Chapter I
Between detention and playing football, he would’ve rather been playing football.
But of course, Mr. Radin had to catch HIM do something wrong, or just slightly inappropriate in class. Not Eric, or Jack, or even Tony. Just him. So what if a few spit-balls flew around? It’s not like anyone got seriously injured! Though, it was quite funny when Mr. Radin had that... Nevermind. Not that it mattered to him now. What did matter in the end was how Mr. Radin said, “Mr. Liam Aer, please stay after school. You are excused from your after-school activities. We are going to have a little chat.” Oh, the attack now, question later people. He silently betted that Mr. Radin didn’t even have a clue of what really happened. Which was kind of sad. How that one teacher hated him.
They did, indeed, have a chat. One that lasted about five seconds long.
“After-school detention for one hour, no if’s, but’s, or or’s. Understood?”
Right then, he remembered how Alison, who was Tony’s older sister and usually called Ali, dropped Tony off at Liam’s place the day before school started. But before she left, she had to say, “Liam, Mr. Radin’s gonna hate on you. Haters gonna hate. Watch out.” Performing the “I’m watching you closely sign,” she sauntered back to her car and drove off. She had no idea how right she was. Or maybe she did.
So, there he was, after the last bell for school rang on the second day of school, sitting in the almost empty classroom, glaring at the ignorant Mr. Radin with agitated blue-green eyes. At least he lasted about a day and a half without getting a detention! Which is probably a world record for him with Mr. Radin. He had to stay there, seated and silent, for an hour, and only about 10 minutes had gone by. Probably not even.
He then turned his attention to the clock. It seemed to mock him. While the hour, minute, and second hand were constantly moving, he was sitting down and just fidgeting. It felt like there were little points were stabbing in his legs everytime he shifted them. Pins and needles already? he complained to himself. How he wished to be outside. He didn’t have ADHD or anything, but he was pretty close. Wishing that he could just run at that very moment, he knew that he couldn’t show any weakness or even slightly annoy this beast four rows in front of him.
He swiveled his head around to look out of the large glass windows to his left, fast enough so he didn’t feel stupid or impatient, but slow enough to not catch Mr. Radin’s attention. The leaves were swirling around tirelessly, with the breeze that was carrying them gently brushing the almost bare trees. Under those trees, there was a pair of lovers eating each others faces off. Probably Todd and Marianna. Moving on... His eyes wandered over to the forest. He saw a blur there. He knew his eyesight was not the best, so he squinted. No. They were much more than a blur. Are they fighting? What are they doing? I have to tell Mr. Radin! Wait, what?! One of them has a... He never finished the thought.
He didn’t even remember it.
The only memory he had was glass shattering.
Chapter II
He woke up a couple hours later. He was in a seemingly sanitary white room with a cast around his leg.
Somewhere, a high pitched voice said, “Oh good. You’re awake. You know you’re lucky your teacher isn’t going to punish you. Even luckier that you survived that two story fall. And you survived the glass slivers raining down on you... Its a wonder you didn’t get chopped into little tiny pieces. Oh yeah. Don’t forget that you went through all that and only had a broken leg and a few red marks. You are one REALLY lucky kid, you know that? You know what happened when I landed weirdly from a bad throw in cheerleading? I broke all of my bones. Can’t ever cheerlead again. I got some advice. Ya wanna know what? Don’t push your luck, cos one day, you’ll find that you ran out of it and wish for some more, but you won’t cos you won’t be lucky enough!”
Groggily, he sat up in bed and was rewarded by just being pushed down again.
“Nuh uh uh! Not so fast mister! You gotta rest!”
Liam gave up and stayed down. It wasn’t like he even had the energy to do anything at that time. He probably would’ve lost to an ant if he had to fight one, which he luckily didn’t. The doctor or nurse or whoever she was handed him a water bottle, so he won’t “dry up like a desert”. Then, she left.
He sat there, waiting. Waiting for what, he didn’t know.
Waiting.
Just waiting.
