Family Secrets

I suppose I should start at the beginning in order for you to understand. My family dates back to the original Native Americans in the United States, only from multiple tribes that lived in harmony. That was, until the white man came and tribes started to separate because of their idealism’s being different from one another. After the first war between our tribes, the witches settled into our world from everywhere else in the world.

The witches were angered with the Native Americans and put a curse on the original families. There were twelve original tribe families whose names were changed through-out history as to hide from the witches that cursed them. My specific family is one of the only ones left that have not bred with the any of the other tribes. We have tried to dilute the curse through generations of children with humans, but nothing seems to work, and if anything the males are more irritable and hot headed in their teenage years. To this day our kind hides in secrecy as the witch lines grow stronger and greater in number and we cannot stop creating more of us once we decide to begin families, no matter how normal our ‘mates’ or spouses are.

“First day of summer! Finally!” Autumn says as she hops on my back with squeals of excitement. I playfully roll my eyes at my wolf friend as she nips at my ear.

“Not like we didn’t skip almost a week out of each month during school anyways,” I comment back at her as she hops down and her smile turn into a pout.

“Not my fault the our wolves like time out. It’s like my mom says-”

“‘A wolf that doesn’t shift when needed turns insane’. Yeah yeah, I know,” I say finishing her sentence. She smiles proudly at me. I throw the rest of the things from the inside of my locker into the huge duffel bag I brought in from my car. Autumn decided to pack her things yesterday and pretend to pay attention today.

“And besides we’re going to be seniors in a few months. Our grades are amazing, and we always make sure to take our week out when nothing big is happening. It is all signed as mental breaks anyways,” she shrugs and grabs the magnetic mirror out of my locker to look at her lip-gloss before applying more.

“That’s only because my dad is the principal and your dad is the superintendent,” I remind her. She once again just shrugs and then puts the mirror in my cramped bag of notebooks and jackets. We both walk out the doors towards my car. Our dads ran the school, but our moms were the best general law attorneys in the state.

“You’re just lucky that you get the live across the street from me and have the best freaking summer of our lives,” Autumn says before ducking into my car.

“Mom, we can’t just leave! Things here are so good. I have Autumn and you and dad both have amazing, well paying jobs!” I shout at her as she walks up the stairs with more boxes.

“It’s not my choice, LeeAnna. We have to go, for everyone’s safety. Especially yours,” she gives me a pointed look and I look at her confused.

“What is that supposed to even mean, Mom?” I ask her as I run after her up the stairs. She turns back quickly as she looks at me.

“It’s not safe here anymore, L. We’re leaving. If you don’t pack your things, then I will.”

“Where are we even going to go?”

“Somewhere safe.”

Dad comes home about an hour after mom has dropped the bomb on me and I run towards him. “Dad, Mom has completely lot it. She’s gone insane. She says we’re leaving and she won’t tell me anything.” Dad gives me a simple nod before grabbing more boxes from off of the porch and bringing them inside. My eyes go wide as I follow him. “Why isn’t anyone telling me anything?!” Dad turns around and gives me the same look that mom had earlier.

“We are the parents and you are the child. We say we are leaving, so we are leaving.” My jaw drops at his tone. Dad has never talked to me like this before.

“Dad, can I at least say bye to Autumn? We’ve been best friends since the first grade. They’ve moved with us everywhere. Autumn’s family doesn’t look like they’re bringing in boxes and moving around their house preparing to leave without so much as a letter good-bye to their friends.”

“No. You cannot tell anyone that we are leaving, for your own safety,” Dad dismisses me and I feel my stomach drop to my feet. I am being forced to move somewhere they won’t tell me and I can’t even go tell my best friend goodbye. What is even happening right now?

*Ba-ding* My phone goes off as I am putting the last of my clothes from my dresser into a box. I go over to it to see an Instagram notification pop up. Autumn Sumners tagged you in a post. I sigh and open my phone while sitting on my bed. It’s a picture of us in my car fifteen minutes before I got home, right after we got celebration ice cream. The caption read- “Summer just isn’t the same if you don’t kick it off with ice cream.” I sigh and feel the tears well up in my eyes.

I will never get to see Autumn after today and I doubt my parents will let me keep social media, seeing as how wherever we are going is supposed to be a secret. I let a single tear roll down my face before continuing to put the last ten years of my life into boxes.

I wake up around midnight to hear something hitting my window repeatedly. I groan and roll off of the little couch that was left in my room for my last night in it before going to my window. I look out and don’t see anything so I shrug it off before going back to the couch. I had suggested to my mother to just let us sleep in wolf form and not having to worry about moving the couches out of the house in the morning but she just glared at my suggestion.

“You and I might be wolves, but your father is not and it would be wrong to leave him cold and without comfort while we give our wolves the satisfaction of being out in the house one last time.” I groaned and apologized to dad, forgetting that he was human. I always had wondered why mom never decided to be with her own kind. I will have to ask her in the morning. I yawn and get back under the covers before falling back asleep.