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The night before the eve of the full moon, Laura and Max went to a nearby carnival because Max was so excited to have Laura win him something. Laura argues he should be the one winning her something considering her poor depth perception, from, y'know, the missing eye and all. He argues back that she's much stronger than him so she should dominate anyway. He accompanies the dominate comment with a wink which Laura can't help but roll her eyes at despite the way it also warms her cheeks. Long story short, Laura and Max walk out of that carnival with a pile of stuffed animals that are held between the two of them. The extra strength from being closer to the full moon really helped Laura with that. Max looked at her in wonder as she won game after game, especially after she breaks the Test Your Strength machine and hammer in one strike.
The full moon was coming up sooner than later and it was Laura's job to get everyone together, get their plans in order. They can't have a Hackett situation on their hands. Or a Maine situation, which only just happened last year. They need a place where they can't find people, where no one will find them. It's easier said than done. So for this year, they settle on going back to Hackett's quarry and spending the night at the abandoned campgrounds. Laura let's everyone know the plans in the group chat, annoyingly and stubbornly renamed 'wolf pack', by Max, of course. The others respond with various okays or the like, aside from Ryan and Dylan, who are strangely quiet on the eve of the full moon, as well as Nick, and even more surprisingly, Emma. Laura doesn't worry often but now that this many people are MIA, this whole thing is setting her teeth on edge. She blames it on the full moon, feeling her canines sharpen themselves in real time.
The group have been messaging each other almost constantly since the legal trails they all endured, even and especially during the first full moon they all went through together. They all always made sure to respond to Laura when she let them know what the plan was. Laura even had a private chat with Ryan where they mostly bullied each other, in a friend way. And he hasn't even replied to her there. Max offered her a shoulder massage about it but Laura snapped at him, her teeth still bared. She shakes her head after the reaction, realizing how bizarre she was acting and the reason for it. She immediately apologized and sat down in front of Max, sat in his lazy boy chair, letting him do his thing. The man was surprisingly good at massages. Laura felt her anxiety fall away as she leaned back into his hands, eyes closed. Max pressed a kiss to her forehead and she smiled.
She's sure it'll be fine. They’ll be at the quarry on time and in one piece.
Ryan
He was freaking out. Hands shaking and nostrils flaring and everything. He was late to getting everything together and leaving his dorm for the drive out to Hackett's quarry. He was sure Laura was freaking out herself. The thought only makes him more irritated, he could almost feel his hackles rising thinking about the anger he'd receive from Laura when he showed up. In his defense, he was busy visiting Dylan, and they may have forgotten what day it was during that visit. At least they were both together, so there was that. No need to pick them up from separate colleges. Ryan finished a quicker shower than he usually took and ran his shaking hands through his curly hair, finding little resistance. He groaned at the feel of his hair and almost got back into the shower out of frustration before Dylan grabs him by the shoulders and makes him meet his eyes.
The feel of Dylan's cold prosthetic hand on his bare skin just makes him feel worse. Ryan pushed past Dylan and grabbed his clothes only to pull them on with unconscious grunts and growls leaving his mouth. After that's over, Ryan flops onto the bed, hands over his eyes. He feels the points to his fingernails and only gets more upset. He feels more than he hears Dylan settle beside him, nudging Ryan's leg with his gingerly. He brings a hand to his head and gives a gentle couple of taps.
"Hello, anyone home?"
Dylan jokes lightly, bringing his hand down to grab Ryan's wrist. He gently pulls the other boy's hand from his eye and intertwines his hand with his own. Dylan looks Ryan in his one open eye, and the glow of the smile on Dylan's face, no matter how worried or awkward, wakes Ryan up. He pulls his other hand off of his closed eye and just stares at the Dylan's eyes as he lets the warmth of his hand ground him more in the moment. Dylan pulls him along with him and grabs their rolling luggage, pushing Ryan's luggage into his hands. Ryan gets the message, 'pull your weight', and nods at Dylan with a smirk. Despite still feeling the lingering anxiety and irritation, he consciously pushes it down and follows after his boyfriend as he exits the dorm, locking the door behind him.
