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Men and Monsters

Chapter 2

"Would you kids like anything to eat?" Derby Evans asked.

"No, mom," Sharpay said. She sat on the edge of the Evans' indoor pool, swinging one leg through the water casually. "But could you take Boi? He's getting antsy."

"Of course, dear," Derby said. Taking Boi in her arms she said, "Let's get you some kibble," and left.

"You shouldn't leave her alone with him," Ryan said, watching her go from the lifeguard tower.

Sharpay waved away his comment. "Boi knows better than to bite her."

"This morning I would have said Boi knew better than to bite a wildcat. Apparently I was wrong."

"She'll be fine. And since when do you worry about her?"

"She's our mother."

"Our fake mother," Sharpay countered sharply.

"She still cares about us the way a real mom would."

"That's because she thinks she is our real mom." Sharpay frowned and looked out at the water. "How long can a werewolf hold its breath?"

Ryan tossed his hat aside and dove in. Moments later he came up with a sputtering human. Long hair fell over her face, obscuring it from view.

"Um, Shar?" Ryan asked uncertainly. He floated a few feet back from the girl, holding out his arms in case she needed him again.

"What?" Sharpay asked. "Oh." She bit back a smile and grabbed a towel before wading slowly in.

Ryan thankfully backed away and let Sharpay take care of things. When everyone was finally out of the pool the girl held the soaking towel tightly about her chest and looked around with wide eyes.

"What happened? How did I get here?" Gabriella asked, carefully pushing the hair out of her eyes.

"Oh, shit," Ryan muttered.

Sharpay looked her up and down. "This just keeps getting better and better."

Gabriella looked sharply between the two of them. "What is going on?" she asked, backing away slowly.

Ryan put a hand to the small of her back, stopping her before she fell in the pool. "We're just trying to help you," he said gently. "You're at our house." As he guided her to a pair of plastic chairs he asked, "Why don't you tell us what you remember and we'll fill in any gaps."

Gabriella nodded slowly and closed her eyes, trying to remember. "I needed my chemistry book but Troy had forgotten his so I'd lent mine to him. I went to get it from his locker --"

"His gym locker?" Sharpay cut in.

Gabriella blushed. "Yeah. And … Boi was there. He … bit me." She held up her right hand, examining it. "I could have sworn he broke the skin," she muttered, feeling the base of her thumb as if that would reveal the missing marks.

"Then what happened?" Ryan pressed.

She shrugged, obviously regaining some of her composure. "He ran away before I could catch him. I figured there wasn't much chance of Sharpay's dog being dangerous and I wasn't exactly supposed to be there in the first place, so I went to get the book. And then … it felt like something was burning my neck." She ran a hand under her wet hair and her eyes went wide. "My necklace!"

Sharpay sighed. "The chain was silver."

"Yeah, it was. You have to help me find it."

"It's probably still in the locker room."

"What do you mean? And you still haven't told me how we got here!"

Ryan and Sharpay exchanged a look. "Fine," Sharpay muttered, "but you owe me." She waved him out of his seat and claimed it for herself. "So, Gabriella, do you like horror movies?"

"Not especially," Gabriella said, shooting Ryan a confused glance.

"Have you seen many?" Sharpay pressed.

"A few. Troy likes them."

Ryan bit back a laugh, thinking Troy probably liked having an excuse to comfort his frightened girlfriend.

"But you know the basics?" Sharpay asked. "Zombies, vampires, psychotic leprechauns, werewolves?"

"I … guess."

"Good. Because you are one."

"What?" Gabriella asked, confused.

Ryan moaned. He never should have let Sharpay do it.

"A werewolf, I mean. Boi's a distant relative of Cerberus' so he has all these weird mystical powers." She shrugged. "Apparently one of them is turning people into werewolves."

Gabriella stood quickly. "Listen, I don't know what you two are playing at but --"

"Don't," Ryan said sharply, holding out a hand. Gabriella stopped abruptly. As Ryan curled the fingers of his hand towards himself Gabriella took several halting steps forward. When she was close enough that he could reach out and touch her he dropped his hand and said, "There are things in this world you don't understand."

Gabriella gave a shuddering sigh and staggered back to her seat. A few deep breaths later and she looked up to meet his eyes. "What are you?"

#

Sharpay had to give it to the girl. An hour ago she would have bet the Evans' fortune that if any of the wildcats saw her world they would be reduced to quivering, sobbing masses, but Gabriella was handling the whole thing with marked composure.

"We're from the Underworld," Ryan said. "It's sort of like the homeland of evil. About twenty years ago there was this big mystical battle and all these bad guys got sealed away under the ground in California. A couple years ago an earthquake set us free." He shrugged uncomfortably.

