I joined the wolves for lunch today in honor of Pearl's arrival. Well, mostly because Jasmine came over to me when the lunch bell rang, grabbed my arm, and dragged me to the usual picnic table.
"Oh, you really got her to come." Marcus looked surprised to see me.
"Of course." Jasmine beamed. "It's good that we can all get to know Pearl together."
The weather was actually rather mild now. Maybe the angry warlock was taking a nap.
Marcus stood up from the table. "I can get drinks. Want anything?"
"The usual," Henry said.
"Coke, please," I added.
Jasmine wanted lemon tea. Liam asked for a Sprite. Pearl looked a little unsure before deciding on lemon tea too.
"Let's go to the cafeteria to buy our lunch too," Jasmine told Pearl. Pearl looked back at us for a moment before following Jasmine back into the school building.
Some girls came with homemade food for Liam. He thanked them and ate it.
"One of these days, someone is going to put wolfbane in your food," Henry warned jokingly.
Liam just smiled and shrugged it off.
"Jealous much?" I teased Henry.
Henry laughed and shook his head. "Not a whit."
He opened up his super-sized lunch box and paused for me to admire it.
"Nice!" I admitted.
"Jealous much?" he repeated to me with a smirk.
Marcus came back from the cafeteria with his own meal and a bag of drinks. He put the Diet Coke in front of me.
I looked at the offensive can. "What the hell?"
"What?" Marcus asked. "I thought girls only drink diet."
"Did you get tired of living?" I glowered.
Henry burst out laughing. He could laugh; he had the red can.
Then he swapped his can with mine. "Here. I can't taste the difference anyway."
I blinked, surprised at the gesture. "It's vile," I warned.
Marcus laughed then. "Sam, you are a really strange girl."
What? Because I don't drink diet sodas?
Jasmine and Pearl returned with their lunches, and Jasmine decided to start off with formal introductions. I think Jasmine would have made a good Luna. She was very natural at this kind of thing.
"This is Henry, future alpha of the Silver Moon Pack."
Henry growled and cracked open his black drink can.
"Marcus is future beta of the Mountain Mist Pack."
Marcus raised a hand. "Hi."
"Liam, as you probably know by now, is the class rep. He is also currently the most popular guy in school…"
I looked at Liam, waiting for his signature wink or lopsided smile, but nothing. He just acknowledged Pearl with a polite nod. Weird.
"Sam is the future Luna of the Night Leaf Pack," Jasmine continued. I must say, I was impressed she figured that much out.
"Future Alpha," I corrected mildly.
"Right…" Marcus said.
Henry grinned. "We like to indulge her."
I tossed my head. The nerve. But I didn't feel the slightest bit offended. Maybe it was Jules and the guys rubbing off on me, but I was beginning to think I used to take myself a bit too seriously.
As long as I knew I was the alpha, and my home pack knew I was the alpha, it was inconsequential here with these guys.
The realization left me with a sense of freedom—not having to be anything for anyone. It was a nice break.
"I'm Jasmine from the White Moon Pack," Jasmine concluded the introductions.
Well, I learned something new about Jasmine today. No, I had never thought to ask her which pack she was from.
"My name is Pearl. I'm from the Red Crescent Pack," Pearl said. She stopped suddenly to stare at Liam, who had started stripping off his jacket and shirt.
Once down to his pants, he took a long drink of Sprite and left to play ball with the other boys. I could hear them call out Liam's name happily the moment he joined them. The happy greetings erupted quickly into an argument about which team got to have him.
Pearl told us more about herself while we ate. It was a pretty dramatic story.
Pearl's pack had been attacked by rogues. During the attack, the rogues had dropped her down a ravine, and she landed on her back.
After they found her, she had spent half of last year in the hospital.
They almost thought she would never walk again. But she miraculously recovered, and after another half year of physiotherapy, she was able to walk again.
Wow. It couldn't have been easy for her.
"So, who are the couples?" Pearl asked me.
"What?" I didn't understand the question.
Jasmine started giggling, which only alerted me to potentially uncomfortable girl talk.
"There is an alpha, a beta, and the school's most popular guy," Pearl smiled widely at us. "Surely at least one of you is dating!"
That didn't even make any sense.
"It's only the second week of school!" Jasmine protested, still giggling.
Was Pearl interested in stuff like dating and boys? Uh-oh.
~All men seem wise until they open their mouths.
Good idea, Wolfie. I'll just shut up and eat my sandwiches. Today was Spam and egg. Mum was on a roll!
"We're the only wolves in our level," Pearl continued. "Doesn't that make us the populars?"
Now I was just lost. I did not understand this conversation. Since when was the word popular used as a noun? Since when were wolves more popular than humans or vampires?
I racked my brain for every TV show featuring popular kids that I could remember, and I looked carefully at our table.
We were generally good-looking—werewolf genes, I think. Actually, Jasmine looked every bit the part of a popular girl.
