THE SURPRISING FEMINIST

FRIDAY, 12 FEBRUARY, 4PM

I grabbed Ben's arm, "Stand straight."

He raised a brow, and then lifted his head from his phone, "What's up, Sam?"

"You!" I pointed accusingly to our reflection, "You're up!"

And there in the mirror, the two of us side by side, we were exactly the same height.

Plus I had on heels! I looked down to check my heels were still there. I kicked the back of his shoe.

"Ow, Sam!" Ben lifted his hurting foot. No heel.

How dare he grow! Now he's even taller than I was!

Math time. I'm 5'4. I've been 5'4 since I was 12. I was like back-of-the-class kind of tall.

When I was 12, Ben was to my shoulder. He was front-row-seat short.

I was quite sure that at our last camp together (sometime November), he was still shorter than I was. Now he's 5'4 + 2inches (for my heels) = 5'6! WTH.

I flared, which gave me a temporal height, but it didn't make me feel better. What was my body doing for the past 3 years? Hibernating? Rest cycle?

"Alright, let's go, Sam." Ben lost interest in our reflection as immediately as he saw it. He put his hand on the small of my back and started pushing me towards the door, "Your mum is asking what's taking so long."

I cast one last look at our reflection, just to make sure it wasn't a trick of light or anything. From this angle he actually look almost taller. Grrr...

I turned away and let him lead me out to the car. He opened the car door for me and shut it once I got in - like I had to quickly move away from the car door before it hit me. Typical Ben sort of impatience. Then he got in and started the engine.

I buckled in just before the car started off. Of all my betas, Ben was the pushiest and rushiest one.

I watched Ben's profile as he eased the car out of the driveway.

"What?" Ben asked without looking at me.

"What, what?" I asked back.

"Why are you staring at me?" Ben asked.

"I'm not staring." I answered, "I'm just watching."

"Yeah, whatever." Ben chuffed a little, "Just don't start crushing on me or anything."

I burst out laughing at that.

Ben smirked, "What, Sam? Think aloud."

"Just thinking that you're taller than me now." I admitted.

I looked at his smirking face, "You don't have to be so smug about it!"

"What's there to be smug of? That I'm taller than a girl?" Ben scoffed, "Of course I'll be taller than you sooner or later."

"How can you be so sure?" I bristled at his confidence, "Just because you're a guy? You'd never know, I might start growing again..."

"Sam, you're not thinking this through." Ben chided. Then he sighed, "I'm probably going to keep growing quite a bit more. My Mum and Dad are both pretty tall."

That was true.

"But my Dad's tall too!" I argued.

"Yeah, but your mum's kind of... petite." Ben informed me.

Which was also true. I was already taller than Mum. I didn't even need to mention Savy, she was still maybe up to my ears at most. Even though we were only a year apart.

"Maybe I'll take after Dad." I decided. Never give up!

Ben shook his head, "Not with your bone structure, Sam."

"What the hell does that mean?" I grumbled.

"You've got like really small wrists." Ben said. We stopped at a light, and he picked up my wrist and shook the hand at the end of it, "I could like snap your bone with one hand. This flimsy thing won't be able support much height."

I flared, not so much because I thought I was in danger (this was Ben after all), but because I was completely insulted, "All girls have small wrists!"

"Yours are smaller than Lizzy and Savy." Ben let go of my wrist and continued driving at the light change.

Stupid Ben, who made you the expert measurer of wrist sizes?

Okay... that was just dumb, so I'm glad I didn't say that out loud. Logically, he was making sense. BUT whoever heard of a "petite" Alpha? I crossed my 'flimsy' arms and sulked.

Ben looked amused, but he kept his eyes straight on the road ahead, "It's fine. You're a girl. Petite girls are cute."

"I don't want to be cute!" I said.

"I mean terrifying. Nothing more terrifying than a petite girl." Ben actually laughed. IDIOT! HOW DARE HE LAUGH AT MY PLIGHT!

"I'm supposed to be an Alpha! Not a girl!" I flared.

