I'm worried about you and your poor luck sometimes, Xavier. smh

I grinned at Iris' reply to my message. I'd sent a warning out to the entire school, and I'd also posted a message in the public Pinewood Discord group that I'd seen a wolf near town.

It was pretty typical I was the one who'd ran into the animal. This was the first time I'd ever walked away from the bonfire, and I'd found myself face to face with a wolf. There had been plenty of people making out in the bushes who'd never run into anything more dangerous than nettles or Boris telling them to get out of his garden.

I typed a reply to Iris: you should be in class, before putting my phone away.

I'd moved into the library to prepare for tutoring later that day and Helmi, the librarian, didn't like it when students used their phone in an area that should be exclusively about books. The excuse that I no longer attended this school as a student wouldn't impress her—she'd still walk by with her red, glittery box and insist I put my 'technology' in it.

Usually, I'd choose to sit in the computer room because of these strict rules (it'd also been Helmi who insisted the computers were elsewhere and not near her library). But my interest had been piqued by the legends of Pinewood's wolves which Boris had told me about.

After I arrived home yesterday, I'd started thinking about the stories I was told as a kid, and I remembered more than I thought. In the stories, the wolves were human-sized. They were intelligent, didn't behave like wolves, and went out of their way to protect people from harm. That wasn't exactly what the wolf I saw yesterday had done, but it had certainly behaved strangely. Almost like it understood what a phone was.

Obviously, I didn't believe in fairytales and wolves who protected people, but I was curious now. My second-grade teachers had read the stories from a thin black book with drawn woodlands on the cover. If it was still in the school, and had survived Mrs. Bennet's purge because it was 'dangerous material for kids and made them look for wolves', it had to be in the library.

I walked beside the rows of books, looking left and right and wondering where I'd even begin searching for this small book. I didn't know the title or the author and despite Pinewood's school being small, we had an impressive collection of books stalled out in twelve rows.

After a few moments of walking around and randomly checking books, I was ready to walk to Helmi's desk and ask if she knew. But after I'd taken exactly two steps in Helmi's direction, my phone started ringing in my pocket.

Helmi glared at me with the intensity of a thousand suns. It was a very odd look on her, given that she looked like a sweet fairy godmother. With a flushed face I waved at her to convey I was sorry and hurried out of the room to pick up. It was Iris.

"Iris, why are you calling me?" I asked. "Aren't you in class?"

I heard crackling sounds coming from my phone, indicating Iris was outside. "You've got to come outside to the field right now!" she said.

I darted a glance at the window. "But it's raining."

"That doesn't matter," Iris hissed. "You're not made of sugar, are you? Seriously, come here right now!"

Iris ended the call before I could ask for an explanation. With a deep sigh, I grabbed my coat from the rack in the hallway and put it on.

With Iris, I was always left guessing whether her 'emergencies' were truly important. Sometimes she'd call me and told me to come right now because someone was wearing a beautiful coat and she wanted me to see it (and no, sending a picture wasn't enough). Sometimes, she called and told me to come right now because she had accidentally glued her hand to a mannequin and actually needed help to escape.

I couldn't predict which type of 'emergency' this was, so I walked through the hallway toward the grass field we used for physical education and exercise.

Our teacher, Mr. Addams, didn't let us skip class even if it rained. The one time he begrudgingly admitted it wasn't possible to train was during a snowstorm of apocalyptic proportions three years ago. He still made us do wall sits and push-ups inside a classroom.

Upon walking outside, I pulled my hoodie over my head and grimaced at the drops of rain falling on my nose. From a distance, I already spotted students running laps and doing various exercises at the 'stations' Mr. Addams had set up. There was one student at the centre of the field, and my eyes immediately fell on him. He was doing one-armed pushups.

I walked closer, and I realised it was Aquila. I wasn't the only one watching him. He got many curious glances, and Janine, who was supposed to rope jump in the field next to him, gaped openly.

Iris jogged past. When we made eye contact, she shot me a meaningful look and winked. Turned out today was a category 'things you need to see' emergency.

I had a feeling Iris didn't call me here just because Aquila was doing one-armed pushups. There was... another aspect to this that made people stare at him. It seemed Aquila hadn't brought his own sports clothes. I recognised the distinctive yellow shirt and grey sweatpants from the spare clothes rack for people who'd forgotten their sports attire.

That old yellow shirt needed to get a raise. I'd never seen any piece of clothing work this hard to not rip at the seams while muscles flexed against it. I'd always thought Mr. Addams was the most in-shape man I'd ever see in my life. But that shirt hid absolutely nothing, and clearly I'd been wrong. I gulped as my eyes fell on Aquila's back and arms. Before I'd turn berry-red, I tore my eyes off of his body and focused on his face.

