IN OTHER NEWS

When it became apparent that I couldn't quite separate myself from this Alpha Princess after all, I decided to switch gears.

Lucky's picture had very many likes and comments about how cute he was. Zara commented on every comment. I think she must have spent all night stanning, I mean, THANKING every comment (and dissing anyone who dared say anything less about her baby).

Her's was also the first comment, but I felt sure she wasn't stalking me or anything. I did promise her the post and Ki did tag her (You know, in case you thought my friend was a crazy stan, she wasn't that crazy.)

Zara's Sweet Hammies says:

My baby! You're so beautiful! (Full row of kiss emojis)

And I supposed Lucky did look nice, his white fur all puffy, his pink little paws and ears... In the picture he was still small enough to sit in his white clamshell hideout and hold a tiny treat with two paws.

Ki had kindly replied Zara.

Alpha Princess says:

(Heart emoji.) Lucky's growing so quickly!

Zara's Sweet Hammies says:

(Whole row of heart emojis.)

Besides comments on Lucky's cuteness, there was also comments about owning hamsters, remembering past hamsters, and what breed Lucky was.

Lucky was mutant breed.

But of course, Ki didn't reply that. He didn't reply most of them. He did say that Lucky was a gift from a classmate and probably a Syrian.

There was also an entire movement happening because I think someone realized that this is post was going to spike up hamster sales.

Someone had replied sternly to every comment that asked where I got the hamster that, "A hamster is a life, not a fashion trend."

As if I wore Lucky around.

Someone else made a long arguement that Alpha Princess fans should stick to build it yourself ponies. If you considered the cost of the hamster's enclosure, bedding, food, and medical fees... a toy pony collection would be cheaper.

I fully agreed. The ponies even came with their own boxes.

One picture of a hamster = 2,356 comments overnight.

Ben had tagged me with another photo of Lucky on his own channel. This one was set up like a meme. Lucky (still small), was posed among a few of Sabre's ponies. "One of these things are not like the others."

B. BenK says:

"Warning: Hamsters are not toys. They're damn troublesome too. $$$$"

If Ben hadn't bought Lucky a motorized car or fed him more warlock crystals, it might have been a little less troublesome and $$$.

Who knew Ben had the makings of THAT UNCLE WHO BOUGHT YOU EXPENSIVE GIFTS?

His meme got reposted multiple times by pet shops and animal shelters alike, one encouraging the purchase of a unique new friend and another discouraging impulse buys.

Ben's post, although a couple of hours after mine, drew in 2245 likes. Not that this was a competition, but I went back to check my post, only 234k likes. And then I realized my number had a "K" behind it.

Not that this was a competition, but I won.

By a landslide.

And then I had to just stop and stare at the number. I don't even know that many people. There was a "followers" number too. I had 11.6M... in which M was also a significant number of zeroes.

I definitely did not have this number of wolves, not even in the whole Green Packlands.

I couldn't even imagine the number of people this was. I think if the number hit hundreds, it would just be classified as "A LOT" and I'd stop counting.

Can I blame this on my parents for being so stingy with my allowance? I used to save all year and feel rich because I had $200 in my side drawer (because I stuffed my money there).

This year, my wallet was always a $20/$40 and I've not saved anything at all even though Ki made all my school lunches. I was also signing off amounts that ended with K and sometimes M.

No, I don't really feel I was qualified either.

I scrolled down to see all my posts. I was surprisingly active for someone who didn't use my phone all that much. Last night's photo with all my friends in white gowns was my latest post.

Alpha Princess says:

Thank you Graziano for dressing us!

Graz&Don says:

Like swans and angels. It was Graziano's honor, princess!

So were we swans or angels? Whatever we were, we looked gorgeous, all of us in a row, arms around each other and smiling from ear to ear.

Before that was Lucky, and before Lucky was all sort of other things I did in public, from a picture of Me looking Madam Silvia talking backstage during our full dress rehearsal, to Bell embracing me when he arrived at the scene of the bomb incident at Winderhill. #roguebomb #imok. #iloveyou.

Choked on my water. What the heck was with the last hashtag? What was Ki thinking?

The Alpha Princess in my social media was surprisingly coherent with the rest of the News, but I guess that would make sense. It wasn't really me afterall. Except for replying LuvMuunMuun's Yuunie, the rest of the stuff were really just Ki photos and Ki magic and Ki tea blend.

I decided to get more real and switched to my messaging app, where I actually knew who I was talking to.

In POPS FOREVER, there were lots of photos being shared from last night. Jasmine changed our group photo to the Swans and Angels one with the letters "BFF" stamped on it. She was conveniently forgetting all the guys in our chat group, but no one complained.

Flicking through the photos, some of them looked a lot like prom dance pictures. Especially when my friends stood with their dates. I realized this was the closest I'd ever get to highschool prom with my friends.

I didn't even say goodbye properly to them.

Henry had moved on though, "Equinox Concert at New Leaf Academy. Still on? @B.Marcus"

This was the last message. I checked the time stamp. 2.45am.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated and Marcus' reply popped up. It was like he checked his phone first thing in the morning and started work, "Please confirm your attendance. 20 March, Saturday, 8pm, Gate City Theatre, Green Packlands."

I looked out the window. Dawn was breaking. And then I realized my phone had a clock too - which made my checking the sky to estimate the time feel very silly.

