NOW IT'S PERSONAL

24 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, AFTERNOON

Have you ever read Charlotte's Web? If not, don't waste your time on it - unless, like me, it was compulsory reading at Middle School, then you won't have a choice.

My English teacher claimed that Charlotte's Web was a lovely book, that read like a rope swing in a farm, enjoyed by both children and adults alike. Maybe that meant that nobody enjoyed it equally.

Basically, it was about a young pig named Wilbur who was terrified of his fate (becoming bacon), and with the help of Charlotte the spider, he fought against it, successfully delaying it, but he eventually grew up and accepted his fate.

It wasn't a "and they all live happily ever after" ending. It was a "and they all died or will die eventually" ending.

It was rather disturbing. I had to remind myself it was just a stupid book.

"You're a wolf. How would you hunt if you're going to be upset over a little pig?" Jake laughed.

"That's why girls can't hunt." Alec said in all his 13 year old understanding, "Sam's a girl so it's like that."

Jerry shrugged, "What pig?"

"The one in Charlotte's Web?" I said, trying to prove I was made of sterner stuff.

"Who's Charlotte?" Jerry obviously didn't believe in reading his homework. Proof that you didn't need to read it even if it was compulsory reading. My bad.

"Look, a pig is basically bacon to begin with." Jake said.

"Do you name your bacon?" I snapped back, "If you name it, it's not food!"

The next day, Jake and the guys showed me a tictac box with a cricket in it, "Hi, Sam, meet Charlotte."

And then Jake shook the tictac box hard so that the little cricket inside would hit the plastic box and make a "tic-tac-tic-tac" sound. The guys laughed at my expression.

Yes, world. Please meet the typical 13 year male adolescents of my childhood.

"Charlotte was a spider." I said, trying to keep my cool.

"Eeeeeh!" Madison swatted at the box, "Why must you boys be like that?"

Jake immediately shook the box again for Madison's sake. Madison tried to swat his hand away, "Eeeeh!!!! Get it away!!"

The other guys had a good chuckle. Madison made a run for it. Jake gave chase.

"Should we... like help them or something?" Jerry asked.

"Why is she running?" Alec looked bewildered.

Ken smiled and shook his head just a little. Ken was super quiet. I think I've heard his voice a total of 3 times in two years of Middle School. Twice of these times were actual conversations with Alec when he thought no one else was listening. My alpha hearing accidentally picked it up, but his secret was safe with me. If he didn't want to talk to anyone else, that's fine.

By now a couple of other boys have noticed Jake chasing Madison around the school courtyard. Every now and then, Madison would fail her hands and squeal a short sharp scream.

The boys decided to follow Jake.

"What's in the box? What's in the box?" One of them kept yelling.

"So..." Jerry hadn't taken his eyes off the spectacle running around the courtyard, "We just stand here and watch them?"

He answered his own question when Madison ran back over to us, Jake close at her heels, "Sam, do something!"

What me? What was I supposed to do?

Alec looked just as confused, "Maybe you can just stop running?"

Jerry was quicker, he stuck out his hand to grab at the box in Jake's hand. But Jake pulled away from us and ended up taunting Madison from far, "Come over if you dare!"

Madison hid behind me. Jake sprinted over and then yelled "Boo!" in Madison's face.

And for no reason I could fathom, Madison screamed and ran again.

This time Jerry didn't wait. He gave chase too. So Jake was chasing Madison, and Jerry was chasing Jake.

Ken gave me a shrug, another one of his tentative smiles, and he was soon chasing up to Jerry.

"Uh, yeah. I gotta run." Alec said before joining his friends.

Yes, we were that mature for middle schoolers.

Anyway, I had enough of standing in the middle of the school courtyard with oversized elementary school boys. I went back to the classroom by myself.

Madison was pretty mad at me for going up without her. I don't know what she expected me to do - join the chase? She should just stop screaming/running. I tried to suggest it but that just made her angrier.

"That stupid Jake!" She scolded.

Jake and Ken who sat behind us in class just laughed. Even Ken - just because he was quiet didn't mean he was more mature.

I ignored them.

Madison turned angrily, "Can you guys stop laughing?"

Which only made them laugh more. Even Jerry lumbered over to share in the fun. Alec laughed from his seat nearby.

Jake took out his tictac box to try again, "Look, Sam!"

"Eeeh!" Screamed Madison.

"Is it still alive?" I asked. I mean, after all that shaking just now, I would have expected the cricket to have concussed.

