'Oi! Leek boy!'

Rhydian had been hunting through his abandoned locker, exploring the remnants of his past life in Stoneybridge, as he was approached by Jimmy, the school's resident rich-boy and the last person that Rhydian wanted to talk to.

'So you're back then?' Questioned Jimmy as he and his henchmen, Sam and Liam, looked up at Rhydian who towered above them; he had grown a lot during his time away.

'Yup.' Replied Rhydian, uninterestedly. He began to pile his things back into the locker so that he could get away from his old school foes as soon as possible; he hated their questions and taunts. Rhydian slung his bag over his shoulder and was about to skulk away when Jimmy got to his point, causing Rhydian to freeze.

'So, how did that happen to Maddy? Looked pretty nasty, earlier.'

'Like she said, a dog did it.' Rhydian's skin crawled at the memory.

'So it wasn't you, like Tom said?' Jimmy knew he was hitting a nerve with Rhydian on this subject, much to his joy. Jimmy loved to find ways of irritating and tormenting Rhydian; the boy who came along and stole away attention which had always been paid to him before his arrival.

'No it wasn't.' Rhydian said this through gritted teeth as he supressed a growl. Jimmy had no right to question him; it was none of his business.

Just at that moment, the three K's stomped their way up to the boys in their hefty heels, which Jeffries had given up trying to stop them wearing.

'Hi, Rhydian!' Katrina smiled, as she naively fluttered her eyelashes.

'Where've you been? We were all so worried.'

'So worried,' agreed Kay with Kara. All three were over-excited at the bad-boy's return.

'Just… here and there,' was all they were going to get as a reply to that question; Rhydian couldn't exactly say he'd been living in a forest, running around with a pack full of half-human-half-wolves.

'Are you ok after Tom this morning? What happened, Rhydian? Was he really angry? You poor thing,' sympathised Kara, dreaming of him spilling his heart out and falling into her arms.

'Mind you, though,' added Katrina before he could say anything, 'you can't really blame him for not being happy.'

'After all, he was head over heels for Maddy after you left. I suppose he doesn't want competition.' At this point Rhydian's eyes shot up from the floor to meet Katrina's, he had only half been listening but at this he was all ears.

'What are you talking about?' Rhydian needed clarification; a million-and-one things were running through his mind. Surely it couldn't be how it sounded?

'Maddy and Tom? Don't you know?' Kay inquired. All of the girls' and boys' eyes sparkled in delight as they found Rhydian's ignorance could be to their advantage.

'It was a couple of months ago,' a smile played on Jimmy's lips. 'They became really close after you left, one thing lead to another, as he put it.'

'Nothing was ever official, but Tom made no secret of what was going on.'

'Maddy didn't really talk about it, but-'

'Tom was heartbroken when she ended it, even though it didn't last long.'

'Mind you he has always held a torch for her, still does probably,' concluded Kay with a little shrug of her shoulders; it was nothing to her; however to Rhydian it was massive. 'How could she have not told me this?' thought Rhydian, as the tingling began to flood his body. As life-altering it was what he had just learnt, it was no excuse for forgetting himself and revealing his wolfblood secret to the school.

'So what has been going on with Maddy, anyway?' Kara's words lingered, unanswered, in the air as Rhydian took off through the door and across the playground, to the gap in the fence that he'd made to allow him access to the moors when he was upset over Maddy on his very first day, over a year ago now. The moors had been his retreat in those first few months, when his mind was all over the place, as he discovered who he was. It had always been Maddy who had helped him to accept himself and feel truly happy for the first time in his entire life. It was Maddy who he fell for, Maddy who he'd trusted, Maddy who he left, Maddy who he came back for; it all came back down to Maddy.