Word Count : 2363

Harper

"Rise and shine sleepyhead, today is our lucky day!!"

Harper groaned and tried to put the pillow back over her head. "Why did you have to be a morning person? How did I get cursed with a best friend who's a morning person?"

"You love me and my morning happiness!" Celie chirped. "You should be thrilled to wake up today of all days! Today is the last day of school and our 18th birthday! We are double blessed; we finally finish school and get our mates! Who else can say that?"

Harper pulled the pillow back over her head and groaned again. She was excited to end high school, and looking forward to college, but she had been dreading mate day for years, she didn't want to find her mate here. Everyone hated her here, Celie was her only friend, everyone else treated her like crap, called her fat, ugly, and stupid, said she was garbage. So she must be, right? If everyone believed it, it must be true. She wanted to find her mate in college, someone who didn't know how worthless she was.

"Harp stop it, just stop. Your mate will love you as much as I do!" Celie said smiling. "Mine will love me as much as you do! The goddess chose them for us, they will be perfect, and we will be so happy it will make all this terribleness seem like a bad dream."

"Celie, I'm sure you're going to find your amazing mate, and I know he will love you as much as I do." Harper smiled. "But that's not going to happen for me. Just accept it; if he's here, a member of this pack, he's going to reject me, it's a guarantee. For me today is my rejection day if I'm unlucky, or just the last day of school if I'm lucky."

Harper felt bad watching some of the happiness dim in Celie's eyes as she spoke, she didn't mean to bring her friend's mood down, but Celie needed to be as prepared as Harper was. Harper knew it would break Celie's heart to see her be rejected so she didn't want her friend carrying around false hope all day.

"Don't look so sad, Cel." Harper said more gently, and pinched her friend's freckled cheek. "Today is your day! I'm going to be right there cheering you on too!"

Celie's smile brightened again, even though there was still a touch of sadness in her eyes.

"Now let's get showers and get out of here before the hordes of assholes wake up and start annoying me." Harper said, laughing as she finally got out of bed.

She didn't want to admit it to herself or Celie, but there was a tiny part of her that did hope for her mate to be here today, and for it to be someone nerdy who hadn't been cruel to her, but there was literally no one who fit that description. Her wolf was sad, she could feel her sorrow and it made her feel even worse. Even her wolf had lost hope, years of abuse and bullying had taken her hope and turned it to dread and fear.

Harper didn't want to dress up or act like today was any different than any other day, so she went with a long teal maxi dress with a pale blue crop half sleeve sweater over it and a pair of simple flat thong sandals. The dress was not tight, but it was not loose, it showed that she had a figure, but it didn't cling or look slutty. She wore this dress a few times a month, so it definitely was not a dress up day for her. She pulled her hair back into a half braid over one shoulder, so it hung down to the bottom of her breast, added some mascara and was done.

Harper avoided looking into the mirror other than to put on her mascara, she didn't really care to see how she looked, what she saw always made her want to stay in her room away from everyone else. They'd told her she was ugly so much, she'd begun to believe it, even though it couldn't be further from the truth. Harper had beautiful large aqua eyes, long lashes, pale flawless skin, a tiny straight nose, curvy lips, and long thick dark brown hair. The truth was, nearly every girl in school was jealous of Harper's beauty, and that is why they tried so hard to make her feel ugly.

"So you're going with the same outfit you wear every week?" Celie said frowning a bit. "Could you at least try a little harder?"

"No." Harper said. "C there's no point. I'm going to wear what I always wear and look the way I always look. This is me. Take it or leave it. I'm not going to spend an hour trying to look great for my rejection."

"You're not going to get rejected, Harp!" Celie said, her heart aching for her friend. "Stop saying that."

"Let's just go to school and get this over with." Harper said exasperated.

Reese

"Do you smell that?" Reese asked Zach as he took in great lungs full of the amazing scent.

"Smell what?" Zach asked, then turned quickly. "It's her, isn't it? You smell your mate."

"I smell something." Reese started, butterflies beginning to circle in his stomach, he felt both excitement and dread. He knew Charla's birthday wasn't for another week, so if it was the smell of his mate, then Charla wasn't his mate. "Like orange blossoms and spice, I don't know."

"I don't smell anything like that, so it's probably your mate." Zach said excitedly, grinning widely, he wasn't fond of Charla, so Reese finding another mate was a good thing to him. "If someone just brought flowers or something to school we'd all smell it."

Zach mind linked Adam.

Adam replied.

Zach answered.

Adam said, feeling relieved, he hated Charla, she was using Reese because she wanted to be Luna, everyone seemed to know that except Reese.

Zach responded, laughing to himself.

Adam replied.

Zach cracked up causing Reese to turn and stare at him.

"Sorry man," Zach apologized. "I was asking Adam where he was, and he cracked me up with a comment about crabs."

Reese just stared at him confused for a moment before turning, his head lifting as he caught another slight whiff of the amazing scent, and his wolf started going nuts.

"Oh great." Reese said dully, as Adam caught up with them. "Today is the day I get to reject my mate."

"What did you just say?" Adam stopped him, stunned. "You can't just reject your mate. The moon goddess chose her for you, to be Luna, you can't reject her."

