The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2

by C. C. Masters

  She looked around the room and my heart sank when her eyes settled on me. “I’m familiar with all of you, except our newest student.” I turned bright red when everyone in the classroom turned to stare. “Lorianne?”

  “I go by Lori,” I told her with a nervous smile.

  She nodded. “Lori, why don’t you come to the front of the room so I can see what level you’re on?”

  I tried to project confidence as I walked up to the front of the room, but being tested on my first day in front of the entire class was not my idea of fun. I hoped I retained enough from last year to avoid looking like an idiot. The last thing I wanted was for her to kick me out of the class for being too far behind everyone else.

  “Why don’t we start by introducing ourselves and then going into a light conversation?” she asked with a warm smile.

  Internally, I heaved a sigh while pasting a strained smile on my face. “Sounds good!” I crossed my fingers behind my back and hoped I didn’t make a fool of myself.

  “Je me présente,” she started. “Je m'appelle Madame Gonzalez.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief when the French started coming back to me. “Je suis très heureuse de faire votre connaissance. Je m’appelle Lori.”

  Her Spanish accent made some of the words sound a little different from what I was used to, but I could understand most of what she was saying. We conversed for about ten minutes in front of the class and I felt myself relax. She only asked general questions that weren’t too personal, like what my favorite color was and what I had studied last year. I was grateful for that, because I had already given Noah way too much info.

  I kept focused on Mrs. Gonzalez’s friendly face and warm smile while I tried to ignore the stares of the students watching us. Finally, she sent me back to my seat. “Your accent is very well developed and your vocabulary is quite expansive,” she said with a pleased smile. “You’re probably going to be my best student this year.”

  I blushed again at the praise and murmured a merci. But I could tell that her compliments hadn’t made me any friends in the class. Noah looked impressed, but a couple of girls toward the front of the room shot me dirty looks.

  Mrs. Gonzalez asked us to open our books as she talked about her general plan for the year as I settled back in my chair. I was grateful to be out of the spotlight now that the students were focused on the teacher instead of me. I was writing the exam dates down in my notebook when Noah tossed me a note.

  Hey, you seem like a cool girl. Can I get your number?

  Once I puzzled out his messy chicken scratch, I looked over at him in surprise. He raised an eyebrow at me hopefully. I shook my head slightly and wrote beneath his note.

  Sorry, I have a boyfriend.

  That seemed like a much easier explanation than trying to tell him about the pack situation that I was living in. Humans would never understand. Plus, I thought that Kannon might be interested in being my boyfriend so it wasn’t a complete lie. Probably. Well, maybe.

  I waited until Mrs. Gonzales turned her back to write something on the board before I tossed the note back to Noah. He looked disappointed at the response, but didn’t try to pass me any more notes. After class was over, he gave me a friendly nod but went over and slapped one of his buddies on the back, otherwise ignoring me. So I guess my one lame attempt at making a friend had failed.

  My next couple of classes went by less eventfully. None of the other teachers called me to the front or even acknowledged me in particular. They just handed out textbooks and went over the class syllabus. I tried to make eye contact and smile at a couple of girls who looked like they might be nice, but they pretty much ignored me. I gave up after that and just kept my head down.

  Hopefully, things would get better once the workload of the semester picked up. Today none of the teachers had even tried to keep the attention of the students long, they had just handed out a syllabus and textbooks while everyone socialized. I had sat there awkwardly by myself as everyone talked around me and doodled in my notebook, trying to pretend that it didn't bother me.

  Finally, it was lunchtime and I walked eagerly to the cafeteria. Kannon was the one beacon of hope for me in the sea of misery I had found myself in today. I followed the wave of students through the doors and stood on my tiptoes to try and spot Kannon through the crowd. I frowned when I didn't see his tall frame and reached out with our pack bond. The guys and I had discovered that I couldn't use the bond at the same distances that they could, probably because I had significantly less magic. Kannon wasn't close enough for me to sense so I looked around the cafeteria for somewhere for us to sit. I might as well save us a spot since I was here early.

