THE RED PRINCE RESURFACES

4 MARCH, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

"Alright, we better get started shall we? I'm sure you're all hungry." Mrs Henderson said. It was a lucky thing that Math was after Homeroom on Fridays.

"Let's see... how should we go about this?" Mrs Henderson considered the faces of her students seated in our class circle and then at the table at the front of the classroom, "How about ladies first?"

And all the human boys in the class went:

"WHAT?"

"NOOOOO!!!!"

"NOT FAIR!"

"It's always ladies first!"

It was like immediately one side of the circle erupted in dissension. Mrs Henderson's mouth turned down again. I don't think this party had been exactly smooth sailing for her.

"What do you think, Fluff?" Henry asked, his eyes on the guys who had taken to stomping a bit and whining a lot - well mostly just a handful of them. I can't believe Henry would ask anyone for advice.

Most of the other guys just watched justice being fought on their behalf by the handful of heroes who argued their case most petulantly, "Mrs Hen! It's unfair! We're boys! We need more food!"

"I would wait." Fluffy smiled.

"I thought so." Henry sat back, "Me too."

The wolf boys hung back, but not because they had true gentlemen spirits or anything like that. I'm sure they were siding with the guys, but maybe they were going to let the humans do the dirty work. Henry crossed his arms, "Let's wait a bit."

Now we all looked at EJ, but for some reason, EJ only said, "Oh."

He didn't protest. He didn't even pout or make any of his usual weird noises. Instead, he leaned back and stretched out, hands behind his head.

{Is something fun going to happen?} EJ asked the classroom ceiling over the mindlink, {Because I don't feel it, Fluff.}

{Hardly.} Fluffy answered still smiling at the scene unfolding before us.

It looked like Mrs Henderson's was considering the boys' complaints, "Alright boys, I hear you. Please sit down."

"You can't let them go first, Mrs Hen!" One of the tittering girls suddenly found her voice to properly voice out, "The guys will eat everything before we get there!"

"It's not like we can expect dumb boys to understand what it means to be a gentleman." One of the random girls huffed.

Ivan argued back, "All that gender equality talk and now you want ladies first!"

"Why are all the boys in our class so lame?" Another girl asked. Poor Ivan. Didn't he know? This kind of argument couldn't be won by smarts or logic.

"Not all of them..." The girls glanced over to the hot guys who were literally all posing in their seats to watch the fight from the sidelines.

"Girls are so superficial." Ivan grumbled.

"Yeah. Girls are stupid!" Troy yelled.

"SHUT UP, TROY!" The girls shouted in unison, and then they laughed, "Jinx."

"Hey! Ivan said so too!" Troy shouted back.

"Ivan's different. Ivan's smart." One of the girls told Troy, "We don't want to be called stupid by the likes of you."

Technically, Ivan said "superficial". Wait... So it was okay for Ivan to call them stupid? o.o

I looked at EJ, but he was still lounging in his seat, completely disinterested in the humans. There was something wrong with EJ. He was behaving too normally. I looked about but sensed nothing out of the ordinary around us. Weird. Did something happen to EJ? He was perfectly EJ just a moment ago... I tried to pinpoint the exact moment EJ stopped being EJ and started being normal.

"To be fair, how about we go by class index number?" Mrs Henderson asked, "That's by alphabetical order."

"Yes! Okay!" Terrence agreed.

"BOYS WIN!" Troy declared.

"No!" Ivan yelled (again), "The girls are index 1 to 20 you dumbassess!"

"Too bad! Terrence already said yes." One of the girls informed them.

"No! Don't listen to Terrence!" Troy yelled, "Terrence is dumb."

"Hey!" Terrence protested,"Take that back!"

"All boys are dumb." Krystal shrugged coolly.

"Yeah. Especially the ugly ones." Leia mirrored the shrug.

"Class! Class!" Mrs Henderson cried out above the bickering, "Quiet! Sit!"

It didn't work for her the way it had for Liam.

Mrs Henderson looked over. Liam stood up, "Quiet! Sit!"

And the humans got quiet and sat down.

"Come on guys," Henry spoke now, "The sooner we let the girls go first, the sooner we all get food."

"NO WAY!" Troy yelled and pointed, "TRAITOR!"

"Yeah! Traitor!" Terrence yelled too.

"You're not the boss of us, Henry!" Ivan declared.

Henry decided to ignore them, he turned to Marcus, "This is a waste of time."

Marcus just sighed heavily, "Oh well."

Zara sighed, "Why? Why are werewolf guys so good-looking and gentlemanly... why wasn't I born a werewolf?"

Fluffy tilted his head, his smiling mask firmly in place, {Sometimes you win by not fighting.}

EJ was still silently contemplating the ceiling, {Stop showing off, Fluff.}

Was it just me who worried to see EJ so thoughtful (or quiet and still).

{And I never like fighting losing battles anyway.} Fluffy continued happily.

{Yeah?} EJ shrugged at the ceiling.

Fluffy stopped smiling, {EJ?}

{Hn. What?} But the redhead didn't look over. I looked up at the ceiling to check if there was something interesting on it.

{Your wolf...} Fluffy sounded concerned, {...feels too near the surface.}

{I guess.} EJ answered completely unenthusiastically, {The ceiling is old. If it collapses now, would everything turn to blood?}

Eh? Eh? WTH? My attention snapped over to EJ at once, "EJ!"

I didn't know why I called him. I just panicked momentarily that I would lose him.

EJ moved then, it wasn't the way EJ usually moved. It wasn't bouncy and energetic, he wasn't making puppy eyes, or pouting or whining or smiling...

He turned his attention from the ceiling to me.

EJ movements were graceful and measured and I could not recognize his hooded expression.

It was like calling out to your best friend at a train station, only for him to turn around and make you realize your mistake, "Oh, sorry. I thought you were someone else."

But this was definitely EJ, right? It's not that I could ask him that! I tried to act normal and asked instead, "What were you looking at?"

I even manage to smile all friendly-like.

If we were still in the train station scenario, it would be like realizing the guy you called out to was a total stranger and then acting like you didn't notice and starting a conversation like he really was your best friend anyway.

"It's nothing, Alpha. I'm just bored." EJ answered. It was in EJ's voice, but QUIET and devoid of enthusiasm.

I wasn't "pretty alpha" anymore either, but no, that wasn't the issue. How should I explain it?

You know the stranger at the train station you mistook for your best friend and stubbornly started talking to? Now was the moment you realized you were probably talking to a serial killer or something.

I felt my blood run cold. EJ's wolf was freakin' scary.

{So fun.} This was Boo. Just typical, but I knew by now that this could only mean that EJ's wolf was dangerous.

Like back to the train station scenario, all you needed now was to pass by the station bulletin board and see his face on the WANTED poster to confirm it.

{Wind High Security Team Fluffy reporting Code Red.} Fluffy reported, {Red's come out to play, Beta.}

Which I suppose was the closest thing to a WANTED poster that it could get.

{What the hell are you talking about dog?} Ben responded first, {Say it properly.}

And of course Fluffy was incapable of doing so, {You've seen the Red Prince in a fight cage, Scary Beta. Well, the Red Prince is in our classroom right now.}