"I can, and I will. I have Charla, I don't want another mate." Reese said, fighting against his wolf who was furious at his words.

"Dude, that's fucked up." Adam told him plainly. "You need to drop Charla, she's not that great, you have a mate that you're supposed to be with. Mates are gifts from the goddess, you don't just reject them."

"Well, I'm going to, I have already chosen my mate, I don't want some other chic." Reese said stubbornly, turning and walking toward his locker, he didn't want to argue with Adam and lose his resolve.

Harper

They were early to school, as usual for them, so they sat on a bench at the side of the school, going through the last of their homework and chatting about outfits that Celie was dying to buy or go shopping for. Harper didn't care for that kind of thing, she saved every penny of the money she made working at the vet hospital, she only bought clothes when she had no choice. As the first bell rang and they got up from their seat to go into the school Harper caught the scent, it was like citrus and fresh cut pine and her stomach dropped.

"I'm, uh, not feeling well C." Harper said in a rush, her hand on her stomach. "I think I'm just going to go sit in the library for a bit."

"What? Why?" Celie asked, frowning.

"My stomach just feels a little weird, the library's quiet and no one ever goes in there, so I'll just do my work in there for a little while until it passes." Harper said, heading to the other side of the school, leaving Celie staring after her confused.

Harper felt a rush of relief when she made it into the library without running into the smell, she went straight to the desk where Mrs. Barnes manned the desk.

"Good morning Miss Young." Mrs. Barnes smiled at her and Harper managed a weak smile in return.

"Good morning Mrs. Barnes. Would it be ok if I hang out in here today?" Harper asked hesitantly. "My stomach feels a bit upset; I'd rather not be running around if possible."

"Oh honey, are you sick?" Mrs. Barnes looked up at her concerned.

"It's probably something I ate, I'm sure it's nothing serious, just need to sit still for a while." Harper said lamely, she wasn't good at making up stories.

"Of course dear." Mrs. Barnes said, smiling again. "Would you like me to email your teachers and tell them you're spending the day with me?"

"Oh goddess yes!" Harper said relieved more than she would have thought possible, she'd thought she could only get away with staying in here for an hour. "That would be amazing Mrs. Barnes, I can't thank you enough."

"Well, there isn't much going on today, with it being the last day of school no one is paying attention anyway." Mrs. Barnes waved a dismissive hand. "If they know you're here they'll be fine, they just don't want people to skip the last day. Do you have any assignments due?"

"Yes Ma'am. I have a history paper to turn in, a calc worksheet, and a couple of take home quizzes." Harper said, wondering how she would get them to her teachers.

"I'll take them along." Mrs. Barnes said, holding out her hand for them.

Harper felt another rush of gratitude as she pulled out her papers, then she saw the look in Mrs. Barnes eyes. Pity. The same look she got from most of the faculty, they knew she was horribly bullied, Mrs. Barnes was helping her because she knew Harper was avoiding the people who hurt her. In reality, that's exactly what she was doing, whoever the goddess had chosen as her mate was undoubtedly going to hurt her today. She hated the pitying looks, but there was nothing she could do about them, and she had to admit, she was pitiful, so she guessed she deserved them.

Harper walked around the front desk and went to another desk nearby, a bit around the corner and behind the first shelf, out of sight of anyone sticking their head in or looking through the door glass but close enough that she wouldn't be bothered as long as Mrs. Barnes was at the desk. She'd learned to stay close to the faculty as much as possible, the others couldn't do much to her in sight of the teachers. She waited tensely for about 15 minutes and was relieved when Mrs. Barnes returned, she would be safe as long as she was here. Harper went and retrieved a thick encyclopedia on anatomy and began to study it earnestly, she would be taking a lot of anatomy classes in college and medical school, she wanted to start studying as much as possible to prepare.

"It's lunchtime, do you want something, dear?" Mrs. Barnes asked, coming around the corner to where Harper was leaning over her anatomy book intently.

"No, thank you, Mrs. Barnes." Harper looked up smiling, though there was worry in her eyes. Lunchtime was the worst time of day for her, the students were all walking around, she wasn't safe anywhere. "My stomach is still a little queasy, I don't want to do anything to aggravate it."

"Well, if you're sure, I can pick you up something, I'm heading over to the cafeteria. I brought my lunch today, but I can't turn down a slice of Mrs. Cooper's chocolate cake." Mrs. Barnes said smiling widely. "So I'm going to run and get that and be right back."

Again Harper sat tense, listening intently for anyone entering the room, but it was only a few minutes before Mrs. Barnes returned with her chocolate cake. She dropped an apple and a banana on the desk next to Harper when she came back in.

"In case your tummy feels a little better and you need a snack." Mrs. Barnes smiled and patted Harper's shoulder before returning to her desk.

Text Message – Celie to Harper

Aren't you eating lunch?

Text Message – Harper to Celie

No, stomach is still upset, but Mrs. Barnes brought me an apple in case it calms down.

Celie sighed when she got the reply, she wasn't happy that Harper wouldn't come out of the library but at the same time she couldn't blame her. Celie would hide out in there too if people treated her as bad as they did Harper, it broke her heart, but there was nothing she could do about it.

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