I arrived home breathless, spaced out, and chilled to the bone.
"There you are!" my mom said, relieved. "Where have you been?"
I must have looked like a roughed-up snow angel. If I'd been skiing, sledding, or snowboarding - none of which my friends had time for anymore, and Ivy never liked anyway - I would have had layers of clothing, puffy gloves, earmuffs, a knit hat, and a down-filled coat.
But this time I was caught in the snow by accident and wasn't prepared for it.
"I've been worried sick," my mom said as I unzipped my now-white hoodie. Flakes fell on our tiled foyer. I shook the snow off my boots on an inside mat, but I couldn't feel a thing - my legs and toes were numb. Our dog, Champ, bounded up to me and sniffed my pant legs.
"I called several times," my mom continued, "but you didn't answer. I was just getting my keys to come and look for you."
I was so happy to be home, I was speechless. So much had just happened to me since I left Ivy and Abby, I couldn't process everything. All I knew was I was finally home.
My mom pulled off my gloves. "Your fingers are frozen." She warmed them in her hands.
"I got caught in that snowstorm."
"I can see that. Are Ivy and Abby okay?"
I nodded. "I think they missed the storm."
"They weren't with you?" she asked, surprised.
I leaned against the staircase railings and my mom pulled off my boots. I was too tired to hike the stairs to my room. Instead, I sat on them and peeled off my jeans. My mom handed me warm sweatpants and fuzzy slipper socks from the laundry room. Champ licked my cold fingers.
I'd never been so happy to be home in all my life. The smell of pasta wafting in from the kitchen was the most pleasant scent I could have imagined. It normally bothered me when my mom fussed over me, but I was so fatigued and cold, I welcomed her care.
I followed her into the family room. I plopped down on a sofa and she covered me with a fleece blanket, and Champ curled up at my feet.
My mom turned on our gas fireplace and I gladly gazed at our family pictures displayed on the mantel.
"Dinner's almost ready," she said.
I could hear her fiddling in the kitchen behind me, but I couldn't focus on what she was doing. I would have pinched myself to see if I was dreaming - being in the safety of my house with a fluffy family pet instead of staring at a pack of salivating wolves - only I still couldn't feel my skin.
"She just got home," I heard my mom tell my dad when he entered the house.
"That blizzard came out of nowhere," he said.
I was glad to see my dad and gave him puppy-dog eyes. He touched my face. Even though he'd been outside, his warm hand heated my chilled cheek.
"I think that caught us all off guard," he said.
"Dinner's ready," my mom called.
Still wrapped in my fleece blanket, I sat down at the dining table and immediately scarfed down an Italian roll.
"I didn't realize I'd been gone so long," I announced, glancing at the clock.
"Take your time," my mom said. "You don't want to choke."
"So why weren't you with Ivy?" my dad asked.
"I wanted to go straight home. But obviously that didn't happen."
"You walked home?" my dad asked.
"Yes. Then it started snowing and I ended up in the woods. I saw a wolf. And just at the last moment - "
"What?" my dad asked. "Slow down. Why were you in the woods?"
"I got lost."
"Which woods?" my mom asked, just as concerned.
"The ones along Riverside."
"Riverside?" she asked, horrified. "What were you doing there? Where were Abby and Ivy?" my mom wondered.
"Ivy was driving Abby to her practice before tonight's game."
"This still doesn't make sense," my dad said. "What were you doing walking in Riverside alone?"
"Abby, Ivy, and I were getting our fortunes told."
"Didn't the psychic tell you you shouldn't go into the woods?" my dad asked, joking. "Seems obvious enough to me."
As a matter of fact, Dr. Meadows had warned me. Beware of the woods... of the sounds of howling, she had said. My stomach turned, and it wasn't from eating too fast. It was strange - her prediction. But it just had to be a coincidence, I assured myself.
"You didn't answer your cell phone," my mom said sharply. "I was about to drive around when you came in the door."
"I tried calling you - but I couldn't get a signal," I defended. "Then I dropped my phone in the snow...." I realized I still didn't have my cell phone. "I'm really sorry - I think I lost it."
"Your cell phone can be replaced," she said.
"So... you said you saw a wolf?" my dad asked.
"Yes. Closer than I've ever seen."
"How close?" my mom asked.
"Only a few feet away. And it wasn't one wolf. It was a pack."
"You're so lucky they didn't see you," she said, relieved.
"See me? They almost ate me!"
My parents froze.
"They were as close to me as you both are and staring at me like you are now." As soon as I said that, I realized it was a mistake.
