"You finally brought a lunch."144Please respect copyright.PENANAPCVHqfZzvb
"Huh?" I look up to see Teagan taking her place next to Louise at our table.144Please respect copyright.PENANAou6GEl1C2k
"The bag? I assume it's your lunch."144Please respect copyright.PENANA16JoOtummX
"Oh, right. This thing. No. It’s money. I robbed The Diner." I tell her while unzipping it and then taking out what is obviously plastic containers full of food. I've been going to this school for just over two weeks now and everyday Teagan has bugged me about my lack of eating. Every. Day. I think she thinks I have an eating disorder. So, of course, she would make some type of deal from this.
"What'd you bring?" she asks.144Please respect copyright.PENANA7ZQGqW7Wvb
"I don't know. I didn't make it."144Please respect copyright.PENANAARwoQ7ZL6R
She raises a brow. "Well then who did make this surprise lunch?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAkDuB6rWlvs
"Probably the porch people," Louise chimes in.144Please respect copyright.PENANAqXOK8wNLCZ
Louise is right. For the better half of the last two weeks, instead of going home at night, I've been going and sleeping on some strangers' porch. It's not the greatest plan I’ve ever had, but they feed me breakfast and haven't told me to stop passing out there yet. So, it's working in my favour, which is great, because I can’t sleep at my house.144Please respect copyright.PENANAf4dEhYwolJ
Today, the porch people breakfast came with porch people lunch.144Please respect copyright.PENANAZuNeyAQEwT
“Oh my God, Pluto." Teagan groans. "Tell me that these people are not making your lunch now."144Please respect copyright.PENANA0I8UB7G3ZH
"I'm not gonna tell you that," I mumble as I begin to take items out of the bag.144Please respect copyright.PENANAomCNB6tnxv
Teagan shakes her head. "You don't even know these people and somehow they take better care of you then you do."144Please respect copyright.PENANARkCWAw1IPK
"Hey! I take care of myself just fine."144Please respect copyright.PENANAR9IpwekJR5
"You sleep on a stranger's porch," she says as she leans over to look at the containers that I pulled out. "What did they pack you?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAok87y9DFoC
I open the two containers. "Looks like lasagna and salad to me."144Please respect copyright.PENANAby1P9UchYt
"They packed you three types of dressing."144Please respect copyright.PENANAcM8OwAn1av
"Okay, so maybe they do take oddly good care of me," I say as I pour the dressings onto my salad.
“Maybe?” She picks up the bag that it all came in. “Look at this thing. This is one of the good bags.”144Please respect copyright.PENANA9ezimVNCje
Louise frowns at the sandwich that she brought for lunch. "I wish I had some porch people."144Please respect copyright.PENANAh4deWf1JMk
"What kind of sandwich did you bring today?" I ask her.144Please respect copyright.PENANAQzolg4P5Va
"Apple butter."144Please respect copyright.PENANADEfeUXKI4d
"I'll give you half of the meat cake for half of yours and a part of your KitKat," I tell her as I cut the lasagna in half and slide it over on the lid from the Tupperware.144Please respect copyright.PENANApulabkd1XD
She smiles and gives me her items of the trade. "Tell porch people I say thanks."144Please respect copyright.PENANAmWVyM8k6h3
"You tell them. They're your neighbors."144Please respect copyright.PENANAPaUKf4tfpz
"But I don't know them. We've been through this. Even Mom doesn't know who lives there."144Please respect copyright.PENANAKeQlxISwlM
"She should. She knows everyone else in town."144Please respect copyright.PENANA2NGuDi18LG
"Not everyone. Just those that come into The Diner."144Please respect copyright.PENANAjnDMrPCY7q
"Yeah, and who in town hasn't been to The Diner at least once?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAj5kLDgxz9M
Louise thinks about this for a moment, then shrugs. "No one that I've met."
