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Van had worn down Blockbuster rentals to gut for campfire tales, and Shauna hated every attempt to recount their survival. It was getting old real fast. But Lottie kept getting this old, sad look in her eyes whenever Shauna stormed out of Van’s stories. Shauna hadn’t even heard Van’s finalized recount yet. Van hadn’t even heard it yet. Whatever. The point was, she had to figure out a story to tell. One that wouldn’t send Shauna running and Lottie’s scar wrinkling with worry.
Once upon a time. Once upon a time. Once upon a time there was a soccer team.
Shauna said she didn’t even like soccer. Soccer seemed so far away now sometimes that Van almost believed her. But Shauna used to smile like Christmas came early when she’d lob the ball up field to Mari and Mari ran with it, the wind through her cute bouncing pigtails, until she crossed it into the box for Jackie to send into the net. That smile looked the same as Tai’s when she won a 2v1 duel like it was easy and Nat’s when the team crushed her with hugs for bringing their advantage up to 2. Shauna couldn’t have been faking that smile.
So.
Once upon a time they were champions.
Now, Shauna rolled her eyes every time Van said that. She used to argue with the rest of them about if they’d have won Nationals at night, before the cabin burned down and before Jackie was baptized in a burning bush for them to eat and before Laura Lee was swallowed by flames. There was a time when Shauna said they’d have won. She’d also said they wouldn’t have, even back before she told Jackie, told everyone that she didn’t even like soccer.
Once upon a time.
A lot of stories started that way. God, Van wished she hadn’t wasted The Princess Bride on letting the others write themselves into the story—first Lottie was Westley at Mari’s request. Before she knew it, they were all in the movie. If Laura Lee was alive, Van would tell Cinderella starring her. It sort of worked.
God, was she really pillaging Disney movies for stories? Van had never been invited to the sleepovers where those movies were played. Elementary school wasn’t… easy for her. The girls in her class didn’t want to play with her, let alone have her over. Going to a different junior high had been something like a miracle. A second chance to be normal, or something interesting enough that people could look past the ways she wasn’t. That was a grim thought.
Grim. Disney movies weren’t really Disney—not originally, at least. Cinderella was a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. Tai said that once when Misty brought it up. The Grimm version was nothing like the Disney version. Cinderella’s ugly step-sisters had their feet and eyes mutilated. Or something along those lines.
So… fairy tales.
Once upon a time there was a little mermaid. The little mermaid—
Except Van was the only redhead, and she’d rather stick a dinglehopper or whatever in her eye than be the little mermaid. Was Arial (or whatever her name was originally) even a redhead in the Grimm version? Van wouldn’t know. She was the storyteller in the family, not her mom.
Once upon a time there lived a girl who always wore a red riding hood. Once upon a time there lived a yellowjacket. Once upon a time there lived a girl who always wore a yellow jacket.
Huh. Close enough.
Dinner was no belt soup. It hadn’t been in a while. Thank fuck for that. Mari had taken the deer Gen bagged, the mushrooms they scavenged, and some berry wine to make a venison mushroom stew that she swore they used to serve at the Wiskayok Country Club, give or take some seasoning. They’d been out there long enough that Van more or less believed her.
They were eating and laughing around a fire, and Van was just waiting to be asked to tell a story. She knew it was coming. The demand for them had gotten stronger since they made enough headway with building shelters and everything that they were getting restless again. The danger felt as over as it could get sans rescue which was a pipe dream if Van thought about it for more than a moment. Now they wanted something to laugh at, something to kill time. They had way too much time on their hands.
It came on schedule when the conversation began to lull and people started putting down their wooden utensils, more or less done with their meal.
Shauna scowled right at Van like Van had personally offended her before even saying a word.
“What do you have for us tonight?” Nat said, grinning more than she had in months.
Van grinned right back. “Can I get a drumroll?”
Everyone but Shauna obliged. Even Travis tried to half-heartedly drum his hands on his knees with everyone else.
“Tonight!” Van raised her hands to ramp the drumming up. She flourished her wrist and wrapped her fingers into a fist to snuff out the noise. “We go to the classics. Once upon a time there lived a really annoying girl. She could never shut up, even if it would save her life, and she always wore a bright yellow jacket. It wasn’t just any jacket. It was the jacket of champions.”
From across the campfire, Mari scoffed out loud and flipped Van off.
Akilah gave her a playful shove. She said something too low for Van to hear as the flames flickered orange over them both.
“The girl wore the yellow jacket so much that everyone called her?” Van gestured for the others to respond.
