OUR INNOCENT DAYS

TIMELINE 3, 7 MARCH, SUNDAY, CONTINUED

But why couldn't my wolves in Timeline 3 see that the one who'd make me happy would be Bell? At least it would be if we were in our Original Timeline... In our current timeline, my memories of Bell were muddled with my original ones. It was odd. For some reason, both timelines shared the same events but in very a different order.

Like Bell and I were definitely engaged in Timeline 3 too, but it was so long ago, I barely remembered it.

I remembered Mum putting me in a scratchy white lace dress and then carrying me up to see myself in the mirror on her dresser because I was small enough to be carried.

"Oh, Sam! How pretty!" Mum exclaimed to our reflection.

I had absolutely hated the dress just a second ago, but Mum's smile in the mirror and her eyes lighting up like that… I suppose I could endure the scratchy bits. Mum pressed a kiss on the top of my head, "My puppy is pretty like a doll."

I was not. I was still at the age where most people would mistake me for a boy, a very ruddy strong boy who was a head taller than his peers. It didn't help that my hair had been cut short because of a recent bubble gum accident (not my gum, I was too young to chew it) - which I tried to fix on my own because Savy was too young to use scissors. Yeah… so now I just looked like an oversized preschool boy with a bad haircut and a white lace gown.

There was a reason why my mum would pray for me to grow up beautiful every night in my Original Timeline.

Still, from the look on Mum's beaming face in my memory, she truly did seem very proud of how I turned out that day. I could only conclude I looked much worse before my little makeover.

Bell was really young back then too. He glared at me and vehemently protested, "I don't want to be mated to a puppy!"

He couldn't have been more than 8 himself - but he wasn't all that much bigger than I was. Who knew my soul mate was a runt as a pup?

"You're not getting mated yet, child." A younger Lady Amber tried to explain, "This is just the betrothal ceremony."

"No!" Bell stomped and crossed his arms, "And don't call me a child."

Bell's anger wasn't very intimidating when he was a pup. The ladies around him laughed behind their hands (because they were classy Lorents), and another lady declared, "What a brat!"

I suddenly recognized her as the younger version of the Oracle... the sister that Beta Lorent shot in our Original Timeline. Even the Oracle called my mate a brat. Truth!

Beta Lorent laughed all Jafar-like too, but he didn't seem nefarious, just annoying, "Sister, he's still just a pup."

If Beta Lorent was trying to provoke young Bell, he was really good at it.

"I AM NOT A PUP. I'm your Future Alpha!" Bell chi-ka-boomed. But instead of fuming black curse, his face turned red in anger. He was so… so weak and uncool.

He was dressed in a little white suit, there was lace around his sleeves and collar. I didn't know any boy who'd dress like that. The only boyish thing about his clothes was his shirt tails that had slipped out and his bowtie was crooked.

He was otherwise a very pretty boy. Even as a child, my mate was beautiful. He would have looked better than I did in my dress.

Anyway, I was just a dumb pup, so I asked my Mum loudly enough for everyone to hear, "What's wrong with that boy?"

Alpha James laughed and quickly stepped up to block off his bratty son from our view - at least he succeeded in blocking mine, "My son is still young and foolish."

Dad shrugged and zenned, "Youth and foolishness are often bound together."

And Mum stepped forward to exchange greetings with Luna Edith and the ladies with her.

When Bell next poked his head out from behind his mum, I waved to make another friend, but he pulled a face and stuck out his tongue at me. Now, THAT I could understand. I tossed my head. I didn't want to be his friend either, so there!

I think we were too young to know what being betrothed meant either. Since I was a dumb pup in this timeline too, for most of my puppy years after that, I somehow came to understand the word "fiancé" as "arch nemesis".

"He's MY FINACE." I would actually say it, even as an elementary school pup, but in a dark tone as if announcing my darkest enemy. In many ways, he was. So from now on, whenever I write "MY FIANCE" in caps, know that I read it in the darkest dum-dum-dum Dearth Vader voice I own.

