Becoming Alpha

Chapter 3

Three years later

Kelly stood outside the house and tried her very best not to listen to her step mother scream and complain inside the house.

The woman had been throwing a tantrum all morning ever since her father had announced he would not take her to her doctor’s appointment because he had to drop off his daughter for her first day at a new school.

Kelly winced as she heard yet another high-pitched scream followed by a crushing sound. She wondered which poor expensive decoration had been broken this time around. If they were lucky, it would be the ugly clay elephant Stefanie insisted was classy and screamed money. In Kelly's opinion, it looked like something to be put in a horror movie to scare children.

Kelly sighed, she held little pity for her father, Stefanie was wife number four. It went without saying that her father clearly had a problem where marriage was concerned. Kelly had stopped trying to understand after the third one. That woman had been just as bad as wife number four, except she also cried, a lot.

Kelly lived by the moto, ‘so long it doesn’t kill me, I don’t care.’ She knew they weren’t the smarted words to live by, but they helped the days go by with less headache.

Kelly gave her wrist watch another glance. “Shit.” She was going to be late. Had it not been a new school in a new town she was going to be attending, she would have made her own way by now. Unfortunately, she had to stand there and wait till her father finished his negotiations with his deranged wife then take her to school.

Almost ten minutes later, the man finally emerged and gave her an apologetic smile as he walked briskly to the black Audi parked in the driveway.

Without a word Kelly jumped in and secured her seatbelt as she tried not to notice the scratch marks on her father’s arms. There goes wife number four, on to wife number five, Kelly mused to herself as she forced her eyes to focus outside the passenger window.

The school was larger than she had anticipated. It was made up of five two store large brick buildings arranged in a hexagonal fashion with footpaths connecting them all. She looked around and saw no student in sight. It was to be expected considering how late she was.

There was no way of lessening the embarrassment. Being a new school, she was forced to sit outside the principal’s office with her father and wait for the paperwork to be completed and to be shown to her classes.

Kelly wished she could blend into the wallpaper and completely disappear from sight. Her father thankfully remained silent, but it did not matter, anyone who looked their way would know he was her father. They shared the same warm brown eyes and black hair. Indeed, she was her father’s daughter, there was no denying the fact.

Suddenly the principal’s door opened and a tall slim boy walked out. He had his right hand clutched around a cloth pressed to his nose. She didn’t need to be a genius to tell, the guy had a nose bleed. She began to wonder why a nose bleed would bring the boy to the principal’s door when she heard a man’s heavy voice follow the boy out.

“If you don’t report the matter, it is difficult for me to do my job, Mr. Thomas.”

“It’s just a nose bleed, sir. Nothing serious. May I go to the nurse’s office now?” the boy responded.

Kelly could practically hear the man in the office sigh. She assumed he gestured his dismissal because in the next heartbeat Thomas walked away from the door as quickly as his legs could carry him.

A portly man appeared in the door way and showed surprise when he saw them. He quickly recovered and stretched out his hand to her father.

“Mr. Blackdeer, I was not aware you were waiting. I saw the time and thought you were probably still settling down and your daughter would not make it in today.”

Daniel Blackdeer stood and took the offered hand. “Forgive me for the delay, we had a little car trouble this morning.”

Car trouble by the name of Stefanie he meant. Kelly would have rolled her eyes but thought it best to just pretend she was part of the wallpaper and wait for the adults to complete all the formalities.

“This must be Kelly,” the principal said quietly. He stretched his hand to greet her then gestured for them to follow him into his office.

Just as they were about to sit, her father asked, “Should I be concerned for my daughter...I saw the boy with a nose bleed.”

Kelly was not going to deny she was a little curious about the story behind that nose bleed, but she could not believe her father had just gone straight out and asked the question without so much as playing it down as a casual diplomatic enquiry.

The principal looked just as shocked but suddenly smiled and shook his head and spoke in what Kelly assumed was his most reassuring voice. “Not at all, just boys being boys.”

