KEEP CALM AND READ MANGA

25 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, BEFORE HOMEROOM

I took out my pink volume of manga. Today, I was starting a new book. I've been using the book flaps of the manga as a book mark, and miraculously whenever I finished reading a volume and put the flap back in place, a new book would take the place of the old one in my school bag.

Ki magic, I'm sure. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised about him stalking my social media feed, given that his job required him to stalk my manga reading progress, my wallet balance, the battery life of my phone, and all the other things in my life Ki applied his magic on to keep perfectly balanced.

Before the year started, I didn't even know he existed, and now... I don't think my life would ever be the same without him.

Which sounded like something I was supposed to be saying about my mate... But hahaha. Sue me. It's my diary, I can write whatever I think.

And my mate was the type that only got into trouble.

Anyway, let's go back to the wisdom found in the manga pages. By now, the female lead - the strong one who wanted to be cute had learned to be so cute that the cool guy who was the school heart throb/student president/famous fashion stylist/heir of the top fashion label was starting to actually feel his poor heart skip a beat at her cuteness, but he had to get his head in the game. The girl had decided after her one date with his best friend that she was in love with the super nice guy best friend.

"That's one step forward." He said, "Love makes a girl cuter."

Which was a bizarre sense of logic, but I think it was a human thing. They went shopping together and she tried on clothes and his heart went BADUMP. He was quite shocked by it.

And then they got to his place, and lo! The super nice guy was on the sofa with the cool guy's little sister on his lap KISSING HIM OMO - who, by the way, was also a model.

And the little sister announced that the super nice guy and her were dating now.

And then the female lead bursts into tears and ran away.

And then the cool guy confronted the little sister in private and asked in effect, "What did you do that for?"

And he accused her because apparently his super nice guy friend had liked her a long time ago, but she rejected him. Why did she become his girlfriend all of the sudden?

And then she accused her brother of spending too much time with the female lead. He was obsessed! She just wanted to help the plain girl wake up and realize she would never be cute.

And then the cool guy lost his cool and snapped at his little sister, "BUT SHE IS CUTE!"

And his little sister gasped, "Don't tell me you fell for her?"

At this point, I was utterly confused. What? And why? And WTH? Even my comic book got too complicated for me to understand!

Anyway, cool guy now accuses his sister of using his super nice best friend.

Sister insists she's not that kind of person and that she really did love him. She just hadn't realized it before.

Cool guy now told her she didn't love him. She just wanted him now because another girl wanted him.

And at this point, I just gave up. Everyone there was just too messed up.

I wanted to yell at my comic book, "You're all wrong!!! Just stop wasting your time, wait for your mate and live happily ever after!" But of course I didn't. Not out loud in class. By now, the other kids were streaming in, and I didn't want to make it on the top ten crazy list in Winderhill's polling forum.

Was human love always so confusing? Poor humans. I mean, yes, I was fully aware that Bell was evil, but at least I knew who I was supposed to be in love with!

So humans found love through what? Like trial and error?

A pink box of pokey sticks was slammed in front of me, "There. Now stop making that kind of face. I got you your strawberry pokey."

It was Krystal and the cool girls.

"Oh, I'm so glad the exams are over!" Jasmine exclaimed, "It was so stressful!"

"Why are you here?" Leia asked, "Shouldn't you be having a lovey dovey breakfast picnic with Liam somewhere?"

Jasmine looked down, her eyelashes fluttering a little, "Liam is playing football. He says we should take a short break from each other for a while."

"Like how short "awhile"?" Krystal snapped her attention to Jasmine suddenly.

"I... I'm not sure..." Jasmine looked down at her hands.

Krystal tutted, "That's not good, Jazz. He's gonna leave you."

"No, no." Jasmine quickly said, "It's just to take a breather. You know, to enjoy our own things."

I nodded. Yeah, Bell and I were always doing our own things.

"Please, girl!" Krystal shook her head, "Don't believe the lie. If a guy needs space away from you, he's done with you."

Eh? I shook my head, "He could just be busy." Building an underground army was time consuming work.

"If he loves you, he'd call you every night just to hear your voice. He'd make time to go to the bakery all the way in the next color land, because they baked your favourite cake." Krystal had a far away look in her eyes, as if she was recalling a long ago memory.

"Maybe everyone's different?" I asked, because you know, I loved Bell and I didn't even bother with mindlinking/texting him goodnight or anything. Mostly because the thought had never occurred to me till now.

But Jasmine was suddenly fighting a flood of tears now. Leia took out tissues, "Here, you can use this, but you need to return me a fresh pack tomorrow."

"Tha...thank you." Jasmine managed, and then she started bawling, "What should I do?"

"You need to fight for your love." Krystal said with full conviction, "If you really love Liam, you need to go date another guy."

Wait what?

"What?" Jasmine blinked through her tears.

"Yes." Krystal said in full agreement with herself, "There is nothing that makes a guy regret leaving you more than seeing you happy with another guy."

Zara piped up now, she had been busy with something in her paperbag, "Or you could forget about boys and put all your love into a baby!"

Eh?

At this point, Zara presented a paper bag with four tall take-away coffee cups, "I got them from my new work place."

But she was just talking about the paperbag and coffee cups. She hadn't brought us coffee, "Surprise! My babies are ready to go home with you!"