After our engagement… the Lorent and Kingsley households regularly had dinner together - particularly because Dad and Alpha James had a lot to discuss about the future merger of our packs. When that happened, I would have to accompany my parents to the Lorent's while Savy got to stay over with Lizzy and Ben at the Beta House and eat Packhouse Kitchen deliveries. I felt very sore about it.

Bell was similarly annoyed by my presence because the puppies usually didn't have to take their meals with the adults in the Lorent household, but whenever I was there, Bell would be forced to sit through a stuffy formal adult dinner to "keep his princess company."

Might I just point out, I had to suffer too.

"She's not a princess." Bell tried to argue, "She's a crybaby."

I took offense, but tried to explain as reasonably as any grown-up 5-year-old, "I'm not! I am the Alpha, and Alphas don't cry."

"No, I'm the alpha!" Bell was immediately angry, "You're just a dumb girl."

"You're the dumb girl!" I scolded.

"I'm a boy!" Bell yelled.

"Which makes you 10 times dumber!" I yelled back.

Wow, I was good at elementary school-level smack talk.

"How dare you challenge my authority!" Bell would go into Lorent drama mode.

"I'm not!" I said because I had no idea what an authority was, "You're the one who is challenge- challenging my…my author."

"Pffftttt…. " Bell laughed, "You stupid pup."

"You dumbbell." I threw back because he was within my vocabulary range again.

"You crybaby!" Bell shot back.

That wasn't fair! I had NEVER cried in front of Bell.

Eventually, dinner would conclude and we would be told to run along and play so the adults to talk. And then the real challenge would start.

Bell and I were very competitive even as pups, so the next two to three hours were spent trying to win the other party in any activity imaginable to two pups left without adult supervision. From tree climbing to paper plane throwing… and later as we grew older, stick fighting, fencing, and bare-handed combat. I was very strong for my age, and although Bell was four years older, he was small for his age, we were well-matched at physical games. Bell always won anything that required reading, math, or something brainy like that. I always won when it was a subjective competition and we needed an adult to judge. The adults in Bell's family were all biased, even in this timeline, Bell's family liked me a lot more than they liked him.

I felt sure he would get a fairer judgment from my Mum or Dad, but Bell had refused to even consider it, "They will obviously choose your painting since you're their pup."

I'm not sure where Bell got this confidence from since his own Dad had not once picked him as the winner. Alpha James was my biggest fan. Whether it be singing, dancing, calligraphy, poetry, or whatever. He always picked me as the winner.

One evening, the both of us were stuck up in a tree (again). We were competing on who climbed higher, and neither of us could allow the other to win, so naturally, neither of us could get down after. The adults stood around looking up at us while the Lorent warriors set up ladders and safety harnesses to rescue their future alpha and luna. Although I was hanging from a branch quite a way from the ground, I overheard something interesting about Bell.

"Oh dear." This was Lady Amber, "Those two have done it again."

"They play well together." Mum laughed and added ruefully, "Maybe a little too well."

Luna Edith hadn't joined us for dinner tonight again. I hadn't seen her since last fall. I heard the adults say she was in poor health.

"I suppose this is good for him." Lady Amber sighed, "Ever since his mother fell ill, this child only comes alive when your daughter is here."

Was Bell too smart the way Ben was? I remembered vaguely how Mrs Beta had said something similar about Ben in this timeline too. Poor smart pups, they seemed to all be socially defective.

"Oh, hoo hoo hoo!" This was the Oracle laughing and clapping her hands, "James and Samantha, sitting in a tree…"

No, this wasn't a prophecy, it turned out the Oracle only painted prophecies… in every other way, she was very young at heart and fun-loving (read immature). Aunt Olivia was the most fun adult I knew. It was from observing her and Lady Amber that I learned an important truth -  wolves who ran like idiots enjoyed their lives more than wolves who ran very properly.

"Shut up!" Bell yelled down at his aunt from where he was clinging on for his dear life.

I laughed, "I win."

Because I was focused like that - and had pulled myself up one branch higher while Aunty Olivia was chanting.

