By the time P.E. started, Mia had managed to make herself pretty nervous. Math had been bad enough, and that was with Zev sitting across the room from her. Even though the whole class would be in the gym right along with her, students were much more spread out in P.E., and there was a much bigger chance that she'd have to actually talk to Zev. She changed slowly and was one of the last people out of the locker room. She walked through the gym doors at a snail's pace, trying to tell herself that everything would be ok. Even if there were less people around, the fact that they were all in the gym still meant that he would have a harder time confronting her.

Class passed incredibly slowly. The only good thing was that Zev was on the other team, meaning that Mia didn't have to go near him all period. If he ever came anywhere near her, she'd just take the ball and head across the court. Once or twice she'd ended up backtracking a bit just to get away from him, but for the most part, her plan worked pretty well. Zev had looked at her strangely a few times, even when she wasn't playing terrible basketball. But he didn't say anything. Mia hoped that those glances were his attempts to remember what exactly had happened the other night and not his way of trying to get her attention.

After she changed back into her school clothes, Mia headed towards the cafeteria to meet up with Anna and Carmine. She was halfway across the courtyard and thinking about how lucky she was that she hadn't had to talk to Zev when he caught up to her. He fell into step beside her, but Mia pretended not to notice. As casually as she could, she sped up.

"I was wondering if you were busy this weekend." Zev said nonchalantly, as if nothing was wrong. Mia actually stopped walking and just stared at him for a minute.

"What?" she asked. How could he possibly think of hanging out now?

"Do you have any plans this weekend?" Zev asked again.

"Um...yeah." Mia said, thinking fast. "I'm going out of town with my parents. Sorry."

She hoped she sounded sincere enough, but the look on his face told her she'd probably been just a little too nervous for her lie to come out convincingly. Zev sighed, turning serious.

"Look, I need to talk to you." he said in a tone that told Mia he thought it was urgent.

Mia remembered how much she'd liked him and hesitated. Then, she remembered how he'd turned into a wolf and chased her into someone's backyard, and her resolve was back.

"I really can't. I'm sorry." she told him. She started walking again, across the grass and towards the cafeteria. Zev took a few quick strides ahead then turned back to face her, effectively cutting her off and forcing her to stop.

"Why not?" he asked looking at her intently, searching her face for something. Mia didn't like the scrutiny.

"Because." she said, but left it at that. What was she supposed to say? That no matter how much she liked him, she didn't want to talk to anyone who'd tried to kill her? She would have gladly done it just to watch the look on his face as she told him that she knew, but she held back. There was still the possibility that he didn't know for sure who'd seen him. Earlier this year, she'd walked into an admission with Summer, and she wasn't going to do that again. If he thought she'd seen him, he was going to have to come out and say it. Until then, she was going to keep her mouth shut. Zev, however, wasn't giving up that easily.

"Mia, this is really important." He glanced around before lowering his voice. "I'm not really supposed to be doing this, but...it's about what happened Saturday night."

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said evenly. Then, glancing down at her watch, she said, "I have to get to class."

"But you have lunch next." Zev protested. When Mia looked surprised, Zev told her, "School's been in for a little over three months now – of course I know your schedule."

He looked a little hurt that she thought he wouldn't know, and Mia caught herself feeling just the tiniest bit bad. Still, it was too late for that.

"I'm sorry." she said again. "I'll talk to you later, ok?"

She'd said it casually, like maybe it was actually true. And with that, she walked towards the cafeteria, leaving Zev by himself in the middle of the courtyard.

Part of it was the fact that Mia really didn't want to talk to him. But there was also the fact that he'd caught her off guard. And with so many emotions flying around in her head, Mia knew there was no way she was going to have any conversations with a werewolf without being properly prepared. She knew she'd have to talk to him eventually, but today was not going to be that day.

***

Thursday, just five days after Mia saw Zev, Luke and Conner in the woods, she walked into her English class and saw Luke standing at the back, looking lost. Eyebrows knitted, he looked down at a paper in his hand, and Mia's spirits soared; he hadn't seen her yet. Quickly, she turned her head so he wouldn't see her face and made her way towards her seat, wondering why he was here. She couldn't help but wonder if she was the cause of it.