Ryan really hopes the others were having an easier time with the emotional whiplash and claws and teeth of it all.
Emma
She's having a real hard time with the emotional shit and weird bodily changes, if she's really being honest. Even just packing up her clothes and picking outfits to wear, that she knows don't matter at all, is an ordeal.
She is a perfectly reasonable and chill person, on purpose, all the time. But that gets a lot harder with the amount of emotions she's flooded with as she gets in her car to pick up Abi. Her hands white knuckle the wheel without her even wanting them to. Her chill mask really doesn’t like the anger she's been going through today. Sure, she feels frustration and upset, pretty frequently actually, but she can't be feeling that before seeing everyone. Emma closes her eyes and blows out a breath. She opens her eyes and flips down her sun visor to check how she's looking, and sees yellow eyes staring back at her. Emma quickly flips it back up and drops back in her seat. She grabs turns her keys in the engine and speeds forward anyway. She needs to get Abi. The glance she got at the clock on her dashboard lighting a fire under her ass.
Emma shows up to Abi place after probably violating several driving rules, sun visor down again as she practices smiles while she waits for the other girl to get her cute ass in gear. She stops when she sees her canines sharpen at the ends. So much for giving a chill and silly vibe.
Abi arrives soon enough, wearing an adorable bucket hat on top of her recently cut hair. She mentioned in a text to Emma how much she hated how it looked and was going to wear hats from now on. Looks like she was keeping her promise. Emma thought she would probably look cute regardless though. The black bucket hat had a small scaredy-cat patch on it that looked like an Abi original. She was really getting into DIY patches recently, putting those art skills to good use. Her matching jacket showed off several other designs. Emma smiles at the difference from a year or two ago. Abi has definitely become more confident, come into her own with her style. Emma felt like a proud parent in a way, especially since Abi was rocking one of Emma's old self-ripped tops (from her punk teen phase) underneath.
"Looking good, Blyg."
Emma whistles, her earlier rough emotions being pushed aside for her admiration and downright horniness, if she were being honest. She figures that's more of a wolf thing than a her thing, though. Wolves are pretty horny, she thinks. But she also thinks she'd quickly like to stop thinking about that.
"Not too bad yourself, Mountebank." Abi's reply is surprisingly smooth and only causes Emma to flush. She knows she's gotta look like a tomato right about now, so she panics and pushes on the gas and lets go in the same breath. Abi grunts, having flopped back at the sudden motion and then stillness. Emma only freaked out for a second, alright? Abi can't know. She already knows about Emma and her mask but that doesn't mean she wants to be constantly awkward and vulnerable around a friend, no matter how hot and nice, really so nice, said friend is. She holds her foot on the break and flashes a smile back at a disoriented Abi. She hopes she comes across less manic than she feels.
"Alright, time to pick the other losers."
Jacob
Kaitlyn was so annoying today, an usually she's annoying, but in a little sister way, despite how much she would hate being referred to as his little sister. Today, though, she was driving him up a wall, moving things around in his room. That he never asked her to come to, mind you. She just lets herself in nowadays, like a neighborhood cat with apposable thumbs and the ability to uproot every system of tidying one has going on. Sure, Jacob had piles of laundry around his room, taking up space in odd corners, but that was what he knew. He had a shirt pile and pants pile, so her moving all that around is really messing with is head.
The most annoying thing about this whole thing is she did all of this without saying a word. They didn’t even really have time for this, especially with Emma and Abi due to show up any second. Jacob gets Kaitlyn likes tidiness and always has, but that does not give her the right to change up his room so much. He would probably be only slightly offended about it any other day, but today, the eve of the full moon, he felt on edge about it. Like how is he supposed to just not be bothered by someone going through his stuff?
