SATURDAY, 13 FEBRUARY, ON THE WAY TO TOWN
In the end, Ben and I were assigned to the same stall as Link and Kev. Ben protested quite verbally, "Why are we with Link and Kev? Can't you put any pretty girls at our stall to push the sales?"
"Why'd you need pretty girls to sell cookies, Ben?" Shannon asked with a scoff. Easy for him to say, I've seen him charm fresh muffins from Esther and the other ladies in the packhouse kitchen.
"Easy for you to say. You guys have Angela and Delilah at your stall." Ben was still fixated on the lack of female charm in our stall.
"Yeah, don't you guys dare drag down our sales!" Angela pointed at Shannon and Jonah, although mostly at Jonah. She was revving to go. She was competitive like that, but because she said that, suddenly I wanted to win quite badly too - even if there was a chance that the prize box of goodies would be the unwanted leftovers. I was competitive like that.
"It's fine, Ben." Link tried to cajole the younger stall mate, "We have one girl and us guys have our own friendly charm."
Ben chuffed quite rudely at that, "Sam's not counted as a girl."
Hey! That's kind of rude.
And then Ben smiled, somewhat deviously, "Yeah, you're right Link, I guess we do have our own kind of charm."
"Alpha command charm." Jonah supplied. Yeah, that would work.
"There would be no alpha OR beta commanding." Mrs Beta interjected quickly, "We are raising funds, not extorting it!"
We all laughed.
"Let's all do our best for a good cause." Mrs Beta felt she had to put everything in the right perspective for us.
After that, we had to load the boxes into the old unmarked white van - yes, the very same one we had confiscated from the Rogue incident earlier this year. Since the Lorents had never came around to collect it, it was now the resident miscellaneous van. It started with the youths "borrowing" it to transport band instruments. I guess it's since been promoted to other usages now.
The loading was messy. Everyone just grabbed a few boxes while Teacher S.O. and Teacher Rose struggled to give us instructions about not dropping, crushing, shaking the boxes, not running, not pushing, not taking more than 3 boxes at a time...
I didn't even manage to get near any of the boxes. Savy came to stand next to me on the side. She never liked boisterous, loud, crowds. Okay, at least half of us were just standing around. Some of the girls decided to just sit back and wait for chaos to calm.
It didn't take long for Hank to step in, "Listen up!"
It was like shouting "freeze!" Everyone froze. Even the girls who were sitting down.
"Those with boxes, follow Teacher Steve to the van. Those without, sit down." Hank ordered.
So we did as we were told. Savy and I sat down. Lizzy dropped out from the fray and came to join us.
"Hold your boxes upright and follow single file!" Hank barked at the gaggle of teens crowded around Teacher S.O. They had made it to the right exit, but looked like Teacher S.O. was having some trouble getting everyone out the door.
"Okay, okay!" Teacher S.O. raised his voice to help with the crowd control, "Follow me!"
He didn't have to say it though. Hank already did. And it's not like anyone wanted to be singled out when Hank was in trainer mode.
Once he had ensured that the boxes were being led out in an orderly line, Hank turned to the rest of us, "The rest of you, line up and collect your boxes from Teacher Rose.
So we did. One by one.
Next Hank opened a second queue to collect the boxes from the other end of the table.
And in this way, we collected the boxes and proceeded to the van in a calm and orderly fashion.
I guess that was the beauty of step by step instructions. I mean, yeah, it was boring to wait in line, but at least the line, and the boxes, were all moving steadily and safely to the van.
It sure beat Teacher S.O's earlier chaos inducing, "Alright, chop-chop now! Everyone take some boxes to the van!"
Unfortunately, Hank wasn't at the van, Teacher S.O. was. It was chaos around the van. Some of us were pushing and shoving to deposit their boxes, and then pushing and shoving their way back out. The rest of us were miling around waiting for the crowd to clear.
At this rate, Hank's gonna come over to the van and yell at us. If he had a whistle, I'm sure he would use it. Grrr...
For some reason, the moment I growled, Ben stepped out from behind me - eh? Since when did he get there?
"Stop!" Ben yelled to the same effect as when Hank told us to listen up. Which was impressive.
"Ah, thank you Ben." Teacher S.O. looked grateful.
"Everyone, move away from the van!" Ben continued, ignoring his teacher, "Take everything out at start over!"
Which I wouldn't have considered as a step by step instructions per say, but for some reason that worked out too and everything got loaded up. Probably because Jonah started organizing the guys to unload the van and reload it again.
The moment I took a step forward to lend a hand, Ben called out, "Link, Kev. Come over here for a moment."
I stepped back. What was Ben planning?
"Yeah, what's up?" Link asked.
"Yeah, what's up?" Kev parroted.
"Okay guys, here's the plan." Ben started and proceeded to give us the low down of the plan. Except that he spoke totally ignoring me, as if he was only updating Link and Kev of OUR plan. OUR plan which I was hearing for the first time:
Apparently, Ben WANTED Jonah, Lizzy and Savy to be separated from us. The whole charade earlier was to trick Mrs Beta (his own flesh and blood mum) to put us in different stalls. This would give us control of three out of six of our stalls. Our three stalls would form a type of secret cooperative that would later divide the winnings. So the main part of Ben's grand plan was to make sure one of our stalls won - preferably ours.
