The Werewolf Chronicles: Shadow of the Moon

The Next Day

Jesse awoke five minute before his alarm went off. He groaned in annoyance. As he shifted around, trying to catch the last 5 minutes of his rest. His mind drifted off, and for the last five minutes of rest, he felt peaceful. When his alarm did go off, he rolled out of bed, feeling more rested than he did sleeping through the entire night.

    Sleepily, he made his way to use the bathroom and brush his teeth. He headed downstairs and cooked himself some pancakes. Sitting down at the dining table, he ate quickly. Afterwards, he headed back upstairs and packed his backpack and added another set of spare glasses. He was used to replacing his glasses, and since his father worked for the company that made them, they were usually free or on a large discount. 

    Jesse began to walk to school around 7:30, an hour before school started. The school was about four miles away, so he usually made it around 8:15, give or take. As he stepped out of his house, he could feel the cool breeze of autumn and was instantly comforted. He enjoyed mornings such as these.

    He walked to school and like he predicted, made it there at 8:15. Standing at the school's entrance was Trevor, who had his arms crossed and was leaning on the wall. Upon spotting him, Trevor walked over to him, glaring.

    "You left me on read. And to think, I went out of my way to text you good night too. How rude." he said, a smirk playing on his lips. Jesse gave him a hard look.

    "I was tired and very sore. Sue me." Jesse responded. Trevor just shook his head.

    "Well, let day two of the tour commence, my liege." Trevor said, now grinning like a fool. Jesse rolled his eyes and headed through the front gate. The school was a massive indoor building, with an indoor gymnasium attached to its left side. The school was surrounded by a 10 foot tall chain link fence with only a single gate that everyone funneled into.  

    "Oh, by the way, I was so interested in that mythology class you were telling me about, I dropped my science class and swapped over to it." Trevor explained as they walked to their lockers lining the walls. Jesse looked at him with a slightly annoyed face.

    "Oh, uhhh... why? And when?" Jesse responded, actively avoiding his gaze. Those eyes seem to haunt him, and he couldn't bear to look into them anymore. Trevor smiled.

    "It just sounded intriguing to me, that's all. No greater mystery than that. I switched it this morning. I arrived earlier than I originally wanted to." Trevor responded as if it was obvious on his reasoning. Jesse decided to drop it. Maybe that was all there was to it. As they grabbed the books they needed for class, the warning bell rang. Together, they headed to math class. 

    Jesse sat down at his usual spot, which was in the third row of seats. He pulled his notebook, pencil and textbook from his backpack and set them on his desk awkwardly. Trevor sat down, doing the same. Mr. Ashbury walked into class at exactly 8:30, like he usually did. And like usual, Jesse tuned him out 10 minutes into the lesson. 

     As he sat there daydreaming, he looked over and saw Trevor trying to get his attention. Jesse looked over at him curiously. He handed him a note discreetly. Jesse opened it and found a bunch of numbers for an equation. Below it, the words read ‘Can you solve this equation. Jesse scoffed and began to work on the problem. 

     It did not take long for him to realize that he had given him a fake problem. Instead, he had given him a code to decipher. The equation read: 9+71205+131207+31211919. Jesse stared at it for a while. He correlated the numbers to letters, until he smirked when he figured it out. ‘I hate math class.’ was the translation. Jesse looked over at Trevor, who was grinning at him.

     Jesse smiled back, grateful to Trevor for giving him a distraction. 

    After math class, Jesse walked Trevor to his next class, which they did not share. Jesse quickly headed to his next class, trying not to be late. He arrived in Economics class right as the bell rang. His teacher, Mrs. Yara gave him a disappointed look before diving into class.

    This class proved difficult for him, so he tried to pay attention as much as possible, without falling behind. The lecture seemed especially long. By the time the class ended, his hand was cramped and he felt drained. Walking out the door to the class, he was greeted by Cindy, his only real friend in the entire school. She smiled at him and waved. 

    "Oh, hey Cindy. Where were you yesterday?" Jesse asked, returning the smile. She shrugged.

    "I wasn't feeling well so my dad had me stay home for the day. I'm feeling better today though, so it's all good. What'd I miss?" she questioned innocently. Cindy was a short girl, no taller than 5'4. Jesse towered over her, which she constantly teased him about. She had pale white skin with brown eyes and brown hair.

