TROUBLEMAKERS MEET THEIR MATCH

Saturday 5 March Continued

I guess there would be troublemakers in every batch of pups. For the elementary section of the Lycan Study Group, it would be these three first graders.

Yes, first graders. Namely Trevor, Kendell, and Kevin. Yes, another Kev. Our pack had too many Kevs.

I actually recognized these pups too. Trevor was one of the pups from the Morning Light home with too many pups we visited with Beta Gerald. AKA Taylor's older brother. He was #3 of 6 pups in his home.

Kendell was Drake's older brother - one of the three boys from the family that Taylor's family sat with at the Ceremony of the Departed. He was #2 of 3 pups. #3 by the way, was the spunky confident one who was Sabre's last boyfriend… what was his name again? The one who wandered off with Taylor at the ceremony. Dray, Drake… Yeah, I think it was Drake.

Kevin was the one Flynn had picked up by the scruff. He was the oldest of two boys. His younger brother was Derek. Sabre's first boyfriend.

In other words, I recognized them because they were the brothers of my little sister's friends, and also because the family resemblance was pretty strong so they looked like larger versions of Sabre's friends.

Except for Taylor, because Taylor was a girl who wore a lot of pink. But if you grew Trevor's hair long and put him in a barbie pink beanie, they would definitely be sisters.

Since they were all first graders, this had to be their first orienteering exercise. And as far as I could tell, it seemed like the teachers were still trying to figure out how to deal with the three musketeers.

Dawn had a lot of misgiving about putting them together in the same team. Even after they grouped all of us, they were still discussing it.

"I really think we should split them." Dawn was saying to the other two instructors.

Flynn shrugged, "We've tried that before. Don't worry, if Sam can get ex-fightdogs in line, she can straighten out these three."

I felt like I should say something, but I couldn't decide if I should tell Flynn that I wasn't the one who got anyone in line or that getting ex-fightdogs in line and getting three first graders to cooperate were quite different things.

"Maybe I should just follow their team, just in case." Teacher Cal volunteered.

Flynn shook his head, "That'll defeat the purpose. This exercise is suppose to build their confidence. If you're tagging along, they wouldn't feel the same accomplishment."

Oh yeah, I remembered my first hike without any adults like it was yesterday. I was so proud of myself because I could do the hike with the highschoolers - my guides were Hank and this quiet girl named Esther. Woah… hahaha, that was a long time ago. Dean, Jessica, and I were in the same team. I was the navigator. Hank didn't speak to us at all, he just followed behind us the whole way like he found the entire exercise really boring. Esther was really nice though and would give us hints so we could find all the checkpoints.

When we got back, I thought I had made it. I was one of the big kids now.

Hahaha, I was such a dumb pup.

"Those boys don't need more confidence. They need discipline." Teacher Cal shook his head. He walked over to us, "Don't worry. I'll be coming with you."

"You don't have to." I told him, "We got this."

Just as I said this, Kev decided to announce, "I'm going to take off all my clothes now!"

He ran behind the nearest tree.

I looked to the other two boys, "Is he, really?"

The two boys shrugged.

"Who knows." Kendell said.

"It's Kev after all." Trevor said.

Which didn't help at all.

Shannon ran over to check on Kev.

Teacher Cal yelled, "Okay! Kev! I'm counting to 5."

Like seriously?

"1, 2, 3…" Teacher Cal counted.

Trevor laughed, "Hurry up, Kev. Teacher Cal is counting!"

Shannon came back, dragging Kev back by the scuff. I was kind of relieved that Kev didn't really take off any clothes. But just as they got to us, Kev kicked out at Trevor.

"Hey!" Trevor kicked back.

Kev ducked behind Shannon, so Trevor ended up kicking Shannon.

"Ow!" Shannon let go of Kev.

"I'm really going to take off my clothes now!" Kev yelled and doubled back to the trees.

WTH.

"There's a screw loose in that kids head." Teacher Cal muttered.

Meanwhile, Trevor, who didn't manage to land his kick on the right person gave chase.

Kendell was left with us. He shrugged, "Don't look at me, I don't know them."

{Lie}.

"Okay! Trevor! Kevin! The both of you get back here right now!" Teacher Cal yelled, "I'm counting to 5."

I really didn't feel that Teacher Cal was very helpful to have around at all.

Shannon ran off to catch the two boys. Flynn came over, he was frowning, "Maybe I should come along too."

Dawn joined us too, "It's not too late to split them up."

"No! Don't split us up!" Kendell immediately yelled, "I don't wanna go without Trevor!"

I thought you didn't know them?

Flynn shook his head, "It'll be fine. Cal and I will tag along."

I flared at him, "I can handle them."

No, I had no idea how yet.

"Sure, Sam. We're just the back up." Flynn grinned at me.

I really didn't need this! I mean, I know I had been a dumb pup for most of my life, but I've grown up! I didn't need adult supervision!

