Losing Control

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Chapter 1

She was running for her life. Thick torrents of rain plastered her long-sleeved dress to her body. Her bare feet slipped on ice mud as she raced through the blackened forest. She could hear the snarls and howls of the wolves chasing her but didn’t dare look back. One mistake, on slip or fall and she would be theirs.

She ran blindly through the muck, her hands stretched out in front of her as she fled from the monsters. She realized the sounds of pursuit had subsided and she dared a glance over her shoulder. She dared a glance over her shoulder and screamed when she stumbled over a tree root and went sprawling in the mud. The wolves circled her, one or two snapping at her as they all snarled and bared their long white fangs. She scrambled away but every where she went was blocked by another wolf. One wolf grabbed her ankle and pulled her towards the others. She twisted and kicked at it but to no avail. She was caught, trapped by these monsters. She flipped onto her back as another wolf went for her throat, its white fangs piercing her neck as she tried to scream.

Ashley Holbrook woke with a start, the dream still holding her as her eyes snapped open and then shut again. She shook her head as though that would chase away the nightmare. She took a deep breath, then another and finally opened her eyes, searching for the clock on the bedside table. 5:12 AM. She grimaced. It was time to get up. Today was the first day of her senior year at Mason Ridge Academy, a private school near Lake Superior in Mason Ridge, Wisconsin. She scowled as she threw the blankets aside, grabbed her turquoise robe and shuffled down the hall to the bathroom.

Mason Ridge Academy was a very exclusive school – even with her stepdad’s high paying job she’d had to apply for financial aid to gain admittance – and she wasn’t looking forward to being surrounded by snobs. She’d hated those people at her public high school in Chicago and she knew she wouldn’t like the ones here either.

She turned on the shower and turned to the mirror while the water heated. It was worse than she’d thought. Black circles ringed her bloodshot blue eyes. Her shoulder length blond hair stuck up in every direction. Her face was pale and drawn. She was not going to make a good first impression. She grimaced and stepped under the hot spray praying for a miracle.

Twenty five minutes later, no miracle had arrived but Ashley felt a little more human. She hated being up in the middle of the night but a series of storms had come through during the night and kept her up well past midnight. She yawned as she changed into the mandatory school uniform: black skirt, white blouse, a red blazer with the school crest on the pocket, white socks and black shoes. She couldn’t find her shoes and got down on her hands and knees to search her closet floor. She noticed a small door at the back of the closet and wondered if it was an extra storage area. She knew her house had many of them. She decided that must be it and tried the handle, grimacing when she found it locked. Obviously her shoes wouldn’t be there. She shoved a pair of boots out of the way and found her shoes. She grimaced as she stood up and slipped her feet into them before turning to her vanity. Her mind drifted back to the nightmare as she applied enough makeup to hide the circles and she wondered why she’d dreamt about wolves. She didn’t understand it; she hadn’t thought about anything like that in three years. Deciding it was the likelihood of wolves lurking in the trees that filled her backyard, she glanced in the mirror, was happy to see she didn’t look half dead and headed downstairs.

Ashley stopped short when she heard the rustling of the morning newspaper and knew Robert, her stepdad, was already up. Her morning was not getting any better; she’d hoped to avoid him this morning since he was more than likely going to give her another lecture about how Mason Ridge Academy was better than her previous school. Ever since he’d convinced her mom to move here and registered Ashley for school, Robert thought it was his place to tell Ashley how much better off she was now. Arranging her features into an expression she hoped looked pleasant, she walked into the kitchen and helped herself to a glass of orange juice while she toasted two pieces of bread. Once her toast was done, she smothered it with butter and raspberry jam and sat down at the table with her stepfather. He barely glanced at her over the top of his paper.

"Are Mom and AJ still sleeping?" she asked as she nibbled on her breakfast.

"Yes. Ashton is in bed with her. Your mother went to check on him at midnight and brought him back to our room. She said his room was ice cold."

"Huh, that's weird. Maybe you should turn the heat on tonight. It was pretty cool last night with all the storms coming through."

Robert didn't comment, he just exchanged the front page for the Business section and hid behind it. That was the way it was with him. Either you said something he liked or he ignored you. Quite frankly, Ashley preferred being ignored.

“Looking forward to your first day of school?” he asked from behind the newspaper. Ashley rolled her eyes as she wondered why he was bothering; he’d never tried to be nice before. He folded down the corner of the paper when she didn’t answer right away, his stern look reminding her of what she thought a father should be like.

“Well?” he barked.

