TODAY WAS A LITTLE CRAZY

17 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, BEFORE SCHOOL

Today, it was like... I'm not sure what it was like. It wasn't just the ride to school with Mate, which was weird.

It was such a weird feeling, the intense level of self consciousness, coupled with the swelling of happiness in my wolf, all because he was near. This had to be love. Either that, or it was indigestion.

I always thought love would be more like a "I can show you the world" kind of magic carpet ride thing, but we were in a car. Maybe if we let down the roof, it would feel more like a magic carpet, but I realized that would not happen today.

As we pulled up Winderhill, the traffic slowed. I saw the dark SUVs, news vans, and a random assortment or other cars clogging up the first lane, reminding me of my latest foray into the media. Might not have been the best decision of my life.

A drone flew down suddenly, almost into our windshield. It came down too close, and Jax shot it. Like with a gun, while on his bike. I imagined this was the way of Jude's wolves, but Jax was in our blue warrior uniform! Ki was going to have another PR crisis.

This made me miss having a beta around all over again. I remembered Harvey's steady calm that drove us in and out of the school yesterday. I cast Bell a side glance. His wolf was already tense from the whole idea of me dying at 18 thing. I worried about my driver going Chi-ka-boom. I worried about the press going into another frenzy when they see that I'm being driven by the Young Alpha James Lorent III. I worried about... Actually, I wasn't even sure what I was worried about. It was just paparazzi and cameras, not guns... So... I guess I was just being protective.

Protective of what? I looked at Bell, my moon and rose. Yeah. That's what.

Wow, this mating bond really messed with you. I took a deep breath and released it slowly. Just the mating bond.

If I ignored the nose-diving drone, the road this morning was calmer compared to yesterday. Today the cars and trucks just lined up along the roads, while men bundled in inconspicuous dark jackets, waited, their cameras set up with long noses on tripods. I noticed the new safety barrier that would indicate where the paparazzi would be presumably safe from wolf attacks.

The only scary thing was how everyone looked like they were settling into this, as if it would be the standard routine positions from now on. Why? There's nothing to see here! Go find more interesting things to photograph!

"It's okay, princess." Bell said quietly, "I'm here."

Did he think I was scared?

I crossed my arms, "I'm not scared."

{Cute.}

I flared, "I'm really not!"

Mate smirked.

Oh forget it! But I really wasn't scared, at least not until one of the cars suddenly shot out of its lane, mowing down a few barriers, before charging at us.

It was like the driver thought, "Looks like there's no news today, I need to make something happen!"

It happened really fast too. Not like in the movies where all the action happened scene by scene. No... Real life didn't build up each moment to reach the climax. It just all happened at the same time. Like crash boom bam!

Did I mention my Mate had good reflexes? Which he used to step on the accelerator, and Jax and EJ made the block - which was bad since they were on motorbike and the other car was a big fat SUV.

I felt quite sure one bike went down, but we shot off too quickly for me to see it.

We didn't slow, the SUV gave chase, but was quickly cut off by a dark blue pick up truck. The SUV rammed right into the truck. I could hear it, but we were through the second barrier and then the school gate which was securely shut behind us.

A second blue truck blocked the road into the school the moment we passed. Just in case. I heard sirens after that and our car pulled up at the school porch.

Okay, that was kind of crazy. I breathed a sigh of relief when Mate stopped the car.

"Alright, ready?" Mate asked.

Eh? Ready for what? It's just school, you know. But after what just happened, a normal day at school would be nice.

Mate put on a pair of shades and got out. Haha, why would he need that so early in the morning?

The moment he stepped out, I realized why. Suddenly a swell of students emerged with handphones flashing.

"Alpha Princess!" They shouted the moment Mate opened the door for me.

Our warriors were on duty and it looked like they were prepared for this. There were the same plastic barriers set out as outside. Jax, and Neil had to help remind everyone to stay on the other side of the barrier.

Fluffy waited on the side smiling. EJ was missing. I felt my teeth clench, now I knew a bike had definitely gone down just now.

"Alpha Princess! Look here!" Someone called.

"Please Princess!" Another one said.

Scream, "It's the Alpha Lorent!"

Grrrr...

Mate only smirked, I could tell that the shades were helping screen out the flashing lights. I guess young Lorent Alphas were used to things like this.

But my inner grouse was interrupted by Mate when he suddenly leaned in too close and reached over for the end of my ponytail, "Have a good day in school, princess."

And then he kissed my hair before letting it slip out between his fingers. Someone started screaming. My ears felt a small stab. The noises and smells and random flashing lights disoriented my wolf. Grrr...

Mate passed me to Fluffy, and I accidentally caught his mindlink command, "Guard."

Fluffy's smiling mask remained firmly in place, "With my life, Luna."

Which, might I point out, was over the top. But today had been a little crazy.

Fluffy led me to class. The noises quietened after we passed the throng of students at the porch. The rest of the school was quieter. The students there were more focused on their own early morning routines.

I can't describe the relief when we finally reached our empty classroom, well, almost empty, Elena was there. She looked up surprised when we had entered, then she noticed Fluffy, stared a moment, and then hurriedly looked back down at the magazine on her desk.

Whew. That was the second crazy. Not Elena, she was actually the safe normal right now. But the reception at the porch! Wth was all that about?

But at least it looked like the craziness was over. I was just about to settle down at my desk, maybe read a comic when I smelled rogue. Grrr...wth!

Fluffy smelled it too. He went ahead and pulled back my chair, retrieving an unmarked brown paperbag from under my desk. He opened it to check the content.

