Aside from that morning's minor incident, the rest of the school day was uneventful. Ash had gotten over her embarrassment quickly and by lunch time, she had already allowed Celia to earn her forgiveness by buying her an extra plate of chicken wings.
As Celia and Ash used their hands to dig into their lunch, Isabelle looked at them, her face scrunched up and looking judgemental.
"What, do you want to take a picture so it lasts longer?" Celia asked, sarcastically.
"I know it's normal for you guys to eat like barbarians, but I'm still not used to seeing it up close." Isabelle said as she sliced delicately at her salad and chewed carefully.
"Come on, Izzy, we've seen you eat a burger. That's not exactly fine dining." Ash replied.
"Yes, but that's outside of school, in a restaurant that sells hamburgers. That's only appropriate, especially when I'm always outvoted by the two of you at dining choices," Isabelle said, primly.
"It's not about fine dining, Ash. It's about using tools like a human. Besides, I don't like to get my hands dirty."
"That's true. I mean, you still have trouble telling the difference between a mop and a broom. You probably use silk scarves as dish rags, am I right?" Celia said, gesturing lightly with a chicken wing.
"Celia Medina Aragon, I made that mistake ONE TIME and I have since learned the difference! You on the other hand, are still a barbarian who eats with her hands. What's your excuse?" Isabelle's pale face flushed pink with the exertion of raising her voice.
Isabelle had once tried to use a broom to clean up a spill in their dorm room because she did not know the difference between a mop and a broom. Celia and Ash had stared in shock as Isabelle tried to sweep the liquid away before they burst into raucous fits of laughter that ended up earning them a warning from the Dormitory Supervisor.
The girls loved to tease each other about their perceived differences. Having been friends for a little over two years they had been around each other long enough to have many embarrassing incidents from their social class collisions.
Isabelle smirked at her friends and speared another lettuce leaf with her fork.
As Ash reached for another chicken wing, she spoke to Isabelle, diverting her attention.
"I like eating meat, Izzy. Especially meat with bones. Something about it is really satisfying for me. I mean, I like a lot of meat, but bone-in meat is the best. Probably because we didn't get to eat much meat at the orphanage or maybe because I'm Asian." Ash shrugged and then closed her teeth around the chicken wing in her hand, tearing off a strip of tender meat.
"You're only half-Asian, darling. Besides, the Chang sisters don't eat chicken wings and they're fully Chinese."
"My Lady, I bet they eat pork trotters and chicken feet at home. It's an Asian stereotype that I am willing to back with research and evidence. Observe this, for one." Ash gestured to herself as she chomped down on another chicken wing.
She really did love to eat meat, and she sometimes wondered if her teeth would be strong enough to crack bones. She never tried it though: she wasn't sure the orphanage would cover her dental expenses.
Celia cleaned her fingers with a wet wipe. "Well, I'm trailer trash, so that's my excuse for liking fried food that's best served in a takeout bucket." Her gray-green eyes flashed as she turned her gaze from Ash, who was sitting beside her, to another person a few tables away. Isabelle turned around, following Celia's gaze.
Hunter Guzman was sitting with his friends, and he was also eating chicken wings with his hands.
"Well, it seems that you and Hunter have similar tastes. He's not Asian, darling, but perhaps you can include him in your bone-in meat research?" Isabelle teased.
"I have a survey question you could ask him, Ashy," Celia said, her eyes sparkling with devilry. "Mr. Guzman, would you like to have your bone IN Ashy's meat?"
Celia and Isabelle shrieked with laughter at the nasty joke and high-fived each other across the table.
"You guys are disgusting!" Ash pouted.
"Girl, you're drooling right now. You're the one who's disgusting!" Celia snapped back. Isabelle and Celia started laughing again.
Ash made a face at her friends and then looked away, pretending to ignore them.
