THE LAST WEEKEND BEFORE VDAY

5 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, HOMEROOM

Once I got to school, everything started slowing down to the regular school day. I got to class without meeting a single soul. It was peaceful.

Elena was alone in the classroom. I knew as I approached because the lights were on. I stepped in and sat in my seat. Neither of us bothered to acknowledge the other. It was peaceful.

I took the chance to catch up on my reading... and took out volume 2 of the manga Savy had recommended.

Okay, I should be reading the reports in my kindle, but I didn't feel like it. Would I ever feel like it? Not likely. Did I feel guilty that I was enjoying manga while my betas worked themselves to death? Well, now I did.

But that didn't occur to me then. I was in school mode and wasn't thinking about my betas at all. Now that I wrote this down, my guilt had doubled.

But while I was reading the manga, I was guilt free.

If I found the first volume strange, the second volume was downright baffling. Now, one of the hot guys turned out to be not just a supermodel but a super stylist too. He decided to become the plain girl's personal stylist. He took her to a super expensive boutique where all the sales ladies knew him by name, because he was ALSO THE HEIR OF THE FASHION LABEL COMPANY!

It was one stupid slap after another to my sense of reality. By the time it was revealed that this hot guy/super model/fashion stylist/fashion label heir was also the school's serious student president living a double life, I was knocked senseless. WTH?

BUT there were wolves like Ki in this world. Ki was the top fight dog named Keys, who turned out to be a white healing wolf, who also turned out to be a fully trained beta wolf AND also the sole survivor of the Lorent Pack's beta family. I should ask him if he had also been his high school student president.

"Oh, you're still reading! What volume are you at?" Jasmine asked cheerfully as she sat down next to me.

I took out my homework for her to help herself. The other cool girls also gathered around my desk.

"I envy you." Krystal said.

I looked up from my manga, "Me?"

"Yeah, must be nice being a rich heiress." Krystal sighed, "Being treated like a princess by everyone, having lots of servants to do everything for you, reading manga while the rest of us common folk work."

Technically, she was copying my homework, not working.

"Meanwhile, the rest of us girls need to take on part time jobs on the side just to buy nice clothes. We don't even have time to get a date for valentine's day." Krystal sighed, "You have your rich daddy to settle everything for you. Even your future husband was settled for you."

Leia sighed wistfully at that, "Yeah, how nice to be a princess!"

"If I were a princess, I'd buy my hamsters the biggest hamster run in the world!" Zara said.

"I'd spend all day floating on my swimming pool and have handsome butlers fetch me drinks." Leia said. (Never mind that it's winter)

"I'd throw huge parties for my friends every weekend." Krystal decided.

"What about you Jasmine?" Zara asked.

"Oh, well..." Jasmine looked unsure, "Maybe I'd wear nice clothes all the time."

"What about you, Zammi?" Zara asked.

Krystal tsked at Zara, "Stupid, she's already a princess."

Zara looked at the manga in my hand, "So you'd read comics all day?"

For some reason, I thought of Savy bundled up in blankets behind her mountain of manga on the top bunk. I let out a laugh, "Okay, yeah. If I were a princess, I'd sit on my bed and read manga all day."

"You are a princess, Zammi!" Krystal said, rolling her eyes.

Abigail sailed over with Pearl. She had never done this before.

"Good morning!" She flashed us a wide smile, "One more week to Valentine's Day! I can't wait! Are you girls ready?"

Jasmine smiled, "Almost, I just have to bake the..."

"And what about you, Sam?" Abigail asked, "Any plans this Valentine's Day?"

I wanted to know what Jasmine was going to bake, "I'm planning to eat what Jasmine baked?"

Abigail laughed, "I mean for your date, silly. Wanna double date with Henry and me?"

"You're going out with Henry?" Zara asked.

"He asked me out on Friday night." Abigail smiled.

What about Charbear?

"What about the rest of you?" Abigail asked.

"Actually, I..." Said Jasmine too softly.

