>Be Evan.

>Be 12.

>Be watching nature show with Jason. It's about wolf packs.

>There's a vicious fight for dominance among the top male wolves.

>The alpha and the beta. A beta male has dared to challenge the alpha over a female.

>That concept applies to humans, too, you know, says Jason.

>How?

>There's alpha males and beta males. The alphas get all or most of the females. The betas get whatever's left over or nothing.

>Which one am I? Alpha or beta?

>Depends.

>Which one am I, like, right now, though?

>You're a beta right now, but only cause you're the fourth in line. Dad's the alpha in our family. Dads are the alpha in any family unit. Usually, anyway. Sometimes it's the moms. But only if the dads are weak.

>Are you an alpha?

>Depends on what group I'm in. But sometimes, yeah.

>What's it like?

>Honestly? Exhausting, grins Jason. You're constantly having to assert your dominance like wolfy there. It's not something that you just get. You're constantly fighting for it, even if it doesn't look like you are.

>What about my group of friends? Who's the alpha there? It's not me, I know that much.

>Well, who's the one who gets the final say? Who can order everyone around and the least amount of people have a problem with it?

>The wolves on tv finish their fight, the victor nipping at the loser on the neck, the loser's tail between its legs.

>Jason points.

>See? Alphas can snap at another male and not get snapped back at. Like, when Dad gets mad at you or me we have to submit before the confrontation's over, right? Or, from what I've seen, in your group of friends, when that Rob kid, the tall one, snaps at Dinkins, Dinkins doesn't challenge him, right? But when Matt or you does, Dinkins'll fight back. He lets Rob have it. Therefore Rob's the alpha.

>Evan had never thought of that before. How interesting.

>So there you go, says Jason.

>I'm glad I'm not an alpha, says Evan. Being an alpha sounds like a lot of work.

>Spoken like a true beta, says Jason.

>They watch the wolf pack take down a caribou.