Homophobes?

Well... Lupita's short break from school had been anything but. She hadn't even been near it for a full week, which meant the full moon was tonight and she was restless. She had no contact with Jazmyn and barely any with John over the time she had spent trying to avoid everyone and everything, except her squirrel friend which she couldn't seem to shake.

It had been rough, to say the least, and she had gone through four different sets of clothing as she either hadn't been able to get them off in time or ripped them off whenever her wolf forced her way out in a hurry. She had spent most of her time in the forest, away from any packs and human territory, as well as the kitsunes which were bordered with the humans. North hadn't shown up either, but Lupita had caught her scent and Alex's scent a few times when she went on a rampage.

When the week was over, she had finally calmed down her wolf and herself, though they took the Monday off to heal a few wounds that they caused themselves before finally being able to function without shutting down at every sound that was made. It was not much of an improvement, but she needed to get back to school if she wanted to at least try and make her parents proud. Not that she would get any kind of human job after she was done though.

"You ready to leave muffin?" John asked and came up to her and ruffled her hair to wake her. She found she didn't mind him touching her hair that way and allowed him to do so whenever he wanted without biting off a finger.

"Yeah," she groaned and got up from the sofa and to the bathroom. She quickly did her business, brushed her teeth, and took off her sleepwear. But before she put on the clothes that John had left for her, she took the time to examine her body after the rough week she had. Her usual scars on her stomach were there with a few new ones that would never fully heal in between; her arms had no scars, save for the ones on her wrists, other than that the moon tattoos were there, unharmed by everything they had faced, along with the full moon on her back, but it was surrounded by multiple different scars, both from her and others; old and new. She didn't show her unusual birthmark or "tattoo" - as she called it when someone asked - to anyone. It was weird and hard to explain. How could you explain that you had the full moon cycle on your body without people asking an absurd amount of questions? 'Oh, these tattoos? They are a permanent reminder of my heritage and my connection to the devil's son.' No, she wouldn't tell that to Jazmyn or John. Better to hide them.

"You ok in there muffin?" John asked as he knocked on the door and pulled Lupita from her thoughts into a horrifying memory of a metal bar before she calmed down.

"Yeah," she said out of breath as she breathed in heavily before putting on her clothes and not sparing a glance at her scared legs or neck before she got out.

"Remember to breathe," John said and placed his hands on her shoulders and took a deep breath in, motioning for her to do the same, and she did. It was strange how this man had learned so much about her in this horrible week when she might have been with him for 24 hours at most, and he still let her stay.

Once they finished their breathing exercise John looked at her to confirm she was ok, and when he was satisfied he led her to the kitchen where she ate a portion of eggs, a lot of bacon, and cut-up fruit which included a lot of bananas. In her short time with the kind old man, Lupita had figured out her liking for the strange fruit, along with her liking for strawberries and her disgust towards mushrooms.

After they both finished eating, Lupita hugged John goodbye and ran for the school. It took her only 10 minutes of sprinting but she was still late.

Lupita quickly looked around the school to see if she could see the mean vampire teacher she had had the misfortune of bumping into the last time she was here. Lucky for her, he was nowhere to be seen, but she could figure out his smell amongst the thousand others. He smelled of death.

The hallways were quiet when Lupita entered and she quickly made sure to check if there were any teachers around that she might look out for. There was no one so she continued to the first class of the day which happened to be English. She groaned as she knew she couldn't avoid Elizabeth or Jazmyn any longer and reluctantly made her way to the classroom. Once there, she heard the voices from inside.

"You get to choose any book as long as you present it in front of the class or with me in private. Make sure to pick one that you like and that you want to work on," Elizabeth's voice could be heard from inside. "And no, Isaac, you can not choose the Guinness World Record book. We are not in preschool anymore."

Lupita softly knocked on the door and heard a "come in". She cautiously opened the door and gave Elizabeth a small smile when she saw the shocked and relieved look on her face.

"Sorry for not coming to school this past week. I promise I have a valid rea-" something collided with Lupita's stomach mid-apology and she looked down to see Jazmyn hugging her tightly.

"Please girls, sit down," Elizabeth said before giving Lupita a stern look. "Stay behind after class." The class made "oooh" sounds as Lupita sat down beside Jazmyn and sent North a small wave. The white wolf waved back and smiled at her before looking back as Elizabeth began talking.

Being in school had to be the worst when it was a full moon day, and Lupita could see it on all the students in Elizabeth's class, even she seemed restless and full of energy. She tried to make the class as interesting as possible, one of the activities she made them do was picking up a desk while a person sat on it and reading as much as they could off the screen before they had to put it down and they couldn't skip any punctuation marks or say something wrong. No one was forced to do it, but Lupita found the exercise fun, but set the desk down before she got tired as she realized she had more strength than the "strongest" boy in the class and she didn't want to seem like a show-off.

The class eventually came to an end, or, the classes as they had a double period. Lupita was about to walk out when she heard someone clear their throat behind her and she groaned realizing she had to stay behind.

