I absolutely hate end of the school year exams and busy work, like really? Why must it be that way? My math teacher is evil too, she reviewed over everything that WASN'T on the exam and then when I saw the exam I was like, "WHAT THE HELL?" and now I feel the need to say that all teachers are evil and they carpool together using hell portals.
This chapter is basically a relaxing chapter, one where friendships expand and everyone is just resting. I figure that this will be needed considering last chapter and the gore to come in the next chapter, yeah, next chapter will be violence and blood so just warning you now...
DISCLAIMER: *Sitting on my bed using my laptop*
Me: Yes, it will be perfect!
*Melody sneaks up behind me* (That creeper! :D)
Melody: What will?
Me: HOLY HELL! MEL! I'M BUSY! GO AWAY!
Melody: YOU NEED TO DO THE DAMN DISCLAIMER GENIUS!
Me: I don't own Darkest Powers, it belongs to Kelley Armstrong...and I just found out lately that some girl in a couple of my classes has a fanfiction account :D more people, more people to use fanfiction, wonderful site... ACT NOW AND WE'LL THROW IN A SHAMWOW!
Chloe's Point of View (8 weeks)
Yes! Finally! It wouldn't be too hard for anyone to figure out I was happy, but if a clue is needed, this is it: No more spending hours in the bathroom. Yes, I, Chloe Saunders, have finally stopped having morning sickness, at least for the time being, and I was really hoping that it would stay that way.
"THAT IS MY SHIRT!" I heard Tori scream as she chased someone down the hall outside my door. I wondered how long it would take before something exploded and whose fault it would be, and that in turn made me question how 'safe' this 'safehouse' really was. I mean really? How often can things get blown up before this place will crumble to the ground with us inside?
"Hey supergirl! Tori and Amelia are finally having their first best friend fight. It'll be a good one, want to watch with me?" Melody asked after she had came into my room.
I hated that nickname. Supergirl. I earned it after I was dubbed invincible by Ava. I was pretty sure that if I was in a building with a bomb and it blew up I would go splat, so the name made no sense, but I wasn't planning to test that theory.
"Nope, I really don't think so. Just be sure to tell me if someone causes an indoor rainstorm, I just took a shower." I said.
"Okay!" Melody said before running out the door, the door slamming behind her.
I laughed at her craziness and fell back on my bed. I was sure that her craziness would never change from 17 to 57.
I heard shouts and the sound of spells being thrown and other people coming up the stairs to see what was going on.
I laughed again and went through my clothes, trying and failing to find something other than PJs to wear. My jeans were either too tight or too snug now that I had finally started gaining weight. Almost all my shirts now lifted up slightly or felt awkward when I wore them, so loose, elastic, baggy clothes were all I wore comfortably, and that wouldn't do because at some point I would probably need to leave the house. I looked somewhere between three and three and a half months pregnant, but there was no way of knowing for sure what the exact progress of the babies was because of the lack of medical equipment. I was kind of glad to be out of the 'hot' stage—Noah's words, much to Derek's obvious anger and Simon's obvious laughter—and kind of not. I liked the look it gave me, I got more curvy and developed and my hair became longer and silkier, but at least Noah will shut up once I gain more weight, which means that Derek is a lot less likely to kill him. A non-murdering Derek makes for a happy me.
It got quiet and since there were no shouts of 'She's dead!' or 'She's dying!' I figured it was safe to leave my room.
I looked carefully in both directions, like a person would when crossing the street, only I was doing it for the sole purpose of checking what the perimeters were for the possible war zone.
I looked a few times and after a minute decided that it was safe and took a few steps when I thought I heard someone near me, I breathed naturally and could swear that I smelt the smell of forest so I was sure that it was Derek because Derek is, well, Derek. Probably the only person that spends enough time in forests to have the good kind of forest smells on him, the smell of pine, clean bark, and a mix of fresh rain.
"Hey Derek." I said, not turning around.
"You can hear me?" Derek asked sounding surprised.
"Yeah, why? Are you hoping for me to ignore you?" I asked jokingly. I looked around me and saw nothing; there was no Derek anywhere, not behind me or in front of me. I looked through the door closest to me and saw nothing. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. He couldn't be…he wasn't dead…was he?
I felt light headed and felt almost like I was being suffocated.
"Chloe! Calm down." Derek said, and the forest smell became stronger and I saw Derek, but that didn't explain what just happened. It wasn't until he took me by the shoulders and told me to breathe that I realized he was still alive.
I took a few quick breaths and asked, "What the hell was that?" I didn't care about the use of my words because I had just thought that Derek was dead, so I really don't think that it mattered much.
