Sorry I'm so late, I had difficulty pointing this chapter in the direction I wanted it. Enjoy!

My alarm rang loudly in the small room, seeming to bounce off the walls and increase in intensity by tenfold. I grumbled at the loud noise and dragged myself upright to turn it off. As I slowly woke myself I remembered the odd encounter last night. It must have been a dream, it was so strange, and I shook it off as nothing. However, as I went about my morning routine, I spotted a button on my nightstand, just like the one I found. I picked it up and examined it, knowing it to be a button that would be on pants, a logo etched into the soft metal.

My feet barely made a sound as I crossed to my singular window, and I opened it to lean out of it and look down. The torn denim that had been on the ground was gone, and there was no sign of anything strange happening last night. If it weren't for the button, I'd still be convinced that it was nothing but a dream.

With an addled mind I walked downstairs to the kitchen, spotting Emily at the stove, making Sam's gigantic breakfast. When she spotted me she called a cheerful greeting, and I sat in my usual spot at the table and ate the poptart that was waiting for me. As I chewed I thought over the strange occurrence and wondered if wolves were that common in this area. With my meager breakfast gone I decided to ask Emily. "Are there a lot of wolves in the area?" I asked nonchalantly. Emily dropped her spatula and laughed nervously.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her voice a higher pitch than normal.

I grew suspicious at her odd behavior, and watched carefully as she picked up her spatula and continued to fry her eggs. "I thought I saw a wolf last night," I told her, searching her face for any signs she was hiding something from me. "Outside my window, just kinda sitting in the yard."

She laughed, "Lily, that was probably a dream, wolves don't come this close to the house."

I frowned, "Maybe, it was a bit weird." I glanced at my watch and saw that I had to leave soon or I'd be late. I brushed off the crumbs that had fallen on me and said goodbye to Emily, walking out with more on my mind than before.

The walk to school was quiet and insignificant, with all that was on my mind I barely realized I made it to school until Kim walked up next to me. She offered a polite greeting but I was still stuck on what had happened. "Hey Kim?" I asked, looking up at her. She was a good three inches taller than me, and it was a little awkward trying to speak upwards at her, but it hardly mattered.

"Yeah?"

"What do you know about wolves?" I asked.

Kim stopped dead, glancing around before finally looking at me with a grimace. "I have to go to my locker, I'll see you in class," and with that she darted off.

I stood, bewildered and more suspicious as time went on. Emily I could have brushed off as just an off day, but now Kim too? It was starting to feel like they were hiding something from me, and it was getting on my nerves. The area is known for dense forests and there is a good chance that wolves live in the area, and had they just shrugged it off as normal, I would have too. But this, this is too strange to ignore. It was the most interesting thing, besides Paul, to happen yet, and I wasn't letting go easily.

I walked into my first hour class to see Kim and Paul speaking hurriedly in hushed whispers. They were bent close together and Kim seemed to be panicking, and for once, Paul was the calm one. I walked closer, hoping to hear what they were saying, but all I heard was Paul reassuring Kim before they spotted me and stopped talking. I watched them warily, and they watched me back, Kim with wide eyes, Paul stern, and myself in confusion and mistrust.

"Good morning," I offered, dropping my backpack on my desk and sitting down. Kim and Paul followed suit, taking their seats with an uncomfortable silence. "What're you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing," Kim answered quickly, returning Paul's foul look with an apologetic one. "How was your night?" as soon as it came out she flinched, glancing once again at Paul. I had a feeling she wanted to avoid the topic of the wolf, and I frowned.

"I had a weird dream," I started slowly, "That there was a wolf outside my window, but that's so dumb." I laughed to myself, "I mean, Emily said they don't get that close to the house."

Kim sighed, "Yeah, they don't get near civilization."

Before we could awkwardly converse any farther, the teacher walked in and class began. I had a strong sense of foreboding that wouldn't quit, and I knew they had to be hiding something. The question was, did I really want to find out?

And I most certainly did.

Gym was awful. It was honestly the only class I've ever debated skipping, but I was far too much of a coward to ever do something like that. This year was at least starting to look okay for gym, and for once I was thankful I had Paul in my class. Almost the whole pack was here, and it seemed as though teams were never chosen by skill or popularity, but by who you seemed to be friends with.

I was lumped with the pack, myself and Kim the only girls on our usual team, and I was more than okay with that. It was more than a little odd seeing the pack in a school setting, they didn't seem to fit in with everyone else. There was something almost superhuman about them, and they were so close knit that it was as if they were a real pack. In this class they were so much different than when they were at Sam and Emily's, here it was almost as if they were afraid to hurt the other team.

At the house they roughhoused like it was mandatory, and accidents happened all the time. I was constantly surprised that all of Emily's furniture wasn't broken, but they never really hurt each other. So when I saw Jared pass on the opportunity to play against some of the La Push football players, refusing to play a game he would relish in at home, I was confused.

"Why'd he say no?" I asked Kim, who was standing next to me, awkwardly tugging at her gym shorts. I had a baggy sweater and sweatpants, not the best for keeping cool, but it was comfortable.

"Its weird here," she informed me, watching as the guys played the game for us. "He used to be friends with a lot of the guys on the team, but now that he's around the pack, they basically snubbed him."

I frowned, "That's awful, they couldn't handle him having other friends?"

"Yeah," Kim sighed. "Its a mess. A lot of guys in the pack never spoke to each other until Sam brought them together, and now they're basically inseparable. Some people at school don't understand it and they don't like what they don't understand."

"Since I started here, I haven't really spoken to many people outside of the pack, but I've heard a lot of rumors and warnings against hanging out with you guys," I told Kim. It actually made me angry that people would warn me away from the pack, they were all nice and tolerable people, and I didn't understand why they did that. The pack was basically ignored unless people had to speak to them, and they rarely did. There were a few outside of the pack that were nice, but otherwise the students all seemed like a bunch of stuck-up, small town bigots.

"Its happened to me as well," Kim shrugged. "I usually just ignore them."

"Same here."

We grew quiet as the gym teach blew her whistle and told us to go back and change, dismissing us. Kim and I headed to the girls locker in silence, both of us lost in thought, and the other girls ignored us.

I sat in bed that night, staring at the ceiling with a book laid open on my chest. I couldn't focus on reading and I couldn't sleep. I was caught in a sort of limbo, my mind busy and my body tired. It was weird here in La Push, weirder than I expected. This wasn't just some culture shock, this wasn't just some weird vibes, there was something more the La Push, and I wanted to find out what it was.

The wolf was odd, I'll admit, but the reactions to it were worse. Both Emily and Kim acted odd upon its mention, and I was convinced that Kim told Paul, which is why he wasn't his usual self this morning. The other students at school were another thing, they all acted strange around the pack, almost as if they were wary of them.

I'd heard some of the rumors, of Sam having a cult, of them all being on steroids or other drugs, of many weird things, but none of it made sense. The thought that maybe they were just the town's black sheep flitted through my mind, but I pushed it aside, it was too easy.

I sighed and lifted my arms up, reaching towards the ceiling before letting them drop back at my sides. I could smell something fishy going on here, and if I had to go all Scooby Doo on this small town, I would.

Almost as if to punctuate my thoughts, a wolf howled in the distance.

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