Chapter IV
His normal routine began again. That day, the sky was a clear azure blue with a few straggler clouds. The sun was shining brightly, illuminating the red, orange, gold, and brown leaves so they seemed to have been glowing. The leaves that blew onto the large parking lot and into his way by the playful wind were crunching against his shoes. Off in one corner, the seniors were hiding, plotting against, or rather “intensely studying” as they called it, the freshmen. Just another typical, but very beautiful, fall day. Hope I’m not next, he thought. Especially with this leg... He looked at his bad leg. It was healed, but each step raised his pain, and annoyance, meter a little bit.
Just then, something attacked him from behind, grabbing ahold his backpack and almost making him trip backwards.
Liam lashed out.
“Ow! What was that for? Yeesh, man. Chill.”
Liam turned around and saw Eric hunched over and clutching his stomach.
“You’re strong for one that just recovered, ya know? Geez, that felt like being kicked by a horse! Lucky you didn’t get my diaphragm or else I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Sheesh. Well, anyways, man, how’ve you been?”
“Good, I guess, considering that ‘I’m lucky my teacher isn’t going to punish me. Even luckier that I survived that two story fall. And I survived the glass slivers raining down on me. Its a wonder I didn’t get chopped into little tiny pieces. Oh yeah. Don’t forget that I went through all that and only had a broken leg and a few red marks,’” he mocked the nurse’s words with a scrunched up face.
“What?”
“The nurse.”
“What...?” Eric’s eyes lit up like there was a switch for a lightbulb behind his eyes and someone flicked it on. He seemed to have forgotten all about the blow he just received.
“S-seriously? You know what? Nevermind... Stop getting all excited!” His eyebrows became two black lines slanting away from the bridge of his nose and it seemed like if he opened his eyes any wider, his eyeballs would fall out. He raised his arms up for emphasis in a “seriously-dude-what-are-you-doing” way. Eric became brighter than Rudolph’s nose.
“Okay, okay...” Eric looked away.
Feeling just a teeny bit awkward, Liam decided to continue the conversation as if nothing happened, so Eric wouldn’t look like a complete idiot. “So, what about you. How have you been? Oh, and um... Sorry I punched you when you attacked me,” he accused. “I’m just... I dunno, jumpy?”
“I’m... I dunno... Okay? Ish. Ow.” He winced. “Man, you’re more than jumpy, you’re a big bad wolf right now! Arouu! You leap at your prey and you hurt them enough for them to be in great pain but not enough to have an excuse to go home and play video games all day while shoving chips and popcorn and the like in their mouths. You’re cruel man.”
Liam tried appearing as innocent as he was physically possible. “Do you want me to send you home to play video games and eat your snacks?”
“NO!”
“Then lets... Hmm... Let’s be a pack and face the ‘terrifying’ forest of school!” Smirking, he began limping along, and Eric, who was bent over like a boomerang, hobbled after him. As he went along, a bunch of his other friends and a few of his teachers welcomed him back and playfully laughed at Eric for the earlier incident. The racket the high schoolers were making eventually died down to complete silence.
Soon after all of the high schoolers had went to class, the keen cry of a wolf resounded in the air, but everyone in the school seemed to either ignore it or not even hear it. No one seemed worried at all. No one, of course, except for Liam.
Chapter V
The noise had rose and fell quickly, but it had clanged around Liam’s head for the rest of the day like alarm bells. At first he thought it was a wolf’s howl, but then he thought he heard words coming out of the sound. Now, he wasn’t sure what it was. Memory dulled the moment to a distant reflection. The howl seemed to be a mixture of both a wolf cry and human speech. Must be my imagination, he had thought, ‘cause no one had seemed worried at all. Who wouldn’t be scared of a wolf near the school? Wolves don’t live here. And plus, wolves can’t talk... He had calmed a little bit when he thought that, but then he remembered the words coming from the howl...
Come to us now,
You are not alone.
Bend down and bow,
Bow down to the wolf throne.
Our kind is dying,
And with it our king.
If you hear me crying,
Turn to me and sing:
Long live the wolves,
Long live the king,
Long live the wild that lets us free,
And last but not least,
Long live our Lady.
The Lady of the Hunt,
The Lady of the Moon,
The Great Lady.
The Pack is One,
And One is All.
Those words. He knew that he had heard them before. As the last bell of the school day rang, he remembered.
He shivered at the thought.
The last two stanzas were the same two stanzas that he had heard in a dream before.
The dream that came to him the night before he jumped out of that window.
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These were the only chapters I've revised. I might change some things in here.
