I hated having to wake up, sleep was so much more entertaining than the long boredom of school. Even being a werewolf didn't help, and how boring is it if you can't change for fear of starting a riot? Having to face a pre-change werewolf wasn't helping me get out of bed either. Coming up to the first change most werewolves are angry, violent, fiercely territorial and likely to try and claw your eyes out. Now why did that seem familiar? Eventually the wolf bullied me into getting up, I probably shouldn't have tried, the wolf can be very persuasive, or at least loud. I grabbed my bound clothes, the necklace and a towel steadfastly ignoring the wolf who was saying it didn't need a bath and was quite clean enough already thank you very much. It was payback time for waking me.

After wrestling with the wolf for the tap I eventually got washed and had breakfast. Toast (where is the meat?) and left to catch the bus. It was packed as usual but my seat was free, well it was always free, unless some idiot who didn't know the rules sat there, then it was free after twenty seconds of me stepping on the bus. The bus moved off then stopped again, stop, go, stop, go; it would be relaxing if there wasn't so much noise. Eventually the girl, Jacky, got on. Today there were even more spirits around her, I hoped they didn't take a liking to any of the other students, the spirit urged and ridden are really dangerous, fortunately they seemed quite content to consume the essence pouring off the girl.

Now that it had been pointed out it was rather obvious she a werewolf, she was displaying subtle canine behaviour. She was definitely going to go through her first change soon and I could sense the stress coming off her even as a human. She kept glancing around as if looking for a voice that had just spoken, and even if she didn't realise it she was taking two seats but that was probably because she was acting so weird. The bus reached school and everyone filed off, I managed to get in the queue to get off behind her, in the vein hope of following her. Unfortunately as she stepped through the bus door she flickered and disappeared, no one else noticed, or at least mentioned it. It was incredibly annoying as I didn't pick her up again until lunch time.

I was half-heartedly hoping that this would be the kind of insanity where you just burble in the corner happily, and not one of the ones where you go mad and try to kill everyone, though I had the strangest feeling it would be the latter. In short my nerves were now stretched to breaking point and weren't soothed when I stepped out of the bus and found myself walking in the front door of the school.

I have decided that the catering staff are vegetarian, I can't remember the last time we had meat. Today was vegetarian curry and I had forgotten to bring any meat with me, so consequently I was a little on edge. She was sitting at the end of one packed table, grimacing as she ate through the veggie dish. I sat down on a deserted table, which remained deserted. People sometimes ask why I don't have any friends. They don't ask me they ask other people. Who mostly say 'talk to him for five minutes', that day someone did. A little kid no more than a year eight sat down and started talking.

"Hi are you Matt you are so cool everyone thinks you are really scary but I think your cool they say you'll bite my head off but I don't believe that I'm Tom by the way."

The wolf was quite willing to prove him wrong on the head subject, but I was momentarily stunned. Not only had this kid ignored my reputation and sat down here, but hadn't paused once during the last sentence. Unfortunately while the kid was bugging me Jacky had left without my knowing, and when I noticed this I was even more annoyed with the kid who was still talking. It was probably the wolf's idea, but to shut him up I kicked him in the shin and left before he could recover.

After totally failing to find her during the day, 'Damn kid', I was reduced to skulking behind the bins waiting for her to go past. 'So glamorous' I thought as I put on the necklace and started to shift. Six months ago I would have fought it but too much had passed in that time for me to renounce the trill of the hunt. I dropped to the ground claws clicking on the concrete and started to sniff the air, trying to get the girls scent. She hadn't come by yet, so no trail. I hunkered down and waited. Eventually she came but I didn't recognise her at first. I was used to seeing her in full colour, but I spotted the telltale spirits floating round her and followed.

I was feeling saner by now, the voices had stopped, there were no more incidents with the doors, and I had even booked a night out with my friends, maybe I was okay, I could have just had a slight fever these last few days and had just hallucinated, that was far more sensible. There was a crash behind me and a distinct dog growl, which for some reason sounded like a curse. I whirled around and saw a trash can overturned, but there was no one there. I started walking again trying to convince myself that it was the wind, no one could hide in the shadow behind the bin.

I was hiding in the shadow behind the bin, which I had knocked down when I was following her trail by scent and not paying attention. She was getting closer to her house and if I didn't bite her soon I'd have to wait till tomorrow. I started running, trying to choose the least painful area to go for, which wasn't helped when the wolf started advising me on the tastiest areas to aim at. Left upper arm, she'd still be able to walk and write unless she was left handed, but that couldn't be helped. 'Okay, close distance,' I ran through the stages in my head, 'prepare to spring and. Pounce!' she spun around and I crashed into her side, my claws cutting deep groves into her flesh and I bounced off and crashed into the ground, hard. She aimed a kick at me which I leapt out of the way of. I started to run away, I had lost the element of surprise and there had to be a better way of tasting her blood.

I rounded the corner, checked around to see if anyone was there and changed back into a human. It wouldn't be good if she kept chasing me, I might lose my temper. 'Well that was a complete failure' I thought bitterly, 'have I actually done anything note worthy today.' I considered it briefly. 'I'd kicked that kid in the shin but I don't suppose it counts.' To put it bluntly today had been a total disaster; I'd lost the girl, thrice, hadn't learnt anything in lessons and had completely failed to find some meat. I stopped in mid rant, on my arm there was a tiny speck of red. Blood. Her blood. I grimaced then licked it. Nothing happened, I sighed, I guessed I should probably go find her the normal way. As I moved back to the main road and caught her scent, much stronger than before, even as a human, I could almost see the path she had followed. I smiled to myself; finding her now would be easy.

I ran home my hair blowing wildly around my head; I reached my house and desperately tried to open the door all the time waiting for the sound of rushing claws clicking on the concrete. The door opened and I dashed in and slammed it shut, my side was throbbing and bleeding profusely. The adrenalin rush wore off and I was suddenly aware how just how tired I was, so much better just to sleep. I fainted