Chapter 2 — Mr. Hargrove

Next morning, I pull into my usual parking spot in the school parking lot and park “the Beast.” I wait for Silas before walking onto the school campus. Hopefully today will be a better day. I wave to Silas and make my way towards him. As I walk onto the school grounds I hear over the loudspeaker, “CHARITY MEADOWS PLEASE REPORT TO THE FRONT OFFICE.”

I drop my head and start to shake it a bit. I am not even on campus for five seconds and already they are calling me to the office. I wonder what I will be accused of this time.

“Yikes! Not the way you wanted to start the day, did you Char?” Silas says as he puts his hand on my shoulder.

“No, no it wasn’t. But no sense in dragging it out. I will catch up with you at lunch if I am still here.”

“Alright, see you then.”

Silas headed off to his locker and I made my way to the front office.

I walk into the front office and see Ms. Simpson at her desk looking for something on her computer screen. I plop up and down in front of her desk to get her attention. She does not stop what she is doing but says, “Good morning, Charity. Mr. Hargrove will be out for you in just a moment. Please have a seat in your usual spot.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Simpson,” I say in a sing-song tone.

I walk over to the chair I usually occupy when they call me to the office. I wonder what will happen to this comfy chair after I am gone from this school. Maybe they will put a dedication plaque on it, in remembrance of me.

“Charity”

I look up and I see Mr. Hargrove standing at his office door motioning for me to get into his office.

Well, this will be fun.

I walk in and he motions for me to take a seat in front of his desk as he closes the door and makes his way back to his chair behind the desk. He takes a seat in his chair and starts to slightly rock back and forth in it as he stares at me.

There was a long awkward silence.

Finally, the silence is broken when he speaks, “Charity, would you like to tell me why you think I called you in here today?”

I start to shake my head, no way I am falling for that one. I might own up to something that he doesn’t even know about yet.

I let out a sigh before responding and answer, “No, what are they saying I did this time, Mr. Hargrove?”

“Did you threaten Missy?”

“Which time? Have I threatened Missy before? Yes. Have I threatened her today? Don’t think so.”

Mr. Hargrove lets out a heavy sigh, “I believe this one was from yesterday.”

I raise my forefinger to my chin and look at the ceiling in a thinking pose before saying, “Yes, but that was in the morning before school even started, and besides Mr. Hargrove it was one of the weaker threats that I had given her.”

He leans and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Charity, why must this be a weekly thing that we go through with her and you?”

“Mr. Hargrove this all started because she called me her favorite troublemaker.”

“Are you not?” He asked giving me a questionably look.

I sighed before responding, “Well yes, but I wouldn’t say favorite in front of it and besides I wouldn’t be if she and her Alpha’s son would just ignore me, and we go our separate ways.”

“I will have a talk with Ms. Carlson and Mr. Furi.”

I sit up and lean forward before saying, “No, please don’t, it will only make things worse. I will do my best to just ignore them, sir, and try to keep my threats to myself.”

Letting out a sigh of relent.

“Thank you, Charity,” he says as he breathes a sigh of relief.

“So, what’s this one going to cost me, Mr. Hargrove?” I ask as I sink back in the chair and inner twine my fingers together over my stomach.

“Oh, how about just two days detention after school,” he says with a coy smile.

“Sounds reasonable Mr. Hargrove. Thank you.”

I get up from my chair and head towards the door.

“Charity?”

I turn to look back at Mr. Hargrove.

“You were correct about one thing; you do only have a few weeks left of High School and once you are graduated…” He shrugs.

I smile at him and walk out of his office.

As much as I hate being called into his office on an almost weekly basis, I don’t hate Mr. Hargrove in the slightest bit. His punishments have always fitted my crimes and let me tell you there have been a few doozies that I have done.

Ms. Simpson hands me a slip so that I can get into class without a problem.

“Thank you, Mrs. Simpson. Have a good day,” I say with a smile.

“You too, Charity,” she says with a wink.

Why cause discord for the people in the office. From what I was always taught you attract bees a lot easier with honey then you do with vinegar. I would much rather be on their good side even if I am the “Troublemaker” and cause some trouble than to piss them off and be on their bad side.

