I was wrong.
Winderhill was just as snowed in.
The wind was a thing of terror.
I pulled up my hood and started pressing through the icy, howling, invisible force of nature up the hill and towards the old school building on top of it.
The other kids were also wrapped up warmly, stomping through the snow, skidding on the icy patches.
The wind screeched and howled like some kind of oversized, angry ghost.
I heard some kids tell each other, "The warlock is angry today."
It's just an expression, of course.
There was no warlock in Winderhill.
It was a Lycan–Vampire–Human space, or LVH zone. This is in order of control, not population.
All territories in the plains were categorized like that. Green Packland was an LH zone (Lycan and Human). The Warlock land above us was, surprisingly, a WLH zone (Warlock, Lycan [rogues], and a very few self-contained human villages).
Jules's pack was in a vampire-controlled area; that's a VLH zone.
Vampires always had humans in their zones. Food source, you know.
Most Lycan packlands had some human population too. Humans did make a significant portion of our labor force.
Only the Black Forest Pack's Black Packland was a pure L zone.
They were pretty extreme about eradicating vampires in their land, which included banning human residents so as not to provide vampires with easy access to their food source.
There were also a few human-controlled towns, usually HV zones, where the covens were battered by the humans until they were too weak to take control.
There was an HL zone near the central plains. It's very bad to be a Lycan there. Most of them lived in hiding. Humans could be very cruel when they had too much power. Sometimes, they were worse than the vampires.
It started to hail suddenly. I made a run toward the stairs to get into the school building.
Some kids in front of me pushed open umbrellas.
As they reached the halfway point up the hill, one by one, their umbrellas blew backward.
I kid you not. It was like watching a musical where the performers take turns walking up and having their umbrellas blown inside out.
I took my turn up the steps. They were icy, and the wind threatened to blow me over.
The hail was tiny, which was good—except it melted once it came into contact with any form of heat.
My waterproof down jacket and hood were lifesavers, cushioning the pellets and keeping me mostly dry.
My knitted scarf was damp.
My knees were freezing.
The bottom half of my skirt was wet. The wind whipped around so hard, I was sure my skirt would have flown up, except it was too wet and stuck to my legs.
It was wet, miserable weather that I had never imagined students who attended a historical school on top of a hill would have to brave.
They had certainly failed to mention it in their school brochure.
I rushed into the nearest shelter, a worn awning stretched out to welcome us.
Most of the students rushed straight through into the warm cafeteria or locker-lined hallways beyond.
I meant to do the same, but I saw the guys from the train standing along the side of the building.
They were in various states of undress, and I immediately averted my gaze, deciding to pretend I hadn't seen them.
They must have run up the hill as wolves. If they did the same after school, it would explain how they got to the station first every time, too.
"Hey, Sam!" I heard a shout, then another.
Some of the other students were turning to look.
I sighed and walked over to them. "What's up?"
Despite the miserable weather, the boys were in their usual goofy selves.
"Bra dropped his shirt on the way up." Jules filled me in.
"Now he has to go topless," Matt told me.
"Do you want me to go down and look for it?" I offered.
There was a shocked silence.
Then Jules shook his head. "You're a girl."
So?
"Forget it. We'll get it on the way home," Bra said. He pulled on the school jacket, skipping the shirt inside. "I can be sexy for the day."
"Oh yeah, sexy Bra," Jules called out.
Matt smirked. "You dropped your shirt on purpose."
Bra looked extremely offended. "I did not!"
"Wear the tie," Matt ordered.
"Without a shirt?" Bra gasped.
"Yeah," Jules laughed. "You want the full effect."
I laughed but decided to give them their guy space.
"I'm going to get dried off," I told them, making a move to leave.
"Yeah, see you later, Sam," Jules said.
"Bye!" Matt said.
"Ciao," Bra called.
I couldn't help the smile on my lips when I left them.
Oh, the carefree life of a teenage guy!
But actually, that couldn't be right. Jules was the future beta of a pack crammed between several vampire covens.
Matt was the future beta of the main pack here, home to the infamous Upper and Lower Kosan covens.
Bra—I didn't know much about—but he already had warrior duties. I heard him mention it to Jules.
They seemed so carefree, though. I never would have guessed just watching them.
It was kind of cool—but don't tell them I thought so.
Getting to my locker was half the battle won. I had to switch my books today and then trudge up to the classroom to hang out my wet winter clothes.
I took off my wet boots and sploshed into the classroom with my clean socks and towel in hand.
Drying off and pulling on the nice, warm socks at my desk was a good feeling.
Elena was the only one there. She watched me without saying anything.
She looked dry. I guessed it was because her mum drove her to school.
My skirt was still wet.
"You could dry it off at the hand dryers in the washroom," Elena suggested.
I nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
I went to the washroom. There were other girls there, but the hand dryer was placed pretty high up. One of the girls took off her skirt to hold it up at the dryer; she had a pair of shorts under it. Good idea.
I didn't want to wait for my turn, so I returned to the classroom. There were more kids now.
