A WASTE OF TIME

14 FEBRUARY, SUNDAY, LUNCHTIME

"These are Yunie, Jun, and Estée." Dean said, "They're transfering to New Leaf Academy this year. Yunie and Jun are sisters."

"Hi." "Hi." "Hi." We all exchanged a few awkward Hi's.

Where were all the other Night Leaf wolves?

Yunie and Jun looked really alike. Yunie was older, and even taller than I was. Jun was about the same height as Savy. Estee looked really young, like she could still be in elementary school, and next to the two sisters, I wondered if she felt alone here.

"Yeah, so these are our rooms." Dean said.

We nodded wordlessly.

"Well, don't just stand there!" Dean huffed.

What else were we supposed to do?

"It's nice." Lizzy said, although from where we stood, we couldn't see inside any of the rooms at all.

More awkward polite standing there. I was getting hungry, I wondered if it would be rude to ask if we could eat now. I mean, yes, it was rude, but we were good friends. Good friends were allowed to say they were hungry right?

"Er...do you want to see the rooms?" Darlyn offered.

"Okay." I said.

"Alright." Dean led us to the door that Drew was standing in the door frame of, "I share this room with Drew, some brother he turned out to be."

Drew coughed and looked the other way.

Okay...

I took a peek into the room. There were two desks pressed against the window, built in shelves wrapped around the wall, and a wooden loft. Under the loft were cupboards which I presumed to be their wardrobes because there were clothes hung on the cupboard handles. Maybe they needed them for later.

"Drew and I sleep up there, do you want to come up?" Dean climbed up the ladder to the loft.

"Okay." I said and followed him up. I looked down to where Lizzy and Savy were standing in the middle of the bedroom. Yunie, Jun, and Estee didn't even come in.

"Do you want to come up?" I asked.

Savy shook her head. Lizzy said, "No thanks. But wow, nice room, guys."

And it was, with the same warm wood across the floors, and furniture, and the white high ceilings and windows. This was a really special room.

Drew laughed a little, "Hoo, hoo, thanks."

Then he picked up a guitar and sat at one of the desks to play it. Plucking at the strings while swinging side to side on the swivel chair.

Dean stretched out on the bed to make himself comfortable.The entire loft was a giant bed. Did that mean I was in his bed? I sniffed... yeah, well, Drew's bed too. I made a move to go.

"Where are you going?" Dean asked.

"Maybe to find food." I said.

Dean made a face, but followed my down the ladder.

Drew was talking to Savy who had sat down in the other chair. Lizzy perched on the desk and picked up random things to look at, "Who's desk is this? Yours or Deans?"

She was flipping through some papers on the desk.

"Hey!" Dean protested when he got off the ladder and turned around, "Don't touch that."

The girls laughed.

"That's Dean's desk." Drew smiled a bit.

"Obviously!" Lizzy said.

I smiled too and stepped closer into the comfort zone they had created.

Dean grabbed all the papers off the desk, "This is top secret, okay."

"Who leaves top secret stuff on top of their desk?" Lizzy laughed.

"Well, you're not supposed to be here!" Dean said.

Darlyn popped her head into the room just then, "Brothers, the adults are coming up."

Drew popped out of the chair, "Uh oh. Let's go outside."

What?

Dean quickly stuffed his papers into a drawer, I noticed it was mostly sheet music. Was he writing music?

"Quick, brothers!" Darlyn whispered.

We all got out of the bedroom door. The three new girls were nowhere to be found. I guess they decided to escape before any new awkward encounters happened.

"Up here are the children's bedrooms." Florence's voice trailed up the stairs, "The boarders will stay with our own children because we treat all of them like our own. We have a strict rule though, no one is allowed to enter rooms that aren't theirs. And we apply this equally to everyone."

The adults stopped at the top of the stairs. We stood there stiffly, only now realizing our trespass.

"Hi Mum. Hello Alpha, Luna, Beta..." Dean started, then he looked around, "Where's Ben?"

"That boy!" Beta Lucas started.

"He said he'll be here in a bit." Lizzy quickly said, "He had something that he had to finish first."

Yeah, like his nap.

"Where are the other guys?" I asked.

