The next morning was an absolute sulk fest. Once I had dressed and emerged from my room I didn't once glance at my father who was in the kitchen going about his usual routine like normal. Avery had already left with Ben to go to school like always but last night I had spent hours contemplating whether or not to tell her what Landon had said. Eventually, I decided against it. She wouldn't take it well.
"Aylin, it's time to go." Daniel barked from the hall that was outside our extravagant living room. He had shown up right on time. I got up from where I had been sulking on the couch and made my way out to the hall.
"Do I seriously have to show up with all of you?" I whined. Daniel nodded. My father had sent Daniel, Jeremy, and Marcus to accompany Max while taking me to and from school.
"Only till we get within the school then we have our own classes we still have to attend. We will escort you from class to class though." He explained. I groaned. How embarrassing.
"Lucky me." I breathed bitterly. When I grabbed my backpack and made it outside, Marcus, Jeremy, and Max were already in the car. I hopped in and took to staring out the window as we exited the drive and made our way towards town.
"You know if you want to talk about-" Max began but I shook my head so fast I felt a small start of whiplash.
"It's not healthy to bottle up such a big thing like that," Jeremy said.
"Very true. You'll just drive yourself mad." Daniel agreed. Marcus was usually incredibly quiet so it wasn't surprising when he just nodded in agreement rather than speak.
"I'm fine." I sighed. Max didn't seem convinced and neither did anybody else.
"I just don't understand why." I spent a lot of time digging around my head for old memories trying to see if I could have figured out the piece of info earlier. But absolutely nothing.
"Hey, we didn't know either," Jeremy said. "My mom didn't even know. However, I heard her talking to my father earlier and he seemed to have his suspicions. So, not everyone alive when your mother met your father knows." He explained. I sighed. Great, a good amount of the adults in the pack could potentially know.
"What's so bad being half-human anyway?" Max shrugged. I knew he was trying to cheer me up which made my mood brighten a tiny bit. But it was a law made by the council for a reason. If a human did conceive a baby with a half-wolf the baby has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the gene that allowed them to shift. I could have not even been able to shift at all. So, River Pack was concerned about me marrying Noah and having human kids? That didn't make sense. Why would they care? And if River Pack knew then so did the council right? My father broke the law so why wasn't he punished for it?
"Uh, Max I think you just scared her." Jeremy pointed at me making me glare at him and swat at his finger.
"I'm just thinking." I breathed rubbing my temples trying to feel normal again. We pulled into the school parking lot. Thank god. I needed to get out of that pity-filled car.
"Aylin, wait!" Max called when I sprinted out the door. I made it to the entrance to the school and stopped to wait for the guys to catch up.
"You can't run off from us." Max grabbed my wrist making me roll my eyes.
"Why not? It's not like there are any River Pack students." I pointed out.
"It doesn't matter. What if Owl Pack found out too?" Jeremy said flanking me on my left. I sighed loudly. This was going to be a long day.
We walked the halls to my first class. I tried to ignore the human students' expressions who were very confused and the Shade and Owl Pack students who at least didn't look completely taken aback by my entourage of guys following me. The boys tried not to look like bodyguards by talking to each other nonchalantly and still acting like we were just a group of friends which I was thankful for. But they were still too close to me. They made sure no students could so much as bump me. It was pretty excessive.
I let out a huge sigh of relief as they dropped me at my first class leaving just Max and me to head into the classroom in peace. I walked to my usual spot with Max following close behind.
"You don't have to sit by my desk now. Go by your friends." I told him.
"Sorry, not gonna happen. Plus I felt like gossiping with you today." He shrugged. I rolled my eyes.
"Well, I wasn't telling you I was ordering you." I tried. He flashed a dimpled grin.
"Uh-huh. Well, I don't take orders from you yet." He laughed. I hissed in annoyance and plopped down in my seat. Max took the seat next to me which was usually empty. Some whistles and whooping could be heard from the front of the room where Max's friends were looking at him proudly. Ugh.
Max shook his head at them earning a lot of laughs and more whooping. I buried my head between my arms wanting to disappear. The bell rang and the teacher arrived and launched into our first lesson quickly. I tried not to fall asleep the whole period with Max elbowing me to keep me awake. Once the dismissal bell rang I jumped to my feet. I couldn't believe I had to do this for eight more periods.
We walked out into the hall where Jeremy, Marcus, and Daniel were already waiting. They took me to my next class which was Military History. This time Max waved and left with the others to head to their classes and I was finally left by myself. I headed into the room feeling a bit tired again when I noticed the lights were off. The projector was on casting the room in a bluish glow. We were watching a movie today.
"AYLIN!" I jumped from where I had taken my seat to see Holly glaring from the doorway. Other students had entered and looked just as startled by Holly's loud greeting.
"Hi," I said as she made her way to me.
"You didn't meet me at our locker!" She pouted. Her pale skin and emerald green eyes made her look like a pretty porcelain doll, especially in the dim lighting. Her wavy black hair was cut a little above her shoulders with two braids that ran down the front framing her face perfectly.
"I'm sorry," I said. I had completely forgotten I met her at locker 147 every day before second period. Well to my credit she was absent yesterday and a lot of random days before that. I never knew when she was gonna be at school half the time. She was the only human friend that I had allowed myself to get close to. I had met her at the end of freshman year and I realized I'd never missed our little locker meetings before.
"Yeah, well you're forgiven. Those bags under your eyes look like they got to you first. I'm guessing Daddy Dearest was hard on you again?" She asked. She knew about my dad being strict. Which was the excuse I gave for never being able to go to her house but she didn't realize how close she was this time. I settled for a nod touching the space under my eyes where I had bags apparently. Lovely.
"I guess I didn't get a lot of sleep doing school work," I said changing the subject from my father. She sighed.
"Ayli, Ayli, Ayli, you work too hard." She tsked using her nickname for me. I glared at her jokingly. She barely did school work so she always made fun of me for doing too much. Too much as in any at all.
"You're right. I should drop out and try the circus." I suggested. Holly laughed flashing her bright smile. I wished I could get closer to her but soon I'd be living on the other side of town. As Noah's wife. I'd have to make the rest of junior and senior year count.
"You okay? You look like you're gonna blow chunks on Braden's back. Which I am so for by the way because he's wearing his horrible Patriots shirt today which deserves some Aylin barf."
"Shut up, Holly." Braden spat turning around. He glared at Holly making me cover my smile with my hand. He was on the school's lacrosse team making him a rival of Holly who hates all the cocky school athletes.
"Oh, I'm sorry did I interrupt you trying to daydream?" She stuck out her bottom lip trying to look sympathetic. I rolled my eyes noticing our teacher, Mr. Kendal, entering the classroom. He closed the door and clapped his hands gathering our attention.
"Today, we are watching a movie on WWII. No talking. No messing around. I want you all to take notes." The students around me began to groan, myself included, as I reached for my notebook. I waited for the movie to start ignoring Holly and Braden's glare fest intent on getting some sleep this period.
I nodded off to sleep my head buried in my arms knowing Holly would cover for me if Mr. Kendal were to notice.