SATURDAY, 13 FEBRUARY, CONTINUED
"Just doing my job, princess." Nix made a flirty wink and made a move to leave.
Like hell I was about to let him leave on that note!
In the heat of the moment, I reached out my hand to grab Nix by the scuff, but I missed and grabbed him by the tail of his shirt.
"Whoa, princess!" Nix raised his hands in an exaggerated stopping motion. He was still smiling, eyes twinkling and all, as if he thought I was playing, no, flirting with him. OmO GAH! I immediately released his shirt tail, I was NOT! It was a misunderstanding... I mean Grrrr!
Just grrr... I narrowed my eyes at him. He was this close to being chewed out by my wolf. I gritted my teeth to stop my that feeling of wanting to dice him into pieces. Who the hell is your princess? Don't look so happy when I stop you from leaving!
Ben inserted himself between us before my claws appeared.
"Next time, Gamma. You can refer disciplinary issues to me." Ben told Nix coldly. Ben's wolf was also on the surface now. I wouldn't be surprised if his wolf was acting on instinct to keep my wolf from surfacing, because I was so close to turning into a human food processor atm. I'm not even sure why anymore, just the thought to flashing my blades and slashing them around a bit made Boo a tad too excited for comfort.
It took all I had to rein her in. What was this feeling? This sudden bout of crazed desire for action of the wild and unfettered (and rather violent type). This wasn't a movie or computer game! This was real life with real consequences. Control, control...
{Chi-ka-boo time}
Boo was not only full of bloodlust, she also had a frightening sense of pun. It was enough to turn my own blood cold, and I would have stood there frozen except that I was very aware that my beta was now in a stand off against my gamma.
Night Leaf and Morning Light youths stood on either side, not because it represented their side on the incident, I doubt most of them even knew what was going on. It was more of an instinctive side step that made me realize how fragile our merger was - the split was so clear and immediate the moment it happened. I guess a few months of shared training sessions once a week wasn't going to be enough to truly merge us a one pack.
Where was Harvey? Harvey come and put Nix back in his place! Wait, why do I need Harvey? I'm the Alpha!
"Nix, leave it, please." But it was Lola who stepped forward first. Kevy tried to hold her back (were they holding hands?), but she pulled out of his grasp.
"Stay out of this, Lola." Nix told his cousin.
"Nix, if you take a single step forward, I can and will have you demoted" Ben growled, never taking his eyes off the older boy. Despite being younger, Ben was the beta and already shifted, so his threat was 100% real.
"Ben, please." Lola decided to target her reasoning with Ben instead, "I'll be reporting to Harvey about the incident later, so let's not make a scene here."
But I (Boo) wanted to make a scene! I wanted to go "Boo!" and turn monster and make everyone run in all directions. {So fun!}
Not that the adults would know my inner battles, they were focused on the battle out here on a public street - or at least the battle that they would rather not happen under their watch. Hank had to step up on all the grown up's behalf, "Yes, let's leave it as that then."
I didn't think Ben was going to stand down and I couldn't help but see Mrs Beta's mouth pressed in a firm line from the sidelines. This would be a bad time for Ben to do something that his mum did not agree with.
{Punch him, Ben.}
Boo didn't bate an eye, if I was in wolf form, my grin would bare all my teeth. Evil Boo!
"No!" I mindlinked Ben the next second. His fist was already clenched. Now his teeth was too. Whatever did his alpha want him to do? To punch or not to punch? Every fibre in his being was posed to punch. He wanted to punch. It wouldn't take much to trigger a fist straight into Nix's smirking face.
Why was Nix smirking in such a situation? What was wrong with this gamma?
"Beta, you look a little green." Nix taunted, "Jelly got you?"
Which I totally didn't get at all. WTH was he talking about?
"Hahaha! Our beta is jelly!" Ethan crowed with delight and then laughed like the hyena that he was.
"I AM NOT JELLY." Ben snarled back.
"Yeah, our beta is not uh... jelly!" Jonah stepped up to the plate, "He's ah... banana bread."
Which only caused the hyenas to howl, and the rest of our guys to accidentally burst out laughing.
I heard Lizzy cue Jonah in, "He's not talking about food, Jonah. 'Jelly' means jealous."
I didn't have to turn and look to know that Lizzy was rolling her eyes.
"Oh." Said Jonah.
Ben growled, Jonah immediately snapped his attention back to the hyenas and growled. The hyenas growled back. At this moment it was very clear to me that we were all being goons. We were more alike than we knew.
Just at that moment, our bus finally crawled up to the pick up point.
