"orou,'ll onything,"

I open my notebook, take out my assignment sheet and my favorite red pencil—sharpened already at home—and arrange them angularly in a neat row on the dark blue steel desk, idly, not really having any interest in this mundane task.

My mind is fixed on one person. And one incident.

Nora.

What might possibly be going on in that head of hers?

I'm not stupid. I know that something is definitely bothering her, and she's behaving weirdly because of that something.

But . . .What might that be?

Maybe she has some problems at home?

That's highly unlikely though. Her parents are the sweetest people I know.

Maybe she's being stalked?

No, that's not possible within pack-land . . .

Maybe it's something else within the Pack itself?

Argh! I don't know!

Mr. Devon arrives just then, and I try to focus my thoughts back to the subject and endure one last lesson before lunch.

⍟⍟⍟

Five minutes into the lesson, the door of our classroom opens slowly, but surprisingly, the steel hinges don't make a single whine. They co-operate very well, with whoever this person trying to open the door is, and sneak into our usually un-interrupted class, as many fear the wrath of Mr. Tardy Devon—yes, that's his nickname. Very creative, I know—who will make your ears bleed with his lecture about punctuality, and rip you a slip without hesitation.

Mr. Devon is writing down the derivation of Euler's Theorem, so his back is to the class.

The class that was on the brink of dozing off any second, wakes up and becomes alert with excitement, as everyone cranes their necks to see who this latecomer is, daring to sneak behind Mr. Devon's back.

Slowly, a head full of chocolate brown hair appears, and then the mischievous azure eyes I've become all too familiar with shows itself. Finally, then the rakishly smirking Beta's face is revealed; much to the excitement of all the girls in the class.

They all start to sit straighter, run their fingers through their hair, and some guys and girls even take out their cell phones and record this!

He is bending down to escape inside, and as the girls start to whisper and bounce in their seats, Beta Ezra places his index finger on his lips, and shakes his head silently, immediately quieting down everyone.

Now that he has fully entered the class, he's looking for an empty seat. His eyes scan the room quickly and land on me, mirroring my surprise. Then he looks at the three spare seats, one beside me—on the second row—and the other one is the empty bench on the first row. He winces when he realizes that he has no choice, but to sit right under the teacher's nose.

He turns to check Mr. Devon, who is still writing down the last set of words, the sound of his marker against the white board being the only noise in the perfectly silent classroom.

Apparently satisfied, he quickly creeps forward and rushes to the seat, and despite him running, he doesn't make a single sound, his steps quiet, yet fast. Like a panther.

Great escape.

He sits on the seat on the first row, and breathes out a mute sigh, but then he turns to his side and realizes that he doesn't have his bag with him.

Ha.

He then slumps his shoulders in a fake pout and turns around, but already 5 students—boys and girls—sitting all around us are extending a notebook and pencil to him.

Whoa.

He grins impishly and he then does something even cockier. He closes his eyes and chooses a notebook. The girl who was extending it just about passes out in glee. He reopens those glinting orbs, sending her a salacious wink and turns back, flipping through the pages of the barely written note. He then turns around and takes my notes, not even asking my permission to do so.

Jackass.

I pull my desk a little closer to his.

"Do you even belong to this class?" I whisper, leaning forward.

"Pfft, yes! You think I'm dumb?" He whispers back, scowling in mock-anger.

"What? No! What I mean is, why haven't I seen you coming here in these two weeks? I mean, it's kinda hard to miss you."

He pales slightly.

"Well, you see, we might've kinda, sorta, skipped—?"

We're interrupted when the door opens loudly, turning all eyes to the next newcomer. Chatter erupts from the class the moment the intruder is caught sight of. There standing in the doorway, with a neutral face and cool eyes, is a person I didn't want to see.

The teacher turns around irritatedly, and I can almost feel him getting ready to deliver his speech. But, when his eyes fall on her, and when he recognizes who she is, he does something that shocks everyone in the classroom.

He grins.

He grins so wide, that his entire face is split in two.

"If it isn't my favorite student! Welcome back, Ms. Mordecai!" He exclaims, his beady grey eyes shining with fondness as he spreads his hands in welcome.

The shocking thing here is, no one, I mean no one has seen Mr. Devon smile before. He is perpetually moody, doesn't tolerate indiscipline, sends kids to detention even if they're the future Alphas, and the single most meanest teacher you could have the misfortune of having in your life.

