All of our demons

Eleven: Birthday beats

Mia’s pov

Dad had dropped me off at school today since he decided not to go into the office, but we both know he stayed at home to prepare, to get everything ready. It was always the same every year. I should have been excited but I felt quite the opposite. Every girl at this school would want a lavish part with lavish gifts, but not me. I was just happy with a family meal. Mason was the first one to message me telling me he could not wait to see me this weekend. I was more than excited to see Mason. We always had the best time together. Mum always got mad at us for making too much noise and acting like uncivilized children.

The school courtyard was buzzing with students, some of them talking about the ball and how much fun it was to dress up, others complaining that their families were not invited. I rushed past a particular group discussing how I was dancing with Greyson. Some of the girls said I was pretty and I looked much better than I did before we broke up for summer break last school year. I tried to tune out the conversation but it sounded like everyone was talking about me and Greyson. ‘I admit she’s always been pretty, but come on, it must be like f*****g a bag of bones. I don’t know whether to feel sorry for her or Greyson.’ One of the boys said. I stopped pretending to adjust my bag while I eavesdropped.

‘True.’ Another said.

‘Maybe she’s anorexic.’ One girl guessed. She’s not wrong, but I was officially diagnosed with bulimia nervosa.

‘What?’ her friend snapped.

‘What I heard it's trendy right now.’ she piped up in her defence.

‘What, to starve yourself?’ She looked concerned at her friend. ‘You know it caused loads of problems, right?’ Her friend didn’t look convinced. ‘Your hair can become brittle and fall out.’

‘Well there goes that idea’ I watched as she began playing with the ends of her long shiny hair.

I chose to walk away at that point. Well, there goes that idea. She makes it sound like a choice. I heard it's trendy right now. I didn’t do this to myself to become part of a trend. Slowly, with each therapy session I became more and more aware I was sick, but I didn’t know how to stop. At first I believed no one when they told me I was sick. I was convinced they were all lying to me and just wanted me to get fat again but the more I read about it and the more I Googleed it I realised I was sick but just because I knew I had a problem didn’t automatically mean I was better. I could suffer with this for months, years more. But as Suzie said, I am the only one who has the power to change myself. To get better for myself. So this weekend I was going to allow myself to have a very small amount of birthday cake.

When I got into the school halls they were mostly deserted. Only a few students scattered around. I was heading to see my History teacher before I went to form to see if I could switch project partners or possibly work on my own. Big shocker she said no. I didn’t want to work with Bethany. I fear for my life and sole when I’m around that girl.

More whispers and gossip spread through the halls of school. ‘Oh my god did you see how beautiful Bethany looked?’

‘Yes she was so pretty as always… bitch.’

‘She was dancing with Killian McCoy, they would be the power couple of the century.’

‘No, Mia and Greyson would be the power couple.’ My heart stopped at the mention of me and Greyson. We weren’t even together.

‘Yeah till he kills her, he’s a psycho’

‘But a hot psycho.’

‘You have gotta stop reading those smutty serial killer books. You are worrying me.’

‘ You have to read them. They are so good, besides my s*x life is about as bland and boring as vanilla can get, the books spice it up for me.’ Her friend laughed at her,

‘Some people watch their porn... Apparently you read it.’ I wished I had a friend who I could laugh like that with, there laughs echoed and the more they looked at each other the more hysterical they became.

‘Duh’ they laughed once again and when it sounded like they were turning round the corner I was hiding behind I spun on my heals to be met face to face with Bethany.

‘Sorry.’ It was a natural instinct for me to apologise to her instantly it usually made my punishment slightly less sinical.

‘God people and there pathetic bitching.’ She said as she pulled out a lip balm from her blazer pocket rubbing it on her full lips. She offers some to me and I’m scared to take it so I shake my head.

‘You talk about people to.’ She looks as if I slapped her in the face harder than the hulk.

‘No. Wrong. Honey, if I’m talking about someone, it's to their face. I will say it as it is, I won’t sink to their classless lower levels of bitching about their supposed best friends.’

