"Mom, Dad, I think you've met everyone but Sara." Calvin gestured to the blonde girl sitting on the bleachers still glaring at Calvin. "Sara, this is my family."
Sara nodded in their general direction and sort of softened her glare as she did so. It was much better than Calvin had expected. Sara tended to lash out at strangers to make certain she had made a poor first impression, that way she would know for sure that these new people would never talk to her again.
"Ooh, Sara, that's a pretty name! And she's a very pretty girl too." Calvin's mother nudged him with her elbow conspiratorially without lowering her volume.
Calvin rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mom, we all know you think I should date all the girls."
"How do you know Callie?" Mom asked as she sat down next to Sara.
Sara did not like to speak and when forced to by direct questions she would either leave quickly or answer with as few words as possible in a dry monotone. She shot Calvin a sharp glance to let him know that she blamed him for this as well as Logan's earlier flirting and that he would pay dearly for both offenses. "Calvin killed my evil stepfather and now I'm indebted to him forever."
For once Calvin's mother was speechless, but his father snickered at what he thought was a sick joke to make his wife shut up. Everyone else shuffled awkwardly the way they always did when Sara said this. It was the explanation she always gave as to why she suddenly started hanging out with Calvin and they were likely getting worried that it was true, which of course it was.
"Right," Calvin said to break the tension. "Mom, why don't you talk to Kari instead, she actually likes you. We have to get back to the rest of the team."
Calvin, still holding on to Harris and Logan's ears, walked back to the row of chairs on the other side of the pool where the team sat during the meet. He released his friends and the three of them sat down.
Logan rubbed his ear, clearly galled by the injustice of being chastised in the same fashion as Harris. “Ow. What was that for? I was just trying to cheer her up by talking to her! She always seems so sad.”
“So you decided to talk to her about Charles Dickens books? One of the most depressing authors ever?” Calvin shook his head.
“They aren’t all depressing!” Logan protested.
“Yeah, yeah. Books. Blah, blah, blah. Whatever,” Harris interrupted. “Logan, you suck at hitting on girls. Everyone knows this. You should watch me in action instead of wasting your time on Sara.”
“Kari gave you a tittie-twister and then punched you! And Sara just needs someone to be there for her. I’m sure it’s been hard since her stepdad disappeared.” Logan looked pointedly at Calvin.
Calvin rolled his eyes. “Yes, Logan. I murdered him and hid the body.” Funnily enough, Calvin had never once lied about the fate of Sara’s stepfather, but because he was a sarcastic son of a bitch everyone always assumed he was joking. Not that it really mattered, there was nothing to tie him to the killing since he had been transformed at the time and the police were unlikely to consider werewolf as a viable murder weapon.
“Well, obviously not!” Logan said adamantly. “But Sara is still clearly in need of a friend and I am an excellent listener.” He drew himself up proudly.
“Which I’m sure is why you talked at her the whole time you were sitting next to her.” Calvin scowled at Logan. This was not the first time he had needed to explain to Logan that his listening skills were sometimes ruined by his love of hearing his own voice.
Harris snicked. “Oh my god, that is spot on! Logan, you totally do that all the time with girls!”
“I do not!” Logan protested, his pride suddenly wounded. “I am the best listener! Girls can tell me anything and know that I will never divulge their secrets or take advantage of them!”
“And that’s the secret, you damn idiot! They want you to take advantage of them!” Harris smirked knowingly.
“Ugh! That’s disgusting! You are the reason that girls don’t trust nice guys like me! You ruin everything. Calvin, tell Harris how revolting he is,” Logan insisted.
Calvin sighed. “Harris, you are the most disgusting person I know.”
Logan chortled triumphantly. “Ha! I told you!”
“And Logan, you are the world’s biggest dope.” Then Calvin stood and walked away to leave them to their bickering.
“He’s right about us both, you know,” Calvin heard Harris gloat to Logan.
Calvin wandered back to the far corner of the pool so he could stand in the quiet of the alcove that was used when parents rented the pool on weekends for their kids’ birthday parties. A freshman on the team was making with his boyfriend and they both squeaked and scurried away when Calvin jerked his thumb over his shoulder and leveled his patented scowl at the two of them.