“… Little Yellow Jacket,” most of them said back, some more confidently than others.
“Little Red Riding Hood? Are we five?” Shauna said. She was sneering, but she hadn’t stormed off yet which was still progress.
Van shrugged. “Close enough.”
“So Mar is Little Yellow Jacket.” Nat’s smile had gone a little stiffer at the edges. She was trying to smooth things over again, as always.
“Right. And one day, Little Yellow Jacket—”
“Can we just call her Mari?” Akilah’s hand was raised like she was waiting to be called on in class despite her interjection.
It was almost like audience participation. Just not the kind Van was partial to.
“Why do I have to be Little Red Riding Hood?” Mari was pouting the same way she did when she was comparing class schedules with the team and had no classes with Jackie. It was also the same way she pouted when they ran out of shampoo, but that had stopped being funny when she snapped at Van that her scalp was going to get a lot greasier too.
“Because you’re too goddamn annoying to mind your business,” Shauna said, glaring at Mari. It was the most audience interaction Van had ever gotten out of her since Jackie froze to death.
Mari’s middle finger was in the air before Van could let herself think about that.
“Okay. So one day, Mari’s soccer team, the Yellowjackets, won States, so she had to go to Nationals, but on the way there, the Yellowjackets’ bus crashed in the middle of The Wilderness. After a while of sitting around waiting for rescue, the girls all played nose goes to decide who would walk all the way back to the last rest stop they’d seen to get help,” Van said, eliciting laughter from her audience, “and Mari was so busy talking shit that she was the last to touch her nose.”
“Classic Mari,” Tai said.
Shauna scoffed. “So fucking stupid.”
Mari’s middle finger was back in the air once more.
“No thanks,” Shauna bit out. “I don’t fuck morons.”
Something electric flickered in Van’s belly.
“Wh—ew! You’re such a loser, Shipman!” Mari said. Her mouth was opening again, and whatever was going to come out of it wasn’t good. There was the start of something that sounded worryingly like “That didn’t stop you before” on the tip of her tongue.
“Now, girls, does your old man have to separate you two?” Van said, putting on her best haggard mother of two and a half kids voice.
Nat startled in her spot. “Wait, am I their old man?”
Lottie smiled quietly at the same time that Travis flinched hard.
“So Mari is hiking to the rest stop," Tai said. Her eyes were focused on Van. She was trying to move things along to avoid a fight. At least someone was on Van’s side.
“Right. But before she went off, Mari insisted that she couldn’t just show up empty handed. She said her mom raised her better than that.” Van searched her brain for that phrase that Mari’s mom had always tossed around. It had been so long since she heard it. “You can’t be ugly and surprised when you’re shown the door.”
Mari’s face lit up as she wheezed with laughter. The mole by the corner of her mouth stood out so much when she smiled big and wide. It used to drive Van crazy. Sometimes it still did.
“So Mari took the 900 or so feet she had left of her Fruit by the Foot and put it in a basket. Then she was sure to flip everyone off before she went to find the rest stop.”
Giddy, Mari flipped them off as if to demonstrate.
A few of the girls, Nat and Akilah included, flipped Mari off right back. Shauna rolled her eyes so hard it looked like they might just rattle in her skull. But she was sticking around. It was more than she’d given any of them in weeks.
Van put a hand up to shut them up. “But there was something the team didn’t know. Something that followed Mari through the wilderness until finally, she heard a twig snap and asked who was there. What greeted her was a wolf. Sort of. Except, the wolf looked a lot like Mari’s teammate, Shauna.”
That made Shauna scoff loudly.
“But Shauna’s teeth were sharper in her mouth. Her nails were longer, clawlike. Her hair had gotten scruffier, and it seemed to be hiding a second set of ears. Even her eyes had changed. Mari could have sworn Shauna’s eyes were brown, not icy blue.”
“Why the fuck am I the Big Bad Wolf? And why are my eyes blue?” Shauna tried to stand up, but Tai grabbed her hand, and they exchanged a heated look. Shauna didn’t punch Van in the face.
Van rubbed her arm wordlessly.
“You tried to give Van rabies,” Mari said with a sneer. “Only dogs bite.”
Shauna squared her body, angling towards Mari. The dirtbed of forest ground scraped beneath her feet. She couldn’t actually leap through the fire to attack Mari, but Van’s stomach seemed to needle up anyway. Tai’s hand was hovering over Shauna’s shoulder like that would help. Jesus, was that a growl? “The Big Bad Wolf isn’t a fucking dog. No wonder your parents had to pay me to tutor you, Mar. Were you even going to graduate with us?”
