Page 84 of Home: Posy 5

"Almost," I giggled, and Tyler chuckled.

Then Mason stuck his head in my open door, checked my seat belt, and dropped a kiss on my cheek.

"Good morning, Peri," he said in his solemn, serious business voice. "Take care of her, Tyler."

"Absolutely, alpha."

"Bye, Mason," I told him when he looked at me. "Have a good day at work."

"Thanks, little flower." His gray eyes softened as he stroked his thumb down my cheek. "See you this afternoon, baby."

Then he stood and closed my door, and I waved at my mates with a big grin as Tyler put the car in gear and away we went.

#

School was fun!

While everyone else was griping about summer ending and moaning about how stupid school was, I was soaking it all in and having the time of my life!

True, I'd been plenty nervous, especially seeing so many people in the hallways at once, but I had pack members with me constantly. Like an honor guard, Tyler and Peri walked me to math for first period and waited until Crew's little brother, Grey, showed up, then left me in his charge to go to their classes. Of course, once Thoreau arrived, he declared he and Spring would be my guard and Grey could "take the day off."

Grey shrugged and flopped in a chair, laid his head on his desk and went to sleep.

My jaw dropped.

How could you sleep in school? Was that even legal?

I suppose it must be,I thought,since the teacher isn't saying anything.

I didn't know how he stayed asleep with Thoreau in the room, though. The teacher, Mrs. Greenwood, did something called an icebreaker for us to get to know each other. She had a big cowboy hat with slips of paper in it. We passed it around as she played music and when she paused the song, whoever was holding the hat had to pull out a paper and answer whatever it asked.

Thoreau's answers cracked everyone up, even Mrs. Greenwood. In fact, after his first two responses, she seemed to make sure the hat stopped with him more than anyone - and none of us minded because he was so entertaining.

One of his questions was, "What would you do if you went home and found a penguin in your freezer?" and his answer was, "Let it out."

Another question was, "If you could eat anything safely, what would it be?" and he said, "Glow sticks!"

"Why?" asked one boy, who seemed fascinated by Thoreau. "So your shit glows in the dark?"

"No-no word!" Thoreau shouted, pointing at him, and the boy's eyes lit up with amusement. "I don't want my poopy to glow in the dark, but maybe the glow stuff would shine out of my belly. Then I wouldn't need a nightlight."

And my favorite response came when he had to answer, "Are you a night owl or an early bird?"

He sat there blinking for several seconds, and I figured he didn't understand what it was asking. Mrs. Greenwood must have realized it, too, because she hurried to explain.

"Oh, sweetie, a night owl stays up late at night, and an early bird wakes up first thing in the morning."

"Thank you. That is good to know." Thoreau nodded gravely.

"So which are you?" asked the same boy, eagerly leaning forward in anticipation.

Although I rolled my eyes at the guy, I was happy no one was teasing Thoreau or making fun of him. The other students seemed to be genuinely enjoying his innocent, lovely self.

"I am not a bird at all," Thoreau said with a frown. "I am a boy. If Iwerea bird, I think I'd be a hummerbird because I like to run everywhere and hummerbirds fly fast everywhere!"

When Mrs. Greenwood passed the hat for the last time, we all knew who she'd stop on. Well, all of us except Thoreau himself.

"Me again?" he giggled when the song stopped as soon as his hand touched the hat.

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