Six Moon Summer (12 page)

A sense of wolfish calm settled over her. She took a big bite out of her sandwich, chewing slowly while he stared at her. Rylie should have been afraid of him. She had been anxious about running into him for days. But now that she faced him, she felt nothing. What could he do to her? If she wanted to, she could rip his throat out.

When she finished her sandwich and he hadn’t moved, she stood up and dusted sand off her shorts. “Do you want something?”

“You know what the punishment is for crossing sides of camp?” Jericho asked.

“Nope.”

“On the first violation... nothing, really. You get some privileges taken away for a few days. Maybe confined to your bunk.” He leaned in close to her ear. “But for a girl who’s been fighting? For a girl who broke into the counselors’ cabin? That’s good enough to get sent home.”

She took several large steps back to put distance between them. “Get away from me,” she warned. The wolf was waking up. It would be too happy to take him on.

“I know it was you,” Jericho hissed.

Rylie glared. “You can’t prove anything.”

“You weren’t alone. Who did you talk into sharing your teenage delinquency?” he demanded. She bristled. “You look like you’re getting mad. Do you want to fight with me?”

“No,” she said. It was a complete lie. The wolf absolutely wanted to fight.

“Tell me who you worked with, and I won’t have you sent home.”

Rylie laughed. “Are you kidding me? If I did go sneaking over to that side of the lake—and I’m not saying I did—then telling you who I was with would only mean both of us would get expelled.”

“You’re trouble, Rylie Gresham. Aren’t you?”

“Of course not,” she said. “I’m an innocent little angel.”

Jericho stabbed a finger at her. “You better believe I’m watching you. Step one foot out of line again—”

“Yeah. Big words.”

Rylie crumpled her sandwich wrapper and flicked it at his chest. She returned to the group, trying to suppress a grin while Jericho fumed on the beach. Before getting bitten, she never would have had the courage to be so blatantly anti-authority.

Maybe becoming a werewolf wasn’t
that
bad.

For the next few days, Camp Silver Brook buzzed over the volleyball tournament. The girls playing on the team were even excused from regular activities to practice. “It’s supposed to be a casual, friendly rivalry, but I’m a little competitive,” Louise confided in Rylie after one practice session.

The night before the tournament, they held a big cookout at the main campfire. Rylie sat down with Cassidy.

“You going to watch the game with me tomorrow?” Cassidy asked. “Sounds stupid and boring. Might as well talk through it, right?”

“I can’t. I’m on one of the teams,” Rylie said.

Her upper lip curled. “I didn’t peg you for a team player.”

Rylie snorted. “Trust me. I’m not.”

Louise came over. Her face was grim and unreadable, and her hands were squeezed together. “Can I talk to you, Rylie?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Somewhere private,” Louise said.

The counselor led Rylie a short distance away, far enough that nobody could hear them talking. The sun dropped below the trees, casting the forest in golden twilight. “What’s the problem?” Rylie asked.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, taking Rylie by the shoulders. A muscle in her cheek spasmed. “I know you were looking forward to the volleyball tournament. Wait. No, that’s stupid.” She took a deep breath. “Okay. I spoke to the administrators in the office. Your mother is coming to pick you up in the morning.”

Rylie felt dizzy. She was getting sent home? The new moon was in a week, and she couldn’t do it without Seth. “Were you talking to Jericho? Don’t listen to him,” she pleaded. “He’s crazy. He’s out to get me. You can’t send me home! Please!”

“It’s not that,” Louise said, her face drawn tight.

“Then
what
? Why am I going home?”

“Rylie... it’s your dad.”

Rylie left a note for Seth wedged in the window.
My dad had a heart attack. I have to go to his funeral. I’ll be back before the new moon
. The ink was smudged on the last sentence where she tried to blot away her tear drops.

Her mom, Jessica, showed up at ten thirty the next morning. Rylie watched the camp disappear in the side mirror, a feeling of dread weighing on her shoulders.

“How has it been at camp? You haven’t written,” Jessica said when they hit the highway.

“It’s fine.”

There was a reason Rylie hadn’t written to her mom. Her dad was more than family; he was a friend. She could talk to her dad. But Rylie hadn’t had a conversation with her mom that hadn’t ended in a fight since middle school.

The drive back to the city was long. Forest and mountains turned into rolling hills. Hills turned into suburbs and small towns. The small towns became big, and then they were at the city, with all its narrow streets and mirrored skyscrapers.

Rylie felt claustrophobic, and stepping into her mom’s high-rise condominium only made it worse. She stood in the doorway to her room with a bag over her shoulders, staring around at the posters she had put up to make her mom’s place feel less lonely. Classic movies, concert posters, art prints. They looked stupid now. Meaningless.

The walls in the condo were a blue-gray color that felt alien and unnatural after the warm tones of the wild. Rylie wiggled her toes on the cold ceramic tile flooring and imagined it was dirt.

She sat on the end of her bed. Jessica had picked out an array of white pillows and a white comforter for it, and everything was just as tidy as when she left. A few of her books from home were on the shelves. Her backpack for school was on the floor of the closet. She even had clothes in the dresser. The only new thing was a white vanity that was not, and never had been, to Rylie’s taste.

Her reflection in the mirror had red-rimmed eyes and puffy lips. She had been crying for a long time.

Rylie found her spare charger and plugged in her cell phone. The light came on immediately, but the battery was completely depleted, so it wouldn’t turn on until it charged.