"Who we go out with is our own business." Krystal told Abigail firmly.

Jasmine stopped and closed her mouth.

"Well, don't worry, we still have this weekend. Maybe Sam can introduce us to her hot childhood friends." Abigail said.

"Yeah, I remember she said all those guys that played in the band last week were her childhood friends." Pearl said, but she sounded like she was challenging me. Challenging me to what, I couldn't say.

"Oh!" The cool girls said. They turned to me in one synchronized move.

"Zammi, it looks like you're our last hope this Valentine's Day." Krystal announced with striking gravity, "This weekend at Zammi's would be our last chance to meet a hot guy and secure a Valentine's Day date."

The other girls nodded seriously.

"There...there is a party." I managed to say.

"A PARTY?"

I winced at their combined loudness and nodded.

"What party?" Henry asked. The guys came over, betraying their eavesdropping nature, but none of the girls seemed to notice.

"Urm... There is a party... Saturday night. If you can stay for it... I can let you stayover and bring you back to Gate City Station on Sunday Morning." I said.

"Would the cool guys that performed last week be there?" Pearl asked.

I tried to think, "Maybe... Some of them should be."

"Henry, can we go?" Abigail pouted, "Please?"

Henry shrugged, "If you girls want to go, us guys will stay with you."

"Yay! You're the best!" Abigail clapped, cheerleader style, jumping at the same time.

"I've received the tickets and visas for our entries." Marcus said, "I'll just hang on to them till we meet tomorrow."

Oh, that's right. Tomorrow was Saturday. Already.

Sometimes the weekends seem to creep really slowly over and then suddenly pounce.

Actually, maybe the right thing to do was to cancel this entire playdate, my betas had enough to do as it is. But then they already went to all the trouble to get the visas and prepare the rooms for my friends...

"You better not forget to bring our visas tomorrow!" Krystal ordered Marcus.

"Yeah, yeah." Marcus grinned.

Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

"So it's confirmed? We're staying over?" Abigail asked brightly.

"Yes!" Krystal's answer was full of determination, "We must make the most of this chance!"

"I wonder what a party with rich kids would be like." Zara mused.

There was silence.

"Oh my god, what should we wear?" Leia asked.

Everyone looked at me. I shrugged and looked at Henry. Henry sighed, "Marc, contact Harv. Get the details and dress code and let us know."

"Way ahead of you." Marcus was tapping on his phone, he looked up rather smugly and then his phone buzzed.

"What does it say?" Krystal asked.

"What do we wear?" Leia asked.

"OMG, just read it aloud!" Zara screamed.

Marcus held up a hand, he was still laughing at the cool girls' theatrics. Marcus was in a good mood today, "Okay, okay. Geesh..."

"Read it already!" Abigail ordered.

These human girls! Did they not realize that they were talking to a Beta?

"The party's on. Dress code for the party is casual." Marcus said.

"What's casual supposed to mean?" Abigail asked.

"What will you be wearing Zammi?" Krystal asked.

"Yeah. What will you be wearing?" Abigail asked.

I tried hard to think, "Sweat suit?"

Abigail slapped my arm, "Stop joking, Sam! I'm serious!"

No one, I repeat, no one had EVER slapped my arm and told me to be serious before. And I was serious.

I seriously had no idea how else to answer.

I could not think of a single acceptable answer that would put me in the no-slap zone.

ANS 1: Guess something that sounds casual, like jeans and t-shirt?

ANS 2: Tell them someone usually picks out my outfits for me, so I have no idea.

ANS 3: Be the Alpha.

I know we're not on Packlands, but disrespecting the beta who is serving you, and then slapping the alpha's arm...

"Just wear anything." I said, "You're my guest. Whatever you wear would be the dress code."

"That really doesn't help at all." Leia face palmed.

"Oh well, maybe if we brought the wrong thing, we could borrow from your wardrobe?" Abigail suggested.

I shrugged, "Yeah, okay."

"Great! See you tomorrow then." Abigail spun around and left.

