HOW RIVER BECAME COOL

24 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, DINNER

By dinner time, everything seemed set. Overall, I was quite pleased at how things were going. It had been dreadful going earlier this week and I thought it was never going to end... but thankfully, somehow it all worked out.

Savy was home. I hadn't seen her yet, but I could sense her wolf at home.

Nevermind me, Mum and Dad should be locking Savy in the tower - just for everyone's peace of mind.

But yup, I'm pretty pleased at how things were working out. I was left on my own devices all afternoon - with Ki on my tail because he was on holiday and apparently his idea of holidaying was following me around. I'll have to deal with that sometime, but for now, I think I did pretty good.

I had found a single snag in my plans just before dinner though - I was still grounded, and according to the schedule in my calendar, although it was Ki who had referred to my calendar on his phone and informed me, my grounding was for a full three days and would end only on Friday morning. Gah! I had meant to run into the warlock forest after school and drag the rogue king out on his sorry behind.

How dare he mess with me!

"I guess I'll just have to get him on Friday." I said still somewhat fuming.

"A hundred apologies, goddess. But you have your first session of Archery with the Advance Group in school this Friday. Congratulations, by the way, on the early promotion." Ki interjected smoothly. He didn't sound particularly sorry about me not having a free slot on Friday to go Rogue King hunting either.

It was almost as if my betas had decided to locked me up in a tower made of scheduled activities too, but I was probably being paranoid, right?

"The contingent to Night Forest leaves once you return home from school." Ki added, you know, just in case I was foolhardy enough to try venturing into the warlock forest at night.

But I guess that also meant that rogue hunting this weekend was out too. Unless I dream traveled, but could I? So far, my dream travelling had be largely random. Most of the time to wherever Bell was - which would work brilliantly for me right now since Bell was based at Night Leaf now. I could probably dream travel back home to him and run out to the Warlock Forest.

Oh wait, except that Bell was now coming with me to Night Forest because he needed to see the old healer there. Gah!

Gah! Gah! Gah!

So I had no solution. I suppose I could just randomly dream travel - but those never bode well for me. Sabre's memories, Heller's castle in the Colored Mountains, the Dark Forest crawling with vampires in the Black Forest Packlands... okay, not all that random - I was quite sure I wanted to go to the last one.

So if I wondered what the Rogue King was doing, I might just be able to dream travel directly to him? Would that work?

I probably shouldn't go alone though. (See how sensible and grown up I was becoming? I felt quite proud of myself.)

"Goddess is here." Ki announced when we entered the dining room.

My family looked up, Sabre grinned, and then Savy cackled. Mum smiled, "Oh, good. Thank you for bringing her here, Ki."

Eh? Was it dinner time already? My tummy growled yes.

I took the seat Ki pulled out for me. He sat down too - which surprised me. Oh, dinner was already served.

"Thank you for the meal, Luna." Ki smiled like a flower to the sun.

"You're very welcome, Ki." Mum laughed a little, "The packhouse kitchen did most of it. Savy and I only plated."

And then Mum regarded Ki a little more carefully, "How are you feeling, Ki? I'm terribly sorry you had to spend your off day keeping an eye on Sam."

Wait what?

Ki's smile was gentle and unreadable, "Please do not worry, luna. Accompanying the goddess was my pleasure."

Yes, because we all knew what a shining pleasure I was to have to follow around all day.

And then Ki continued, "I'm much recovered now, thank you for your care, luna."

"No!" I flared now.

The table stopped eating.

"Ki needs to rest more!" I decided quickly. I needed him in tip top condition in case something went wrong this weekend.

"Sam." Mum eyeballed me, "What are you up to now?"

"Nothing." I lied, and I think at least Dad knew it, "I mean, I'm still grounded right?"

I tried to make my puppy dog eyes. See, I'm just a cute puppy who is grounded, there was no way I could get in trouble!

"Hm..." Mum didn't look very convinced. And then Mum and Dad went onto the mindlink with each other. I didn't pry with my gift of insight, but it was pretty obvious they were discussing me again.

I mean, Savy was the one who visited the Rogue King's summer home!

"What was the Rogue King's house like?" I asked Savy.

"Sam!" If Mum could flare, she would, "Please don't say you're planning to go there!"

"Okay." I answered. Then I won't say it. Hahahaha.

"Sam..." Mum warned.

"I said okay, already!" And then I slapped my hands on my mouth, "Where's Bell?"

"What?" Mum looked nonplussed, and then she answered, "He was still feeling unwell, so I had dinner brought up to his room..."

"No, I mean..." I shook my head. I WAS SUCH A FOOL! I replayed my last exchange with my moon and my rose:

FOOL: "Please Bell, I just don't want to see killing anymore."

BELL: "Okay."

FOOL: "What? Really?"

BELL: "I already said okay."

You know what, I think the one who should have been grounded was Bell.

I sighed, "Never mind. It's nothing. Just that I think its better to let Ki rest up more. We might need him this weekend."

"This weekend?" Mum's wolf was seriously on high alert. It's like she's expecting anything and everything to explode in her face.

"Don't worry, Mum..." But honestly, I wasn't sure what I could say that wouldn't trigger her to worry more. It was Dad who unwittingly came to my rescue, "Oh, right. Bell would be seeing the Old Healer. I'm not sure if Ki's assistance would be necessary, but it might be prudent to let Ki rest."

Right. Yes. It was totally because of that.

"Oh." Mum blinked.

"Mum, I've leveled up." I told her in my most grown up tone, "I'm not a puppy anymore. I can settle my own affairs."

Like all this afternoon! I've settled so much - okay, Bell tried to trick me! The nerve of that guy! Did he think just because he was beautiful he could get away with being scheming? Grrrr....

"Are you still angry with your humans?" Sabre asked me.

