Bab 500: RUDE AWAKENING
18 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, EARLY MORNING
I woke up with a start and found myself in my bed, in the dark, alone.
Wait? What? I sat up, my hair flaring. Wth? A dream? Where's Mate?
I frowned and took a moment to place myself. Okay, I gate-crashed a meeting after dinner to be with Mate longer. Mate who was here in the flesh - please don't let that be a dream!
I sniffed around my blankets and caught his scent. I mean, I did ride him piggy back so his scent was quite present on my clothes.
Okay, not a dream.
The last thing I had remembered was sitting at the meeting as the elders talked about security detailing during my inauguration. They had brainstormed what looked like a list of a hundred patrols across the whole event. I think I might had concussed at the midpoint of patrol #32, because I honestly couldn't remember if they had decided to combine it with patrol #18, 24, or both, or if it their route should include periodically checking if all the entrances into the Gate City Town Hall was secure, or if patrolling the perimeter of the building would suffice.
From patrol #1 to #31, most of their disagreements stemmed around Mate, Beta Gerald, and Gamma Harry wanting everything strictly enforced to the letter, and Beta Lucas and Gamma Endo feeling we should give more general instructions and leave it to the patrol leaders to make the call.
"Well, it all comes down to the patrol leader." Beta Lucas said, "Since we don't know what to expect anyway. Better give the men space to think on their feet. If the leash is on too tight, they won't be able to go the extra mile, you know?"
Beta Lucas made a gagging expression while holding his own neck to show us how a too tight leash would look like on the patrol leader.
"That's assuming your men have the experience to deal with the security situation on the spot," Mate argued, "Which you can't guarantee with this number of patrols. Some of the leaders would be leading their first run."
"Drop them down the deep end. They'd learn to swim faster." Gamma Endo said, "They're warriors, not pups. We can't hold their hand forever."
"I don't think Luna Bell is saying we should hold their hand." Beta Gerald correctly in all seriousness, "There is no reason why we cannot provide adequate guidelines for the men to follow."
"Yes, but..." Beta Lucas cut Beta Gerald off, he raised his hand to speak after that, "guidelines are just there... They're not hard and fast rules, you know."
"We're wasting time!" Gamma Harry decided, "What's the point of thinking up all the guidelines if everyone is just going to ignore it? No, we can't just let them do their own thing. Alpha has to tell them to follow the guidelines properly. Then we can ensure everyone's safety!"
"This is Gate City, not Lullaby Route, Harry." Gamma Endo scoffed, "It's not like rogues would appear with guns or anything. Just direct some traffic, help lost pedestrians, keep out reporters... child's play."
"We can only hope." Mate smirked, "Or we can be prepared."
"The threat from the Rogue King still looms large." Beta Lucas reminded everyone.
"Which is why we are stepping up the security..." Beta Gerald tried to speak, but he got cut off again, this time by Gamma Endo.
"Rogue king? Is that b****** still alive? After having his rogues exterminated like rats across the continent by our Luna Bell, he wouldn't even dare squeak." Gamma Endo boasted.
"I don't like it. He's too quiet." Mate said.
"He knows he's already lost." Gamma Endo reassured Mate, "Probably ran into hiding with his tail between his legs."
"Still, it's always quietest before the storm." Mate said.
"I agree with Luna Bell." Beta Gerald agreed, "The rogue activity had suddenly gone quiet all around the continent."
"I heard they are targeting Silver Mountain's Young Alpha Henry. Revenge for the war on rogues or something." Beta Lucas supplied, "His inauguration is this Saturday, which reminds me, we should also plan some security for our Alpha and Luna. Luna Bell, you are going with your parents, right?"
So naturally our discussion would detour to Henry's inauguration... I think someone said to go check out Henry's security. Silver Mountain had spared no expense on the event and their security was similarly the best money could buy. And then someone else said Henry's inauguration would be held in Gold Packlands' city center which would be quite different from Gate City.
And then someone else argued it wasn't all that different at all.
And then Mate had to show off - his army had been hired to run the auxiliary security force around Gold City. Not that he said it in so many words, but that meant that his army was the best money could buy.
Beta Gerald just had to stop to marvel at our young Luna's capabilities. So young and already so capable.
Beta Lucas needed to reaffirm his plan for early retirement.
And I think this was the point I rested my head on the table to rest a while. Let the old wolves finish praising my luna first, and then I probably fell asleep.
But now I was awake, back in my bed. What time was it? Homework? But more importantly, where was mate? My radar found him far away... Maybe all the way at the Underground. :(
There was only one downside about meeting your mate. And that was the eventual necessity to part with him when he had to return to his duties at the Underground. Parting was not such sweet sorrow. Shakespeare lied. There was nothing sweet about it at all. T.T
My wolf was inconsolable.
{Mate! Why did you go? Where are you?}
{Princess? Go back to sleep.}
Eh? Mate! But he had shut me out again and blocked up our mating bond. Omo.
How could he? Black hearted pig! Evil Luna! Megatron!
I curled up in my bed and sulked...and then I think I must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing I knew, I woke up and found myself in my bed, in the dark, with the alarm clock going off.
I reached out to shut it off. My alarm clock had a function that made it ring in increasing volume. I've always turned it off by the second ring - which was plenty loud. Maybe I should let it go all out one day, just to see how loud it could get.
But it's Thursday, and like it or not, my day had begun.
I dragged myself out of bed and plodded into the bathroom, the moment I got out of bed, I went into automode, stripping down to my undies, brushing my teeth... It was all going really well and I only realized after I got dressed that I've completely lost scent of Mate! Omo.
