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Chapter 1 - October 30, Monday

As much as she loved wolves and often really wished she was one, Sophia would have settled for just their fur coat right about then. Her sweatshirt seemed especially insufficient to keep out the crisp October morning air as she trudged to school. The sun was just peaking above the mountains behind her, but brought little warmth. Sophia watched a man get into his car, envious his mode of transportation had a heated interior. Unfortunately, she had not had the time or money to go through driver's ed. Right then, traveling between school and work using something other than her feet was a far off dream. Not that she minded walking, she usually enjoyed it, but the chill off the Rocky Mountains seemed to penetrate to her very center that morning.

The monotony of repeating her daily commute did even less to take her mind off her discomfort. West on Spruce Lane, turn south onto Forest Road, day in and day out. Sure, a car would keep the cold out, but it would just introduce another routine to her life. While most of her classmates were itching to go somewhere, anywhere that didn't bill itself as one of the best places to raise a family (translation: deadly boring). For her, all another town or city had to offer was a new kind of monotony. Sophia much preferred the solitude, freedom and variety found in forests and fields. Woodbury certainly had that, but lately the natural world she craved seemed as distant as the moon.

Granted, she'd have much rather have been indoors where it was warm at that moment. Thankfully, after passing a dozen or so single story ranch houses, Woodbury High School finally came into view. The City of Woodbury was small, only a few thousand people, but the school was still sizable as it was the only high school for the mostly rural county. Even so, it was starting to strain to accommodate the high population growth Woodbury and the rest of eastern Idaho had experienced over the last two decades. The school itself consisted of a one-story rectangular central structure with the main entrance facing southeast, a two story gymnasium attached to the southwest and a narrow wing that had been added on during the prior decade's population boom sticking out of the northeast.

As Sophia reached the crosswalk to cross the town's Main St, she joined several other students making the trek - two blonde girls chattering away and a boy who briefly glanced at her before nervously adjusting his tan backpack and resuming watching for the crossing signal. The boy she recognized from one of her classes, but she hadn't learned his name. Nor had she really spoken to the girls despite seeing them frequently on her treks to and from school, much less learned their names. The signal changed and they mechanically crossed the town's main road. From there, it was just a matter of passing the northeast wing and following the sidewalk that bordered the school's main drive to the entrance of the reddish-tan stone clad building. At this point, she and the small group of students she was commuting with joined the rest of the student body streaming into the building.

The building's main entrance loomed over Sophia as she approached. The unnatural lines of the large glass windows and two pairs of glass doors felt so oppressive compared to the soft curves and subtle, yet ornate patterns of nature. Reaching the steps, Sophia found herself sandwiched between two tall boys as the mass of bodies bunched up to file into the building. Once past the doors, the pack thinned again as the students dispersed to their lockers and classrooms. For Sophia, this meant taking the hallway to her right after passing the main office on her left and then making her way through the throngs of noisy and often inconsiderate teens.

Sophia's locker was located two thirds of the way down the hallway on the northeastern side of the main structure. Like all the others, the locker was a nondescript dark green with 351 printed on it. Also like the others, the cold metal was an almost daily reminder of being confined to the artificial light and filtered air of the school. The locker itself had an upper shelf with a stack of her notebooks and folders, one below it with her textbooks and then a space with hooks for her sweatshirt and backpack. In the rear of the locker she had taped a drawing of her mother running with a wolf that she had made shortly after her mother's death two years prior. Sophia felt a bit silly about it, but could never bring herself to remove it, nor obscure it when she hung her light blue sweatshirt and backpack.

The five minute warning bell sounded and Sophia quickly grabbed her math text, notebook and folder. She hurried off to class, found her seat and grabbed the looseleaf paper she had done the weekend's homework on and looked it over to make sure she had answered everything. Between working two eight hour shifts and a history paper, she had not had much time to focus on math. Thankfully, it looked like everything was at least complete, if not correct. The bell rang and her teacher, Mr. Pindlewood stood from his desk and began the day's lesson on geometry.

