Page 1 of Happy Birthday, Omega
1
Onhersixteenthbirthday,April Howard receives a card.
The cream-colored envelope has no postage, just her name in inky black block letters. It’s odd. Her friends have messaged her Happy Birthday and her Grandparents already called that morning. There’s no one else she expects a handwritten card from.
She turns the envelope over in her hands three times before slipping a ballpoint pen under the lip and tearing it open.
The glossy card inside has a picture of a French Bulldog wearing a party hat on the front, and a small smile tugs at her lips. The message inside is brief but special.
Happy Birthday, Omega.
April’s presentation as an Omega a few weeks ago came as a complete surprise to her Beta family. Her family tree has branches heaving with Betas and the occasional Alpha, but not a single Omega for generations. Despite their attempts to hide it, she knows they aren’t happy with the outcome. They don’t know how to help her with her developing body, or her new instinctual urges. When they think she’s not looking, she sees the shared looks of confusion tinted with dread.
April is changing. Her skinny, tom-boy appearance rapidly being replaced by classic Omega characteristics. Flared hips, big boobs, and round features all appearing in what felt like the space of a week. It annoyed her father that she needed to buy new clothes from the local second-hand shop to fit her new body, grumbling under his breath about “expensive, needy Omegas”.
She collected blankets and pillows from around the house, piling them into her small closet, and spending hours curled up in her makeshift nest. The first time she experienced the strange sensation of slick dripping into her underwear, her brother gagged at the scent and told her she was disgusting. She feels her family pulling away from her with each fresh development and she can’t stop the rapid changes, no matter how much she loathes them.
April clutches the card to her chest and scurries into her closet. This card is special. Someone out there sees and accepts her as an Omega. They acknowledge her new designation without scorn. They see her as she truly is, an Omega. Not a Beta wearing an Omega costume.
She reads the card every time she feels lost. Over time, the edges yellow and curl from daily handling.
2
Onherseventeenthbirthday,April Howard receives a card.
The last year has been hard.
Once her full Omega pheromones kicked in and she couldn’t hide her new designation any longer, she was called into the school principal’s office during second period. A stern lady with a pinched expression explained that continuing at her current school wasn’t possible, and she was now enrolled at The Omega Academy.
She’d heard rumors of other students being abruptly removed from school, mysteriously disappearing, but no one she knew personally.
“I cannot fathom what possessed you to hide your presentation. How did you expect to navigate life as an Omega on your own?” She scolded, tsking as she stared down her long nose at April with disapproval. It was nothing new. She’d grown used to a curled upper lip of disdain at home.
Every morning since that day, a sleek black car pulls up outside her suburban house and takes her to The Omega Academy. April misses her old school, classes, and even algebra. Now she sits through lectures on Omega decorum by society’s standards. She detests the history lessons where they learn about the creation of the Omega protection laws. She learns how rare Omegas are and how training them at the academy ensures docile compliance — for their own safety, naturally.
She misses her friends, all still Betas and content being teenagers. Since her dramatic exit from school, they’d stopped messaging her. At first, she’d shrugged off the rejection, and focused on her excitement at meeting other Omegas that would understand what she was going through. Yet, her first day at the academy was a cruel slap in the face. The presence of other Omegas sent her skin crawling and her teeth on edge. She later learned that Omegas are fiercely territorial and hated any competition for the strongest Alpha mate. April and her classmates coexist at the academy in a perpetual state of discontent, unable to build friendship over the yawning canyon of instinctual mistrust.
The sharp bite of loneliness dug in deeper.
Her seventeenth birthday was a bust. Even her Grandparents cut their usual birthday phone call short and without cheer. They don’t know what to say to her anymore, skirting around mentioning her Omega designation like it’s a social faux pas not acceptable to discuss in polite conversation. Instead, they spoke about the weather.
April arrives home from the academy exhausted and discouraged. The academy hadn’t taken it easy on her for her birthday. Throughout the day, she received countless criticisms, ranging from her slight lisp when speaking to the rigid movement of her hips while walking. She didn’t even realize there’s awrongway to walk.
Trudging up the stairs towards her room, she smiles for the first time that day.
Leaning up against her closed bedroom door is a familiar-looking envelope. Creamy, expensive looking stationery with thick block lettering.
Sniffling back the sting of tears, she tears open the envelope.
Happy birthday, Omega. You’re doing great.
A sob tears itself from her chest as she smiles. It’s exactly what she needs to hear. Someone out there thought she wasn’t a complete failure.
“Hey, April. You okay?”
Her younger brother’s best friend Bryce is standing at the end of the hallway with a startled look on his face. He’s a semi-permanent fixture in their house and has an air of independence and maturity unexpected in a fifteen-year-old boy. Probably because his parents are always away, leaving him to fend for himself.
In her presence, he tends to be shy, often stealing brief glimpses with his soulful, dark brown eyes, which contrast vividly with his light complexion. Bryce used to be a scrawny, prepubescent kid, but he experienced a rapid growth spurt during the past summer, causing his shoulders to broaden and fill out. April could feel his energy changing and knew it was only a matter of time before he presented as an Alpha.
