Raised By Wolves

Chapter Fourteen | New Plans

There were many things that May didn't like about school, and one of the biggest issues she had was having Chad as a teacher. It wasn't anything against him personally, he was actually really at his job. What made it bad was when he purposely sought her out to answer a question or start a discussion based on something she had asked, told him about the night before or mentioned in the morning driving in. Plus, he had no problems with embarrassing her by telling stories about her childhood and it was never the good things you don't mind others hearing.

Her second biggest hate about school was the slop the cafeteria served on Wednesdays that was advertised as meatloaf but clearly wasn't since there was the big 'vegetarian friendly' sticker underneath the sign. May was a meat eater and the vegetable substitute used had fooled her more than once. Of course she also hated having to change in the open space of the girls locker rooms, Math and the odd run in that took place with her not so favourite group of shifters.

Mondays were also her least favourite day of the week, as it represented the end of the weekend, of being able to sleep past the alarm and no hectic rush to get a place she spent more time counting down the minutes until she was able to leave than anywhere else. So despite being told she could skip, May now stood looking up at the main entry wishing she hadn't insisted on still going. Her reasoning had been to keep everything looking normal to anyone that could be watching, something her parents hadn't been able to argue with and so here she was.

Now she regretted all of it. May felt like a lifetime had gone by since Friday afternoon and looking around as everyone talked with friends, moving off to homerooms, May could almost pretend nothing had changed. She left feeling nervous, but excited and worried about Josh formally meeting her parents. The party seemed like some kind of reward only now it made her stomach churn and the urge to run after her Dad's car nearly won.

"There you are!" Tiffany greeted, linking her arm in Mays as she kept walking up the path. "What a weekend."

"You're telling me." May sighed.

They'd nearly made it to homeroom when Tiffany slowed her walk, looking around like she had lost something. "Weird."

"What?"

"Jerk Squad is missing. Leanna too?"

May nodded. "Yeah, I spoke to her yesterday. They've all got this, gastro bug from eating raw chicken on some pizza that was at the party. Good thing we missed that."

"All of them?" She didn't sound as though she believed May at all.

"Yup."

Then the moment May had been mentally preparing herself for finally happened. Josh was coming towards them looking as casual and relaxed as ever. He smiled when he saw them, waved and forgetting the weekend, May did the same back. She was happy to see him, to try and move on from everything that had happened. Never mind how she instead thought about what her mother had pointed out what she had already been thinking - he wasn't Caleb.

"Hey you!" She smiled up at him, already knowing his arm was going over her shoulders. May leaned against him, holding his hand like it was the most natural thing in the world and perhaps it could have been if not for the feeling that it was wrong.

"Hey yourself." Josh leaned forward, kissing her short and sweetly on the lips. "Morning Tiffany."

"Hey you." She answered in the same sing song tone May had, smirking as she watched the pair of them.

Chad barely glanced their way as he went through the usual morning ritual. May looked hungrily at the small tray of muffins Darcy had left for him, and ignored the puppy dog eyes her friend was also sending her brothers way. May was guaranteed those chocolate chip delights would be all hers since one of the new rules from the pack meeting was not to eat anything you didn't make yourself. The poison was hidden by other flavours, and chocolate, especially three varieties of it all loaded into a muffin, would have to be out for Chad since it would affect him. Though the thought of Darcy being involved was hilarious.