This Is Not a Werewolf Story (27 page)

The girl next to me starts to cry. I stare at the counter. I really thought the light would save her. Sometimes a bad situation is just a bad situation, no matter how hard you try to fix it.

Dean Swift clears his throat. “I'm sorry. I am overcome with emotion. The vet said Bobo will live. He said it is a miracle.”

The room goes wild. Everyone starts to chant,
Bobo, Bobo
. The boys in the Pack and the Wolverines stand up, grab their chairs, and slam them up and down to the beat. The weirdos smack the counter with their open palms. The Cubs stamp their feet.

Cook Patsy walks over to me with a plate full of bacon. “I saw you,” she says.

I freeze. Maybe she was the one who turned on the driveway lights.

“I saw you sleeping next to Bobo in the storage room,” she says. “You're the reason why.” She nods. “Love heals all, that's what they say.” She pulls something out of her apron pocket and hands it to me. It's a friendship bracelet.

“Do you know why rings and bracelets always stand for friendship and love?” she asks.

I think about it. I want to give her a good answer. “Because they're like chains that lock us together?” I ask.

She laughs. “Well, that's one way of looking at it. But I always think it's because a circle never ends. It goes on and on, around and around, no matter what.
Nothing
can stop it, because it never ends once it begins.”

I look down. She's a sneaky one. She's talking about my mom.

“Thank you,” I say.

Right after breakfast a motorcycle roars up. A lot of us are in the upstairs bathroom, and we rush over to look out the window.

I lift Sparrow up to see. He weighs as little as a feather to me this morning. Bobo's not the only one the light fixed up last night. I'm wearing my bandages, but there aren't any bumps or bruises under them anymore.

We see Vincent tearing down the front steps, yelling, “Mom!”

I squeeze Sparrow a little tighter. Sometimes that's a hard word to hear.

Pretty Lady hops off and unstraps something tied to the side of the bike. She lifts it up and waves it at Vincent. “You forgot something, kiddo!” she says with a huge smile.

Even from up here, we can tell it's not just any fishing pole.

It's the one I made for Sparrow.

Vincent stops and glances up at us. Then he hurries toward her, his hands spread out in front of him like he's afraid of falling or like he's telling her to put that pole away.

On the last step Vincent trips and stumbles into his mom. She drops the pole to catch him and it falls in a long line going up the steps. We can all see it's about
to happen before it does. He steps back to get his balance. The wood splinters as his foot comes down on it.

We all let out a big breath.

His mom bends down and starts picking up the pieces.

Vincent stands over her. “Why did you come so early today? Why would you bring that?” He chews her out. Like it's all her fault.

“I was vacuuming and found it under your bed,” she says. Her voice is thin and confused. “I thought you go fishing on Fridays. I didn't want you to get left out. Vinnie, I took the whole day off work to bring it to you.”

“You never get
anything
right,” Vincent shouts. He kicks the Harley's tire and runs to the zigzag path, just like he did on the first day.

Only this time, no one is cheering about it.

No wonder his mom dumped him here.

I set Sparrow down. I rest my hand on the back of his thin little neck.

Vincent let me yell at
Sparrow
. My jaw crunches my teeth together. How low is that?

“That rat stole the pole and made the bambino take the fall for it?” Mean Jack can't believe it either. “What a
cafone
.”

Mean Jack's got a way with words sometimes.

My chest hurts like I got punched. And I did—I got punched with the truth.

The truth is, Vincent's worse than Mean Jack. His dumb prank almost got Mary Anne blown to smithereens. He's the kind of kid who throws rocks at animals. And he's a liar. He lies even when it doesn't really matter. He lies until he thinks his lie is the truth. I never knew someone so low down.

And he broke my pole.

The other boys leave for class. I hear them calling Vincent a sneak and a cheater.

From the window I watch Vincent run.

Chicken. That's what they called him at his old school. That's what he is. Always doing the wrong thing and too chicken to admit it.

Since Dean Swift had to cancel fishing and outdoor time again, he decided to make it up to us by giving us an extra hour of PE. I like Dean Swift, but I don't think we have the same idea of a good time.

When I get into the gym, Mean Jack is on the bleachers with the Pack. “Me and Tuffman just had a little sit-down. I was telling him how Vinnie told us about clipping the cougar. Coach said forget about it. Coach says the second our boy heard that cougar, he hit the turf bawling. Coach says there's no way our friend so much as looked that cat in the eye, let alone whacked it.”

Jason comes up, and Mean Jack tells him, too.

Jason makes little wings with his arms. “What a chicken, yeah?”

For some reason, I don't like it. I don't want them ganging up on Vincent. He's a jerk, but he was a jerk to Sparrow, not to any of them.

