"Nora is a werewolf!"

Elara closed her eyes shaking her head. She had a feeling Laura didn't like Nora from the start, it was obvious and Laura never tried to hide it. But coming to this? Trying to change her image in Elara's eyes just because she didn't like her was too much. Elara also knew that with the snarky comments, the bad girl attitude and the 'I don't give a shit' persona set aside, her friend Laura was a good person and would never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it.

"Did you hear me?"

Snapping her eyes open, she let her bag fall on the grass and took her seat back under the tree. "I have. How do we know she is one? And what's so bad if she is?"

"You took it pretty well!" Laura chuckled looking at Sophie who was staring in the distance with her mouth hanging open.

"You'll catch a fly Soph!" they both laughed snapping her out of it.

"Are dragons real too?" she rolled her eyes "I mean until a few days ago I thought all those things we read about were just science fiction and fantasies and now it's becoming clear that we don't live in a normal world." Her shoulders slumped "Does that mean vampires exist too?"

Elara could sense Sophie was starting to get scared so she took her hand in hers and squeezed it gently "Even if they do. We are all badass! So since Laura already knows about magic, she'll teach us... we'll be able to defend ourselves."

"I'm a necromancer, not a witch"

"A necromancer can do magic, not as much as a witch... it is limited but just the fact of raising the dead or talking to them requires an amount of magic." Laura stated and shrugged "Anyway, don't you girls worry, we don't have any vampires in town due to the werewolf pack. It's the biggest in the USA and they are very strong. They protect the lands from any harmful night creature."

"So they are the good guys? So we like them right?"

Laura laughed "How old are you Elara? They are good as long as you are good to them. Werewolves can be dangerous, they are aggressive, stubborn, strong, fast, and they fucking turn into wolves! I mean that's pretty scary! Imagine how many times they break their bones in order to shift into a wolf?"

"Yeah now that you put it like that... But Nora seems nice, I've never seen her act aggressively or mean to anyone."

"Yeah she might be nice but she's still a werewolf we know nothing about! Some werewolves can't control their shift, and that's what happened when you were in the woods. It was the full moon, and that wolf probably shifted and lost control giving in to the animal side of him or her. And you said the wolf's eyes were blue! Nora's are blue! And she keeps asking questions...."

"Enough!" Elara stood up "I know you're looking out for me, and I love you for it, but Nora is my friend and I'm sure it wasn't her. Have you seen how many students have blue eyes in our school?" a very particular set of blue eyes came to her mind and her breathing hitched. "Can we talk more about this tomorrow? It's really getting late and now that I know all that, I don't want to walk in town alone at night."

Laura silently nodded avoiding Elara's gaze and Sophie smiled brightly at her "I'm not letting you go alone, I'm giving you a lift" she got on her feet and looked at a sulking Laura "Want to come with us?"

"No, I have homework and need to go home."

With that said, Laura left in her car without adding anything else while Elara and Sophie got into Sophie's car and drove toward town. Elara looked out of the window her head spinning with all the information she got today. As if her childhood memories rushing to her weren't enough, she now had to deal with the fact she and her friends are all capable of doing magic and that her new friend was a werewolf. She let out a frustrated groan and turned the radio on to distract herself. She hated fighting with Laura or Sophie for that matter. But with Sophie it was always easier, she would let go and just forget it whereas Laura was capable of ignoring her for days if not weeks.

It happened last year, Laura was crushing on a new kid who wanted nothing to do with her and she kept pushing and pushing until Elara told her to give it a rest. Laura didn't take it well and after a huge outburst, stopped hanging out with them for a whole week.

"She's going to ignore me isn't she?"

"Or us?" Sophie giggled "Good thing I'm going back to school tomorrow. We'll have each other while being ignored" she tried to lighten up the mood but it wasn't working.

"I think it's bad this time. She probably felt like I was taking Nora's side... I wasn't I just know Nora didn't do it. I have a feeling about it"

"I know," she said parking in front of the IT store "Good thing Marcus is still here. Do you want me to come with you?"

"No babe, it's fine, I know you and Marcus aren't on good terms. I won't be long."

Two years ago Elara brought Sophie with her to see Marcus, she needed to format her laptop. He seemed to have been smitten with Sophie, not taking his eyes off of her. Sophie being shy, left and waited for Elara in the car. After that day Marcus kept asking about her until he admitted to liking her and wanting to get to know her. Elara arranged everything, and after three dates, Marcus just told Sophie it wasn't working out and broke it off. Since then, Sophie never came back to his shop and always changed routes when she saw him.

He didn't really hurt her, he was a gentleman all along, but he really outgrew on her and she wanted it to work. It was a huge disappointment when he told her he wasn't feeling the same as her.

