Time always goes by so fast or is it just today?

It was five minutes before our lunch break will end and I was currently on the school's rooftop, lying on the cold hard floor while staring at the sky. I can't concentrate on any of my classes ever since I found out that Ash is unfortunately my mate. Why can't the moon goddess bless me with an understanding, kind and smart mate? Am I really that bad that she destined me with a mate who hates my guts and not to mention, a class A jerk.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I'll just skip my afternoon classes and stay up here since going to class would be futile.

"Oh, what do we have here." an annoyingly familiar voice said, breaking the peaceful silence that i loved.

I didn't bother opening my eyes since I know that it's just Ash. "What are you doing here?" I asked with a bored tone.

"Lunch break is over, Lee." He said, ignoring my question before I felt him sit beside me. I quickly scooted farther from him because I don't want to feel the damn sparks that he'll also start to feel next week.

"I know and I don't care, Ash-hole. Why don't you go back inside, be a good doggy and attend your class?" I said before I opened my eyes to see him staring at me intensely. Surprised by the intensity of his stare, I quickly sat up. My hair that was not in a ponytail, hid my face from his stare.

"What happened to you this morning?" He asked softly before I felt him touch my hair.

I stood up and turned my back at him. "What the hell are you doing here, Ash?"

"Why are you ignoring me, Lee? And this morning in the parking lot, why did you surprisingly just leave and not beat me up? You usually go Jackie Chan on me when I do something to annoy you but this morning you just left and...."

"And what?" I asked, turning around to face him with a scowl on my face.

"You didn't go to the cafeteria to eat lunch," he whispered

"So?" I asked harshly, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well, everyone at our table wondered where you were since we all know that during lunch break you're always the first one to go inside the cafeteria and is also the first one on the line to get food. But today, you're surprisingly MIA."

I just stared at Ash. I don't really know what has gotten into him. Usually, we never had this kind of moment. What we always do is argue and beat each other up (well mostly it was me who was beating him up while he dodges my attacks). But now, he's really starting to creep me out with the gentleness of his voice and the way he looks at me.

"Stop staring! You are really creeping the hell out of me."

"Why are you avoiding my questions, Lee?"

"Funny you did the same thing first. Now I'll ask you for the third time, what the hell are you doing up here?" I asked angrily. This place is strictly forbidden for the students. It's even written in the handbook that if we are caught loitering here, we'll get punished.

I know I sound so hypocritical since I am also loitering up here but compared to Ash, I am flexible and can easily hide while he's a giant who can't even keep still.

I remember this one time when he followed me in one of my hiding places. It was a private property owned by a human defense attorney.

You see, every time we are in the same place we'll always end up arguing because he'll always tease me. That time is not different either. I ended up screaming my head off from annoyance and the security guard that was guarding that place heard it. When I heard the security's footsteps near our location I quickly hid inside a small broken cabinet while ash who was panicking decided to shift into his wolf and acted like a statue.

The security found him standing there stupidly and started to examine the wolf in a confused state. He was muttering to himself about not remembering seeing a giant wolf 'stuff toy' there. He was about to leave when Ash's wolf sneezed, luckily the security just ran off and did not shoot the wolf instead.

I snapped back into reality and saw Ash opening his mouth to say something but closed it again and just stared at me. I stared back at him and my heart started to beat faster which is making me uneasy and breathless. When he still didn't say anything, I scowl at him, grab my things and quickly leave him there.

▪️▪️▪️

"Hey, where have you been?" Damien asked as soon as my butt made contact with my seat.

Since Ash decided to crash my private pity party on the rooftop, I decided to just go to class. Fortunately, our teacher isn't here yet so I didn't get a harsh scolding about being late.

"Around," I answered vaguely, opening my bag to get my book and pen.

A few minutes later, Damien cleared his throat and gave me a paper. I frowned at him and read what's written on the paper.

'You know, if you'll continue acting like this people will start to notice.'

I look at him but he's not looking at me so I wrote, 'What do you mean people will notice? and why do we have to talk like this? you know how I hate writing.'

I gave the paper to him and he quickly read it. I averted my gaze to the front like what he did when I was reading the paper then minutes later the paper is given back to me again.

