Chapter 25: Interlude – The New Girl

=::= Melanie's PoV =::=

I stood near the middle of the classroom and quietly looked around.

On the one hand I was pretty sure there wasn't any danger here, these girls meant well. Most of them smelled safe.

On the other hand I'd only known them for a month, and we didn't exactly get off to a good start.

I didn't like being hunted, I didn't like strangers knowing too much about me, and I especially didn't like being forced to revert to my naked human form in the middle of a barnyard when it was minus-nine degrees outside. I still didn't know how Cass did that, but I hadn't yet worked up the courage to ask anyone.

Her shy anxious quiet act seemed to have the rest of the club fooled, but I knew better. The other girls all smelled like normal humans, Cassandra smelled different. For that matter so did May, though the teacher did a better job of hiding it.

"Hey," Marissa said as she put a hand on my arm.

I tried not to startle, but I turned my head quickly towards her. "What's up?"

The short cute blonde gave me a friendly smile, "Try and relax ok? Maybe sit down? We're friends here, I promise everything's safe."

"Sorry Marissa," I sighed. "It's... I really hate saying this. It's that time of the month."

It was the twenty-seventh of January, just about four in the afternoon. Today was Wednesday, and this was my first time attending a Club Luna meeting. And the reason I was so uptight was because the full moon would reach its peak tomorrow, at a quarter past two in the afternoon.

Tomorrow would be the eleventh full moon since I drank that so-called potion my uncle gave me. Tonight would be the eleventh time I sprouted fur and turned into an animal.

Marissa gave me a friendly smile and said, "I get it. But you don't have to deal with this stuff alone anymore, ok?"

"Right," I nodded, and tried a couple deep slow calming breaths.

It helped, a bit. I finally sat down behind one of the desks, but I kept to the far side of the room so I could keep everyone else in view.

While I did some more deep breathing exercises Marissa went around the room and lit all the little tea light candles. She used her magic for that, and I couldn't help smiling a bit. She loved to show off, she loved to take advantage of her supernatural skills and knowledge.

Normally I'd be super wary about anyone claiming they knew anything about magic or witchcraft or occult. That's the sort of stuff my uncle was into, and that's what got me into this whole mess in the first place. Thinking about him started making me uptight again, but luckily I recognized it and did a few more of the breathing exercises.

"Hey folks," Brooke said as she got to her feet. "Let's get things started, since we have a few topics to discuss today."

I realized Paige had already finished doing her thing, the tall brunette was sitting next to her girlfriend again. And Marissa was beside me once more.

The club leader smiled at me, "Melanie, welcome to your first Club Luna meeting. I know the timing's not great for you, since we tend to meet close to the full moon but we all appreciate that you're here. I was wondering if you'd like to let us know how things have been going for you since you joined us? May said she got you in touch with someone who was going to help?"

"Yeah," I grimaced. This was one part of being in a class that I didn't miss. I hated being called out to talk in front of people. And being asked to talk about personal stuff was the worst. At least there were only five of them here.

I did another bit of deep breathing, then gave them an update on what had happened so far.

"So May hooked me up with this werewolf lady. She's nice I guess, comes across a bit motherly? She was kind of horrified about what happened to me. Apparently her and May are trying to deal with that by the way. I gave them my uncle's contact info, they're going to track down whoever's selling that stuff and put a stop to it. Like basically the so-called true form potion is werewolf spit in a jar, with some other hocus-pocus nonsense to make it seem like a potion instead of a bottle of saliva... Sorry I got off topic."

There were some more deep breaths to calm myself down again before I was ready to continue.

"So anyways wolf-lady says the reason I'm so uptight about the full moon, and the reason I lose control when I change, is because I'm fighting it too much? She says even natural-born weres have this problem at first. Like basically she says as long as I view the animal stuff as 'not-me' I'm going to have this problem. According to her the only way to find peace is to embrace it."

I scowled a bit as I continued, "And that feels wrong to me, like I never wanted this. I'm not even really much of a dog person, you know? I sure never wanted to turn into one. Anyways she says once I've embraced it and accepted it and stuff, then the full moon won't have so much influence. And she's going to keep teaching me and stuff, she said she'll help me get there. So I'm kind of seeing her one afternoon a week, I guess until I get to the point she says I'm good?"

Most of them were looking sad or sympathetic by that point, which didn't really help. I didn't like people feeling sorry for me. More deep breathing exercises, I reminded myself it was the moon making me feel like this. These girls wanted to be friends, I had to try not to ruin that.

Ironically the only one who didn't look like she pitied me was Marissa. I'd told her enough that she didn't think it was cool anymore, like she wasn't fawning over me because I was a werewolf and she sure wasn't looking to become one herself. But she didn't go for all that mushy feelings stuff, which was another thing the two of us had in common.

"So I hope this doesn't come across as offensive," Paige said. Which was usually what people said right before they said something really offensive, but I didn't say that out loud.

The tall brunette continued, "I'm wondering if you have a plan or strategy for tonight? None of us wants to see you get hurt, or get in any trouble. But if you keep trying to get at farmers' livestock you're bound to get caught sooner or later."

