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Milk and Cookies

Rob Thur up the Cal Leandros series: Nightlife, Moonshine, Madhouse, and Deathwish (to be released in the spring of 2009); and of a second series (as yet untitled) to debut in the fall of 2009 Rob lives in Indiana, land of e as any wolf, Were or otherwise Protecting the author&039;s house and home is a hundred-pound rescue husky with ice blue eyes, teeth straight out of a Godzillaunder the kitchen table and peeing on himself when visitors arrive Reach the author at

robthurmannet

Christmas sucked

The display s covered in velvet ribbons and tinsel The tinkle of ringing bells around every corner The snow, the presents, the frigging good cheer

Yeah, it sucked all right Sure, it was only once a year, but that was one time too many Carolers, months of Christ down the sidewalk

It was too much Too damn much

I was seven when I knew there wasn&039;t a Santa anymore I was thirteen whenand "The kids at school say" The usual stuff And that she was seven, the sae I&039;d been, only made it worse

So I lied Sure there was a Santa And when Mom told me to take her to see store Santa, I hadn&039;t bitched too much She and Dad both had to work They worked hard We weren&039;t poor, but we sure weren&039;t rich either Dad was a good hunter and that put food on the table, but it didn&039;t pay the electric or thehad taken the ic out of Christher than that I didn&039;t want to ad to hear hoofbeats on the roof, the jingle of bells, the thu, old fireplace

Yeah, I didn&039;t want to fess up to it, but it was true Now Christmas was just another day I wasn&039;t into Jesus or church, ot presents and, sure, that was cool, but the excited knot in your sto for all you orth that Christht

Gone

It was stupid to miss it I ay too old for that shit You could ask anybody If the kids at school found out, they&039;d laugh me out of class If the teachers found out, they wouldn&039;t knohat to think Probably send me to the counselor for soft words, ink blots, and a note for my parents But they didn&039;t know, and every teacher would tell you: I wasn&039;t a dreamer No way I was a smart-ass kid My dad told me so,me thanto get into trouble, too young to be cynical And definitely too young to have such a foul et out of the office much

Smart-assed and foul-lule one And no matter what had happened that one particular Christhout the Christet it back I&039;d never get a do-over No matter how much I wanted to

Jackass, I said to lass of the store Suck it up Get over it You&039;re not seven anymore You&039;re not a little kid There are no do-overs in life

I pushed the door open to the department store, the only one we had in Connor&039;s Way, a town so sht It had been houst now It was one of those tohere everyone knew everyone and everything you did got around if you weren&039;t careful I was thirteenthere were plenty of things I did I didn&039;t want getting around

Tessa slid her hand into ri eyes the same brown as -brother-worshipping s "Co" She was a pain, but she was my pain and faain People are people, but it&039;s fa with the brown eyes she looked like htly dark skin, curly black hair We were related all right You could see that a mile away Dead-on our dad

"What kind of cookies should I make Santa?" Tessa chattered "Chocolate chip? Peanut butter? Oooh, Snickerdoodles Everybody loves Snickerdoodles Right? You like Snickerdoodles, don&039;t you?"

I rolledSanta was prettyblack belt and with a beard so fake and bushy that rats could&039;ve nested in it He had glasses perched on the end of his red-veined nose and his lap was full of a sobbing, kicking-and-screa pants that had to weighat my hand "I don&039;t want to sit there"

"Then just stand beside him and tell him what you want for Christmas," I said impatiently "His balls could probably use the break" Hundreds of kids sla down on them day after day, no way I&039;d want his job

"Balls?" She wrinkled her nose "I don&039;t see any balls Snowballs?"

Jesus I was in for it now "Hey, it&039;s your turn," I said with relief, letting go of her hand and giving her a light shove "Remember to hold still for the picture or Mom&039;ll kill me"

She moved up beside and tiptoed up to whisper in his ear The cah it was a little early, it did make a cute picture Then Tessa leaned back and bounced happily in shiny patent leather shoes that ith her best red velvet dress

The fake Santa blinked at her, twitched a forced smile, and hurried her off with a candy cane As aited for the picture to pop out, I asked, "What&039;d you ask for?"