It was a navy blue hoodie - my hoodie! The one I had lent to Daisy.

How did it get here?

I looked around.

"A girl from the senior class came over with it." Elena explained, "She said you lent it to her cousin yesterday. It's been washed."

Yeah, but washing wouldn't remove the rogue stench.

A note fell out when Fluffy checked the pockets. I picked it up. It was a picture drawn in crayon. Like a stick figure of me I think. Well, all stick figures looked alike, but this one had a very long and blue hair. I was smiling and holding a yellow flower.

Awww... so cute.

But so stinky. Why did rogues stink so bad?

It wasn't a smell humans could register. It was a wolf thing. The stench of betrayal that was passed on for generations. Rogues were wolves who had betrayed their pack or who were children of traitors.

It sounded pretty bad, but in Daisy's case, it sounded like their betrayal was choosing a human soulmates over their pack's stupid no human rule.

It was still a betrayal, yes. Wolves should follow their pack's rules. But seriously? Not that I was telling you how to do your job, goddess, but I think the stink level should be proportionate to the crime committed, you know?

Fluffy had finished checking the piece of clothing and found nothing of mortal danger in it. Now he was on mindlink. I guess he was reporting.

It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, but I got the feeling that whoever Fluffy was reporting to would probably tell him to burn the stuff. Okay, not specifically burn it, but I was quite sure I would never see this hoodie again if I let it out of my sight.

I folded the drawing. I would have put it in my bag, but I didn't want to contaminate everything with the stench. So I put the paper into the hoodie pocket, and then I put on the hoodie.

Fluffly was shocked enough to forget to smile for a second, he even forgot to talk normally, "Pretty Alpha, the Big Brother Beta wanted me to dispose of that."

I shook my head, "It's mine. Tell Big Brother Beta I'm keeping it."

Fluffy smiled again, "Yes, Alpha."

I guess the shock wore off. He didn't say anything after that, it's like he went back to warrior mode and stood on guard behind me.

Was he going to do that all day? I didn't know.

Urgh... I smelled like rogue right now though. I regretted putting the hoodie on. What was I thinking?

I guess I would categorize this as the third crazy that happened this morning - even though it was largely self inflicted.

In my defense, I wanted to keep this hoodie (and the drawing in its pocket). I don't really know why, but I didn't want Fluffy to dispose of it. And honestly, it sounded pathetic even as I write this, but the only safe place was on my person.

There was no longer anywhere, not my bedroom, nor my school bag... There was no where my betas did not have access to. In fact till today, I had no idea if the single keycard in my backpack was the key to the new Alpha House or something else.

Maybe all this was my fault. I let my betas do everything for me. They answered my emails and texts, they scheduled my daily calendar, they controlled the FAO budget... Actually, nevermind the FAO budget, even the $20 in my wallet was monitored daily (to be replaced should I spend it).

The couple of times I tried to keep Mate's clothing item never panned out. Usually, I forgot all about it, and only realize much later in passing that my treasure was gone. Since it's too embaressing to ask, I just pretended nothing happened.

If you wanted to live with a beta, you needed to not ask sometimes.

The class started filling in. The kids did give me a second glance today, but then went back to their normal life. When the cool girls came, I realised my classmates' second take might be less about my new found fame than my outfit.

"Cool jacket, Zammi." Zara said, "Is it real?"

Urm... What? Could she tell it was passed her through a dream travel.

"Of course it would be." Krystal said huffily, "As if a princess would wear knock offs!"

It turned out that my dark blue hoodie was some kind of casual collection of some label. Which explained the really neat inner pockets with ribboned lining... even the inner part of my hood was a fuzzy different material from the outer part. My clothes nowadays tend to all have this little special touch of lux hidden in its folds, now I knew why. I blamed Ki's expensive taste for fancy labels.

But the cool girls were not too impressed. The jacket was rather plain in their opinion and looked like any other hoodie. According to Krystal, I should've gotten the monogrammed one, or the one in bright orange because that was even rarer.

But my friends were on a mission today. Krystal had no time to give me style tips, they didn't even have time to copy homework, "We need to take the photos now."

"There's a man standing outside the school gate offering $500 to buy photos and videos of you." Leia informed me.

"Yes, if we take enough pictures, we could all buy matching hoodies." Zara got all pumped.

"I don't wear hoodies." Krystal said, "I'm buying the most expensive bag I can get."

But it wasn't just for the money, my friends planned to sell photos of me with them inside, so that they can appear on the news too. They were rather excited by the prospect of being on the news. Leia suggested taking a video of themselves saying good morning, naturally of course. But it turned out really weird, like a row of girls lining up to come over and say something super unnatural like "Good morning, Zam...I mean Alpha Princess. Thank you for a beautiful weather today."

It was hard to keep a straight face.

Our fun was ended when the guys came in growling,

"What the hell!" Henry snarled, which could be any normal morning greeting except that he had his hand over his nose.

Oh... Hahaha. Did the rogue smell offend you, your royal alpha-ness?

Marcus grimaced, "Sam... You smell... Like rogue."

"I've decided to turn rogue." I grinned.

"Don't even joke like that, Sam!" Henry said, "You know what, I'm not even going to ask."

Marcus chuffed with amusement and told Fluffy, "Better be careful she doesn't get shot back home."

And then the guys laughed liked it was the funniest thing. Fluffy didn't laugh though. Come to think of it, smelling like rogue had consequences back home. I really hadn't thought this through.