But he's actually smiling at her!

Seneca nods in acknowledgment, and walks inside. The aura of untouchability and power that surrounds her as always makes seem like her something out of a dream, something very forbidden and unattainable.

I observe her movements which would seem so casual to the onlooker, but a person who knows her would detect the preciseness in her steps and sharp movement of her eyes as she clicks and clacks her way with her boots to take her seat.

Does the girl ever let her guard down?

She regards the full class, and I see the moment indecision crosses her star-like silver eyes, the moment understanding dawns on her, that there are only two remaining seats.

One near her Beta. One near her Mate.

Tough luck for me.

We all know what she would do now.

Under normal circumstances, there might be a chance of her sitting beside me, but given the fight, we had earlier, that's unlikely.

She comes to a stop near Beta Ezra's desk, and I mentally console my Wolf for the depression he's feeling.

Okay, I'm feeling.

But, when I look back up, I'm startled when I see Beta Ezra glaring at her—which I admit, I have never seen him do. She clenches her jaw at him, and glances at me, before turning back to him.

This time, it's a full on staring contest.

And not the childish one.

It's a one where two egotistic, powerful Wolves butt heads.

Which is usually a very bad thing.

I see a vein popping in her temple, and can almost feel my jaw aching at how hard she's clenching hers. Her eyes flare cyan, but the Beta doesn't back down, his eyes flashing between blue and gold.

Goddess, they might even shift if this continues!

Seneca clenches her eyes shut, and takes a deep breath. Her eyes flicker to the seat beside me, and finally, she surprises me by walking back and taking it.

Thank you, Beta Ezra.

I know that her sitting near me isn't going to do much to us getting back together—together as in, not a couple, but as whatever we were earlier. But, If she hadn't taken the seat beside me, it would've been the cause of numerous rumors spreading around the school about us.

And that's a thing I don't want to happen.

"Alright, class. Let's look at Example 19 . . . "

The rest of the hour passes by agonizingly slow, with both of us being painfully aware of each other being so close, but being unable to do a single thing about it.

Goddess, since when did my life become so complicated?

⍟⍟⍟

"Trouble in paradise?"

I turn to the side and see Nicole, as she clutches her overflowing bag and rushes past milling students to fall in step with me. My automatic response is to deny it and act nonchalant, but then the genuine look in her honey eyes and the concerned tilt of her head stops me.

I decide, 'To hell with it. She's the only other friend I've got.'

"Yeah . . . A small, um, misunderstanding. But, that's not my problem right now. It's just . . .my friend, you know Lenora Andrews, right?" I state, not question, and continue without waiting for her response, "She's being weird about the whole Mate thing . . ." I trail off, unable to find any words to describe my situation.

Nicole nods her head in understanding anyway, with lips pressed together in a suppressed grin, as if the jumbled mess of incoherency I just uttered, made perfect sense.

"What?" I scrunch my brows in confusion.

"So your best friend—or more accurately ex-best friend—who is a female, by the way, is acting weird about you finding your Mate?" She surmises, her sing-song tone insinuating that the answer to my problem is so obvious.

"Yes," I assert, still not getting it.

"Oh. Okay." She mumbles and turns her head away, but the way she acts is like she knows something that I don't.

"C'mon! Tell me, what is it?" I prod, nudging her shoulder with mine playfully, smiling.

"What? Nothing." She shakes her head, backing away.

"Nicole I-don't-know-how-to-pronounce-your-last-name, I won't let you go until you tell me!" I threaten, advancing in on her.

"No!" She yells and starts running.

I charge at her, trying to grab ahold of her backpack, as I run to catch her, pushing students out of the way. "Tell me!"

"It's something you have to figure out on your own! See you at PE!" She calls back, and runs faster, making me lose sight of her. I can still see her head full of black hair here and there, but I'll have to push everyone out of the way to catch her, and I don't want to do that.

I sigh in frustration and walk back to the cafeteria.

⍟⍟⍟

I glance at my tray full of food, clutching it carefully with both hands, as I walk slowly to avoid the box of fries sitting precariously at the corner from falling, and the so full vanilla milkshake from spilling.

I bought half of the things on this tray for Beta Ezra.

