A/N: Hello! So, it's been approximately a thousand years since I last updated, but since I last saw you, I graduated and started working! I have a little more time now, since school is over, and I'm going to finish this guy out, so don't leave just yet! With that said, Enjoy!
The next morning, Eleanor woke before her alarm, much to restless to lay in bed. She thought about Natalie, who probably couldn't even bring herself to come to school today. Eleanor pulled herself up, getting ready quickly. She didn't bother with make-up, or even her hair, shoving the short strands into a messy ponytail.
Downstairs, Delphine sat in front of her easel, splashing paint everywhere. Today, she was a flurry of scarlet, seeping through the carpet. For a moment, Eleanor thought of David's ruined body, the blood that dripped from it, pooling into splotches of dark red.
"You're getting paint everywhere," Eleanor said in lieu of a greeting. She set about making a quick bowl of cereal, watching the clock on the oven.
"I'll get a steam cleaner," Delphine replied, coming over to cup Eleanor's face. "Are you up to school today?"
"I'll be fine," Eleanor said. "I'm hanging out with a friend after school."
"I've never met any of your new friends, you know," Delphine said, sniffing in a self-pitying way. Old habits died hard, Eleanor supposed.
"No offense, but I don't think we're ready for that," Eleanor said, gulping down the remaining milk in her bowl. "I have to school, see you later."
She picked the boys up as per usual, but everyone was tense, and a solemn silence settled over the group.
"Do you think Natalie will show?" Rich asked, breaking the silence. Eleanor shook her head. "Poor girl. She okay? Did you talk to her?"
"She's not okay, but she's processing, I guess. Mostly, she just feels guilty." Eleanor wondered if she shouldn't have said the last bit, but the boys looked at her with sympathy in their eyes. Hunter looped his arms around himself, guilty himself.
"What happened wasn't anyone's fault but that monster," Eleanor declared firmly. Rob jumped a little at the suddenness of her remark, his pale face even more pallid. He nodded, giving her a pitiful little smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
The school was unnaturally quiet when they walked in. No one looked up, or really, no one did much of anything. People milled about, standing in hallways and in front of lockers, but there was distinct lack of the usual flurry of activity.
Eleanor looked around, trying to see if she could find Natalie, but gave up after a moment, deciding she wasn't here.
"Eleanor," an unfamiliar voice said. She looked up to find Katie Sarson, one of Natalie's friends from the cheerleading squad. "Hey."
"Hi," Eleanor said slowly, eying her with apprehension. She looked pale, her skin contrasting sharply with the dark turtle neck she wore.
"Have you heard from Natalie at all? A bunch of us tried to call her, but…" Katie shrugged helplessly.
"Um, she's trying to deal I think," Eleanor said. "Taking time to grieve."
"Yeah, totally." Katie nodded resolutely. "Just, if you see her, tell her we're thinking about her."
"Yeah, I will," Eleanor agreed with a smile. It seemed out of place, however, so she let it slip. Katie gave her a half hearted little wave before heading off to the auditorium. By first bell, the student body had been gathered. Eleanor sat sandwiched between Rich and Rob, with Hunter to their left. He slunk down in his seat, looking deathly pale.
They started with a eulogy by their vice principal, waxing poetic about how David was a good kid and how he would want us to carry on. Eleanor fiddled with her phone, torn between wanting to text Natalie and not wanting to bother her.
Eventually, they were let out after a speech by the police, giving them safety tips and the like. Eleanor couldn't help but notice the irony of it all. The four of them went to class, but every teacher was lackluster, often petering out and letting their students work on homework from other classes.
The day dragged horribly, but once the last bell had rung, Eleanor wished she could stay here a little longer. She didn't exactly dread researching tonight with Jordan, but she was scared of what they'd find, or even what kind of research they were supposed to be doing.
Still, she diligently drove them all to Hunter's place, where Jordan had already set up their research station. There were boxes and papers all around them, as well as three laptops open to various tabs.
"Hey!" Jordan greeted them a little maniacally. "I got a head start."
"Yeah," Hunter said slowly, picking up a file folder next to him and flipping through it. "I noticed. Find anything good in Uncle Dragomir's notes?"
"He was a visionary!" Jordan said. "When I was in LA, I ran with this pack who knew a wolf who could turn when he wanted to! After I did a little research, I found out that they meant Uncle D!"
"Wait what? That goes again all werewolf logic," Rob said, taking a seat in between boxes. He pulled out some files too, thumbing through the contents.
"Well, they were just rumors," Jordan corrected herself. "The point was that Uncle D was working on something that could help him turn when he wanted. The problem was that he couldn't get it to work."
