WARNING: In this chapter, it was basically Wolf going to school for the first time. There's some stuff at the bottom about Wolf going to history class and the stuff she learned there, but I don't think I'll ultimately keep it in the final draft.
XX
XX
"I want man-boy to be my guardian."
"No."
"I'd love to!"
Pausing to briefly look at each other when they'd spoken at the same time, Underwear-man quickly turned back to me and shook his head.
"Captain Marvel can't be your guardian when he himself still needs one." Looking over at the masked man pleadingly, my friend clasped his meaty hands together beggingly.
"Aw, c'mon Batman! I'll make sure she's fed and gets plenty of water, and I'll take her on lots of walks and play fetch with her everyday so she gets good exercise."
I shrugged, liking the sound of it. "Sounds good to me."
"Marvel, Wolf is not a pet." Turning to me, underwear-man repeated himself and I got the feeling that he was narrowing his eyes dangerously behind his mask. "Wolf, you are not a pet. As a minor you require a guardian to show up for school events or medical emergencies when needed and Captain Marvel cannot do that when he himself still goes to school."
"The only time he'd even be needed is to sign that paperwork stuff and mail it back to the school! He never even has to physically be there," I argued, my wolf fueling the aggression I was suddenly feeling when the ridiculous-looking human in front of me wouldn't back down.
"If you're injured or get sick he'll be the one they call to come get you."
"I don't get sick and if I'm injured then I'm sure as hell not sticking around for the humans to find out about it!" I retorted, a small growl accompanying my words.
"It's a matter of legality, and since Captain Marvel cannot legally be your guardian you'll have to choose someone else," Underwear-man said with an air of finality. Annoyed as hell but still rational enough to understand his point, I nodded stiffly before looking over at my friend.
"You can be my guardian in everything but school," I promised. "I'll still go on walks and play with you man-boy, and when you visit you can feed me."
Shooting his hands in the air excitedly, the man whooped and came over to wrap an affectionate arm around me. His crushing strength made it a little harder to breath, but my wolf just considered it a pleasant reminder that he was strong enough protect himself around danger.
Underwear-man sighed but simply nodded his head. "Very well. Now, do you have a preference for who else will be your designated school guardian, or would you rather I choose for you?"
I considered my options carefully. "Robot-man can't do it, can he?"
Another sigh, this one more annoyed than weary. "No."
"Damn."
"Wolf! You just swore." Man-boy shook his head in disappoinment, a child-like mirth in his eyes as he wagged a finger at me.
"Sorry man-boy," I apologized distantly, still mulling my options. "I'll try not to as much."
"Good girl!" He praised, scratching the top of my head. Damn that feels good, I admitted to myself, slightly leaning into the motion.
"Well, can I share a guardian with someone else on the team?" I eventually asked, not wanting to be put in the care of some stranger. Nodding, underwear-man pushed his cape back.
"Take the day to think about it," he recommended. "Talk to the others and find out who you would feel most comfortable with."
Without waiting for a response, the intimidating man turned and walked out of the room in the direction of the elevator.
"Maybe you should choose Batman," Man-boy offered. "I know he acts grumpy sometimes, but he loves Robin a lot and he's really responsible."
"I know," I agreed. "But I think he takes on too much of the world already, Man-boy. He takes himself and the world around him too seriously, and I see how that mindset's affected masked-boy. He's a natural leader, I'd even say an alpha if he had more of the wild in him, which is in part why it probably wouldn't be a good idea to choose him."
"Because you'd want to fight over who's in charge?"
"It's a little more complicated than that, but yeah."
"Hmm….Well, if you want someone from the team then there's the Flash – Wally's mentor. Superboy's is Canary, Miss Martian has her uncle Martian Man Hunter, Aqualad has Aquaman, and Artemis has her uncle Green Arrow."
"I don't really know green-girl or sea-boy's mentors," I considered thoughtfully. "And I don't like psycho-woman. I don't –"
"Wait, you don't like Canary?" Man-boy interrupted curiously, his blue eyes wide.