“I guess,” Ashley mumbled as she continued to nibble on her toast and studied the bland pattern on the table cloth. She didn’t want to talk to him. She hated him. It was his fault they’d moved to this godforsaken town in the first place. She and her mom had gotten a letter about being the sole heirs to their ancestral home, Holbrook Manor, and the next thing Ashley knew, they were moved in and she was registered for classes at Mason Ridge Academy. She glared at the table. She knew what was coming next.

“I think Mason Ridge Academy is going to be an excellent school for you. Their policies are strict, which will be good for you since discipline was lax in that public school you came from. But they’re among the top private schools in the nation and it’s said dignitaries from around the country try to get their kids in every year. Only a few are selected. You should be proud to be going to such a school,” Robert declared and Ashley glanced at the clock. It was only 6:34. Damn. It was too early to leave for school.

As Robert continued his diatribe about how private schools were better than public schools, Ashley stuffed the rest of her toast in her mouth and escaped at the first chance to go brush her teeth and run out of the house before she screamed at him that she didn’t care what his opinions were since no one had bothered to asked her what she thought about all of this.

She yelled goodbye to Robert and walked out to her forest green Kia Sportage, complete with baby car seat in the back seat. She thought about taking it out – the last thing she needed was for rumors to fly about having her own kid – but then knew it was pointless because she had to pick up AJ from the sitter’s once she was done at school. She glanced up at the sky before sliding in behind the wheel. The dark gray clouds look heavy with the promise of rain. She hoped it would. At least when it rained, the sky lightened enough that it didn’t feel like the dead of night in the middle of the day. She was starting to wonder if the sun ever shined in Mason Ridge.

The town of Mason Ridge boasted a population of 1263 when school was not in session. Holbrook Manor sat at the end of Ridge Road, one of three main roads in town. It met up with Scheffer Circle, which was dissected by what she considered to be the town’s version of Main Street, Division Street. Division Street housed all the shops in town, a bar that hosted a dry night every Friday, a bowling alley, a pizza parlor and a park. The park was one of Ashley’s favorite things about the town. It had a big play area for babies and toddlers and a pond in the center, which she’d been told was used as an ice skating rink in the winter. Besides dancing, ice skating was one of her favorite things to do.

Mason Ridge Academy sat at the top of the hill near where Scheffer Circle met up with Ridge Road when coming from Holbrook Manor. It took Ashley less than five minutes to get to it and she wondered if driving was economical since she lived so close. She pulled in the half-filled lot and was reminded just how far out of her league she was. She could count on one hand the types of cars she recognized – Porsche, BMW, Mercedes – and there were about a dozen whose rear bumpers boasted names in languages she didn’t understand.

Ashley pulled into the first spot she found and turned off her car. She sat behind the wheel for a moment, safely hidden behind her darkly tinted windows. That feeling only lasted a second when a motorcycle pulled up in the spot next to hers and the driver looked right at her as though he could see her through the nearly black tint. A tingling shiver shot down her spine as he pulled off his helmet and stowed it on the back of his bike. Thick chocolate brown hair fell in waves around his face, his golden eyes curious as he glanced at her again. She stopped breathing, unaware she was holding her breath until he finally walked away towards the school.

“Who was that?” she wondered out loud as she gathered her bag and purse and climbed out of her truck. She glanced ahead of her and stopped when she looked up at the school towering over her, all thoughts of the cute boy lost as panic threatened to overcome her. She hated new places. The only thing she remembered from her tour a week ago was where the Main Office was located; maybe she could get a map or be lucky enough to find someone willing to take pity on her and give her another tour of the school.

She grimaced as she looked up at the school built like a medieval castle and walked inside. She kept her head down and dodged the crowds milling around waiting for the bell to ring as she searched for the office. She glanced around as she walked, subconsciously looking for the boy with the bike, and noticed how a lot of people were already grouped together in little cliques. The knot in her stomach tightened. There was no way she was going to fit in here if everyone already had their groups put together; nobody ever took pity on the new kid.

“Finally,” she breathed when she caught sight of the sign for the office hanging over an open doorway and hurried towards it. She ran into someone in her hurry and looked up to mumble an apology. Her eyes widened when she recognized the boy she’d been looking for. Her expression softened into a smile as his eyes widened in surprise. At least she hoped it was surprise as he mumbled something unintelligible, turned on his heel and ran in the opposite direction. Confused and slightly hurt, she walked into the Main Office.

A long L-shaped counter dominated the small room. A petite woman with blonde hair pulled back in a tight ponytail looked up when Ashley entered the office. She noticed the woman wore black slacks, a white blouse and a red sweater with wire framed glasses hiding her grey eyes. Her smile looked strained as Ashley approached the counter. Ashley glanced away and noticed there was already another girl in the room.