"Why can't a girl be an Alpha?" Ben asked.

"Because Alphas are supposed to be strong and good at fighting and stuff." I said. And the moment it left my mouth, I realized I sounded like a stupid kid. I waited for Ben to tell me I wasn't thinking it through or whatever.

"You ARE strong. And you ARE good at fighting." Ben answered matter of factly.

"But I'm a girl!" I pretty much yelled.

"So? If a guy like Ki could be good at cooking, why can't a girl like you be good at fighting?" Ben challenged.

That... cos... but... everyone said that I'll lose eventually. The guys would overtake me. I mean, look at Ben, he was already taller than me AND stronger than me.

"I can't even carry as many boxes as you guy!"

"Then leave the guys to carry the damn boxes." Ben shrugged, "Its not like it's the Alpha's job."

"No, I mean, what if I can't win a fight with this petite girl body!" I tried to explain.

"Then shift to your bada** wolf." Ben was undeterred.

I opened my mouth, then I shut it again, then I opened it again, "You don't understand, Ben. You're a guy. I wish I were a guy."

"The only reason I don't understand is because you're not making any f***ing sense." Ben told me.

I flared again,"I am too making lots of sense!"

Ben reversed into a parallel lot. I guess we've reached.

The moment we parked, Ben leaned back on his seat, "Look, Sam, I'm just going to say this once. You're the Alpha. I won't tell you what to do. But dammit, you're perfect as a girl. Your hair is like magic, you're beautiful without even trying, you got a bada** wolf, f***ing cool powers, and the pedigree and connections befitting a lycan princess. If I were you, I'd just tell everyone to f-off and paint the town red."

"Good thing you aren't me then." I managed to joke.

And then I asked, because I just couldn't shake off the thought, "Wouldn't you prefer if Bell was the Alpha instead? He's like super pedigreed and stuff and he is a proper male alpha."

"I did think about it." Ben told me honestly, "Which alpha would be better for our pack? My mind said Rebel, but my heart said you."

I pretended to gasp, "Is this a confession?"

"Yeah," Ben answered dryly, "So don't break my heart."

Then he got out of the car while I laughed.

I was still laughing when he opened the car door for me. Hahahaha.

And then I slipped the second I stepped out of the car. I grabbed Ben's arm. WTH!

The pavement was icy and the bottoms of my boots were like useless. Ben laughed, "Think you can make it to the cafe over there, Alpha?"

Grrrr... He helped me the few meters we needed to cross to get to the front entrance of the glass fronted cafe with dark green trimmings. Ben opened the green swing door for me. By now he was impatient enough to pick me up the two icy steps and place me inside the warm cafe.

We were laughing throughout though, because I did a bad impersonation of Gamma Harry and reminded him that the alpha was the head, and who uses the head to walk on icy pavements?

"A thousand apologies, goddess. Next time, we'll have topless warriors carry you on a platform bed." Ben promised a la Ki.

"This is my fault, princess. I neglected to melt all the ice prior to your scheduled walk on this pavement." I mimicked my good beta.

And the both of us huddled together and snickered just like we used to when we were pups up to no good.

"Table for two sir?" The waiter asked politely.

"No, we're meeting someone." Ben answered briskly, suddenly straightening away into his cold Beta mode. The waiter bowed and waved us deeper into the cafe.

"Sam? Ben!" It was Lizzy who called out to us. But she had her hand on her mouth, like she had seen something shocking, "OMG, I can't believe it's you two!"

"Yes, because seeing the two of us as scheduled was totally the last thing that could possibly happen." Ben smirked at his twin. To our mothers, he made a cursory bow, "Hello Luna, hi Mum."

"What's happening?" I asked a highly bemused Savy as I took off my coat.

"Lizzy is practicing her possible wolf power. We think she is able to tell if two wolves are compatible with each other." Savy explained.

"No, don't tell them that! Urgh!" Lizzy face palmed, "I'm sorry, Sam - Cute outfit, by the way - I would never purposely have matched you with my idiot brother. I was thrown off by the pink coat."

