Le Loup Garou - Chapter One: And There He Was

Le Loup-Garou et L'Adorer
Beth.
And There He Was

The clock went off at 5 o'clock like it always did. I rolled over and threw my pillow over my head. I closed my eyes. The overhead light was too bright for me this morning. I grumbled as I kicked off my blankets, and I walked into the bathroom.
As I starred at myself in the mirror, I began to stare at each of my flaws. My naturally auburn, wavy hair hung at my shoulders like a dead mop, and my green eyes brought out my freckles-my ugly brown freckles- that seemed to spot my cheeks only at my cheekbones that were usually a rosy shade of red. Disgusted with myself, I turned on the water and I climbed in the shower.

After my shower I dressed in the usual clothes I wear. Nothing fancy. I walked downstairs and I saw my father siting there, like he usually is, reading the sports section of the newspaper. He glanced up over the page and smiled at me awkwardly. "You look nice today." He stated as he set the paper down.
"Thanks Dad." I said awkwardly back.
"So, after school could you feed the dogs? I'll be getting home late and-"
"Alright Dad. Don't worry about it," I smiled, "It's no big deal. They'll be fed." He took a deep breath as if he been holding his breath that whole time. I didn't blame him for not knowing how I'd take it. It wasn't until recently he found out he had a daughter. It wasn't his fault at all.

My mother, my dear mother, had raised me in sunny California for almost seventeen years. Besides her curly hair, she and I had nothing in common. She was outgoing, and beautiful. I was not. She and I had gotten along so well though. We were each others best friends.
She had cancer for a while. They told her it had begun to spread about six months ago. She told me that she was going to be alright, she had promised. Two months later, as she lay in the hospital bed so fragile, she told me about my father.
I always knew that I had one, I mean it usually takes two to have a child. She had never mentioned him before, except I had his last name. I had assumed he was dead because I had only seen one picture of him and he was in uniform.

"Bethy," She whispered,"I already talked to him. When, you know, this whole thing ends," She paused again to smile at me and brush my hair behind my ear, like she always did, "You're going to go live with him. He'll take care of you."
"Ok, Mom." I whispered. Not wanting to argue with her, I didn't want to upset her.
And that's where Tom comes into the picture.
Born as Timothy James Benedict, my father had been in the military for almost thirty years. About two years ago, he retired as a high ranked Lieutenant General. He moved to a small town outside of Augustana, Maine to pursue a life long ambition of dog sledding. He had participated in the Yukon Gold Race in Alaska last year where he easily took first place. With his winnings, he bought a bigger claim of property and some more dogs. Little did he know he was about to find out he had a daughter.

A month ago when my mother passed, I came to Maine to meet my father for the first time.
The moment I stepped off the plane and saw him standing there, I knew he was father. He stood awkwardly at about six feet, maybe a little taller. He was very fit for a man of his age, although with his military background and the way he ran with his dogs I could see why; His arms and legs hung awkwardly off of his body, and his green eyes seemed dull and tired.
There was no mistaking it, I was his daughter.

It hadn't been so bad though. The first couple of weeks were the hardest. I didn't know anybody, I didn't have any friends, and of course I missed my mom. At school, I was the new kid which drew everyone in. They wanted to know where I was from, why I was here, what I had done, and who I was. I, of course, didn't want to answer all of these questions because I'm a firm believer in privacy. So I only told them that I had moved from California to live with my father, who was some kind of a town hero.
But after about a month here, I began to fall into the pattern and soon I was invisible to everyone but myself.

So like everyday, I sat down at the table with my father. Like everyday, we made useless small talk. And like everyday, I was running increasingly late for the bus.
"Have a great day at school Bethy." My father said as I opened up the door to leave.
"Thanks. You too. I'll remember to feed the dogs." I called over my shoulder as I stuffed a piece of toast into my mouth.
I walked briskly through the morning fog that seemed crawl through the small town. It wasn't a very long walk to the bus stop, but I counted my steps as I went. It seemed to make me not only walk faster, but it made the time pass. Pretty soon I was there.

I sat on the small, cold bench and waited impatiently for the bus to come. To a person who lived in Maine for most of their life, the weather wasn't cold. To me after living in warm, sunny California for most of my life it was down right freezing. I shivered slightly but soon enough the bus rolled up and I escaped into the warmth of it.
Washington Union isn't a small school by any means, but it isn't a very large school either. It had maybe eight hundred students that were from all over Maine. All the buildings were painted a weather resistant cell block gray, and all of the buildings looked similar to me. The only way you could spy the difference was the three-foot letters on the side of each of the buildings.

When I arrived at school I knew it was too early to go to any of my classes, not even the teachers wanted to be here this early, so I walked to the warm confines of the cafeteria and sat there until the bell rang.
Like everyday, I made my way across campus to the M building to my first period class, algebra two, with Wayne. I tried to walk through the herd of people that stood in the middle of the walkways, but like everyday it was remotely possible. There was no turning around, there were too many behind me. I had to just wait it out.
"You're very patient." A girl whispered to me.
I laughed.
"No, I'm really not. I'm just in no hurry to get to class." I smiled.