    "You weren't feeling well huh. Sounds like you just didn't want to get out of bed." he winked at her playfully, which she ignored. "We got a new kid yesterday. I have to show him around everywhere for the next week." Jesse explained. Her eyes lit up.

    "Oooooohhhh, is he cute? I bet you're all hot and bothered by him aren't you?" she accused. His mind wandered to Trevor's eyes again. Shaking his head, he responded,

    "Absolutely not. He isn't my type." Jesse said, but his lie didn't go unnoticed as his ears turned red. Cindy laughed at him and began to walk to their next class, history. As they both approached, Jesse saw Trevor waiting for them just outside the classroom door. Jesse immediately looked away from him as Trevor waved.

    "Oh he is cute. You do have good taste, Jesse." she whispered to him. He nudged her with his elbow. Jesse had to admit, Trevor was extremely handsome. Even without knowing much about him, he could feel himself being drawn to him. 

    "Hey Jesse. And...." Trevor started as he looked at Cindy, his brow furrowed. He looked annoyed. Jesse looked at him, then at Cindy. Her face had changed and now she looked just as bothered as he did.

    "Cindy. Nice to meet you Trevor." Cindy said simply. Trevor nodded and opened the door for them both. Jesse gave them both a questioning look as they glared daggers at one another. Confused, Jesse walked into the classroom. Mrs. Burgundy smiled at the three of them as they entered. 

    Taking their seats, Jesse took out his textbook and began to silently read the current chapter they were on. Trevor and Cindy sat on opposite sides of the room from one another, ignoring each other's existence fervently. 

    As Jesse listened to his teacher, he wondered if the two of them had known each other somehow. He looked over at Cindy, who was buried in the textbook, as she usually was. She was taking notes without looking, one of her many handy skills. Jesse then turned his gaze over to Trevor, and froze.

    Trevor was staring at him again. The green eyes seemed to radiate an unnatural glow. Jesse was fixated on those terrifyingly beautiful eyes. He noticed something different about them. Underneath the dark shade of green, Jesse saw flecks of amber brown. This threw him off, the colors clashing, as if some sort of internal battle. Somehow managing to tear his gaze away, Jesse went back to listening to the teacher until class ended. 

    Cindy left the class in quite a hurry, not waiting for Jesse to catch up. Trevor walked over to Jesse and stared at the doorway.

    "What's wrong with her?" he questioned. Jesse turned to him, glaring.

    "Do you two know each other? Because you sure as hell acted like you did." Jesse asked, rather dejected. Trevor looked at him with a frustrated expression.

    "No I don't, I'm unsure what I did wrong to upset her so much. Maybe she's in love with you." he responded, snickering. Jesse narrowed his eyes, he could tell that Trevor was lying to him. 

    "Not a chance. And I don't like you either, for the record. So stop staring at me when I'm not looking." Jesse said. Before Trevor could respond, Jesse walked away quickly. It was about a minute later when he realized that they had the next class together now. He sighed, turning back to grab him.

    He found Trevor still standing just outside the entrance to history class, his brow furrowed in both confusion and irritation. Trevor looked surprised when Jesse returned. Grabbing him by the forearm, he drug him rather unceremoniously to Mythology. Jesse was excited. Today's lesson was supposed to be on Mimics, pesky creatures that take the form of an inanimate object. 

    As they walked inside, Jesse noticed that there were less people in the class than usual. He expected this however. People like to come and go in and out of the class often. With it being an extracurricular, and not a requirement, it was only popular with select people, such as Jesse.

    Mr. Ward, an extremely large, muscular man, built like a mountain, was attempting to get the class's attention. He looked more like a lumberjack than a teacher. He stood well over 6'0 tall with a big black beard. 

    "Good Morning class. Now I know today we were supposed to cover mimics. But, I found something you should all be much more interested in. It was stuffed in the back of my car underneath the seat." he pulled out a big book. The cover seemed to be made of black leather. Fur clung to the spine. Jesse stared at it, deeply interested. 

    "This is apparently a fictional history of Werewolves. Elusive creatures of the night." the teacher explained. Everyone now seemed to be very interested in what the teacher was saying. He began in detail about how Werewolves were created. They were humans, cursed with a sophisticated curse by a group of mages. 

