AAP

"I heard you almost got killed by the Melroses."

Kat and I turned around to see our friend, Christopher, who had just taken a seat next to Kat. We were in the school hall, where everyone was gathering for our assembly. We had our assembly every Monday of the week to get briefed on anything important that was happening in the school.

Kat leaned back on the chair she sat on, putting her feet up on the chair in front of her. She had long enough legs to comfortably do such things. And we did have a lot of room in the back roll. People tend to steer clear of the outcasts. 

"I think you mean they almost got their butts handed to them." She threw an arm over my shoulder. "Cryss and I totally had it under control."

I threw Kat's arm away. "Speak for yourself. I was so close to peeing my pants." I hissed, shooting her a glare to show that I wasn't okay with her little stunt from earlier.

Kat rolled her eyes. "You, my dearest cousin, need to grow a pair."

"No, you, need to learn some self control." I retaliated.

"Ladies, ladies." Chris spoke up. "No need to get, catty." He grinned and looked at us expecting us to laugh at his joke.

Kat just blinked at him and turned to face me. "Anyway... seriously Cryss, perhaps you should aspire to be less like Chris and actually consider taking some more practical classes this semester."

"Hey!" Chris yelled taking offence to Kat's words. "I'll have you know that... Er... um..."

He reached over and shook my shoulder. "Help me out here, Cryss."

Chris is also a halfling like me. And honestly he's the sweetest guy I know but he can clap back with a witty comeback to anything, any day, any time. Except when dealing with Kat. Yep, he has a little, kind of obvious crush on her. Well obvious to everyone except Kat. I don't say anything about it to either of them because honestly, I don't know if it would work out.

I mean, they're so different. Kat is athletic, and to be honest, kind of intense. I'm afraid that she'll eat poor, kind of shy and nerdy Chris alive.

"We do take practical classes, might I remind you that we are in the nature club and the sciences we take require lots of experiments."

"You tell her, girl!" Chris yelled and we high fived.

Kat rolled her eyes. "Geeks." She muttered.

"We prefer the term, 'nerds'." Chris retaliated.

"Yeah." I nodded my head. What could I say? Chris was my fellow outcast. Us freaks gotta stick together.

At that moment, Courtney, Bea and the twins walked in. They always looked like they owned the place with the way they strode in. Well, they kind of did but still...

I knew which one Josh was now, he was the one wearing one of the P.E shirts, I guess he had to change his shirt. His arm was slung over his girlfriend, Bea’s shoulder. Courtney and Michael followed behind.

They walked right by us and Courtney shot us a glare, I was expecting Michael to ignore us like he usually did but he surprised me by staring right at me again. His blue-green eyes caught the light and well maybe it was my imagination but did he... did he just smile at me?

My eyes followed him until he settled down with his friends.

I looked at Kat and Chris to see if they had noticed. But Kat was busy on her phone and Chris was busy gawking at her.

So I guess they hadn’t noticed or maybe it was just my imagination.

“Miss Benson, get off that brain rotting device and sit like a lady!” A sharp voice hissed.

I turned around to see Ms Marin, the deputy headmistress walking past us with Mr Forbes, our headmaster and the rest of the professors following behind.

We all scrambled to our feet as per custom. It was a sign of respect to rise whenever the professors or headmasters walked into a room.

“I see Ms Marin hasn’t gotten any nicer over the summer break.” Kat mumbled.

Ms Marin smacked the head of a student who was still seated as she past by him.

“That would be a true miracle.” Chris muttered.

Ms Marin is probably the strictest teacher here. And she’s not even a teacher. With her around, you’d be a fool to break any of the rules whether it be the dress code or even thinking of chewing gum in her premises. She would know.

I saw her eye Joshua, probably wondering why he was wearing a large wrinkled PE shirt but she didn’t comment. That’s right, she was hard on everyone except the twins. Perks of being the alpha’s little brothers I guess.

When all the professors were onstage and were seated on their respective chairs, we all took our seats. Ms Marin walked up to the microphone and cleared her throat.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to a new semester at Silvercrest Preparatory High School, I do hope you have returned with fresh minds and a renewed spirit for learning - Mr Chanda, please tuck in your shirt, this is not a pub.” She snapped suddenly. She then took in a deep breath and took the microphone again. She cleared her throat. “As I was saying, it’s a new semester and as so, there are some new rules to take note of. Firstly, the northern forest is now out of bounds unless being explored under supervision like in your Fundamentals of Shifting classes with Professor Isaac...”

