My Friends and My Bully Chapter 02

*Anna*

I couldn’t afford to laugh at Piper, who was making a fool of herself. I didn’t want to make any trouble because I knew the Alpha group was strong. All of them had trained over the summer, and they also had growth spurts. They were taller and stronger than ever before.

Soon, there would be a tournament coming up at school. All of us would take a trip to compete to find the strongest mate for us.

Ever since I got my wolf, I had been training, preparing for the tournament. Getting faster and stronger was my number one goal. The only thing that was standing in my way was my diet. I knew that in order to be at my healthiest, I needed to cut back on some of the things I liked to eat.

Every girl that I knew of in my pack wanted to secure one of the members of the Alpha squad as their mates. Caleb, Aaron, Roman, or Declan were highly sought after. Sure, they were all conveniently attractive, but I wasn’t interested in them in the slightest. It wasn’t like they were interested in me either. I was as appealing to them as a blank, white wall. But I preferred being invisible to them.

Most importantly, none of the boys that were in my pack had the number one quality of what I was looking for in a mate—kindness. All of my life, I had tried to be nice to everyone I’d encountered, I would like a partner who did the same. If I had things my way, I would like my future mate to be someone who wasn’t in my pack. I wanted to end up with a werewolf from another pack entirely.

The bell rang, and everyone filed out of the class. My thoughts were still on my future mate and the upcoming tournament. I needed to hit the gym tonight to continue my training. I was planning on running at least three miles and doing my normal weight circuit.

I saw my brother over by a block of maroon lockers, but before I could say hello, he was swept away by his best friends from the Alpha Squad. He wouldn’t have answered me anyway if I did. Robert barely interacted with me at home, let alone in school.

I walked to my locker, but there was a commotion in front of it.

Piper had an underclassman pressed against my locker. The poor boy was tiny, very short and skinny for his age. He was struggling to get free of Piper’s grasp.

“Piper, let go of him!” I yelled, running up to them, not caring who was watching.

She did as I asked but turned to me with a murderous expression on her face. The boy took the opportunity to run away, his backpack flopping.

“How dare you tell me what to do?” Before I could prepare myself, Piper shoved me onto the ground. The books that I had in my hands were scattered haphazardly on the dirty tile floor.

She was standing above me with a nasty smirk on her face and her arms crossed.

“Piper, could you please just leave the underclassmen alone? I don’t care what you do to me, but just leave them alone,” I asked her, brushing myself off and trying to get to my feet.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” she answered flippantly. “How many times have I told you to stop wearing such hideous clothes, Anna?” Piper said, then pushed me down again as I was trying to get off the floor.

With tremendous effort, I managed to get up from off the ground and collected my books.

“Why do you care so much about materialistic things, Piper?” I asked her. “Life isn’t just about the newest clothes or designer shoes. I hope that one day you can learn that lesson.”

Piper’s cheeks went red, and her fits clenched by her side. Then she slapped me across the face. My head whipped to the side, and I dropped my books again, feeling blood running down the corners of my mouth. With shaking fingers, I wiped the blood away. Good thing my healing was quick enough now, otherwise Dad would call me a wimp who couldn’t fight back if he saw it.

My entire frame started to shake. I could feel my wolf wanting to take over my body and rip Piper to shreds. I wanted to let my wolf hurt her like she had hurt me. But I couldn’t let anyone know that I already had one. I didn’t want my father to find out. It was the one secret I had from him.

In the past, I had a very hard time hiding the wounds that had been inflicted while people bullied me. One day, my father saw one of my wounds and thought I had fought with someone else and couldn’t beat them. He locked me in my room without dinner because of it. I tried to convince myself that things would be better now because I had my wolf with me.

Now, more than even, my father was becoming more and more indifferent to me. He always blamed me for my mom’s death, but now that I was older, it felt like he could finally make me pay for it by ignoring me completely.

Instead of fighting Piper back, I walked out of the school with my head held high. School was over, and I went to my usual restaurant, Rita’s Diner. They had the best burgers in town.

I tried to keep a positive state of mind on the walk over. Now that I had my wolf, everything was going to be okay. I could hold on to that until I graduated, and then my life could truly start. Anything was possible when you had a positive outlook on life. I tried to remind myself that I could get through this, and everything would turn out how it was supposed to.

Feeling much better, I walked into the diner. The familiar setting was calming to me. The restaurant had red booths, a sleek, sliver counter, and an old jukebox that somehow still worked.

At the register, I ordered my usual, a plain burger. I wanted a vanilla milkshake too, but I remembered my brother’s advice. I needed to focus on training, and part of training was only eating things that fueled my body. I asked for it to go because I wanted to eat it before the gym.

While I waited for my order, a pretty blonde girl I didn’t recognize came up to the counter. She looked around my age. I wondered if she went to my school and I just hadn’t seen her around.

“Can I please have a plain hamburger?” she asked kindly to the woman who was working the register. “To go. I’m in a bit of a rush though.”

“It will take a while. Her order is being prepared first,” the cashier responded, pointing to me.

For a second, I pretended I hadn’t heard her, but something within me prevented me from doing it. She could be another bully. And I didn’t want to cause any trouble. I also wanted my burger, but she said she was in a bit of a rush, so instead of playing deaf, I just mumbled that the other girl could have mine.