ALL NOVEL 19. Cocoa & Consequences
"Somehow I don't think hot chocolate and donut holes are going to help," Paige said quietly, breaking the awkward silence in the car.
Marissa shrugged, "Might not help, but still better than not bringing her anything at all."
Nobody argued with that, and I quietly had another sip of my warm drink. The whipped cream already mostly melted into the cocoa, making it taste rich and creamy.
Kaylee sighed, then commented quietly "I don't think I've ever heard Miss Hawthorne raise her voice like that before. She was really upset."
"Yeah but she wasn't yelling at us," Marissa pointed out in her typical optimistic way. "Like ok she wasn't happy, but she wasn't mad at -"
Brooke interrupted, "That's enough. We'll be there in a minute, then I'm sure May will explain just how unhappy she is about the situation."
The young blonde sitting on my left sighed loudly and had a gulp of her drink. I kept quiet but I was pretty sure she was nervous.
I'd seen Marissa handle ghosts, a witch-hunter, and enthusiastically search for a werewolf, all without batting an eye. But the prospect of facing an unhappy Miss Hawthorne had the brash young witch worried.
In fact all my fellow witches seemed worried. I was too, a little bit. But Brooke seemed confident I wasn't going to turn into a wolf, and now I had an extra-large hot chocolate warming up my fingers and my belly, so I was feeling a lot better.
We'd been in the line at the drive thru when May called. Brooke answered on speaker-phone and all five of us heard Club Luna's sponsor raise her voice for the first time. Apparently hunting rogue werewolfs in the middle of the night was not an approved activity, and she wanted us over at her place immediately so she could address the situation.
According to the clock on the dash of Brooke's car it was almost eleven-thirty as we pulled off the country road and drove down the long driveway to stop next to Miss Hawthorne's home. There was an orange glow in all the downstairs windows, telling us our favourite teacher had a nice warm fire burning in the fireplace.
Once the car was stopped we all climbed out. Me and Marissa were each carrying a jumbo box of donut-holes while Kaylee had the extra hot chocolate we got for May.
The front door opened as we approached, Miss Hawthorne was there to usher us all into the house. She was dressed, but I got the impression she'd only just thrown some clothes on after the phone call. Which meant she was probably in bed when she got Brooke's text, and I was sure that wouldn't have helped her mood any.
We all got out of our boots and coats and stuff, gloves and mitts and hats and scarfs were piled up by the entrance as well. Then the five of us followed our teacher over to the living-room side of the house. Me and Marissa put the boxes of donut-holes on two of the coffee tables, while Kaylee offered May the cocoa we brought for her.
Miss Hawthorne accepted the big cup but she just set it aside on one of the end tables as we all got seated. Me and Kaylee were together as usual on the sofa to the left. Same with Brooke and Paige, they sat next to each other on the sofa to the right. Marissa was in one of the big recliners in the middle, while our teacher stayed on her feet for now. She positioned herself next to the big fireplace, as her gaze slowly tracked over each of us one at a time.
The other four witches all cringed slightly while I had another gulp of my cocoa.
It was actually kind of weird. I was usually the shy anxious one, but I wasn't worried about Miss Hawthorne. Maybe because less than an hour earlier my neck was in the jaws of a big wolf and I thought I was going to die. Or maybe I was just really happy to be warming up by the fire as I enjoyed my hot drink.
After keeping us all waiting another few moments, May took a deep breath then focused her attention on Brooke.
"So let me get this straight. You and your fellow club members took it upon yourselves to go trespassing on private property -- owned by mundane non-supernatural humans -- in the middle of the night, so you could confront an unknown and possibly dangerous werewolf? And you took a novice witch with you, who doesn't know anything about other supernaturals, hasn't had any training about werewolves in particular, and isn't able to reliably cast spells to protect herself?!"
Her voice started out calm and level, but by the time she got to the end the volume and pitch had gone up a fair bit, and my fellow witches were all cringing in their seats.
