Chapter 139
“Should I go and make sure she’s alright?” Honour asked her, fixing a flower in the girl’s hair without asking her for her permission.
“You just want me to look like a tree, don’t you?” Lina sighed.
“It’s only one flower, and it’s beautiful. The blue flower accented the royal’s eyes nicely even though it wasn’t the way she would have wanted to dress.
“If I needed a hair ornament, Honour, I’d buy one,” she reached for the flower but thought better of it when she saw her friend pouting, “Okay, fine, just this once. Would you stop looking at me like that?”
“You take your natural beauty for granted so many times. It pains me sometimes,” Honour replied, retracting her defensive pout. It worked on Lina every time even though she never asked for anything big from the girl.
“Oh, did someone decide to grow a garden in their hair?” a voice came from the other side of the palace gates. Crysta walked out with Bree and Ginger by her side. The two blondes snickered at the comment, hanging on their leader’s every word.
Lina merely looked away from the girl as though she was a passing gnat that would soon find its way to somewhere else, “I don’t understand the relationship between you two,” Honour began, but stopped the moment she noticed the tears that stained her friend’s eyes.
Crysta flipped her off and waltzed into the forest, taking the shortcut that wolves took to get to the school, when they didn’t want to use a car, “I’m sorry...” The royal raised up her hand to silence her friend. This was not a discussion they were going to have and Honour knew that well.
.....
“We finally made it,” Katie’s chipper voice pitched in, breaking their silence, “Where is the car? Or are we going to walk there?”
“I would have preferred we ran, but father had to assume his fatherly stature and act like your legs were not doing okay... Ugh, we’ll be walking,” Lina mimicked a disgusted teenager, one that she was, having wiped all signs of her previous mood in an instant.
“Wow, that’s one crew you’ve got, Katie. You guys went to pick one person and you returned with five,” Honour mentioned.
“I don’t think I got your name,” Katie spoke up, taking her time to take in the girl’s appearance. She stood out like a sore thumb but projected the warmest aura she’d met amongst the wolves.
“My name is Honour... Honour Leilani,” she replied, flashing Katie a smile that only reminded her of Martha Sirius.
“Okay, now that nature girl has made her introductions, can we get to school before lunch?” Lina said through gritted teeth.
“There it is...” Katie pointed at her friend, “Your resemblance with the King. Both of you really hate being late. I’m not usually late myself, but come on... It’s my first day. Take it easy, Lina.”
“Someone is used to walking outside of the rules...”
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Katie smiled at her, “Lead the way, Princess.”
.........................
The Sirius School of Academic Excellence and Integrity... Katie spent more time staring at the lengthy name of the school. Sandra stared at it with the exact same expression. From Brigadia High School to the Sirius School of Academic Excellence and Integrity... “Sandra...”
“I see it, Katie. When you think you’ve seen it all,” Sandra voiced their thoughts.
Cole backtracked to find what they were looking at and found that it was the name. Looking between the two girls and the lengthy name that he obviously already knew about, he started to chuckle. “Why the long name?” Katie asked.
“It’s like I came here to sightsee,” Lina groaned.
“If it bothers you so much Lina, you can proceed to class,” Katie told her.
“You have been out of school for almost two weeks and you don’t find that mildly disturbing. Assignments and all the work that you have not yet...”
“Who could have thought the biggest fan of Jack Boggle was a bookworm?” Katie cooed, “Get to class, Lina. We’ll be fine. And take mother nature with you as well.”
Honour stared at the girl in shock. “Oh, I like that one. You should replace Drake in the field of nicknaming,” Lina replied, dragging the speechless Honour away from Katie and her gang.
“Well, it’s been the five of us since the beginning of this mess, hasn’t it?” Katie pointed out.
“Now there is something I can agree on,” Caden spoke for the first time in hours. He’d grown quieter over the days, but only to the point that everyone could tell he was fine.
The school was so massive that it got Katie’s blood racing just looking at it. Brigade High School could not compare to this school and the name just made her cringe at the thought of whoever thought it would make a good name. “Well, at least they already know we are supposed to be here. Let’s just get to our classes.”