I continued to head to my first class making sure I don’t run into any unwanted company. I start to turn a corner when I see Dom. Dang it, why can’t he just go somewhere else. I just want to get to my class and get today over with. I peak over again, and I see that Missy has caught up with him and they are heading over to an empty classroom. I shake my head, but then get an idea. I tiptoe over to the empty classroom and peak through the small glass that is on the door. They are in serious make out mode and I decide to record it. If I am going to be labeled the “Troublemaker” than I better live up to the name. After getting a few good minutes of video, I head over to my first class. I hand the slip to the teacher who just gives me a “not again” kind of look while rolling their eyes at me. I get into my seat and pull out my laptop and forward the video to one of my alias email addresses to send to Mr. Hargrove. I think for a moment, maybe this should be shared with the whole school and not just to Mr. Hargrove. I decide to send the video to one of the biggest gossipers in the school Margot. She will know what to do with the video and it won’t be traced back to me.

Sasha: You deserve your title.

I blew a raspberry at Sasha.

Sasha: Why, Goddess, why?

Me: Hey!

I send off the email to Mr. Hargrove and send the link to Margot and by lunchtime the entire school is buzzing about the make out session between Dom and Missy.

I sit at my usual spot, waiting for Silas when I hear over the intercom, “MISSY CARLSON AND DOMINIC FURI PLEASE REPORT TO THE OFFICE.”

Inside I am doing flips over the amount of discord I have just caused for them.

Silas plops down next to me and says, “So did you catch the video that has been circling around?”

I nodded trying to keep the laughter inside. If I react too much, then Silas will know that I did it.

“Did you hear that they are on the hunt to who filmed it?”

“What? Why?” I said with a bit of concern in my tone.

“Mr. Hargrove is upset that they leaked it to the whole school.”

“Do they suspect anyone yet?”

He shrugs and says, “I think they pulled Margot in because she is normally the one who posts a lot of stuff. But they have no clue who actually filmed it.”

Phew.

Sasha: You are going to get caught.

Me: Nope this one is not coming back on me.

Silas sits and stares at me for a moment before saying, “Did you have something to do with this Char?”

I looked at him like a deer in the headlights, “What? Me? No?” I shake my head as I answer although that last one could have been said with a little more confidence. I just hate lying to Silas.

“Char, look me in the eye and tell me that you had nothing to do with this,” he says with his serious tone.

I tried; I really did. But it was no use. I could never lie to that face.

I raise my shirt up over my nose to cover most of my face before saying, “Guilty.” Hoping the shirt would mumble my answer. But it didn’t.

His eyes grew wide, but he kept his mouth shut. I knew this silence was going to be the death of me. He was going to let me have it at some point. I just didn’t know when.

The rest of the day was kind of quiet even with the buzz still going around about Dom and Missy. I didn’t try to force Silas to talk with me. I knew he would when he was ready.

After school Silas went straight to Lacrosse practice, and I had to head over to my first session of detention.

Yay me.

Detention was so BORING! I was in there with a few other students but was surprised not to see Missy and Dom in there. I wondered what kind of punishment they had coming to them.

After detention I headed back to my oasis. I wasn’t going to let Dom bully me out of my spot. I would fight him if I had to. I had some time before I needed to be on the training field.

I pulled up in my regular spot and started making my way to the river bridge. It was a cooler day today and the wind was picking up. I was glad that I had my sweatshirt on to keep me warm. As I got closer to the bridge I started to walk slower as I tried to listen to see if anyone else was around.

Sasha: I don’t hear anyone else.

I walk over to my favorite spot on the bridge and sit while I pull out my sketch book and start to draw. Typically, I like to draw scenery pictures, not that I am any good at it, but I find it to be relaxing.

Sasha: Wolf!

I quickly get into a crouching position as I survey my surroundings until I see a large white and silver wolf slowly come up to the bridge from the other side. I freeze in my position as I sniff the air. The wolf does not smell like a rogue, but he does not smell like a wolf that I know.

“Shift” I command.

He shakes his snout at me.

“You don’t want to shift? How can I trust you?”

He quickly sits and then goes down on all fours position and slowly creeps his way to me.

I giggle.

“Alright, come here.” I motion for him to come closer.

As he moves closer to me, I put my hand out for him to smell me, that way he knows that I am not going to hurt him, and he lets me pet him.

“Good boy, yes you are. You are beautiful you know that.”

He licks my face in appreciation.

Sasha: He smells alright, I will accept this for right now.

Me: Good!

“Oh, thank you for the kisses.”

