Page 1 of Fallen Wolf
1
Ada
I hastily shovedthe whole cracker into my mouth and tried to chew it quickly. The small crumbs falling down against my pink shirt landed in my lap.Ugh.
“W-ello,” I mumbled into my phone, balancing it between my shoulder and ear.
“Ada, why do you call me when you’re stuffing your face?” Destiny, my sister, chuckled down the line. I smiled as I felt happiness spread through my chest, I missed her and just the sound of her voice made me feel a bit teary. I swallowed my dry cracker and drank some water to clear my throat before responding.
“I didn’t know if you would answer. I just wanted to see how you were?” It was true, I hadn’t expected her to answer. Destiny was now living on campus at college. Well, she had for a while now, but that was okay. I understood she couldn’t always answer the phone. She had classes and new friends. She made friends easy, she was so loveable and caring. She was always posting photos on Instagram of all the places she was out at, parties she had been too.So many parties. And here I was spending my lunch break on the phone to her. Why? Because I didn’t have any real friends.
My parents always told me I needed to go and meet people my age, but it had just been so easy being Destiny’s sister, she was only a year older. I was friends with all of hers. Except now they’d all moved away to college and well… I was stuck here at Port Willow high.Alone.
“I’m great, just busy. What are you up too?” she replied. I took a deep breath. I knew she wasn’t going to say much more, she told me she felt guilty she’d left me here by myself while she was having all this fun. She shouldn’t. Next it was my turn for college, but I knew my parents struggled to send Destiny. She’d got into her dream college and well they had mentioned a few times how much it was costing them, and I could see the stress on their faces. They didn’t know I’d overheard them, and I wasn’t going to add to their stress. College seemed fun for someone like Destiny, but for me… I didn’t think I would fit in. I’d decided I was just going to go to community college. To lessen the financial strain on my parents, and then I wouldn’t have far to go. I would get to stay with them. I loved my parents, they were truly amazing and supportive. I knew they would do anything for me, including sending me to a dream college but I really preferred to stay here. I didn’t have the call to leave, not like Destiny.
“Well…” this was the part I was really calling for. I needed help. Advice on what to do next, because I didn’t want to mess this up.
“I met this new girl, she is in my English class with me. And like she talked back to me and I think I messed it all up. Because I talked a lot and—” my words were running away, and Destiny quickly jumped in.
“Oh wow, Ada. That’s awesome. What’s her name?” I took a deep breath and tried to relax. I was a little jumpy and had butterflies. I didn’t really know why. I guess I wanted this new girl to like me.
“Her name is Lexi and she is living in Kiba. And I told her all about the weird shit that happens with the boys from there. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I was just curious as she had the Kenneally boys stalking her, like right into class. It was really strange.” I took a quick breath before continuing.
“She said she wasn’t interested in them, but then Parker Tolson is jerk so I can understand why—” A hot jerk but still. “I told her how they have huge fights and they are basically like gangs.”
Well without saying they were gangs. Because I had no idea why they had this weird turf war thing going on with each other. I lived in Watson, we didn’t have a gang of boys here. Just Kiba, Kenneally and Rawlins.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound bad. It’s more like you were helping her because she is living in Kiba and if the Kenneally or Rawlins boys try and date her, there will be huge fights again with the Kiba boys. Remember last year with Nina? God that was insane and, in the end, she had to move.”
I felt bad for Nina Harmon, she’d seemed really nice, but the fights were so bad her parents ended up moving her away from Rawlins and she now lives down in Westport. I took another bite of my cracker; more crumbles fell to my lap. I rolled my eyes, I needed to bring a different snack with me tomorrow.
“Oh, and there is a new guy, Rafferty King. He has these ice blue eyes and silver hair. I have no idea if it’s natural but it’s perfection. And he is like a dream guy, I have seen the girls all checking him out.”
He wore a lot of dark colors and he was covered in colorful tattoos. He really did look like a model, or like he’d stepped outside of a perfect fantasy. He was super quiet and he looked like he had already been in a fight yesterday. I had seen him, he looked like he got messed up bad.
“So… I’m starting to feel like you’re sitting in your car eating lunch, instead of being inside the cafeteria with your new friend, Lexi.”
I looked at the steering wheel and dashboard and then over to the passenger seat and shook my head. I squeaked out, “no.” She could see right through my lies, my sister was yelling at me down the phone to go inside and sit with Lexi. But the thing was, Lexi was so beautiful and cool. She was going to end up sitting with Olivia George and making fun of me. So, there was no point in trying to be her friend. She would work out really fast that being with me would make her incredibly unpopular and target for assholes. Like sitting in your car to eat lunch every day of your senior year to avoid the bullies type of unpopular.
“Ada Stephens, get out of your car and go sit with the new girl. You’re a great person and she will see that. But she won’t if you’re sitting in your car. I will tell mom and dad to take the car from you so you can’t do this anymore. You can’t make friends if you don’t put yourself out there.”
My sister had a point, but I was chicken. I just didn’t want it to be awkward when I got to lunch and found Lexi sitting with the popular girls. Have them all watching me and whispering. I just couldn’t take that anymore. So, I did the next best thing. I avoided it all by sitting in my car.
Like I did. Every day.
2
Ada
When I wentto my next classes, Lexi wasn’t in any of them. I tried to find her after the final bell had rung, to see if she wanted a lift, but she had gone already. I think she’d caught the bus here.
But news spread fast in school, I was hearing that the Lovell twins, Maverick and Ranger had taken an interest in Lexi. They were Kiba boys so it would make sense them wanting to fight over her too. But Maverick,huh… I always kinda thought he was different to other guys. I’d never seen him have an interest in anyone at school.
I felt a pang of jealously in my chest, I knew I shouldn’t be, but she had been here one day, and all these guys were falling over themselves for her. Even the new guy Rafferty was staring at her like he wanted to eat her. I had seen him a few times in the hall, his ice blue eyes fixated on her. He was beautiful with tattoos covering his arms. I was a sucker for tattoos. But I didn’t even stand a chance at having him look at me the way he did Lexi.
To the whole student body, I was the same girl they all knew, nothing special. Nothing ever changed. Just predictable Ada. Boring as hell. No friends, no boyfriend. Not even one of the guys from debate club had any interest in me. I was that invisible to these people. I hated it, but then sometimes I thought it was for the better. If they didn’t see you… then they didn’t have anything mean to say to you…usually.But it was pretty lonely.
When I arrived home, I lugged my bag to my room, patted Fluffy Thor—our big white ragdoll cat— and stared at myself in the mirror.
