1 Chapter 1: Introduction

"My name is Sam." I said with a half smile on my lips. My reflection in the mirror gave me no reply. I sighed. If only being confident, outgoing, and extroverted had come easily to me, then I would not be in this situation. I only hoped that today goes better than yesterday did. I felt butterflies of worry dance in my stomach. Yesterday was my first day of school, at a new high school, where I knew no one. I recalled that the day was sort of ok, until lunch period. I entered the cafeteria and instantly felt overwhelmed. It was crowded with students, both human and werewolf. It was loud too; perhaps people were excited to see each other again after summer break. One wall of the cafeteria was made up of floor to ceiling glass windows. It looked out to the grass, trees and occasional dandelions that surrounded most of the school (from my limited knowledge). The sun came through the wall of windows at this time of day, in a very unfortunate way. It made the cafeteria, which was already warm with the heat of all those warm-blooded bodies, even more heated. Because of the amount of people, the noise level and the heat, I felt my body start to sweat. The overwhelmed feeling from earlier morphed into a general anxiety. There was no where I could just sit and be by myself, I noticed. There was not room for that, and there was no way I would just go up to a group of strange teens and ask to sit with them, just so I could have a place to sit here. Somebody entering the cafeteria from the double doors behind me bumped into my shoulder as they tried to get between me and a mob of students going in the opposite direction. That was the last straw. I quickly turned and left the cafeteria the way I had come. But I was so preoccupied with my own internal world still, that I was not paying full attention to my surroundings. I almost smacked, headlong into a tall young man. The next second, I realized that he was a werewolf. I could tell because he had a different smell from humans. My whole body stiffened as I feared what his reaction would be...

"Sam!" I heard a female voice shout. The voice pulled me away from my memories of yesterday and back to the present moment. Not wanting to offend my mother, who I knew was calling me to breakfast, I went down still in my pajamas.

"I'm right here, Mom." I said rounding the corner and entering the kitchen. I looked at the counter. She had prepared me a black tea with milk and a bagel with butter and cheddar cheese, just how I liked it. I smiled.

"Thanks, Mom" I said. "Did you pack me a lunch already, or am I free to take whatever?"

"I made you this" she said, handing me a sandwich in a container. "Grab a granola bar and a dried fruit bar from the cupboard" she instructed. I grabbed my lunch bag and put in a frozen juice box, the sandwich, a granola bar and a dried fruit bar. Mom handed me a reusable water bottle, which I filled and added to the lunch bag before I asked my mom a question.

"Hey, Mom? How old are you?" She turned and looked at me in surprise, which after a few seconds, also became amusement.

"Now why would you be asking that? It's not even like it is anywhere close to my birthday."

She was right. Her birthday was in the late winter. I gave her a small smile and said "There were some girls in the hallway, at the end of the school day, yesterday. They were talking about how old their parents were. This one girl said her mom was 50, and all the other girls agreed that was very old. It made me think about you, and that's when I realized; I don't even know how old you are."

"Oh, my baby" Mom said. She walked to me and gave me a hug. "You listen to me," she said in a stern tone. "If anyone asks you, you had better say I am 30 and holding." She kissed the top of my head and then continued, "But, for your knowledge only...I am 125." I looked at her, stunned, knowing full well that my expression resembled that of a stunned fish.

"Oh, don't look at me that way, darling!" she said. "I know I waited longer to have you, but it's really not that uncommon!"

I gave her a big hug to let her know everything was alright. "It's ok, Mom" I said. "You will always be 30 in my eyes."

"I love you too!" Mom said warmly. "Now quickly eat and finish getting ready, or else you will have to run to school, not walk."