17th February, 1970-
Today was a success.
Laura and I met at the coffee shop when she was done with school, just as we planned. I arrived slightly earlier, remembering Mother Gertrude's famous saying, 'Early is on time and on time is late'. Laura rushed in at exactly 4pm and on sighting me, came to the table.
"Sorry I'm late" she said, trying to catch her breath.
"You're not" I checked my watch. "It's exactly 4"
"Yeah, on time is late"
A ghost of a smile played on my lips, seeing that we had the same notion on punctuality- and that she actually wanted to be punctual for our date.
I assessed her dressing. She wore a purple and white plaid dress with a denim jacket over it. Her hair was packed into a messy ponytail with a hair band of the same plaid material. No make-up (not like she needs any).
"You look very nice" I said, now looking into her eyes.
She smiled genuinely. "Thank you"
I felt her eyes drift over me from head to where the table blocked the rest of me from view.
"You don't look too bad either" she finally said. "You got a trim"
Reflexly, my hand found the line from my cheek to my chin and I scratched the stubble. "Yeah… I didn't want to… I mean, I wanted to look more…" I sighed and changed tactic. "It was about to reach the government limit either way so I decided to just save myself the trouble"
Laura looked at me sympathetically and I knew at once that I hadn't been able to fool her.
"I'm not terrified of you, you know," she said, "and I don't need you to look more human. I don't need you to change yourself"
"I never said anything about that," I defended. "The government mandates we get a trim every three months and it was almost time for me to…"
She gave me this no nonsense look and I immediately dropped the act. I sighed.
"It's just that you're the first human girl that's ever agreed to go out with me and I just… well, I don't know, I didn't want anything to go wrong"
To my pleasant surprise, she reached out and placed her hand on top of mine. "To be honest, I preferred you with the fur; right now, you look like a pre-pubescent boy who glued some hair on his cheeks to look like a man," she chuckled, "much like the guys in my school"
"Maybe cut them some slack; we mature much faster than human boys"
"No, I'm talking about boys of your kind. They aren't allowed to grow out their fur"
I won't lie, it hurt when she said 'boys of your kind' but I chose not to dwell on it. She's still a human, humans never know any better.
"You go to an integrated school?" I asked
Werewolves aren't allowed admission into just any school. We have our own special schools, separate from those of the humans; poorly funded and poorly attended anyway- most werewolf parents don't see the need, it's not like we can get a job, even with an education. However, some affluent werewolf families, the ones that are fortunate enough to rub shoulders with the humans in power insisted that their children- yes, just theirs- could not possibly go to such run down schools, so the government mandated that every district should have at least one integrated school: human schools that could admit werewolves, provided the parents could pay the werewolf tuition fee, more than double of what the humans had to pay.
"Yeah, Grigg's High," she responded. "You know it?"
Of course. It's only the most prestigious school in the city. I didn't even know they had gone integrated; whatever werewolves that went there must be from the few families directly in government.
"I've heard of it" I said dismissively.
Laura looked at me like she was expecting a different reaction. Finally, she shrugged. "Yeah, what about you? What school?"
"An unimportant special school in Brawick" I replied, disinterested. "You won't know it"
My date sat straighter. "Try me. Is it Greenwood High on Travail Street?"
My eyes lit up in surprise. "So you do know it"
"Of course. Every school is important, whether 'normal', 'special' or 'integrated'" she air-quoted the words.
I snickered. "Tell that to the fuckers in government" I said under my breath but she heard me, because then she bit out sharply, "I will" like I had struck a nerve.
Her outburst brought in an awkward silence. I decided to change topics.
"I'm a horrible host," I said, "I didn't even ask if you wanted to order anything"
I signalled for a waiter who, I noticed, decided to attend to all the humans first before reluctantly coming over.
I asked for an iced latte while Laura asked for a rainbow strawberry pop. We decided to share a box of cupcakes.
We talked about different things as we munched: she told me about the curriculum at her school, which I replied with how different it was from mine; she told me about her extra-curriculars (model UN, chess and lacrosse), which I replied with a story of how we once had a flee problem at Greenwood; she told me that she wanted to be a lawyer and fight for the 'good cause', which I replied with I wanted to be a scientist.
I'm glad to say that we have quite a few things in common: we both love to read and we both wish to explore the world someday. We are both nerds and winter is our favourite season.
We were talking about her brief stint in child pageantry when an insistent horn blare from outside the coffee shop disrupted us.
"Damn it, just park somewhere else" I said to nobody in particular and Laura chuckled for a split second before realization settled.
"Wait, that actually sounds like my ride" she glanced up at the wall clock and her eyes widened. "That's most definitely my ride" she gathered her things and got up. "My dad told the chauffeur to pick me up at 6. It's 6.08"
I got up and accompanied her out, everything we had had already paid for. "I'm sorry I kept you"
"No, it's fine" she smiled genuinely. "I enjoyed my time, that's why I lost track of it"
I gasped when I saw the car waiting outside: a black Camaro Z28. The chauffeur wound down the passenger seat window and spoke.
"We're running late, Miss Cresson" he said in a slight French accent.
"Just a second, sir" Laura replied and turned to me. "I have a shift at the shop tomorrow, we could meet again"
I nodded absentmindedly, my mind suddenly making a connection. "Wait, you're Miss Cresson? Like the daughter of Mr. Cresson?"
"I guess that's a logical conclusion"
I was completely taken aback. "Your dad's the commissioner for education. Why didn't you tell me?"
She smiled and shrugged. "You didn't ask"
She moved past me to the car and was about to get in when I held her back.
"I'm sorry I called your dad a fucker" I whispered, making sure the chauffeur couldn't hear.
"It's okay" she gently shrugged my hand off, opened the car door and got in. "With everything you told me about your school, maybe he is one" she smiled. It eased my tension.
"So I'll see you tomorrow, Jaren?"
There's nothing else I'd rather do.