“You are a large wolf, you look like you could be an Alpha wolf, are you an Alpha wolf?”

He barked.

Me: Sasha?

Sasha: What? Now you want to hear my opinions. Yeah, he could possibly be an Alpha. But why would an Alpha not show himself?

Good point. I shrugged.

“I wish you were here yesterday; you could have helped me with a mean bully. Yes, you could have.”

He lays down as I continue to rub him down and rub his stomach. He continued to stay in a lay down position.

“Can I lay on you?”

He snorted.

“Thank you.”

I lay my head on his body and I could just feel the calmness radiating off of him. I liked that. I closed my eyes feeling completely safe for the moment.

When I woke up it was dark all around me.

“Oh no, I have got to go. Will I see you again?” I ask him.

He sat up then licked my face before running off going across the bridge to the other side.

I hope I see him again. He seemed like a nice wolf. Maybe he was just shy and didn’t want to show his true self and this was just easier for him.

I grabbed my stuff and made it back to the beast. And started to head home. Sam was going to be so mad at me, for being late for training.

Thirty minutes Late:

I show up to the training field and slowly walk up to Sam’s side.

“Why did you even bother to show up Squirt?” He says in an angry tone.

“I am sorry Sam; I accidently fell asleep down by the bridge. It won’t happen again.”

“Go thirty laps, I don’t want to see you right now.”

“Yes, sir.” I said to him and took my punishment and ran the thirty laps.

After training I walk over to Silas who was just finishing up his conversation with his brother and mine. When he looks at me.

“So, what made you late this time?” he asked with a guarded tone.

“I accidentally fell asleep at the bridge.” I told him as we were walking from the training field.

“Well, you have had a pretty busy day today causing trouble and what not,” he says as he looks down.

“Silas, you’re not mad at me for all that are you?” I ask him.

He lets out a deep sigh before he looks at me. I look at him with puppy dog eyes with tears on the brim of my eyes.

He lets out a chuckle, “No, how can I ever stay mad at you Char.”

At that moment I got picked up and thrown over someone’s shoulder before I heard, “Well I sure can stay mad at her. Squirt, if you are late to one of my field trainings one more time, you will be suspended for one week and you will have kitchen duty for two. Do you hear me?” Sam says as he starts to bounce with me still on his shoulder.

“Ouch! Yes, I understand. Can you put me down now?” I ask Sam.

“No can do, you stink and are in need of a shower and I am going to make sure that you get one,” he says as he starts to walk faster into a jog as he runs into the backyard of the pack house.

“Sam, Sam! No, no please don’t do it.” And before I know it, I am being thrown into the pool and all the guys are jumping in after me.

I come up to the surface and am ready to wage war on Sam. He’s laughing with my brother and Silas before he sees me coming for him.

“Oh crap!” He yells as he starts to swim to the shallow end to get out of the pool.

“Don’t worry Sam, I will get my revenge. Might not be today or tomorrow but I will get my revenge.” I yell out to him as I pull myself up out of the pool.

“I will be sure to watch my back,” he says as he makes his way into the pack house.

The next day during detention I wondered if I was going to see that wolf again. I enjoyed having him around me. I kept wondering if I knew the wolf, maybe he is a student that goes to school here. Nah, maybe he’s older, but then why would he not shift when I asked him to? I wanted detention to be over so that I could get out of here. I needed to make sure that yesterday’s mess up in training does not happen again.

Me: Sasha? Was his scent familiar to you?

Sasha: Hmm…what? His scent possibly but I couldn’t pinpoint it to a certain person.

Me: Aren’t wolves supposed to be able to remember scents?

Sasha: Look Charity, everyone’s abilities grow in time as they get older, we might be able to once you are able to sense your mate.

I roll my eyes. Mate thing again. Everything was supposed to happen once you found your mate. I was definitely not ready for that. I enjoyed my freedom and not having someone to boss me around all the time as some male mates tend to do.

When I got to my oasis, I sat down and just enjoyed the sounds of the water running down the river and how it would splash up against the rocks. I sighed and took a deep breath. He still had not showed up. I look at the time on my phone, I might as well head out so that I can be early for training today.

It was not every day that he would show up, but it was pretty often. He would continue to let me tell him about my day without any judgements. I would tell him whenever Dom was giving me a hard time and he would growl when I brought it up and I would laugh. I enjoyed how protective he seemed of me.

