RIVER'S LOST THING

"Oh, hi Sam." Keanu said as he pulled himself out from under Rivers leg. River groaned and pulled himself together. I waited for both of them to stand up.

"What are you doing here?" Keanu asked. He was smiling and but his tone had a forced lightness to it.

"Texting." I said.

"Boyfriend?" Keanu asked.

I remembered how Marcus said I was bad at lying. I guess I needed to only tell the truth then.

I shrugged, "No, just a guy I met yesterday."

"Eh, that's no good Sam!" River was immediately alarmed, "You shouldn't give your number to strangers!"

"He must have gotten it from my friend." I said, then I asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, hahaha" River seemed embarrassed.

"He left something in his locker." Keanu said.

"Oh. Okay." I said. It sounded like they didn't want me involved. It's none of my business then.

My phone chimed again.

I leaned my shoulder on a nearby wall and returned to my phone.

KEYS

- Goddess, I know you got my last text...

- Whatcha doing?

- Goddess, I'm popping bored.

- Gonna take my driving test in five.

- Wish me luck!

"That guy sounds persistent." River said listening to the chiming, "Here, I'll take care of it."

River took the phone from my hand and then pressed a button and put the phone to his ear.

Eh? I heard the phone ring.

"H..hey! Wait!" Was he calling Keys?

"Hello-"

River cut him off, raising his voice at the phone, "I don't know who you are, but you better stop texting my girlfriend!"

There was a short pause. I heard Keys chuckle, "Is that so? Please tell your girlfriend I'm sorry. I got the wrong number."

And then he hung up.

Huh? What was that?

River looked surprised, "Oh, it worked!"

He handed the phone back to me, "There you go. You don't have to worry anymore."

"Ah," I took the phone back quickly, "Thank you..." I think? Right now I'm not sure what just happened. That was Keys right?

"If you have any more trouble, you can always come to me." River told me, "No need to hide here worrying about it by yourself."

Wait what? I nodded dumbly at the human. Then I realized that River was sincerely extending his help to me. That was...cute. Maybe cute wasn't the right word. Nice? Yeah. River was a nice human.

"Thank you." I said again, more firmly this time.

River laughed loudly to hide his embarrassment, "It's fine. We are friends in the same club. It's only right we help each other."

Keanu looked at me. When he caught my eye, he gave me a disarming smile. I managed a small smile. For some reason, Keanu seemed wary of me.

Maybe it's because I had blue hair and these shockingly blue eyes. Maybe it was because he thought I was a warlock. Maybe I should just try to be a bit more friendly.

"Can I help you guys too? You said you were looking for something?" I offered.

Keanu looked uneasy, but River hadn't noticed his friend's hesitation, "Yeah, its quite embarrassing. I'm always losing stuff. It's probably in my locker."

River went over to his locker and tried pulling at the door.

"Is it locked?" I asked him.

"No, just stuck." He said.

"Let me try." I said.

"It's really stuck bad." He said.

I reached over and gave it a tentative tug, "Are you sure its unlocked?"

"Yes, I just unlocked it." River said, "It's okay, Sam. Its just really stuck."

"Don't worry," I grinned at River, "If there is one thing I can do, is brute strength!"

"Eh," said River, "How do you do brute strength?"

"Like this!" I applied a little wolf power and pulled at the door hard.

"Oh no wait!" Keanu shouted at the last minute, but he was too late, the door was opened. The lock bolt bent and broken off.

"That's the wrong locker." Keanu informed us belatedly.

Eh? What? What?

"What?" I panicked.

"Eh!" River shouted, "Oh no, I did it again."

He looked at the locker next to the now broken one. I tugged at that one and it swung open.

"Oh you did it." River looked surprised.

"Just needed a woman's touch." I joked.

We all looked at the damaged door next to it.

"Yeah..." River trailed off. He tried to shut the broken door back, but it creaked open slowly on its hinges.

Suddenly Keanu started laughing and before we knew it, we were all laughing.

"What should we do now?" River asked when we were done laughing at the situation we were in.

