PARTY WITH THE PRINCESS: IT'S HER PARTY AND SHE'LL CRY IF SHE WANTS TO (AND SHE'LL WANT TO)

By the time the cool girls had related the K-drama that was very, very, loosely based on my life, Janice breathed, "Wow, I had no idea."

That would be understandable since it didn't happen like that at all.

The cool girls all nodded sagely.

"It's all true too." Krystal told her, "We just don't tell everyone because this is Sam's private life."

"We're not like a certain b**** who likes to b**** behind her friend's backs." Leia said.

"I want to help." Janice decided, "I know... I know I didn't start off right. But I want to make it up to Sam."

No, Janice. You don't have to. I mean seriously, don't.

Janice was all pumped up now, like more than I'd ever seen her the entire first term of high school, "Whatever you girls are about to do, count me in!"

This was not going to end well.

"Please let us help too!" Fluffy volunteered, "I want to be part of Pretty Alpha's love story too!"

"Sorry, Beta." EJ patted Harvey on the shoulder, "I feel your love, man. But I'm going to root for Scary Luna."

I think my good beta had been shocked speechless. He just stood there looking somewhat stunned.

"What? Why?" Zara asked, "Don't you see, Harvey's love is real!"

"I'm rooting for Henry." Leia raised her hand, "Please make him suffer Sam. Don't accept him till you drag him through hell."

If I had to drag Henry through hell, wouldn't I have to go through hell too?

"Sorry, pretty ladies, but I always root for the underdog." EJ explained.

"In what way is James the underdog?" Henry asked, "He's her soulmate, damn it!"

Why was Henry getting worked up over this?

"James and Sam belong together." Henry said with emphasis as if trying to spell something out to a puppy, "They.are.soulmates."

"Uh-huh." Zara nodded, "There he goes... trying desperately to push Sam to another man."

"He thinks by doing this, it will protect him from having to face his own true feelings for Sam." Krystal analyzed, "But he's gonna regret it when he sees them happy together."

"Oh, I love it when that happens." Leia said because she was replaying some K-drama scene in her head.

I'd like to see Henry try to talk some sense into the cool girls and teach them a thing or two about the real world now.

"Yeah sure, everyone knows Scary Luna is her soul mate." EJ said, "But think about it, she only loves him because of the mating bond. The other guys in the story love her because it's true love."

Wait, what? And what did EJ know about true love? Like, this guy's idea of falling in love was "badump" on the dance floor and "I'm gonna break your heart".

"Ah, yes. A love that transcends even our most deeply rooted instincts." Fluffy smiled because he really loved convoluted emotional mazes best.

"Hoi, hoi! " EJ cheered at his friend's affirmation, "Are you rooting for Scary Luna too?"

Fluffy shook his head, "I'm rooting for myself."

"Mou! That's cheating, Fluffy!" EJ argued, and then he decided, "I'm rooting for myself too."

Please meet my two troublemakers.

Henry glared at me. What? It's not my fault! I mean, even if they were my wolves, but these two... I shrugged haplessly back.

Thank goddess that Ki was still around. Ki who had kept his smile even as my fictional life story was unfolded, "Since the misunderstanding has been resolved, perhaps we might proceed up to the birthday party?"

In what way did any misunderstanding get resolved?

Henry checked his watch, "What the hell. I've got no time for this. Let's just get over with this."

"Hoi, hoi! Birthday party here we come!" EJ punched his fist upwards and bounded towards the door.

And that was how I found myself entering Abigail's party on Henry's arm. Janice had said she couldn't possibly go with Henry after all, so Fluffy very kindly offered her his arm. I had to go with Henry because someone had to be rubbing it in Abigail's face that he wasn't with her. Krystal, Zara, and Leia briefed us along the way:

My role wasn't hard.

"Just be yourself." Krystal told me, "Abigail hates that."

She said it like it was an admirable thing.

"Yah, you handsome guys make sure you buzz around her like flies." Zara directed, pointing at my betas and wolves.

I'm not sure why, but my wolves nodded obediently at the instruction. Since when did my betas and the blue demon wolves take orders from a teenage human girl? But here we were. Why were we even doing this?

"Can we just get over with this?" Henry grumbled.

"Don't complain, stupid Henry." Zara scolded.

"Whatever. Just don't expect me to get my hands dirty over this." Henry said, "If this blows up, I don't know you."

"If this blows up..." Leia started cackling, "If this blows up, I'll die happy."