    He then went on to explain the differences between born werewolves and cursed werewolves. Going into detail of how born Werewolves could transform without the full moon and can even partially shift. Cursed werewolves can transform at any time as well, but they have no control when the full moon is out and cannot partially shift.

    Their biggest weakness is cold iron, a rare metal that only appears in the forests of the fey children. While silver can hurt them, it cannot kill them outright, contrary to popular belief. They are the sworn enemy of vampires, who claim to be the more sophisticated race.

     Mr. Ward then went into detail about their hierarchy. At the very top was the Grand Alpha, the most powerful of the werewolves. He or she led all packs across the entire world. Below them were the Guardians, werewolves who were sworn to protect the werewolf race at any cost. There were only three at a time in existence. After them came the Alphas’. These were the pack leaders and the guiding hand of the packs they led. Following them were the Elders, Betas, Deltas and Omegas. 

    Jesse took notes as quickly as he could, completely engrossed in the lesson. He had forgotten about all the worries that had plagued him recently. As he was listening to Mr. Ward carry out his lecture, he imagined himself a warrior in the times of old, slaying mythical creatures and saving the prince. He smiled to himself at the thought. He then thought about what being a werewolf would be like. He tried to imagine himself as one, but it always turned out as a giant, ugly dog that wanted to eat people and tear them apart. He shuddered thinking about it. 

    "The last piece of information I will leave you all with before the bell rings is this." he cleared his throat as he looked down to read once again. "A werewolf, while posing as a human, can be spotted by the intensity of their eyes." Jesse froze, the pencil stopping in its movements across the notebook. Slowly, he looked up in the direction of Trevor. 

    Trevor was giving him a rather strange smile. Jesse gulped nervously.

    At the end of the school day, Jesse searched for Cindy, but she was nowhere to be found. Sighing out loud, he shouldered his backpack and tightened the straps, about to head home. 

    "Hey, Jesse!" he heard the familiar voice of Trevor call out. Pretending to ignore him, Jesse started walking away. He felt a hand grab him by the shoulder. "What, just going to ignore me?" Trevor asked. Jesse turned to look at him.

    "Sounds about right." Jesse responded.

    "What did I do?" Trevor questioned, looking confused. Jesse shook his head. 

    "Whatever went on with you and Cindy today. And now I can't find her. So unless you come out clean on what is going on with you two, we aren't speaking." Jesse said, dishing out an ultimatum. When Trevor hesitated, Jesse spun on his heels and walked away. Trevor was left there, his hand still outstretched, looking disappointed. 

    As Jesse exited the school grounds, he rounded the corner and ran into Andrew, colliding into him and knocking the guy to the ground as he stumbled back. 

    "What the hell?" Andrew said, then he looked up and saw Jesse, who already started backing away. "Oh well, well, well. If it isn't the little fairy. Where's your boyfriend at? Did he dump you after he realized how worthless you are?" Andrew taunted. "And no fag hag with you either. My, aren't you unpopular today."

    Jesse took another step back, and then another. He was terrified of Andrew, especially after yesterday. As he backed away, he saw in the corner of his eye, someone hopped over the fence that surrounded the school. The person landed on his feet behind Andrew. 

    "I guess you didn't learn your lesson yesterday, did you?" Trevor said, a smirk on his face. Even Jesse was relieved to see Trevor. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see Cindy there, smiling.

    "This punk bothering you again Jesse?" she asked him, her smile transforming into a glare directed at Andrew. Whatever confidence he had evaporated, and Andrew ran for it. Both Cindy and Trevor smiled at each other, nodding their heads. 

    "Thanks.... again." Jesse said shyly. Cindy turned to look at him.

    "Again?" she questioned. Jesse nodded, explaining what happened to him yesterday and how Trevor protected him. She turned her head to Trevor who just shrugged. She smiled at him.

    "Maybe you aren't all that bad. I'm sorry. You just looked like someone I used to know, is all." Cindy explained. Relief once again washed over Jesse. "Friends?" she asked Trevor.

    "Friends." he agreed. "Now, who's hungry. Let’s go out to Harold's Diner, my treat." he offered. Both Jesse and Cindy nodded in agreement and they all walked off together.