A.N: Happy Sunday. I hope you like this chapter and I want to say that we're getting to the end soon so let's enjoy this while it lasts.

Also...poor Eve can't seem to catch a break.

TWENTY-EIGHT

To say

Lunch had become a little bit more awkward after she had learnt about the Pack being...well...werewolf shifters - although she had to wonder if they were actually werewolves because it wasn't like they only transformed on the full moon - and it meant that whenever she ate lunch with Sonia and Connie she always felt like she was biting her tongue.

Neither of them ever actually asked her if she knew what was happening with the twins whenever they missed school, but then again since the big Vampire Army thing a couple of weeks back, they hadn't needed to go on so many patrols. Sam was letting them be kids more which meant they were in school a lot.

And because they had missed so much school the year before, they were expected to work on a lot of extra credit projects so that they wouldn't flunk out.

God knew what Black was going to do. He was in his Senior year and boy did he have a lot of work to catch up on. She had to admit, the vindication was petty but it felt god-damn amazing to Eve.

Interestingly enough though, the Headmaster was in on the whole transforming-into-horse-size-wolves thing. That probably made everyone's lives a lot easier, and she was impressed by the Elders; they had been super unwilling to share anything with Naima but maybe they were happier when it was their own people. It was probably also why the twins and Black were allowed to come back to school after missing half of it.

But because they were back in school it meant that she was constantly having to choose between whether she wanted to sit with the twins or her girl pals.

It was easier to sit with the twins; she helped them catch up and she was able to talk about whatever without the worry of accidentally letting the Secret slip. But the girl pals got a bit bitter when she sat with the twins for too long - well, Connie did.

And it was only the third week of September. School had only just started, and she was already nervously biting her nails to stubs every time the bell for lunch rang.

Eve had already bit at the nail on her right thumb so much that it had started bleeding multiple times. And it was doing that sore, throbby thing that made holding a pen really difficult.

She was not a happy bunny - oh God, did the Cullens ever eat bunny blood? That was sad - and she really didn't want to do it anymore.

Then she remembered that she didn't really have to. There was no law in school or for the Tribe that said the wolves weren't allowed to interact with anyone other than their Pack or their Imprints. If there was, it was a stupid law and rules were often made to be broken - within a certain context of course.

Was it going to be awkward? Sure. But she didn't have to choose between her friends. Also, if she had to live through the lunch period making sure that she didn't spill the beans then the twins would have to do it as well. It was only fair.

As the bell rang for the end of History, Eve turned to Sonia. "I'll meet you in the lunch hall, ok?"

She didn't wait for a response, just collected her stuff and booked it the few doors over to where Colin was taking Art. She caught him just as he was walking out of his class and he stopped her from skidding into the wall next to the door. Her shoes apparently didn't have much traction on the laminated school floors. Good to know.

"Yo, what's up Eve?" he asked. "You eating lunch with us today?"

"Uh, yeah I am. Where's Brady?" she asked.

Colin pointed behind her and she spun around to look. Brady was shuffling along, trying to balance a whole stack of books that he must have gotten from the Library. She'd forgotten that he'd had a study hall.

"Is someone gonna help me?" Brady asked.

Colin laughed but went over and transferred half of the books into his own arms. Eve would have helped but honestly, they were super strong. They could carry some books. Also, her backpack was weighing heavily on her own shoulders from her own textbooks.

"Hey Eve," Brady said. "We going to lunch? I'm starving."

When weren't they? "Yeah. But I'm making you sit with Sonia and Connie," she said.

The silence was disproportionately deafening, and Eve rolled her eyes. It was like she'd just asked them to streak naked through the halls or pull a prank on her dad. But she closed her hands into fists and pressed the nubs into the flesh of her palm to remind her that it wasn't a stupid idea all the same.

"Uhh…" Brady trailed off.

"Why?" Colin asked.

"Because!" Eve said. "I don't want to have to choose between which friends I'm sitting with! And in a normal situation, peers of the same age and similar friends would just sit together."

"We're not normal," Colin said.

