AN- Awww should have known I couldn't stay away from Maddian for too long, now that we're in September, what's supposed to be new wolfblood season I'm getting all nostalgic, but filming's up and running I guess, and I'm keeping my eyes peeled at my old school and the surround woods, hoping to catch a glimpse!

This is hopefully gonna be a two shot, that's what I've planned anyway, but you never know with me. Bit of a random idea, but it stuck in my head until I wrote it down.

For those reading my Ceri/Gerwyn story, it is by no means finished, believe me, but I did say on my last update I would like to write more Maddian in between and here it is! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer- I do not own Wolfblood

Hold On to Me

Rhydian's POV

Maddy, Tom and Shan whooped, hollered and howled as the ran down the grass bank towards the river, tossing their bags down and kicking off their shoes as they went. They jumped into the air and over the edge of the bank. Maddy's extra speed took her further out than the other two but they all landed in the water together, causing a giant wave to spray onto the grass and onto their stuff. I rolled my eyes and started to pull their things back and under a nearby tree.

They all emerged from under the water at different times, gasping presumably from the cold. Once again Maddy was first, I guessed since we were faster runners, we could swim faster too...shortly followed by Tom and Shannon in quick succession.

They splashed and mucked around in the water, finally cooling off from the the intense summer heat wave we'd had over the last few days, I'd personally never believed the North East could get this warm. I moved under the tree myself, grateful for the shade and pulled my sketchbook out from between the straps of my backpack before shrugging it off. I settled down in the shade, watching the three of them paddle.

Swimming hadn't been my idea... Obviously. It had been Maddy's and as soon as Maddy mentioned the idea the others had been all for it, so I just went along with the rest of them... I wasn't sure what I'd planned to do once I got here... I definitely didn't want them finding out... I just hoped perhaps I'd be able to talk my way out of it...

Maddy could hold her breath for about thirty-five seconds, I knew that because I counted, and I counted because it made me nervous when she went under the water for so long. I didn't like that she was someplace I couldn't help her, or protect her. She seemed comfortable enough, but you always did hear stories on the news, especially about rivers like this, of people being washed away by the currents, pulled under and drowning...

I shook my head to try and clear it, mentally scolding myself for being such a pessimist. I got like that when my anxiety got the better of me, which these days was usually when Maddy was doing something dangerous. Like facing off with Alric, or walking home in the dark... Or swimming in deep river water... I got a little too overprotective sometimes.

I watched until I was convinced they all seemed comfortable enough in the water before pulling my sketchbook into my lap. One thing I did like was drawing the water, it was a challenge, since it was always shifting and changing and reflected the sky and the trees that hung over it, but it was worth it if you got it right. I started drawing Maddy, Tom and Shannon first though, the three of them in mid flight as they'd jumped into the river below.

I reached for my pocket out of habit, which usually housed my rubber and pencil sharpener, but these weren't my jeans. They were swim shorts and they didn't even have pockets. I'd lied to the others about 'misplacing' my own pair while moving to the Vaughn's, in the hope that I'd be excused from swimming, the truth was there was no need for me to own any, but you know what Maddy's like once she got an idea into her head, I'd been forced into borrowing a pair of Tom's instead.

The girls were in swimsuits and shorts, but you could only really see from their shoulders up while they were swimming, Shannon's hair was secured back in one of her elaborate plaited hair styles to keep it out of her face, one of which I would not be attempting to draw from so far away so I sketched a rough outline and left it at that for now. Maddy's hair was down, as always, but slicked back by the water.

Maddy didn't like having things in her hair, not hair ties or those funny bumpy wiry things. She didn't like people touching it, except perhaps for me. Which was lucky since I tended to play with it absentmindedly when we were watching films, or when I was particularly worried about something, the slow repetitive movements calmed me down the same way sketching did, as long as I didn't try to tie it back she didn't mind, so I let myself weave it through my fingers... Her hair was my favourite part of her to draw, after her eyes...

