#ghaneepara

[teenage-weredom-aint-easy]

Dinner Party || Ghanee and Dan || Mid January

Ghanee sat demurely with her ankles cross under her chair, which was a lot harder to do than one would expect. After a few years on the road, her manners had slipped, but this was the sort of occasion that demaded some decorum. Unfortunately. 

Ghanee leaned over the busy dinner table and smiled to Mrs. Etheridge. "Happy birthday," she said, her face smiling, but inside, she felt like curling up and dying. 

This was a family dinner, held in honnor of their matriarch's birthday and Ghanee had never felt so out of place. She hadn't been to a proper family dinner in... well. Since she left home a few years back. This reminded her too much of the Sunday dinners they used to have, back when things were so much simpler...

She'd been invited, since she was Dan's fake-girlfriend, but Ghanee really would rather sit in her motel and do nothing. Unfortunately, she didn't have that luxury. How many brothers did Dan have?

She leaned into Dan, as if exchanging a sweet nothing in his ear, her hand squeezing his thigh. "You are so going to pay for this." she hissed, smiling pleasantly. 

[teenage-weredom-aint-easy]

Lull || Ghanee and Baly ||

She didn't want to be disturbed, so Ghanee found herself sitting on a bench across the street from the motel. She smoked slowly, trying to cool her thoughts- smoking equals burning, burning equals hot, cool equals not hot, ice, water, therefore that statement is ironic. Her chest felt tight, too tight, like she couldn't breathe- respiratory problems are a side effect of chronic smoking- but it was worse than that. It was the dull ache and weight of dread and regret that showed up every once and a while, the type that kept her awake. Insomnia. 

"Shut up." she muttered to herself, wishing that her brain would stop. She could be doing something productive right now if she hadn't been so preoccupied with this anxiety. They were here. They kept showing up. What had she done to deserve this?

[teenage-weredom-aint-easy]

'Nee and Nee || No prizes for guessing who || Mid January

Ghanee twirled her pencil between her fingers, eyes flickering around the public library, person to person. No one interesting had showed up yet. A few librarians, one or two homeless people and listless children following their parents around. Beyond poking a few children, none of them gave Ghanee much entertainment. She looked down at her homework. 

The pencil tapped erratically on the desk as Ghanee watched a particular young girl skip down the aisles of the kids section. Actually skipped. Ghanee huffed a laugh. No one skipped any more without risking severe ridicule, but this girl didn't seem to care, even though she looked 13-14 years old. Ghanee looked around. She wasn't with anyone, nor did she have any interest in the books. The girl chose a few randomly from the shelf and dropped them on an secluded table.

From where she was, Ghanee could see that it was a picture book. One of those National Geographic books with pictures of far off cultures. The girl flipped through at a fast pace, only glancing at a page before moving on. She's looking for something. But what? Why?

Imagining a darker purpose to this girl's quest gave Ghanee something to do: most likely she was looking through it for a school project. Ghanee was just about to turn away, when the girl suddenly disappeared, replaced by a tall African woman in bright colours. Ghanee blinked. The girl was back, giggling excitedly to herself.

...What.

It happened again, this time with an Indian woman in a sari. Ghanee watched intently. 

She's a kitsune. Ghanee groaned to herself. This place was simply infested with were-creatures.

Ghanee tried to remember all that she'd researched about the different types of supernatural beings. They could shape-shift, that's for sure: for them, that was like learning to ride a bike. It was the first thing they learned once they hit their age of maturity. That was usually after they were about a hundred years old.

The girl was hopping up and down excitedly, pleased with herself. In her excitement, she must have over-looked a small detail, as a flash of bright orange under the hem of her skirt gave her away as a bit more than a little human girl. Ghanee set down her pencil. She bit her lip, sliding out of her seat. The girl didn't notice Ghanee approaching.

"Nice trick." Ghanee said. The girl jumped out of her seat, eyes flashing red. She looked like a wild animal, caught in a corner. She turned to bolt, but Ghanee was quicker and had expected this. Ghanee reached down and grabbed hold of the kitsune's tail. She cried out sharply. Ghanee hushed her, her grip tightening. 

"Kitsune, huh?" she said in a flat tone of voice. 

"Please let go: I don't know what you're talking about..." whimpered the girl, her dark eyes brimming with tears.

"Cut it out. It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'd keep that tail of yours under wraps more, if I were you." Ghanee pursed her lips. She softened her voice. "What's your name?"

She sniffled. "Nee."

"Heh. I'm Ghanee. our names are similar, see?" She smiled. Nee nodded, smiling in turn. Ghanee continued. "What I don't get, though, is why a kitsune like you doing around here? You're at least a hundred years old: you must have better things to do besides hanging around a little town like this."

Nee frowned. "But I'm only 13.." she said.