"But you're supposed to be!" Eve reminded them. "And besides, you owe me."

"How?" Brady asked.

How? Was this boy stupid? Had he been hit on the head during that Vampire attack and knocked a few loose? "I sat there waiting patiently to hear if you were alive or dead two weeks ago, and when you came back, I didn't throw a fit. You owe me for keeping my calm."

The two of them looked at each other and then back at Eve. "That's…"

"If you say that's not fair, I will hit you with a hardback book," Eve deadpanned.

The two rolled their eyes in sync and it was weird to see. Like aliens or something. But they both were about to cave, and they all knew it.

"Fine," Brady said.

"Cool. Let's go then." She stood in her usual place - in between the two of them - and they walked together to the lunch hall.

When they got there, the twins went off to get their lunches and Eve sat down in her usual seat. Then, thinking about whether or not it would be more awkward for the twins to sit on either side of Sonia and Connie, she got back up and changed so she was sitting next to Sonia.

"Alright Queenie, that's weird. Even for you," Connie said immediately.

Eve shrugged and took out her lunch from her backpack. "The twins are sitting here today," she said.

"What?" Connie asked.

Sonia followed immediately after with a why?

"Why not?" Eve asked.

"Because they're…" Connie trailed off not knowing what to say. It wasn't like she could say much more though, because the boys had gotten their lunches and were sitting down somewhat awkwardly.

"Hi," Brady said.

"Um...hi," Sonia answered.

Eve rolled her eyes and took a bite of her pasta. "You should all get over yourselves now. This," she said motioning at the table with her fork, "is now a thing."

She took another mouthful and chewed, ignoring the glares from both Colin and Connie. If they wanted to be pissed off at her that was fine; hell, it would probably give them something to bond over.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Eve asked as she walked back home.

Brady shrugged with seeming difficulty because of the books on his bag. Colin had opted to stay longer after school to catch up with some work claiming that if he went home with the two of them, they'd drive him insane.

Eve took offence to that. She had never driven anyone to insanity in her whole seventeen years on the planet. She maintained he was just a low-key dork and wanted to do well in school. If that was the case, he was a better student than she was, although she didn't need to worry about her grades slipping due to the actual life calling placed on her so…

"You were right about us being...culty. That probably doesn't help keep things on the down low."

"I'm always right," Eve said.

"Fuck off." Brady bumped her a little and, in the process, Eve bumped into someone who had been trying to overtake them. She stumbled to get upright because the guy had pushed past her hard.

"Watch it!" he snarled.

Eve was slightly taken aback by the tone and how upset he seemed to be about it. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Hey! That was uncalled for," Brady said firmly. Then, as he recognised the guy, he eased up a little bit. "You're Seth, right?"

Seth glared at Brady and his face contorted into an ugly sneer. "So what if I am?"

Eve had never officially met Seth Clearwater though she'd heard about his sister from Naima. Seth was a year or two younger than she was and so she only passed him by in school. But every time she did, he had a smile on his face. Even after his dad died, he seemed to keep himself cheerful.

But the boy in front of her was not cheerful, and quite frankly, she was just a tad bit suspicious because he was also the size of the twins and looked really angry. And wasn't that one of the signs of shifting? Anger and growth spurts?

Oh dear.

"Hey Seth?" she asked, careful to keep her tone soft. She didn't know how these things worked and she hoped to god that he wasn't about to phase right now. "Are you...are you feeling hot? Like you have a temperature?"

From her peripheral vision, she saw Brady's head whip towards her and she tried not to meet his gaze. But she hoped he was putting the pieces together. No one had expected anyone else to shift, especially because the Newborn's had been dealt with, but nobody knew how anything worked with it either.

"Why do you care?" he asked. "You don't know me!"

"Uh, that's true, but -" but what? What could she even say right now? She was so far out of her depth that it was like being back in the clearing with that vampire. Eve hoped she wouldn't get nightmares from this too.

"Hey, Seth, just calm down dude," Brady said, hands raised in the universal sign for surrender.

"I'm not your dude!" he spat.

