TOUCH RUGBY IS A LIE

2 MARCH, TUESDAY, GYM CLASS

"Do I smell gum?" Coach Williams yelled after blowing his whistle for us to assemble around him. Coach Williams must have the nose of a bloodhound, or a wolf, which he was, but I was sure his nose was trained to sniff out high school student counter-bands, like bubble gum, and sugared drinks smuggled in water bottles.

Fortunately for half the female student population, Coach Williams was the kind of manly man who knew next to nothing about a lady's beauty and skin care routine, so as long as make up was used in with a "natural touch", he was unaware of it. I'm sure he could smell it, as I could, that most of the girls had pressed powder, and sometimes mascara or lip gloss on, but I don't think he knew what the smell was.

He had ever stopped one of the seniors along the hallway, because she was applying lip gloss while talking to her friends after lunch. But she told him it was lip balm and he believed her because he had no idea what these little glittering tube was.

Cos real men only used chapstick. Wait no, real men just let their lips crack up until their mate forces them to use chapstick because being kissed scratched worse than their stubble - because real men had that too. Real men, according to what I've overheard from the ladies chatter around my pack, were a real pain sometimes.

Anyway, I would know a "real man" when I met one. My pack were full of "real men" so I knew that real men were allergic to glitter (Dad believed that getting just a speck of it in your eye would blind you. All our glitter projects growing up was highly stressful for him.) Real men survived like moisturizer, lip balm, and conditioner didn't exist (Beta Lucas entire personal hygiene travel kit consisted of just soap and toothpaste. He showed me. If he were going somewhere fancy, he's include a razor.)

Real men nurtured callouses on their hands. Grandpa Alpha told me they were nature's gloves and I should grow some too.

Real men didn't count calories. I mean, look at Gamma Harry, he didn't even count servings. Anyway, if you're a real man, you'd need the fuel because you were working hard patrolling, training warriors, and doing real men jobs like our Gamma.

Anyway, my point was that Coach Williams was a "real man" type of guy.

"Who's chewing gum?" The real man bellowed at us, whistle around his neck and hands on his hips. He turned sharply towards what I assumed was the trace amount of mint scent - which happened to be coming from Krystal's mouth every time she breathed on my left.

Coach Williams narrowed his eyes at me, "I won't stand for any rule breaking in my class, got it? We play by the book here. I don't care who you are. There is a no gum rule in this school and all of us will stick to it."

Hahaha... Coach made a pun... but I realized he hadn't meant to because he looked dead serious. I quickly wiped off my smile before it spread across my face, but I was too slow. He caught me.

"Samantha!" Coach Williams yelled. Jasmine jumped a little next to me and shuffled a little behind me. Luckily, I've had shouty teachers in my previous schools, so I only winced, "Yes, Coach?"

"Are you chewing gum?" Coach Williams took a few steps over to me. Krystal had the sense to press her lips together.

"No, sir." I answered honestly.

"Open your mouth." Coach said. Was he serious? He was standing right in front of me now.

"I'm very sure she isn't chewing gum, sir." Fluffy said. I turned around to see him smiling at the back with the other guys, "It's mint, right? Pretty Alpha hates mint."

"I don't hate it." I corrected him immediately, "I just don't like things that taste prickly."

"What the hell, Sam." Henry smirked, "Are you a kid?"

"I bet she doesn't take pepper either." Marcus chuckled, "My 3 year old cousin is like that right now."

That was true, I didn't like peppery foods either, BUT don't compare me with a 3 year old!

I flared - or at least, I felt sure I would have, but my hair didn't move. It hadn't flared or protested or shimmered or anything at all today. In fact, it had been very unexpressive and well behaved hair. Weird.

"Quiet." Coach shouted, "I don't care if she's the alpha princess or warlock or moon goddess herself. In my class, she's just a student - like every one of you. No special treatment."

Which for some reason made me feel happy. I smiled at it, this time not resisting the pull on my mouth.

"Did I say something funny, Samantha?" Coach Williams misinterpreted.

"No. This smile is me totally agreeing with you." I said.

But it only made Coach Williams madder, "Don't think I don't recognize sarcasm. You run an extra 2 laps during warm up."

"Yes sir!" WTH? In what way did I sound sarcastic? I tried to adjust my tone and expression to be a little more subdued.

"That's better." Coach Williams decided. Then he turned his attention to Krystal who was beside me, "Crystal, right? Open your mouth."

Krystal swallowed and then opened her mouth.

Someone in the class whispered, "He's so sick, smelling inside girls' mouths."

I pressed my lips together to not laugh or worse, look sarcastic.

"Show me under your tongue." Coach ordered.

"Eww..." Someone said.

"The seniors did tell me he was a perv." EJ informed Fluffy with a too loud whisper.

"You better be careful with your sexy legs then." Fluffy answered mildly.

The kids around them snickered.

Coach Williams straightened, his face reddening with either anger or embarrassment, "Don't think I can't hear you back there!"

Actually, I think they purposely wanted to hear them. I know Fluffy and EJ were my bodyguards, but bullying the teacher just because he picked on me a little wasn't in their job description - no wait, actually I should check that. I hadn't seen their security brief at all.

Anyway, Coach Williams was a real man, and real men won't be bullied so easily, "You there, the blondie, and the one in shorts - an extra two laps for you too. All of you go. 8 laps around the gym. 10 for Samantha and the two new kids."

"Yes, sir!" The class answered and then groaned and moaned and sighed like old wolves waking up on a cold morning.

