The next morning I can't find anyone. Ari isn't in his room. EV is nowhere to be seen. Finding no one I know I decide to go back to the reck room to waste some time.
Its empty in here. I guess everyone is at school. That Xbox is calling my name. A little GTA followed by some Assassins Creed and finally I'm playing Call of Duty when the room floods with people. A guy about my age flops on the couch beside me taking a controller.
"Mind if I join?" He asks.
"Yea, no problem man." I tell him and we start to play. A bunch of high schoolers are working on some math project and keep arguing. Honestly its getting irritating.
"You can't just use Tan on every problem!" One yells.
"Why not?" His friend responds.
"SOH, CAH, TOA! Do you even pay attention in class!?" The first responds. I'm tired of the yelling. I jump up and walk over to the table.
"He's right. You use Tan if you have the angle and either the side opposite or adjacent given then you can find out the other side. If you have the hypotenuse Tan is useless." I tell the guy then take his work sheet. "Use Tan here Sin here and here Cos here, here and here" I mark up his paper and hand it back.
"And why would I listen to you what are you 8? Go back to elementary school and leave me alone." The guy growls snatching the paper.
"I'm 13 actually nearly 14... but you know what? Don't listen to me. I'd kinda like to see you flunk Geometry. Enjoy taking it again as a Junior." I tell him and he scoffs.
"You're pretty smart pup... what do you know about calculus?" A senior asks me.
"Let me see." I say taking his book to see what problem he is having.
I go from Calculus over to a girl who needed help diagramming sentences. Then a guy asks for help with his physics work and so on until everyone is listening to me.
"Okay so the best sence to trigger a memory is?" I ask the girl who wanted help with her psychology homework.
"Smell?" She answers like a question and I nod.
"Because?" I ask drawling out the word and she shrugs. "The part of the brain that stores memory is located near the part that discerns smell. It's all a proximity thing." I explain.
It seems to have turned into a question Brayden party and honestly... I love it! Everyone wants to join in and I'm the center of it all! I've never had so much fun with teenagers in my life!
"5,672." I answer another math problem.
"He's right!" Someone cheers.
"No way! He can't do that in his head!" Someone who just joined us calls out.
"How about history?... who was the 25th president of the United states?" A girl reads from a text book.
"William McKinley." I answer.
"What countries made up the Allies in WWII?" A boy asks reading another book.
"Great Britain, US, China, and the Soviet Union... Axis was Germany, Japan, and Italy." I tell him.
"What else you got?!" I yell spinning around the circle with a big grin. Man I love this!
"Acording to Greek mythology who is the god of thieves?" A boy asks.
"Hermes god of thieves, travelers, trade, messenger of the gods. Son of Zeus." I answer a little more than asked but I'm on a roll.
"Brayden!" I hear someone call to me then see Lilly wave. I pushe through the crowd to meet her.
"You know this kid?" Some guy asks Lilly.
"Yea. Dalton meet Brayden... he's with Aaron." She introduces us.
"You're impressive pup." Dalton says shaking his hand.
"Not really I just like to read. I read and I remember." I shrug.
"Wanna grab something to eat Bray?" Lilly asks.
"Sure!" I grin at her and turn to the crowd "shows over guys!" I tell them with a wave and we leave.
"Pizza! It's always the best choice!" Dalton says picking up the phone.
We sit in the living room nearest the front door waiting for our dinner.
"So Bray what do you want to do when you grow up?" Dalton asks.
"I'm gonna be an Alpha!" I tell him proud of my position. I can't wait to lead my pack.
"Really?" Dalton asks looking at Lilly who nods. "Hu?... I didn't think Aaron was like that... and you're still with that guy!" Dalton is ticked! "What about when you two have pups? He already has an heir? Dude couldn't wait for his mate?... how old is he? He would have had to have been in his early teens!"
I look at Lilly and we both laugh. Dalton stands up looking at us.
"What this isn't funny!" He yells.
