Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Wednesday 9 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

“Are you sure you’re okay, Nat?”

Cody still looked somewhat concerned as she followed me, while I limped from the obstacle course to the benches where we typically sat for lunch.

“It’s fine, Cody.” My ankle hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, but there was no way I was going to let her know that.

“I mean, I’m not going to lie. That tumble you took in the tyre section was epic. Purely the stuff of legends!”

“Glad I could entertain you,” I grumbled, ambling along, one slow step at a time.

“And then to see you hanging upside down from the cargo net… Incredible!”

I stopped in my tracks, turning to glare at her as she passed me. She kept walking, waving her hands around animatedly as she obliviously went on and on about my mishaps during the morning session. It was all rather embarrassing. No-one else had encountered nearly as much trouble as I had had this morning.

I thought I had been doing reasonably well, until one tiny, misplaced step during the tyre run had made my foot slip out from underneath me and I had gone tumbling off to the side and into the ground headfirst.

That had hurt nothing but my pride; but to follow it up with getting tangled in the cargo net climb? That wasn’t only embarrassing, it was painful as well. My ankle hadn’t followed along with the rest of me as it caught in the net when I lost my handhold near the top, much to the loud amusement of Kadin and her flunkies.

Hence, why I was now limping my way to lunch. Takeshi had declared that it was only a slight sprain, because of the distinct lack of swelling, but had told me to look for Auden if it began hurting more as the day went on.

As we approached the tables, Bells, Murph, Zelda and Tatum motioned for us to join them. Owen was off with yet another girl from the camp. I wondered whether he had challenged himself to run through all the single women in the camp by the time it was over.

Cody reached the table before I did, purposefully choosing the only empty seat that wasn’t next to Bells, leaving me with entirely one option.

She smirked at me as I slowly approached. “Saved you a seat, Nat.”

I narrowed my eyes in her general direction, as I knew exactly what she was doing. Unfortunately, so did everyone else, not just at the table in question, but at the surrounding tables, too.

Including the one that held Kadin and her two ever-present lackeys.

I felt their eyes boring into me as I gently lowered myself down onto the bench, letting my ankle rest on the ground at the edge of the table boundary. Sighing with relief, I tucked it in as close to the legs of the table as possible to keep it out of the way, but I needed to stretch it out in front of me as much as possible to let it rest before the afternoon sessions. We had Capture the Flag after lunch, and I needed to have more mobility than I currently possessed to fully take part.

Bells turned to me while I opened my bag of food and pulled out a sandwich.

“We’re all going to The Gap this Friday night. Do you want to join us?” I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes were full of hope when he asked.

I frowned slightly as I thought about what he said. “I’m sure that I would, if I had any idea what you meant by ‘The Gap’.”

Cody laughed. “It’s the local bar. The proper name is ‘The McAdams Gap’, but we all call it ‘The Gap’. It serves decent food, but it’s the alcohol everyone goes there for.”

“Ahh,” I said, finally understanding. But then I remembered something that Cody had mentioned in passing earlier in the week. “Wasn’t that where we were going this Friday night anyway, Cody? For your eighteenth?”

She beamed. “Yup. My birthday is tomorrow, but I don’t want to spend Friday at camp hungover, so that means I’m going all out on Friday night. I can’t wait! And don’t you dare say you’re not coming. I’ll drag your arse there myself if I have to, missy.” She pointed her finger at me in an accusing manner.

I put my hands up in surrender. “I would never dream of doing such a thing, Cody.” She didn’t know that I had been trying to think up excuses to get out of it, but she was my best friend. I couldn’t not go. And, I hadn’t actually been dreaming about how to excuse myself from her party, just imagining as many different scenarios as I could think of, so technically, I wasn’t really lying.

Honest.

“You were coming anyway?” Bells asked me, hope filling his voice.

I nodded and pointed at Cody. “She’s forcing me.”

“Hey! You just said you would never dream of not coming!”

“I never said anything about not being forced, though, did I?”

Cody narrowed her eyes at me before breaking a small amount of crust from her sandwich and throwing it at me. I fluttered my eyes at her before winking. Thankfully, that got her back into safe territory, as she started laughing again.

Bells turned to Cody. “Did you say that your birthday was tomorrow? Are you excited?”

Cody started bouncing in her seat. “Damn straight, I’m excited! It’s a water day tomorrow! And the weather is supposed to be awesome! What better way than to spend your birthday?” She clapped her hands excitedly.

I swear, if I hadn’t known otherwise, I would have been convinced that she was an eight-year-old in a near adult body.

Hell, maybe she was. Everyone around here turned into wolves. Literally, anything was possible.

“Speaking of…” Cody trailed off, suddenly looking nervous. “Nat, do you think you’ll be okay with Kennedy on your own tonight? Mum asked me to have dinner with her and Dad tonight. I can cancel if you need me, though. Just say the word.”