"Hey!" Maddy waved from the water, looking up over the riverbank. "Daydreaming?" She laughed.

I scoffed lightly, rubbing the back of my neck. "...Yeah." I agreed, as long as I didn't tell her what I was daydreaming about we were okay...

She smirked at me and swam closer craning her neck to look over the edge. "Lemme see." She motioned to my sketchbook so I turned it around for her so she could see my half finished outline. "That's going to look so epic." She grinned, then her eyes narrowed in mischief. "Still I was half expecting to see me in my swimsuit." She sniggered.

I pursed my lips and looked away as I felt my cheeks heat up. Maddy knew I liked her, she'd known since that night on Lindisfarn, the night she got her wolf, which was when I'd first started to notice her. But it was only since I'd come back from the wild that she'd started to tease me about it, I had after all told her I'd get over it... Yeah right.

I wasn't stupid, Maddy herself had told me that, like wolves, Wolfblood's mated for life... And I think, deep down we both knew what we felt for each other was forever... But I wasn't ready for a relationship to start just yet, despite being back nearly six months, I still didn't feel settled, it was ingrained in me to expect to be packed up and moved without warning, and I didn't trust myself not to do something that would get me kicked out of the Vaughn's eventually.

The thought of moving away and leaving Maddy hurt now, I couldn't even fathom how it would feel if we were actually dating, not just for me but for Maddy... And I couldn't hurt her like that.

She knew all this, I'd told her, and the teasing had calmed down for a bit, but every so often she'd throw a little jibe in here and there, like now. "Are y'not coming in the water?" She laughed, paddling on the spot. "Might cool down those cheeks." I rolled my eyes and shook my head, bringing my legs up to my chest and folding my arms over them. No way. Not even for Maddy. "Come on." She pleaded.

"It's cold." I protested feebly.

"Get in and you'll get used to it." She said, exasperated. "It's not even that bad."

"... I don't like being cold." I murmured.

She rolled her eyes. "I know... Shouldn't you have a higher cold tolerance than this? You lived outside for most of the winter."

I scoffed, shuffling just a little closer so I could speak with her better. "Yeah, and it was awful."

She huffed and reached up to tug on my leg "One race." She begged. "These two aren't much competition. I need a Wolfblood challenge."

I rolled my eyes but didn't give in, pulling my leg out of her grip. "I'm not getting in the water."

"Wuss." She accused. "You're just scared you'll lose."

"Maybe I am." I laughed, hoping that if I just agreed with her, she would drop the subject. "I'm fine here." I reassured her. "I'll look after the bags..."

She gave me the puppy eyes, those deep brown orbs peering up at me through her lashes, but luckily I had enough practice at ignoring them. Finally she sighed and swam off back to Tom and Shan dipping and diving under the water.

I sketched as they swam, which I was perfectly happy doing since there were a lot of nice things to draw out here, the river, the trees and the way the sunlight filtered through them onto the grass. I had three sketches so far which I chopped and changed between every so often. It was lovely place to sketch, with the smell of the earth and the wind that weaved through the trees and nothing but the sound of the running water and the pack's laughter.

It was an hour and a half at least before all three of them swam back to the edge of the bank. "We're getting hungry, thinking of heading to Bernie's." Maddy told me.

I nodded and placed my sketchbook down, before frowning. "Aren't you supposed to wait an hour to eat after swimming?"

"No." She laughed, looking at me strangely. "That's before swimming. That's why we're so hungry!"

"Oh." I started tucking my pencils back into my pencil case instead of continuing with that conversation, like I knew anything about all this anyway, and Tom and Shannon both jumped out onto the bank.

Maddy jumped and tried to pull herself up, only to fall back into the water again, she huffed and pushed her hair out of her face. It wasn't like Maddy not to be able to do something the others couldn't, but then again she was that bit shorter than the rest of us. "Help us up." She hooked one arm over the bank and held the other up towards me so I reached down to grab it. She walked her feet up the sides to climb out and grabbed my other hand, but when I tried to tug her towards me she pulled back.

