ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL

29 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, MORNING

I didn't really want Harvey to ask me if I were in a good mood today, or why I was in such a hurry to get to school. Perhaps my return greeting was a bit too bright.

Anyway, I was still holding on to my surface pro so I pretended to be busy reading it. At any rate, reading manifold reports about budgets and expense sheets on housing and development was just the kind of mind numbing distraction I needed to stop thinking about my stoopid family or how I could ever repay them.

And Harvey could take the hint. He didn't speak for a good part of the ride there.

Last thing I wanted to do was burst into tears in front of my good beta. I was the alpha and alphas didn't cry.

At any rate, I'm sure any reported tearful outburst would only convince my Mum that I was truly unhinged by recent events.

What the heck was this data? I tried to figure out what the columns and rows represented. The numbers were in percentages, but it was cost-benefit analysis. Grrr...

Okay, calm down Sam. You're dumb, but there had to be some notes that would help you understand this. I left the document to go find any supporting notes.

Harvey tackfully pretended not to notice my irate wolf growl and continued driving.

I found some notes which suddenly made everything make sense, before realising that they were notes to another report, not this one. So I had pretty much combined two completely unrelated data sets and made sense of that.

This was a sign that I was either not getting it at all, or an absolute genius.

Okay, backtrack. Now I had to figure out which part of what I figured out was really the part of the conclusion based on the data, and which part was what I made up based on the wrong notes.

Why were these reports suddenly so difficult?

Sigh.

"Apologies, Alpha." Harvey's mouth was pressed down in a thin line, "The reports have been rushed and I have yet to consolidate them to my notes."

Wait, what?

And that was how I found out that the usual reports in my reading list had been the "abridged" version, one which would be denoted on the sidebar with Harvey's explanatory notes.

The one I was staring at was the uncondensed version, without notes. Well, I had noticed the missing sidebar, but not all reports came with notes, and I thought this was just one of them.

"Haha, good thing you told me." I joked it off, "For a moment I thought I was getting stupider."

And then I added more seriously, "Thanks for taking the time to write those notes for me. They are really helpful."

You know, because I was really just a dumb pup and these reports weren't designed with pup friendliness in mind.

Harvey offered me a wry smile, "No need for thanks, alpha. I originally made those notes for myself since I'm still learning as I go along. It made me happy when you requested they be included in your files."

I requested? Oh right, I think I had asked Harvey to include any notes he had when printing out my meeting files... You know, back when my betas still printed out my notes for me. The notes really had been very helpful especially when I first started attending these grown up meetings this year.

"I've since been sharing the files with you and Ben." Harvey told me, "It seems like an efficient way to share what I knew."

I nodded. So Ben had needed help too. I guess even geniuses needed to notes too!

"But you and Ben are really something! With just some side notes, the two of you took to the meetings so naturally."

"That's because your notes were really clear." I told Harvey, but he shook his head, "I remembered my first year of shift, following my dad around and not understanding half of what's going on."

Hey, that's exactly what I was going through! Except instead of following my Dad around, which really sounded like the more sensible way to go, I was leading a bunch of wolves all over the place.

"And even now, I still need to consult with my Dad, or Ki, or Delta Charlie regularly to stay on top of everything." Harvey gave me a wry smile, "I know you probably hear this all the time, but you're amazing. No matter what the meeting, be it a press conference, negotiating with another alpha, or chairing a candance, you never fail to deliver."

Harvey scoffed a little at his supposed lack of ability, "It took me years before I figured out how to facilitate a meeting properly, and then you stepped up and I realised how lacking my understanding was."

I'm sure your understanding on facilitating a meeting was the correct way though.

"I was too focused on the methods and lost sight of the objective." Harvey admitted.

At least he was focused on something. I distinctly remember the row of jellybeans I had at one meeting, but nothing of its contents. I shook my head, "Harvey, sometimes I think you're too hard on yourself."

"I am?" Harvey didn't sound convince.

I nodded, feeling quite sure of it, "You're doing great. Perfect, really. You, Ki, Ben... You're all running forwards so quickly."

"It's because we want to keep up with you, Alpha." Harvey's wry smiled returned, "None of us want to be the beta that is lagging behind."

If they kept this up, I'll be the one lagging behind!

"As you've said, Alpha. The world is changing everyday. But I think you change the world too." Harvey said now, "The war is finally over. The warlock traps no longer pose a threat to our wolves. We are merging to become a stronger and more united packlands."

I shook my head, "Those things just kinda happened on their own."

I was just a dumb pup!

"Or at least it happened because of the combined efforts of a lot of wolves." I amended on second thoughts. But I was still quite sure it wasn't me.

