ALL NOVEL 21. Unofficial Meetings
As the car pulled to a stop, Mr. Holt glanced over at us and asked "How are you girls getting home tonight? Kaylee if you're going to need another lift I can ask my partner to pick me up for my shift and leave the car with your mother."
"That's ok dad," the cute redhead replied as we both unbuckled our belts. "I'm actually going to be at Cass's place tonight, so I can just walk home from there? When we're done here we can probably get Brooke to drive us back to Cass's house."
I added, "Or I can ask my mum to pick us up, she's closing the shop early today."
Mr. Holt smiled, "All right then. You girls have fun, and stay safe ok? And have a happy new year!"
"Thanks dad! You too, I hope you're not too busy tonight!" Kaylee replied as the two of us climbed out of the car.
Her dad rolled his eyes, "Always busy on new years eve."
Mr. Holt was an ambulance driver and his shifts sort of rotated, so sometimes he had a morning shift, sometimes it was a day shift, and sometimes it was a night shift. And it sounded like he was going to be on the night shift while everyone else was out celebrating.
Once we were out and closed the doors he pulled away, while me and Kaylee headed up the driveway to Paige's house. It was around two in the afternoon, and we'd all agreed to meet at her place after some group chats this morning. Apparently she had something she wanted to talk to the rest of us about. We passed Brooke's car in the driveway so I knew she'd got here ahead of us.
The door opened a few seconds after we knocked, and the tall athletic brunette greeted us both then said "Brooke and Marissa are already here. We've got the den to ourselves this afternoon."
Me and Kaylee got out of our winter things, then followed Paige downstairs.
Paige's parents had fixed up the basement into a really neat set-up. It was kind of like a cross between a bar and a movie house, with a huge TV on the wall and a bunch of big cosy chairs and sofas, then the opposite wall had an actual bar with stools and stuff. And behind that were shelves with liquor and wine and stuff, plus they had a mini-fridge and a microwave and all that. It looked like a really fun place to hang out, and I was sure they'd be having a pretty wild time tonight for new years.
Brooke was relaxing on one of the sofas, and Marissa was in one of the big reclining chairs. And both me and Kaylee stopped in our tracks when we saw the younger blonde.
Marissa was wearing an enormous black witch-hat on her head. The brim had to be like two feet across and the underside looked like white silk or something. The pointy bit was probably more than a foot and a half tall except it kind of flopped over to one side. The hat didn't look like a cheap halloween thing either, from what I could see it looked like the real deal. Which surprised me, like I never even realized you could get real witch-hats.
"Hey Kaylee, Cass," Brooke greeted us with a grin. "I see you've noticed Marissa's new disguise? I'm sure nobody will ever suspect she's a witch now that she has that hat to distract them."
The younger blonde had a big smug grin on her face as she stated, "You're all just jealous."
A minute or so later we were all settled, me and Kaylee were sitting together on the other sofa and Paige sat down next to Brooke.
Once we were all relaxed Kaylee asked "So what's going on Paige? Why'd you want to see us all? It can't be any official club stuff right, the club's suspended."
Paige nodded, "I know Club Luna's suspended, but May never said anything about the five of us not meeting up and hanging out. And we're all friends right? Nothing wrong with friends spending some time together."
"Sure," Brooke agreed. "But you used the club's group chat and you wanted all of us here for something. If May finds out we're doing club stuff or witch stuff while we're suspended, she's not going to be happy."
The brunette shrugged, "I get that. So just don't tell her. It's an unofficial gathering of friends, who maybe just happen to talk about some shared interests they all have in common."
"So which shared interest in particular are we talking about?" Kaylee asked.
Paige smiled and picked up three hardcover books from a side-table next to her sofa. "I just happened to have a couple yearbooks from high-schools in the area?"
She set them down one at a time on the coffee table, "Ours of course. Then look, this one's from a school just south-west of here? And hey, how about this one? It's from a private school just north of us. I was thinking, wouldn't be fun to look through them, and maybe check out all the student pictures?"
"Hot damn!" Marissa exclaimed with a wide grin. "Club Luna might be suspended, but May never told us we couldn't keep looking for the werewolf!"
Kaylee frowned at Paige, "How'd you get yearbooks from the other two schools so fast? They're both closed for the holidays right?"
The athletic brunette shrugged, "Talked to some friends yesterday and asked if I could borrow them. We might be rivals on the field or the ice rink, but when we're not competing for our schools' honour we talk to each other, and sometimes we get together and hang out. I'm actually friends, or at least online-friends with a couple dozen girls from teams all over the region."
"Clever," Brooke smiled. She looked at me and asked, "What do you think Cass? Can you look through these books and see if you can spot your new wolfy girlfriend?"
Hearing the werewolf referred to as my new girlfriend made me grimace, and Kaylee got a bit grumpy about it as well. But I nodded and reached out to pick up the yearbooks.
Paige added, "Just be careful with the books please? Especially the two I borrowed? I had to promise to look after them."
"Ok Paige," I nodded as I opened up the first book. I took my time, slowly turning through the pages as I studied all the pictures.
As I did that I commented quietly, "I'm pretty sure I'll be able to recognize her. I um, got a much better look at her last night..."
Everyone else went super-quiet for a second as they all stared at me, and I cringed into my hoodie.
"What?" Kaylee finally asked.
I kept my eyes down on the yearbook as I explained, "When I left your place? She was waiting for me at the end of my driveway. She apologized. She said she was sorry, she didn't mean to hurt me or scare me or anything. She said it was an accident, and she wanted to make sure I wasn't bit."
