Lycanthrope

Staring at myself in my full length mirror, I take a deep breath as I smooth out my white bubble skirt and teal v-neck tunic. I grab a black denim blazer off of my bed and proceed to put it on, pulling out my hair that got caught underneath the blazer. To complete my outfit, I place my feet in a pair of black, Strappy Suedette heels and zipper them up in the back.

I straighten up and take another glance in the mirror. Running a hand through my dark reddish-brown loose curls, I take one more deep breath and mentally prepare myself for my first day of school. My stomach soon becomes tangled with knots as I think about starting new classes and having to meet new people. I try to push any negative thoughts into the back of my mind and grab my book bag off the floor, swinging it over my shoulder then make my way downstairs.

“Well, someone is a little dressed up today,” my mother says from her seat at the kitchen table when I walk into the room, “you look really nice.”

“Thanks. It’s hard enough to be the new girl but to be the new girl when they’re nearly half way into the school year is even worse. So, I figured that I should try to make a good first impression and save the sweatpants and tousled hair for the second day,” I reply nonchalantly before taking a bite out of my chocolate chip Pop-tart that I retrieved from the cabinet.

My mother playfully rolls her eyes at me and shakes her head, “Have a good day at school and be good.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep the troublemaking to a minimum,” I smirk and plant a kiss on her cheek, “see you later.”

As I begin my walk to school, I eat the rest of my Pop-tart and think about what this day could possibly bring. The thought of meeting new people brings an uneasy feeling to my stomach and I find myself wanting to empty it of its contents. It’s not that I’m socially awkward or I’m not easy to get along with, but I just feel uncomfortable meeting someone for the first time.

I walk for about another five minutes when I find myself standing in front of Mystic Falls High School. The uneasy feeling washes over me again as I notice the amount of students that are either hanging around outside or making their way into the building. In attempt to relax, I take three deep breaths then begin walking towards the school. I look around at the other students engaging in conversations with their peers and my nerves begin to build even more when I feel myself bumping into someone.

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going,” I quickly apologize and look up to find myself staring into the brown eyes of a boy with slightly messy brown hair.

“It’s alright,” he chuckles before holding out his hand and introducing himself, “I’m Jeremy, by the way.”

“Sydney,” I reply while shaking his hand and then work up the courage to ask, “do you mind telling me where the office is?”

He nods his head in the direction of the school and answers, “I have to walk by there, I’ll show you.”

I smile thankfully and follow in his footsteps towards the doors of the school. We walk in silence which is making me a bit uncomfortable since I’ve never done really well with silence. Then much to my relief, Jeremy breaks it by saying, “So, you’re new here?”

“What gave it away? Do I look like a lost puppy or were you able to sense my fear?” I reply in attempt to make light of the situation.

“Nah, I just haven’t seen you around before,” he chuckles softly while coming to a halt, “well, this is the office. It was nice meeting you, Sydney.”

“Thanks, it was nice meeting you as well,” I smile and wave goodbye as he turns to walk down the rest of the hall.

Letting a sigh escape through my lips, I walk through the doors of the office and give the woman at the front desk my name. She begins to rummage through the papers that are scattered across the desk before grabbing two things. The first thing that she holds out in front of me is my schedule and begins to explain when my lunch period would be as well as how much time we have to get to our classes. Then she holds out for me the student handbook followed by a post-it that she has written my locker number and locker combination on and gives me a general idea of where I can find my locker.

I take all the things from her hands and thank her before walking out of the office. Glancing down at the post-it, I begin the search for my locker which, thankfully, is only down the hall. Once I’ve found it, I turn the lock in the correct order before opening my locker and placing the student handbook inside then closing the locker shut.

I take a look at my schedule to find out that I have History first period with Mr. Saltzman. A small smile creeps its way onto my face since History has always been one of my favorite classes and I begin my search for the classroom. I walk around aimlessly for a couple minutes before I finally find the class just as the bell rings indicating that first period has begun.

Taking another deep breath, I slowly enter the classroom and walk to Mr. Saltzman in the front of the room where he is looking down at the lesson plan placed on his desk.

“Um, excuse me,” I manage to say causing him to look up at me.

“Yes, may I help you?” he replies in a soft tone.

Nodding my head, I answer, “I’m a new student.”

“Ah, right. I was expecting you,” he says while glancing down at a piece of paper and handing me a textbook that is sitting at the corner of his desk, “Sydney, correct?”