Mari’s mouth floundered like she’d been put on mute.
Akilah sent Shauna a dirty look before glancing at Mari and mouthing something to her.
Tai slapped her hand down onto Shauna’s shoulder hard. “That’s enough. Both of you. Van is telling us a story. Fucking behave instead of acting like five year olds.”
Shauna scowled deep and firm. At least her teeth weren’t out and vicious.
Mari rounded in on herself, pulling her knees to her chest like a little kid. Her bottom lip was jutting out. Mari didn’t wear her hair in pigtails anymore, but she somehow looked the same now as she did back then. The sight tugged on something low in Van’s belly.
Van cleared her throat. “Mari was seriously freaked out by wolf-Shauna’s whole thing. Reasonable. On account of the freaky blue eyes and the totally suspect ear, fang, and claw situation. But all she did was ask,” Van put on her best Mari impression, “Shauna, is that you?”
“Wolf-Shauna just smiled and nodded. She asked where Mari was going. After all, the team was back by the bus.
“Wolf-Shauna was Mari’s teammate too—”
“Wait, the wolf-Shauna thing is really distracting,” Melissa said. She withered a bit under Van’s scowl, adjusting her hat to avoid Van’s gaze.
Nat gave an apologetic shrug. “She’s not wrong.”
When had the team gotten so fucking critical?
“Fine. Shauna was Mari’s teammate too, so Mari answered, “They sent me to go get help, so we can get to Nationals.”
“But that didn’t answer why Mari had all that Fruit by the Foot in her bag, so wolf-Shauna opened Mari’s bag up and stole one. When Mari protested, Shauna asked what the problem was. They were all hungry, after all.” Van grinned wolfishly saying it.
Mari swallowed audibly over the crackling of the fire. Her cheeks looked a little too pink. She wasn’t the only one.
Steely as ever, Shauna’s gaze was stagnant—intense in the way it had been all night. For weeks, really. Her knuckles were white, the veins on her hands prominent as she dug her fingers into the fabric of her sweatpants tightly. She’d heard it too.
“Mari said that the Fruit by the Foot was for whoever helped them.
““Is help far off?” Shauna asked.
““Do you remember the last rest stop we passed? That’s where I’m going,” Mari said. The sun was starting to set, so Mari told Shauna that she should be on her way, and that Shauna should head back to the team’s camp. Little did Mari know, she wasn’t the only one heading to the rest stop.
“When Mari finally got to the rest stop, it was dark out. There was only one car in the lot. Inside the rest stop, the lights were flickering. There was an open sign with a broken E lit up in the window of the store front. It was the part of the horror movie where you wanted to yell at the characters to get out of dodge. But Mari went inside anyway,” Van said.
The team groaned collectively.
“It’s believable,” Shauna grumbled.
Tai glared sternly at her again like she was scolding a dog. It was familiar in an odd sort of way. A memory that had no place in their lives anymore. It stood out like a sore thumb out here, amongst a team of grimy girls who had eaten their captain and hunted her replacement. Who had survived a plane crash and the winter and a fire set by their old assistant coach in a way the Shauna who had needed to be muzzled at parties never should have.
Van blinked three times. It shook the memory away.
“What’s the wolf gonna do to Little Yellow Jacket?” Shauna said. She pressed her knees together if Van was generous. She rubbed her thighs unsubtly if Van was honest.
Like a gun, Van cocked her head. She grinned. “What do you want her to do to Little Yellow Jacket?”
There was a chorus of ooh’s.
Mari was turning pink. Another memory: Marisol Ibarra, please come to the principal’s office, a chorus of ooh’s, wiggling her eyebrows and asking what Mari did.
“Should this be that kind of story?” Nat sounded nervous enough to crawl out of her skin, but it was the best that storytelling had gone in months. She couldn’t seriously want to kill it now.
“Why are we even entertaining this?” Mari blurted out.
Van glanced around the circle. “Do the people object?”
Mari was on her feet, hand in the air. “I do!”
“Seconded,” Akilah said, nodding.
Gen crinkled her forehead and glanced at Melissa who was making a face Van didn’t care to read. Melissa’s feelings were hardly her problem. Anyway, neither of them said a word.
Travis looked to his lap, pressing his thumb into the back of his hand. He didn’t object either.
Even Tai wasn’t saying no.
“Little Red Riding Hood is about rape.” Lottie’s voice spilled out in a quiet rush. It was almost a confession.
“… That’s nice, Lott,” Van said. She didn’t know what else to say to that.
