered in sweat. Second, your muscles are having a spaz attack. And third." I brought my hand up to his forehead, feeling the burning heat I knew I would. "You're burning up. Now give me a reason not to think you're Changing."
"Fine, you caught me," Derek said. He reached up and took my hand from his face. "I was going outside to Change. Can I go now?"
"Sure, let's go," I said.
"Chloe," he warned. "You aren't coming with me."
"Yes I am Derek, I don't care what you say, I am not staying here."
"Chloe, you can't come. What if I lose control? After everything the Edison Group did, I can't risk you getting hurt."
"God Derek, when are you going to get it? You are not going to lose control, and you're not going to hurt me. So there's nothing to worry about. And that means I am coming. End of discussion."
"There is a chance that I could lose control, and I don't want you there if I do. I would never forgive myself if something bad happened to you because of me." Aww, see he does like you! Oh my God, now really isn't a good time!
"I'm not letting you go alone," I said. "You can do whatever the hell you want, I'll still find a way to follow you out there."
"Uhg," Derek said, running his hands through his hair. "Fine Chloe, you can come. But if I tell you to run, you run. No questions asked. Understand?"
"Yeah, completely," I said happily before grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the stairs. "Now let's go before you start Changing inside the house." We walked the rest of the way outside in silence. Once we got outside, Derek took the lead and started heading deep into the woods. In about five minutes, we reached a pretty good sized clearing. I could see that his muscles were moving more rapidly and knew that he was going to start Changing soon.
"You promise you'll leave if I tell you to?" Derek asked as he got down on all fours.
"Yes Derek," I said, sighing. I walked over to where he was on the ground and sat down next to him. His breathing became more ragged after a few minutes and I noticed his arm muscles were really twitching.
Suddenly, his back shot up and he gave out a cry. Then it went up even higher, clearly showing all the bones in his back. Derek gave out another cry before his back went up again and the hair started to appear. I got closer to him and rubbed his shoulders like last time, hoping it would help. He turned his head slightly so I could see his fake smile. Then he dropped his head and his back shot up again. A low whimper barely escaped his lips before he cut it off. That really scared me, and I didn't really know why. It was almost like it hurt me every time his back shot up. Maybe that was because I had finally discovered that I really did like him. God, not this again! Wait what do you-
The rest of my inner conversation was cut off by the sound of Derek throwing up. I looked back up at his face, but I couldn't see anything more than his hair. He threw up again and kept throwing up until there was nothing left. Then he started dry heaving and it was horrible. I could feel the muscles in his back shifting and looked down at his hands. They were shifting into a paw shape which hadn't happened last time, so I suspected that this Change had already gone farther than the last. I looked back up at Derek's face and saw that it had definitely changed more. Derek's normal hair had receded and I could see that his ears were basically a wolf's. His temples had narrowed and his nose and jaw had morphed into a muzzle. His whole face was covered in black fur that was no longer receding. I wasn't even sure if the real Derek was there.
"Derek?" I said, trying to see if he was still well, Derek. He turned his head so I could see his eyes and gave a little nod, which I assumed meant it was still him. His back shot up again and he let out a whine that now sounded very canine-ish. I kept rubbing his shoulders and after a few more minutes, noticed the muscles had stopped moving. Then Derek collapsed onto the ground. The Change had apparently finished and Derek was now a huge black wolf, with boxers on. I smiled.
"See," I said. "I told you nothing bad would happen." Derek raised his head and gave me one of those disapproving looks that was so Derek-like that I laughed. I had to hold back the urge to hug him. He began to rise into a sitting position shakily. Once he was up, he began to sway slightly so I went over next to him and held his shoulders. "Now this is weird, I'm saving you from falling for once." I felt a rumble come from him which I assumed was a laugh. He turned his head to face me and I stared at his eyes. His really, really gorgeous eyes that were even more gorgeous when he was a wolf.
"So um… How are you supposed to change back?" He sat there for a minute, thinking I suppose, before using his paw to make some scratch marks in the dirt. He looked back at me when he was finished and I was confused. "What?" He rolled his eyes and then nudged me with his nose so I looked more closely at the scratch marks. They were letters, IDK, standing for I don't know I guessed. Huh, who knew Derek could speak text language?
"Well that's great. Do you want me to do get Frank or something?"
