The Alpha and His Hunted Kitsune Princess

New Friends Pt. 2

Kenko sighed, “That’s not fair.” I disagreed, “It seems pretty fair from where I’m sitting. Hundreds of chances for you to attend one game, and you’ve never been to any. For the record, I’m looking at Pernell, not you. You, Kenko, don’t owe me anything.”

Kenko said, “That’s not true at all, you’re my stepdaughter.” I pointed again at Nathan McD, “No, I’m his stepdaughter. He’s been a rock for my mom and helped me every step of this journey. Nathan McD has taken an interest in me and has been advocating and supporting me. You’ve been unreachable and apparently never came to a single game I played. It doesn’t seem like you’ve been in my life much at all.”

Kenko’s eyes filled with tears. Pernell made some weird noise, “You won’t talk to my wife like that.” I asked, “Like what? By telling the truth? Or stating facts?” Pernell replied, “Disrespectfully.” Remi chimed in, “You have some nerve, dude.” Karl put his hand on her thigh.

I added, “For the record, I agree. This is weird. Where is Preston?” He’d been gone for a long time. Pernell said, “He’s very popular in this area. I’m sure someone is speaking to him. Piper, you are being unfair to Kenko.”

I was being unfair?! Miska whispered, “Dad.” I stared at him and asked, “How?” That seemed to tongue tie him. Kenko said, “It’s ok, Pernell. She doesn’t know.” I looked at Remi who rolled her eyes. I asked, “Know what?”

Mom said, “That’s enough of this topic. Pernell, you can be nice to our daughter or you can leave the table. Piper is dealing with a lot and she’s learning everything all at one time. You asked to come see her, and we made that happen. You will not make her feel bad for her reactions.”

Pernell replied, “I’ve been told I can’t give all the details.” I snorted, “Yeah, I feel about that the same way your tone implied you do.” Pernell turned to me, “What?” I reasoned, “You think it’s stupid and that’s clear based on your tone. I agree. It is ridiculous that everyone at this table knows more about me than me.”

Kenko said, “I’m sure that’s disconcerting.” I agreed, “That’s a way to describe it. There’s obviously a lot I don’t know here, but that’s not my fault.” Pernell sighed, “You’re right, it’s not. This is harder than I thought it would be.” I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t retort, “Terribly sorry my brain injury is inconvenient for you.”

It felt like personal growth that I didn’t say it out loud. Remi hummed, “Yes, well I can see how Piper not knowing things is inconvenient. Oh wait, it works better for you so start acting like it.” I asked, “Huh?”

Pernell said, “I didn’t mean my daughter’s memories, and I think you know that.” Remi shrugged, “I think where you are concerned I know nothing.” Pernell sighed while Remi swirled her drink in her hand.

Miska changed the subject, “I like to draw.” I asked, “Do you?” Miska nodded, “Can I show you my drawings?” I grinned, “Sure thing, little sis.” She took her phone out and showed me some pictures.

I gasped, “You drew these? My god, that totally comes from your mom because I can’t draw stick figures. They look tragic.” Miska busted up laughing and the tension bubble around our table burst. Remi agreed, “It’s true. My girl can’t draw. She nearly failed art.” I gasped, “I tried!” Remi smirked, “You can’t do art.”

Pernell chuckled, “Neither can I. I tried to draw a flower for Miska and she laughed for hours when I told her it was a flower.” Well, look at that, we had something in common. Miska teased, “Everyone can draw a flower, dad.” I disagreed, “I can’t.” Remi agreed, “She so can’t. I love her to pieces but don’t give her a pencil and ask her to draw. Do math, sure. Art? No.”

Preston returned and the tension didn’t build again. Clearly he was good for my anger and general disposition. The whole dinner wiped me out though. I was emotionally exhausted. I woke up in a forest.

I called, “Preston!” My boyfriend didn’t answer. I shouted, “Remi!” Nothing, then I heard a noise. I saw a flash and started to run. I shouted, “Hey, wait! What’s going on?” I heard a crash then saw an animal either sleeping or injured, but I wasn’t close enough to see what it was.

The animal was small and had stunning colors. I’d seen that color combination somewhere. Where was it? Then I was thrown back before I could remember where I’d seen them. My heart ached that I didn’t get close enough to that animal to help.

I woke up with a jolt then spotted my robe. I snorted, “I’m having dreams about my robe. God, I’m so weird.” I went back to sleep until my alarm went off. I talked to Preston, deciding to ignore my weird dream about an animal the color of my robe.