XX
XX
"Are you a cop?"
Blinking, I glanced over at my self-proclaimed "new friend".
"No," I replied, confused. "Why do you ask?"
She shrugged, a disbelieving look crossing her face.
"I noticed it pretty quickly; you act a lot like my dad, who's a cop. You could be doing one of those 21 Jump Street things and be like thirty, but look like a highschooler. Maybe you're"
I nodded slowly and opened my lunch box, not sure what 21 Jump Street was or why she thought I might be thirty but too hungry to put off eating in order to find out. Ignoring the look of distaste she sent my way when I dug my fork into a piece of the rare steak I'd pre-cut that morning, I chewed the tender beef with relish.
"Are you a vampire then?" She asked lightly, digging into her own brown paper bag to retrieve her own lunch.
"Yeah right," I snorted, rolling my eyes like blond-girl had taught me.
"How about a psychic detective? Quick, try to guess what I have for lunch."
"I have no idea. A sandwich and chips maybe?" I asked, knowing full-well what was in there. I could tell by the smell wafting from the bag that there was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread and a slightly overripe orange, but knew human noses probably couldn't have picked that up from where I was sitting.
"Ooh, so close! You got the sandwich part right, but the side dish is….." She tipped the bag over, letting a sandwich and peeled orange wedges in a plastic bag fall out.
"Damn. I guess you can cross werewolf off the list too, huh?" I noted dryly, hoping the comment didn't sound too forced or out of place.
"Guess not," the blond sighed with mock woe.
"What's with…." I trailed off for a second, trying to remember the term blond-girl had taught me. "…the thirty questions?"
The teen glanced at me oddly, an eyebrow cocked in amusement.
"You mean twenty?"
"You're asking so many, I thought I'd bump it up to thirty." I shrugged, brushing off the mistake. Grinning, the girl chuckled and popped one of the citrus wedges in her mouth, swallowing quickly.
"Sorry, I was just curious. It's the little things, y'know? You chose a table against the wall just now even though a bunch of open ones in the center were closer; you did the same thing in class earlier too. Not a big deal on its own, but you keep an eye on the doors almost constantly. No matter where we are or who you're with you've got this hyper awareness of people. Every time someone even twitches, you get into this defensive stance and look ready to attack."
Studying her curiously, I watched as she visibly forced herself to hold my gaze steadily.
"I don't think you do it on purpose, but there's also that intimidation thing you do with your eyes."
"What intimidation thing?" I asked, silently acknowledging that yeah, maybe her refusal to back down from the staring contest was rubbing my wolf instincts the wrong way.
"You're doing it now," she laughed, finally looking down to her sandwich. My wolf, satisfied that I'd won the small dominance challenge, settled down enough to let me glance back at my own food.
I opened my mouth to yawn, suddenly feeling a little sleepy, but my companion waved off what she must have thought would be an apology.
"Don't worry about it," she smiled sympathetically. "I doubt anyone else's noticed; I'm just more aware of stuff like that than most people because of my dad."
Her tone felt oddly condescending, but I suppressed a grimace and nodded silently, finishing the last of my food quickly.
"Anyways, what classes do you have left?" She asked, bunching up her garbage and tossing it back into the bag for disposal.
"P.E. and History," I answered back contentedly, glad I'd be able to work off some of the anxious energy that had been building in me since my arrival at this god-forsaken hell hole.
"Ugh, sorry to hear about that, P.E. sucks," my quasi-friend replied, scrunching her face with dislike. "I have it during fourth period; I heard we're being tested on how fast we can run a mile. I'm so out of shape, it took me like thirty minutes to do it last time."
I stared at her in horror, my mouth dropping open. "Thirty minutes?! How – you should be able to run seven or eight miles in that time!"
"Right," she snorted, thinking I was joking. Realizing my faux pas, my jaw snapped shut and silently I stood up with her, following as she walked over to a trashcan and threw away her garbage.
