Jazz

“Jazz! Wake up! We gotta go to school!” My brother, Alex, yells while banging on my door. He stops banging my door for a while, so I try to go back to sleep, but as soon as I try he bangs on my door again. I groaned and stretched, more like having an exorcism, I admitted defeat and swiftly got out of bed and I started my routine in the bathroom. When I got out of the bathroom my phone was ringing. I walked out of the room, trying to decide whether to pick up my phone, and ended up in the kitchen in front of my family. When they saw me they stopped their conversation probably to hear my conversation. Nosy pups! I didn’t recognize the number, but I still answered. Hey, you never know maybe I won the lottery! “Hello?” I answered. “Um... yeah sure I can do that,” I say unsure, “but one more thing, can I ask why you chose me to do this?” I nodded my head and mumbled an okay and bye. I stare at my phone still unsure of what I heard.

Cameron interrupted my confusion, “So… who was that?” he asked.

“Harrison.”

“Harrison? Our principal Harrison?”

I nodded my head.

“Why is he calling so early in the morning?” Alex asks, confused.

I walked over to the cabinets, grabbed my favorite cereal, Lucky Charms, took a bite and said “New student.” with a full mouth of cereal.

“Well that’s exciting isn’t it, Jazz?” Lily, my best friend, chimes in. I smile and continue to eat.

I look towards Lincoln, he looks anxious, “Hey Lincoln, you alright?” Lily asked, she must have noticed too. He looked like he was about to say something, but was interrupted when a mind link came in, “Alphas, Betas, Gammas. New movement near, just outside the border. A wolf and a witch. Wait no! Two witches!” a warrior wolf messaged. We all looked at each other, and nodded, confirming all of us heard the message. “Keep your distance, but keep an eye on them. Let me know their movements in one hour, understood?” Lincoln ordered. The warrior wolf swiftly answered a ‘yes alpha’ and the link was closed. “This sounds like so much fun… but I’ve got a new student to tour, so I have to go. Good luck!” With that I sprint out of the house before anyone could give me any orders to do something completely boring.

Cough*paperwork*cough.

When I got to school, there were people already whispering and gossiping about the new student, apparently she’s a girl. Harrison told me to go to his office when I got here. Almost immediately after that thought, Harrison mind links me telling me not to enter his office until he links to me again. I don’t mind waiting, so I sat in the waiting area until I could go in. I can hear Harrison talking, but for some reason, I can’t hear the girl at all. Not only that, but I smell her, so I know she is there, I just can’t hear no matter how much I strain my hearing. I try getting my ear closer to the door, but I quickly straighten up when the door suddenly is yanked open.

‘How the hell did he open the door? I didn’t even hear him walk to the door!’ I thought to myself as I tried to stay as composed as possible.

“Welcome, come in.” Harrison says with an amused smirk.

Walking into the office, I was not expecting such a beautiful girl to be sitting there.

From her sleek noir hair that reached her lower back, to her nearly pale skin, to her tiny hands, everything about her embodied beauty. But, more than her hair, skin, or hands, her eyes were the most beautiful thing about her. Such an electrifying blue, one could feel the chills run up and down their spine.

The clearing of someone’s throat broke the trance, Harrison.

Facing the girl, he speaks to her, “This is Jazzmine, she’ll show you around.” he informed with a questioning nod.

She nodded back with a small smile. Harrison hands her some paperwork, and while she’s looking over them Harrison mind-links me, “She’s human.” My head immediately spikes up to look at him wide-eyed. With no emotion he continues, “Protect her, Gamma female.”

His expression told me there was no room for discussion. She’s human, and I have to protect her. But, why? Humans aren’t allowed to know about us, much less attend the same school so, why? Why must I protect her? I’m getting a headache with all these questions popping up, I’ll put it off for now. I can always ask Harrison about it later.

“Hi! My name is Jazzmine but my friends call me Jazz.” She looked up at me and waved with a smile. I couldn’t help but laugh a little, “Shy much?” She looked down smiling embarrassed. The bell rang and we started walking to class. On the way, I tried to get her to talk, but I failed miserably. The whole time I was the only one talking. I just kept on blabbing about my best friend Lily and my brother Alex and Cameron. As I am talking to her, I notice something weird, she continues to touch her ears. Weird.

We got to the classroom and all I could think was, Ugh. History first thing in the morning sucks butt. As always the class is loud, anyone can hear us from the ends of the halls. Opening the door for Azura, she walks in with a little bow, probably to say thanks. Right after we walk in, our teacher, Mrs. Hughes, walks in. She’s a weird lady. Always snotty, in a way, thinking she’s better than everyone else, even when she’s proven wrong during a discussion, she acts like she was the winner. It’s honestly the worst class to have to wake up to.

“Alright everyone, please welcome our new student, Azura all the way from Cresent.” she spits.

The classroom goes silent, that’s something that never happens. Cresent? She’s from Cresent?! Did Harrison know about this? Is this why he told me to protect her? He knows what happened to our pack, and he still let someone from Cresent come here? I can’t stay near her, I have to get away.

At the end of class, the bell rang, and I -you will never hear this about me ever again- sprinted to my next class. I avoided Azura every time I caught a whiff of her scent nearby. When I smelled her close by, on the way to my Culinary Arts class, I simply turned around going to the opposite end of the school. Of course, I was late to class, but I didn’t really care, I completed my personal mission of avoiding Azura.

