I THINK THE STRESS GOT TO HER

24 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, MORNING

"Harvey?" I asked again.

"Yes Alpha?" Harvey asked.

We were still in the car. Fluffy was standing in front of my door, his back against my window, blocking the world outside.

"Get Ben ready. If Dad isn't back with Savy by the time I come home from school, I'll be going in with Ben." I decided.

"Understood, Alpha." Harvey nodded.

"Also tell Stephan to finish up whatever is required to secure their safety and then put my army on lockdown." I added, "This includes my Luna. I don't care if they lock him up in his bunk. He is not to leave his tunnel until further notice." I continued.

Harvey paused here, "Then the fire..."

Clever beta.

And then he nodded, "Understood Alpha."

"To Night Forest, keep Lola in the team. Ki will accompany Bell at all times. You will accompany Lola and Delta Felicity's team of experts. Ben will accompany me. Mobilize Cobra to keep an eye on Dad." Because Dad was definitely up to something.

"We are keeping tabs on Alpha Kingsley, Alpha?" My good beta asked, just to be very sure he didn't hear me wrong the first time.

"Yes. My Dad is up to something." I said.

The last time Dad was shady like this, he had met Alpha Solomon in secret and beat him up. I wondered what my Dad was planning now, especially since he promised Alpha Gunter he would "borrow" mating bangles for Savy and River. Very sus Dad.

"On second thoughts, send Fluffy with Cobra." I decided, "They are not to reveal themselves unless Dad and Beta Lucas are in danger."

Because I was the alpha and I was going to protect everyone.

I don't care if s*** happened. It wasn't going to happen to my wolves. Not on my watch.

I knocked on the glass of my window. Fluffy turned around and opened the door for me.

I stepped out and paused, surveying my warriors, the students behind the barrier - I couldn't believe why anyone was still buying photos. Surely the good people at the LyNCh's Page Six department had noticed that all the photos taken at school were terribly boring by now.

I was the alpha. This was my life and there was no point crying over split milk.

I let Fluffy and EJ lead me into the school building.

I was the alpha. I could take this.

I tried to think what zen thing Dad would say at a time like this, but my mind drew a blank. I remembered what Dory said though, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

I've always been lucky, but from today onwards, I'm going to make my own luck.

Hahaha, I guess the human's general disregard for Fate was rubbing off on me.

I know life wasn't a which way book. I can't turn back the pages to save Mate's arm, or undo River's arrival with that stupid stone. BUT I'm still alive, and as long as I'm alive, I was the Alpha. I will protect everyone's happiness.

By the time I reached my classroom, a small smile was playing on my lips.

I think I had a good idea on dealing with my gentle and charming luna. At the thought of my moon and rose, my mood recovered suddenly. Heeheehee. He was going to be mad.

I'm not sure if I were really turning into Boo, or just running on Boo power, but I didn't care.

My mood was good enough for me to smile when the cool girls came into the classroom. And surprise, surprise, Boo was good with humans.

"I told you she wouldn't stay mad." Krystal boasted as she sat her usual place at my desk.

"You owe me snacks for the rest of the term." I told her.

"What?" Krystal stopped.

"Hahaha." Zara said, "Serves you right."

"I want to eat strawberry pokey tomorrow." I said. No mercy.

"Yeah, yeah. Fine." Krystal tossed her head.

And then they started discussing how they might help Leia get together with Marcus. As usual, they did this in human whispers so that Henry and Marcus could hear them perfectly from where they sat.

"Do you think it'll work?" Zara asked me after Krystal explained her rather elaborate plan.

I grinned, quite enjoying Marcus' embarrassed silence, "Who knows? It's not like he's complaining."

Mostly because he was desperately pretending not to hear the entire thing, but I was feeling boo-ish today. I wondered how far Marcus would play along should we actually execute the plan. I leaned over to whisper into Leia's ear, "You'd never know till you try."

"I don't know..." Leia shook her head, "I don't know how to ask a guy out."

"Yeah." Zara considered it, "It's kind of weird for a girl to ask."

Mrs Henderson dropped by at homeroom, but just to cheer us on (in our exams, not quest for boyfriends.)

"No need to move back to your seats yet. I just wanted to say congratulations! It's the last day of your exams. Take the rest of homeroom to prepare yourself." She told us, "Don't look so stressed. Just do your best!"

Actually, she seemed to be the most stressed one.

Abigail and Pearl came over to my desk sometime around homeroom "just to hang out."

"Arugghhh... suddenly there is a bad smell in the air." Zara declared.

Leia fanned her magazine at the two girls, "It's because some people like to wear sour perfume."

Abigail pursed her lips in annoyance, much to the amusement of Boo.

