Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend Read online

  I recalled the student body, which had failed to acknowledge me. And in stark contrast the pretty fitness fanatics with straight posture who now suddenly were offering a shelter from the cold shoulder.

  This was quite possibly my worst nightmare and deepest fantasies rolled into one. Bec and I would have laughed. Surely they could see I wasn’t dance troupe material. I decided it was safest to stick with my instincts and politely refuse, at least for the time being, to save face. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

  4. The Scratch

  Giny was in my sixth period class. She sat with me and talked relentlessly, scoring us not one but two warnings from the teacher. She whispered about the rules and achievements of the group, which Sam single-handedly coached. Giny also insisted she drive me home and I refused politely. Towards the end of class the teacher finally lost his cool with Giny’s whispering and slammed the ruler on the desk.

  “Detention after class!” I looked so horrified, he quickly drew it away. “Both of you!” He pointed, trying to look menacing. This was definitely no way to remain inconspicuous. After class we waited until all the other students had vacated the room. Mr Marshal turned to look at us.

  “Giny!” he scolded, “I would appreciate a bit more respect in class.” He looked annoyed, but less disgruntled than when he had last addressed us, his blood pressure now receding.

  “Yes, Mr Marshal,” replied a suddenly obedient Giny. Mr Marshal shot a warning glare towards her, then shot the same glare towards me, although I had continued to say nothing. Then he relaxed his posture and glanced at the white board.

  “Wait here until I come back with your punishment.” He returned ten minutes later with a photocopy and a diagram. We were instructed to transfer it on to the board for tomorrow’s class. When we finished, we were to go. Giny neatly scrawled the words down and I sketched the diagram after finally locating a working marker. We were done in no time. This gave Giny the opportunity to get friendly. She waffled on about middle school, her family - her sisters, mainly two older. She insisted she give me a lift home to allow her to apologize, as I had now missed my bus and it was another hour to wait for the next. How could I refuse?

  The parking lot was nearly empty. The car I walked towards was a red hatchback in the student lot. Giny however veered off to the right and pressed the remote for a black sedan in the teacher’s park across the medium strip, which, apart from a severe looking scratch along the side, gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. A car too adult and stylish which surely couldn’t belong to a seventeen year old.

  “Is this your parent’s car or something?” I asked. “Nice!” I added, though I didn’t know much about cars. She snorted, climbing in. I wondered if she was offended. “You’re closer to Mr Marshal than I’d thought,” I joked, looking at the ivory passenger seat, which was as immaculate as the outside suggested.

  She laughed.

  “Yeah, I wish A’s all round.”

  “This isn’t his, is it?” I pressed again, sliding with

  a squeak into the cream leather seat.

  “Would you mind if it was?”

  “I might,” I replied sharply.

  Giny laughed.

  I didn’t pry further. I hoped as she had the key,

  that it wasn’t stolen and she didn’t seem the type. I wondered who had been pissed off enough to have keyed it. I learnt Giny was short for Giane - even though it was the same length, she told me with brief laugh.

  “- Short for, but it’s not short - unlike me.” I imagined she liked this and had said it before, because she thought it was charming.

  I decided to grit my teeth and cut to the chase. Honesty was the best policy here. Maybe I should get out before they eventually turned me into small town gossip. School bullies had cut me before, standing up for myself had resulted in being suspended and the experience had left a bad taste in my mouth.

  “Giny.” I interrupted her chatter as she pointed out her home, a unit off the main road.“What is this about? Really, none of you have even smiled at me before today, and I haven’t behaved any differently.”

  I waited nervously in silence for the answer, as Giny seemed to recall her argument.

  “Well Sam wants a new member- she’s team leader - and we need five for the routine cause it’s a requirement for finals competition. I am top of the tower and we need five to make it to finals.” She raised her delicate shoulders.

  I’d heard something similar in class.

  “Okay. Why me?” I interrupted.

