The Chronicles of Alpha Academy (bxb)

10: Class is in Session

Chapter Ten: Class is In Session

Kieran

Inside the private room was my Great Aunt, the girl I met briefly yesterday in the garden, and the former Headmaster.

The heavy door shut behind me, and I wondered why it felt somehow ominous. Three pairs of eyes were staring at me intently. None of them seemed to hold a measure of kindness or overt sympathy for me.

I approached my Great Aunt, as at least the safest and most familiar of the trio. Thankfully she broke her usual stoic stance to acknowledge me with a slight nod and a teeny tiny lift of her lips, which I might generously call a smile.

She looked like herself, but also different. Back home, where we lived, our pack dressed very very simply. We made our own clothes with basic fabrics we bought, using patterns passed on through the years, hand sewn together. But, as a person of authority here at Alpha Academy, the person of authority, she had again bowed to necessity and now dressed a little differently. With a dress of rich blue, open lacework on the neckline and cuffs, a full skirt. Her long long silver hair in a thick braid down her back. Dark eyes prominent in her face, with her stern expression, she looked both austere, classic and important.

The former Headmaster was intimidating. Lean and dressed impeccably despite it being a weekend. Black slacks and gray linen shirt, buttoned and tucked into his trim waistline, with an expensive looking leather belt. Dark hair slicked back, a whisper of gray around the hairline, light almost silver eyes, under black arched eyebrows. He was nothing like the men back home, nothing like our alpha who wore jeans and a tshirt, long hair back in a ponytail with strands frequently escaping to frizz around his face. Professor Cavanaugh held himself in a relaxed at ease manner, but somehow I was afraid that behind that mask, he was tightly coiled and quietly powerful.

His daughter, Mina, who I met briefly in the garden yesterday, the former Keystone Luna, was every inch his blood. She took took her appearance seriously. The same uniform as every other student, with her red Nadia tie, somehow she looked different, held herself differently, so that the clothes looked nicer somehow, more fancy, I guess. Her long, thick, black hair lay smooth to her lower back, tucked behind her ears. She was wearing makeup, perfectly applied, in contrast to my friend Gen who only wore a sincere smile as an accent.

I wish Gen was here now.

And Antony.

I knew they would be on my side. These three... I wasn't so sure. My Great Aunt loved me and would protect me....probably. Most likely... I mean, I knew she would. But still...she wasn't the same as my friends. Who I'd only known for a week, but who made me feel safe and welcome and accepted in a way I never quite felt within my pack.

"He's quiet," the professor said, looking at his new superior.

"That is how he was raised." Dry and matter of face, but also proud.

"That can be good and bad," Mina added, sizing me up, her eyes critical.

I wondered what she saw. I held little preconceptions about my appearance. My clothes were generally rumpled and stained. For whatever reason, I could never stay clean. Working in the garden back home, but also just someone who sometimes randomly bumped into others or furniture or walls, sometimes. My brown hair was almost a deep red in places. I'd brush it frequently, but never could figure out how to get it to stay flat. I was small, an omega, thin and short for a wolf, never really able to put on weight or muscle. I had light brown eyes that sometimes looked yellow, sometimes copper depending on the light.