Pushing the door open Elara made her way inside looking for Marcus, he wasn't in his usual place. Just as she was about to call his name she saw him coming out from the back storage with a smile on his face. But he wasn't alone.

"Are you following me now Tiny?"

Elara smirked flipping her hair back "You wish Hulk!"

"Hi Elara, are you here for your laptop?"

"Hi Marc, sorry I couldn't make it earlier, I'm just glad you're still open. Please tell me it's fixed?" she asked with pleading eyes ignoring the icy blue stare of the cocky bastard standing not so far from her.

Marcus chuckled and pulled up her computer from his desk "I got it fixed of course, and I managed to access that file you were trying to open but it was blank. Anyway, I left it open on google search in case you want to take a look."

"Thank you so much!" she gave him a small hug and grabbed her computer "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing, just bring me that disgusting bubblegum ice cream you like next time you come to see me" He smirked and looked outside with a frown when he noticed Sophie was in the car. "How is she?"

Elara looked back at her friend and smiled "Never been better." She turned back to him and smiled "I'll come over for ice cream tomorrow, see ya!"

Elara was tempted to throw something at Nolan but decided against it and took her sweet time to walk out of the shop. Showing him that his words affected her was giving him the satisfaction of hurting her, but playing tough and as though nothing just happened a few hours ago will make her seem as unaffected as he was.

She hated that she let him kiss her, and she hated even more that she actually liked kissing him. His lips were so soft and so addictive that she wanted to feel them again. He probably ruined every other boy for her now.

She climbed into the car and kept quiet until Sophie pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive toward Elara's house.

"Nolan was there." She said shaking her head "He thought I was stalking him! How messed up is that?"

"As messed up as kissing you and then telling you it didn't mean anything" Sophie shrugged "Don't let him get to you." She told her softly.

"I won't, thank you for driving me around. Grandpa is probably getting me a car for my birthday, I saw him looking for 'girly cars' the other day" they laughed together putting aside every bad thing that happened during the day.

"No problem! And I hope you're right, it would be better than riding your bicycle around..."

"Which I can't ride any more thanks to Hulk and Sean!" Elara grabbed her bag and climbed out "You're picking me up tomorrow? I'm sure Laura will 'forget' I need a drive".

After saying goodbye to Sophie, Elara made her way to the house only to stop and look at her treehouse. Most of her memories with her mom were there. She felt a lump in her throat as she realized her mom decided to live away from her. Yes, she was visiting her, but always erased her memories and Elara didn't know how to feel about that so far. She wanted to climb up the treehouse and see if she can get any other memory but something stopped her. Something inside her kept pushing her away from the treehouse.

Letting out a sigh she made her way to the house and walked in to find her grandpa watching tv. Of course, he wasn't worried because the school called him and told him she was in detention. So she couldn't even lie about that and hoped she wasn't going to be grounded.

"Grandpa" She plastered a smile and took a seat next to him "I'm sorry I'm late."

"How was detention El?"

"It was okay... I worked on the Alchemist and Mr. Edisson liked my notes. He asked me to finish the assignment and email it to him. If it's good enough, he'll give me extra points!" She told him excitedly, but mostly to lower the possibility of being grounded.

"That's good. I left you some pizza in the oven, eat and start working." Daniel Bell got on his feet and turned off the TV but Elara stopped him before he could leave the room.

"Aren't you mad at me?"

"I'm beyond mad young lady, but I'm cutting you some slacks. I heard you screaming in your sleep last night and the night before. It must have been hard on you... but if you ever feel like you need help, professional help I mean, don't be afraid to ask."

He was about to leave again when Elara spoke "Have you ever seen one of them?"

"One of what?"

"The wolves... you always told me stories about wolves coming out at night and protecting the woods of Pine Hill. Have you ever seen them in person?"

"The wolf that attacked you isn't part of that... the protectors of the forest wouldn't hurt any human Elara. It probably was a regular wolf."

Regular wolf... So the protectors are Werewolves? "What do you mean regular?" She pulled her grandpa to the couch "I know you're mad at me, but please talk to me."

"I'm not mad at you Elara... I'm worried and there's a big difference. I don't want to tell you about the protectors, because it seems every time I warn you about something you just ignore me and do it. Like going into the woods for instance! I've been warning you since you were thirteen and I found you lingering at the outskirt of the woods and you just stupidly went in the other night and look where it got you!"

She bit her lip and nodded "You're right but this time is different, this time I know werewolves exist!"

Daniel frowned and looked at her with shock and worry visible in his eyes, he froze and looked at his granddaughter not knowing what to tell her, not knowing if he should lie to her again for her own protection.

"So? Have you ever seen a werewolf?"