THE HUMILIATION OF PLAYING THE TAMBOURINE

2 MARCH, TUESDAY, HISTORY

In all normal circumstances, shouldn't I be happy?

The cool girls certainly made it sound like I was in an enviable position.

"Somebody got lucky and was given a free pass out of history class." Krystal announced as I waited for the guys to pack up all their gear at the back of the class room.

"She's going to be their band manager." Jasmine tried to defend me, "That's a big responsibility."

"Oh pluh-ease!" Krystal scoffed, "She can't even manage her own text messages..."

Oh. Wait... How did she know?

Whatever. I really didn't see what the big deal was. Yes, the history teacher did give us hall passes - all the band members got one - even me, "their manager." This was sus because why would any teacher have so many hall passes in her hand?

BUT, after too politely giving Henry the hallpasses, she excused herself and gave the rest of our class a free "study period". So I'd say the rest of the class got the better deal.

So shady too. I knew Fluffy had said she was from his pack, but I was beginning to think Henry actually had more control over his wolves than I had otherwise assumed.

I highly doubt a highschool teacher, or any adult would submit so readily to any such requests from me. If I had asked for 6 hallpasses to hang out with my friends and jam during school hours, I'd have to wait till the cows came home and still wouldn't get it.

Come to think of it, I couldn't imagine a single adult wolf in my own pack who I might possibly boss around - except maybe Ki, but Ki was just super nice. I don't think he knew how to say no... Which was worrying. Wasn't saying 'no' a large part of being an adult?

Maybe Ki needed someone like Mum to teach him. Mum was very good at saying no. Specifically to me. Wait... Why should I teach Ki how to say no to ME? I actually quite like things the way they were right now. Maybe he should just learn to say no to other people - like Madam Silvia... Which was worrying (again).

I never thought I'd be worrying over anyone, much less a grown man, but yeah, here I was. Worrying. Was this how Mum felt about everything? Was it because Ki was the first fightdog I adopted? Mum always said the first one was the most worrying. I mean, look at Fluffy and EJ! Compared to Ki, shouldn't I be worrying more about them? They hadn't even graduated from highschool and it wasn't like they would ever since they were going to drop out after this term. omo... I had no idea there was so much to worry about when you became a mother!

"Sam!" Henry barked at me from his table, "Don't just sit there daydreaming! Come help."

I turned my head and narrowed my eyes at him.

"No, no, its okay." Marcus said, "Us guys can manage. You girls just stand there and watch."

Now, that was true sarcasm. Where was Coach Williams?

Janice quickly tried to take the large rectangular black bagged thing. It could possibly fit a human, but was right now holding the keyboard.

"Ah, no... I don't mean you. Sorry!" Marcus quickly rushed over to stop her.

"Ah, no... I mean, you're right. I should help." Janice said because Janice was a nice girl like that.

"This is heavy." Marcus said, "Here, maybe you can help with the cables... or..."

He looked around quickly presumably for something he felt a girl might be able to handle, "Ah, how about you help me carry my drumsticks?"

Seriously? Now that was just insulting!

But Janice didn't take offense at all, she blushed bright red, "Are... are you sure that's okay, Marcus?"

"Yeah. I guess." Marcus handed her the drumsticks. Janice received it with two hands like it was some kind of award ceremony.

"Thank... thank you. I'll take good care of them." She promised.

"Ah, yeah. Thank you too." Marcus said.

Which was like the weirdest conversation I heard today. Like even after overhearing seniors talking about the mythical "Pops" and the lunch time zoo visitors - so I knew weird - this was weird. I couldn't explain it, it was just something I felt under my skin, like if I had to specify exactly what was weird, I think it would be the way neither of them looked at each other properly when they talked, or the pauses, or the fact that Janice had turned bright red in the face and Marcus was clearing his throat more than usual.

"Spring is in the air." Fluffy smiled from somewhere beside me. I spun around surprised. EJ was there too. I'm not sure when they got behind me, or what Spring had to do with anything.

"Come on, pretty alpha manager!" EJ picked up my bag. Hey mine!

I stood up at wolf speed, my hair NOT flaring again today, (I think it was having an off day), but EJ escaped with my bag, his bag, an amplifier, and a bunch of cable which he wore around himself like a mountain climber who got tangled in his own ropes. Even with everything, he was really agile. It wasn't natural. Even discounting that I was "just a girl", how was it possible for his wolf to match my Alpha Wolf powers in agility and speed?