“Wait, what about nature club?” Chris whispered.

I couldn’t help but wonder as well. Not about nature club but why the forest had suddenly been declared out of bounds. I mean Woodfell is covered by well... the woods but the northern forest is the largest one around here, so large, I’ve never even been to the end and that’s saying a lot seeing as to how I am in the nature club and our job is to explore.

A few other people muttered complaints. I knew most people weren’t concerned about nature club like Chris and I. The northern forests were also a hot spot for couples who wanted to make out, werewolves who wanted to race each other, secret parties and basically all sorts of things that young werewolves would indulge in. It was large enough to hide misdemeanours and go about your business. The northern forest provided us with discretion, it kept our secrets and now that was gone.

I had missed most of the announcements and had zoned in just when Ms Marin was talking about where to get extra uniforms for the younger werewolves who might not have learnt to control their shifts quite well yet.

“I know this summer wasn’t quite as easy for everyone and their families due to... unforeseen events.”

Oh no, she was bringing up Roman.

I could feel people starting to turn to stare and whisper again.

Kat slipped her hand into mine and gave me a reassuring look.

I sucked in a deep breath and tried to be brave.

“Roman Desireè was a talented young werewolf and it’s unfortunate how things turned out. So much potential...” Ms Marin shook her head but I could see the slightest hint of disgust on her face. “Now, although his crimes against the pack were horrendous to say the least, the alpha and the elders established the people this young man was working with and none of them are in this school so any harassment towards fellow students under that pretence will not be tolerated.”

I shared a look with Chris. This was for us, well, mostly me. Chris was friends with Roman too and we are all of the same species but I was his girlfriend, the most likely accomplice. 

This is what Aunt Sarah and Uncle Victor had meant when they said they had talked to Headmaster Forbes.

“And now, with a new semester comes the new selection for the Alpha’s Apprenticeship Program.” Ms Marin spoke, it was one of those rare moments that people actually got excited when she spoke. They muttered amongst themselves and I could just sense the excitement and anxiety in the air.

“Oh my gosh, it’s almost time, how do I look?” Kat asked as she checked her reflection in her phone screen.

“Like an angel.” Chris smiled at her shyly.

Kat’s eyes widened and she whipped her head towards me.

“Does that mean I look ghostly pale?”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “No, I’m pretty sure he just meant you look perfect.”

“Oh you better, Christopher.”

I was honestly feeling nervous for Kat. She had been talking about how badly she had been wanting this and now it was so close but still so far away. They just had to pick her. She would be crushed if they didn’t.

“I will now call Headmaster Forbes to the stage.” Ms Marin spoke.

Everyone clapped as the dark skinned man walked up to the podium. Everyone loves Headmaster Forbes, he’s cool and he’s kind and fair to all students, even students like Chris and I.

“Goodmorning, students.” He spoke with a smile on his face.

And he treats us like actual scholars and not confused young adults who do not have a clue on what they’re doing.

“It’s good to see your faces again. I do hope you all had a memorable summer. I won’t bore you with a long speech, afterall, your professors do that everyday in your classes.”

Laughter erupted in the school hall. See what I meant? He’s cool.

Everyone quietened down when Professor Forbes raised his hand. “Okay, now let us recite the school theme 

“Indeed, I hope and pray that God will guide us through this semester, I know I’ll need it.”

More laughter.

“Okay, okay, now every year, the alpha selects a group of young people to undergo his apprenticeship program and um... even after the unfortunate events of last summer, we still go on with this tradition. Eight fortunate students have been selected and only two will be chosen at the end of the programme for a permanent chance to work under the Alpha himself.”

There was more excited muttering in the crowd. Kat was now gripping my hand tighter, she would have probably broken it if I was fully human.

“The list was hand delivered just this morning by the alpha’s beta herself, students, please join me in welcoming the Beta of the Silvercrest pack, Bridgette Thompson and one of the alpha’s apprentices, May Nolan.”