“Exactly my point.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAAAsQxgLHAT
"Hey," Teagan says. Her brows are furrowed. "What's the logo on those dressing packages?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAPEaQ7Eg0RK
I look at the packages. "Bacio. They're from that restaurant downtown. Why? Is that significant?"144Please respect copyright.PENANASRwkJqtZqR
"Not really, it just means that they can afford to go to expensive restaurants."144Please respect copyright.PENANAIoohvyOwJY
"You don't think the rest of the food is from there, do you?" I ask her. The toast is one thing, people always have bread. But if this is from an expensive restaurant, it’s different. It requires more effort and money than what should ever be used on my behalf.144Please respect copyright.PENANANo8krRvmYh
She leans over and looks at the salad that I'm working on. "I don't know... those croutons look pretty fancy."144Please respect copyright.PENANApIZ60UAuTu
"They look like literally any other croutons."144Please respect copyright.PENANAwK8pPCnAQ8
"Girl, face it, you've landed yourself a position as a sugar baby."144Please respect copyright.PENANAvn0oQoYS3N
"Wouldn't that mean that I'm having sex with them and that they're paying me?" This is a word she taught me, she should be the one using it with accuracy.144Please respect copyright.PENANA7T1a66RsEU
"You're sleeping on their porch and they're paying you in food. It's close enough,” she says as she steals a bite of my lasagna. I’m pretty sure it’s not, but arguing would only invite more poking around the subject and that would only lead to eventually having to explain why I haven’t put a stop to this yet. And I don’t want to explain that. I’m not even sure if I could.144Please respect copyright.PENANAn56LeKOO2q
We continue the next few minutes of lunch in silence, but eventually, that silence is broken by someone sitting down at our table. "How's it going, ladies?"144Please respect copyright.PENANALrCL1hcNfQ
"What do you want, Aaron?" Teagan asks. Annoyance is very clear in her tone. It always is when he’s present.144Please respect copyright.PENANA6mzyRCIHZy
"I just came over here to ask your girl Pluto here what her plans for homecoming are," he says while leaning a little too far into my personal space.144Please respect copyright.PENANAOTatMqfeZm
Teagan rolls her eyes. "She barely even knows you. Leave her alone."144Please respect copyright.PENANADnz0XpIEUI
"So? She can get to know me." He slings an arm over my shoulders and pulls me into him. "So, what do you say, homecoming?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAcPRqjKXSr6
I pull away and shake his arm off of me. "No."144Please respect copyright.PENANASbkT2Hrl6j
His eyes widen. "What? Why not?"
I don’t know why he’s acting so shocked. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve rejected something he’s proposed. It’s not even the first time this week. Louise and Teagan keep saying that eventually he’ll become disinterested, but he keeps coming back to our lunch table and he keeps bothering me with stupid requests.144Please respect copyright.PENANAWcTbHT9F0e
"I don’t know what homecoming is,” I tell him, “and even if I did have the slightest clue as to what it is, I still wouldn’t go with you because you’re annoying and I don’t like you.”
He scowls at me. "Fine. Be that way." He gets up from the table and walks off in a huff.144Please respect copyright.PENANA3hgNXW8M7g
"He'll be back," Louise says as she slides the lid back to me. Ah, finally one of them admits that this becoming disinterested thing is bullshit.
"Probably." I grab the lid and start packing up my stuff. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this. Should I leave it on their doorstep? Do I wash the containers? Am I even supposed to return it?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAImeKdcOxUe
"You could knock on their door and return it face to face?" Teagan says.144Please respect copyright.PENANA6qhTvsb5Pq
I could, but that might lead to them not liking me and forcing me to stop crashing on their porch, and I can’t be having that. "Oh, but what's the fun in that?"144Please respect copyright.PENANAIMaUf9049w
Louise furrows her brows and points in my direction. "Figuring out where they got that lasagna would be fun."144Please respect copyright.PENANA1XlB6eCaXJ
"If I ever meet them, I'll make sure to set up something so you can ask," I tell her.144Please respect copyright.PENANAOKgMXBoMk9
The bell to signal the end of lunch rings and all of us stand up to leave.144Please respect copyright.PENANAKSaJifmX2o
"Hey, do you guys want to stay over tonight?" Teagan asks as we exit the cafeteria. "Mom's doing her full moon thing."144Please respect copyright.PENANA5DdEO4vSch
Her what?144Please respect copyright.PENANAP1wN1YtDW6
Louise pipes in, "Do we get to go outside and howl with the wolves this time? She didn’t let us last time."144Please respect copyright.PENANAPEvZ7sCfXw
"A smart decision. You shouldn't do that during the full moon. It can confuse the wolves and they could think they gained a new pack member," I tell her.144Please respect copyright.PENANAbNTyXG6BoA
Teagan laughs. "The wolves aren't going to think that. I'm sure they're smart enough to distinguish human howling from wolf howling."144Please respect copyright.PENANAzsSSwrA5SY
We stop right outside of the science lab.144Please respect copyright.PENANARgMLnRhY7E
"Oh, you meant wolves as in the animal?" I question.144Please respect copyright.PENANAYxzMO9ynIy
The two of them exchange a look. "Yeah," Teagan says, "what else would we mean?"144Please respect copyright.PENANATOz3pxf8cs
Right, right. Most people in Zero don't know about the other pack of wolves that live near here. It sounds like Teagan’s mom might know, but if she does, I don’t understand why she wouldn’t tell Teagan about it. It’s important information to have. Especially in this town. There’s a pack on both sides of it.144Please respect copyright.PENANAB7pN0s7tO6
"Nothing, nothing. That's exactly what I thought you meant. I should get to class. See you later," I tell them and then I run into the classroom before they can respond. It might be important information for them to know, but they’re not hearing it from me. People who don’t know these things tend to take gaining the information very wrong. It’s a shame, but apparently, people prefer things to be mundane. 144Please respect copyright.PENANAJD9UUsWrbg
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“You’re Pluto?” Marcella, Teagan’s mom, seems surprised to meet me when we’re introduced. “Hmm, and here I thought the girls were talking of the planet.”