The guys were all well-built. Liam was good at football. I wasn't sure if Henry or Marcus ever played, but I knew they would have been trained in hand-to-hand combat of some kind.
We tended to keep to ourselves. It was kind of werewolf-only, and because there were so few of us, I guessed we did look exclusive.
Liam was the most popular guy in the school, and he was with us. Could one be popular by association? Was Liam popular enough to float all of us?
Okay, I saw Pearl's point now, but I didn't see the significance. I was still the usual me. I'd rather be the loner. I don't think there's such a thing as popular loners.
"Arlene, the prettiest girl in school, is dating this hot upperclassman (who is a vampire)," Jasmine decided to fill Pearl in. "They started from Day One of school."
Pearl made a face. "Is she really the prettiest? I didn't think she was that pretty."
"He's not really hot," I said, because he's cold-blooded. Hahaha.
But Pearl and Jasmine made very serious expressions when I started speaking, and I stopped my joke midway. Just shut up and eat, remember?
"Oh, and there are those two girls," Jasmine added. Pearl nodded her understanding. I think I lost them again.
"That's it so far," Jasmine said with a pretty shrug.
I was quite glad Jasmine was around. I was quite aware that it would have been beyond me to answer Pearl's questions. I stayed quiet the rest of the time and concentrated on eating my lunch, which was what the other two guys were doing too.
Jasmine and Pearl discussed who's who in our school and all the people I didn't know. I wondered how Jasmine got all her intel. Was there an unofficial guide to Winderhill somewhere in the library, or better still, online?
Oh, I did recognize two names in their conversation—Matthew and Julius, the only two other beta wolves in the school. I was very proud to have figured out it was Matt and Jules all on my own. Thanks to that, I learned that Matt was also our student president this year.
Henry and Marcus started talking then, and miraculously, I suddenly understood the conversation again. Matt and Jules were graduating this year. Once they left, Henry would be top dog.
Next year, we'd be in the same class again. (How did they know this?) Apparently, this school kept students in the same class for the first two years. In the third year, they would stream us by results, and we would then be kept in the same class group until we graduated.
Next year, Henry and Marcus would run for the student council. Liam would still be the most popular guy in school. By year three, Henry planned to be student president. Marcus wanted to front his own band. Liam would be football captain. I was very impressed that the guys had their school careers all planned out.
"I am going to try out for cheerleading," Jasmine said.
Oh. Jasmine had been giving it thought too.
"Too bad I can't," Pearl sighed. "My back is not fully healed yet."
"It doesn't matter. You girls, by association with us, will always be popular," Henry assured us. Marcus nodded.
Male wolves were so arrogant and chauvinistic. Sometimes I wanted to smack their macho faces. (But Marcus would call me violent again.)
"Why don't you try out for public speaking next year, Sam?" Marcus told me. "They only accept two hosts from sophomore year onwards. Both Julian and Romana are graduating this year. You can be an official host at all the school formal events."
Seriously? Where did these guys get this kind of information? Maybe they should be the ones I asked about vampire fight cages… but I promised Dad I wouldn't pursue any more information on that.
"Wow, I'd love to try out for that too," Pearl said. "It'll be something I could do—that is, if it's all right with you, Sam."
"You'd need an invite to tryouts," Marcus said.
"Can you guys get me an invite too?" Pearl asked.
Can they?
"Yeah," Henry said. "It shouldn't be a problem, but the teacher will only choose one of you. The other host has to be a guy."
I shrugged at that. Henry looked meaningfully at me. "I'm sure your dad could call and get you an invite easily."
"Oh, you mean her dad can get her the position just by calling?" Pearl asked.
"I don't want to involve my dad," I growled.
"Your loss," Henry shrugged.
Funny how when Krystal talked about my dad buying me stuff, she made me feel ashamed of it. But when Henry talked about my dad pulling strings for me, he made me feel like I'd be stupid not to take it.
I was sure my dad would agree with Henry, so I would never tell him about this. It just didn't seem fair.
"Let's try out together and see how it goes," I said.
"You mean you aren't going to ask your dad to call?" Pearl asked.
"Yup," I said. "It's more fun to win on my own."
Pearl smiled, and then her smile widened. "Yeah, okay."
Liam rejoined us when we finished our meal. I assumed this was his usual lunchtime routine. He got dressed quickly and emptied his can of Sprite.
"So, is this where you guys hang out every lunch?" Pearl asked.
"Just the guys, usually," Jasmine told her. "I eat in the cafeteria with the other girls. I can take you for lunch with them tomorrow."
Pearl nodded. "Yeah, okay."
Pearl looked at me. "What about Sam? Does she eat with you guys?"
"Nah," Marcus laughed. "Sam tends to disappear a lot."
Was that how they saw me?
"I like to be mysterious," I joked.
The laughter was easy, and I realized I was actually having fun. I guess spending lunchtime with friends was nice.