THE RIVER BETWEEN

18 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, MORNING

And then school started and nothing exciting happened (You've been warned). But I was running out of days in this school, so I wanted to record the quiet days too.

HOMEROOM:

Mrs Henderson came in to take our attendance. Maria was absent.

We started with a bit of follow up, "Is everyone alright? Yes? Well, then good." It took me a while to figure out she was referring to yesterday's critical incident. Actually, I only placed it when she told us to take out paper and write down our reflection. I wrote something vague about the importance of staying calm and then I skipped to being thankful that everyone was okay. Generally, I was trying to be truthful without attracting any unwarranted concern from Mrs Henderson.

It was a quiet homeroom, and after that, Mrs Henderson had three announcements:

FIRST, that Mr Devon would like the actors from our class to note that next week's theater rehearsal was cancelled due to the exams, but we would "resume rehearsals with renewed vigor on the 27th February, with full dress on the 1st and 2nd of March, from 4pm - 9pm. Dinner would be catered."

Henry and Marcus could barely suppress their groans. It sounded like their schedules ate too much and were about to belch everything back out in their faces. Since my writing pad was still out, I wrote it down on a fresh piece of paper for my betas to deal with.

SECOND, the com lab building has been closed for renovations, due to the sinkhole, it was no longer structurally sound. Therefore, all classes held there would be relocated to the homeroom until further notice. For us this meant that Mrs Martinez would be coming to our homeroom for home ec. How we were supposed to bake cookies here was anybody's guess.

THIRD, there will be no more Special Assembly until after our exams. Mrs Henderson would like us to focus on studying hard, after that we could treat ourselves to the special and exciting program that the school had planned for us.

SCIENCE:

Mrs Dawson returned our lab workbooks and said we all handed in rubbish. She didn't seem to remember that Terrence had drunk the limewater and we hadn't had the time to actually do the experiment properly. Now she wanted us to erase and "blanko" everything and start over. Mrs Dawson called correction tapes/fluids, "blanko." She liked to use retro words like that. And when she said "start over," she just meant for us to copy the right results into our workbooks. We didn't actually have to do the experiment again.

So science was pretty uneventful.

CUSTOMS & CULTURE

For C&C today, Teacher Tabby decided to read us "a poem about being different, but still the same". Actually, what she read to us was a picture book about a kid who ate rice when everyone else was eating normal food.

Terrence wanted to know what rice tasted like.

Ivan had it before and said it tasted like mashed potato, but tasteless.

Actually it wasn't tasteless... Ki had made sushi, and that had rice. We also had this seafood with rice and spices and raisins dish. That was good, different, but good. I quite liked rice, but like the kid in the picture book, I kept quiet about it too.

I wrote down on that same sheet of paper where I had jotted down extra theater rehearsals on, "I want to eat rice."

After that, Teacher Tabby gave us the rest of her lesson block to self study for the upcoming exam, because she remembered what it was like as a student, and wanted to help us. That's why she had only planned a short lesson today.

LUNCH

We were doing really well. It was already lunchtime and nothing exciting had happened to disrupt the general course of school. It's been a long time, so I wandered off, just my lunchbag and me. I even managed to ditch Fluffy and EJ (They had Our Last Hurrah practice.) Unfortunately, I realized after walking out of the classroom, that my usual alone place was now the Spring Picnic Area, I didn't feel like going up to the rooftop in case of meeting vamps or Bert... so I ended up not knowing where to go.

I should've just went with Henry and the others. It wasn't too late...and they might still be eating lunch. In lieu of the lack of quiet places to eat, I headed for the Spring Picnic Area, but I had been wandering the school halls for a while now, so I needed to cut across the second floor to get to the right exit.

Just as I was going down the stairs, I heard the familiar footsteps of River and Keanu coming up the same stairway.

"Geesh, it isn't fair. You're the one who made it Spring, but we can't even get at seat there!" Keanu was complaining, "Must be nice being popular."

"It's okay, Keanu. We can eat somewhere else." River said.

"No we can't." Keanu bemoaned, "We need to buy food at the cafeteria to eat there, the upperclassmen pick on us at the student foyer, and if we eat in class, Horio and the other guys will take our food! Alpha Gunter made us such nice lunchboxes too!"

"If Sam were here, we could go to the roof again. That was nice." River said wistfully.

And tada, I stepped down my flight of stairs and appeared right in front of them!

"Let's go to the roof." I grinned.

The two guys looked surprised, and then River stretched his hands up, heavy lunch box in hand, "Alright! Let's go!"

Keanu didn't look convinced, but he followed us up the stairs. I led them with my lucky sense of direction and found the right stairway up to the rooftop access, then I took out the key from the side pocket of my lunch bag. I had slipped it in the last time, and Ki never took it out (or asked me about it either.). Ki was always clever like that.

Anyway, we went up to the rooftop, River and I feeling incredibly lucky to have met each other. Keanu brooding a little more, but he stopped and joined us with his usual smile after a while.

"How did you find us, Sam?" Keanu asked after River and I were done swapping lunch box goodies. Now I had a bite of everything, and so did he.

"Hn?" I put the first item into my mouth. Alpha Gunter made the weirdest food. This one looked like a very red octopus. It was weird, but yum. I liked it, "I was going to the picnic area when I heard you complaining."

"You wouldn't get a seat there, Sam. It was really crowded." River said.

"Sam would get a seat anyway, River." Keanu corrected him, "She hangs out with Alpha Henry and the other populars in our school."