  “Well you’re new, you’re pretty and you’re not fat.” She shrugged. It was not entirely true. I certainly had a little too much softness to my figure. She laughed guiding the steering wheel with one hand. “You’re fresh, so she-we- thought you’d be best bet. We’ve got three months ’til finals and coach needs someone, like now,” she confessed as though the urgency of the predicament had dawned on her. I wondered if this was her car. She drove it with ease but everything else about her was second rate, her clothes and her address. She was so small and thin-boned I wondered she had the strength to drive let alone see over the steering wheel. I even found out later that Samantha had bestowed her nickname.

  I changed tack.

  “What’s with the key mark on your paint work?”

  “What? Oh that,” she said. “Some people around here are obviously jealous.” The way she said it made me wonder if she knew who the some-people were.

  After checking directions with me I was dropped off on the corner near my house. I smiled wryly as the sleek black sedan drove off, with a clear S A M T on the licence plate. This obviously stood for Sam – something. I was relieved because this confirmed the car wasn’t stolen. Giny dropped me out of sight from my house. Probably incase my parents were home, though if she had known my mother she wouldn’t have bothered.

  A hand on my shoulder made me jump, my brain wracked with who it could possibly be and I turned suddenly, shocked to gaze upon a face I had not seen so close before, at least not in person. Part recognition dawned and then confusion as she spoke, her bright cobalt eyes blazing. “They are cunning bitches.” She pointed in the direction of the black sedan. I noticed she was dishevelled. There was a stick with a brown leaf in her hair.

  “Those girls. I am here to warn you.” Her face was hard and ghostlike and then at once sympathetic as she looked into my eyes, lowering her head slightly. “Don’t hang with them, you’ll get burnt.” Her chest was heaving. I was so shocked words weren’t able to form.

  Finally I managed.“Are you okay?”I asked sounding calmer than I felt. A dog started barking in the distance.

  She looked over my shoulder. I glanced in the same direction. My mother appeared on the front path of our house in her dressing gown. She called to me, “Lila?” -waving in our direction. I felt a slight breeze as I looked to where the girl had been standing on the footpath in front of me. She was disappearing around a nearby house on the corner. Trust my noninvolved mother to pop her head into my life just when things were getting interesting.

  Later that night I received a phone call from my ‘friend’, the ringleader Sam. She invited me to watch practice. Mum handed me the receiver. She looked pleased and Sam’s voice chimed like crystal. She was annoyingly polite. I flipped through the yearbook again. Sam immediately picked up on my tone as my mother left the room. She said she understood if I was unsure, and asked what did I have to lose? I had to agree. I looked at the page with the picture of Cresida James. I had nothing better to do in this town and despite my reservations, I was curious. Even if they did egg me, at least I would know I was alive, unlike the last few days.

  I convinced myself Sam sounded honest. Maybe this would lead to some sort of life, I thought, even though I had a feeling Samantha Thompson could have seemed genuine whilst selling ice to Eskimo’s. I ran through scenarios in my head and wondered if they set up new kids here? I shuddered – what if that’s what happened to their last member? Maybe she changed schools to esc
ape them. I thought about my warning from the dirty yellow-haired girl with elfin features. It was unmistakable as I stared at the page. The picture was her.

  The white full moon shone outside my window and I closed it, tightly. Wolves plagued Shade and anyone brave enough to risk staying out past curfew could disappear. Rumour had it newbies who became complacent were often taken, as though the wolves preferred fresh blood. But like all gossip in Shade this rumour was taken with a grain of salt. I contemplated if this was part of a twisted plot to set me up. Had they somehow paid her to scare me? I couldn’t put it past them, not this bunch. They were the girls that made high school hell for the rest of us. They wanted me in. Would I be stupid to refuse? I ran a finger over the Dolphins page, a black and white photograph of the group smiling like china dolls.

  My mind was obviously running wild. Perhaps Giny dropped me off on the corner because the yellow-haired girl would be waiting for me? Some bad memories flashed through my mind. I squeezed my eyes closed and started to hum. I grabbed my towel and headed for the shower. I had been fine for quite some time but all this interaction with these girls shook me.