Bethany is a b***h and she knows that but I don’t think you can have a bully with class. Everything Bethany does had class. She prides herself on her appearance. Bethany doesn’t need to slap on the makeup like most girls in our year choose to she ops for a simple look I’m convinced her skin is just natural this radiant without foundation.

She looks to the door beside me. Room 109, our history class. ‘What are you doing?’ Trying to find anyway I can out of doing a project with you. Were you submitting you’re idea for our project?’ I shook my head her eyes narrowed and she looked me up and down. ‘What is you’re idea by the way? You never told me.’ I wanted to leave. I wanted to run as far away from her as I could. I was doing my best not to tremble right in front of her.

‘I was thinking this town.’ There was lots of history to this town and more specifically strange and unexplainable things happening right in the centre of the town. I had already begun research and it all seemed to happen around the same area. The woods.

Grabbing my arm and yanking me back she pulled me into the girls bathroom out of the halls. I bit my tongue. I was afraid of what she was going to do to me out of sight.

‘If you think, I am going to be paired with some dimwit who won’t do there half of the work you are wrong.’ How did she know I was lying am I that transparent? ‘I don’t want to work with you, I don’t want to be with in ten miles from you, but you work hard for your grades and I know you don’t hand in any piece of work that is less than perfect so suck it the hell up.’ I wanted to smile at her complement and cry at her insult.

‘I have already started researching some different angles we could approach.’

‘Fine we will work on it Friday after school.’ Three girls walked into the bathroom, eyes darting between me and Bethany.

‘Is everything alright Beth?’ The one with short black hair glared at me. She had been in the same class as me for years. Alice, she was mean. Her friends stepped in behind her. Bethany gave them a disapproving look for calling her Beth no one called her that her true friends called her B.

I saw the look in the girls eyes, jealousy, hate and rage all directed at me and for what I didn’t know.

‘How was the ball Mia?’ I didn’t recognise this girl. She was average looking with balayaged hair just like four out of five girls at the school. It seemed everyone had there hair done over the summer. I was envious of the amount of hair she had. A lot of mine had fallen out. It is in much better condition now, but still was not the way it used to be. Mum had booked me a hair appointment for after school to see what could be done about it. I think it probably just needed a good few inches of to make it look thicker again.

‘How was Greyson?’ the one with short black hair asked stepping closer. I noticed one of the girls Taylor I think her name was had stepped outside the door with a nod from Alice.

‘Friday, oh and happy birthday.' Bethany said as she headed for the door. Giving me a look before she left. I saw in her eyes what her face wouldn’t show. Fear but ultimately revenge and anger covered over it.

She knew what was about to happen.

Please not on my birthday.

I knew what was about to happen I could feel it, corned in the girls bathroom by two girls while the third kept a look out. This wasn’t a common occurrence but it has happened more than once. My fingers hurt from how hard they clutched my bag, I was going to get whiplash if I wiped my head around any faster looking for a way out. I could feel the nervousness and panic bubbling up in my stomach threatening to come out of my throat. Alice waved over her shoulder to Bethany, telling her bye.

Bethany didn’t acknowledge it.

‘How’s school going?’ Alice approached me and pulled my bag from my shoulder.

‘Good, I have to get to form’ she shoved and my back hit the sink behind me. Please just let me go. She doesn’t let me move from my place. I was going to make a run for the door but her blond friend blocked my path.

‘Slut.’ She hissed. Slut it didn’t hurt my feelings because I knew I wasn’t a slut. What hurt was the smack to my face I received from the girl.

‘A slap really Maeve. You can do better than that, from what I heard this trashy cow was all over Greyson.' Cow. Cow. Cow. That was all I heard. I was huge like a cow. Alice looks between me and her friend who I now know is named Maeve, with a sick and twisted look in her eye. This girl wants blood she just doesn’t want to have to get her manicured hands dirty. Alice’s face twisted into something sickening as she watched her friend lung at me with her fist clenched. My body didn’t register the impact of the blow to my stomach straight away. The wind was knocked out of me. It felt like the impact of her punch had momentarily lifted me off the ground. I fell to the ground…or was shoved to the ground. Maeve was a lot stronger than she looked almost unnaturally so. It was hard to fight her when I was still trying to regain my breath from her first punch. It was like all air had escaped my lungs my head cracked on the light quarts floor of the bathroom.

