Havre High School,
After finishing her breakfast in 5 minutes, Arya had to beg her grandmother to drop her at school. It was the only way she could make it in time for the assembly.
And although she grumbled and kicked up a fuss, she later agreed to drop her off.
Barely making it in time for the assembly, she met with Sylvia on her way back to class.
"Ary!"
Turning her head to answer to the call of her name, Arya saw Sylvia jogging towards her.
"Ary, thank you so much for yesterday. You're a life saver." Sylvia panted slightly.
Arya was about to say that she didn't need to thank her when she heard a very annoying voice.
"Yeah Arya! Thanks for yesterday." Matt said as he walked towards Arya and Sylvia with Kevin in tow.
When Arya turned to face him, Matt offered her a playful wink while Kevin flashed a smile before sauntering past them.
As the girls watched them walk into the classroom, Sylvia pulled Arya's arm and asked,
"Ary, what are they talking about?"
"It's nothing Sylvia. Don't worry about it."
"Okay. Thanks once again."
The only thing Arya could do in response was nod her head with a stiff smile whilst thinking of the ordeal she went through the day before as she walked with Sylvia into the class.
Now, everything was fine and school was going smoothly.
She thought someone was going to call her to ask about what happened yesterday because although she didn't leave a name it didn't mean that she couldn't be recognized.
However, it was the lunch period and still nothing. Not even a call from Ms. Elis.
So Arya relaxed her nerves and ate her meal comfortably with her classmates.
Sixth period,
The bell rang to mark the end of the lunch break and the start of another period.
Arya walked leisurely to class and sat down to prepare herself for the next teacher. As she brought out her textbook for the class, she had this nagging feeling that she was forgetting something but couldn't quite place it.
The teacher that had the period walked into class cutting Arya from her thoughts as she led the class in greeting him.
"Good day Sir!"
"Good day class. Hope you brought your textbooks today? Those without their textbooks should please step out."
Class began.
It was few minutes into the class when Arya heard a low rumble behind her making her snap her eyes wide open in shock as she realized what it was that she had forgotten.
'Damn it!'
"Who was that?" the teacher asked as he turned from the board to face the class.
When he noticed all the students were eyeing the class president, he rose an eyebrow.
"Arya, do you care to explain what is going on?"
With all eyes on her, Arya stood up slowly from her seat as she quickly thought of a lie.
"Its..it's my…tummy! Yes, it's my tummy, sir." Arya enounced with her palm on her stomach as she tried to make her lie more believable.
'Sigh…it was all that wolf's fault!' Arya thought in distaste.
She had finished her breakfast this morning and begged her Nana to drop her off at school when Amaris approached her after her Nana left the room.
"Can I follow you to your school?" Amaris asked, his blue eyes shining in anticipation only to be doused by the only Debby Downer in his life.
"What?! No!" Arya refused with a firm shake of her head.
"Huh? Why?" he asked clearly confused. She was the one who said they'd try opening the portal again today so why was she refusing.
"You can't follow me to school. It would be too hard to explain where you came from or who you are." Arya voiced as she went for her school bag.
Swinging her bag over her shoulder, Arya walked to the door.
"Besides where are you going to stay if you followed me? The girl's bathroom? Heh..you'll be sent to…"
"I'll stay in your bag." Amaris said causing Arya to turn back and look at him in shock.
Glancing up the stairs, she speedwalked to Amaris's side and scolded in a fierce whisper, "You want to stay in my bag till after school? Are you nuts? What if you ran out of air? Look, I don't want any wolf police after me okay?"
'Wolf police? What's that? Anyways…'
"Don't worry I won't die in your bag. Thanks for your care though." He said, flashing a toothy smile at Arya, totally ignoring her scoldings.
Arya felt like she was talking to a brick wall. It was like all the darts she threw at him just bounced and dropped on the floor as she watched Amaris change into the adorable animal she saw yesterday.
She was still contemplating whether to help him or not but when she heard her grandma's voice, she didn't need to be told before she carried little Amaris off the floor and quickly placed him in her bag.
She brought him all the way to school and then forgot about him entirely. Now because of that she also forgot about feeding him which was obviously the cause of the rumble the entire class heard now.
She couldn't believe she had to take the blame for this! It was so embarrassing!