I resisted the urge to chase him down the school hallway. If we were back on Packlands, I would chase him down and sock him one for that. But we were in school, and there was a no running rule around here.

I tried to help with something, but Henry, Marcus, and Fluffy got all the other stuff together and headed out.

"Come on, Sam!" Henry was super bossy today - actually, he was super bossy to ME. What got his goat?

Fluffy had hurried to chase after EJ (so much for not leaving me unguarded for even a minute.)

I left Marcus and Janice behind because the two of them were just... I don't know. They were just weird today.

And also because I wanted to poke back at Mr Bossy Pants.

He was walking with quick determined steps, but I caught up. He walked faster. I walked faster. He walked even faster - by now we had caught up with Fluffy and EJ. They stood in front of the music studio waiting for us.

And then Henry stopped. I thought he was going to unlock the door or something but he only spun around at me, "WHAT?"

"What, what?" I asked. I wished I had something cleverer to say, but I was rather taken aback by Henry's sudden outburst.

Henry pinched the top of his nose bridge. He was that mad. I tilted my head and regarded the mini chikaboom. Wth?

"Whatever it is, it wasn't me." I decided to inform Henry.

He clicked his tongue in irritation, but he wasn't angry - at least not with me, just irritated. I very quickly, by pure intuition, figured that out. Henry was mad, but not at me. He was just irritated by me, because I happened to be around while he was mad.

"Why are you mad?" I decided to ask him. Not my best move. Note to self: if an alpha was angry, and already irritable, do not ask him why he was mad.

"I'm not mad!" Henry raised his voice.

"Yes you are!" I raised my voice back to match. Note to self: if an alpha was yelling that he wasn't mad. It won't be the right time to yell back that he was.

Henry growled. I growled. I really wasn't thinking.

Luckily, my bodyguards were around... Not that they did anything like how I'd imagine a professional bodyguard might handle the situation, but I wouldn't know since everything I knew about bodyguarding was from TV - and we've all seen how TV had been repeatedly proven wrong by my recent real life experiences.

"Hoi, hoi, scary alpha. Did you forget the keys?" EJ interupted us guilelessly, "The stuff's really heavy mouuuu!!!!"

Let us call this move, THE MATADOR! So let's say you're a bodyguard, and your alpha got into a face off with another alpha. The tension was so thick, you could cut the air with a knife. The other alpha was built like an ox, and mad as a bull. What should you do?

You bounce and whine complaints in a sing song voice, which was equivalent to waving a red cape so that the angry alpha would charge at you, thus protecting your own alpha from taking any damage.

It's a very unorthodox method. I would assume most bodyguards would like to stay alive and preferably able-bodied to report to work the next day, but I suppose EJ was the kind of bodyguard who acted before he planned.

I immediately flexed my hair - or at least I tried to. I had wanted to stop Henry from making any physical contact with either EJ or Fluffy. We only had these few days more to enjoy together, but my hair wouldn't wake up. It just stayed there, unmoving, uncaring... Omo did my hair die?

In the meantime, Fluffy had taken guard position in front of me (and not the metador), just in case the bull was to charge at me anyway.

"Hoi? Did I make scary alpha mad? Sorry! Sorry!" EJ saluted and grinned.

I wasn't sure if he were still baiting Henry, or if he was really just being a clueless idiot anymore.

I mean, I was so sure he was taunting Henry just a moment ago, but now it really looked like EJ was completely unaware of the situation. The fool!

Fluffy tensed, he was silent but still smiling.

My hair still wouldn't do anything no matter how much I wanted it to stop this madness.

And then it was like Henry caught himself. Clenching and unclenching his jaw, he released the fist he was holding.

"Chill, guys." He said, "I got it."

Then he took out the key and unlocked the door.

WTH?

"I thought you were going to fight?" I demanded. Not that I wanted a fight, but...

"Did you want us to fight?" Henry smirked.

"No! But..."

But my hair didn't even flare up yet. Why wouldn't it start up?

Henry raised a brow at me, "You obviously knew we weren't going to fight."

Eh? No. Quite the opposite.

"You were just standing there." Henry smirked, "That means your two guards here were just bluffing, right? Even if I lashed out at them, they'd just stand there and take it."

No they won't!

"We will?" EJ looked to Fluffy to check.

"We'd never know, would we now, Scary Alpha?" Fluffy sidestepped the question.

EJ screwed his face up, "You were going to let Scary Alpha beat me up?"

I shook my head, but I wasn't sure if EJ was accusing Fluffy or me.