"Maddy, what are you doing?!" I could feel myself losing my balance and tried to lower myself to the floor, but Tom came up behind me and pushed me into the water, the pair of them laughing giddily.

The shock of the cold made me gasp and I got a mouthful of river water just before my head went under. I felt Maddy swim away from under me and I scrambled to try and put my feet on the bottom but couldn't reach, I panicked, flailing my arms and legs around as I tried to break the surface. When I finally did, it was only long enough to gasp in a breath before I went under again.

My heart pounded in my chest and I could feel my wolf starting to surface, but I didn't even know if turning was the right thing to do at this point. I strained my neck to try and keep my head above the water but I just kept sinking further and further, my now wet clothes pulling me down. The water stung at my eyes, nose and throat and I couldn't stop the choking cough that used up all my air. I couldn't breathe!

It felt like minutes but it could have only been seconds before something splashed in the water beside me and I felt arms wrapping around my chest from behind. I twisted my head rapidly to find Tom pulling me back up and tugging me back towards the bank. Another set of arms wrapped around my shoulders and they pulled me onto the grass. "Turn him around!" Tom instructed. "He breathed in a lot of water."

They did as he asked and I pulled myself up onto my hands and knees, coughing up the water, screwing my eyes shut and digging my fingers into the dirt, I was just relieved to be on dry land again. Tom scrambled up out of the water and patted my back to help me get the water out my lungs. "Rhydian... Breathe, mate."

I did as he asked and drew in a ragged breath, the first since I was pulled out of the water, but my chest was still constricted in panic and my heart continued to beat frantically against my ribs, so it was still difficult...

"Rhydian..." I could only just hear her through my coughing and the roaring in my ears, her voice quiet with fear and guilt.

"Shut up!" I wheezed and dug my fingers deeper into the dirt, still fighting the urge to change even though the danger was over, the veins in my hands were solid black but I fought against it the way I'd been taught and managed to stop my wolf in its tracks. My back burned and I cried out with the effort, my wolf wavered on that point for a few tense seconds, but until eventually it began to recede. I tried to take in deep breaths, and rolled my shoulders and neck back to try and relieve the tense set in the muscles there, until finally I lay down on the bank, exhausted and light headed from all the coughing...

"Rhydian I'm sorry... I didn't know..." Maddy said softly but I cut her off, snarling at her. Her hand was still covering her mouth in shock and her eyes were bright yellow in fear and shining with tears.

"What!? That I can't swim?!" I growled bitterly at her, finally admitting it. "I told you I didn't want to go in!"

"You said that's because it was cold! How was I supposed to know..." She trailed off, confused and I narrowed my eyes at her. "I just assumed..."

I sat up and saw from the corner of my eye as Shannon handed me a towel gingerly, I snatched off her, and quickly wiped the water off my face. "Well, you assumed wrong!" I snapped, still glaring at Maddy. "Perhaps you should stop assuming and just stop to think before pull someone into the water without considering whether or not they can actually swim!"

She looked down guiltily and her tears welled over. Tom ducked his head so that he was in my line of vision. "Look... I'm sorry, mate. We we're just mucking around..."

"I'm not blaming you!" I snapped at him. "I know exactly who put you up to it!"

Maddy turned her head to glare at me, but even angry she was still crying. "If you'd just told us! Instead of making up daft excuses!.." Her arms flew around animatedly, like they always did went she was frustrated.

"What fifteen year old in there right mind would admit it Maddy!? Even in primary school the other kids took the mick out of me!" I shouted as much as my throat would allow.

"I'm not 'other kids' Rhydian! I'm me! You know fine well I wouldn't have made fun of you!"