Cow.

It became hard to do anything, to distinguish anything. It all became a little fuzzy and distant. ‘We can’t let him end up with someone like her, we have no idea what that will do to the pack.’ Their voices were too far for me to hear. Their bodies were smudges close one second then gone the next. They came back… then they went.

There.

Gone.

There.

Gone.

I wasn’t able to distinguish what was happening. I tried to move to run but my arms and legs wouldn’t listen to me.

‘I overheard my father talking about a threat. We need a strong leader, not a weak human.’

Human.

My mind clung onto that word. It wasn’t the first time I had been called it. My mind was in too much of a tizzy to understand anything.

Something was seriously wrong, I could feel my body jolting from all of the hits and kicks, but I couldn't feel them. Nothing was registering in my mind.

Help!

Help!

Help someone, please help!

Nothing.

No one came because I was screaming in my head, begging and crying inside. A smudge of black was in front of my face and I assumed it was Alice’s dark hair. I was back on my own two feet, someone was holding me up knowing I could not stand on my own. Wet warmth trickled down my face. Blood. It had to be blood.

‘If you know what is good for you, you will stay the f**k away.’ Fingers dug into my face as she spoke to me but I could not concentrate, fuzzy it was all to fuzzy. ‘Lets go’ With her last words being spoken to Maeve, I was dropped on to the floor.

The door opened then closed as did my eyes.

******

‘Hey lex’ Callum said as he caught up beside the beautiful blond. ‘I’m skipping, wanna come?’ He grinned and in return she smiled at him.

‘How many times have you skipped since we got back?’

‘Only a few, you coming or not?’ she shook her head, smiling at him.

‘I have work that needs handing in, besides me and Ryan are going to town at lunchtime, he owes me a coffee, and I’m squeezing a pair of new shoes out of him.’

‘Lex I don’t think he going to get you shoes, coffee yes shoes no.’

‘Um, yes he dam well will.’ Lexi was going to steal his bank card and do it herself if not. Ryan ruined her favourite pair of white Valentino pumps by spilling coffee on them. The blond had planned a perfect night out with her three bestfriends only for Greyson to cancel hours before saying he was with his dad and Callum cancelling minutes before with no explanation. She was very pissed. It ended up being just her and Ryan. She was fuming at him. She cried when she saw her shoes splattered in caramel latte stains. Ryan and Lexie had gone for a walk after dinner one night. They were both so tired that they got coffee afterwards and Ryan jumped when a bee landed on his shirt. The coffee flew and it fell onto Lexie’s shoes.

She was still mad when she thought about it. ‘Accident or not my shoes are ruined.’

‘Maybe you shouldn’t have such expensive shoes.’ Callum’s suggestion had her pulling a face as if he asked her to commit the worst crime possible. Schooling her features she blankly looked at him. ‘Never. Ever. Tell. Me. What. Shoes. I. Should. Or. Should not have.’ Lexie took her fashion very seriously. Callum braced his hands in defence. ‘Where were you that night?’ Callum’s smile was gone and a distant look appeared only to be replaced with a new smile, one Lexie had only seen a few times, when he lied.

‘I told you, studding.’ Lire.

Scoffing, she folded her arms and shifted her weight onto one foot. ‘You don’t even go to class let alone study. So cut the crap. Where w-’ she looked around confused, she even looked down her own legs. No wasn’t her. It was to strong of a scent to be coming from a simple period. She looked around to see who might have been hurt but there was nothing. It was overwhelming the amount of it she could smell. ‘Do you smell that?’ she looked down the stairs where it was stronger.

‘That’s a lot of blood’

Both of them made their way down to the second floor of the school and down the hallway.

‘Who the f**k is bleeding out at school? I wouldn’t want to die in this overpriced dump.’ Lexie shot him a look. She took charge following the tangy smell all the way to the girls' bathroom. There were no words she could use to describe the horror she witnessed in that girl's toilet. Crime scene. It looked as if a satanic ritual had taken place. Blood was smeared on the door handle spots on the sink and on the side. Some dripped down but most of it came from the slim girl on the floor.

