The Queen Bee Stings

The blaring sound of my alarm rings out beside my ear and pulls me from sleep. I jump up quickly out of bed – there is no time for sleeping in today, and I don’t think I could even if I wanted too. My mind is buzzing thinking about what today might bring. Everyone is going to be talking about the Lycans, and I admit I’m pretty invested myself. I don’t usually care for gossip, but Mr Silver-Blue eyes is as much in my thoughts this morning as he was last night.

It’s weird, I scold myself. I don’t even know him. He looked at me once when I was a kid and now, I'm falling asleep thinking about him? Get a grip of yourself, Enola.

I tell myself it’s not like that. I do not fancy this guy, it’s just the same, normal level of curiosity that I’m sure everyone else in the school is feeling. It’s not every day you see a Lycan, let alone have five rock up at your school.

I take a little longer getting ready for school than I usually might this morning, first day back impressions matter! I put on a white tee with red long-sleeves, blue mom jeans fixed with a black belt and my red Chuck Taylors to finish. My hair doesn’t take too much maintenance, just a brush through and a little product to reform my loose curls, and I just put on some mascara to frame my eyes and fill in my eyebrows.

I take a step back and survey myself in the mirror. I do love how a mom jean accentuates my small, toned waist, but also fits the curves of my hips.

I grab my backpack and go through it one more time, making sure I haven’t forgotten anything I need.

“Okay so notebook, pencil case, pens, timetable, books… so many books…” I mumble as I stuff everything into my backpack.

I haul my backpack up on to my shoulder, groaning as I do so. I’m taking all my books in today to store them in my locker - I can be forgetful and was told off more than once last year for forgetting my class books.

A car beeps from outside; I look out of my window to see Hannah waiting for me in her old, slightly beat-up, black pick up. I smile down at her and mouth that I will be right down.

“Good morning angel face!” I say to her with a smile as I open the car door and climb in.

“Good morning to you too, someone’s chipper today,” she smiles back.

“Yeah, well, seize the day and all that,” I quip, and she laughs.

“You got everything? All your books?” Hannah asks, she knows me so well.

“Yes mum,” I reply sarcastically, patting my backpack which is nearly bursting at the seams. “All in here.”

“All of them?! Moons Enola, I’m amazed they all fitted,” she laughs back at me with wide eyes.

“Well, they don’t really. I’ll have to carry some when we get there or I think it'll rip apart,” I admit.

“Or you could just be more organised like me,” she smiles sweetly and a little bit smug, as she starts off driving, which earns her another eyeroll from me.

*****************

The journey to school is not long, only about 15 minutes in the car. It’s still on our pack lands, but our lands are so vast thanks to The Expansion, that it also has a small number of humans that attend. The humans at this school know about us, they’re mostly part of the pack; children of werewolves who don’t possess the gene.

We pull up into the campus carpark and see its already pretty full, so Hannah takes one of the last few spaces near the front. I get out of the car and stretch out my arms, taking in the view of the impressive glass front of the main building. It’s quite modern looking, our pack puts a lot of money into making this a great school. It has a huge sports hall, swimming pool, sports fields and courts, a gymnasium, humongous auditorium, drama halls and state-of-the-art science labs. All thanks to Alpha Rivera and The Expansion.

I reach into the car and take out some of my books from my backpack – I don’t think the stitching would have survived with them all in there much longer. Satisfied my backpack will now live to see another day, I throw it over my shoulder and hold the rest of my books to my chest with two arms.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEP*

Some idiot is holding down their car horn.

Hannah and I look across to see none other than Beta born campus bitch, Bridget Marshall and her gang of insufferable minions glaring at us from the seats of her shiny black BMW convertible.

“Hey, losers, move your damn car out of my space,” Bridget shouts, “NOW!”

Her clones all giggle in unison at their leader.

“Ugh, you better not be talking to me Bitchet,” Hannah starts, “I do not have the energy for you this morning. It’s the first day of school; can’t you try being nice for just five minutes?”

The giggling stops as Bridget opens her car door and steps one long tanned leg after the other out of her car. She’s tall anyway, but she towers over Hannah and I in the high heels she is wearing today. She clip-clops towards Hannah so I step up next to her protectively - you do not mess with one of us without the other having something to say about it.

The action is enough to make Bridget think twice about what she might do next. She slows her approach, perhaps remembering how her broken nose felt the last time she had picked a fight with me. She doesn’t back down though, she would never in front of her minions. Instead, she glares at me with her hazel eyes and turns to face just Hannah, flicking me with her long brown hair streaked with highlights as she does so. She talks directly to Hannah.

“Hannah. Unless you want people to think you’ve had another go at batting for the other team, then maybe you should reconsider your parking spot,” Bridget smirks. That bitch.

“For Moons sake, I am not bi Bridget,” Hannah says, rolling her eyes at the threat.

“Maybe not, but let’s think about who people may believe… Me, the most popular, pretty girl in school, destined to be the future Luna when Darius and I both turn twenty and become more than just boyfriend and girlfriend. Or you, tom-boy, biker boot wearing, pickup truck driving Hannah. People believed it in middle school, I’m sure they’ll do the same now,” Bridget threatens with all the venom she can muster. She fake gasps, “oh no! What will your future mate think of you?”

This bitch is evil now, but she never used to be - we were friends once. That was until Bridget started a rumour that Hannah was bisexual and had tried it on with her, purely out of jealousy I'm sure. It’s not true, not that it would matter at all if it were, but people believed Bridget and bullied Hannah relentlessly for it for a while. Hannah doesn’t need something like that happening again, especially when she’ll be turning twenty soon and will be able to find her mate.

Hannah’s clenches her jaw and gives Bridget her best dirty look before reluctantly turning to get back in her car. I can’t say anything. I don’t want to cause trouble for Hannah here, and we both know Bridget is evil enough to carry out her threat. All it would take is a little boredom and she would be looking for a new way to stir up trouble just to entertain herself.

“There’s a good girl,” Bridget smirks, earning her a laugh from her minions.

Anger builds inside me. “Fuck you, Bridget” I say before turning to get back into Hannah’s truck. I couldn’t help that one.

“What did you say to me, orphan?!” She spits out the last word with poison.

I feel my anger rise even further. I know her pointing out that I am an orphan shouldn’t bother me, but it does. “I said. Fuck. You. Bridget.”

She scoffs at me, looks me up and down with disgust on her face and knocks my books cascading out of my hands. “Whoops! You better pick those up orphan, I can’t imagine you could afford any more,” she sneers before getting back into her car laughing.

Everyone in the carpark is looking at us now and I can feel my cheeks glowing like embers. I curse her under my breath and gather my books before getting back into the car silently, not wanting to draw any more unnecessary attention to us on our first day back.