Shannon got back with Kev's scruff in his hand, "Can someone hold this for me? I'll go grab the other one."

The other one came back on his own, "Are we going yet?"

We would be, if you boys weren't running all over the place. The other teams started to stream out in their teams.

"Okay!" Teacher Cal got pumped up immediately, "Let's go."

"Hey! I thought you said we could go without adults?" Trevor protested.

"Yeah," I decided to take the pup's side on this one, "We were supposed to do this on our own!"

"Sam, its not that I don't think you can do this, but we are responsible for all your safety." Flynn tried his grown up tone.

"You might as well call up my security detail." I grumbled.

And to my horror, Flynn nodded, "Good idea, Sam."

WTH, what about growing our confidence? We got this! I mean, come on!

I glared at the pups. It was all their fault.

"This is all your fault." Kev told me.

Wait, what? You were the crazy pup who kept running off to take off all your clothes - did you know how weird that was?

"It can't be helped." Kendell shrugged, "They can't just let the Alpha Princess walk around by herself."

Look, these guys are following us because of you three, not me!

"This sucks." Trevor grumbled.

Flynn lightly swatted the back of his head, "Mind your manners. She's your alpha."

"We don't need a girl to be my alpha." Trevor said, "Right, guys?"

Kendell shrugged. Kev just stood there. But this was more because Wolfgang and Barry were now silently towering behind Trevor.

"Impudent." Wolfgang said.

Trevor's head whipped back and he stumbled towards his friends.

I raised my hand to stop Wolfgang. I COULD HANDLE THIS!

"Shannon and I are the guides." I reminded the adults.

"We don't need guides." Trevor said.

Wolfgang was right. Impudent brats. But it just happened that I was very good at dealing with impudent brats. I mean, I've been running with Ben for a long time. Lol.

"Good." I smiled widely at the three boys, "You guys are in charge."

"What?" Kendell yelled.

I nodded and held up the map. It was a very basic map with North square on top. I put the compass over the compass drawn on the map, "Who can tell me the coordinates of the first checkpoint?"

"34, 25." Kevin said at a glance.

I handed him the map and compass, "Congrats. You're the leader. Go on."

"You're really going to give HIM the map?" Trevor raised a brow at me.

"You know he's crazy right?" Kendell reminded me.

I grinned at the boys, "He's just a little eccentric. Most powerful wolves are."

Okay, I totally made it up, but no one contradicted me.

And then I waved the boys towards the woods, "Go on. Get us through this exercise… if you can. Don't worry, if it gets too hard, I'm sure Teacher Flynn and Teacher Cal can help you."

"We don't need help!" Trevor yelled at me. When Trevor yelled, he sounded a lot like Taylor talking. And since I had met his little sister, I was largely unaffected. I shrugged and grinned, "Oh yeah? Then prove it."

I wondered if I was being too obvious about it and one of the pups would call me out on my bluff. All it would take was for one Smart Alec to point out, "Don't think you can trick us! We're NOT going to do this exercise properly!"

But Trevor, Kendell, and Kevin were really the product of Night Leaf and Morning Light Warriors, they roared at me, "Don't look down on us! We'll show you!"

"Come on. Which way? Let's go already." Kendell decided the best way to prove it was to start now.

Kevin consulted the map and aligned it properly, he looked towards the right way, "That way."

"Then let's go." Kendell led the way. The other two boys started following me.

They stopped when they realized we were still just standing there.

"What are you waiting for?" Kendell yelled back at us.

"Hurry up!" Trevor yelled too, "You better to slow us down!"

"Well, I'll be." Flynn marveled.

I told you I could handle them.

"Okay!" Teacher Cal snapped out of his initial shock, "We're coming!"

I grinned. Trevor had just given me a brilliant idea, "Wait up!"

To the wolves with me I said, "'This is going to be a stroll in the park."

And I meant it. I was going to take a nice slow stroll. If these boys wanted to finish their orienteering exercise properly, they were going to have to work very hard to get me to cooperate.

Wow, I really grew more sneaky as I grew older.

"Hurry!" Kendell yelled over his shoulder to us.

Shannon looked at me, "Sam?"

I was grinning, "If someone's going to be the troublemaker, better me than them."

Flynn raised his brow, and then he started grinning evilly, "Good idea, Sam. Let's give them a taste of their own medicine."

It seemed that these three boys had caused the teachers no small amount of grief since the start of this year, so much so that Flynn had to step in to help.

"Hurry!" Kendell yelled again.

"Just leave them." Trevor said.

"We can't." Kendell pointed out, "We need the whole team to get to the checkpoint."

Kevin looked up from his map, "What's the hold up?"

I looked back. Flynn, Teacher Cal, Shannon, and I were lagging behind on the path, but Wolfgang and Barry were even further back. They weren't even on the path.

"Did you guys drop something?" I asked because Barry was picking something up from the grass.

"Nettles, Princess." Barry called back, "The new leaves are good for tea."

And that was how our food tour around the woods with Barry began.