He complains to Kaitlyn about this and she doesn't give him a single reaction, just continues to tidy small bits of mess, what she saw as one, anyway, around his bedroom. She would be out of mess soon. He was half thinking she may just barge into his parents house to clean that out too. She would have her work cut out for her if she did.
"What's going on, huh?"
Jacob blurts out as she fidgets in place after taking several looks around his, admittedly spotless, room. She was obviously restless. He remembers this from when they were kids, but this is more serious than she's ever been about it. She startles at him and her eyes flash a cool blue that Jacob knows is not her actual eye color. It would scare him if he hadn't seen those eyes every so often when she shows up just like this before a full moon. This is the first super focused tidying she's done in a while though.
"Nothing much, what's going on with you, dumbass?"
The deflection again. Jacob would groan and stand his ground more if he didn’t already know this game himself. Doesn't stop his annoyance from wanting to jump out of his skin in insistence that he act upon it. He just simply shakes his head and crosses him arms with a sigh. He needs to get across that he's disappointed but not surprised. He's channeling all of his dad into that one.
Kaitlyn just simply stands these, eyes icy, hands on hips, as if challenging him to question her again. He simply sighs again, opens his mouth, and is immediately distracted by the sound of tires on gravel out front. He probably shouldn't be able to hear that but werewolf stuff, y'know? Kaitlyn turns her head to it as well, and they both smell the telltale Emma car smell.
"Looks like our ride is here." Kaitlyn sounds smug and Jacob has to stop himself from growling at her.
Nick
The more that time went on and the more Nick's emotions went haywire, he regrets not going back to Australia again and again. Fuck the turning into a werewolf and having to explain that to his friends and family thing, at least he'd be more comfortable. Maybe. It's hard to tell now, with how many friends he has here. And he feels bad for his instinct being to leave them at the first hint of problems. He hates that but then he remembers what he did to Abi before and then the person he scratched in Maine last year and he thinks that maybe they'd be better off without him.
His phone chimes then with a message from Abi, a selfie stares back at him, her and Emma in the front of Emma's car. They were smiling and making peace signs. Their eyes reflect unnaturally in the flash, which he's sure Abi turned on by accident. They both looked amazing, his feelings for both full of love and guilt both. The same feelings he harbored for most of the group, but especially Emma and Abi. Those feelings all mixing together really put a damper on his vague feelings of joy at seeing them at all. Guilt overtook him as he saw Abi's face, three red scars peaking out from underneath her hat, marring the skin of forehead, that he put there. Hated himself as he stares deeper at the picture.
It doesn’t do any good to hate himself like he's doing, welling in self pity doesn't undo any of the hurt he's caused or stop him from doing anything more when he's controlled by base feeling. But, regardless, all of that doesn't stop those feelings from making him hate himself again.
Nick never should have left home, he should have skipped the whole 'school in America living with his aunt' thing and begged his parents to take him back in despite him dropping out of school, back home. He hates himself more again as he remembers how all of this is really on him, considering he failed out himself. That's all on him. This pity party was really getting ridiculous.
It was a good thing there as a honking outside his window that he recognized. Nick feels a smile take over his scarred face despite the negative shit piling up. Leave it to their little group to make him feel better just by being there. In that way, they were pretty much better than his blood family.
He yanks open his window, swearing as he cracks it like he did last full moon, and hops down to the grass below him. He jogs to the overly large car Emma purchased at the behest of an exhausted Laura. Everyone is sitting inside, other than Laura and Max, who always came separately because of their distance from all of them.
Nick smiles again and jumps in, settling in beside Jacob, who offers him a clap on his shoulder as well as a grin. Kaitlyn even smiles over at him from beside him.
"Welcome back, Hacketteers!" Emma calls from the front seat, trying her best to imitate Mr. H's voice but failing spectacularly. Some of them cheer, read Abi, Jacob, and Dylan cheer. Everyone else either groans and or complains at the accuracy of the voice (Ryan).
Nick's just happy to be near people who can bring out the positive emotions that always feel secondary in his day to day life. And he gets to spend a weekend camping with them. He really wishes he could be more excited about that.