I let her take ain as she said soleoing to get This was Tessa&039;s year for disappoint she&039;d never get Feeling et a o hostore They had an old-fashioned malt shop there I didn&039;t much know or care what an old-fashioned n said, was, but they served h for s were fine until Jed walked in His parents had named him Jedidiah and he had a punch for anyone who called hiuessed it didn&039;t take

I slid him a careful sideways look Cold blue eyes stared back, then he gave a half snarl, half hateful grin Jed was fourteen, big, and a bully Christht suck, but so did bullies

And Jed was of the worst kind The worst in the school, that&039;s for sure He picked on kids ere sht that made him a badass It didn&039;t It just made him a coward He hadn&039;t messed with me yet, but it was only a h for hiood three inches I was husky forhis way up to me He was a coward, but he was stupid, too It wouldn&039;t be long before he&039;d get over being careful of someone almost as heavy as him if not as tall Between mean and stupid, stupid wins every time

Tessa and I slurped up the last of our shakes and we left She used both hands to try and peel the plastic off her candy cane "You&039;re smart," she announced

"Oh yeah? What makes you think that?" The sideas clear of snow, shoveled clean

"That uy doesn&039;t bother you" She popped the top loop of the cane in her mouth "Wi-ly" She&039;d just learned the hen I&039;d been practicing for h half the time she didn&039;t knohat it meant

Wily? Nah I was about as wily as a Pop-Tart This was just luck And luck?

It only lasts so long

"Nicky, are you paying attention or are you shooting for extra home-work?"

I looked up frory I didn&039;t concentrate so hen I was hungry My sto attention"

She didn&039;t believeer day Most of the kids were all about pizza day, but not et three of them When Mom had handed me my lunch money for the week, she&039;d ruffled ht be three inches short of Jed, but I had shot up two inches in the past rowth spurts late, but e hit the that when he slamgy silver blond hair hanging in his eyes "I hear you&039;re in the Russian Club, geek"

I was, not that I cared randparents had come from Russia Roots and all that crap Nicky was short for Nikolai, and I made damn sure no one in school knew that

"Yeah, so?" I started on eek A loser" Those eyes, pale as a snow-filled sky, stared at me They were like the eyes of a husky, a wild one used to living on its own Catching its own food Killing because it could Jed isted inside, wrong The teachers didn&039;t see it They just saw parents who didn&039;t care,disorder, they didn&039;t see what he really was, because they didn&039;t want to But I saw

He was a monster He was just a kid now maybe, but you could bet he was sorow up But wouldn&039;t that be a lot of paperwork for the guidance counselor? Why not pass him on? Let hieeks" He leaned forward and bared teeth too big for his mouth "And I definitely don&039;t like losers" He reached over and took one ofabout it

But I didn&039;t Not there Dad had taught ht, because everyone needed to be able to take care of hiht et in trouble and never to hit first, at least not anyone smaller It wouldn&039;t be fair and it wouldn&039;t be honorable My dad believed in honor, pounded it into me from the tiht - that&039;s the way the world was - but only the ones bigger than you

Honor was a pain in the ass soetting that Still, there was the whole not getting into trouble thing

Takingthe son of a bitch over the head with his tray would definitely get nored hi either Not at school And I kneays hootten to know the woods that stretched behind the school pretty good Gotten detention for skipping class to explore them more than once I deserved a lot more punishment than that, but Principal Johnson took it easy on ht aboutat led teeth Man, was that an orthodontist&039;s dreaht there

How&039;d I know about lap dances? I had a cousin back East who had a friend and, boy, could she tell so twenty-one wasn&039;t so far ahen Sa next toattention Nobody sat at the sauy Not too s Boy by s, big, shaggy s Jed hated the was s would bark until foa and fleeing with tails between their legs

You know you&039;re a shit when even dogs didn&039;t like you I kept hoping one would hu or better yet piss on it, but it never happened Probably for the best I didn&039;t want to think what Jed would do if he ever caught one of those dogs

"Hey, Dog Boy," Jed sneered "You think I want to eatyou? You stink like those damn mutts of yours Get the hell out of here"

Sa with h to spill his juice He did s Jed was psycho and Say I&039;d take a fur-covered pair of jeans over crazy any day But today was a day crazy didn&039;t seem to want to leave er, so Jed couldn&039;t take that, but he did take my Jell-O Cherry It looked like fresh blood on his teeth as he wolfed it down He narrowed his eyes at me as he licked a streak of red from his bottom lip "You&039;re not afraid of me, are you, asshole?"