"Get to it!" Coach Williams ordered, "And you with the shorts - you might want to change to track pants if you have them. Today, we'll be playing outdoors and I don't think your chicken legs' gonna be able to stand the cold."

And there it was, another unintentional pun.

This earned more snickering mixed into more moaning and groaning and sighing, but not so much because they noticed the pun too. Most of them were either still in pain from having to start running, or enjoying the running joke on EJ's legs.

"Finish warming up and meet me in the field." Coach Williams instructed before storming off because real men stormed in and out of halls like the whole world owed them one.

"Why couldn't he tell us earlier?" Henry was p***ed, "I need to change my shoes."

"Better around the gym than around the field." Marcus said in a rare show of positivity, and then he sighed, "I'm sure it's going to be something tough out there though."

Marcus was usually pessimistic like that. He was also usually right. We finished out laps, a few of us changed to outdoor shoes or football boots if they had something for the field. I didn't, so I finished the 10 lap, timing myself to finish when the cool girls were done with their 8 laps... or more precisely 5 laps... Since Coach wasn't around, they gave themselves a discount.

Fluffy and EJ sped through all 10 laps. They were actually the first to finish.

"Hoi, hoi, pretty alpha!" EJ waved from the gym exit, "Fluffy and I are going downstairs first."

Fluffy's smile was so angelic, I felt very sure the two of them were up to something. Unfortunately, I was only on lap 6. The cool girls believed that running was meant to be done as slowly as possible.

"Don't bully the coach!" I called to their backs, "He's just doing his job!"

I mean, he's a high school gym teacher... I'm sure his life was miserable enough as it was.

Anyway, eventually we all got down to the field. EJ was still in shorts.

"I think you can borrow track pants from the school office." Marcus offered.

EJ shook his head, making his red curls bounce around his face, "Mou! That's very kind of you beta, but I'm tough as a cookie."

"Especially since you eat so many of them." Fluffy smiled like a proud mother next to him.

Coach blew his whistle, "We're playing touch rugby today. Listen carefully while I explain the rules and game play."

"He could've done that when we were in the hall." Henry groaned.

Yes, he could. Any maybe that was what he had planned to do, before the whole chewing gum inspection threw him off. So we stood for half an hour in the cold, muddy pitch while Coach demonstrated and explained how to play Touch Rugby in detail.

I only paid attention because most of my classmates were human, and I didn't want to accidentally foul or hurt anyone while winning - I mean, playing. Just playing, even though playing led to winning... ahem... anyway...

Coach himself wasn't wearing a gym jacket. He only had a short sleeved tshirt and although our wolf bodies could bear with the cold better than human bodies, Coach's lips looked a little grey when he was done. But real men weren't afraid of the cold.

We'd play two separate games at the same time. Girls vs girls, and guys vs guys. Knowing that I was playing against human girls made me feel I should be even more cautious.

"Don't forget, its just touch rugby." Coach said before letting us start.

It was really hard to forget though. The ground was muddy and I got the Middle position because I didn't think it'll be a fair game if I were the Wing. In attack, it just wouldn't be fair. In defense, it was a recipe for getting some poor girl injured. Anyway, the Middle had to do the most running, and I was good at running.

Get the ball, run to the other side, toss it back to one of the wings - Janice or Zara to score for my team. No problem. I had listened carefully to Coach's explanation, I had considered both strategy and safety based on the tips he gave, and I was all ready to win and already feeling quite proud of myself for my level up in maturity. I guess I've grown up a lot since starting high school. The old me would've just charged right into the game.

Unfortunately for me, the girls weren't paying as much attention when Coach was talking.

"Sam's got the ball!" Abigail screeched in panic, "She's going to score!"

I can't score! I had to pass it to one of the wings.

But next thing I knew, I was being killed out there. Because it was touch rugby, I was supposed to drop the ball at first touch, right? But in actual play, I dropped the ball and was properly knocked over from behind, then jumped on by two other girls. Abigail's team had felt that as long as I was pinned down to the mud, they had a chance of winning.

"FOUL! That's a FOUL!!!" Zara yelled from the other side of the field. My team had mostly strategized not moving around too much because it was muddy and tiring. And also just calling foul every time it looked like the other team was winning.

Although Zara was right this time, it really was a foul, but refereeing two matches at the same time turned out to be more than what Coach bargained for, and he didn't catch every foul.

Anyway, I was just trying to play "touch" rugby, but my team was not moving much except to wave their arms in the air and yell foul. Abigail's team had three girls set out just to tail and jump me too. I wasn't going to use my wolf powers, but in the end it was necessary, just to avoid being road kill. There was this one random girl, she was up to my shoulder at most, but wow. I think she tackled me proper at least twice. The third time had too many girls and I wasn't sure which one eventually downed me. She made such an impression on me, she stopped being a random girl and I actually remember her name now: Lisa. Lisa, the mini-bulldozer.

Luckily, Jasmine was also on my team, and although Jasmine was as girly as the she-wolf next door, she was a better runner than the human girls - especially those who were preoccupied with not having to run or get their shoes muddy. Between the two of us, we still managed to pass the ball to Zara and Janice enough times to win - even with Zara dropping the ball repeatedly. I'm not sure why, but Zara's hands had zero ability to grip. If all of us had to hang on to something for our dear life, Zara would be the first to die.

I was grassy and muddy after the game - even my panties had mud in them. We ended gym late, and all of us needed a shower, so by the time we went for lunch, everywhere was already crowded. But all in all, I had to say, this was the most fun gym class I ever had.