UNTIL THE LAST BELL

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, GEOGRAPHY

Now that I knew my days in Winderhill was numbered, I felt more inclined to write about it in my diary. All the things I had taken for granted. I thought I would have to last four years here, now it seems it would end in less than four months.

Our Geography teacher was Mr Lark. He wasn't very larky though. I would say he was a man of large circumference.

Mr Lark's idea of teaching was to tap on a random desk. The occupant of the desk would then have to stand up and read a paragraph of the text book while he patrolled our desks. He would then make a comment or two, and then tap whichever desk he found nearest to him. The next paragraph would be read aloud while he walked.

It wasn't easy for him to walk between our desks, due the passage way required for a man of his girth to pass through unhindered. But Mr Lark was a dedicated teacher and a narrower passage would not deter him. He would simply plough through it anyway.

Mr Lark was human of course. I did say from the very beginning that humans were quite interesting. I'm going to miss the interesting humans when I stop coming to Winderhill. The Lorent Girls' Academy was a full Lycan school. Far be it for the Lorents to allow humans to pollute their precious princesses.

Mr Lark had passed me and was now struggling to make his way back to the front of the classroom. I took out my phone and googled for information about the Lorent Girls' Academy.

There were a lot of photos of the school.

Of all the packs in the Green Packlands, only the Lorents had their own pack school - and with all Lorent complexities, they actually had five registered schools:

The Lorent Elementary and Middle School which served K1 to Grade 8

The Lorent High School which was a high school for Lorent males only

The Lorent Academy which was a high school for ELITE males, and had only about 20 students in total.

The Lorent Girl's Academy which was founded and spearheaded by Lady Amber, originally for the Lorent girls to continue high school education, but became more of a princess prep school and expanded to a school about 200 student princesses from all around the continent.

The Lorent College which was a medical school opened to only lycan with healing powers.

And the five schools shared the same huge sprawling compound with stone buildings and manicured lawns.

They also shared the same website. I tapped on the girls school for more information. To my surprise, there was a tapping sound on my desk. I looked up to see Mr Lark hovering over me. He was still looking at his own textbook, so he hadn't seen my phone.

I couldn't believe I didn't notice my super-sized human teacher. I guess I was really sucked into the screen.

I automatically stood up, closing the book over my phone so that it was hidden within the fold of my book.

"Cities can grow..." Mr Lark prompted.

Or perhaps he had seen me using my phone and was just directing me back.

With that clue, I found the right paragraph easily enough, "Cities can grow..." I finished reading the paragraph and sat down, dropping my phone onto the floor in the process.

Henry picked it up and tossed it over. Mr Lark continued walking as if he hadn't heard anything happening behind him.

"Thanks." I mouthed. I noticed Marcus on his phone. Now that I was looking around the class, I realized most of the kids were on their phones, or generally doing something else.

I turned my screen back on.

"Remember, cities can grow like people do. Some of you are still growing vertically, the rest of us are growing horizontally." Mr Lark patted his stomach and laughed at his own joke.

I looked at the photos about the Lorent's Girls' School. There were pictures of the girls standing or sitting together around the school, laughing or talking.

Their school had a uniform. It was almost all white except for the emblem embroidered in red thread. and Henry wasn't kidding when he said their skirt was short. Even in the official photos posted on the school website, their skirts ended mid thigh. But the Lorent Ceremony dress for maidens was also a very short and white dress, so actually, it wasn't all that shocking.

Besides the school uniform, the girls all had a certain air. I began to understand why it was called a princess prep school. Many of these girls graduated and become mates of extremely distinguished Lycan. The school website had a list of alumni mated to various high profile wolves around the the continent.

Well, maybe this is the official hype. I went on to look for their school in the new app Marcus had downloaded for me. I found their equivalent to Winderhill's Grapevine, they called it A Little Bird. I guess from the saying, "A little bird told me."

Well their little bird spoke volumes in pictures. And a picture was worth a thousand words right? So technically, I was looking at an entire novel.

The skirts shown in Little Bird's channel were even shorter than the ones on the official website. But that wasn't the point.

The point was the girls there looked scary perfect. They looked like Lolas and Haylees... but more assertive. And they all came with a string of pedigrees and accolades from famous parents, beauty pageant winners, award winning talents. And the photos showed all kinds of competitions, some of them I had never even heard of: ballroom dancing, theatre, art exhibitions, baking, poetry, calligraphy...

One of the girls there looked really familiar. She was tagged as the shining queen of the school and was in her senior year. She featured a few times because she would be starring in some famous theatrical production at the King's Theatre this weekend.

Oh wait! It was Oprah! Oscar's sister! Ben's cousin! The one who made Lizzy cry. The one Estella and Esmeralda tricked to babysit Eddy for them. I stared hard at the photo, no doubt beneath the selfie filters, it was her!

