Operation Payback
Today is Monday. Last night, the girls had a sleepover at my house so that we can get ready for school together. We're starting Operation Payback—phase one.
“So, tell me why are we wasting our time doing this again? We agreed that he's a worthless jerk anyways,” I ask, as Reese pulls and tugs at my hair.
“Well, reason number one, he's gotta pay for what he put you through. Number two, isn't this fun? I'm excited to do this!” answers Penny.
“And reason number three, it stops Penny from going crazy ninja on Logan and getting herself thrown into the dungeon,” adds Reese.
“I still think we're just wasting our time. No amount of work will get me noticed around school when all the other girls are so gorgeous.”
I stare at Reese in the mirror. Reese looks like a doll in her yellow gossamer sundress, a white cardigan, and a pair of bright yellow sandals. Her golden curls are in a high ponytail, tied with a white filmy ribbon.
“Genesis,” sighs Reese, turning me around to face her. “Even without all the makeup and the makeover, you're easily the prettiest girl in school.”
“Boys are always staring at you, you're just too dense to notice,” adds Penny, dabbing some color to her eyelid. Penny is rocking her new sleek hairstyle with black shorts and dark blue crop top paired with high top black sneakers and also a black leather jacket. Truly, Penny is so gorgeous, she looks like a model to me.
“Hey! I resent that,” I complain. “If you think I was already pretty why do we need to do all this then?”
“Honey, the makeover and all this is just to boost your self-confidence...plus, you finally agreed to let us dress you up. It's like having a real-life Barbie doll to play with,” replies Reese gleefully. “Oh, I can't wait to have a baby girl with River...well, not yet, but in a few more years.”
“You'll make a wonderful mother, Reese,” I smile, imagining her with babies.
“Yeah, she will. And I'll probably be the worst mother ever. I'd probably forget where I left my pup when I'm too busy playing Crashlands or something,” confesses Penny.
We start laughing at that because Penny does tend to forget things when she plays her games.
Checking my reflection in the mirror, I have to admit, I like how I look in the small purple top and a white skater skirt. The top follows the contours of my body like a glove, the V-neckline just skimming over the rise of my creamy skin, making my boobs look bigger...sort of. The skirt makes my legs look long and endless. I have a pair of white converse on. My hair is in big loose curls.
“I envy your long legs.” Reese sighs. She really has no reason to envy my anything.
“My goddess, you girls look stunning!” exclaims my mom when we get to the bottom of the stairs.
“Thanks, Lavinia,” reply Reese and Penny.
Mom hugs all three of us with tears in her eyes. I think she's thankful for my friends for getting me up and about again. Ready to get back to school again too.
We join dad and Autumn in the kitchen for breakfast. Mom has made lots of pancakes for us.
Later, Autumn joins us in Reese's car for a five-minute drive to school. I know Autumn enjoys spending time with my friends too. She's known them since she was in diapers. They're more like big sisters to her.
“I'd like to do my hair like yours too soon,” says Autumn, pulling at a lock of my hair before she jumps out of the car and disappears into the crowd.
“That's the closest to a compliment I've ever gotten from her,” I inform Penny and Reese.
“Sisters,” mumbles Penny, shaking her head. “Sometimes I'm glad I'm an only child.”
I notice we draw a lot of attention as we exit the car. I wonder if it's because they know about what happened between me and Logan, or because of our new looks.
Some students stop and stare. I hear whispers here and there. My strong werewolf hearing catches the word “Logan's mate” and “rejected” several times. I hear some guys lewd comments too. “Damn she's hot, I'd tap that.” I catch a girl's bitchy voice saying clearly, “Gosh, who gets rejected by their own mate? How pathetic and embarrassing. I'd kill myself if I were her.” Either way, I can't say that I'm enjoying it.
Remembering our mission, I hold my head up high, paste a smile on my lips and defiantly add a sway to my hips. Reese gives me a smile and a wink before her attention is taken by River who is jogging over to meet us.
