Chương 26: LIAM'S FIRST SHIFT

When I got to class, Elena was alone in her seat as usual. I sat down at my own without paying her any mind. I was going to study my notes for Lycan Study Group with my home pack. Last week we were told there was going to be a quiz. I had clean forgotten about it with everything that's going on. But the moment I took out my notebook, the three cool girls strutted in. They were early today. They strutted past their desks (why did they walk like that?) and stopped in front of mine (why were they walking here?), "You're early," I said.

"Homework," Krystal demanded as she turned Liam's chair around and sat down. Zara sat next to me in Jasmine's chair, and Leia walked around to sit down at Troy's. I put away my Lycan notes and slapped the homework on top of my desk, "You girls can take it to your own desks to copy." There was too much perfume going on.

"Oh!" Zara remembered as she unzipped her backpack. She pulled out some clothes, "Here Krystal, thanks for lending them to me." Krystal took them, "No problem. Tomorrow night, let's go again. Remember to borrow your cousin's ID."

"Where are you going? (That required those skimpy clothes and a borrowed ID)," I asked.

"Clubbing," Zara told me.

"Don't tell her," Krystal scolded.

"She's way too young to go."

"Aren't we all too young?" I protested, at the back of my mind I was thinking that I must have misunderstood.

"It's fine," Krystal defended, "She can use her cousin's ID and I have my sister's." She opened her wallet and flashed it at me. I frowned, "Those places are dangerous." But admittedly, I only knew because that was what I was told.

"It's alright," Zara reassured me, "We went on Wednesday and everyone was friendly." Vampires can be very friendly at clubs. I never understood why anyone would tell a pup this until today. At this point, Henry and Marcus entered. Henry was fuming and Marcus sauntering behind him with a wry smile, so I knew he wasn't the reason for the Young Alpha's bad mood. Henry clomped down loudly at his desk with a short grunt-growl. This was enough to make Zara startle.

She whipped her head around to Henry and then turned wide-eyed to the rest of us for help. Leia ignored her, and Krystal rolled her eyes.

"I still think clubbing is a bad idea," I told her, deciding to give Henry space to calm down by totally ignoring him. (It works for him, trust me.) She nodded a bit, "Maybe I won't go." Krystal huffed in annoyance, "It's fine! I go with my sister all the time." Liam and Jasmine came in, they were followed closely by some sweaty, rumpled-looking boys. The boys looked like they had fun, the grass stained ball Troy was tossing up and down confirmed they had an early morning game, "You should have joined us Liam!

We would have been undefeatable!" After entering the classroom, the boys filtered out to their own desks, their stench fanning out in a way that made me want to cover my nose, but I didn't. Don't worry. I was better brought up than that. Also, I was distracted because by now, Liam and Jasmine had reached their desks in front of mine and were just standing there. Oh right, the cool girls were still here. The stinky human boys had noticed too.

I knew because they stopped moving about and were now just hovering at their places, watching to see what would happen. Then Liam's eyes crinkled with a practiced smile. Jasmine peeped out from just behind him. Krystal stood up and smiled, "Opps! Sorry, Liam." I heard chairs scraping as Zara and Leia stood up too. Liam nodded at me, then he widened on his lopsided smile and flipped his hair at Krystal and shrugged, "Is okay."

It would have been a sigh-worthy moment if you were the type of girl who watched too many teen dramas. Krystal beamed hugely at that, then the cool girls retreated to their desks with my homework like the cool girls they were. Jasmine sat down, "You're lending them your homework?" Liam turned and leaned over but he didn't touch my desk. I guess since it wasn't my desk, he wasn't trespassing, so I let him be. I noticed his hair looked lighter in the light today. I stared at it. Fluffier?

I don't know how to describe it. Troy said too loudly from next to Liam, "Man! That Krystal is hot!" Troy said everything too loudly. But he got Liam's attention. Liam chuckled lowly, "Ask her out then." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"That's it!" Jasmine decided, but she wasn't paying attention to the guys in front of us, she grabbed me by my sleeve, "You're eating lunch with me today!" There was a momentary silence. Jasmine wasn't loud like Troy, but for some reason, it was like everyone in a one-desk radius heard and stopped to gawk. Jasmine let go of my sleeve.

"Yeah, ok," I agreed because I wanted to erase the flicker on uncertainty on her face.

"You're sitting with us?" Marcus asked incredulously from behind me. (I told you they were gawking)"No." Jasmine turned and leaned over with new confidence to tell him, "We are eating with the other girls." And then to me she said, "You will like them more than the cool girls." Zara was sent over to return my homework. She looked hesitant as she approached us, "Thanks, Zammi." I heard Henry cough a short laugh behind me at my new nickname.

"My name is Sam," I told Zara. Zara looked at me as if she wanted to convince me otherwise, but the guys chortling behind me made her turn red.

"Sorry," she mumbled and retreated back to her desk. I guess it wasn't just Liam who was sigh-worthy. And when I say, sigh-worthy, I meant stupid. Henry and Marcus were laughing at me, but how would she have known that? I turned around and slammed Marcus' desk hard. Marcus grabbed it to stop it from rattling, his amusement not quite leaving his face. Wth. Wolf boys were so stupid. Henry was still chuckling.

