No Alpha, I Do Not Like Your Abs

Chapter 2: Lab

We try to maintain a sense of normalcy at our school. 

I mean sure, werewolves live among us now. Big deal. But we've had to adjust to the new norm. Classes remain the same, lunch is still low key nasty, we are all shoved into the theater once a week for announcements.

I hopped off the bus and strolled to the front entrance of school. Winward, home of the huskies. I suppose our school was one of the more modern ones, with a nicer stadium and a swimming pool for our team. Fortunately enough, our school was still able to participate in varsity sports. The amount of werewolf sightings we had was minimal compared to some other areas.  Some schools couldn't participate at all. We had a football team, a swim team, a basketball team, and a lacrosse team. More than most, but still less than we had.

I slipped on my signature sun glasses. Another not so fun fact we had learned was that werewolves identified their mates through eye contact. My simple solution was to never be seen without my sunglasses on. Easy and cheap, plus kinda stylish.

Don't make eye contact, don't fall in love.

I strolled over to my locker and grabbed my books, shoving them into my backpack.

"Hey Tay!"

I turned around to see my best friend, Ash. He's probably one of my favorite people in this school, with his sarcastic attitude and amazing hair. We had been friends since I was about five and he moved in next door. We had instantly hit it off, and had been close ever since.  Ash was also wearing some Ray Ban sunglasses, which I certainly approved of. 

Some people chose not to wear glasses, claiming that they wanted to make the werewolves welcome. This disgusted me to no limits; it was as if they didn't remember what had happened all those years ago, and what continued to happen today.

It was their funeral, I guess. 

"Hey Ash, care to walk with me to class?" I shot him a quick grin as we began to walk to History.

A few other stragglers remained in the halls, but besides that, we were the only ones left. Ash and I sat in our usual seat, right in the middle of the class. I doodled mindlessly in my notebook, while he took the notes. I'm sure I could haggle him out of those later.

"Psh , Taylor!"

I turned around to see Ash motioning with his pen towards the front of the room. Our lecturer, Henderson, was looking at me expectantly. I bit my lip and frowned.

"Sorry sir, could you repeat that again?"

He rolled his eyes but replied, "Could you remind us the date of The Day of Glory?"

I gritted my teeth and responded, "June 17th 2026 would be the day I believe, professor.

"Correct."

I went back to my doodling, but in a much worse mood. Flowers crawled up the side of my notebook, vines starting to join them. But then they appeared. 

The eyes.

I slammed my notebook shut with a bang, gaining the attention of Ash behind me. I shrugged at his questioning glance and started tapping my fingers against my desk.

When the bell finally rang, I jumped out of my seat and raced out the door, not even bothering to say anything to Ash. He would just ask me about what had happened, and I would be forced to lie to him. I absolutely hated lying, so my best bet was to just avoid him. Hopefully he would just forget by lunch.

Next up I had "gym", which in reality was my protector classes. The program was relatively new, and we had to keep it a secret. Rumor had it that the werewolf government had snuck in spies into schools, so we had to be careful. We were probably safe, being the small town that we were, but caution is always necessary. None of my friends knew about the program. My excuse was that I had double gym periods by choice. They believed me for now, but I didn't know how long that would last. 

I walked into the weight room of the gym, joining the other nine protectors. Five girls, five guys, We were a very tight knit group, even though the program was still in the beginning.

"Alright guys, reports please" Coach Steph said, stepping to the front of the classroom.

We all reported what had happened this morning, the whole class cringing at how I had disposed of the wolves on my bus.

"Now Taylor, do you think you could have handled the situation better?"

I knew in my head that I definitely could have, but shrugged my shoulders in response. The drugs usually made them forget what had happened to them. They wouldn't remember my face, and would probably think they had just taken a short nap.

There were no other reports of wolves in the area, but that was to be expected. Again, we were a pretty remote school no where close to any large cities. What happened today was a rarity. But these condition were what allowed us to make the Protector program in the first place.

"Now, today we will be working in the chemistry lab on new substances that we can use to our advantage. The wolves bane has been freshly picked, so use it wisely"

We all walked to an empty chem lab at the back of the school and got to work. I quickly slipped on my lab coat and goggles and went to my station. My lab partner was Camila, who quietly walked over to stand beside me. She wasn't much of a talker, and was more likely to give me a small smile instead of a real response.

"Hey girl," I bumped her slightly with my shoulder, and she gave me a small grin in response. As expected.

Recently, I had been working on a sort of scent blocking perfume that could be worn to confuse the senses of wolves. My initial idea was to dilute wolfsbane and use it in a mixture of water and honey. According to the minimal research we had been able to get our hands on, wolfsbane was detrimental to wolves; it messed with their senses, confusing them to no end. But the issue was that the smell of it was so strong that the werewolves would easily be able to identify when someone was using it. I needed to find a way to cover the scent of it with something stronger in order to make it smell like a regular perfume. My thought was to cover the scent of the wolfsbane with the honey. But it seemed as if the scent of wolfsbane just couldn't be covered.

I hadn't shared my research with anyone except Camila, as I feared that a spy would come to the knowledge of it. The last thing I needed was someone confiscating my work, especially when I was so close.

The assortment of things I would be testing with the wolfsbane today included rosemary, lilies, and coffee grounds. I didn't have high hopes for these, but I at least had to try.

Firstly I grabbed a one inch stalk of wolfsbane and obliterated it in the small food processor. Although this wasn't the most convenient way to turn it to powder, almost all things that could be classified as a "weapon" had been outlawed, so this is the best we could do. 

I think shook out the power evenly into three small flasks and added four frops of water each into it. I then put five grams of each of my test elements into the food processor separately and blended them. 

The rosemary was definitely a fail. The smell of wolfsbane was still easily distinguishable, making me frown. It was the same situation with the lilies; I could still smell the wolsbane clear as day.

With a sigh, I turned towards the beaker with the coffee in it and took a whiff. And another. And another. A grin began to form on my face.

It might have been small, but the smell of wolfsbane was definitely a bit weaker.

Giddly, I put ten more grams of coffee beans into the food processor. I then added them to my solution with one more drop of water and gave it a good swirl. I then too a good whiff.

And another.

And another.

My face broke out into a grin. I couldn't smell any trace of wolfsbane at all.

"What do you smell?" I quietly asked Camila as she took a sniff.

"Just coffee" she whispered back. I shot her a wide grin as she just shook her head at me.

I capped the beaker and shoved it into my pocket. This could be my salvation.

The bells rang for lunch and I hand up my lab coat, quickly hurrying to lunch.