Chapter 1: The Bus Ride

"Do you have your uniforms packed?" Cindy asked Elizabeth for the seventh time.

"Yes, mom, they're in my suitcase."

"And do you have enough snacks for the ride?"

"Yes, mom," Elizabeth replied in exasperation.

"What about money, do you have cash and your debit card? I transferred money into your account for food and incidentals this semester. You'll let me know if you need more?" Worry creased Cindy's eyes as she searched her daughter's face.

"Yes, mom, it will be fine," Elizabeth spoke in disinterested monotones. Ever since she found out she had to go to The Academy she had been detached, not interested in anything having to do with her mom and dad. They were public enemy number one. The duo had condemned her to a life at The Academy, a boarding school where she would finish her final two years of high school. She would graduate then she could finally join public life, away from werewolves, away from the pack, away from anything magical. The countdown was on.

Elizabeth was born to two werewolves, but she couldn't transform, and she didn't actually have a wolf. She was an abnormality, as they would say. Two months ago, she received a letter welcoming her to The Academy and her life had been nothing but anxiety, disbelief, and denial since then. Today she was leaving her home, the house she grew up in, and entering the world of werewolves and magical creatures. She wouldn't take her place, as they said because she wasn't a magical creature. She didn't understand why they wanted her and she resented being forced to join a school she couldn't relate to while leaving everything she knew behind, her friends, her school, her family.

Carl loaded Elizabeth's bags in the back of the car while Elizabeth sat brooding in the back seat. She couldn't be bothered to look up and acknowledge the situation. She pulled a novel out of her bag and settled in with resigned desperation, her body on the edge of panic as she watched from her peripheral as her mom opened the car door and sat in the front seat. Her dad opened the driver's door and slid behind the wheel, turning in his seat to assess his daughter.

"Ellie," her mom started.

"No, mom," Ellie interrupted her.

"Please, Ellie," her dad tried again.

"I don't want to talk about it again," Ellie said in defeat, tears dripping down her chin. "I don't want to get on the bus with red, puffy eyes. I don't want to think about what I'm leaving. I don't want to go and you don't want to listen!" Her voice rose as she shouted out her desperation. 

"I wish I could make it better, Ellie," her mom softly said, resting her hand on Ellie's knee, giving her a squeeze of comfort.

"Let me stay," Ellie pleaded softly, her nose still nestled in her book, not looking at her parents for fear the eye contact would break her resolve to not cry anymore.

"You know we can't do that," Carl said, in resignation.

"Then let's just go," Ellie said, her anger breaking through as she turned away from them and pretended to read.

Carl and Cindy looked at each other. Carl set his hand on Cindy's leg and gave it a squeeze as Cindy wiped tears from her eyes. Carl started the car and backed out of their driveway, it was an hour's drive to the bus station that would take Ellie to the school shuttle. It was time to begin their journey.

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The bus stop was busy, the parking lot was filled with short-term and long-term commuters. Several buses lined the far left lot in rows, numbers printed boldly on the front guiding passengers to the correct bus. Electronic signs sat above the rows of buses like stop lights, indicating when each bus was scheduled to leave and the destination. Two buses left the lot and the signs above the parking space went red showing a CLOSED sign. Three buses were left, one sat in the far left row, separated from the other two by a dozen lanes. It was the end of the day, and no other buses were scheduled to leave after the three sitting in the lot. 

Ellie glanced at the bus, panic filling her face. She desperately looked around the lot, trying to find a friendly face and failing. 

"Please don't make me go, mom? Please?" She tried one last attempt. Her mom looked at her with sad, resigned eyes.

"I'll call you every night. We can talk every day, I promise. You won't be completely alone." Cindy reached in her purse and pulled out a brand new phone. "We got this for you yesterday. The school doesn't usually let you have them on campus, but they made an exception for students this year, given the changes to enrollment." Cindy offered her daughter the phone and a bag of accessories. Ellie took the phone and nodded briefly. She steeled herself against the tears threatening to come forward and opened the door. Pulling her backpack onto her shoulder, she went to the trunk of the vehicle where her dad was pulling out her luggage. She grabbed the largest suitcase and wheeled it toward the bus. Her mom grabbed the second suitcase and her dad pulled the duffel bag out of the car and followed behind.

A middle-aged woman with black and gray peppered hair cut neatly against her chin was speaking to students lined up outside of the bus. Ellie got in the back of the line and looked down. She didn't want to make eye contact or draw attention to herself. She inched forward as students ahead of her checked in and received directions. At last, it was her turn to check-in.

"Name?" the lady asked kindly.

"Elizabeth Carter." 

The lady's eyebrows rose slightly as she looked at Ellie briefly then glanced down at her clipboard, checking a box next to Elizabeth's name. 