Coach Williams and the discipline mistress walked up into the school then. From their coats, it looked like they were just returning from somewhere.

Coach realized in 2 seconds that something was amiss, "Hey, what's going on here?"

Of course River's locker were in plain sight of the entrance.

"Sorry Coach, I opened the wrong locker and broke it by accident." I said.

Coach Williams looked at me weirdly, "This is the boy's locker area."

The discipline mistress raised a brow.

"No, its my fault!" River said, "My locker was stuck but I pointed Sam to the wrong door."

Coach Williams drew his hand down his face and looked up at the ceiling.

"Well, its also my fault." Keanu chipped in, "I knew River always mixes up the locker but I didn't check even though I was here."

"Alright, stop!" Coach Williams said finally, "What did you use to break open the locker?"

"Urm... my hands?" Why was he asking me something like that? What did he think I used? My feet?

Coach shook his head, "You expect me to believe that you - a girl, broke open this locker with your bare hands?"

And then he laughed.

What's so funny?

The discipline mistress looked like she was as bewildered as we were.

"Alright, you dumb kids go to the general office and report the breakage. We'll figure out the real culprit." Coach waved us off.

"But..." I tried to explain again. I know I'm a girl, but I'm a werewolf. Coach Williams was definitely a werewolf too, so he should know what I was.

"Come on, I guess the joke's over." Keanu declared. He grabbed River and I by our wrists and dragged us away, "Let's go."

"Dumb kids..." Coach grumbled to the discipline mistress, he slammed the locker door closed, "Well, this should hold for now."

"But they did say they did it." The discipline mistress pointed out.

"I don't know what dumb kids are thinking these days, but do you think that girl or those two little guys could do this?" Coach asked.

I couldn't hear what the discipline mistress answered after that. Keanu had dragged River and I around the corner to the front of the general office.

We pushed open the glass doors and went to the counter. The lady there glanced up once and decided to ignore us.

"Excuse me, Coach Williams told us to come report a broken locker." Keanu said.

The lady gave us a look, then got up to a document shelf and gave us the form. Then she sat down again and pointedly ignored us.

Keanu used the pen tied to the counter, the ink wasn't flowing properly. He tried to ask for another pen but was effectively ignored. Eventually, he managed to scratch out the rest of the form.

River and I just watched. It looked like it was going to take a while, so I decided to explore the office in the meantime. There was a lost and found on the side counter by the window. There were water bottles, folded umbrellas, socks, a single shoe...

"What are you looking at?" River had gotten bored of watching Keanu scratch words on the form too.

"Oh!" He picked up a silver key, "My key! Keanu, I found my key!"

The key looked ordinary enough. It had a cord around it that River wore around his neck. He loosened his tie with some difficulty but managed to tuck the key back in his shirt.

Keanu finished filling in the form and after being ignored by the lady a couple of times, decided to just leave the form on the counter.

We left the office together. We were all in good spirits.

"I'm so glad I found it!" River sighed loudly.

"I'm glad to be done with that form!" Keanu announced, "Although come to think of it, why was I filling in the form when I was least at fault?"

"Oh, is that so?" River laughed sheepishly.

I laughed too, "Thank you for the hard work!"

Keanu huffed at us in mock anger.

I'm just glad that Keanu seemed to have let down his guard around me more, I kind of wanted to be friends with them.

I know they were just humans, but River was different from the other humans. He was weak and seemed particularly clumsy, but he was also the first human boy I've met who had tried to rescue me just because he thought I was in trouble.

Besides, they were funny and I got the feeling that things were never dull with River around.

The lunch bell rang. Oh no, I had to walk Maria!

I said a quick goodbye to the guys, "I forgot something, bye!"

I ran off toward the library and made it just as Maria was leaving it.

Maria lifted a brow as I halted in front of her. I had really ran, so I was panting. Maria's face softened just a little.

- Were you busy Alpha?

- Not really. Anyway, it's settled. Let's walk.

We walked the long way around, and returned to class late, but our history teacher was absent again, and like a jigsaw piece making that click sound as it finds it perfect fit, the familiar routine slid me right back into the humdrum of daily school life again.