THE REST OF SCHOOL

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, MORNING

After homeroom, school sort of meandered into just another normal school day. This was mostly because Teacher Tabby decided to take the after exam window to educate us on Lycan culture because you know, as the Great Teacher once said, "Take every opportunity to teach, because you never know how long the door would be opened to you."

If you heard the quote without putting Alpha Gunter's face behind it, it sounded way more authoritative. I couldn't quite explain it. Maybe the saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt" was truer than I had thought because I was quite unable to take any quote from the Great Teacher in the same way ever again.

So we had lessons as usual. Today, Teacher Tabby wanted to do something practical and close to our hearts, so she decided to focus the lesson's discussion on wolf friendships. All of us, even the humans were bound to meet a wolf in the Gold Packlands. It'll be useful for our human friends to understand how wolf friendships worked.

And vice versa because wolves were just as likely to work with humans in the Gold Packlands.

"Meaning we become their bosses." Henry reiterated.

I think Henry was still cheesed at Ivan. Maybe our classmate's obvious delight in our transfer stung the Silver Mountain Prince too.

Not that there was any love lost between the human and young alpha, Ivan turned at his seat and pointed directly at Henry, "I'd rather die than work for you."

"You won't qualify. If you're successful, your boss might though." Henry smirked back.

Needless to say, Teacher Tabby's lesson didn't quite happen according to her lesson objectives.

That's the problem with Lycan-style teaching. Yes, let's just blame this squarely on the Great Teacher's stupid quote about teaching a student to ask the right questions. It's a terrible teaching pedagogy, because most of the time, your students were idiots.

Leaving idiots to ask the questions and lead the discussion was like leaving humans to de-evolve back into their monkey forms.

We often caused our Lycan group study teachers much frustration because of this undeserved power a single quote from the Great Teacher had placed into our hands.

That's why we had worksheets and notes to tell us all the things we didn't think to ask about.

At gym, Coach Williams wanted us to play dodgeball again, but just as Henry promised, our band was excused from gym to rehearse for the Last Hurrah. This seemed to just rub salt into Ivan's wounds and the boys seethed at us as we left them behind in the gym. I didn't like the feeling of leaving the rest of the class to "suffer" but Henry only smirked at his perceived bonus win.

Our rehearsal was in earnest though, and I discovered that the Last Hurrah got much better and much worse in the last 24 hours.

THE PARTS THAT GOT BETTER:

I got the hang of all the breathing points and even figured out how to handle the mic. Now I knew how to hook up the mic, adjust the height of the stand, and I decided to drag the stand around as I perform the way I saw on one of the live performance videos I remembered Ben used to play on repeat. The frontman looked cool doing that.

"If you're going to do that, you better dress the part." Henry pointed out. Then he decided he was wasting his breath on me and turned to my wolves, "You two better make sure Ki doesn't put her in a girly dress or anything classy like that."

Why? Celine Dion never dragged the mic stand or swung it at the audience like a weapon before?

Apparently, not.

Luckily, I was singing a genre that didn't expect me to be unladylike.

Henry had been practicing last night and his efforts were paying off. It wasn't just the loop pedal magic anymore. He managed to correct his hold on the bass and hit the frets cleanly now.

And Fluffy - I'm not sure how long Fluffy managed to practice after I left them in the dungeons last night, but Fluffy turned out to be amazing.

"I was a little rusty yesterday, so a little practice goes a long way." Fluffy explained.

"We had to practice in the dungeons ALL NIGHT!" EJ exclaimed.

"What?" Marcus coughed, "The dungeons?"

He gave me a side glance.

Henry chuffed, "Sam... You are crazy."

I flared at my wolves, "It wasn't me! I didn't send them there!"

"Hoi hoi... Of course not!" EJ quickly said.

"We spent the night there out of our own free will." Fluffy smiled, "Really!"

Naturally, they only made the misunderstanding worse, and now Henry and Marcus were looking at me like I threw my wolves in the dungeons like a queen of hearts yelling, "Off with his head!"

My wolves exchanged happy grins because they were clowns like that.

Janice was really quiet today. She played the same as before, staring fixedly at the score sheet from behind the keyboard, but that was okay. She was the only one playing everything right from the beginning anyway. The most consistent member award should go to her.

And EJ did good too. Actually, I had no idea. I didn't know enough about beatboxing to say. But he sounded cool and now when we sang the chorus together, we were really in sync (although this could just be because I was breathing at the right places now).

We could even clown around together a bit when we sang. Like he'd come over and try to use my mic even though he was still holding his own! I'm planning to roundhouse kick him if he tried it again.

So our performance was looking good. (Or so I imagined. Beta Peter wasn't around to film us.)

Even Henry and Marcus looked like they were on good terms again. Henry was particularly buoyant, but that could also just be because he realized there was a good chance his allowance was going to be doubled by the end of the week.

I wouldn't even have noticed anything amiss if EJ and Fluffy didn't pour tea over the mindlink on the way back to class after rehearsal.

EJ started with an "important announcement" - Henry and Marcus had a fight in the school car park before homeroom. Like a real fistfight with bared teeth and serious growling. EJ saw it with his own eyes while he was talking to a friendly senior behind the school.