"The bus is here!" Hank sounded way too relieved, "Everyone please board."
Ben looked at me. I looked at the bus, and then at the wolves around me, "Let's go, we'll settle it at home."
I made a move to leave.
"Bye, princess!" Nix gave a mock salute.
Ben bumped him hard in passing, hard enough for the older boy to stumble back.
Marlow caught Nix before he fell and shoved Ben on the shoulder.
Jonah rammed Marlow with his shoulder. Ethan tried to stop it, but Shannon intercepted with a well placed push.
Although Jonah was the only one in football, suddenly everyone was a pro.
And because we were all Night Leaf and Morning Light wolves, we all knew to step back to form a ring to watch the fight at safe distance. Well, all of us except me. I was going to make my way to the bus. I said, "Let's go." didn't I? You all heard it right?
I stopped and spun around. I was still in the impromptu fight circle, saved from the passing punches by just leaning over by a hair or two, all thanks to my quick alpha wolf reflexes and my ahem, petite frame.
"Stop! Halt! Cut it out!" Hank tried, but none of it worked. He tried to step in, but there was only one of him, and when he pulled one wolf out of the ring, another would enter. At least our wolves knew to fight fair. No matter who was pulled out, or pushed into the ring, there was always 3 on 3, and me who was just the obstacle they fought around. Oh, and Hank who was still trying to make the whole thing stop.
I bet Hank wished he had his super shrill whistle to blow some sense into us. Or at least Flynn to assist him. Hank was burly and strong. He was a warrior at heart and one of our pack's top trainers, but this was beyond him.
It didn't help when someone (Maybe it was Tim, I don't know why the guy didn't learn to keep his mouth shut), started shouting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
WTH did he think was happening right now?
Anyway, the other guys started chanting it too.
Just when I thought it wasn't going to stop, there was a blaring sound, a hundred times louder and annoying than Hank's training whistle. I thought a steam engine had decided to run amok on the streets. We all stopped and looked to the sound in synchronized shock.
It was our bus. More specifically, it was Mrs Beta who had gotten onto the bus and "borrowed" the horn from the bus driver. The moment the fighting stopped, the blaring sound of the horn stopped too. Mrs Beta stepped down to the bottom step of the bus entrance, hands on her hips, frown on her face, the anger radiating at us through her silence.
Boo smiled widely and waved airily, "Our ride's calling us. Let's play together some other time."
And then Boo tossed her head and headed towards the bus with a swagger I had no idea I owned. My wolves followed quietly, and the fight ring dispersed.
Nix waved and threw me another one of his Broadway sailor salutes when I got up the bus.
"Hello, Alpha."
Oh, it was the old bus driver who drove the feeder bus when I used to take the train to school. I automatically flashed him my usual wide smile, "Hello. Thanks for your hard work."
"No need for thanks. Just doing my job, Alpha." The bus driver said because he was from that generation who was too humble to accept praise and thanks easily.
And then he remarked cheerily, "I see our Alpha is as popular with the young lads as always."
WTH? I bit back my tongue from choking out. Say what?
Ben appeared on cue to place a hand on the small of my back, "Where do you want to sit, Sam?"
And then Dean, who had gotten on behind him cleared his throat and said, "Urm... Ben, can I sit with Sam?"
I dared not turn to see the bus driver's expression.
I walked dumbly over to my usual seat in the feeler and sat.
"Just let me talk to her for a second okay?" Dean was saying.
"Whatever." Ben growled. Ben was in a bad mood. I think the jelly comment had ruffled his feathers. His wolf had been miffed since.
He moved to the back of the bus to join Jonah and the other guys.
"Hi, Jelly." Tim grinned.
"Shut up, Tim." Shannon scolded.
"Yeah, shut up." Drew repeated, but in a more nice guy kind of way, so it didn't scold Tim, just affirmed Shannon.
"Its alright." Jonah tried to comfort his best friend, "If you're Jelly, I will be peanut butter."
"I told you, Jonah, we aren't talking about food!" Lizzy called to the back of the bus from her seat.
I don't know why Lizzy bothered, but I didn't have the frame of mind to enjoy out my gang's tit-for-tat, I was still disturbed by the bus driver's comment. For some reason, it troubled me a bit, okay, it troubled me a lot. It made me sound like a girl version of Henry or something - which I was not!
Did he see Nix's ridiculous overtures? That was just Nix fancying himself as a lady's man. It was nothing to do with me. What did he mean by "as usual"? I tried to think of all the times the bus driver might have seen me.