Even if the thought of that animal being hurt gutted me on an emotional level that didn’t make sense. Remi went with me groaning, “Why do you like numbers?” I laughed, “I’m good at math and despite all your protests, you are too.” Remi flipped her hair, “I am.”

I whispered, “I got Preston’s number.” Remi laughed, “He’s your boyfriend, of course you did.” We got to the class and took the syllabus as directed. The professor greeted, “Hello, and welcome to Finance, honors. You will work hard for these three credit hours.” Remi rolled her eyes at me.

The Professor continued, “If you’ll refer to the syllabus you’ll see how your grade will be calculated." A woman spoke up, “I’m so glad… you mentioned the grades….about that, I have a question.” The whole class turned to see who she was.

Remi actually gasped. I turned and looked at her and made a what? Face but Remi was staring at the girl talking. I turned back and faced the woman. She had long black hair with red lipstick and pale green eyes. Wow. I’d never seen anyone with her eyes.

The professor snorted, “If you have a question about the grade calculations, you’re probably not going to make it in this class.” Several people growled at him. My eyes widened because most of the class looked ready to attach this man for being rude to the girl.

I looked back at Remi who looked like this professor was walking a plank. The woman hummed, “Ummm…. Well… that’s just unlikely. Um… my question was the percentage breakdown. What percentage…. are you using? Because it’s… normally out of one hundred.” It was always out of one hundred.

The professor replied, “The percentage is out of one hundred.” The girl disagreed, “It’s one hundred and one…. point two. Which is an odd percentage…. To use…which is why I was curious…. About why it would be over one hundred percent….because that’s not the university standard.” Oh my god.

She continued, “Which is… odd… since you claim….it’s out of one hundred… and you said…. if I can’t do that basic math… I can’t pass this class…but that doesn’t make sense… because why could you teach it….if you are the one … who can’t do basic math?”

Several students gasped and the woman looked genuinely confused as to why anyone was making noise. Actually she looked genuinely confused. Did she not know she’d just made the professor look like an utter moron?

Remi whispered, “Oh my god.” The professor said, “Young lady, that’s…” The woman told him, “My name is Melanie…so…there’s that.” The professor snorted “Melanie, 4.6% for attendance, 3% for participation, 3% news article presentation, 20% assignments or quizzes, 17% individual case studies, 3.6% group presentations, and 50% exams.”

Melanie said, “Ok… saying it out loud still makes it add up to one hundred and one point two… if you made the attendance 4.5% participation…. or news articles 2% …..and made individual case studies 3.5%... then it would be….an even hundred…so I feel like… that’s what you meant… and this is typo.”

I quickly added all that in my head and looked at Remi because Melanie was right. It was one hundred and one point two percent not one hundred. The professor was a very deep shade of red and practically sweating now.

Melanie shrugged, “I just…wanted you to know…that this is wrong….as it’s not a weighted class… and if it was the percentage…would’ve been well over a hundred….and still wrong… but that’s….”

The Professor shouted, “GET OUT!” My jaw dropped and several people stood and growled. A fierce protectiveness bubbled up in me. What the hell? I didn’t know her. The man pointed, “Melanie, you get out the door, now!” Melanie asked, “Umm…why?” The Professor scoffed, “You are not asking that right now!”

Melanie argued, “I mean… I did… so I am.” I kind of loved this girl. The professor sputtered, “OUT!” Melanie asked, “Why?” The professor said, “I am not to be challenged in these walls.” Remi muttered “This dude is so off his rocker.”

Melanie said, “Anyone…can be challenged…..especially when they are wrong. That’s how people learn…and…” The progressor cut her off, “I am the teacher here.” Melanie frowned, “But you….messed up and I was just…. pointing out that….” The Professor interrupted, “You’ll fail this class if you continue talking.”

One guy said, “You need to stop talking to her that way right now. You were wrong and that’s easily calculated since the math is wrong. Melanie had every right to say that. If you were half as smart as you think you were, you would’ve said it was a test to see if someone caught it. You have NO RIGHT to talk to a student that way, especially her and you know it.”

Wow. They were super defensive of her. Why especially her? I mean I was onboard, I just didn’t know why. One woman looked utterly pissed and her eyes might be a touch golden. The professor said, “You may leave as well then.” Half the room stood up. Remi stood so I did too.

One man said, “If she goes, we go with her.” I guess we were walking out of our first class. Melanie said, “It’s ok…I just…umm… I usually take classes online….but those instructors are….usually grateful… when I pointed out errors. I did get kicked out in elementary… and middle…. school a lot though.”

