THE THREE GUYS

After school, I hurried along with the swell of students, it was crowded!

Today I did something differently, instead of waiting for the main crowd to clear before tailing behind the ebb of dismissed students, I decided to dive right into the fray the moment the bell rang.

I've been consistently reaching the train station at 3.45pm every day. Here is a math problem:

Dismissal bell rings at 3p.m. It takes 15 minutes to walk from school to the train station.How many minutes am I wasting every single day?

Precisely. On top of this, by the time I reached the station, it would be crammed full of the students who had left before me. But grrrr.... It was so crowded I could barely breathe.

Not even my alpha dominance can do a thing for this situation. It was too chaotic and close to a stampede. And even if the humans had a sense to step back, there was no space to back off to. It was a crush.

Passing the empty cafeteria, I decided to duck out of the passing crowd, go through the darkened cafeteria, like run through it if I must, and cut back into the steady stream of students at the top of the stairs.

As I hustled in the crowd to get closer to the cafeteria entrance, I see a stick like figure, pacing, wide eyed, somewhat frantic... Elena, alone.

She was on the other side of the school leaving swarm. She didn't even have her school bag with her.

Meanwhile, I was caught in the salmon upstream... Like a salmon with a pouch full of eggs, I tightened my grip on the straps of my school bag to push my way through, edging toward the cafeteria wall.

I saw Elena's thin face once more. She was looking at my direction, but not at me. Then she wringed her hands and turned to resume pacing. But I don't give it a further thought because I see the cafeteria door just in reach. Oh, here's my chance!

Seizing it, I grabbed the cafeteria door and pushed hard. It opened. Inside the lights were out, but my werewolf sight had no problems. It was not that dark anyway, the windows on one side let in the afternoon light. So it was just shadowy.

I rushed towards the other exit. But as I dashed forward, two red glowing eyes opened to meet mine. Aladdin!

He was seated at one of the tables with Arlene. She was pulled up against him, her face pressed into his shoulder, his arms around her and his mouth on her neck. He hadn't move, but fuc- he had seen me.

I didn't slow down, bursting out of the cafeteria from the other door and half stumbling back into the rest of the student population. My heart was slamming in my chest even as I rode the crowd down the stairs and spilled out onto the road outside the school.

I must have started running then. I didn't notice until I suddenly stopped in front of the station. It was bright, empty, and did not have the usual scent of students. I looked at my watch, 3.10p.m.

My math could not comprehend this. But my mind didn't care about math at this moment. It was too busy trying to descramble the feelings of walking into the cafeteria while Aladdin was snacking, but the feelings kept growing and I hated it.

There was panic, shock, anger, disgust, guilt, helplessness, and fear... I'm so scared I don't ever want to remember this ever again.

The train came and it was pleasantly empty. On the platform were just me and three other guys in our school uniforms. Upperclassmen.

I ignored them, boarding at my usual door. They got in two doors away, but once we were in the empty train, they walked over to me.

"Hey," one of them said. "You okay?" Werewolves, all three of them, all taller than I am.

I stiffened and stood up from my seat. So many empty seats, in an empty train car. But I didn't dare sit down when three strange wolves were surrounding me.

The one who spoke raised his hands in mock surrender, "It's okay. We're the good guys."

"You're a first year right? I'm Jules. Senior year. Future Beta from Blue Ridge Pack. It's a bit far out, almost as far as West Mountain." Jules laughed a bit before continuing, "That's Matt. Future Beta Silver Wind Pack. Say hi and bye, cos he's getting off here."

"I can stay," the one named Matt said, "I'll get off at the next station."

The other two guys looked at him blankly.

"Okay..." Continued Jules, "This here is Brandon. We call him Bra. Long story. He's just a weak wolf."

I looked at Bra. Obviously warrior, and larger than Jules and Matt. But Bra just laughed, "Yeah, I'm weak."

The guys all laughed together. And then Matt said, "My stop. Ciao."

And he disappeared through the train doors.

"Oh the joys of living close to the pack school." Jules said. He turned to me, "So...urm... You okay? You were like scared just now or something?"

And then I realized, I had been so scared from my encounter with Aladdin's after school snacking, they had smelled my fear.

"I saw a vampire..." I mumbled. I'm still trying to figure out how much I should tell two wolves I've just met. But they were upperclassmen from my school. But I just met them. But they might know what to do. I debated internally, "Urm... He was feeding on... Ah, someone."

"Did he see you?" Jules asked.

I nodded."But the girl is in my class."

"Human?" Jules asked again.

I nodded again.

"Did he do anything to you?" Bra asked.

I shook my head, "I ran."

Both boys nodded, "Good. Better not get involved."

Jules looked thoughtful, "You say he saw you..."

"The girl was in my class."

"My stop. Byes." Bra left.

"Bye Bra." Jules called back. But his expression remained thoughtful.

"It's better to stay out of the way when a vampire is feeding." He told me finally, "As long as it's just a human, leave him be, he won't do permanent damage, he won't like the consequences."

I wanted to protest, but I remained silent. He was right. I know he was.

Fighting could likely lead to some high council level investigation. I wouldn't be able to justify attacking a vampire over a human. Plus she was dating him, so technically, they could be making out... I made a face at that thought. Yuck. Vampire cooties.

"But if he ever bothers you, come to us okay?" Jules said, "I know we ain't alpha, but we ain't weaklings either... Well except for Bra."

I laughed at his attempt at humor, "Thanks."

Jules was funny. We chatted a bit, and he made me laugh. Very quickly, it was my station.

"I get off here." I told him, "Thanks for today and bye."

"Wait!" He grabbed my wrist. I spun around. The door of the train was opened. It was my stop. But Jules didn't let go.

"Tell me you name." Jules said.

"Sam. My name is Sam." I said, my eyes still on the train door.

He smiled and let me go, "Bye Sam."

And I dashed out of the train, stepping through the door just as it shut at the hem of my skirt. Pulling away in time, I turned to watch the train pull out of Gate City Station.