She turned her gaze toward Hunter, and suddenly she felt something powerful move inside her chest. As she watched him use his teeth to rip the meat off the chicken bones, she felt goosebumps rise all over her skin. True, she had a crush on him. She'd felt butterflies in her stomach the first time she'd seen him. But this new feeling wasn't just giddiness anymore, it felt hot and urgent.
For a second, she saw a vision of herself walking toward his table and kissing him full on the mouth in front of everyone.
Hunter must have felt her staring at him, because he met her gaze. As they locked eyes, she felt a jolt of blue lightning go through her body. She didn't know what Hunter was thinking or feeling, but he held her gaze and didn't even blink. Ash's heart was beating so hard she could almost hear the rhythm in her ears. And then she saw the tip of his tongue flick out of the corner of his mouth to lick at his sauce-stained lips. Ash took a sharp intake of breath.
"Hey!"
Ash started as Celia clapped her on the back. The blue lightning that had coursed through her body fizzed out and died.
"Girl, get your hormones in check. You looked like you were ready to jump his bones." Celia looked at Ash incredulously. She had never seen her friend so intense before.
"I think we better take her to splash some water on her face. I think our Meat-Eater here was just about to be a Man-Eater."
Ash hung her head, embarrassed. She'd never had an urge like that overtake her before.
"Sorry, guys. That was weird. I was having a moment."
As the group got up to leave the cafeteria, Ash stole another glance at Hunter. He wasn't looking at her. He was talking to his friends and laughing. He didn't even look in her direction.
Ash shook her head, bewildered at her own strong emotions. Hunter wasn't even her friend, he was too popular for that. Maybe it was just her, and the electric moment between them never happened at all.
"Hey, I'm going for a run later, are you coming along?" Celia asked the girls after class."I have a fencing class later, but if you go before that I can do a quick jog around the field with you." Isabelle said."Uh, yeah, I'll go too. My back's been hurting all day. Maybe I can jog it out, stretch my muscles.""I don't know, Boots. If it hurts, maybe you should go lie down. It's a little cold out."The girls were walking back to the dorms to put their things away. The sun was still out, but the wind was cold.Ash pressed her thumb to her lower back and traced along her spine, massaging the sore spots. She'd felt a slight pain in her back for days now, but today the pain was sharp. Not only that, she had felt her joints aching all day. It was like someone had thrown her body in a washing machine and set it on high."Maybe she just needs a massage. I bet she'd like a Swedish massage, wouldn't she, Cece?" Isabelle said playfully, looking to Ce
As soon as Ash got inside her dorm room, she dropped her book bag on the floor, tossed off her overcoat, stepped out of her leather school shoes, and flopped face down on her bed. She didn't even bother to change out of her uniform.Celia looked on from the doorway. She shrugged and quietly picked up her friend's discarded book bag, setting it on the floor beside Ash's study table. She balled up the crumpled coat and set it on top of Ash's book bag. Then, she put away both of their shoes, nudging aside Ash's strewn pair with her socked feet, and put her own book bag on her own study table, just beside Ash's.Celia quietly changed into a pink velour Adidas Originals tracksuit and put on a pair of pure white Adidas trainers with gold accents. She knew that some of the students made fun of her for being noveau riche and ragged on her alleged lack of good taste, so she made it a point to double down on her flashy street-style aesthetic at school. She knew what she liked an
Hunter had noticed the change in the color of Ash's ears as he passed by the girls that morning, just before class. He had been genuinely amused by Celia's accidental insult of her friend's mental capacity (Celia had accidentally called Ash "retarded" earlier that day) but he felt a little guilty that Ash had been embarrassed by it. He had no doubt that Ash was smart. And it wasn't because she was a scholar: the SBA scholarship's only conditions were that she didn't violate any of the Academy's rules and that she pass all of her classes.Despite that minimum standard, Ash had made the effort to perform well in school. She maintained her academic standing in the upper 10 percent of their level every year since she started at Saint Blaise's Academy. While she didn't exactly top the class, she always ranked third or fourth at every term and received minor commendations at the end of every school year.Hunter admired Ash's tenacity. She didn't have the advantage of exclusi