Between sleep deprivation and boredom, it wasn't long before Sophia lost track of the lecture and began doodling in her notebook, a wolf as usual. Ever since she could remember, wolves had been her favorite animal, they were majestic, loyal and lived freely. Like humans, they were social, unlike humans their loyalty to the pack never wavered. She imagined running through the woods with a pack, no school, no jobs, no expectations...

"Ms. Jones? Are you still with us?" Mr. Pindlewood asked sternly, startling Sophia awake.

Several kids snickered and she flushed in embarrassment.

"Yes sir," she replied.

"Good, as I was explaining before Ms. Jones' snoring interrupted, the secant of an angle is equivalent to..." Mr. Pindlewood continued.

Thankfully, Sophia avoided nodding off for the rest of the period. When the bell rang, Mr. Pindlewood gave her a look and pointed at his desk. She waited for the other students to file out before walking to his desk.

"Ms. Jones," Mr. Pindlewood began. "This is the sixth time you've nodded off in my class since last Monday and you only managed a sixty-five percent on the last test. Is everything alright?"

"I've been working a lot lately," Sophia replied quietly. "My dad, well, my dad hasn't been getting much work."

Her teacher regarded her for a moment before his expression softened, "I know things must be tough for you without your mother, but school needs to be your top priority, whatever your father's issues. It may not feel like it now, but it won't be long before it's time to apply to college."

At this, Sophia winced and hastily nodded. It wasn't his business, but she held her tongue.

"I know there's a good student in there and I see you looking your homework over at the start of class," Mr. Pindlewood said in encouragement. "I'd love to see you fully apply yourself."

"Yes, thank you," Sophia replied quickly, not really feeling gratitude.

With that Mr. Pindlewood nodded and Sophia walked back to her desk, grabbed her things and hastily made her way towards her locker, feeling forlorn and embarrassed. She had nearly made it to her locker when she heard the last voice she wanted to hear right then.

"The dump has been running low on inventory, right Sophia?"

Stiffening, Sophia turned to see a blonde haired girl with heavy makeup smirking at her. It was Jane, her perennial tormentor, with a few of the other popular Senior girls who were staring at her and laughing. Sophia involuntarily glanced down at her faded long-sleeved red shirt that was noticeably fraying and blue jeans that didn't fit quite right, her face reddening. They had been among the best she could find at the local thrift store before school started.

"Then again, I wouldn't expect someone raised by wolves to understand clothes," Jane threw another barb to more snickers.

Trying to make herself small, Sophia quickly faded into the crowd of students as tears formed in her eyes. It wasn't her fault her father could barely keep a job down and she had to buy her own clothes! After grabbing her material for English class from her locker, she kept her head down and made her way to her next class before anyone else could tease her.

Sitting, she toyed with her pencil anxiously as she waited for class to start. One particular boy, Logan, caught her eye as he walked in. For a moment she allowed herself to ogle his broad shoulders and dark hair, imagining his strong arms around her. Certainly, no one would tease her while holding his hand. Logan was on the school's track and field team and she had had a crush on him since sixth grade. Before her mother's accident, she had even flirted a bit with him. Now, she thought, he probably had forgotten she existed. His head turned towards her side of the room and she dropped her head and pretended to be looking at her notes. Then, their teacher, Ms. Linden, came in and class began.

The rest of the day passed as drearily as all the others. While Sophia made it through English without drawing attention from her teacher or classmates, she managed to doze off in her 20th Century History course and had to endure another round of teacher disapproval and snickering from classmates. She did, at least, turn in the three page report she had worked until one in the morning on. In Physical Education, she managed to amuse the class when she tried to return a serve and the tennis racket accidentally slipped out of her hand, nearly hitting Mr. Rindler.

