IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL FOR ME

8 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, NOON

After that, my parents cordially invited Madam Principal and Mrs Henderson for lunch, but they politely declined.

Then Madam Principal had "something I think you should know."

(See, I told you she must have a reason for coming here.)

It turned out that Madam Principal was going to be replaced by the end of the Term. Well, Henry already told me, but this was news to my Dad.

Dad frowned, "That would be a loss to Winderhill."

And then he informed her that I will be transferring out to the Lorent's Girls Academy.

(I bet Mrs Henderson would be shocked at the number of "arranged marriages" among the girls there.)

"Yes, I think this would be best." Principal Laura agreed. And then she told us that Henry and Marcus' transfers had already been approved, "I'll send you the forms, if you don't mind Alpha. I would need them for Samantha to properly withdraw from Winderhill."

Mrs Henderson looked like she was hearing about our transfers for the first time, but she didn't get a chance to ask about it. Bert had come to over to fetch his Luna. Ki had his car driven back out to the porch for him.

My parents said bid our guests farewell, and we watched from the porch as their car drove out. This time, Dad provided two of our warrior wolves to see them to Gate City so that their car would not need to stop at checkpoint.

Principal Laura looked very relieved at that.

I doubt she needed to worry. I'm sure they wouldn't want to write another full and detailed report for Ki and Bell.

Dad excused himself to return to his office at the packhouse. He had a lot to do.

And then I realized again, "My stuff is still in school."

It was at the awkward time that if I went back to school right now, I would be able to attend the last lesson block before coming home, so part of me wished I had shut up.

Mum decided it was perfect though. Sabre was due home and Ki could drop her off at Sabre's kindergarten, then drop me off at school.

But Ki would be stranded out there for at least another one and a half hours before my dismissal time! I could just stay home. It's just Geography anyway. It's not like missing Mr Lark's textbook reading session would hurt my GPA.

And then Ki said he could meet up with an "old friend" at the Gold Packlands.

"Like a lady friend?" I asked cheekily.

But Chloe's mum and all the other ladies who said Ki was drool-worthy need not fear. It was a male friend and Ki would be meeting him to discuss some business on behalf of my Luna.

And thus, because it was "just nice" for Mum and Ki, I found myself in the backseat of a blue Merc, headed back to school again.

I actually got to school earlier than expected, half-way through English. Mr Devon demanded to know where I had been for half his lesson.

I was at home? With Mrs Henderson? And Madam Principal? Of course we stopped by a checkpoint bunker first because we had no visas... I could think of no plausible way to say where I was without opening a can of worms. Worse, I felt sure that if Mr Devon or anyone else knew about the "standard home visit", they would also assume it was because I got into some kind of very big trouble too.

"Sam was at the infirmary." Henry offered, "Her anemia."

"Oh, are you feeling better?" Mr Devon asked, in a show of rare concern. Today, I realized that my teachers were pretty caring people, even though their care was all misplaced.

I nodded.

I didn't do anything wrong, why did I have to lie? Okay, technically, Henry lied, but that didn't make me feel better about it. I had always been pretty proud of myself for being an honest person. I mean, I was the alpha. Wolves did not lie. That would be shameful. And Alphas did not lie. That would be cowardly.

But Mr Devon did look like he wanted to get on with his lesson. He brushed me off to my seat, and I didn't really want to keep standing in front of the class, so I went and sat.

"You had quite a party last weekend." Maria mindlinked me the moment I sat down.

"What? Did you spend all day smiling creepily to yourself and flipping through everyone's memories?" I shot back. I found my text book under my desk and opened it up to what I hope was the right page. Actually, I just flipped it to whatever page Maria's text book was at. It was usually right, but I didn't feel so confident about it since I doubt she was paying attention at class today.

"Just Abigail's and Pearl's." Maria told me.

Actually, I'd rather not know.

"I liked the white fur coat too." She informed me.

I did a quick check to make sure I had sealed my own mind properly. With Maria next to me, I didn't want to let slip.

"I had a nice party too. It was Her Majesty's birthday last week." Maria told me.

"I know. It was all over the news." I had hoped to shut her out then, but I think she realized that my patience was coming to an end, so she quickly told me, "But I know the inside story!"

"Lord Ciara was murdered by his son during the party. I heard the new Ciara Lord is very handsome, although I doubt he could be handsomer than my Dionysus."

Okay...

"They were fighting over a lover." I'm not sure how she managed, but Maria could do stage whisper in mindlink, "A fight dog named Fluffy."

Wait, Fluffy?

"And then while they were fighting, another fight dog who was Fluffy's secret lover stole a key card. And during the main celebration event, the two of them raised up a fightdog revolution. They stormed the guards by surprise and escaped."

Was that how it happened? Must have been exciting.

"Yes, it was. Very." Maria's dark cold flame leaped to show her agreement.

"I guess the New Ciara Lord got into trouble for that." I worded this very carefully, trying to sound as detached as possible.

"No, Lord Edward Ciara is now the toast of the town. All the unmated ladies are going crazy over him. He is the youngest and only unmated Coven Lord right now. Even the queen was please to bestow her favor on him.'

Wow. I had no idea that happened.

"Yes, well now you know." Maria smiled smugly.

"Don't read my mind." I kicked her out. She flipped her textbook two pages forward and went back staring ahead in her creepy way, happy.

I sighed and looked at my textbook. Mr Devon was not talking about anything on this page. I flipped two pages forward and found the grammar exercise he wanted us to do on the spot. I did it...

And then I remembered my second dream about my betas fighting over Fluffy. I blamed Maria's gossip news for triggering the memory.