  I scanned the room but there were no empty tables. Great. Yet another example of how I was a misfit. I quickly discounted the tables that were obviously the jocks and the popular girls. Same with the emo and drama kids. I wouldn't fit in there with my plain jeans and thrift shop t-shirt.

  My eyes caught on a petite Asian girl sitting alone at a table while she read a book – that seemed promising. She had her dark hair in a messy bun and big glasses that looked like they were about to slide off the tip of her nose at any moment. She was dressed similarly to me, in plain jeans and a t-shirt, so I thought I might have a chance at making friends with her. I walked over to her and cleared my throat nervously. "Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"

  "Fine," she said without looking up from her book. "Just don't talk to me." I sighed and set down my stuff before sitting. I guess we weren't going to be friends then.

  I perked up when I felt Kannon's presence pop into my awareness. I gave him a big hug when he walked up to the table and he rubbed my back reassuringly. "I'm guessing it wasn't a good day?"

  I gave him one last squeeze before I let him go. "It wasn't great. How did things go for you?"

  Kannon gave me a big grin. "I tested out of my computer class, I'm going to get to do an independent study instead."

  "Wow, Kannon. That's awesome!" The girl sitting across from us gave me a dirty look, so I guess we weren't supposed to talk too loud even if we weren't talking to her.

  “Hey, I’m Kannon,” he said with a friendly grin towards our new tablemate.

  “Lynn,” she grumbled as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. They quickly slid right back down, but she ignored that and kept her eyes on her book.

  “She said I could sit here if I didn’t try to talk to her,” I told Kannon with our bond. He gave me an incredulous look and I just shrugged. I wasn’t the one making no-talking rules.

  Kannon and I chatted about our day and apparently things had gone better for him than me. People had actually been willing to speak to him. That shouldn’t have surprised me because Kannon was so open and easy-going. It did make me sad that there was something so wrong with me that people wouldn't give me a chance.

  Kannon must have picked up on my thoughts because he gave me a shoulder bump as we finished our lunches. "We're the strangers here," he said quietly. "We need to make the effort to fit in, put ourselves out there."

  I sighed sadly. "You're right. I could probably try smiling a little more." I did feel a little better once I realized that my next two classes were going to be with Kannon. The afternoon would definitely be more fun than this morning.

  Lynn sat down her book with an irritated huff. “I’ll give you some advice. Don’t try to fit in. Do whatever you can to get out of this town.”

  I looked at her in surprise. “What makes you say that?”

  She held my gaze steadily. “There’s a lot that goes on here that you don’t want to know about. The best thing to do is just keep to yourself and bide your time. As soon as I graduate, I’m getting out.”

  Kannon furrowed his brow. “What is it that we have to worry about?”

  Lynn avoided our eyes and played with the corner of her book. “You’ll find out soon enough,” she mumbled.

  Kannon and I exchanged glances. This was definitely weird. The bell rang to announce th
at our lunch period was over and Lynn scurried away before we could ask her any more questions. “Do you want to stop at our lockers then meet in the stairwell?” I asked Kannon.

  “Sounds good.” He gave me a warm smile but I doubted he was as grateful as I was that our next few classes were together. We gathered up our belongings and made our way through the crowd, our pinkies linked together. Just having Kannon nearby gave me a sense of comfort and belonging that I had been craving all day. It made me realize that Kannon and I were pack in the true sense of the word. No matter what happened, we would always stand by each other.

  Chapter 2

  Lori

  My last class of the day was gym, which worked out perfectly for me. After I got all sweaty and disgusting I could just go home instead of debating between the horrors of public showering versus the unpleasantness of being stinky the rest of the school day.

  I was annoyed that our teacher had made us change today without any reason. He had just taken roll, talked for about ten minutes, and then left us to do whatever we wanted in the gym for the rest of the period. I took Kannon's advice and tried to smile at a couple of other girls, but they avoided eye contact and ignored me.