The gym gets quiet. I look up and see Vincent walking in through the side door that leads down to the beach. I don't think he was expecting us to all be in here. His eyes are red like he's been crying. His face is all scraped up like he got tackled again down on the beach. When is he gonna learn that when you run, they chase? It's called Consequences, Vincent.

He sits down on a pile of gym mats by the side door. He looks so sad that a weird thing happens. I start to feel sorry for him.

The Pack stares at him from the bleachers. Mean Jack cracks his knuckles. Little John puts his fists to his eyes and pretends to be a bawling baby.
Wah-wah.

Anger flashes in me. I want to run over and shut them up. Vincent's
my
problem, not theirs. Fresnel fury, that's what I should call it. The light makes me strong for a while after I get hit with it, but it makes me angry, too.

I've got to control myself.

I start to walk over to Vincent. I'm still mad at him, but I understand about jealousy. He was jealous of that pole. Sparrow left it in the rain, Vincent went back to grab it. I bet Vincent meant to give it back. He just
got in over his head. The lie went too far—like a bad joke. It's not his fault if I lost my temper and scared Sparrow.
I
did that. Not Vincent.

Friendship goes on and on like a circle, right? And Vincent's the only person I've ever known who would save me a seat or hunt cougar with me or try to make me laugh when I was worried. He invited me to his house for spring break. He may have stolen Mary Anne, but he made her notice me too—he made her my friend.

I'm halfway across the court when I hear it.

“Bok, bok, bok bok BAWK!” I turn around, and Jason's on the bleachers, doing his chicken dance. Everyone is pointing at Vincent, laughing.

Vincent glances at them and then stares at me.

“You said you wouldn't tell,” he says.

He jumps up and runs at me. He wraps his arms around me and tries to take me to the ground, but I won't let him. He starts punching and kicking.

Strength pulses in me. One punch and he'd be on his back on the mats again. But I'm not gonna do it. No matter what Tuffman says, I'm not like him.

The Pack surrounds us, yelling, “Fight, fight, fight!”

I bob and duck quick enough that his fists go flying most of the time. When I grab his wrists he head butts me, and a second later hooks his foot around the back of my knee.

We fall to the floor. Twice he tags me on the head,
right on my bandage like it's a bull's-eye. Like he's trying to kill me.

I roll and get up on my feet. “Listen,” I say. “It wasn't me. I didn't tell anyone.”

Something feels loose in my mouth. I spit out blood and a tooth.

The sight makes the Pack hoot and howl.

He comes at me again, and this time I can't stop myself.

I pull my arm back. The shouting stops. Everyone stares as my fist connects with his chin. All anyone hears is the crack of my knuckles hitting his bone.

Vincent staggers back, back, back three steps and then lands on his butt.

Mean Jack starts counting.

“One, two, three!” Everyone counts along. Little John is jumping up and down, holding his crotch like he's trying not to pee. Jason's eyes look red, and Mark starts to unzip the weighted vest.

What if I broke his jaw? Will the police arrest me?

“That's enough,” Tuffman says, shoving everyone aside. He winks at me. “I knew you had it in you.”

How long has he been watching? I hate myself. I am what he says I am.

Tuffman drags Vincent up by the armpits. He inspects his chin. “You're fine. Don't start bawling. You had it coming.”

Vincent stares at me like I'm less than dirt. “I know all about you,” he says.

“I'm not the one who told,” I say, but Tuffman is carrying him out of the room. “I didn't tell!” I shout after him.

I can taste blood. My tongue finds the hole where my tooth was.

“Where'd you learn to fight like that?” Mean Jack asks in a whisper. He pulls back like he's scared of me when I look at him.

Everyone is looking at me like I'm a monster.

I didn't want to hit Vincent. But I did. I'm turning into what I don't want to be—a creature that's half wolf and half boy.

There's a name for that.

I spend the rest of the day sitting on the floor of the storeroom with Bobo.

Ms. Tern tries to make me come out. “Do join us, Raul,” she begs.

“Will you tell the dean I need my mom's recipes?” I finally say to her.

My eyes must look weird. Did I growl at her?

She backs out of the room, nodding. “Certainly,” she says.

Finally there's nothing left to do but pack my bag to spend the weekend with my dad who never comes. I head up to the boys' wing. I sense Tuffman as soon as I step in the hallway. The door to my room's open. I smell burnt matches.

“Hey, kid,” he says before I step inside.

He's stretched out on my bed, wearing my stocking cap. In one hand he's holding a silver lighter and in the other a recipe card. Tuna Surprise.

“Dean Swift said to bring these back to you. After all the hullabaloo, he thought you could use some time with family. And I'm all you got.”

He grins and the lighter clicks. The card curls black, a little line of orange flame eats it all down to a corner. When the flame hits his thumb, he blows it out.

There's a pile of charred corners at the bottom of the garbage can. He drops in what's left of Tuna Surprise.