THE WORDS I NEEDED TO HEAR

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, HOMEROOM

"I guess things aren't as rosy as they seem with your prince either." Leia deduced based on my hair's reaction.

"It can't be helped." Krystal shrugged, "High-profile romances have their own set of troubles."

Because Krystal would know, she used to date a college footballer. They met over social media. He had a lot of followers and that put a lot of pressure on their relationship.

"Huh! Who needs boys anyway?" Zara decided, "As long as we have our baby hammies, boys can just go and die."

That was kind of extreme.

Anyway, just like that, our conversation shifted to hamsters. Now that all of us have one, it was suddenly a common topic. Jasmine showed us a recipe for hamster biscuits she made for her hamster.

"It's very easy." She told us, "Just mix everything in a bowl and scoop them out into little cookies on a baking tray. You just need to be careful to label them."

Jasmine had made a batch to share with us, but her little brothers ate them.

"Little brothers eat anything." Jasmine huffed.

I remembered what Sabre said about Taylor's little brother, "Yeah, but that could be pretty useful too."

Krystal had taken some photos of LV (her hamster's named after a handbag) with some cute flowers. She had meant to make a flower tiara, but LV's head was still just about the size of a single dandelion, so it wasn't like he would be able to wear it on his head.

"But he's a boy hamster!" Zara protested, "He can't wear flowers!"

"Mostly because he kept eating them." Leia divulged.

"Shut up!" Krystal was very protective of LV, "He's a growing boy. He needs the nutrition."

Leia and I hadn't been posting photos. Opps. Leia's excuse was that she forgot. Zara was pretty upset with her, "You probably got lazy and didn't clean his cage."

"I did too!" Leia lied, "I'll take a picture for you today."

"Okay," Zara allowed, "But you need to show him in his home. I want to make sure you really cleaned up properly."

And then Zara looked at me.

Urm... The truth was I hadn't been cleaning Lucky's enclosure either, but it's been smelling brand new like the day we got him. Like plastic and paper...

Poor Ki.

"It's not like the Alpha Princess can post hamster pictures on her channel." Krystal rolled her eyes.

"Why not?" Zara looked hurt.

"Because she's the Alpha Princess, duh." Krystal said.

"I'll post!" I said quickly, "I'll post something!"

"Really?" Zara asked, with an expression a lot like Sabre when she thought I was going to do the itchy scratchy dance with her.

That alone should have indicated warning, but I nodded, "Yeah. I'll post."

"Cool." Zara nodded, "I can't wait to see Lucky's set up!"

"It's just an acrylic enclosure!" I quickly said, a very expensive acrylic enclosure since I bought it on Bell's credit card when I was mad with him. But in case she thought I'd put Lucky in a Barbie doll mansion, I felt it was important to ground her expectations.

I mean, the way Zara's eyes were shining over how one of her babies was now living the life of luxury and ease, it was like she expected Lucky to be soaking in jacuzzis, driving around in fancy cars, and eating diamonds. Hahaha.

Maybe I should ask Sabre to help me make about fancy Momoshiro meal for Lucky and take a picture of that.

I honestly didn't think it mattered to Lucky how her food was arranged. Hamsters just didn't seem to care about stuff like that.

But maybe the next time Bell made me mad, I'll buy a Barbie dream house - complete with the matching pink convertible for Lucky to sit in.

As far as I could tell, the one who was truly lucky would be Sabre if I really did it.

Lizzy and Ben's basement used to have a dollhouse. It was a hand-me-down from their older cousin at Night Forest. I guess that was Oprah.

Anyway, we used to play together, but the doll house served as the packhouse, and Lizzy's Barbie and Ken dolls ran alongside an assortment of My Little Ponies (who were wolves, really.)

There was even a brown bear who was named Mama Rosa in the pink kitchenette.

I wondered when we stopped playing with toys. Like how did all the stuffed toys on my bed migrate to the pull-out under my bed? What happened to all my favorite balls? I don't even know anymore. I'd like to blame the rogues, but I think by the time the Alpha House exploded this year, I only had a basketball somewhere.

I grew up of all these once precious things without even noticing it.

"Earth to Zammi!" Krystal rolled her eyes and snapped her gum impatiently, "And she's gone..."

"Shhh..." Jasmine was far more considerate, "I told you she might be on an important mindlink."

"Oh right." Zara remembered my explanation, "The built-in phone in your heads."

It was not!

"Maybe she's having a lovely dovey talk with her white prince." Leia suggested.

I flared. I WAS NOT!

"Or an argument." Leia amended her first guess.

"I'm not!" I protested. The homeroom bell rang and the last of the stragglers got into the classroom.

I had expected Maria to be one of them. It was weird that she wasn't in the class yet. Usually, she'd drop off her school bag before spending the rest of the morning in the girl's washroom. I had thought maybe she went straight to the washroom today, but no, of course, she wouldn't. She just wasn't in school.

In fact, our school was surprisingly vampire-free today. Not a one.