"As long as you finish in under an hour, you won't fail," she consoled as we walked out of the cafeteria. "And even if it takes longer, they still won't fail you; they just make you do it again next time, which kinda sucks too I guess, but still." She patted me on the back when we reached my locker, my fingers quickly turning the knob on the combination lock to reach the gym clothes inside.
"I'm sure you'll be fine. Let me know how it goes!" she called back, walking away to find her own locker. Sighing, I grabbed the long-sleeved shirt and sweatpants balled up in my backpack and closed the locker door carefully before walking down the hall to the girl's changing rooms I'd seen earlier.
Quietly slipping in, I ignored the curious glances of a couple girls that had already arrived and headed straight for one of the bathroom stalls. I didn't really care if the humans saw me change, but green-girl had explained that it would be better to hide my scars and tattoos whenever possible. I couldn't help but glance at the short sleeved shirts and shorts the other girls were wearing longingly, but quickly closed the stall door and changed into my own version of the uniform.
Tying my hair into a low ponytail, I followed a pair of girls as they walked out an unfamiliar door and saw that it led to a small gym where a few boys and an older man in a tracksuit holding a clipboard were idly chatting.
"You the new student? Wolf.…" He checked the clipboard and looked back up. "….West?"
I nodded, pushing the grey sleeves of my shirt up to my elbows.
"Huh," he commented, raising an eyebrow with interest. "Interesting name. Would you rather I called you Wolf or West?"
I thought it was a weird question but shrugged it off and studied him curiously.
"Wolf."
Nodding, he scribbled something on the clipboard before glancing back at me. "It's not ideal with it being your first day and all, but today I'm having the class run a mile around the track outside. One run around the track is a quarter mile, so do four of those then come up to me so I can write down your time. Ideally you'll finish running the mile in under an hour, any longer and I'll have you try it again next class. Understand?"
I nodded disinterestedly, already knowing most of the information he'd provided already.
"Alright," he nodded back. "Go ahead and start stretching, once the bell rings we're heading out to the field."
Turning, I walked a few feet away and bent over at the waist to touch the floor, relishing in the light burn of the stretch in my legs at the motion. I felt several eyes on me, but my anticipation for the run made it easy to tune out the attention as I stood straight again and slowly rotated my feet to stretch and warm my ankles. Over the next few minutes the rest of the class trickled in, one or two faces vaguely familiar from my math and English classes.
As soon as I heard the whistle, I shot off exuberantly, welcoming the slap of cool air against my face as my legs furiously pushed off against the soft synthetic material of the track. I heard three others following behind me closely, one almost neck to neck with me, but I ignored them easily as we finished the first lap and quickly passed the classmates jogging around us.
As we finished the second lap, I saw the male keeping up with me shoot a challenging glance my way before he started running a little faster until he'd almost surpassed me. Growling, I accepted the challenge and pushed myself to go faster, a small grin breaking out on my face at the incredulous look he sent my way as I pushed ahead of him again during the third lap. By the final lap I finally started to feel my heart begin to pound a little harder with the exertion and I slowed to a jog once I'd reached the finish line in first place.
Not that it was a competition or anything, I thought smugly, walking up to the coach. Looking impressed, the man nodded and recorded my time on the sheet, quickly doing the same for the three people I heard following behind me. Quietly sniffing, I reeled back and stared at the face mirroring the surprise I was feeling and stepped back warily, my instincts on high alert.
"That was pretty impressive Wolf," our teacher complimented excitedly; unaware of the danger he was in. "It takes some serious work to reach a four minute and forty-three second mile, were you on the track team at your last school?"
"No," I answered shortly, refusing to take my eyes off the dangerous…..creature…..next to me.
"Well, with national level speed like that I think you should definitely think about trying out for the team here!" the man smiled encouragingly, placing a hand on my rival's tense shoulders."Kyle here is on the team, I'm sure he wouldn't mind answering any questions you might have," he looked down at the boy pointedly, and the teen nodded slowly, his amber eyes never leaving mine.