Hunter bounded swiftly into the woods. He had been aching to shift since lunch time: he had felt the surge of animal energy coursing through his veins and the wolf's hunger had been clawing away at his insides. He needed to channel his urges into a hunt, otherwise, he would have gone crazy.When he was far enough away from the fence, he chose a safe spot under a tree. The half moon was cradled in the tree's branches as he looked up: he deemed it a good sign.He let go of his human mind and began to shift. His spine lengthened and his muscles grew to accommodate the increase in his height. From his human frame of nearly 6 feet tall, he grew larger to an impressive 8 feet from his head to his new hind legs. His bones shifted all over his body and his muscles and tissues expanded to cover them, all the while his organs moved, resizing and reorganizing inside him. As the surface of his body increased, his leather costume was swallowed into the expanding mass of his new ski
Hunter took stock of the tattered uniform in front of him. He knew from the scent who it belonged to, but it didn't really give him much to go on.Thinking was hard. It was especially hard when the aroma of a fresh kill was still wafting in the air and the enticing scent of a possible mate was within immediate mating vicinity.Hunter left the pile of tatters and returned to the deer carcass. He ate the leg that Ash had dropped, fed on the entrails, and tore apart the deer's front legs. When he had finished with his meal, it looked like a pack of wolves had descended on the poor deer. He would leave the rest for the scavengers to find.If a forest ranger were to pass by, the carcass would just be another hard piece of evidence for predation in action: another prey animal succumbing to a carnivore, just another day in the wild with Mother Nature.He turned his attention back to Ash, eager to sniff at the new werewolf up close.When he found her, she
"You know, I saw you at lunch today, and---"Hunter cut himself off mid-sentence: he noticed Ash's eyelids were twitching. It looked like she was about to come to.[Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,] he thought, panic rising in his chest.She was still haphazardly dressed and propped up on his knee. He would have wanted to put a modest distance between their bodies (making room for the Holy Spirit, as the teachers called it) especially considering her state of undress, but that would have meant putting her back on the cold ground.He settled for cradling her shoulders: it seemed like a reassuring thing to do for her (human contact after passing out and all that) but more importantly for him, he could at least keep her from slapping his face the moment she opened her eyes."Heeeey, Boots. Wassup?" he said.[Wassup? Where the hell did that come from? That sounded so lame!] he thought to himself, cringing inwardly.Ash slowly open
[The following is Ash's interpretation of what happened on the night of her first transformation]Tonight, I was in the woods with the Prince of the Forest. The palace was cold and the deer that drew my carriage ran away because his stomach hurt. I think he ate too many blueberries.The Prince arrived after dinner when they had taken all the food away. The fairies were playing a song when he asked me to dance with him, but the music wasn't right so I asked him to wait until it changed.The Prince gave me his tunic to wear because he had chosen me as his betrothed. I was very happy. I had never been chosen before. Then he asked me if I knew my way home so we could tell my parents of our engagement. But I couldn't tell the Prince that my parents were gone. It would have made him very sad, and I did not want to see him sad.I was only sad that we never got to dance.I picked up my garters from where I dropped them: if human things
Ash woke up the next morning chilled to the bone and with a splitting headache. Her night had been heavy with mixed up dreams that made no sense: the dreams just seemed to jump from one to the other, each one more fantastical than the last. She didn't remember leaving the room to eat, but for some reason, she wasn't hungry.She remembered falling into her bed right after school the day before, and between then and now, she did not remember ever having taken her clothes off. So she was definitely surprised at waking up naked under her thick blanket."Aaaah!" Ash shrieked loudly."Well, look who's awake."Celia had been standing over her friend for the last 15 minutes, just waiting for her to open her eyes. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was staring menacingly into the bottom bunk where Ash was sleeping."Are you gonna tell me where you were last night or do I have to torture it out of you? I'm in a very torturing mood this morning, so y