SYDNEY

"Meg, you in position?" She asked through the pink walkie-talkie that Meg's seven-year-old sister let the older girls borrow.

"Yep Girly. You?" Megan asked back moments later, her voice sounding terrible due to the crackling of the walkie-talkies weak connection.

"Yeah, give me a second to double check the gear," Sydney answered briefly before turning to the black garbage bag that sat beside her on the forest ground. Shuffling the items in the bag around, she searched for the slingshot and counted up the fifteen balloons they packed.

Pulling her phone out of her back pocket she glanced at the time then checked for any calls from her sister.

"Syd, you ready yet Girly?"

Shoving her phone back into her back pocket, she retrieved the walkie-talkie off the dirt ground and held the black button on the side down before talking into it once again. "Yeah yeah. Are you?"

"Yep," Meg said popping the 'p'.

"Have you called and checked to make sure Em's at the car and ready for us?"

"That I have my young Padawan," Megan mocked. If Sydney was standing beside Meg she could already see her cocky smile and her thin finely defined purple eyebrow raised.

"Oh shut up. How does the lacrosse field look?"

Emmery and Megan had been Sydney's closest friends since their middle school years. Sydney considered their group rather tame, so doing this was out of the ordinary, but it was their last year in high school and Meg brought up the point they had never truly done anything daring in their 'high school career' as everyone liked to call these four years of tedious repetition of senseless classes.

So, trying to break the monotony of the high school days and leave a distinct memory in the girls last year together, they concocted a plan to harass the lacrosse team and get them a little smelly. The idea had originally stemmed from Meg's growing dislike for the jerks when a series of lacrosse members tormented their group since late middle school, and in high school the harassment only got worse.

The plan was to shoot off as many water balloons, which were filled with vinegar instead of water, that Sydney could before someone caught onto the trio. After that, Meg and her would take off running to the car in the school's parking lot where Emmery would be waiting for them in the car.

Sydney sat on the forest ground that spooned the lacrosse field. If she got caught in the forest she wouldn't 'technically' be on school grounds. But Sydney was confident that they weren't going to get caught...or at least planning not to. Nerves were starting to bite at her and Sydney was beginning to second guess about this whole plan.

'No, no. Come on Sydney do something spontaneous for once in your life. It's not like you will get in any serious trouble.'

Meg was keeping look out to make sure no one would be close enough to identify them. Meg had wanted to be the one to fire the vinegar filled balloons, but at Em's house they saw which of three could shoot the furthest: that happened to be Sydney. If anything, Meg was the worst performer of the three of them.

"Okay my Padawan. Are you ready?"

"I was born ready," Sydney answered her with renewed confidence.

Meg's chuckle broke through crackly. "Alright. Get off as many shots as you can before I call you and tell you to run as fast as that little ass of yours will let you, okay?"

"Yeah yeah, let's get this show on the road already," Sydney said before she lost her nerve.

Sydney jumped in place and letting her head roll back and forth from shoulder to shoulder then placed the walkie-talkie on the ground and picked up the large slingshot.

Meg chuckled once more through the walkie-talkie then talked to herself trying to compose herself. "Okay, okay. It's time to get down to business, put on your serious face Meg." Meg said to herself, making Sydney giggle. "Okay. I got this. Now, I'll count down from five. Alright, now counting for lift off," She said in a deep manly voice. "Five...Four...Three...Two...ONE!"

Sydney pulled the ring attached to the carrier of the slingshot, where the balloon sat, and pulled it as far as she could back, aiming in the air where she thought it'd be best. Her upper arm and elbow shook against the resistance of the thick band, but finally when she felt confident she released the ring.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then there was a small POP noise, closley followed by, "What the fuck is this!?"

She could faintly make out people looking at the source of the cry in concern. Before Sydney could allow herself to think, she started firing off more balloons.

She had fired off seven more before Meg's voice broke through the walkie-talkie on the ground.

"Code RED! The players have spotted me! Run! I repeat run as fast as you fucking can!" Meg yelled with a hyena like laugh, that momentarily made Sydney question her friends sanity.

Sydney sighed and shook her head in disapproval at the fact that Meg loved getting into trouble. She liked the adrenaline rush. The only thing Meg liked better is when she can do something wrong and get away with it.

Throwing the equipment into the bag, Sydney tossed the duffel onto her back. She started jogging deeper into the forest in the direction of the school. She tilted her head back towards the yelling behind her.

Her feet took her deeper into the thick greenery as the stars started to twinkle above her. It was an angelic moment, that stole her breath away. Continuing forward she leaped over fallen limbs of rotten trees and some small boulders and silently thanked herself for starting to workout over the past summer.

