Chương 93: 100 LAYERS PUNISHMENT PANCAKES

"Sam..." Dean pleaded. I felt really bad. But Dean did get into this all on his own.

"I'll help you eat it," I told him finally.

"What? No! I don't think you should, Sam," Jonah admitted at last.

"It's not edible." Ben looked torn.

"I'll eat it." Tim got furious; he thumped the table.

"F* it, Sam. Why are you always making us clean up the s* for him?"

"I didn't ask you to eat it," I told Tim.

"I didn't ask any one of you to eat it."

"Yeah, but you know Ben would, and Jonah would," Tim said.

"You know we all would. Will you have us all die so you can save him? Is the omega more important than us?"

"Shut it, Tim," Ben growled.

"Let's just dump it," Shannon suggested.

"No, I said I'll eat it. So I'll eat it," I said. I pulled off the top pancake, folded it, and ate it.

"Goddess, what was that?" It was disgusting. I couldn't even place it. Jonah winced.

"Beans and oatmeal, for roughage."

"Roughage? Who makes pancake stacks and thinks about s*** like that?" It tasted so bad, I actually got angry. For some reason, the table burst out laughing. Jonah looked sheepish. Savy pulled off the next piece. It looked bad, red and black blotches on top of it. Folding it, she took a small bite.

"Oh, jam," she said. Yeah, it did smell sweet and sticky. She ate it happily.

"Oh, let me try." Lizzy seemed to have caught on to the impromptu game of punishment pancakes. She took off the next layer and folded it.

"Butter," she concluded after a bite... and made a face.

"A lot of butter." I seemed to have just been unlucky.

"I'm going to try again."

"No, Sam, don't!" Shannon said.

"It smells weird." Oh, he was right. The next layer did smell weird. I have no words to describe it.

"Eat it, Dean," Tim snarled.

"Or are you going to let Sam clean up your mess again?" Shannon growled at Tim.

"Just shut up, Tim."

"What, are you going to eat it?" Tim challenged. Shannon eyed the dubious layer.

"No."

"I'll eat it," Dean said.

"I'll eat it."

"Dean, you don't have to," I told him.

"Stay out of it, Sam," Dean growled lowly at me.

"Stop always getting in my business." Oh, now it's his business.

"Shut up, Dean!" It was Ben. Jonah pulled Ben back.

"Let him eat it, Sam." Shannon smirked. He stood up and crossed his arms.

"Eat it, Dean."

"Yeah." Tim mirrored Shannon's posture.

"Let's see you eat it." Oh, now they're buddies. Dean looked so miserable, but he ate it. Then he promptly threw up. He didn't even manage to turn away from the table properly, so half of it shot out onto the table in front of him.

"Ewww!" Lizzy jumped up. Turning his head belatedly, he heaved again and almost landed the rest on me, but I stood up and jumped away in time. Savy fell backward off the chair but managed to avoid getting splashed. Lizzy pulled her back up on her feet. The guys were all yelling now. And of course, all the other tables had turned around. Looking at the food on the table splashed with vomit, I knew someone was going to get in trouble if this continued. You could be reading stolen content.

Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Enough." I stepped forward, steeling myself not to let the smell turn my stomach.

"Someone grab paper napkins. Someone go back to get backup to help us clean."

"But—" said someone.

"Do you want an adult coming over?" I hissed.

"She's right. You guys are all in trouble," Lizzy agreed. Ben and Jonah seemed to have realized this too; they disappeared into the kitchen in double-quick time.

"Are you all right, brother?" Drew had been brought up strictly by their Mum to always call Dean "brother." Actually, all three of them had to call each other "brother" or "sister." Once, when Drew decided to call Dean by name since we were all playing together, his Mum heard it and slapped him. It never happened again. Slapped. Yes. For not calling Dean "brother" just that once. Drew had explained that his Mum wanted them to be respectful.

Savy and I had called each other many things over the years, but never "sister." I've wondered if Dean's Mum might find us very rude.

"I'm out of here," Tim decided.

"Go ahead," Shannon agreed.

"We'll tell them you were the one who challenged Dean to eat that pancake." Tim snarled viciously at Shannon but didn't leave. Ben and Jonah returned with paper towels, a spray bottle of stuff, a garbage bag, and a bucket.

"They told us to clean it up ourselves," Jonah sounded defeated.

"The bucket is for the plates. Garbage bag for food and napkins. And we need to spray and wipe, or they're gonna tell my dad," Ben intoned emotionlessly. Looks like the kitchen staff gave them a hard time. Hahaha.

"So if we clean up, they won't tell?" I asked. Ben nodded.

