104 First Day: P3

Alex stared at himself in the mirror.

It was the same old thing he did.

Every year.

Well, okay, almost every day.

But more so on the first day of school in the new year.

He glanced at the pictures he had printed out and pasted them on the mirror.

Selfies of him during the first day of Primary 1 and Primary 2.

From the pictures, he could see the differences.

Looking at himself every day meant that the changes were not so apparent but now, as he stared at himself and compared the images in the pictures, he could see the differences quite clearly.

Alex held his phone and took the mandatory yearly selfie.

Then studied himself again.

Damn, but he didn't seem to have that drastic a change as before and worse, the changes that DID happen … merely made him look even more like his father.

Alex sighed and knocked his forehead on the mirror.

Max, who was sitting next to him, started whining upon seeing his Alpha doing something really stupid.

Why was he hitting is head on the thing that looked like him?

Max tilted his head and stood on his hind paws, reaching out to touch the sink and the other front paw hit Alex's shoulder.

Alex stopped, his forehead still on the mirror as he turned to look at his wolfdog.

"It's okay Max," Alex said while giving him the 'OK' sign.

Max didn't seem convinced and he kept patting Alex.

Alex gave a wisp of a smile and rubbed Max's head before straightening up.

Perhaps, next year.

Or maybe, when he hit puberty.

Maybe then, he would start to change and not look like his father so much.

Yes, that's it.

When he hit puberty.

Alex prayed hard that it would be so.

He went out of the bathroom, with the towel wrapped around his waist. His hair was still damp and his back still glistened with some droplets of water. He was just too lazy to dry his back properly and his clothes would suck up the redundant drops anyway.

Just as Alex reached for his uniform, he stopped as his ears detected a faint sound. His eyes stared at his door and noted with relief that this time, he did remember to lock it.

As he took his uniform, he unwrapped the towel around his waist and put on his pants. He could hear the distinct sounds of footsteps rushing towards his door and knew that it was his meddlesome twin.

She still had this annoying habit of dashing into his room without knocking whenever she was excited – and the first day of the school year was just one of those times.

Well, she wasn't going to catch him unawares this time.

Max, too, knew that Aurora was coming and he bounced to the door, barking and going about excitedly.

Alex frowned and called out, "Max!!"

Max, upon hearing the tone of command in his Alpha's voice, immediately settled down and turned towards Alex.

Alex made his hand into a fist and then used it to point downwards, then put a finger on his lips.

Max's shoulders seemed to slump but he obeyed and sat down quietly.

Satisfied, Alex gave a nod and took a towel that was on the back of his chair, and started drying his hair a bit more. He didn't like using the hairdryer and preferred to towel dry it.

He grimaced a bit when there was rapid pounding on the door, followed by his sister's voice on the other said, shouting, "ALEX! Why did you lock the door?!"

Rolling his eyes, Alex threw the towel back onto the chair and shouted back as he wore his shirt, "Duh. Why else? To keep you out."

"If you're only dressing up now, you're going to be la-" Aurora was still shouting when the door swung open, to reveal her brother already dressed up with the backpack on his back.

With an eyebrow raised, Alex moved smoothly and sidestepped his sister as he headed to the dining room.

Aurora scowled at his back, vowing never to come and call him again on the first day.

He was such a sour puss on the first day.

She just wanted to see him in the new school uniform!

As they were now in Primary 3, they were the 'seniors' of the lower primary, and next year, they would be in Primary 4 and be the 'juniors' all over again as it would be the upper primary.

Not that it really made much of a difference since they were in the Accelerated Class where their classmates were of various ages, but still!

To everyone else in school, they were the 'seniors'.

Their school uniform was slightly different now as well.

There is a distinct difference between the school uniform of the lower and upper primary school, and the uniform was slightly different for the seniors of each level.

For lower primary school, the difference was merely that the colour of the piping on their shirts was different. Instead of the navy blue piping along the collar and sleeves, it was now black piping.

To the less discerning eye, one couldn't really tell the difference but for the students at Retsu Primary School – it was an entirely different matter. The black piping was like an 'adult rite' of some sort. It was as if they were going to step into the 'big boy/girl' category.

Aurora ran up to Alex and poked his shoulder, "Don't you think our new school uniform is just so cool?"

Alex turned to look at her in disbelief.

It was just a different colour piping!

"We're now officially, the seniors of lower primary!" Aurora said with glee.

Alex shook his head. He, naturally, found the whole thing laughable.

Whether one was 7 or 9, there wasn't much difference. It was only 2 years. To him, they were all still just little kids.

Yes, even his twin.

After his father gave him the 'bees and the birds' talk, Alex found that his eyes got 'opened' in some way. His innocent mind could detect the darker side of humanity when he went out as Cinder.

He had already known they weren't good but some of the things they had said were not within his understanding at first. That changed after the 'talk'.

What Alex didn't know is that he was still quite in the dark about certain things because Kyle was still opening that part of the world slowly to him. Cinder may be more aware of the seedier parts of life but he was still quite green regarding the 'lustier' parts of humans.

The people Cinder was exposed to was just more vocal (aka cursed more explicitly) now, or were more 'toucy-feely'. However, Cinder had yet to truly actually see how perverted some actually were.

The last thing Kyle wanted to do was shell-shock his own son.

So, while Cinder was aware of what 'sex' is, he was still 'innocent' in his thinking.

As Alex and Aurora entered the dining room, there was a happy shout from their sister at the table. Their parents hadn't come down yet and while this was not common, it wasn't unusual. Sometimes their parents did come down slightly later than normal though they would always have time to sit and talk for a while before leaving.

When the siblings sat, Ariel was waving her spoon and exclaiming, "Wow! Brother Alex! Sister Rory!! You look so kewl!"

Alex frowned a bit, "Rie, where did you learn that word?"

Ariel tilted her head, her spoon in her mouth, "What word?"

Alex simply looked at her, and Ariel giggled as she took the spoon out of her mouth, "Oh. You mean, kewl?

Alex nodded.

It's so old school.

"Daddy!" Ariel shouted excitedly and Alex groaned inwardly.

He should have known.

For some strange reason, sometimes his father would say things that were so outdated that Alex felt he was as old as his grandparents.

Seeing how happy and proud Ariel was, Alex didn't have the heart to tell her what was the 'in' thing and what was not and let it be. It wasn't like Ariel went to school and embarrassed herself.

Alex counted the years.

Ariel was 4 this year, and it would be another 3 years before she went to Retsu Primary School.

He nodded and started thinking hard.

He should start establishing his hold in the school so that he could protect his younger sister well once she came to school

He looked at Ariel, who was now eating her breakfast happily.

Alex sighed as he saw her breakfast.

She was having oatmeal, with a banana (her favourite food) cut into small pieces and crushed pecan nuts sprinkled on top.

Why couldn't his sister have a normal breakfast?

She seemed to like all the food that Alex considered weird, or 'old people' food. What happened to bacon and eggs like his?

Such a cute little girl having old people's food.

What a pity.