Blow off some steam

I look away awkwardly and turn around to leave and walk to my next class so I won't be late.

"See you later, Nelle," I give her a small smile and she returns another bright one to me and waves her hand elegantly in goodbye.

I wonder if it's hard work to be that poised all the time. I look down at my casual jeans and Aerosmith band t-shirt and think to myself that it probably would be for me, anyway.

My next class is another new one, Applied Aptitude, and is located on the west end of campus and probably the farthest point from me right now. I pick up my pace, jogging through the ethereal stone hallways and exit into the courtyard.

Almost to class, I hear my name called and turn around to see Teo waving her hand at me and motioning for me to let her catch up.

"Hey, girl," Teo says with a wide and genuine grin on her face. "It looks like I have this class with you too." She looks great in some skinny black jeans, sandals and a light blue tank top with white floral embroidery on it, bringing out both the light hues of blonde in her hair and the blue streaks she added to it. It also brings out her bright blue eyes behind her large glasses.

"You're in Applied Aptitude with me? That's the best news I've had all day," I say with a wink.

"That makes it sound like you've already been having a bad day and it's still the morning," Teo answers with an eyebrow raised in question.

"A bad day is putting it lightly," I snort and roll my eyes. "I had the misfortune of meeting Artur Ivanov, the newest Werehistory professor."

On her next step, she trips on the walkway and turns to me with wide eyes while grabbing my arm. "Did I just hear your right? Ar-Artur Ivanov is here?"

"Yes, unfortunately. He's a real tool, speciest and arrogant too."

She nods her head slightly and her eyebrows pinch in contemplation. "That sounds like him, but if he's here...did - did he say why he is here?"

"Uhm something about working with the Headmistress to get the academy back on the right path, bring us structure so the academy can be revered as one of the best again. Honestly, his speech was a little imperious and egotistical." I'm still unhappy from the one time I've had to listen to him,so I can't imagine how the rest of this year is going to go. I shake my head, not looking forward to the next class I have with him.

"Well," she says while she bites the nail on her thumb and glances away for a moment, looking at our surroundings. "He is on the council."

"Yeah, the Headmistress told me as much," I say with a nod of my head.

"The Headmistress?" Teo asks slowly. When I nod my head again, she waves her hand in the air. "Alright, alright - start at the beginning." She says.

I tell her about my eventful morning, leaving out the part about it starting with Ryker in my bed. Something tells me he wouldn't want me to share that with anyone, so I keep our deal to myself for now. We talk as we walk the rest of the way to the classroom and find a couple of chairs for us to sit in next to each other.

"It just doesn't make sense," she says with her finger tapping her lips that are turned into a frown. "He's talking about something that happened years ago, so why is he here now?"

"What happened years ago?" I ask her.

She glances around us again and lowers her voice. "I don't know all of the details, but my uncle on the council did tell us some of it. I'll tell you later, when we are in a less crowded spot. How does that sound?"

"Sure," I say with a shrug of my shoulders.

"How about we go out tonight and blow off some steam? It sounds like you could use it, and I know just the place." Teo says with excitement in her eyes.

"That...sounds great actually. I could use a night out." And a night with someone that's as easy to get along with as Teo is just what I need.

She gives me a wide smile and humor flashes in her eyes for a moment that puts me on the edge of my seat, as though she's planning something. I wonder what I'll be in for tonight.

In highschool, I did have some friends that I had fun with. But my parents were my best friends - they were everything to me, and hanging out with them was as much fun as I could have anywhere else. So I didn't go out as much as my friends usually did, but I did go to some parties with them here and there. I tend to be the responsible one of the group. I would drink a bit, don't get me wrong, but I also was always taking care of my friends and making sure they were safe. I just couldn't help it - it was my instinct to protect them or help them if they needed it.

If someone drank too much and couldn't drive home? I would take their keys and find a friend to give them a ride. If someone had trouble walking? I would give them a shoulder to lean on. If someone didn't feel good? I would be there to give them water and bread to sober up.

Sometimes I wonder if I was too busy acting like the mom of the group to really enjoy my teenage years, but my impulse to care for others didn't bother me so much at the time. It felt natural, so I didn't overthink it. I certainly didn't get any gratitude or thanks for my actions, another thing I wasn't bothered by at that time. I didn't mind if it helped people.

In fact, I did get in a fight with a girl once. She was clearly too drunk to drive home and was determined to do it anyway. I didn't know her very well, but it wasn't just her that I was worried about - I was concerned that she would get others hurt by driving irresponsibly. So I asked for her keys and didn't give up even when she laughed in my face and told me to get lost. I stood there with my hands out and waited until she listened. She yelled and screamed at me to get out of her way and to stop being a bitch, but I felt that I was right and stood my ground.

No one backed me up or told her to calm down, they were too busy partying or laughing at the scene in front of them. Finally, one of her friends came up to her and distracted her so she forgot all about me and went back to the party. Not too long after, she fell asleep at their house so I was able to let it go and not worry about uher putting others in harm's way.

I might have not handled it the best way, but I was smart enough to know that if you couldn't see straight and could barely walk on your own two feet, then you definitely shouldn't be getting behind the wheel of a car and driving anywhere. Even drunk, I wouldn't forget this fact. I couldn't.

Even with a mind addled by alcohol, I was still the protector.

So whatever Teo wants to do tonight, I want to let loose and enjoy the night for myself. I want to be selfish, and not worry about everyone else for once. And with that promise to myself, I get excited for the night ahead.

Teo's right, I do need to blow off some steam.

Between frequent visits by the Headmistress, being under constant watch and threat of expulsion, my fragile block on my anger and the battle inside me raging between my human and werewolf instincts - I am emotionally and physically spent.

I glance around the classroom, watching as the students pile into the room and take their seats. The room is set up differently than a standard classroom, it has more of a relaxed setting with roundtables to seat five or six students at a time. There's a bookshelf with various educational tomes situated on its worn out wooden shelves, and there are computers along the back wall for when the situation calls for it. There's a few grey leather couches along another wall, facing each other and creating a small, relaxed seating area. Oddly enough, though, there's no teacher's desk.

"This feels more like a lounge than a classroom…" I observe idly.

She nods her assent and her voice pulls my attention back to her. "That's because we don't always stay in the classroom, we move about as we need to. This course has work that is very independent and doesn't need much from the professor. It's more like a job training course, and we get out of it what we put into it, I suppose."

"Job training? What job would that be?"

Teo looks around the classroom as well, nods her head to a few other students that catch her eye and they give her friendly smiles in return. "It depends on what you choose."

"On what I choose?" I ask, eyebrows draw together both in confusion and contemplation.

She waves her hand dismissively. "The professor will go through it, but essentially this is an elective course where we set our own agenda - with the goal being that we gain the necessary work knowledge and expertise to be successful when we get out of the academy."

"Oh," I say with a long blink. "That's useful." I sigh at the ceiling and my gaze goes vacant for a few moments as I think about the future. My future, to be precise. Life when I get out of the academy...what will this life look like? What do I want it to look like?

My vision is unfocused, but I continue to gaze upwards and my line of sight is centered on the balls of light suspended just below the ceiling, providing enough light to this classroom for it to not feel suffocating even under hundreds of feet of rock. One of the balls of light moves as though it shuddered under my heavy gaze. I shake my head as my eyes play a trick on me since I have spent too long with my eyes unmoving and unblinking at the ceiling.

"Wherever we are going tonight, will it, by any chance, involve dancing and drinking?" I ask Teo and look back down at her to see her give me a wicked smile.

"Yes," she says simply. My answering smile is just as vicious.

"Good."