Chương 267: WRITING OUR OWN STORY

1 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, END OF HOMEROOM This wasn't a manga story. No unrealistically cool guy was going to just pop up out of thin air to save Pearl from her plight. Jasmine and Zara and even Krystal had all spoken up for me. I could also step up to speak for Pearl.

"It's all a misunderstanding. Pearl tripped and fell. No one was bullying her," I informed Mrs. Henderson. And then to Pearl I said, "I haven't done anything against you. I've always treated you as my friend. Ask anyone." And then to Jules and the seniors, "I'm not being bullied. It's just a misunderstanding." Jules walked over to the back of the class.

"Are you sure, Sam?" He was worrying unnecessarily again.

"She's fine," Henry assured him impatiently. I guess Henry thought so too. Jules raised a brow at Henry. I wondered what he thought of his "cute freshman junior" now. And then he shrugged, the way he always did whenever he had to let go of a train of thought.

"Yeah, okay. If you say so, Henry." I guess he wasn't going to argue with an Alpha, even if Henry was only a freshman. Jules smiled at me.

"Looks like you've made good friends in class." Yeah, I guess I did. But it's not like I needed to be told that by Jules. Terrence stood up.

"Are you dating Sam?" Jules straightened.

"Me?"

"Yes. You." Terrence growled. Was growling a human sound?

"No," Jules said, then he smiled and added, "Are you?" Terrence turned a bright shade of red. I punched Jules. I didn't aim; I just punched out in Jules' general direction.

"Ow." Jules grimaced, grabbing his shoulder.

"... but worth it." The bell rang before I could punch Jules again.

"Right, we have to get back for lessons," Matt said.

"Thank you for having us, Mrs. Henderson."

"Ah, thanks for coming. Class, let's thank our seniors." She clapped, and we all clapped along.

"Bye!" The seniors waved and made their move to leave.

"So that's Sam," Romana said after they stepped out of the classroom.

"I thought Sam would be a guy." The guys laughed. I heard Jules say, "She definitely punched like a guy!" Then Bra grabbed Jules at the door and whispered something. Jules popped back into the classroom." Oh yeah, Sam, meet us at the train station later. We have something to ask you — it' s important." And then they were gone. I frowned at the door even after they were gone. Mrs. Henderson collected the Math homework and left, but not before telling us she wanted us to do a write-up about bullying in school.

Leia tossed her head back to comment about it all being Pearl's fault. Nobody felt like pointing out to the cool girls that they shouldn't be bullying Pearl. Those two girls who sat in front of me turned over. They had never done that before. But that might also be because there wasn't a creepy dark flame of vampire named Maria sitting next to me today.

"Do you think he's going to ask you out?" The girl directly in front of me asked. And then Pearl spoke.

"You're so lucky. I bet guys are always asking you out." She threw me another one of those wide smiles of hers. I think she was trying to befriend me again? Actually, I wasn't entirely sure. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the way Pearl was speaking was making me feel uneasy.

"Do you go out with a lot of guys?" The other girl in front of me asked.

"The other day, she came to the project meeting with a guy too," Pearl said.

"That's my be... brother," I said lamely. Wait, Pearl knew Killion was my beta—so why was she making it sound like he was a boyfriend? Pearl laughed.

"Oh, Sam... you change boyfriends to match your outfits." Wait what? I saw a few mouths drop open at the same time. I really should punch Pearl in the face for that. Henry lifted a brow to me. I guess he wanted to know if I needed his help? But if I took it, who knew what would happen? At best, he would clear the misunderstanding, feel superior, and smirk condescendingly at me. At worst, he would just make things worse. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

No, I'm going to solve this myself. In the only way I knew how. I stood up and clenched my fist.

"Pearl, I'm only going to say this once. I'm not dating anyone and I will never date anyone. Do you know why?" I was standing right next to her desk now. Pearl shook her head. She smiled at me, but her smile was beginning to wobble.

"Because I already have a fiancé," I answered my own question calmly. What? You thought I was going to punch her? Well, I've leveled up. Now I knew how to wield a second weapon—truth.

"It's true." Henry decided to vouch for me.

"I've met him."

"Oh! Prince Charming asked you to marry him?" Zara gasped.

"What Prince Charming?" A random girl wanted to know.

"The guitarist in the band that came last week," Krystal said.

"Which guitarist? Oh! The one in the opening act? No wonder he said hello to 'Sam's school'! So he's your boyfriend?" Did she mean Dean? I shook my head. How did homeroom become like this?

"Then the one with the badass attitude?" Abigail asked. I tried to think hard who she was referring to, and then realized we were getting sidetracked.

"No, no, it's not anyone from the band. Those guys are my friends. We grew up together as kids. But I have a fiancé because of, ah... it's some complicated family thing, but I'm betrothed to someone already. So I can't really date anyone."

"What? Why?" Zara sounded devastated.

"Does your Prince Charming know?"

"Oh!" Krystal realized.

"No wonder it's been so awkward between you! And when I asked him who that song was for, he looked at Sam and then said it was a secret. He knows, but he still can't let her go!"

"Ooohhh..." the class in general said.

"That's so romantic." One of the girls sighed.

"It's just like a story in my favorite manga."

"So what are you going to do?" Abigail asked.

"Which guy would you pick? Your fiancé or your prince charming?" Wait, what? There is no picking! It's already been decided for me. Mate was my soulmate.