“All good, Cody. Last night was much the same as Monday night. I can’t imagine tonight will be any different. Go. Have dinner with your folks.”

She nodded, still looking at me apprehensively, no doubt trying to decide whether I was lying to her, but I truly wasn’t. Last night’s session with Kennedy had followed the exact same procedure as my introduction to him on Monday — lots of breathing techniques, then tears. There had been no progress on going any further back than Cody wrapping me in a blanket, but Kennedy assured me it was only a matter of time before there’d be a breakthrough, and that he would keep working with me every night until we found it.

Much like I had my doubts with Auden’s stubborn belief that I had a wolf, I doubted Kennedy’s promises that my memory would return just by breathing. The only thing that differed from my previous typical day to day was that I was now ending them in tears, and I had no clue why.

I had talked to Kennedy last night at the end of the session about the nightmares that were still plaguing me every night. He was convinced that the breathing techniques he was getting me to do would eventually calm the severity of the nightmares. I sincerely hoped so, as I still felt like I was walking around in a daze half the time from all the interrupted sleep I was getting. It would be nice to be able to sleep all the way through the night at least once.

Maybe that’s why I had tripped this morning? And lost my co-ordination on the ropes? Huh. I thought about it as I absently nibbled on my sandwich.

“We’ve got fire training after Capture the Flag, right?” Murph asked, joining in on our conversation now that Tatum and Zelda had finished eating and wandered off to God-knows-where together.

“That’s what the schedule says,” said Bells. “Honestly? I’m kind of glad that we’re doing this now. After last summer’s fires, it’d be nice to have some proper training, instead of what our folks taught us.” He picked at the remains of his food nervously.

“There was a fire here last year?” I asked as I looked around the table.

Cody fell silent and lost her usual spark. Even Murph looked down at the table.

“Yeah.” Cody eventually broke the awkward silence that had fallen. “It wasn’t as bad as Black Saturday in terms of loss of life, but the loss of wildlife was beyond devastating.”

“Thank Goddess we learned from Black Saturday, because most families that could leave early did,” Murph said. “The town had a skeleton crew stay back to look after the township as best as they could, but we lost a lot of bushland, even though the town was saved.”

“That’s why most of us have been asking Takeshi to add a Fire Preparedness portion to the camp this year.” Bells looked up at me with determination. I could tell that this meant a lot to him. “They normally only introduce it in the Warrior Training Course, but not everyone from the town gets accepted. We argued that basic firefighting knowledge should be provided to as many people in the pack as possible, and from an early age.”

Murph joined Bells’ look of purpose. “Apparently next year, they’re going to incorporate it into some of the later high school year levels, so the training can come even sooner. It was too late to introduce it to this year just past.”

I nodded in understanding. “That sounds great, guys. It sounds like you all went to a lot of trouble getting things changed around here.”

Cody beamed at Bells and Murph. She was definitely proud of them both, but I could sense the sadness that lay under the surface. “They worked so hard to convince the Elders that it was a good idea. It will be a significant change to our pack, but a very welcome one.”

A sudden pain ripped through my ankle. I pulled my foot back from where it had been resting at the side of the table with a sharp intake of breath.

“Damn it, Cody, will you keep the walkways clear of your shit?” A sneering voice emerged from the side of our table. “I just stubbed my toe on what felt like a block of wood, but I can’t see why you’d be lumbering around a thick piece of rubbish, so it must have been something else.”

I held my ankle on my knee, cradling it as pain pulsed its own beat, making sure I knew it was there. I turned to glare at Kadin, standing with her hands on her hips, grinning evilly down at me, but directing all her words at Cody.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cody getting out of her seat, much to Murph’s attempts at holding her back. “Kadin, there is literally five feet of space behind you. There is absolutely no reason for you to be walking this close to our table.”

Kadin turned and laughed to her two friends standing behind her. They remained quiet and glared at me past Kadin, as usual. “Whatever you say, Cody.” She turned her attention back on Cody, leaning towards her, taunting her. “Just make sure you clean up your shit before you leave. We wouldn’t want it to get in the way of anything else, would we?” She slowly swivelled to face me. “Like a flag, for instance? So many obstacles to get through to get to a flag. Wouldn’t want anything to get in the way of that now, would we?” She sneered at me.

“If you have to resort to injuring your opponents before the game has even started, I wouldn’t be so quick to believe in your own talent.” Cody finally escaped Murph’s grip and rounded the table, getting in Kadin’s face.

Kadin raised a hand to her chest in fake shock. “Cody, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was simply stating a fact about cleaning up rubbish. I’d hate to think of anyone getting into trouble for leaving trash lying around for someone else to dispose of.”

