( SHE WOLF. )
CHAPTER SEVEN.
crimson lips.

KATIE WAS RIGHT, sleep was only a momentary reprieve. With homework unfinished and a newfound compulsion to check her phone every seven minutes, Katie walked into school.

Biology class was first on the hit list; a long droning documentary on vaccination. Katie sat alone in the back of the class. Jackson and a boy named Matt sat in front of her, having a hushed conversation that Katie tried to tune out as she trained her eyes on the creepy diagrams flashing across the screen.

"What the hell did you do to my camera?" Matt asked, whispering angrily to Jackson. Jackson just furrowed his brow and shook his head, looking at Matt with his usual convicting, annoyed gaze. "The lens is cracked," Matt explained, holding up the camera.

Katie discreetly listened in, her interest suddenly piqued.

"Did you drop it?" Matt examined his camera lens. "Do you know how expensive this thing is?"

"Just send me a bill," Jackson stated. Something that the voice in the documentary said seemed to have caught Jackson's interest as he waved Matt off. Jackson's eyes moved from the screen to Lydia, who was writing notes down like both Jackson and Katie should have been doing.

Katie almost decided that the conversation was too boring to continue thinking about, but when she saw the strange way that Jackson looked at Lydia, she let her mind continue to wander around the subject. He looked angry. Katie looked back at the documentary and listened closely. It was just more about vaccinations and immunity, about how people can become immune to things like influenza or meningitis or even rabies. People are weird, Katie concluded. She dropped the thought, deciding to follow Lydia's lead and write down the things she was hearing in hopes of replicating Lydia's perfect test scores.

✶

"Well, obviously you didn't burn him. The police don't think you did either, so just drop it," Elijah stated, shoving a chicken nugget into his mouth. Katie and Elijah sat in the well-lit cafeteria, eating lunch with the rest of the high school students.

"Yeah, you're right," Katie nodded, taking a sip of water.

"Allergic reaction sounds about right anyway," Elijah smiled. Katie watched as Elijah's hazel eyes went from relaxed and smooth to wide with surprise.

"What is it?" Katie turned her head to follow Elijah's line of sight.

"Is that—" he started.

"Erica," Katie breathed, finishing his sentence.

Erica walked through the doorway — no, not walked, strutted. Her hair was in long blonde curls rather than the messy ponytail she usually wore. Her grey baggy clothes had been traded for a short, black leather skirt, tight white tank top, leather jacket, and leopard-print platform heels. Her honey eyes were lined in black eyeshadow, her lips covered in bright red lipstick. It wasn't only her outfit that had changed, it was her entire demeanor.

Katie swallowed hard. A slight smile played on Erica's crimson lips as nearly every head in the cafeteria turned towards her. Erica locked eyes with Katie for a split second. The smile on Erica's face grew slightly before she regained control of her facial expression. Erica leaned down next to a boy Katie didn't know. He stared at Erica in awe as she reached down and grabbed his apple, taking a bite of it with her perfect white teeth. She stood up with a smile, eyes moving back to Katie.

Katie furrowed her brow in confusion and Erica turned around, taking the apple with her and walking out of the room. Katie sat there in shock even after Erica had left the room.

"You okay?" Elijah asked, snapping in front of Katie's face. Katie looked at him for a second before nodding. She turned back to the doorway where Erica had left.

Katie couldn't tell what she was feeling. Part of her felt amazed at Erica's transformation; in awe of her newfound confidence, absolutely stunned at how great Erica looked after being so timid for so long. The other part felt bitter. It had been days since Erica had been to school, it had been days since she responded to a single text of Katie's. Initially, Katie felt worried, but now that she saw that Erica was clearly more than okay, the worry morphed into hurt.

Was it so difficult to just send a text? The lack of communication seemed more like a lack of care to Katie.

Katie stood up suddenly, heading out of the cafeteria to find Erica. She slung her bag over her shoulder and ran down the hallway until she reached the main doors. She swung them open to see Erica with a wide smile on her face, getting into a sleek black car. In the driver's seat was a man with dark hair and sunglasses that Katie didn't recognize. He looked to be in his twenties. Katie didn't trust him.

Erica looked at Katie, the smile on her face widening slightly. Katie didn't smile back, she just stared.

Before Katie could even process what was happening, the car drove away. She sighed and turned around to go back into the school, but was met with something other than the closed blue doors.

A boy with wavy dark hair and a boy with a buzzcut.

Scott and Stiles.

Katie scoffed and tried to push past them, but Stiles moved in her way.

"Now that you're done thirsting over her, can you move?" Katie asked, tilting her head. She didn't mean to snap, but she was upset and couldn't fully comprehend why.

"What do you know about Erica?" Stiles asked quickly.

"Seriously? God, if you want to have a chance with her then ask her yourself. She likes music and movies and . . ." Katie rubbed her face, just wanting to get inside.

"That's not what I meant," Stiles stated. Katie looked over at Scott who was still staring in the direction of the car, fuming softly. Jealous much?

"Alright, well what do you mean, Stiles?"

"I mean that you followed her just like we did and I just want to know why," Stiles said vaguely, eyes searching her facial expression for any hint that Katie knew about the supernatural. Katie furrowed her brow at Stiles' wide eyes.

"Because I'm curious as to why she hasn't been at school for three days and hasn't been answering any of my texts," Katie explained simply, holding up her hands to say happy now?

"Oh," Stiles said softly, shifting his gaze to Scott. Katie nodded, eyes darting between the two boys.