"I think I ate the wrong thing at lunch today." Arya continued, feigning a frown.
"Okay. Sorry about that. If you feel uncomfortable, you can go to the nurse's office." The teacher said slightly worried. He didn't know a human stomach could make a sound just like that.
"No sir, I'm fine. Thank you." Arya replied with a stiff smile.
"Alright if you say so. You can have your seat." The teacher said.
Arya sat down with relief thinking it was over, till a low rumble echoed around the class, longer this time around. Causing a lot of chuckles, snorts and giggles in the class.
"Miss Jenkins. Are you sure you're…alright?" the teacher asked once again, clearly disturbed.
"Yes sir I'm fine." Arya replied with a stiff expression on her face only to hear from the back.
"Are you sure? Cause it felt like thunder struck in here." The sentence made the whole class erupt with laughter.
It was Matt.
"No, more like an elephant on parade." This also made the class go wild but was brought back to normal by two knocks on the door.
Raising their heads, everyone saw their homeroom teacher, Ms Elis, standing with textbooks in her grasp by the door. It was obvious she came from a class to check on them after hearing their noise.
"May I know what's causing the ruckus?" she asked as she looked around the class.
"It's nothing Miss Elis. The kids and I just shared a joke." The teacher came to the rescue of the students who had gone dumb in fright.
Scanning each student in class like a lion surveying the lands for its prey, Elis enunciated,
"There's no problem in sharing a joke but could you please tone it down? You are not the only students in this school. I must not come here again on this account. Understood?"
"Yes Ms. Elis." They all answered including the teacher who couldn't help but feel small under his colleague's aura.
"Good." Ms. Elis voiced before she turned to face the teacher.
"So sorry for disturbing your class, you may continue." She said with a small smile before walking away, the click clack of her heels hot on her tail.
"Okay! Back to our lesson. Please open your textbooks to page 42. Fiona, please read the passage for us. We'll handle this before carrying out the exercise on the board..."
And that was how everyone magically forgot about Arya's bubbly tummy. A feat only the great Ms. Elis could pull.
As Arya thanked her homeroom teacher again and again in her mind, she silently prayed that Amaris's stomach wouldn't do any of its stunts again till she gave him something to eat. There were still some snacks in her school bag.
Amaris on the other hand, who was snuggled in Arya's bag couldn't be any redder at the moment.
This was the greatest humiliation he had faced since the day he was born.
*****
"Hold me tight…" came a deep baritone male voice.
"Okay." A crisp female voice replied.
"Raise your legs.."
"Like this?"
"Yes. Now I'll put this in here."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course, trust me."
"Would it hurt? It's my first time doing this."
"No it won't."
The back and forth conversation of a man and a woman in a bathroom could bring anyone's imagination alive if there was any present.
However, to the two engrossed in their own world, the conversation was completely normal.
It was already the close of school but Arya didn't want to waste time in here like she did the previous day so immediately the bell rang, she ran to the bathroom on her floor with her school bag and locked the main entrance.
Slightly in awe about how the burnt door had been fixed, she threw that to the back of her mind and released Amaris from her school bag. Searching through her bag, she brought out some snacks and offered them to the already morphed Amaris.
"I'm really sorry about today Miss Arya."
"It's okay. It was my fault anyway. Eat quickly so we can get this over with before we arouse suspicion."
Grabbing the snacks, Amaris munched on them quickly regaining his vitality and calming his raging stomach. Then they immediately began Amaris's strange ritual to open a portal.
"Are you sure this is going to work, Sir Amaris?"
"…Not really. But the least I can do is try." Amaris said as he and Arya held hands with their legs slightly apart and a candle lit in front of the toilet bowl.
Arya couldn't believe she was doing this but she decided to cooperate.
If this weird ritual could send the wolf back to his world then she'll take it!
Plus he said it won't in any way hurt her so it was a double take for her.
"Close your eyes Miss Arya." He said, to which she quickly followed suit.
She heard him murmur some lines and she squeezed her eyes shut even more while saying a prayer of her own. 'Please open dear portal!'
Few minutes passed but nothing happened. Arya was tempted to open her eyes but she didn't want to ruin the ritual so she kept it closed.
Suddenly, the lit candle went off with a wisp and Amaris stumbled dragging Arya along with him as they both fell on the bathroom floor.