It was a quiet growly chuckle, but I was sure he only continued laughing because he knew he was the Alpha and could get away with it. It wasn't even that funny. I glared at him, but only very quickly. I wanted him to know I was annoyed, but not start a power struggle. Once I was sure my irate was conveyed properly, I turned back to face front. Liam was still hanging around. Jasmine was flipping through the homework Zara had returned, "Oh no! Math!" She pulled out her own paper and started to copy.

I passed the rest of my homework back to Marcus so he could hand it in for me for the rest of the day.

"What's this?" Marcus asked.

"Your punishment," I answered. Henry was laughing again. Marcus gave a deep long-suffering sigh but accepted it. I heard him shuffling the papers under his desk so I turned to check. He was sorting them in piles along with Henry and his own work I nodded in satisfaction and turned back to the front. Such was #betalife. Liam was still there. I don't think he had moved. Jasmine was also here, but Jasmine had a purpose. She had to finish copying homework. I looked back at Liam and wondered why he was still facing us.

This was when I noticed he looked different again. It was his hair. I'm sure of it now. It was just a little more coppery. Did he dye his hair? But could dyeing your hair change you so much? Make your shoulders look broader? I looked hard, trying to pinpoint what it was exactly. I studied him carefully. What was it? The bell rang and he turned to face front again. And then I realised, "Liam! You've shifted!" Troy answered back over the sound of the bell, "You want him to sit there and stare at you all day?"

I was not someone who would roll my eyes, but Troy, a mere human, had single-handedly helped me understand why some people did it. Jasmine covered her mouth and gasped, "Oh my goddess, I didn't tell you?" I looked and saw she had one more question to go, "Finish up and tell me later." Jasmine nodded and went back to copying with new determination. I noticed her writing was really neat, and she had purposely gotten some of it wrong. Mrs Henderson entered just as Jasmine finished.

"Good morning, class! I know there isn't math today, but please hand in your homework to the front now while I set up for homeroom." Today was different again. Since when did a teacher have to set up for homeroom? Everyone passed their homework up to the front, and Liam picked it up from the front rows and put it on Mrs Henderson's table. Mrs Henderson was busy trying to plug in her laptop into the projector. It took quite a while, but she managed.

"Today, we will watch a video about stress and how to cope with it. I want all of you to pay close attention so you can discuss the questions at the end of it." The class groaned. One of the larger boys shouted from the seat next to me, "But that's so stressful, Mrs Hen!!!" The class laughed and I guess this would be as good as it gets. After the video, Mrs Henderson gave us printouts about stress and asked us to discuss the questions on it with our desk partner.

Jasmine wanted to fill me in about Liam's first shift, but I happened to see the line at the bottom of the printout that read, "Now share with the rest of your classmates your thoughts." So I told her to hang on a minute while I wrote in some generically acceptable answers. But let's skip that because what Jasmine had to say was more interesting: Liam shifted last night. She was on the phone with him when he suddenly hung up on her.

At first she thought he had gotten annoyed by her calling him every night, but he picked her up from her pack this morning to apologize and told her he hung up because he had felt a bad pain and didn't want to worry her. And that he had shifted. How did he shift? Did he know at once that the bad pain was a shifting pain? Did he get a chance to get outdoors before the shift happened? Or did it happen so fast, he ended up shifting in his room? Was his family there? Did he run with his wolf?

I wanted to know, but either Liam had not shared the details or Jasmine had more important things to say, like how angry she was when she found out.

"Can you imagine?" she huffed, "What if he was all alone? He could've at least let me know he was hurting! I could've helped or called for help! Why didn't he just tell me something hurt?"

"What? And cry on the phone in front of a girl?" I teased.

"But still!" she protested hotly.

"I would have done the same thing," I told her finally. Jasmine huffed, "You know, Sam, sometimes you make me feel I'm talking to a guy." Mrs Henderson called for our attention and told us we would now share our answers with the class, "Jasmine, what are some situations that make you feel stressed?" I pushed our printout to her, my finger on the first question.

"Oh," she said when she saw it, "Exams and tests." She read out, sounding rather relieved. Mrs Henderson nodded and said something to show how she understood that would be a stressful time for us. Then she went on, calling another kid. We were in the clear. There were some who didn't have any answers, and one or two very personal answers... On what we do to unwind when we are stressed, Zara had answered, "I sing to my hamsters." All the humans laughed at that. Maybe it was a human thing.

Zara turned red and looked down at her printout. What's wrong with singing to her hamsters? Not that I ever had hamsters before. I looked at my own answer, "listen to music." It was something the video had suggested. But if I had been honest, the answer would have been: I hide in my bed, or take a long shower, and, more recently, I punch and slam things in school and end up in fights with stupid goons at home.

Because as much as I believed this homeroom session was a waste of time, it did help me identify what was making me so easy to tick off since school started. I wasn't angry, or frustrated. I was stressed. But I will never admit it, because stress is for weaklings. I can take this. I can take a lot of things. I am the Alpha. And I'd sooner shut myself alone than let anyone see me cry. But you didn't just read this. If you did, stop imagining the words. This was what you should have read: I am the Alpha.

It'll take a lot more than this to make me stressed.