Chapter 3

Maddy woke up the next morning to her phone buzzing franticly. She shook her head to clear the remnants of last night's dream from her mind. She couldn't remember it but knew it was one she wanted to forget somehow. When she was feeling more lucid, she reached over and checked her phone. Unfortunately, her arms hadn't quite woken up with the rest of her yet and felt like lead. As she reached out to pick up her phone, she only succeeded in knocking it off the bedside table where it landed face-down with an ominous thud. She picked it up and saw the picture on the screen now rendered crooked by a massive crack running diagonally up the glass from edge to edge. Groaning, she swiped the phone icon right to answer and put it on speaker.

"Maddy?" Rhydian's voice was crackly and distorted. The speakers must have taken damage too. "Are you there?" He sounded nervous so this was clearly serious.

"Yeah, I think my phone's broken." Maddy replied, speaking up to make sure he could hear her. "What's going on?"

"You need to check the school website." Rhydian broke up for a second, punctuated by a burst of static. "It hasn't even been a day and they're all over what happened last night. Jefferies is furious and trying to chase down the ones who published the article, but he only caught wind of it after it got shared to the school Facebook page and it's now trending on the Bradlington High Twitter account."

"Since when do you have Facebook and Twitter?" Maddy asked, confused.

"I don't. Tom told me." Rhydian replied. "He has accounts on both to stay up-to-date on the football. They share match dates and times on Facebook and post results on Twitter. Unless they lose. That's probably the only time any of them ever shut up."

"Right." Maddy nodded, not fully awake yet. "And why is last night such big news?"

"Maddy, they basically said nothing about the quiz!" Rhydian told her. "It was all about what happened with that fake question! They've gone out of their way to drag your family through the mud and back again!" That woke Maddy up. Minimising the call screen, she booted up the internet and loaded up the school webpage. Rainbows danced across the screen every time her finger pressed near the crack. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

'Last night at an impromptu school quiz, the Bradlington sports star Jimi Chen found a way to make everyone's night unforgettable by delivering the correct answer to a question that his opponent couldn't. The question relating to the family life of Bradlington High student Maddy Smith served to turn the entire night upside down when her close friend and the aforementioned opponent Shannon Kelly delivered the incorrect answer.

The question 'How many children has Daniel Smith had?' shocked everyone in the audience, but not for the reason some may think. Shannon is known to have been a friend of the family for many a year. For her to deliver an incorrect answer turned more heads than the dress she was wearing that night. It begs a question that should put everyone in Stoneybridge on edge: if this secret has been kept from a close friend like Shannon, what else could one of Stoneybridge's oldest family be hiding?'

Maddy's eyes skimmed over the words, unable to believe what she was reading. She knew she had to tell her parents. But how would they react? Would they run like always? Probably. If that happened everyone would logically go after Rhydian since he was her boyfriend, as well as Tom and Shannon. She couldn't just throw them to the wolves. But she couldn't leave her parents in the dark either. As she considered this, the article vanished from the screen only to be replaced with a different message.

'YOU'RE NOT CONNECTED!

And the web just isn't the same without you! Let's get you back online...'

Maddy let out an involuntary groan. There was no way around it, she'd have to tell her parents. And while she was at it, she was now going to have to tell them about her phone. This wasn't something she could just ignore. Reluctantly, she dragged herself up out of bed and trudged downstairs. As she reached the bottom and flopped into a kitchen chair, she noticed something was missing. Her mum wasn't cooking breakfast like she usually was. Maddy looked over to see her parents both sitting on the sofa. Emma had her phone in her hands and they were staring worriedly at the screen. They looked up and saw her sitting there, a haunted look on each of their faces.

"Maddy, have you seen this?" Emma asked timidly. "Have you seen what they're saying about our family?"

"Is that the school magazine?" Maddy stretched to iron some clicks out of her back. "Rhydian just told me. Jefferies is livid and is now looking for whoever published the article. Oh, and my phone fell off my nightstand and is now broken. Total accident. I can't get the internet, talk to people on it or use the touchscreen properly."

"One problem at a time, Maddy!" Dan growled. "We need to sort this and we need to do it now before it becomes a village-wide scandal!"

"It's too late for that!" Maddy snapped, losing her temper. "Some of the kids in my school live outside Stoneybridge! That means it's already hit the next three villages and we can't run because then they'll all know we're hiding something!" Dan let out a defeated sigh and leaned back on the sofa. He was pale with worry and sweat was coating his brow.

"Well, I'm out of ideas!" he threw up his hands and ran one of them through his hair in frustration. Maddy rolled her eyes before slamming her phone into the counter-top determinedly.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not. If we can't run from this then we have to meet it head-on. I'll go to school as normal and act like nothing's happened. I'll bring the others up to speed why I'm there. You two need to go to Segolia and get this sorted. Hell, get Maya in for a DNA test if you have to! I don't care! Maybe once you're done you can go see someone about getting my phone replaced. I know my insurance promises a courtesy phone for accidental damage and that's exactly what's happened here so let's have them make good on it, shall we?" With that, she turned on her heel and stormed upstairs to get changed. As she did, she heard Emma turn to Dan and say something she'd hoped to hear for a long time.

"That's why she's an alpha female." A smile spread across Maddy's lips. Finally, her parents were acknowledging that she was doing something right. With that, she carried on upstairs.

