For as long as I could remember, I hadn't kept anything a secret from Ivy. Half the time it was because she squeezed information out of me, the other half because I blurted it out in excitement. Now I had been keeping several major events under wraps for quite some time. Besides discreetly seeing Brandon, I'd managed to keep three classified secrets: one, that Brandon Maddox had rescued me from the wolves; two, that I was in love with him; and three, the Westsider I was in love with might possibly be a werewolf.
The secrets burned inside me. If I told Ivy about Brandon, she'd be upset that I was in love with anyone other than Nash. And if I told her he might be a werewolf, she'd clearly think it was a prank. She'd be in as much disbelief as I had been and, like me, would want proof. Finally, the news of a teen werewolf would spread through the town faster than a flood. Brandon's existence would ultimately be at stake. Before I told anyone anything, I needed to know for sure what was happening with Brandon - if his dreams and what I thought I'd seen meant that he was, indeed, a werewolf.
My calendar and my notebook became my best tools. As the days passed by, I logged all possible lycanthropic events - the three nights when the moon appeared full, Brandon woke up shirtless and covered in dirt. Brandon dreamed a lot during waning and waxing moons. He was ravenous during the day. And I noted the shapes of the moon and circled the date of the next full moon, which was several weeks away.
Brandon continued to be a loner at school - keeping to himself in the cafeteria while my friends and I gathered at the popular table. I was completely torn up about it. I wanted to go over and sit by his side. Every other table was crowded with friends and cliques. I'd be the only one to break out of the pattern that had gone on for years in Legend's Run. Most important, I would lose my best friends if I chose the Westside over the East. Plus, I worried that Brandon could change his mind about me at any moment. He clearly had some strange things going on in his life. But I couldn't get his kisses out of my mind, and of course, his saving me that day in the snow created a special bond between us.
Regardless, I watched Ivy and Abby chat and cuddle with their boyfriends as day after day I'd stare at Brandon and watch him eat alone, all the while wanting to be sitting beside him.
"Why so glum?" Ivy asked one day at lunch.
"It's nothing."
"You miss Nash, don't you?"
"Now that you mention it... I - "
"You do?" she said.
I don't, I was going to say. "Why don't we invite Brandon to sit at our table?" I asked Ivy. I gestured to the handsome guy, who was pulling several
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