Kandy lounged on her family's back porch steps, enjoying the calm clear night air, bent over a textbook in her lap. Shapes, numbers, and geometry vocabulary swirled around on the page and she struggled to keep it straight. They didn't stick in her brain, nor did they make any kind of sense when strung together in equations. She sighed and pouted. She hated the cramming nights before test days.

     As she held the book upside down, hoping that'd help any, the sound of rough knocking interrupted her thoughts. All the numbers she tried to keep in one place fell away and she grimaced, ignoring the knocking. She tried piecing them together again when two black and white tennis shoes came into her view over the top of the tear stained pages.

    Kandy looked up from her book to see her too tall classmate standing in their backyard. His normal black hoodie blended into the night sky behind him, but the bright pastel pink flowers in his hand stood out. "Shadow? What are you doing here?"

    "I brought these for Bells." He held the bouquet out to her, toothy grin wide. She guessed they were azaleas, stems held together by a cyan ribbon. "Could you give them to her for me? Brady and Evan don't like me being in the house."

    Understatement, considering the multitude of band-aids and bandages he'd come to school wearing, covering up the cuts and stab marks inflicted by her brother. And those were only the warning shots. For some reason, Bells herself never pulled her knife out on him, instead letting Brady do it himself. Which he was always more than willing to do.

    "I can," Kandy answered cautiously, "but Sissy will shank you for it tomorrow."

    "That's okay." Shadow said simply. He tilted his head slightly, but kept holding out the flowers until Kandy steadily rose to her feet and took them from him. He grinned a bit wider, then turned around and hopped over the wall surrounding her family's building.

    She glanced between her text book and the flowers before letting out a whimper. Anything to keep her from studying any longer. She went back into the house and climbed the stairs two at a time, book tucked underneath her arm.

    Reaching the second floor, Kandy found her dad lying across the couch, feet propped up on the back of it and head in her mom's lap. "Who're those from?" he asked.

    "Shadow brought them for Bells."

    Austin laughed. "My man's gonna be killed tomorrow.

    "Aww they're so beautiful!" her mom cooed. "Austin, I want flowers."

    "I'll get you all the flowers in town when it's not dark outside. I ain't going out there after that werewolf attack. Speaking of which," he turned to his daughter, eyes wide and eager, "how was the moon tonight?"

    The corner of Kandy's mouth tipped up in a smile. "It looked wonderful as always, daddy."

    "Not as wonderful as your mom though."

    "Oh my gosh," Bri groaned. Austin just laughed and Kandy laughed with him. She left her parents in the living room and skipped over to the short hallway of her and her siblings' bedrooms.

    Kandy knocked lightly on her sister's door, but the sound still made Brady's own door, right across from Bells', swing open. He poked his head out, saw the bouquet of flowers in her hands, and rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed. "Guy won't take a hint."

    She giggled and he smirked before retreating back into his room. She could hear yelling and what sounded like cars being thrown at the wall, as well as what was probably the gummy bear snoring louder than her dad. Typical night whenever Kai came home to visit.

    Bells' door finally opened and almost immediately closed upon setting eyes on the flowers, stopping only at the pitiful look on Kandy's face. Her eyebrows furrowed and her lips pressed together in a wince. "Really?"

    Kandy shrugged in apology and held out the bouquet. Bells just sighed and gingerly took them. The younger girl step forward to kiss her sister and on the cheek and headed towards her own room. "Good night sissy."

    "Night," she said back, absent mindly. Closing the door, she tossed the flowers onto her desk and flopped backwards onto her bed, letting out a long breath. Her eyes scanned the room, landing on the stuffed black cat sitting on the top of her bookshelf; pink marbles for eyes stared back at her.

     Shadow, Leo, and Lily had ganged up together to get it for her birthday the year prior, specially made to look like her. Apparently it had been Shadow's idea, yet he stood a good ten feet back when they gave it to her. Probably because Brady had been right next to her.

     Bells pushed herself up and picked back up the bouquet, moving to play it underneath the paws of the stuffed cat. There was no magic involved, but it seemed to sink its claws into the stems and curled its tail around the ribbon.

     Suddenly, she heard a yelp come from outside. Instinctively grabbing a knife from the wall, she darted out to her balcony and looked out to the yard. Standing just on the outside of the perimeter wall was Shadow, shaking his now thorn ridden hand. As soon as she came out, his eyes lit up and waved his non-injured hand.

    Bells groaned, lowering herself to the floor. Which in hindsight didn't do much since her banister was made out of glass. Through it, she could see Shadow nervously digging the toe of one of his shoes into the dirt. "Whyyyy, why, why, why."

     "Hey! You get out of here!" A stone flew towards him, colliding into the stone wall with a solid thunk and probably leaving a mark. Brady stood on the balcony just next to hers, slingshot in hand. "Yeah that's right, there's more where that came from too!"

     He flung another rock, this time sending it whizzing right past Shadow's head. He jumped back, stumbling off the curb into the road.

     "The next round will have blades in it if I don't see your backside hightailing it out of here!" True to his word, Brady pulled a handful of stones out of his pocket, shiny spots poking out of the rock.

     Bells watched as Shadow leapt back in the middle of the road, ran across to the other side and in the direction of his house. She let out a sigh of relief and touched her forehead to the cool glass of the banister, turning her head to face her brother. "Thanks Brady."

     "No problem, sis." He pocketed the blade stones and looked over his shoulder inside the house. "Go get Kandy and get over to my room. Me and Evan are kicking Kai's butt in Mario-Kart." He grinned widely. "Don't tell daddy but Leo's here too."

     Bells bounced on the tips of her feet and dashed out of her room to find Kandy.