I growled at her to shut her up, looking away as my cheeks burned with embarrassment, and stood, kicking the ground as my shoes squelched around my feet. I began gathering up my things, not wanting to talk about it anymore, and the others followed suit silently, Maddy's anger faded and I could hear her sniffling back tears, but I didn't acknowledge her, not until I heard her small intake of breath and followed her eyes to find my sketchbook soaked in water.

I snarled under my breath and picked it up gingerly, watching the pages drip, stained black with ink and graphite and charcoal. She knew how much my sketches meant to me! This was all her fault! "...You've ruined my sketches!" I seethed.

She bit her lip nervously as more tears rolled over her cheeks. "I'm sorry..." I shook my head and grabbed my bag before storming off, back towards the woods.

I'd disappeared in the trees but still heard as they began speaking again. "I thought wolves were strong swimmers..." Shannon said quietly.

"Shan." Maddy sighed. "I'm sorry, but can we not try and break this down with science... You'd think he would have at least been able to keep himself from drowning... Tread water..."

Tom sniggered. "Don't you mean doggy paddle?" There were two synchronised thumps from the girls, and I grabbed a pinecone and lobbed it in an arc through the trees and at the back of his head, this was exactly why I didn't tell anyone.

I only just heard Tom's resulting. "Oww." Before I was out of earshot.

When I finally got back to the Vaughn's my clothes were still damp, but luckily for me the sun was still warm enough to keep off the chill. I took my shoes off at the door in the hope that the they would dry and walked in, throwing my bag down at the base of the stairs. "Rhydian?" Mrs Vaughn called from the kitchen.

"Yeah." I muttered, confirming it was me.

"I wasn't expecting you back so soon... How was swimming?" I walked into the kitchen and she looked up from cooking dinner, taking in my appearance and smirking. "Go get changed." She laughed and shook her head. "You look like a drown pup." I refrained from telling her just how accurate that description was, and dropped my sketch book on the table. Her eyes narrowed and she sighed sadly. "Oh! Your poor sketches!"

I ran my finger down the ring binding. "Can I borrow your hairdryer?" I murmured, I had to at least try and save them, if not the sketches then the rest of the book, I didn't have enough to buy another one until I got my allowance in two weeks time, and I didn't particularly like drawing on plain printer paper...

She nodded and I turned to head up the stairs to shower and change my clothes.

I returned within fifteen minutes, an old sheet and hair dryer in hand, and sat down at the table. I lifted up the cover of my sketchbook and sighed, flipping through and pulling one page from the other, there were a weeks worth of sketches in here. Unlike when I first moved to Stoneybridge, I didn't feel the need to move my sketches one space down my timeline everyday, I didn't usually have time anymore, but I still drew a picture for each day, and updated my timeline every week instead. More fool me apparently, since they were all damaged to varying degrees, the fine liner ones were the worse, the ink bleeding into the page... But the pencil seemed to have fared okay...

I lay my craft sheet over the table, some sort of old heavy quilt I'd bought at a charity shop a few years back, I'd learnt the hard way that foster parents didn't like it when you spilled ink on their carpet, so the quilt's sole purpose was covering my desk or floor while I was working in a particularly messy medium.

I pulled the book towards me and gently prised open the ring binding so I could pull the pages out without ripping them. Mrs Vaughn watched me work, placing each sketch out on the table and using the corner of the sheet to try and dab them dry, but my lines smudged and smeared together, only increasing my frustration. I sighed and put my head in my hands, it was hopeless, there was no way I was going to be able to lay all these pages out, but if I left them in the book they'd stick together...

Mrs Vaughn placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Mind if I help?"

I shrugged indifferently. "It's ruined anyway."

She pondered for a moment before nipping out into the living room she pottered around, gathering odd bits and bobs from around the house. A ball of string, a box of push pins, some clothes pegs, before tugging the dining room chairs from under the table and pulling them into the space by patio doors. She arranged them so they were turned outwards with their backs together, putting three on one side and two on the other with about five feet between them. I lifted my chair and put it opposite the remaining one, and just watched her in confusion.