{Just talking?} Fluffy asked, {What a strange place to have a conversation.}

{Shut up Fluffy!} EJ whined over the mindlink, {Don't mind it, pretty alpha! Fluffy is a pervert.}

This was when I realized that I had been included in this mindlink conversation on purpose and not just exercising my gift of insight.

{But you're not?} Fluffy smiled.

{Mou! Of course not!} EJ insisted, {I'm a refreshing and wholesome high school boy.}

I had never heard of any real high school boy referring to himself as those adjectives.

Anyway, the fact that Henry and Marcus were fighting wasn't the big deal.

{Young male wolves fight all the time.} Fluffy shrugged, {It comes with the territory.}

And whose territory was that?

{I guess...} EJ made a funny duck mouth as he considered that, {But it wasn't really the fight. It was what happened after that.}

{What could have happened?} Fluffy considered this, his smiling mask firmly in place.

{I really don't get it.} EJ put both hands behind his head because he wasn't helping to carry any equipment aside from the cables he wore around his torso. Fluffy was the one who had his hands full with the amp, our mics, and his violin case strapped to his back.

So Henry and Marcus had a bit of a scuffle at the car park, right? By the time they were done, there was a small crowd of students watching - including Janice. Liam showed up and managed to break up the fight. Henry was p***ed as hell about it and told Marcus they'd continue after school.

Marcus shot back that he'd be happy to.

And then he went over to Janice, "Come on, Jan. Let's go to class."

BUT Janice suddenly announced - in front of everyone watching, "I'm sorry Marcus! Let's break up. I'm going out with Ivan now."

O.o

Wait. What? How?

Which was exactly how Marcus took it.

{You should've seen his face. Poor Beta.} EJ told Fluffy, {I thought he was going to cry on the spot.}

But then Henry simply said, "I told you all girls were whores, Marc. Come on, let's go back to class."

Wait. What? WTH?

And then Marcus let go of Janice and followed Henry back to class.

And that was how Henry and Marcus made up.

{Ah, alls well that ends well then.} Fluffy smiled.

I had been walking in front of the two guys so I spun round and flared, "In what way was any of that well?"

Henry, Marcus, and Janice who were walking just a little ahead stopped to turn around. Mostly Henry did, so Marcus and Janice stopped and looked around too.

"Sam, I don't know what the hell you three are doing back there, but keep your damn wolf away before someone gets hurt!" Henry ordered.

I'll show you hurt! I flared back and growled. Henry growled back.

"Hey, hey." Marcus tried to break it up, "We're nearly there... Can we at least put down our stuff before another fight?"

Henry turned back and continued stalking forwards. The rest of us followed the irate young alpha to the assembly hall to put our stuff in the allocated space backstage. I don't know what that was about, but I was starting to understand Henry a little bit more. He could be a little bossy, but at the end of the day, he was loyal to the wolves who ran with him.

Still, I felt sorry for Janice. It's not that I understood anything - I thought she loved Marcus, so why was she dating Ivan? As in present tense right? So she was dating Marcus and Ivan at the same time?

But it explained why Henry was so mean to Ivan earlier. Henry wasn't hurt (like I was) when our human classmates gleefully likened our transfer out of Winderhill like Horneo and Bulliet. Why would it even bother his wolf? They were just humans. But Ivan stealing his beta's girl from right under his nose? Yeah, that was unforgivable.

Marcus liked Janice too. I felt sure of it. I mean, he didn't say so in words, but he stood up to Henry because of her. That was like... before Janice, I never thought Marcus would stand up against Henry over anything. Marcus wasn't like my betas. He was the kind of beta who would immediately lie on the ground should his Alpha need a doormat. Marcus was self-sacrificial that way.

We got back to our empty homeroom. I picked up my lunch bag. The other guys sorted their stuff. Janice collected her lunch bag and ran out like a pack of wolves was on her heels. No one gave chase.

"Pretty Alpha! Let's go!" EJ called from the door.

Fluffy smiled brightly, {Is Pretty Alpha worried about something? Want my help?}

I quickly shook my head, last I needed was more trouble, "Let's go. I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry." Henry said.

Marcus coughed and the guys laughed.

Now that Janice had left, it was just us wolves again. Life was easier without human complications.

"Life's easier without girls." Marcus said though.

I worried though. I wasn't an expert at human relationships, but I didn't think love could be so fickle even for humans... right?

"Girls are fine." Henry said, "You just can't take them too seriously. It's fine to play around but don't forget, at the end of the day, you're still the beta."

"Thanks, I'll remember that." Marcus nodded.

No! Don't remember stupid things like that!

"Don't be sad, beta." Fluffy smiled, "There are plenty of fish in the sea."

But how many fish would bake me cookies? O.o

"Hoi, hoi, stick with us Beta, and we'll intro you to lots of pretty girls!" EJ promised, "It'll be fun."

I was this close to punching someone.

Besides getting into fights, the guys seemed to feel playing around with girls was also "part of the territory" of a young male wolf's life.

Maybe I really should throw them all into the dungeons until they grew up. Or off with their... Hahaha.

Just joking... for now. But these guys... I hope they realize that they're fishing on thin ice.