a Witch's Wolf

    Willow was the kind of lonely that no one really noticed.  She was always so busy.  With her nose buried in a book, she hadn’t made any friends since coming back to Stone Hill and just found it easier not to try.   It had been months and people still called her the new girl.  The new girl with the books, actually.  Sometimes she wore her blue light glasses just to hide more of her face.  She reasoned that it protected her when she was using her phone or computer but that was really just a bonus.     More than being bored and lonely, she hated to stand out.  It was probably her biggest fear and why overhearing kids once say that "no one would recognize her without her books" didn't hurt her feelings at all.  It made her feel safer. Being able to blend into the walls was her daily challenge.  She often debated whether to keep the books up to hide behind or put them away and disappear.  The books usually won and Willow would admit out loud and often that she was a coward.  "Coward"  She would whisper to herself a lot too.     She'd been born in the House on Stone Hill, like her mother and her mother's mother and so on.  It had been in their family for generations, she'd heard all the stories of the long line of women who'd been born and lived in this house but she'd spent her life traveling the world with her parents instead.  She could read more languages than she could speak and had curled up in some of the most prestigious and beautiful libraries in the world.     Her father was a historical researcher by hobby and career.  He thought of himself as a treasure hunter but the majority of his exploring was really done in literature.  He just had to travel around the globe to get to it.  He was constantly publishing books and articles about his findings and his opinions, people wanted to hear what he had to say.  He was considered an expert in a lot of areas so he traveled, he wrote, he gave lectures and book signings.  Willow had already been to more museums and universities than most adults in their lifetimes and had sat around the table with some of the world's greatest minds while they laughed and drank and debated ideas with her parents.      Her mother was no wallflower.  Unlike Willow, she couldn't blend in if she tried to, she glowed with life.  She made bright red lipstick look natural.  She was stunningly beautiful and her voice was soft and melodic.  People leaned in to hear what she had to say and hung on her every word.  That would have terrified Willow but it made her mother come alive.  She did not love books, she didn't really even read them but she understood people.  She watched them, studied everything about them.  She always seemed to know what to say.  She was an artist and a passionate humanitarian and went on every adventure with her husband as if she were driving.  She kept her camera and sketch pad close at hand, selling her pictures right on the street or to galleries and collectors along the way.  Where Willow was her father's pride and responsibility, her mother was like the ocean waves along the shore, strong powerful and mesmerizing.  Everyone around her was just caught up in her force but Willow was... well, just Willow.     She did get to travel the world but she actually spent most of her time with a nanny or tutor.  She shared her father's love for reading but not adventure so he often let her stay in their rooms or hotel.  He hated to see her suffer and having to talk to people or being the center of attention looked painful for her.  Her mother tried to coax her into doing more, believing she just needed to challenge herself.  She'd arrange outings and play dates with the children of people she knew but Willow never seemed to enjoy it and had never made a real friend that way.  Her only friends were found in the pages of her favorite books and whenever she was plopped down in the middle of real people, none had ever tried any harder to make friends than she had.       When her grandmother got sick, they hurried back to Stone Hill and realized it was way too much house for Grams alone, even with Mrs. Hall the housekeeper or Mr. Murphy who took care of the grounds.  It was built for a whole staff of servants, the kitchen and staff quarters long abandoned were a favorite exploring site when she was young.  Every Holiday and Summer visit she’d sneak through all the hidden doors that let the servants pass through the house unnoticed.  If she’d ever had any real friends, cousins or a brother or sister to play with, they would have had the best games of hide-and-seek!  It was a huge, empty, long forgotten house of shadows.  Willow had never felt more at home anywhere in the entire world.     Hoping they moved back for good she thought she’d finally have time with her parents, to be a normal family but within a short time, they were itchy to be off again on some far away adventure.  Willow was quite happy to stay with Grams this time and they hoped going to a real school with kids her own age might help her find common interest and friendships but when she wasn’t at school or lost in a book, she was elbow deep in the garden.  The smell of the earth and being able to watch plants long enough to take root and grow was one of the most beautiful things she could ever imagine.  She never wanted to leave again and she certainly didn't want to give any of this time up to spend with people.     A few months into her sophomore year and she was finally comfortable as long as she kept to the shadows and out of the way.  She cut through the woods on her way to and from school every day and avoided the crowded hallway and parking lot that everyone gathered in.  She found so many interesting plants and roots along her walks.  She found every book in the library on mushrooms and moss that she could check out and had a stack of them in her arms.  She was hoping to study or gather as much as she could before winter and was looking up a strange mushroom she found that morning while she walked to her locker.  Fumbling around for it in her pocket, she wasn't paying attention for a second and slammed into the wall… or at least what felt like a wall.  The book she was reading was pushed into her face, blocking her view while everything else went tumbling to the ground around her.  She might have tumbled too but was suddenly lifted off the ground, an arm wrapped tight around her and sucked all the air out of the room.  She tried to pull the book out of her face but her arms were pinned.  Still trying to figure out what had just happened she was dropped back down and let go.  Her face felt burning hot before her whole body went icy cold.     "Watch out."  Was all she heard as she lowered her book down and watched the back of his head and shoulders weave around the crowded hall.  Noah Riley, she thought and shivered.  She knew that musky, woodsy scent of him would stay with her all day now.  He was big and tall, dark and dangerous so she’d avoided him and his friends at all cost.  Now she had to pretend she hadn't felt his heart beating against her chest even though the rhythm of it played over and over in her head, well after the last bell rang and she made the long walk home.