"Anyway, stop messing around and set up." The bossy alpha ordered, "No point waiting for the lovebirds."

So my two wolves got to work. I just stood there since I had no idea how to set up.

At this point, Marcus and Janice appeared. Marcus, his arms full of bags and mic stands, holding the door for Janice, who needed two hands to hold his two drumsticks.

I told you they were acting weird.

"Ah, sorry." Marcus apologized.

"Idiot." Henry said under his breath.

And that was when I realised who Henry was mad at.

But WHY?

How could anyone get mad at Mr Nice Guy Marcus?

I looked at Fluffy and EJ - was it something that happened in the band? Did they know about it?

Fluffy smiled at me and tapped on his temple. Eh? What? Oh! Mindlink?

Henry narrowed his eyes at us. He obviously thought we were mindlinking something about him, so I opened my mindlink.

I mean, since he was already blaming me for it, I might as well.

{It's a love triangle.} Fluffy explained, {They both liked Janice, but she chose the beta.}

{Henry's got tons of girlfriends.} I said, {Why would he care?}

{Hoi, hoi! How embarrassing, he lost to a beta from a poor pack!} EJ commented a la the lady hosting the LNC afternoon tea segment. Yes, they had such a thing on the LNC to discuss heart felt issues, beauty and fashion, as well as special

guest interviews and demonstrations. I personally learned to roll my clothes like a sleeping bag to pack more things in my luggagefrom one of these demonstrations... Not that I've ever packed luggage, but it was useful for duffle bags too. I've become quite the expert at packing my own camp bag.

It used to be a really big thing. All the ladies in my pack watched it and discussed it. I remembered how Mum used to watch it in the afternoons when I was supposed to be napping. And later on when I was supposed to be doing my homework.

And then the lady retired and they got this younger lady, but it just stopped... I mean, I think it's still showing on LNC, but they moved it to 2pm and they shortened it to 30 minutes.

And nobody talked about it anymore.

{Who knew there were girls who'd choose a nice beta over a rich and hot alpha?} Fluffy mused. These two should host their own afternoon tea show. They would revive it for sure.

I huffed at their nonsense. I had meant to drop out of the mindlink conversation because I recognized stupid when I heard it.

And then Fluffy added, quite cunningly too, "Not that you'd understand, pretty alpha. After all, you did choose Rebel."

Hey!

{I'd choose the nice beta too!} Not that I had a choice. Oh, but now I was sucked into the stupid conversation.

{Ohhhhh!} EJ gasped, {You mean you'd choose Ki over Rebel?}

{No!!!} Ki was OLD! Plus he was my beta. Beta were family.... And NO!!!

{See. You'd choose Rebel.} Fluffy smiled. He was doing this on purpose.

Grrr....

Okay, I don't know why I let these two get in my head. Especially since I knew their favourite pastime was goading Alphas. I think they were living on a tightrope between life and death as fightdogs, and now that they were safe and bored, they liked to challenge the boundaries and live life on the edge.

What better way than test your limits than to see who could cause their alpha to chikaboom first - and then who could survive it.

Fortunately for them, my hair was out of action today. I couldnt for the life of me figure out what's wrong with it. I hadn't changed my shampoo...no, that was dumb. My hair... Did I accidentally invest wolfbane? No, my wolf and all my senses were working fine. Wth was wrong with me today?

{We're just kidding, pretty alpha.} EJ lied, {Rebel's a really nice guy.}

And then they both laughed, aloud.

"I told you to stop messing around!" Henry scolded, "Sam, if you're just gonna stand there distracting the guys, you might as well do it on the stage."

And that was how I ended up with the tambourine.

Noooo....

Halfway though the first set, Marcus had to stop, "Sam, can you uh... not play it so much?"

But by now, I was in a bad mood too. The song was a mess. Their tempo were out of sync. And Henry wasn't very good tbh. He kept playing the wrong notes on the base. And they were missing a guitarist.

I've never been in a band, but a lot of my gang back home were, so I knew what a good band sounded like and this wasn't it.

Plus the tambourine just didn't fit with the rest of the song. I mean this was the type of music Savy played in her room too loud and Harvey played in his truck. It didn't need a tambourine.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just stand here. For ornamental reasons and play the tambourine so quietly, it won't even be heard." I let Boo out, so I said this in the sweetest possible way.

Well, at least Boo was still working.

"Oh, f***. Sam reign your wolf in." Henry ordered.

I wanted to throw the tambourine in his face, but I didn't. Because I was self controlled like that.