But to my surprise, it really was still alive. Tough cricket.

"I'm going to kill Charlotte later." Jake said.

"That's cruel." I answered as scathingly as possible.

"I might be willing to let it go... For a price." Jake informed me. He waited to see how I would respond.

It was at that moment when I learned something about myself - I hated being held emotionally hostage.

I shrugged, "It's your cricket. I don't care."

I really didn't. It was just a cricket (and I didn't believe for one second that it's name was Charlotte.)

"Let it go already, Jake." Jerry said then, "You've had your fun."

"I'll trade you." Jake offered, "This cricket for three more."

"What?" Jerry asked.

"I'll give you this cricket today. You can let him go. But tomorrow you need to bring me three new crickets in this box." Jake explained.

"But..." Jerry looked stumped.

Jake shook the box. Tic-tac-tic-tac.

"Okay, okay." Jerry agreed.

"He's just going to shake those other three." I said.

"Yeah." Alec agreed.

"I won't." Jake lied, "Cross my fingers, hope to die."

Jerry snatched the tictac box out of Jake's grasp and left the classroom to release the cricket.

We watched him leave and then Jake muttered under his breath, "Never make a bargain with the devil, my friend."

"You crossed your heart!" Alec pointed and pretty much yelled out.

"Oh. Did I say cross my heart?" Jake grinned, "I meant cross my fingers. I'm the devil. I have no heart."

And then he laughed because he thought he was so funny.

I decided to ignore him for the rest of the day and he decided to call me Samantis (for those of you who are too refined to understand, it's short for Sam the Mantis.)

All idiots! But I digress. We were talking about Charlotte's Web not because the boys in middle school was stupid, but because the Moon Goddess was stupid.

No, don't look so shocked. It's true. Just look at the web she had spun!

Layer after layer of complications over my life ever since my first shift.

1. Our pack was going to fight a war

2. My mate might be the enemy.

3. Now my mate is the death god, without an arm, and his army under lockdown. Even I could feel his fury seeping through our doubly sealed mating bond. He was seething.

4. The Night Forest Pack are in financial trouble and I'm pretty sure Uncle Louis still wants Grandma Luna's ring back.

5. The warlock wants his stone back too, but it's with River

6. Who is Savy's mate. Who'd have thunk?

7. And btw, River can't go near the blue warlock fire or Savy would be mateless. This is serious! Matelessness was a fate worse than death, so they say. Anyway, he probably shouldn't be going near the warlock.

8. Bell really shouldn't be messing with the warlock's fire either. It'll turn him into a Tyger. Which might arguably be good for him - he becomes even more powerful. It might also mean the world was doomed if you saw what he's already achieved with given his current level of power. Who was going to clean up the forest fire in the Red Packlands now? Or the Black Curse in the Black Packlands? Me?

9. Meanwhile, the Rogue King has moved back into the neighborhood - this is partly Bell's fault for blocking off all his other escape routes and destroying his usual hideouts in the other Packlands. I feel a little like my rose and my moon had been making things a lot harder than it needed to be overall.

And as if all this wasn't messed up as it was:

10. NEW! Raise your hand if you heard Ki say "Beta Lorent". Wasn't he supposed to be dead? Not only did the Moon Goddess pile on the villians in my story without waiting for me to vanquish them one by one like in a proper Lycan legend, she ressurects them too?

Meanwhile, Daisy the rogue pup was now in my dungeon.

They had kidnapped her with MY LUNCHBOX to collect a ransom. Now that I thought about it, I realized that Daisy didn't just happen to have my lunch box with her when they caught her. They didn't just randomly kidnap the first pup they met along the street either.

Since Monday morning, videos and news reports about how the Alpha Princess had stopped her car and given a lunch box to a small rogue child has been released - hot off the press. The LyNCh even spent a segment on their Tuesday morning breakfast program discussing what this might mean in the broader scope of the new Green Packlands. It was all very nicely done with a "awww...." kind of feeling. Ki had reported that it was good for my PR and helped the Green Packlands look less hostile towards rogues at large.

Did the rogues think that I would be the one to pay ransom for the return of this rogue pup? They would have gotten more money from stealing the alpha princess' box and auctioning it off.

Did I ever tell you how I hated being held emotionally hostage?

I was going to be a good girl, sit back and let my dad and elders take the lead. BUT NOT ANYMORE.

Now it was personal.

Also, my exams were over, so...

You know, it's always good to have something to do after your exams.