Chapter 4

THURSDAY

"Marshall, what are you doing out of class!"

I winced at Coach Retainer's cutthroat voice. I was hoping I wouldn't have to run into her at all today, but unfortunately, the Moon Goddess decided I had to suffer with her presence. The short and stout woman stormed up to me, her hands on her hips, and gave me the nastiest expression she could muster.

"I was handing in the attendance," I told her, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"What attendance?" she barked.

"The attendance sheet. That every class has to hand in to the front office at the beginning of class."

She frowned. "Don't get smartass with me, young man! Are you using this as an excuse to skip class? If you are skipping class, at least be good at doing it!"

"I'm not skipping class. You can confirm that with my teacher. Have a good day, Coach Rodriguez."

"Wait! Come back! I'm not finished with you yet!" I rounded the corner before she could say anything further, and shook my head. The best way to deal with her jabbing was to just ignore her and walk away. Coach Reticulum left you alone once she lost your attention.

I sent a text to Liam, expressing my frustration.

Ran into Coach Refrigerator. I don't think I can survive this period.

A few moments later, he responded.

You're going to have to, I brought cookie cubes.

That immediately got my attention. Liam's baking was one of the best-testing things in the world, alongside hooved animals and waffles. His cookie cubes were especially delicious - they were soft, tender squares of cookies, prepared by baking cookie dough like a cake instead of flattening them out on a tray. On special occasions, or sometimes on random days, he'd bring some of his baking projects to school to share with everyone around him.

See, this was just one of the many thoughtful things Liam did for people around him. He genuinely enjoyed putting a smile on other's faces, and he did so by helping everyone out without expecting anything in return.

How could he be any more perfect?

How many? I asked him eagerly.

Enough. So don't die on me yet or else I'll have to eat them all by MYSELF.

I gasped. It would be cruel of me to force poor, little Liam to eat all those cookies he worked so hard to bake alone.

I live for your baking, I assured him. I'll be there to eat them, I promise.

My mood brightened considerably at the thought of food. All throughout the first, second, and third period, all I could think about was getting my hands on those cookies.

"Food," my stomach croaked weakly by the time third period rolled around.

"Shh!" I hissed, but my stomach ignored me and started to spasm loudly, causing a couple heads to swivel my way.

As soon as the bell rang, I had already dipped out of class, and was heading towards the cafeteria to where Liam was waiting for me. The smell of cookies wafted through my nose, torturing me. So close, yet so far.

I pushed through the cafeteria doors and followed the smell to where Liam was waiting.

"Cookies!" My mouth watered at the sight of them. The batches lay in their containers, untouched in all their glory. I almost cried just looking at them.

"Feel free to take some. I'm also handing some out to my friends, so if you want to, you can also invite some of yours. There's a lot."

Justin, Daniel, Riley, get to the cafeteria, I mindlinked some of my pack members. There's food. I could hear them howl in excitement in my mind. They were as much the foodies as I was.

"These are just incredible," I said, my mouth full of cookie crumbs.

"Wow, you're really hungry," Liam remarked, looking at the several now-empty containers. "You just ate a whole batch!"

"I'm a wolf. I can't help but be hungry all the time."

"Gee, I honestly thought I packed way too much. Next time, I'll remember to bring an extra batch just for you."

"So, anything new happening?" I asked him. "Anything with the science project."

"No," he sighed. "We haven't gotten together yet. Tomorrow, though, we're going to have a work period in class."

"Don't let Marcus get to you, okay?"

"I won't."

"If you start to feel upset, just mindlink me. I'll always be listening to you, okay? We can...sing songs, or talk about life, or exchange stupid memes like we always do."

Is that allowed? Liam mindlinked me, giggling.

"One day, I'll be the Alpha, and I will officially declare Meme Day to be a pack holiday. So yes, we shall engage in the exchange of memes, if you so desire."

Just then, Justin skidded into the cafeteria, panting.

"Sorry, I was stuck with Coach Rat," my future Beta exclaimed. "I came as soon as I could, though. Any left for me?"

-

"You've really outdone yourself this time," he said, taking a look at the helicopter that fluttered down onto the pad. "Chauffeuring me to Toronto was one thing, but taking a helicopter? That's the next level."

"I didn't want to get stuck in traffic," I shrugged. "Traffic can get pretty busy at this hour. If we got stuck, we'd only be wasting time."

"How did you get this? Wait, let me guess. Your family knows people?"

"Not this time. Private helicopter rides aren't too much of a hassle, not if you know how to get good deals on them."

"I have to pay you back for this."

"No, you don't," I reminded him firmly. "I told you, don't worry about money, it wasn't even that expensive. You deserve to be treated well. Now, climb aboard! Allons-y!"

I ushered him up the steps before he could protest any further. Stepping in, he took a cautious look around.

"Mr. Marshall, we shall be there shortly," the pilot told me.

"Thanks, Jeff. Here, Liam, let's get you buckled up."

We strapped into our seats, and Jeff gave us a quick rundown of helicopter safety and emergency protocol. A few moments later, we were taking off, and set to travel to our next nearby destination.