  Lynn was in my class but she had taken a seat high on the bleachers and buried her nose in a book. I debated on trying to talk to her again, but when I got up to climb the bleachers towards where she was sitting, she shot me a warning look. Guess I was on my own again today. I cracked open my history book and started on the reading that the teacher had assigned to us. I might as well finish this now so I had nothing but free time the rest of the day.

  Taylor was also in the class with us. She was surrounded by a group of girls that were just as pretty and well-dressed as she was. I tried to hide a smile when I realized that they reminded me of the plastics from Mean Girls. Tiffany seemed like the leader with her perfectly styled blond hair and clothing tailored to match her high-end sneakers. Britney and Lacey looked like her clones, but with dark blond and brunette hair instead of bleached blonde.

  I don’t know what I did to attract their attention, but I soon realized that they were whispering and shooting glares in my direction. That was just annoying. It was one thing to ignore the new girl, another for them to gossip about me, but a whole new level for them to speak maliciously about me. Especially since Taylor and I had been friendly in the past.

  I glanced down at the oversized t-shirt that Kannon had lent me, my battered sneakers from the thrift shop, and my loose shorts from Walmart. I could guess what they were snickering about. I found out that I was right when Tiffany tossed a balled up piece of paper at me. “Oh, I thought that was the trash can,” she called out as I brushed the paper aside. Half the students in the class laughed right alongside them and my face flushed red.

  “Do you need glasses?” I snapped back at her. “Or are you just being a bitch for no reason?”

  There was complete silence. Tiffany stood up slowly, her face turning red. Taylor stayed seated but the other two sidekicks flanked Tiffany. “What did you just say to me?” she demanded.

  I stood up. “Do you also need a hearing aid along with your glasses?”

  “Ohhhhh, burn,” one of the guys snickered.

  Tiffany narrowed her eyes on me and I realized that I had just made her into an enemy. She considered herself to be the top bitch here and I had challenged her authority. She wouldn’t be able to stop until she proved her dominance over me. But I wasn’t willing to back down. I had spent my entire life at the bottom of my pack, cowering and hiding from the alphas. That part of my life was over. I wasn’t going to let anyone treat me like that again, especially not a human high school girl.

  The door to the gym banged open but Tiffany and I didn’t take our eyes off each other. “Watch yourself,” she said softly. “This isn’t over.”

  Our gym teacher frowned when he saw the awkward stand-off we were in, but Tiffany flashed a smile at him and sat back down with her cronies. The rest of the class went back to their conversations now that the show was over and the teacher just shrugged. I got the impression that he would rather not know what was going on. Fine with me.

  The bell finally rang an excruciating half-hour later, signaling the end of my last class of the day. I jumped up out of my seat and rushed back toward the locker room to grab the rest of my stuff. The rest of the students weren’t really in a rush to go anywhere, so I was the first one in. I got a few strange looks, but no one said anything to me.

  At first, I had been hurt at the way the other students were ignoring me, then I was sad and felt sorry for myself. But by the end of this class, my temper was frayed. I heard giggles as the plastics changed in the locker room, but I just gathered up my stuff intending to leave school in my gym clothes. The mean girls had changed into short shorts and skimpy tank tops, which must be their after-school style.

  Tiffany deliberately bumped into Lynn as she was bent down and tying her shoe, causing her to lose her balance and crash into the lockers. My anger heated up when I saw Lynn grasp her elbow with a look of pain on her face as Brittney and Tiffany giggled. I stomped over to the girls and blocked their way out.

  "What do you want, slut?" Tiffany hissed at me as her friends snickered.

  "Who are you calling a slut?" I asked angrily. God, these girls were petty. I dropped my eyes down to her lacy top that barely covered her cleavage and let my lip curl in disdain just to make a point. I didn’t really have a problem with what she was wearing, I just didn’t think she should be slut-shaming other girls.