The past couple of days, Mia had successfully managed to avoid talking to Zev. He'd tried to come up to her after P.E. the past two days, and he even tried to catch her attention after math class yesterday. But today, he'd seemed much more defeated. He made a halfhearted attempt to talk to her during P.E., but Mia could tell he hadn't expected to get anywhere. She felt a twinge of guilt when she'd seen how disappointed he looked, but it hadn't been enough to change her mind; there was no way she could talk to him. She didn't even think she could be friends with him. But just when it looked like Zev was finally starting to give up, suddenly Luke was in one of her classes. Mia buried her head in one of her books, turning her shoulders casually away from where Luke was standing.

As the room filled up with students, Mia became more and more relieved. He hadn't looked over at her yet, and the more students that came in, the better her chances were that he wouldn't be able to talk to her. Even if he did spot her now, there were too many people around for him to do anything. Mr. Glasco walked in, and Luke looked up. Mia had hoped that the teacher's presence in the room would be enough to get Luke to leave and go back to his own class. But instead of heading for the door, Luke walked right up to Mr. Glasco.

Mia watched intently, trying to figure out what they were saying. Normally, she would have had no trouble hearing a conversation from across the room. But with all the students talking and Luke's back to her, Mia found it impossible to hear. They talked for a few minutes before Luke nodded. Mia hoped that would be the end of him. But instead of walking to the door, Luke turned and started scanning the seats.

Mia's heart raced; could her teacher be a werewolf too? There had been a lot of wolves in the clearing already when Luke and his friends showed up, and there was no reason that Mia could think of for why Mr. Glasco couldn't be a werewolf too. Was that what Luke had been talking to him about? Could they have been discussing how Zev hadn't been able to talk to Mia? Had they decided that more drastic measures were needed?

Mia's heart only beat faster as Luke walked down the aisle she was sitting in. She could hear each footstep as he approached, and it was all Mia could do to keep from bolting from her chair and heading out the door. She grabbed the edges of her desk and braced herself. Luke came closer and closer. But when he got to where she was sitting, he didn't stop. He just kept walking slowly, until he passed Mia completely. She relaxed her death grip on her desk and let out a long, drawn out breath. Four chairs away from her, there was an empty desk. When Luke came to it, he sat down. Mia couldn't believe it. He was going to be here the whole period? Why? Didn't he have his own English class to go to? Why would he need to come to hers?

Mia had hoped that Mr. Glasco would make some sort of announcement that Luke would only be here for today, but he didn't. Instead, he just started up class as if nothing unusual had happened. Mia tried her best to concentrate, telling herself that Luke was only in her class for the day. She'd see – tomorrow he'd be back in whatever class he was supposed to have at this time, and she wouldn't have to worry. When the bell finally rang, Mia had already packed up her bags. She was out the door even faster than usual, anxious to avoid Luke.

The next day at lunch, Mia decided to ask Anna if Luke had changed any of his classes, on the off-chance he'd be there again today. She didn't really like the idea of Anna hanging out with him, but she hadn't actually told her that yet. She wanted to, of course – what kind of friend would let someone hang out with a werewolf? But she needed to wait. It hadn't even been a week yet since she'd found out; she needed to move slowly. If Anna and Carmine changed their opinions of Luke and his friends too quickly, it could be disastrous. Mia decided to give it a couple more days before she started hinting that maybe they should hang out with different guys.

But for now, she couldn't worry about whether or not she should tell Anna. She needed to know why Luke had been in her class yesterday and if he was going to be there again today.

"Did Luke switch his schedule?" Mia asked as casually as she could.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Anna said. "He was having a problem in Mr. Fairland's chemistry class, so he was switching to Ms. Harle's. Why?"

"I just saw him in my English class, and I was curious."

"He's in English with you now? That's great! It's always nice to know someone in class." Anna said happily.

"Yeah." Mia said, trying to work up the same level of enthusiasm as her friend. Carmine looked at her, narrowing her eyes for a second before turning back to the homework she still had to finish.

Mia sat there, chewing her lip for a minute. So, it looked like Luke was going to be in her class for the rest of the year. That made three classes she now had with werewolves. And with Summer and her friend in history with her, it looked like the only class Mia had that didn't seem dangerous was chemistry. She never would have thought that chemistry would end up being her favorite class.