"Yeah," the boy murmured lowly, walking around me as he kept his gaze trained on me. "Let's go…..talk. I'll tell you all about it."
Stiffly nodding, I walked with him silently until we were behind the bleachers and my lips lifted over my teeth in a silent snarl.
"What the fuck are you?" I growled, going into a defensive stance.
"I should be asking you the same thing bitch," he snapped back, his eyes narrowing dangerously as his body dropped to mirror mine. My mind racing, I barely suppressed the urge to turn into a wolf; the last thing I needed was for someone to come across a giant wolf attacking a seemingly human student on the school field.
"Why do you smell like wolf?" the teen demanded, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed me again. Growling low in my throat, I fought off the prickling in my jaw and shook my head violently, my chest heaving with the effort to keep myself human.
"Does it matter?" I grit out, feeling a drop of sweat slide down my temple. "There's only one way this ends, wolf."
His pupils dilating, he smirked. "One of us kills or fucks the other. Guess which one I'm hoping for?"
"I already have a mate!" I spit out angrily as we circled each other.
Huffing, he followed me step for step, his eyes not missing a single detail as he watched me carefully. "Funny, I don't smell his claim on you," he taunted.
Snapping my teeth threateningly, I opened my mouth to retaliate when he launched himself at me with a growl, his eyes trained on my neck.
"You're delusional if you think you can make me submit so easily," I barked, taunting him. "And even if you won, you can't exactly fuck me right now with your classmates on the other side of the bleachers."
"Screw the humans," he tossed back cagily. "I've finally found another wolf, and it's a female my age no less. When I make you submit, I'm staking my claim and making you mine; I don't care if I have to do it in front of others the first time around – nobody is going to get in the way."
"We shouldn't do this at school," I replied slowly, frowning in confusion. Wait, why shouldn't we do this now?
"You're not escaping," Kyle growled, taking a step towards me.
"No," I shook my head, disoriented by how….human I was suddenly feeling. "I have a mate. He's not a wolf, but I wouldn't have chosen him if he couldn't match or surpass me; and he's just as much an alpha as we are."
"I – whoa," he muttered, standing up straight and blinking. We stared at each other for a few seconds, the aggression we'd been feeling dissipating as quickly as it had initially arrived.
"What the hell?" I asked, confused.
"Mari," he replied, his face dawning with comprehension as he glanced around cautiously before settling back on me.
"I – I don't feel like a wolf anymore." I grimaced at the alien feeling of being completely cut off from my lupine half. "What the fuck just happened, wolf?" I demanded.
"Whoa, hey, it's okay!" He soothed, holding his hands out. "I have a friend who can neutralize the natural predator and prey instincts in animals. She must have sensed our aggression and temporarily cut off the connection to our wolves."
"How long does it last? Can I still turn back into –?"
He shook his head and rubbed his arms uncomfortably as if the loss of his wolf made him just as anxious. "She won't keep it up very long," he promised. "Probably just until I see her next period and explain what happened or until school's out."
"I'm so sorry for the way I acted," Kyle apologized, his eyes flashing with emotion. "I can't believe I almost tried to – to force you. I – I can't even…."
"We both got…..caught up in it. We reacted the way wolves would." I shrugged, vaguely horrified by how swept up I'd become in my instincts and immensely grateful for this Mari person, whoever she was. "It's – running into another wolf like this, into another alpha of all things in the same territory, the only things our wolves would have allowed would be to either mate or kill each other."
"Jesus," the teen muttered, running a hand through his hair.
"Can you really become a wolf?" I asked, still feeling wary. Cocking his head, the brown-haired male paused and regarded me carefully before nodding.
"You?" he asked.
"Yeah. It happened a couple years ago, I don't remember how or why exactly."
"Hmm…." He hummed curiously. "I was kidnapped and injected with some sort of serum when I was twelve. It was a part of some sort of child-soldier program some crackpot was trying to put together. A couple friends and I were able to escape, and we haven't seen him since."