Before I would leave, I would rub him on his chest and behind his ears and give him a kiss on his head. He seemed to like it.

Sasha tolerated me giving attention to another wolf.

The next day at school was combat testing day. Every few months they would test us on our defensive skills in human form, since it was not allowed to shift into a wolf during school hours.

Coach Anderson was just cruel sometimes.

“Miss Meadows.” He called out.

“Yes Coach?” I answered and stood up.

“You will be testing with Mr. Furi today. Gear up and be ready in ten minutes.” He said with a cruel smile on his face.

My mouth dropped to the floor. “But Coach, he’s twice the size of me. How is this fair.” I ask him. Dom is just laughing as he gets geared up. He is enjoying this a little too much.

“Meadows, life is not fair and when it comes to battle, they do not make it a fair fight. It is cutthroat and ruthless. The more you are prepared the better the chance you will survive. Clear?”

“Yes, Coach.”

I walk over and gear up. They really don’t do anything to protect us but it’s school policy.

“Ready, fight!” Coach yells.

Dom comes at me quick and is able to pin me quick and I can begin to feel my frustration rising.

Sasha: Be patient.

I stretch my neck left to right as I try to monitor his moves and learn his tells. He came at me differently each time and pinned me again.

I yelled.

“Char, calm down you are letting him get to you.” Silas yells to me.

I nod my head and take a deep breath.

Sasha: He is trying to get a rise out of you so that you tire yourself out so that he can pin you.

I need to stay calm.

He came at me, and I was able to block most of the punches and kicks he was aiming at me.

“Good job Char!” Silas yells.

I nod but I refuse to look and keep my focus on Dom. I could tell that he was upset that I won that round.

“Alright, let this be the last one.” Coach yells.

I look at Dom he just bouncing in his spot back and forth with no shirt on and his sweat just glistening. Wait, what?

Me: Sasha!

Sasha: Sorry, sorry my bad.

I shake my head at that moment and lose my focus, Dom takes the advantage and pins me down.

He looks down at me for a moment before saying, “Feels good to know that I can pin you anytime I want to…Troublemaker.”

I push at him to get off me. Once he is off, he starts to walk away and head to the locker room, I start to make a run to him when Silas grabs me around the waist.

“Easy Char you don’t want to get into trouble again,” he says to me keeping hold of me until he sees that I have allowed my anger to simmer a bit, he releases me once I have calmed down more.

“I’ll see you at training later,” I say to him as I make my way to the girl’s locker room.

“Remember don’t be late.” He yells.

I nod and continue to walk.

Inside I was raging, and Sasha was not helping in any way.

Sasha: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for my thoughts to get mixed with yours. It was a simple mistake.

Me: I don’t want to hear it.

Sasha: But he is such a handsome wolf. Why can’t you see that?

Me: I don’t ever want to see him like that. Hear Me NEVER!!!

I walked out to “the Beast” and got into it and started him up. His engine was burning the same amount of rage as I was. I have to get out of here. I peeled out of the parking lot and drove straight to my spot. I jumped out of the car and just ran.

When I get to the bridge, I let out a blood curdling scream to let out my frustration before dropping to my knees and just crying. I sat on the deck of the bridge leaning against it, bringing my knees up to my chest and laying my head in my arms that were wrapped over my knees as I just sat there and cried.

It was a short while until I felt I wet snout and a small whine, when I looked up and saw my friend the wolf.

“Hey buddy, I’m not having a good day today.”

He licked my face and then put his head on my arms in front of me.

“What you want to hear about my day?” I ask him.

He wags his tail and lays down waiting for me to rest my head on his stomach and tell him about my day.

I laugh a little. I lay down on the bridge and make sure that my head is resting on his stomach.

“So, I had a defensive training test today and I was teamed up with Dom.”

He let out a gruff and a little growl.

“I know! Can you believe it? He was able to pin me a few times, but the last one was the one that did me in. You want to know what he said?”

He barks.

“He said that he enjoyed that he could pin me anytime he wanted to.”

A growl comes out from his chest.

“I agree. What a jerk. I can’t stand him. I can’t wait until school is out. It’s almost over. Just a few more days and it’s all over.”

I get up and take a deep breath.

“Thank you! I don’t know what made you come today, but I am glad you did.”

I kiss him on the head before getting up and leaving.

I needed to get to training and there was an Alpha’s son that I had to get back at for revenge.