School was everything she'd expected it to be. The majority of the school had heard. The gossip was everywhere. Maddy, Rhydian, Tom and Shannon all walked to class as though nothing was wrong, desperately trying to not focus on the other students who were all staring at them like they were waiting for one of them to spontaneously combust. And at the rate they were going, Maddy was looking like the favourite to get set off first.

"This isn't going to be as easy as I thought." She kept her voice low enough that only the group could hear. Shannon scoffed and rubbed her temples furiously where she was starting with a stress headache.

"Maddy, it's stupid to think this would be easy at all." She pulled out her locker key and stopped to grab her homework. Maddy went to do the same before a thought struck her.

"Dammit! Guys, I've left some of my worksheets in the darkroom when I was doing them yesterday. I'll catch you up. Can you let the teachers know where I am?"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure they get the message." Rhydian flashed her one of his rare grins that always made her feel at ease. Knowing she was in safe hands, she handed him her bag and took off towards the darkroom, heading up the stairs to the next floor and along the corridor. She got her key out to enter and then stopped in her tracks. The door was ajar. Listening carefully, she could hear breathing inside. She cautiously took a breath in, but couldn't pick out a definite scent. She realised it was probably due the photo printing chemicals. With no better plan she shouldered the door open and turned to where she knew the intruder would be, having already learned their position from the sound of their breathing. It was a trick Rhydian had taught her.

"Hey! What are you doing?" The figure stopped and stood up from where they'd been knelt over the desk. As they did, their shape seemed to twist and distort slightly in the shadows. When they turned around, Maddy saw the last person she expected to see. "Scott? What the hell are you doing in here?"

"Oh, hi Maddy." Scott scratched at the back of his head nervously. "I was just looking for that photo of when Tom flipped Jimi on the Judo mat. I know it was a while ago, but it would make a great piece." To say Maddy was furious was an understatement.

"So you thought you'd just break in, tear the place apart looking for it and.. Maddy trailed off as she said that, registering for the first time the state of the place. The developing trays had been upturned along with most of the chemicals which littered the floor and the stench was tremendous. No wonder she hadn't been able to smell anything. Photos also littered the floor, Scott having turfed them aside for the sake of one picture. "Look at the state of this place!"

"I was just looking for a photo." Scott defended sheepishly. That was when Maddy boiled over.

"Scott, the only photo of that day was taken by Katrina on her phone! It was a video anyway! To top it off, you've trashed the darkroom and broken in when all you had to do was ask us like a normal person! And you did all this for a-" Something clicked in Maddy's brain. "Hang on, aren't you with the school magazine?" Scott's whole demeanour changed in an instant. His voice tone lowered as his body language shifted from submissive to hostile.

"I really wish you hadn't noticed that, Madeline." Without warning, he lunged. Maddy had instantly noticed the change in his demeanour and so had expected something like this, but even so the ferocity of the attack caught her totally off guard. She'd expected him to try and grab her like they'd practised when he was in the Judo club's taster session. Instead, he swung high with a kick that she barely managed to dodge. Since she wasn't used to fighting in human form, the dodging motion jarred right down her spine. But she was glad she'd moved quick enough. The kick sailed past her head close enough that she could hear the air being torn. There was no doubt that she'd have been knocked unconscious instantly if he'd hit her.

Struggling to keep her footing for all the spilled development chemicals all over the floor, she staggered back and hated herself for having to give ground. Scott dropped into a half-crouch stance and advanced, seeming to know what he was doing. Maddy tried to throw a punch, but didn't have the experience to gauge her opponent and was amazed how quickly he moved. With superhuman speed, he grabbed her wrist and twisted to bring himself in close. Before she could blink he'd hooked a hand around her armpit and kicked her right knee out from under her before wrenching sideways. She was instantly dumped on the ground like a sack of dog food and Scott was able to flip himself over into a straddling position, aiming a punch at her capable of bouncing her head off the floor. She crumpled instantly as stars erupted in front of her eyes.

Scott backed off as Maddy struggled franticly to get up. As he did, she noticed a slight yellowness to his eyes. She shrugged it off, blaming it on the blow to the head as she dragged herself to her knees. That was when Scott let out a fierce growl and took off running. Something was seriously amiss here. Maddy hauled herself up and tried to run after him. The corridors were deserted since everyone was in class, but that didn't help Maddy much as she ran, struggling to keep a straight line as she did. Her head was killing her and Scott was setting a pace no human could ever match. He vanished around a corner and Maddy went to follow, only to run straight into Mrs Parish.

"Maddy Smith, what on Earth are you doing? I expected better from you!" Not even waiting for an answer, she hauled the dazed Wolfblood by the arm in the opposite direction. They reached an office and Mrs Parish opened the door before sitting Maddy down in a chair. "Sit there until I get back for you! If you want to run around like you're a child in year two, you can sit in time-out like one!" With that she left, locking the door behind her.

Author's Note: Well, I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter. I just wanted to take a quick moment to let you know that I'm starting back to work as of tomorrow. It won't actually affect updates for this story unless I get some badly placed overtime since I usually don't work on a Monday, but I thought I should say something just in case it should impact future stories. Please feel free to leave a review, let me know what you think or leave any theories on what might happen next. I give shoutouts to anyone who gets something right, although no one has yet. If you want a chance to be the first, by all means make a guess. Stay safe out there and I'll see you in the next chapter.