Wolf Sirens: Forbidden: Discover The Legend (5 page)

It was badly pixelated camera footage.
“They are monsters,” she said glaring at the
screen, as though willing it to unfold. I watched as
the badly flickering footage, which showed Lily and
Bianca, their hair unmistakable. I could make out
Giny’s voice, I thought. Sam appeared. She was evidently even the ringleader in this poorly lit video. I
started to wonder if they were filming me. Was this
some sort of initiation joke? It must be. I decided I
had walked straight into a hazing, which at this high
school was obviously at a different level than that
what I was used to. She touched my hand with warm
chewed nails. “Just watch,” she warned suddenly. I
felt the urge to leave. I felt an aversion to the warm
moisture, which radiated from her body.
“Is this a joke,” I began to say as I watched the
girls in the darkly coloured video tremor, shake and
tear out of their dresses and mutate into huge grizzly
snarling hairy beasts and run off. The camera flickered over a dark background and stopped. They must
have had a good budget to fund this. Sam looked like
she could have easily managed it. Everything about
her screamed spoilt rich girl.
I was a little freaked to my core, but I restricted
any obvious reaction. No matter which way I looked
at it their intentions were less than honourable. “I’ve
seen enough,” I barked. “What the hell is this?” I
almost raised my voice, raining in my projection at
the last second,to avoid the attention of the librarians.
She looked at me questioningly.
“Now do you see why you shouldn’t hang around
with them?” She searched my expression for a response. She seemed almost pleased with herself. I
looked in her eyes and decided she was slightly mad
and that they were all waiting for my reaction somewhere, as some cruel joke and this drugged-out girl
was the bait or something. They were probably filming this now, for all I knew.
I looked around.
“Where’s the hidden camera?” My tone was
sharp. I waited for her reply. She looked confused.
“Is this a joke?” I angrily accused again.
“No, I’m warning you.” Her face was stern.
“This is bullshit.” I kept my demeanour low key;
I wasn’t going to give them a reaction. I huffed and
shook my head. “You’re a little bit sick.” I scowled
turning away, stopping at the stairway. I yelled at her:
“You all are!” - before racing down the stairs and out
the doors before the librarians could scold me.
This took twisted to a whole new level. I could
see them all laughing at my expense: Sam, Bianca,
Giny and Lily and the Guys. I was fuming and about
to turn and leave the school altogether. Then instead,
I considered going to this ‘practice’ and confronting
them, but why give them the reaction they craved? I
knew exactly what would screw them. I turned and
headed for the office. I wasn’t going to play their
games.
Outside the principal’s office, I told the receptionist that I needed to speak with him regarding a
“student bullying matter”. She saw the urgency in
my face.
“Take a seat.” She gestured towards the waiting
area. I sat upright in my chair and took the opportunity to assemble my thoughts, tapping nervously.
What was I going to say to get the principal to take
this as a serious matter? Had they done anything like
it before? Was there anything that he knew about? I
wondered if they were done yet or if there were more
theatrics to come. I imagined an after-school prank
- this time Giny taking me out to the empty parking
lot and all of them jumping out in dog masks and
claws and watching me scream in terror while the
dirty yellow-haired girl filmed it and they posted it
on the internet.
I imagined what I’d say to mum: ‘
Sorry, I tried
.’
After waiting slightly too long on the row of
chairs in the office foyer, I began to calm down, much
to my disappointment. I thought about how to tell
it all concisely to the principal. I concentrated on
the swirling facts in my head. There weren’t many. I
considered getting proof. Then it dawned on me that
they really hadn’t done anything concrete, they could
all deny it. It was my word against this local group of
kids that were well known and probably well liked,
with teachers to vouch for them and then there was
me, the new girl - trouble from the city seen getting
a lift home and arriving safely. Even my mother had
seen me chatting happily enough on the phone to
Sam and I’d let her believe we were better friends
than we were, which I now recalled with regret.
Then I realized I had to get the USB stick with the
footage. The principal’s office door opened, I quickly
got up to hurry away, but as I turned to leave it was too
late. I may not have been acquainted with the principal
but the principal was acquainted with me.
“Lila Crain,” he said to my escaping back. He had
caught me.
I stopped and turned. “Hello,” I said faking a
smile, which wouldn’t have fooled anyone; it was
more of a cringe.