Well, at least now I knew... foretelling dreams was not my gifting.

Which was good because I'd be damned if the guys ever dared to leave me with just a water pistol!

"Now then, for the exciting news." Mr Devon said in the last five minutes of class, "All of you put in good effort during your performance of excerpts from Romeo and Juliet last week, and I have spied quite a number of surprising young talents. Unfortunately the performance at the end of the term will only have limited roles. I shall now read the names of the lucky few who had been selected: Jasmine, Liam, Henry, Marcus, and Samantha."

The class clapped politely. Terrence cheered, "Yay! We don't have to perform!"

Mr Devon felt the poor guy was trying to mask his disappointment and said, "In my opinion, you're all stars. There will always be more opportunities for the stage so keep honing your acting craft."

But I felt Terrence's cheer was very sincere especially when Mr Devon told us that we had to stay back after school today to finalize the casting and that we should expect rehearsals every Wednesday.

Noooooo....

This was a stella opportunity for us and Mr Devon would definitely be sure to write us deserving testimonials.

Mr Lark came in, "Oh, Mr Devon. You're still here."

Mr Devon replied his obese colleague, "As you are, Mr Lark, but your stage presence exceeds mine. I shall take my leave."

Mr Lark chuckled patting his stomach proudly, "My Mount Fuji is truly second to none."

He stepped aside for Mr Devon to pass.

Sometimes I think my teachers were secretly interesting people. Other times, I felt quite sure they were just very weird, I mean eccentric.

Henry and Marcus tossed a note onto my desk when the textbook read aloud session began, "Do you have your phone with you? Check your texts."

I dug up the phone from my bag and flicked on the screen under my desk the way I often see Marcus do. I even pulled my textbook so it overlapped the edge of the table.

My school gang chat group was very active.

PEARL: Congrats! All of you made it as the cast.

JASMINE: Thanks. But I'm kinda nervous.

HENRY: I'm not staying back later. Tell Mr. D that I have tuition every afternoon and can't make it for rehearsals.

MARCUS: With whom? Peter? Lol.

HENRY: Whatever.

LIAM: Alpha, I think I won't be going either.

PEARL: Oh but Liam, you must go! Jasmine will probably be Juliet and if you don't, someone else will be Romeo.

LIAM: It's okay. Jas might like the new Romeo too.

I took a quick glance over at Jasmine. She was looking down so I couldn't see her face.

I guess Liam was more hurt than he let on.

My phone buzzed softly in my hands.

MARCUS: If neither of you guys are going, I'm sitting out too.

JASMINE: I'll sit out. I should be helping mom watch my siblings anyway. You guys should go.

HENRY: Hey, ALL of you need to go. Mr D isn't going to let me off if there aren't enough actors.

LIAM: Sorry, Alpha, but I can't.

HENRY: Alright fine, but if Liam and I don't show up, the rest of you have to. INCLU. SAM.

MARCUS: Especially Sam.

PEARL: Why? Does Beta Marcus hope for a kissing scene with Sam? (Wink emoji)

MARCUS: No!!! I'm just saying that she's the most likely to no show.

PEARL: TBH, the one who should be a no show is Jasmine. I think the female population would rather watch Liam on stage.

JASMINE: Yeah. You guys go ahead. I won't come.

This was ironic because I got the feeling that Jasmine was the only one who actually wanted to be picked.

Pearl texted me separately. (I hated it when she did that.)

PEARL: It's really too bad for Jasmine, but she had it coming, amirite?

I flared. Wth. 6 wolves in the entire 9th grade, and we can't even run together properly.

At this moment, I realized that the class was very quiet. Ivan was standing with his textbook, but he wasn't reading. He was looking at me. Mr Lark was also looking at me.

What? Never saw hair standing up to touch the ceiling before?

"Are...are you alright, girl?" Mr Lark was not one to remember names.

I took a deep breath and calmed down, "Yeah. Sorry. Bad hair day."

The reading continued. Some of the kids sniggered, but I ignored them. I was the alpha.

So why was this so complicated?

I could forced everyone to go for the rehearsals but Henry would definitely go with a bad attitude. Liam and Jasmine might just hurt each other more. And let's not forget that I didn't want to go in the first place.

But we could get into trouble if we all didn't show up too. Some of us more so than the others.

While Henry, Marcus and I would be out of Winderhill by the end of the term, Liam and Jasmine would have to face Mr D for the rest of the year.

Liam and Jasmine, who were no longer on talking terms. Pearl and Jasmine were on pretty bad terms too, but now Pearl was Abigail's new bff and hanging out with Jasmine's human friends.

Where would that leave Jasmine when Henry, Marcus, and I transferred out?

I started to worry for Jasmine.

What could I do for her before I leave?

I typed in the group chat

SAM: I think we should all go for the final casting today.

MARCUS: What?!?!? I can't understand how you think Sam.

HENRY: One good reason Sam.

SAM: YOLO?

And because I was quite sure Henry would not accept that, I quickly added

SAM: This is what highschool is all about right? We need to max out our limited time here. Let's just go for today. Maybe we could see what roles we get. I mean, maybe I'll get Romeo instead of Liam. Maybe it'll become a precious highschool memory one day. And if we decide not to take part, we can explain our reasons why we can't make it to Mr D personally and more of you could skip out and it won't look like our class didn't show.

I was just desperately rambling right now.

HENRY: There is no way they would make you Romeo.

MARCUS: If Sam gets Romeo, who's Juliet? Henry?

Which was EXACTLY what happened.