STARTING DAY ONE!

Oh my gosh, how should I start?

Today was my first day of school. I woke up with a buzz in my head, and it wasn't the remnant of my alarm clock ringing.

I was really excited. I've gotta calm down. Calm down, Sam. Today is NOTHING... just my first day of high school. NOTHING.

It didn't mean anything at all.

Just because the first day goes really well, doesn't mean that the rest of the year would go well.

And even if today turned out to be the worst day ever, it would only mean things would get better, right?

Right.

Today was the first day of school.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system... Let's go!

I woke up and took a cold shower because I forgot to turn on the heater. But I didn't mind. It was refreshing and... Who was I kidding?

I was shivering, and wet, and covered with goosebumps. Not the most glam start. If this was the introduction to me, it would have been pretty pathetic. Reality had a way of doing that to me.

There was one single perk though, I noticed it as I dried off, teeth chattering: Who took a cold bath in January? Who woke up before the entire family did just to shower and forget to turn on the heater?

ANSWER: Someone whose dark hair cascaded like a perfect sheet of waterfall. #goodhairday #lifehack

Cold water gave my hair a magical sheen, even if it didn't do much good for the rest of me.

I wrapped the fluffy towel around my body and pulled open the bathroom door to let the warm air in...

I was still dripping because I was just bad at toweling off. Giving myself a rough swipe wherever it's wettest, I plodded out into my warm room.

Hair still slopping wet, but I was dry enough to pull on my uniform. My new school has a uniform. A uniform!

There were two things about my new school that I liked a lot.

The first, was the fact that it was on top of a hill surrounded by trees. It's a half hour trek from the train station but I've been told that once we can shift, it's a five minutes run.

That's something I look forward to - running down the wooded slopes in my wolf form.

I imagined it with sunlight filtering through the trees with the chorus birds bursting in song - Born free! As free as the wind blows! As free as the grass grows! Born free to follow your heart!

The second thing I liked about my new school is the uniform.

I'm quite excited because it had a navy blue skirt, and white button up collared top, and a metal pin school badge. There was also smart jacket with the school crest emblazoned over the left hand side, and a matching stiff navy blue winter coat. Very smart.

The only thing I had my doubts about was the navy blue ribbon.

We are supposed to tie it around our collar in a bow, just where a tie should be.

The boys would wear ties of course. Of course. The boys would wear respectable looking ties while us girls have to wear ribbons.

It was the school's tradition. Not cool, old people who decided this. Not cool at all.

Anyway, I pulled on everything. I had to attempt it a few times before I got the bow right. My hair was still damp, but I pulled it up into a pony tail and secured it with my favorite clip.

Once satisfied, I headed to the kitchen. By now, the rest of my family was awake.

Dad was drinking his coffee, scrolling through emails on his phone. He was taking time off his alpha work today to send me to school. This would mean that he would be physically around, but his spirit, as you can see, would be in his inbox.

No time to make digs at a hardworking Alpha, we had to leave early, while it was still dark outside. One hour train ride, remember?

Mum put down an empty plate and a mug of hot chocolate. I made a face at the hot drink, but got busy with my breakfast.

I pulled out a slice of bread from the center of the table and started laying on the Nutella goodness.

"Can't I have cold milk?" I looked up at Mum and made an attempt to do puppy dog eyes. It didn't work at all.

Mum shook her head, "It's cold out today, a hot drink would do you good."

I don't like hot food so early in the morning, but I took a cautious sip. At least it's chocolate.

My sister, Savannah, was eating cold cereal in her stripey pajamas. Life was unfair that way. Savy was only a year younger than I was, and we had been asked more than once if we were twins.

We both look like my mum, slender build, long brown hair, and brown eyes, but as far as I could tell, the similarities ended there.

According to the Gamma's wife who always sounded like she knew better when it came to these things, Savy was "Precious! Just like a doll".

I was... tall, just tall. At 14, I'm already taller than my mum.

Savy was quiet and always got good grades. I was the the resident drama queen.

Last year, mum told me that Savy had been upset after the new years eve party. This was unusual news because Savy was almost never upset.

But that night at the party, Beta Lucas and Gamma Harry had observed aloud to my dad how tall and beautiful I was growing. And then petted Savy's head and said how cute she was.

Savy had asked my mum after the party "Why do they always say I'm cute? Why can't I be beautiful?"

I brushed it off with a laugh. These were the same men who couldn't tell us apart.

Beta Lucas had ever popped his head into my dad's office, and thinking I was Savy, offered to carpool me to school with his kids.

Unlike me, Savy went to the same school as everyone else in our pack. It wasn't too far to walk from our house, but she takes the school bus, or carpool with Beta Lucas and his twins on days he didn't have morning meetings.

Dad had asked Savy, "Which school would you like to go to?"

And when she said she wanted to go to school with the other kids in our pack, Dad nodded and said "Okay."

Dad had never asked me which school I wanted to go to. He chose them and would tell me how great it would be.

After West Mountain, I did try to say nicely how "it would be nice if I could go to school with my pack friends."

This request apparently fell on death ears.

It led me to no other options than to fall into my mum's arms and bemoan how I always had to go to school far away without a pack member in sight!

How I could never make good friends because the kids were so different from me and that I would never have a friend in school ever!

Cue the dramatic waterworks.

Eventually the tears ran out and Mum, patting my back asked me, "What about Madison, or Una, or Ken, or Jerry, or Alec, or Jake?

Mum knew all my friends' names, even my West Mountain ones.

Yeah, after three whole years in a school, those were all my friends. Doing the math, I made about two friends a year on average. Slow and steady did not win the popularity race.

"But they are all staying at West Mountain or somewhere not Winderhill!" I wailed. "I'll have to start all over again!" Oh the injustice of it all!

"If you are a good friend to others, I'm sure others would be a good friend to you too." Mum reassured me.

Dad sat wordlessly through the whole ordeal with nothing but a slightly perplexed expression on his face. When all was said and done, he simply rose from his seat across me and said, "As you grow older, you will meet more and more like-minded people who would truly be your friends."

I can't tell if he just really couldn't understand my plight, or if he did understand and was giving me super zen advice which I was too stupid to understand.

But for some reason, even though my Alpha Dad's decision on the matter remained completely unchanged, I felt better about the situation.

I had two goals today to start my first day of Winderhill:

1)To not let my dad be recognized by anyone at my new school.

2) To make a good friend.

I didn't know what to expect, so anything could go wrong, it's true. But today was inevitable.

I just need to face it as bravely and as best as I can.