There were also a lot of photos of guys. All the guys looked the same though. Oh wait, they were the same few guys. The one that appeared the most often was a sullen dark haired guy, the girls called him the "cute new brother" and a blond haired serious looking older guy, "Student President". Neither of them looked happy about being photographed.

The girls often referred to these guys as from their brother-school, the Lorent Academy (the elite one, not the normal Lorent High School). I decided to read up on that too.

It seemed that the Lorent Academy was sharing a building with the less elite Lorent High School. There were about twenty students in total and they studied in a mixed grade classroom. They were easily differentiated by their dark red jackets. It was like a school of Henrys.

There was a alumni page, and their accomplishments. None of the Lorent Academy guys had lame achievements like mating someone important. They were the important ones that the Lorent girls should aspire to mate with. I found Mate's name there. He graduated last year, and according to the website was "Lorent Pack's future alpha."

Ki was also there. He graduated a few years earlier so I had to scroll a bit more. His full name was Killion Oran. What a strange family name.

The website marked him as deceased in his senior year. He never graduated?

There were a shocking number of deceased alumni, including a few who passed on while still a student in the school. I remembered Alpha James saying that Killion's wasn't the only home Beta Lorent had attacked with the lethal combination of white roses, wolf bane, and armed rogues.

I looked for Charles' and Anthony's names. They weren't listed as Alumni, so I guess they were still students there... And still alive.

Oh wait, never mind the boy's school! I've got my own problems.

I texted my mum, "Is it confirmed that I'm going to the Lorent Girls' Academy next term?"

Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe I was only transferring next year. Maybe I'd rather face vampires head on than Lycan princesses.

Mum texted back pretty quickly.

MUM: Aren't you supposed to be in class?

Oh right. I suppose I was.

I heard a camera shutter. Marcus just took a picture of me.

I texted him: What are you doing?

B.MARCUS: Saving ur butt. Ur B needs proof u r in class. U're welcome.

This was followed by a text from Mum

MUM: Pay attention in class. Yes. Your dad has already signed the papers. We can talk more when you get home.

I turned off my phone and put it under my desk. Then I flipped my textbook to the right page and listened as Ivan read about urbanization. As each paragraph got read, I thought about the Princess Town and how it might grow.

It helped keep my mind off the prospect of going to a new school next spring.

Ironically, I was returning to the Green Packland, but after schooling with humans for so many years, I honestly didn't really know much about full Lycan schools. I definitely didn't know anything about a girl school. I usually got along better with the guys... Not poetry writing, ballet dancing, tea drinking princesses.

Arugghhhh... What was this feeling? Like butterflies in my stomach. Oh... I was scared. What if I didn't know how to make new Lycan friends? What if I couldn't fit in? What if I couldn't pass the entrance exam? What if I messed up big time? What if I get bullied? What if I get bullied without even knowing I was being bullied? Omo

I didn't want to change schools, and I definitely didn't want to go to the Lorent Girls' Academy. I might end up listed in their alumni as deceased too! Died from extreme failure.

T.T

No wait, I'm the alpha. I can take it. They were just girls. This was a school, not a beauty contest... Who was I kidding? I'm not particularly smart either. I'm doomed.

No! I can't give up so easily. I'll just have to work hard now at becoming more ladylike, right? Piece of cake... Unless it's baking a piece of cake and not just eating it. I might have a bit of a problem there. I'm doomed.

No! No! What's the worst that could happen? All the Lorent girls hate me, I fail every subject, and everyone is disappointed in me... Mate becomes so embarrassed by me that he rejects me. I'm doomed.

No! No! No! I won't go down without a fight. If he dares to reject me, I'll shift and kill him. I'll shift and kill everyone!

No wait - that won't work either. Think, Sam, think! You can do better than that!

And then I got it. I would have to fight their way. They like to wear short skirts - I'll wear it shorter than any of them, wait no, no way I can do that. But I will wear it cuter.

I will wear the uniform cuter. I will learn to do my hair prettier. I will... Whatever it was that those Lorent girls had to do, I'll do it better.

I'm the Alpha. I won't go down without a fight!

Even if it's cooking! I'll cook better and look cuter while doing it too!

Yeah...right. Reality bites.

The last bell rang. I stuffed everything on my desk into my backpack. I just wanted to go home and get under the shower. I needed to think, and research too. I was going to survive my new school next term.

"Don't forget to start memorizing your lines!" Henry said.

"Don't forget Valentine's Day is next week!" Abigail shouted over the din.

"Don't forget, Matt and Jules asked you to meet them at the station later." Marcus said.

"Don't forget we're having lunch at the new picnic area tomorrow!" Jasmine called out to me.

"Don't forget to collect your geography worksheet before you go!" Liam shouted at the class in general.

I popped out of the classroom. First one out! Then I made a dash out of the school.

"Oh she's out already." Commented Krystal at the classroom door.

Zara paused to watch, "She runs like a madman."

But I didn't hear anymore. I was free! Free! The best thing about school is the last bell and how no matter what was happening, it would all end at the last bell.