Chương 4: MY FIRST FRIEND

I saw a row of open lockers lining the wall just outside each classroom. They were unmarked. A few of them already contained student coats along with scarves, outdoor boots and such. I pulled off my heavy coat and hung it in an open locker. Next, I stuffed my cap into a coat pocket. I managed to get my new indoor canvas shoes out to change my footwear. Stuffing my boots in the space under the jacket, I regretfully stuck my wet-socked feet into my nice new indoor shoes. I will bring new socks next time.

My feet sweat a lot when I'm wearing boots indoors. (TMI. Sorry about that.) Inside the classroom, there weren't many students. In the front of the class, there were a few kids, but they were already in pairs and seemed to know each other. Somewhere in the second last row in the middle of the classroom, there was a human girl sitting quietly, alone. There was another girl sitting alone in the corner of the classroom. Definitely not wolf, but not human ether?

I mean, I suppose she had to be human, but she had no scent, nor expressions. And if it's possible, the air around her felt even more frigid than the cold outside. At least with the first human, I knew what I was getting. I walked up and smiled, "Hi! My name is Samantha. Can I sit with you?" She looked up at me, uncertainty filtered in her eyes, but I think she quickly decided it would be better to be with me than alone, and nodded. Human herd instinct.

I dropped my bag on the empty desk and sat down next to her before she changed her mind. When she looked at me, I feigned a shrug to communicate a casual friendliness, "What's your name?"

"Elena." She answered in a thin voice. I nodded. We talked a bit more. I asked her what school she was from. I didn't recognize the name of her human school, and she had never heard of West Mountain. But after a while of fruitlessly finding any common ground for conversation, she finally burst out "I hate this school!" I blinked. Seriously? We hadn't even started the first lesson.

"I wanted to go to Saint Lorraine Girls School!" She whined. When Elena whined, her thin voice stretched out even thinner. Then she added, "My mum said she would talk to the principal there. Hopefully I won't have to come back here tomorrow." I blinked again. Okay. My first friendship in this school might not last longer than a day. At this moment, I smelled wolves. Not my pack of course, but vaguely familiar. They dropped into the seats behind me.

I knew just by the smell and sound of it, a largish male wolf, and a smaller one, I turn to confirm it with my own eyes. Elena turned around too. Her eyes widened. It was Henry from earlier (Alpha's George's son, I think) and a leaner shorter guy.

"This is Marcus." Henry looked at Elena and didn't elaborate on Marcus' pack or rank. I nodded, "I'm Sam." Marcus looked at me. He nodded too, but while Henry and I have rather collected expressions, his was somewhat nervous. Different pack from Henry, lower rank... Warrior at most, and I was being generous. Henry was obviously alpha blood, Marcus was anything between an above average omega to a weak warrior. I shrugged. Marcus stared longer than appropriately at me.

I noticed Elena watching us, her mouth left hanging open. I shrugged off a growl. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Three years in West Mountain schooling with humans had honed me to speaking their body language like a second language. It's different. Humans almost never growled. Especially not young gentle female humans (which I happened to look like). Anyway, it's just different.

If I were back at the pack, Henry would have introduced Marcus as "Marcus, Misty Mountain Pack, Beta's son". And if Marcus had stared the way he is now, I would have growled and stared him down. Heck, I would have punched his arm, and immediately he would have bowed and known he was forgiven, because a good hard punch on the arm was a friendly as it gets as far as admonishments go. Human girls didn't punch people upon introduction among humans. They would flutter their lashes and smile shyly.

Actually, she-wolves did that too. But I have alpha blood, so it's hard for me to flutter and smile. Henry hit Marcus over the back of his head for me, and Marcus looked down. Hahaha. That looked fun, but remembering Elena, I quickly introduced her, "This is Elena." Elena fluttered her lashes, just a bit, and looked down with a small smile. She was shy. Before I could take note of who she was more shy of, another male wolf sauntered over. He sauntered, not walked.

Tossing his head back, he pulled back his bangs, giving me a half-smirk and a look in his eyes that alluded to meaning something. I looked back stonily without flinching, because really, I don't care. He dropped the look and shrugged, nodding his submission quickly with a lazy closed mouth smile. I won.

"Liam." He said to me, ignoring the other two wolves behind me. He must be the stupid type. Definitely warrior level though. Henry growled lowly. Elena who was at this moment staring at Liam, startled at the sound. Henry hid the rest of his growl in a cough. Hahahaha. Henry must be pissed that Liam had not acknowledged him. Of course I didn't laugh out loud, but a smirk tugged on my lips. Liam hastily nodded a quick bow to Henry, but didn't miss offering Elena a quick wink after.

Beware of wolves my new human friend. He slid into the seat directly in front of me and leaned back on the back legs of his chair, "I didn't catch your name, babe."

"Sam" I answer nonchalantly, "This is Elena." I decided to include my new friend, and then I kicked Liam's chair legs so that he fell over.

"Don't call me babe." Liam stood himself up effortlessly and sat back in his seat, but he didn't turn back. The classroom started filling out fast. Suddenly a fourth wolf entered, her hair curled and pulled up in a high ponytail, and her skirt shorter than it should be. She walked over, spring in her step.

"Hi! I'm Jasmine!" She cheerfully greeted us like a breath of fresh air. Liam stood up and immediately offered her the seat in front of me. I smirked at that. I heard Henry and Marcus quietly make amused growls behind me. Elena didn't catch their low growls over the din of the now buzzing classroom, not with her human hearing range. Liam slid into the next seat and easily draped his arm over the back of Jasmine's chair.

"Liam." He said to her by means of introduction. Jasmine giggled.

"Hi, I'm Sam. This is Elena. Behind me is Henry and Marcus." I informed Jasmine because I was getting impatient for the introductions to end. Jasmine beamed at me. Naturally, she ignored Elena, and nodded her head in a quick respectful bow towards Henry and Marcus. I didn't bother to look back at them. I didn't bother to place Jasmine's rank either. She-wolves were usually un-ranked until mating. After mating, she would be equal to her mate's rank.

There were always exceptions, like me, she-wolves with strong bloodlines, or who were trained and ranked warriors. Jasmine was a typical She-Wolf, beautiful, pampered, and protected. It's just the way male wolves treasure their beloved daughters and sisters and mates.

"Every mountain maiden is a princess, and every wolf's mate, a queen." My dad likes to quote this old mountain wolf poem. Nothing beats old-fashioned wolf tradition. Seriously. No matter how you stomp it down with gender equality, old mountain wolf chivalry rules. (Don't argue with me. I don't like it.) Anyway, the teacher came in at this point, so everyone sort of sat down and face front.

The teacher was a human, a rather ordinary teaching staff whom I was sure I would not be able to tell apart from any other typical middle aged female human educator. And the way she started her lesson on the first day of school was just as typical and unmemorable. I listened without really hearing anything. I read the notes she handed out which were mostly administrative in nature. I hated this part of school the most... dealing with teachers and their various eccentricities.

You know, how one would want everything in blue ink, and another would want words in ink but diagrams in pencil, or one would fold pages in your workbook to highlight pages that required your further attention, but another would get into a hissy fit because your pages were dog-eared. I hated having to fit into each of their idiosyncrasies at every change in lesson block. I hated to be yelled at and generally disrespected should I use black ink or if my handwriting could not be deciphered.

It was annoying and stressful and a waste of my time... But because I was the Alpha's daughter and because I knew how to respect authority, I kept these feelings along with all the other flitting irritations I faced in my daily educational endeavor under a mask of routine indifference.