The Luna Choosing Game

If the save required her to dive for it, she adamantly refused.

Though Nicholas had no obvious outward reaction to her lack of commitment to the game, after her fifth time no making no effort, his muscles clearly tightened, likely in frustration.

Jessica, meanwhile, gave the game her best effort, but she didn’t have much skill. She wasn’t afraid to dive and get herself sandy, but often when she did so, she would miss the ball entirely.

To be fair, most of the volleys were between Nicholas and Julian. They were both so competitive, and played their absolute best. Eventually the rest

of us shifted to the edges of the court, with those two doing most of the work.

I watched in awe at some of their moves. They dove and twisted and jumped, all while hitting the ball with expert precision.

One volley lasted so long, that I thought we might be here all night. No matter how much one tried to outdo the other, the other was always there to return the ball. I wondered how much werewolf strength they were tapping into, turning this friendly game into a fierce competition.

At each hit Julian made, I loudly cheered while Veronica clapped. At each return Nicholas made, Jessica cheered, while Bridget smiled at the camera.

But then, Bridget’s attention shifted toward Julian. Something dangerous sparkled in her eye. She was definitely up to something, but what? She wasn’t even really part of the play anymore.

were. Everything now was

sand. As she fell forward, she shouted, “Oops!” Just like that

hadn’t noticed, returned the ball as he had for the past ten minutes. In fact, the ball had been hit so near

His eyes were wide and

of his head. It bounced backwards, beyond the out of bounds line, where

still for one long moment.

“Julian!” I cried.

I rushed toward him

adjusted her

careless of me,” she said with a nervous giggle that I wasn’t entirely

face down in the sand, so Veronica and I rolled him over. When we

die?”

“No,” Veronica said.

fingers and asked him to count

“Three,” he said.