I took another bite and chewed it Bullies only heard what they wanted to hear I wasn&039;t going to wasteof ot that? I&039;ll oddamn afraid you&039;ll piss your pants" He snatched up his tray and stalked away

Trouble, he was big trouble Maybe the first trouble I couldn&039;t get around Crazy is crazy, and crazy never learns He&039;d keep cohtoverto have to do so Jed beat the shit out of me and stay out of trouble

There was a trick

"Hey, Nicky, you hanging out with Jaws?" Isaac sat across from me, chin propped in his hand

Jed definitely had the teeth for the nickname, but no one had ever called him that to his face "Nah, just my turn on his list" Isaac frowned His parents had come over from Mexico and he&039;d already had his turn over that with Jed

"Oh shit," he said, wincing "Whatcha going to do?"

"Don&039;t know yet" I dropped h the woods houres that out"

After the last class, I bolted into the woods They were thick and deep, full of poison ivy and tangles of blackberry bushes that would tear you to pieces if you tried to push through I ed Scratches were scratches They&039;d fade quick enough And I&039;d avoided Jed

This ti for a present for Tessa I scowled at the Santa ringing the bell by the door One ing beards and worn black boots or faded red pants Fakes It made the whole season fake

But there were only two more days until Christ anyet Tessa what she really wanted, so I wandered up and down the doll aisle It was a They had dolls that walked and talked, crawled and cried, ate and pooped Why would anyone want a toy that threw up on you while you changed its diaper? That was crazy But Mos was on it I picked up the nearest one It only talked and waved its ar with dollies now," Jed purred froht as well play like one, too" His hand circled my arle in ers

Jed had been behind me in the woods yesterday afternoon, but he didn&039;t know theht, though He just didn&039;t care Pain was nothing to hi down ravines He was one scratched, bruised ht try and stay out of trouble but there was no way I was sorry about that

I ignored him, yanked my arm away, and took the doll to the checkout counter He followed me every step of the way "You can&039;t run forever, Nicky," he whispered I felt the hairs on the back of od-awful stench of his breath "No one&039;s ever gotten away And when I&039;m done with you and you hide like a little bitch every time you see me, I&039;ll make your little sister sorry, too Her and her dolly"

And that was that

I&039;d put it off I&039;d tried to stay out of trouble I&039;d tried not to piss off Mom and Dad But you couldn&039;t let the assholes win, even crazy ones like Jed I sat in a plastic chair by the door, eyes on the floor, until Jed gave up and left And I never said a word to him

There were kids that hated Jed Lots of kids If I could get all of theht not be as tough as he thought he was I could give it a try, but the thing about being beaten downit&039;s hard to get back up I&039;d been to four schools now, Dad&039;s job kept us traveling, and each school had a bully Soht and punished, but half the ti what he did The kids wouldn&039;t stand up for themselves and hardly any of the, sure the teachers couldn&039;t help theht If the principal kicked the bully out of school, then he&039;d simply wait outside it

My dad said in life there were sheep and wolves, and hed Jed daht he was a wolf He was nuts as they ca after the others, startthe doll was in and got up Nope, it probably wouldn&039;t work, no iven reason to hate hiive it a shot There had to be soainst Jed Hell, it alorked in the s at uy&039;s not human, okay? When he stoonna stop He could take on Frankenstein, the Muo out for pizza after" Isaac was a huge fan of horror movies He&039;d seen ones made before I was born, before my parents were born The inside of his locker door was covered with pictures ofblood They papered every square inch I liked Isaac but he was a little weird

"Come on" I stood at his locker and snorted, "He&039;s not all that"

"Yeah, Nicky, he is all that He caught me in the woods and he broke my arm, okay? And he said if I told anyone how it happened, he&039;d break the other one I believed him because he meant it" He slammed the locker shut "No way Leave me out of it He&039;s crazy, and if you had any sense, you&039;d be watching behind you every ave up on Isaac and went on to Dog BoySaone, fast as any of his dogs It went that way all day I&039;d expected it, but I&039;d hoped it&039;d be different