She started putting the push pins through the cushions on the back of the chairs and into the wood underneath it, a row of them about an inch apart, before repeating it on the opposite set of chairs. She threaded the string through the push pins in a zig zag pattern and her structure began to make sense. "A washing line." I grinned and shook my head, she'd give Mr Smith a run for his money on building things.

She finished threading, we now had around fifteen rows of string, and tied the end to the last push pin. " She smiled back at me and I went to get my sketches from the table. We spent around twenty minutes pegging up my sketchbook paper, the sun shone through the glass doors which helped it dry, and finally I started taking my sketches from the table. I handed her them one by one but she paused between pegs, taking the time to get a proper look at them, I let her since there wasn't really that much incriminating wolf evidence on there, there were wolves, obviously, just nothing to suggest Maddy, Jana or I were the wolves.

"You're supposed to draw the key points of your day, aren't you?" I nodded, obviously the Vaughn's knew about the art therapy, knew the reason for it, but it was up to me just how much I told them. I was getting better, back when I first moved in I had to go every week, I needed to go every week, but then I met Maddy, found out what I was, figured out how to get a better nights sleep, and the sessions were cut down to once a fortnight. After I got back from the wild things had just kept getting better, I'd been working past my anxiety, my trust issues, so now I only went once a month. "There's a lot of Maddy sketches." Mrs Vaughn teased lightly.

I looked away, embarrassed. "She's my best friend, I can't help it if she's there all the time..."

"Just your friend?" She pressed.

"Yes, just my friend!" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at her. "Just because she so happens to be a girl doesn't automatically mean I'm dating her!" I grabbed a particularly damaged sketch and screwed it up. "You, social services, therapy. You all wanted me to make friends, and now I have it's not enough for you! Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps I'm not ready for a relationship?!" I shoved the quilt and my sketches off the table, growling under my breath. "Just throw them out! I don't care anymore."

"Rhydian!" She called, but I ignored her. I started out the door toward the stairs but she grabbed my wrist and stopped me. "Rhydian, what's wrong? This can't just be because of the sketches..."

I just stood, refusing to meet her eyes. My wolf pulsing just beneath the surface, I was angry, I just couldn't tell who I was angry at anymore. My fingers tapped together restlessly and I let out a heavy breath to try and calm myself down. "I don't know..." I murmured.

She tried to meet my gaze but I wouldn't let her. "...Why don't you give Maddy a call... Ask her over for dinner..." She said hesitantly. Maddy was always her last resort, she'd realised early on that when I went quiet, Maddy could get me talking again.

"Why do you always use Maddy to try and bridge the gap!" I snapped. "Who's saying it isn't Maddy who's the problem!"

As if on cue, my phone buzzed in my pocket so I fished it out with my free hand, 'Maddy' flashed on the screen. I huffed and pressed ignore, keeping my thumb over the end call button, she'd ring again in a few seconds anyway... "You've fallen out with her." She concluded finally.

"Yeah." I muttered, the phone rang so I pressed end before the first ring was over and pulled my arm out of her grip. "Yeah, I have."

I walked back in and pulled my craft quilt up off the floor, untangling my sketches from it and hanging them up on the line, before spreading the sheet out under them. I grabbed the hairdryer and plugged it in, crawling under my sketch paper and lying on my back on the quilt. Finally, I turned the hairdryer on and pointed it towards my sketches... I didn't know what to do anymore...

...

Mrs Vaughn gave me around ten minutes to calm down before coming to sit by my head. She sighed and stroked my hair gently. "Even best friends fall out... You can't agree on everything, the important thing is that you respect each others views and you work around them... It's part of growing up."

I scoffed. "Yeah, well there are a lot of 'parts of growing up' I missed out on."

"Hey now, hold up." She said sternly. "The first thing you said to me when we met was. 'Don't treat me like a care kid.' And I promised you I wouldn't, didn't I? But if you're going to throw things like that at me I have no choice..."

