Chapter 13 - A plan

James went back to the school he dreaded. He told the office that he hadn’t been feeling very good, had missed the bus, and passed out on the walk to school. He said he had taken a shortcut through an ally and the dizziness came on so fast that he couldn’t do anything except fall over and wait for it to pass. His parents dragged him to the hospital after that but the doctors could find nothing physically wrong with him and sent him home with a recommendation for a phyciatrist. The next day the phyciatrist gave him an evaluation seemed depressed but over all fine.
After that he was sent home. His parents didn’t ask any questions. They gave him his space. However he had to intercept pictures July had draw as an explanation for his strange behavior. She wanted to help.
As for the dream; they continued and James was avoiding Steven like the plague. On the off chance they passed each other in the hallway James still had the urge to bolt in the other direction. But He couldn’t help the fact that he was happy to see him or the fact that he still missed him. Just seeing Steven in the hallway was enough to turn a bad day around. Steven however was at a loss.
He wanted to be near James again. He missed him a lot and was having the same types of dream that James was having. It was driving him crazy. He was worried about him because James had no friends in school, was bullied on a regular basis, and the rumors about him were getting worse. He had wanted to apologize for their last fight for so long now that his throught ached whenever he thought about it. The bracelet he moved to his ankle was a constant reminder.
Of course he wasn’t the only one who knew of these changes. Suzan and Carrie had been keeping a close eye on the two boys ever since the birthday party. “ We need to get them to be friends again.” Suzan had said one day at lunch. “ Suzan” “ I said friends Carrie, the rest will take care of itself.”
“ Yes, but we shouldn’t mettle.” Carrie told her friend. “ Have you even seen James lately? Or Steven? They both seem miserable. James doesn’t smile anymore and Steven has gotten so quiet. It’s scary.” Suzan said. “ He obviously wants to talk to him but his cousin is in the way.” “ Which one?” “ I don’t know, possibly both.” Both girls sighed.
“There’s a field trip this weekend for the biology class, and I know both are going, we just need to give them a chance to talk alone.” Carrie said. “ Which means one of us will have to switch bussed and be in the group with both of them. The other will have to run interference.” They sighed. The groups had already been assigned. “ I guess we just have to wait then.” Carrie said. “ Or…”

* * *

“ NO! Absolutely not!” Tyler said. “ Pleas! Pleas! Pleas! Pleas! Pleas!!!!!” Suzan begged trying to lean closer to his face. “ Are you crazy? Your group is full of giggly girls who hate my guts and the chess club. I can’t stand those jerks and I’m already in enough trouble as it is.” Tyler stubbornly replied shoving her away. “ Why do you want to switch groups anyway?” “ Because I want to!” Suzan answered.
If there was one person more stubborn then Tyler it was Suzan. Tyler had learned that when she had dragged him to a school dance, literally. “ Okay, let me think about that. NO! Give me one reason why I should.” Suzan moved closer, it looked as if she was about to kiss him before she gave Tyler her patented death glare and growled.
To Tyler this meant one of two things. One: “ I’m going to kill you.” Or two: “ I’ll maim you, rip you apart, and then kill you.” It was easy to guess witch one got Tyler to grudgingly agree. So the arrangements were set. Now she needed to fine-tune her plan.

* * *
James was glad for the chance to get away. It reminded him of the summer camp he used to go to, Camp brookly. Only this time he didn’t have a friend to be with. So it was more like a journey then a vacation, a journey with obstacles. The first; they would be dissecting things.
Normally animal blood didn’t have such a strong effect on James; there was no craving because it wasn’t addictive like human blood. However it still had an effect. The smell would be distracting. Not only that but James hated touching dead things. How was he supposed to cut one open?
Also, they would be using knifes and scalpels, if someone cut themselves it would mean trouble. It wasn’t like James could smuggle a bottle of bleach; one of the teachers had already caught him in the janitors closet once. So if they found a bottle that would only confirm what they suspected. James could already hear the counselor; “ James, is their something wrong at home?” Then there was the second problem; the dreams.
He really didn’t want to explain why he slept with duck-tape over his mouth. Granted the dreams only they only happened twice or once a week these days. However he knew the more he was around Steven the more intense they’d be and the two were in the same bus group and cabin. Which brought on the third obstacle: Steven. James was increasingly clumsy around him and had a hard time paying attention.
If they were to have a conversation then James knew he would keep trailing of mid-sentence. He always kept getting lost in Stevens’ eyes. He could avoid looking at his eyes but that was the only part of Steven he felt safe looking at. The thought kept confusing James so much that he wanted to hide under a rock somewhere until the trip was over. He had no solution for anything.
So James just focused on how nice it would be to get outside for a while. After all it was only a week right? He could get through this without humiliating or hurting himself, right? Honestly…he had no idea. In fact when the day of the fieldtrip arrived he was nervous as heck.
The bags had already been thrown on the bus. Everyone was waiting outside trying to decide biology groups. James was currently standing around; it’s hard to find a group when you didn’t have a lot of friends. However surprisingly Suzan had managed to weasel her way into his buss group.