“Come this way. I am glad you have decided to
take the initiative. I was going to have to catch up
with you, but here you are and before school!” He
was impressed. Maybe if I impressed him enough on
this occasion it would make me more credible when
I took the clique down for their hazing. I went with
him into his office, playing along.
He was a portly man with white hair I noticed as
he pulled my file.
He seemed pleased.“Good grades,” he chirped,
“good, good.”
I had the genuine feeling that he hadn’t looked it
over prior to this meeting and my results weren’t all
that good. I knew if I had tried they actually might be
good. I recalled mostly satisfactory results. He looked
me over and his chair creaked as he leant forward.
“Any trouble at your old school?” He wasn’t as
dumb as he looked.
“A little.” I wondered how much my mother
had divulged and why he didn’t mention how much
I looked like her, which was common. We had the
same brown-blonde hair and grey-blue eyes, the only
difference being that mine glowed green at night.
“I understand there won’t be any difficulties here?”
“No sir.”
“Any trouble settling in?” he asked.
“No,” I replied sweetly. I felt he knew this would
be my answer.
“Made friends yet?” He smiled, his eyebrows
raised in expectation.
“Yes,” I said editing my tone. I didn’t know if I
should elaborate. After a moment I decided it would
be wise to. If I was to implicate them in hazing new
students, now was my time to ever so innocently do
so. It may work in my favour. I had learnt this the
hard way. That I could play manipulation too, a trick
I had acquired out of necessity.
I batted my lids. “Oh yeah, the girls are really
sweet they have been giving me a ride to school and
been great in class helping me catch up.” My teeth
gritted into a smile.
“Yes,” he said, “and which girls are those?” It was
as though he had already picked names. I cleared my
throat.
“Sam and Gin-Giane Archer and Lily…and
Bianca,” I trailed off.
I waited for his reply.
“Hmm, yes, I see - and Tealy?” he offered.
“Who?” I didn’t conceal my confusion; maybe
this too would work in my favour. I tried not to panic.
“Tealy and Angie.” He stopped short, pointedly. I
looked blankly at him, blinking.
“Tealy Sutton and, um, Monica Jones, Angele...
err,” he trailed off. “Oh well, you haven’t had time
to meet them all yet, I’m sure busy, busy,” he sighed,
probably thinking more of his own experience as the
single head of a large high school.
The intercom beeped and the office lady’s voice
crackled in.
“Your nine AM, John.”
“I’ll be out in two,” he shouted into the intercom.
I’m sure she could have heard him through the door
outside.
I read his name from a table plaque.
“Well, thank you, Mr Crealy.” I smiled, seizing
the opportunity to exit.
“Keep up the grades, Miss…” He paused
struggling
“Crain,” I offered.
He patted my shoulder on the way out.
“We’ll convene again to check how you’re settling
in, Miss Crain.”
“Thanks.”
He knew my history, he wouldn’t believe me
easily, my feeling had been right. I had retaliated in
Horkum after spending my junior years tormented
by Arli. When we were suspended for fighting, my
brother’s friend, who had bet me I wouldn’t get suspended, won the bet. I wanted to impress him so I
ended up at home two hours later drunk, after getting a tattoo on my wrist. It was hard to hide. Mum
flipped when she eventually saw it. I had never known
her to be so disappointed; she just turned around and
walked away. I made her cry.
It wasn’t easy to hide at the school either. Based
on my blatant disregard for school rules and dress
code I was expelled; that, and I had missed a few days
here and there.
This was all made worse when I discovered Jeff
an older guy who I had a crush on was dating my
best friend, so I just kind of fell off the radar for a bit.
It was just mum and me at home because Tim was
thrown out after mum couldn’t take his behaviour
any more. That was just months after my father left
with a woman only ten years older than me whom he
had been secretly meeting with for two years. That
stung. I didn’t think Sophie would recover but she
put up a brave front - when she wasn’t weeping.

As soon as I was out I made straight for the library.
I had just enough time to get to her bag, before the
bell. She probably had the evidence still on her the
USB stick. If I could get it, my case would be a lot
more solid. I recalled as I neared the building that
it was most likely still in her hand, safely indoors. I
wouldn’t have wished to pry it from her with force,
recalling her grip on my arm.