"I know." I mumbled. "I'm sorry." She was right, I didn't like being treated like a care kid, I didn't like the pity, or the way people would put my behaviour down to 'The way I was brought up.'

"Talk to me, Rhydian... I can't help if you won't tell me what's wrong."

I rubbed at my face in frustration and put my arm over my eyes. "Why do you keep me?" That's what it came down to, it was why I was getting annoyed with her. Well, not her specifically, the care system, my old placements. The only reason I couldn't swim was because I'd never stayed anywhere long enough for someone to figure out I hadn't been taught, then the ones that did got sick of me before they had the chance to teach me.

She continued to stroke my hair, but I could tell by the way she paused before answering that the question upset her. "We've had this conversation Rhydian. James and I love you... I'd never try to replace your mum, whoever or wherever she may be, but you're my little boy as well, even if you are fifteen."

I shook my head. "You don't even know my mum..."

"Perhaps not, but I thank her every day for giving me you." I felt her shift and crawl under the the makeshift washing line to lie beside me. "I know you remember more about her than you let on"

I looked away... Even before I met her I did remember more than I let on, but I stayed quiet, anything I remembered didn't match up with what I got told and that confused me. People kept telling me I was abandoned, but when I tried to remember a time before social services, all I could remember was a loving family unit... As I got older I began to doubt myself, until eventually I started to believe the stories I was told.

But then I met her, and I could see the way she looked at me... Her scent brought back buried, fuzzy memories. Not really images, just... feelings, I guess... And I couldn't doubt her anymore

"I know she loves me..." I whispered. I didn't say anymore, a little scared by the overwhelming urged to tell her, tell her that I'd met mum, that she'd wanted me and I was never abandoned, I was lost.

"Then I believe you..." She said softly. "I don't think you've been told that enough, but unless you give me reason not to, I promise I'll always believe you." I laughed quietly, if only she knew... I lied to her every single day...

It was quiet for a few moments before I spoke again... "I can't swim." I said bluntly. Now that Maddy knew it was only a matter of time before the news got back to her anyway.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "But... This afternoon..."

I shrugged. "...I was embarrassed, so I didn't tell the others, just sat on the bank and sketched... " I explained. "... But Maddy was joking around and pulled me into the water..."

"Rhydian..." She sighed. "Do you know how dangerous that was?"

I scoffed. "Well, I do now..." Mrs Vaughn kept her worried eyes locked on mine. "...Tom pulled me out." I reassured quickly. "But I lost my temper with Mads... Shouted at her... And now she's angry at me for not telling her..."

"And so she should be!" She shook her head. "Rhydian, you should have told us, you know James would have taught you."

I scowled at my sketches. "I'm not going to a public swimming pool where everyone can see. I'm fifteen, not five."

She didn't argue... Wanting to learn wasn't the problem, if there was a way for someone to teach me, away from everyone else I'd be all for it... I didn't enjoy being behind everyone else, my grades at school always had been awful, but one thing I had going for me, besides my art, was sport.

I heard movement from outside and sniffed the air, scowling at the scent I found. "Tell her I've gone out." I muttered.

"Tell who?"

She knocked on the door and Mrs Vaughn sat up. "Maddy." I huffed.

Mrs Vaughn rolled her eyes and shuffled her way out from under the washing line.

Maddy's POV.

"Help us up." I pushed myself up on the bank, reaching up for his hand and he grabbed it just like I knew he would. Rhydian would do anything for me, we both knew that, and he knew I'd do anything for him in return, neither of us took advantage of that, but we couldn't help pushing the boundaries just a little.

I walked up the bank until my feet found purchase on the edge, and leaned back, tugging on his arms. "Maddy, what are you doing?!" He resisted, and since he was stronger than I was, it was working, but then Tom came up behind him just like we'd planned and knocked him off balance.

