Cursed

I was at school in record time this morning thanks to Shailey waking me up early so she could get to school to use their computer to finish her project. Personally, I think she shouldn't have waited until the last minute to do it, especially with it saved on the school's computer. But, being her ride to school, I took her there early. But now she owes me.

"You really need to take a shower after being in the woods, you smell like dirt and other weird stuff," she said, wrinkling her nose.

"You need to stop telling me what to do," I huffed. I didn't care what was socially acceptable. Besides, I did take a shower last night, however, it was before I ran off. i didn't need to waste hot water just to wash the earthy scent off of me. Anyways, I really liked the scent of nature around me the whole day.

"Besides, you don't want to know what you smell like," I told her, giving an evil smirk. My sense of smell was a lot more powerful than hers and even stronger as a wolf.

She frowned and kicked my leg. "I use melon shampoo! And it smells great!"

I parked in the near-empty school parking lot and took my keys. Personally, I didn't much like driving with her but gas prices were high and our parents arranged it.

She ran off into the school, headed for the computer lab. I rolled my eyes and followed her inside. I figured I might as well get some breakfast since I had some extra money and time.

*~*~*~*~*

Later, in my first period class, I get to work on my web design project. It was just the finishing touches. I wasn't like Shailey who puts things off until the last moment.

I must say that my project was absolutely beautiful so far as I put my hood up and slumping to get the glare from the only window in the room out of my eyes. I was the only one who sat here and I wasn't sure if it was because of me or if it was the constant sunlight it put into your right eye when you sat here.

But as soon as I did that, the door opened, making my ears perk up out of instinct. Before I saw or heard anyone, I smelled them. It was a really sweet smell, a smell I've only had a couple times in my life. It was addictive to my nostrils and I needed more of it. They smelled like strawberries except a hundred times better and it faintly reminded me of last night's smell. My eyes flickered open as I realized it was probably the new kid I'd kind of seen yesterday. How did I overlook how good he smelled? I wanted to just burst into wolf form when my senses were even higher, push him down and just breathe in his scent. I jumped at that thought slightly. I was kind of scaring myself. I didn't want to eat him or anything he just smelled... so... good.

I dug my fingers into the palm of my hand as I heard his footsteps getting closer to me. But I let go of it and continued to work. I'll be fine, I can deal with this. I just won't get too close to him. I'm good at being mean. Besides, I don't really even like humans that much. I just like the way he smells. I bit my lip hard. I'm even kind of annoyed about how this is affecting me.

I saw him sit next to me out of the corner of my eye. I didn't need him sitting anywhere near me, not with whatever scent he was wearing. I stole a glance at him from the veil of my hood. The kid smiled at me brightly, easily catching me looking at him. "What do you want?" I asked, aggravated.

"Nothing... Can't I sit here?" His voice was kind of like chimes to me, not deep but not high, just perfect and it carried emotion really well.

But I wanted nothing to do with him. "No. Move," were the last things I said to him that day. I didn't want to be near someone who made me think abnormally, who made me feel and act strange just by their scent.

He had pale skin though and pretty pink lips I bit my lip harder. That's wrong, this is all wrong.

"I'm Kieran by the way," he starts talking again. "And you are?"

But when I finally inhaled, I caught a huge whiff of his sweet smell. It caught me by the nose and I couldn't think about anything but that. My eyes shut and I took several short breaths, inhaling the aroma. I'm sure I would've continued like that if the teacher hadn't yelled my name and told me to take off my hood.

I met his eyes again before I grumbled and looked away. For the rest of the day, my eyes kept meeting his form. I prayed that he didn't catch me looking. But I couldn't help it and I didn't even know why!

*~*~*~*~*

I laid my head down on the table sideways to watch myself play around with my fork and spaghetti. "What's wrong?" My mom asked after several minutes of watching me in my depressed state.

"Have you... ever met someone who smelled like... really good. Like better than anything else. Even if it's just a normal scent?"

I felt my parents exchange looks. I lifted my head. "What?"

"How strong is the scent?" My dad asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"I dunno, really strong? I just... wanted to keep smelling him- it. I wanted to keep smelling it," I changed the subject of the sentence quickly. I hoped my parents hadn't caught it.

"Well, since most of your roots are within nature, a lot of your judgment comes from your senses. Smell is usually the strongest one, seeing as how so many animals apply it to social situations to identify friend or foe or to recognize others. It's a pretty big phenomena around werebeasts. Personally, I haven't had any situations like that."

"You agree that each of your classmates have individual smells you can recognize them by, right?" My dad asked, trying to work through my mother's vague answer. I nodded slowly. "Well, maybe this person's is stronger because you don't know them very well and you're try-"

"No! It's like, stronger and sweeter than pretty much anyone I've ever smelled. It's really weird and... it's not just smell, it's their voice and the way they look."

"Honey, I haven't experienced what you are, but just remember that as wolves we rely completely on our senses. Though, it's strange that one person would attract all of that attention from you."

"You guys are useless," I sighed.

I didn't really know who to turn to since my parents couldn't diagnose the problem. It would probably just go away on its own. I might just have to get used to it.