"Yeah! The other guys!" Lizzy jumped on it, "For all we know, he's here with the other guys already."

"The others aren't coming." Drew told us.

Eh?

Dean made a mock exaggerated sigh, "Shannon is out in town with his Mum, Jonah has football practice, Tim and Angela are visiting their grandma at the hospital, Jay said he had to babysit his brother. Nolan..."

"At football." Lizzy helped him fill in the blanks.

"Yeah, you get the idea, everybody is too busy with more important things." Dean concluded, "Some friends they are."

Yeah, and now Ben would have no alibi to say he was at the party.

The adults finished peeking into each room (from the outside), and admiring how well the layout was thought out! How beautiful the colors of the wooden panels, and how the sunlight flooded the second floor rooms perfectly.

We left them to it and headed down to the food table.

"Aren't you hungry, Dean?" I asked as I heaped on the mashed potato.

"Not really," Dean's plate had a few slices of roast beef, still pink on the insides," We've already eaten."

"Actually, we aren't allowed to eat, but I'm hungry." Drew told me. He added the mash to his roast beef, "You should try the roast. And the tacos are good too."

"Thanks." I said.

"Er, brothers, Mum would be coming down soon." Darlyn looked stressed.

I laughed, "Poor you. Are you the default look out?"

Darlyn smiled and then she laughed a bit too, "Yeah, my brothers break every single one of Mum's rules."

"But we never get caught!" Dean boasted.

"That's probably because Darlyn's been covering for you!" Lizzy said.

"Oh, sorry." Drew said.

"We won't get caught. The adults are upstairs and the boarders won't dare tell on us. They're even more afraid of Mum than we are." Dean said.

Just then the adults showed up.

"Uh oh." Drew said.

I took Drew's plate from him. He was standing nearest to me. Lizzy realized what I was doing, and snatched Dean's plate.

"Hey!" Dean protested.

"Children, what are you doing?" Florence led the other adults over to us. She looked at the two very full plates in my hand. Drew looked guilty enough to be charged without any further trial. He wasn't one of those wolves who could play poker.

"We helped you get your food." Savy said. She handed Mum her plate which had been prettily arranged, and then told Dad, " Sam did yours.

I held up Drew's plate for Dad. On the bright side, it had everything that was recommended by Drew.

Now Florence looked at Dean. Lizzy blurted out, "Ben's on the way. So we are saving some roast for him."

"Oh," Florence smiled, "What good kids. Please help yourselves to more food. Eat as much as you like."

"Why didn't my offspring didn't get food for me too?" Beta Lucas complained.

"I only have two hands!" Lizzy argued back, she passed her plate to her Mum.

"Oh, thank you." Mrs Beta looked surprised.

"Fine! I'll get you a plate too, Dad." Lizzy turned to go get another plastic plate.

"Your Dad can help himself, go get your own food." Mrs Beta smiled.

"Fine!" Beta Lucas echoed, "You wouldn't know what food I wanted anyway."

"The roast beef is good." I informed him.

The rest of the adults left to sit down at the bench with their plates. Florence called out to someone to bring over some drinks.

"Why do you only have mash?" Beta Lucas asked.

"I like my mash at under the other stuff." I explained. A good foundation is everything.

Beta Lucas nodded, "Makes sense."

He took the empty plate Lizzy handed him, and piled up the mash too. Then we put the rest of our food on top of it.

"What are you making on your plate?" Now Beta Lucas had decided to inspect Savy's plate, "Wow, you are making art! Everything will look the same in your stomach though!"

Savy laughed politely. Lizzy rolled her eyes.

Savy always liked to arrange her food nicely on her plate before eating it. You could take a photo of her plate and post it on social media. I noticed Lizzy does it too, but only when she was with Savy. I guess it could be a fun BFF activity?

Someone called Dean and Drew over from the other side of the house. I noticed there were actually a number of teens, but they were hanging out away from the main group. Yunie and Jun were with them. They still look uncomfortable, but at least they were laughing at something Drew said.

I guess being a boarder wasn't easy, moving from home to a new place, living with strangers, and meeting their family.

Our pack had come fashionably late. They were still trickling in, but Taylor was here. I saw Sabre's red curls from far run around with a blond girl. Estee had made friends with them too. I had to hand it to Sabre, even though she was just a human child, every time I see her with her friends, she was always the bossiest thing on the face of this earth.

