Howl

  Chapter 6 – Stones and Sticks

  I saw the Wolf Point High coming into view and began walking a little bit faster, happy for a familiar scene. Right away I noticed a few of my friends standing around in the school parking lot. Christopher and I turned the corner and Scarlet came running up to me wearing her usual huge smile. “Halle!” Scarlet reached us and came to a jumping stop.

  Both Chris and I stopped; he leaned over towards me and said, “I’ll see you later.” Then he walked away.

  “Yeah, you too.” I quickly threw up my hand to give him a lazy wave.

  Scarlet turned towards me taking on a serious and concerned tone, “How are you feeling?”

  I nodded dramatically, avoiding eye contact. “Better. I’m sorry for leaving so suddenly last night, I really wanted to stay.” The images from last night flew through my mind, arriving there perfectly unknowing, seeing everyone there having fun and talking, then disappearing into the forest with Chris and never coming back the same way.

  “It’s alright, thanks for trying to come anyways. We all admire your spirit.” Scarlet turned around and started to walk back, but quickly turned back to me. “Where’s your backpack?”

  “Oh.” I looked back as if just now noticing I didn’t have my backpack. “I must have forgotten it. I’m so tired; I was up really late last night.”

  “Oh well, just stay close to me and you’ll survive.”

  I started walking towards the school. I felt a slight bit over dressed for school with my party clothes still on. But, I was just happy that I decided to wear jeans.

  “So, how’s Chris? You guys walked to school together.” Scarlet walked a little bit quicker.

  “Yeah, apparently he lives right down the street.”

  “Lucky you,” she said with her little “valley girl” accent. “I don’t have any cuties down my road, just old fogies.”

  I gave a weak titter. “Well you can come over sometime, maybe he’ll do yard work and we’ll sit in the street inconspicuously and watch him.”

  Scarlet snorted with a fit of laughter, doubling over slightly before regaining herself. “Can you see his property from yours?”

  “Only at the very, very end,” I said honestly. “Oh, I got my vision back.” I grabbed Scarlet’s arm and shook it jokingly. “You’re in color!”

  Scarlet let loose an un-entertained laugh. “That’s good news.”

  “Yeah—” the school bell rang startling me.

  “Time for class,” Scarlet said dragging me into a classroom; I didn’t realize we made it there already.

  The classroom was already mostly filled by the time we entered except for a few seats near the back of the class, looks like that would be where we would be sitting today. English class, it wasn’t one of the worst ones, but it certainly wasn’t one of the best. I did excel at English, but I found it lame and I knew I would end up doodling in my notebook by the end of the class out of desperation for trying to keep my brain cells fully intact. Then I remembered, I didn’t have my notebook with me, which meant I would have to resort to letting those brain cells fry after all.

  Just as Scarlet and I took a seat the teacher came through the door and the class began. I leaned over towards Scarlet and whispered, “I should have just taken today off.”

  “Yeah, I think I caught what you had.” Scarlet gave a couple of fake coughs.

  I snickered and sunk down lower in my chair.