My mom covered her mouth. Then she took my hand. My dad's brows furrowed.
I could see by my parents' horrified expressions as they imagined their daughter being torn to shreds, I would be lucky if I was ever allowed out of the house again.
"Honey, I'm so happy you weren't bitten!" my mom said gratefully. "Or worse."
It was then I thought of Brandon. He was bitten and he didn't seem concerned. He'd been more interested in my well-being than his.
"It's odd to see a wolf up close like that - so close to town," my dad said. "They usually like to avoid people."
"I must have stumbled on their den. They didn't appear too happy to see me."
"I'd think their den would be farther outside of town. That's where they're mostly spotted," my dad added.
"I don't know," I said, taking a drink. "I only know I saw them and they saw me."
"Are you sure they were wolves?" my mom pressed.
"Do squirrels have fangs?" I asked.
"Well, we're glad you're back home safe," my mom continued.
"I'm not a forest ranger," I said. "I just know what I saw. I've never seen wolves up close. It was terrifying!"
That hit my mom hard. She always wanted to protect me, and I knew it hurt her to have me be in a situation where I'd been afraid and alone.
"I'm so sorry I wasn't there - " she said.
"How did you manage to make it out?" my dad asked. "Alive? Without a scratch?"
My parents waited for my answer.
A guy saved me. Risked his life for mine. A handsome Westsider.
I was too exhausted to tell them any more, and it would only add to their endless questions. I always told my parents the truth, no matter what the truth was, but in this case I felt funny about telling them about Brandon. I knew they'd make a fuss - show up at his house, thank him, and insist on taking him out to dinner. It would be embarrassing for him, and I wanted to spare him the gushing parental gratitude. So instead I just skipped to the end. "The snow began to let up. Eventually I could see our house."
"Well, thank goodness it did!" My mom sighed. "Thank goodness it did."
"I still don't understand why you were getting your fortunes told," my dad said. "Don't you girls have homework to do?"
"It was sort of a dare," I tried to explain.
"What did the psychic say?" my mom asked.
"It's private," I said. "Like making a wish on your birthday."
"Did she say we were going to win the lottery?" my mom asked. "Or travel the world?"
"No. She didn't say anything about becoming rich or winning a fabulous vacation," I replied.
"Well, I'm so happy you are safe," my mom said.
"I second that," my father affirmed. "And here's a fortune for you," he said, directing his attention toward me. "No walking by yourself outside our subdivision anymore. Or you'll be grounded."
High school basketball games were one of the biggest events in the Legend's Run social calendar. There wasn't much else to do in town, and our team usually put on quite a performance. Almost everyone in town attended the games - except for one person.
When I arrived at the game, I scanned the bleachers for Brandon. I saw a few Westsiders, but no heroes.
Ivy was waiting for me by the snack stand. The smell of hot dogs, hot chocolate, and popcorn was almost intoxicating.
I was bursting to tell her my harrowing story. "You'll never believe what happened on my way home," I said.
"Were you mugged? I knew I shouldn't have left you!"
"No - I got lost."
"Lost? You were just down the road from your house."
"There was a snowstorm on the Westside and I got caught in it."
"Really? We must have just missed it."
"Well, I didn't, and I got disoriented and found myself in the middle of the woods."
"What woods?"
"The ones that run along Riverside."
Ivy was horrified. "You could have been killed - you don't know who lives in there."
"No one was living in there," I assured her.
"So what happened?"
"There was a pack of wolves - so close I could see their wet noses!"
Ivy paused. I wasn't sure she believed me. This wasn't the usual "girl meets friend, friends go to mall" story.
"Really?" she asked skeptically.
"Yes! Why don't people believe me?"
"What people?"
"My family. Now you."
"We all believe you," she affirmed.
"I've never lied before."
"I know that," she said. "It's just that if you met a pack of wolves in the woods, how are you standing here telling me about it?"
She had a point. There was that one significant detail I was leaving out. The detail with the royal blue eyes.
"So, how did you escape the wolves?" she asked.
"Well..."
"Yes?"
"Uh... They eventually heard some noises and ran off." It was mostly true.
"Thank goodness!" She gave me a quick hug. "Now, that's the last time we'll be going to Riverside!"
I didn't have to share every detail of my day with my family and best friend. Perhaps there are some things worth keeping close to one's own heart.
Nash, Jake, and Dylan were doing their pregame warm-ups on the court. Abby was chatting with a few cheerleaders stretching out in the corner and waved us over.