"I was downstairs. You said 'Hey Derek' and I looked and saw that you weren't around so I asked if you could hear me. Do you remember that?" Derek asked.
I nodded.
"As a werewolf, I am more sensitive to the scents of my pack, like you and Simon. I think that as the babies grow, their abilities will become yours as long as their lives are connected to yours. The boys will be werewolves so their extra senses are becoming yours and it's beginning with me because I am part of their pack." Derek said.
I nodded. Derek wasn't dead, that was good news.
"So…I'm pretty sure that Melody will be considered pack, what's her scent?" I asked, wanting to be prepared. I wasn't prepared for his answer though.
"Fruit salad." Derek said without hesitation.
I started laughing and said between giggles, "Fruit salad? Seriously?"
Derek shuffled uncomfortably and said, "Yeah, she smells like fruit. I don't know why she does, but she smells like assorted fruits."
I just laughed more, and it didn't help me much when Melody skipped up the stairs happily after hearing my laughter, it only made it funnier because I was right about her being considered pack. The fruit salad conclusion wasn't far off.
"What?" Melody asked, confused as to why I was laughing at her.
"She's laughing because your scent resembles fruit salad closely." Derek said.
"I smell like I bathe in Fruitopia?" Melody asked.
"That's one way of putting it." I said, finally getting my laughter under control.
Melody hooked her right arm through my left and we went down to the kitchen, followed by Derek who was mumbling something about long days.
Sitting at the kitchen table was Jaron, who looked from Melody to me and then to Derek for an explanation.
"They're very happy today." Derek said.
"I see that." Jaron said. "So we're at the happy stage now?"
"I think so." Derek said.
The looks on their faces were almost identical expressions of horror and happiness. They were happy that we were happy, but horrified at what we would do because of the happiness.
There was a little silent talking between them, and to be honest, it was getting annoying.
"We need to find some better clothes for Chloe, we have shopping to do and we need her to be comfortable." Melody said.
"Melody, don't we have to go shopping for the thing for the thing we're getting for Derek and Chloe?" Jaron said.
"We can go tomorrow, and we have to ask them about the thing first, and then the things for the thing." Melody said.
Jaron rolled his eyes. I felt some sympathy for him; he had to learn all these alternative languages so that he would be able to keep things secret from people, on the other hand, what the heck was this 'thing' that they were talking about? They were going to tell me, and if they didn't tell me they would tell Derek and then he'd tell me.
"What the hell are the two of you talking about?" Derek asked suspiciously.
Derek wasn't one for surprises, that point was driven in home a while ago, and faced with the option of knowing or not knowing one…well he preferred to know.
"The present we're getting for the five of you!" Melody said cheerily. Melody was practically bouncing with excitement.
"You'll like it, but I'm not so sure about the colours." Jaron said.
"A little sharing might be in order for a little while…preferably with us." Melody said.
"I want better clues." I said, trying to work a pout. Derek's face softened so I knew it worked on him, but he wasn't the target audience, unfortunately the target audience found my attempt amusing. Jaron was holding in laughter, while Melody laughed outright.
"Nice try." Melody said.
I frowned and said, "One day."
"One day never." Jaron said.
"So we need to hunt down some comfortable clothes for Chloe." Melody said, for once staying on track.
Thirty minutes, an elaborate scheme, and a stolen pair of clothes later the four of us found ourselves leaving.
"She's going to kill me!" I whisper-shouted as the four of us carefully escaped out of the house.
Melody and I distracted Alexa while Derek and Jaron went through her clothes and found something that would fit me comfortably. Melody and I got stuck with the distraction because Derek and Jaron's social skills weren't exactly very good, and by that, I mean they would stare and creep her out and we'd get busted because she'd run to hide from them, though I was quite sure she'd feel more of a creepy feeling if she figured out that they'd been rifling through her clothes.
"She won't kill you," Derek said quietly "but you might get killed if Melody is the one driving."
"Hey!" Melody shouted being the only one not concerned if we were caught.
"Well it's true." Derek said.
"What you think that you could do better?" Melody asked.
"Okay! I'm the one driving." Jaron said, obviously wanting to avoid conflict.
We found Andrew's van and using Melody's copy of keys we unlocked it and got in. I actually just found out this morning that Melody had a copy of everyone's keys, home, car, and otherwise. Melody had a keyring like a janitor, with over twenty keys, I wasn't planning to count them all, and they were labelled too. The keys that were for vehicles were marked with a small piece of blue tape, red tape for homes, yellow for establishments, I wasn't going to ask how she got those, and one key that was marked with green but she refused to tell me what it opened.