I laughed, feeling my stomach lurch as we fell, up until I hit the water, holding my breath as I was submerged. Rhydian and I collided so I let go of him and untangled myself, swimming out from underneath him and up to the surface. I laughed and paddled towards the edge, jumping up to sit on the bank, with my feet dangling in the water, still giggling as I pushed my hair out of my face and rubbed the water out my eyes.

"Rhydian? You ok mate?" Tom called over to him, his concerned tone enough to break my laughter. I looked over to find Rhydian thrashing around in the water and struggling to keep his head above the surface... I watched, stunned as he gasped one last time before disappearing.

While I sat, useless and frozen in shock, Shannon pushed Tom towards the river. "He can't swim!" Tom jumped in after him and it was the spray of the water that finally snapped me out of it. I whimpered and was about to push myself off the bank but Shannon grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back. "Tom's got him, give them some space."

Shock was replaced with adrenaline and I felt my wolf flare in panic. "Rhydian!" I hadn't realised I'd started crying until his name came out in a sob, I pulled desperately against Shannon's grip and was about to turn and growl at her but just then Tom resurfaced, pulling Rhydian with him, coughing and spluttering.

Shannon let go and we both rushed forward to help pull Rhydian up. I only caught a glimpse of his face before Tom and Shannon turned him over, his eyes shone yellow and black veins pulsed through his cheeks... He was absolutely terrified...

He began to cough up the river water he'd inhaled onto the bank, muscles tense and back arched as he fought the pull of transformation, his hands and nails turning to paws and claws... I stepped back, hands over my mouth to hide my sobs, horrified... This was all my fault

...

I sniffed and wiped my eyes with the heels of my hands, even now over an hour later and back home, the guilt was eating away at me... I'd hurt him, physically hurt him... He could have drown... I curled up tighter in my spot on the sofa, my face buried against the cushions. I felt awful.

Rhydian meant the world to me... He was my best friend, and the idea that I'd made him feel the way he did when we pulled him out the water, I couldn't believe I'd done that... It wasn't like when we play fought and I bit or hit him a little too hard... or that time during movie night, when we'd battled over the last burger. I'd momentarily forgotton he was a boy and accidently kneed him in a place boys do not like to be kneed...

This... It was up there with the things I'd said to him on his first day at Bradlington high... 'The sooner you leave, the better.'... 'Let him go, he doesn't belong here.' I'd never apologised for that, I was too scared to remind him, see that same hurt in his eyes I'd seen when I'd pushed him away...

I pulled my hands and my phone out of my sleeves, unlocking it and scrolling through my contacts. I hovered over Rhydian's name with my thumb resting on the call button, deciding to ring then deciding not to, putting the phone down then picking it up again. Finally I sighed and let my head fall against the back of the sofa.

Mam sat down beside me and held out her arms. "Come 'ere, Pet." I crawled over to her and snuggled up under her arm and she stroked my hair gently. "As you get older." She said softly. "What you'll realise, is that one of the hardest things you have to learn how to understand are boys." I rolled my eyes at her but she continued regardless. "More complex than that, are teenage boys, and you know what beats that?" She smiled. "Teenage Wolfblood boys."

I scoffed, playing with the ends on my sleeves. "And do you know what trumps the lot?" I huffed. "...Rhydian." She laughed but I didn't join her, I shook my head against her shoulder. "Mam he's supposed to be able to tell us anything... Everything... I thought he knew that..."

"I'm sure he does, Mads, you know more about him than anyone."

"I didn't know enough this afternoon, did I?" I felt bad for discussing this with mam, but when I came in as upset as I had an hour ago, Tom and Shannon had to give her a explanation as to why... So now she knew something Rhydain obviously didn't want anyone to know. "He obviously doesn't trust us enough."

Mam sighed. "I don't think that's it Maddy, not really... I think when it all comes down to it, we need to go back two steps on the complexity scale." I frowned in confusion, brows furrowed. "I think you need to consider the fact that he might just be acting like a normal teenage boy, too embarrassed to admit to the girl he fancies that he can't swim..."