At lunch, she scanned for her friend Candice, but the latter was on student council and often had meetings during lunch which left Sophia to eat her slice of pizza alone working on homework. In biology, she received the prior week's test back with a red 'C-' emblazoned on it and then suffered through a lecture on cladistics. Her favorite class, drawing, was spent on contours and gave no opportunities for self-expression to her disappointment. Environmental Science and Sociology were blessedly uneventful and she made it to the end of the day without another incident.

"Hey Soph," a familiar voice nearly caused Sophia to drop her bag as she closed her locker.

Behind Sophia was a stout girl slightly shorter than she was with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair with an air of barely bound energy. It was Candice, her best friend since first grade. They had once been inseparable, but had been pulled in different directions since starting high school. Even so, they spent what time they could together.

"Oh hey Candy," Sophia smiled tiredly. "I missed seeing you at lunch today!"

"I'm sorry!" Candice apologized. "Student Council is busy organizing the craft fair coming up over Thanksgiving weekend. You would think we'd take a break after Friday's Halloween Party, but nope! Speaking of, I missed you there!"

"I had to work," Sophia replied sadly.

"Soph, you need to take more time for yourself! We're in high school and you're going to spend all of it in school or a grocery store," Candice chided her.

"Hey, look at Ms. In-Every-Extra-Curricular lecturing about free time!" Sophia teased.

"There's the old Soph!" Candice enthused. "I'm in them because I enjoy them! You used to love the Outdoor Adventure Club in Middle School! Remember that time you wandered off following what you swore were wolf's tracks and everyone thought you were lost? Then it turned out just to be someone's dog!"

Sophia cracked a smile, "Ms. Chamomile was not happy as I remember."

"So? It was an adventure; you had fun!" Candice reminded her. "You used to be the one dragging me all over the place to see some neat animal or plant you found."

"I just haven't felt up to it lately," Sophia replied sadly. "I've been working as much as I can to help my dad since he doesn't make enough."

"He would if he would stop drinking!" Candice bit out and then flinched. "I'm so, so sorry!"

Sophia's face fell, tears welling up.

Candice apologized. "It's just... not fair to you. You should be having fun, not working so your dad can pay a mortgage!"

"I just... wish my mother was still here," Sophia replied sorrowfully. "Everything is so hard without her."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do. Anyway, you busy tonight?" Candice changed the subject.

"I have a shift tonight," Sophia replied.

"That's too bad." Candice commiserated. "Say, what I really wanted to talk to you about is I'm having a Halloween party at my place tomorrow night. Several of the Student Council and Pep Club girls will be attending."

"My parents wouldn't let me invite any boys though," Candice rolled her eyes at that. "Want to come?"

Surprised, Sophia hesitated. Tomorrow? She ran her work schedule through her head. She happened to have the night off, although she needed to do schoolwork. However, she missed seeing Candice and it sounded like a lot of fun.

"Alright, I can do that," Sophia hesitantly replied and smiled a bit more enthusiastically this time.

"Great!" Candice exclaimed. "It starts at 6:00! Wear a costume! I have to be off! Pep Club!"

With that, Candice hurried off to wherever Pep Club was meeting. For a moment, Sophia just stood there. She felt a little guilty about going to a party instead of doing school work, but Candice was right, when was she going to live? Her spirits a bit lighter, Sophia donned her coat and slung her bag around her shoulders before closing her locker and heading for the school entrance.

In the parking lot, school buses waited to take home kids who lived outside town while those with licenses and cars swarmed the parking lot. After an envious glance at the cars lined up to leave, Sophia headed east towards the crosswalk just past the parking lot entrance. The sun was high and it was a fair bit warmer than the morning, which lifted Sophia's spirits after another gloomy school day. After crossing the street, most kids turned in the direction of the residential neighborhoods to the north and south, but a few joined Sophia in continuing towards the more commercial parts of town.