* * *
“Steven!” Suzan shouted, pushing through the crowd of students. She bolted straight to him. “ Can you be in my biology group? Carrie bailed on me.” “ Actually”- “ Great, thanks’ you’re a life saver.”
Steven was about to tell her that he was already in a group but before he could do that she had spotted James. “ James! Over hear!” She shouted to him, waving enthusiastically. “Oh crap” Steven thought. “ Do you have a group yet?” She asked when he made his way over. “ No.” James replied.
“ Great! You can be in ours.” Steven tried to speak again but before he could Suzan was sprinting to the crowd toward Carrie. “ Dude, I think she’s got a thing for you.” Laughed a guy in his original group. If only he knew.



* * *

“Welcome to camp science!” Boomed a middle-aged man. All of the students’ groaned. The buss ride had been a long one. “ Yes well…the cabins are up that hill, boys’ are on the left, girls on the right. My assistant Jenny will explain the rules.” The man said. “Well alright!” Said the women standing next to him. She appeared to be in her thirties and had a southern accent.
“ Behind me is the cafeteria” She said gesturing to the large wooden building behind her. “ Anyone with extreme allergies or medications should stop by the infirmary next door. There will be no food fights or bullying of any kind. Pleas don’t bring opened foods into the cabins; the cafeteria will be closed on off hours. Everyone is to be in their assigned cabin by seven for attendance. Curfew is at eight and lights out is at nine. The in-between time is free for anything. The cabin rules are simple; boys’ and girls’ cabins aren’t to intermingle. No indecent behavior, violence or exposure. Pleas take good care of all of the camp equipment and absolutely no P.D.A’s.” with that Jenny too a step back to let the man speak.
“ We’ll start the real learning after you’ve all unpacked your things.”


* * *
It didn’t take long for Suzan to find James and drag him over to Stevens table once dinner rolled around. Steven was sure that she was up to something but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Sadly James was too nervous to really say anything, Steven was very quiet, and Suzan (although a chatter box) was having a hard time getting a conversation going. The class was also going over the rules for the next day’s bird watch and dissection. The boys cabin was crowded and James eyes would not stop wandering wile everyone was getting ready for lights out; no matter how hard he tried to focus on the floor.
“ The hell are you starring at” Said Tyler who wasn’t wearing a shirt. Crap. He was both lean and skinny at the same time. James showed no reaction as he climbed into the top bunk and tried to pretend that nothing had happened. “ Gah! What is wrong with me!?! Stupid hormones!” He thought staring at the ceiling.
“ Tch’ prick” James winced. “ Oh what, did I hit a nerve?” Tyler mocked walking to James’s bunk. “ He doesn’t exist.” James thought ignoring him. “ Hey I’m talking to you!” Still nothing. “ Listen to me.” He growled.
James was still silent. He had nearly master the “your not there trick” and so far it only made Tyler give up or get really mad. And the best part about it was that Tyler couldn’t do anything about it. If he slugged James and they ended up in a fight then all James would have to say to the principle was; “ I didn’t do anything he just hit me!” And He would be right. There would also be several witnesses to back him up on that.
Tyler gave him a death glare and went back to changing severely annoyed. That night James didn’t get much sleep. Keith kept trying to use the water trick on him and when that didn’t work he decided to snore. Loudly. That is until Steven had it and tossed a shoe at his head.
At break fest they were all increasingly grumpy. And Suzan’s perkiness’ just irritated the two boys as she had got then to sit together again. Right now they were all outside, sitting at picnic tables with dead frogs and other sharp objects. “ Alright today we’ll be dissecting frogs! I want you to jot down all of the organs and body parts.” The proctor said over excitedly. Everyone slipped on their gloves.
“ Geez this is so gross” Suzan complained. “ Hey at least it’s not something cute like a kitty.” Carrie said from the table next to them. “ Actually we’ll be doing cats tomorrow.” Jenny exclaimed as she handed them their clipboards. Everyone froze. The two girls were turning white, Steven was creeped out and James was trying to breath without throwing up.
“ These people are sick.” He thought staring down at the frog. “ James why don’t you categorize.” Steven said handing him the clipboard. James took it but forgot to answer. Ironically Suzan was the one to make the first cut. Steven took apart the entrails.
For James the smell of blood was thick. His hands were shaking in a sort of primal excitement he couldn’t explain. Despite that his eyes would wander to Steven they were glue to the organs. Staring at them made him feel sick but at the same time he couldn’t look away and he often forgot to Wright down the names of the parts. “ So” Suzan said swallowing for the third time.
“What’s left?” “…Uh…the eyes…and the uh brain.” James said. His mind was blank. Suzan grabbed the head of the gutted frog and cut. She looked like she was going to throw up.
The scalpel slipped. “ Ow damn it!” James dropped the clipboard his eyes never leaving her. Suzan went to the proctor. “ Uh, I cut through the glove.” She explained, “ Ooh, there’s peroxide over by the faucet.” He said. James forced his arms to the side as the wind picked up. His breathing sped up and his heart started to pound with the surge of adrenalin that hit him. His arms shook and every instinct he had was telling him to tare her apart.
It took all of his will power not to, he felt like he could explode any second. Steven glanced over at James. His eyes had already changed color and were pink. That wasn’t good. What happened next threw James off completely.
When he felt Steven grab his wrist he jumped. Luckily everyone was either watching Suzan or asking the proctor questions about infection. As hard as he tried James couldn’t stop the blush that form forming on his cheeks. It didn’t stop the trembling but his eyes weren’t glued to Suzan anymore and it focused his sense of smell on Steven. His heart was still pounding like crazy as a new feeling of affection washed over him.
“ Don’t think like that. He doesn’t like you, he just knows what blood can do to you.” He thought but no matter how hard he thought it the feeling wouldn’t go away. When Suzan came back to the table she wasn’t the only one who noticed that Steven had taken one of his gloves off. Carrie had a hard time trying not to giggle like a schoolgirl. James wanted to thank Steven but the truth was he was too chicken. James’s heart went crazy when he saw Steven in the cafeteria.
But they weren’t forced to sit together. Suzan was busy chatting with Carrie at another table.