The principal quickly jumped into the necessary paperwork and explanations as though he couldn’t wait to get rid of them from his office. Kelly couldn’t blame him, she also wanted out as fast as possible.

Twenty minutes later she was shown into her English class and had to walk into a room with all the eyes trained on her, she felt like an animal at the zoo. She took the only vacant seat which happened to be right at the front of the class and faced the teacher’s desk. She immediately understood why that seat had been vacant. No teenager would ever willingly sit in front of the teacher unless you were a teacher’s pet.

Kelly sank low into her seat and prayed for the day to end, it had not started on a good note and it appeared the theme had already been set.

By the time lunch rolled by, Kelly was sure there was some external force that had set out to ruin her day. She had lost her way to two of her classes and had had to walk in late yet again with all eyes on her. The seats had not been any improvement either.

In Biology class, she had the seat next to a faulty window that kept opening and letting in cold air throughout the lesson. Math class, the seat had been next to a boy she was not sure had bothered to take a bath in the last month or months for that matter.

Kelly wrinkled her nose just at the thought of it. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. Suddenly a voice cut through her thoughts.

“I hope you are not about to cry. Coz…I will sit with you, but I definitely don’t want to get embarrassed.”

Kelly looked up and saw a girl with long brown hair and a sympathetic look standing in front of her. She was sure she had seen the girl earlier in her English class.

Tentatively, she asked, “We had English together?”

The girl nodded and took a seat at the cafeteria table Kelly had taken. “We also had math together, but I don’t blame you for not noticing, Ben does stink, I am surprised you didn’t just pass out.”

They both burst out laughing and attracted stares from the students on the other tables. The laugh helped take some of the tension out of her body.

“Sorry, I know it’s rude, but Ben has been like that in the last first year. I think he is just too smart that he forgets to take a bath.”

“What of his parents?” Kelly asked still chuckling.

“Same thing, the whole family is made up of geniuses. I think too much intelligence…you are bound to have faults. My mother always says, ‘God can’t give you everything.’” The girl explained with a serious expression.

Kelly nodded. “I think she has a point.” Then she chuckled again before she added. “But I do wish he would still take a bath.”

They chuckled some more until the girl realized they hadn’t introduced themselves. “I’m Suzy… by the way,” she said as she stretched out her hand to Kelly.

“Kelly.”

“Oh, I know.” Suzy smiled. “I take note of everyone…it’s kind of my thing.”

Kelly was about to comment when the atmosphere in the cafeteria suddenly changed. Students fell quiet and scurried away from the food counters like prey running away from a predator.

Kelly frowned and looked around puzzled. She could feel the change in Suzy as well who became tense and sat straight in her chair. Kelly was just opening her mouth to ask what was going on, when the door to the cafeteria opened and three boys walked in.

Her eyes popped wide. The three were a sight to behold. They were all almost the same height which Kelly guessed was about six feet. They were obviously still teens, but their bodies already spoke of men in the making.

Two out of three of the boys were built with muscles and they were the tallest of the trio. The last one was slightly shorter and lean but his body was equally well built.

One of the muscled guys had long black hair and eyes the color of topaz. Kelly felt her heart rate double the moment she set her eyes on him. Suddenly it was as though she could not get enough air in her lungs and everyone else in the cafeteria disappeared.

Kelly thought she must have made a sound, because suddenly the guy turned his head and looked at her and he froze mid-step.

The next few seconds were even more confusing. The guy jerked forward and began to walk in her direction before one of his friends quickly grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear. The last friend equally moved forward and gave her a hard look before he too whispered something to the guy with topaz eyes.

With a puzzled look, Kelly watched as the trio suddenly turned as one and walked out of the cafeteria.

“What just happened?” Kelly asked in a breathless whisper.

Suzy shook her head and continued to look at the door the three boys had left by. “I have no idea,” she drawled then gave Kelly an inquisitive look.