By the time the lunch bell rang, the Humvee and the parking lot incident had grown fangs, claws, and at least three totally made-up subplots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Gabriel and I stepped into the cafeteria, I could feel it\u2014the way conversations hushed just a fraction too long, the way eyes tracked us from table to table. Someone even tried to discreetly snap a picture of us walking in, like we were rockstars strolling into an afterparty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We grabbed our trays like it was any other day, but the moment we sat down, one of the freshman whispered loud enough for the next table over to hear, \u201cI heard the new guy tried to hit Thane and woke up in the nurse\u2019s office.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what happened,\u201d another cut in. \u201cMy cousin said he looked Thane in the eye and just\u2026 dropped. Like, fainted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, no,\u201d a third chimed in, leaning in over their pizza. \u201cHe growled at him and the guy\u2019s nose started bleeding. My brother swears he saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel had to bite down on his sandwich to keep from laughing, shoulders shaking. \u201cYou hear that?\u201d he whispered to me. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even need<\/em> to drive the Humvee in tomorrow\u2014by lunch I\u2019ll bet they\u2019d believe we came in on wolves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I smirked. \u201cLet \u2019em talk. Every good legend grows on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Halfway through lunch, I spotted the jock in question at a table in the far corner, looking like he wanted to melt into his seat. His buddies weren\u2019t teasing him, though\u2014just stealing glances at me like they\u2019d rather chew glass than cross paths again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel noticed too. \u201cHe\u2019s not gonna try anything again,\u201d he said under his breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot unless he wants an encore,\u201d I replied, letting just a hint of a growl thread the words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t long before someone from the sophomore table wandered over\u2014a kid with too much curiosity and zero filter. \u201cHey, uh\u2026 did you really make him\u2026 you know\u2026\u201d He trailed off, face reddening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel leaned forward, sunglasses still perched perfectly in place, and said with mock seriousness, \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t believe it if we told you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The kid\u2019s eyes widened, and he scurried back to his table\u2014fuel for another round of embellishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time the bell rang, I\u2019d heard at least two more versions of the story: one where I supposedly picked the guy up by the throat, and one where the Humvee had a mounted machine gun on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gabriel was still grinning when we stepped into the hallway. \u201cBest. Monday. Ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t help but agree. And from the way the hallways parted for us, I had a feeling this little ripple was going to last a long<\/em> time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By the time the lunch bell rang, the Humvee and the parking lot incident had grown fangs, claws, and at least three totally made-up subplots. As Gabriel and I stepped into the cafeteria, I could feel it\u2014the way conversations hushed just a fraction too long, the way eyes tracked us from table to table. Someone […]<\/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-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","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=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/threewerewolves.com\/firstsemester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}