Poison and Wine

“This class makes me want to rip my eyes out,” Annie complained when we were in English. “We already learned this shit.” I nodded my agreement. Hemlock Grove seemed to be lacking in the school department. The teachers didn’t seem to give a shit if you passed or not and the criteria were things that a fourth grader could easily understand. We were juniors in High School. We should be getting something much more challenging.

We had been in Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania for a week now and we were bored out of our fucking minds. Nothing seemed to be going on. At all. Though, the only interesting things about this place, were Peter Rumancek and Roman Godfrey. It seemed that the werewolf rumors sprouting up around Peter were because a girl named Christina Wendall said it. Annie and I both laughed at that. “A little girl tells you that someone is a werewolf and you believed it?” Annie had cackled. “What the fuck is wrong with this town?” The rumor had also spread to adults and Chris had told us, “please don’t go hanging around him. He seems dangerous.” It was for our own good. Stupid fuckers.

“Miss Tanner?” The teacher called out.

“Which one?” Annie and I drawled in unison.

“Antoinette,” he said, pointing at me. I sighed in annoyance.

“I’m Brynna, Mister Kendall.”

“Oh, my apologies,” he said, rolling his tiny, almond-shaped eyes. “Brynna, would you please read The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost out loud and then tell me what you think it means.” I sighed again, casting Annie a sideways look that made her snicker.

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I placed the text book that I was reading from down on the table and looked at Mister Kendall with a bored expression. “It obviously means that he had a decision to make and when he says, ‘I took the one less traveled by,’ he obviously took the easy way out of his problem.” Mister Kendall looked at me, and then turned his beady eyes on Peter.

“Mister Rumancek, do you agree with Miss Tanner?” He asked. I looked over at Peter with a smirk. He and Roman seemed to have hated Annie and me since we were complete bitches to them on our first day. His gray-blue eyes drifted over to me and without breaking eye contact he answered.

“I completely agree with Miss Tanner’s opinion on the poem.” My eyebrows rose. Holy shit, did he just-.

Obviously that wasn’t the answer Mister Kendall wanted because he pursed his lips and moved on, never looking at me or Peter again for the rest of the period. When the bell rand, I gathered my books and cut Peter off as he was trying to walk out the door. “Thanks for that,” I said with a small smile. He nodded at me.

“No problem.” He moved past me, meeting with Roman outside of the door.

“Well,” Annie started, appearing next me. “That was unexpected.”

“Yeah, it was.”



During lunch, I was carrying my tray to a table with Annie next me. We were scanning the cafeteria for two open seats when I saw Shelley Godfrey sitting by herself and was getting teased by a few girls. Usually Roman would be all over their asses; something Annie and I had both noticed was how protective Roman was of his sister. I looked over at Annie but she was already making her way over there. “Shit,” I muttered, moving quickly towards her. I slid my tray down the table and jogged over to where Annie was. She was now in up one of their faces.

“Leave Shelley alone, you whore,” she snarled. The girl’s little posse moved forward, probably thinking that Annie was alone. I sidled up to her side and smirked. The two instantly stopped and moved away. Even though we had only been there a week, everyone knew we were New York natives, and had already gained a reputation for being bitches that weren’t afraid to throw down.

“I suggest apologizing to Shelley, Melissa,” I said calmly. She switched her brown-eyed gaze to Annie, to me, and then back to Annie. She mumbled something lowly and Annie moved forward.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t hear you,” she said loudly, gaining the attention of the people closest to us. “And if I couldn’t you hear you, I doubt Shelley could either.” Melissa glared at her and then took a deep breath, squaring her bony shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Shelley,” she said louder than the last time.

“Good,” Annie grinned menacingly. “Now scram!” Melissa scrambled off over to the other two girls, and I could hear her berating them for running off on her when I showed up. Annie and I both turned to Shelley and gave her twin grins.

“Hey, mind if we sit you?” I asked. She smiled shyly at us, and motioned with her wrapped hand to the other side of her. Annie and I both sat down and started eating. Shelley got out her phone and a pen and started tapping away on the screen.

“You know, my brother and Peter like you two,” the phone said. Annie and I shot each other surprised looks, but quickly schooled them.

“That’s funny. I figured they would hate us since we were kind of mean to them on our first day,” Annie stated. Shelley started tapping out a reply.

“Roman liked it. I believe his words were, ‘I like them feisty’.” I snorted in amusement and Annie smashed her heel into my shin to shut me up. Annie turned around, looking over shoulder.

“Feisty, eh?” She said lowly. I turned my head to see Peter and Roman walking in with a blond girl. She was pretty, but the way she was giving some people looks, it made me think that she thought she was above everyone else.

“That’s Letha, mine and Roman’s cousin,” Shelley supplied.

“Hmm,” I mused, staring at the blond and the way she was practically hanging off Peter. Even though I thought he and Roman were douchebags when I first met them, but they were sexy douchebags, and only an idiot wouldn’t be attracted to them both.

“Come on, Brynn,” Annie said suddenly, standing up. “I wanna get seats in the back for Geometry.” I chuckled, standing up.

“You mean get a good seat so you can take a nap, right?” She gave an affronted look.

“Of course not, how dare you think that.” I laughed harder and then smiled at Shelley.

“Thanks for letting us sit with you, Shelley.”

“Yeah, and if those girls give you problems, tell us,” Annie added. Shelley nodded and smiled, waving at us.

Annie and I made our way out of the cafeteria towards our Geometry class. “Wait! Annie, Brynn!” We both turned and saw Roman making his way towards us quickly.

“Yes?” Annie asked, her voice still cool, but not nearly as icy as it had usually been with the tall man.

“I just wanted to say thank you for sticking up for Shelley. I heard about what happened a minute ago, and- just thank you. Not many people stand up for her.” I felt my heart break slightly at that. Shelley was such a sweet girl. Why couldn’t more people see that? Annie must have been thinking the same thing, because I saw her blue eyes soften slightly, not nearly enough for Roman to notice, but enough for me to.

“There’s no need to thank us,” she stated. “Shelley is sweet, and we both like her, so we will always stick up for her.” Roman nodded and smiled slightly at her and then turned around to walk back into the cafeteria. When the doors closed behind him, Annie looked over at me.

“Did that really just happen?” I smirked. We continued on our way, but were stopped by a hoard of younger girls, possibly freshman, all surrounding twin blond girls, Alexa and Alyssa Sworn, daughters of Sheriff Sworn.

“I can’t complete Christina found her!” Alyssa had cried, covering her mouth with a tiny hand. Annie and traded confused looks.

“I know!” Alexa wailed. “I feel so bad for her. She found a dead girl!” My jaw dropped.

Well, maybe Hemlock Grove wasn’t so boring after all.