Star's POV
I open my eyes, still processing my dream. Was it just a dream? I look around the alley to make sure I'm alone, and walk over to the pile of old furniture. I look into the old, rusted, bottom half of a long stand-up mirror. What I see surprises me…I'm human. More so, the necklace from my dream really is around my neck! I grab the orb and squeeze it in my hand. As I squeeze it, I see a clearer image of all the people I'm supposed to find. I turn from the alley to start looking, but take a second glance at myself in the mirror. My long, sandy hair is tangled everywhere, there is black grime smudged all over my face, and my hazel eyes look extremely dull, as if there's no life in me. I wear a green, slightly puffy half jacket, a black spaghetti strap t-shirt, gray-black ripped and worn out skinny jeans, and black knee high boots with a buckle on each side and a dark brown bottom. I smell myself, big mistake.
"I need to clean up." I say to myself. "But where?" I don't have a home, unless you consider the alley where I sleep every night my home. My one and only friend in the world left town for a week to go hunting in the wild…and even if they were here, we share the alley so that's no help. Just then, I hear a girl walk by with an older woman. I hide behind a large box, and listen to their conversation.
"I hate school. Its just so pointless!" Says the girl
"It gives you higher learning to prepare you for the future." The woman replies. I don't dare look over at them, incase they see me. "Plus," the woman continues, "You can make new friends, meet boys." The woman laughs saying the last part.
"Mom!" The girl complains. "Its not just the academic stuff that annoys me, teachers do to. I mean, do they really expect us to ever use those dinky showers in the locker rooms?"
"Back in my day, everybody used those showers."
"Gross!" The girl yells, giggling. They pass the building next to my alley, and I come out from behind the large box. I take in what they said about the showers, and run out of the back end of the alley.
I walk three, four, five blocks looking for what they call a 'school.' Hopefully there will be a sign. When I left the alley, I grabbed an old, torn gray scarf and wrapped it around my head, so no one would see how awful I look. I pass the sixth block, and turn the corner into a large post. I hit it hard and fall to the ground, on my butt. I rub my forehead where I collided with the post. I look up to see clearly what I ran into, and after a few seconds , the dizziness wore off and I read the sign. It reads 'Parker Hills Junior High.' Lucky for me, I learned how to read human writing. I get up off the floor and run towards the buildings' front door. I try to open the large doors, but they're locked. I sneak around the side to look for a weaker door to break down. I find one in the very back that is completely crusted over in rust. I kick it hard with my left foot, and it flies open. I walk in the building, and am immediately hit with a horrid wave of smells. I pull a little string coming from the ceiling, and a little light turns on. The room is filled with dozens of shelves filled with hundreds of different chemicals. Dead rat carcasses lay everywhere, only adding to the smell. I search for a door, but find nothing. Just as I decide to turn around and leave, I spot a little grate on the ceiling. The ceiling is only about seven feet high, so I easily pull the grate off in one jump. I pull a metal box to the center of the room and push off of it into the ceiling where the grate was. As I jump, I kick the box with by feet to push it back where I got it. I make sure that I'm safely in and pull the string, turning off the light. I start crawling in a little passage in the ceiling, taking many turns here and there. It's a tight fit, and probably would be easier as a wolf, but as long as the necklace is on me, I remain human. I look down every little grate I pass, to see if I can find a shower. Just as I pass what is probably the thirteenth little grate, I see a long, tilled rectangle looking box thing with a curtain in the front. I kick the grate off and jump down into the room. I pull pack the curtain, and feel relief flood through me. A real shower! I turn the little handle thing and feel the water, looking for a comfortable temperature. It takes about five minutes of adjusting for me to realize that there is only one temperature-cold. I already came all this way, so I pull off my little jacket, my boots, and everything else and shower. It takes about five minutes of scrubbing my face to get all the grime off my face, and even longer to work my fingers through my hair to untangle it. Once I finish cleaning up, I wash my clothes. I find a little machine that blows out hot air, and use that to dry my clothes. Then I put the nice, warm clothes on and climb through the little passage back to the room, but I don't leave until I plac the little grate back on over the room I was just in. I jump down back into the small room, and turn the light back on. I put the grate back on again and push the box completely back into place. I turn the light back off and head out of the room. As I exit the room, I shut the door. I examine it to see the damage I did; not too bad. A bolt fell off the top, and some of the rust literally fell off onto the ground, but it would lock back into place as soon as I shut it all the way. So I push it all the way shut, and leave the 'school' area.
I walk down a rode, passing lots of deli shops and butcher shops. My mouth waters, for I haven't eaten in four days again. I refuse to eat rats, because I had another friend who died from that. I'd look through the garbage for scraps, but since I look human, that would be a little suspicious.
The sun begins to set, painting the sky a beautiful gold and pink. I long for my coushin in my solitary dark alley, but I'm probably on the other side of town by now, and I don't want to do that looking human. Man, my life style choices are really restricted right now. I don't have any money to by food or a place to sleep, so I do the only thing I can, I sneak into the closest alley and try to pull the necklace off, so I can be a wolf and sleep on an old mattress or something. But as my hands begin to yank at the leather, I hear the mysterious voice from my dream last night say,
"No." I look around to see if anyone was around to hear it. "Only you can hear me, young wolf. Now look around the corner, your mission is starting." I do as the voice says and look around the corner. I see a boy coming with beautiful red-brown hair and light brown eyes. He wears the same red long sleeve shirt, green cargo pants, and brown boots as when I saw him in my dream, which I find weird. As he comes closer, I form a plan I my head. Just as he comes towards the alley, and I just about begin my plan, I feel the wind knocked out of me. I fall flat on my face and on the floor, turn to see who punched me. I see three large men, all with black leather jackets and black hair. The one on the left has green eyes, the one on the right has blue eyes, and the one in the middle has red eyes that lust for blood. They slowly creep closer to me, and give me wicked smiles. They're all wolfs! I pull fiercly at my necklace, but it won't come off. Just as they begin to lunge at me, and I prepair to die, I hear a fierce scream from the front of the alley. Before I can see whom screamed, a sharp pain stabs at my stomach, and I black out.