"Sorry." I don't know why he was apologizing. But I knew it would be bad for him if Beta Lucas got involved. Beta Lucas and Mrs. Beta were some of the most responsible and considerate people I knew. But that also made them very strict parents because they wanted to bring up responsible and considerate kids too. No matter how cool Beta Lucas was about my pranks and nonsense, or how Mrs. Beta was always supportive and understanding toward Savy and me, they were super strict with Ben and Lizzy.

Anyway, it was just cleaning up. I pulled open the bag and scraped off my half-eaten pancakes, with a generous serving of vomit topping. I held my breath so I didn't gag. Then I put the plate and cutlery down into the bucket. Easy. Savy and Liz started scraping their plates clean too. Ben and Jonah got to work. Drew joined us. Then Shannon, although he wore a look of general misgiving. Even Tim emptied his plate into the bag.

"Tell me again how you don't make us clean up his s***?" Tim growled low in my ear in passing. Not low enough, though. Jonah shoved him away hard.

"It's just as much your fault."

"I didn't cook that, Jonah." Tim jabbed Jonah hard in the pecs. Jonah was taller and broader than Tim. He squared himself and grabbed Tim by the shoulder.

"Cut it out, guys," Shannon said.

"Let's just clean up and no one gets in trouble, all right?"

"Hurry," Drew warned.

"It's almost group study time." We hurried. Darlyn had come over to see if Dean was all right. Dean was talking to her. She came over to our table.

"I think our brother isn't feeling well," she told Drew.

"I'll look for Dad and accompany him home." Drew nodded.

"Okay."

"Yeah, go, Dean!" Tim yelled as they left.

"Leave us to clean up your s*** as usual!" Angela yelled over from her table, "He's sick. Don't be such a jerk, Tim!" Tim yelled back, "Shut up or I'll tell Mum you used her credit card." Angela shut up. If Ben and Lizzy's parents were the strictest in the pack, Tim and Angela's were probably the most easygoing. Probably. Either that or they were just the most clueless. Tim's Mum and dad were both warriors. His dad worked patrols along our borders. His Mum was the only female delta in our pack.

She did a lot of traveling and was in charge of securing trade and transport of classified goods between our pack and the others. Tim and Angela were brought up by their grandparents in Morning Light from Monday to Friday. And then they spent their weekends with their dad and sometimes their Mum when she wasn't traveling for work. I heard their Mum was fierce, but their dad was always smiling and chill. This was what Darlyn told me, though. I seldom saw either of them.

Ben and Jonah had used large wads of paper napkins to wipe the puke off the table. I got more napkins and started working on the floor. The others pitched in. I'm really glad for friends like that. Everyone did their part. Lizzy sighed deeply but wiped the table legs. Savy had a hand over her mouth, but with the other hand, she sprayed anywhere anyone needed it. Drew and Shannon lifted up the table and benches to get to the floor under it. Even Tim stayed.

He stood next to the open garbage bag to watch it and complain about the smell making him want to retch. It didn't take long. I checked and wiped the edges where the last bits tend to hang. Jonah and Ben carried the garbage back to the kitchen. Drew made sure the table was in place. Shannon used his foot to shove the benches in place.

"It's fine, Sam," Tim sighed at me when I made a final check and spotted a few unidentified pieces and caught them with my napkin.

"We're warriors, not cleaners," Tim groaned. The other guys looked like they sort of agreed with that. So I answered in my pep talk voice, "What kind of warriors can't even clean up a table properly? If we fight, we win. If we clean, it's spotless. I won't have anyone think we can't even do a simple job. If it's easy, we'll do it so well, no one can do it better." At that moment, I saw Jonah's face change as the words hit him. I don't know if for better or worse. Whatever.

I crumpled the soiled napkin and tossed it in the nearest bin. Okay. Done. Just in the nick of time. The little bell chimed, and it was time to go up. Esther came out of the kitchen with Hank by her side. She looked over our table, surprise filtered across her eyes. She checked under the table and around the edges. And then she smiled.

"It's perfect." Hank smiled then too.

"Good job, guys." I wondered what he planned to do to us should our cleanup be less than satisfactory. Shannon puffed out with pride.

"Of course it's perfect. As if we would botch a simple thing like this."

"Yeah," said Jonah.

"We have high standards." Hank and Esther laughed at that.

"All right," Esther said.

"Come by the kitchen at lunch for a high-standard treat." The guys whooped so loudly Esther covered her ears. The last time Esther made a high-standard treat, it was wolf-shaped cookies painted in icing. Hank pointed up the stairs, and we started up to our classes, speculating what the promised treat might be. I turned to my door where Mrs. Beta stood ready to greet us, and that was when it hit me—I'll be alone with Mrs. Beta for Lycan Studies... and my homework was still in the vampire coven.