The car rumbled and clanked as it drove up the road leading to the Amityville Academy main gates, the very symbol of a prison to the ghoul inside. The young werewolf was situated in the front seat beside her father, watching as they approached the massive campus. Hell. That’s what it was. Hell behind a massive, crooked, ancient gate and across a bridge. Hey, at least she could jump if it got really bad.

Her father looked over at her as they drove over the bridge and onto the campus grounds, grunting a bit. “Here we are, pup.” He nodded ahead, and Emery pulled herself from the glass window, eying the school ahead of them with a grimace. “This is a good school,” he continued as the car went around the school and to the dormitory registration building. “You got yer room number?” He asked, looking over at Emery.

She nodded, again without a word, and reached down to the headphones around her neck. They were pulled up, effectively shutting out Jackson and his poor attempt at conversation. Her father sighed, shaking his head, and a few minutes later the wagon was parked in front of the Monster dormitory. He got out, shoving her shoulder lightly to get the stoic teenager to move. Emery jerked, glaring over at him in aggravation, and got out of the car, going around to the back to grab her bags.

“You’ll do good here, kid.” Jackson said, putting a hand on her shoulder encouragingly. Em rolled her eyes, giving a short harsh snort, and shrugged it off, grabbing a two-box stack and heading inside. He watched after her, snorting, and grabbed a couple bags, following her in. The third floor came quick enough to the two wolves, and they worked in silence, bringing things in and setting them down in the middle of the empty room.

The room itself was so... plain. It wouldn’t stay that way long, Emery would have at it gladly, but for now it simply looked like a plain room. Nothing hopeful about it, nothing homey about it. Just a bed and a desk.

It only took three trips from the car to the room to get all of Emery’s boxes moved in. When all was said and done, it’d been achieved in absolute silence. The tension was making Jackson rethink sending Emery to this school. At least at home, she was under his thumb, but here he couldn’t watch her all the time. For all her faults, she was his baby girl. Throwing her into the deep end seemed wrong, somehow.

He closed the trunk and turned to face the youngest of his pups. She looked more like him than his wife, and of course, the youngest was doted on. The youngest girl, the most rambunctious of his pack, was going off to Amityville. He wished it was for good reasons and not bad.

Emery looked up at him expectantly, arms crossed over her stomach. “So,” She said with a tone of finality, the first word she’d spoken since getting into the car. “You’re really leaving me here.”

“This’ll be good for you, Em.” He repeated, sighing. “I promise.” He opened an arm, drawing the pup in and hugging her tight. “You’ll meet new people.” He struggled to explain, hands spinning in the air above him. “You’ll--”

“Get over my weird little hobby?” She offered, snorting softly and burying her head in the crook of her father’s arm. “Yeah. Whatever.” She pulled back, stepping back from him. Jackson cringed.

“Emery--”

“Look, save it.” She snorted softly, raising her hands and dropping them in defeat. She eyed him, silent for a moment, then exhaled through her nose. “I’ll tell Mom we had a good heart to heart and everything. Just, spare me the talk, yeah?” She said quietly, jaw clenching a little. “Nothing you can say is gonna make this any better.”

Jackson eyed her quietly, shoulders slumping, and scratched at his forehead. “Yeah, I guess not.” He grunted. “Call your Mom later. She worries.”

“At least one of you is concerned about leaving me in this... place.” Emery snorted. She watched Jackson freeze and for a split second, felt guilty. He wasn’t one to hide his emotions; they were clear on his face. That’d stung. But the next second, he was getting in the car, and she was just angry again. She stepped back to the steps leading into the monster dorm, moving aside as someone came out and grimacing at the scent they had.

Scratching at her nose, Emery watched her father drive away. She sat down on the steps, watching him and knowing all too well he was watching her in the rearview mirror.

Good. He deserved to feel guilty.

After a while, Emery got up, pulled her headphones back over her ears, and went inside to unpack. Clearly, she wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.