Our car had not quite arrived at Winderhill, but the traffic had slowed considerably.

I tried to look out, but it didn't look any different from a normal day, at least not at first, but as we got closer to the school, the traffic got slower, and I started to notice a crowd of onlookers along the sidewalks. At least half of the faces there were blue. Looks like staining yourself blue as a deep sign of mourning wasn't just a Night Leaf tradition. Hahaha, okay, I'm joking.

I kinda knew the blue face was trending online, but seeing it in real life on total strangers waiting to cross the street was too funny. I laughed, "Look Harvey! Their faces are blue!"

Which was about the time I realized that Harvey's face was blue too. Hahahaha.

A little further up, there were traffic wardens posted along the roads to divert the traffic. Once again, only cars going directly to Winderhill High might pass through this road. The other cars were instructed to turn right and go around the estate. Wow, the regular morning traffic inconvenience I had caused since attending Winderhill must make the locals here hate me.

"What happened this time?" I asked Harvey.

But before my good beta could reply, I caught sight of them - throngs of blue faced bystanders along the sidewalks of the streets, carrying flowers and banners, waving with blue faces, and a couple of them with blue wigs.

"I believe they are expressing their well wishes." Harvey informed me.

Why? Because they felt bad that 8 of our warriors died at war? I mean, that was really nice of them, but shouldn't they be more upset about the hundreds of rogues on the other side that did die?

The more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Winderhill was a mixed community so there were humans and rogues here too.

It would've made more sense if they were holding a public protest or something. Not that I wanted them to, I was just saying what I felt would have been the expected result of our war.

I peered out and watched the waving crowd cautiously. They weren't even my wolves. Many weren't even wolves at all. I stared openly out at the blue faced humans. I don't get why they would bother at all. There were even little girls (Why didn't they have to go to school?). They were waving blue maned ponies at our car so I smiled and waved back.

Immediately, the girls and their mothers screamed and started flapping and pointing. It was so loud I could hear it from inside the car and I took a double take, you know, just to make sure I wasn't in ghost form.

And then the camera people rushed forward, and people screamed and waved and one guy further up the road grabbed his blue faced daughter and lifted her up and out over the plastic barrier, sticking her out onto the road - at least I hoped it was his daughter.

Luckily some red ants appeared and made him put the girl back down, not that she minded. I'm not sure why, but there were a lot of red ants. Why were Henry's warriors patrolling out here?

Anyway, the little girl wasn't thwarted by the killjoy red ants. She jumped up and down and waved wildly as my car passed by. She was so super excited, before I knew it, I was waving back.

More screaming. The girl now attempts to to run out between the plastic barrier gap. The same red ant caught her by the scruff and pulled her back into the crowd.

I quickly pulled away from the window and sat back in my seat. That was really dangerous. Maybe I shouldn't wave at anyone after all.

"That's quite a reception you're receiving, Alpha." Harvey noted with a wry smile.

Don't talk about it like everything was fine! Wth was happening?

I covertly scanned the area, the streets were lined with people on both sides. They all waved blue flags. Someone was selling blue and white balloons - now that was an idea. We should invite him over for my inauguration too.

Wait, no, what was I thinking? Wth was going on? Was there anything in my list of reports that would explain the sudden public outpouring of... of... I seriously didn't know what to call this. I didn't know what to make of this. I didn't know how to react. It was all too bizzare.

"Don't worry, Alpha." Harvey tried to reassure me when he noticed my sudden sullenness, "We're reaching our destination."

I checked just to make sure that the destination ahead of us was really school. I mean, with all that was going on, I didn't dare take anything for granted.

It almost felt like I was back in the Warlock Lands where nothing made common sense anymore.

I stole a glance at Harvey who was concentrating on the road. He didn't look like anything was out of the ordinary, but I could tell his wolf was properly alert.

As we approached Winderhill, I noticed piles of flowers, and cards, and were those ponies? They were lined up against the school walls and Bert's guardhouse by the gate.

Red Ants came to open the barrier to let our car through.

"What happened to our warriors?" I asked.

"They're inside." Harvey explained, "Earlier this morning, they were swamped with gifts by the locals. Thankfully, Alpha Henry sent men to help out."

Oh wow, so that was a blue demon warrior's weakness - these big bad barbarian wolves were now hiding inside the school from flower wielding civilians. Hahahaha.

Our car slowed to a halt in front of the gate. Maybe it was the first day on the job for Henry's red ant warriors, but unlike my warriors who had always moved the temporary barrier AND opened the gate at the same time, Henry's red ants seemed to be stuck with the gate. The ants who had moved the barrier went to help with the gate.

And that was when it happened. As our car came to a halt, Boo said one word, {Trap}