Chapter 5: Maddy
Maddy was annoyed. Annoyed at the teasing comments of the Kay's, annoyed at the sly glances between Tom and Shannon, and annoyed that nothing whatsoever seemed to affect Rhydian. However, what she was the most annoyed with was the fact that everything got to her and managed to turn her into a bumbling fool.
Her mind was all over the place, and she had found that she now blushed at the most ridiculous things. She was Maddy Smith for God sake. Not one of the Kay's, or a 12 year old girl with her first crush, she was the alpha of her own pack and was expected to act like it. Unfortunately her body didn't seem to agree.
School was the same as usual so the gossip of Maddy returning only lasted for so long before people moved on. She was soon forgotten about, which was exactly what she wanted. Instead she spent her time back with her friends and Rhydian, exploring the woods again and the new Kafe.
Unfortunately, Tom and Shannon didn't take long to notice that they were being left out because Maddy was spending the majority of her time with Rhydian in the woods. She couldn't help it, she just felt this all encompassing need to be running in nature. Of course spending more time with Rhydian also wasn't bad.
This came to a head one day when they were all walking and chatting on the way to school. "Um, Mads?" Shannon began,glancing shyly at her friend who hummed in response. "Tom and I were wondering if we could spend some time in the woods with you and Rhydian?"
This got both Rhydian and Maddy's attention as they whipped their heads up, "Why?" She said feeling very defensive, "What could you possibly do?" Rhydian nodded in response, while Tom frowned.
Affronted, Shannon replied, "Well, whatever you and Rhydian do. You spend all your time there, so why can't we?" Ignoring the elephant in the room which was their undisclosed relationship.
For some reason Maddy blushed and rambled out a reply, raising her voice, "Of course you can't come with us, we run for a start and you certainly can't keep up with us, which would just ruin it!"
"Wait a second," Tom butted in, scoffing, "We would ruin it? Geez, what great friends you both are!"
Rhydian came to Maddy's defense, "Well it's different for us isn't it? We need to be in nature all the time and to slow down and wait with you would defeat the purpose of doing it in the first place."
"Different from us?" Shannon exclaimed, "I thought we were all in this pack together, I'm sorry if we ruin the mood when we take up your time with our slow human tendencies!"
Thinking that what she had said would be disputed, Tom was amazed when both Maddy and Rhydian nodded. Maddy continued, feeling very confrontational about the time she spent alone with Rhydian. "Well you would never understand, you're not Wolfblood!"
Suddenly, Tom and Shannon backed away, obviously hurt, and began to walk in the other direction to school. Realising what they had said, Maddy and Rhydian tried to apologize and get their attention, but their friends had walked off.
Instead of going to school like they'd planned, they decided to let their friends cool off and skive off to run through the woods like usual. They knew that their parents would be angry, but the compulsion to spend time together was too strong. Much stronger than before she had gone away.
As they continued running they were soon interrupted by two wild wolfbloods, Aran and Meinir. Thinking they would be preparing for a fight, they were surprised when the other two ran off to lead them to a very injured Jana, supported by Ceri.