Winter Rose

Chapter 9: A New School, a New Rhythm

I woke up to my alarm at 5a.m thankful I finally got to sleep in. I got ready and had my breakfast then met Theo for our morning run. 

Nervous about the first day of school? He asked me. 

Not really. I thought back. 

Alright. Well I feel I should warn you some rumors have already been circulating around town. He hesitated. Because well...people have seen me with you and Jessica around town.

Yeah? And? I huffed as I increased my pace. 

Well everyone in town has known Jessica and I have been going steady for a while…

I get it. At school everyone knows her as your girlfriend. I couldn’t stop my wolf from growling out loud as we were currently exercising her body. I tried taking a deep breath to calm myself and her. Around school we can still act as friends while she continues to act in the girlfriend role and spreads homewrecker rumors about me. I charged ahead. 

I don’t want it to be like that. He said catching up to me again. 

Yeah well everyone expects you to be with her, as you know you currently are. Technically by challenging your current girlfriend I am the homewrecker, and this situation is too complicated for their normal human minds to understand. It’s fine. She’ll wear your jersey to games, and I’ll just be your friend around everyone else. Plus it’s high school so after I win the challenge and you guys break up and we start openly dating no one will think anything of it. 

“You’re sure that’s what you want?” He asked after shifting back to his human form as we reached the edge of the forest and started the cool down jog to the porch. 

“Yes. I want everything to go as smoothly and normally as possible until the challenge is complete. From there we will adjust.” 

“But that means everyone will think you’re single.” He growled out. 

I laughed, “Is that really what you’re worried about? Some guy thinking I’m single and asking me out?” 

“Kinda. I mean I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you’re very attractive, and you’re new. Which in this town? Makes you very exciting.” He answered. 

“Well if that happens I’ll say I have a boyfriend I left downstate.” I shrugged as I stopped at the porch steps, “Go shower, you have to pick us up in an hour.” I said tossing a water bottle at him. 

“We’re going to continue this discussion.” He said heading off towards his property. 

“Why? It’s finished.” I said going into the house. I ran to my room to shower and get ready for school. I left my hair to it’s natural curls only putting in some mousse for frizz control. I sat at my vanity and put makeup on my eyes.  I did my lids in shades of coral and copper to make my blue eyes pop, followed with a black winged eyeliner, and mascara. I did my lips in bright red before slipping on my skinny jeans, black boots, and tight, low cut, black sweater. Grabbing my bookbag from my closet I ran downstairs meeting Em, Steph, and Malcolm on the porch as Theo pulled up. I opened the passenger door and then the half door behind it, allowing the other three to climb in back before I jumped into the shotgun seat. 

“Really?” Theo asked, looking at me with a deep hunger in his eyes, “That’s what you’re wearing to school? Did your grandfather see this?” He said turning to Em. 

“Hey, the pack told her to seduce you. Judging from how you looked at her, the shirt works.” Em shrugged. 

“Yeah. And if you could not look at my sister like a raw steak in front of me I’d really appreciate it.” Malcolm growled.

“You better hurry before we are late for school.” Steph added looking at her watch. 

“Alright. Let’s go.” Theo flashed one last look at me out of the corner of his eye, I smiled as he put the truck in drive. 

We dropped Steph and Malcolm out first. Malcolm wore black skinny jeans and some graphic tee from a game he assured me was super cool with the kids these days. It just looked like a bunch of blocks to me but I shrugged and wished him a good first day. Steph was dressed a lot more modestly than me in loose jeans and a long sleeved shirt that said “Save the drama for your llama.” They walked into the building together off to conquer the first new school they attended in forever.

“Alright next stop, Clare High.” Theo sighed as he drove the truck to the next lot. He parked in a numbered spot, and I let Em out. She wore a pencil skirt and tucked in a teal button up blouse with a dangling necklace, earrings, and the Oxford heels I bought her for Christmas. “Hey Em, wanna go ahead of us? We’ll meet you in the lobby.” Theo offered. 

“Sure no problem.” She said with a smile on her nude pink lip glossed lips. Other people were getting out of their vehicles and I noticed a few guys’ heads turn as she walked by. 

