Noah whispers, her head in her folded-up arms. “We can’t just keep pretending. What if it happens to someone again?”

Her anxiousness was evident in her eyes.

“Noah’s right, we can’t just ignore it, but even then there’s no saying we won’t be the ones to get hurt,” Oakley added.

“Then what do we do?” Will questioned, his chin resting in his hands as he thought.

“What if we try to arrest whoever did it? Gather evidence against them, and inform the police.” Eve chimed in, making sense so far.

“How would we do that if he hasn’t been caught yet? Would they even believe us?” Noah doubted it.

“Don’t worry about that. Let me deal with that part.” Eve put a hand on Noah’s shoulder and gave her a small yet reassuring smile.

“We just have to make sure we don’t get caught in the process.” Eveline is intelligent and knows what to do most of the time, but in this moment, they all felt whiplash with how obvious it wasn’t going to work like that.

Yet for some strange reason, they wanted to try anyway. “You know it’s not as easy as you say it is.” Oakley gave her an exasperated look, but didn’t seem put off completely.

“We trust you,” William added, with a shrug.

“I seriously worry for you guys…” Oakley muttered under his breath, looking at the wall with a worried expression.

“Yeah, but we’re still together, aren’t we?” Will teased, chuckling to lighten the mood. “Our president and resident Oaktree is worried.” Noah gave Oakley a smug look.

“You were looking anxious five seconds ago…” Oakley pokes her cheek with his index finger. A muttered and undignified ‘also, I'm not a tree’ added on at the end.

Seemingly giving up, he inhales and then exhales deeply, flopping backwards to the floor. Their crew sat around a floor table.

“It’s not like we have any better ideas, so let’s try it.” Noah unfolds her arms and lies across the table with them outstretched.

“Alright then...” Eve then tasked them with reporting any strange information they may come across to her. Recorders and other kinds of evidence-gathering devices were handed out to them.

Eve is the daughter of the commissioner and another high-ranking police officer, so it's not entirely unreasonable for her to have a dozen recorders on her person. That and he's seen her use one in school.

It's still surprising to see 12 recorders produce themselves from her person. Especially after what happened in the forest, pulling electronics out of thin air.

His face probably gave away his thoughts, since she glanced around then spoke simply. “Most of these are for notes.” She supplied, but didn't really have to explain further.

Each of them grabbed one recorder each, with Eveline tucking the rest back into her pocket, heavy and oversized jean jacket.

He swears it looks like one he owns, but can't place it. With a renewed direction in their frankly traumatizing school life, they continue to figure out how to approach what's going on.

Eventually, they said goodbye and separated, having talked late into the night about their plan to report the mysterious and unnerving person behind Nathan’s death.

It’s slow sailing for the group, as it’s rare to hear something that would incriminate the school.

Reminding them of how unaware they were not long ago. The recording weighs on them heavily, affecting everyone’s mood.

Like student council members usually are, Eve and Oakley manage to appear more put together than Will and Noah are. So when over the weekend, he notices Eveline standing in the kitchen, with a more than disturbed face as she stares at the wall, he walks over to her carefully.

“Hey, what are you doing?” he asks her curiously, tilting his head, pointing at the neglected coffee she had scooped out sitting next to a bunch of filters.

“O-oh, I was making some coffee, do you want some?” She startled, jumping minutely where she stood. Turning to him, he could see that her eyes looked tired.

“Sure.” He grabs two cups from the cabinet and sets them own on the counter.

Eve resumes her coffee making, putting the beans into the filter and filling up the water meter. She presses some buttons on the coffee machine, and it begins to make a sort of buzzing sound.

Will moves to sit on the couch, grabbing Eve’s wrist lightly as he walks by. She doesn’t mind it as she lets him pull her along.

“What’s up?” He starts, sitting her down next to him. His face free of judgment.

“What do you mean?” She questions him back, her eyebrows quirk, and knit together, as she frowns slightly confused.

“You were distracted. What’s wrong?” Will clarifies, turning to her on the couch, his legs folding to sit cross on the couch facing her. Eve looks down, her face pensive.

Ding.

The coffee machine chimes in, breaking up the silence.

Will pushes her back down to the couch as she tries to get up. She lets out a small “Ah-” as she’s moved.

Letting her think it over, he walks over to the coffee machine. Filling up each cup with the pot, adding cream and sugar according to their preferences.

He grabs them and then walks back to the couch, setting her mug down on the coffee table. He sips the one in his hands lightly, not forcing her to talk as he sees her mouth open and close.

“It’ just… I know everyone trusts me, but I feel…” She ponders, her hands finding themselves in a familiar action.

Fidgeting with the hem of her sweater. “I don’t want to let them down, or have something go wrong.” Eve tumbles the words out.

She grabs her coffee, drinking it for a second. She breathes out, “I don’t know, I just feel… off.” She shifts and taps her fingers on the cup, in a spirt of anxious movement.

“It’s… so hard to keep it together.” She huffs out a noise distantly related to a laugh. Her voice breaks as she speaks more. Will can see her eyes start to well up, and it stirs something in him.

“What’s wrong with me?” She whispers to no one as she rubs one eye with an index finger, observing the drops left on her finger.