{Don't worry, goddess.} Ki felt it important to assure me, {Fluffy is certain that we'll be able to pull this off.}

Wait, FLUFFY? That did NOT reassure me in anyway.

But everyone was going with it, so I went too. Even though at the back of my mind, I heard my Mum's voice saying something about being gracious, taking the higher road, and that wrecking a classmate's birthday over petty grievances was not what an Alpha should do. But at that moment, with everyone moving towards the party in a rare show of unity, I went against my own common sense (which was evidently voiced by my mum) because I didn't want to be the wet blanket. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't want to be the one to stop what my friends were convinced was the turning point that would bring justice and their happily ever after ending to their drama.

It was in my moment of weakness that I was like, wth, and followed along.

I should've known better. Actually, I did know better, but I went along anyway.

So there I was, stepping out of the lift lobby onto the pool deck on the roof. There were pink lanterns strung across the pool, and pink heart-shaped floats in the water of the lit pool. It was very pretty at night, but cold too. We were all in our coats, my heavy white woolen coat had been swapped out for a short black fur. It looked very nice with my boots, but it was fashionably short-cropped. I did not know that hips could feel so cold until tonight. Whenever the wind blustered up against me I would freeze from my hip down to my knees where my boots ended. My high silted silk dress did nothing against the wind. I might as well be walking around without any pants on. And also my cheeks which I felt sure had been stung red from the cold.

It was really too cold for an outdoor pool party. No wonder there wasn't anyone hanging around outside. Even with the famous bar by the pool, it was pretty deserted. The only people around were the waiters coming out to refill their trays with drinks. I felt very sorry for the bartenders. There were two of them, and they were both in black vests and white shirts and ties, but they also had earmuffs, scarves, and leather gloves.

So the first part of our plan fell as flat as a pancake. The only people who witnessed our "grand entrance" were the frozen bartenders. With any luck, all of the cool girls' plans would fizzle out the same way.

We couldn't join the indoor pool party, so we trooped over to the coat counter. I let Ki help me out of my coat. WHY the coat counter was at an open gazebo was beyond me.

Suddenly, there was a commotion of glass shattering from the bar next door. We all stopped to look.

Maybe it was because of the gloves, but one of the bartenders had dropped his cocktail shaker. I think it came out of his hands when he was shaking it and crashed on the glasses waiting to be poured into.

"Ooooh" Marcus winced when it happened, "That's gonna come out from his salary."

"That'll teach him to stare at us." Zara said. The cool girls were very pleased.

"Stay focused, girls." Krystal reminded everyone, "Alright, as planned, Henry and Sam will go first. Make sure you steal the show. We'll back you up."

When Krystal said, "back you up" she meant that the cool girls and their dates would sneak in and position themselves close enough to be heard by Abigail and her posse. This way, they could narrate loudly how perfect a couple Henry and I were and how it was no wonder Henry dumped Abigail for me and any other thing they could think of that Abigail would hate.

"This is how one heap burning coals over their enemies." Fluffy had told them sagely. Their original plan was to go up to Abigail and gloat, but Fluffy helped them "fine-tune" various parts of their revenge plan.

"This would also be an opportunity to plant any actionable thought into her mind to guide her next actions after you've provoked her."

I had always known Fluffy was complicated, but hearing him explain the "basics" to the cool girls was an eye-opener. If Fluffy ever became my enemy, I would definitely fall into an abyss of his over-complicated maze of traps. I don't even think I had enough luck to get out of it alive.

{Not if I kill him first.}

Yes. The best defense is a good offense. For enemies like Fluffy, his swift and immediate annihilation would save my life (and my sanity).

Wait, no. WTH? Why was I agreeing with Boo? Fluffy was MY wolf. My strategist. On MY side. My poor enemies.

"We got a visual on the cake." Fluffy reported, his smiling mask looking suspiciously like a real smile, "It's dark chocolate. The goddess shines upon us."

I was quite sure the goddess had better things to shine on high school girls about to carry out their revenge plot.

"Alright. Tonight, girls... Tonight is our night." Krystal gave us one final pep talk, "It's now or never."

"Yah. Let's teach Abigail a lesson she'd never forget." Zara said, cracking her knuckles again.

"It's her party, and she's gonna wanna cry." Leia grinned.

Even Jasmine and Janice looked excited. I think the cool girls were a bad influence on them.

So once again, against my better judgment, we made our grand entrance into Abigail's party. Unfortunately, this time around, our entrance was everything the cool girls had hoped for.