On a school day

Maria trudged through the forest, at a slightly fast pace as she was in a hurry to get home. Her parents would be wondering where she'd gone and her mother would most likely be furious. She also had to explain what had happened to Nich to them. She shuddered slightly, wondering what her mother would do about this. As she neared the cabins she sent Grant one last glance and headed behind her house. There she transformed back into a human and changed clothes quickly. Stepping hesitantly through the front door she found her mom in the kitchen buisily making breakfast, while her dad was on the couch with a cup of coffee. The normal morning for her. She smiled at the sight of them, but when her mother turned to face her daughter she flinched at the look in her eyes.

Maria held up her hands as if she'd been caught. "I know, I know. But can I explain first?" Maria's dad piped in without even looking up from his newspaper, "Were you out all night with that Grant boy?" Maria blushed an unattractive shade of pink. "No... Well, yes. Sort of. Can I talk please?" Maria's mother nodded and began preparing toast. Maria sighed and stood awkwardly in the doorway. Closing the door slowly behind her, she began. "Yesterday the pack went out to check the borders like usual. Grant had already checked them that day but we were gonna run another round. He said that he'd scented the leeches near the boundary so we needed to check again. Well..." she hesitated, "When we got there, instead of finding the usual vegi vampires around, there was a newborn. She had just killed a hiker." Maria's parents looked up then and gave her their full attention. Maria fidgeted with her hands for a moment before going on, looking at the ground in front of her father. "When Nick got there... He had this weird look to him. He wasn't growling or shocked like Grant and I were, he was just standing there all weird. Grant gave him an order to snap out of it, and Nick turned on us." Her eyes began watering slightly, remembering the scene the night before. "He imprinted on her. On a vampire. Me and Grant couldn't believe it. Nick went to the vampire's side and we had no choice but to leave him there. I... Can't hear his thought anymore. He's not part of the pack anymore. I couldn't stand it when he came and got his stuff out of his cabin, so since you guys were gone I turned to Grant. I lost it at his house and left for the beach. He followed me and all we pretty much did there was sit and talk." Maria sighed and looked up to see her parent's mouths hanging open slightly. She had to grin a little, but it quickly disappeared.

"I'm sorry honey," Emily, her mother, said as she rounded the counter to hug her daughter tightly. "It's really not his fault though," Mike, her father, said logically as always. Emily pulled back some so that she could look her daughter in the eyes, but she kept her hands on Maria's shoulders. "We won't get involved; this is between you, Grant, and Nick. Go on now," she said, slightly nudging her towards her room. "Go get dressed and I'll have breakfast here for you when you're done." Maria nodded and set off for her bedroom. She didn't even glance at the picture that she'd turned upside-down the nightbefore lying on her bedside table. She refused to get worked up over it again; they either needed to move on or work out something to do about this. She went straight to her closet and got her favorite green-and-white form-fitting shirt that fit her nicely and hi-lighted her bright green eyes. She slipped on some white tennis shoes and a delicate silver bracelet with a small but pretty butterfly on the end. She ran a brush through her brown hair so that it curled and waved beautifully down her small back and around her shoulders. She perked it here and there, making sure it was perfect, then exited her room and into the kitchen again. As Emily had said, there was a plate just for her on the counter. She quickly ate the eggs, bacon, and toast, and was full, even though there was still a lot left on her plate. She wasn't all that hungry; she was extremely tired. But she couldn't do much about that besides act like she wasn't and it didn't bother her.

(Man! I clicked submit and my computer spazzed D8 I had a HUGE post, too! Blah... Now it's gonna be all crappy. T.T)

Grant nodded to Maria, and then reluctantly headed towards his cabin. Russel would definatly get upset with him for just leaving a small note and not actually explaining all of it in it, and then he'd ask why he had been out so late, which was a long story inside of itself. The sun was already out, making Grant's wolf eyes squint. He jumped over the small fence and changed forms, pulling on a spare pair of cacky bremutas. Sliding into his house from the back door, Grant breathed in the deep scent of Russel famous beacon and pancakes with what smelled like homemade syrup. The downstairs level of the house was filled with steam and Grant could hear Russel whistling to the tune of the old radio on the kitchen counter. He walked into the tiny kitchen, seeing Russel in his favorite green t-shirt. Russel's back was turned allowing Grant to sneak a peice of warm beacon. "That beacon tasted different than before. Did you add something new to it?" Grant asked with a smirk painted on his tan face. Russel turned, setting the pancake pan on the stove, and stopped whistling. His face seemed redder than usual but that could have just been from the heat.

