Scents. So many scents. So overwhelming.

The first few weeks had had her head spinning. She'd felt nauseous at times. The unique scents each and every individual person, animal, plant or even some objects gave off would bombard her every day, messing with her focus and throwing her off track. Her parents had hated her lack of attention.

But five months later, Sierra was used to it. The heightened senses she now had were more comfortable now, after learning how to deal with them. She even enjoyed them, using them to secretly listen to gossiping teenage girls, to pick out certain people and know when they were coming, to beat every boy in gym class.

Being a werewolf was great.

Most days she hid her bite scar by wearing long sleeves. When she did show it, she said she'd once been attacked by an angry wolf--not a startled, deeply-apologetic-afterwards werewolf. Of course, she'd been terrified at first. Talking to canines, suddenly heightened senses and strength, transforming into a wolf the next full moon after the "incident"--she refused to call it an attack when talking with those who knew the true story. She'd only given Warren a fright, and he'd reacted defensively.

One day at school, two new students were introduced to the class: Aja and Krel Tarron. They were a little strange, seemingly unfamiliar with the concept of school, not to mention a zillion other obviously normal things. Sierra had picked them out that day at lunch, to learn their scent. She did that with everyone now. It wasn't rude; they didn't even know she was doing it.

One whiff of the odd, supposed twins had sent her heart racing and her wolf instincts reeling.

They weren't human.

She'd initially felt afraid. Their scent was foreign, unlike any Earthly scent she'd ever encountered. Most people were warm and musty-scented, with a unique hint that allowed her to tell them apart. Some were a little flowery; mostly girls. Dogs and cats were earthy or smelled like old carpets, but these two--they stung her nostrils with a sharp, metallic, energy scent, masked with a thin layer of human that was obviously manufactured.

She wasn't sure exactly how to put it into words, but she might say they smelled futuristic. It made her feel inferior to them, like they were far more advanced than her kind. She didn't like that.

After a few days, she got a little more used to it, and after observing their anxiety and struggle to blend in, she decided they probably weren't a threat and that she would find out what they were and where they came from. Krel seemed more like the passive one; he was less outgoing and more universally ignored by the other students. It wouldn't draw much attention if she started watching him.

What she oh so conveniently forgot to consider was drawing the attention of his protective sister.

History class was going pretty smoothly, with nobody paying attention to her, like every other class she'd spent watching the Latino-looking boy. Watching, listening, taking in every detail. He seemed to think he had a superior intellect to the other students around him. And maybe he does, she thought more than once. He apparently was beyond good at math, from what she'd heard. She wished they had that class together so she could see for herself.

Currently, she was observing how his attention seemed to be directed at something other than the class. Earlier, she'd picked up a brief conversation between him and his sister about how she was staring at him. Aja had just said she looked nice, which was a relief. She didn't want to be seen as a threat to these unknown creatures.

Changelings? ...nah, those smell more like dirty socks.

She directed her enhanced wolf hearing to her subject's heartbeat. She kept doing this every day, because she couldn't decide what was wrong with it. It wasn't really a steady da-dump, da-dump like a normal, healthy human. It was more like a consistent thrumming, or buzzing. She was tempted to say it was mechanical, but the rhythm sounded fully, undoubtedly alive and natural. Defining what he was could not be more confusing.

She noticed Aja glancing back at her every now and then, which began to make her mildly uncomfortable. Was she getting suspicious? What kind of excuse could she possibly give to justify the staring?

A pencil lead to the neck disrupted her study.

"I see you staring at him." Mary Wang whispered, her voice dripping with the anticipation of gossip. Her face was twisted into a subtle sneer. Sierra secretly despised her, from her gossip-loving lifestyle to her unmistakable scent of perfume and malice. Not to mention her cowardice or complete inability to leave anything or anyone the heckin' heck alone.

"Sorry. Ignoring you." She whispered back, busying herself with her textbook. This tactic never usually worked, as Mary made sure she was not ignored. Ever.

"You like him, don't you? That's why you're staring at him." The Asian girl continued, being just barely quiet enough to go unnoticed by the teacher. Sierra forced her fists to remain unclenched, staring intently ahead, now focusing on the whiteboard instead of Krel. Anything to make Mary give up.

"Do you ever just leave people alone?" She whispered, remaining calm. Mary giggled to herself and turned back to her textbook, and at that moment Sierra knew she was most definitely doomed. Once she got even a hint of a story, Mary would stretch and form it into a ridiculous rumor and spread the new gossip across the whole school. It wouldn't be long before people would be staring at her, and she wouldn't be able to fly under the radar. She would have to give up finding out the truth about the new students to save her status as a background character, something she worked hard to maintain now that she had a huge secret she couldn't risk spilling.

If anyone, anyone, found out about her pack, even the trolls living under Arcadia that she only knew about from ancient werewolf knowledge passed to her by the Alpha, all of them could be put in danger. And because the ancient pact made hundreds of years ago between the Alpha back then and some wizard named Merlin forbid them from killing a human, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves without bringing a curse on the entire pack if they were ever discovered and attacked. Regular humans who had no idea magic and werewolves and trolls and changelings and everything else existed tended to kill anything they didn't understand.

Wow. Five months as a werewolf could really change your perspective.

Thankfully, class ended a short time later. Sierra quietly ducked out of the classroom, making her regular route straight to her locker. She barely had time to detect Aja's metallic energy scent before she was pulled around a corner and backed against a wall, face-to-face with the pale girl, which even further didn't make sense if her twin brother was so dark-skinned.

"Excuse me?" She asked, meeting Aja's pale blue eyes.

"My brother says you're staring at him. He's not happy about it." The taller girl replied, her accent rolling the R's slightly. Was it Russian? Not quite. What was it?

"Me? Staring?" Sierra tried to sound incredulous, but being this close to the intimidating, nonhuman scent of this girl wrecked her focus.

"I saw you staring. At first I thought you liked him, which would have been adorable, but you weren't looking at him like that. What were you doing?" Aja questioned, arms crossed. Sierra pressed herself against the wall, her mind racing. What's the best excuse? What will make her leave me alone? Being this close actually helped her learn a little more about her. She could pick out the little familiar twist to her scent that let her know she was female. She could sense the subtle anxiety that talking to her gave the girl.

She's wary of me. I have to make her think I'm harmless.

"Okay, this is embarrassing..." She started, feigning some mild anxiety by subtly wringing her hands. "I... I do kind of like him. He just seems nice. It's not really a big deal, but if it bothers him..." She let some of her real nervousness slip through, to help back up her lie. She didn't like to lie, but her real reason was so strange that even a nonhuman creature might think she was crazy. And, y'know, keeping the werewolf secret.

Aja kept staring at her with a stern expression for several seconds, silent. Then she smiled. And then she laughed.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed, her face now reminding Sierra of Mary's. She continued to giggle for a minute or two before calming down. Behind the excitement, there was hint of relief. "Don't worry, I won't tell him." She said before walking off. Sierra put a hand to her head as she realized her last-minute cover story met up all too perfectly with Mary's suspicions.

Double doomed. Great.