Songs Of La Loba (chapter 2) I awoke to the sound of a door slamming shut. This would have been alarming, except for the fact that this was a common occurrence in the mornings. I rolled out of bed and headed toward the hallway, but stopped right before opening the door. I rested my hand on the doorknob and stood completely still, waiting to hear where the remaining occupant was. Thanks to my heightened senses I could hear that she was still sleeping, the air whistling as she breathed out her nose. I took this as an opportunity to make breakfast and quietly made my way into the hallway and downstairs. Once in the kitchen, I rummaged through the pantry until I found the box of pancake mix. I was sliding the last pancake onto my plate when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I started for the living room, when I was stopped by the sound of my name. "Rosemary" I turned around to see my mother standing in the middle of the kitchen. She was shorter than me, with thick dark brown hair and hazel eyes. At the moment, her hair was sticking out in every direction and she wore a big rumpled shirt that stopped just above her knees. "I didn't hear you come in last night." She made her way to the fridge and grabbed the carton of orange juice out. "You were gone quite awhile this time." As she said this she opened the carton, then proceeded to drink straight from it. "Did I get anything in the mail?" I wasn't really up for small talk, I just wanted to eat my pancakes and relax. "I left a pile on the table next to the couch." She placed the carton back into the fridge and began to rummage around, looking for something to eat. Sighing, she took out the milk then went to the pantry and pulled out a box of cereal. I turned ready to make my escape to the living room, when she stopped me again. "You need to find somewhere else to park your car, because every time you change me or your father have to move it out of our way." I walked out of the room without even acknowledging that I had heard her. I sat on the couch, set my plate on the coffee table in front of me, and switched the tv on. There was some show on about people who had weird habits. I took a bite of my pancakes and grabbed the stack of mail off the table next to me. All of them were from various colleges claiming they were the school I should go to. My mother yelled from the other room. "You need to explain to that friend of yours that she can't be calling here for you all the time. It gets annoying having to repeat that story to her over and over again." I could hear the spoon clinking against the bowl. My blood was boiling, but I tried to keep my even. "I've told her multiple times, but you know I can't control what other people do." I could feel the tension in the air even before she got up. I heard her drop her spoon in the bowl before she was in the doorway screaming. "Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that?!" I turned my head to see her standing in the doorway. From this slant of light I could see the dark shadows underneath her eyes. "All I did was tell you to make your friend stop calling this house. I don't even see why you hang out with her anyway, she is no good for you." I knew in situations like this if I opened my mouth it would only add to her anger, so I kept quiet. "All she is is a sleazy little whore. What do you think people say about our family when they see you with her?" I blocked out the rest because I had already heard it before. The rest consisted of her saying that she is a "rich slut" who gets everything she wants, and that me hanging out with her made me look easy, but more importantly made our family, meaning my parents, look like gold-diggers. When she was done she stormed out of the room and up to her bedroom, leaving her bowl of cereal still sitting in the kitchen. I finished my pancakes and took my plate into the kitchen. Her bowl was abandoned on the island, so I decided to rinse her bowl out along with my plate. I turned the tv off in the front room then went back up to my room. My sheets were rumpled and there were flecks of dirt on top of my comforter, and they smelled a little like wet dog. It was definently time to wash them. I stripped my bed and rolled everything into the comforter, then carried them down to the laundry room and threw them in the washer. When I returned to my room I could hear shuffling coming from my parents room. I turned my radio on, and my room was instantly flooded with the sound of an upbeat pop song. I hummed it to myself as I went to my closet and picked out pants, a white tank, and a black jacket. When I was dressed I pulled my hair into a ponytail and grabbed my makeup bag off my dresser then proceeded down the hallway to the bathroom, leaving my bedroom door open so I could hear the music. I applied foundation and lip-singed to the music as I put mascara on, then topped it off with red lipstick. When I was satisfied with the way I looked I threw everything back into my bag, then went back to my room and sat it back on my dresser. I turned my computer on and checked my email. The school had sent me my homework, which I proceeded to print out. At the top of the list was a reading assignment for 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' I had been wanting to go to town anyway, so I figured I would stop by the book store while I was out. I grabbed my knee high converse and slipped them on. Then I grabbed my purse from beside my bed and turned my radio off. When I walked outside I found my car parked in the ditch at the end of the driveway. I got in, fished the keys from my purse, and started the car, the speakers immediately started booming from how loud the radio was. I turned it down, then turned to another station. This one was playing a r&b song that had a good beat, so I left it there as I drove down the road. When I made it to town, the streets were basically empty, except for a couple cars going home from church. This was a typical sunday for this town. I parked outside the bookstore and went in, going straight to the classics section. When I found what I was looking for, I checked out and returned to my car. I placed the book and my purse in the passengers seat, but I pulled my money out and put it in my pocket, deciding I would walk around a for a little.