No, I'm fine as long as u stay, he wrote. AWW! Come on that so means he likes you! God will you just shut up? And it doesn't it just means that he doesn't want to be left alone. Yeah sure…
"So… Um… Want to play tik-tac-toe?" I asked, feeling like doing something random. Derek rolled his eyes again before drawing a tik-tac-toe board in the dirt. He put and X in one of the corners then looked back at me. I put down an O in the opposite corner. We played out the game and Derek won. We started another, which Derek also won. We played 7 games with Derek winning them all.
"Seriously? How can you do that? We didn't even get a tie game!"
I'm a super genius, remember, he wrote.
"Shut up," I said, pushing his some. "I don't want to play a game you cheat at."
That wasn't cheating, it's being smart and knowing what some1 else will do.
"What do you do in you're free time? Look up fool-proof tik-tak-toe strategies?"
Maybe…
"Wow Derek, you need a life. So… We should probably try to figure out how to change you back into a human now."
Yeah I guess, have any suggestions?
"No, you're the super genius remember?"
Haha, u r so funny. But seriously I have no idea.
"Well that's great, you sure you don't want me to go find Frank?"
Nah, I'll figure things out in the morning. I'll just sleep out here. Go back inside and get some rest.
"No Derek, I'm not leaving you here by yourself. What if something bad happens? So no, I'm staying here."
U r so stubborn. Fine, stay here, but I'm sleeping.
"Fine with me," I said. Derek got up and moved to the edge of the clearing where there wasn't any barf. For a second, it looked like he was going to turn around in a circle before lying down and I had to hold back a laugh. Sadly, he never actually did it and just lay down without any sort of preparation. He put his head down on his paws and stared at me. I walked over to where he was and sat down next to him. He turned his head and paws so that he could still stare at me. "What? I thought you were going to sleep."
What about u? he wrote in the dirt again.
"I'll just sleep here," I said, lying down where I had been sitting, a few feet away from Derek. I looked over to him and saw that he was still staring at me. "Okay that's just getting annoying now." He rolled his eyes and motioned with his head for me to come by him, at least I think it's what he meant. I crawled over to where he was. "What?" He picked up his head and pushed my head down on his shoulder with it. I could see the look in his eyes and interpreted it as stay. "Okay fine Derek, I'll stay." He gave a little nod before putting his head back on his paws and closing his eyes. I leaned my head back onto his shoulder, which was really comfy actually. I could feel every breath he took and how it began to slow. I soon closed my eyes as well and fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of birds. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I was still in the clearing. Well obviously stupid, where else would you be? By the way, look at what you're lying on*smiles evilly*.I looked down and saw Derek, now back to normal human form. My head was still on his shoulder, his bare shoulder. Luckily, his boxers seemed to have survived the Change. I slowly raised my head, trying not to wake him up. But, as soon as I was in a sitting position, I saw his eyes open. So much for not waking him up.
"Hey," I said. "Guess we know how to make you change back now." Derek held up one of his hands in front of his face, like to see if he actually was human. He then pulled himself into a sitting position as well.
"Great," he said. "Sleeping is something I can do."
"Any idea what time it is?"
"Hm… Let's see… Judging by the amount of light, I would say it's around 10:15."
"Wait, do you seriously know how to do that or are you just guessing?"
"Yes, I do, and I make some pretty good estimates too. Now we should probably be going back inside."
"If your magical time telling skills are correct, then yeah we probably should go back." Derek stood up and offered a hand down to me. I took it gratefully and let him pull me up. He seemed to remember the way back to the house, so I just walked beside him. Then I remembered what happened last night and smacked his arm.
"Ow," he said, rubbing the place where I hit him. "What was that for?"
"For not coming to get me when you knew you were Changing and then lying to me about it. Why did you do that? And the truth not some stupid reason like you forgot."
"Chloe, I just didn't want you to worry or get hurt. I'm sorry okay, but I was thinking about your safety. Now that I know I won't loose control or anything, I'll come get you next time."
"You swear?"
"Yes I swear. Now come on, we'll go through the front door so we can get actual clothes on without people noticing."
"Okay," I said, picking up the pace. We reached the edge of the forest and went around to the front of the house. Luckily, the front door was unlocked and we got upstairs without anyone noticing. I quickly changed into jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt and brushed my hair before heading back into the hallway. I went downstairs and into the TV room, where basically all the kids in the house were.
