Free period again. The air outside was too nice to waste indoors \u2014 crisp, cool, and bright under a pale blue sky. I headed toward one of the quieter spots on the edge of the school grounds, a low stone wall half-hidden behind a line of pine trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wasn\u2019t surprised to see Gabriel already there. He was sitting on the wall, one foot resting on the stone, a notebook balanced on his knee. The guitar case was beside him, but closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMind if I sit?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gave a faint smile at the familiar line. \u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hopped up onto the wall beside him. For a while, we just sat there, listening to the wind push through the pines and the distant shouts from the track field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cY\u2019know,\u201d Gabriel said eventually, flipping his pencil between his fingers, \u201cyou\u2019re not like most people here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I glanced at him. \u201cThat\u2019s one way to put it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI mean it,\u201d he continued, eyes on the notebook but voice steady. \u201cYou don\u2019t\u2026 flinch. Ever. Doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s talking to you or what they\u2019re doing \u2014 you don\u2019t react like everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat a good thing or a bad thing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He thought about it, then shrugged. \u201cGood, I think. Just\u2026 different.\u201d He hesitated, then added, \u201cI guess I notice it because I\u2019ve always felt\u2026 off myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOff?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gave a humorless little laugh. \u201cYeah. Not in a \u2018I don\u2019t belong here\u2019 teen drama kind of way. More like\u2026 I don\u2019t know. Like there\u2019s something under the surface I can\u2019t explain. I\u2019ll be walking somewhere and suddenly I know who\u2019s behind me without looking. Or I\u2019ll get this\u2026 pull toward certain people. Or away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kept my expression neutral, but inside, the wolf stilled \u2014 listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou ever tell anyone that?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo. They\u2019d just say I\u2019m weird. Or paranoid.\u201d He glanced sideways at me. \u201cYou don\u2019t think it\u2019s weird?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said simply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He studied me for a moment, like he was trying to read something in my face. Whatever he saw there, it made him relax slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThanks,\u201d he said, and went back to idly sketching chords in his notebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We didn\u2019t talk much after that, but the silence felt different \u2014 not awkward, not empty. More like the kind of quiet that comes when you know someone\u2019s not judging you for the things you can\u2019t explain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Free period again. The air outside was too nice to waste indoors \u2014 crisp, cool, and bright under a pale blue sky. I headed toward one of the quieter spots on the edge of the school grounds, a low stone wall half-hidden behind a line of pine trees. I wasn\u2019t surprised to see Gabriel already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}