“Which classes?” Sandra asked.
“That’s part of the adventure, Sandra. Onward,” Katie strode forward with an excited expression. She was in a good mood that day and there was nothing that was going to ruin it. ‘Why does something bad happen every time you get too happy?’ Ashley asked when she found the trend bothersome.
‘Well, the world is not ready for this kind of happiness, Ashley,’ Katie replied. Right after she said that someone else made themselves made their presence known to them.
“So that’s why you weren’t in class yet,” Crysta spoke up from the top of the stairs at the entrance to the school building.
Cole put his hand around Katie, the preconceived notion that Katie would be losing her temper any time soon coming into play, “You don’t even know if we decided to take the scenic route,” Katie huffed.
“Of course, follow me and I’ll show you to your classrooms,” Crysta replied, turning around without another word. She hadn’t greeted them or acknowledged Cole’s presence. Cole loosened his grip on his mate and the group followed her. “I asked the principal to allow me the honour of giving you a tour of the premises. This place is just huge, but I’m sure you’ll get to know everything within a day or two. It’s a pretty simple layout for a city-building.”
“So everything in the city is built to intimidate those from the countryside, got it,” Katie noted.
“Basically,” Crysta chuckled, “To your right, you will see the path that takes you to the infirmary.”
“Which of the two races find themselves in there more, humans or werewolves?” Katie asked.
“That number is always changing. When the hunters are in a bad mood, the werewolves will get pretty roughed up, but when there slack off, the humans find themselves with more victims. I wouldn’t worry about it though. There is less violence in Sirius than in other places across the world,” she explained, moving on.
“That way, you will find the cafeteria...” the tour continued until they’d gone through the entire school except for the top floor of the main building, a detail that Katie had noted during their tour. The trip ended on the third floor of the main building which housed the classes they were supposed to be attending. “Any questions,” Crysta asked, turning to look at them.
Katie was swarming with a lot of them. Jason beat her to it, though, “Umm, why did you take us around the whole school if the classes were just here?”
“You said you wanted to take the scenic route to the classrooms. Did I do a bad job?” she asked.
“No, no, you didn’t. You actually aced the role of tour guide,” Jason replied.
“I have a question,” Katie spoke up and proceeded when Crysta gave her attention, “What’s the top floor?”
“Oh, that’s where the hunters hang. Werewolves don’t go there,” Crusta answered. Cole had his hand around Katie’s waist once more when she turned to the stairs.
“Why can’t I go there, Cole?”
“Because you have a class that you need to attend right now,” Cole replied.
“It’s almost over and...”
“You’ll go there when you have some free time. For now, you need to get to class,” he cut her off before she could pour out her numerous reasons. ‘There is no convincing him, Katie. You might want to give this one up...’
The girl looked at the stairs with longing eyes, “I will check out that floor before the end of this day. I just have to see what it looks like.”
“Is it true that you are a hunter?” Crysta asked her, “I don’t want to listen to rumours.”
“There is no use hiding that anymore. Yes, I am a hunter,” Katie replied.
“So weird...” Crysta mumbled to herself, shaking the thought of the abomination before and walking into the class... Caden walked ahead after Crysta, Jason following with a goofy expression...
“I’d like to introduce our new student... I mean two students... Oh my God, how many are you? It’s like I’m being attacked,” the teacher’s voice came from the inside of the class. Sandra was the next to enter and Katie heard a sigh coming from the teacher, “Where is Katie Sirius?” she asked calmly.
“Oh, right here,” the girl announced her presence, popping in through the door. Laughter went through the class upon her entrance... “Are there more of you?”
“No, just me... The other four can speak for themselves,” the girl replied, “We are sorry for the tardiness. The tour was long...”
“Not too long, I hope,” the teacher replied, “Can I have the others introduce themselves so that we can proceed with the class?”
With that said, the wolves introduced themselves along with Sandra. The class seemed to find her just as interesting as the rest of them, for she was a human walking amongst powerful werewolves... ‘What would make her special?’ Katie could see how that would be confusing...