“Can I help you?” the receptionist, whose name plate read Amber Redland, asked sharply.

“I’m Ashley Holbrook, I need to pick up my schedule and maybe a map,” she replied hesitantly.

“We don’t have maps,” the woman snapped and turned away to page through a box on the counter behind her. The other girl in the room turned towards Ashley and brightly smiled. The girl wore the required uniform with black ankle boots and black framed glasses on her face. Her mousy brown hair hung to her shoulders and had a dull sheen in the florescent lighting. The girl looked rather plain but friendly and Ashley hoped the girl could help her out.

“You must be new. What did you say your name was?” the girl asked.

“Ashley Holbrook.”

“I thought that’s what you said. My name is Anni Morow. That’s two Ns, one I and only one R. It’s so good to meet you. Everyone’s talking about you and I get to be the one to show you around. You will let me show you around, won’t you? I can’t believe Travis was right, that you would be getting your schedule, too. Of course, Travis is always right – he has a way about these things, you know. But still, it just blows my mind that he knew I would meet you. It’s like he can read minds or see the future. It’s like fate, don’t you think?”

The girl stopped and looked expectantly at Ashley as the receptionist turned around with Ashley’s schedule in her hand, which she took without further comment. She looked at the girl, Anni Morow, and hesitantly smiled, which the girl returned with triple wattage.

“Maybe it is like fate,” Ashley agreed and the girl giggled, wrapping her arm around Ashley’s as she led her out of the office.
“Let me show you around. We have a few minutes before the first bell,” Anni offered and Ashley gratefully agreed as they began walking down the hall.

Chapter 2

Anni spent the next ten minutes giving Ashley a tour of the school, pointing out her classrooms and any teachers they passed along the way. There was Mrs. Rebecca Orwin, the upper level English teacher whose straight black hair was pulled into a severe bun at the back of her head and who reminded Ashley of a female drill sergeant. Anni also pointed out Coach Warren Moon, who coached football and wrestling and was also the Health and gym class instructor; Oz Stapleton, the economics and sociology teacher; and Ryan McGee, the hippy art instructor Ashley thought was very cute. Anni giggled and agreed when Ashley told her this. Ashley also got to meet Marion Now, her dance instructor, and was surprised to see the teacher wearing black leggings, a black leotard, a long red tunic sweater and black clogs.

“One of the few instructors who gets away with breaking the rules,” Anni told Ashley as they walked out of the performing arts wing of the school. “I’m sure you remember Coach Moon in his grey sweats a few minutes ago.”

Ashley nodded as she wrinkled her nose and the girls giggled again. Ashley found she really liked Anni and was glad she was her first friend. She hoped everyone would be as nice to her as Anni had been so far.

Once the guided tour was over, Anni suggested they stand outside the classroom of their first class, Trigonometry.

“I feel stupid and everyone is staring at me,” Ashley complained after a few minutes of standing in the hall. Anni smiled as she craned her neck to look over the crowd around them. It was obvious they were standing outside the classroom because Anni was waiting for someone, probably the mind reading Travis. That didn’t mean she had to like it. She hated being the center of attention. That was the one good thing about her public high school in Chicago; it was big enough to get lost in.

“Of course everyone is staring at you; it’s not like we get new people around here every day,” Anni replied.

“Well, is there a reason we’re standing out here? Couldn’t we just go sit down?” Ashley pressed and Anni shook her head.

“In a minute; I’m waiting for Travis,” Anni replied and Ashley smiled. She couldn’t get mad at something like that.

“Fine, then tell me more about the people here. Who’s cool and who should I stay away from?”

“The only people you need to know are Alyssa and Amanda Mason. Their great-great-grandfather founded this town a little more than three hundred years ago and they basically own this school. Anything they say goes. They can’t do anything wrong and if they do, it’s overlooked. They decide who’s cool and who’s not, what the trends are, and what you shouldn’t be doing.”

“Wow, they definitely sound like people I should steer clear of.”

“Are you kidding?” Anni exclaimed, turning on Ashley with wide eyes. She spun so fast her glasses slipped down her nose and she pushed them back in place as she stared at Ashley in disbelief. “Alyssa and Mandi are the people to know. They’re the only ones to know! They are the coolest girls. I mean, Alyssa can be a bitch some times, but she’s usually pretty cool. And Mandi is just awesome. She’s unbelievably smart; she’s always reading something new or obscure. You’re really going to like them. You’ll see.”

“Yeah, okay.” Ashley rolled her eyes. She’d dealt with girls like that in Chicago and the experience had left a bad taste in her mouth.

