Page 66 of For All My Effort

“Right? It’s so confusing.”

Zeke grabbed my free hand, pulling me back toward the couch since I’d been stuck standing as I spoke with Koda. I pointed to a blanket on the other end of the couch, silently asking for it. He obliged, covering it over me and him as he sat down next to me, pulling my feet onto his lap.

“How’s the temperament of the school right now?” I asked.

“Toxic. I walk into a classroom and there’s a literal line between where the alphas and betas are sitting. The air on campus is thick with tension. And of course, there are the professors who are hoping this whole thing will lead to Braker going back to being an alpha only academy. That’s sort of why I’m calling you.”

That had me sitting up. I thought she was just calling to vent.

“I had a meeting with Chancellor Kelly today. He gave me the option to switch my classes to remote.”

“What does that mean?”

“Apparently, the professors will create physical copies of the lessons and send them home with Jen for me.”

“Ah, no offense, Koda, but that seems like a lot of work for one student.”

“Right? That’s why I can’t figure out if I should do it or not. My mates are worried for my safety on campus, but I keep thinking that if I let myself be run out of Braker, then there wasn’t a point to me attending in the first place. There was a reason I chose BA.”

“It’s just an option, right? You don’t have to go remote?”

“Yeah, just an option. Aidan recommended that I talk to you since you do classes from home.”

“I do…”

“But?”

“Honestly? I wish I could attend a real school. That I had the option. I wish that I was outwardly proving that our designation was capable of learning and sitting in a classroom just like everyone else. It’s one of the reasons that I take the classes now even though I fucking hate having homework.”

“I know. I feel the same way.”

“That being said, you aren’t much good to any movement if you end up outed as an omega and kicked from the academy because of all the alpha tension on campus.”

She groaned, the sound filled with frustration. “I know. I can’t decide. Several outlets have already tried reaching out to me for an opinion piece, but I don’t know if it’s better to tell them I’m staying at the academy or to admit the tensions are high and I’m scared. Will I get critics or sympathy?”

I knew what I wanted to say. I knew that I wanted to tell her to stay at the academy and hold her head high. To represent everyone who was a pack member that wasn’t an alpha but still able to have a life outside the home. She could’ve been the face of the designation rights movement if she wanted.

Yet, she wasn’t truly a part of the movement. In spirit, absolutely. Koda was a perfect example of wanting more than the limits of your designation and managing to achieve it. Except she wasn’t trying to break designation barriers, she simply wanted to live her life.

I tried to focus on that, on the solution she was asking for and not the one that I wanted. The problem was, I only knew bits and pieces about Koda’s life at Braker.

“How did everyone react when the news broke that you bonded into a pack?” I asked.

“Uh, the news loved it. And the betas mostly did too. A few alphas grumbled about how I would get tossed aside for an omega, and some just believed we’d eventually add an omega in anyways, so it wasn’t a big deal.”

Support. Sympathy.

I sat up straighter, my excitement at that information making me temporarily biased in my answer. I physically pulled the phone from my ear, knowing if I said anything in that moment, it would have been all about the movement and not about Koda herself.

Having a friend was new, and I was determined not to mess it up. Just like my mates put me before the omega movement, I would put Koda before it as well.

“Hello? Hannah? You still there?”

“Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking,” I told her.

“I think I want to stay. To keep going on as normal.”

“Really?”

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