章 939: MY GANG BACK HOME
SATURDAY, 5 MARCH, CONTINUED
Normally, I would have pressed Dean further in a bid to help elevate my friend's unhappiness, and I was going to ask him again but Lizzy and Savy had come over to join us.
"You ladies have 15 minutes before the bell." Shannon kindly informed them, "Need me to help you get the chow?"
Shannon was back to his easy smile and gentlemanly initiatives. I'm not sure how to explain it. Shannon had always been smooth with the girls. Before Ki, I had thought he was the King of Charm. I can't say if it were a good thing. Growing up, he had always been more aware of his good looks, keeping his scent fresh smelling, or what gestures were cool or flirtatious than any other middle school guy I knew. It felt like a lot to worry about.
I'm also not sure who taught him things like holding doors for ladies or offering to help carry stuff even if they weren't struggling with it. But that just felt like unnecessary work.
If any of the guys around me could be used as the gauge for "normal", most normal guys didn't come with such considerations.
When Shannon first joined us, I think it was when I started middle school? He offered to help me carry a box during one of our Study Group activities.
I thought he was mocking me.
So I said, "Go get your own box."
There were plenty of boxes to move, why did he have to pick on mine?
And then later I heard (from Savy who heard from Liz who heard from Angela who heard from Darlyn who heard from Drew) that the new guy was telling the other guys I was like some kind of ice princess.
He had thought I was a proud and cold kind of Alpha's daughter.
I took offense because I didn't like the sound of ice princess (the proud and cold part was okay). I decided to never ever talk to the new guy again.
Which only affirmed his initial impression of me (but how would I know that would happen?)
Anyway, Summer that year, we were in the same team at Lycan Study Group Camp, and we found out we got on like a house on fire.
At first, I thought it was because the two of us happened to click, but I knew by now that it was more because Shannon could click with pretty much anyone. Besides being silly beans with me, I've seen him roughing it out with the guys, expertly fielding girl talk with Angela, Delilah, and Carlie, and talking fashion with Jessica.
"I hate it when you and Shan are in the same team." Dean had complained.
"Why? Aren't you in our team too?" I was caught surprised. I had been having a blast that morning.
"Do the both of you have to be so... So silly?" Dean sounded frustrated.
I just laughed it off, "But silly is fun!"
Shannon and I had been pretending to be a couple of airheads all morning while on a orienteering exercise. It was hilarious because not only did we talk like bimbos, we also praised each other effusively (because we were airheads, so we were easily impressed.)
When Dean caught us using the map upside down, we praised him like he found the cure to cancer. He was the brains of our team that day.
"Can you two just take this more seriously?" Dean had scolded us. And we'd laugh like Dean had made the funniest joke. We even "won". Not that it was a competition, but we were the first team that completed our checkpoints - even with the map upside down a third of the journey, or that Shannon had mistaken his watch for the compass the entire time. We were really lucky that N was really at the nine o'clock hour during the exercise. It would have gone very badly if we had done this in the afternoon. Dean hadn't realized at all that we didn't have the compass. (It was in Dean's pocket the entire way and we only found it AFTER we were asked to return it.)
"Sam's team always sounds so much fun." Lizzy commented from the next team.
"It's not fun!" Dean would snap back hotly, "They're just annoying!"
And Shannon and I would laugh and feel very accomplished. I think a big part of the fun was having Dean get mad at us.
"If we're ever bored, we just put Sam and Shan next to each other." Lizzy had told everyone at camp.
"Shannon is just the kind of guy who knows how to get along with anyone." I said.
"Yeah, but you're different from other girls. With you, there's no pressure. Like I can just be myself. I can be vain and make bad jokes and it's all good." Shannon had answered.
"Awww... I bet you say that to all the girls." I would bat his arm.
And then we'd laugh like it was the funniest joke in the world.
We were pups then. I don't think Shannon and I had clowned around for a while now. Especially, not since he started liking Darlyn.
"I need to keep my cool image in front of her." Shannon told me, "You gotta help me Sam! This time, it's different from all the other girls... I really, really, like her."
So I tried not to clown with Shan in front of Darlyn. Like at first it was hard. I had to resist not exclaiming, "Oh Shannon, you're so cool!"
(You know, to help Darlyn notice that Shannon was cool.)
"Darlyn, don't you think Shannon is oh-so-cool, cool like a cucumber, cool like ice, cool like..."
I wanted to say it, with the theatrical aplomb of the greatest over-actor I could channel. BUT I didn't.