I needed the faces to those names.
I would have to bide my time. I would have to pay
attention in class when the roll was called, if it was
called. A lot of the time the teachers simply checked
it themselves, despite the large student numbers. I
was going to have to talk to someone to get information. I would have to talk to Cresida. I planned to do
it at lunch. I didn’t think I would have any classes
with her, I would have noticed by now surely. I tried
to remember the names Mr Crealy had mentioned
- Angie, Tealy, Monica. Who were they? I recalled
Angie from science, and thought with sarcasm how
she had been welcoming and how Cresida had avoided her in the library.
I noted a Tealy in my class. She was a blonde, pale
and freckly, and sat in the middle, beside Monica
Jones. The Clique, just like me, definitely outshone
them. Monica had brown hair and a row of acne
along her pasty chin. Cresida wasn’t in this class or at
least not here. The teacher looked up from his desk.
He was a sub. Mr Bealy was off – flu was the rumour. Before the class was shushed he called all the
names, even the kids who were absent and who had
left. I was right about Tealy, and the girl to her right
was Monica the dark brunette. Angie was absent and
when he crept too slowly to the bottom of the role:
“Cresida,” he called, there was a silence.
“Cresida?” hissed a boy up the back,
“Cresida James?” the teacher asked, holding his
pencil out ready to correct it.
“She’s not here,” said another male voice from
behind me. I glanced over my shoulder. A confident
looking boy glared back at me. His eyes were amber.
Davies. He was a tall broad shouldered guy with dark
cropped spiky hair, brown skin, and his eyes haunted me. He looked too big for his desk. I didn’t like
the way he stared at me; maybe he was in on it all
too, unless now I was descending into paranoia. My
cheeks flushed. When I glanced back at him later in
class he smiled, a row of perfectly straight white teeth
stark against his warm brown skin.
After the bell I made my way over to the place
where Tealy was seated in class. I tried not to hyperventilate at the thought of being so forward. She
casually turned as I approached.
“Hello,” I said. “Tealy Sutten? I’m Lila Crain.”
I don’t know what I expected her to say, and she
seemed guarded. I wondered why Principal Crealy
had thought she was so friendly. I swallowed hard.
“Tealy Sutt-on,” she corrected, swinging her pack
over a shoulder, tugging her hair from under the strap
and flicking it away.
I ignored her correction.
“Principal said I should meet you.” I shrugged. I
swallowed, trying still to sound casual. “He said you
would show the new girl around.” I shrugged again,
honestly not sure if she was going to refuse based on
her expression.
“Sure,” she said in a low tone glancing at her
friend Monica in her peripheral vision.
“Are you friends with Sam?” I enquired, as we
walked out to the hall toward the cafeteria.
She laughed nervously and I wasn’t sure why. She
looked like she wanted to take off.
“Should we have lunch together?” I did my best
friendly smile; it felt like a bad impersonation. I
stood in the entrance to the lunch area waiting for
her answer. I was better at this than I had anticipated.
“Yeah, okay.” To my surprise Monica had replied, from behind us. She looked at her friend and
shrugged. Tealy glared back. It seemed I was social
suicide, even though the most popular girls seemed
to currently adore me. Why? I wondered, and how
much trouble would they be in for walking into the
lunch area with me? But I dared to see. I walked
closely with them. I wasn’t going to let Tealy or
Monica escape.
The open lunch area was sparsely populated. It
was a nice clear day and the larger population was
outdoors soaking up the springish winter weather so
we made less of an entrance than I’d hoped.
The clique was on the green lawn in the sun being
entertained by a boy doing cartwheels and walking
on his hands up the embankment where they sat. He,
too, looked fit. Was it something in the water? We
bought lunch and I guided my new friends to the
outside as well. I realized as we approached that there
was a good view of the lawn from the far seat in the
undercover canteen. I plunked down, immediately
happy we could see the entire student body from our
vantage point.
“So tell me the gossip. Who’s who?” I pointed
around. I spotted the yellow-haired girl. “Who is
that?” I chimed pointing to the green blazer she wore.
“Who? Cresida?” Tealy replied. “She looks like
she’s wearing something from the op-shop,” Tealy
whispered to Monica.
