BACK WITH THE BOYS

I'm not sure what Coach Williams said to the guys but they were particularly subdued when we got to the classroom. I was honestly surprised to find there was no teacher with them. They were so quiet and most of them were in their own seats.

I looked around for anything which might give me a clue, but there was nothing. No notes on the tables, not even leftover scribbles on the whiteboard. Whatever the guys talked about was carefully wiped out of existence.

Liam came in shortly after the girls returned. He had gone down to the general office to pick up a large box with little pink plastic gift boxes. The boxes were translucent, with a small informational booklet wrapped discreetly around so you couldn't see what else was inside.

"What's that?" Terrence asked from across the classroom.

"They're for the girls." Liam told him, he went around putting a box on each girl's table.

"That's not fair." Terrence yelled, "Why just the girls?"

Liam shrugged, "That's from their health talk."

"Give me one." Terrence said. He lumbered over to Liam.

"No." Liam answered shifting the box just out of Terrence's reach, "It's meant for the girls."

Terrence got angry, he turned to the girls sitting at the desk nearest to him, "Hey, what's inside?"

The girls laughed at him and quickly kept their boxes.

"It's not for boys!" They told him before breaking out into giggles again.

"Terrence, can you not be so stupid?" One of those two girls shouted across the classroom at him.

Liam finished distributing the little gift boxes and put the box on the teacher's table.

"Liam, tell Terrence to stop harassing the girls!" Zara called out.

Terrence was trying to take one of the gift boxes from Leia by force.

"He can have mine. I don't need it." Maria said.

I turned around and blinked at her. Right. Vampire. And then I realized no one else had heard her.

"Just keep it." I told her, "He wouldn't need it either, you know."

Maria laughed, her tinkling laugh.

"Terrence, cut it out." Liam scolded, "Why would you want it anyway?"

"Yeah, Terrence, it's pink!" Troy yelled pretty much like how the boys in my former elementary school liked to yell "cooties."

Human boys could be real mature this way.

"Maybe Terrence has a secret he can't tell us." Henry smirked.

"You mean, Terra has a secret." Marcus snickered.

"What the hell is Terra?" Henry asked.

"Terrencia? Terrenline?" Marcus tried, "I know Theresa!"

It was like how the other guys used to call Dean, Deanna.

Lycan boys could be real mature this way.

In general, I have observed that boys tend to struggle with the practical application of growing up in general. Then again, I don't think I'm in the position to judge them since I was "slow" and "sheltered" and "PG."

Terrence stormed up to the table just as Mrs Henderson came in, "Your music teacher is not here today so stay in class and do some quiet reading and don't go down to the studio."

She looked at Terrence who was rummaging in the cardboard box for the leftover boxes, "What are you doing Terrence?"

"It's not fair, Teacher!" Terrence complained to Mrs Henderson, "Liam won't give me a box! I want a box too!"

Mrs Henderson wore a very perplexed expression, "Terrence, that's meant for the girls."

The girls in front started sniggering.

"It's not fair! I want one too." Terrence demanded. His face was red and angry.

Mrs Henderson almost looked like she was about to laugh, but she managed to school her features.

"I don't care!" Terrence yelled, "I'm taking one!"

At this point, I think Mrs Henderson decided it was probably harmless, "Alright, since there are extras."

Terrence looked triumphant.

"Does anyone else want one?" Mrs Henderson asked, "There are four more."

No one raised their hand.

"Okay," Mrs Henderson looked a little relieved that no one was going to fight over them, "Liam, please help me return the leftovers to the general office."

Liam nodded, "Will do."

"Good." Satisfied, Mrs Henderson retreated once again to the teacher's room to mark.

Once Mrs Henderson left, Abigail took to the front of the class and told the Valentine's Day rule to the guys.

"Awww man! That's just troublesome." Troy exclaimed.

Eh, when did the rule get extended to the guys?

"The girls and I have discussed it." Abigail said firmly, "And we all agreed on this."

"So why do we have to do it too?" Troy complained.

"You don't." Abigail smiled, "Whoever doesn't want to take part, just write your name on the board here. Then none of the girls will prepare anything for you either."

"What?" Troy exclaimed.

"What? You think we'd give you homemade chocolates for nothing?" One of the random girls asked.

"And it better not be anything crappy." Pearl said.

"Whoever gives crappy gifts will have to take on classroom cleaning duties for the rest of the term!" Abigail announced, "If you want to take part, do it properly. If not write your name here."

"Define crappy." One of the boys, might have been Ian said.

"Any gift at least five girls deem as crappy." Abigail said very reasonably, "It's the effort. If you put in zero effort we will know!"

"Oh my god." Terrence exclaimed, "Liam, are you really okay with this?"

"He will just give every girl a kiss." Troy shouted.

"Hey, not everyone wants that." One of those two girls protested.

"Liar. All the girls want to kiss Liam." Troy boasted confidently.

"Can we combine gifts?" Henry asked. I could tell he was dealing business here.

"Depends on what it is." Abigail said.

Wow, these girls are almost as scary as Lizzy.

"Roses." Henry promised.

This earned him a smile and the girls chittered excitedly. We were going to get roses!

"From Marcus and I."

Liam raised his hand and looked beseechingly at Henry.

"And Liam." Henry added.

"Won't that be expensive?" Jasmine asked.

"That sounds reasonable." Abigail and the other girls agreed, "The rest of you guys better get your game on too!"

Henry smirked and to the two guys he said, "I'll pay, Marc orders, Liam gives them out."