I know for a fact that I’ve never met this woman before and that I’ve never been in this house, but for some reason, something about the two feels familiar. I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is.144Please respect copyright.PENANAArPDOByQdM
Louise shakes her head. “No, no. We were talking about the veggie.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAI8MYd5xo9J
“The veggie?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAyKYy3wJUFO
“Yeah!” Louise slings her arm around my shoulders. “Zucchini over here.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAsT7JvTGgNN
I look at her. “Zucchini is a fruit.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAxwNY11TeLN
Her eyes squint. “How would you even know that?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAgamLToU6Cu
“My grandmother was a botanist.”144Please respect copyright.PENANALr9fXKMfnf
They squint tighter. “That’s very convenient for you and your love of correcting people.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAgNQjyoXq2B
“I don’t love correcting people, I just hate when people spread false information.” I love Louise, but she’s very bad about spreading false information. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not stupid by any means, but she is a terrible listener, so it tends to be hard getting information into her head. Which, she’s pretty tall, so maybe the information just takes longer to reach her brain, but the listening thing definitely contributes in its own special way.144Please respect copyright.PENANA762ZBdMD8a
They squint even tighter. So tight that I can barely see her eyes at all. “You’re lucky you gave me lasagna earlier or I would fight you.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAvdZyyFz2Dz
“No you wouldn’t, stop it.” Teagan laughs. She could be wrong here. From what I’ve learned in the few weeks that I’ve been here, Louise will fight anything and has been suspended multiple times because of it. She would totally fight me. She wouldn’t win, but she would try.144Please respect copyright.PENANA5Q2JDp4JIe
Louise removes her arm from around me and goes over by Teagan. She lowers her voice and it's just barely audible. “Are you going to tell your mom about the thing?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAVwfGUerj6j
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell her now.” Teagan tells her and then looks at me. “Why don’t you go check out the living area? Louise can show you where it is. I’ll be in there in a second.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAbM40C5eRYG
This is suspicious, but okay. I nod and follow Louise. The living room is filled with plants. Almost as many plants as my house used to be. My jaw drops. “Wow.” Is this what it is? Did I sense the plants? Is that what’s familiar?144Please respect copyright.PENANAy852xokUFK
“Guess your grandmother passed the botanist thing to you, huh?” Louise asks as she sits down.144Please respect copyright.PENANA5YeXoW5e9N
You can’t really pass on being a botanist, but she definitely passed on her general love of plants. “You could say that, yeah.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAk5x8yYxLPy
Teagan joins us a few minutes later and her eyes immediately land on me. “Mom wants to talk to you. She’s still in the kitchen.”144Please respect copyright.PENANASUdL0aP7gH
“About what?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAiBedoqfX4B
She shrugs. “She just said that she wants to talk.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAqZpxodstPt
This is all very suspicious. Is it a trap? Was them inviting me over all just a giant trap?144Please respect copyright.PENANAol06l0qAEY
I make my way to the kitchen, where Marcella is making tea. “Am I in trouble?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAhEB2Jo9bNB
I hope this isn’t a repeat of Oregon. Please, please don’t be a repeat of Oregon. I cannot afford to move again.144Please respect copyright.PENANAWlpu1qr5Td
She turns around, her eyes are wide. “What? No, of course not! I just wanted to chat for a second. Have a seat.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAot1ThbonTt
“Okay...” I take a place at the dining table, still not convinced that this isn’t a step in a plot against me. It wouldn’t be the first time, wouldn’t even be the first time it happened like this. “What’s going on?”144Please respect copyright.PENANABWzv1KI6Ae
She sits down on the other side of the table. “So, Teagan mentioned that you made a weird comment about the local wolf pack earlier at school. I’d like to talk to you about that.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAErNKIj7xMj
This is what she wants to discuss? I’ve said so many weird things around them, and this is what she wants to question me about? The wolves?144Please respect copyright.PENANAiQOs4vVggb
Before I can even begin to respond, there’s the sound of someone's steps walking into the kitchen and the room is filled with the scent of sulfur. “Sorry, I’m late. We had a last minute appointment.”
And then it clicks. I turn around in my seat to get a view of the woman. “Paisley!”