"My name's Abby Abbot." She said as she offered out her hand to shake.
"I'm Beth." I said as I shook her hand.
Abby and I talked all the way to the M building. I found out that she was also in Algebra two the same period as I; she was just in the room next door to mine. We talked until the late bell rang, signaling my first tardy, and she invited me to sit with her at lunch.
"You have to. I'm serious." She laughed.
"No, I mean I don't want to intrude or anything..."I trailed off.
"Beth, you said it yourself, you have no one to sit with at lunch. Well, now you do. If you're not there, I'll come looking for you and drag you there myself." I laughed and soon agreed to her offer.

"I have to go to class now. I think I'm quite late enough." I laughed and turned to walk into my classroom ten minutes late.
"Ok Beth." She said and went to go into her class room. "Oh and by the way Beth." She shouted. I turned to look at her.
"Yes Abby."
"I think we're going to be great friends." She nodded her head and then went into her classroom. I walked into mine and was greeted by the voice of Satan himself.
"Good morning Ms. Benedict. Would you like to take your seat, so I could get back to my lesson?" I nodded my head and walked down the narrow isle to my seat, located in the back. I didn't sit next to anyone at the table, so I set my bag in the seat next to mine and settled in for a boring day.

And a boring day it was indeed.
I had met Abby at my locker after first and we walked together to second. The same thing happened after third and fourth, and soon it was lunch.
"I can't believe we have almost the exact same schedule and I've never seen you around." Abby began as we walked into the overcrowded cafeteria.
"Well, I moved here about a month ago," I began, "I'm not really the social type. I do really well at keeping to myself." Abby laughed and nodded.
"I've noticed that."
We sat down at a round, unfamiliar table, big enough to hold six. There was already a boy siting there.

"Josh, this is Beth Benedict." He looked up, his obviously dyed, jet black hair falling into his face and smiled. He stood up as I sat down and I blushed.
"Thanks." I whispered and took my lunch out of my back pack. Abby sat down next to me and looked at Josh.
"Beth, this is Josh, My boyfriend." He offered his hand to me with the smile still there.
"Nice to make your acquaintance Beth." I shook his hand and smiled back at him.
"Nice to meet you as well."

Lunch was relatively quiet. Abby and Josh talked to each other, but it was a tad awkward. I, of course, said nothing which intrigued Josh.
"You don't talk much." Josh said as he took a bite out of his sandwich.
"Not usually." I whispered.
"Why?"
"Joshua," Abby hissed as she smacked him, "That's rude. I'm sorry Beth." I shook my head.
"Oh, it's not big deal. I'm just a firm believer in not say anything stupid." That caused Josh to laugh, making juice come out of his nose which triggered Abby to laugh herself to tears. I sat there, of course laughing with them. All the sudden the atmosphere seemed to stand still.

Abby and Josh slowly stopped laughing and looked at one another. I saw someone walking towards the table out of the corner of my eye.
"Hey Noah." Josh called out. I turned to look at who he was talking to.
And there he was.
Without a word he walked to the table and stood on the side of Josh. He stared at me, his blue eyes piercing my face with the angry daggers that shot from them, and then looked at Abby with an greater amount of anger. Without a word he turned around and walked away.

And as quickly as he appeared he disappeared.
"I'm sorry. Did he want to sit here? If he did all he had to do was tell me to move-" I whispered. Abby brought her hand up and stopped me.
"Beth, you didn't do anything." She said tense.
"Who was he anyway?"
"He," She paused and took an exhausted breath,"is Noah Avery."
"Well, I guess he doesn't like me very much" Abby laughed and looked at Josh.
Soon the lunch bell rang and Josh walked Abby and I to the portables.

U.S. History went by slow, and French after that went by even more slow, but as soon as the bell rang to go home I was ready.
I walked to the bus stop and forty-five minutes from then, I came home to an empty house. Keeping my promise to my father, I fed all twelve of his dogs, and then went back to the house to make myself some dinner and finish up the little bit of homework I had. It wasn't much and I was done by nine o'clock.

By that time my father had just got home and I fixed him some pasta that I had made. After that I retired to my room and fell on my bed.
I couldn't shake the thought of Noah. No matter how hard I tried. It wasn't like I was fantasizing about him or anything. I just didn't understand what I had done to him to make him hate me already.
I was pretty sure that I hadn't met him before, so that ruled out that I had offended him and he held a grudge. Maybe he didn't like my shirt I was wearing? I looked down at my old faded, worn out Used tee shirt and shook my head. 'I don't see what's so offending about The Used.' I though to myself and then quickly ruled out that idea.
I closed my eyes and tried to think of anymore reasons why he could, but couldn't draw up any conclusions. Soon I just gave up and fell asleep.