Everyone rose to their feet and burst out in applause as we looked behind to see a beautiful blonde woman walking down the aisle clutching a brown envelope. Another beautiful lady with dark hair walked behind her, May Nolan.

They were both wearing full black outfits with the Alpha’s symbol on a badge on their right shoulders. The only difference was that Bridgette’s was gold and May’s was silver.

“Oh my gosh!” Kat yelped. “I’m in the presence of so much female greatness. Pinch me!”

“And female hotness.” Chris added. 

Kat punched his arm.

“Ow!” He yelled out in pain. He looked at me for help but I shrugged.

“You deserved that one, buddy.”

I stared at Beta Bridgette as she took the stage beside Headmaster Forbes. Her blue eyes immediately found me in the crowd and I could see an intimidating glare in them. Now there was a werewolf I had a bad history with...

Beta Bridgette looked every bit the soldier that you’d expect a beta to be. She was also a no nonsense woman who didn’t take anything from anyone, I learnt that the hard way...

Kat screamed and whooped on top of her lungs.

Of course my cousin didn’t know that her role model might as well hate my very existence. Kat doesn’t even know that I know Bridgette like that.

“Quiet down!” Ms Marin snapped, looking every bit embarrassed by the school body’s unruly behaviour.

Everyone immediately complied and sunk into their seats.

Bridgette stood behind the microphone. There was no expression on her face whatsoever.

“Good morning young werewolves, as you all know, you are all the future of this pack. All your actions and the decisions you make now will affect the entire pack in one way or another in the future so keep that in mind.” I could have sworn that her eyes found me again after she said that. “The people chosen here today are not more special than the rest of you. In fact, they’ll be tackling the hardest job in the pack and I trust that they will do their best to handle it responsibly.”

“I won’t beat around the bush and I’ll go straight to it. These are the chosen representatives for the Alpha’s Apprenticeship Program this year.” She opened the envelope and took out a piece of paper.

Kat was basically shaking in anticipation right now. If she wasn’t careful, she would wolf out right here. And no one would forget that. As if we weren’t picked on enough.

I rubbed her hand to try and soothe her. I didn’t know if it was working because she didn’t even spare me a glance, her eyes were fixed on her girl crush.

“Courtney Thompson.”

People yelled and cheered in response to the name.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Kat muttered. 

Even I couldn’t help but point out that for a list that was supposed to be one hundred percent fair, it didn’t seem right that Bridgette’s own little sister was the first candidate on that list.

Courtney walked up to the stage and shook hands with May, then Headmaster Forbes and finally Bridgette who looked proud even if she didn’t even crack a smile. She hardly ever did.

“Andre Moore.”

More applause as a brown skinned boy with dreadlocks stood up. Oh right, Andre. I can’t say I have ever talked to him but he was in one of my classes last year. From what I can tell, he’s a pretty cool kid from the track team, one of the fastest young werewolves in the pack, breaking records and everything.

Kat leaned forward and I could tell she was getting more and more anxious. 

I was too.

Please say her name next.

“Joshua Melrose.”

I heard louder whoops and screams. Micheal stood up applauding his twin brother.

Of Course one of the twins got in. How was this not biased again?

“Breathe, Kat.” Chris urged.

I looked at Kat and she looked like she was holding her breath.

Five more names.

“Ashton Alvi.”

More whooping came from the boys in particular. I knew Ashton as one of the best athletes at the school. Also, he ran around with Bea and Courtney and the Melrose’s often

“Allison Wu.”

Finally! An underdog. The cheers weren’t as loud for Allison. She wasn’t as popular as the other candidates. I think she is sweet.

Allison is in most of my advanced theory classes and she’s the only person who’s willing to be my partner in projects when Chris is unavailable. She’s probably one of the top scorers in our classes. She definitely deserves this.

Three more...

“Bea Mizrahi.”

More people cheered. One of the alpha’s little brothers and his girlfriend? Wow.

Courtney and Bea hugged when on stage and shared that ‘I’m more superior than you’ look with the audience.

“Michael Melrose.”

Both the alpha’s little brothers?

I looked at Kat, she looked so close to passing out.

Please let this last one be her.

Please. Please. Please.

“And last but not the least...” Bridget hesitated for a second before gruffly letting out; “Crystal Swan.”