Yay!

Chapter 5 - Occam's Razor

I crept away from Shannon and made my way to Rhydian's room. When I got there I opened the door and quickly slipped inside, leaning my back against the door in relief when I was inside.

"Where have you been?" Rhydian questioned indignantly.

"I couldn't get rid of Shannon," that girl was far too clever, she knew something was up.

"Yeah, Tom was in here being all matey," I smiled a little at Rhydian's disgusted expression and went and sat next to him.

"How will you get out without people missing you?" He asked

"Shannon'll think I'm with the three Ks, ill tell the three Ks I've moved in with Shannon. She'll think I'm with them, they'll think I'm with her. Simples. Then I'll help get you out."

"Help me?" I looked at him, "oh, my leg, yeah, I really wouldn't worry about that."

"Mam says it'll heal once you transform. We need to get out of the village by 8:30."

"Ok, we leave separately, meet at the boat sheds?"

"Okay." I sighed, why did it always have to go wrong for me? I just wanted to spend my first transformation with my parents and there we were on some island on the night of the full moon.

"Look, it'll be okay," Rhydian tried to comfort me, "I've done this loads of times."

"Twice," I reminded him that he really didn't know much more than me.

"Okay, twice. But it'll be alright, Maddy, I'll look after you."

I felt a bit funny at the thought that Rhydian thought he needed to look after me - a little bit angry but happy that he cared.

I was determined to look after Maddy, whatever the cost. She deserved to have an amazing first full moon, have everything that I didn't. Support, happiness, friendship... Maybe more than friendship. We were sitting next to each other on the sofa furthest away from the fire. I wasn't listening to the supposed 'ghost' story that the teacher was telling and I could tell that Maddy wasn't either. She was tapping her feet on the ground and constantly looking at the clock, then at my watch, then back to the clock again. Sometimes glaring warily at the fire when it made a particularly vicious crackle. She was so worked up that she probably would have snapped and wolfed out at any second if she hadn't been so wrapped up in her worrying. She placed her hand on the sofa between us and I put mine on top of her's, trying to calm her a little bit.

When the awful stories were over, I went back to my tiny room to wait before we needed to leave. I only hoped that Maddy would be able to escape from Shannon. When 8:15 came, got up and quietly left my room. I managed to leave the building without seeing anybody but I thought that Maddy would have a much harder time of it.

I left the lounge area, trying to make an excuse to leave the building.

"I'm just going to the..."

"Oh, me too," Shannon interrupted.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked impatiently.

"Nothing!"

"You've been following me round like James Bond on a mission!" Not my best analogy.

"We're just hanging out." She looked disappointed, "that's what mates do."

"If you were really my friend, you'd just back off and give me some space!" I walked off and this time Shannon didn't follow me straight away. I ran up the stairs and bumped straight into Kara at the top.

"No toner, no cleanser, my skin's going to end up worse than yours." I just ignored her and got my stuff together. "Where are you going?" She asked but i could tell she didn't really care.

"I'm...moving into Shannon's room."

"Good riddance, don't want you geeking up our room, anyway,"

I heard my name being called. It was Shannon. She was trying to find me again. I slammed the door and looked down at my hands. I couldn't deal with this right now. I was already too stressed about the full moon happening whilst I was on a school trip. I couldn't concentrate on hiding from Shannon when I was already so close to wolfing out. I ran into the other room, desperately looking for an escape route. The only way out were the windows. I quickly opened one and jumped out. I sprinted away to the boat sheds as quickly as I could. I was already late and I couldn't do this without Rhydian.

When I got to the boat sheds Maddy was already there and, unfortunately, she had already seen me running without my pretend limp.

"What happened to your limp?!" She asked harshly, " you fell off that roof deliberately! You didn't hurt yourself! You wanted to spend another night here, didn't you?"

"I told you to get on the bus, didn't I?"

"I thought you were badly hurt, I wasn't just going to abandon you!"

"I made sure there was enough time for you to get home. If you wouldn't get on the bus, that's not my fault. is it?"

"All I wanted was to spend my first transformation with my family and you've ruined it!"

"All right, it was stupid. But you don't know what it's like, that instruct to be free."

"We're more than just instincts!"

"Yeah but it's wrong to lock ourselves up on the full moon. You know that, I know that, we shouldn't be afraid of who we are!" Maddy looked at me for a moment before finally admitting,

"I know."

I just shrugged at her and we kind of agreed to forget it.

"Come on, race you!" She grabbed my wrist and ran off, pulling me behind her.

We kept running until we were out of sight of the village. Then Maddy turned to me and bit her lip.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm scared, Rhydian," she looked so worried and I didn't know what to say.

"Maddy..."

"I should never have come on a school trip on the day of my first transformation. I mean, I don't know what's going to happen and if I can't control myself, people could see! I'm so scared..." She put her head in her hands.

"Look, Mads, I wish we had more time, I could answer any questions you need to know the answer to, I could help but we have less than fifteen minutes."

"I know."

"It really will be alright, I can help you once we are wolves. We can stay away from the village and nobody will be out here at this time of night."

I reached out and took her hand, she stopped and turned to face me.

"I don't know what to do..."

"I do." I reached out and put my hand on the side of her face. Then I leant down slowly and kissed Maddy on the forehead, "just follow me."

"Rhydian..." She looked straight into my eyes and put her hands on my shoulders before leaning up and kissing me square on the lips. I lifted my hands and pulled my fingers through her hair. Maddy pulled away from me and I tried to kiss her again. She giggled and stopped me,

"Come on, or we'll miss the moon."

We kept walking until the moon was right. I turned and looked up to the moon. Maddy did the same but i could tell that she wanted to shy away, from it. I reached down and took her hand in mine. She was shaking, whether it was from excitement or nervousness I couldn't tell but I squeezed her hand anyway to tell her it would be okay, that I would look after her. The next time I looked at her, her eyes were yellow and the inky black veins were crawling up her neck. On her, the veins looked dainty like spidery paint on a china doll. She took a deep breath and the next thing we knew, she was a wolf. Her wolf was beautiful, she had dark fur that became lighter on her stomach and a delicate snout. Suddenly I felt a tug from inside me and I had to kneel down. The change was starting. Within seconds I was in my wolf form next to Maddy. She nudged me with her nose and ran off desperate to play. I laughed inside and chased off after her.

I was woken up early the next morning with something sharp sticking into my stomach.

"Hey! Get off!" I said to whoever's elbow was under me.

"Sorry Mads," I heard from just next to me.

"Rhydian?" I sat up quickly, to see the old lime kilns looming over us. Then I looked down and realised how close I was to Rhydian and how we must have been like that for a while, as in, all night. It was okay as wolves but as humans? That was a totally different story. I had kind of enjoyed it though, I wasn't going to lie. Being next to the person who would eventually become my mate. What could be better? To learn his scent and his breathing and the way he moves, talks, dreams. I sighed and leant over Rhydian to shake him awake. These thoughts would have to wait until later.

"Come on, we've got to get back to the hotel."

"I'm happy here actually," he answered sleepily, putting his arm back around me. I blushed then shook him again.

"Tom and Shannon, Rhydian, they'll be after us, and as soon as they realise we're not there, so will Mr Jeffries!"

"Okay, okay," this time he sat up and looked around, "let's go."

A/N: Thanks for reading!