Morning was hard, I woke up naked, alarm blaring Yankee doodle almost directly in my ear.
I smacked it off only to realize I was gonna be late as hell, and today's Tuesday which means I cannot miss this lecture, so after running a brush through my thick wavy blonde hair, slapping some lotion on my face, then finding some dark blue jeans that looked half way decent to match my sky blue pack university sweatshirt, class of 2023, I was running late, no time for breakfast I shoved my feet in my shoes and bolted out the front door.
Dad was shouting something at me but I couldn't miss the bus it was a 2hr walk to the university from here.
Thankfully I made it too the bus stop just as it was pulling up, I spotted melody standing in the line to board and she gave me a wave and a warm smile.
"Hey girllll" melody drew out the l in girl which made me and Nissa laugh, as she looped her arm through mine and we boarded the bus.
"I swear Essie one day!, one day I will get a car!" melody sang dramatically, as she flopped to the booth.
"Then no more bus" she sighed gazing longingly out the window.
I playfully smacked her arm,
"Melly your so dramatic"
Melody was a beautiful girl super curly brown hair she styled in an afro, she has dark sun kissed skin, a heart shaped face with gold eyes and boy was she tall, Melly was the captain of of university's all girl basketball team, but I think she would make a fantastic movie star.
"So Essie let me see it" melody squeaked holding out her hands towards me, it took me a second to figure out what she wanted and when I did I was heartbroken, in my sketchbook I had been working on a portrait of Mellys mom who passed before she moved to our pack, and thank you my dad it was gone,
"So about that, dad found it and destroyed my whole book" I cringed at the word watching the smile fall off her face.
"Oh... it's okay Ess when your a rich and famous artist you can just make me another one" she said trying to comfort me, god she was just too good for this place.
By the time we made it too school my stomach was cramping with hunger pains, it was so bad even Nissa was complaining.
"Girl we got to get some food in you" Melody said pulling me along, I was blushing brightly I couldn't believe it was so loud she could hear it, how embarrassing.
But meals could definitely wait, getting to the classroom was way more important. this was supposed to be a life changing presentation.
"Butttt I'm starving" Nissa complained loudly in my head.
"Stop whining" I argued back at her.
I noticed melody had stopped and was giving me an odd look, oh my god did I say that out loud?
"You okay Ess?? you look like ur gonna toss your stomach" concern laced every word.
"Yeah just hungry" I replied awkwardly.
"Are you sure..? you know there's always food in the cafeteria" melody offered
"No thanks I don't want it" I shook my head "You should go ahead and eat though" i added,
"Alright, I'll catch you after class" Melody smiled then rushed away towards the cafeteria.
My stomach let out a hungry growl which was starting to make me regret not joining her.
Quickly I made my way through the quad it was almost 8:26 and I needed to be seated at 8:30, I rounded the corner and started up the wide granite steps to the architectural master piece that was the art history building,
With it's twin wolf statues at it's entrance and it's large looming stone Columns that held decorated archways.
Normally I would stop and sketch the old building but I only have minutes to get to the lecture.
As I approached my classroom an extra sweet smell tickles my nose, vanilla and licorice.
But as soon as I went and found a seat the smell was gone.
The whole circular amphitheater was almost full so I took a seat towards the back, I didn't like the feeling of people on either side of me, I'm pretty sure it's result of all my training.
Our professor was busy setting up for our guest lecturer.
"Hans Hartman, architect and structural engineer, plus a major art history nerd and a personal friend of mine, please class give him a warm welcome" Mr.Dagner exclaimed, I watched as a tall red headed man who looked not much older then me emerged from the side bottom left door, he wore gray slacks with black leather loafers and a red sweater vest with a button down white collar shirt.
"That smell?" Nissa stirring in my head questioned.
He smelled so good, the faint scent of vanilla and licorice mixed with something else I couldn't place,
Nissa was doing some kind of happy dance in my head, I couldn't figure out what got her gears going.
"Nissa calm down, you're going to make me jump out of my seat" I spoke with a growl.
"Okay guys, like Mr.Dagner sad I'm Hans, and it wonderful to meet you" his voice was light and sweet, but when he said the last word he looked right up into my eyes holding my gaze.
I couldn't make myself look away, Hans broke eye contact first, I felt in a daze and suddenly felt eyes on me and when I looked around every she-wolf in the room was staring daggers at me.
"So first things first, what do you want to be when you grow up?" he said with a laugh, hands shot up and one after another people answered him, I wanna be a painter, I wanna be an architect, I wanna be in art restoration, someone said I wanna be miss Hartman and the class filled with giggles.
"And what about you? quiet girl in the back?" he looked right over to me, I pointed my finger back at myself as if to say, do you mean me??.
"Yes you, what's your name and what do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked again.
"Oh well I'm Essie Clint, Beta, and well when I grow up and get away from here I want to just be an artist in general do a bit of everything" i rambled on while blushing.
Hans smiled again "Well Essie, I think you can do anything you put your mind to" he winked,
The class erupted in laughter, the boys were laughing, giant meat heads.
The rest of the lecture was very informative and interesting, I loved every moment of it, my favorite part was watching Hans excitement when he was talking about his passion, I even found out that he and his company designed and built or pack house.
The hour few by, I didn't want it to end.
"Alright class that concludes our guest lecture today, if you have any questions please feel free to come ask Mr.Hartman, I know he would be very happy to chat" Mr Danger said loudly to everyone.
We all filed out and I stood in line waiting to talk to hans, I tried to ignore my stomach growling and ignored it until I could approach him.
A large gaggle of girls had formed around him, they were like a hungry pack of hyenas and Hans was a fresh kill.
It was disgusting to me, but if I'm honest with myself I wasn't much better as I waited to see him, just to speak with him.
The line felt like if was endless, I started to feel light headed my saliva was getting think on my tongue, my vision was blurry and I couldn't blink it away.
"Hey Essie I don't think we should have waited so long to eat, we haven't had food since yesterdays lunch" Nissa said sounding echoed and far away, shit she was right I thought, I was going down, I felt myself moving but I hadn't moved, and then I was on the floor my cheek pressed to the scratchy rug. The last thing I saw was a red haired blur running to me, I could hear shouting but by then I was out cold.