“What happened to you being good with your arrangement?” Theo asked when Em was out of earshot. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” I looked up at him through my lashes while not so innocently adjusting my arms to push up my bust. He let out a groan. 

“You’re going to give every guy in there a hard on.” He said motioning to the building. 

“And I meant it when they ask me out I will say I have a boyfriend downstate.” I answered leaning against his truck bed. “Does it really bother you that much?” I asked, biting my lip and looking up at him. 

He groaned rubbing the back of his neck and adjusting his pants, “For Goddess sake you’re such a tease.” 

“Well when you see how much everyone else wants what’s yours, you’ll really appreciate me when I win this challenge.” I said turning to saunter off and meet Em in the lobby. I made sure to put a little extra sway in my hips. I heard Theo take a step to follow me before he was forced to stop by Jessica who I saw coming before I made my escape. 

This isn’t over. His voice resounded in my head and I flashed a smile back at him over my shoulder. Noticing all the eyes that were on Em were currently on me. I heard his growl echo in my mind as he also noticed, but could do nothing about it with Jessica hanging onto his arm. 

Pay attention to your girlfriend. She’s talking to you. I mentally taunted him before I entered the building. Em ran up to me and looped her arm in mine. We followed the maps that came with our schedules and used the fifteen minutes we were early to reacquaint ourselves with the locations of our classes for the day. Since it had been a month since the open house, after we felt comfortable with our path for the day we headed to our lockers. 

“You really shouldn’t give Theo such a hard time.” Em said as she put her back pack in her locker. “He really wants to be with you.” 

“I know.” I said, “but I can’t risk him falling back into his comfort zone completely and forget about me.” 

“You know damn well that wouldn’t happen. You’re just wanting to maintain your status as the school tease that you had back home.” I shrugged at her. 

“We are going to be late for class. See you at lunch.” I said ruffling her meticulously manicured hair that was pinned back into an artful bun. She gave a low growl before heading towards her first period. I closed my locker and noticed Jessica across the hall kissing Theo. My wolf growled and I turned to head towards my first period. 

A.P Lit was not a far walk and I entered right as the bell rang. Mr. Eris stood at the chalkboard as I made my way to the last open seat in the back. “Nice to see everyone managed to make it in time.” Mr. Eris said, giving me a pointed look. “As you all know by now the first day is syllabus day.” He picked up a stack of books from his desk, “This is your textbook for the course. Inside the front cover is the reading list of novels you will need to purchase yourselves or get from the library followed by the syllabus.” He prattled on giving five books to the lead person in each row who took a book and passed it back. Next was American History, followed by Algebra 2. Each class followed the same schedule. Here is a book. Here is a syllabus. Let me explain to you the school’s policies on late assignments and grading, then read you all the assignments you have to do this year and their due dates. Nevermind the syllabi were posted on the schools website and we had already printed them off at home and read through them two weeks ago. 

Finally, the lunch bell rang and I met Em at our lockers. We pulled out our lunch boxes and made our way to the cafeteria. “Goddes. You are so lucky you only have two years left of this garbage.” Em sighed. “Syllabus day is the worst.” 

“Well one thing may be worse” I said as we entered the cafeteria, “With which clique do we want to sit?” I asked her. 

“Well there’s Theo” She offered pointing to the prep table. 

“Oh yes along with Jessica and all her cheer leading buddies.” I grimaced, “Let’s not.” 

“Looks like it’s too late.” She said as one guy in the group broke off and approached us. He was taller than Theo with black hair that you could tell he took too long styling this morning to get the perfect just  tumbled out of bed look. He looked both Em and I up and down. 

“Hey, you must be new. I’m Alexander, but I go by just Xander.” He said, “You should come sit with us.” He extended his hand to the prep table. Theo glared at Xander’s back. 

“We’d love to.” I said flashing him my biggest smile. “I’m Alexandria, but I go by Alex. This is my cousin Emily.” I said pointing to Em. 

“Just Em.” She smiled shyly at him. 

