Wintercrest Academy

Befriend the Lone Wolf

      Kaia and Adan seat beside Astrid during lunch on Monday.

           “Can I help you?” Astrid’s eyes read confusion, her spoon of noodles mid-air. She’s the only one at the table, but the amount of food on it would make you think she already has company.

           “We’re sitting with you for lunch,” Adan unwraps his lunch taking out ketchup, mustard and milk.

           Astrid gives the two of them a suspicious glance. “I don’t sell drugs anymore.”

           Adan chokes on his sandwich. “You used to sell drugs?”

           “Yikes,” Astrid says, remembering that she just outed herself to the Council President.

           “We don’t want drugs, Astrid,” Kaia rolls her eyes. “And you probably shouldn’t deal drugs anymore. We want to talk. I want to talk actually.”

           “Shoot. I hate cold noodles.” She slurps on her noodles and then wipes her mouth with the back of her palm.

           “Shira said mean things to you because of me. How can I make it up?”

           Astrid huffs. “There was nothing mean about what she said. It’s the truth. I’m a lone wolf, that’s just how it is.”

           “Still, she went too far. Look, this is not the most ideal way to start a friendship. You literally dumped ketchup on my shirt the first time we spoke and told me I was a bottom feeder in the social status chain. I have no reason to want to talk to you, but I kinda understand how it feels to not have any friends.”

           “Hey!” Adan interjects with an accusatory tone.

           “Hush, Adan.” She gives him a stern stare and then returns her gaze to Astrid and her always glossy, leather jacket. “You tried to be nice, with the warning about the party. And look what that cost me. Anyway, Adan’s not my friend, he’s a senior and I really could use a friend my age and in my grade.”

           “I’m your favourite person,” Adan says between chews and Kaia swats his biceps.

           “Huh,” Astrid nods slowly, as if processing. “Sure. You work at the restaurant that makes a mean barbecue, so why not? You’d bring me free food sometimes, right?”

           Kaia’s eyes grow wider. “You’ve had our barbecue?”

           “Yeah. I ordered during the whole #deliverygirl thing. It was pretty great. These kids don’t know what they’re missing out on.” She shrugs.

           “Wow,” Kaia manages. “Well, thanks for ordering. It’s my dad’s restaurant, actually. I appreciate the feedback, and I’d appreciate it even more if you can leave us stars and comments on our website.”

           “It’s your dad’s place? Can I marry him? He’d make me barbecue, right?”

           What?! Kaia finds herself laughing, despite how shockingly stupid Astrid sounded. “Forget what I said about the friendship. I don’t think I can—”

           “No way,” Astrid reaches out and shakes Kaia’s hands with vigour. “We just shook on it. We’re friends now.”

           Kaia smiles again, already taking some form of liking to Astrid, the lone wolf who doesn’t seem bothered about being a lone wolf at Wintercrest. “Why’s there so much food here though?”

           “I’d eat them,” Astrid throws fries into her mouth, already done with her noodles.

           “All of it?” Kaia half shouts and Astrid nods, not seeing the problem with eating noodles, fries, sandwich and a small pizza at the same time all by herself.

           “You’re a big eater, I like that.” Adan smiles at her and they clink imaginary glasses. Kaia narrows her eyes at both of them, wondering how she ended up being in the middle of two weird people.

           “The Metleys, huh? I don’t see the big deal but, congrats,” Astrid says. She’s more invested in the arts, nothing about science has ever interested her.

           “I can’t be friends with you if you don’t see how big of a deal it is.”

           Astrid makes a mock face at her. “And you’re doing it with Bren, must be nice.” On cue, they glance at Bren’s table and Shira is staring right at them. Actually, right at Kaia.

           “What’s her deal?” Kaia mutters and looks away.

           “She’s a b***h. Bren is obviously threatened by you, and she’s taking it upon herself to hurt you on his behalf. Very dumb if you ask me, why the heck is he threatened?” Astrid says still in the glaring competition with Shira.

           “Guys, can we just . . .bond, or something? I didn’t abandon my friends so that you can talk about Bren and Shira and threats.” Adan claps his hands to call them back to their ‘friendship,’ but he’s late.

           “Why are you leering, Shira? None of us on this table are interested in you. Isn’t Bren your kind of guy?” Astrid practically yells and as if she used a megaphone, the cafeteria falls into gradual quiet.

           “Astrid,” Kaia whispers a warning. Shira serves her usual smug smile, gives Astrid the middle finger and then returns her focus to Bren, Rosco and the wild haired girl.

           “After being a lone wolf for a while, you learn the patterns of the pack. Shira is a beta wolf, very much in love with her alpha. You’re letting her have her way too easily. If you really want to survive, you’d have to be consistent with your stubbornness. And you know what, you’re lucky to have this lone wolf on your side.” Astrid howls and Kaia steals one last glance at Shira. Shira isn’t looking this time though, Bren is.