The guys were handsome in their blue-and-gold jerseys and shorts. Nash began discussing plays with the coach while Jake and Dylan continued warming up. While Ivy told Abby my story, I scanned the crowd for Brandon.
"You were lost in the woods?" Abby asked, breaking me out of my trance. "Can I call you Red? Just like your costume on Halloween. You are so her."
"What?" I asked.
"Little Red Riding Hood. But instead of one wolf, you encountered many."
"Seems as if I did," I said.
"Then how did you get out?" she asked. "They could have killed you!"
"I know."
"Celeste says they just retreated," Ivy answered for me.
"Just like that?" Abby asked.
"I don't really want to talk about it."
"Didn't Dr. Meadows say something freaky about you and the woods and a wolf?" Abby remembered.
"She did!" Ivy said.
"That didn't mean anything," I insisted.
"She warned you!" Abby said with a voodoo glare. "She is psychic."
As the buzzer sounded, the three of us climbed the bleachers and watched our beaux take on the Highland Valley Bears.
I wasn't a big fan of basketball, but I did like the sport's fast pace, and Legend's Run High had a great team. Although my mind would occasionally drift from one free throw to another, I used some of that time to jot down ideas and thoughts in my spiral binder. But tonight, I had only three things on my mind - the woods, the wolves, and Brandon. I wasn't even sure throughout the game which team was winning. All I could see was Brandon's blue eyes shining through the snow when I thought I was on death's doorstep; his fearless heroics and selfless humility; his coming to my aid like a brave knight does for a princess in peril.
The game finally came to an end, and the Legend's Run Wolverines were victorious over the Bears. I couldn't help but be disillusioned. Nash's final swish got more fanfare than a guy in the woods who saved a girl's life.
I watched Nash, Dylan, and Jake tear into chicken and sodas at Wings and Things while my friends and I listened to them retelling their final play of the game. But I didn't have an appetite. I had butterflies in the pit of my stomach. I felt as if I'd never be able to eat again.
"What's up?" Nash finally said to me.
Abby told him my story. By this time it was thirdhand. Even with her embellishments, the end was still the same - I'd been as close to a pack of wolves' dinner as these chicken wings were to our boyfriends' mouths.
"And that psychic predicted the whole thing?"
"Even what she was wearing," Abby said.
"She did not - " I tried to tell them.
"What else did she say?" Jake prodded.
The gang waited for my answer. I wasn't about to tell them the rest.
"I don't remember," I said.
"Something about an outsider," Ivy chimed in.
"Yes, an outsider," Abby repeated.
"Did you see an outsider there?" Jake asked. "I wonder what that means."
I wasn't about to tell them that I did see an outsider - that he was from the Westside and had the best eyes I'd ever seen.
"Your girlfriend was only moments from the clutches of death!" Jake teased Nash.
"It's true," Ivy defended. "She was surrounded by a pack of wolves."
"Wolves?" The color washed out of Nash's face.
"Yes, wolves," Abby said, stressing the severity of the situation.
"The Big Bad Wolf?" Nash teased, recovering his cool. "So how did you get out?"
I could tell my friends right there and then that the wolves didn't retreat but rather were fought off by someone who didn't run away from wolves or wasn't frightened by the mere mention of their species. But as the words came to my mouth, I saw that the story might hurt Nash. Once word spread throughout school that there was a real hero in Legend's Run, the star of the football and basketball teams could never measure up to that feat. And once it was discovered that someone, especially an unpopular Westsider, saved Nash's girlfriend's life - something he didn't do and possibly could never do - it could ruin Nash's reputation and ego for the rest of our days at Legend's Run High.
"So... how did you survive it?" Nash pressed.
"I raised my hands like they told me in school and the wolves eventually went away."
"What woods were you in?" he asked.
"The ones in Riverside," Abby answered.
"Why were you in Riverside?" Nash asked.
Abby waved her receipt in his face. "Servants for a day! Starting tomorrow! Not only am I going to get an A on my English project, but I'm going to get a free massage, too."
Dylan rolled his eyes.
"And what do I have to do?" Jake asked.
"I'll let you know when we're alone," Ivy said.
"Don't get too excited," Dylan whispered. "For some reason, I think it has to do with shopping."
"And me?" Nash asked. "I'm not going into the woods again. Especially with you. You seem to attract wolves."
"We'll be indoors," I said. "This time, you'll have to invite someone who isn't on one of your teams."
Maybe this was a small gesture for an outsider - to be finally included in the popular students' party.
