Chapter 5

It has been a week since we found out why the rogues kept stopping me. Uncle Nico let them go and gave them the option of joining the pack. They went to get their families and belongings and chose to join the pack. Pack life is way better than rogue life. Rogue life is so much harder. They have to watch territory lines to make sure they don’t end up on pack lands where the alpha can legally kill them for trespassing. They are treated as sub-beings who are forced to hunt or fight for food. They are not allowed to own land on a pack, but there are always neutral lands to live on. They also have to fight one another for food, living space if they can’t find a rogue commune to live in, and they have to fight for pretty much everything they can get. If they are lucky, they will have enough skills to get a job in the human towns, as long as those towns aren’t on a wolf pack’s territory. Pack life is much easier. Housing is provided, food is readily available to everyone, jobs are available on request, and there are all kinds of community-building events and wolves will go crazy if they aren’t part of a pack.

Since that day, I have gone for my runs nightly with two warriors running with me. When I got to the waterfall each night, they would stand back and just let me sit on my favorite rock and let the mist of the waterfalls land on my face. When I was done, we would all run back to the house, uninterrupted. I was thankful for having a full week of peaceful runs. Every day that we had classes, I would tell Alex and Zach to leave the arm candy alone during class and pay attention. Every time I would see either of them start to set up a prank, I would mind link him to cut it out and pay attention to the professor. After the week was over, I realized that the next week was finals week.

On Saturday morning, I walked to Micah’s room and asked, “Do you think they’re ready for finals?” Micah shrugged, “If they aren’t, it’s on them. Not you. You need to remember that.” I sighed as I sat on his bed, “I can’t help that those guys bring out the mother hen in me. They always have. It makes me nuts.” Micah laughed, “Yet you are always telling them that they need to do shit for themselves.” Now it was my turn to shrug, “I can’t help it. They act helpless all the damn time.” Micah laughed as he shook his head, “What are you going to do when you are at home and they are here? Worry constantly while you’re worrying about mom and dad too? You need to let them go and let them do their own thing. They’ll learn to pay attention when they get their first F.” I sighed, “I guess you’re right.” I could smell them outside the door, listening, so I tapped Micah’s shoulder and pointed to the door. I smiled, “Should I practice that for finals week?” Micah smiled, “Yeah. I think so.”

 Just then Alex and Zach walked in, “NO! You can’t do that to us, sis!” I put my hands on my hips and raised my eyebrows, “Why not? You two have spent the entire semester playing around. You haven’t taken any of it seriously. Why should I help you pass finals?” Alex got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around my legs, “You can’t do that to us. We didn’t know you were going to abandon us at the end of the semester. We just thought you would always be there.” I sighed, “Don’t start with the guilt trip. It’s not going to work.” As I started trying to get his arms unwrapped from my legs, I continued, “You guys should have always been working independently, instead of relying on me to help you. What the hell, Alex? How many revolutions did your arms make around my legs? Good Grief!” It felt like his arms had wrapped around my legs five times when he replied, “Only once. Come on, sis. At least help us study.” I asked, “Have you guys written your essays yet?” Both of their gazes dropped to the floor as Alex sighed, “We hate writing essays?” I shook my head, “I’m not writing your papers for you. You guys are going to have to spend the entire weekend working on them. I’m not doing it for you and I will not help you with them. I finished mine last weekend, so I have this entire weekend free to study for final exams.” Alex nodded, “I guess. But will you at least proofread them when we’re done?” I replied, “We’ll see. It depends on what I’m doing. If I can’t do it, grandma can.” They smiled and went back to their rooms.

I spent the entire day in my room, studying for my trigonometry and chemistry finals. Alex and Zach left me alone all day while they wrote their papers. Micah came in with a bowl of soup and a couple sandwiches for me after he ate lunch, “How is the studying going?” I sighed, “It’s going okay, I think. Would you like to study chemistry together?” Micah agreed, “Sure. I could stand to have my knowledge tested.” I started eating lunch and asking him questions from the chapters while he answered them. When I finished, we switched roles and he asked me questions from all the chapters, while I answered them. After we were done with that, Micah stood up, “I need to go study for my business law final.” I smiled, “Okay. See ya later.” I started practicing some of the chemistry formulas and trying to make sure I had all of them in my head for the final exams.

Grandma walked into my room at dinner time, “Hey sweetie, It’s time for supper. Do you want to take a break from studying?” I rubbed my gritty eyes, “Yeah, I think I need a break. My eyes are starting feel like they have sand in them.” Grandma walked to the bathroom and came back with a bottle of saline eye drops, “Try putting two drops of this in each eye. It should soothe them.” I sighed, “Thank you grandma. I’ll do that then I’ll be there as soon as I’m done with the drops.” I went to my mirror and put the drops in my eyes. After blinking a few times, my eyes felt much better. I walked to the dining room and took my seat at the table. I started filling my plate with fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans and a slice of homemade bread, when grandma asked, “Are you excited to almost be done with this semester?” I sighed, “I am very ready. I want to be able to get these finals out of the way. I just hope I can pass them.” Micah laughed, “Sis, you’re going to be fine. You knew all the chemistry questions like they were kindergarten questions.” I chuckled, “Trust me, I know they aren’t going to be easy. I just want to pass. That’s all I care about for now.”

Zach asked, “Will you proofread our papers tonight?” I nodded, “Sure. I will skip my run for tonight. Just print them out and leave me alone until I’m done.” Zach smiled, “I already printed them out and put them on your bed.” I laughed and shook my head, “I swear, you are an insufferable brat.” Grandma and grandpa laughed and grandpa shook his head, “You boys need to start relying on your own abilities instead of your sister’s.” I smiled, “Yeah, what he said.” Grandma laughed, “Adele, you’re too funny.” I shrugged, “I will proofread their papers, even though I’m sure they used spell and grammar check as they typed their papers.” Alex and Zach nodded their heads and Alex smiled, “Yep! We wouldn’t write a paper without it.” I suggested, “And I’m sure they didn’t choose a published paper online and change it to make it theirs.” Alex lowered his gaze, “I’ll work on mine. Don’t worry about looking at mine. I’ll start over from scratch.” Grandpa laughed, “Alex, you know that’s not a good idea.” I laughed, “He knows it is, but he didn’t think I would notice or the professor.”  Zach smiled, “It was hard to do my political science paper. We were supposed to write a paper on an amendment in the constitution. I chose the second amendment because the professor said it’s hard to write a convincing argument to persuade the reader. So, I took it as a challenge.” I laughed, “That’s pretty typical for any of us. I will look it over.”

After dinner, I grabbed a cup of coffee and went straight to my room. I sat Alex’s papers aside, knowing they aren’t original works, and started reading Zach’s political science paper first. By the time it was done, I was very impressed. I yelled, “Zach! Get in here!” He opened the door and I met him there with a huge hug, “I’m so proud of you! That political science paper is awesome. Your argument would be really hard to refute. It ‘s very convincing. I know you’ll get an A on that one.”

Alex smiled widely and puffed out his chest, “Thanks, sis. You’re the best.”