                                                                       ****

           “I could have missed the test! This is why I don’t date in school. Boys are a huge distraction!” Willow shrieks from the other side of Bren’s phone.

           He chuckles in between push-ups. Willow and her constant whining about college boys that almost made her do something terrible. “I’m sure he’d be glad to know that you’re into him so much, you almost messed up your GPA for him.” Willow has a solid 3.8 GPA. She’s an economic major at Princeton and she’s crazy in love with it.

           “Heaven forbid that I mess my GPA up because of a man.” She clucks her tongue and Bren can almost see her face scrunched up in horror from merely thinking about having a bad result. He misses her, so much.

           “Will, stop going on too many dates if you’re not going to end up sticking to any of them.” Bren takes off his damp shirt, revealing hard, tanned abs.  he’s been working out for 45 minutes already and fatigue is slowly setting in. Running his hand through his hair, he goes to hydrate.

           “Hey, a girl’s trying to have fun.” As much as Willow’s trying to maintain a healthy GPA, she never passes up any opportunity to mingle and have ‘fun.’ She goes on many dates, enters casual relationships that end badly, and then comes back to Bren whining about how she should never have entertained the boy in the first place. 2 days later, she’s back to the same routine.

           “How’s Eomma?” she asks about their Mum, using the Korean term for it.

           “She’s good. Probably at some meeting or something.” Willow and Bren are wasians, with a white mum and a Korean dad.

           Willow hums. “So The Metleys, how’s that going?” It’s impossible for Bren to hear The Metleys and not think about Kaia. It’s impossible to think about Kaia and not feel like his whole life is caving in.

           “Kiddo,” Willow continues when her brother doesn’t say anything. “Take it easy on yourself, okay? You’d be fine. Besides, you have a partner, you can share the work, right?”

           You have no idea. “Right,” he just says. The door to their home gym swings open to reveal his father in his workout clothes. “Hi, Dad.”

           “Daaadddddd!” Bren holds the phone at arm’s length before his sister successfully renders him deaf.

           “My princess,” Jacob laughs and takes the phone from Bren. Bren goes to practice boxing with the punching bag while his father and sister chat away and when they’re done, Jacob comes to join his son. They practice together for a while, father and son blocking each other’s moves and throwing punches to each other’s guts.

           “Well done, son.” Jacob pants. “You’re getting better.”

           Bren rolls his eyes despite the warmth in his belly. “My skills are rusty. You’re just getting older and weaker.”

           “I’m 46, there’s nothing old and weak about me.” He flexes his pretty impressive biceps. “If you don’t believe that, allow me to prove how young I am by giving you the little sister you always wanted.”

           “Gross, Dad!” Bren claps his palm over his ears and scrunches his face in disgust. “How can you even say that?”

           Jacob’s laughter fills the room. “Sit, son. Let’s have that talk.” Bren goes cold, but he takes a seat beside his father anyway. “I’m proud of you, son. You know that, right?” Bren just nods, his throat suddenly tight and dry.

           “And you know, that record you had, the entrance one, it was such an amazing feather to your cap. You were the standard at Wintercrest. But, that seems to have changed recently. Hasn’t it?” Bren opens his mouth to speak, but comes up with nothing. “Principal Jan said you’re still doing just as good as you’ve been doing all along. But that’s the problem. You’re still on the same spot, and now it has become mediocre. You know how much mediocrity bothers me. The game is different now. There’s competition, so you have to raise your standards. At this rate, you may not graduate valedictorian because I hear that Kaia is basically a genius. And she’s doing the Metleys competition with you. You’re prepping yourself for pre-med. It will be tough, there would be more competition than this, so if you’re not on top of the charts now, how can I be sure you’d stay on top of it forever?” He squeezes Bren’s shoulder. “Son, you need to stay at number one. I'm at the top of my career, so is your mother and so is Willow. You can't be the only second rate family member. Don’t allow yourself get pushed behind. You’re not weak. I didn’t raise you to be weak. The highest ranking in class has to remain yours. You have to ace your SAT with the highest score. You’re slacking and I need you to do better.”

           Do better? What else could he possibly do? Banish sleep completely from his life so that he could study with every second he gets?

           “If time’s the problem,” Jacob gets up, “we can cut off some of your running time.”

           “No.” Bren states sharply. Anything can go, but not the running. Not the only escape he has. “I’d. . . I’d do better.”

           Jacob grins, big and proud. “Of course, you will. Take a shower and let’s go swimming.”

           Floating in the pool, Bren wonders how it’d feel to shed off all his burden and let himself sink to the bottom. Forever.