Seth started shaking harder and Eve cursed. She didn't need to turn to Brady to confirm it then, the shaking was enough. On instinct, she stepped backwards to move out of range, but that action seemed to inflict all kinds of feelings in Seth.

The shaking got harder and he yelled in pain.

Seth was going to shift on the very public road where any passing car or pedestrian would be able to see him and that was a really big problem. But Eve didn't know what they could do because barring Brady hauling Seth into the tree-line, they would stay there. And was that a good idea? It probably really wasn't!

Why was it always her? Who had she pissed off that she was constantly stuck in situations where supernatural creatures kept wanting to show themselves to her!

She could see Brady and Seth only a little way into the tree line. It wasn't enough to cover them if someone walked by but at least it was more cover than the open road. She could maybe tell people that they were just fighting. Like a brawl or something!

"Fuck!" she heard Brady. "Eve get back more! Call Sam!"

Brady's shout startled her back into reality and Eve reached for her phone in her backpack. It wasn't until she'd gotten it out and was halfway through the contact list that she realised that she didn't have Sam's number!

"I don't have it!" she yelled.

"Then call Naima!" he yelled back.

His voice was tinged with anger and Eve was somewhat affronted at the fact that he was angry at her for not knowing what to do. But she got over herself and called her sister. The phone rang and rang and rang and rang and - oh dear lord surely this wasn't going to be the one time where her sister didn't answer her phone was it?

She dialled again. And again! And again.

Finally Naima picked up. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Seth Clearwater is phasing for the first time and Brady is trying to keep him calm but I don't have Sam's number!" she said in a rush.

Naima was quiet for a moment like she was processing the words and then she spoke. Eve heard the switch in her sister's voice; it was situation-dealing time now.

"Alright. I'll let him know what's happening. But keep back!"

Then she hung up.

A howl pierced through the woods and chilled Eve to her spine. At the same time the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood to attention and a shiver raced through her at just how wounded the howl sounded.

Seth must have phased. And she doubted that any of the others would ignore a howl like that. Even if Naima didn't manage to get a hold of Sam, someone would come because of that alone.

She could still see them through the tree line. Brady had phased himself, probably so that he could communicate with Seth, but she still didn't know what the wolves really looked like. If it wasn't for the fact that one of the wolves was bowing his head down into his paws in a position that looked wholly like someone had given up, she wouldn't have been able to tell who was who.

As it was though, she could guess. And Eve felt so incredibly sorry for Seth Clearwater. He was only 16, and even though it had been the same age the twins had phased, he'd lost his dad, his sister had moved away and all he had was his mum and whatever sanity he could latch onto.

And he probably thought that even that was slipping now.

Eve could understand. Maybe not fully. But it was too much for anyone to have to deal with in such a short space of time.

She wanted to comfort Seth somehow, but it was so far beyond stupid trying to approach him in the state he was in. Even if it was pure defeat, he was a giant wolf with big wolf claws that could easily rip her to shreds. And it didn't help that both the twins, Naima, Sam and anyone who she would listen to had told her to stay away from the wolves when they were in a volatile place.

She was not going to ignore those warnings; at the very least she wanted to reach eighteen!

Maybe it was stupid. What comfort could she possibly offer up to Seth when Brady - and whoever else had mind-melded with him - could speak from the same position? But she wanted to say something. She wanted him to know that he wasn't an outcast or a freak!

Eve had seen how angry he'd gotten as she'd stepped away from him, and how things had only gotten worse after Brady had called him dude. Maybe Seth was really struggling under the weight of everything.

And maybe she was just being an assuming cow.

But she wanted to try. So she stepped forwards to the section where gravel turned into grass. Before she passed the tree-line, she called out softly to Seth. "I'm really sorry about bumping into you Seth. I'm sorry about your dad and your sister leaving. But they've got your back. We've got your back."

She didn't know if it did much to help, but she saw Seth raise his head from beneath his paws and look at Brady. There was no movement between the two, but when Seth turned his head towards her, he didn't seem quite so despaired.

Maybe that was something.