The professor scoffed, “I can’t imagine why.” Melanie shrugged, “My brother always told me… it was because they were jealous…. That I was so much smarter…and thought differently than other people… because I’m a genius.” I tried to cover my laugh into a cough.

The professor said, “GET OUT! Anyone who follows her will fail.” Melanie said, “It’s fine… you can stay… I’ll just be outside….finding other errors. Ohhhh… I could reprint the syllabus fully corrected for everyone…so…that’s fun!” Then Melanie looked utterly delighted to correct this man’s mistake.

The professor said, “There are no mistakes.” Melanie hummed, “You’re not an English teacher but….I mean…there are a lot of mistakes….you have a serious love….of a semi colon… also you literally wrote fifteen dash min group prestation comma at the end of the semester. You couldn’t type the full word….of minute….and you put a dash in for some reason. It’s fine… I’ll fix it…I used to do this all the time…for my teachers.”

“I actually wrote lesson plans for the high school teachers….until….my parents and godparents found out….it was bad for some reason…and I guess…. Something about…. needing to have a childhood…. But really… it was just those teachers being lazy…but really I was helpful…when you think about it.”

I wanted to clap when she walked out the door. The professor sputtered, “Everyone sit down.” One woman, the one with the gold eyes, left with Melanie. I whispered, “Her gold eyes are so unique.” Remi hummed, “Both of them were.” That's actually true.

The Professor started going back through the syllabus. I actually spotted several more errors and glanced at Remi who clearly spotted them too. Eventually the Professor snapped at the guy in the back row, “Pay attention, or you will fail my class.”

One guy snorted, “You’re not going to be employed in fifteen minutes. So, I really don’t think it matters.” Oh my god. Was Melanie connected? Had this guy kicked someone out who was going to ruin his job?

The Professor snorted, “And why do you think that?” The guy retorted, “You kicked out the wrong person and you know it.” Another said, “Even if you were right, you’d be unemployed for that. The fact you’re wrong makes it so much worse.”

The professor snorted, “Noted.” I don’t think it was. When class ended I gathered up my stuff quickly, but Remi was taking her sweet time. We were still there when two men in suits walked in.

I whispered, “Is our professor actually getting fired?” Remi answered, “Oh yeah. We’ll have a new one next class. I’d feel bad except he’s extra, like us. He knew better and he’s an ass.” I asked, “Huh? What extras?” Remi winked at me.

Melanie was literally handing out syllabus’ outside class. I whispered, “I love her, this is actually hilarious.” Everyone took them too. Remi and I were last. Melanie grinned, “Hi… so… I’m Melanie…and this is the grammatically correct syllabus with the correct math…so…here you go. What’s your name? I totally don’t know…you’re Piper and that’s Remi…..nope…not me.”

I laughed, “I’m guessing you looked at the class roster since you clearly know I’m Piper.” Remi squeaked, “You’re right, I’m Remi.” What the f**k? I’d never heard Remi’s voice squeak. Melanie grinned, “Since we are friends now….that…”

I asked, “We are friends?” Remi shouted, “Shut up! YES WE ARE! So friends. Very much friends. Piper loves friends. All the friends. I’m her best one, you’re so in our group.” I looked at my best friend like she’d lost her mind. Remi was acting like she was meeting a celebrity. Though, we might be given I didn’t remember anything.

Melanie grinned, “Well…you guys….should meet me at this club…for fun….I’ll bring people… you bring….people….yup…so…just…walk by the line…for reasons…..that you will get in… and we will have fun…. So….I’ll see you there.”

Melanie handed us a card shouting, “See you at seven….I’ll have outfits…. Sent to you…for reasons. Bye new friends… that I totally made!” Remi screamed, “Oh my god! Oh my god!” I asked, “Is Melanie a celebrity or something? A super smart one?”

Remi answered, “Yes to all the above. She’s a genius and a prodigy. We have wanted to be her friend FOREVER! Well, once we knew that was her name.” Melanie must have a stage name or something.

I asked, “How will she get us outfits? She does not know where we live.” Remi snorted, “Melanie absolutely knows where we live. Roll with it. This is a goal of ours being accomplished and I’m loving it.”

Remi and I went to the cafeteria and grabbed some food. I swiped my student card and then got in line for coffee. Remi snorted, “We should’ve gotten coffee first. I agreed, “Definitely. One girl said, “Coffee is definitely necessary to start the day.”

Well, this woman was clearly Russian based on her accent. How did I know that when I had no memories? I don’t know, I just do. I grinned, “Right? We had a whole time in our first class. Someone got kicked out for correcting the professor's errors on the syllabus." The woman with her laughed, “Oh really? Did you happen to catch that student's name?”