"But you think we could?" Eleanor asked, feeling far out of her depth. She might be good at chemistry, but there was no way she'd be helpful with this.
"I mean maybe? From his journals, he never got it to work for more than a few minutes—"
"But if we get it work for a little longer, I could turn and waste all the vamps when they least suspected it!" Hunter interrupted, eyes lighting up. "Jordan, you're a genius!"
"Yeah, I know," she said smugly. "Everybody grab a journal. We're going through all his notes to see where he went wrong."
With that, the gang settled in the living room, armed with highlighters and sticky-notes, to piece together a half-baked formula. At first, they read with determination, but as the hours passed, their enthusiasm flagged. Eleanor thought about Natalie, and whether she should call her tonight.
"I have to head back," Eleanor said, breaking the silence. "I promised my mom I'd be back before dark."
"Us too," said Rich, getting to his feet. "Wanna give us some files to work on at home?"
Jordan passed out some important looking journals to each of them before sending them out. She and Hunter stood in the doorway, watching them go. Eleanor drove off, waving as she turned onto the street. She dropped the boys off, promising to text them as soon as she got home.
At home, she has a quiet dinner with her mom, neither making anything more than polite chit-chat. Delphine tried to ask her how school had gone, but Eleanor hadn't said much, sticking to mono-syllabic answers. She pressed a kiss to her mom's cheek before taking off upstairs, lying about having homework to do.
Eleanor sits at her desk, carefully reading through a journal from three years ago. Dragomir's notes grew hectic and messy the closer they came to his death. He wrote about Hunter too, wondering what he was like, whether he had the gene or not. She read the last entry he'd made before his untimely death.
New formula tried today, see page 19 for chem. desc. Change in physical form. Partial change lasting one hour exactly. Mech. unclear. Peptide hormone? Catecholamine?
Eleanor sighed, pouring over the shaky handwriting. At least he wrote in English. She stared at the sentence she'd read. She knew the last word in the sentence but couldn't figure out where she'd heard it before. Maybe a chem class? Maybe a bio class?
She googled it, parsing through a Wikipedia article to find a section on functionality. She stops short, clicking on one of the blue words. Epinephrine. Adrenaline.
Eleanor heart began to beat faster as puzzle pieces came together. Dragomir had figured it out, but he'd died before he could try it. She thought of Hunter's eyes, the way they flashed when he was angry or keyed up. The golden wasn't part of the human subset of his genes, but the wolf side. There was the key to unlocking the transformation, right before her eyes. Eleanor scrambled wildly for her phone.
"Hunter!" she cried as soon as he'd answered. "Describe the change, like on a full moon, like how you feel!"
"Uh, hey Eleanor," he said pointedly.
"Just answer the question!"
"Okay fine! Uh, it feels like I'm jumping out of my skin, and I shake before I change like I just got off a rollercoaster or something."
"Adrenaline! Your uncle figured it out! I'm coming over." With that, she hung up, grabbing the notebook and hurrying down the stairs. She crept through the foyer, avoiding her mother, who painted in the living room. She was blaring old eighties rock, the perfect thing to disguise Eleanor's exit.
She drove recklessly to the Sands' house, parking haphazardly in the driveway. Hunter was already waiting for her at the door, looking worried. She barreled past him, headed straight for Jordan, who was already typing furiously on her computer.
"I heard everything! You're a genius!" Jordan said. "I'm trying to get a hold of my friend at the biochemical research building.
"Awesome," Hunter said bitterly. "Anyone want to explain to me what's going on?"
"When I was reading your uncle's journals, I noticed he wanted to put adrenaline in his new formula, but he never got to try it out. I'm betting that's the answer. The full moon triggers an adrenaline rush in you, which couples with your genetics to cause a change!" Eleanor explained.
"We have to be careful, though, because we don't know how much adrenaline it takes to turn you, and we don't want to give you too much. You could have a heart attack," Jordan interjects. Mr. Sands pokes his head in from the kitchen.
"What's this I hear about heart attacks?" he asks in a faux-calm voice. Jordan put a smile on for her dad, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"It's up to Hunter, Dad, but we have a way of him turning without the moon," Jordan explained. Mr. Sands closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath through his nose, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled in a huge gust.
"I don't want you kids getting in over your head," he said. Hunter stood next to his dad, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.
"Dad, I'll be fine, I swear. Right now, it's my job to take care of this. If this adrenaline shot is what it takes, then I'm going to do it." Mr. Sands smiled bitterly but nodded regardless.
"I know. You're too responsible for your own good," he said. "Let me know how I can help, okay?"
