Midnight Howl by Clare Hutton

themselves (or what I could see of them below the pictures and posters) were painted yellow, and her bedspread was printed with sunflowers. Against one wall there was a desk with another big sunflower painted on the top. Tiny bits of color were spread out across the desk. As I got closer, I realized they were little ceramic squares. In the indent was a half-done mosaic made of the tiny squares in a swirling pattern of blue and green.
    “Wow,” I said. “That’s beautiful.”
    “Thanks,” she said softly. “For English, we’re supposed to do a response to a poem of our choice, and I thought this would be more fun than something where I had to stand up in front of the class and present. The poem goes: ‘
Strongly it bears us along in swelling and limitless billows/Nothing before and nothing behind but the sky and the ocean.’
It’s by Coleridge. These colors and the circles sort of made me think of the ocean.”
    “Yeah,” I said. They made me think of the ocean, too.
    “I haven’t been to the ocean yet,” Hailey said, “but I’d really like to go. I definitely will sometime. I’d love to see seals in the wild.” She grinned at me.
    “Um, I have something for you,” I said, suddenly feeling shy. “I wanted to thank you for, you know, making me feel welcome here. You’ve been a star.” I handed her the necklace.
    “Oh!” said Hailey, surprised and happy. “Thank you!”
    She put it around her neck, and when she fumbled with the clasp, I moved forward to help her with it. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but she didn’t burst into flames or scream in pain. The silver rested around her neck harmlessly.
    I returned to my room feeling pretty silly. But still, a little tickle of doubt lay at the back of my mind. The silver test hadn’t seemed entirely scientific.

CHAPTER NINE
    I was really ready for the weekend. I had just about stopped getting lost in the halls and figured out what was going on in my classes, but it was still hard work.
    Saturday morning, Jack came downstairs all lit up and full of energy, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
    “Hey there, ladies,” he said, tugging my ponytail lightly.
    “What’s with you?” Hailey asked, amused. “What’re you doing up so early on a Saturday?”
    “It’s a beautiful day,” Jack said, sweeping his arm toward the window. “The sun is shining, breezes are blowing, and it’s the perfect day to take our new pal” — he pointed at me — “on a ride and picnic.”
    “Great,” I said. It was a little chilly for a picnic, but I’d noticed that people here felt like if there wasn’t frost, it was a great day to be outside. “My mom’s worried about me riding without an adult, though.”
    “Don’t worry,” Jack said. “Hailey and I take new riders out all the time. And there will be three of us, so after you break your leg, one of us can stay with you and the other can go for help.”
    I stared at him.
    “Kidding,” he said. “Seriously, my mom knows it’ll be fine, and she can convince
your
mom.”
    And she did. As the only child of a single mom, I’m used to my mom checking everything out for me — she meets my friends’ parents before she lets me spend the night at their houses, and she calls to make sure I get where I say I’m going. When I go to visit my dad, it’s twice as bad, because he’s not used to having me around all the time, so he feels like he needs to be extra careful. But Molly talked and talked about how
responsible
Jack and Hailey were, and how
experienced
on horseback. She said how good they were at teaching new riders, and how they both had first aid certification and had done special overnight horseback trips for years.Finally, it seemed like my mom was exhausted by all the words, and she agreed to let me go.
    Jack led out a brown horse with a black mane and tail and tied it to the fence, then went back to the barn and brought out a black horse and a lighter brown one and tied them next to the