"But that won't be much to go around if three stalls shared the prize." Link pointed out.
But of course Ben wouldn't be satisfied with just winning one prize.
"Yes, but we would also control 50% of the total sales, and have a good chance of getting some of our own boxes at our stalls. There is also a prize for every box that sells out first in each stall. We just need to make sure one of our own boxes sell first." Ben continued, "This would give us a total of the large stall prize and three box prizes."
The two older guys frowned immediately. I was quite sure they were going to tell on us.
I waited for Link to express their shock at how scheming we were.
"I don't know why I never thought of it ourselves." Link wondered, "All these years of placing second at the bake sales..."
"You know, it actually might work." Kev said finally, "IF we do get our own boxes. The probability isn't high."
"That's where Sam comes in."
Eh what?
"What's Sam going to do?" Link frowned, "We aren't going to cheat or anything right?"
I shook my head immediately, "I don't cheat."
"Sam isn't going to do anything." Ben smiled smugly., "Today, I will show you the power of your alpha's luck."
Eh what???
Yeah, you heard it right. I was just the rabbit's foot in his grand scheme of things.
"Van's loaded up and good to go." Jonah came over to report.
"Good. Okay, move out!" Ben decided.
Jonah headed out, "This way!"
Link and Kev were driving the van.
"Send some guys to help us unload too, beta." Link requested.
"Yeah, mindlink Jonah where to find you when you've parked." Ben nodded.
"Thanks, man." Link gave Ben a wide smile, "See ya!"
He raised a hand in parting. Kev actually made a very quick half bow.
We had totally forgotten about Teacher S.O, such was his leadership presence. But he had not forgotten about us. Once we got out of the garage, he decided it was a good time to indulge us with an inspiring story, "Yes, I remember the time I volunteered to man the stall at a bake sale..."
Luckily Hank, Esther, and the other teachers met us in front of the bus and Hank interrupted, "Sorry Steve, let's not keep the bus waiting."
"Whew!" Tim did not hide his relief.
"Yay!" Someone at the back cheered.
"Thank goddess!" Someone else muttered. I turned around to see Jay and Nolan behind me. Actually, I was quite surprised everyone was still standing around. I was quite sure we would have just made a beeline into the safety of the bus by now.
"I suppose I can tell you the rest of the story in the bus." Teacher S.O. decided. Looks like there was no where safe after all.
Collective groaning and then Ben's hand was on my back pushing me to go. I stepped up with him just behind me, and the rest followed us. Oh... yeah, I was the Alpha. The others would wait for me to make the first move.
I let Ben push, I mean lead me up the waiting bus and choose our seats.
The rest of the bus ride was quiet. Ben was on his mindlink. Because he was seated right next to me, my "gift of insight" kept zooming in to his channels, and I had to concentrate very hard to keep clear. Ben had a lot of channels going on. He was like the a four way junction outside Gate City Train Station.
"Sam?" Ben said suddenly.
I turned to face him, "Yeah?"
"We're on. The other two stalls are on board." Ben told me in a whisper, "Let's work hard and raise the most funds."
Sometimes I suspected that Ben was more competitive than I was. This was just a bit of volunteering at a fund raiser right? But since it looked like competition was unavoidable, and it was for a good cause, I guess I should go all out for it too.
I nodded, "Okay, let's win this."
"Whatever you say, Alpha." Ben agreed in the most amiable way. For the moment, I actually felt like it was all my idea, and then I realized, no... WTH.
I was the alpha. Why was it that sometimes it felt like my Betas were the ones calling the shots around me?
"As long as you know it, beta." I answered.
Ben actually grinned at that.
I growled and looked back out of the window. Stoopid Ben. But I felt a bit happy, and I was starting to feel the excitement of a run - not a real physical run, more like a kind of heist or caper. Just like when we were kids.
We were going to win big today. We were going to play by the rules and beat the system. That was the real prize for me - did you think I was the Alpha just because of my incredulous luck? Hahaha. Luck was only part of it.
The other part was my insatiable love for team games and winning prizes that was either food or fun. Dad said it was a puppy thing, "Just puppies play fighting to practice and hone their pack skills. But one day, these skills would bring home the hunt."
"Oh, Dad. We don't hunt anymore. We have supermarkets now." I had laughed.
"We're wolves, Sam. We'll always hunt." Dad simply said.
I didn't get it then, but now I don't think Dad was talking about the literal hunt. He was talking about leading the pack to conquering goals that contributed to the pack's survival and success.
But even though I understood now, I was still a pup. Today's hunt was the big win at the bake sale to raise funds for the local hospital's outreach work among the community. I stood up the moment the bus stopped at the drop off point.
"Let's go." I said.
Ben got out of his seat and stepped back so I could walk out in front of him. I didn't have to look back to know my wolves would follow.
What did Dad say again? "Just puppies play fighting to practice and hone their pack skills."
Yeah Dad, we were. But look how well we do it!
Watch these skills that would one day bring home the hunt.