"Actually it is!" Lilly laughs.
"Ari isn't my dad!" I say rolling with laughter. I get this all the time and its always funny but this dud went OFF!
"What?" Dalton asks. We explain the situation laughing at his response. "Well how was I supposed to know?" He adds as we continue to laugh.
"But seriously Bray." Lilly says turning to me. "Just because you will be an Alpha doesn't mean you can't have a dream. Do something you love. If you could do anything what would you do?"
"Well..." I start thinking "I want to help kids... you know like me! I don't know what would have happened if Ari hadn't taken me in."
"You could do that. Your pack has what 20 members?" She asks and I nod. "You're not like Aaron or me you could do more outside your pack due to it's small numbers."
"Really... I wouldn't know where to start." I say.
"Well actually my pack does a lot of work with orphaned pups... you could be a lawyer, or a psychologist, maybe a social worker... we have wolves that work in the human world in places like this to help get pups out of the system and protect them while they are in it... you can do anything you put your mind to Bray." She tells me.
"But wolves don't go to college! They stay with the pack! Everyone knows that!" I respond.
"Not always... it's up to you... crap from what I heard earlier you could probably get your GED tomorrow." Dalton says.
"Yea... I took a test at school in 6th grade... passed it no problem... they wanted me to get my GED then said I could go anywhere with my "amazing brain" what ever. I don't know!" Its frustrating. I've had this conversation with Ari over and over. He says I don't need college. He says its more important to train to be Alpha. He won't let me graduate early. I never thought I could do more.
"Just think about it... if you choose to I can help you get into some online colleges... crap you could probably have a couple degrees before you even become Alpha!" Lilly tells me.
"I can do all three!" I grin and she chuckles.
"I'm sure you can." Lilly says giving me a hug. We munch on pizza and talk for a while.
"Save any for me?" Ari asks as he enters the room.
"Ari!" I yell running to him. "I'm gonna be a lawyer! And go to college! Screw high school! And I'll be a psychologist, and a social worker. And what ever else I want to be! I can do anything! I'm gonna help people!"
Ari looks stunned by my quick rant. He pauses a moment deciphering what all was just said.
"What have you been telling him?" Aaron asks Lilly not paying any attention to me.
"That if he wants to he can do anything." She answers.
"He is an Alpha." Ari says.
"Of a small pack that can do without him every so often if he wants to help and have a broader impact on the community." Lilly responds. I give Ari my best pleading sad face but he still looks unsure.
"I'll consider it." He says and I hug him. That's as close to a Yes I've ever gotten. "We are going back home tomorrow... I'll be back soon Lilly but I need to be with my pack."
"Well... that means we have the night." Lilly smiles at him.
"So what are we doing!" Dalton interjects wrapping an arm around Lilly and Ari growls. Dalton lets her go with a grin.
"Aaron, Dalton." Lilly gesture between them.
"Dalton...humm... nice to meet you... have you seen your uncle yet?" Ari asks him.
"What do you mean?" Dalton asks.
"You don't know?" Lilly ask and he turns to her. "He's in the infirmary." Dalton takes off. Is that where Ari has been all day? Who's Dalton's uncle and why would Ari care?
"I figured he knew." Lilly says stepping toward the door to follow.
"Guess not." Ari says stopping her. "We probably shouldn't follow... I don't want him attacking me... hurting him won't help mine and my brothers relationship." Brother?! Ari has a brother?! How could I not know this?
"Yea... well you missed the movie last night... how about you make up for it tonight." Lilly suggests.
"Yes!" I scream and Ari chuckles.
"Sounds good." He says.
We curl up on the couch. I jump in the middle making sure I get time with Ari and Lilly sits on one side of me. Ari sighs and plops onto the couch beside me.
We watch the movie and Ari puts his arm on the back of the couch behind me. I laugh at the movie glancing between Ari and Lilly. It feels like a family. I missed this. I'm still curious about Ari's brother tho. I think I'm gonna meet him tonight.