"Chloe!" Simon yelled as he jumped off of the couch and came running over to me. He hugged me which I found really weird.
"I'm fine Simon," I said, a little confuse about what I should say to get him to let me go. He did though and then stepped back a little.
"Where were you? We looked everywhere for you and Derek and couldn't find you anywhere! What happened?" Simon said in both a furious and worried voice.
"Okay Simon, calm down," I said, a little annoyed. "Derek Changed last night and I forced him to make me go with him. Then we couldn't figure out how to make him change back into a human so we just sat outside and I guess we fell asleep."
"Oh… Wait so-" Simon began but was cut off by James.
"What? Derek already has Changed?" he yelled, jumping up from the couch. "How is that possible? He's only 16, that's not supposed to happen until like we're 18 or 19."
"Yeah I know," I said. "Don't ask me why it happened, probably something to do with the Edison Group thing."
"Yeah, probably," James said. "I'm going to go find him." He ran out of the room and into the computer room. There was a loud crashing sound and a thump of something heavy hitting the ground. "Found him!" In a couple of seconds, Derek came walking into the room, rubbing his head. It looked like he was heading towards the kitchen before James ran in front of him and cut him off.
"Why didn't you tell me you've already Changed?" he yelled. Derek looked over at me. I mouthed the word sorry to him before James began talking again. "Why did it happen to you so early? How exactly does the Change work? Dad's only told me some basic stuff and he won't tell me more until I'm 18, stupid I know. Please tell me Derek, please, please!" He was jumping up and down like a three year old on Christmas who wasn't allowed to go downstairs until everyone was awake (Or maybe me on Christmas when I can't go downstairs until everyone is up).
"Don't tell him Derek!" Casey yelled from the couch. "It's one of the only things that annoys him!" Derek looked back over at me and I shook my head, smiling.
"Sorry James," he said, pushing past him towards the kitchen. "I think I'll just keep that information to myself."
"What? Why?" James whined. Then he ran over to me. "You were there right Chloe? Tell me please!"
"I'm with Derek on this one," I said. "And I'm also getting food. Bye James!" I walked around him towards the kitchen. I could tell that Simon was following me and I promptly ignored him. I found a couple of muffins on the food corner and grabbed some of them before going to the table. I sat down and Simon sat next to me, taking one of my muffins. I kept ignoring him. Then Derek came out of the pantry with a box of Froot Loops and another box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He got out a bowl, spoon, and the milk before coming to the table and sitting opposite me. He poured some of both cereals into the bowl and then poured milk over them. Then he began shoveling the cereal into his mouth.
"Okay that is disgusting," I said, staring at the bowl.
"Hey," Derek said, shrugging. "They're both good and they don't taste bad together, so it saves time."
"Still disgusting," I said before eating my muffin. Then Simon started talking.
"So Derek, you actually went full wolf last night?" he asked. Derek just grunted a little and shrugged his shoulders, but Simon wouldn't settle for that. "Come on bro! Tell me!"
"Fine Simon," Derek said. "You know what happened, I magically transformed into a wolf before running around in the forest the entire night. Happy?" Simon looked at me. It seemed like he actually believed Derek's story and was looking at me for a confirmation. I had to laugh.
"Actually Simon," I said. "It wasn't quite that nice. The transforming part anyway. And after that Derek did not go running around in the woods."
"Then what did happen?" Simon whined. I was about to tell him a little more before I saw James bolt back behind the wall.
"Um… Actually, the magical transformation was pretty close to what happened. And then he did go skipping around in the forest, if wolves can skip. Is that a good enough explanation James?"
"Come on!" James said as he walked around the wall and sat at the table. "Why won't you guys just tell me?"
"Well," I said, thinking. "First, it annoys you and it's funny. Second, Derek is genetically modified and you aren't so the whole Change process might be different."
"SO!" he practically yelled. "I want to know!"
"Well too bad," I said. "Go pester someone else now."
"Fine," James said, walking out of the kitchen. "Charlie, Chloe said for me to come pester you!"
"Did not!" I said before taking another bite of muffin.
"Please tell me guys!" Simon said, still not settling for knowing only the little details.
"God Simon," Derek said, shaking his head. "You know you're still as annoying now as you were when we were 7?"