There was also something going on there that I hadn't seen before: a smile. For the first time since he'd arrived at Pinewood, Aquila actually seemed to enjoy himself. He finished his push-ups, and joined the others running laps on the field. Though, if I had to give an accurate description, it was more like he could run laps around all the others, literally. Aquila sprinted. Seemingly tireless, he overtook students left and right. Even Benjamin, who was pretty quick on his feet.

I'd seen enough. I would scold Iris later for making me walk outside in the rain just so I could see a muscular guy work out in a shirt that was two sizes too small for him. But, I had gotten a good idea out of it too. If Aquila reacted well to exercise, maybe I could incorporate that in tutoring. I wasn't entirely sure how to do that, but it was an idea.

From across the field, Mr. Addams loudly blew his whistle and clapped his hands. "Alright that's all for today!" he boomed. "Time to clean up! Grab everything and bring it to the shed. The faster you finish, the faster you can go inside!"

Mr. Addams's eyes fell on me. "Davis! How lovely of you to come help clean up as well!"

I grimaced as Mr. Addams gestured at me to enter the field.

Iris smirked. "Yes, Davis, come help us," she repeated.

Great, thanks a lot. I knew Mr. Addams wouldn't take no for an answer, so I trudged onto the field. I picked up the jumping ropes from the wet grass. Iris leaned down next to me and grabbed one of the orange cones.

"Did you see that?" she asked at me, nodding at Aquila who was on the other side of the field actually helping with cleaning up. Not only was he smiling, he was also being cooperative? Damn.

I turned to Iris. "Yes, I saw it. Thank you very much for making me come out here to watch him," I told her sarcastically.

"You are very welcome," Iris replied with a grin, acting like she hadn't noticed my sarcasm.

"What the hell is he doing now?" David hissed behind me to his friend, Tim. "Is he sniffing the air? What the fucking hell?"

I glanced at Aquila and saw he'd stop moving. He had straightened his back, and indeed, like David described, seemed to be sniffing the air. As if he felt he was being watched, Aquila then looked our way and continued picking up cones.

I sighed, already tired of the gossip again. "Just stop," I told David over my shoulder. "I get you don't like that he's literally running circles around you and all the others, but just leave him alone. He's not doing anything to you here, is he?"

David scowled and opened his mouth to retort, but at that exact moment Mr. Addams walked by and he shut up. Mr. Addams had a tendency to punish students by making them run around the field for a few extra laps if he caught someone swearing or saying something mean.

I took the opportunity to escape David and walk to the shed. Because the field was pretty much cleared already with so many people helping (and eager to get out of the rain), I made myself scarce after putting the jumping ropes in the shed. While all the other students poured into the locker rooms to shower, I went back to the library.

I couldn't immediately resume my search for the wolf fairytale book. It was lunchtime and Helmi's desk was empty. Actually, the entire library was deserted, and I figured it would stay that way until the break ended.

I was wrong. Seconds after I drew the conclusion I was probably going to be alone for a while, the library door slammed open. Aquila was standing at the entrance. He hadn't changed out of his tight yellow shirt that could barely contain him. Aquila made an eye sweep of the room and the moment he spotted me, it was immediately clear I was the one he'd been looking for. He marched my way and came to an abrupt halt in front of me.

"Hello Aquila, were you looking for me?" I greeted him, trying to stay friendly while he glowered at me.

The corners of Aquila's lips tugged further down. He folded his arms across his chest. "Don't help me," he said. "I don't need your help."

I blinked. "What? Does that mean you want to cancel your tutoring or...?"

Aquila looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "What, no. Of course not. I mean that you're defending me. Against your friends. I don't need your help."

"They're not my fri- Wait." I gaped at Aquila. "Weren't you on the other side of the field? I didn't realise you could hear us."

For a split second, Aquila's eyes widened, but then his eyebrows dropped back into a frown. "I was standing downwind. You would have known that sound carries if you'd had any 'formal training' in your life that actually mattered."

That was enough. I mimicked Aquila's stance and also crossed my arms. I didn't see a reason why I deserved this kind of treatment just for telling David off. "Look, I did want to help you but you're being a real asshole right now," I pointed out. "Do you want people to dislike you?"

"I don't care if you or others dislike me," Aquila grumbled. "Or what anyone here thinks of me."

It appeared Aquila had decided our conversation was over with that last remark. He walked towards me to pass me. I saw him lean my way and thought he was about to shoulder bash me to let me know he was pissed in a childish manner.

I braced myself for the impact, but it didn't come. When Aquila passed me, he did something different: he slowed and brushed his shoulder against mine. It wasn't aggressive in any way. It was more of a gentle touch of shoulder against shoulder, the way a mother may rub her nose against her child's nose.

"W-what?" I sputtered.

Aquila didn't give an explanation. He walked away and left the library through the emergency exit that lead directly outside without acknowledging what he did, or even sparing me another glance.