"Of course, you'd get Uncle Art! He's super good at his job. He loves being a teacher, so he always puts his best foot forward. He's just like Grandpa and has his sense of humor. Let me guess, he loves a good dad joke, right?" Liona gushed as she started walking to avoid a coming group of students. He followed her absentmindedly as he tried to process what she said.
"You called Mr. Edevane, Uncle Art? Is that some kind of unofficial title for cool teachers?" He found himself asking.
"Nope. He's actually my uncle! Uncle Artemis is probably the coolest teacher, next to my Aunt Emma. But they teach at separate schools, so I guess you wouldn't know that about my Aunt."
Before Erik could respond to Liona's statement, he heard another group of kids coming, and they were talking loudly about some private school snob that was allowed to break the rules. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the private school snob was none other than Liona.
"Look! There's that snobby Lion! Aww, look at the pathetic crumb she's talking to! Hey Lion! You want a real man, how about me?! I'm much more than that scrawny alpha wannabe!" One of the students called out.
This hurt. He wasn't an alpha wannabe, he was an alpha, but since he hadn't presented, word had gotten around the school that he was just pretending and was really a beta. But they referring to Liona like they did, sparked something inside him that he never thought he would feel over someone that wasn't his sister. Anger. He was angry on her behalf. He didn't know if she was single or in a relationship, and it had never mattered to him, since he originally never intended to get involved with her life. But they were friends now, and she didn't deserve to be treated like a piece of meat. Especially not by these boys that were nothing but assholes asking for trouble.
"Hey! That's not cool! It doesn't matter if you're an alpha, omega, or even a beta. We're all equal, except it seems that you three boys didn't get the message! For the record, I would NEVER date pathetic excuses for boys like you, let alone whether you were an alpha or not. And the name's not Lion. It's Liona. Grow up and learn some manners before you start puffing out your chests and acting like gorillas in mating season!" This stunned Erik. She was quite capable of standing up for herself, and did she just subtly stand up for him too?
"Hah! Even her name means Lion! She's a Lion through and through! That name just proves it! What? You gonna pull rank on us again and use your name to get your way? Look around, there are no teachers left to let you strut around our school like a Lion in heat!" The boys taunted right back.
Erik could see the anger on Liona's face and her body language backed that up, however, she didn't lash out. Instead, she calmly looked each of the boys in the eye and did something. He wasn't sure what, but she might have been releasing her pheromones. In turn, each of the students that had confronted them looked like they had been slapped across the face with a thorny branch. They seemed to tuck their proverbial tails between their legs and run off, after that.
"Are you okay? I hope you didn't take their words seriously. They are just jealous and sore losers that my school sports teams beat their teams quite soundly this year. Every sport we had our rivalry game with them in, they lost. It was quite an epic year for my school, and it's never happened in its history before, so many at this school think it was a complete fluke. Oh, and I'm sorry for releasing my pheromones like that, I didn't mean to get you stuck in the crossfire."
Erik continued to be stunned by Liona. She was a fierce kind of girl and didn't take anyone's shit. She called out bad behavior calmly and didn't let the words of others get to her. He felt his stomach flutter a little before he realized that he was fawning over her in his head, no different from those boys, seeing her as an omega, rather than a person.
Looking at his feet, hoping to hide his flushed face, he replied quietly, "It's alright. What they said was true. I'm not really a full alpha. I couldn't really tell that you were even producing pheromones, let alone using them to send a message…" He felt so embarrassed admitting that.
"That's nothing to be ashamed of! Everyone develops differently, and sometimes there are people that are really late bloomers. It's not unheard of to present later in life. Science backs that up, as our bodies are waiting for the right trigger. Not all of us present at the same age, and that's okay. My Aunt Noel says that when the time is right and those that get exposed to the right trigger will naturally present when that happens. It's really kind of fascinating how she studies this stuff for a living."
Erik smiled at Liona, even though he was looking at his feet. She really had this way of making him feel better about some of his insecurities, and she didn't even know it. When he looked up as they were walking, he happened to glance at a clock in the breezeway they were passing through. "Crap! Oh, no, no, NO! I'm late for the bus! I'm going to be late for work!!!" He started to panic as he tried to remember when the next bus came and how long it would take if he started walking to work now.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry for keeping you! If you had said something earlier, I wouldn't have kept nattering on as I did! Let me make it up to you. I'll take you to work so that way you won't be late. Okay?"
He couldn't quite comprehend what Liona was saying. She was again apologizing to him, when it wasn't even her fault, and she was offering to give him a ride to work?!
"Where is your work this afternoon, and when are you due to start your shift? I'll drive you." She prompted him again.
"Oh! Uh, um. The fast-food place is this afternoon. I start at 2:30 pm and get off at 5 pm." Erik found himself answering.
"Oh! Then we have plenty of time. It'll only take about 10 minutes to get there from here. We have a little less than half an hour before we need to leave. In the meantime, I need to see my uncle again, before I take you, so let's head over to the sports field. He's currently coaching the girls' soccer team." Liona explained as she motioned for him to follow her as she seemed to be trying to figure out how to get back to the sports field.
"Uhm. Alright. It's actually faster if we go this way…" Erik snapped out of his stupor for a second and pointed to another intersecting T of the breezeway.
When they got to the field, he saw Mr. Edevane calling out plays to the girls on the field, coaching a couple on how to perform a couple of easy footwork drills, as well as keeping up with the older more experienced girls as they ran through a practice. He was sure that Mr. Edevane was a man that wore many hats, since he taught health and PE and was also the soccer coach, he found out. He turned to see them approaching, so he blew his whistle and called a break to the girls, so they could rest, before turning to them.
"So? Did you get a good look around the school? See your fill?" Mr. Edevane asked, before he quirked an eyebrow at him before he smiled his goofy smile at Liona.
"Yeah, but I had to put a group of guys in their place. I taught them a lesson, but I doubt they learned anything from it. So, just in case, could you look into them? They might be bullying other students, from the sounds of it." Erik listened as she rattled off their descriptions to Mr. Edevane.
"Alright, I know the three you're talking about. It seems that the boys soccer team has too much time on their hands and needs a few more drills to keep them busy. I'll take care of it, Liona. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. So, who do we have here? A new friend of yours?"
"Yup! This is Erik, Uncle Art. He's pretty awesome! Did you know that he's also really good at soccer? He totally managed to pull off a pro move the first day I met him! He prevented a rogue play from hitting me at the park a couple of weeks ago. I kept running into him with Chloe and Alli, so now we're friends. Anyway, I was wondering if you have any room on the boys' soccer team for him if he wants to try out?"
Erik could hardly believe that she was praising him for his basic soccer skills. He just liked to kick the ball around. Sure, he would love to be on a sports team, but that was impossible.