  I lay my wet hair over my pillow as the moon illuminated my room through the curtains and thought of the girl in the library with her dishevelled hair and frightened expression, telling me to stay away, knowing I should heed her warning. If she was the face in the photo then they had done something bad to her. She had the same face but it was harder, paler, and unhappy now. Was I next?

  5. Fresh Meat

  Giny surprised me in the morning, knocking on the door early. I was halfway through breakfast. “Sorry I’m early,” her voice sang.

  “Hi,” I said surprised to see her. I noticed she had a small gap in her front teeth which gave her more character than she appeared to possess before as she smiled widely at me.

  “Was your mum angry you got home late yesterday?”

  I was amused by the inquiry. “No, she didn’t ask.” Actually she had, but only to enquire if I had had a nice time and I thought for more than the first moment how unnatural my mother’s parenting style was. “It wasn’t that late, she didn’t notice,” I shrugged. I knew Giny was testing to see the strength of my parental confines. Thing was, Sophie didn’t have to ground me. Shade was punishment enough.

  “Oh, good,we have practice this morning, you can watch,” she instructed happily. I tried to ignore her enthusiasm.

  “No thanks,” I chimed, pretending I didn’t notice as I casually threw the rest of my cereal down. “I’ll just go to the library.” I waited for the reaction out of the corner of my eye. “I have to get some books, for class,” I added, hoping she didn’t ask which one. I wondered if she knew that I knew about the girl, the yellow-haired one in the blue jumper with the gnarled fingernails. I thought that it was funny that they seemed to prize their nails so much in comparison. “Um, Sam said I could practice-” I corrected myself -“Watch practice later - this evening -” Giny looked happier now-“last night when she called,” I added.

  “Oh, okay, if you’re sure.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but I noticed her face had dropped.

  I pressed my lips together and explained.

  “- Yeah, you know how it is transferring. I have a lot of catching up to do.” This excuse was complete bull - I hoped she’d never changed schools before - but from what I had gathered yesterday she had been here in Shade forever - probably as Sam’s third in command since first grade. She had surely registered my hesitance.

  I had been thinking. “You guys aren’t setting me up for anything, are you?” I didn’t hide the accusation in my tone.

  “What?” she replied, batting her tinted lashes.

  “I feel like I am being goaded towards something.”

  “Yeah,” she said flatly, surprise on her face. “Calisthenics.”

  I accepted the lift to school. We rode in a more modest red hatchback with dust in the windows. I recognized it as the car that we had left in the school lot yesterday afternoon. “I left the G6 at home today,” she joked.

  The inside was grey, and it smelt a bit of something bad covered with aerosol, maybe baby spew. She drove with two hands on the steering wheel. I was sure this was her car and I noted Giny seemed too cautious as she drove it with her shoulders hunched, despite the vehicle’s dilapidated condition. The CV joints crackled as we turned towards school.

  “I was scared you’d stolen Mr Marshal’s car yesterday?”

  “Sorry, no.The G6 Sedan is Sam’s,” she admitted.

  “What was wrong with your car?”

  She didn’t answer, as though it was sadly obvious.

  “Sam thought you’d be more comfortable. Do you like Shade so far?”

  “Yeah, it’s different. So this is your car?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry you’ll get used to it.”The car or the town I wondered?

  I wished it were true.

  “What do you guys do around here for fun?”

  She smiled. “We hit the river or hang at Sam’s, tip cows?”

  I smiled “What?”

  “That part was a joke.” She giggled softly.

  I took the opportunity to ask about my suspicions “Do you ever haze kids?”

  “Haze?” Giny enquired.

  “Like your last member?” I looked at her.

  “What, Cresida? Why would you think that?” she asked.

  So the girl had been with them. I knew it.