Nash drove me home. When I unbuckled my seat belt, he leaned over. For some reason, I turned away. His lips landed softly on my cheek.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing." I hopped out of the car before he could question me anymore. As usual, Nash didn't walk me to the front door but sped off when I unlocked it and stepped inside.
Wolves weren't the only thing on my mind as I tried desperately to fall asleep. I felt attracted to Brandon Maddox like I hadn't been drawn to anyone ever before - not Nash, or even a movie or TV star I'd adored. I replayed the late afternoon's harrowing event in my mind - that at the last second before I was about to be wolf bait, a handsome hero swooped into the most dangerous situation of my life and saved me from the clutches of death. I wasn't sure why I felt so strongly for Brandon - someone who I didn't really know much about - but I did. Perhaps it was the same feeling a victim has toward a firefighter or police officer who saves them in the line of duty.
I recalled the moment when Brandon and I stood together underneath the romantic snowfall and in the solitude of the woods, our bodies close together and our hands entwined. I didn't want to let go. Not then. Not ever.
I was excited. I could barely breathe. I had butterflies fluttering through my body. My heart ached. I wanted to dance around my room for days.
I thought about him staring at me when I bandaged his hand and holding me when I felt dizzy. I imagined my scarf, wrapped around his hand; how lucky it was to be so close to him.
The more I tried to get Brandon out of my mind, the more he infiltrated it. My soft blue fleece blanket reminded me of his eyes. The winter scarves hanging in my closet only further reminded me of the one I'd secured on his bitten hand. The full moon shining through my bedroom window was the same one that had hovered over us as he fought off the threatening wolves.
It didn't hurt that Brandon was handsome, enigmatic, and strong. I rationalized that I was just swept up in the moment. Maybe in time this emotional connection would dissipate like the snowfall. The clouds would break and I'd be free of this feeling, just as I was finally free from the woods themselves.
I wasn't sure why I was thinking of Brandon when I was currently dating Nash. I was lucky enough to be going out with the star of the basketball team and best friend to my friends' boyfriends. My parents loved him, and so did everyone at school.
Besides, why would Brandon have feelings for me? I was just some girl he heard crying in the woods and decided to help her. I could have been anyone. But when we held hands and he smiled at me, I felt a connection that I'd never experienced before.
And at the end of his heroics, he was left wounded and bloody. I couldn't help but be concerned. His once-healthy hand was mauled and I was the cause. If I hadn't been so insistent on walking home alone, I wouldn't have gotten lost and he wouldn't have been bitten.
I tossed and turned and gazed into the moonlight streaming through my curtain and into the darkness of my room. Eventually these crazy love-struck thoughts that possessed me would surely go away and I'd return to daydreaming and writing in my notebook about the moon and the stars.
I recalled Nash's reaction to hearing the cry of a wolf only a few months ago. The two events in the woods mirrored each other. When Nash had told the story of the werewolf, he ran off, frightened by his own tale. Brandon, on the other hand, had risked his life for mine and jumped into a real life-and-death situation without hesitation. Not only didn't Nash think of me when he was hightailing it back to his car, but he wasn't thinking of his other friends, either.
Did that make Nash a bad person? Maybe I wasn't being fair to him. No one in their right mind wanted to confront a pack of wolves. I wondered what made someone have the instinct of flight while others had the courage to fight.
I'd never be able to admit my doughy, in-love-with-a-Westsider feeling to Ivy or Abby. Brandon didn't fit neatly into their clique. To them, he was an outsider, plain and simple. He didn't live in our neighborhood, he didn't play sports, and, most important, he wasn't Nash.
For now, I'd have to keep my thoughts and feelings locked away inside me. If Brandon didn't tell anyone about the event, and neither did I, then no one would be the wiser.
However, I knew I'd need to thank Brandon. If Nash had rescued someone, he'd want to make it known and be celebrated on national TV. Brandon, however, had disappeared. I didn't even know where he lived to deliver him a thank-you gift. I assumed he didn't want any recognition or attention. I felt he might be the kind of person who'd be embarrassed if I tried. Besides, what does one do for a person who saves one's life? Brandon was a true hero - brave, modest, humble. There was no real way to properly thank them. But that didn't mean I shouldn't try.
For now, I'd just have to wait for the right moment.
I wouldn't be able to admit my obsessive feelings toward Brandon to anyone - not my friends, family, or him - when it was hard enough to admit them to myself. Instead I looked at the clock and counted the minutes until I knew I'd see him again.
