Chương 265: IF WE WERE IN A MANGA

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, HOMEROOM After that, the discussion at our table was carried out in hushed whispers. The humans had assumed that the" hot guys" at the next table could not hear us — and they would be right if the guys were human, but they were wolves, so of course the guys could hear. They pretended like they didn't, though. Sneaky guys. The main topic was the list of hottest guys in our school, which, for reasons beyond me, had included Henry, Marcus, and Liam. Maybe the girls had a thing for wolf types.

Among the senior-year students, Matthew, Julian, and Brandon were named as the hottest guys. According to Krystal, hot guys had to hang out in groups of at least three guys.

"Oh, you know the day Matthew, Julian, and Brandon came to talk at Henry's table?" Jasmine asked.

"The cheerleaders said that was all the hottest guys in one place."

"Which day?" Krystal asked. I think it was the day Principal Laura had commented about how nice it was to see the "best and brightest of Winderhill together."

"That day, after school," Jasmine said.

"Sam's beta, I mean boyfriend, was there too."

"Prince Charming?" Zara asked.

"When? Did you take a photo?" Who took photos of this kind of thing?

"No, but I think some of my seniors did." Jasmine took out her phone.

"I saw it in Sonia's feed."

"I have photos of Prince Charming and his band talking with Henry and Marcus," Zara said.

"Ooohhh..." Jasmine said.

"You mean after the concert?" They started flipping through their galleries and exchanging photos and admiring their screens. It felt a bit like how we used to do in elementary school, but with Pokémon cards.

"Do you want any of the photos, Zammi?" Zara offered generously.

"Ah, no... no thanks," I managed. I should take photos of all my guy friends and make them into Pokémon cards. I would KIV this for the next time I needed a fundraiser idea.

"That's because Sam is the girl that all the hot guys have their eyes on, right?" Krystal said knowingly. I didn't even know how to respond to that, so I pretended I didn't hear it. Anyway, the cast was set: Henry, Marcus, and Liam were the hot guys, Pearl was the leading female, and Krystal, Zara, Leia, Jasmine, and I were the girls with the angry eyes. Wow. That was a paradigm shift for me. I never saw myself as the background character before. I wondered how that worked.

I looked at Pearl, who threw me her usual wide smile. I had to admit, I did feel a bit jealous. I would have liked to be the good guy, but I offered her a tentative smile. We were just talking nonsense anyway. Pearl came over.

"What are you girls..." She couldn't finish her sentence because she tripped over Zara's foot and flew right smack into Henry's lap. There was a collective audible gasp, and then there was a momentary silence as we watched Pearl's and Henry's faces both redden. It was a pretty close call, but I would say Henry was redder. This was probably because while Pearl was embarrassed, Henry was both embarrassed and furious.

"Get off my lap!" he growled. Pearl, who had simply remained frozen in Henry's lap, took a split second to register Henry's command before jumping out of his lap. Henry was still angry after that. He muttered a few cuss words under his breath. Pearl ducked her head and ran out of the classroom.

"Sorry!" she said without looking back. The rest of us remained silent as Henry's Alpha anger continued to brew like a heavy storm cloud.

"Why are you so mad?" I asked after a moment.

"Why the hell do you think I'm mad?" Henry fumed.

"It was an accident," I pointed out.

"And I don't think she was heavy enough to hurt you." Henry growled at me. I shrugged and turned away. Whatever. It wasn't any of my business anyway. Zara and Krystal looked rather pleased. I saw them give each other a low five.

"Nobody steals my friend's Prince Charming," Zara boasted. Jasmine looked worried.

"I don't really want to be a bad guy."

"So it's okay to let her just come and steal Prince Charming from Zammi?" Zara asked. Jasmine looked at me and reconsidered.

"I guess not. Well, I didn't really like Pearl anyway..." Whoa, wait up! This wasn't right. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. I shook my head.

"No, no. This isn't right."

"You don't have to dirty your hands. Just leave it to us," Krystal promised.

"No, no, no!" I said.

"I don't want that."

"What? You've already planned something else?" Zara asked.

"Fine. We'd leave it to you," Krystal said.

"What are you going to do to Pearl?" Jasmine asked. Wait, no. I wasn't going to do anything! I opened my mouth to protest, but Mrs. Henderson entered the classroom in a hurry.

"Sorry I'm late, class!" Liam got up to help her with her things. It looked like she had another interesting homeroom lesson planned for us. I sat down, and the cool girls returned to their seats. When Mrs. Henderson took attendance, only Pearl and Maria were missing.

"Maria has been excused from school for the rest of the week," Mrs. Henderson said.

"But does anyone know what happened to Pearl?" The class kept silent, but Krystal, Zara, and Leia turned around to look at me. Mrs. Henderson caught on.

"Sam, do you know what happened to Pearl?" What? Seriously? It was my fault?

"She was here just now," I said.

"Maybe she went to the washroom."

"Girls are so scary," Troy commented too loudly. Mrs. Henderson frowned a little.

"Can one of you girls go check on her?" At this moment, Pearl knocked on the door and entered. She flashed her usual broad grin, but her eyes were red-rimmed.

"Sorry, I'm late, Mrs. Henderson."

"What happened, Pearl?" Mrs. Henderson asked. She sounded very concerned. Pearl looked over in our direction in a fugitive way." N.. nothing, I tripped and fell, that' s all." But she said it in a way that obviously meant something happened.

"Liam, what happened just now?" Mrs. Henderson wasn't about to let it slide because she was a teacher who cared. Liam stood up.

"She tripped and fell." Mrs. Henderson looked extremely displeased.

"Did any of you help her?" There was silence, and then Leia raised her hand.