"If you're too cheap to appreciate Jean Claude, go back to your own seats! I came here to talk to Sam." Abigail snapped.

I gave her a wide smile and leaned back in my seat, mostly because her perfume was suffocating my wolf, "Yeah? What's up?"

Abigail smile widely back and handed me an envelope, "I'm having a party after the exams. Why don't you bring your boyfriend?"

"Hey, what about us?" Zara asked.

"What about you?" Abigail asked.

Zara's eyes widened. How could Abigail not invite the cool girls to her party?

Abigail shrugged and flounced away. Once upon a time, I had admired Abigail's easy shrug, but compared to Lady Amber's elegant movement, I'm not sure why I even tried to copy it.

"You're not going right?" Krystal asked me.

I tapped the card on my desk and considered my options, and then I called over to Henry, "Are you going, Henry?"

"What? Are you asking me out?" Henry smirked.

Hahaha. Did he have a death wish? I mean, he knew my luna, right?

Abigail's table suddenly went silent though. I was quite aware of the daggers in her eyes. Oh if looked could kill.

Maybe I was the one with the death wish.

I grinned, "I'll see you there then."

Then without lowering my voice at all, I told the cool girls, "That's how you ask a guy for a date."

Hahahaha... their faces! PRICELESS.

"What the hell, Sam." Henry made a half laugh sound.

"Wait," Marcus just needed to be sure, "You're joking right?"

I laughed out loud then, "You guys should have seen your faces."

"I think the exam stress has got to her." Zara shook her head.

"But seriously, do you guys have enough invites for us to go together?" I asked.

I mean, if Henry, Marcus, Liam, Fluffy and EJ all had invites, that would be six invites with plus ones right?

"Liam can take Jasmine, Marcus can take Leia..." I decided.

"Yeah, okay." Marcus said before I even finished.

Did that guy have no concept of paying hard to get?

Henry took pause - did Beta Marcus just agree without his consent? Yes, yes he did.

"Sam, I am inviting you and your boyfriend." Abigail interrupted.

I opened the envelope to check the card, "It says here and a plus one."

"I'm her plus one!" Zara chimed in immediately.

"And Henry's my date!" Abigail said.

"I never said I was going." Henry said.

"But... why?" Abigail whined.

"Please. Someone is a young alpha now okay. That's like a famous prince. Why would he go out with you when he can go out with supermodels?" Zara decided to fill Abigail in.

Hahahaha. I wondered which page six article gave her that impression.

"You girls aren't invited." Abigail insisted.

"Yeah, don't be shameless." One of her random posse scolded, "Can't you understand that you're not wanted?"

"Not everyone gets invited to Abigail's birthday party, okay?" Another random girl informed us.

"The party will be held at my dad's country club." Abigail said with another one of her shrugs, "So its going to that kind of party. Its not that I don't want to invite everyone, but I need to be discerning."

"Exactly." The first random girls agreed, "Don't waste it on girls who can't appreciate the finer things in life."

"Well, then this invite would probably be wasted on me." I decided and handed the opened invite back to Abigail.

Abigail's mouth dropped opened.

And the class generally got quiet.

And then Troy had to say too loudly, "Orhhh... Burn."

He didn't say it coolly at all. And it wasn't really a burn, it was an upfront rejection.

Abigail didn't take back the invite, she just spun around and returned to her seat without another word.

"I can't believe you did that." Zara gasped.

"OMG. Her face was a meme in itself." Leia said.

"Shut up!" Abigail lost it then - she forgot her popular friendly image she had worked so hard to build up, "Just shut up!"

Abigail stood up, her chair scrapping across the floor too loudly for my wolf ears, "Look, Sam, don't think you're all that just because you're a werewolf princess of whatever."

Wait, why me?

"I gave you an invite out of the goodness of my heart." Abigail's voice had taken a shrill note, "Since you invited me to your party the other time, but don't think of a second that I actually wanted you around."

"Ooops, she's lost it." Marcus commented under his breath.

Yeah. Maybe I went too far.

"I think the exam stress has got to her." Zara shook her head, but this time she was referring to Abigail.

The bell rang and Mr Lark came into the classroom to invigilate for the art exam. Maria slipped in and sat down without a word.

Abigail sat back down fuming. Mr Lark didn't seem to notice. He was busy setting up the projector and screening a photo of a bowl of fruit. Then he handed out drawing paper and question paper, "Alright girls. I hope you've all brought your art materials."

Ah... that's what I forgot. (Oh a life without Ki! T.T)

But maybe my luck returned too because we had a choice of art assignments and we only had to choose one. Option 1 required, "Graphite pencil on white cartridge drawing paper" which was exactly what I had on hand.