Wandering into the schoolyard Tessa watched friendship groups congregate, bunches of blood blazers gathering soaking in every last second of freedom while they waited for the first bell. Walter and her head for the picnic benches in the corner, no one is there yet but it is usually where their little group gathers. 

If they were wolves she would call them packmates. If she were human she would deem them friends.

Flopping onto the bench, the smooth leather strap of her satchel slipping from her fingertips she stared at the school while Walter pulled out his phone. The school had been built for the Victorian children of the hills, the original sand stone rectangle with enormous windows winked at her like eyes. The brass school bell still sits above the oak door and at half eight it would clang until Tessa's sensitive ears fell off her head. 

Its aura of discipline reminded her of her mum's lecture this morning.

Tessa received this lecture exactly twelve times a year, her mum had it so perfectly rehearsed sometimes Tessa thought she must be reading off flashcards. It always started with how strong the pull of the moon is going to be today and how they have to be stronger. Pause for obligatory sip of milky tea. How every decision would affect the wolf, how everything that affects the wolf affects the pack. A mouthful of soggy Weetabix is consumed. How keeping the secret is paramount, that if anyone ever found out about them they would be in a government testing facility or hunted out of existence before they could even blink.

Now while all of this was true, Sally always said it in a way that made Tessa grit her teeth. As if Tessa didn't know someone finding out their secret would be deadly. Tessa was a lot of things, but she wasn't stupid. 

The secret dies with us ~ that's how her mum always finished the speech.

Sighing, Tessa glanced at Walter, at least him pulling faces across from her at the table made this morning's speech somewhat bearable. Noticing his nails she bit her lip.

"Why did you take your nail polish off?"

"Cause I'd rather not be laughed off the rugby field later." He looked at the now bare nails with a grimace, picking at the edges of them as if he could will the lilac they'd been the night before to return so only he can see it. "I'll put it back on Friday night."

"I'll do it for you if you like, you always mess up your right hand."

"Walter!" Tessa knew without looking that the shout came from Otto Boulevard, everyone in Layman's Way Secondary School knew the voice of Otto Boulevard because he never stopped talking. Glancing at Walter, she watched his face crease with a smile as Otto approached air molecules vibrating around him as he bounced across the schoolyard. Otto's short arms wrapped around their necks as he hugged them both, although it felt more like strangling to Tessa and they both heaved him off them wearing matching fake scowls. "I've missed you guys so much."

"You came round the night before last." Said Tessa. "Mum practically had to turn the hose pipe on you to get you to leave."

"Oh stop it," He waved a ring-covered hand in her face, with a dramatic sigh the kind only Otto can pull off without being laughed at. He threw his hemp bag onto the picnic table and slumped in between them. For Walter's sake, Tessa pretended not to notice how Otto pressed his entire leg into Walter like he was trying to merge them into one being. "Your Ma loves me."

"Only cause you tell her all the village gossip." Walter mutters fiddling with the leather bracelets stacked on his wrists. Another bracelet would be added on October 22nd to commemorate another year of friendship between Otto and Walter bringing the total number of bracelets on their arms to thirteen.

"Speaking of which," Lowering his voice Otto glanced over his shoulders with a smile promising the juiciest gossip in the village. The smile formed a dimple in his tawny cheek above the scar from where he fell off the handlebars of Walter's bike when they were all riding to school once. He beckoned them closer, they obliged, small villages like Layman's Way survived on gossip. "So you know the Clare's?"

"You mean the old bat that lives on the side of the hill who owns the cafe?"

"Don't be rude." Hissed Tessa, although it wasn't an inaccurate description. Mrs Clare did live on the side of the hill and she did own the cafe and she does have a habit of disapproving of every little thing someone does. Satan is more forgiving than Mrs Clare is - that's what people of the village say.

"Yeah, the one with four Jack Russell's. Nasty little buggers. Anyway, apparently her long-lost great nephew has been sent to live with her. Ma had them round yesterday and you'll never guess what?"

"What?" They said in unison before scowling at each other.

"Well he's not right-"

"Tessa!" Hell hath no fury like the screech of Keri Naik. A red sea of blazers part before her and she bounds towards them. Keri Naik a short stocky girl with sandy brown hair; she's head of school council, has perfect attendance and is the monster hunter of Layman's Way.

"Oh, here comes crazy." Otto rolled his eyes and Walter chuckled. 

Gritting her teeth, Tessa refrained from scowling at Walter, he shouldn't laugh at Keri. She wasn't crazy, not really, if anything she was the closet in the village to the actual truth. However, Keri could be a rather intense person which led to people having rather intense reactions to her. One scarlet sock pulled to her knee, the other sagging around her ankle, hair frizzing at all angles and a smattering of acne across her forehead, Keri matched towards them.

"She's not crazy."

Behind Keri strode Simone. Every one of Simone's movements were deliberate, the gentle sway of her hips when she walked, the purse of her heart shaped lips, the narrowing of her topaz eyes when she looked at Keri. The sort of face a person makes when they step in mud with socked feet. 

Tessa remembered the first time Keri introduced her to Simone, her new step sister from London, the way Simone looked them all up and down with a crinkled nose before spending the afternoon on her phone. 

Over the past two years Simone had slowly merged into their little group. Tessa wasn't sure why Simone chose to stay with them when she could have easily branched out and become the most popular girl in school. Nevertheless, Tessa is glad she stayed. There are those in pack and then there are those who aren't. There are those who are in their little group and then there are those who aren't.

"I saw it Tessa! This time I swear I saw it! It was right there in front of me and I have proof this time, I really do, I promise." Keri says without taking a breath.

"What have you seen this time?" Otto slumped against Walter. "Monster by the lake?"

"Vampires by the castle?"

"Oh please don't tell me you've been harassing Mrs Monroe again Keri. Look I know she's got that funny hat, and black cat and drinks that herbal tea which looks like a potion, but she's still our English teacher. And I will not be sitting through another detention because you want to rifle through her handbag looking for a spellbook." Tessa shook her head, exchanging long suffering looks with Simone.

"She is a witch, I mean come on, her husband vanished overnight without a trace, she obviously did something to him."

"Mr Monroe ran off to Manchester because she forever smelt of cabbage and she was riding the butcher, poor bloke." Rolling his eyes Otto grabbed Walter's rucksack and started rifling through until he found the packet of chewing gum. Walter opened his mouth and Otto plopped a piece in it and then his own smacking his cracked lips together. "So if that's what got you all flustered you can go annoy someone else."

"No, guys it was the monster. I saw the monster of Layman's Way in the woods last night."

"Yeah right." Tessa's mouth has gone dry and she forces herself to stare at Keri with what she hopes is a bored expression channelling her inner maths lesson look. If she doesn't then she will look at Walter with a stricken face which might as well be a neon sign hanging above her head saying 'real life werewolf right here'. "You probably saw a badger or something." Even after all these years its still hard to lie about these things to Keri, ghosts, witches, vampires, they are all silly made up things, but she's not wrong about the monster. Not really.

"No, I didn't. And this time I have proof. I took photos on my camera." She said it with the pride of a seven year old declaring they were right and you were wrong, complete with putting her hands on her hips.

"It was my camera." Upper lip curling, Simone's bronze cheek bones which some of the boys on the rugby team waxed lyrical about became pinched and a rather constipated look took over her face. "You lost my camera beast hunting and if you don't get me it back I'm telling my dad and your mum."

"It's fine," Long used to Simone's glares Keri continued bouncing on the balls of her feet, "I know exactly where I dropped it, I was on Devil's Reach when the beast tried to attack me. Not far from yours Tessa."