“That was rude of you,” Sara said in her usual monotone. “What if I had wanted to scare them off and you spoiled me fun?”
“We can’t always get what we want.” Calvin smirked.
“You mean like how you won’t let me see you change?” Sara asked.
Calvin’s smirk fell into a frown. “Control is a bit dodgy at first. It takes me a while to get a hold on all the different emotions I feel once I’m a werewolf.”
Sara sighed. “Will you at least visit tonight?”
“Sara, he’s gone. Forever. You don’t need me to keep you safe any more.” Calvin looked away so he didn’t have to see the look on Sara’s face.
After a long moment of silence, Sara spoke again. “You didn’t have to come tell me it was you afterwards. I would never have known you were the werewolf who saved me and carried away his dead body.”
Calvin shook his head. “I was afraid you would think you had gone insane. I felt guilty for showing myself to you. I should have waited until he was alone and taken him then.”
“But then he probably would have finished beating me to death. I really do owe you my life.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” Calvin felt his anger about to boil over. Not at Sara, but at her stepfather. Normally Calvin was very calm, not as emotionless as Sara usually was, but when the moon was about to be full he felt every emotion so much stronger. Especially anger. Anger became very difficult to control and it was nearly impossible for him to control his temper.
“Whatever. Just keep Logan from bothering me.” Sara walked away and yelled over her shoulder, “And your mom asks stupid questions.”
Calvin waited in the alcove until his next race. When the meet was over he went with the rest of the team to the pizza place across the street from the pool. They had won by a substantial margin and the guys were all in a very celebratory mood. Except for Calvin, that is. The closer they got to moonrise the more his skin itched. He wanted to be out in the woods hunting already. He ached for the transformation to come.
“Snorting parmesan cheese is nothing!” Harris declared. “Watch this!” He lowered his straw to a line of hot pepper flakes and inhaled sharply. Predictably, the idiot sputtered and coughed as his eyes immediately welled up with tears.
Calvin grabbed a handful of napkins and waited patiently while everyone else at their table hooted with laughter.
“My nose is bleeding!” Harris gasped. “Oh, thank you,” he said to Calvin when he was handed a napkin.
“See, I told you that you were a dumbass and I am an intelligent, sensitive, all around good guy!” Logan gloated.
Calvin just chuckled to himself. He knew that despite his best efforts to the contrary, Harris was no idiot.
“Oh my gosh, what happened?” The tall waitress who Harris had been eying since they walked in asked him worriedly. “Let me go get you some ice!”
Harris grinned from ear to ear and winked at Calvin. Logan’s mouth was hanging open, whether from awe or disgust, Calvin couldn’t tell, but when the girl came back with the ice Harris got her phone number and promised to text her when he got home to let her know he was alright.
“He’s evil,” Logan said at last. “Pure evil. It’s like he made a deal with the devil for his damn good looks and the ability to say any damn thing he wants to women and still have it work out in his favor!”
Calvin patted Logan on the shoulder. “There, there. Why don’t you just work on your listening skills for a bit, eh?”
“Are you telling me to shut up?” Logan asked warily.
Harris snorted back a laugh. “Why would anyone ever want you to shut up?”
Logan glared across the table at Harris.
“Calm down, girls. No need to fight. You’re both pretty. But I think I’ve had enough pizza. It’s time for me to be gone.” Calvin stood and made his exit before the other two could try to get him to arbiter another of their ridiculous arguments.
The cool night breeze blew through Calvin’s fur as he bounded amongst the trees. This was living. The full moon was high overhead and the air was pleasantly brisk. It should have been the perfect night for hunting, but there was a disturbing lack of game in the forest. It had been like this all night and Calvin had the oddest feeling that something was wrong with the woods tonight. He had never experienced a sensation like this before and he wondered if it might be some kind of new werewolf sense that was developing.
Then he saw the zombies closing in on the girl crying in the middle of a clearing.
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