Marcus continued, attaching the map coordinates for us, "It's a 10 minute walk from Gate Station."

"Anyone wanna meet earlier for dinner? 6PM- Meet up at Gate City Station, Station Control. Dinner nearby.

7.45PM - Meet at Gate City Theatre.

After Show - Meet Hen & Sam somewhere for supper and hang out."

"@Sam, @Ki, @Harv, any suggestions where we can go after the show? Somewhere inexpensive and near Gate City Station would be good."

"No one? #allbymyself" Marcus texted when no one replied.

Everyone else was probably still asleep after last night... Everybody except betas. Poor betas!

Harvey replied, "Confirm attendance for Alpha Princess. To meet after show. Might I recommend the coffee house on the first floor of the Langston? It's a short walk from the theatre and there's a shuttle bus back to Gate City Station from there. Please allow us to take the tab for supper."

"Sounds good. Thanks." Marcus replied immediately.

"Ki will be accompanying my alpha." Harvey added, "I'll join you after the show if I can."

"Noted." Marcus answered.

And then he added, "Looking forward to it."

Yeah. Me too. But for some reason, I didn't think to reply to any of the texts.

There were a lot of things I didn't reply to. Like the chat had a backlog of so many conversations I hadn't ever read. If anything needed my reply, Ben would answer everything with a smiley emoticon. Including the convo where Leia praised me.

According to Leia, by writing the date as 29 and 30 February as a class, we managed to completely skip 2 March - which was Pearl's birthday.

"Hahaha. Very good. Serves her right. She's such a traitor. (Clapping emojis)" Zara had replied.

In general, the cool girls felt like that was justice served. Even sweet Jasmine who confessed, "I know this is bad, but I'm glad you thought of it Sam."

I did not!

Ben had posted a smiley face on my behalf.

WTH!

I also had texts from Priya. Omo I completely forgot! I had archery practice after school on Friday! I didn't write it in my calendar so my betas had NO IDEA.

Ben had replied, "Sorry, Alpha Sam is currently at a meeting - Beta Ben."

Oh, NOW he wanted to reveal his identity!

But now that Priya realized she was talking to a big bad beta instead of her cute junior in school, the tables suddenly turned and instead of me apologizing for missing practice, Priya had apologized for texting. Later on, Bra texted saying that Priya freaked out when my beta answered my text. He was just a weak warrior passing a message himself, but Priya wanted me to know that "everything was okay". I didn't miss training after all. They had to cancel because Coach Emerson didn't show up.

Because Coach was currently at the same meeting too. He just didn't have a beta to answer his texts for him.

My luck was baffling sometimes.

There were a lot of other texts, but they weren't anything alarming. Mostly pack stuff. Jessica's birthday is coming. She wanted me to save the date. It's going to be her Sweet 16. 16! That sounded so grown up! Ben answered, "Ok. (Smiley face)." And that was that.

I got added into JESS SURPRISE PARTY. It looks like my gang was planning to surprise Jessica on her birthday.

Lizzy: But she already has a party! Didn't you guys get the invite?

Jonah: No?

Dean: Are you sure?

After Lizzy did a poll on everyone in the group, it looked like Jessica only invited girls to her Sweet 16 this year.

Lizzy: Sam, did you get a Save the Date thing from Jessica?

Savy: Let me check...Yes. Ki said yes.

Ben (at the same time): Yes. Its in her schedule.

Jonah: What? Even Sam?

Dean: If Sam got an invite, why not us?

Should I be insulted by this?

Shannon: It's not fair.

The guys felt very betrayed.

Dean: We were even going to throw her a surprise party.

Which didn't make any sense since Jessica had the biggest birthday party every year. What made them think she would want a surprise party?

Anyway, it was resolved that the girls would go for Jessica's official party and the guys would surprise Jessica by showing up.

Lizzy: I'm pretty sure that's just called gate crashing.

Tim: What us? Gate crash? Nah... we're just bringing the party.

Jonah: Oh, what should I bring?

Ben: Nothing. We ARE the party!

Lizzy: No. No boys allowed.

Tim: But what will you girls do without us?

Lizzy: Please respect the birthday girl's wishes.

And then that was it. I felt quite sure the boys were going to show up with a "surprise party". They probably just took their plans offline.

There was also stuff from the NLML GEN 1 & 2 Chatgroup, but it was mostly the adults discussing stuff about their kids because they forgot we were in the same group now. I skimmed through it quickly. The only significant thing to note was that Bell's Investiture required us to contribute security patrols and Dad wanted to get his son a really good gift but didn't know what to get. Ki suggested another watch or car, but Dad wanted to give something unique. Apparently, I've ordered a custom fountain pen for him from Roulette. It was a magic item that didn't require ink - it wrote on pure magic and ran on magic stones.

Honestly, I think ink refills would have been the more economic option, but the other adults felt that it was a meaningful and practical gift. Mostly, Mrs Beta, who said that some of the most magical lycan books were written and drawn with such pens. She didn't know it could be produced in the plains. Ki told her that Roulette had an old master who could craft unbelievable things.

Ben: His fees were also unbelievable.

Hahahaha.

But Dad approved it. In fact, Dad planned to one-up me.

Dad: Do you know if there is any property that might help support my son's plans after his investiture? Either in Gate City or Night Leaf is fine.

Oh, man. Bell was going to get some pretty big-ticket presents. But how were we going to afford them?