I looked away, I would never get used to mam telling me Rhydian fancied us... "But that's ridiculous."

"I know that, and you know that, deep down he probably knows that, he just needs reminding." She reasoned.

I sighed "... It's not his fault no one taught him... How can you not teach a kid how to swim? All it takes is for him to trip and fall in the water when he's on his own and he could..." I trailed off, I didn't even want to think it...

"He's been moved around a lot Maddy, and something tells me his behaviour was more of a priority to them, it probably just got overlooked." She shrugged.

"His behaviour wasn't his fault either..." I muttered. It was being treated like a human, being misunderstood, that made his temper flare. Rhydian had been assessed by human doctors and psychiatrists all his life, which had resulted in a whole load of misdiagnosis. The anger, that natural wolf energy could all be controlled by teaching him how to handle his wolf, but instead they'd had him on a drug called Ritalin, used to control ADHD. Side effects included; anxiety and insomnia, which he got anyway. Nervous tics, like the one he got in his right hand when he was stressed, the one that meant he wanted to sketch to try and calm himself down, and OCD, which I was convinced he'd picked up to some degree.

With Rhydian things always had to be done a certain way. His sketches had to be in a certain order, on his wall, then stored and labelled in portfolios. Things around the house had to be neat and tidy, dishes cleaned, he'd wash every dish as he used it rather than wait for a pile and do them all at once, he washed his clothes on Wednesday night and Sunday morning without fail and as soon as it was dry it had to be folded and put away... All this royally showed me up when he lived with us, now mam and dad didn't tolerate my excuses for not doing the housework.

His room was arranged with everything in its place, nothing unnecessary, he didn't have little trinkets or boxes, things that held memories like the rest of us. At first I thought it was because he'd just moved in, that perhaps the rest of his stuff was still packed away, but the longer he stayed the more I realised, that was just the way he liked his room.

Ritalin was highly addictive, however, Luckily for him, muscle pain, swelling of the hands and feet, aggression, restlessness and rapid heart rate, all the things we experienced before our first transformation were also all signs of Ritalin overdose, so they'd stopped prescribing it to him before he became too dependant on it.

Mam picked up my phone and passed it to me, breaking me from my inner musings. "Give him a ring, it'll be better to get it sorted sooner rather than later."

I took it from her and scrolled for his name again. Perhaps mam was right, and this wasn't a complex 'Rhydian thing.' Perhaps it was just a 'Teenage boy thing.' I pressed call and lifted the phone to my ear.

It rang for a few seconds before cutting off. 'Sorry, This person is unavailable to take your call. Pleas-" I hung up and pulled the phone back to look at the screen, frowning before pressing the call button again.

It rang only once before the automated message cut in again. "Sorry, this person is unavailable to-" I hung up and growled lowly, shoving my phone in my pocket and standing up.

"What's wrong?" Mam asked.

"He's rejecting me calls!" I fumed. He never rejected my calls, not even on no moon days. He was angry at us, I got that, but how were we supposed to sort this out if he was gonna be a complete cub about it and give us the silent treatment?

Mam grimaced. "Oh no..."

I huffed and moved towards the door, dropping to the floor and pulling on my shoes. I wasn't even the only one in the wrong here! "If he thinks he can get away with that, he's got another thing coming!"

"Madeline." Mam laughed. "Go easy on him."

"Would you go easy on dad if he rejected your calls?.. No? Thought not!" I pulled open the door and ran out in the direction of the Vaughn's.

AN- Ohhhhh Rhydian's in trouble... Don't worry though, they won't be arguing too much. Really enjoyed writing this one actually and looking forward to writing part two, not sure when I'll post it, since I'm back at college and trying to juggle work, but I'll get there eventually.

Lunar eclipse tomorrow! We can imagine Maddian running around Canada and giving piggy back rides, to try make up for our Wolfbloodless September.

Until next time!

Please Please Review!

-EndlessMoonrise X