  She looked taken aback by my rebuttal and one of her friends gasped. "What's wrong?" I asked sarcastically. "Not used to someone standing up to your bullying?"

  Taylor stood next to her friend but stayed silent along with the rest of the girls staring with wide eyes at the drama unfolding in front of them. Brittney tossed her shiny hair and smirked at me. “You’re the only one going around town and banging the old guys. Did you not have a dad that loved you?”

  I ignored the stares of the other girls but my blood heated as my gaze shifted to Taylor. “Really?” I said in a low growl. She shrugged and looked away, still not saying anything. “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told Brittney. “I just hope you never find yourself in my shoes.”

  She rolled her eyes and looked down at my battered sneakers with a sneer. “That’ll never happen.” There was a chorus of agreement from her sidekicks before they marched out and I let them go without another word.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Lynn. The other girls realized the confrontation was over and went back to gathering up their things and changing.

  She stopped rubbing her elbow and stood up straight with an unsure look on her face. “This doesn’t make us friends.”

  I just sighed sadly. “I didn’t think it would.” I picked up my stuff and headed for the door. I wanted to get out of this school as soon as possible. So much for making friends.

  Kannon met me at my locker with his bag packed and ready to go. I hurriedly stuffed most of my books in my locker but kept my calculus book out to bring home with me. I didn't have any assignments yet, but I wanted to get a head start so I wouldn't fall behind the rest of the class. I held his hand as he led the way through the crowded hallway of excited students. Finally, we made it out of the front doors and I took a deep breath of the fresh air. High school hallways had the acrid scent of nervous teenagers that was unpleasant to my more sensitive wolf nose.

  Once we were out on the front steps there was enough room for Kannon and me to walk side by side so I released his hand. There were students on the sidewalk handing out brightly colored flyers and a perky blonde a little shorter than I was stepped out in front of us. She flashed a bright smile at Kannon and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

  "Hey, you're the new guy, Kannon, right?" She angled her body as she spoke to make it clear that she was excluding me from the conversation.

  Kannon put his arm around me and I smiled at his attempt to make
sure I was included. "Yes, Lori and I just started."

  Her bright smile dimmed slightly. "Nice to meet you, I'm Brianna." She flicked her eyes over Kannon and I felt a flash of jealousy and possessiveness that surprised me. "Any chance you're a runner with those long legs?"

  Kannon blinked in surprise. "Um.."

  Brianna blushed and handed him a flyer. "I'm recruiting for the cross country team. Technically the males and females are on separate teams, but we all practice and go to meets together. A big percentage of our team was seniors that graduated last year, so we need a few new members to keep our funding."

  Kannon looked at me in question. "We did want to join at least one club."

  I nodded. Cross country seemed like a good choice. I could still be independent while running and might not have to talk that much, but I would have an activity to put on my college applications. It was a bonus that Kannon and I would be able to do this together.

  Brianna looked at me doubtfully. "Can you run?"

  I nodded confidently but I was a little nervous inside. I did most of my running in wolf form, would that translate over to my human form?

  A dark-haired girl stepped up beside Brianna and gave me a smile. "It's okay if you can't, our team never wins meets so we do it mostly for fun. We just need some extra bodies to be able to keep the team."

  "Okay, cool," I said with a grin. "I'm Lori, and this is Kannon."

  "I know," she said with a laugh. "This is a small school, so everyone knew who you were by second period. I'm Carolyn."

  I hoped that most of the team was more like Carolyn than Brianna.

  "We practice Monday through Thursday," Brianna told me coldly. "Meets are on Saturdays. If you miss three practices or events then you're off the team."

  Carolyn gave me a warm smile. "But Coach understands when things come up and we already have a preliminary schedule made up." She held out her clipboard. "Ready to sign up?"

  I took the clipboard and the pink pen that she handed me. I wrote down my name and grade, but got stumped on the phone number. "Um, I don't have a phone right now. Can I leave that blank?"