The School of Wolves

Ch. 3 The Beginning of School

A blaring noise jolted me from my sweet dreams making me fully awake. I hit dismiss on my phone alarm saying 6 :45 and groggily wiped the sleep away from my eyes. Groaning, I got up from bed and walked to my bathroom.

After I was done brushing my hair, brushing my teeth and putting in my contacts, I walked out the door and down to the kitchen. The mouth watering smell of pancakes and bacon wafted to my nose.

My mother stood at the frying pan making lots of bacon and pancakes at the same time. Her hair in a lose bun as she flipped them over.

"Good morning darling" my mother greeted me in a honey sweet voice. How can my mother know its me without turning to see who came in? ... Wow, my mother does have eyes on the back of her head!

I smiled at the thought and responded in a voice a little higher and sweeter, "Good morning, mommy!"

I took a seat closest to the stack of pancakes. Once I helped myself to two big pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries, I dug in.

I just love the sweet taste of our maple syrup because it's homemade. We tap our own maple trees with the help of everyone who is able to. Then we cook the sap and it turns to maple syrup.

I have never missed the tiring but fun days since I was three. I carried my own small hello kitty bucket to collect sap from the bags. The boys would play around seeing who could carry the most sap.

(Flashback Cress 9 years old)

One day when it was maple syrup season, I was giddy with happiness. My little arms carried my Hello Kitty bucket full of sap! I was trusted enough to carry one without spilling the contents.

The twins with their short black hair decided to play a game seeing who could run the furthest and fastest while carrying our buckets. Finally, my brothers allowed me to join in their games.

I scurried along with a bounce to my step to catch up to my brothers and James. After James made a line with his foot across the ground marking the starting line, I bent down on my knees and touched the ground with one arm mimicking my brothers running form. 

Then, Jake shouted and we ran full speed ahead. Truthfully, I was the last one because of my tiny legs.

With how clumsy I am, my little feet decided to trip over a big root leading me to dump half the contents to the ground. Sap poured into my rain boots soaking my socks.

I let one arm out to prevent me from falling onto the ground. My brothers stopped and laughed as they scolded me for dumping the contents.

Tears started to trickle down my cheeks both in embarrassment and frustration. I looked down at my now half empty bucket. Hearing footsteps coming my way, I quickly wiped away the tears with my petite fingers.

Looking down, I shifted my feet making the sap to slush around, soaking my socks even more. I frowned as my lips started to pout. Can this get even worse?

Long fingers reached out grabbing the half full bucket from my small delicate hands. I reluctantly let go and my hands dropped to my sides. Then, I looked up seeing Garrett. A small smile tugged at my lips but then instantly stopped thinking I'll be scolded.

( Garrett's 12 year old self)
Seeing Cress looking so dejected made me and my wolf sad. So I put my big hands compared to hers on her small shoulders. The differences between the two were immensely different with Garret already being 5 foot 4 and Cress only at 4 foot 7.

Wanting her to give me one of her brightest smiles I reached out and pulled away her long blonde locks twirling it around my finger. Finally, she looked up and smiled.