“Well, you’re going to find out sooner rather than later; here they come!” Anni exclaimed and raced down the hall. Ashley watched as the girl jumped into the arms of a boy she could only assume was Travis. He was tall and muscular with dark brown hair and dark eyes behind silver framed glasses. He was cute in an intelligent kind of way. With him was another boy with short black hair and arms the size of tree trunks and a petite girl with red hair spiked into a wreath around her head. Ashley noticed all of them were beautiful and had porcelain skin. She thought that was odd until she looked at the students milling around them and noticed almost everyone had pale skin. She wondered if her skin, which was currently the color of honey from a summer spent at the beach, would lose its color, too.

Ashley glanced at Anni, who was still in Travis’s arms and passionately greeting him, and noticed two girls standing nearby. One wore the required uniform though her red blazer was obviously made just for her and her black skirt was straight instead of pleated. She wore horn rimmed glasses and held a very thick leather bound book in her hands. Ashley wondered if this was Mandi. She decided if that was the case, then the girl next to her could only be her sister, Alyssa. Alyssa wore a skirt that was obviously too short, a white blouse open halfway to her navel and her blond hair in pigtails. Ashley grimaced. Obviously, Britney Spears had nothing on her. She looked away from the twins and noticed Anni and Travis walking towards her. Anni grinned up at him adoringly, her face alight with love. Anni introduced Travis and the boy with tree trunks for arms was introduced as Erik Hatfield.

“Hi, I’m Lily Stewart. Who are you?” the girl with the red spikes introduced herself and Ashley smiled as she shook the girl’s hand. Her smile slightly faltered at how cool the girl’s touch was; was everyone this cold here?

“Ashley Holbrook,” she replied. “I like what you did with your hair.”

Lily beamed. “Really? I could do something like it to yours if you’d like.” She picked up a lock of Ashley’s hair and let it slide through her fingers. “You have beautiful hair.”

“Thanks.” Ashley tucked a piece behind her ear as her cheeks warmed. “I’ll think about it. I can’t believe they let you wear it like that. It’s so stuffy here.”

“Oh, I know. This is the only way I can rebel – at least modestly.” Lily glanced over her shoulder and Ashley followed her gaze to the Britney Spears wannabe. The blonde rolled her eyes and did a good impression of being bored. The spell was broken when she caught Ashley staring at her and glared at her instead of smiling. Ashley quickly looked away and blushed when Lily smiled.

“Don’t mind Alyssa. She’s just a little miffed because my brother wouldn’t drive us to school today,” Lily confided in a whisper as the first bell rang. “Oh! That’s the bell. It was good to meet you, Ashley. See you around.”

Lily leaned forward and pecked Ashley’s cheek before grabbing Alyssa’s hand and pulling her down the hall toward their first class. Ashley watched them go in a daze, confused by what just happened. She was pretty sure Lily had flirted with her. Ashley rolled her eyes and shook her head as Anni raced up to her, blowing kisses to Travis as he jogged down the hall.

“Bye, baby, I love you!” Anni called after Travis and then grabbed Ashley’s hand and pulled her into the classroom.

“Come on; let’s get a seat before Mr. Hamilton marks us absent,” Anni told her as they walked in and chose seats near the back of the room.

Chapter 3

Mr. Hamilton handed out books and went over the syllabus and then gave then the last fifteen minutes of the hour to talk. Anni immediately turned to Ashley and asked to see her schedule.

“Ooh, you have French with Lily. She’s sweet, isn’t she?” Anni told her and giggled. Ashley smiled.

“Yeah, she’s great,” Ashley agreed. “A little weird, but great.”

“What do you mean?”

“She kissed me this morning – I mean, just my cheek, but still; it kind of creped me out.”

Anni shrugged. “That’s just Lily; you’ll get used to it.” She glanced back at Ashley’s schedule and frowned. “Oh, you have Alyssa in your English class. That’s going to suck.”

“Why? I mean, I thought she wasn’t that bad. Lily said this morning Alyssa was just mad because her brother wouldn’t take them to school this morning.”

“Yeah, Alyssa and Gabriel dated for a while; in fact, I think Alyssa still thinks they’re together. Oh my God, did you see what she was wearing today? I just can’t believe she showed up in something like that.”

“Yeah, Britney Spears has nothing on her,” Ashley replied drily and Anni laughed out loud.

“That was great; I have to remember to tell Travis about that.”

“What’s the deal with you and Travis anyway? Didn’t you see each other over the summer?”

“Every day. Why?”

“It’s just the way you greeted him; it was rather… enthusiastic.”

“I just can’t help it. I love him so much I can’t contain it. Haven’t you ever been in love?”

