Chương 60: THAT NIGHT IT SNOWED

I did tell you our weather had been bonkers, didn't I? It snowed last night, and when it snowed, it stormed. When I went to my room to get ready for school, I realized why windows needed glass. Overnight, there was a pileup of snow in my room, and it was FREEZING. Like the floor was like carpeted ice and the air was brittle with frost. Where the snow had melted had frozen again in patches. Even the cup of water someone left on my dresser last night was frozen.

I went to the bathroom and found my bottle of happiness frozen too, because I had left my bathroom door open. Great. I guess I had no choice but to use Savy's shower… and shampoo. I grabbed my poor, cold school stuff and dragged it back to Savy's room. At the last minute, I grabbed the shampoo and conditioner to defrost in a warmer place. Savy was still sleeping. She had come back to her bed sometime during the night. I didn't wake up; I only saw her next to me this morning.

Maybe she wouldn't have to go to school today. She'd like that. As the girl who never got sick, Savy never got a sick day off school either. Well, I never got sick either… but I had gotten injured while training before. Oh wait, didn't Savy get to stay home for two whole days after twisting her ankle last year? I had forgotten about that. Oh man, I got in so much trouble for that. We were playing a jumping game, and Savy attempted to jump something she saw me jump.

I hadn't stopped her because, despite her much smaller size, she usually could jump whatever I did. Savy was an amazing jumper. She did clear the jump, but she landed badly and twisted her ankle. It swelled so badly that mum and dad (mostly mum) noticed right away. Why did I get in trouble? Because I was there, and I didn't stop her, and I should have known better. Just like the time Savy fell off a log and needed stitches in her head. Oh yeah, I forgot about that too.

Or the time Savy jumped on a chair, only to have it tilt and fall over… That actually broke a tooth. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. But the dentist fixed it, no problem. I didn't even get in trouble for that one! Even though I was there—because I didn't do it first. I was just sitting down, reading on my own chair. I was actually the well-behaved one in that episode. Or the time I dropped Savy down a flight of stairs… but she wasn't hurt.

My mum got a scare, though. Actually, Savy got hurt a lot more often than I did after all. Or at least, it always seemed to be a whole lot worse when it happened to Savy. I always landed on my feet, or at least never on my head or face. I had never gotten hurt from an accident. I had never once found myself in the emergency room—nothing dramatic like Savy's injuries.

Most of my injuries were from training: me running too fast and too far, me lifting something too heavy, or me running too fast and too far while carrying something too heavy. And more recently, me being playfully hit by a vampire or accidentally cut by an idiot rogue. Because, let's be honest, neither of them were seriously fighting me tooth and nail. I guess I was lucky… or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it. I managed to get ready for school. Savy's soap and shampoo were all citrus scents.

I kind of liked that—very zesty for the morning. When I got out, Savy was no longer in bed. I guessed she had gone downstairs for breakfast. I heard that after shifting, wolves had a crazy new metabolism rate. Dad was stomping and grunting in my room, though. Out of curiosity, I went to take a look. He had shoveled most of the snow into the shower and pushed my bloodied, ripped mattress up against the broken window, clean side facing in.

"This should keep the heat in better," he told me. Gamma Harry would be arranging for the window to be repaired sometime today. Our window was curved at the top, but luckily it was a separate piece of glass, and Dad had only broken the rectangular part, which was faster to replace. Romantic gestures were, in more than one way, impractical. Downstairs at the breakfast table, Mum was in a good mood. Besides promising me a loft bed, Dad had told mum we could repaint and wallpaper the house.

The last time our house had new wallpaper was the year I was born. Savy was pretty happy too. Dad had said she could have a loft bed if she wanted one too. Wow. Dad was really pulling out all the stops today.

"It's about time. You girls are growing up, and the house is due for sprucing up," Dad said.

"If the workmen do a good job, we could give them the contract for the pack house renovation too."

"We're renovating the pack house?" I asked. Dad nodded.

"We have a renovation fund set aside every year for pack house maintenance. Every ten years or so, we take it and refurbish or update the pack house. I think Beta wants to run data cables and increase Wi-Fi speeds, and we need to upgrade the water heater and heaters for better energy savings. Maybe in spring or summer this year." That made sense. I guess Dad ran our home in a similar way.

Dad going KingKong last night was kind of cool, but I was even more glad for the sensible, systematic, everyday Dad and Alpha that he was. It wasn't as exciting, but it made life steadily better for me and the rest of our pack. I put on snow boots and my waterproof down jacket instead of my school coat today. It had really snowed out there. Our pack school might even have a snow day; mum had left her phone on the kitchen table in case the school sent an alert.

But Winderhill was farther away, and unlikely to be this badly snowed in. It was a Wednesday morning, still dark, but the day had started for me. I waited for my bus out to City Gate train station. I was usually the only passenger on the bus at this hour. Let's see: I had my homework in my bag. I had my travel card and visa. I had my lunch. I was okay. Except that I needed to go to school, get my homework done, and be ready for the Wednesday training session later.

I hadn't seen Dean since the weekend, and I wasn't sure what to say to him now. I wondered if Savy would be promoted now that she had shifted. Would she be in Wednesday's session? Or rather, Thursday's session. Wow. Talk about skipping a grade. I think that made it a double promotion. I was happy. Now Savy and I could go to a training session together.