She stared out the window at the narrow black strip of street. A jogger passed on the sidewalk, white tennis shoes flashing beneath him. A woman pulled a dog away from a toppled trash can. A pair of children played jump rope.

Something ached inside of her. Rylie knew she should have been sad, but she felt too numb to feel anything now.

Her dad would never jog again, or walk a dog, or play jump rope. Just like that, he was gone.

Jessica brought her a black dress and shoes. “I know you don’t have anything for... you know,” she said, laying them across Rylie’s mattress. “I hope you like this dress. Your aunt helped me pick it out.”

“Is he really dead?” Rylie asked.

“Oh, honey.” Jessica reached out like she was going to hug Rylie, but she stepped out of the way before her mom could touch her.

“I just need to hear it from you. I need to know it’s real.”

Her mom covered her mouth with a trembling hand, and tears rolled down her cheeks. She shook her head once and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Rylie stared after her. It felt like a giant hole had been carved out of her chest.

She tried on her dress in front of the full-length mirror. It was modest, like everything her mom bought. The hem hit at the knee and the sleeves were short. The scoop neck was just wide enough to show off her silvery claw scars. Rylie wondered, distantly, what Seth would think of the dress.

It felt like a long time since she had really looked at herself. Her reflection had changed over the course of three moons. Her fine blonde hair reached her elbows now, as though the transformations made it grow faster. Her gangly, knobby arms and legs had fleshed out with muscle. Her skin had a healthy copper tan.

Strangest of all, the gold veins in her eyes were spreading. She looked more and more like the wolf as time went on, and less like Rylie.

She kind of liked it. She looked strong and healthy. Like she could take anything on.

Even her dad’s funeral.

Her phone chimed and buzzed. Rylie turned it on to find twelve new text messages and several missed calls. They were all from the guys she hung out with at school. She hadn’t told anyone she was being sent to camp for the summer, so they had been trying to meet up with her for weeks.

The most recent one was from her friend Tyler. Rylie called him back.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked.

“Rylie? Wow! I thought you were dead!”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not too far off. I saw your text message.”

“Yeah! You want to see Black Death at The South Den tonight? You’re the only one I know who likes them but me.”

"The South Den is in a really bad part of town," Rylie said.

"Yeah, but it's Black Death unplugged! They only sent out a hundred invitations to this thing. I got passes because my cousin’s a barista there. Come on, Rylie. You can't miss it."

She bit her lower lip, staring at her reflection across the room. Rylie looked grave and dark in the mirror. She didn’t think it was a good idea to go out and have fun when she was only in town for her father’s funeral.

But what else could she do? Sit at home with her mom?

“Sure,” Rylie said. “I’ll be there.”

Jessica knew better than to ask Rylie where she was going. She wore a loose skirt and her favorite pair of Converse so she could walk to the train station. The three blocks to the station had seemed like a long distance last time she visited, but after weeks of hiking, Rylie found herself passing the stop instead of boarding the train. The South Den was only a few miles away. She felt restless and wanted to move.

The art district became darker and dirtier as she moved south. Shops had bars over their windows and half of the street lamps didn’t work. Rylie ignored the people begging for money and walked on.

The South Den was a coffee shop in an alley behind a condemned bank. They rented out the old money vault, and the only way inside was to take a road underneath the building and pass through metal doors. Rylie had to wait outside for Tyler, since she didn’t have passes, and the bouncer watched her with one eye while he screened other entrants.

Black Death was too popular for such a small venue. The street was packed with fans hoping to catch a glimpse of them, pressing to get closer to the door.

She spotted her friend above the crowd and waved her arms over her head.

Tyler bounded toward her with a wide grin, impervious to the press of the crowd. His front teeth were separated by a big gap and his hands were too big for his body. “Rylie! How’s it hanging?”

“Good,” she said cautiously, bracing herself for the questions: Why were her eyes a different color? How had her hair grown so long? And why did she look so weird?

But Tyler gave her one of his tickets without batting an eye. “Let’s get in, huh? It’s cold out here!”

Of course he didn't notice. Tyler never noticed anything. She almost laughed with the relief of not having to deal with her problem for once.

The South Den was already packed in anticipation of the show. Roadies assembled the drums on stage. The limited number of tickets meant it wasn’t as crowded as usual, so Rylie easily found an empty table in a dark corner. She wrinkled her nose at the stench of body odor and cigarette smoke.

Tyler jumped on the bar stool across from her. "How's your summer going?" she asked.

"It's been wild. You'll never guess what happened. Remember Teri?"

It took her a few seconds to bring a face to mind. "You mean Teri Haynes? That girl you stalked since spring break hoping she would notice you?"

Tyler's grin widened. "She finally noticed me."

"No way.”

"We've been dating for two weeks. She’s my girlfriend now! Nuts, huh?"

Her smile grew fixed. "Yeah. Nuts. Teri and Tyler. That's... cute."

Tyler checked his phone. "I'm going to meet Teri outside. I'll be right back. With my
girlfriend
." Rylie gave a weak laugh and watched him go.

Girlfriend: the dirtiest of dirty words. Girlfriends interfered with friend-time and turned her guy friends stupid. Rylie hated it every time one of the boys she hung out with got a new girl because it meant their fun was over until the relationship ended.

No matter how much she liked the band, Rylie never would have come if she knew it meant tolerating a
girlfriend
.

He returned with Teri in tow.

"Hi!" she sang in a too-bright voice. "I'm Teri!"

"I know," Rylie said dully. "We had chemistry together."