Chapter 10

“You look so worked up this morning,” Lind observed as she came to my desk after the first class. Although we had gone to the hall earlier that day, there had been no assembly and so we had been sent right to class.

“What happened?” She asked as she slid on my desk.

“Someone ate chocolate chip cookies in my room.”

Lindsay gave her a funny look. “Okay?” She drawled wondering where the conversation was headed. “You have siblings, what’s the big deal?”

“And Emerald has drawn the line. She made it obvious she doesn’t want me here. She said as much this morning at the parking lot which is funny because Leo is literally with me and she’s not saying the same to him.”

“Because he’s hot and you know that. Also why do you sound jealous? He’s your brother.”

“Adoptive brother.”

“Same difference.”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t understand. Leo and I are meant to be together.”

She cocked her brows. “What in the ‘Help Me Stepbrother I’m Stuck’ is going on here?”

“You don’t understand, Lind so don’t worry about it,” I reiterated getting annoyed. She’ll probably think I’m nut if I tell her we are wolves and we have mates and I believe Leo is my mate. He’s got to be. He’s the only junior member of the pack that’s my age mate so why not?

What about Noah? My mind argued.

Noah is my bodyguard and nothing more. I tried to put my mind back together. Just that thought transported me to this morning when we stood beside the car sharing that weird moment. Whatever that was!

“Oh uh, don’t look now but Parker is coming over.”

And like an idiot, I looked. And sure enough he was strolling over with a purposeful look on his face. Whatever his purpose is I’m sure I can’t help him.

So I chose to ignore.

But the fool had the nerve to slam his hand on my desk drawing everyone’s attention to our side. Of course he is trying to get attention but I waited until no one was looking again before I gave him the attention he craved.

“Well played, Storm,” he drawled with a caustic smirk.

“I figured you wanted drama and I am not in the mood for that, attention monger.”

He cocked a brow. “I see you don’t know anything about the hierarchy in this school. I gave you a break yesterday but let me give you a proper welcome today, Dark Storm.” He barely glanced at Lindsay when he said, “Get lost.”

Lindsay immediately slid off the desk and with an apologetic sigh went back to her seat.

Parker raised his brow higher and cocked his head as if to say; See?

I shrugged. “You can talk, so can I, big deal.”

Parker laughed and two boys I had seen get up from their seats joined him. “Look, Ginger, I don’t think you understand. We have been here longer than you, and we are have successfully established a hierarchy. We are the Cool kids and you are an Outty so behave like one.”

My eyes drifted from Parker to the other guys. I noticed them yesterday when Lindsay pointed Parker out and of course I didn’t miss the chiseled jaws and good looks. One was brown haired and the other one was ashy blonde. Also, they appeared in some of the pictures I saw on both Emerald’s and Parker’s pages. I forgot to look at their names.

“What are your names?”

They looked taken aback by the question. I bet no one has ever ‘not' known their names before. The looks on their faces were so satisfying.

Parker let out a laugh. “You like to play smart don’t you? Emmy warned me about that.”

“No really I don’t know who you guys are. You,” I pointed at him, “I know you are Parker but what about Frick and Frack?” I asked pointing at the both of them.

“Frick is Keith and Frack is Todd, smart ass,” he bit out through his teeth.

“You sound like you want to slam me against the lockers.”

“The idea sounds tempting.”

Then his eyes turned lecherous and he pulled his bottom lip into his mouth. “Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all.”

“Uhm eww,” I gagged and pushed back away from him, pressing my back into the seat until I was as far away from him as possible.

But he was relentless.

“Every girl here, even your pathetic friend, Linda, wants me, so don’t pretend.”

“Sure. Emmy maybe.” Also it’s Lindsay asshole, not Linda.

He leaned away from my desk. “Anyways, it seems we are slightly on the same page at least. Emmy belongs to me. Do me a favor and tell your dummy brother to leave her alone. And let me stay away from the other girls, especially Lizzie and Jeannie.”

“Sorry you lost me. Who’s Lizzie? And who’s Jeannie?”

He looked like he wanted nothing more than to actually run his fist into my face this time. “Emmy’s friends.”

“Sure sure. Whatever I’ll pass the message. Now will you get off my desk or do we have to go shopping for a toothbrush?”

He made a sound that sounded like a snicker as he looked down his nose at me before turning to leave with his side chicks. I’m guessing that means game on?

Whatever, I don’t care. At least, he’s right about one thing, we are on the same page. The sooner Leo gets his nose out of Emmy’s bra, the better.

Just then the devil herself entered the class to prepare for our next class and she shot an evil glare my way which I responded with one of mine. I bet she wants to throw me off a cliff, or maybe off the balcony of the assembly hall. And she may have done just that if Mr. Jans for our next class didn’t walk in.

But just as he was about to greet the class when the bell in our class went off.

A familiar voice came over the speakers next.

“Can the final year seniors come into the assembly hall please?” Mary Thompson announced. “Can the final year seniors please proceed to the assembly hall?”

We stared at one another but everyone knew that it must be an urgent call so we pushed our seats back and made our way to the assembly hall.

“This is strange, a meeting with the Heads at the beginning of the term?”

Everyone else around me agreed that it was indeed unusual as more of the final year seniors poured out into the hallway.

Leo caught up with me and so did Lindsay.

“What do you think this is about?”

Lindsay shrugged. “We will find out when we get there.”

The administration heads were sitting on the raised platforms when we got to the hall and with them were two teachers. Beside the table was a blackboard and a packet of chalks rested on the table.

“Please sit students,” Mary had a smile on her face as she watched us occupy the plush red chairs and when her gaze fell on me her smile turned tight. I returned her smile and she looked away.

“We apologize for cutting your class short.”

I bet nobody is offended by that but, let the administrative heads believe what they want.

Mary continued. “But we wouldn’t have called this meeting if it wasn’t important. As you all know, every year we chose our prefects and it’s important that we chose the best of the best that is why we evaluate you all to make sure we are making the right choice.”

“We announced that during the holidays we sat down to choose our nominees as prefects,” Mr. Firth continued, “and I want you all to know that there our decisions are based solely on merits and not on any other factors. For those of you who think we may have been influenced via bribes you are wrong.”

The whole class was silent and tension filled the room.

Both administrators and teachers seemed satisfied with the silence.

“For our head boy and girl, for those of you who have checked the notice board you know it’s none other than Parker and Emerald.”

A round of applause resounded through the hall as the both of them walked to the stage. Lindsay rolled her eyes beside me.

“You all know how these two have been exemplary students since their first senior years. They are incredibly smart and well-behaved and we know they are students of integrity.”

“And also of the richest parents,” someone said aloud and Mary stopped talking.

“That has no influence on our decision,” Thomas said tight-lipped. He took a chalk from the table and walked to the board to write their names and their positions as prefects.

Emerald was smiling proudly on the stage and Parker was beaming beside her. They shared glances with each other. I looked at Leo to see what he thought of their affectionate display but he was busy on his phone.

Mary ignored whoever had spoken and continued to call the names of the other prefects. Somehow none of the bleached Rapunzels (Lizzie and Jeannie) had made assistant head girls, they didn’t even get any positions as prefects. But Parker’s friend, Todd was assistant boy.

As more names were called, we continued to clap until the last name was called.

Then, standing among the new prefects who would be officially announced at the end of the week, Mary shook hands with them and asked them off the stage. But she asked Emerald to stay back.

“One more thing,” she said, looking into the crowd of seniors. “Ginger Dark Storm, please step out.”