  “Why doesn’t she hang with you anymore?” I recalled her expressionless skin and piercing blue eyes, not unlike Sam’s but clearer and bluer.

  Giny replied quietly,“She’s pretty damaged, why?”

  “What from?”

  “Her parents aren’t around and she’s pretty mixed up, I’d rather we didn’t gossip. The person who gossips with you today, gossips about you tomorrow,” she recited.

  I smirked, but hid it when she didn’t seem to share my humour.

  “I didn’t know, I’m sorry, forget I asked,” I said embarrassed, looking out of the window.

  “We wouldn’t do anything like that anyway…” Giny muttered referring to hazing.“Why?”she asked.

  I gritted my teeth. “This girl told me not to hang with you.”

  “Who?” she asked, defence coating her tone.

  I worried she could easily guess.I shrugged. “I’m not sure, I don’t know her name. Someone from math’s class,” I lied, scratching my hair and looking out the window at the flashing scenery.

  “Well, that’s news to me,” she chimed.

  I changed the subject. “Giny, do you think I’ll be any good at Calisthenics? Really?” I was sceptical.

  “Yes, you don’t see it but we do.” Her confident glance made me shift inside.

  “What do you see…that no other girl at school has?” I wasn’t athletic or coordinated.

  “We have been waiting for you.”

  “Someone, like me?” I almost laughed. “Why?” I wanted to know how they were so sure someone would turn up with talent and why Sam thought I somehow showed that potential when she hardly knew me.

  “Sam sees potential-” She looked at me - “in you.” Her face was soft and childlike - it didn’t match her words. I wondered why they didn’t seem to want to get to know me before inviting me into their circle.

  I wasn’t sure what she meant. “Are there any tests I have to pass?” I was sure I would soon fail them. “Tests?” She thought. “Oh, like auditions?”

  “Yeah.” I imagined trying to do the splits and cringed.

  “Practice is your test. If you’re bad, you’re off the team.” The car crackled as she turned the wheel and we entered the school lot.

  “Just like that?” I raised a brow.

  “Well no, you’d no longer be on the team, but we would still be friends.”

  Somehow I doubted that.

  She smiled as if to soften the sting of the last thing she had said.

  Giny parked in the student designated parking area, unlike
Sam’s vehicle. I noted a black sedan in the teacher’s lot with cream seats, complete with scar. I guess that meant Sam was here bright and early.

  “Why doesn’t Sam get that fixed?” I pondered, but when I looked at Giny she was walking towards the building. As I caught up she surprised me with the answer. “She will,” she sang sweetly.

  I tried to glide away from Giny as we entered the school. I wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to steer me towards the practice any sooner than was planned, even though we were early for classes. It wasn’t suspicious to believe that the most popular group in school would just invite me in without a reason, no questions asked, while the rest of the school ignored me - and one student plain warned me to stay away. Even if they were desperate for a member to fill the team I wasn’t buying, not without further investigation. I had suffered bullies before. I was familiar with the sting of rejection.

  I stopped. “Well, I’ll see you later.”

  “Oh.” Giny paused also.

  “Books,” I reminded her. I made a last ditch effort for more information, frowning. “Giny, why do you hang out with them?”

  “Sam? And B?” she questioned.

  “Yeah, is it because they’re so popular?”

  She smiled. “No, they’re special, sure they offer a certain status.” She shrugged, holding her books. “I want to be just like Sam one day,” she mused melodramatically, squeezing up her shoulders.

  “How do you mean?”

  “You’ll see.” She smiled, waving. “If you finish early drop by practice.” Giny was obviously really into this calisthenics business.

  I guessed any girl in school would have been far more interested in the spot on the team. I wasn’t the co-operative type – and anyway, apart from stares, they had completely ignored me for the first few days as much as the rest of the student body.

  I headed straight for the library.

  Despite my thoughts I missed the security of Giny’s companionship. I didn’t feel the same relief entering the library that I had felt yesterday. Maybe I would turn after all to the clique life. If they genuinely liked me, why not?