The guys came in late too, but I never knew with Henry and Marcus. They would sometimes be early, and other days step in with the bell. Sometimes with Liam, and sometimes not. I had always assumed it depended on the young alpha's leisure.

Today, they stepped in at the last bell, both of them looking a little out of sorts. EJ came in with them. EJ hadn't returned after leaving for his turn to change out of warrior gear. This was also normal. EJ was easily distracted, by pretty seniors offering snacks, the discovery of a new vending machine, or whatever really.

Liam and the football guys came in after them with no small amount of noise and stench.

And then Mrs Henderson came in right at the peak of first class traffic and tried to shout above the noise of the class, "Alright class, settle down! Settle down! I have some important announcements to make."

But she didn't have alpha dominance or command, so she had to wait for the class to settle in our own sweet time.

2nd last homeroom at Winderhill. I pushed GOODBYE-WINDERHILL firmly back down in my head. No pink elephants were going to spoil my second last day of school.

I sat at my desk and waited for Mrs Henderson's important announcements to be unveiled. I wasn't really expecting much, it might not even be anything to do with me since it might be regarding next term.

But I thought wth, you know? After tomorrow, I probably will never see her again.

When the class was finally seated at the level of quiet Mrs Henderson felt appropriate, she picked up the post-it note she had stuck on top of her small pile of worksheets (new after exam Sudoku challenge anyone?), and read off her announcements.

Firstly, she'd like to congratulate our class for our participation at the theatre production yesterday morning. She was personally pleasantly surprised at how we had bloomed on the stage. Especially Samantha and Jasmine. But she was very proud of all of us and made the whole class clap for "Winderhill's new stars".

It was all kind of embarrassing, so I was glad it was over quickly and Mrs Henderson moved on to the next point on her post-it.

Mrs Henderson had marked our questionnaires and would like Liam to help her return them to us. If we flipped to the last page, we would find her personal comments to us as well as the community project we had been assigned to.

Those who wanted to appeal the results needed to stay back after school today and meet Coach Williams and our discipline mistress at the dance studio to collect the appeal form and hear about how the assignment process was fairly carried out. All appeals would be handled on a case by case basis.

But once we knew who the teachers handling the appeals were, we pretty much knew that unless you had a dead serious allergy to whatever was involved in the project, your chances of a successful appeal was a big fat NIL.

The entire class groaned. We hadn't even seen our assignments yet.

Liam gave out the questionnaires and I flipped mine to the last page. Since I wouldn't be at Winderhill next term, the blank where my "Assigned Community Project" should have been filled in had a "N/A" instead.

Mrs Henderson wrote a comment anyway though. Referring to the table on the top half of the same sheet where my answers had been tabulated, she wrote, "I can see from your answers that you are a compassionate girl who isn't afraid of hard work. Even though you can't join us in Winderhill's Community Projects next term, I hope you don't give up on the idea of doing something for the less fortunate among us in your new school."

I wondered briefly if there was really such a thing as a less fortunate Lorent.

"Every little bit counts." Mrs Henderson went on, "I know you will do great things in the future. I believe in you."

That's because I was the Alpha.

And then Mrs Henderson ended with, "All the best in your future endeavors."

I wondered if she knew I meant to change the world. I wondered if she would still believe in me if she knew what I was planning to do.

EDWARD the pink elephant raised his trunk and I realized I was glad I never took the vamp on his offer.

There were people, not just my human form teacher who believed in me. How could I betray their trust and entertain a vampire?

Sure, what the vamp offered would make things a lot easier for me and my pack, I didn't even have to like him, but like Mrs Hen said, I'm not afraid of hard work.

And I was the alpha. I didn't need a vamp's protection or any sponsorship beyond the contract. I won't play with a vampire. Not now. Not ever.

The last announcement was that some of us would be transferring to different schools next term. And some of us would be transferred to pull-out classes. Mrs Henderson read out our names.

I would have been mortified at my name being read out, except I think it was worse for those who were called out for pull-out classes.

Terrence was pulled out for every major subject. Troy was a close second with 3 pull-out classes.

Mrs Henderson said that we'd be having a small class party during tomorrow's homeroom. She'd treat us all to drinks (what kind of sodas did we like?). Our homework today was to prepare and bring some snacks to share with our class.

"Why do we have to bring food for them if they're leaving anyway?" Troy complained too loudly.

"Well, good riddance." Ivan said, "We can celebrate that Henry's leaving forever."

"OMG, it's just like the play. Horneo and Bulliet are leaving!"

Wth? I was Bulliet?

Henry smirked, "Where we're going, you guys can only dream of."

Which didn't do anything to endear himself to his classmates.

I didn't say anything. Whatever, you know? It was just one of the humans, and since when did Boo ever care about what the humans thought?

But okay, ouch. It did hurt a little that I was likened to Bulliet irl. Jasmine had felt like it was important to assure me later that the girl was just joking and no one felt I was like Bulliet in the least.

Krystal said the jab was made at Henry, not me. I just got dragged down into it. It happens. "The road to popularity is full of s*** like that."

But I wasn't even on the road to popularity! Sigh. So like I said, whatever.