CHAPTER NINE

It's later now. The next day, probably. And with different characters. In a different place.
"I'm so much like this river," she said, hands in pockets. Looking out over a river.
"Always the same. But also always changing."
The river was beautiful. A serene spot for an angsty teenager to come and consider her feelings and things and also swat bugs. That las part wasn't a draw, really, but tended to happen out of necessity.
"If there's a perfect metaphor for the things I'm going through as a teenager, it's this river," she said, "And if it's not this river," she went on, "It's that I'm a werewolf. Ugh! I'm always dealing with things. Oh, river, if only you could hear me, you'd understand."
"Bullshit!" said someone who we didn't know was there yet.
"Who said that?!" shouted the werewolf, "I didn't know someone else was here yet!"
"It's me," said a beautiful woman dressed in a flowy blue gown. She had deep blue eyes and a blue tinge to her hair. Blue sandals on her feet. Long lacy blue gloves on her hands.
She was really committed to the whole "blue" thing.
"Who are you?" asked the werewolf.
"I'm the river nymph. This river is essentially an extension of me and vice versa.
"Hence the blue," she explained.
"Hence the blue," said the now-awed werewolf.

Awed as in astonished. Not odd as in strange. She'd always felt a little of odd. Out of place. Like she didn't quite fit in in regular-
"I'm gonna stop you right there," the river interrupted the narrator's kinda messy joke.
"Huh?" said the werewolf.
"You need to stop. You're not special," said the river to the werewolf's face.
"Excuse me?! I'm a were-"
"I don't care. For millennia I've been here and literally every single fucking person who has come to this god damn river has felt lost, out of place. Different."
"Oh. It sounds sad."
"No, it's exhausting. And stupid."
"Oh, but I'm not stupid. I'm a totally unique-"
"Fourteen," interrupted the river again. She's awfully interrupty.
"What?"
"Fourteen fucking teen werewolves have stood exactly where you're standing."
"Oh, I-"
"And that's just this decade. I've also seen ten vampires, three lizard people and once, the Loch Ness Monster. Not to mention the drifters, ex-cons, soul searchers and artists - don't get me fucking started on the fucking artists."
"You sure swear a lot," observed the werewolf.
"God damn fucking right I do. I'm a fucking river. What're you gonna fucking do? Stop drinking my damn water?"
"None of this is really helping me."
"It's not supposed to. I do not care about you at all."
"Geez! What if I just kill myself?!"
"I hope you do. There's a whole river in front of you. Jump in and drown. I'll flush your shitty corpse into the sea. Then you're Poseidon's problem."
Nothing from the werewolf.
"That's what I thought," the river said, spitting at the werewolf's feet. "Now don't you have somewhere else to be?"
"Oh, dip! School!" The werewolf ran off.
"Pussy," the river said, merging again with the water.