Songs Of La Loba (chapter 1) I ran to the edge of the woods and peered out at a secluded road, with a single truck making it's way to an unknown destination. I ducked out of sight, just as it's headlights swept over the bushes I was hiding behind. I wouldn't have minded if the truck saw me. The only problem was... I was completely naked, and probably looked like some sort of monster with how much mud and dirt was caked on my skin. I watched the taillights disappear down the road, and made certain that another car was not coming. When I was positive the coast was clear, I sprang up and dashed across the road into the cover of the trees. My house was just a few minutes away if I cut through the woods. I knew my way to my house by heart, no matter where I was at. It was like I could just sense which direction to go, but I guess that's just one of the good qualities about being a werewolf. Although I wouldn't call myself that. I am nothing like the stereotypical werewolf, no full-moon shifts or terrorizing villages. When I "shifted" I was an actual wolf. I had wolf instincts, even as a human. What triggered my shift, was my birthday, although I did randomly shift at random times, my birthday was always definite. I have no clue why I shift, all I know is five years ago when I was twelve I had a near death experience... Or so everyone tells me. I can not remember any of it, all I remember is waking up in a hospital and having my mother tell me a story of how hunters found me in the woods gushing blood and #lifeless. Ever since that day, every year on my birthday I turn into a wolf, and I turn human again at random times and in random places within the woods. I was almost to my house now, I could see the outline of the back porch. I stepped over a tree root and out into my backyard. I didn't have to worry about being seen here, since the only house around here was down the road aways. I crept up the stairs making sure to avoid the stair that creaked and slid the back door open. I closed it shut behind me and crept forward with a stealthness a cat would be jealous of. I opened the fridge and grabbed the first thing a saw, which happened to be some leftover pizza, and made my way up to my bedroom. I closed my doors slowly so as to not wake up the sleeping occupants in the house. I felt through the darkness until I found the switch to my bedside lamp. I twisted the knob and my room was illuminated in a purplish light. My favorite color is purple so almost everything in my room is purple, including the lampshade. I settled onto my bed, placed the plate of pizza next to me, and reached into the top drawer of the table my lamp was resting on, to pull out a small leather bound book and my cellphone. I flipped it open revealing dates and wrote down the date I shifted and, glancing at my phone, wrote down the date it read as the date I shifted back. I closed it back and slid it into the drawer again. I turned back to my phone and pizza, and I chowed down as I went through my unread messages, all of which were from various people asking if I was having fun getting closer to religion with my aunt. This was my moms cover up for when I was a wolf. She would say she sent me there, because she felt I was "drifting from God." My "aunt" also, conveniently, did not allow cellphones. People bought it too, but what else would any of them guess to explain my long absences. I closed my phone and laid it on the table next to my alarm clock, which read 11 pm, after I had erased all of my messages. When I finished the pizza I threw the plate away in the small trashcan next to my desk and glanced at my reflection in the mirror hanging on my closet door. I could barely recognize myself as human. My hair looked straw-like and had streaks of brown and green in it, and my skin was coated in such a thick layer of mud that you almost couldn't tell I was naked. I reached out and opened the door and quickly grabbed the first articles of clothing I could find. I made my way back out of my room and down the hall to the bathroom. I turned the shower on and quickly jumped in, feeling knots unwind under to pulsating rhythm of the water. I watched as the water swirled thick and brown down the drain. I stayed in much longer than I should have, and by time I got out the water was cold. As I finished dressing, I glanced up into the mirror above the sink. The girl staring back at me was nothing like the creature who had peered out at me from the mirror hanging on my closet door. Instead the girl in the mirror peered out at me with strikingly blue eyes. She had long light blond hair that was just a bit curly, with porcelain like skin. I leaned in closer trying to remember myself looking this way, but all I could remember was the way I looked as a wolf. I had been a wolf for about three months this time, so it was almost hard to remember myself as anything other than that slender white wolf that lived among the trees. I tore my gaze away from the girl in the mirror and made my way back down the hallway to my bedroom, where I quickly dove under the covers and fell asleep.