Between detention and playing football, he would’ve rather been playing football.
But of course, Mr. Radin had to catch HIM do something wrong, or just slightly inappropriate in class. Not Eric, or Jack, or even Tony. Just him. So what if a few spit-balls flew around? It’s not like anyone got seriously injured! Though, it was quite funny when Mr. Radin had that... Nevermind. Not that it mattered to him now. What did matter in the end was how Mr. Radin said, “Mr. Liam Aer, please stay after school. You are excused from your after-school activities. We are going to have a little chat.” Oh, the attack now, question later people. He silently betted that Mr. Radin didn’t even have a clue of what really happened. Which was kind of sad. How that one teacher hated him.
They did, indeed, have a chat. One that lasted about five seconds long.
“After-school detention for one hour, no if’s, but’s, or or’s. Understood?”
Right then, he remembered how Alison, who was Tony’s older sister and usually called Ali, dropped Tony off at Liam’s place the day before school started. But before she left, she had to say, “Liam, Mr. Radin’s gonna hate on you. Haters gonna hate. Watch out.” Performing the “I’m watching you closely sign,” she sauntered back to her car and drove off. She had no idea how right she was. Or maybe she did.
So, there he was, after the last bell for school rang on the second day of school, sitting in the almost empty classroom, glaring at the ignorant Mr. Radin with agitated blue-green eyes. At least he lasted about a day and a half without getting a detention! Which is probably a world record for him with Mr. Radin. He had to stay there, seated and silent, for an hour, and only about 10 minutes had gone by. Probably not even.
He then turned his attention to the clock. It seemed to mock him. While the hour, minute, and second hand were constantly moving, he was sitting down and just fidgeting. It felt like there were little points were stabbing in his legs everytime he shifted them. Pins and needles already? he complained to himself. How he wished to be outside. He didn’t have ADHD or anything, but he was pretty close. Wishing that he could just run at that very moment, he knew that he couldn’t show any weakness or even slightly annoy this beast four rows in front of him.
He swiveled his head around to look out of the large glass windows to his left, fast enough so he didn’t feel stupid or impatient, but slow enough to not catch Mr. Radin’s attention. The leaves were swirling around tirelessly, with the breeze that was carrying them gently brushing the almost bare trees. Under those trees, there was a pair of lovers eating each others faces off. Probably Todd and Marianna. Moving on... His eyes wandered over to the forest. He saw a blur there. He knew his eyesight was not the best, so he squinted. No. They were much more than a blur. Are they fighting? What are they doing? I have to tell Mr. Radin! Wait, what?! One of them has a... He never finished the thought.
He didn’t even remember it.
The only memory he had was glass shattering.
Chapter II
He woke up a couple hours later. He was in a seemingly sanitary white room with a cast around his leg.
Somewhere, a high pitched voice said, “Oh good. You’re awake. You know you’re lucky your teacher isn’t going to punish you. Even luckier that you survived that two story fall. And you survived the glass slivers raining down on you... Its a wonder you didn’t get chopped into little tiny pieces. Oh yeah. Don’t forget that you went through all that and only had a broken leg and a few red marks. You are one REALLY lucky kid, you know that? You know what happened when I landed weirdly from a bad throw in cheerleading? I broke all of my bones. Can’t ever cheerlead again. I got some advice. Ya wanna know what? Don’t push your luck, cos one day, you’ll find that you ran out of it and wish for some more, but you won’t cos you won’t be lucky enough!”
Groggily, he sat up in bed and was rewarded by just being pushed down again.
“Nuh uh uh! Not so fast mister! You gotta rest!”
Liam gave up and stayed down. It wasn’t like he even had the energy to do anything at that time. He probably would’ve lost to an ant if he had to fight one, which he luckily didn’t. The doctor or nurse or whoever she was handed him a water bottle, so he won’t “dry up like a desert”. Then, she left.
He sat there, waiting. Waiting for what, he didn’t know.
Waiting.
Just waiting.
Chapter IV
His normal routine began again. That day, the sky was a clear azure blue with a few straggler clouds. The sun was shining brightly, illuminating the red, orange, gold, and brown leaves so they seemed to have been glowing. The leaves that blew onto the large parking lot and into his way by the playful wind were crunching against his shoes. Off in one corner, the seniors were hiding, plotting against, or rather “intensely studying” as they called it, the freshmen. Just another typical, but very beautiful, fall day. Hope I’m not next, he thought. Especially with this leg... He looked at his bad leg. It was healed, but each step raised his pain, and annoyance, meter a little bit.