“Oh, so she’s the one missing from class.” I wasn’t
genuinely surprised. They didn’t elaborate, so I asked
another question jogging my memory for anything I
could use. “She’s into books and computers and stuff,
yeah?”
“Hardly,” Monica scoffed, bemused.
Tealy informed me. “She was really popular
’til like last year. Now she ditches school and-” she
glanced around and lowered her voice- “she used to
hang out with the queen B over there.” She tilted her
head in the direction of the clique.
“Queen S and Queen B,” added Monica, enjoying the gossip as equally as her friend.
“- And queen L! Ha, right,” laughed Tealy. The
two girls smiled and nodded at each other.
The clique was throwing popcorn playfully into
the acrobatic boy’s mouth, laughing and lounging on
the grass.
“She’s into drugs,” said Monica with her dark
eyes still referring to Cresida.
“That’ll do it; I guess,” I added knowingly. “Does
she hangout with Sam and Lily at all?” I asked.
They both looked perplexed. Tealy laughed nervously. “No,” she huffed.
“She used to,” admitted Monica.
“Yeah, years ago,” argued Tealy tucking her dirty
blonde hair behind her ear.
“
One
year ago,” Monica corrected. I couldn’t be
sure but I thought I heard sadness creeping into her
tone.
“Are you guys friends with them? Cresida or the
cli-Sam and friends?” I prompted swallowing.
“No, why?” Tealy asked with a suspicious
expression.
“Tell me more,” I encouraged. “How long have
you known her? Have you all grown up together?” I
leant on my knuckles, ready to listen, my full concentration directed towards the twosome.
They looked at each other. Monica spoke first.
“Well, actually no, they’re all new here - except
Giane. Cresida was really popular around here until, I don’t know, six months after they all arrived,”
she emphasized. “Until last year during term break,
they all went down to the creek, camping,”she hissed.
“When they got back everything changed. Reid was
more muscular,” she blushed. “Same with Jackson,”
she recalled. “Cresida fell off her perch,” she added
with a guilty look.
I wondered privately if it was steroids or something, which had sculpted them.
“Why don’t they hang with her anymore?” I
asked, unsure. They looked at me.
“Have you seen her?” Tealy pointed to her own
head with her mouth open. “She’s taken a few too
many E’s,” she whispered circling her finger near her
temple to indicate the fact that Cresida had lost it.
“She used to sleep around, that’s when anyone would
have her,” she said with disdain. “Now her Aunt has
to deal with her.” She shrugged, scooping up a clump
of mashed potato from the top of her pie.
“Yeah, the aunt’s a total church nut,” Monica
added. “Why are you so interested, anyway?” she enquired, sipping her shake.
I smiled. “Just curious-” but I wanted more -“how
were they different after the river?” I wanted to know.
Tealy went on.
“Just look at them, all of a sudden they were, I
don’t know - the popular kids, like they deserve it and
they know it,” she said, her voice souring. Monica
nodded in agreement. Tealy stirred her milkshake
with a straw.
“Tell me about him?” I pointed to the good-looking chestnut-haired guy.
Monica looked over.
“That’s Sky.” She smiled slightly.
“Where?” I said scanning the girls. There wasn’t
anyone I hadn’t already put a name to within view
except for the guys. “And that boy is Reid.”
I realized she was talking about the guys. They
were tall and they weren’t boys if that’s who Tealy
and Monica had been referring to. Maybe not long
ago they were, but what I saw was three men. They
had answered to last names in the classes I’d shared
with them - Harton and Davies. The handsome
dark-haired guy was Reid Davies.
I eyed the tall guy.“Sky…Harton?”I asked unsure.
They nodded in unison.
My heart started to jump in my chest as the tall
one glanced at me, as he bent down to kiss Sam. I
looked away flushing with embarrassment. I hoped
they didn’t notice my reaction.
“He’s Sam’s property,” Tealy informed me.
“Who?” I said, as she raised her eyebrows at me.
“Sky.” Monica smiled wider at me with her
bunched teeth, perhaps knowingly.
He was too beautiful for the reality of Shade. He
wore buttoned blue jeans, a white singlet and a blue
short-sleeved shirt; his ear-length wavy brunette hair
blew in the breeze; he tucked it behind his ears, his eyes
were sapphire blue. I tried to look away, succeeding
this time. He wasn’t perfect but there was something
about him, which my eyes liked to linger on.
