Chapter 51 Year in Review

My parents were still doing their college thing. Phoenix and Taylor had grown closer. Phoenix started spending a lot of time with the pack. Those two were almost inseparable. Taylor made a lot of light statues, they were beautiful. The twins started at the pack school as freshmen. They were a bit of a nightmare sometimes but mostly good kids. Sara and Christopher were doing very well. They had been adopted by the Yorks. My vampire family was also doing well. Scarlett started talking to the others more. Ben and Jason were still going to college with Mom and Dad. Rose started her own restaurant called Rosie’s. Scott and Zack did a lot of traveling, they always brought us back souvenirs. Eva moved in with them. She was pretty cool. She helped Rose with her restaurant. Nathan opened a private practice. I continued to see him when I needed to talk about stuff, Mom did too.

Things were great. We hadn’t had any problems for a while. All the packs fell in line and were adhering to the rules and laws I had laid out, so was the majority of the supernatural world. Vampires were still causing some problems but nothing major. When one group had a problem with another group, they brought it to the council and we took care of it. We helped settle many disputes over the last year. Most of them were silly territorial issues.

Junior year was great. I met a girl named Beth. She had the most amazing blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. We met in English class. She loved poetry and literature. I always saw her reading some book. Sometimes it was poetry and sometimes it was a novel. She read a lot. I liked that. She said reading was like going on an adventure without leaving home. She really seemed to like crime novels the most, not sure how adventurous those are. I prefer the supernatural stories myself, those have lots of adventure.

The guys and I still hung out and I even invited Beth a few times. She didn’t really understand the point in our Magic the Gathering game, but she didn’t have to. So I invited her to hang out with us when we weren’t playing Magic the Gathering. The guys thought she was pretty laid back and chill about most things, and she was. Just never tell her she reads too much.

Beth and I became close and I dreaded the day she would find her mate. But for now, we were good. We got a movie theater and a bowling alley put in, so I took Beth out more. We even had a bowling team.

Then we heard about some rogues causing problems for several packs. Those packs brought the issue before the council. It appeared that a rogue calling himself the Blood King was trying to unite the rogues and they were attacking packs. We tried to address the issue but rogues are harder to track down than most lycans. All we could do was send aid to those packs that had been attacked. It was rumored that the Blood king was looking for someone, but who and why no one knew.

The attacks stopped, perhaps he found who he was looking for. We still didn’t know why the Blood King had made himself known or what the real reason was for his attacks on so many packs.

Aunt Scarlett started coming around more and more. I enjoyed her company. I introduced her to Magic the Gathering and she would often play with us. She quite liked the game. Mom says it is great that Aunt Scarlett is being more social these days. And that it only took her nine decades to be social. I often wondered why Aunt Scarlett was so quiet. But now that she is talking to us more and more, I think it was because she just didn’t have a lot to say until now. We talked about all kinds of things. I even introduced her to Beth. They got along great.

Aunt Scarlett wanted to take me back to school shopping with Beth. She said she would buy everything we needed. She took Beth and I to a mall in Boston to shop for clothes. We went to The Shops at Chestnut Hill. We got lots of clothes and shoes. Then she took us to Walmart to get the supplies we would need for our classes. We ate dinner at Cafe Bello, it was delicious. When we got home, Beth’s father was shocked at all the bags of clothes she had brought home, plus all the new shoes she got. I had been a little shocked, myself, to be honest. Beth had bought three times as much clothing and a pair of shoes for each outfit. It was crazy. But she looked good in everything.

After I helped her get everything inside, I said good night to her and her father. Aunt Scarlett then took me home. We unloaded the SUV and took everything inside. The twins rushed Aunt Scarlett as soon as we entered. I let them talk to her while I took my things upstairs. When I got to my room, I found a gift on my bed. I set my bags down and opened it. It was the new telescope I wanted. I was going to take an astronomy class at Harvard as part of the Senior Initiative. So the telescope would come in handy.

We had about three and a half weeks before school started. I wanted to spend more time outdoors. So I asked my parents if we could plan a week-long camping trip, just me and the guys. They said it was okay as long as we took at least one adult with us just in case any problems were to arise. So I talked it over with Ethan and Lucas. We decided to see if the lost boys: Jeremy, Ryan, Steve, and Patrick- wanted to join us. The seven of us packed up to trucks with all the supplies we would need for seven days of camping.

We had a blast. It was so much fun. I didn’t want it to end. But alas, all good things. School was starting soon, so after cleaning up the site and packing everything up, we went home.