Howls of Chaos. Gabrielle Boyd

in?” I asked.

      “My sister and I are both majoring in business,” said Mason. The conversation continued until we took our seats in the classroom.

      “Mason, thanks for not returning my calls this morning. I thought you were going to come and pick me up before class started,” said a girl’s voice.

      Then another said, “Yeah, Mason. Thanks for not returning her calls this morning.”

      I looked up and there stood two girls staring at Mason and me. One was tall and skinny, with long, bleached blonde hair that looked like extensions. She also looked like she had laid in a tanning bed for several hours because she looked kind of cooked. Not that it looked bad. She had blue eyes, heart-shaped lips, and a big bust. She also wore a ton of makeup. She reminded me of my friend Drezilla who lives in Las Vegas, except Drezilla is a vampire and is very fair compared to this chick.

      The other girl was short, maybe around five feet, and had brown hair with blonde streaks that was pulled up into a ponytail. She had sort of a fair complexion with rosy red cheeks that looked as if they had been pinched. She did not wear as much makeup as the other girl. Her build was skinny, but she had some meat on her bones. Both girls wore denim shorts and tank tops.

      “Babe, I returned your calls. You just didn’t answer the phone,” said Mason while hugging the short girl with the ponytail. The bleached blonde sat down in the empty desk in front of me.

      “You’re pretty. I like your top,” said the bleached blonde, who was staring at me.

      “Thanks,” I replied.

      “This is my sister, Mallory,” said Mason, pointing to the bleached blonde in front of me.

      “Hey,” said Mallory. I smiled and said hey back.

      “And this is my girlfriend Caprilla,” said Mason. Caprilla gave me a smirk.

      “Alexsys and her boyfriend just bought the house out by the Oldton’s cabin,” said Mason.

      “Really?” said Caprilla, relieved that I had my own man.

      “That’s neat. So y’all own the new coffee shop in town?” said Mallory.

      “Yeah,” I replied.

      The conversation went on until the professor entered the classroom. As soon as the professor entered, he threw down his briefcase and began to introduce himself.

      “My name is Mr. Slapson, and this is American Literature,” he said. Then he wrote his name on the whiteboard like most professors do and began to tell the class about himself. Then he went over the course syllabus. He was a short and chunky looking guy and was probably in his forties. He was also going bald, so he parted his hair way over on the side and combed it over. His voice was deep with a noticeably southern accent, and he wore a sweater even though it was ninety degrees outside.

      The classroom was snickering because they could not understand why he would have on a sweater in the summertime. Mr. Slapson’s attitude seemed to be arrogant and kind of repulsive.

      After introducing himself and going over the syllabus, Mr. Slapson made everyone get up and begin introducing themselves to the class. Each person had to stand up and tell who they were, where they were from, what their major was, and what they liked and disliked. This went on until it got to the last row which was mine and Mallory’s.

      Mallory stood up and introduced herself. While she was bragging about being a member of the dance team, a couple of guys in the back of the class were whispering about how big her boobs were and whether or not they were real.

      Some of the girls on the far left side of the class also began to talk about how Mallory thought she was this and that just because she had money and her family has always owned several businesses in Chaosville. Then they began to whisper about how Mallory’s dad liked to chase younger women since his divorce.

      Now when they said that her family has always owned a lot of stuff in Chaosville, I would have to agree. Even back in the eighteenth century, the Yates family was one of the families who practically owned most of the town and ran the county along with the Wealthies and the Foxes. Even when it was just Fort Chaosville, they played a major part in developing and making it into a town.

      I’ve never been one who is big on talking about people, worrying about who is better than whom, or who has this and who has that. Even when I was human, I didn’t care about that kind of stuff, and I would just ignore it, but now I can’t help but listen because I have wolf instincts that cause me to have a keen sense of hearing and smell. That is, if I key them in.

      Due to my superhuman abilities, I heard just about all the conversations taking place in the classroom and in the surrounding classes.

      Finally I was asked to introduce myself. As soon as I stood up, all eyes were on me. I then heard some members of the class whispering, “Wow, she is pretty,” “She must have money; look how she is dressed,” and “I heard she is married to a lawyer.” It kept on and on. They didn’t know I could hear them.

      I blocked it out and said, “Hello, my name is Alexsys Four Rivers.”

      Right after I said my last name, a couple students toward the back of the class busted out laughing. “Who are you supposed to be, Pocahontas?” said one girl. A few members of the class began to laugh.

      “No,” I said staring right at the girl and giving her a not-so-nice look, but catching myself before I smarted back off to her.

      I continued to introduce myself. “My boyfriend and I moved here from California a few weeks ago, and I am a nursing major.”

      “Does your boyfriend go to school here too?” asked Mr. Slapson.

      “No, he’s the new lawyer in town. Plus, we opened up the new coffee shop downtown,” I said. I quickly sat down, and the next person stood up and introduced himself.

      After everyone finished introducing themselves, Mr. Slapson dismissed the class. Everyone jumped up and rushed out of the room.

      I had two more classes that day, and Mallory was in both of them. Mallory’s personality was the total opposite of how she looked. You would expect her to be stuck-up and snobby since she was so pretty. She was actually very nice and seemed quite outgoing. Plus, she was kind of a nerd. She told me that she was even valedictorian in high school.

      To me, Mallory was just a beauty and she smelled good. If I were still primitive like when I was first turned werewolf, I probably would have eaten her up. Any other werewolf would have eaten her for lunch as well.

      After finishing with all of our classes, Mallory asked me if I wanted to go and get some lunch. “Sure,” I said. Instead of eating in the cafeteria, we decided to go out for fast food. Mallory drove a brand-new blue Mustang.

      “Nice ride,” I said.

      “Thanks! My dad got this for me when I graduated,” said Mallory when we walked over toward her vehicle. Along the way we chatted about all types of stuff. We seemed to have a lot in common. Mallory’s voice was so sweet and southern; it reminded me of a little hick-town girl, especially when she said certain words such as “like,” “right,” “fight,” “gonna,” and “that.”

      After lunch we exchanged numbers. She took me back to my car, and I drove over to visit Carlos at the office. I walked into his office and went to the back room where he was working.

      “Well hey, sweetness. How were your classes?” asked Carlos as soon as I walked into the room.

      “They were cool. I met a lot of humans and made a couple friends,” I replied. “By the way, how did you become so popular in such a short period of time?” I asked.

      “Ha. Since I became the sexiest businessman, lawyer, and undercover werewolf in this area,” said Carlos with a cocky smile on his face.

      “I just got tired of people all up in my space talking about how sexy you are and crap,” I said.

      “Well