Leia squealed, "Oh! You brought them to school?"

"Shhhh..." Zara shushed us. She handed us each a cup with our names written on it.

Naturally, we all had to open up the plastic top to look inside. Even Jasmine's tears completely dried up at the distraction.

"Ooohhh... It's sleeping." Jasmine whispered into her cup at her new baby hammie.

"They sleep most of the day." Zara told us, "Just keep them in their cups till you get home."

"But what if he gets hungry or thirsty?" Jasmine worried.

"Don't worry. I've got this." Zara handed us little ziplock bags with a few grapes, "If they look hungry or thirsty, you can give them a grape. This should tie them through school."

Wow, Zara thought of everything!

I peered carefully into my cup. My hamster was sleeping, almost fully burried in the paper bedding Zara had lined the cup with.

"It's the white one." I whispered to myself.

"Yes, I kept the princess for you." Zara told me, "She's the only girl of the lot. And she's really rare because her eyes are red."

Eh?

"I was thinking she would be living in a Princess castle with you, eating princess food, and maybe a nice princess name to go with it." Zara daydreamed on behalf of her hammie baby, "Like Ruby."

I felt my blood run cold and shook my head. No, no, no.

"Oh, that's a good name." Krystal approved, "Because her eyes are red right?"

"I don't know." Leia said, "The red eyes are actually quite creepy. Maybe you can call her Maria."

And then the cool girls laughed.

"What's wrong, Sam?" Jasmine asked.

What? Uh. Nothing, I just remembered the beautiful ex-fightdog rogue she-wolf WHO TRIED TO KILL ME.

"Urm..." I said. Because I was eloquent about things like that.

"If you don't like Ruby, you can name her something else." Zara quickly said, "It was just an idea."

"Urm...yeah. I actually, I already have a name in mind." I managed.

"Yeah, what?" Krystal asked.

"Dewpee Pondon." I managed to blurt out.

"What?" The cool girls said.

"Depew Pendent." I tried again, this time working to inflect the same intonations as Ki had.

"Oh!" The cool girls said.

And then Krystal decided, "I'm going to name mine something classy like that too."

"I thought you were going to name yours sugar?" Leia asked.

"Yes. But I changed my mind." Krystal decided, "Mine will be called Lois Vuitton."

She did all the intonations too.

The guys behind us laughed because they were stanning us as usual. I flared and turned to them, "Mind your own business!"

Marcus coughed, "We can't control the volume of your voices."

I bet he thought he was so funny.

Grrr... I flared. Stooopid boys!

But that only amused them more.

"What the hell, Sam." Henry said, "Why are you naming your coffees?"

At this, I couldn't resist, "Wanna try? You can help name it too."

I handed Henry the opened cup.

Henry wrinkled his nose, "It's smells funky."

"Yeah, it's a special blend." I answered, schooling my features immediately.

"I wouldn't take it." Marcus warned. Because he was a beta who was sensitive to the change in the mood of the alphas around him.

Henry took it, because he was an alpha who was less sensitive to the change of mood in others.

Unfortunately, he looked into the cup before he drank it, "F***!"

And the stupid guy threw the cup. He just threw it - as if scalded by something hot. His expression was priceless though.

Now every thing played in slowmo (at least in my memory).

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Zara cried out, standing up and reaching out her hand in a futile attempt because she was still far from the projectile of the coffee cup.

ZIIIINNG!!!! - I had to admit, my hair was shocked into action. I mean, I did want a reaction from Henry, maybe even a little scream or something I could tease him with for the rest of the term, but I didn't think he would have thrown my hammie!

"What the hell!" Henry said - more at my hair than the cup still in its projectile towards the back corner of the classroom.

"Hoi hoi! I'm on it!" EJ bounced up with lightning speed - just a lock of my hair shot out like a blade.

"EJ! No!" Fluffy's wide-eyed warning was too late.

"Arugghhhhh!!!!" EJ yelled.

My hair retracted in response. Marcus tried to stop EJ but just ended up tackling him forward.

"F***." Henry said - which I'd like to point out, was not in a least bit helpful.

EJ reached out his hand to grab the cup while in mid air, but Marcus pulled him back just then and the cup hit his opened palm and bounce out of his grasp.

"Nuuuuuuuooooooo!!!!!" EJ squeezed his eyes shut and yelled.

"Alpha, the window!" Fluffy warned. I flared. The girls screamed, and for the moment I thought I cut someone (but I hadn't.)

My moment of hesitation became the moment too late to catch the cup. It shot out of the window.

The girls gasped.

I ran to the window to look. But it was too late. The cup was already on the ground downstairs.

"No!" I flared again and spun round to Henry, "Why'd you throw it?"

"Why did you hand me a rat?" Henry yelled back.

"Do you want us to retrieve it, Alpha?" Fluffy offered.

"Yes!!!" I flared, and then I realised this was none of Fluffy's fault, "I mean, yes, please. Or nevermind, I'll go get it myself."

But first I was still mad at Henry, "It's not a rat!" I yelled at his stooopid face, "It's a hamster!"

"You're not allowed to bring pets to school." Troy said too loudly. The cool girls and Henry, EJ, and me all turned and shouted, "Shut up!"

Wow, we were so in sync.

Even the school bell rang for Troy to shut up. Okay, no. It rang because it was time for homeroom.