“Yes, Sydney Brown.”

“Class, we have a new student joining us. Her name is Sydney Brown,” he exclaims causing everyone to stop what they’re doing and simply stare at me. He leans down slightly and whispers to me, “This would be their way of welcoming you.”

“Yeah, I really wasn’t expecting to get much more than that,” I reply earning a light chuckle from him. He then points to an empty seat in the room and tells me that I can take a seat there.

I nod my head in response and begin making my way to the empty seat in the middle of the classroom. Once I’m seated, I place my book bag on the floor before pulling out a notebook and a pen and placing it on the side of my History textbook that is on my desk.

“Alright, class. Today, we’re going to be talking about the Battle of Willow Creek,” Mr. Saltzman’s voice fills the room as I open my notebook to a clean page, “in what year did it take place?”

I subtly glance around the room and when I notice that students are avoiding answering the question by either looking down or turning their heads slightly, I decide to answer the question by simply saying, “1865.”

Mr. Saltzman looks at me with an expression on his face that clearly shows that he’s impressed and nods his head while asking a followup question, “And who can tell me how many casualties there were?”

The class remains silent and I raise my hand just a little bit before answering, “There were 346 casualties and 27 civilian casualties that had been killed when Fell’s Church burned down.”

“Sounds like someone has been brushing up on her history,” Mr. Saltzman simply says, implying that I had been correct.

“I wouldn’t really say brushing up,” I begin while shrugging my shoulders, “I was just curious to see what this town has to offer and I managed to stumble on that.”

“Looks like we’ve found the class nerd,” I hear a male voice snicker from the back of the room causing me to feel like the wind has been knocked out of my stomach.

I turn my head slightly to look over my shoulder and see a boy leaning back in his chair as his brown eyes dance with amusement. Keeping my eyes on him for a minute, I take notice of his brown hair that seems to be perfectly in place, his perfect square jawline, his plump lips, his navy blue t-shirt that shows off his muscular arms and finally, my eyes land on the football that is falling out of his bag which leads me to believe that he’s into sports.

“Tyler,” Mr. Saltzman says in a warning tone as I turn around to face the front of the room while shaking my head.

“It’s alright, actually. I’d much rather be a nerd than a brainless jock,” I say nonchalantly. I turn my head back around to see the expression playing on the boy’s face and the amusement that was once in his eyes has vanished. Instead, he sends a glare in my direction which causes a smirk to tug at the corner of my lips.



Standing at my locker, I place my History textbook inside before quickly shutting it and bringing my attention down to my class schedule. As I’m checking to see what my next class is, I hear someone say, “Hey, you’re Sydney, right?”

I look up to find a girl with long brown hair and brown eyes to match staring at me with a soft smile placed on her lips. Recognizing her from my History class, I nod my head and return the smile while saying, “You’re in my History class, right?”

“Elena,” she introduces herself as she nods her head, “I just wanted to tell you not to take what Tyler said personally. He can be a bit of a jerk.”

A smile makes its way across my lips as I think about to what happened in History class. I’m about to say something when a bubbly blonde walks up to us and says, “Elena, I’m throwing this little party at the Grill tonight so make sure you’re there.”

The blonde looks at me for a brief second before sending a questioning look in Elena’s direction which causes Elena to introduce the two of us, “This is Sydney, she's a new student here. Sydney, this is Caroline.”

“You’re more than welcome to come the party if you want,” Caroline beams at me before turning to walk around and calls out over her shoulder, “party starts at eight!”

I watch her as she walks down the hallway and smiles brightly at everyone she sees. Once she’s out of sight, I turn my attention back to Elena and say, “She seems like a delight to be around.”

“Neurotic is usually the word used to describe her,” Elena retorts which causes me to chuckle lightly, “but you should come to the party tonight.”

“Oh, I don’t kno-” I begin while shaking my head only to be cut off.

“Come on, you’ll be able to meet some more people and it’ll be a great way to make being here suck just a little less,” Elena tries to reason with me. Sighing, I nod my head in defeat knowing that she had a point which causes her to smile and say, “Great. I’ll meet you there then.”

I nod my head once more and wave goodbye as she begins to walk away. Just as she walks away, Tyler walks by and locks his brown eyes with my hazel ones for a brief second. I continue to watch him as he walks over to a blonde hair boy and begins to interact with him. Despite what happened in class, I find myself actually wanting to get to know him.