“Kadin, enough.” Bells stood up from his seat beside me. “Stop it. You need to let whatever this is between you and Nat go. You’re being a grade A bitch to her for no reason at all.”

Kadin turned to her former boyfriend. “Bells. Darling. There’s nothing going on between myself and this… this freak.” She gestured to me with an upturned nose, like she couldn’t bear being in my vicinity. “I would have thought you’d have had better taste than whatever… this… is.” She gestured again. “Especially after the delicious time we spent together.”

Cody snarled at her, gripping Kadin’s shirt. “Her name is Nat, you insufferable cow.”

Kadin looked down at Cody’s grip on her but stood stock still. Her narrowed eyes penetrated Cody’s with more malice than I had ever seen. “Cody, I suggest you remove your hands from my shirt now, or I’ll have to talk to my uncle. You wouldn’t want me to do that now, would you?”

I reached out a hand to Cody. “Do what that chick from Frozen sang about, Cody. It’s not worth it.”

Cody looked over at me. She took in a deep breath, before letting it, and Kadin’s shirt, go. She took a step back. “I knew it was a bad idea making you watch that movie,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.

Kadin scoffed and took a step of her own back to join her still silent lackeys. “I’m so glad to see that we can all agree.” She blew a kiss to Bells. “See you out on the course, darling.” She turned and walked away from us, taking her two minions with her.

Cody and Bells both sat down again. Murph released a held breath, surprising even himself.

“Remind me why you used to date that piece of shit?” he asked Bells.

Bells leaned his elbows on the table and held his head in his hands. “Because I was a complete fucking moron, that’s why.”

“Nah, dude.” Murph leaned over the table and patted him on the shoulder. “You were just blinded by your cock. Happens to us all.”

My eyes widened as I stared at both Murph and Bells, not quite believing what I had just heard. Murph noticed I was staring at them both and shrugged his shoulders. “What? It’s not like I’m wrong here.”

Cody burst out laughing, the tension in her shoulders finally breaking. “True. Very true.”

Bells heaved a deep sigh, then let out a wry chuckle. “Yeah. As much as I’d like to think you’re both wrong, I have to admit when you’re right, you’re right.” He leaned his head back and let his hands drop to the table. “Fucking idiot,” he muttered to himself.

“At least you can see what she’s like now, Bells.” Cody reached over and wrapped one of her hands around one of his. “We all saw it, now you can too.” She turned her sparkling eyes on me, but kept her voice directed at Bells. “And now you have something better.”

I quietly growled at her, glaring as best as I could, whilst shaking my head in disbelief. Could she just quit it? For one lousy day? Was that too much to ask?

Bells chuckled a little louder this time. “Yeah. I guess you’re right, Cody.” I felt his hand softly press on my lower back.

I turned my head to face his and looked at him quizzically, but remained silent. If he wanted to pursue whatever was going on between us, I would need to know that it wasn’t some revenge thing he was after. But that sort of conversation felt like it needed to happen privately, not in front of an audience. I made a mental note to talk to him later about it.

“Nat, do you think you’d be okay to walk with your ankle being the way it is?” Cody asked, skilfully changing the subject. “It’s almost time for Capture the Flag, and we need to head over to the starting point.”

I looked down at my ankle, still on my knee, throbbing away merrily, much to my annoyance. “Honestly? I’m not sure. Let’s give it a go.” I rose gingerly and tried to put pressure on my injured foot, wincing as I did so. Bells held onto me as I hopped out of the tabled area.

He kept his hand on my back as I tentatively took several steps forward. Pain shot up my leg, like what had happened when Kadin had kicked me earlier. She must have made my injury worse somehow. I bit back a groan as I came to a stop. “There is no way I’m going to be able to run on this ankle this afternoon, guys.”

Bells placed his arm around my waist. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.” He pulled me to him, before leaning down to place one arm under my knees to lift me to carry me where we needed to go. I threw my arms around his neck to hold on.

“I’ll ask Takeshi if you can be the flag bearer on our team. That way you won’t have to move too much, but still take part.” Cody dashed off to find Takeshi, leaving Bells, Murph and myself walking slowly to our destination, Bells trying desperately not to jostle me too much in his arms.

“Murph, you can go ahead,” Bells said. “We won’t be long.”

Murph nodded, then turned and sped up, heading to the growing group of campers in the middle of the field of courts.

“I have to admit, this isn’t how I thought this day would go,” I mumbled to Bells, leaning into him as he kept walking steadily towards our destination. “Getting injured sucks.”

“Yup, it sure does. But it does make for an excellent learning experience.” He looked down at where my head now rested on his shoulder. A small, wry grin appeared on his face.

“But why does learning have to hurt?” I whined.

“Because all the best lessons are painful in some way. Otherwise we’d never learn.”