Lycaon—the Arcadian king that was turned into a wolf.

Maybe studying the creatures will banish the ghost of the wolves that haunt me.

The project is supposed to have three parts: a written report, visuals, and some sort of presentation. I’ve always been good at writing, and since I’m not too bad with drawing and photography, I can probably handle the visual aspect of it too.

But I’m dead awful at presentations. I’m hoping that if I can at least put enough of it together, that Rory will be willing to present it to the class.

If he ever comes back.

After school on Thursday, Jess and Aimee are hanging around in the front parking lot looking at Tom’s new pickup truck. I wish he didn’t always tag along with them. No offense to him, he seems nice and all, but sometimes he seems a little too nice, like the kind of kid that acts like someone he really isn’t. Everything Tom does, he does for someone else.

Of course, Jess spots me before I can make a hasty retreat.

“Hey, Sabrina!” Jess waves me over to the car.

I have no choice but to approach.

“What do you think?” Tom shouts to me across the lot, so breathless with excitement that he can’t wait for me to draw closer. The look on my face must look less impressed than he expected, so he quickly elaborates. “About my new truck?”

He looks disgruntled, unsure of himself all thanks to my delayed reaction.

I seem to have already forgotten the lecture I got earlier this week about how much boys like their cars, because all I can muster up i

s a pathetic, “Yeah, it’s nice.”

Tom’s nose crinkles in a way that ages him about two decades. Apparently “nice” isn’t a good choice of words to use when complimenting a guy on his new truck. I know better. Maybe I just don’t want to encourage him.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aimee says, giving Tom a playful pat on the back. “Sabrina’s just preoccupied today.”

“With what?” he asks, looking over at me.

“She seems to be the self-appointed keeper of your three favorite boys,” Aimee laughs. “And I don’t think she likes that they’ve gone and disappeared on her.”

For a minute, it looks like Tom is trying to figure out what she’s talking about. Then he starts to laugh right along with her.

“Really, Sabrina?” he snorts between laughs. “Those boys? You’d be better off steering clear of them. Especially Rory, he’s a tough nut to crack. I thought you might be smarter than the other girls around here.”

“Hey!” Jess practically shouts at him. “Don’t be an ass.” She smacks him, though not as playfully as Aimee. The best thing I’ve noticed so far about Jess is that she doesn’t take any shit, especially not from boys. Especially not from Tom. If it weren’t for her keeping him in line, he would’ve long since crossed over from annoying to insufferable.

“I’m not caught up with Rory,” I say, defending myself, “or anyone else.” I’m not sure why I feel the need to defend myself against anything, especially not to Tom. I haven’t done anything wrong. I quickly backtrack a bit.

“I just ran into them the other night and now that Rory and I got that big Civilizations project, I kind of need to talk to him about it or I’m going to fail the class.”

“Wait a minute,” Jess says looking suddenly intrigued in the conversation. “Where did you run into them? They don’t usually hang around much.”

Shit.

I managed to avoid this the last time I brought up the subject, and here I am bringing it up again. I stumble over the words in my head as I try to formulate a story, but I can’t come up with anything fast enough. So, even though I know it’s a bad idea, I settle on the truth.

“I just ran into them outside in my yard.”

“They were at your house?” Aimee’s eyes are now hugely wide.

“No,” I sigh, there’s no walking back on this explanation now. “I’m pretty sure I was at their house.”

“What do you mean?”

“My mom and I are living in the cabin at the bottom of the big hill.”

Tags: Eden Beck Wolfish Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net