"Esteeeeee!!! Quick come and unfreeze me!" She yelled.

I watched Estee try, she ran out, but ran back to the safe point several times.

"I'll unfreeze you -" One of little boys tried to be the hero, but was frozen on the spot almost immediately by Taylor, "Freeze. I caught you!"

Taylor was another scary little girl. I recognized her as the screamer in the Morning Light house with too many kids that Beta Gerald had brought us to visit the other time.

But Estee was older and faster than Taylor, and the moment Taylor froze the would-be hero in mid declaration, Estee was out like a shot. She tapped Sabre on the shoulder and told her, "Run!"

Taylor screamed.

The whole party stopped and then resumed again. Pups!

That's what they used to say about us. I wondered whether we had been that loud too.

When we were done eating, Mum thanked Florence for the lovely meal and congratulating her on her new home and business. By now, there were more guests streaming in and Florence was also feeling pressed to play hostess and show them around too. So the goodbyes were short. Dean's dad came over and apologize for not greeting the Alpha earlier, he had to entertain the other guests. But he wanted to thank us personally for coming before we left.

A loud sputter roar disrupted the street, and Ben's blue Lambo grumbled loudly through the criss cross line of parked cars to the gate. He stopped right in front of it and got out. Naturally everyone stopped to watch what kind of guy was driving the angry Lambo. Clue: This guy was just as grouchy.

"Ben! Thanks for nothing. You're just in time to leave." Dean said.

Florence looked like she was going to faint on the spot.

"You're welcome." Ben grinned, and the two guys grabbed each other's hand. It was a guy thing. Florence didn't have to freak out. I guess she thought her son was being super rude to the future beta in front of everyone.

We left together. Jax had already fetched our blue Merc over.

"I'll drive you out to fetch your car, Dad. Mum and Lizzy will wait here." Ben was back to his usual bossy self. He didn't wait for his Dad's agreement, simply unlatching the car door to swing upwards and getting in. Beta Lucas shook his head and ran over to the passenger side and got on. He didn't seem unhappy in the least.

"They grow up so quickly." Mum said to Mrs Beta.

"Bye Taylor! Bye Estee!" Sabre waved and shouted back at the party.

"What about me?" The little boy from earlier yelled back.

"Bye Derek!" Sabre yelled back obligingly.

"Bye Sabre!" Derek yelled back.

Hahaha. Cute. I wondered if we were so cute when we were pups.

Beta Lucas' car pulled up. We said bye to Mrs Beta and Lizzy and got into our car with Jax.

"Straight back to the Alpha house, Alpha?" Jax asked.

"Ýes, thank you, Jax." Dad answered.

Jax had behaved impeccably today. I guess he wouldn't have lasted that long at the Lorents if he didn't, but I wasn't used to him not being goofy. No one else seemed to notice though.

"Did you have fun, girls?" Mum wanted to know.

"I made a new friend." Sabre was first to answer, "Her name is Estee and she's really tall."

"Dean and Drew have a loft bed." I told Mum, "And the roast beef was good. Why did we leave early? Dean said they would serve coffee jelly later."

"Since when did you eat coffee jelly?" Mum asked.

"Coffee jelly?" Sabre was immediately curious, "How could they combine something so yucky and delicious together?"

What sorcery was this? Hahaha. Silly pup, I mean little human. All desserts in Night Leaf were delicious - even the coffee flavored ones.

"What about you Savy?" Mum asked.

Savy shrugged, "It was a waste of time."

WHAT?

Mum took a calmer approach, "What made you say that?"

"Sorry, but that's the truth. We were all just there because we had to be." Savy said.

"Savy..." Mum's tone took a censoring tone.

Oh wow. Who knew that Savy would grow up to be the rebellious sort of teenager?

Mum gave me a look, I shrugged. Don't look at me! I was quite happy there - okay, so it was a little awkward at first, but it got better, and the food was good.

Mum's mouth was pressed to a thin line, and I was so sure we were about to be lectured all the way home now, but she simply said, "We'll talk about this when we get home."

And to my surprise, we were already pulling up the driveway to the Alpha House.