"Welcome, Elizabeth. You'll need to put your luggage in the pile around the other side of the bus, make sure your name is listed on each piece. You may keep one small bag or backpack with you inside the bus for the ride to campus. The ride is 4 hours, there will be one-stop halfway along our journey where you'll be able to take a 5-minute bathroom and snack break." 

"Thank you," Ellie's soft voice floated gently through the air, her trepidation apparent to the lady in front of her.

The lady reached out a hand to Elizabeth's arm and gave her a gentle squeeze. "I'm Madame Richert, I'll be here if you need anything on the trip and while you're at school." She gave Ellie a gentle smile. 

Ellie nodded gently, steeling her eyes against the emotions that threatened to pour over as she made her way around the side of the bus to drop off her luggage. She double-checked that everything was labeled and piled her bags next to the already waiting luggage sitting by the bus waiting to be loaded in the luggage rack under the seats. She turned around, looked her parents in the eyes, and let her anger show through. 

"Bye." Her curt response made Cindy's face crumble.

"Ellie, I'm so sorry," her mom rambled, pulling her in for a hug. Ellie stood stiffly while her mom gave her a giant bear hug, throwing all of her emotion in the gesture. "I'll text you on the road and I'll give you a call tonight." 

Ellie barely nodded, pulling away. Her dad gave her a similar hug, Ellie standing stoicly. 

"We love you, Els, we'll see you for fall break," her dad said gruffly as he stepped back from his daughter and put his arm around his wife's shoulders.

Ellie nodded again, then turned abruptly and walked up the bus steps, away from the only friendly faces she had seen all day.

"Did they kill your cat or something?" an accusing voice asked as Ellie walked up the bus stairs. 

"Shut it, Mark," a soft voice said. 

Ellie looked at the face that had asked her the question and lowered her brows in confusion. A brown-haired boy with olive skin sneered at her. Next to him, a dark-haired boy sat, green eyes averted, not meeting her gaze. Embarrassment filled Ellie's face at the unwanted attention. She'd rather crawl into a hole and live a life of solitude than have to answer his question.

"Those are her parents, dumbass," Sarah said. Sarah looked at her with contempt. Jane sat next to Sarah, a matching glare on her face. Sarah's blond hair glistened in the sun, wide curls falling down to her chest, her blue eyes shooting darts at Ellie. Jane sat next to Sarah, her black hair falling in a sleek curtain to her mid-back, equally as stunning as Sarah.

Jane interjected, "She's the one that doesn't have a wolf your mom was talking about, Mark. Her parents are probably so disappointed in her that they shipped her off to the first school that would take her."

Sarah sneered and added, "Are you sure you're on the right bus, Ellie? This is a bus for The Academy." Sarah spoke that last sentence slowly, enunciating each syllable, talking as if Ellie couldn't understand the words coming out of her mouth. Heat rushed through Ellie's cheeks, embarrassment flooding her body. Her stomach lurched in pain at the sensation as Ellie felt like she was going to be sick. Green eyes glanced up at her, compassion reaching out to soothe her embarrassment.

"Leave her alone," the soft voice interjected. Sarah, Jane, and Mark looked at the dark-haired boy but kept quiet. Ellie barely kept her composure as she looked away from the four.

Ellie pushed through the aisle silently and made her way toward the back of the bus. She wanted nothing to do with the sneering boy, Sarah, or Jane. She desperately wanted to get away from the piercing green eyes, filled with compassion. If she saw much more of them, she would burst into tears and run screaming away from the nightmare she found herself in. She pushed past several more rows, most of the students not daring to make eye contact with her. It was just as well, Ellie was about five seconds away from making a fool of herself. Her eyes burned with the effort of keeping her tears at bay. 

When she had reached the very last row of the bus, she slid into the empty seat next to the window, putting her bag on the seat by the aisle, sending a very clear message that she did not want company. The bus continued to fill with students and only a few seats remained unfilled as the driver called out a five-minute warning.

Madame Richert walked up the steps of the bus, sat in the front row behind the driver, and called out attention. "Last call, we will be leaving in 2 minutes!" She sat down behind the bus driver as the doors closed behind her. 

Ellie pulled out the phone her mom had given her in the car before they had left and turned it on. She scrolled through the apps, noticing a notification indicating she had 3 new text messages. She ignored the notifications and opened the audiobook application. Her finger scrolled through the books loaded on the phone and the books she could d******d. She pulled out the headphones that came with the phone, plugged them in, and scrolled through the preloaded classics on the app. Tears came to her eyes as she saw Pride and Prejudice. She hit play, settled her head against the glass window, closed her eyes, and listen to the soothing tones start the famous classic:

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife...'

