The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series)
most elaborate plan, but better than nothing.
    We went inside and Lucy and I journeyed to the kitchen to scrounge for food, our stomachs growling for having missed lunch. My bright, sunny kitchen, with walls painted a yellow so light it’s almost white seemed out of place with our current moods. Maple cabinets, white tile counter tops, and plenty of plants in multicolored ceramic pots complete the cozy, cottage-like feel. I could tell that Lucy felt anything but cozy.
    We found my mom standing by the coffee pot, drinking a freshly made cup. My mom and I are different in a lot of ways, but we both run on the same fuel—coffee. We had actually recently agreed to try and cut back. It wasn’t going too well.
    All we could find to eat was a box of macaroni and cheese of indeterminate age and some rice cakes. Mac and cheese it was. I set about making it while my mom quizzed us about our day at school, receiving only vague and generic answers. Once the mac and cheese was done I divided it into blue ceramic bowls. I grabbed a cup of coffee, standing by my conviction that coffee goes with everything, and Lucy and I went into the dining room to sit and eat at the pale wood table.
    I watched Lucy out of the corner of my eye as we ate. She rubbed her arm, with a nervous strain to her face. Allison had stayed in the kitchen to talk to my mom. I eavesdropped until Allison mentioned a sale at a local boutique, then quickly tuned them out. I focused on making myself swallow the macaroni. Yeah, I was beginning to get an idea of its age.
    As we finished eating, my mom came into the dining room and grabbed our bowls to stack in the dishwasher. Lucy and I headed upstairs to my room. Allison said a quick goodbye to my mom, then followed us up. We sat on my plush beige carpeting pow-wow style.
    “So tell me more about Jason,” Allison began.
    Rolling my eyes, I answered, “We don’t know much, just what we told you about what happened in the woods.”
    Allison pouted at the lack of details on the new cute boy.
    “So he knows about werewolves?” Lucy interjected.
    “Um, apparently so,” I replied. “I asked him how he knew, but he said he’d explain it later.”
    “I’m not sure how I feel about him being involved,” Lucy said. “We know even less about him than we do about Dan. Why wouldn’t he tell you how he knew about all of this werewolf stuff? For all we know he could be working with Dan.”
    I shrugged. I didn’t want to tell her that I was simply acting on my gut instinct in trusting him. “What choice do we have?”
    Lucy’s face screwed up in consternation. “Good point.”
    “Plus,” Allison added. “You must admit, the boy is not bad to look at.” I rolled my eyes at her and she went on, “C’mon Xoe, don’t act like you didn’t notice, I saw you making moon-eyes at him as he went to his car, and don’t get me started on the car.” She smiled with a sigh and looked away, as if imaging the car in her mind.
    “Okay,” I conceded. “I admit that he is not bad to look at, but there are much more pressing issues to focus on.”
    Allison dismissed me with a wave of her hand. “When is he supposed to come?”
    “I don't know . . . ” I began to reply when I was interrupted by a knock on my bedroom door.
    My mom waited for me to open the door, then gave me her best scrutinizing look.
    “What?” I asked, confused.
    She placed her hands on her hips. “Did you forget to tell me something?”
    I gave her a blank stare.
    She continued, “Care to explain why two young men are waiting downstairs?”
    Two? “Oh, er, um, just friends coming over to study mom, geez,” I replied as nonchalantly as possible.
    She walked away with a look of motherly knowing and I followed her downstairs.
    The second boy in question was Max, who stood just inside the closed front door. The very Max that had been sitting with Dan the dreadful day that Allison dragged him to our lunch table. Max was short for a guy, about 5’4”. He

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