I took a few more deep breaths to keep myself calm. I hated that I did that stuff, I was ashamed of it, but so far I hadn't been able to control it. On the other hand I also hated being called-out on it, I hated talking about it, and I wasn't happy that Paige brought it up. But before I could actually reply Marissa spoke up instead.

"I'm on top of the situation," the bold blonde witch announced. "I got a few pounds of fresh sheep meat, I'll have that handy just in case."

Everyone turned to stare at her, including me.

"You what?" I asked with a confused frown.

With a cocky grin she stated, "I'm going to hang out with you tonight, keep you company. When you get hungry, I'll fix you up."

I continued to stare at her for a few more seconds, before finally asking "How do you figure that's going to work? What if I get... I can't always control myself like that, you know? Not yet at least."

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Marissa shrugged, "I'll use a sleep spell if you get too excitable. But I'm sure you won't. After all it's me, right? You won't hurt me."

The other witches all looked uncertain, but the short blonde girl had all the confidence in the world.

"Ok," I sighed. "I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I'm not going to try and stop you."

Brooke frowned at the younger blonde, "Marissa be careful ok? Don't get yourself or Melanie in any trouble. And keep the both of you safe."

"Yeah yeah," Marissa responded dismissively. "We'll be fine, trust me."

The club leader didn't look entirely convinced, but she seemed to know she wasn't going to be able to change the younger witch's mind so she didn't bother arguing.

Instead she asked, "Last question for Melanie and Marissa, have you two started discussing witchcraft? Have you done any lessons yet?"

"Not yet," I shook my head. "Been too busy doing wolf stuff to get started on the witch stuff."

Marissa added, "Maybe this weekend we can dive in?"

"I work all weekend," I sighed. "Plus I'll probably have extra homework to make up for tomorrow. I'm not even sure I'll be in on Friday either."

With the moon at its peak tomorrow afternoon there was no way I could come to school. Even if I didn't change during the day, I'd get in a fight or something, and end up getting myself suspended just a week after I started.

"Ehh," Marissa shrugged. "We'll find time."

Brooke sighed, but once again she didn't bother arguing with the younger witch. And at long last the topic of conversation shifted away from me and onto someone else.

Kaylee took over, and started going on about her favourite subject. "So Cass and I have been doing more training, basically we get together for study dates at least once a week? She's doing a lot better now."

The small brunette in question blushed and cringed into her oversized navy blue hoodie. She was really pouring on the shy act while her girlfriend was talking about her, and she made sure to avoid everyone's eyes as she stared at a spot near the bottom of the far wall.

The redhead continued gushing, "I'm not sure what changed, but up till about four weeks ago Cass was doing about how we'd expect for a new witch? Except for those sporadic power-boosts anyways. But since around new years she's been progressing a lot quicker. She was always pretty good learning the Word, but she used to have trouble with the Way and the Will? Now she's nailing the Way just about every time. It's just the Will where she has some work to do."

"Does she still get the random power boosts?" Paige asked.

"Yeah," Kaylee nodded. "I'm actually not so sure they're random though. I have a theory me and Cass are going to test in the next week or two, we'll let you all know how it goes."

Brooke asked, "Any clues yet what her focus or speciality is? Or Cass, does anything in particular draw your attention? Any specific areas of magic you're interested in?"

"Not yet," the girl in question mumbled quietly as she shook her head. "It's all really neat and interesting, but nothing stands out yet?"

Kaylee added, "She doesn't seem to be stronger in any particular area. We'll keep working at it though, I'm sure we'll figure out where she excels soon enough."

"Sounds good," the club leader stated. "That's about it for the meeting I think? There's not much going on around town, but we can thank the weather for that."

The tall blonde made some jokes about it, but apparently it wasn't that ghosts and spectres and warlocks and stuff didn't like the cold so much as there were fewer reports because the humans who'd otherwise encounter those things were staying indoors and avoiding the harsh winter weather. Or if they were out in it, they were more focused on what they were doing.

After a few similar comments the gang wrapped up the meeting, then the other girls got Cassandra to dispell the circle. All she had to do was touch it to suck all the magic out, which put my nerves on edge.

Even worse though, as we all started getting ready to go the petite brunette approached me like she wanted to talk to me.

"Hey Melanie?" she said quietly.

Once again she was doing the shy act again. And for my part, I tried my best not to seem too uptight around her. I straightened my back and set my shoulders, I even let my mouth open a bit to show some teeth as I asked, "Yeah? What's up?"

Cass added some anxiety to her shy act, as if she was actually intimidated by my posture. Her voice stayed quiet as she said, "I just wanted to welcome you to the club? And um, I know what it's like to be the new girl here. Um, in more ways than one."

Her cheeks flushed red and her voice got softer as she explained, "I'm uh, trans as well? I didn't realize it at first, till I kind of wandered in here in October and accidentally turned into a girl and ended up joining the club... Um anyways, I guess I'm just saying, if you want to talk about stuff, I'm available?"

I found myself staring at her for a few seconds before I finally found my voice again.

"Ok," I shrugged. "Uh, thanks?"

She gave me a nervous smile, then turned and headed out with her girlfriend.

"Ready to go?" Marissa said as she walked up to stand next to me. "Brooke's going to give us a lift."

The young blonde witch grabbed a cooler bag from her locker on our way out, then Brooke and Paige drove me and Marissa to my place.