I laughed, "It's not entirely wrong. Ben's my beta, so I guess we are compatible like that."

Ben groaned while hanging my coat on the pegs nearest to our table, "Please Sam, don't encourage her. She's mental."

Lizzy cast her brother a baleful look.

"It's funny that you didn't even recognize your own brother just now though." Savy smiled.

"That's because he was smiling." Lizzy retorted in an accusing way.

Ben produced a perfect Ki type smile, except that while on Ki, it was like a flower opening to the sun, on Ben it gave the feeling of a Venus fly trap, "I don't suppose I can take your orders?"

I looked at the table. There were menus spread across it. I wondered how long they've been mulling over them.

"Ah no, that's very kind of you Ben, but we haven't quite decided on what to order yet." Mum said.

"That's alright, Luna." Ben sat down. If it were Lizzy and Savy, he wouldn't have been so polit about it. Hahaha.

But it seemed like Mum and Willow were as bad as Savy and Lizzy when ordering.

"I want a hamburger, fries, and milkshake." I told Ben, proud of my own alpha-decisiveness.

"Sam, please choose something from the menu." Mum sighed, pushing one of the large cards towards me.

"It's alright, Luna, I've got it." Ben reassured her.

"They don't have milkshakes but they have fruit fraps." Lizzy informed us helpfully.

When everyone had finally decided what to order and how to potentially share their orders, (because girls couldn't just order and eat their own thing,) Ben left for the counter. He had to make 3 rounds to bring everything over.

The first tray had all our drinks. Ben put an orange one in front of me. I took a tentative sip. Mmmm...it was quite good. Orange and vanilla frap.

The girls got coffee and green tea fraps, and Mum and Mrs Beta shared a glass pot of rose infused tea, because ladies were really just grown up versions of girls.

Second tray was a slice of cheesecake and an apple pie with icecream, a hot sundae, and a buzzer to let us know when the rest of our food was ready.

"Would any of you girls like to share some?" Mrs Beta offered.

So the four of them took turns to taste the stuff and started discussing their collective disappointment at the dresses they've seen so far.

"Maybe we should've just shopped at the mall." Mum sighed.

"We did get cute clutches though." Savy argued. She took hers out to show me, "They're hand woven."

The buzzer went off and Ben left to collect the rest of our order. He came back with two baskets or orange colored fries that didn't smell exactly like fries. I snagged one and popped it into my mouth. Sweet potato? The sacrilege!

"Which burger do you want?" Ben asked, proffering two plates of toasted sandwitches cut in triangles. If I hadn't flared then, I flared now, "Both."

Stupid Ben. Those were NOT burgers!

Ben switched half of each sandwitch over, and as he did, I immediately noticed one was turkey and the other was beef. Like real meat. My mouth immediately started to water and I happily tucked in the moment Ben pushed the plate in front of me, "There. 'Both'."

Ben didn't hesitate to dig in either. Ben alway ate like he was starving lately. Must be all that growing.

Lizzy face palmed again, "She said burger, Ben! You're lucky your alpha is Sam! I can't believe you just did that!"

Ben stopped eating, "I could run next door for Wendy's."

"There's no need, thank you, Ben." Mum quickly reassured him.

"Yeah, this is yum." I declared. Even the sweet potato fries were starting to grow on me.

"I wouldn't try something like that with Bell though." Savy cautioned. She kidnapped a couple of fries from my basket and handed one to Lizzy.

"Actually, you keep messing around, Ben, one day even Sam would slice you to pieces." Lizzy told him, while eating MY fry.

Ben just shrugged it off, "Whatever."

No one was showing me or my fries any respect at this table.

Savy snagged another few fries to split with Lizzy. They dipped them in their Sundaes to eat, which had to be another weird fad, because who did that?

But nobody was touching Ben's fries. Stupid Ben. I stuffed some fries from his basket into my mouth as compensation.

Ben growled, the girls laughed, and I felt better about it.

Whatever. This was fun.