‘Mia!’ She rushed to her. Callum following in behind her. ‘Mia, can you hear me?’

‘What in the s**t’ He looked around trembling at the sight.

‘Call an ambulance, now!’ Lexie barked at him when he didn’t move. ‘ Someone get the nurse!’ she called out at a few of the students who had looked in following the commotion. It didn’t take long for the students to be cleared and the nurse to get to work until the paramedics arrived.

‘We just found her like this. Both of you?’ one teacher asked Lexie as she took a statement. ‘What was Callum doing going into the girl's toilet?’

Are you seriously asking me this right now! It looks like someone had tried to kill a student on school property and you want to know what he was doing in the girls toilet. ‘Hooking up.’

The teacher raised her thin grey eyebrows. ‘On school property?’

‘Mia is on her way to the hospital and you want to sanction me on where and whom I screw.’

‘If it is illegally on school property where a student has been brutally hurt, then yes. I will need all the details.'

‘Of my s*x life?’ she asked stumbled. That's none of you dam business lady.

‘Good heavens no! of what was happening when you found her. I will need to give Mr Preston a full repot.’

‘Don’t you mean the police?’

‘Mr Murphy, Miss Collins say you two were going to engage in s****l i*********e in the girl's bathroom before you found Mia Holland unconscious. Is this true?’

Unconscious? She looked like she had been ripped to shreds. Ripped to sheards a pack member did this. Lexi wasn’t able to mind link anyone at this moment as this b***h of a teacher's eyes were darting between her and Callum, who looked disgusted at the thought of having s*x with her.

‘Were in love we can’t keep our passion at bay.’ He was not in the least bit convincing with a bored look on his face and a tone of voice to match it.

‘I will let Mr Preston know, expect to both be called into a meeting with him. We will need to hear both your stories in order to find out what happened.’ She gave them a disapproving look.

‘Wait you think we did this?’ Lexi snapped the teacher left saying the head master will come to his own conclusions on what happened today.

‘We were having s*x, seriously? that was what you told her’ Callum handed her Mia’s bag which was left on the floor.

‘Better than we used our supernatural wolf sense of smell and sniffed her out when we were on the other side of the school on a different floor. It was all I could think of on such short notice. It was meant to get her to stop asking questions.’

‘Why would she not be allowed to ask questions?’

‘Didn’t you look at Mia, who ever did that was from our pack we need to tell Alpha Jason and Greyson… immediately.’

‘So I guess we are skipping.’

Running back to the pack house were they knew Jason would be they shot into his office. He turned in his chair mad at whoever just barged in. Rosette was behind him with a cup of tea in one hand and a large amount of paper in the other.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ He had know these kids for year but Lexi could tell he was pissed that they just ran in without asking.

‘Mia’ She heard Jason curse at the mention of the human girls name. Greyson told he the other night how whenever Mia was mention Jason’s moods turned foul. ‘She was beaten, badly, no human could have done that.’ She rushed to say she stood standing at the door while Callum plonked himself in a chair

‘Not with out a crow bar or a base ball bat.’ Callum muttered to the alpha who sat there confused and asked them to repeat what Lexie rushed out to say.

‘One of you’re pack members a werewolf attacked Mia in the girls toilets at school.’

Lexi assesed her alpha as his eyes shot to his Luna. ‘Where is Greyson?’ She didn’t like the way he asked Rosette about there oldest son. It sounded more like an accusation rather than question.

‘Where he has been all morning. In his room. He would never hurt her.’ She said placing her hand on top of his shoulder squeezing it.

‘We don’t know that.’ Lexi was floored by what her bestfriends own dad thought about Greyson. His own son.

‘You need to have more faith in your son’ Lexi had seen the way Greyson was with Mia on a few ocations he was snapy and moody but he handled her like broken glass. Jason was fuming he told them both to go home and wash up. ‘I can smell her blood on you if he gets a wiff on that he will loose it, no one tells him what happened.’ It was jason's final order. He pikd up a paper weight from his desk and hurdeled it into the wall.

's**t!' he shouted.