"Oh Sam!" Mum worried, "Stop climbing!"

Already, we were beyond the reach of their highest ladder. Every time we have the competition, we climb higher. Someone wondered aloud if we needed a fire engine from Gate City.

"Hurry! Get moving" Alpha James ordered his warriors.

It wasn't like they were taking their time, or standing around guarding like they usually did. It seemed that the warriors only moved when commanded by someone of higher rank. 

Meanwhile, Bell was glaring at me from one branch down, and then because Bell really never knew when to call it quits, he began to straighten his body against the trunk so that he could reach out and grab my branch.

"James! Stop!" Alpha James ordered, Alpha Command and all.

It gave Bell a little over 2 seconds of pause, but that was it.

My branch was not going to hold both our weights.

"Stop it." I tried to wriggle myself closer to the branch because I could feel it bending when he pulled on it.

"Don't be a crybaby." Bell said.

I wasn't even crying!

"I said stop it!" I felt my own grip slipping.

Mum screamed.

I fell, and while falling, I grabbed at whatever was in front of me - which turned out to be Bell, so we both came tumbling down.

More screams and gasps. Lady Amber fainted right into good old Roy's arms.

Bell landed in a rose bush.  It was pretty thorny, but it did break his fall and save his neck. I landed on top of Bell, so I got up with only scratches on my hands and arms, and a ripped pantyhose - most of the damage was from the climb up anyway.

"I win!" I announced while dusting off my dress. 

"I want a rematch!" Bell yelled while his Aunt Olivia held him down for some healer to treat his injuries.

"You foolish son!" Alpha James was furious, "Look what you've done."

"You're the fool, old man." the young Bell sneered back, "I'm not the one who let his luna die."

I think Alpha James would've hit Bell. He certainly raised his hand to do so, but Aunt Olivia used her body to shield Bell, "Brother, don't! Even if you beat him he'll still be a child. He doesn't understand what he's saying."

But I grew up with Ben and I knew for a fact that smart pups always knew what they were saying.

Dumb pups like me didn't, "Did someone's luna die?"

There was an awkward silence which no one quite recovered from after. Mum and Dad suddenly noticed the time and made haste to thank their hosts and leave. Mum kept apologizing for me, and Lady Olivia kept brushing it off. 

Eventually, Alpha James seemed to snap out of whatever internal upheaval his Bell's words had triggered. He reached out and patted my head, his usual kind smile in place, "It's not her fault, it was my foolish son who misled her."

For some reason, Alpha James often felt everything dangerous or foolish we did was Bell's fault - even when it was clearly my idea. Like the Summer we tried to dive into their pond from the second-floor balcony. Bell did tell me it was a stupid idea, but I called him a chicken until he agreed to the competition.

And every time we went over to the Lorents for dinner, we would be made to play together - unsupervised. The Lorent warriors standing around were quite unlike the ones in Night Leaf. They NEVER moved without an order, not even to stop us or warn us when we were clearly about to get ourselves killed.

Eventually, Luna Edith recovered. Dad said Lorent healing was miraculous, but no matter how miraculous, Luna Edith never quite regained her eloquence. Her speech was halting and at times, as a pup, I felt her mind was halting too. Alpha James said physical healing was always the easiest, but the other healing only happened with time.

"That is why they say time is the great healer." Alpha James told me.

That was the first time I heard it so I only nodded dumbly. Later on, I overheard the ladies in the kitchen talking about broken hearts and wondered what broke in Luna Edith. I was very concerned for Bell's mother. She was always nice to me. I hoped time would quickly heal her.

"She cares more for your mother than you do!" Alpha James had scolded Bell over dinner one night.

"That's because she is a crybaby." Bell folded his arms.

I wasn't even crying!

"You're a dumbbell!" I told him.

"Don't call me that! I'm the Alpha!" Bell roared at me.

"No, I'm the Alpha!" I roared right back in his face, "You can be the crybaby!"

And after dinner, we would go prove our alpha-ness to each other.

This continued until Bell started middle school. Those were our innocent days.