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The bus made a sudden break and student screams rent through the air as Ellie jerked awake. Her body was thrust forward, slamming the seat in front of her as the brakes on the bus screeched, stopping the vehicle much too soon. She looked out the window, the road was surrounded by forest on both sides, trees so dense she couldn't see more than three feet deep. The bus had fully stopped and Madame Richert called out to the students to make sure everyone was ok.

Students murmured through the aisles, confused by the sudden stop. Ellie heard some students sitting in front of her ask what had caused the brake. 

"I saw a pack of wolves run through the forest, they must have run in front of the bus," a girl with curly red hair said to her seatmate, another girl with bushy brown hair. 

"Is everyone ok?" she walked up the aisle, assessing each row of students. "We are 10 minutes from our break, you'll have 15 minutes to get snacks, go to the restroom and then reload the bus." 

"Are you ok," she softly asked Ellie as she made her way to the back of the bus. 

Ellie nodded, unable to make eye contact. 

"We'll be stopping in a few minutes, it will be good for you to get up and get a snack. We still have 2 hours left." Mme Richert noted softly, brushing Ellie's shoulder with her arm before walking back up the aisle to the front of the bus.

A few minutes later, after the bus had pulled back onto the road following the abrupt stop, the bus finally pulled into a small stop. Several buildings sat together, a small village. A sign above one building said General Store while a second building had a sign indicating it was a gas station. The bus pulled up to the gas station, ready to refuel for the final leg of the journey.

As soon as the bus stopped, students piled out of the cramped quarters. Ellie joined the queue, hoping for a quick snack and bathroom break. Ellie walked to the gas station restroom, then to the General Store for a quick snack, grabbing chips, a soda, and some candy bars to last through the rest of the drive. As she exited the General Store she heard a commotion in front of the building next door. Madame Richert stood in front of a pack of wolves conversing with a large man wearing nothing but sweatpants. She was talking fast and it appeared the man was in charge of the wolves behind them as they all kept looking at the woods behind them as the two spoke. Ellie couldn't hear what was being said, though the serious faces made her wish she could hear something. She cursed her luck at not having the keen wolf hearing for the first time in her life. 

"There's a pack of wolves threatening the town, they've been following us since we left." Elizabeth swung her head around to see who dared to be friendly to her. She looked into piercing green eyes.

"I'm Jake," the boy said.

"Ellie," Elizabeth responded.

"I know, we all know actually. You're the biggest news to happen to The Academy this century."

"Why?" Ellie asked.

"There's never been a student without a wolf until you."

Ellie looked at Jake in confusion, "Why did they change the rules now?"

"No one knows, it's why you've caused a stir. There are others being invited to The Academy this year too, other magical students without wolves, but it started with you. You've been on the roster for 7 years."

"How do you know that?" 

"My dad is in charge of student enrollment."

"Is that why they resent me?"

"Basically, yes."

Ellie looked around and saw Sarah, Jane, and Mark standing outside the gas station. Sarah was whispering furiously with Jane as they both glared in her direction. 

"I just want to go home," she whispered sadly, sure no one could hear her.

"The Academy is your home now," Jake replied with finality.

Elizabeth looked at Jake in surprise, then remembered she was among wolves and they could hear basically everything. 

"For two more years," Ellie replied, not willing to give in just yet.

Jake looked at her curiously. "Don't you know how The Academy works?"

Ellie shook her head, "My mom said I had to finish my high school years there. I'm planning to go to university far away from here." 

Jake looked at her with compassion, "The Academy is for high school and college. Next year you take an assessment exam to determine what career path you will pursue, then you continue in that course of study at The Academy."

"I can't go to university somewhere else?"

"No, the Council doesn't approve appeals for external universities."

"The Council?" Ellie asked in despair.

"The governing body. They are in charge of the laws and regulations for wolves. Do you know much about the wolf population at all?" Jake asked in disbelief.

Ellie shook her head. "I don't have a wolf, why would I?"

"Don't your parents though?"

"Yes, but they never talked about it once they realized I wasn't going to be part of that life."

Jake nodded his head. "Let's go back, the bus is about to leave. Don't worry about Mark, he'll leave you alone now." 

Ellie nodded slightly, "Thanks." 

She took a few steps in silence then turned to face Jake, "why are you helping me?"

"Don't you remember?"

"Remember what?"

Jake looked curiously at Ellie, trying to figure out what was going on in her head. He shook his head in dismissal, "Nothing." He continued toward the bus, climbing the stairs, leaving Ellie to stare after him in surprise. 

Ellie climbed back on the bus, avoiding Jake's gaze and finding her seat in the last row. She pulled out her chips, opened the bag, and put her headphones back in. Her mood hadn't improved much so she found a new classic audiobook. Ah, yes, there it was, Dickens always had a dreary narrative to fit her mood, a perfect fit following her upsetting realization that she would quite literally never escape the world of wolves. She turned the book on and stared out the window:

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...'