“Well come on I’ll introduce you to the rest of the guys.” He said leading the way. He motioned to the end of the table rolling his eyes, “The blondie down there is Theo, with his girlfriend Jessica in his lap. If they get too gross we can kick them out.” Jessica made a face and Theo would not stop staring at Xander’s other hand on my lower back. 

“We’ve met over summer. The Rose’s are my neighbors, they worked on the farm, and I gave them a ride to school.” Theo said, “And speak for yourself about the PDA Xander. You don’t even know her and haven’t stopped touching her since you dragged her across the cafeteria.” Theo tried making a joke but his voice came out rougher than I’m sure he intended. Xander flushed red and went to move his hand. 

I stepped closer, “It’s okay. I don’t mind.” I told him. Theo practically threw Jessica off his lap as he got up muttering something about having to use the restroom. Em gave me a disapproving look, as Xander continued the introductions. There was a Mike, a Brad, a Cody, and a bunch of normal names I would never be able to keep track of. Honestly I only remembered Xander’s because it was so close to mine. I took the seat Theo recently vacated and Em sat next to me as Xander introduced us. 

“Alex is terrible with names so don’t get upset if she doesn’t acknowledge you by name for a while.” Em fielded the questions while I ate. “We are from down state and relocated due to Alex’s mom dying and wanting to get out of the city and away from the memories.” I noticed sympathetic looks being tossed my way. 

“Okay Em, enough of the tragic backstory.” I cut her off. And everyone avoided my gaze. Except Xander and Theo who had come back from his bathroom break. 

“How’d your mom die?” Jessica cut in. Theo tensed and she started rubbing his shoulders not acknowledging she was causing his tension. 

“You can’t just ask people that Jessica.” He admonished her.  

“It’s no big deal.” I said with a shrug, “Car crash.” I said directly to Jessica. She stared at me in shock, because she didn’t think I’d actually answer her. I continued my eating. While she picked at her salad. 

“Are you intentionally being a stereotype?” I asked, looking at her salad.

“Excuse me?” 

“With the salad?” I clarified pointing with my fork. 

“I just enjoy salads.” She said, “And what about you? Don’t you care about your figure?” she pointed at my double decker sandwich, pasta salad, and chips. 

“Carbs build curves.” I said motioning towards my figure. The boys started to laugh but covered it with a cough. 

“Guess it’s true you are what you eat, hence you are just a piece of meat.” She sneered. 

“Oh is that why you’re a twig?” I asked sweetly. 

“Oh I like this one. She’s got some fire to her.” Xander said. “Looks like you have competition as the resident mean girl Jessie.” 

I laughed getting up, “It was nice to meet you all, but I’m not interested in petty games.” I said walking off. Em following on my heels. The bell rang indicating the end of lunch period as we made our way to our lockers. 

“You know you started this petty game.” Em pointed out. 

“Yeah I started the game. She’s the one making it petty.” 

“You baited her with the salad question.” 

“She didn’t have to take it hook, line, and sinker.” I added.

“Being wittier does not make you superior.” 

“No but being wittier, sexier, smarter, funnier, stronger, and liked more by his friends does.” I smiled as I closed my locker, “All is fair in love and war my dear. Have fun in class, see you at the end of the day.” I went to Painting, Spanish, and finally, metal shop. I was relieved Jessica was not in any of my classes, but noticed Xander and Theo both sitting at a table in metal shop. 

“Alex we have a spot over here.” Xander said motioning me over. I put on my brightest smile and walked over sitting between them. Theo moved his chair a little closer to mine, and Xander raised an eyebrow. “Jessie won’t like that.” he said, physically moving Theo and his chair back to their original place and moving my chair closer to him. This close I noticed his eyes were a dark hazel. “There that’s better.” He said. 

“The girlfriend is a little territorial?” I asked Theo. 

“You could say that.” He answered. Keeping his jaw tense as he noticed Xander brushing his arm against mine every time he had to move. “How ‘bout you? Got a boyfriend pining for you down state?” He asked. 

“Yeahh...I suppose you could say that.” I mused. 

“Are you going steady with him?” Xander asked. 