"Most of the others," Sharpay cut in, "stayed to fight, to pick the war up where they left off. We didn't. We were born in that hole," she added harshly. "We weren't about to risk going back."

"So your parents brought you here? Put you in school like normal kids?"

"No," Ryan said slowly. "We never met our parents. We were kind of …"

"Hatched," Sharpay supplied. "We're hybrids or … something. The biology isn't exactly a science, more of a magical amalgam."

Gabriella took a deep breath. "So who are those people I met at Lava Springs?"

"Derby and Vance Evans," Ryan said. "We found them. They wanted children. We offered them us. In exchange we used our powers to make them think we were theirs, to make it real for them."

"That's horrible."

"It was their idea," Sharpay snapped. "And I don't know what you're complaining about. You've lived every day of your life in the sun with a mother who loves you."

Gabriella bit her lip at that. After a tense moment she said, "Can you show me something else, so I don't think I just imagined that before?"

Sharpay sighed and flicked her hand at the pool. A bolt of pink energy flew to the water, creating a whirlpool. Slowly a massive reptilian head pushed up from its center. The sea serpent turned yellow eyes on them and opened its mouth to reveal rows of sharp, glistening teeth.

Ryan slapped Sharpay's hand down. The serpent was abruptly sucked back beneath the surface and the water slowly calmed.

"No summoning," Ryan chastised.

"Whoa," Gabriella breathed.

"Yeah, well," Sharpay said, examining her nails. "We are evil."

Gabriella raised an eyebrow at Ryan and he quickly avoided her gaze. She took the hint and said, "You still haven't explained how I got here. Did I get caught up in one of your wicked spells or something?"

Sharpay smirked. "I already told you. Boi bit you. You're a werewolf now. Welcome to the strange side of the tracks."

Gabriella looked sharply at Ryan, who sighed, "She's telling the truth. The only reason you transformed today was because of the necklace Troy gave you. Since you were wearing it when you were bitten the infection hit you full force. But don't worry," he added quickly, "that was just a fluke. From now on you should only transform under the full moon."

"You say that like it's a good thing," Gabriella said, her breathing slow and steady as if she were forcing it.

"It's better than never knowing what will trigger it. Purebreds can transform any time. Sure, they have better control than most people, but that's only because there's no turning the wolf off and --" He looked from Gabriella in the chair, holding her head in her hands, to Sharpay. "I'm not helping, am I?"

"No," Sharpay said with a quick shake of her head. "Why don't you go get us some drinks and snacks and I'll take Gabriella up to my room?"

Ryan nodded but grabbed Sharpay's hand as he passed. "No magic."

She rolled her eyes. "She's already a werewolf. How could I make it worse?"

Ryan hoped she was right as he made his way to the kitchen. This was going to be a big adjustment. Not just for Gabriella, but for all of them. He and Sharpay had never had any intention of telling anyone about their former lives. Even their "parents" had been required to forget. When the wildcats had started getting more chummy with the two of them they had seen it as a sign of their success at being human, but Gabriella's transformation may well destroy everything they'd worked for. Ryan didn't think she would go blabbing about any of this at school the next day but the more people that knew about their past the more likely it was to come out.

Not about to bother the cook, who was working feverishly on dinner, Ryan grabbed a bag of chips off the counter and a couple water bottles from the fridge. He was just dodging around the open oven when the phone rang.

"I got it," he told the grateful man. He dumped his burden on the counter, well out of the way of the cook's work, and lifted the phone from its cradle. "Evans' residence, how may I help you?"

"Finally!"

Ryan winced at Kelsi's annoyed tone. At the sound of her voice the autumn musical came rushing to the forefront of his mind. "Oh man, I'm so sorry, Kels. There was an emergency and we had to leave kind of suddenly."

"What happened? Is everyone all right?"

Ryan's wince turned into a grimace at the worry in her voice. "No, everyone's fine … more or less," he added, thinking of the coming full moon.

"Well, that's the important thing. Do you have any idea which musical Sharpay wants?"

"What about what I want?" Ryan asked, smiling for the first time in hours.

"You're the one who always says 'when Sharpay's happy everyone's happy.'"

"Yeah, well, that's not exactly true, is it?"

"No, it's not." She yawned. "Listen, I really need to get to bed. Could you just know which one we're choosing before homeroom tomorrow? You are coming to school tomorrow?"

"Yeah. We've got everything worked out here. I'm sorry about this afternoon."

"No problem. Things happen."

"Yeah, they do," he sighed. "Bye."

"See you in the morning."

As Ryan hung up the phone Boi trotted into the kitchen. "This is all your fault, you know," he told him. The dog barked in what Ryan could have sworn was a disrespectful tone.

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