17 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, MORNING
From that moment, I began to experience the meaning of discrimination. It's tough being a rogue, even in a "neutral" place like Winderhill.
Maria wrinkled her nose the moment she stepped into the classroom. She covered her nose with a scented laced handkerchief and refused to look at me, just to make sure I knew how much she disapproved my new scent.
Next time I wanted a break from her, I'd just wear this jacket.
My wolf classmates kept making jokes about my smell.
"It smells like baked rotten eggs and tomatoes." Marcus said.
Why? Did he ever bake such a delectable dish?
"Someone open a window." Henry said. Liam and Marcus made a show of airing the classroom.
Even Liam... Of course Liam wouldn't say anything about it directly to me, but he did not hide his amusement and IMAO was a tad too keen to assist.
The other kids laughed, even though they were human, and didn't smell anything. We had become the early morning entertainment.
EJ stepped into the classroom, he was in his uniform, and I felt immediately relieved to see him. But he walked with a limp and had an ankle guard on one foot.
"Phoooey! Did someone cut the cheese?" EJ wrinkled his nose.
Two steps later, EJ eyes widened when he realised where the smell was coming from, he made a dramatic gasp and stumbled back, "Alpha! Nooooo....."
Fluffy caught him from behind before he took more damage. More laughter. How could I forget? EJ was a born entertainer, and had already amassed quite a fanbase in this class.
"What happened to you, man?" Marcus was more concerned about EJ's obvious limp.
"What, this?" EJ lifted his foot, pretending to have just noticed it himself, "Just a little souvenir."
Trust EJ to make a show of everything. He hopped around the classroom to lift his foot above his desk so anyone who was curious could see and sympathise.
I noticed Fluffy slip out of the classroom. He patted EJ on the shoulder in passing. EJ actually stopped clowning for a second to acknowledge it before continuing his show and tell, "My bike got run over by an SUV. It was like vrrrrooooommm... PHREEEEeeee... And zrrrrr... and whromp! And I was DOWN ON THE TARMAC like screeeeexxx!!!"
EJ had a large vocabulary if you counted all the sound effects he could make.
The guys laughed and came over to check out his injury.
"It doesn't look that bad." Henry observed.
"Hoi, scary Alpha, but it huuurts soooo much!" EJ whined. Some of the girls came over too.
EJ welcomed them with a wide smile. The girls giggled. Janice got so excited, she accidentally snorted.
EJ leaned his face closer to her, "Are you okay, pretty friend?"
Janice turned red.
Fluffy returned in his school uniform and quietly sat down in his seat and took out his science text book. Unlike EJ, Fluffy was a very serious student. With their desks side by side like that, the contrast was stark.
"It's trueeee...." EJ pouted, happy to perform to anyone who would lend a ear, "Those photographers were no joke!"
"Oh right." Henry said, "I heard there was an accident earlier. Was that you?"
EJ nodded vigorously, "Hoi! Hoi! Indeed it was me!"
He was so proud of it too.
"They can be persistent." Marcus shook his head, "The week my Alpha got mated they stalked his mate for days. She couldn't eat a sandwich without it being on the local papers."
"It's worse when they get reckless." Henry said shaking his head, "The Lorent alphas suffer the worst from it. There's always some fool who wants to see the famous Lorent Alpha use perform a healing trick."
Wait, so the crazy SUV wasn't for me, but for Bell? Who was driving his signature Lorent white Merc... Come to think of it, Bell driving me to school in his white convertible at the heel of our engagement on the news was pretty much screaming, "Look at me! It's true! See me send my fiancee to school! I'm confirming the news!" Or something to that effect.
A cool breeze blew into our classroom, that was nice. I was glad the weather made it possible to open the windows now. Oh, but the guys reacted like they had been hit by a Tsunami. And it wasn't just EJ that was overacting.
"What the hell, Sam!" Henry growled. Marcus covered his mouth and nose with one hand, and fanned the space in front of him with the other. All the while making coughing noises.
Jasmine used a worksheet to cover her face, "Sam... Why do you smell like a rogue?" She sounded upset for me really.
"Do I?" I grinned. The longer I wore this jacket the less the smell bothered me. So this was what a skunk smelled like.
"Sam... You're polluting the air." Henry complained.
"Yeah." Coughed Marcus.