Just then, something attacked him from behind, grabbing ahold his backpack and almost making him trip backwards.
Liam lashed out.
“Ow! What was that for? Yeesh, man. Chill.”
Liam turned around and saw Eric hunched over and clutching his stomach.
“You’re strong for one that just recovered, ya know? Geez, that felt like being kicked by a horse! Lucky you didn’t get my diaphragm or else I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Sheesh. Well, anyways, man, how’ve you been?”
“Good, I guess, considering that ‘I’m lucky my teacher isn’t going to punish me. Even luckier that I survived that two story fall. And I survived the glass slivers raining down on me. Its a wonder I didn’t get chopped into little tiny pieces. Oh yeah. Don’t forget that I went through all that and only had a broken leg and a few red marks,’” he mocked the nurse’s words with a scrunched up face.
“What?”
“The nurse.”
“What...?” Eric’s eyes lit up like there was a switch for a lightbulb behind his eyes and someone flicked it on. He seemed to have forgotten all about the blow he just received.
“S-seriously? You know what? Nevermind... Stop getting all excited!” His eyebrows became two black lines slanting away from the bridge of his nose and it seemed like if he opened his eyes any wider, his eyeballs would fall out. He raised his arms up for emphasis in a “seriously-dude-what-are-you-doing” way. Eric became brighter than Rudolph’s nose.
“Okay, okay...” Eric looked away.
Feeling just a teeny bit awkward, Liam decided to continue the conversation as if nothing happened, so Eric wouldn’t look like a complete idiot. “So, what about you. How have you been? Oh, and um... Sorry I punched you when you attacked me,” he accused. “I’m just... I dunno, jumpy?”
“I’m... I dunno... Okay? Ish. Ow.” He winced. “Man, you’re more than jumpy, you’re a big bad wolf right now! Arouu! You leap at your prey and you hurt them enough for them to be in great pain but not enough to have an excuse to go home and play video games all day while shoving chips and popcorn and the like in their mouths. You’re cruel man.”
Liam tried appearing as innocent as he was physically possible. “Do you want me to send you home to play video games and eat your snacks?”
“NO!”
“Then lets... Hmm... Let’s be a pack and face the ‘terrifying’ forest of school!” Smirking, he began limping along, and Eric, who was bent over like a boomerang, hobbled after him. As he went along, a bunch of his other friends and a few of his teachers welcomed him back and playfully laughed at Eric for the earlier incident. The racket the high schoolers were making eventually died down to complete silence.
Soon after all of the high schoolers had went to class, the keen cry of a wolf resounded in the air, but everyone in the school seemed to either ignore it or not even hear it. No one seemed worried at all. No one, of course, except for Liam.
Chapter V
The noise had rose and fell quickly, but it had clanged around Liam’s head for the rest of the day like alarm bells. At first he thought it was a wolf’s howl, but then he thought he heard words coming out of the sound. Now, he wasn’t sure what it was. Memory dulled the moment to a distant reflection. The howl seemed to be a mixture of both a wolf cry and human speech. Must be my imagination, he had thought, ‘cause no one had seemed worried at all. Who wouldn’t be scared of a wolf near the school? Wolves don’t live here. And plus, wolves can’t talk... He had calmed a little bit when he thought that, but then he remembered the words coming from the howl...
Come to us now,
You are not alone.
Bend down and bow,
Bow down to the wolf throne.
Our kind is dying,
And with it our king.
If you hear me crying,
Turn to me and sing:
Long live the wolves,
Long live the king,
Long live the wild that lets us free,
And last but not least,
Long live our Lady.
The Lady of the Hunt,
The Lady of the Moon,
The Great Lady.
The Pack is One,
And One is All.
Those words. He knew that he had heard them before. As the last bell of the school day rang, he remembered.
He shivered at the thought.
The last two stanzas were the same two stanzas that he had heard in a dream before.
The dream that came to him the night before he jumped out of that window.
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
These were the only chapters I've revised. I might change some things in here.