Twenty-nine

We reburied the bodies, it wasn't pretty and luckily (for her at least) it was dark and she couldn't see much. I tried not to think about it too much and we worked fairly fast. Job done. The graves were shallow, but that couldn't be helped, we were only two people and one of us barely even counted as fully grown (mentioning no names) but given that she had just essentially risen the dead I decided to cut her some slack.

"How did you know where I was?" Chloe asked.

The correct answer being I used my wolfy super-senses to sniff you out which seemed a little too honest so I opted for a semi-truth, "I knew Tori was here and I heard you chatting earlier, I could tell she was up to something so I checked the obvious places to see where you were." I half-mumbled. "It's not important, anyway, what are you going to do about Tori?" We all knew she was unstable, but to go this far just because Simon liked Chloe was insane. She was a danger now, who knew what she was capable of? To bound and gag another human being, I felt a little sick when I thought of the comparison I made between me and her earlier, my intentions are good and when I lose it, it's impulsive, not premeditated. I would never, never do this.

"Nothing," she answered, wiping her shaking hands after we had patted down the second grave.

"Huh?"

She clarified. "I'm going to act like nothing happened."

I considered it, and then nodded, this was pragmatic of her and probably the smartest thing to do, give her blatant insanity. "Yeah. If you blame her, things will only escalate. Better to ignore her and hope she gives up."

"Pray she gives up," she amended not intending for me to hear.

"Is there still clean clothing down here?" I asked.

"One load in the dryer. That's it. Why -? Oh, right. Better not to go upstairs covered in dirt. Most of what's in the dryer was yours so-"

"Chloe? Derek?" Mrs. Talbot stood in the laundry room. "What are you two doing together? Derek, you know you're not supposed to -" Her gaze traveled over our filthy clothing. "Dear Lord, what happened to you?"

Chloe clearly thought I was going to save our asses but I could already see her beady little eyes putting two and two together and coming up with seven. God, I hate that woman sometimes. Chloe began a fairly unbelievable excuse "I was doing laundry, and D-Derek came down, looking for -"

Dr. Gill stepped into the room. "Go on, Chloe."

"H-he wanted his shirt. I -I asked about stain stud, because I couldn't find any and I opened the closet to look, and Derek said it was usually l-locked. We f-found the ladder and the crawl sp-space and we were curious."

"Oh, I bet you were curious," Dr. Gill said, crossing her arms. "Kids your age are very curious, aren't they?"

"I -I guess so. We were exploring-"

"I bet you were," Dr. Gill cut in.

I could tell the moment she understood what Dr Gill thought, I also knew that she wasn't thick and was aware it would be the perfect excuse. The more she denied it the more it looked like it was true and I don't think she denied it because she knew it gave the idea more merit. No, it was pride, for Simon I have no doubt that in a second she would have admitted to it, by now they'd have their explanation, with no reason to go into the crawl space and discover those hastily reburied it had been Simon, she wouldn't have hesitated to think about it, but me? Of course not, to be honest it didn't sit right with me either you didn't have to be a genius to figure out that girls like Chloe did not, ever, even hang around guys like me so why were they even considering this. Were they that bored that they wanted some new scandal to bring up with her Aunt Lauren. Chloe clearly would never look twice at me. I am shocked that they didn't accuse me of rape or something, it would be more in character. It didn't matter, either way. The more she denied it, the more certain they were that we'd been fooling around. Dr. Gill had

already made up her mind and even had Mrs. Talbot convinced, her mouth tight with

disapproval as Chloe span more and more fabricated tales.

Me? I didn't say a word.

Once we were released, Chloe shot out of there like a bat out of hell, either out of embarrassment or the burning desire to change out of her sullied clothes, most likely both. I calmly went to my room and took a shower, aware that Chloe's perfect Aunt would arrive and have it out with her. And silently wishing they could just call Dad, despite what Simon thought I really wanted to see him, I missed kit as much as he did. Sometimes, I just wish I was a kid again, not before Kit took me in obviously, but after, a little kid in the world with a nice, normal parent and chores to do on Saturdays. Those were the days.

"What happened?" Simon almost looked like me an hour ago in the basement except exceptionally more photogenic. I really didn't want to get into this, but I gave him a brief run-down of the most important highlights. Even throwing in the notion that Dr Gill thought we were getting it on, he would find out later anyway probably from a horrified Chloe. To his credit, Simon didn't say anything, he didn't even look at me with incredulousness which is to be expected. "Shit, bro. I almost wish I had stayed, except if I had been there I would have screamed like a little girl and lost significant man points." He ran his fingers through his spikes. "What happens now?"

"We have a trial."

"What will they do? Lecture you on the merits of safe sex," he snorted. "Where are you going to get condoms in here?" he chuckled.

"I don't know, maybe they'll transfer one of us," I said, not really believing it would come to that, we were brothers so it was unlikely, even though I considered a menace to society, that they would split us up. And Chloe was harmless, her father was rich, who knew what he paid to keep her here.

"Really?" Simon looked worried.

"Maybe," I corrected, after all anything is possible.

The trial was an absolute joke. We both sat there, facing the assholes probably looking guilty as hell while I thought about what I could steal for dinner. I was starving. They babbled on and on about ridiculous things like decorum and appropriate behaviour and rules and respect. If they asked me anything, I would just mumble "Whatever." I wasn't going to confess or deny because even if we were hooking up in the oh-so-romantic spot that is the dingy, dank basement it would be none of their business. Weirdos.

"This isn't the first time you two have . . . tangled," Dr. Gill said finally. "And I have a feeling it won't be the last." Really bitch, really? "We need to nip this in the bud, and the only way we're going to do that is with a transfer. One of you will have to go." What an over-reaction.

"I will." Chloe piped up, buying into all this utter bullshit.

"No one's going anywhere," Dr. Davidoff calmly interjected, seemingly the only one in the room with a brain (aside from me, naturally). "For now, I'm putting you both on notice. But don't give

me any reason to revisit this discussion. Is that understood?"

I really want a cheeseburger. I think I would die for a double cheeseburger.