“Yeah. It’s been awhile since we last saw each other but we still talk every night.” I said.

“What’s his name?” Xander pushed. 

“Spencer” I answered.

“You think he’s messing around with you gone?” 

“Would you if you knew you had this?” I motioned towards my full figure. 

“No. No I would not.” Xander said, his face falling. “Well he won’t be jealous of you making a couple new friends would he?” Xander asked. 

“No. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with making friends.” I said moving my chair so I was once again evenly spaced between the two boys. 

“Tony! We have one spot left bro.” Xander said motioning to the new guy who walked in. He had red hair and blue eyes. I didn’t remember him being at the lunch table. “Tony’s not on the football team.” Xander explained, “but he plays Baseball with Theo and I in the spring.” 

“Oh” I said, “Hi I’m Alexandria, but everyone just calls me Alex.” 

“Anthony, but everyone calls me Tony.” He said shaking my hand. 

“Save it. She’s got a boyfriend.” Xander said. 

“Wow. You struck out that fast huh?” Tony laughed. Theo seemed to relax with them being discouraged. 

You’re lucky Tony is more mellow than Xander. Theo thought to me. 

Is it me who’s lucky? Or you? I asked back, sparing him a glance out of the corner of my eye. 

“Alright gentlemen stop harassing the new girl.” Mr. Fort said, “Here’s your syllabus and I’m going to go over our projects for the year.” And so the hourly drone began as the syllabus was read aloud to us. I would swear I had the school’s dress code, attendance, and grading policies memorized by the end of the day. 

“Well if what Theo really said about you being neighbors is true, I can give you a ride home from school if you’d like.” Xander offered as the bell rang. 

“No it’s alright, we have to pick up my little brother and Em’s sister from middle school anyways.” I smiled politely. “But if you’re ever over hanging out with Xander we can always stop by.” I offered. 

“Yeah, we’ll have to do that sometime. Maybe use the pool before it gets closed for the season.” Tony said. 

“Oh we have an indoor pool that we keep running all year long with a hot tub.” I offered, and could feel the anger radiating off of Theo. The boys followed me down the hall to my locker and Tony stopped when he saw Em. 

“Woah, who’s that?” he whispered to me. 

“Oh that’s my cousin Emily I was telling you about.” I shoved him towards her locker. “Look Em, Theo and Xander introduced me to another one of their friends. This is Anthony.” 

“Oh, hi Anthony.” Em said pushing some of her loose bangs out of her eyes. She blushed slightly and I smiled at her being all adorable. 

“It’s just Tony.” He clarified. “I’m guessing you have a boyfriend back down state too?” He asked. 

“Nope.” She smiled, “But I’m not opposed to finding one up here.” She said grabbing out her lunchbox to take home. “Nice meeting you. Bye Xander.” She waved as Theo nonchalantly shooed us down the hall to his locker. 

“Goddess. You two are a handful.” He muttered as he opened his locker. 

“Whatever do you mean?” I asked innocently. 

“Put this on.” He said handing me his varsity jacket. 

“Unfortunately, this would not attract the right attention.” I said handing it back, “Plus Jessica’s coming. We’ll see you at the truck.” I said taking his keys and nudging Em down the hall. 

“Why do you keep giving him alone time with her?” Em questioned me. 

“Because this is where their relationship is most known and most observed. If I am always butting in the homewrecker rumors she is trying to start will actually take root. Whereas this way she just looks paranoid.” I whispered. 

“You are scary. You know that right?” Em laughed. 

“Oh one-hundred percent. I should never be trusted with superpowers because I would be a villain. No doubt in my mind.” 

“No. You’d be a supervillain.” Em snorted. 

“What’s the difference?” I asked. 

“You have style.” 

“Hey girls wait up!” Xander called as he and Tony caught up to us. “Your ride ditch you?” 

“Hard to do when I have his keys.” I said dangling them on my finger, “The girlfriend showed up and she doesn’t seem to like me very much so I thought it’d be safer to wait at the truck.” 

“That’s a good idea.” Tony said, “That b***h is crazy.” 

