𝑷𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑹 𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺 • 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧. 𝐦 (wolfblood)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

"That was brilliant!" Jana exclaimed as the four walked down the corridor. Lia couldn't help but laugh at her excitement. Sure, it was a risky scenario they were in just moments ago, but she found it amusing all the same. Maddy glared at the girl, aiming a longer one at Rhydian, who was trying to contain his laughter, before turning to Jana, "You call that controlling the wolf?"

"Come on, Maddy. She's trying." Rhydian protested.

But Maddy was having none of it. She grabbed Jana harshly by the shoulders, forcing her to face her, "Look. You need to decide whether you can make this work. Because if you can't, you owe it to all of us to leave... before things go really wrong."

Any joy they were feeling had disappeared as Maddy finished her statement. Lia bit down on her lip, looking at the three of them. Maddy was right. Jana was still a ticking time bomb. If she couldn't master controlling her wolf, then that made her a danger. Not just to them, but to everyone. Classmates, teachers, and the whole wolfblood species.

The tension between them broke off when a new distraction began wandering down the corridor. 

"Oh, great. Jeffries." Lia muttered. Jana's false paperwork still hadn't been finalised and sent to the school, so they needed to prevent Jeffries from asking about it until it was ready. With a half smile to the group, she dashed after the man who had just entered the stairwell, "Mr Jeffries!" she called down to him, trying to come up with a reason as to why she was talking to him as she ran down the stairs to catch up with him. Catching her breath, she flashed him a charming smile, "Can I talk with you-"

"Can it wait, Lia?" He pointed a thumb behind him, "I need to sort out the new girl's enrolment."

The redhead bit her lip, racking her brain for a good enough reason, "Uhm-"

"Mr Jeffries?" A new voice appeared at the scene. Lia breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw Shannon standing there. She pointed to the window which looked down at the staff car park, "I think that's your car alarm going off."

It was then that Lia heard it. A rapid bleeping sound coming from the car park. The man muttered something under his breath before dashing down the staircase. Lia turned to Shannon with a relieved grin, "How did you..."

Shannon only smiled in response, pulling the girl into a side hug, the pair laughing as they walked down the stairs.

☾︎

Break soon rolled around, and Lia spent the majority of it with Maddy, Shannon and Tom. She thought it would be good for Jana to get some fresh air, and to sit with the person she was most familiar with. As there were only a few minutes left of break, she went outside into the courtyard to find Jana and Rhydian, as normally they used this time to gather things from their lockers for their next couple of classes.

She found them easy enough as they were both perched on a wall by the school entrance. She listened as Rhydian described the students in their year group to the girl. Jana sniffed the air rapidly, her head turning towards the three girls who sat in a row, spraying their different kinds of cheap perfumes, most of it being blown away in the wind. Jana let out a small snarl, "And the girls who smell like chemicals?" she pondered aloud.

"Ah," Lia began, making the other two aware of her presence, "The K's. Little bit-"

"Language." Rhydian cut her off with a smirk.

"Ferdoodles if you ask me." Lia finished, hitting the boy playfully around the back of the head, to which he rolled his eyes with a chuckle. 

Rhydian continued on, "Kara's the alpha of that group."

Being distracted, neither of them noticed Jana walking towards the girls, her head hanging low. Rhydian managed to grab her quickly before they could notice her, "Woah, woah, woah. Look, that's not what's important. Fighting isn't fitting in. You've got to be more... cunning than that."