'You don't want any of our pack mates to hear our conversation now, do you? Anyway, you're really acting strange that even your best friends asked me what we talked about this morning---'

"Good afternoon class"

I quickly hid the paper and put it in my pocket. As much as I would like to finish reading what's written on the paper, I hate to be embarrassed and scolded by the teacher that hates my guts. He doesn't like it when a student does something that isn't class-related when he's in the room, it's written as a house rule in his precious notebook. So he makes it his mission to embarrass and scold the hell out of the student who will defy his rule.

"Miss Smitch?"

"Yes?" I said but more like squeaked, surprised that he called me.

Damien chuckled but quickly sobered up when the teacher sent him a glare.

"Coach Hastings wants you to go to his office ASAP." He said gruffly

"Oh, okay." I smiled and quickly gathered my things, happy that I have an excuse to leave this class.

"Can I tag along?" Damien whispered jokingly.

I looked at him and smirked. When Damien saw my smirk, he quickly gave me a worried look. I cleared my throat loudly and look at the teacher who was unhappily glaring at me.

"Yes?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Damien asked if he can tag along." I said to the teacher before I grab my bag, "I guess he doesn't like this class as much as I do." I whispered loud enough for my classmates to hear.

Damien choked on his saliva and quickly stuttered out an excuse while the whole class erupted in laughter.

"Ms. Smitch, out! You're causing a disruption!" He screamed at me, looking as red as an apple.

I mock saluted him and quickly went to the door. But before I opened the door, I turned to the teacher who's glaring daggers at me.

"But sir, aren't you going to greet me happy birthday and ask the whole class to sing for me? Then ask how old am I now, how many gifts I received which is nada by the way so i was hoping you'd be kind enough to give me--"

"Miss Haylee Parker Smitch!" He screamed angrily which made me stop talking. I just flashed him my sickly sweet smile instead and fluttered my eyelashes at him girlishly.

His nose flared and was about to scream but I quickly put my hand up, "Wait!"

He scowled at me and growled an angry "what?"

"Did you use a mineral oil today, sir?" I asked using the most innocent voice that I use when I ask my dad a favor or something.

"Of course I didn't. If this is some kind of a sick joke Miss Smitch then just go!"

"But sir, I want to know what did you use and put on top of your head because your hairless head is so shiny... it's blinding me." I pouted my lower lip and quickly left the classroom when i felt his rage multiplied.

I know what I did was mean and just plain rude but what he did to me before was worse. He hates all the athletes of the school and made it a mission to make our lives a living hell. He believes that a student should just focus on their sole purpose in going to school which is to just sit in a classroom all day and listen to whatever the teacher teaches instead of doing any extra-curricular activities and joining the school's varsity team. He also hated us more when his project proposal was rejected because the principal told him that he'd rather spend the extra money the school has on the school's varsity teams.

"Kiddo."

I stopped walking and turned around to see my brother with his current fling.

"Yep?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you eat lunch already? I didn't see you in the caf during lunch."

"My stomach was aching so I went upstairs to rest and didn't notice the time." I lied,

"Don't worry, I put some food in your locker." He said, smiling genuinely.

"Thank you, bro." I said, giving him a grateful smile.

"No worries, kiddo. Someone has to look after my sister even if he's a mister." he joked, winking at me.

I stuck my tongue out and turned to head to my locker deciding to stop there and grab my lunch before going to the coach's office.

"You better not be skipping your class, Kiddo. Mom will give you a girly make-over if you do, don't forget that." He shouted after me.

I just gave him the bird and continued walking.

It's not really a surprise if my mom will receive a call from my teacher about me skipping a certain class so when she had the 9th call, she told or more like threatened me that if she'll receive another call about me skipping, she'll do me a girly makeover.

My best friends were there when she told me that and because it's Tyler and Cole, they quoted my mom and posted it on their Facebook accounts, which leads to everyone in the pack knowing.

Ash teased me about it for almost a week and my best friends never got over it, while my mom would always tell me to try skipping another class not in a threatening way but more like she's encouraging me to do so.

I reached my locker and opened it to see a paper bag with our school cafeteria's logo in it. I grabbed and opened it to see a can of coke, an apple, and our caf's infamous pack lunch that always contained a small serving of spaghetti, a slice of pizza, and some type of dessert that I still don't have any idea what is. They'll always change the dessert every day so the students will have something to look forward to instead of the usual.

I sent a huge thank you up above and put a mental note to kiss my brother on the cheek later for thanks before I locked my locker and made my way to Coach's office.

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it would really mean a lot if you'll vote :* anyway, thank you so much for reading.