"Do you?" River asked, his spoon in his mouth.

I nodded, "We're in the same class. I can intro you. Then we can all eat lunch there together."

River shook his head, "Ah, no... better not. To be honest, Alpha Henry and his type kinda scares me... I mean, I'm sure you've noticed, Keanu and I aren't exactly the popular type."

Yeah? Well, I looked up from my food to study them. Well, I guess not.

"That's okay. I'm not popular either." I said.

River's eyes widened, "Are you kidding, Sam? You're like the most photographed student in the school."

"They take photos because they want a quick buck, not because they like me." I told River honestly, "Attention from being liked and from being a freak are totally different."

"It's better to stay low, River." Keanu advised him gently, "If your identity as the crown prince of Snow Moon Kingdom slips out, your dad is going to pull us out of school."

"I can't imagine coming to school like you everyday." River told me.

"The cost on your army must be extravagant." Keanu said.

I paused. I suppose that would make sense, except that Henry was footing part of it, and Madam Principal's pack was sponsoring their lodging and food... and...honestly, I had no idea how much the barriers and stuff were. Who paid for those things? I frowned.

"Its okay, Sam." River tried to make me feel better, "I guess you don't usually have to worry about stuff like that. You can leave it to your mate to deal with it."

Then River sighed, "Some times I envy that. I'm a guy so when I become king, I'll have to make all these decisions. I feel like I have a mountain to learn everyday. I try, but every step up makes me realize how much higher I need to climb. Sometimes I don't even think I'll get to the top."

When River said those words, I totally understood, "No, I totally get it. Its tough. And after making the decision, I keep having second thoughts. One moment I would think that turned out pretty well, and then the next moment, I would think I messed up big time."

River looked totally surprised by that, "Eh, you do?"

I quickly waved it off before he mistook me for a genius or something, "Ah, I don't really know most of the details though, just the gist of it. The betas are the real brains in my pack."

"Yeah? Well, I rely on a lot of people to run the kingdom too." River sighed, "But its a relief to know I'm not the only one who feels like this."

After lunch, they waited for me to lock up the rooftop and then we went back down together.

"Oh!" River touched a hand to his chest, "I left my key in the gym lockers!"

"Not again!" Keanu sighed, "You better go look for it. I'll walk Sam back to class and come help you later."

I didn't need walking back to class, but River had already dashed off, "Thanks, sorry! I'll be going first!"

I gave Keanu's slender frame a skeptical look, he didn't look like he would be any help at all in a fight.

"You must be wondering why I sent River off." Keanu smiled and pushed up his glasses.

Eh?

"I wanted to talk to you... Alpha Princess." Keanu said.

I took pause at the change in the way he addressed me.

"I'm just curious," Keanu asked, "Our kingdom isn't physically close enough to bother you, your pack is clearly not in want for funding, certainly you are more prosperous , and we all know purebred wolves like yourself do not see humans as their equal... So why do you trouble yourself to befriend River? Or help Wilhelm escape from your men? Or adopt Wilhelm's sister for that matter? What can River do for you?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I asked, suddenly remembering Harvey's suspicion, "Why did you and River come all the way to this highschool and join the same club as me?"

Keanu scratched his nose, "It was a coincidence."

Then he quickly added, "Even if you don't believe me, you must know by now that River is always open and honest."

"I know. That's why he is my friend." I said.

"Ah..." Keanu sighed, "I've messed up. I meant to be questioning you, but ended up being questioned instead."

I wondered if Keanu was to River, like Harvey was to me, "We're not that different. Believe what you want, but I am a friend."

And then I stopped walking when we reached the First Years' classroom level, "I can go to class on my own. You better go help River."

"That's true." Keanu laughed, "He' probably lost again."

Keanu walked a few steps before turning around, "And Sam?"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I knew you were a friend. I just needed to make sure." Keanu said. And then he hurried off.

I returned to class, my mind still troubled by the conversation with Keanu. He had asked, "What can River do for you?"

Not that I believed River would be any real help to me and maybe it was Boo who asked, but this thought popped in my head: Why did Keanu ask? If he asked, did that mean there was something River could do (that someone like the Alpha Princess would find of value)? So the test wasn't in whether I had ulterior motives in befriending River. Keanu was testing how much I knew about something River could supposedly do...

What did I know about River? Clumsy, lucky, optimistic, selfless, and... I remembered River transforming the winter to spring with uncanny warlock power! Suddenly it clicked in place. River was a human, not warlock. Yet his power matched the magic surrounding our Green Packlands to a T - not only did it smell the same - remember the single red maple tree? It's effect was the same - holding a small space in one season independently from the world around it.

And then Boo recalled the song like a dormant spell suddenly come alive:

We wait along the borders

Waiting for our fathers

But they will never come home

Don't cry little one

The moon goddess will come

She comes with her pet moon.

When you see her tell her

Our Fountain needs her

To bring back River's stone.

Omo. River had Fount's stone!

It was so literal, it was stoopid.

And this was how, Keanu had unknowingly given away River's secret. He really messed up more than he knew.

Wait, but Keanu wouldn't have known about the song from Lullaby Route. At most he would know River had a blue stone which lent him warlock powers.

Think, Sam, think! Just a bit more...

So Keanu was trying to test me to safeguard River's treasure aka the blue stone which lent a very normal teenage boy incredible powers... Which River was using to change the world on his side of the continent, but over at our side, our old warlock was dying and the Free Wolves needed it back so Fount could protect them and their way of life.

I don't suppose we could halve the stone now, could we?