Max
He was really excited to see everyone again! All these trips they take together feel like making up for the time he and Laura lost when they were imprisoned. Not a happy memory. A memory he replays in his head every time he looks at Laura's eye and scar. But he was determined to not let any of that stop him from enjoying the trip there and the destination. Of course, Max hijacks control of the music, pulling his aux cord from his pocket, earning him an overly dramatic sigh, if he were being honest, from Laura. She's driving this time, insisting that the last time she let Max drive they got imprisoned and then turned into werewolves after a night a terror, which was really not fair to put on something as simple as him driving their car but okay. She is the boss.
Max plays his drive playlist, which has probably too much Ariana Grande, according to Laura. He respectfully disagrees. He also has some Beyoncé and Rihanna in there too, so he figured he had a good mix. And he thinks maybe Laura doth protest too much because he often catches her singing to herself and bopping her head every so often. The sight does more to brighten his mood than was probably strictly normal. But he loves her and seeing her badass and control freak exterior lower to sing, no matter how short it lasted, was amazing. Max raised his voice to sing, hoping it would encourage Laura to join. She didn't for a beat, complaining about him being way off key, blah blah, excuses and even more excuses. But as he continued warbling the lyrics to Breakin' Dishes, which was his favorite Rihanna song. He knew Laura likes it too. So it surprised him not at all when she joined him. Her singing was quiet but Max appreciated it nonetheless.
They arrive to the campsite in the middle of an amazing Ariana song that Max whines about ending when Laura shuts off the car. She simply smiles at him and ruffles his hair before hopping out of the truck. He follows closely behind, hands on his hips as he takes in the sight of a midday Hackett's quarry camp. It still has some leftover 'CAUTION' tape strewn around, some have been clawed at by god knows what, but it still looked leagues better now than it had at any point during the whole fiasco they endured last time.
The others were already chilling, Ryan and Dylan leaning into each other as they share earbuds, Jacob and Kaitlyn chatting between themselves, Emma and Abi are joined by a stiff looking Nick. They are all talking with each other on and off, Emma and Jacob's voices being the ones to carry over to them as they wander their way closer.
Some of them seem to finally notice them there and nudge others to point them out. They all seem happy, sending them polite smiles as they join them. There was still a somewhat uncomfortable vibe between the gang and them considering they knew them much less than they knew each other. Besides Ryan and Laura, who talk almost daily. Max has no real relationship with any of them like that, aside from maybe Abi somewhat, who he jogs over to give a hug to.
"Hey! Love the hair!" Max says, patting her shoulder. He notices the patches on the jacket and thinks they look cool as hell.
"I'm glad you do." She responds with, rolling her eyes with an exasperated smile.
"Ah, you don't like it?" He motions to the bucket hat, "that's what the hats about?" Abi chuckles and nods, smiling.
Max nods back and wanders back over to Laura but not before pulling Abi's hat down over her eyes, causing a guffaw from her direction. He hears a laugh from Emma and Nick. He feels over the moon to provide them a chuckle or two. They all needed it.
After they all say hi and then settle into their own cabins, they then come back out to the center of all of the cabins and pile wood together. Laura gets the fire going for all of them after Jacob and Kaitlyn fail and argue about it, and Max feels more impressed by her somehow. He swears he's feeling that with every day he spends with her, though.
They all settle in around the fire, on the overgrown grass. Together. United. They take turns telling stories from their lives or, in Ryan's case, scary stories. Max felt like he was part of his very own Midnight Society. It made him almost felt giddy, being among so many of the people that understand him and Laura in a way no one else ever would. They were together in this, no matter how weird some of them were still around them. That didn't matter this late at night, fire warming them all as they wait together to see the sunrise after the change. They're supporting each other even if they aren't coming out and explicitly stating that. Just by being here and being themselves, opening up and letting their walls down.
They were a wolf pack after all. That makes them family.
It was the truth, no matter how much Laura whined about the group chat name. Max was proud of himself for that one.