Eleanor smiled sadly, thinking of her own father. Mr. Sands children were werewolves and he didn't flinch once, instead throwing himself into their world, head first. Meanwhile, Eleanor's father was states away, safe in the cocoon of his new family. Eleanor frowned, stowing the stray thought away. That wasn't fair, her father was trying. Still, she couldn't deny that Hunter and Jordan had struck gold in the father department.
Jordan explained her plan to get the adrenaline, and Eleanor began to research how much they should give him. Hunter dialed the boys, explaining the plan. Rich said that they couldn't come by, because their parents were trying to keep them in the house. Rob promised they'd do some research too.
Eventually, the clock struck 11, which prompted Delphine to try her hand at parenting and ask for Eleanor to come back.
"I could drive back with you," Hunter offered. "I don't know about just leaving you."
"I'll be fine," Eleanor assured him. "Besides, it's not like you can be with me all the time." Hunter blushed suddenly, which prompted Eleanor to blush too, for seemingly no reason. Jordan walked towards them, eyebrow raised.
"What's going on?" she asked conversationally.
"I'm, uh—I should get home! I'll see you later, Hunter, bye!" She said all of that in a rush, then promptly fled, gunning it out of the drive way and back home. Her heart raced, but she couldn't figure out why. She and Hunter had been having a perfectly civil conversation, completely innocent.
Suddenly, her lecherous brain reminded her of the night Hunter had spent in her bed, wrapped around her tight. Eleanor shoved the thought out of her head. She needed to focus, they had a job to do.
Eleanor went to bed soon after, but she couldn't really get herself to sleep. Hunter swam through her mind. She thought about how close they'd gotten in just a few months. She knew his deepest secret, she'd been on his side. Eleanor huffed, forcing herself mentally recite all the formula's she's learned in her chem class. She fell asleep soon after.
The next morning was pretty normal. She had a quick breakfast with her mother before taking off to pick up the boys. While she waited for Hunter, she chatted to Jordan, who said she found a way to get all the chemicals they needed.
At school, she stopped at her locker, getting her things for her first class. There was a tap on her shoulder and she jumped, whirling around. Natalie stood in front of her, hair tucked away in a bun, devoid of makeup, and dressed in sweats.
"Hey!" Eleanor wrapped her up in a quick hug. "I didn't know you were coming back to school today! How are you?"
"I'm okay, I guess." She shrugged, looking at her feet. "My mom's making me come back and to top it off, she's dragging me to some shrink straight after."
"I'm sorry," Eleanor said, taking her hand. "I'm around any time you want to talk, okay?"
"Thanks, Eleanor," she said. "Everyone else has been so fake about it. Everyone's always like 'therapy's great!' and 'you'll love it'. You're the only one who's been real."
"Well, I mean therapy's not a bad thing, and I'm sure it's going to be worth it in the end, but it'll be hard." Eleanor shrugged, thinking back to her parents divorce. She wished she'd had someone to tell her how to get closure. "I'm on your side either way."
Natalie chuckled humorlessly, wrapping her arms around herself tight. The chatted about lighter things while Eleanor finished getting ready for class. They walked together as far as they could, Eleanor headed for her calc class and Natalie headed for her Spanish class.
The next few periods were normal, if a little boring. At least she had Hunter in her classes. They worked on the plan little by little, in the lulls of their lectures. Hunter had a theory that Paulina lived in his neighborhood, though Eleanor thought that seemed far-fetched.
At lunch, the four friends watched in surprise as Natalie ignored her own table and instead settled at their table. There went their lunch-time planning session. Still, Eleanor was glad she could help her friend.
"Hey," she said. "How was class?" Rob and Rich watched the girls with wide eyes. Eleanor could practically see the gears in Rob's head turning, constructing some strange fantasy that he and Natalie got together. Hunter looked a little weary but smiled regardless.
"Fine I guess. My friends are acting like zombies today, and I really didn't feel like putting up with it," Natalie explained. Eleanor nodded and quickly changed the subject, talking about Halloween, which was only a few days away.
At the end of the day, as the four friends made their way to Eleanor's car, Hunter updated them with Jordan's latest idea.
"The full moon is two days away, so we're going to see how much adrenaline is in my system." He pulled out his phone, reading from the texts. "Jordan's plan is that we attack the day after the full moon, just when the vamps think they're safe."
"What, Halloween night?" Rob asked.
"Yeah, it's perfect. The vamps will be out hunting, and everyone will think I'm just a really great costume or something!" Hunter said.
"Are we going to be ready by then?" Rich asked. He looked worried and unsure, brow furrowed.
"I hope so, Hunter said. Eleanor hoped so, too.
A/N: And thus the action—and the climax of the story—begins. Let me know what you think, any comments or critiques. See you next week!