After a pause I added, "She seemed kind of nice, but awkward or nervous or something?"
"Nope," Kaylee stated after a few seconds. "I don't buy it. She was probably just trying to cover up for her crimes. She's vicious, she tackled you and had her teeth at your throat!"
Marissa agreed, "She's been killing sheep for four months. After the other night, maybe she's got a taste now for human flesh!"
"If she's so vicious then why didn't she attack Cass again last night?" Brooke pointed out. Then she looked at me and asked, "She didn't attack again did she?"
I shook my head, "She never got closer than about five meters? She talked, she seemed nervous and awkward. She was worried that she maybe bit me by accident? And she said she didn't attack the other night either, she said I startled her and she fell off the roof and landed on top of me."
"Lies," Marissa stated. "All lies, and I can prove it!"
The young blonde got out her phone and opened up her photos, then thumbed through a couple till she got to the one she wanted. "I took a picture of her tracks on that roof! If she fell then her paw prints would..."
Her voice trailed off as she frowned at the phone screen. After a few seconds she commented "Huh. It actually looks like she was digging in but she slipped off the roof?"
She got up and let me and Kaylee see the picture, before showing it to Brooke and Paige as well. And from what I could see, it basically confirmed the wolfgirl's story. There were some paw prints in the snow, but it looked like she'd tried bracing herself on the sloped surface before sliding off. There wasn't any indication that she'd intentionally jumped or lunged.
Kaylee was still grumpy about the whole thing, but Brooke looked thoughtful as Marissa sat back down again.
"Ok," the taller blonde said. "Maybe she's not as vicious and dangerous as we thought? I think we still need to figure out who she is though. She's been taking some awful chances poaching from the same farm over and over again, she's going to get herself caught or hurt sooner or later. Whoever turned her did a lousy job teaching her the rules."
Paige agreed, she looked to me and asked "Any luck with the yearbooks Cass?"
I shook my head, "Not yet."
After that I focused on the student pictures again as I slowly went through the books. I did the private school first since it was the smallest, then the school to the south-west. I saved ours till the end, because I wasn't really looking forward to going through it. The wolfgirl wasn't in the other two books though, so I picked up our school's yearbook from last year and started looking through it.
When I got the page with my grade-ten picture I kind of glossed over it quickly. I really didn't need to be reminded of how I looked back then, or see my old name printed underneath. And I already knew the girl wasn't in any of my classes, or I'd have recognized her.
"Nothing," I said as I got to the end. "She's not in any of these books."
Paige sighed, "Dang. I guess that would have been too easy."
Marissa suggested, "I didn't hear about any unexplained sheep deaths until the beginning of September, so maybe she's new in town? If she moved here from someplace else, she wouldn't be in last year's yearbooks."
"Good point," Brooke agreed. "So this might have to wait until May talks with Cass in the new year. She'll probably have a way of accessing current records, so you can look at up-to-date pictures instead of last year's stuff."
"We're not giving up are we?" Marissa asked with a frown.
Brooke shook her head, "No, but I'm not sure what else we can do? We don't have anything we can use as an anchor for a scrying spell, and Cass is the only one who got a good look at her. And the fact that it doesn't sound like she's a threat to the public after all means this isn't a priority anymore."
After a moment she added, "And with the full moon over, our wolfgirl's probably not going to be a threat to any sheep again for another four weeks."
The younger blonde sighed, but like the club leader said there wasn't much more we could do.
"All right," Paige shrugged. "Thanks everyone for coming over, and Cass thanks for looking through those yearbooks. Anyone want to grab some hot chocolate or coffee or something? My treat."
That brought everyone's mood up, and soon enough the five of us all piled into Brooke's car. Marissa had to take off her gigantic witch hat though, it was way too big for her to wear in the small space. Plus it would have been a driving hazard, since Brooke couldn't use the rear-view mirror with the big hat in the way.
Instead of going to the usual drive-thru place we went to the other cafe in the big box plaza on the south side of town. Brooke parked her car and we all climbed out. Marissa ended up leaving her hat in the car, she didn't want to risk getting stuff spilled on it since it was brand new.
"My folks gave it to me for xmas," she explained proudly as we all walked across the parking lot to the cafe.
Paige asked, "Please tell me you're not going to wear that thing to school?"
The young blonde laughed, "Damn straight I'm wearing it to school! I'm wearing it in class too! If any teachers try to stop me I'll tell them it's part of my belief system."
"C'mon Marissa!" Brooke groaned. "What are you going to tell them, that you're a witch? You know you're not allowed to do that."
We all stopped at the door to the cafe and Paige held it open as a brunette teen came out sipping a latte venti. The girl was wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans, and black combat boots. And she stopped in her tracks as our eyes met.
"Hello again," I said to the girl. "Um, can we talk for a bit?"
The wolfgirl's eyes went wide, then she dropped her latte and took off sprinting south-east across the parking lot.
Marissa exclaimed "It's her! Get her!"
Brooke, Paige, and Marissa all took off running after the wolfgirl, while me and Kaylee just stood there outside the cafe. We both knew neither of us had a chance of catching up to a werewolf.
Instead Kaylee bent down and carefully picked up the dropped paper cup from the big puddle of latte at our feet. She slowly turned it around in her hand till she found what she was looking for. The label from the order was stuck on the side, and at the top was a name.
"Melanie C," Kaylee stated. "Now our werewolf has a name."