You know, cos there were some things that mattered too much to your friend for you to mess with.
He liked her so much that he had yet to tell her, and it's been like half a year at least.
Like everyone knew, but nobody said anything aloud, at least not in front of Darlyn. Jonah had explained it pretty well, "There were just some lines you don't cross."
And then, over just a few more months and Shannon and I stopped clowning like that altogether.
I heard (from Savy who heard from Lizzy, who heard from Jessica, who heard from Esther) that the older ladies were saying that Shannon and I must have broken up.
I took offense, "But we were never dating!"
Savy didn't think it was all that insulting, "Shannon is considered a good catch."
Was I supposed to take it as a compliment then?
Lizzy used Shannon as an example when she wanted to explain what a guy should be like.
The older ladies would agree. They liked to talk about how well his Mum brought him up. They always praised Shannon and then they'd add, "All by herself too!" Because Shannon's mum was a single mum and a nurse. Everyone said she was a very strong woman and they were so glad she came back to Night Leaf (Long back-story, so let's just leave it as that.)
Anyway, we hadn't been clowning for a while, and maybe that was for the better. Wouldn't want anyone to think we were dating... Well, mostly a certain YOU KNOW WHO, but we're talking about Shannon.
I think Shannon was a good guy because despite gravitating to every reflective surface to smile at his own reflection or checking his hair multiple times a day, he was a nice guy.
"I'm a SNAG." He has boasted. This meant Sensitive New Age Guy, and not when your clothes got caught on a branch or bramble.
Tim said he was annoying.
"You're the one who's annoying." Ben had told him.
No matter how I saw it though, I didn't think a guy who worked part-time during middle school so his Mum wouldn't have to worry about his expenses was a bad guy - even if he did spend all of it on things like designer jeans and wallets (and that flip knife he had to sell Ben at half price because his Mum freaked out over it.)
Plus, unlike Tim, Shannon worked hard to pull his own weight and was really fun to be with.
I kinda wished we could be silly beans again, but we weren't pups anymore. And Darlyn was here.
"No thanks." Lizzy waved Shannon back down, "It's cool. Savy and I got food from the buffet earlier and ate at the counter."
"How unprofessional." Tim smirked, "Hey, head beta, did you hear that? They were eating on the job."
"At least they showed up for their shift." Ben said. He looked like he wanted to say more, but he couldn't talk and eat at the same time. Ben had been just eating since we got here. Okay, like he got me a chocolate muffin too, but he must have eaten 30 muffins worth of everything else on the buffet line.
Luckily (for us, but not for Tim), Angela, his sister overheard and decided she would fill us in with her brother's latest misadventure.
Tim had been signing up for counter duty at the Youth Club for particularly odd hours of the weekends. At first, everyone thought he was just looking for the least busy slots to slack off, but then we discovered that Tim wasn't even showing up for duty.
"It's not like anybody comes anyway." Tim shrugged.
Except for Sue. Sue had come and couldn't find anyone at the counter. She texted Darlyn, who texted Delilah, who texted Angela, who texted Ben.
Ben traced the shift to Tim and chewed him out for it.
"I didn't know that it was my stupid brother. If I did, I would've texted Ben right at the start." Angela felt she had to make it quite clear.
"It's true. She would." Delilah affirmed and everyone laughed.
In general, my friends generally didn't report to our Scary Beta immediately these days. Especially if they didn't want to get someone into trouble. Ben was growing quite a rep as Scary Beta.
Delilah was here today for breakfast. Carlie was supposed to come too, but she couldn't wake up.
New Leaf Academy was on school break too, and Delilah didn't have softball or soccer today.
"My mum literally threw me out of the house." Delilah bemoaned. Delilah's mum was a very strong woman too, even though she wasn't a single mum or a nurse.
Delilah's mum really wanted her daughter to rub shoulders with the right wolves. Like especially since Delilah was the "right age" to attend it with the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma children.
"But I'm not here to rub shoulders or whatever." Delilah quickly said, "I was forced to be here."
"Come on," Shannon protested, "Don't make it sound like you don't like hanging with us."
Delilah laughed, "I mean I like to hang out with y'all, I just prefer to play ball, y'know?"
We all nodded like this was a perfectly acceptable answer. I wasn't all that close to Delilah, but I heard from Mum who heard from Laura who heard from… you know, never mind.
I didn't realize it until now, but it was really nice to be with my gang back on home ground again. To be able to just relax and be just Sam. Of all the friends I had ever had, my gang back home were my best ones.
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