“Atta girl,” whispers Penny.
I see Logan's blond head facing away from us when we get nearer to our classroom.. Penny's grip tightens around my arm. Logan is talking to Zeke and Hunter. He seems relaxed, leaning against one of the lockers. Well, at least he doesn't have his tongue down Mia's throat this time.
My wolf Ezra perks up and seems more restless the closer we get to him. I think she can't decide whether she wants him or is furious with him for treating us like trash. His delicious smell is messing with me even when I'm very determined not to feel anything towards him anymore. The mate pull is still very strong.
Zeke's wandering eyes find me and flicker up and down my body. His blue eyes darken even more when I give him a tiny smile.
I find Hunter also staring at me and I give him a bigger friendly smile. Didn't I tell you I think Hunter's a nice guy?
Logan sniffs and looks around. His eyes widen as soon as they land on me. I let my smile go slack, my eyes go cold and look away. Penny tugs at my arm and whispers something so low, but it sounds like “Phase one a success, moving on to phase two.”
Penny and I slip into our English lit classroom and take our regular seats near the middle, next to each other. The room is only half filled, and a steady stream of students are still coming in.
“Did you see how he was staring at you?” whispers Penny excitedly, bringing her chair closer to mine.
Before I could answer, the door bangs open and Logan walks in looking intently at me. Boy, he's still so good looking. It's killing me. I lean back in my chair, trying to be as far away from him and his delicious smell as possible.
He slides into his seat in front of me, facing backward, staring at me while I pretend not to notice.
Zeke takes a seat beside him, surreptitiously glancing at me from time to time.
“This should be fun,” whispers Penny, gleefully. She's having too much fun with this.
I flip my hair and turns around to face Zeke with a smile.
“Hey,” I whisper softly but loud enough to make sure that he can hear me. I smile coyly at him before lowering my eyes to Julius Caesar in front of me.
“Hi,” Zeke answers and he gives me that slow smirk that melts so many girls' panties as I peer up at him through my eyelashes. His eyes travel down the length of my legs underneath the table.
A growl beside him interrupts Zeke. The future delta straightens up and snaps his head around to look at his future alpha.
Logan is staring at us with a clenched jaw and dark eyes. His nose flares in anger. Even now he's looking hot. Well, hotter actually. I can feel Ezra's anger though as well as her attraction towards Logan and his wolf.
Well, well, well...theory tested. Steeling my resolve, I decided to ignore Logan.
A buffed looking boy enters the classroom seconds before the teacher does. I can tell from his smell that he's a human. I smile when his eyes land on me and his eyes widen comically. Then he cockily makes his way over, sitting in an empty chair on the other side of me.
“Hey,” he says, smirking. I smile flirtatiously at him once before deliberately ignoring him. I hear another growl and swallow the laughter that tries to escape my lips.
“So, how's it going?” the boy asks. I smile but keep my eyes trained on the front since the teacher has started teaching. I can see Logan clenching his jaw, his whole body is stiff. Oh I know, I'm feeling like jumping at him right now too...even after he rejected us. Sad really. Pathetic.
Not wanting to be pathetic, I focus my attention on annoying him instead.
I stretch my legs to the side, giving the human and Zeke a clear view of my long legs. The human boy doesn't disappoint, but Zeke stares straight ahead, looking flustered.
“My name's Kevin. You're Genesis, right?” He keeps trying.
“Yep, you got that right,” I mumble softly under my breath, but he must have heard me because Kevin shifts his chair closer to mine.
Logan is gripping the side of his desk tightly. So tightly, I wonder if he's going to break the table soon.
Wow, this is actually a lot of fun.
I wonder if he's even listening to a word our teacher was saying for the last fifteen minutes or so.
Then an idea strikes me. I rip a page of my notebook, making it obvious, and start writing. Then I make a show of passing the note to Penny.
