Chapter 2

I heard a knock on the door; dad opened it as I set my stuff up on my desk. I could hear everything in this house. There was a flickering bottle by my bed, on a nightstand on the opposite side. I jumped on the bed, landing on my stomach, stretching my hand out to grab it and examine it, just as dad called me.
"Adri! Come up here!" he called. I sighed, dashing up the stairs and taking them two at a time, like I always did.
"Yeah dad?" I said, swinging around the banister to see the girl from the theater. SHe had brown eyes that glittered, and she was holding a plate of cookies.
"Hi, I'm Jackie, I live nextdoor," she said with a perfectly white smile.
"I'm Adrianna, it's nice to meet you," I replied, going to stand by my dad.
"It's a town tradition that anyone who moves in gets a plate of cookies, so I made some. You're going to be buried in cookies by the end of the week!" she laughed, handing me the plate of cookies.
"Wow," I laughed. "Thanks!" She handed me the plate of smiling-pumpkin-shaped-orange-sprinkle-coated cookies.
"Yeah, thanks," my dad agreed happily. I could already see he was picking out the one he wanted. She laughed, a musical, relaxing laugh.
"You're welcome," she smiled. "Would you like to meet me tomorrow morning and walk to school with my group?" she asked.
"You're group?"
"Just me, my boyfriend, and some other kids on this block. We always walk together, it's more fun that way."
"Sure," I smiled. "I'd love to," she clapped her hands together, a smile lighting up her face.
"great! Do you know the dress code?"
"What about it?" I asked. "Isn't it just the same as everywhere else?" She laughed again, her eyes dancing.
"Nope," she shook her head. "Much more fun than that. It's Halloween every day! We get to dress up, every day."
"Sounds cool," I said, smiling.
"Here, while it's light, I'll take you to meet everyone." Jackie said, smiling more.
"I think that would be great," dad said. "Give me the cookies and I'll take them into the kitchen. Thanks again, Jackie." I could tell by the look in his eye as he took them that he was in a hurry to get the one he wanted.
"Okay," I said, following Jackie out of the house.
I met her boyfriend, max, who was dressed as a werewolf; her friend Dean, who was dressed as an elf with spiky black hair; Alice, who had long blonde hair and was dressed as a cat; April, who had short brown hair and looked like she was straight out of the Matrix; Jeff, who was just in black denim and a black V-neck shirt with a chain necklace and black sunglasses, evn though it was sunset; and Emily, who had pin straight brown hair with red tips. I made the mistake of looking down the street as it was getting dark, wondering where I was. Jackie had gotten me all turned around.
"Who are they?" I asked as the last rays of the sun were extinguished. My arms were full of plates of cookies, but I could tell by the way I said it, they already knew who I was talking about.
"The night class. Hurry, get inside, and stay there." Jeff said curtly. I wasn;t able to get my phone out of my pocket for all the cookies in my arms, but I knew it wasn't that late.
"It's not even that late!" I protested. Jeff was looking down the street with a controlled anger, and when I looked at Jackie, her eyes seemed to be growing more and more wild as the students dressed in all black, some wearing black cloaks, came down the street. I felt a small breeze by my neck, and I froze.
"Ah, a human," Someone said from behind me. I saw Jeff and Jackie's heads snap to look as me as I whirled around, breathing hard as my heartbeat picked up.
"And that werewolf tramp," a girl sneered. "Out late again, are we? Max isn't here to save you this time." Now that I had met them, no one had to tell me to stay away from them. These people were terrifying.
"Look, we were just on our way home," I said firmly, wondering why he had called me a human and Jackie a werewolf. My head was spinning; at this moment, all I wanted was to get home and think things through. I didn't want to have anything to do with these people. I tried to push through the man who had come up behind me, looking up at him with the beginnings of a glare. When I saw his face, I was both terrified and amazed. His features were, for lack of a better word, beautiful, and I was trapped like a fly in a spider's web. He bent down with a small smile.