“Well, once I thought I was but if what you have is true love then I guess I really wasn’t. It just blows my mind that you can love someone so intensely.”

Anni beamed, a faraway look clouding her brown eyes. “Travis and I met two years ago when my mom moved us here from North Dakota. I was new and kind of dorky so you can imagine what it was like when this hunky football god paid attention to me. Then he asked me out and we went to Homecoming. Oh my god; Homecoming! You have to go to the dance!”

“What?” Ashley stared at her in amazement. One minute they were talking about how she and Travis hooked up and all of a sudden the Homecoming dance was brought into it. Trying to figure out how that girl’s mind worked was like following a needle through a haystack; it just wasn’t happening.

“Homecoming. It’s the second week of October. Everybody goes. It’s the first formal dance where everyone shows up in the latest styles and gets to see who’s dating who. You have to go. Don’t worry, there are plenty of guys around here I’m sure would love to go with you if you don’t know who to ask.”

“Are we supposed to ask the guys?” Ashley swallowed hard. She hated dances like that. Meeting a guy was hard enough; adding the pressure of asking them to a formal dance was absolute torture.

“Well, no.” Anni chewed her lower lip for a moment before shaking her head and grinning at Ashley. “Sorry, I’m a bit scatterbrained.”

“It’s okay. There’s a lot to learn around here and it can be overwhelming if you’re the one to tell someone new all about it. I get it.”

Anni smiled appreciatively. “Thanks. I was so nervous about meeting you. I mean, everyone in town’s been talking about the new occupants of the Holbrook Manor house but no one’s really seen you yet. Someone said you have a kid; is that right?”

“He’s my baby brother,” Ashley corrected her and sighed. “I help out my mom a lot.”

Anni nodded as though she understood. “Oh yeah, well, having a baby is a lot of work – or so I’ve been told. What’s his name?”

“Ashton James, but I call him AJ. He’s six months old already. I can’t believe it; I swear just yesterday my mom brought him home from the hospital. He has black curls and big blue eyes and he’s so adorable.” Ashley beamed. Her smile faltered slightly as she thought about the boy from this morning. Who was he? Should she ask Anni about him? She really didn’t know if she should since she’d just told Anni she didn’t want to date right now.

The bell rang to end class before Ashley could make up her mind and she sighed as she stuffed her book into her bag and walked out of the room with Anni. Ashley told Anni she’d see her at lunch and hurried down to the performing arts wing. She had dance this hour and she couldn’t wait for it to start. It had been a crazy morning and it was only nine o’clock.

Dance went better than Ashley had anticipated. Marion told them they were doing interpretive dance and hip hop this semester, two of Ashley’s favorite styles. To top it off, their recital in December was themed after Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera, one of Ashley’s favorite Broadway musicals. She wanted to ask for a solo in “All I Ask of You” but didn’t want to appear too eager. She figured it was better to wait and see what everyone else did before she voiced her own opinions about the dances.

Ashley raced off to the science wing after dance class, where she had Biology. She got lost along the way and managed to walk into the room right behind the teacher. She slid into the nearest seat as the teacher walked to the front of the room, set his briefcase on the desk and popped it open.

“Hi,” the person next to her greeted her, sounding a bit surprised. Ashley looked up and her eyes widened when she found the boy from this morning sitting next to her. She began to smile but then stopped when she remembered how he’d run away when she’d smiled this morning.

“You’re not going to run away again, are you?” she asked. God, he had beautiful hazel eyes. And his hair; her fingers itched to play with it so bad she nearly had to sit on her hands to keep them to herself. She scolded herself when she realized she was acting like a lovesick school girl. She didn’t even know this guy and if this morning’s reaction to her was any indication, he didn’t want to get to know her. So why was he being nice now?

“I have nowhere I can run to,” he pointed out crookedly smiling.

“Mr. Deveraux, since you seem so cozy with the latest addition to our student body, would you like to introduce her to the rest of the class?” Mr. Andrews interrupted them and Ashley blushed as the boy next to her stood up and faced the class.

“This is Ashley Holbrook, recently moved into Holbrook Manor from Chicago. She’s blonde, she’s beautiful and everyone should get to know her,” he declared and retook his seat.

“Including me,” he quietly added and Ashley covered her face as her cheeks went from red to deep crimson. She couldn’t believe this! She had one girl crushing on her and a very cute boy sitting next to her practically making googly eyes at her. And it wasn’t even lunch time! How had she suddenly become so popular?

“Thank you, Mr. Deveraux, now that I know you and Miss Holbrook are accounted for, do you two mind if I continue class?” the teacher added and the boy nodded. Ashley folded her arms on the table in front of her and hid her face until the teacher called the class to attention.