"You two are so strange," Katie laughed, taking the opportunity to step past Stiles back into the building. "Cya, Stiles," she called once she was in the school.

"Yup, bye Katie," Stiles said awkwardly, waving at Katie even though her back was turned to them.

✶

Monday after lunch, Katie was walking down the hallway as everyone dispersed to their next class. Katie had spent her lunch break trying to catch up on review for a history test that would be happening later that day. She picked up her pace, she was already late.

She hadn't bothered to send any more texts to Erica since Friday, and Erica had sent two (What'd you think? When do you want to meet for our next session?).

Katie thought of sending something along the lines of: so you're just going to ignore the last twenty texts I sent you? But she didn't.

"Hey, Katie." Erica was leaning against her own blue locker door, grinning, twirling her hair. Her lips were lined in a pretty nude colour, her hair was done carefully in long curls, her eyes were covered in dark, smoky eyeshadow. She wore a low blue top and skinny black jeans; clearly chosen for the purpose of displaying her curves. Katie couldn't deny that Erica looked incredible, it wasn't the look that bothered her.

"Hi, Erica." Katie opened her locker door, cutting Erica's face from her view.

"What is up with you?" Erica asked, moving the door so that the only thing Katie could see was her face. Her tone held slight aggression that Katie had never heard in her voice before. It caught Katie off guard and forced her to look Erica in the eyes.

"What's up with me?" Katie scoffed.

"Yeah," Erica said. She held Katie's locker door open.

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I sat in the library for hours waiting for you and you didn't even send a text. I spent my time worrying about you while you were out getting a makeover." Erica pulled her hand from the door and Katie took the opportunity to close it.

"It's a lot more complicated than that," Erica said, grabbing Katie's wrist. Katie wanted to leave, but Erica's hand on her wrist kept her in place. Slowly, Erica's hand moved up Katie's arm to rest on her shoulder. Erica took another step forward so that her face was right in front of Katie's. Katie could feel her heart rate picking up in her chest. Erica smirked lightly.

"I have a class," Katie said.

"So do I," Erica shrugged. Erica's voice seemed to raise a few octaves as she said it. Katie furrowed her brow. The way Erica's voice was so controlled reminded Katie of an actress.

Katie shook her head in confusion and slowly removed Erica's hand from her arm.

"Erica, I really have to get to class." Katie rubbed her eyebrow and walked away, leaving Erica to watch from her locker.

✶

Later that night, after school, Katie headed to the library on her dark blue bike. She didn't feel like texting Erica back for a tutoring session, so she decided to study alone. She thought about asking Elijah for help, but he had never been great at explaining things usually got tired of it quickly. Katie felt bad for ignoring Erica, but she couldn't bring herself to talk to her either.

She tried to read her textbook several times, but she just couldn't concentrate. Maybe that was why school never seemed to work for her; because she could only focus on one thing at a time.

Sighing, Katie threw her books back into her bag. She thought about just going home, but instead, she went to the lacrosse field. She threw the small white balls into the net repeatedly until they were all gone. It was around eight o'clock when Katie went back to the library. She swiped her student card along the side of the door and watched as the light on the lock blinked green. She silently thanked the school for their long library hours.

Back at a desk, Katie tried again to focus. Two hours of homework and review passed before Katie finally looked up, realizing that most of the people had gone home. In fact, everyone had. Katie felt that it was two hours poorly spent considering she was already forgetting what she had read.

The only light came from the soft lights that were spaced evenly around the library and the glow of the amethyst sky that came through the tall windows. Katie stood up and began cleaning up when she heard a voice.

"Katie!"

She looked up to see Erica running into the library.

"What is it, Erica?" Katie immediately moved her eyes back to the table. She put the last of her things into her bag.

"Okay, where is this sudden hostility coming from? I told you, it's more complicated than you think," Erica said, walking right up to Katie.

"Okay, well if it's so complicated why don't you explain it to me?"

"I can't," Erica bit her lip, shaking her head.

"Why not? Erica, if you ignored me because you didn't want to talk to me, that's fine. Just be honest, please."

"I can't explain. I just don't understand why it's such a big deal to you."

"It's a big deal because . . ." Katie stopped, suddenly aware of Erica's hand on her wrist again. "I don't know. It's fine, just forget it."

"C'mon, Katie. I thought you'd like me better this way. I mean— look at me!" Erica pulled her hand away and looked at Katie with her soft, russet eyes. For a moment the only thing Katie wanted to do was kiss her, and at that moment she realized why it was all such a big deal.

"No. No, It's not just that you look different. You're completely different. This is not the Erica I know," Katie paused. She shook her head, blinking her eyes desperately as they began to sting. "I mean, I saw you with Scott earlier today. You were doing the same thing you just did to me, right in front of Allison. Flirting with him? You're not the Erica who helped me with chemistry all those hours. I don't know what happened to you but you're different."

"So you're jealous?" Erica smirked.

"No! That is not the point! Stop that, Erica. Just stop, please," Katie pulled her backpack over her shoulder and watched as Erica's face fell. Katie stood still for a moment before walking out of the library, wiping her eyes quickly. Erica watched, standing alone in the wide library. As soon as Katie had left, Erica pushed her face into her hands. This wasn't what she meant to happen.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

( word count: 2288 )

werewolf erica i'm so excited! i'm trying not to make this too awkward lmaooo but idk how well that's working. i feel like at this point i say i hate every chapter i write but i don't think that's ever going a way so oh well. anyways, i love u guys so much and i hope u liked it!!

much love,
skye