Cursed with an Alpha Soul | Werewolf Romance

Chapter II - Detention.

From the day Ella Rose Parker was born she was different. Now she did not have wings or green hair, but she did not look like anyone else in her family either. The Parker family were notorious for being blonde hair and blue eyes from as far back as their family line went. She would not realize it until she was older, but her parents and younger siblings all liked the same things. They loved drinking tea and never had a thing for coffee or soda pop. Ella felt like she could not function without one of the two in the morning. Her family loved reading and the family had an entire office filled with books they would each read twice already. Ella was never much into reading; she would rather watch the movie and never touch the novel. The Parkers like warm, sunny days. Ella was comforted by the cold, windy days.

The drastic difference made people in the community and their family question if Mrs. Parker had an affair, but anyone who truly knew her also knew she would never do that. Still, a DNA test was conducted on Ella when she was four. It proved she was her parents' child, but some continued to doubt it when the undeniable differences. Ella Rose was born with silky, chestnut brown hair that curled slightly on the ends. Her eyes were a striking green like the pine leaves all around town and a slight golden highlight throughout. Before her brother Alex was born, it wasn't too bad at home because she didn't feel that much different. But once he came into her world, her parents were ecstatic to have a child who loved to do everything they did. From that point on Ella got used to being the outsider everywhere including her own home.

The hard, freezing rain pelted against the roof of the Parker's family home. A small, simple two-story baby blue house that sat just on the outskirts on the west side of town. The entire town was surrounded by forest that stretched for a few miles before any other civilization was spotted. Everyone pretty much knew everyone here, not much went unnoticed. The house was silent, only the faint noise of a corner fan blowing was heard over the muffled rain. Ella's parents had already left for work and her brother took the bus. The Parker's were early risers, usually never asleep past seven in the morning... everyone except Ella. Deep under the comfort of her puffy white covers, Ella lay deep in sleep mumbling little nothings.

Fzzzzzzzt. Fzzzzzzt. Fzzzzzzzt. Her iPhone vibrated against her side table, dancing along the edge until the fourth buzz flung it onto the wood floor of her room. Ella gasped as she quickly rose from her bed, a sheet still flung over her face. Quickly she scrambled to remove the tangled sheet and look for her phone that had snuck under her bed, almost managing to fall out of it in the process. Rubbing the drool from the side of her face, Ella squinted to see the blurry photo of her friend Ashlin across her screen. "Hello?" she said groggy, clearing her throat and rubbing her eye.

"Hello?" Ash replied in an aggressive whisper "Please, please do not tell me that I literally just woke you up. Do you even realize what time it is? It's literally already second period and you're just now waking up." Ella's eyes grew wide as she registered what she had just heard. Checking her phone 9:38AM showed on her screen. She had already missed first period, again, and was going to miss second as well. "On my way!" Ella said as she tossed her phone onto the bed and jumped to her feet to get dressed. "I better not have to present this stupid project by myself!" Ash mumbled back before hanging up.

Being a late sleeper was a problem Ella was never able to get rid of no matter how early she woke up and how many alarms she set for herself. Ever since middle school, Ella would miss classes and have to do recovery study in order to not get a failing grade for missing too many days, no matter how good her grades were. She had tried to convince her parents to allow her to do online school, but they didn't want her to be any more of a loner than she already was. A messy bun, thrown on hoodie, jeans, and pair of vans were her go to fit when she was rushing to get out of the house in under ten minutes.

Grabbing a granola bar off the counter along with her keys she was out the door and into her small, tan, two-seater truck. Having had so much experience with being late, Ella always carried a large pack of gum and small recyclable toothbrushes that had a small bead of toothpaste already on them. It had been a while since Ella had used her own toothbrush on a school day. Missing her first two periods didn't matter too much to Ella, it was the third period that she didn't want to miss. Most of her teachers, luckily, didn't care if you missed class if you had an A in the class. Mr. Foster, Ella's third period chemistry teacher, wasn't one of those cool teachers. He had given Ella many passes but had made sure she knew that if she were late one more time, she would get detention.

Speeding down the forest back roads, Ella zoomed to school, saving herself two minutes before the next bell for third period rang. The dark sky continued to pour down on Ella as she rushed through the filled parking lot into the large building, but not without stepping into a muddy puddle, soaking up her jean bottoms. Room 218, the bell rang just as Ella's hand was placed onto the door handle of the class door. As the heavy, metal door squeaked open everyone had already been seated and glanced up to see freshly soaked Ella standing in the doorway. "Get out your papers today's presentation day!" Mr. Foster's voice rang through the classroom as he made his way to Ella. He gave her a soft smirk, as if to say, 'I knew you'd be late', and handed her an orange piece of paper.