I answered, “Yeah, it was Melanie.” They both looked at each other. I asked, “Do you know her?” Remi said, “She definitely does.” Remi pointed at the girl that wasn’t Russian. That girl said, “I’m Valentina and this is Anastasia. My friends call me Val though.” I was making a lot of fast friends today.

Remi grinned, “How fun. Would you care to sit with us?” Anastasia grinned, “Da.” I smiled at her, instantly liking them both. I asked, “Do you guys go here?” Valentina replied, “We were just stopping by.” So, no.

Remi said, “The coffee is amazing. Who could blame you for wanting to try it?” Anastasia chuckled, “You guys have such interesting coffee here.” I asked, “How do you drink it?” Anastasia answered, “I prefer tea, but I do like espressos."

The conversation flowed naturally and I couldn’t help but be excited. I felt such a connection with these girls. I stood, “Oh, you guys should join us at this club. Melanie told us to invite people.” Valentina laughed, “I see. We will be there.”

I asked, “Do you guys know her?” Anastaisa answered, “We do. We are not shocked in any way shape or form that she corrected a professor already.” I asked, “Can you teach me Russian? Oh god, do you speak Russian?” Anastasia laughed, “I do. I was born and raised there. I’d be happy to teach you Russian.” I grinned, “Cool!”

I teased, “We are meeting so many new people today.” Remi chuckled, “Image that.” I admitted, “I’ve liked all three of them.” Remi grinned, “I know I have questions about Anastasia that I will get answered.” I asked, “Like what?” Remi winked, “You’ll see.” Ok?

One of our teammates walked up, “Hey, Piper! How was your date?” Remi said, “Hey, Remi. How are you? I’m great, thanks for asking.” I smirked then answered, “Amazing. I’m going to text him.”

My teammate snatched my phone, “NO! Girl, you have to play it cool. I will give this back to you at our scrimmage. THEN you may text him. You can’t be too eager.” Then she ran off. I shouted, “Hey!” Remi snorted, “It’s fine. I have my phone. Is Preston coming to the scrimmage? Our teammates deserve that.” I replied, “I’ll ask when I tell him about it.”

We went back to our place after our next class and got an email that our professor was fired with an apology for his conduct in class today. I snorted, “Damn. Who is Melanie?!” Remi squealed, “LOOK AT OUR CLOTHES!”

I went down and found her with literal clothing racks. I gasped, “Is Melanie into fashion?” Remi waved, “Not her…but oh my god! If there was ever a moment for your memories to come CRASHING back, it would be now.”

I snorted, “I got nothing on whoever Melanie is. You seemed to know the name Valentina.” Remi agreed, “Yeah, but that was new to us. We didn’t talk about her. Anastasia is a wild card and that’s fun.”

Remi threw a dress at me, “Try this.” I gasped, “NO! Are you crazy?!” Remi held up her phone showing me a picture of Melanie in a dress. I asked, “When did you get Melanie’s number?” Remi squealed and jumped, “I didn’t! This is so amazing.” I asked, “How? Who did she get your number from?” Remi waved, “Herself. Now, look at her outfit.”

I grumbled, “That doesn’t make any sense.” Melanie was in a red dress. The top was lace wrapped around her neck cut out from her sternum to near her belly button and the tight skirt was pleather looking, but nicer. I gasped, “Oh my god. What is this club?!” Remi grinned, “Amazing! Now, try this on.”

Our entire afternoon was trying on dresses. It was fun and all the dresses were amazingly and surprisingly soft. All were risqué, but I couldn’t deny I felt attractive in them all. I admitted, “I don’t know which one to wear.”

Remi snorted, “Yes, you do. The yellow one.” I replied, “My boobs will flash everyone.” Remi rolled her eyes, “It won’t. Put it on.” I put on the short yellow sparkly dress that barely covered my ass. It was literally open to my belly button.

Remi urged, “Dance around. I laughed, “Don’t blame me when I flash you.” I danced but somehow did not flash Remi. My friend grinned. I waved, “What are you wearing?” Remi put on the dress that looked like it was two pieces if you saw it from the front but connected in the back. The halter top was gold and sparkling and the skirt was a solid white.

I giggled, “We look like rich people.” Remi grinned, “Girl, we are.” I rolled my eyes, “You are.” Remi grinned, “This will go towards my petty tax for senior year. Let’s go clubbing.” I laughed and we finished getting ready while eating dinner.