"Do you mean, like, help her up, or help her fall?" The class sniggered at that. Pearl spun around and ran back out of the class. I pressed my lips together in a frown. That wasn't nice! It wasn't helping the situation either. Mrs. Henderson was also extremely displeased.

"Class, I'm disappointed in you." The class kept silent.

"Liam, I'm going to ask you again, what happened just now?" Mrs. Henderson asked sternly. I worried for Liam. This really wasn't his fault.

"She tripped and fell," Liam maintained coolly.

"I'm not sure about the rest of it."

"All right, sit down." Mrs. Henderson looked over to us.

"What about you, Jasmine? Did you see what happened?"

"She tripped and fell," Jasmine quickly parroted.

"So you all keep telling me." Mrs. Henderson walked over to our aisle.

"What did she trip over?"

"My foot!" Zara raised her hand.

"Mrs. Hen, Pearl tripped and fell," Krystal said.

"No matter how many times you ask, that will be the answer you get because that was what happened." Even though I'm pretty sure Krystal was trying to strongly reassure Mrs. Henderson that nothing was afoot, it had the opposite effect. Pearl entered the classroom again. She made a slight bow at the door because I think she forgot she wasn't on Lycan territory.

"Pearl, are you all right?" Mrs. Henderson said.

"I'm all right, Mrs. Hen." Pearl said, drying her tears.

"I probably deserved it."

"Oh my, no, no, Pearl." Mrs. Henderson waved her hands in alarm.

"You must never think that! No one deserves to be bullied." Wait, was someone bullying Pearl?

"But I came to school with the upperclassmen guys that Sam usually goes home with," Pearl said tearfully.

"I didn't mean to, we just happened to meet at the station!" Eh, what? Was the manga prophetic? Pearl was the female lead who came into the school with cool upperclassmen? What the hell? And why was I cast as the bad guy? Was there such a story where the bad guy was innocent? Because I didn't know about her coming to school with upperclassmen this morning. I didn't even know I was one of the angry-eyed girls until just now.

Some of the girls started whispering loudly about how Pearl was seen coming into school with the student president and his friends.

"Yeah, she was trailing behind them like a lost puppy," one of the girls said.

"That shameless b**** was you?" Leia laughed.

"Typical."

"Leia!" Mrs. Henderson scolded.

"Please mind your language in my class." Leia never spoke much until today. I couldn't decide if she really didn't like Pearl or if she just really was waiting for a chance to release her inner b**** or something.

"Eh? Does that mean Sam is going home with the student president?" One of the girls asked too loudly.

"What? Sam is going out with the student president now?" Terrence slammed the table and stood up.

"No! It just means we take the same train home!" I slammed the table and stood up.

"You take the train home with the student president and his friends?" Abigail asked. Why? What's the big deal? But Pearl wasn't done yet.

"I know it was you! You must have said something to them last Friday."

"But..." I said.

"Save it, Sam! I thought things would be different in this school. I thought you were different! But you're the same as all the other popular rich girls—pretending to be kind to me, and then turning all the other girls against me." Pearl pointed her finger so vehemently, I was worried she would shift and die on the spot.

"Calm down, Pearl," I said.

"You're nothing more than a backstabbing b****!" Pearl screamed at me. I stood there stunned. Okay, wolfie, now what? Wolfie was lounging back, so I sat down again. I was going to be chill but firm.

"I didn't say anything to Matt or the other guys. I didn't even ride the train home with them last Friday. I went home early, remember?"

"She called the student president 'Matt.'" Someone whispered. I decided to ignore it. Let them say what they want. I DON'T CARE ANYMORE. Pearl looked at me through her tears, and then she said, "You act nice and pretend to be my friend, but behind my back you turn the other girls against me."

"Pearl, I..."

"Don't try to deny it!" Pearl pretty much screamed at me. My hair flared at that. Pearl shrank back. I wasn't an expert with the manga thing, but if this was a manga, I wondered what I should do?

"Pearl and Sam, please come with me to the teacher's room after this." Mrs. Henderson was firm. Wait, what? Jasmine raised her hand, Terrence stood up, Liam and Marcus leaned forward in their seats. Henry was the one who spoke.

"It was nothing to do with Sam." Oh whew, was Henry finally going to clear the misunderstanding? But that was all he said. Terrence sat down. Jasmine put down her hand. I looked at Pearl, who simply stood there looking stricken. She sounded like she had a hard time in her previous schools. It wasn't hard to put myself in her shoes, and then I wished very hard for a fairy-tale manga romance to happen for her.

In the single manga I read, the hero had unrealistically happened to appear just at the right moment to rescue the female lead from humiliation in front of everyone. Of course, this only made the angry eyes even angrier, but only because it proved to angry-eyed girls that she was real competition. If any girl proved to be real competition for Bell's affection, I would kill her on the spot. Simple as that.

But these were humans, so they would retreat while promising their return and warning the leading female to watch her back. But now, watching Pearl looking stricken and feeling like the rest of the class was against her, I felt bad. I was quite sure that we were not bullying her... It was just a terrible misunderstanding, but that was exactly the line one of the angry girls said, and of course nobody believed her. If only we were really in a manga story.

I wished very hard for the leading male to show up and save Pearl. Mrs. Henderson crossed her arms.

"Everyone stand up." The whole class stood up.

"I had meant to have a special homeroom with all of you, but now we will just stand here until we resolve whatever is going on here," Mrs. Henderson said. {Betas approaching} And then it happened: a knock on the door, and Matt stepped in. He came with Jules and Bra and that girl with the twinkling eyes. I looked at my upperclassmen. Which one of them was going to be the hero?