"I say, we call for a vote," Abigail decided.

"Who votes her fiancé, raise your hands."

"I can't decide without more information," a random girl said.

"Who is better-looking?" Krystal asked.

"No, who is richer?" I shrugged helplessly. How did it come to this? I should have just punched Pearl. I looked at Henry, who smirked and took charge.

"All right, Liam, go write this on the board." According to Henry, my fianc é was the heir to one of the largest conglomerates in the continent. He had all the pedigree of a prince and was handsome and strong and had good taste in cars. Marrying him would ensure the merger of our family businesses. Not marrying him would have grave consequences for my family.

My prince charming was the son of one of my father's top subordinates and was training to take over his dad as the next second in command of my family business. As the class could attest, he was handsome and cool and could play the guitar well. He was also capable and intelligent, the student president of the prestigious New Leaf Academy, and practical too, driving a pickup truck as it was the most convenient for work. Liam wrote it all out in point form next to each other.

Abigail took the trouble to write "Fiancé VS Prince" on top. I stared at Henry, dumbfounded. All the hope I had that he would clarify the misunderstanding flew out of the window. He was making it worse—what kind of drama was he making up? It looked like the kind Mum liked to watch on TV....

"It was a fight between loyalty and love!" Jasmine declared.

"But I choose love." I think Jasmine was forgetting that we were wolves; we didn't choose love. We chose our mates. By now, I've reseated myself and simply let my head rest on the table. I'm going to just lie here and play dead till it was over. Where was the teacher? No, wait, I didn't want the teacher to walk in and see the board right now. I shut my eyes. Whatever happens will eventually blow over, right? The class voted. It was close, but Mate won. This surprised me.

I was quite sure with all the teenage girls in the class, Harvey would have won the votes.

"Sorry, Sam," Terrence said.

"You have to go with your fiancé. Your family is counting on you." I nodded. Why was he apologizing? Marcus started laughing. He was hunched down and shaking in his seat. I glared hard at him. There was nothing funny about the situation right now!

"Then that takes care of it." Henry smirked.

"As a class, we will enforce a no-dating-Sam rule. No guy is allowed to ask Sam out because she is already taken."

"Yes, Sam is out of bounds!" Abigail agreed enthusiastically.

"Make sure every guy in school knows that—for the sake of her family, of course."

"I bet he's so rich he can buy you anything you want!" Krystal said.

"Don't forget about your good friends when you marry him."

"Girls are so superficial." Troy grumbled.

"It's all about the money and looks."

"Says the guy without any money or looks! She's doing this for her family. Her FAMILY, okay?" Zara scolded back.

"Yeah, yeah..." Troy grumbled. Liam erased everything off the board. Abigail wrote on one side: Class Rules: Be kind. No bullying. Sam is out of bounds.

"You're welcome," Henry told me.

"And what exactly am I supposed to be thanking you for?" I growled back.

"You don't get it? Well, you'll thank me when you understand." Henry sounded like he was giving a small pup the "you'll thank me when you're older" speech. He took a photo of the new rules on the board.

"For now, I'll make do with your mate's gratitude." Fat chance!

"You're sending James the photo?" Marcus asked, looking over Henry's shoulder. Henry chuffed in amusement and showed him his phone.

"He replied." Marcus read the message aloud." Thanks Hen. Now see if you can get those bastards to commit hara-kiri."

"What?" Marcus face-palmed.

"Hahaha, he's crazy." What? Mate had phone access? Was he here? That's not right. He wasn't here. I knew it from the bottom of our mate bond; he was still far away. I felt for my pockets... So was my phone. My phone! I hadn't seen it.

"Urm, Henry, can you send that to me too?" I asked. Henry raised a brow but obliged. Nothing happened. And then Henry' s phone lit up with a reply from me: A smiley face. Smart answer. Whoever was holding our phones was smart. Henry gave me a strange look. I shrugged.

"I must have left my phone with my beta... and he's covering for me." At this, Henry and Marcus laughed.

"Sam...." Marcus shook his head.

"At least answer your own texts!"

"Does that mean sometimes Harvey sees all your messages?" Jasmine asked. Pearl looked surprised, and then she said smugly, "No wonder she didn't reply when I asked you which beta you liked better!" Henry smirked and picked up his phone again. He typed," Sam wants to know if you have her phone, Harv."

"But I think it's with Killion," I said. Because of the way Mate's phone was answered... It sounded like something Killion would write. Henry back-tapped and retyped so the message read," Sam wants to know if you have her phone, Ki." There was another pause. Henry smirked. Marcus was laughing.

"That'll put him on the spot."

"Do you ever answer your Alpha's phone?" I asked.

"Only when he doesn't want to," Marcus said.

"Not by default."

"What makes you think my beta has my phone by default?" I grumbled.

"You were pretty quick answering your texts last weekend," Marcus pointed out.

"Plus, you were also unnaturally polite."

"When was I not polite?" I protested. The guys laughed. Henry' s phone finally lit up, and my beta responded," Tell Sam to check her bag." Oh. It was Ben. I looked into my school bag and found my phone. It was fully charged. I texted Ben," Thanks, I got it." Ben's reply was immediate. A happy face. Stupid! I knew the happy face was a sarcastic one. Because I knew Ben, and Ben did not own such an expression in real life. And then I received another text from Ben." How did you know it was me?"

I replied without a second thought," Because you called me Sam."