"That's so cool," Liam said as he admired everything below him. "Everything's starting to get really small!"

"Yeah. It's weird seeing the city from up here. Hey, you see that over there?"

I pointed at the blob of territory that made up our pack boundaries, and he nodded.

"That's our pack. Ivory Crescent."

"Whoa, it's even bigger when you look at it from this angle," he murmured.

And if all goes according to plan, you'll soon be the Luna of that territory, I thought to myself.

"Do you fly often?" Liam asked, scooting closer to me as we flew even higher off the ground. "You seem really chill, even though we're so high up."

"Oh, all the time," I told him. "I love travelling and exploring the world. Don't worry, little Fluff. I've got you. I won't let anything bad happen."

I placed an arm around his shoulders reassuringly, and he snuggled into my grip.

"You've travelled recently?" Liam asked me quietly.

"Definitely. Last year, I took a volunteer trip to Puerto Rico to help out some of the werewolf packs in the area."

"Really?" Liam gaped. "That's so cool. Did you go as a family?"

"I went by myself. I took a mini tour that year, as I also stopped off in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas."

Liam shook his head. "Your parents let you travel around the world alone? Wow. My parents won't even let me go to the city by myself."

"And they're right. You shouldn't really go on vacation yourself, it's so much better with friends and family, anyway."

Liam looked at me, interested. "So you've really been all over, then?"

"Not everywhere, no. But that's my dream one day. To take a tour around Europe, or all the Caribbean Islands, or Asia, you know?"

"That would be nice," he agreed. "Can you tell me some stories of your travels?"

For the next little while, I shared with him some of my most memorable vacation memories. The time I went to PEI, became a mosquito magnet, and had red welts covering the majority of my body. Or the time I went to Banff, Alberta, and I accidentally fell into the hot springs, where I ended up smelling like rotten eggs until I was finally able to locate a shower.

Liam listened intently, hanging onto my every word. His unease about flying seemed to disappear as he listened to my extravagant and colourful tales. Before we knew it, I could see a familiar and distinctive tower pop up in the distance.

"We're almost there," I informed him.

He carefully peered out the window. "We're in Toronto? Already? And again?"

"Yeah." I was equally impressed at how fast it took us to get to the city. Driving would've taken us at least an hour, yet here we were, in downtown Toronto, only ten minutes later.

He pressed his face up against the windows, taking a look at the tiny landscape below us.

"Seeing Toronto from up here is so cool," he said excitedly. "Look, Dylan! It's the CN Tower! And there's the aquarium just over there."

"The Scotiabank Centre's just down there," I pointed out to him.

The helicopter dropped us off on the launchpad in downtown. Conveniently, our landing spot was pretty close to our location, meaning we wouldn't have to waste time walking there. The place we were visiting had strict hours, and closed at 5:30, meaning we had a couple hours to spare.

"Thanks, Jeff!" Liam waved good-bye to our pilot. "Have a great day."

"Thanks for the lift," I nodded towards Jeff.

"Follow me," I said to him, walking on the side of the sidewalk closest to the road. We lived in Mississauga, which had its fair share of awful drivers, but the driving in Toronto was particularly bad, being a big city and all. I didn't want Liam to become a furry, roadside pancake anytime soon.

"Are we going to the ROM?"

"You'll see."

We walked for a few more minutes along Queen's Park, eventually arriving at the modern, spiky building. The Royal Ontario Museum had quite the exquisite architecture, and I was using it as inspiration for a future pack construction project.

"I was actually right! We are going to the ROM!"

"We're here to see one of the special exhibits."

We stepped into the museum. There were signs and posters everywhere, so it wasn't really much of a surprise as to what we were going to see.

"Vikings!"

"Yeah," I said, chuckling at his stunned expression.

"It's about Vikings! Scandinavian history and Norse mythology and stuff like that. How did you know I liked this topic?"

"Probably because you've binge-watched the entire 5th season of Vikings in just one sitting. And when the first Thor movie came out, you almost shifted right in the middle of the movie theatre because you were so excited."

"You remember that?" He laughed. "Wow, that was so long ago. We were what...like 10, or something?"

"I think so. Anyway, I wanted to take you to see this special exhibit. It only runs up until June, and I figured it would be a perfect place for you and me to visit."

"See, I actually know why you brought me here this time," he grinned at me triumphantly.

"Oh, do you?" I raised my eyebrows. "For what reason?"

"It's because it's Thursday. And the name Thursday comes from Thor, the Norse god of thunder."

"I knew you'd get this one."

"Why are we standing here waiting? Let's explore the wonders of historic Scandinavia!"

He tugged my arm, and we headed over one of the staff members, who buzzed us into the room.

"Alright, Mr. Mythology. You're the expert here. You're going to have to explain a lot of this to me."

His eyes lit up. "Will do! So, to begin..."

For the next couple of hours, I listened to him as he passionately explained everything to me - their communication methods, their beliefs, their armour, and their culture. A lot of misconceptions were cleared up, and I felt like I gained quite a bit of knowledge about these Norse warriors.

Maybe I should try watching some of Vikings, I thought. After all, if this made Liam happy, then it also made me happy.