Pearl hesitated, and then produced her usual wide smile, "Suddenly, I'm touring an Alpha's home every month, who would have thought?"

"Alpha? What's with this Alpha thing?" Zara asked.

"Didn't Sam tell you?" Pearl smiled, "She's a wolf."

"She's a warlock princess!" Zara corrected.

"Uh, no. She's a wolf. The Green Packland is Lycan controlled territory." Pearl sounded very smug about it.

"What's it to you, whether wolf or not?" Marcus asked.

"Just that you know... Entering Lycan Packlands, playing at the Alpha house, going to a werewolf party... I just thought these girls would like to know what they were getting themselves into." Pearl shrugged.

The guys started growling very lowly.

"F*** off, Pearl." Henry said quietly.

Pearl retreated to Abigail's group. I think they were fussing over Abigail's hot vday date with Henry.

"You're dating Abigail, yet you're always on Sam's side." Pearl let the accusation out just loudly enough the Abigail's group to stop their chattering and turn around.

Oh boy... Now she's done it. Henry was mad, and I don't mean the explosive mad. This was a dangerous targeted kind of mad. I felt a growl crawl up my throat but swallowed it in front of the humans.

Henry smirked at Pearl, "You're a wolf yourself, and you don't understand? Wolves stick together."

Marcus and Liam fell in behind Henry. Suddenly the quiet smiling Liam and the laughing good natured Marcus were replaced by quite menacing wolves.

Oh, well that made more sense to me. I had always wondered where their wolves were. Now I finally see them, just below the surface. Liam did have a proper warrior wolf after all.

"Oh, Pearl!" Jasmine worried, "Why did you provoke them like that?"

Then Jasmine looked at me. I shrugged and gave her a small smile to let her know it'll be okay.

"Henry, you're a werewolf?" Abigail gasped.

"I knew it!" Troy said way too loudly.

Terrence and the other guys came over. Were they looking for a fight?

Mrs Henderson stepped into the classroom just then, "Good morning cla... What's going on here?"

"Henry is a werewolf!" Troy shouted.

Mrs Henderson opened her mouth and then shut it.

Just at this moment Principal Laura sailed through our classroom door, Matt at her heel.

Principal Laura smiled, "Good morning class! Oh, good morning Mrs Henderson! How is everyone today?"

Her eyes swept quickly across the classroom even while her mouth was still smiling. I knew it! This Principal had some kind of inbuilt radar that detected wolf aggression within her school.

Her eyes met mine, but she adverted her gaze quickly enough. I hope she read the scene and figured out this had nothing to do with me, even though it was happening close to my desk. I mean this is clearly on Henry who was standing face off with Pearl.

Terrence and Tory and Ivan were on the side. They looked uncertain, like they were trying to wrap their minds around the situation. So Henry was a werewolf (they knew it) but Marcus and Liam. Surely Liam was standing on the wrong side! Hahaha. So funny, these humans. So clueless sometimes.

And then again, maybe I shouldn't be the one to laugh at someone else's cluelessness.

Henry was still pissed. If he were in wolf form, his hackles would be up. But unlike me, Henry didn't have my expressive hair, so it remained perfectly in place, until he ran a hand through it. It was a movement very similar to Mate's when he was frustrated.

"I've had it. I'm going home." Henry decided, the words coming out in low growls.

He turned and grabbed his bag and walked out of the classroom.

"What-" Mrs Henderson asked.

"I'm sure he just needed some time to cool off." Mrs Laura soothed. She looked at me again. What? I'm just sitting here.

"Is everything alright, Samantha?" Principal Laura asked.

Eh? I looked around. Shouldn't she be asking Pearl that? Or anyone else at all?

Oh wait, was she thinking of leaving me in charge today now that Henry had left? Oh no. No way. My hair flared. I'm not going to be in charge of this lot!

I stood up, "Please give me a minute."

I ran out of the classroom and shouted down the empty hallway, "HENRY! GET BACK HERE!"