"Where were you?" Elizabeth asked as she sat down in front of her with Jazmyn beside her.

"Blowing off some steam," she replied shortly and refused to look at either of them.

"You said you had a good reason," Elizabeth said sternly. "This is not a good reason." She gestured to Lupita.

Lupita pressed her lips into a thin line and felt her leg bounce. It wasn't comfortable sitting like this at all. She needed to run and be active, not sitting still and being questioned.

"I had a nightmare when I was with you guys," she began, "I realize that is not a good excuse, but that was what happened. I was shaken up and so was my wolf, we still are. I needed time so I wouldn't rip off someone's head if they looked at me funny." She could hear Elizabeth sigh and in the next moment, she found her head being lifted by a hand on her chin.

"Why won't you tell us everything?" she asked, not sounding angry at all.

"I don't trust you," Lupita mumbled and looked away again, only to be met with Jazmyn who looked at her with concern and hurt after what she said.

"I understand," Elizabeth said and moved her hand to Lupita's shoulder. "But please don't leave and only leave a note behind next time. We might not know each other well, but we care about you."

Lupita nodded and looked back down and felt Jazmyn hug her side. She carefully placed her arm over her shoulders and leaned her head on hers.

"I am sorry," she whispered and nuzzled into the girl's hair, inhaling her comforting scent which consisted of strawberries and flowers.

"Don't do it again," Jazmyn whispered and sat back up, a slight blush on her cheeks which made Lupita's heart hurt.

"Come to us during the full moon tonight," Elizabeth said and walked back to her chair. "I will not be able to come with you, I need to take care of my mate. So shift close to home."

"I can't do that," Lupita said.

"Why?" Elizabeth asked as she sat down.

"Werewolf territory. You are very near one. Maybe we could do it somewhere else. You can't come, but I promise to take care of Jazmyn," Lupita said, remembering the scent she had caught, though it was faint, she needed to be careful.

Elizabeth stayed silent and turned on her computer, looking at it for a while before looking back at the two girls in front of her.

"You can go to the south side of the werewolf borders. Be careful of rouges. Our lands are bigger than we think," she warned and stared at them.

Lupita nodded and stood up along with Jazmyn and they walked out to go to their next class.

"You scared me," Jazmyn whispered and Lupita avoided her eyes when she began looking her way. "I thought something bad happened. The only thing I get is a note and North saying you are fine. By how they sounded you were not fine." She began to sound desperate.

"I don't want to lay all my past on you Jazmyn. I will keep that a secret until I know you can be trusted," she said and continued to walk.

"... I like girls," Jazmyn said and Lupita turned once she realized the girl had stopped.

"Ok?" Lupita said and dragged out the "o".

Jazmyn stayed silent with her eyes closed and breathing heavily. Lupita could smell the fear reeking off of her.

"Am I supposed to do anything?" she asked as Jazmyn still seemed terrified.

Jazmyn opened her eyes slowly and looked at her.

"You are not going to call me disgusting or... a fag?" she whispered the last part and Lupita tilted her head to the side while furrowing her brows and scrunching her nose.

"Why would I do that?" she asked genuinely.

Jazmyn now seemed confused and looked around before pulling Lupita into a small room with brooms and buckets.

"This is weird," Lupita said but felt Jazmyn grab her by the collar and pull her down to her level and stare at her. "You are creeping me out."

"You have never heard of homophobia, have you?" Jazmyn asked and Lupita tilted her head at the new word. Phobia meant to be scared of something if her English dictionary was correct, and homo... she didn't know.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It is when someone is against gay people," Jazmyn explained.

"Gay people?" Lupita asked again, the word unknown.

"People who like people of the same gender or sex," Jazmyn explained and Lupita made a face of realization that quickly turned to confusion.

"Why would you give it a name? You just love someone. It is the same as anything else," Lupita stated. This was all very strange to her. In her old pack, they just mated with who they were destined for, no matter the gender or sex. Being against someone loving someone seemed, to her, to be the stupidest thing ever.

"Wow. You must have had the perfect home," Jazmyn said and leaned back, pulling Lupita with her as she still had a steel grip on her shirt, causing Lupita to have to support herself on the wall behind the dark-skinned girl.

"Doesn't everyone have that view?" Lupita asked and tilted her head again.

"Sadly no," Jazmyn said and closed her eyes.

"But, why would they be homophobes? Phobia is being scared of something (if I remember correctly). Those would just be jerks," she said, which caused Jazmyn to laugh.

"True," Jazmyn said and nodded her head. "I like all genders by the way."

"I like girls, just girls," Lupita said with a smile.

"So you are a lesbian?" Jazmyn asked.

"No. I just like who I will end up with as my mate. And I know it is a girl," Lupita said with a sad smile and looked down. She suddenly realized how close the two were when she caught a glimpse of Jazmyn's lips. Said girl suddenly leaned in and Lupita froze. What should she do? She couldn't kiss her. She didn't have any feelings for her and would never have anything other than platonic feelings.

The door slammed open and the two girls quickly turned their heads to be met with...