"Okay, so we shop for two hours, maybe three, then some food, an hour more of shopping, and then we drive to a wonderful camp ground where Derek changes into a wolf for his enjoyment." Melody said as we started pulling out.
"What about Jaron? Everyone gets to do something they want to do today but him." I said.
"Trust me, he'll get to do something he wants to do today." Melody said with a grin. I blushed at the double meaning in her words, and Derek undoubtedly was making a mental note to go for a long run later that evening. Jaron straightened up and seemed to be in a better mood, gee, wonder why. You'd think that I'd be a lesson for them, but nope. Nothing.
"We also need to do some baby shopping too! We know that there are two boys and one girl so it doesn't matter what colours we buy because no matter what one of the babies will wear it." Melody said, looking back from her seat in the front.
"Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to be used as a packing ox today?" Derek asked in a tone that said he was sure he would be, but was hoping he was wrong.
"Because you will be, you'll be making frequent trips out to the car." Melody said.
"But Mel, why can't Jaron do it?" Derek asked. I smiled, he used her nickname, he was making friends and playing nice for once.
Jaron was giving him a look through the mirror that can only be described as 'traitor!' and Derek pretended not to see him.
"Don't worry Derek, he'll be helping too." Melody said.
She just loves her torture methods, it's like legal slavery or legal torture.
"Someone does need to carry our things when you're out to the car, and carry them if your hands get full, and he has to help select out baby blankets." Melody said.
I wanted to point out that getting ready for these babies would be very difficult because we didn't even know where the babies would be living once they were born, so how could we prepare much, but Melody seemed set on getting some stuff today and to be honest, I wanted to pick some things too, it gave me some sense of control.
"Can we go baby furniture shopping today?" Melody asked.
Both Derek and I groaned. Clothes were one thing, furniture was completely another thing.
"What?" Melody asked.
"No baby furniture shopping. You do it." I said.
Melody smiled and looked like she wanted to run out of the car at superspeed and rob baby stores just to get everything in sight. We had stopped at a red light and while Melody had the wheels turning in her head Jaron was hitting his head against the steering wheel.
"Why? Why? Why?" Jaron just kept repeating until a few seconds before he had to continue driving. I could see why the idea of Melody buying all the baby furniture wasn't appealing to him, if Melody was buying the furniture then he was putting it together and Melody knew how to go overboard.
Melody rolled her eyes and turned on the radio and the rest of the trip passed with Melody talking about stores I'd never even heard of and the tunes of the 90's.
When Derek and I were getting out of the car he whispered, "Jaron has got to be the most patient male on the planet."
"I agree." I whispered putting my hand in his, much to the happiness of Melody, she liked it when Derek and I acted like a couple.
Jaron put his arm around Melody's waist and the four of us went into the mall. True to Melody's word, fifty minutes in and Derek was being treated like a delivery truck, fill him up and send him off.
We came to a very scary piercing place and Jaron said that he'd be back and we could go on without him if we wanted to and he'd catch up. I was okay with that, the place was scary and Jaron knew everybody there by name and they all seemed to know him so I was sure that he would be fine by himself. I wondered what else he would get pierced though. That guy was like a walking ring display. How much more metal can he possibly fit on his body? I would never want to be behind Jaron in a line-up for metal detectors, I really wouldn't.
"Twenty minutes!" Melody called after him but I wasn't sure whether or not he heard her.
We continued on through the mall, so far we hadn't found anything for me. The babies had the entire rainbow of spring collections and I couldn't find anything. For me, maternity wear was needed for me and everything was so fluffy and pink and happy. Mothers to be aren't all rainbows and sunshine so how was it that the wear resembled something that comes out of the land of unicorns?
"Can I go out to the van now?" Derek asked from behind all the things he was carrying.
"What? Yeah. Sure. Hurry back." Melody said.
Derek got out of there as fast as he could.
"Are you sure he's going to come back?" I asked.
"Yeah, if only to make sure you won't do any heavy lifting." Melody said.
"Okay, can we find anything that looks normal?" I asked.
"I was thinking that we could just get some of those shirts that are really stretchy around the stomach and some undershirts for them, that way you won't be required to look like a pixie puff." Melody said.
Pixie puff? Harsh.
"For pants?" I asked.
"We'll work on that but I think sweatpants are the best you can hope for, and preferably the ones with the adjustable waistband." Melody said.
So we started looking through shirts and frequently Melody and I debated over what shirts would be better, and at some point she decided that she would be getting new clothes too.
We were discussing purple vs. black in shirts when Jaron came up and Melody just put both shirts in his hands as her way of hello, he had been gone over thirty minutes. I looked at him, he didn't seem to have any new piercings, but that just meant that it wasn't anywhere visible.
