Claiming My Wolf

1 - First Day

~~Sadie's PoV~~

“Sadie! Hurry up, you’re going to be late!”

I groan as my aunt’s voice echoes up the stairs. I’m already ready, I’ve been ready for ten minutes at least, I just don’t want to go.

I don’t want to go to a new school. I don’t want to be the new girl, the one everyone stares at. And I really don’t want to be the girl with the dead parents that everyone feels sorry for.

But that’s my life, and sitting alone in my room won’t change it, so I get up and go downstairs where my cousins Aaron and Ava are waiting.

We all get in Aaron’s car. He and Ava are twins and they’re two months older than me. They’ll be 18 in just a few days and they’re really excited about it. Like, ridiculously excited. I sort of get it, it’s fun to be an adult and all, but they act like their whole lives are going to change. In my head I think it’s just another birthday, but I don’t say it out loud. Just because I don’t have any reason to smile these days doesn’t mean I have to rain on their parade.

“You’re going to love Westbridge High,” Ava tells me from the front seat as we drive across town. “There are so many hot guys, you won’t know which way to look first.”

“Really, Ava?” Aaron asks, rolling his eyes at his sister. “If I said that about the girls, you’d call me a pig.”

“There’s nothing wrong with looking,” she retorts, sticking her tongue out at him. “Just because you’ve been in love with the same girl forever doesn’t mean the rest of us are ready to settle down yet.”

Aaron’s face softens at the mention of his girlfriend Laurel. I've already met her, she’s been at their house every day since I arrived a week ago. She’s nice, though I haven’t talked to her much. I haven’t talked to anyone much. I haven’t felt much like talking.

“Besides,” Ava continues, still chatting away merrily. “Sadie needs to have some fun before she’s eighteen, you never know when she’ll find her ma… ow!”

She breaks off as Aaron punches her arm, giving her a warning glare.

“My what?” I pipe up, curious about what she was going to say, but Ava just laughs nervously.

“Nothing, never mind. Come on, let’s go and meet everyone!”

I look out the window and see that we’ve arrived at the school. It’s a two-story building with a big flight of steps up to the front door. Students are milling around outside and nobody seems to be in a hurry to go in even though it’s pretty cold out. It’s March now and the snow has just started to melt.

The snow that caused my parent’s accident.

That now-familiar sense of loss stabs at me, but I force myself to push it down and put something close to a smile on my face as we get out of the car and walk towards a group of people about our age. There are some really pretty girls, and, as Ava promised, some really hot guys too. I have to stop my mouth from falling open as I get my first real look at some of them.

Is this some kind of supermodel school? I’ve never seen so many good-looking people in one place in my whole life.

“Hey everyone!” Ava exclaims as we walk up to the group. Of course, she fits right in with all the beautiful people with her gently curling blonde hair and bright blue eyes. “This is my cousin Sadie. She’s going to be going to school here for the rest of the year.”

Everyone turns to look at me all at once and I'm suddenly very aware of just how ordinary I am compared to all of them. “Hi,” I manage to say. “Nice to meet you.”

One of the guys steps forward and my heart immediately starts beating faster. Holy crap on a stick, he is gorgeous. Dark hair and piercing green eyes, a strong jaw and biceps straining against his shirt so hard that I’m amazed it hasn’t given up the fight yet and just ripped right off him.

I try to smile as he stares at me, but the words out of his mouth quickly kill off any small hopes I might have that he was actually interested in me.

“Is this a joke, Ava?" he asks even though he's still looking right at me. "I already told you, we don’t want her kind here.”

My kind? What is that supposed to mean?

“Oh, I’m sorry.” The words are out of my mouth before I even know I thought them. “I didn’t realize only assholes were allowed to go here.”

There are surprised glances and a few nervous laughs among the others, but the guy in front of me just narrows his eyes at me. “Someone needs to show you your place, little mutt.”

Did he actually just call me a f*cking mutt? What the hell?

Before I can say anything else, the bell rings and everyone heads inside. Ava grabs my arm and pulls me along with her, away from Mr High-and-Mighty.

“Sorry about that,” she tells me as we get inside the warm hallway. “Micah takes some warming up, but he’s not so bad when you get to know him. Just try to stay away from him for a little while, okay?”

I don’t want to get to know him after that introduction, but I don’t tell Ava that now. I let her pull me down the hall to an open door and she pushes me inside with my bookbag.

“This is your homeroom. I’m just across the hall if you need me, but Mr Latham will probably give you a buddy to show you around. He’s really nice, so don’t worry. I’ll see you at lunch, okay? Have a good morning, Sadie!”

With that, she heads out the door and I’m left alone in my new homeroom with my new classmates who are all staring at me like something’s growing out of my head.

I head towards an empty desk and give the girl next to it a tentative smile. “Is this free?”

She just shrugs at me, which I take as a yes so I sit down and take out a notebook and pen. The last few desks fill up until there’s only one left, the one right on the other side of me. Finally a man in a sweater vest and khakis comes in and I figure this must be Mr Latham. He’s about to start talking when the door opens again and the gorgeous jerk from earlier, Micah, walks in.

He spies the open desk and then sees me next to it and his face immediately darkens to a scowl.

“Sit down, Mr Geary,” Mr Latham says. “And try to be on time next time.”

Micah walks over and throws himself into the seat, pulling the desk a little farther away from me as he sits.

What the hell is this guy’s problem?

“I’m sure you’ve all noticed we have a new student joining us today,” Mr Latham says, giving me a warm smile. At least he seems to be happy that I’m here. “Sadie, do you want to tell us a little about yourself?”

Ava warned me this might happen, so at least I’m a little prepared. I stay sitting but look around the room as confidently as I can, looking at everyone except Micah. “Hey, I’m Sadie. I just moved here to live with my aunt and uncle. My cousins are Aaron and Ava Miller. It’s nice to meet you all.”

I try to sound sincere, but no one really meets my eye except Mr Latham, who gives me an encouraging nod. “Thanks Sadie. We were all very sorry to hear about your parents, but I hope you’ll enjoy living here in our pa… I mean, town.”

Everyone already knows about my parents? Tears fill my eyes unexpectedly and I look down, not wanting anyone to notice me getting emotional. And what was he about to say at the end before he changed his mind? It wasn’t the first time that had happened. Several times since I got here, people would start to say a word and then change the word halfway through.

At first I thought I was imagining things, but it's happened so many times now that I'm pretty sure I’m not imagining it.

All I can think right now is that this is not at all the way I thought my senior year was going to go. I wish this was all a bad dream and I could wake up back in my bed at home with my parents downstairs and my old friends waiting at my old school and everything would be like it was before.

But that’s never going to happen, so I’m just going to have to make the best of where I am, even if it means being in this strange school full of super-hot people and sitting next to a jerk like Micah Geary.