When the bell rang, I sprinted to the canteen, I needed the comfort of Lily and Alex, before I actually had an anxiety attack. On my way to the canteen, I spotted Azura’s figure ahead in, and decided that I’d wait a bit before going in. Good thing I did, too. Right after the doors to the canteen closed, I saw my saviors coming closer. Without thinking twice, I run towards them and mind link them to follow me immediately. They looked confused and kept asking why through the link, but I just ignored them and headed to the culprit I really wanted to punch, Harrison.

I’m standing there, in front of the man who invited and welcomed a Cresentian into our pack, and I’m fuming. Not only because of this chaos, but also because he doesn't seem fazed that I brought the future Alpha, Beta and Gamma into his office. It’s almost as if he expected me to do this.

“Hello… enjoying today’s lunch?” Harrison spoke nonchalantly.

Are you kidding me? This guy is our principal?

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, clenching my fists, I say just above a whisper, “Please excuse my actions from this moment forward.” With that, I lunged at him, and I was angry because he didn’t even try to move, he just stayed seated, just looked at me with no expression on his face. Lincoln is the first one to react. He grabs me trying to pry me off of Harrison. Alex and Cam are trying to calm me down, and Lily went to go check on Harrison.

“What the hell, Jazz?” Cam yelled looking between me and Harrison.

“You knew didn’t you?” I asked Harrison, completely ignoring Cam.

At this point, everyone beside me and Harrison is confused.

“Of course I knew. I wouldn’t be a good principal if I didn’t know important information as such. That would endanger my students.” He says in a sort of ‘duh’ tone.

Using his Alpha tone, Lincoln interrupts our conversation, “What are the two of you talking about?”

Bowing in submission to his wolf, I respond, “The new student.”

“What of the new student?” he demands.

“S-she’s from C-cresent.” I stuttered.

No one spoke. No one moved. Tension in the air grew exponentially. No one was confused anymore, so they all began to growl towards Harrison, with complete malice.

“Relax, would you? She’s human. Innocent. She can’t hurt anybody.” Harrison said in the most annoying relaxed voice ever. I was about to go completely ham on him, but then I heard Lincoln booming.

“You allowed a Cresentian onto my land without my permission?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yes, alpha. Her family integrated themselves here two days ago and came in yesterday asking if she could attend this school. I can’t remember why I said yes, but I did, and now she attends this school.” Harrison spoke surely and calmly towards our infuriated alpha. Everyone heard what he said, but I don’t think any of us believed him. He must have gone completely insane.

“He’s been hexed.” Lily blurted out suddenly, realization laced in her voice. All our heads jerked and all our eyes widened.

“I take the race identification class. In the class they teach us how to differentiate the races based on their constants or based on what they do as a whole race. Like a vampire usually bites a victim at the joints because the blood is closer to the surface, therefore easier to access.” she elaborates. We all nod, acknowledging what Lily explained.

“We should find her.” Cam and Alex said in unison.

“That shouldn’t be hard. We have the next class with her.” I said.

The bell rings for our next period, Physics; the one class all five of us were in together. We get to the classroom, and we’re about to walk in, but I stop. I’m not scared, but anxious.

“What’s wrong, Jazz?” Lily asks me.

“It’s just, this whole situation is actually sinking, I’m starting to think. I don’t want to like her but at the same time I don’t want to ‘not’ like her.” I say anxiously.

“So what do we do?” Cam asks looking at all of us.

“I’m just saying, yes, she’s from Cresent. Yes, I don’t like that fact. But she, as a person, was weird and nice, and I never sensed any mal-intent from her.” I explained further.

“Alright, so we go in and talk to her. No yelling or accusing her of anything, okay?” Lily finalizes. We all smile and nod agreeing with Lily.

We walked into the classroom, tension was in the air, that meant, Azura was already here. She was at a desk in the back of the classroom, looking out the window. She looked exhausted.

‘Well no duh, you left her alone all day after finding out she’s from Cresent.’ My wolf, Era, barked.

‘Yeah, I know, so shut up already.’ I barked back.

A cell phone ringing brings me out of my argument with Era. Looking around, I don’t see anyone answering a phone, when we determine none of our phones were ringing, all eyes go to Azura. She must have felt the stares, so she went to check her bag. She answers the phone but doesn’t say anything, not even ‘hello’.

‘I know someone who doesn’t say ‘hello’ just ‘what’cha want’ everytime she answers the phone.’ Era chimes in with the eye roll of the century. I ignore her, wanting to avoid another argument.

Less than a minute later, Azura hangs up the phone and goes back to staring out the window.

Weird.

‘Compared to you she’s completely normal.’ Era scoffs.

‘Era, please shut up.’ I dismissed her quickly.

The teacher walks in so we all head to our seats. Dammit we missed an opportunity to talk to her.

‘How about ‘ missed an opportunity to apologize to her’?’ Era suggests.

‘Yeah, I know, but I’ll do that when we’re alone, not when we’re talking to her together.’ I reply.

Era went away after that, abandoning me with our Physics teacher. With the way things are going right now, this is going to be a long year.