"Sydney!" Meg hollered out from behind her.

She craned her head and caught sight of her bright purple haired friend. Meg too was leaping and jumping, and not far behind her was three rather large lacrosse boys.

One of the three boys immediately snatched her eye. He was leading in the front at an alarming fast speed. His eyes were locked solely on her.

Sydney's eyes skimmed him over as his eyes-which color she couldn't identify because of the distance-locked with hers momentarily then proceeded to reciprocate that action. His brown-black hair dampened with sweat that trickled down the sides of his handsome face.

Before she could look him over anymore, her shoulder clipped into a tree making it feel like it had been torn apart. She yelped out in pain but realized she needed to pick up her pace.

"Hurry up!" Sydney yelled at her friend.

'Great!' Sydney thought, 'The one time we go out of our way to do something pure idiotic and we're going to get caught. I should've backed out when I had a bad feeling about this. What will mom think and colleges think if this goes on my record?'

The forest started to clear up and a little ways away Sydney could distantly make out Emmery rapping her fingers on the driving wheel of her black Lexus.

She was clearly singing her heart out due to the fact that she was snapping her head around and bobbing her body around. When Emmery's eyes finally opened, they fell on Sydney and became saucers. Emmery quickly turned the car fully on and started fumbling around to clear the seats for Megan and Sydney to hop into.

Sydney yanked open the door and slid into the car before tossing the slingshot equipment into the back seat.

"Hurry! Start driving towards her!" She yelled beating the dashboard impatiently.

"What?!" Emmery asked looking at Sydney wide eyed.

"Roll down the back window, drive towards her and have her jump in! She won't make it otherwise!" Sydney yelled starting to become frantic with the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

Emmery asked no other questions and did as she said.

Megan, with her purple hair thrown in a messy bun and outfit consisting of some uncomfortably tight black, ripped jeans and tank, had just reached the parking lot and the lacrosse players were still hot on her tail.

The two drove towards her and Sydney hollered out the window, "Jump through the window!"

Without a second thought Meg dove right in.

"Now drive!" Sydney started to yell as the boys were now five feet away from the car. The boys were starting to yell at us but she couldn't make anything they said out.

Reversing the car as the players yelled at the girls, Megan finished crawling through the window and was now laughing up a storm and flipping the players off.

"Fuck that kinda hurt." Megan said now rubbing her stomach.

When they finally made it out of the parking lot, Sydney slid her hand down to grab her phone. Her hand came across nothing and she immediately looked down to her empty pocket.

☽✣☾

JAY

"Alright team, bring it in," Jay called out to the team.

Jay looked around the field and glanced over the stands. Tonight felt different to him. Not a good different or bad different, just that there was going to be a change.

'I don't like change,' Jay thought to himself.

"So do you know what you're going to say?" Jay's best friend and beta, Terrance, asked walking up to his side.

The players of the lacrosse team flooded over to the two, creating a semi crescent like shape around them.

Jay turned to his beta with a shrug, "Just going to wing it and see what happens."

He then redirected his attention to the team. "Okay team, today we need to start getting our head in the game. Last year we didn't win States, hell we didn't even qualify for States. This year, it's our last year here...or hopefully all of us anyways."

"Jess," Someone covered up with a cough.

Some of the other guys snickered while Jess looked insulted people thought that he was going to fail this year.

"Guys," Coach warned.

"Yeah guys," Jess said giving everyone a pointed look that could kill.

"Anyways, we need to get our heads in the game. This is our last year here and we want it to go out with a bang. So if you're not dedicated to this team then it would be in your best interest to go take off your jersey and walk off this field."

No one moved, which was a relief to Jay. "Alright, now let's get ready to practice and start off what's going to be the best year in Red Mountain High history."

Jay restrained an eye roll as the team broke into cheers over his cliche' and 'spiriting' speech.

They all broke off into pairs practicing catching and throwing the ball with the practice rackets. Only five minutes into practice Jay heard Colby cry out.

"What the fuck is this?!"

Looking over at him Jay saw his skin shone in the high powered lights of the field.

At first glance, Jay thought it was sweat, but he highly doubted his teammate had managed to work up a sweat that quickly, and so as Jay approached Colby his nostrils flared and a burning sensation made his eyes water.

'Vinegar.' Jay thought.

"What the hell is going on here?" The coach approached the small group surrounding Colby.

When he was no more than twenty feet away from Colby and the small group of us surrounding Colby, Jay saw the Coach visibly flinch at the smell permeating off of the human.