"Well thank you Derek, I live to annoy you. Now just tell me! Please please please please please please-"
"Alright, alright," Derek said. "Just shut up. Well I'm not really going to go into the actual Change part, not too fun. What do you want to know about afterwards?"
"What was it like being a wolf? It was awesome wasn't it?!"
"Um… Not really, it was more just weird. I was still… me and well, it was just weird. Anything else?"
"What did you actually do after the Change? Chloe said neither of you could figure out how to make you change back so how did you... um, communicate?"
"I wrote stuff in the dirt," he said, looking over at me. "And I beat Chloe in tic-tac-toe 10 times."
"Hey!" I said. "It was only seven and you cheated, I don't know how, but you cheated. But speaking of writing stuff, I didn't expect you to use text language."
"Blame that on Simon," Derek said. "He tried to teach me to be a 'normal' teenage guy last summer."
"Simon!" I said, turning to him. "That's mean."
"Hey!" Simon said. "I was bored okay! We had just moved at the beginning of the summer so I had no friends besides Derek so I had to find something to do! And I thought it would help Derek make some friends once we started school."
"I don't want friends," Derek said. "I got you, and now Chloe. That works for me."
"Aww!" I cried. "I'm your friend?!"
"Well, yeah Chloe," Derek said, a little confused. I couldn't help myself. Derek calling me his friend was just so… sweet. I ran over around the table and hugged him. He tensed and just sat there until I let go. "Um… what was that for?"
"You calling me your friend. I would have thought that was impossible, except for Simon anyway."
"Yeah me too," Simon said. "But Chloe, after everything we've been through together, I think it's guaranteed that we're all friends."
"Even Tori?" I asked jokingly.
"Maybe a forced friend."
"Or a reluctant acquaintance," Derek muttered. I started laughing while I walked back over to my previous spot at the table. Then I looked at the clock on the microwave and saw it was 11:23.
"Wait," I said. "Don't we have class or something?"
"No one told you?" Simon asked. Derek and I both shook our heads. "Well duh, of course no one has. Frank cancelled class today because he was going to um… 'Home Depot' later today so it would mess everything up."
"Right," I said, thinking back to yesterday. Frank was really going to get Casey's cousins. Cousins of Casey, that should be interesting.
"Oh my God!" Simon yelled suddenly. "No one told you guys what we're doing tomorrow either! All us guys are leaving the house at five and then not coming back until noon on Saturday! Chloe, I don't know what you girls are doing but you have to whole house to yourselves."
"That's great," I said unenthusiastically. If there were only girls in the house, the whole night would probably become a big slumber party. I started thinking about what all the other girls could force me to do and flinched. "So what are you guys doing?"
"Miles said laser tag, paintball, and a real arcade! And apparently, Anna's dad owns a Motel 6 so we're staying there for the night. He's closing the entire hotel just so we can run around the halls and do whatever we want!" I started laughing at Simon's enthusiasm. He kept going on and on about what they would do without the girls and I got bored so I went to the couch. James was poking Charlie over and over again while Julie was doing the same to Casey. I sighed and sat down and started watching some weird show that had a bald kid with a blue arrow on his head in it.
So was it good? I know I completely butchered the whole Change thing. I spent probably over an hour reading that part in the Awakening over and over again and I still couldn't figure out a way to write it without completely copying the book. But who liked some nice Derek-Chloe alone time? Okay I know, it wasn't great alone time. Isn't the whole gender speration day going to be fun? I'll enjoy writing that one, and you guys will get a Derek POV chapter! Sorry if any of this chapter didn't make sense, it took me a while to figure out how to word things right. I also don't really look over the chapter so… Anyway, sorry if James annoyed anyone in this chapter, but I thought it was funny. I have a very weird sense of humor, if you haven't figured it out yet. That show Chloe was watching at the end is Avatar the Last Airbender and I love it! My friend thinks Zuko is hot and I have to agree sort of. It's always on on this one channel but my TV doesn't get it so I can't watch it and it upsets me. And just so you guys know, it's going to be almost a week in the actual story before Derek and Chloe get together, and it's going to be a lot of chapters. Sorry, but that's the way I planned it. Wow, this is going to be a really long story. So, please review my FanFiction buddies! I want six before I post the next chapter. After that, I'll update as soon as I possibly can, and it is Spring Break for me so I'll have a lot of time on my hands. Bye peoples!