A Stray No Longer

[Julian Davitt]

His nose brought him to the chicken first. He tore open the plastic-wrap and, taking one in his hand, tore into it immediately. The first bite seemed to make him notice how hungry he actually was. He stopped a moment when he felt eyes on him. Both Aimee and Jennifer were looking at him strangely, he blinked, puzzled, and then his eyes lit up with understanding.

“Hunph,” he said, pushing the plate with the other leg on it towards them. He’d meant to say here, but it was hard to speak with his mouth full. At the very least, he’d kept his mouth mostly shut. He swallowed, and nodded at the leg.

“I’ve never had salad before,” he said, polishing off the meat from the bone.

[Aimee Connors]

"Oh, no, its okay," Aimee said. "You can have that one too." She nodded encouragingly, though the fervor with which he dispatched the chicken leg was a little surprising.

"Salad is good... helps... uh... helps the human body digest all that meat. You might... get a tummy ache if you're not used to... this body?" Aimee was floundering and she knew it. She looked to Jen for help, but the other girl just shrugged and held out a steak from the freezer, still in its plastic wrap.

"We can thaw this in the microwave if you're still hungry," Jennifer said, watching Julian with fascination that bordered on rudeness.

[Julian Davitt]

He kept a steady gaze on Aimee as she spoke and floundered in her words. He wasn’t used to his human body any more than a toddler was used to walking. Still, he took her words to mean that he’d get sick if he didn’t eat salad. It was funny, because as a wolf, he’d eat plants to make himself vomit if he was feeling sick. Maybe it was the same way? If his stomach started hurting, he could eat some salad, and puke out all the stuff that was making him feel bad.

“Maybe I will have some salad,” he said.

Jennifer pulled out a slab of meat that made his eyes widen. His eyes drifted up to her face, and back down to the meat. She was offering it to him, but as he finished off the second chicken leg, he began to feel wary. There’d been a couple of close calls back when he’d been wandering through towns. People generally didn’t waste food on him unless they were trying to capture him (while he was already captured, the reaction was still ingrained) or kill him. Farmers and ranchers of various kinds were the most hostile. He’d learned, like most wild animals, a certain shyness of having humans watching him eat.

“I, uh...” he paused and pulled the chicken bone from his mouth. He’d started gnawing on it, but human teeth weren’t made for getting to the marrow. That’s why humans had hands. “I am still kinda hungry.”

[Alex Kaine]

"I think you might want to actually cook that steak before you feed it to him," Alex suggested, leaning against the entrance to the hallway. "You might want some fruit, too. Here."

Alex walked over to the kitchen table, which had a wooden fruit bowl in the middle, and grabbed an apple. He rolled it across the counter island toward the pile of food Jennifer had already assembled.

"You're not used to this, are you?" he said. "Being human."

[Scott Green]

"Hey awesome you guys are - oh." Scott tried to catch the screen door before it slammed, but missed, and stood awkwardly in the kitchen. "Oh hey. Aloha, dude." He waved at the new guy, and shuffled a little further into the room.

"You're not Hawaiian," Jennifer rolled her eyes as she put something into the microwave that clonked. "Give the poser lingo a rest."

"What! I mean... Whatever." He looked at the new guy and said, "I'm Scott, and she's a bitch. Later dudes, gotta change for work." Scott jogged out of the kitchen, away from the weird energy, and upstairs.

[Julian Davitt]

Julian’s response was cut off due to the entrance of Scott. To the three other teens in the room, if he had hackles, Scott’s sudden appearance would have had them up. The chicken bone in his hand dropped to the floor. It took him a moment to settle down, and he bent over and picked up the chicken bone, and put it on the plate next to the other one. He’d forgotten Alex’s observation.

[Aimee Connors]

The silence following Scott's exit was growing stifiling, and Aimee shifted slightly, her small frame leaning against the counter. "Um, well, if we're waiting on the steak, maybe we should figure out where you're going to sleep."

She smiled hopefully, and then added, "Anna would have final say - oh you still have to meet Anna! She owns the house. But she's cool. Really nice."