Melody and I continued shopping and soon enough Derek came back from his trip to the van to unload our round of purchases.
"You're back." Derek said to a Jaron that was trying to hold everything Melody was tossing into his arms. I wasn't even completely sure if she was looking at what she was buying, or who she was even buying this stuff for. She bounced from rack to rack, some stuff for me and then her. There was guaranteed to be stuff that she bought for me that I would never wear in my lifetime, but there were also some really nice clothes so I would let her have her happiness.
"Any chance that she'll stop once we fill the van?" Derek asked.
"No, she just puts things on hold in the event of that happening." Jaron said. Jaron was trying to follow Melody in the direction of the cashier. The effort he was making was a nice attempt, I'll give him that.
"Derek, go and help him." I said.
"He'll be fine." Derek said, and not even a minute later Jaron hit the side of a shelf.
I gave him a look and Derek admitted defeat and helped Jaron. Melody just impatiently waited by the cashier and the cashier looked on with an amused expression.
We finished shopping and both Derek and Jaron gave me a begging look. I took their looks to mean that they wanted mercy and thankfully I was practically starving so I had a reason to put the shopping on hold.
"Hey, Mel, I'm hungry. Can we eat now?" I asked.
"Sure, Derek and Jaron will just go out to the van and drop off our stuff and then we can go get some food." Melody said.
The two tired boys started their walk to the van and as they passed me I heard whispered 'thanks'. We must have bought a lot if even Derek is thanking me for the lack of shopping, or he just didn't like carrying pink bags.
Melody rolled her eyes and shouted after them, "Put some effort into it!"
"You're a devious, evil little witch." I said.
"Probably." Melody said with a lot of laughter in her tone. "I don't see what's so bad about shopping bags though. It's like lifting weights, only instead of dumbbells, shoes."
"You bought shoes?" I asked surprised.
"Yeah, you didn't see?" Melody asked.
"No." I said.
Melody bought shoes? I didn't even notice. Though I guess with all her bouncing around she could have slipped shoes in the pile without my noticing.
"So what are you hungry for? Chinese? Thai? Maybe some Greek food?" Melody asked.
"A little of everything." I said.
"Nice to know you plan on cleaning the food court out." Melody said as we were walking there.
"Isn't it?" I said laughing.
She rolled her eyes and we found a table and waited for the guys to come back from the van.
"So how much did we spend?" I asked.
"I'd rather not take out all the receipts and try to calculate it in my head, you can ask Derek to do that though. He loves his math." Melody said.
"He does." I agreed.
"He loves you too you know." Melody said in all seriousness.
"I know." I said.
We started talking and eventually the boys came and found us.
"We're getting the food aren't we?" Jaron asked before the two of them had even approached the table.
Melody and I looked at each other and we both said, "Yes you are." The two of us then gave them our orders and motioned them away with our hands once we were done reciting to them what we wanted.
"Melody is teaching her well." Derek said as the two of them walked away.
"The student will someday surpass the master and when that day comes, Derek, I pity you." Jaron said.
Melody and I laughed and Melody said, "Your boyfriend seems to think that I'm corrupting you."
"Oh, well, that can't be helped." I said.
It was later that night and I was exhausted. After we finished eating, Melody got us all to shop at a few more stores. Melody wanted everything perfect and it was hard to disagree with her, she was always just so happy that thinking you could do something to bring that happiness down planted such a guilty feeling in you so I agreed. After we left the mall, true to Melody's word, we went to a camp ground where Derek changed into a wolf, not in front of them of course, but he changed a little distance away. Derek ran around for what seemed like a really long time, but was probably only an hour or so and then we went back to the safehouse. Alexa didn't notice any of her clothes missing and she was in the kitchen when we came in and Melody distracted her this time while I ran up to Alexa's room and changed out of her clothes and changed into some of my new ones. I had fallen asleep on my bed soon after but awoke to a nightmare and that's how Derek ended up in my bedroom.
"Hey Derek?" I asked sleepily. Derek was just holding me after my nightmare and it felt nice, him just there for me I mean.
"Hm?" Derek mumbled, his voice half muffled by the pillow.
"Can you promise me something?" I asked him.
He opened an eye and I was met with a noticeable sparkling green even with the darkness around us.
"If I do can I go back to sleep?" Derek asked.
"As long as you keep it." I said.
Derek shifted his weight and moved closer to me and said, "What do you want me to promise?"
"That you'll always be there for us." I said.
He didn't need to ask who the 'us' meant, he knew.
"I promise, now can you promise to let me sleep?"
I smiled and said, "I promise to let you sleep." If it was even possible, I got closer to Derek and felt myself being lulled to sleep by his even breathing.