Eh, what? My humans? Oh.

"No." I answered, "Krystal's going to buy me snacks everyday for the rest of the term. Tomorrow, she is supposed to get me strawberry pokey."

Savy cackled, "Are you bullying humans to provide you daily snacks now?"

Hahaha... I wish. Most of the time, they looked like they were bullying me! Ask Mrs Henderson. Human friendships were complicated like that. Next time, I should just make sure they understood they were MY HUMANS. Hahahahaha.

But back to the topic on Ki getting rest. I was the Alpha. I needed to take care of MY WOLVES.

"Is Delta Oran still around?" I asked, "Can we keep him for a few more days?"

Ki nodded, "I will inform him that his services would be required until Friday evening."

"Thanks, Ki." I nodded, satisfied.

"Please do try to rest more in the meantime, Ki." Mum returned to worrying for Ki, "Will Harvey and Ben be available to help you more?"

Ki nodded again, "Do not fret, Luna. Harvey and Ben were only kept back in school a little later today. They have been covering my duties at the FAO since returning."

"What happened in school?" I asked.

"Ben got caught out for cheating." Savy told me, "The teachers think Ben copied Dean's inter-high research paper. But we all know it was Dean who must have copied. I mean, no offence, but Dean isn't really a research kind of guy."

"The question is..." Dad chipped in his bit of zen, "Why do intelligent people do stupid things?"

Hahaha, Dad thought Ben did a stupid thing.

Oh wait, no. Focus, Sam. Eyes on the prize. AKA Rogue King's hideout.

"So what's the Rogue King's house like?" I asked Savy again.

My parents gave me a look, so I tried to re-frame my question in a more acceptable way, "Most guys would bring a girl out to the movies or dinner for a first date. Trust River to take you to the Rogue King's house!"

Mum sighed and shook her head, but she was smiling now, "Oh, Sam. Don't tease your sister."

"Why not? When she teased me before, you told her one day she would meet her mate too." I argued my case, "I'm only fulfilling your prediction."

Dad frowned at the mention of Savy's mate.

"I can't believe suddenly my puppies have both found their soul mates." Mum smiled, her eyes shining.

Dad didn't stop frowning.

"So tell us about your date!" I decided because I was being focused today.

"It wasn't a date." Savy narrowed her eyes at me.

"Okay, whatever, just tell me what happened."

And this was how I got Savy's side of the story - which was mainly a repeat of whatever Ki had reported that River told Dad and Beta Lucas, except from Savy's side of the story, River was painted in the shiniest way. Like if this was a cartoon, River's eyes were always shining with the entire milky way in them every time he appeared.

Savy hadn't seemed to notice that River's clumsiness. Even when he walked and fell right into the trap door, she had described it as, "...luckily River found a secret entrance to the cellar. By then, I was seriously freaking out, but River wasn't afraid at all. He barged right in."

He fell in, little sister. You were there. Didn't you see him ungracefully falling right into the open trap door?

And the only reason why River wasn't scared was because he was an idiot. Haven't you ever heard? Idiots knew no fear.

"I figured I would be the only chance we had, so I told River to take the pup and run." Savy got to the part where they were being chased down by the rogues.

She totally didn't notice that the only reason why they weren't outrunning those rogues was because River ran like a puny human and probably left a lot of tracking marks behind them too. Human's really didn't know how to step lightly.

"But in the end it was River who saved us." Savy concluded, "I had never seen such powerful magic before in my life. I almost thought I had imagined it."

No, you saw right. That was some undeniably powerful magic River was using, no thanks to the stupid stone that wasn't his. What you had imagined was the stars in his eyes and general coolness you seemed to attribute to that guy. Please. I had more coolness in my little finger than River had in his entire body!

"He was so cool." Savy sighed.

I rolled my eyes. I've probably spent too much time with the cool girls in school - either that or Savy's account of River had just given me seizures, "Exactly how is River cool?"

Savy looked taken aback. She blinked, as if thinking to herself, isn't it obvious? But she must've figured out I was being slow or something and answered, "River is cool because he is brave. He doesn't hesitate to do the right thing, and he always runs straight and true."

I'm sure he would, if he wasn't tripping over his own feet.

"You're his friend, shouldn't you know?" Savy asked.

"You're not wrong." I told her. I considered telling her he was an idiot, but at the last minute, I decided to just leave it, "River's a good guy, but I won't say he's cool."

"You won't know cool if it was standing right in front of you!" Savy declared.

Oh, so now we were going to get personal?

"I don't know if you should be one to judge, since you think River's cool." I shot back.

"River is cool!" Savy insisted.

"Please. River's level of coolness is room temperature at best." I said.

"Girls..." Mum said.

"Mum! Sam's annoying me!" Savy whined.

"Mum! Savy's lost her sense of temperature!" I decided two could play the call-mum game.

"Girls! That's enough!" Mum said.

"But mum..." Savy whined.

"Sam, apologize to your sister." Mum said.

Wait, what? What did I do?

"I'm sorry I don't think River's cool AT ALL." I said.

"Really?" Savy looked at me, her eyes wide and innocent suddenly, "You really don't think River's cool?"

"Next you're going to say Ben's cool." I laughed it off.

Now Savy stopped, "You know, most girls think he is."

"Who, River?"

"No, Sam. Ben... actually all the guys you hang out with are really cool." Savy informed me.

I tried to think who she might be referring to.

"Well, maybe except for Dean." Savy allowed, "But all the other guys are the cool kids in school."

I blinked. The cool kids like how Henry, Marcus, Liam (and more recently, Fluffy and EJ) were cool at Winderhill? Since when were idiot guys considered cool? Hahaha.

Well, I had always known River was an idiot.

"Okay." I allowed, "In that case, River is pretty cool too."