Built in a mountain valley, Woodbury bore more resemblance to the plains of eastern Montana or Wyoming than the forest covered mountain foothills that surrounded it to the north, south and east. The town itself had mostly existed to support the agriculture and ranching that had made up the valley's economy since it was first settled by white settlers during the 19th century. However, what had been a bucolic Western town was experiencing a bit of a transformation over the last two decades. The stores and businesses that catered to the needs of the ranchers and farmers increasingly found themselves alongside those that catered to the demands of the recreational tourists that were increasingly spilling over from the nearby National Parks.

Even with the increased population and its attendant construction, Woodbury remained fairly spread out. In contrast to the small towns in the Eastern parts of the country, where the historic downtowns tended to be built compactly, Woodbury's downtown consisted of mostly one-story buildings separated by grassy or dirt spaces along wide roads. The only vegetation, other than the ubiquitous grasses, was the occasional tree or shrubs in an undeveloped lot. Along the main road were various eateries and shops. In the summer months, there would be a steady presence of tourists, but there were only a few on the eve of Halloween. While the shops and restaurants might mourn the end of the annual tourist migration, Sophia much preferred the relative quiet.

Passing in front of a kayak rental store, Sophia crossed Main and headed north towards the grocery store she cashiered at. It was a chain store, but a bit smaller than the stores found in the larger towns and cities with only a few registers at the front. Tonight, only one was open and there were few customers in the store. Sophia exchanged greetings with Karen, the middle aged woman currently working the register as she made her way to the women's bathroom in the rear of the store.

Like the rest of the store, it was small, with only two cramped stalls. Sophia entered one, did her business and then changed into the store's red button-down shirt and khaki pants she had carried in her backpack. After folding up her clothes and placing them in her backpack, Sophia left the stall, washed her hands and looked herself over in the mirror. Seeing several brown strands had managed to free themselves from the ponytail she had put her hair in that morning, she quickly redid her ponytail. After straightening her shirt, she left the restroom and made her way into the break room.

The break room was small, with only enough room for a small fridge, a microwave, a square eggshell colored table and four black chairs. Sophia glanced at the clock, she still had half an hour before her shift. Pulling a chair up to the table, she rummaged through her backpack and quickly realized she had left her math text at school. Frustrated, she slammed her backpack down on the floor. That meant she'd be headed to school a bit early in the morning in an attempt to finish as much as she could. Instead, she took to answering what biology questions she could until it was time to begin her shift. After stowing her backpack in a cupboard, Sophia punched in on the timeclock and made her way to the front of the store.

"Hi Sophia!" Karen greeted her. "Working until close again?"

"Yep, 9:00 as usual," Sophia replied.

"Should be a quiet night," Karen said as she headed to punch out. "Have a good evening!"

As it turned out, the five hour shift was anything but quiet. As evening rolled around, people getting off work looking to pick up last minute halloween candy crowded the store. With only one cashier, it wasn't long before a line of impatient people formed.

"Ms? Where is the caramel?"

"The coupon only expired yesterday!"

"I'm sorry, all I had was change." said one older man dumping a pile of nickels dimes and quarters onto the checkout counter as three other customers made signs of annoyance.

"Don't crush my bread!"

"Watch what you're doing!" her manager chastised and rolled his eyes after she had accidentally run a transaction twice.

"Bottom of the barrel, eh?" a middle aged man said rudely when she accidentally voided his entire transaction and had to start over.

By the end of her shift, Sophia was ready to crawl under her register and refuse to come out. Finally, the store closed and she waited for her manager to count her money.

"Rough night?" he said. "You're four dollars and thirty three cents off. I hope the rest of the week is better."

Holding back tears, Sophia punched out, grabbed her backpack and left the store. It was dark out of course, but there was little traffic and few people were out. After another long day, the solitude was welcome. Thankfully, the stress of the day faded a bit and she relaxed her shoulders and started to imagine what it would be like to live as part of a wolf pack roaming the forest. So lost in this fantasy she was, she would have missed the very real wolf if he hadn't stepped out from the field bordering the sidewalk right in front of her, only ten feet away.