I'M GONNA MISS THIS CLASS

2 MARCH, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

The rest of homeroom went as Mrs Henderson wanted it to. We watched the video compilation of community projects Winderhill was involved in last year, filled in our questionnaires, "marked" our Sudoku worksheet according to the answer Mrs Henderson flashed on the projector, and were told to do silent reading for the rest of the lesson block. For some reason, Mrs Henderson didn't leave our class to mark papers like she usually did, then again, the term exam was over so I doubt she had anything left to mark (although she was welcome to the sudoku "after-exam activity sheets". WHY? Why did educators believed we needed something like this after our exams?).

We even received a fresh sudoku puzzle. Apparently, we'll be getting one every day for the rest of the week. Again, WHY? O.o

Fluffy did his really quickly. I guess if your wolf could do mental sums as if it were as natural as breathing, these things weren't much of a challenge. I copied Fluffy's worksheet, carefully writing the date as "30 February". TBH, I'm not sure how far this prank was going to go. If no one called us out on it, should our class write 31 February as the date tomorrow? I wondered when a teacher would notice the fraudulent dates? 35th February? Hahaha.

While we were minding our own business with silent reading and what not, Mrs Henderson walked around the class. I think she was bored now that there was nothing to teach or mark. She kept trying to chat with random students. Stuff like, "What are you reading? Is it a romance?"

Mrs Henderson personally liked to read biographies. She didn't like fiction. Not that anyone asked. So far, her conversations were kind of one sided.

"Sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction." She told the class cheerfully.

She continued walking about the class, stopping to chat about this or that. I'm not sure what she said to Arlene, but it ended with her asking the whole class for our opinion on whether we would like a head start to Term 2 by starting work tomorrow.

"That'll give us a three day start to the next term!" Mrs Henderson looked very pleased at her own idea, "I might even be able to borrow some lesson time from the other teachers. It could be like a Math Marathon!"

Naturally, this idea was greeted with groaning and gnashing of teeth. Okay, no one gnashed their teeth, it was just an expression, but the groans were real. The thought was just physically painful.

"All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy." Mrs Henderson decided after hearing the protest, "I guess it's okay to take a break now."

I cannot say how relieved I was to hear that.

Eventually, she meandered to my table, "So, how are you feeling, Samantha?"

Much better now that the Math Marathon was called off, but I didn't dare to even mention it for fear it sparked another idea in Mrs Henderson, so I just went with the polite safe answer, "I'm fine. Thank you."

"Yesterday morning gave everyone quite a scare." Mrs Henderson said conversationally, "It's good you're okay."

Oh. She was asking about yesterday.

"Yeah. Thanks." I said.

Awkward silence. I'm not sure what Mrs Henderson wanted to ask me, she looked incredibly concerned, but maybe in the way I didn't dare mention "Math Marathon", Mrs Henderson didn't dare to say "bombing incident." It was like she wanted to ask, but had censored every word she could possibly think of related to yesterday's incident. I had wanted to reassure her, but I didn't know what she knew or what she didn't know or what I could tell her to make a human feel better about it.

Now that I am writing this, I think maybe I should have said something like, "Everything's okay. The casualties are all expected to be discharged by the end of today, and the road outside would be repaired by tomorrow morning."

Because that was what Harvey told me in his update today. Maybe that would've made Mrs Henderson feel better, and gave us something to say so we didn't just freeze there in the awkward silence. But I didn't, because I didn't think of it then.

"Is that a tablet?" Mrs Henderson asked, breaking the awkward pause.

I looked at the surface pro in my hand, "I'm not sure. Maybe."

"It's a surface pro, Mrs Hen." Henry said because he was a know-it-all and my ignorance could not be tolerated, "It's a hybrid - there's a keyboard in the casing."

Oh right! There was! I flipped it around and after just a little bit of shuffling it managed to put it up the right way. Unlike Ben, I was very noob at demonstrating my own device. Seriously not tech salesman material.

"Oh..." Mrs Henderson looked very impressed nevertheless, "Does it work well? Like can you type documents or make slides on it?"

I had no idea. I shrugged, "Probably... I mostly use it for urm..."

It's not like Mrs Henderson would understand the amount of reports an alpha had to read right?

"I just use it to read." I said finally.

"Oh." Mrs Henderson said, "Is it like a kindle?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I pretty much use it like one." I decided to spare Mrs Henderson about the way it is automatically backed up with whatever notes I made now. Or that I could also check my email and calendar... Or anything else like that because I really didn't know how to explain it right anyway.

Mrs Henderson took a glance at my screen. I quickly checked it just in case it had sensitive information, but it was just another media analytics report. There had been quite a few recently.

She nodded, "No wonder your grades are so good. You're already studying notes way beyond highschool level. Are you planning on studying Mass Communications in College?"

Study what now? I had no idea.

"I'm just reading." I told her honestly.

Mrs Henderson nodded, "Class, see how Samantha uses the time after exams to self study. We should all learn from her example and not be complacent. This is a great time to pursue your interests and learn new skills and knowledge!"

I tried to disappear but it was physically impossible to turn invisible when not in my ghost form.

Luckily, my hard working-ness did not inspire Mrs Henderson to use this great time to help us learn Math.