DETENTION NOTICE! It read across the top along with the teacher's signature and Ella's student number. He would keep one himself to turn in to make sure Ella was marked on the afterschool detention attendance sheet for this evening. "B-But Mr. Foster I made it by the bell!" Ella stuttered, shivering slightly from the cold A/C hitting her soaked clothes. "Don't argue with me Ms. Parker. You know the rules. You are to be in your seat by the bell, not in my doorway." He said walking away, leaving Ella in his cloud of smoker scent. Angrily sighing, Ella crumpled the orange slip and tucked it into her pocket, making her way to her seat.

"So, tell me," A familiar voice spoke as Ella slumped back in her seat, pulling back the red soaked hoody from her head, "Are there really hot guys in this little hideaway of yours?". It was Ash who sat directly behind Ella in the back of the class. Ash and Ella became friends at the beginning of high school, two people who never seemed like they would be friends. Ash was an aspiring model who only lived in this town because her dad had a huge cooperate job he landed here. She was also the school's lesbian, stating that she cannot help all the attention. Everyone is interested in trying 'The Asian Cuisine'. Ella believed Ash first tried being her friend, thinking she could "fix" Ella from being this loner girl into a fashionista like herself. But after many failed attempts, they really connected and became good friends.

"No, I really was asleep this time." Ella replied with some of an attitude. Besides sleeping in, the one other reason Ella would be late for school would be because she was in the woods. From a young age Ella always loved the forest. From the smell to the sounds, to the feeling inside she got when she was there. Some days Ella would wake up with just enough time to get to school before first period but would take a quick detour into the woods that never was all that 'quick'. It gave her peace, made her feel as though it was an escape and somewhere she could breathe from the outside world. Never had Ella ever shown anyone this place, but Ash somewhat knew where it was from having picked Ella off the side of the road a few times around the same spot.

"At least you brought it though." Ash sighed. Brought what? Ella thought. s**t! "You forgot the project too, didn't you?" Ash sighed shaking her head. "Yeah, and I know exactly where I left it too. Right at the end of my bed" Ella groaned turning around to see Ash shaking her head. Ash didn't care much about grades, as long as she got a borderline C to pass the class, she couldn't care less. Plus, with having a close friend like Ella to pass you the answers and 'check her work' she was sitting in a pretty B- right now. Ella groaned, turning back around, glancing out the window towards the forest line just on the other side of the football field. Forgetting the project along with being late would probably grant Ella another detention slip, but it didn't bother her all too much at this point. By only listening to sections of class that told her what homework was or any valuable information, Ella would spend the rest of her period daydreaming out the window, talking or texting Ash, or getting a head start on the next assignment.

After chemistry was lunch, then human anatomy, study hour, and finally math class. All of which went by fairly quickly compared to the embarrassing third period Ella had this morning. The final bell rang, which for the lucky ones meant they were able to head home for the day. Normally Ella would meet up with Ash and talk for a bit before driving out to the woods to do some homework and making it home for dinner. But not today. Sighing, Ella took her time grabbing her belongings as everyone else rushed out of the class ignoring Ms. Spellman tried to shout reminding them of the test tomorrow. "Have a nice evening" Ella said as she passed the teacher, receiving a gentle smile back from the grey haired seventy-year-old woman.

"Ella!" A voice shouted from down the hall. "Hey, where are you going? I thought you always meet with Ash on the benches after class. It was Benjamin Klaus, Ella's boyfriend of almost a year. They had grown up knowing each other their whole lives, being best friends. Benjamin, or Ben for short, quickly grew a love for Ella, but she took quite some time to open up to the idea of dating her best friend. Almost dating for about six months, Ella is getting used to public affection with her best friend with Ben being only Ella second boyfriend in her life.

Ella pulled out the orange, crinkled slip from her pocket with a look of defeat. "Nope" she said quietly as Ben took the paper. "Mr. Foster? Damn he wasn't joking this time." Ben said with an awkward laugh that quickly faded when he saw Ella wasn't laughing either. "I was in the doorway when the bell rang, but because I wasn't 'in my seat' " Ella mocked with air quotes, "I still got detention". Ben sighed handing back the paper and wrapping his arm around Ella's shoulders as they walked, "It won't be too bad, just finish whatever homework you have left and listen to your music, and it'll be over before you know it" he said offering a comforting smile as they made their way to the auditorium where detention was being held.