“Hot, huh?” Tealy nudged me with her elbow,
evidently noticing my voyeurism.
Monica whispered, “Reid’s the available one,”
smirking.
“Well co-ed does have its advantages,” I added
slyly in a tone that was meant to impress them. “He
dates Sam?” I asked, referring to Sky.
“Sure does, and here’s the best part,” she leaned
in. “He used to date Cresida,” whispered Monica.
She licked the inside of her top lip.
“Till she went loco that is,” Tealy continued.
“Teals!” Monica scolded.
“-Well anyone would have,” she said defensively.
Monica shook her head at Tealy.
Ignoring her friend, Tealy lowered her voice.
“Now they’re all back together, minus Cresida.”
Monica sighed. Sam shot a glare at us from the
lawn. Her crystal light blue irises pierced our gathering as though she had heard us. She turned and
seemed to continue her conversation in the sunshine,
although she could not have overheard, from her
distance.
I tried to imagine Cresida with him, the Cresida
in the picture in the office with cleaner hair in the
white top and jeans, which showed her belly button,
her smiling face and flushed cheeks. I could imagine
her beside him. In my safe position I casually asked
about Giny - she was the only piece that didn’t fit.
The rest were muscular, well fed thoroughbreds. I
looked at them luminous with youth in the sunlight
with their unsettling confidence and alabaster skin.
Giny’s skin was dull, her frame small and her limbs
bony, more like an un-toned ballerina than a strong
trained acrobat. She seemed unfit and unwell next to
them with deep shadows under her eyes and a smattering of freckles across her small nose. I wondered
how she fitted in, was she related to one of them?
How was she part of their crowd while Monica and
Tealy were not?
“Tell me about Giny?” I added with curiosity.
“She doesn’t seem to fit?” I leaned in.
They looked at each other brows raised. Tealy
answered.
“She’s a brown noser.” She screwed up her freckled nose. “She’s wanted in since forever, since Sam
arrived.”
I could tell it left a bad taste in her mouth.
She squinted.
“Who knows what she’s done to get in,” she said
with disdain -
with the ‘clique’,
I added silently in my
head. I realized that if Sam and her posse weren’t at
the school that Tealy would have been the ‘it girl’,
along with Monica.
“Giane used to be a – nobody. She’s lucky,” sighed
Monica. “What!?” she replied to Tealy’s glare, which
she returned. She threw a pretzel at Tealy playfully.
They smiled and then talked of their absent friend
Angie, how she had been weird all day and left school
ill earlier. I tuned out and gazed at the lawn, happy
to take a moment to bask in their presence from the
safety of the cafeteria, all the time wondering if I was
the next victim, their next Cresida.
I felt no disdain or fear as I took them in, just numb
curiosity, and admiration. Could I be one of them?
Now that I had some background they seemed
more intriguing. Sky and Sam, now in her Jackie O
sunglasses, rolled on the grass in the sun smiling,
their friends around them. I felt compelled to join
them, but would I have been greeted as warmly as
yesterday? I wasn’t sure. If it was a cruel joke, then
why was Cresida in on it, if they’d had a falling out?
I broke a short silence my eyes still on them. “Do
they ever get involved in hazing?”
“Who, them?” Tealy looked over, her mouth full
of meat pie. She shook her head. “No.” She looked at
Monica.
Monica agreed. “No, not that I know of? Why?”
The bell pierced our ears ending lunch.
“Um, I don’t know they just seem the type,” I
shrugged.
The girls exchanged glances again.
“Well, we’ll be off then.” Monica grabbed Tealy
and they hurriedly tipped their lunch trays in the garbage and exited into the hall, swallowed up in the sea
of students drawing out of the cafeteria. They hadn’t
bothered to ask anything about me. I felt they weren’t
in any hurry to speak to me again. I wondered if Sam
was the cause as I watched her gather her cardigan on
the lawn as the others moved around her like she was
a planet, not moving assuredly until she had. I began
to feel angry. A feeling of unrest, which I now know
to be a different kind of poison coursed through me.
I wished I could take her down. In that moment the
very first stirrings of something that would become
bigger inside me compelled me to action. At the time
I was convinced it was just boredom and the need for
justice, which infused me.