Before anyone could respond Miss Hawthorne added, "Two months ago I had to drive Cassandra home so we could try and explain to her parents how and why the son they sent to school Friday morning had suddenly transformed into a daughter. Do you think I want to repeat that experience because I have to try and tell them their daughter's now become a wolf?!"
That time she managed to get me cringing along with the rest of the club.
I gulped and asked, "Um Miss Hawthorne? Am I actually going to become a werewolf?"
She looked at me and sighed, "No Cass. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that. Those marks on your neck are clearly from human teeth rather than wolf fangs, and they don't appear to have drawn any blood. But let me take a closer look at you to be certain."
I ended up blushing at the realization that the marks the wolfgirl left on my neck were so obvious, while May moved to stand next to me. She leaned over for a closer look at my throat, and as she did so she commented "You'll be fine Cassandra. It's just a simple hickey."
That was a relief, but it made me blush even brighter nonetheless. Then Brooke finally spoke up, as May moved back to stand by the fireplace again.
"Cass wasn't on her own," the tall blonde explained. "Kaylee was with her, so she could protect her from any danger. They were watching the east side, while me and Paige covered the north and west, and Marissa watched the south. And both me and Paige had Marissa in sight, so nobody was on their own."
"Then how did the werewolf get her teeth on Cassandra's throat?" May asked in a pointed tone.
Kaylee blushed and admitted, "I left Cass alone for a few minutes, to go and check on something with Marissa."
"It's not Kaylee's fault ma'am," I stated. "I asked her a question that she was going to check with Marissa for the answer, that's why she left me alone. And it's not Brooke's fault I was there either. I volunteered, I wanted to help."
Miss Hawthorne sighed again, then focused her attention on Brooke once more. She used her official teacher voice as she asked, "Miss Tremblay do witches have any special rights or privileges which grant them permission to trespass on privately-owned property? Are witches permitted to use magic in view of the general public?"
Brooke gulped but shook her head, "No ma'am."
The teacher looked at Paige next and asked, "Miss Doubek, are witches naturally immune to physical injury? Does being a witch confer any inherent protection from other supernaturals?"
"No ma'am," the tall brunette replied quietly. "We're not immune to injury, and as far as I know we don't have any supernatural protection either."
"Miss Ainsley," May said as she turned her attention on Marissa. "Do you know of any spells that can prevent or reverse the effects of lycanthropy?"
The young blonde frowned as she thought for a few moments. She finally shook her head, "I guess not? That doesn't mean there aren't spells like that though."
Miss Hawthorne gave her a hard look and stated "My point Marissa is even if there were such spells, you don't know them. Yet the lot of you all decided it was a good idea to try and confront an unknown werewolf on your own."
She sighed then her attention came back to me again. "Cassandra would you please tell me in detail exactly what happened? How did this werewolf attack you? Was she in wolf form or human form when you first saw her?"
"Ok ma'am," I replied. "I'll do my best."
I took a deep breath and gulped down the last of my cocoa, then started to describe what I could remember of the attack. I explained how I heard noises on that little roof overhang, then when I moved out from under it I saw the wolf up there. And I told her how it pounced and tackled me, how I was pinned to the ground with its mouth at my throat, and how I screamed. And finally I said how I heard her say 'What?' and when I opened my eyes she was a girl, and she was naked. Then she ran off when Kaylee shouted.
While I was talking the others sipped the last of their drinks and ate a few donut holes. Except for May, she was just standing there listening quietly to my story.
"The wolfgirl ran really fast," I added. "And she jumped the fence, like literally? She didn't stop to climb it like the rest of us did, she launched over it like a hurdle in track and field!"
Brooke commented, "My understanding is werewolves tend to be very strong and very fast, and are usually in excellent physical shape. Even in human form they're stronger and faster than regular people."