“Do you know she already started rumors calling you a s*x demon?!” Xander laughed. “She tried telling the whole cheer squad you were after her man. Don’t worry though I set them straight letting everyone know you got a boy down state.” 

“Thank you for protecting my reputation.” I said to Xander. “I can’t believe she’s starting all this. I barely even know her.” 

“Don’t worry about it. Jessie’s always been this way. She’s had it bad for Theo since grade school and as soon as they started dating she started seeing every new girl as a threat.” Tony shook his head “b***h is crazy.” 

“I mean he’s good looking, but not enough for anyone to want to try and get past that so it must be working.”  I said. 

“What must be working?” Theo said sneaking up behind us. 

“Oh nothing. Just girl talk.” I smiled. He rolled his eyes. 

“Well see you guys tomorrow.” He said effectively dismissing Xander and Tony. “Give me my keys you little minx.” He added to me after they were out of ear shot. 

I playfully tried to keep them out of his reach, but he snatched them within seconds. “Your little corgi arms can’t keep me away from what’s mine.” He said a note of warning to his voice that made my wolf perk up with excitement. 

“Oh Goddess. Get a room you two.” Em pretended to wretch as she got in the truck. We went to the middle school and picked up Steph and Malcolm who only gave one word answers about school. Typical preteens. 

“Alright, you guys go inside. I wanna have a talk with Lexie alone.” Theo said, letting the three out of the backseat when we got home, before closing up the truck and backing down the drive out of earshot from my nosey pack. 

“What is-” I started to ask when he put the truck in park. I was cut off by him coming across the seat and kissing me hard. 

“You are a cruel, cruel temptress.” He murmured as he kissed my neck and started running his hands along my body. “Goddess, just seeing you dressed like this all day all I wanted was to touch you, and have my arm around you. Then when Xander was hitting on you I wanted to punch him and shout to the whole school that you were mine.” 

“I know but the whole school knows you’re Jessica’s.” 

“Stop reminding me about her.” 

“Stop pretending she doesn’t exist and that you weren’t all over each other all day.” I said pushing back slightly. 

“Is that what this is about?” He motioned to my outfit, “Were you trying to get every guy hard for you because I am publicly dating Jessica?” 

I pushed him back into his seat and straddled him. “No this is about teaching you what is going to be yours. And that while everyone else will want to have it, you’re the only one who will.” He was breathing hard and rested his face in my chest. “After this challenge is completed of course.” I added climbing off of him and out of the truck where I fixed my ruffled clothes and hair before blowing him a kiss and walking up the driveway to the ranch. He closed his door and drove back to his house. 

“So how did your talk go?” Mimi asked as I walked in the door. 

“Fine. We just had to work out the minuscule details of the competition and how that works with us three attending the same school.” 

“How was school. Did you actually learn anything or just flirt all day?” Damien said coming into the room. 

“I didn’t learn s**t. It was ‘syllabus’ day so we learned all about the school’s policies and what we will start learning in classes tomorrow. But all my teachers seem nice, and Em got us in with the preppy kids.” I answered. 

“Alex made two new friends Xander and Tony, really Xander is the one who got us in with the preppy kids, although that’s Theo’s group anyways so it’s best we get to know them before Alex wins the competition.” Em elaborated. 

“Speaking of which since you don’t have homework go get ready to train.” Papaw said entering the room. 

“Sir yes sir!” I said with a mock salute. 

“You too Em. You got the little ones to train.” Papaw added. 

“Sure thing Papaw”, she said, bounding up the stairs after me. 

Training had intensified yet again now that I only had time to train once a day aside from my two runs. I had to do actual exercises such as push ups, sit ups, pull ups, jumping jacks, and more for an hour and a half before they would even let me spar. Sparring took up another hour to an hour and a half as I had to beat everyone in the pack before I was allowed supper. After eating and taking my second run with Theo, followed by my second shower of the day, I collapsed on my bed entirely exhausted. Wondering how the hell I would figure out getting my homework done into this schedule. Theo snuck in also exhausted from the day and just lay next to me in the bed with only our hands touching before we both passed out. He half jumped and half fell out of bed at 5a.m when my alarm went off.