The paper is ripped away from my fingers before Penny has the chance to grab it, not by our teacher, but by Logan Carrington.
He scans the note once, crumples it, then throws it on the wall. His desk scraps back noisily and his chair almost toppled over as he stands up and angrily stomps out of the room.
The whole class, including the teacher, are left staring at the door that he disappeared through.
In the note to Penny I wrote: Don't you think Zeke is hot? I think he is super hot!
When I manage to meet up with the rest of my friends during lunch, Reese is bursting with excitement. Apparently, Penny had been busy the whole morning, texting Reese about the development of our plan.
“I wish I were there,” moans Reese, as we wait in line to get our food.
“You should've seen her. I think we've created a monster,” gloats Penny.
“Remind me not to cross you, girls,” says River, laughing.
“As long as you're not hurting Reese, we're good, buddy,” Penny pats his arms playfully, but the look in her eyes warns him that she's very serious.
“I wouldn't dream of it,” he smiles dreamily into Reese's eyes.
“Those two make me sick sometimes,” quips Penny as we walk to the table with our tray of food.
“You're just jealous,” responds River.
“Wow, if looks could kill,” says Penny.
Most of the people at the popular table are staring at us...or me right now. Logan is nowhere to be seen, and Mia is giving me a deathly glare.
I choose to look the other way and ignore them.
***
“So now, all you have to do is get yourself a boyfriend,” states Penny like she's stating the weather.
“Yeah, as soon as you can tell me where to buy one at the mall,” I retort.
“Does it really matter to whom you lose your V card to?”
“Yes it does,” Reese and I answer in unison.
We are currently in Reese's car on the way to school the following day, arguing about phase 3 of our Operation Payback.
“You know what? I think we approach this one all wrong. We shouldn't rush you looking for a possible guy to lose your v-card to. That's too much pressure. Mated or not, it should be with someone special.” Reese reasons. “Revenge is not a good enough reason to lose your virginity for. It should be when you're ready.”
“I hate it when you make sense,” complains Penny. “I so want that jerkface to taste his own medicine, but I think Reese is right.” She sighs. “However, it wouldn't hurt to find you a boyfriend.”
Both Logan and Zeke didn't show up during English Lit. I feel both disappointed and relief at the same time: disappointed because some stupid part of me still want to be around him; relief because I don't have to fight the pull I have towards him whenever he's around. It's stressful, not to mention exhausting trying to fight the feeling.
Kevin, the buffed human boy, shows up though. He sits beside me like yesterday and keeps glancing at me throughout the lesson. I try to avoid looking at him and pretend to be very fascinated with Shakespeare the whole period.
He manages to catch me after the class, waiting for me by the door when I exit the classroom.
“Genesis, can I talk to you for a minute?” he asks hopefully.
“Yeah, okay...” I reply as he pulls me to the side, away from other students. I see Penny rushing out to her next class, probably thinking I'd already left.
“Would you go out with me this Friday?”
Huh? “Uh...I'm flattered that you asked, but I'm sorry, Kevin. I can't.” I hate saying no to people, but I'm not interested in him that way and it would be a kindness not to lead him on.
“What about Saturday?”
“Uh...nope.”
“Sunday?”
“No, sorry.”
“Listen, Genesis, I like you. I've liked you since the beginning of the school year, but you never looked at me.”
“Uh, okay...thank you?” What do you say to somebody who just confessed to like you when you don't share the same feeling?
“I know you like me from the way you smiled at me yesterday. You're shy, I get it.” he says, cockily.
Huh? What? “No, Kevin. I'm not shy. I just don't want to go out with you.”
“Ahhh...you're playing hard to get. That's okay. I like that. You know I won't give up that easily. I'll work hard at winning your affection, my lady.” He winks, then he walks away with a swagger and a smile like he's just won a lottery.
Wait! What? What had just happened?
I walk to my next class in a bit of a daze, still wondering what had just happened. He won't give up? What does that mean? Should I be worried?