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I moved quickly, almost tripping over in my haste. I zoned in on the first empty seat I saw, but the girl sitting next to it slowly lifted her bag on the seat and refused to look at me. I found an empty seat on the other side of the room that squeaked for the rest of the class, earning me some dirty looks from the teacher.Great start, Margo. Bloody fantastic.
I was the last to leave the classroom after the bell rang because I was busy trying to figure out my timetable. I was destined to be late for every single class.
In the hallway, I wandered around, looking at door numbers until a tall, blond boy blocked my way. “Hey,” he said brightly. “You’re new.”
“Yeah,” I said, relieved that somebody wanted to talk to me. “I’m Margo.”
“Uh-huh.” His gaze drifted over my shoulder. “So you’re new, right?”
“Um…” I followed his gaze to a group of girls walking by. “We already went over that bit.”
He looked at me blankly then scratched behind his ear. “Cool.”
Weird. “Hey, do you know where the French lab is?”
He pointed behind me. “Have to go. See you.” He hurried off after the girls, leaving me wondering what the hell had just happened.
The rest of the day continued in similar fashion. I tried to be nice, tried to smile and say hi. Tried to put myself out there. But nobody gave a shit. Every effort I made was met with disgust, turned backs, and icy glares.
At lunch, I worked up the courage to enter the lunchroom, but anytime I moved even remotely close to an empty chair, it was magically covered up with somebody’s coat or bag or lunch. People shifted in their seats and avoided meeting my eyes.
Back home, a new student would have had everyone falling over themselves to befriend them, so maybe… the problem was me?
I fell into an old habit of trying to look a few inches smaller then thought,sod it,and went outside to eat my lunch in the freezing cold October air. Nobody was dressed like me or looked like me, and nobody wanted to know me either. Who cared if they didn’t like me?
I do, a small voice in my head reminded me.
Ignoring my desperate inner self, I sat on some steps and stared into space instead of eating.
A group of girls walked by. They were giggling over some wannabe celebrity I would never have interest in in a million years. How was I supposed to relate to them? Even their makeup was out of my league. I picked at my chipped nail polish and shrugged into my jacket, trying to stay warm.
In the distance, two groups of boys shoved past each other. One group, with a mix of various accents, aggressively turned around to shout something after the others. They looked wild. I hoped they didn’t see me. A short, well-built boy with a buzz-cut was the last to stop shouting, and when he rejoined his own group, he shoved one of the boys to the ground.
Bully. I looked away in disgust. Maybe I didn’t want to fit in.
Chapter 4
Dorian
Mara dumpedher books into my arms then slammed her locker shut. “Have I told you how much I hate homework?” She sucked her upper teeth and retrieved the books one at a time, forcefully stuffing each one into her bag. “What’s with the alpha’s obsession with this stuff anyway?”
She was just grumpy because he’d warned us about consequences if we kept failing exams.
“He just wants us to fit in. Teachers notice if we don’t even try.”
Frustration flared in her eyes. “I’ll never get this stuff. I can speak three languages, but that’s not good enough. I have to learn the grammar of an extra dead one just to pass a stupid exam.”
The alpha’s unwillingness to let us take an exemption from the studying of the Irish language was a sore point with most of us.
“Think of it this way, only one more year, and then you can study whatever you want. Besides, Byron doesn’t need you to ace every test. He just wants you to work hard.” I shot her a meaningful look. “It’s worth it.”
She blew out a breath. She was just as desperate as me to be the kind of wolf who got to stay with the main pack. “Let’s get this over with then.”
“It’s Tuesday,” I said mournfully.
She tutted. “Then you’re on your own. See you at lunch, Dor.”
She left me standing there. I was the only werewolf in my next couple of classes. Due to a weird quirk of nature, all of the teenagers currently in the pack were shifters. According to our alpha, we were supposed to integrate, but sometimes—okay, most of the time—it was easier to just hang out with each other rather than the humans in town. Most of the other wolves didn’t even like me, but that wasn’t the point. Pack stuck together.
