Today I had an absolutely boring day at school. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I mean, wasn't this what I wanted?
I've been wanting a completely undramatic day since school started, and now I got my wish.
I got to school at the usual time, sat at my usual seat in homeroom, and read the new copy of Reader's Digest which I had "borrowed" from my Mum.
Beta Lucas always took in the mail and left it in a neat pile on the hallway counter. And I would always intercept the Reader's Digest. I liked to read it back to front, usually starting with all the jokes. I'd leave it on the kitchen counter when I got home for Savy to have a turn.
And then Mum would find it eventually… somewhere in Savy's room. Don't worry. Mum always knew where to look.
We had a system.
Today began like clockwork. The other students started streaming into class. And nobody interrupted my reading.
The cool girls came and copied the homework I left out for them on my desk.
Jasmine also copied homework. She called dibs and claimed first rights since she sat next to me and was my "best friend in class."
I didn't contradict her.
Krystal didn't look happy about that, but she was well aware that Liam was watching us, so she only tossed her head and took whatever homework Jasmine hadn't needed.
So I just continued reading, only putting down my book when the bell rang.
Once started, the classes went on, one after the other.
Marcus took the role of collecting all my worksheets to hand in. He also made sure none of the pages were missing. When my stapler ran out of bullets, Marcus had a whole box of bullets in his ginormous pencil case. He even helped me reload it. #betalife
I did briefly wonder how I would get through school if Marcus ever took a sick day.
Troy grabbed the box of staples and helped himself to a stack of them.
He broke them apart, then twisted them into tiny spiked pairs.
Grinning wickedly, he put a handful on Jasmine's chair when she left for the washroom with the girls.
He also spread the rest between Arlene's seat and the teacher's chair.
While he was busy making a big show of setting up his prank at the teacher's desk, I carefully picked up the spikes from Jasmine's chair and dropped them back into his seat.
Liam noticed and threw me a lazy smile and a wink.
I was getting used to Liam now, so I didn't feel like punching his face when he made stupid faces like that anymore.
Troy returned with a triumphant smirk, which was wiped off by an unceremonious yelp when he sat down. Jasmine returned just at the same time and sat down safely in her chair.
Troy glared at Jasmine, who returned an innocent look.
Then he glared at me, but I was "reading" and didn't look up from my book.
His confusion was interrupted by a scream. Arlene and Elena had returned from wherever they had gone while the teacher was away.
"Who did that?" The girl seated behind them shouted on their behalf.
The other boys didn't need any further prompting to point Troy out.
Troy yelled back, "What?"
"She cut her finger! There's blood! Blood!"
It was a scratch.
But those two girls sitting behind Arlene and Elena started a shouting match with Troy, who, I have to give credit, did not lose out in either volume or pitch.
I could hear Henry and Marcus growling lowly in displeasure at the noise behind me.
I continued to stare at my book. Just another normal day.
When the teacher stepped in, the shouting stopped.
"Oh my! What's this?" Mrs. Henderson was studying the little metal spikes on her chair. "How did these get here?"
"Troy did it!" The class had no qualms about ratting Troy out.
"Please come up and clean this up," Mrs. Henderson said, disapproval clear in her voice.
Troy tried to look rebellious about it, but he just looked like a sulky kid.
He attempted to pick up the pieces at first. "Ow!" he yelled because they pricked his hand.
You needed to handle these with care. I would know. Back at my pack, we used to play with these a lot.
Dean usually hurt himself a lot on them, even though he was the one who taught me how to make them. You had to hold them very gently so they didn't break your skin.
We used to make a lot of them, and then pour them across the study group room floor so no one could walk in until we found a broom to sweep them up, effectively delaying the lesson by twenty minutes easily.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure why no one ever called us out or complained to my Mum and Dad.
We got away with way too many pranks.
Why did none of our lycan group study teachers ever tell us we were going too far?
Liam seemed to have some experience too. He walked up, picked up the chair, and tilted it so the little spikes rolled into the wastepaper basket in the corner. Then he returned the chair to the teacher's table.
"My hero," Mrs. Henderson beamed. She checked the tabletop and under the table before seating herself, proving that Mrs. Henderson was also experienced with these things.
And that was all.
Mrs. Henderson failed to call Troy out for his misdeed too. Perhaps she felt enough time was wasted, and we went straight to the textbook.
I think that was the most notable thing that happened today.
I escaped to my own quiet space at lunchtime with my sandwiches and a can of Coke.
Today I felt adventurous enough to try Diet Coke, but I didn't like the taste.
But the sandwiches were bacon and cucumber, which more than made up for the weird taste in my Coke.
Maria met me in the library. We walked, I scanned the school as usual—nothing out of the ordinary.
Even our washroom was fixed and usable again.
As we passed Dino's class, I could sense Maria's happiness from the way her dark aura flicked about like a cold flame.
We didn't talk at all. She said nothing to me about my "boyfriend" or fight cages. I assumed it did not concern or interest her much.
Back in class, lessons went as scheduled. Even the history teacher decided to make an appearance. He smelled sickly, though.
After school, I dashed out, racing to reach the train station first to avoid the crowd and made it in time. Only Jules, Bra, and Matt were there before me. I wondered how they did that every time.
They bantered the usual way guys do, guffawing and punching each other on the arm. I didn't really pay attention. I think Matt got himself a girlfriend.
Why get a girlfriend when you are seventeen? In a year, you will find out she isn't your mate. Then what?
I did ask, nicely of course, and Bra laughed. "It won't last that long. Five bucks say they break up in a week."
"Ten bucks," Jules laughed.
They looked at me. "I don't bet." I shrugged.
"That's not fun," Jules protested, but his tone was gentle.
"I like to keep my money in my pocket."
"Two weeks," Matt boasted. "I'll make it last two weeks."
"That'll be your longest fling yet," Jules laughed.
"Matt is a player," Bra told me, as if I hadn't figured it out by now.
"Takes one to know one," Matt told him. "Bye!" And he alighted at his usual stop.
I laughed at the parting shot.
"Don't fall in love with us, Sam," Bra warned me, wriggling his eyebrows.
I laughed at that. "Don't worry, I don't fall in love."
Jules and Bra stopped. "Like seriously? Not at all?"
"Yeah," I put on the false bravado I've often seen guys wear when they were lying through their teeth. "Usually, it's the guys who fall at my feet."
Jules smiled at that. "We better be careful of this one."
Bra laughed easily. "Yeah, we better guard our hearts."
I said, "Just make sure your shoelaces are tied."
We all laughed, and the conversation moved on to homework and a bit about Matt and the girl I didn't know—except now I knew she's a girl in our school and in his pack.
It was pretty fun going home with the boys. But I never got any homework done on the train, and with all that's going on back at the pack, I did find it a little frivolous, maybe even a drain on my time.
Maybe tomorrow I'll try to miss the first train with them so that I could have the next train ride home to study again.
And there you have it, my uneventful day. Now that I'm writing it, I realize it wasn't completely boring, but I'd gotten used to school days like these.
I guess it was true: young people had a knack for adapting to new environments.
So yes, I've successfully adapted to high school. Congratulations to me! May I have many more boring days to come… Wait, no, that didn't come out right. Oh well—it's a good thing life never listens to my wishes anyway.
If this were a TV show, now would be a good time to cut the scene and show something like dum dum dum… little did Sam know… sort of thing.
So… anytime now…
Never mind, nothing's happening. I'll go take my shower and check back on the rest of my boring day later.