Come on, man up! How were these two supposed to hunt rogues if they couldnt even deal with a bit of residual stench?
It's not that bad! I'm sure they were exaggerating.
"How do you two put up with her?" Henry growled Fluffy and EJ.
Fluffy looked up from his book with his smiling mask on, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
EJ was more honest, "I don't know, Fluffy. I think anything would smell better."
"You smell worse than s***, Sam." Henry reiterated and then he laughed because he thought he was so funny.
Har har har.
"Sam, I really have to wonder, what did you do to get so hated suddenly." Abigail asked with a laugh, "By all the cool guys too."
Eh? Okay, I knew Henry, Marcus, and Liam were the "cool guys", but Fluffy and EJ too?
Her friends around her laughed.
"They all used to fawn over her all the time too!"
"Maybe they finally see her true colours."
Zara turned and looked worriedly at me. Krystal rapped her table and told her to ignore it. She dropped me a wink before turning back, indicating what? I had no idea.
Mrs Henderson had to step into the classroom at this point because it was time for homeroom. Today we were going to do some extra math lessons again. Just a bit. If we can finish quickly, we would do a bit of homeroom discussion. The class groaned. I hope she didn't make this a habit.
I was never a fan of homeroom, but tbh, it beats extra math lessons anyday.
"It's quite chilly, aren't you kids cold?" Mrs Henderson noticed after going through two questions, "Why are the windows open? It's still winter!"
Oh right. Was this too cold for humans?
Liam and Marcus had to shut the windows now, and then we went back to math, which didn't get finished in 15 minutes. (What were you expecting?) It took all of homeroom.
Mrs Henderson got whiff of the teasing (not the rogue scent) during this time and looked worriedly at me a couple of times. After homeroom, she told me that she was available if I needed someone to talk to.
I blamed the guys - they were completely unsubtle in their approach. When collecting my homework for me, Marcus had to cover his nose and mouth. If I'm so stinky, don't come over! Dummy.
It wasn't just the guys, Maria never kept her lace handkerchief away. She even moved her desk so there was a one inch gap between us - how that would help, I couldn't tell.
But it was pretty fun when Mrs Hen left the class. Everyone was laughing and making smelly Sam jokes. Two guys actually came up with, "Dude, did you fart?"
"No way!"
"Then what's that smell? Oh... It's just Sam."
Cue laughter. And then one of them felt bad and went, "Sorry, just joking."
I laughed, "Its okay since it was funny."
Not all the jokes were funny.
"Smelly Sam! Smelly Sam!" Troy sang.
Yeah, that wasn't funny.
The only kid who didn't laugh was actually Terrence who got angry on my behalf, "What smell?" He actually lumbered over to my desk to get a better sniff, "Sam smells nice!"
"Oh boy." Said Marcus.
Fluffy and EJ were up on their feet immediately. They stepped between Terrence and my desk.
"No, no, you can't sniff at our Alpha like that!" EJ said.
"Some flowers can only be admired from afar." Fluffy explained.
Which wasn't helping matters.
Luckily the next lesson block started.
But smelling like a rogue wasn't all fun a games. When we went for lunch, I realized while walking along the corridors that other wolves would ignore me at first, before sensing alpha or recognizing my hair and do a double take. They would frown and look confuse.
It's like one eye seeing "rogue" and the other eye seeing "alpha". Double vision, very disconcerting.
"Better stick with us, Sam." Henry told me, "They don't shoot rogues here, but they aren't too nice to them either."
Rogues were really the bottom rung.
I decided to buy a cup of fruit from the cafeteria, and while queuing with Marcus, some upperclassmen were fooling around. They decided to cut the queue but weren't quite looking where they cut, so naturally they cut right in front of me, the rogue kid (or so they thought.)
"Grrrrr..." But it was Marcus from behind me. I was too surprised by the cut to react. Plus they had six of them - were all six going to cut the queue together?
"Hey guys, I know it's a long queue, but not in front of us, okay?" Marcus was never the most aggressive wolf.
"Oh, sorry beta." One of the guys realized their mistake, "Didn't know she was with you-" and then he realized his mistake again when he actually looked at me, "Ah, the Alpha Princess. Sorry."
His friends and him hastily stepped back.
I gave them a wide smile, "No harms done, but you should line up like everyone else."