Just a small treat for him for being so good to me.

I know. Kind is my middle name. No need to mention it.

Speaking of which, I really need to get a job. Although I have a lot of money saved, it's not enough for college—

Crash.

As if out of a scene from a chick flick, my eyes widen in horror, as I watch in slow motion, the tilting of the disposable milkshake glass, and the contents sloshing against the plastic cup and overflowing, then spilling on a red tank top.

No, no, no, no!

The person screeches in surprise as the milkshake drenches them, flowing down their top. I look up in alarm, only to meet the wide green eyes of my ex-best friend; who looks like she could strangle me. She looks down at her shirt, then back at me, then back at the shirt. Then, out of nowhere, tears start to brim her eyes, and a sob escapes her lips.

Does she have multiple personality disorder or something?!

She hunches forward and covers her mouth with her hand to muffle her sniffles, but slowly, students have started to quiet down, pointing and laughing at the spectacle we've made. She then wails loudly and points at me accusingly,

"Why Mike? Why are you doing this to me? Can't you remember how close we were? Why are you ignoring me all of a sudden?! Why do you hate me all of a sudden?!" She shrieks, her voice reverberating across the Cafeteria, effectively silencing every single person.

Why is she behaving like this?

"Nora, I didn't do it—"

"Stop acting as if everything is fine in front of everyone. I'm not gonna let you walk all over me again! Let everyone here know how much of an ass you are! How you feel embarrassed to hang out with your best friend of ten years, because she's uncool."

"What are you—"

"You're an asshole, Micajah. A pathetic coward who's afraid to stand up for himself." She spits and straightens up, throwing me a glare. She walks away, but not before making me stagger back by slamming her shoulder hard into mine on her way out.

The Cafeteria doors slam shut behind her back with a loud 'bang' as I stand completely befuddled, confused, and angry, and a number of emotions I can't quite name.

Pain.

'You are an asshole, Micajah.'

Betrayal.

'A pathetic coward,'

Loss.

'Who's afraid to stand up for himself,'

But most of all, hurt.

The room remains quiet for a few seconds before slowly they all start to talk, but then it makes me wish they had remained silent.

"What an ass. Leaving his friend once he found a Mate."

"That girl was the only one who hung out with him all these years. Now he's bullying her? I bet he dumped his lunch on her on purpose,"

"He'd fooled us all with his innocent act."

"He's like all other guys,"

"I wonder how much he would've done already to hurt our Alpha? She has enough on her plate as it is,"

The last comment is like a bullet to my chest, striking me exactly where the person had intended.

One minute, I'm standing alone, and the next, someone is grabbing me by the arm and dragging me away. I instantly recognize the touch, an awareness so acute that makes me shiver ever so slightly, informing me of the person's identity. I let her, not minding what she might do, or where we might go.

I don't care.

Then, strong arms go around me, wrapping me tightly in a much-needed hug. I bury my nose in her neck and am surprised when I feel the wetness in my right eye.

Nora had made me cry.

I cling to her tightly, wrapping my arms around her torso and taking in a shuddery breath.

I refuse to give in. I won't cry.

"Shh. Don't. Please. It hurts." Seneca whimpers slightly, hugging me tighter.

The small sound makes me ashamed of myself because it's me who caused it. It's me who caused her pain. That is the moment I decide that I will stop hurting over Nora. That is the moment that I decide that I don't care. If worrying and caring of her will hurt my own Mate, then I won't do it.

I breathe in.

Lenora Andrews is a stranger to me.

Images of Nora tending to me when my 'mother' beat me up, soothing me when I cried my heart out, defending me when no one did, come to my mind.

I push them away.

I don't hate her, I'm just indifferent.

"I won't. From this moment on, I won't." I vow, and close my eyes, only relishing and enjoying the content my Wolf feels, as I'd freed him of a huge responsibility.

"Thank you," She whispers hoarsely, and I can hear the gratitude in her voice.

I pull back, and look at her, really look at her, and I see something I can't name, an emotion so strong yet austere in her eyes.

"For you, I'll do anything." I smile.

"Let's go. We're late." She replies, removing her arms from around me.

And just like that, the moment is over and Seneca 'I'm-ignoring-Micajah' Mordecai is back.

Sigh.

⍟⍟⍟