I backtracked to the bathroom and dug out my grey hoodie. There was one slight problem, I couldn't wear it to school due to a highly sophisticated and intricate code of student life, also known as the school rules.
Winter wear dress code at Winderhill was a winding and complex puzzle (at least to me). Since all the other kids in my pack went to New Leaf, they would never understand the concept of uniform. Sometimes I hear my friends complain about being told that a purple miniskirt was inappropriate by a straight-laced Mr So-And-So. I think that might have been Carlie... oh wait, no, she was the one caught for highlighter pink bra under a drop shoulder white tshirt? Or was it the leopard print tights? Maybe it was all of it.
But nobody ever realized the many more considerations a uniformed school had to deal with. According to Savy, all I had to do was wear the same thing to school every day. That was not true... It was what I did, because it would be the easiest way to deal with it, BUT there were many, many other paths.
Winderhill School Rules for Winter Term Uniform.
Students should be in STANDARD UNIFORM when in school during school hours. The STANDARD UNIFORM in winter consist of the long-sleeved white buttoned up shirt and navy blue trousers for male students, and a long-sleeved white button up blouse and navy blue pleated skirt for female students.
Skirt should touch the knee when in standing position. Also, pants stop just over the ankle line and not drag on the ground when in shoes.
All undergarments should not be worn exposed, and brasserie should be in light colors (and not seen clearly through the student's blouse). If students require additional inner wear to retain heat, they should be white in color and tucked neatly in the waistband of their pants and skirts. Inner wear should not have patterns that could be seen through the white shirt/blouse.
On Mondays, and Special Assembly days, students are required to come in tie (for boys), ribbon (for girls). Collar must be buttoned up to the top button. And all students are required to wear a navy blue school blazer with the school crest on it. The school blazer should be worn with pride. I.e. It should be pressed and ironed.
On other days, students may come without the school blazer, but must wear their tie/ribbon, although they may leave the top button undone, but no more than that. Instead of the school blazer, students may wear the school pullover. A navy blue V-neck pullover with the school crest emblazoned on it.
Other options allowed for the sake of the student's warmth and comfort would be any indoor coat or jacket or sweater that is in navy blue, the logo or graphics or pattern should not be distracting and not larger than 1% of the clothing. (There was no rule against it being rogue smelling.) This includes our jacket from the winter gym uniform.
Students in school after school hours may opt to wear their pre-approved club jackets, jacket from their winter gym uniform, or any sports jacket in navy blue, white, or black only.
I could go on, and on, about winter coats, boots, indoor shoes during school hours, indoor shoes after school hours...
But I won't, because it would be a waste of space in my diary. Just that I hadn't broken any school rules - not even with all my jacket wearing yesterday.
Normally, I didn't even wear a jacket. (Which was also allowed.) It was getting warmer, and my wolf body found the heating overly warm sometimes.
I mean, I noticed Matt and the other upperclassmen went without a jacket, and I figured if the student president was allowed to do it, I could too. Henry, Marcus, Liam, and Jasmine started doing it too shortly after. Now that the blizzard weather had eased, the central heating plus closed windows was just killing us.
Some of the other kids had tried to "go white" because they thought that was how the popular kids did it... But I heard that was the reason a couple of girls got sick. They weren't dressed warmly enough and caught a cold.
I don't think human bodies were made the same. Apparently, a cold could be caught indoors and would last three whole days!
Anyway, my hoodie with Mate's scent was grey. So it was a no-go.
I put the hoodie down on my bed. At the back of my mind, I was sure Ki would clear it, just as he did all the other pieces of Mate's clothing that I had squirreled away in my bed.
I noticed the white pony lying on my bed. I felt a smile pop up on my face and picked it up instinctively. Ooooo it still smelled like mate too, but I couldn't bring that to school. Even if I could smuggle it in my school bag, who knew what smells would contaminate it by the time I got home?
Safest place was still my bed.
Other things I noticed belatedly was that the mess of Vday goodies Savy had emptied out on my bed yesterday was cleaned up.
My bag had been unpacked, phone recharged, wallet refilled, everything in its perfect place on little trays on my dresser waiting to be picked up.
And the navy blue rogue smelling jacket was hanging on my birdcage rack, except it was no longer rogue smelling! In fact, it was so normal smelling that I didn't even notice it. How was that possible? I pulled it off the hanger to examine it. It looked exactly the same as yesterday, except it was missing the rogue smell. I sniffed it carefully, turning it this way and that... it smelled very much like any other piece of clothing from my wardrobe.
So I put it on.
Then I checked my bag because I remembered the picture Daisy drew for me. It was still in my bag, sealed tightly in the ziplock bag. I put it back. (Where else could I have put it?)
Okay, back to getting ready for school... I nearly forgot my school pin and ribbon because my auto-pilot routine was interrupted, I had to take off the jacket, put on everything and then wear the jacket over it.
Then I dumped everything into my bag, picked out a random hair tie - today's had two shiny black balls on them. (Don't get me started on the school rules for hair accessories, but anything black and not sequined or in the shape of skulls was okay.)
Come to think of it, did Ki study my student handbook? How was it that the selection he prepared for me each morning would fall within the stipulated guidelines? Was that part of his beta job too? Or maybe it was a Lorent thing... I wondered what kind of rules the Lorent Girls' Academy had.
Looks like I would be back to square one. Oh, bother! And I only just got used to the ins and outs of Winderhill's rules.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone