SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO

2 MARCH, TUESDAY, SUPER LATE

The stench of after burn in the hall was unbearable. I know, it was my fault, so I was the last person allowed to complain, but the smell was really bad. Beta Pete had every window and door opened, he also had large fans and four industry sized air cleaners running backstage. What did I tell you about Beta magic? In Beta Pete's case, all the magic was in his phone, and every phone call a magical spell that would bring the solution to us.

I wondered what would happen if I cast a Power Surge on him?

"Don't touch my wolves, Sam." Henry growled from next to me.

In every way, our rehearsal had restarted and we were back in the wing, next scene would be ours.

"I won't hurt them." I sulked. Henry was such a killjoy. I mean, couldn't he see Fluffy was fine? He had to change into other clothes - luckily he had his warrior gear in his bag. And yes, his wolf was still on the surface - its been the longest time I've sensed Fluffy's alpha wolf so boldly present. Fluffy's wolf was quite terrible. He was like a Chershire cat, but with many sharp wolf teeth and a sadistic penchant for arousing complicated feelings in others.

Anyway, in his state right now, he wouldn't be any help in keeping Boo out of trouble. I don't know why he was still sticking with me. Maybe it was because birds of a feather flocked together.

Our eyes met.

"If you play another prank again, I swear I'll call James." Henry warned. Did I mention what a killjoy he was?

I groaned in my hand, "You keep saying that, Hen, but what do you think my luna would do if you call?"

"Do you want to find out?" Henry asked, he took out his phone. Bell's number displayed on his call screen. Grrr...

"No, no." I quickly shook my head, "Don't call him."

Henry smirked.

I can't believe Henry would use my weakness against me like that! But it's not like I was going to let him know how much the thought of Bell storming into the scene and causing a scene was mortifying to me. Boo had thought it would be fun, {Mate! ~ ❤️ }

But I think we all know by now that Boo idea of fun was scary dangerous, so even if Boo was on the surface, I gritted my teeth and reined her in as much as possible.

No mate. I was quite firm about it. I even appealed to Boo's reason, {If Bell comes, he'd make me go home and that would be the end of our fun here.}

We were in the right wing, which stank the worst, but the half burnt roll-out set had been torn apart and the board was torn off and placed as a makeshift floor over the part of the ground Fluffy had burnt off.

Fluffy's bloodline power had to be turning into lava. At least that was the closest thing I could describe it.

Luckily, Boo was quite happy to play with Henry. Right now, the game was to see how far I could mess without him actually calling Bell.

"What's your beta's bloodline power?" I asked.

"None of your business." Henry told me.

"You don't know, do you?" I asked.

Henry growled lowly at me.

{So fun.}

And as long as Boo was having fun, everything was okay.

"I just want to go home." Henry bemoaned, "Why do I have to be stuck here with you?"

"Because I need clowns to the left of me (Fluffy), and jokers to my right." I told him.

"What?" Henry was nonplussed so I sang the rest of it, "Here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

"What the hell, Sam." Henry sighed.

"You're the joker." I tried to explain.

"Sam. Shut up." Henry said.

I laughed, {So fun.} Fluffy (the clown) beamed next to me. At least someone else here appreciated the subtle art of teasing a young alpha.

{You're on, Pretty Alpha: Horneo and Bulliet enters stage right, arm in arm. Bulliet laughs flirtatiously at something Horneo just said, before glancing up at Nerd...} Fluffy mindlinked dutifully.

Despite his wolf still being on the surface, Fluffy was far more in control than I was. At least he was still following the script and cuing me in at the right moments. I had almost forgotten that I was still in the middle of rehearsal.

I slipped my hand into the crook of Henry's arm. He looked caught off guard. Could it be, that the great Henry forgot which scene we were at? Too bad he didn't have Fluffy to cue him.

"We're on, baby." Bulliet told him with a coy smile, "Try not to fall in love with me."

"I'd sooner fall in love with a natural disaster." Henry grumbled.

This was very funny to me, luckily I was supposed to be laughing. I pulled on my best Bubbles impersonation - not the real Bubbles of the Powerpuff girls, I meant Bell's ex. I tossed my hair, which was quite alive and into the role too. It flared itself prettily to show off its locks. It even curled itself a la Bubble's large barreled perm.

To be honest, I just wanted to go home too. I wished Beta Lucas was here, or even Mum and Dad. Babysitting Boo was really hard work.

While Bulliet was like a train wreck waiting to happen, Boo was a natural disaster poised to strike. Part of me was tempted to stuff the magic stones back into the diadem and forced her back. Today had been such a peaceful day until Boo emerged too.

But I was the alpha. I could take this. Little by little, I was regaining control again, and the magic equilibrium was setting in.

This was when I had an epiphany, the diadem like any magic tool was just a crutch. I could lean on it to control my powers OR I could train myself to stop dream travelling random. These were my powers. I should be the one controlling them.

Just like the way, as Bulliet in the spotlight, I could control the pace and intensity of her emotional outburst, I could make the audience laugh, gasp in shock, and even hate and pity her. We had the senior theater club members sit in the audience to watch, and I noticed that every rendition I had of Bulliet elicited a different response from them. Yesterday, I had worked hard to time my character for the most laughter, but right now, I was working hard to be hated. I can't believe I was doing this, but yes. Because I knew that at the end of the play, Bulliet crashes - and at first, I wanted everyone to laugh - because she was finally getting what she deserved, but by the end of the play - I couldn't quite get to this point in the last rehearsal, but I wanted the end with the audience feeling really bad about laughing at her and feeling very sorry for her after all. It's going to be an intense play.

Because, like Fluffy, Boo also enjoyed leaving people with complicated feelings. I think wolves like that had a bad habit of playing with people's hearts though. It's okay for a show, but I wasn't going to let Boo mess around with my wolves.

My wolf, my powers, my control. It was time I stopped acting like I was the victim. I wasn't going to be a pup forever, no matter how much I wanted to stay this way, one day I would have to be responsible for my own actions. It's not like I could keep playing pranks and chalking it to the first year of my shift.

I took off the diadem at the last scene, and let my hair flare up. It was all over - or at least it will be soon.

And I would go home, and everything including Fluffy's red hot moment would be reported. I'm sure everything would be okay. So far, no matter what I did, the consequences would simply roll off my back like water off a duck, and life would go on, and everyone would keep swimming.

Because my Alpha Dad thinks I'm just a pup who didn't know any better.

But I'm not going to be a pup anymore. I'm not going to let Ki take full responsibility and Fluffy be punished for my power surge. I'm not going to rely on a crutch to keep my powers in check, or minders to keep me out of trouble, or Dad to make things okay.

Even if I never have "fun" again, I'm going to seriously grow up and protect everyone the way my Dad has always been doing.

And so with this resolve burning in my heart, Bulliet's heart was broken into a million pieces - so broken that she gave everything up to follow her Horneo.

And I heard a senior in the front row closest to me moan into her tear-stained tissue, "Noooo...."

"Shhh..." her friend scolded her.

"Horneo doesn't deserve her." The senior with the tissue protested.

"That's not what you said yesterday." Her friend said, and then she sighed, "I preferred it when it was funny."

I won't lie. That last comment threw me off completely because me too. I preferred it when they were laughing too.

Fluffy was by my side the moment I returned backstage, his smile the usual unreadable mask and his wolf receded again.

"Fluffy, which version was better? Yesterday's or today's" I asked.

"Pretty Alpha's performance today would have won an award." Fluffy beamed, "But yesterday's performance won the audience's heart."

And I felt like Fluffy was trying to tell me something, but what?

"Curtain call. Remember to meet Scary Alpha in the middle before taking your bow." Fluffy cued without missing a beat.

I nodded and pasted on my usual wide smile to walk out. Henry took my hand and led me up to the front of the stage. We took our bows, Henry gallantly taking his first before gesturing towards me and clapping.

As if the audience would need his prompting to clap for me!

(Unlike Fluffy's wolf, Boo had not quite receded that much.)

We stepped back and clapped as Jasmine, Ki, and Lady Silvia (on Mr D's arm) took their turns to the stage.

"Hey Henry." I decided amidst the very long time for applause. He leaned closer to hear.

"I think I preferred the funny version." I told him.

"What the hell, Sam!" I hadn't meant to get a rise out of Henry - that game was over, but Henry snapped anyway, "We just finished the final rehearsal, and you want to revert back to yesterday's performance?"

"Yeah." I grinned at him, "Wouldn't everyone be surprised?"

Henry smirked, "I don't know Sam... how do your wolves keep up with you?"

What had that got to do with anything?

"They've got very good instincts." I answered anyway. I was very proud of my wolves on this point.

Henry shook his head. I thought he was going to flat out refuse, but he said, "I give up. Just do whatever you want."

And then he smirked, "But I'm not going to lose to you. I'm the joker, remember?"

For this alone, I will take back everything I said about Henry being a killjoy.

Tomorrow morning, we will perform in front of the whole school, a bunch of parents, a local old folks home, and a TV crew from LNC, and they were going to laugh and have a good time because an action comedy was more fun than an intense drama.

I wondered what Ki would say about it. Actually, I felt quite sure he was going to smile and agree, and then stress out over making it work out it all night - just like how he stressed out over every PR save. So to save him the stress, I decided not to tell him.

How can I describe this feeling? Do you know this song?

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow - You're always a day away!"

I can't wait for tomorrow!