“Nothing, nothing is wrong with you.” He meets her eyes, trying to send her everything he wishes she knew.

“We all feel like this; it’s not just you.” He gives her a small smile.

“We trust you, so believe in yourself more, Eve, you're the smartest of us.” Their mugs clink together as he scoots closer to her.

Setting his down on the coffee table, he grabs her mug from her trembling hands, putting it next to his. “You don’t have to keep it together…” Will leans his head on her shoulder.

His legs pull her in between them. With his arms going to envelope her when she shows no dislike in his proximity. He can feel himself preen somewhere deep. Storing that away inside him.

He can feel her shakily sob into his chest, her hands grabbing bundles of his shirt.

“I, I hate it. I hate how people can just take away someone's life, all because they think they have a right. All because they think they're better than them.” She struggles out, her grip on his shirt tightening.

Her face angrily rubbing into his shoulder, he can feel a warm spot forming on his shoulder.

Will tries to rub soothing circles into her back, to calm her torrent of anger that seems to never calm or stop flowing. It’s roiling directed at the video, the people who bullied Nathan, the people who bullied him.

“It’s okay-” He starts, but is cut off. “It’s not! I hate how they think they can do whatever, just because they were born with a higher pedigree.” She moves her arms to hug him.

“I hate… how you let them get away with being rude to you.” She turns her face away from him, burrowing it deeper into his shoulder.

“I’ll be fine, Eve, don’t worry about me, you know i’m not weak.” Will smiles down at her, trying to calm her daze of anger.

“I just want to protect you…” She trails off below him, whispering quietly like a secret.

William is trilling on the inside, but a gnawing feeling in him tells him he doesn’t deserve it. Her hands loosen a little as she looks up at him like he’s fragile. “And why is that?” Will rouses her gently to let it out.

She wipes her eyes again and sits up. Eveline begins more calm this time: “When I was younger, a lot of people wanted to be my friend, sometimes wolfdogs would approach me and I would hang out with them.” She pauses.

“But every time I did, a group of wolves would bully those wolfdogs into thinking they weren’t good enough to play with me. They would put me on a pedestal, just because I was the commissioner's daughter and a pure wolf. I hated it.” She stares at him, her eyes wobbling in something deeper than just anger.

“So don’t say you’re fine.” He can feel her glare into whatever worthlessness he’s projected onto himself. “You said you aren’t weak, so don’t say you’re fine.” She whispers out.

He can fight it, it just takes him a while to find the will, some kind of mental stick that beats him into submission, always appearing whenever someone talks about him.

He could. But it’s hard for him to find it worth the struggle, his laid-back attitude masking his need to wonder if he’s allowed to want for himself. For someone to tell him he can do what he wants. He doesn’t know what to say.

“Okay, I won’t.” He nods at her firmly, his own eyes watering up as he holds her closer. Dropping his head into her shoulder, they sit there for a while, comforting each other.

“You don’t know how happy it makes me when you, Noah, and Oakley don’t treat me any differently than you do each other.” Eveline's voice seems a little happier, still shaking.

“You don’t posture or pretend, you don’t even mention it, I’m just Eve to you guys.” She smiles into his shoulder.

“You’re not just anything, Eve, you’re our friend, everyone knows what a pure wolf is, so why mention it?” He huffs back.

“That goes for Oaktree too.” He can feel Eveline calming down, so he pulls back a little.

“Don’t forget what you said, no more letting them walk all over you.” She, more lightheartedly than earlier, pokes him in the chest.

“Yes ma’am.” He playfully salutes her, grinning with his canines. She chuffs out a laugh.

“Alright then.” She grabs the remote, turning on some sort of documentary about wolf bonds and pack dynamics in the wild. Their adjacently related species running around the forest in packs.

The afternoon fades into the background as they both get absorbed in the documentary. Only standing up to get water a little while later. Tearducts having drained Eve.

If Will hung closer to Eveline, put his head on her shoulders, or felt his hands wander closer to hers. No one was to say anything.

The sight was not out of the ordinary, but progressively leading him to straight up hold her hand as they walk through the hallways.

With William becoming clingier every day, he imagines it isn’t hard for Eve to notice. However, despite his worries that she’ll cut him off or shoo him away, she never does.

Letting him cling to her like a puppy who wants her hand on his head even when she’s sitting right next to him. If anything, it seems like she’s enjoying it, giggling, giggling when he inserts himself next to her, the place he’s always been, but now can’t stand to not be.

It feels like he’s doing something he’s not supposed to, but who would tell him no? He’s in Eve’s space, and she has no problem with it.

So there is no problem. He notices how people start to look at him in the hallways. Staring too long when he’s not looking.

He can feel their unapproving looks, and can tell when they mutter something to each other. Will doesn’t care, he hasn’t since he got to this school, so why start now?

All he cares to remember is that Eve told him he shouldn’t pretend to be fine. And in his own way, he feels above them by ignoring what they say. Satisfied to let them dig themselves deeper in their own internalized hatred turned out, he buses Eve away before she can notice them.

In the process of walking away, just as he hears them boast about the headmaster requesting them to come by his office. Whatever that means.