XX
BASICALLY, MARI SENSED THE MAJOR AGGRESSION AND USED HER POWERS TO SUBDUE IT. KYLE EXPLAINS SITUATION, AND HE AND WOLF AWKWARDLY PART.
XX
"How was your first day of school?"
Growling, I dropped my bag on the couch and marched into the kitchen, opening the door to my designated cupboard and grabbing a frisbee.
"I hated it, sea-boy," I declared firmly, overwhelmed with everything the day had brought. "Teenage boys don't shower enough and they reek unendingly of desperation and arousal, teenage girls put on too much perfume and go through a thousand different emotions a minute, and everything except history is boring."
Unsure whether or not to mention the strange wolf-boy I'd fought earlier, I uneasily shoved him out of my mind.
"I….see." Sea-boy stood up slowly, his lips twitching into a small smile when he saw the blue disk in my hands. Standing tall, I shoved down my embarrassment and looked at him directly, holding up the plastic toy.
"Will you, uh….play with me?"
"It would be my pleasure."
Nodding, I walked with him to the elevator, entering and pressing the button to go down to the ground floor when the doors opened.
"What did you enjoy about history?" the Atlantean asked, looking over at me curiously.
"I didn't like it at all. The other classes were boring, which I'll just have to tolerate, but the history class was a fucking nightmare."
Frowning, sea-boy tilted his head curiously. "What happened?"
"We watched a movie about a period of time called a 'World War'." The doors opened and I quickly walked out, the man behind me quietly listening as he followed me outside.
"It specifically focused on the horrors imprisoned humans experienced in some sort of camp." Feeling a fresh set of tears well up in my eyes, I turned to my friend and shook my head frantically, wanting to toss the images from the movie out of my head.
"They were starved and tortured," I whispered, my voice choked with the tightening of my throat. "There were pictures of living men that looked like skin-wrapped skeletons, of execution chambers where the prisoners were forced to murder their friends and family by filling the room with poisonous gas."
Desperately needing the comfort of being near my pack, I stepped forward and clung to sea-boy in a tight embrace. The moment I felt his arms wrap around me a sob broke out, the tears hot against my skin.
"Millions, Sea-boy. Millions died in some of the most horrific, unspeakable ways imaginable. Mountains were made out of the thousands of dead bodies piled on the ground and I just….how did I not know? Of all the things I've forgotten, how could such anevil, unforgettable thing like that be one of my lost memories–" I faltered, my weeping intensifying to the point I couldn't talk.
"It made me think of the compound and the brain-machine," I admitted, feeling bile rising in my throat. "The way those poor humans were treated – how they were experimented on and abused," I leaned back, looking into sea-boy pained silver eyes.
"How can they do that?" I whispered. "How do humans have such an endless capability and imagination for evil?"
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I based a lot of Wolf's reaction on how I felt when my history class covered WWII. It was an advanced class, so they covered a lot of the more in depth and horrifying details and we spent a good several weeks on the subject; it really left an impression on me. The pictures and video we saw, the accounts we read, the scenarios we discussed and played out is still horrifically crystal clear in my brain even years later.
I remember specific faces and the mutilated bodies they belonged to. I remember finding out that approximately six million Jewish people alone were murdered by the Nazis over the course of several short years, with approximately half that astronomical number due to the concentration camps.
I realize this is a touchy subject, and I put serious thought into whether or not to make it as impacting on Wolf as it ended up being, but I think it needed to be done. Most of us grow up having the general knowledge of what WWII was and what kind of horrors occurred then, but can you imagine what it would be like for someone who had absolutely no idea what had happened? The documentaries on the holocaust are made to affect the viewer in as visceral a way as possible. It's supposed to shock you, to horrify you, make you grieve and swear to yourself that if you have a say in it, something like this will never happen again.
With this chapter I'll admit I put a lot of myself into Wolf, which I try not to do as a general rule. First person POV can be tricky, as it's all too easy to turn the character into a mirror of yourself.