Her eyes go wide at the sudden yelling but quickly turn into a squint. “Pluto?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAjIDXBHrXI0
I can’t seem to come up with a proper response as the pieces are still clicking together. This is it. This is what felt familiar. I could sense Paisley.144Please respect copyright.PENANAVIdtyHAFKF
“Wow, you’ve really grown up since the last time you guys came in, haven’t you?” She does a bit more talking. “How old are you now?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAaXFTMEbL7R
“I’ll be eighteen in January.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAVmRO0qN0cD
“Eighteen? Jeez, it really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. How’s your father? Last I heard, you were living with him.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAQZRCRQeFpx
“He’s… well, he’s still Franco.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAXBeHEQLpx6
“That badly, huh? Is that why you’re back? Something happen to him?”
“No, I inherited Grandpa’s house.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAYRXhqOxF82
Marcella cuts back in. “I guess we don’t need to have that wolf talk now, you clearly know of them and the other things running around Zero.”
“Yeah… being on both the Hyde and Toth family tree kinda makes it impossible to be blind to things that go on here,” I tell her. “Especially, when Earnest Hyde is the one raising you. Lot of potlucks featuring some weird creatures. Pretty sure I met the Mothman once. Might have been a really deformed fairy, but I’m pretty sure it was Mothman. I wonder how he’s doing.”144Please respect copyright.PENANARZJU3vhwPP
My rambling is interrupted by Louise yelling behind me. “You met Mothman?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAJMXBHS4u9X
I turn to face her, and apparently Teagan. “Possibly?”144Please respect copyright.PENANAA0eTJjf7vH
How long have they been in here? Did they hear that entire conversation? This really was a trap all along, wasn’t it? They knew what they were doing with all of this. There’s no way that this was all just a big coincidence.144Please respect copyright.PENANAhthEtHaU1B
“This explains why you’re so fond of moth’s,” Teagan says, but her attention quickly goes elsewhere. “I’m about to order the pizza, what toppings does everyone want?”144Please respect copyright.PENANA09L6JjTEcS
“Grilled chicken.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAYbxIwgB22v
“Mushrooms”144Please respect copyright.PENANA9nf4IWd26p
“Jalapenos.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAlYbI0YYk79
“Pineapple.”144Please respect copyright.PENANABITp2grj8z
She squints her eyes at the lot of us. “Every single one of you is nasty and deserve the result that mixing those is going to cause.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAfO9wDfqmrU
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Louise barely made it to ten, much less midnight, so there wasn’t any howling with the wolves. Thankfully. I haven’t had to deal with them yet since moving back to town, and I’d like the knowledge of me being back to be something that isn’t so confusing. Which, I figured they would know I’m back just by the scent. They can smell things from miles away and this isn’t the first full moon since I got here, but they haven’t tried to contact me yet, so maybe they don’t know. Or they do and they just don’t care. Or worse, it’s a new pack and they have no idea who I am or why my being here could be considered important in the circle.144Please respect copyright.PENANAIs1qrAUlQl
It’s nearing three now, and Teagan and I are the only ones still awake. “Do you really know Mothman?” she asks through sips of tea. There are about six kettles in her kitchen, but for some reason, she insisted on drinking the same tea that Marcella made earlier this afternoon. Apparently, she prefers it when it’s old. I am not someone who has the right to complain about how others eat or drink, but old tea is a line that no one should cross.144Please respect copyright.PENANA4KZzvE7ZIH
“I don’t know. I didn’t know about the Mothman legend yet when I met them, so I couldn’t ask. But he looked like what I assume Mothman would look like.”144Please respect copyright.PENANARt40uG9lkR
“I bet it was him. Are you going to sleep soon?” She points to the window behind us. 144Please respect copyright.PENANAo4FcxzBP0j
“I really need to lock that.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAoNOpOdP2Qa
“Why? The wolves don’t come into town.”144Please respect copyright.PENANA9YB7qCguO4
“Yeah, but I don’t want my house to get robbed.”144Please respect copyright.PENANAog10rHksbf
Anyone in this town stupid enough to try and do crime during the full moon is also going to be too stupid to even slightly succeed at robbing someone, but I don’t point this out to her. “That’s fair. Yeah, we should go in,” I tell her as I stand up.144Please respect copyright.PENANAbE4o0TL09d
We climb back into her house through the window and she closes us off from the outside for the night.144Please respect copyright.PENANAEucPtIy05A
“I put some blankets down for you to sleep on,” she whispers when we get in her room. “I know it’s not the best sleeping arrangement, but it has to be better than that porch furniture that you’ve been sleeping on.”144Please respect copyright.PENANABn3ulUt2wA
“If I can sleep on that wicker, I can sleep anywhere,” I whisper back as we settle in. Except, apparently I can’t. Can fall asleep on some stranger’s porch, but I can’t get myself to fall asleep here and I don’t know why.144Please respect copyright.PENANAIgpnzs0dPH