"Sam? Hey, earth to Sam?" Dean waved his hand in front of my face.
I blinked, "Eh?"
Dean sighed, "You're always like this."
I shook my head to clear it. Although I still can't see whatever the bus driver saw to conclude that I was "popular with the lads as usual", I should just forget about it. Let it go, don't hold it to heart. That was just one bus driver's point of view.
"Can you repeat that?" I turned my attention back to Dean.
"Where should I repeat from?" Dean asked.
"From the beginning, just in case..." I added meekly. Hahaha. Opps.
Dean tsked at me and sighed heavily, "Okay, okay. I really should get used to this by now."
"Used to what?" I asked.
"Did anyone ever tell you, you were a bad listener?" Dean asked me, "You're here, but not here. You keep getting distracted and cutting me off."
Did I?
"But that isn't what I wanted to tell you." Dean said.
It wasn't? Then why was he saying it? Okay, that wasn't nice of me, but I was feeling a little put out at Dean's criticism. You don't see Ki, or Harvey, or Ben ever talking at me like this. Okay, maybe Ben, but Ben talked like this to everyone. Dean seemed to do it just to me. And I never took what Ben said to heart anyway. So why was I taking Dean's words so seriously?
"You're not listening again!" Dean accused. I wouldn't have heard him except that his voice broke suddenly and it was funny. Hahaha.
"Sam, don't laugh. I'm serious here!" Dean scolded.
I stopped laughing, "Okay, what?"
Dean took a deep breath, "I asked Cindy to the Vday dance."
Who's Cindy?
"Okay..." I said, not quite knowing what I was suppose to do with this information.
"Cindy listens when I am talking." Dean told me pointedly.
That was nice to know.
"And she's a super innocent and gentle girl." Dean felt it was important to inform me.
I nodded, "Okay..."
I was still trying to figure out where this "important" conversation was headed. Dean looked very serious. I waited for the "punchline" to be delivered, not that I was taking Dean as a joke, but you know what I mean right? The conversation so far was just the build up to what Dean was trying to say.
"I mean, I know we've always gone to the dance together..." Dean continued.
We went to the dance once.
"But you were the one who asked Harvey first." Dean asserted, "So I asked Cindy."
I nodded dumbly. What was Dean talking about?
"I can't keep waiting for you to make up your mind." Dean told me solemnly, "I tried, goddess knows I tried, but you blow hot and cold, you lend me your jacket, and then you block me out on mindlink. You share your breakfast with me, and then you are too busy to meet me for weeks."
Wait what? Okay, even though I was quite sure I was paying attention to the conversation properly, I must have missed something because I had no idea what Dean was talking about anymore.
"So I just wanted to tell you in person, let's just stay friends from now on." Dean concluded.
"Okay." I nodded. I mean, staying friends was good. I mean, I've always thought we would be friends forever... so we were on the same page, more or less.
"Yeah, okay." Dean nodded, "Whew. That went better than I thought it would."
I nodded. I'm confused. What went better than he thought it would?
And then Dean got up, "Okay, Ben. I'm done. Your turn buddy. Good luck."
Ben raised a brow at him and then sat down heavily next to me, "What the hell was he talking about?"
I shrugged, "I dunno."
All I knew was that I was feeling relieved that Ben was back.
When we first started going to Lycan Study Group, Savy used to be the one who sat with me. Ben would sit with Lizzy. Dean would sit with Drew. That was a long time ago.
Half way through, Savy sat with Lizzy, Ben sat with Jonah, and I sat with Jessica. We did this every time we rode the bus together, not just for Lycan Study Group activities, but even if we went out to town or whatever.
And then, I'm not sure how it happened, but Dean started sitting next to me in middle school. He was my training partner, so I thought that it was just a convenient arrangement.
Technically, today was the first time Ben was sitting next to me, but his presence made me feel strangely safe... safe from the unknown currents of Dean's conversation. Hahaha. Dean had been weird all this year, it was like he suddenly became someone I couldn't get at all. He was Dean, but he was not Dean.
"Sam?" Ben quirked his head to one side, "Sam? Are you alright?"
"Eh?" I blinked, "Did you say something?"
Ben shrugged, "No. But you looked troubled. Did Dean say anything weird to you?"
Yes? No? I had no idea. I decided to borrow my betas' universal tactic to stall, "What do you mean, Ben?"
Hahaha! Nailed it. Now gimme a clue to how to answer you!
"It's nothing." Ben shook his head.
Oh.
And that was the end of our conversation. Like I said, Ben was safe.