"Where.have.you.been?" Russel asked, his face stern. Grant just shrugged and reached over to grab another peice of beacon. Grant could tell that Russel was about to have another one of his 'adult tantrums' so he quickly explained that he had just been for a walk with Maria to the beach and they just talked about Nick. Russel seemed to decide to leave well enough alone, going back to his cooking. After eating breakfast, Grant took the stairs two at a time, knowing that he had only a few minutes until it was time to leave. He practically leaped into his room, scrambling for his book bag and car keys. Putting everything he need over his shoulder, he ran down the stairs and out the front door, calling a good bye to Russel. He jogged to the garage and opened it up, seeing his car. It had orginally been Russel's but it would just sit there for weeks on end until Grant got his driver's licence. It was a black Suzuki Equator with leather seats a stereo. Grant jumped in and turned the key slowly, backing out of their garage and pulling up to Maria's house. Hopefully she was ready by now.

Maria was just grabbing her green shoulder bag when she heardthe runble of a car outside. She threw a quick glance outside the window to see Grant's cat in the driveway. "Grant's here, bye!" she called. She opened the door and took a step outside but as soon as she did, her mom surprised her from behind with a tight hug and a kiss to her forehead. "Have a good time, sweet heart," she cooed and released her hold. Maria blushed and gave her mom a wide eyed 'omg' look before turning around and skipping quickly to Grant's truck. She opened the door and hopped inside, setting her bag on the floor in front of her. She sighed and put on her seatbelt. "It's the first day of school, that was mild for her," she said. Emily leaned on the doorframe and crossed her arms, smiling and squinting against the sun to the two. "Good morning, Grant," she called with a small wave.

"Morning, Mrs. B!" Grant called, waving. He grinned at Maria's red face knowing that look. He hoped today could be fun: smugly staring at the vampires, making fun of the teachers behind their backs, and eating food while the vampires couldn't. There was two sides to school; one was that it was just a place that they could enclose all the wild teens and make them read all day, and another was a place to socialize and have fun. Usually, Grant and Nick would be making fun of the cold bloods and how they must be the teacher's pets, but he decided to just hang with Maria today. He hoped they had at least a few classes together. Grant's locker was a few down from Maria's with no one in between. The vampires' lockers were on the completely oppisite side of the school, probley by their influence.
Grant steered his truck down the dirt road, barely missing the potholes. "We do have the same lockers this year, right?" Grant asked Maria as he got onto the main highway that led to SP high. The road was slick with the rain from the morning but this morning was no different than any other. This was the casual weather in Seagull's Point.

Maria was silent for a while, mainly looking out the window and letting her mind wander on about random things. The silence in the car wasn't awkward, but a comfortable quiet. She liked that about Grant; he didn't make things awkward like that. If it was her mom or dad driving, the silence would have been odd, but this was more comfortable. Grant finally spoke, and Maria shifted her position slightly so that she could look out the windshield instead of the window. "I hope so," she said, thinking about the lockers. She was just glad that the vampire's were on the other side of the school completely. She didn't know if she could stand having one right next to her. "Hopefully we have classes together, too."

"ya," Grant agreed. He looked at the clock built into his car, seeing that they practically only had 5 minutes. They were 10 minutes away from the school. If it had been a normal day, he would have just kept driving down the simple path, but it wasn't a good idea to get the year started on the wrong foot with the principal. Knowing Grant, he would probley get in trouble later that day though. "We're gonna take a shortcut," he said. A big neighborhood was ahead filled with tons of his classmates and aqquantinces. He turned off of the main highway and into the street. Grant zigzagged through the streets, seeing tricycles and bikes laying in the yards.

As Grant was rounding a corner, he saw Charlie, a guy who had been in his third period class last year, was running out of his house, dragging his little brother along, face red. His little bro was a freshman in highschool this year and seemed to not be paying attention to his older sibling at all. Grant chuckled quietly as he passed them, finally catching sight of the school district.