She just launched into an exhortation to use our time wisely this week and during the term break. You know, the "time is precious" line of lecture that adults liked to give. I was nothing but relieved when she walked away from my table to pick on, I mean, chat with Henry and Marcus.

Because they were so close to my desk, I heard snatches of it - I think they were discussing stock options. Henry offered Mrs Henderson some tips.

"Thank you Henry." Mrs Henderson said, "That was interesting."

She didn't sound entirely convinced. I didn't know anything about stocks, but if Mrs Henderson had asked me for advice, I would have told her to take Henry's. I know I would... except I didn't own any stocks. I just had my $20 in my wallet - oh wait no, its now $40. I'm so rich!

Even after buying the train pass to go home yesterday, my wallet was once again magically holding $40. Admittedly it was less magical now that I knew how Ki refilled it.

When the bell finally rang, Mrs Henderson told us she felt we had a fruitful bonding session, "I'm very glad for this opportunity to get to know all of you better."

I wouldn't call this bonding, more like small talk. But I didn't have to heart to break it to Mrs Henderson so she left the classroom with a bounce in her steps. I wondered if my form teacher next term at the Lorent's Girls' School would be very different from Mrs Henderson. Even though Mrs Hen was just a human who was somewhat clueless at times, she was well-meaning, and surprisingly interesting (if you take away the Math part).

TBH, I didn't really want to think about next term in a new school. A fancy private school without humans, boys, or vampires... I couldn't imagine what it would be like at all. Would the walls be white and gold? Would everyone talk fancy... like what if they regularly quoted lycan poetry and phrases in their daily conversation - in their original lycan text? o.o

What if my teacher was like Mrs Martinez? What if she hated my face?

What if there were a hundred printed etiquette and dress rules? What if there were a thousand unspoken rules that no one ever told me about (because you know, they were unspoken)?

What if...

"Sam. It's time for gym. Are you coming?" Jasmine popped by my table to ask, "Can you do gym? Do you need to rest... you know, after yesterday?"

I grabbed my gym bag and lunch bag quickly, "Yeah, I mean no."

Then I flashed Jasmine my usual wide smile, "I'm as strong as an ox! You don't have to worry."

This made Jasmine laugh, "An ox? Sam that's a weird thing to say."

I wonder if my future friends in my future school would laugh and continue being my friends even though they think I'm weird. I wonder if I'll even have future friends???

I wonder if its too late to change my mind and stay at Winderhill?

"Hello, earth to Zammi." Krystal sounded impatient. She clicked the gum she was chewing. If she got caught with gum during school hours, she'd be in trouble.

"It's Coach Williams class now." I told her, "He'll catch you chewing gum."

Because Coach Williams did stuff like that. He was part of the disciplinary committee in Winderhill, and believed that part of his duty was upholding the school rules by catching errant students and making them run laps.

"Yeah." Zara nodded, "I heard he made a big deal because he smelled lemon tea in someone's water bottle. The whole class had to open up their bottles for inspection and do squats until he checked all their bottles."

Yes, because Coach Williams did stuff like that.

"I am not doing squats!" Leia turned sharply to her cousin, "You spit that gum out right now."

"Relax." Krystal waved off our concern, "He won't find anything on me."

"But we'd ALL have to do squats." Leia said.

"Its doesn't have to be squats." Zara said, "The other week we had to do jumping jacks, remember?"

"It's all that stupid Troy's fault!" Oh, Leia remembered alright.

We got to the changing room and I got changed as the cool girls chatted about switching to gym shorts since the weather was getting warmer.

"We don't have to till next term." Jasmine said, "But the seniors in my cheerleading team have already switched. They say its really warm in the gym, and we are allowed to switch to shorts. There aren't any rules about seasonal changes for gym uniforms."

"Then I'm wearing long pants all year." Zara decided.

Apparently, Zara believed she had big thighs. She sighed and lowered her voice to tell us, "Don't tell anyone, but in Middle School some of the other girls used to call me Thunder Thighs."

Krystal snorted. Leia smirked.

"Won't you be hot if you wore long track pants later on in the year?" It just didn't seem practical to me. Plus, its not like anybody was calling Zara Thunder Thighs now.

"You don't understand, Zammi." Zara told me, "You have nice legs."

I looked down at my legs which were completely covered with track pants. My legs were very normal legs, nothing special.

"Urghhh... Nice legs, nice hair, nice skin..." Leia rolled her eyes, "If you weren't my friend, Zammi, I'd hate you."

Urm... thanks? Humans had such peculiar ways of expressing compliments sometimes.

"Don't worry, Zammi." Krystal promise, "You've got us now."

I didn't think Zammi should have to worry either. Her legs, although also completely covered with track pants, were perfectly normal legs too.

At any rate, when we got to the gym, we found that EJ was the only one in our class who was in shorts.

"EJ, your legs are so shapely and smooth!" One of Abigail's croonies loudly declared. The girls laughed.

"Oh, don't tease him!" Abigail begged, but her friends just laughed more.

"I was complimenting him." The first girl said, "They are so fair and hairless! I wish I had legs like that."

"Its so unfair!" Abigail complimented too, but with a sly smile, "EJ! Exchange legs with me!"

And then all the girls laughed. Some of the guys snickered.

"Sexy legs! Sexy legs!" Troy started chanting.

"Mou! Why am I the only one wearing shorts?" EJ exclaimed. (Although I hardly think that was the issue here.)