Things have changed for me

Jaded Love Chapter 1 How did I get so lucky? For the last month, Eric Taylor has been walking me to my classes and being so sweet to me. I cannot believe that I would be getting Eric’s attention, especially since his ex-girlfriend Danica Evans is the co-captain of the cheerleading squad and beautiful. He is the quarterback of our football team and one of the cutest guys at our school. I am hoping that it is because we are mates as he turned 18 a month ago and I will be turning 18 in 2 weeks, so maybe we are mates? Eric is the soon-to-be Alpha & will be taking over the pack once he finds his mate. Eric is 6’4”, with short, wavy black hair, he has hazel eyes with beautiful green flecks in them & has a killer 8 pack, probably from playing football and training so much. My name is Jade Devoe, and I live in the Howling Wolf Pack, in Tombstone, AZ. My brother, Jeremy Devoe, is the soon-to-be Gamma of this pack & will be working under Eric. Jeremy is already 18 and a senior in school. I am a senior as well, but that is because I have an IQ of 145, so I skipped a grade to graduate a year early. I wanted out of this pack ASAP, as I have been bullied my whole life. My own brother and parents allow it, and my brother even participates in it. My mom didn’t want us in the same grade, so I didn’t start school until I was 6. Jeremy will be turning 19 in two months. Well, until a month ago, that is. Then it all stopped when Eric started talking to me and taking me to my classes. Eric is now escorting me to the cafeteria for lunch, but I am not looking forward to sitting with the “in” crowd. Although they haven’t picked on me recently, I have residual scars from this hateful group, so I don’t trust them, but I am willing to be nice to them to be with Eric. Some of the group are already sitting at the table as Eric & I approach. Eric asks me to go grab him lunch; a cheeseburger, fries & a drink, as he sits down to talk to his Beta & Gamma. I am happy to do it and hurry to get him his food. As I stood in line, I heard the group talking and laughing. I glance over to see what is going on and notice that the table is now completely full. My eyes narrowed as I saw Danica sitting right next to Eric and leaning in towards him, speaking into his ear. Danica is 5’10” with streaked, long blonde hair (totally from a bottle) and hazel eyes. Tall and slim, she looks great in everything with her hourglass figure. My jealousy flairs, even though we are not “officially” dating or anything, I really like Eric and I again hope that we are mates. The group is un-naturally attractive, but that is usually the case for werewolves. My brother Jeremy has dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, he looks just like our parents, with my dad having a little darker blonde than mom does. He is 6’3” and in great shape, but with all the training he does, he should be. The soon-to-be Beta, Calvin Williams, is gorgeous. He has brown hair that he leaves short on the back and longer at the top and just brushes it over out of his eyes in a patented panty-melting way. At 6’4”, all the girls think he is handsome, and with a strong jawline and gorgeous chocolate eyes, he is every girl’s dream. I must admit, I have had a crush on him for the last 2 years, but I have never said anything to anyone about it. Calvin turns 18 two days before I do, and they are as close as brothers. Eric has 3 other friends that are with him all the time: Kyle Richards is 6’2” with short blonde hair and blue eyes, he looks like a walking Ken doll, with that cleft in his chin. Michael Jones is 6’1” with short brown hair and brown hazel eyes and is a running back on the football team. Jonathon Roberts is the shortest member of the group at 6’ and is the kicker for the football team. He is the quietest member of the group and has short brown hair & grey eyes. He is always observing, but not commenting on the conversation. He is also the nicest to me in this group, because he doesn’t try to hurt me as the others do. I see the other co-captain of the cheerleading team, Claire Hanlon, is there at the table too. Claire stands at 5’9” and has short black hair, coming to a point at her chin, with gorgeous blue eyes. Claire also doesn’t participate in my bullying, but she doesn’t try to stop it either. I have seen her looking at me with pity but moved on with the group when they went to leave. As I turned back to move up the lunch line, I saw the bane of my existence, Sophia Neil, approaching the table. Sophia has got beautiful balayage streaked layers in her hair and is always dressed to impress. She is 5’9” and is extremely thin. She has grey eyes & no curves, as she is always on a diet. Sophia is dating Calvin and goes out of her way to trip me or say mean things to me. She doesn’t mind hurting me physically, even though I have never done anything to her. She seems to really enjoy it; she is a hateful person. She is always looking for an opportunity to try to hurt me, and I avoid her at all costs. I ordered a salad for myself with grilled chicken as I have been trying to eat better for the last month. I am over 80 lbs. overweight, even at 5’11” tall. I weigh 240, but I should weigh around 150. I am a solid size 16, but I have a curvy body & a beautiful face. If I had a nickel for every time someone told me “You would be beautiful if you just lost weight”, I would probably be rich. I have long wavy blonde hair down to my waist, but I usually keep it up in a ponytail, or in a bun. I have beautiful green eyes, and I think that they are my best feature. I have a heart-shaped face, with a dimple on my right cheek. I don’t really resemble either of my parents, but I do love my eye color and probably got it from my grandparents, as I have never gotten to meet them and don’t know what they look like. My mother’s parents are deceased, and I have never gotten to meet my father’s parents. I have always eaten extra for comfort. It helps me to calm myself, especially after a tough day. I enjoy eating and, as I am usually holed up in my room, I snack. I only have 2 friends at the school, and that has only been in the last 2 years as well. If anyone tried to be friendly to me, the group shut it down quickly. They had both moved to Tombstone and I just clicked with them both. My best friend, Nicole Morris, is a platinum blonde with grey-blue eyes. She is turning 18 next month and is still looking for her mate. She is a size 10 and looks perfect with her hourglass curves. She moved here a little over 2 years ago and defends me every time she sees the group picking on me. She is a werewolf-like me and got to change when she turned 18. My other friend, Jessica Flores, is beautiful with her wavy brown hair & beautiful brown eyes. She is petite at 5’5” and is not a werewolf, as we go to a human & werewolf school. I was not allowed to tell her about us, and we are not allowed to turn at school, so none of the humans suspect any of us to be werewolves. Jessica already knew about werewolves though, because she dated one at her last school, and he told her. I pay for Eric’s food & place it on my tray with my salad & bottle of water. I noticed they stopped talking as I approached the table. I gave Eric his food & then looked around to find a seat, as the table was completely full. Danica looks at me with a smirk & says “why are you still here, why don’t you go find your loser friends?” Sophia starts laughing and says “about time you started eating a salad. You are SO fat, if I looked like you, I would probably kill myself”. The group laughs until Eric tells them to shut up. “Jade, you can sit right here next to me,” Eric tells me. My heart skips a beat as he is giving me the seat that Danica is currently sitting in, as he looks into Danica’s eyes. Danica slowly gets up and as she passes me, she hits my tray, knocking my food and water bottle to the floor. “Look where you are going you stupid, fat f**k” Danica says. Sophia gets up along with Claire and they both look at me trying to clean up the mess all over the floor, laughing as they walk away with Danica. The guys don’t offer to help me, and Eric starts eating his food. I threw the mess that is now all over my tray into the trash & went over to get another bottle of water to tide me over, as the other water bottle busted when it hit the floor. I have a part-time job, but I don’t have very much money left this week to buy more food for lunch, as I have been buying all of Eric’s lunches at school for the last month. I went to sit next to Eric and wait for the bell for lunch to be over. We head out to our next class and Eric says that he wants to ask me a question after school. I forget about my hunger and get excited about what he wants to ask. I told him that I would meet him by my motorcycle after school.