"One thing I don't get," Paige commented. "If she was attacking in her wolf form, then why suddenly shift back to a human? Even if the point was to scare Cass rather than actually hurt her, she'd have been better off escaping in wolf form. It's cold out there, and the snow's kind of deep in places too, but she turned human and took off naked."
With the others all talking I took the opportunity to grab a couple chocolate glazed donut holes and started munching on them, but I kind of froze with a mouthful of glazed sugary goodness as Miss Hawthorne looked my way.
She stated, "I believe I know why the wolf became human when she tried to attack Cassandra."
I cringed slightly then swallowed before asking, "Why's that ma'am?"
"Weres are similar to normal humans, except that they have the natural ability to shift between two or three different forms," she explained. "Even though that ability is part of their nature, it's still powered by ambient magic. And as we know, you Cass have a knack for draining magic on contact. I suspect when the werewolf attempted to bite you that activated your talent. You pulled the magic out of her which resulted in her unexpectedly shifting back to her normal shape."
"Oh wow," I said quietly. Then I frowned, "Will she be ok? Actually would that just be a temporary thing, or would that have cured her?"
May stated in a firm but gentle tone, "We do not talk about 'curing' weres Cassandra, any more than we'd talk about curing people who are gay or trans. For one thing it's part of their nature, most weres are born to it. And of the ones who aren't born weres, the vast majority willingly accept it as a gift. It's actually very rare for a human to be turned unwillingly. And finally, there is no way to actually remove that part of their nature, although some people have made misguided attempts to do so."
"I'm sorry!" I replied quickly as my eyes went wide. "I didn't know, I didn't mean to be offensive to werewolfs!"
She responded, "It's all right, but now you know. And in answer to your question, I doubt she would have been harmed by the encounter. Having her magic drained would only be a temporary inconvenience to her. Depending on her strength as a were it would probably take her between fifteen and thirty minutes to gather enough ambient magic to shift again."
Even though she'd attacked and maybe tried to kill me, I still felt glad to know I didn't accidentally hurt her. Though I didn't actually say that, I figured the others would think I was weird or something.
Meanwhile Marissa asked, "Hey Cass? Did you get a good look at her? Maybe we can figure out who she is, if you saw her human face."
Miss Hawthorne glanced at the young blonde, but instead of a reprimand she agreed "That's actually a good idea. Can you describe her for us Cassandra?"
"Um," I frowned as I did my best. "I only saw her really briefly, and I was kind of panicking at the time? I know her hair was dark and it looked kind of messy. It was maybe down to her shoulders? Not long hair, but not short either. And I think her eyes were dark too? She was around the same age as me, like seventeen? Maybe sixteen? I don't think she was older. She was probably the same height as Kaylee? And um, I'm pretty sure she was kind of slim and maybe athletic-looking?"
Brooke suggested "It shouldn't be too hard to find her right? Sixteen or seventeen means she's in high-school. And I can think of three girls at our school who're athletic brunettes about the same height as Kaylee."
Paige agreed, "There's two girls in our PE class who fit the description. Though that's assuming she even goes to our school."
"How many high-schools are there in the area?" Marissa asked.
"Three," our teacher replied. "Ours, there's another a few kilometres south-west of town, and a private school a little ways north of town."
May looked thoughtful for a few moments, then finally came to a decision.
"It's late, I think you girls should get home and get some rest. Cassandra, I'll contact you next week so you can look at some student photographs, to see if you recognize the werewolf. And finally, Club Luna is suspended until further notice. I'm sorry girls, I know you all meant well but you broke some serious rules and took some foolish risks tonight, and I can't let that slide."
"Aww," Marissa pouted, while the rest of us all had sad looks on our faces.
Our teacher looked to the older blonde and asked, "Brooke, can I depend on you to ensure everyone gets home safely?"
"Yes ma'am," the club leader responded.
After that we all got to our feet and headed for the door, to start bundling up in our winter gear.