“She’s right. In one interpretation, at least,” Shauna said. “The red hood represents menstruation. Little Red is becoming a woman. Then the wolf either seduces or rapes her. Perrault included a moral at the end. As you’re pretty, so be wise. Wolves may lurk in every guise.”
Travis was really digging his thumb into his hand now.
“We can work with seduction,” Van said.
Mari slumped down to bury her face in her hands. She made a sound between a groan and a whine. There was no way it was helping her case.
Not with the way Shauna was leering at her like a prey animal.
Van couldn’t blame her. Mari had always been hot. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. She’d always been showy about it too, dancing around the locker room half-dressed and throwing pool parties whenever it was finally warm enough out to wear a bikini. But something about the grimy, no hairdresser around for miles look suited her. Maybe it was about how much whinier and poutier she’d gotten since they crashed. Mari had always been happy to complain, and that could be really fucking annoying, but it could also be so pathetic it was cute.
“I wouldn’t sleep with Shauna,” Mari huffed. “I don’t even swing that way.” She was still hiding her face as much as possible.
Akilah hummed and rubbed Mari’s back.
Van cleared her throat. “When Mari came into the rest stop, a voice called out from the back room, welcoming her. It wasn’t the cashier. Mari knew it was Shauna’s voice, but that couldn’t be right. So she answered, “My soccer team’s bus crashed. Can I use your phone to call for help? I brought Fruit by the Foot. To thank you.” It was uncharacteristically polite.”
That got some snorts out of the team.
“Shauna came out from the back room, wearing the uniform shirt of the cashier who’d been on shift. Her ears had gotten more prominent through her hair, her canines even longer. Her nails were undeniably claws now.
“Even Mari couldn’t ignore that. She squinted to read the name tag Shauna had on. “David, what big arms you have,” said Mari.
““All the better to lift things with,” Shauna said. And maybe she flexed a little.
““David, what big ears you have,” Mari said.
“That was a little harder to make sexy. “All the better to listen to you with,” Shauna said.
““David, what big eyes you have,” Mari said. She still wasn’t running for some reason. Instead she was getting closer and closer to Shauna.
““All the better to see you with,” Shauna said.
““David, what big hands you have,” Mari said—”
“Shauna doesn’t even have big hands. My hands are bigger than hers,” Mari interjected.
Van rolled her eyes. “She also isn’t a werewolf. Anyway, as I was saying… “All the better to touch you with,” Shauna said.
“And maybe if Mari was smarter, she’d book it. But she wasn’t, so she was in touching distance. “David, what big teeth you have,” Mari said.
““All the better to bite you with,” Shauna said. And then she pounced on Mari, yanking her hair to tug her head back and bite her shoulder. But she didn’t eat Mari. Not like that, at least.” Van couldn’t help but grin at the way that Mari squirmed as most of the team wolf-whistled. “No, Shauna dug her teeth into Mari and bruised her hard. And Mari let her. It felt good to let Shauna bite her. So good that Mari pawed at Shauna’s head to make her switch shoulders. She wouldn’t let Shauna ease up on pulling her hair either. She even rolled her hips against Shauna’s. Honestly, it was pretty slutty. Mari’s poor soccer team definitely wasn’t getting rescued any time soon with her dry humping the Big Bad Wolf.” Van could hear her own voice crack as she cracked the joke. Her mouth had gone bone dry. It shouldn’t be kind of hot, should it? Not really. But they’d been out here too long, and nothing was how it should be anymore.
What was one more anomaly?
Even Mari was trying to pretend not to be staring at Shauna through the gaps in her fingers. It was stupid. Shauna wasn’t hiding that she was staring at Mari. Her stare was just a lot more intense.
Maybe she did want to eat Mari.
“I think it’s time for bed,” Nat said suddenly. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.
Shauna’s gaze turned to Nat. “You’re such a buzzkill. We didn’t even get to the part where Mari dies.”
“I still die!?” Mari looked affronted.
Shauna shrugged. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
“Van, do I still die?” Mari said.
Van opened her mouth. She hadn’t been planning on killing Mari, actually.
“And they all lived happily ever after. Now it’s curfew.” Nat’s voice had about as much conviction as it could hold.
Shauna hadn’t stormed off mid story, and Lottie looked relatively satisfied. Definitely not worried. That was what Van had wanted out of this. And going to bed meant that Van could eat Tai—and get as well as she gave. Van shrugged. “You heard Natalie. They all lived happily ever after in bone town.”
Mari squeezed her thighs together.
Shauna inhaled sharply. She definitely wanted to eat Mari.