Call me Different *ON HOLD*

Chapter Fourteen

I managed to convince Jay to not call my dad. 

I mean, could you imagine?! He'd had the entire pack down in convoy to pick me up within minutes, and would lock me up in a room until he figured out what was going on. 

Talk about social suicide. 

It took a lot of begging, and mild threats of 'one more thing and we're leaving'. 

I was already embarrassed enough at what could have been perceived as a mental breakdown in front of hundreds of campers, let alone to have my alpha (read: wuss) father swoop in and take me away. 

I felt surprisingly fine the next morning. After convincing Jay to not tell my dad, I sat on the bed and talked to him for a while.

"I can't go out there. It's so embarrassing," I groaned. 

He shook his head. "I've sorted it."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, actually Tyler helped." 

"You got Tyler involved?!" I almost screeched. 

Jay looked at me funny. "He was worried about you and wanted to help." 

I nodded slowly. "Right, go on." How embarrassing. As if things couldn't get any worse.

"Basically we've told everyone it's a delayed response to the other day. Made up some crap about possible brain injury. They all believed it."

"Wait, so you told them I had a delayed brain injury, and they all didn't see anything wrong or suspicious about that?" 

He shook his head. "Well they don't know you haven't shifted, so why would they expect us to be lying?" 

He had a point. "Okay but does that mean I need to pretend to be sick now?" 

He laughed. "No, stupid. You've rested. It was a false alarm." 

I sighed. "Thank you, for everything. I'll have to thank Tyler too." 

"Don't think we're not talking about this either." 

"Jay, I really don't want to. It was probably just my dad's genes crying out to stop being supressed by my mom's or something." 

"...Pretty sure that's not how genetics work." 

We talked for a while longer, until the growls of my stomach were too loud to ignore. I held back for a bit, feeling like I couldn't face everyone, but my hunger won me over. 

--

Entering the dining hall wasn't like I expected. No conversations came to a halt, no cutlery crashed against plates after being shocked into silence... No anything. Which suited me perfectly. In fact, it took my friends a full minute to realised I'd even sat down. 

"Oh my god you're back! Are you okay? How's your head?" Maddie threw words at me, eyes wide with concern. 

"She's sitting right in front of you, alive. Obviously she's fine," Izzy said sarcastically. For once I was grateful for her bluntness. 

"She's right, I'm fine. Delayed concussion, or something." I smiled at them all. Jay nodded in agreement. 

"Let's go get you some food," he said, nudging me and leading the way to the buffet. 

"I don't think I've ever been so hungry in my entire life," I muttered, grabbing a plate and loading it up with pasta. 

Jay laughed, following my lead. 

"Wow, you are hungry," he said, when he finally caught up to me at the end of the buffet. My plate easily had more food than his, which was rare with the amount he ate. 

I shrugged, grinning. "Finally developed an appetite." He always teased me about not being able to eat much. 

"Or maybe you really were hit on the head..." 

Back at the table, I sat down next to Maddie, and Jay went to take the seat opposite me. 

Without any warning, a strange feeling swirled in my stomach. Jay was already talking to one of the guys on the other side of the table, so I pushed the feeling down, dismissing it as hunger. 

Which led me to the next thing - my meal. God, it was so good. I've never been so hungry. It took me all of eight minutes to finish my plate, and feel only mildly satisfied. Excusing myself, I took my plate back to the buffet and began refilling it. 

I couldn't shake this feeling - it was almost like nerves mixed with dread. I couldn't place where it had come from, why I was feeling it or what it even meant. More carbs would probably help.

I was tossing up between mashed potato and hashbrowns when I felt someone behind me. I didn't need to look around to know who it was - it was as if I knew it as well as my own name.

"Tyler," I said, facing the concerned looking boy. 

He smiled at me, but I could still see the worry in his eyes. "Ella, how are you?" 

I nodded, shifting slightly, remembering what I was so embarrassed earlier. "Uh I'm okay. Just, um, hungry." 

He looked like he wanted to ask more, but nodded and dropped a bit of concern off his face. 

"That's good to hear. I wanted to come see you, but Jayden told me you were sleeping." 

"Thank you, by the way, for what you did." 

He nodded. "I just hope you don't have anything really wrong with your brain." He said it in a way that I could tell he knew that wasn't it, but he didn't push it. 

"Do you want to come sit? I'm starving but we have some room at our table," I asked, wanting to change the subject but also wanting to eat more. 

Tyler glanced over at the direction I was pointing at, and hesitated. "I better not. I'm glad you're okay, I'll see you soon."

He left, and I felt alone again. 

Weird.