"Do me a favor?" Ella asked, turning to her boyfriend while standing just outside the detention hall, "Make something up so my parents don't hear about this?" She asked. Ben quickly gave a smile and a nod "Of course, they won't know a thing" he said. "Text me when you're out." He said giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before turning and running down the hall. Ella let out a soft laugh before entering the room. Detention wasn't a set time, students had to arrive before 4pm and stay for forty-five minutes then they could leave. The auditorium was filled with the regular troublemakers and class ditchers. One of the teachers who had been assigned detention duty for the day sat on the end of the auditorium stage on their phone. A piece of paper with a pen was taped to the stage for sign in with their name and time in. Ella shuffled herself to the front and filled out one of the first lines on the paper and found herself a seat. She didn't want to be noticed, just took her time, and left.

With not much to do, already finishing her homework for the day, Ella pulled out her phone and put in an earbud deciding she would listen to some music and try to doze off until she could leave. As she began to slowly slip off to sleep, Ella felt a bump as someone sat down next to her. It was Valerie Willis. The Willis family was the richest family in the city with four kids Carlos, Valerie, Dave, and Nick. All adopted with only Valerie and Carlos being related. "Hello" Valerie sang as she kicked her feet up onto the seat in front of her. "Hi Valerie." Ella replied checking her phone, seeing that she had only five more minutes before she was able to leave, not realizing she had already been asleep for forty minutes. It felt as though she had just fallen asleep.

"How've you been? I haven't talked to you since you were at the house like a year ago." Ella knew Valerie more than just for her being the only sister of the rich Willis family. Ella previously dated Carlos when they first moved to town, before he picked up the bad-boy jock personality he has now. Carlos was Ella's first kiss, first boyfriend, and first everything. She always felt awkward around him ever since. "Uh fine, I guess." Ella shrugged, wrapping up her earbuds and tucking them into her bag.

"I just wanted to let you know that that we're having a party tomorrow night, just the usual." She shrugged, talking while she glanced around the room. "Okay, why are you telling me?" Ella asked with confusion as she stood up from her seat. Ella never goes to parties; they have never been her thing. She didn't like big crowds or the idea of alcohol and a room full of body odor. "Everyone's invited, but I didn't think you would have heard of it if I didn't tell you directly. Think of it as you're my plus one." She shrugged, glancing at Ella with a smile. "Just think about it." She said giving Ella a friendly wink before walking back over to her other brother Dave that was in the room who gave Ella a brief hello wave.

Passing back a gentle smile Ella began to talk to the front to sign out. "Parker!" The teacher shouted while Ella walked past him, managing to almost scream directly in her ear. "Yep, that's me." she said rubbing her ringing ear. "Oh, well you can go" he said before turning back to his phone. Ella simply turned and began making her way to the door, searching her pockets for her phone to call Ben and tell him she was done with detention. As Ella looked up, she didn't see that she had been walking right into a wall. Stumbling back Ella heard a deep, familiar chuckle. That wall wasn't a wall. It was Carlos who sported a freshly healing cut to his lower lip and a slightly scuffed cheek bone. No doubt in here because of another fight.

"Woah, sorry about that Parks" Carlos chuckled adjusting his sweatshirt watching as Ella got to her feet, avoiding eye contact. "It's fine" Ella said bluntly, not wanting any more conversation that required, stepping around her ex that towered a good four inches over her. Annoyed with everything that had happened today and exhausted, Ella was only glad that she was going to be heading home finally for the day. "Hey!" Ben had been waiting for Ella outside of the detention door ever since he got out of forensic science club for the day. "Not too bad right?" he asked with his usual comforting smile. Ben had experienced detention quite a few times from annoying new teachers with his lack of attention, although he always managed to get passing grades, which only frustrated the teachers further. "No, but I'm not planning on making it a regular visit." She sighed back, taking Ben's hand in her own. As simple as the gesture was, it caught Ben slightly off guard since Ella has never been one for public affection. "Why don't we stop and get some Starbucks on the way home? I'll pay." He smiled leaning in to give Ella a soft peck, taking advantage of the rare occurrence before pulling her towards the parking lot. Ella wishes that she had looked back as the door closed because just before it did her eyes locked with those familiar deep brown eyes and sported the all too familiar bad-boy smirk.

Since their complicated break up, Ella had no interest in speaking to Carlos. There was just no point, he wasn't the same person and speaking to him was like speaking to a wall. All his responses had to do with either football or whatever girl he planned to get with next. Breaking up with him wasn't easy for Ella because she had held onto hope he would soon realize that he didn't need to act differently for her, but the fame and crowd that came with being a football star made her lose interest in the small-town girl he had.