* * *

“ So what do you think happened?” Suzan whispered. “ Suzan” Carrie scolded. “ Oh come on Carrie, you can’t deny the excitement.” Suzan replied. “ So what’s you’re Theory? I know you have one?” “…Well. We know James doesn’t like blood; I’m guessing that seeing you get cut like that freaked him out and Steven was trying to keep him from passing out on the floor.” Carrie whispered.
“ Are you two talking about James and Steven?” another girl whispered and leaned in. Three other girls suddenly joined them at the table. “ You suspect?”
“ Everyone suspects.” The girl replied. At that they all started to whisper and giggle. Tyler glanced over at the table of girls and rolled his eyes. “ What the hell is so damn exciting?” He wandered.

* * *
When James entered the cabin he went to grab an extra snack from his bag but found a plastic bottle filled with bleach. His heart raced when he glanced at Steven who was (pretend) reading in his bunk. Apparently he knew just how hard dissection was for him. James sat in his own bunk and stared at the ceiling. How did Steven know all of this? They’d been avoiding each other since his fourteenth. Had Steven been watching him all of this time. James couldn’t stop himself from looking over at him. One of the strings tugged at his heart. He missed him. James had missed being friends with Steven.
How could all of this happen? And how could Steven still care after James had yelled at him like that, after so much time apart? After there friendship had cracked and shattered. How could all of this be? James’s heart started to ache and he rolled over facing the wall. How could he develop feelings for Steven after being kept in the dark?


* * *

That night James had a dream; only this one was full of both ecstasy and tears. That and Keith’s loud snoring woke him up before he could make a sound. “ Ugh. Damn it Keith, stop snoring.” Tyler sleepily complained tossing a pillow in the opposite direction. “Tyler for the last time; Keith is over there.” Growled the boy who was hit with the pillow, tossing it at Keith’s head. He woke up.
“Was I snorin’ again’?” He groggily asked. “Yes.” The three boys groaned. “ Sorry mates” He said before falling asleep again. The room was silent. Then the snoring started up again.
“Uhgh” Tyler said trying to slam his head under his pillow. Then he remembered that he had tried to throw it at Keith. “ Damn it.” He growled. James buried his head under his pillow. He didn’t want to put up with Tyler and the throbbing in between his legs was getting annoying.
“ Why me.” He whined inside his head. He tried to focus on Keith’s snoring but it only gave him a headache. He wanted to grab a cold shower but he didn’t want to wake everyone up. Although he wasn’t sure if anyone was asleep. He felt like punching Keith but instead tied a jacked around his waist and decided to go sit in the cold grass.
As he walked down the cold porch steps he heard a loud howl.

* * *

Steven sprinted through the woods. It had been awhile since he transformed. Keith’s snoring had kept him awake and even if it hadn’t he just had too much energy He had been running laps around the outside of the camp for awhile now although he still had to be careful. Steven had grown a lot.
His head in wolve form could reach a full-grown mans waist when standing. When Steven was finally tired he ran to where he left his Pjs and switched forms. After he had pulled them on and left the woods he was back in camp. He almost froze when he got back to the cabin.
James was asleep on the grass. “ Why is he”- Stevens thought were interrupted by a loud snore followed by a “ Shut the frack up Keith!” from Tyler. “ Oh” Steven sighed. James stirred and Steven froze. Just as he started to open his eyes Steven ran into the cabin and jumped into bed.
His heart was hammering in his chest and he couldn’t identify why. He heard James stumble in and climb into his bunk. Why was he so nervous around James? Somehow Steven had always known.

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