Moana
When we were finished with the tour, we stopped in the downstairs foyer. Headmistress Hawkins smiled at us, her brown eyes radiating with kindness. “Well?” she asked. “What do you think?” I looked over at Edrick expectantly. He was fairly quiet throughout the entire tour, only occasionally asking questions. I was a bit worried that he wouldn’t like it and that he would make up some excuse to say no, but much to my surprise, he looked down at Ella with a gentle smile. “It’s up to you, Ella,” he said. “Do you like this school?” Ella nodded excitedly. “I really like it here!” she said, squeezing Edrick’s hand tightly. “I really want to go to school here!” Edrick smiled and looked up at the headmistress. “Well, I guess that’s that,” he said with a bit of a chuckle. Headmistress Hawkins grinned. “Perfect,” she replied. “Let’s get you enrolled.” … That day, we got EllMoanaAfter I handed the headmistress of Ella’s new school my resume, I went home with a big smile on my face.Even if I didn’t wind up getting the job due to my lack of teaching experience, this was still a step in the right direction. After spending years being unable to get decent jobs due to my low status as a human, it seemed as though potential employers might start actually taking me seriously. I knew that most of it had to do with the fact that I was now publicly Edrick’s “fiancee”, but I didn’t care. To me, it was still a win.As the day went on, however, I went from excited to downright nervous. Every time I started to think about it, knowing that the headmistress may have been talking to Sophia for my reference at any moment, I felt my heart start to race. I tried to stay calm, but this combination of excitement and nervousness made it incredibly difficult to focus on anything else that day.By the evening, I still hadn’
MoanaThe next morning, I woke up to the sound of Edrick walking around the room. When I looked at the clock, I realized that it was a little later than I usually would have gotten up, and I quickly sat up and rubbed my eyes.“Sorry,” I said, throwing the covers off and getting out of bed. “I overslept. Guess I missed my alarm.”Edrick shook his head. “I turned it off for you,” he said as he fixed his hair in the en suite bathroom mirror. “I let you sleep in.”I scrunched my eyebrows together. “Why?” Normally I woke up a full half hour earlier than this so that I could help prepare breakfast and get Ella ready, and sometimes I woke up even earlier than that.“We’re going out,” he replied. “School supply shopping. Remember?”My eyes widened for a moment. Edrick had mentioned that we would have to do some school supply shopping, but I didn’t think that he would want to do it so soon. Either way, I smiled and
MoanaA few weeks passed after that. With each passing day, Ella became more and more excited for school, and I was just as excited. After singing my paperwork and getting the keys to my classroom, I then spent the next few weeks leading up to the start of the school year preparing my lesson plans, stocking up on supplies, and cleaning out the abandoned art classroom.On the morning of the first day of school, I woke up to Ella jumping on the bed and shouting.“Moana! Daddy!” she shrieked excitedly, jumping up and down and jostling both of us out of our sleep. “Wake up! It’s the first day of school!”I cracked my eyes open to see Ella standing above us with a wide grin on her face. Beside me, Edrick groaned slightly and finally sat up.“Alright, alright,” he said, rubbing his eyes and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “Come on. Let’s all have breakfast together before your first day of school.”T
Moana“You know…” Ella frowned and folded her arms, puffing out her chest confidently before I could say anything. After those little girls nastily called her a half-blood and shoved her, I had expected Ella to come to me crying and that I would have to send them to the headmistress’s office, and all on my first day of teaching. But instead, Ella stood up straight and took on a confident air that I hadn’t expected from her.“Buzz off,” one of the other little girls said, waving her hand dismissively. “We don’t bother with half-bloods. You smell.” She pinched her nose, causing the other girls in her group to giggle.“You’re really mean!” Ella replied. “Why do you have to say things like that? Didn’t your parents ever teach you to treat everyone equally and with respect?”The little girls giggled nastily at Ella’s comment. Even though Ella was confident, I was well aware of how school bullies functioned, and I knew that she wouldn’t
MoanaA few more days passed by after that. By the end of our first week of school, it seemed as though Ella and I both had settled in quite well. Ella was making loads of friends and loved her teachers, and I also enjoyed teaching. It finally felt as though I was living my childhood dream of being an art teacher, although I did find it difficult to connect with the other teachers. They weren’t unkind and did exchange pleasantries with me each day, but I could tell that they didn’t want to associate with me too much since they still thought that I was human. Maybe over time they would get to know me a bit more and would get over some of their biases. However, right now I couldn’t help but wish that my wolf would just emerge already so that I would stop having to deal with this sort of attitude from people. Unfortunately, however, it didn’t seem like Mina was getting a whole lot stronger. She seemed to be stagnating a bit at her current level of strength.“I
Moana“If you don’t mind me asking, what made Edrick suddenly decide to have a public relationship and announce you as Ella’s biological mother?”My eyes widened at Ethan’s sudden question. It was rather unexpected and, despite the gentle and curious tone of voice he used and the innocent redness in his soft cheeks, I found his question downright creepy. After everything that had happened with Ethan both leading up to and during the last party when he kissed me without my consent, I didn’t think for a moment that any sort of question like that wasn’t loaded in some way or another. The fact alone that he suddenly showed up at my place of work — and I didn’t even fully know how he knew that I worked here yet — was enough of a cause for concern.“Um… I mean, I am pregnant with his child,” I responded with a bit of a nervous laugh, and gestured at my belly — which had grown a bit since I last saw Ethan and now couldn’t be hidden terribly well under
MoanaI went home after work that day with an odd feeling in my stomach after my conversation with Ethan.All of it felt so… contrived. At first, I thought that he was just trying to make amends for what happened at the family party. But when the strange questions began, it became obvious to me that he was either fishing for information or he was trying to drive another wedge between Edrick and I. Maybe it was both of those things, or maybe it was neither. Either way, I didn’t know what to do.I didn’t know if I should tell Edrick about it or if I should just pretend it didn’t happen. Part of me felt as though the right thing to do would be to tell Edrick that Ethan had suddenly shown up in my classroom, but at the same time I was worried that he would tell me that I shouldn’t be teaching there anymore. Even though it had only been a week since I had begun my new job, I loved every moment of it and it felt as though my dreams were finally
MoanaAs I listened to Edrick playing the piano, I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face. I wished that I could see him, but if it made him too nervous, then I was happy to just listen. He played beautifully, and I hoped that I could always hear his music from then on.The song that he was playing came to an end, and was followed by silence. I didn’t realize it, but I had shut my eyes as I lost myself listening to the music. I opened them again and turned, expecting him to still be sitting at the piano, but he wasn’t.He was standing right behind me, looking down at me with those glowing silver eyes.Edrick was so close to me that I could smell his cologne coming off of his shirt and could feel his warm breath on my face. Being this close to him made me tremble, but only in a good way.“Edrick…” I whispered, looking up to meet his gaze.He stared down at me silently, with only his glowing silver eye