A few of the girls were wearing their gym clothes. They looked warm and toasty. That's another good idea.
What should I do?
By now, my skirt was only a little damp.
I decided to ignore the discomfort and wait for it to air-dry.
By the time the rest of the class came in, I realized the only other kids who had just air-dried were all boys.
Apparently, I had just done another boy thing.
Jasmine made a big fuss over it. She kept tugging at the hem of my skirt. "It's still so wet!" she complained on my behalf.
Henry raised a brow.
"Do you want to borrow my gym clothes?" Marcus offered.
Of course, our ever-efficient class beta had an extra set.
I shook my head. I didn't want to smell like him the whole day. Plus, it was just the bottom part of my skirt. My winter jacket had kept the top half well covered and dry.
"It's not a big deal. I'll dry off," I told them.
And I did.
By lunchtime, I had all but forgotten ever being chilled.
Jasmine smiled at me ruefully. "You know what, Sam? You're really something."
"I'm really lazy, is all." I shrugged it off.
"Sometimes I think you're too cool to be a girl," Jasmine told me.
Uh, thanks? Why was that cool?
"It's just her Alpha wolf," Henry explained.
What's that got to do with anything?
"Do you have a boy wolf?" Jasmine asked.
What? No!
"Can't girls be Alphas?" I asked.
Jasmine didn't answer.
Liam was smiling at our conversation, but he wisely kept his thoughts to himself—that is, if he was actually thinking anything. I never knew for sure.
Henry laughed, amused, his deep laughter rumbly.
"Not really," Marcus told me, in all honesty.
What? Grrr…
"They can't, right?" Marcus turned to Henry for backup.
Henry stopped laughing and shook his head. "No comment."
But his eyes were still laughing.
Jasmine spoke then. "Isn't it hard to have an Alpha wolf? Like, wouldn't it scare away the boys?"
I had never thought of that.
None of the guys I knew ever seemed to have a problem with it.
Mrs. Henderson came into the class late today. She had a slender wolf girl follow her in.
"Ah, good morning, class." She waved us all back to our seats.
Troy returned from wherever he had been monkeying around. I noticed Liam tilt his head away as Troy sat down. I'm not sure what had happened, but it seemed that Troy had somehow annoyed Liam.
How was that even possible? I hadn't thought Liam was even capable of being annoyed.
If being irritating was a superpower, Troy had it in spades.
"This is Pearl. She is joining us from today," Mrs. Henderson introduced.
Pearl had to sit next to Maria. It was the only seat available. Poor Pearl.
Jasmine looked worriedly at the newcomer.
"Maybe we can make Troy sit with the vamp?" she whispered to me.
I shook my head. "Let's not do anything to peeve Maria unnecessarily."
Jasmine swallowed and nodded.
The moment Mrs. Henderson's lesson block was over, Maria and Pearl walked over to us.
The guys growled instinctively.
Jasmine shrank closer to me.
"Change with Pearl," Maria told me, ignoring the other wolves.
Pearl stood next to her with a blank expression. The wolves around me stiffened when they realized that Maria had Pearl under her control.
I crossed my arms.
"I don't want to sit with her," Maria pouted.
Henry looked at Pearl, then at me. I could tell he was considering his options.
I didn't want to sit next to Maria, but of all the kids in our class, I probably had the highest chance of surviving it.
"Forget it," Henry decided.
Pearl was still unnaturally frozen to the spot.
"I don't like her," Maria insisted.
"Sam, you don't have to," Henry told me.
"Somebody has to," I said.
"Yeah, but must it be you?" Henry sometimes sounded like my dad.
"You need to learn to get along with other kids, too," I wanted to tell Maria. But I didn't.
I would have—except I was well aware Maria was a vampire.
"All right, I'll sit with you. But if you misbehave, I'll change seats with Troy," I decided.
Maria looked horrified at the idea.
I couldn't help but laugh. It's not every day you see a vampire make that kind of face. Then she nodded and released Pearl.
Pearl suddenly startled and looked around.
"Wanna change seats?" I offered.
Pearl looked relieved. "Yes, sure!"
She went to grab her things so quickly that I almost thought Maria was still in control.
But apparently not. Pearl was just that relieved not to have to sit next to the vamp. Or maybe she was snatching the chance before I changed my mind.
Was I making a mistake? I gave Jasmine a small smile. I was probably giving up the best seat in the class right now.
"I can still copy your homework, right?" she asked me.
I laughed at that. "Yeah, sure."
Maria frowned when I dumped my things at my new table.
"You are so messy," she complained.
I shrugged. "I'll keep my mess on my side."
Maria decided she would have to live with that and looked back to the front of the class.
She often did this—just staring ahead with a blank, doll-like expression. It added to her creepiness, but I was used to it and didn't mind.
I reinforced the mental barriers around my mind. Maybe I could turn this into an extra training exercise.
Thus, I discovered the first useful thing about sitting next to a vampire: mental training exercises.