I sweetly released boo, just a bit.
They bowed quickly, "Sorry, yes Alpha." And then they hurried to the back of the line.
Marcus laughed, "I bet they are seriously wondering what's up with your scent."
I shrugged and decided, "I'm doing a social experiment."
Marcus shook his head, "Sam, you're crazy."
Later on, I heard Jasmine trying to explain over lunch to Krystal and the other cool girls that I wasn't being bullied by the guys. There really was a bad smell coming from me, just one that humans couldn't sense.
"Yeah." I confirmed, "I smell like rogue wolf."
{Betas approaching}
Eh? Why Boo? Perhaps she sensed some hostility. Henry sensed it too. He growled at low warning at their approach.
Oh! Jules, Matt, and Bra!
I felt a wide smile pop up on my face.
"Oh." They looked just as surprised, even though they were the ones who were approaching us.
"We, uh, smelled an unfamiliar rogue, and came to investigate." Matt said apologetically.
"That's me!" I raised my hand, "I'm pretending to be a rogue."
"No way." Jules said, and then he laughed, "Sam, that's crazy!"
"That's EXACTLY what I told her." Marcus said.
The guys laughed together like the funniest thing happened.
"Now I've seen it all. An alpha pretending to be a rogue." Bra said.
"You mean you've smelled it all." Jules took a shot.
We all laughed.
"It's interesting. Wolves treat rogue really badly here." I said.
"Most people wouldnt need to try it to know, Sam." Jules told me, "But of course you aren't most people."
"I guess you're not going to tell us why either." Matt said wryly.
"It's a long story." I agreed, "Let's not waste time."
"Better be careful when you get home." Jules worried, "That rogue scent is pretty legit."
That's because it was.
"I don't know..." Bra sniffed the air - at a respectful distance of course, "Smells kind of fishy to me."
Which earned him more laughter.
"What the hell, Sam." Henry said when the upperclassmen left.
"I seriously thought you were going to get into trouble." Jasmine sighed relieved.
"Only Sam can get away with this kind of thing." Marcus shook his head.
"My alpha is amazing like that." Fluffy felt he had to add.
EJ and Liam returned from football for a break. EJ had taken to footballing with Liam, and no matter how much he had claimed injury earlier today, it did not stop him from chasing the ball. Then again, nothing could stop football, not even the power of love - which when applied on Liam only kept him off the field for about a day and a half.
"What happened?" Liam checked on Jasmine. He leaned closer to Jasmine, just a little bit, and then patted her on the head. She beamed at him and looked blissfully happy. Wow. So this was what love looked like.
I hoped I never fall in love. Oh wait, too late. Well, then I hope I would never make that kind of sappy goofy face at Bell.
"What did the other betas want?" EJ hadn't seemed to notice the sweet reunion of Liam and Jasmine.
"They were just checking where the bad smell was coming from." Henry said.
"Dope!" Marcus face palmed suddenly, "I just realised we have to live with this stink all through theatre practice today too."
Henry groaned, "F***."
Really that was uncalled for!
Then Henry said, "Please Sam, I beg you. Go take a shower and change out."
"Whimp." I said.
Henry growled, "Sam you stink. Go wash!"
I flared, "You're not the boss of me!"
"I'm this close to smacking you." Henry warned.
My two not-bodyguards stood up to block, but I waved them down and gave Henry my wide smile, "I dare you try."
I was really getting into it too. Fighting with Henry sounded like fun, but then Henry suddenly stopped with a shake of his head, "Not today, Sam. I can't afford to get sucked into another one of your games. My inauguration is this Saturday, and you're a tabloid magnet right now."
Oh, so now he's the sensible one?
"Well, I wasn't going to play with you anyway!" I retorted, folding my arms and tossing my head.
But in the interest of everyone's nasal comfort, I took a very quick shower before lunch ended. This meant I didn't have time to walk Maria to look at her Dino, but I believe she would be happy if she could put down her lace handkerchief too.
I had never been so despised in my life as I was in a jacket that smelled like rogue. It was a tough life. Haha, okay, I know... My experience as a rogue was like only dress up, and with my friends around, it was more of a joke than anything else.
But even so, a tiny seed of awareness sprouted in my heart - how it was the little things in the daily interactions that could make life that much tougher for someone.
I didn't know.