The Coach was an averagely respected werewolf in Jay's father's pack-which in a few years was going to be Jay's pack. Many people questioned why a werewolf would obtain a job as a high school lacrosse coach. Jay was pretty sure the reason Coach did this-even though Coach would never admit this to his father-was one to keep an eye on all the younger pack mates and secondly to do what he loved. Knock Jay and them all around with a reason to.

The feeling of semi-hatred was very mutual.

"Some fucking idiot threw a water balloon at me!" Colby yelled pointing to the wet marks on him.

"Colby, it clearly isn't a wat-" The Coach abruptly stopped.

Jay stopped his scanning of the area for the jokester and turned his attention to a now livid Coach. Laying on the Coach's shirt was torn pieces of blue rubber and his white shirt was now wet with the stench of vinegar.

He balled up his fists and his face light up like a firefly: an angry firefly.

An avalanche of what Jay counted to be about five more vinegar balloons came down on the team before someone on the team called out, "Hey! Someone's in the forest!"

Motion in the crowd on the bleachers caught his eye. The small group of people were either watching the team's first practice of the spring season or just out here socializing. His predatory eye caught a girl with purple hair stand up and start down the bleachers talking into something in her hand while watching the chaos play out on the field.

"Hey you!" Jay yelled to the girl.

Her head snapped up and her eyes locked with his.

She was caught.

The purple haired girl took off down the bleaches stairs, and started barreling towards the forest.

Out of the corner of Jay's eye he spotted someone in the forest going deeper into the thick vegetation.

He took off after the purple haired girl and what appeared to be her partner. Jay attempted to slow down slightly, not to raise suspension of his inhuman speed.

Purple, as Jay decided to call her, broke the tree line into the forest trailing after her little friend.

"Sydney!" Purple called forward to her partner.

'Mate!' Jay's wolf growled.

'The purple haired girl?' Jay asked him back, almost nervously.

'No you idiot. Sydney...' His wolf said dreamily.

If Jay could physically see him, he could imagine his wolf would have a lopsided grin with his tongue hanging out.

The girl, Sydney, looked over her shoulder towards her friend and in Jay's direction. His heart beat lulled when his eyes rested on Sydney's face. Even from this distance he could see her beautiful dark green eyes and her honey light hair. Her eyes were locked on Jay's as his fused on hers. This caused her to josel when she ran into a tree.

In Jay's head his wolf let out a growl at the sight of her being hurt.

"Hurry up!" Sydney yelled.

'Damn, her voice was even stunning...' Jay thought. 'Wait, no. No it is not.'

The luxurious green forest started to dissolve into the school parking lot.

Jay saw Sydney toss her big bag into the back seat of a black car and then jumped into the passenger's seat.

"Hurry! Start driving towards her!" He heard with his overly sensitive ears.

"What?!" The driver asked looking at Sydney like she had grown another head.

"Roll down the back window, drive towards her and have her jump in! She won't make it otherwise!"

Purple, his two teammates behind him, and Jay finally broke the forest line and were now in the parking lot.

Sydney and her friend drove over to purple hair. She popped her blonde head out the window and yelled frantically to her friend, "Jump through the window!"

Purple dove right in, her legs sticking out of the window, but she began to wiggle in.

Now Jay really started to pick up the pace. He felt this urge to talk to Sydney and become friends with her. His wolf wanted to shift and chase after her.

'Does she not know who we are?' His wolf whined in their mind.

'I don't even know her so why the hell would she know us.'

'We DO know her, and she should know us...We're her mate. Her partner.' His wolf tried to reason.

'Well she doesn't smell wolf.' Jay told him.

"Now drive!" Sydney started to yell as the boys and Jay were practically five feet away from the car.

Sydney and Purple's frizzy haired friend started reversing the car at lightning speed.

"Stop!" Jay roared, throat vibrating as his voice radiated with power. He wasn't yelling because he was angry about the stupid 'water' balloons. Jay just wanted to understand. She was his mate and she was running from from him, going against every natural instinct a wolf should have.

One of the lacrosse players yelled, "Get the fuck out of the car!"

"What the hell's wrong with you?" The other teammate of Jay bellowed.

Jay bit back his possessive and angry growl towards the two as the girls drove off, their laughter floating in the air.

After a moment more some more of the team members appeared out of the forest and came up alongside Jay and the two.

"Did you catch them!?" Colby hollered.

"No," Jay said bitterly.

"Jay! I found this in the forest," Terrance said handing him an Iphone.

A small grin tugged his lips when Sydney's scent swirled into his nose, welcoming.

'What better way to learn about your mate then from their phone?' Jay questioned his wolf.

'Through your MATE is a better way.' He answered hastily, but Jay knew that his wolf was well aware that it was either this or nothing.

'All in time.'