Ghanee shook her head. "No, you can't, kitsune can't change forms until they're 100, or bare minimum, 50..."

Her wide, brown eyes began to moisten as Nee looked up at the older girl, frowning in confusion. Ghanee could see a touch of fear and uncertainty behind Nee's eyes and in the tremble of her voice. "But..but I can't... I'm not a hundred years old. I still g-go to school."

Ghanee spoke carefully. "...Right. Sorry. I must have gotten it mixed up with something else." she lied. Nee seemed to buy it, looking much more relieved. 

"How'd you know all this stuff?" she asked.

"I'm a werewolf- well..." Ghanee looked away. This part was always awkward to explain. "Part... werewolf at least. I'm new around here."

Nee nodded, her mouth forming a little 'o' of understanding. "ooh. Well, if you're new, you might wanna leave." the little girl leaned in conspiratorially. "There's hunters around. And they don't take too kindly to people like us."

Ghanee absorbed this info and nodded carefully. "Good advice... But if they're so dangerous, why haven't you left yet?"

All of a sudden, Nee's shoelaces became really interesting. She kicked at the ground awkwardly. "I uh... I can't leave my friends behind, can I?" Nee tried.

"Right." said Ghanee, sensing a soft topic here. "Of course not." She dug around her purse for a pen, and quickly wrote on Nee's hand. "This is my phone number. Call me if anything... y'know. Comes up, right? Birds of a feather, flock together?" She raised an eyebrow to Nee.

"But we're not birds-"

Ghanee tried veyr hard not to roll her eyes. "It just means people who are the same type should stick together."

"Ooh." Nee's eyes lit up in understanding. "Okay! I'll call you!"

Ghanee nodded and waved as the girl left with a forced grin on her face. This town was practically crawling with them! This just posed more and more problems for Ghanee. She sat down at her table, her homework forgotten. 

She could practically feel the invisible lines in this town, how people were connected. Haley, Eli, herself, Baly, Nee... And more it seemed. A sense of foreboding settled in her bones, numbed only by her desire to map these lines. Afterall, it's easier to think when you have the big picture in front of you. Now all she had to do was fill in the missing pieces.

[teenage-weredom-aint-easy]

Sick Day || Ghanee and Eli

Ghanee approached the door with cautious steps, stopping for every few steps to listen for sounds. There was no one else in the house, but that wasn't what she was listening to. She paused again. Nothing. Good.

She balanced a tray in her hands as she walked up the stairs, the bowl of soup rattling slightly with every pace. Eli's door quickly approached and  she took a deep breath before knocking on the door. "Eli? You decent?" she asked, and barely waited for a response before twisting the doorhandle and opening the door.

The shelves were the first thing she noticed; everything was neat and in it's place and it was a stark contrast to the rest of the room. Books were strewn and piled up on the floor, making Ghanee do a little dance to step over them. It took her a moment to actually find Eli, in his little nest of blankets and pillows on his unmade bed. Ghanee sighed and put the tray down on his desk, then her hands on her hips. 

"Dan told me you haven't been feeling... well." she said.

[teenage-weredom-aint-easy]

New Girl in Town || Ghanee and Haley

Ghanee was painfully bored with this school and she's only spent a total of 3 days in it. She'd transferred right before the break so it was still as if she was brand new.

And she hated it. 

Ghanee didn't work well when she was noticed. The MO of her entire life was to go unnoticed. Unnoticed by hunters, by her peers, by her pack, by the police and all of that went out the window once she was the New Girl, and the school was small enough that people noticed. People prefaced their conversations with "Hey, aren't you that new girl...?" It was next to hell for her. Ghanee bit the inside of her cheek as she walked into the cafeteria with her bagged lunch. It was packed as per usual, and the young woman scanned the seats for a free spot, or even somewhere that would be.. /fun./ 

A grumpy-looking red-head caught her eye and Ghanee made her way over, putting on her disguise.

"Uhm, is anyone sitting here?" she asked with a hopeful smile painted on her face, pointing to the seat next to Haley. " I'm sorry, everything else seems to be taken over by cliques and, well, I don't really know anyone..."

[teenage-weredom-aint-easy]

It doesn't get better || Ghanee and Dan

The scratches were shallower than expected. They treated them with antiseptic and stitches and gave Ghanee painkillers. She had barely said a word throughout it, only mumbling a half-assed explanation as to why she was bleeding profusely from her ribs.  It took a few hours. Turned out it was a busy night. Y'know, it was like they said- crazy stuff tended to go down on full moons. Made people go loco.

Ghanee stared blankly at the doctor who said that to her.  He shuffled awkwardly for a moment before putting his head down and focusing on stitching her together. 

Thankfully, that was all over now.

Ghanee rested her head on the dashboard of Dan's car. She hugged herself gently, looking up briefly to the boy in the driver's seat.

"Sorry." she said quietly.