The other two guys nodded immediately. Liam looked particularly relieved.

"I can pay some of it." Marcus offered.

Henry shook his head, "Take it as repayment for all your hard work."

"Alright thanks, Hen." Marcus said.

"Thanks Alpha." Liam said.

"I look after those who run with me." Henry said.

"I never got roses before, have you?" Jasmine asked Pearl.

"When I was in the hospital, I got a lot of flowers." Pearl told her.

"What about you Sam? I bet you get lots of flowers." Pearl flashed a wide smile at me.

Nope. Not at all. I shook my head happily.

"Would you prefer chocolates?" Henry smirked.

I seriously considered it, but Jasmine said, "No! Sam take the flowers! You can eat chocolate any other time of the year."

That's true. And there would be lots of chocolate back home too. The pack house kitchen would make chocolate deserts to mark the occasion. Last year, Savy and Lizzy made chocolates and I ate all the rejects, which tasted just as good. They were all rejected for superficial reasons like shape or color.

My tummy couldn't care less.

Mrs Beta gave us chocolates at Lycan Study Group too. Nice ones with marshmallows in them.

And while hanging out at Lizzy's a week later, we found Ben's leftover stash dumped in his paper bin. Savy and Lizzy took them out to examine. They read through his notes and checked the packaging for "research purposes". Ben didn't like candy so he had only eaten the chocolates and baked stuff.

The candies were largely still in their packaging so I ate it for him.

I personally hoped he would get another jar of jelly beans this year. I had rescued the entire jar from his bin last year.

When Ben walked in on us, the two girls pointed at me and said I was hungry. Ben lifted a brow at the crumpled notes and packaging lined out neatly in front of them from best to worst and then looked at me sitting on the floor next to his paper bin, eating from the jar of jelly beans like Winnie the Pooh with a pot of honey.

"Are you a racoon?" He asked me.

But he promised me that his jelly beans would be mine this year.

Mrs Beta came in with some lemonade, "My goodness, what has happened here?"

She eyed the wrappers and papers spread across the floor of the room.

"Someone let the raccoon in." Ben told her.

The girls laughed.

"Just doing some research." Lizzy explained, "For our own future Vday gifts."

Mrs Beta shook her head at us, but she had a rueful smile as she did.

"As if one sister wasn't enough. I am stuck with two and a racoon." Ben grumbled, but he just picked up his calculator and left the room.

Mrs Beta put the drinks on the table and left the room too, and we went back to our happy business exploring Ben's rubbish.

Looks like this year, I was going to get my own V-day gifts from school too, even though they would be given only out of peer pressure not to be the only kid going home empty handed.

"What's this stuff?" Terrence complained. He had opened the gift box and found the information pamphlet which he naturally didn't read. He also found two sample pads - which he had opened up and had one stuck to his hand.

The class was immediately in an uproar, mostly the girls. Some laughed. Others screamed. Some of the boys tried to ask above the din "What's that?"

There was quite a bit of shouting. Some of the girls were really offended by what Terrence did, and yelled at him. Terrence simply yelled back. It was incoherent what they yelled, but for some reason each side could respond in turn.

And once the shouting match between Terrence and girls started, more people started shouting other things like for someone to pick up the pads that were now opened and left strewn on the floor of the classroom. And also for Terrence to shut up.

"Everyone quiet!" Liam shouted. I barely heard him.

He looked mad though. I've never seen him so mad before.

"SHUT UP!" Liam shouted again. There was a growling bit in his voice, but again it couldn't overcome the din in the classroom.

My ears hurt.

"SHUT THE F*** UP!" This came from Henry. I guess his ears hurt too. And it worked. Either that or the class had noticed our Head of Discipline standing with her arms crossed at our door.

The class went silent.

"Someone pick up that thing!" Troy said too loudly as usual.

Well, most of us were silent.

"Who is the teacher that's supposed to be here?" Our Head of Discipline asked sternly.

"Heads are about to roll." Henry said very lowly behind his book so that only the wolves (and Maria) at the back of classroom could hear him.

Marcus had to hide his laughter in a cough.

Awkward silence.

"Ms Pitera is absent today." Abigail supplied.

"Where is your class president?" The Head of Discipline asked.

Liam stood up, "Here."

"Pick up the litter" The Head of Discipline ordered.

Poor Liam had to pick up the opened pads and other pieces of gift pack that Terrence had littered all over the ground while the Head of Discipline scolded, "You're the class president, you need to control the class when there is no teacher present."

Liam didn't look up. His face was red. He went up to the classroom in almost werewolf speed to dispose of the "litter" before returning to his seat.

But the Head of Discipline was not done yet.

"Who shouted the F-word?"

Marcus groaned and raised up his hand, but Henry stood up, "It was me."

"See yourself to the principal's office. You know the way."

Henry left the classroom.

"There is nothing cool about using the F-word. I don't want any of you looking at him like he is a hero."

I was quite sure that nobody was thinking that.

"Who's your form teacher?"

"Mrs Henderson." Some of the kids in front answered.

"Your form teacher is going to hear from me." The Head of Discipline said in a way that made her looked like Cruella De Vil when she announced her evil plans.

The class remained quiet even after Ms De Vil left.

"This is all your fault." Pearl scolded Terrence.

"WHAT?" Terrence yelled back defensively.

"Shut up." Liam said. He didn't say it very loudly, but he was very close to growling.

Everyone obliged... for a full ten minutes before the lunch bell rang.