15. PE

ASTRID

“What is she still doing here?”

“Isn’t she supposed to be expelled by now!?”

I heard whispers as I stepped into the field for physical education.

My eyes locked with Adriana and I knew that she’d come for me but I wasn’t worried as I would previously.

Why? Because I wasn’t pregnant and it was the best feeling ever. It would have been torture to me to find out that I was pregnant and worse the baby daddy doesn’t care for me and he only got with me because of a bet.

“What are you doing here?” Adriana asked. “You should be out of the school by now Peggie!”

“What are you doing here?” Anna asked.

“I’m supposed to be here, I guess,” I replied, surprised by my response.

Adriana scoffed. “Excuse me? What do you mean by that? You can’t be here, you have to leave. You were pregnant!”

“I’m not,” I replied calmly.

“What?” Anna scoffed.

The other students came around once again, curious to listen and see what was happening.

“And what do you all think you are doing? It’s P.E, come back to your position!” The PE teacher shouted and everyone else but Adriana and Anna remained.

“Adriana! Anna!” The PE teacher called.

“This isn’t over, okay? I promise you.” Adriana said before going back to her position.

“Astrid, will you join the line?” The PE teacher said rhetorically to me and I went to stand beside Noah whom I hadn’t spoken to today and somehow it felt like he was avoiding me.

I decided not to conclude and speak to him again. “Hi.”

He tilted his head to look at me briefly before looking away and that felt weird.

Did I do something wrong? Why was he avoiding me? I couldn’t help but wonder.

“I’m going to pair you all in groups. And no you don’t get to choose your partner. We are going to do some fun activities today.” The PE teacher announced and everyone cheered.

“This fun activity is to help with your physical strengths even if you aren’t in your wolf form. It will also help you build stamina and agility. That’s why I will pair you all how I deem fit and you cannot request a change of partner, is that clear?” He announced.

“Do we get any marks for this?” Someone asked.

“To make it fun and to make sure everyone engages well, I will give out marks to the best six students,” he announced, making everyone excited and motivated for the activity.

“I will start by calling the names and their partners to make sure to listen. Damien and Astrid,” he called and my jaw dropped.

What? Did he just call my name when Damien or I heard incorrectly?

I expected Damien to speak up and refuse to be a partner with me but to my surprise he said nothing and that bothered me heavily.

“Adriana and Noah. Anna and Peter….” He continued to call the names until there were kinkore pairs.

“Does anyone have an issue with their partner?” The PE teacher asked.

“Since no one has anything to say, I will take it as everyone is fine. Alright then, locate your partners, everyone.” The PE teacher announced.

Adriana walked towards Noah who was standing beside me.

“Hey Noah. Seems like we are partners!” She said in a sultry tone that made me cringe.

Noah doesn’t seem moved by her attitude. He barely glanced at her and that made me smile.

“Tf? Did you just laugh?” Adriana accused me and I looked around wanting to see if she was speaking to someone else.

“I’m talking to you. Don’t act like you don’t know.” She shoved me but not hard enough for me to lose my balance.

“I fucking hate you so much! I hate seeing your face!” She shoved me again and this time it was more than earlier.

“Get lost and never…” Just as she was about to hit me again, someone held both her wrists.

I looked behind her to see Damien holding her and stopping her from hitting me which was surprising. If anyone should be doing this, I expected it to be Noah.

“Don’t,” Damien said curtly.

“Let me go. I’m just going to teach her a lesson.”

She replied.

“I don’t give a fuck. You won’t touch her and that’s final. Is that clear?” He started more firmly surprising me than I already was.

“Come on, let’s go.” Damien let go of Adrian’s hand and held mine, pulling me away from the scene.

The seconds we were away from her, I pulled my hands from his hold and I didn’t bother to appreciate it for what he did because who knows what he might do next.

He was just the same as the others and he is worse. He was looking at me as if expecting me to say something to him and I pretended not to notice his stare.

“Alright everyone I’m back.” The PE teacher said.

“For the first activity, we will be doing a sack relay race.” He said.

“A sack relay race? Is that what you call fun?” complained.

“Unless you have no zeal to be first, you don’t see the fun in it as you struggle to meet your partner so your partner can reach the finish line on time. Now imagine how exciting that is.” The PE teacher replied.

“So, come take a sack one after the other and decide between you and your partner who will start first and who will finish and you have only five minutes for that. Start!”

“You should start, I will finish,” Damien said, leaving no room for discussion and I don’t bother to say anything.

He went to get a sack for me. “You better don’t pull me down. No matter what you do best. I hate to lose and most importantly, I won't lose to him.”

I followed his eyes to see that he was staring at Noah who was staring right back at us.

The way they glared at each other was intense and I fear that this competition was about to become more than what it should be.

“Alright. The person to go first should go stand on the finish line and the person who is meant to finish should also take their position.” The PE teacher announced.

Damien stopped me just before I walked away. “I meant what I said, Astrid. Do not make me lose.”