Page 15 of Little Etheldreda Riding Hood

“Look, my ex was my fiance and we just broke up not too long ago. I’m not ready for anything serious.”

“How about we take things slow, then. We can work on being friends first?”

I want to point out that the “just friends” train has long passed us. I know what every inch of his cock looks like. I know how this goes. Who knows how long I’ll be here, anyway. Maybe I’ll have to move again. Or maybe things will calm down after the wedding, and I’ll be able to go back home. Being “friends” can’t hurt. At least I hope it can’t.

I sigh. “Fine, friends.”

He smiles. “See you tomorrow, Red.”

“See you tomorrow, Zachary.”

He flinches. “You know I go by Zach.”

I smile. “I’ll call you Zach if you’ll stop calling Soojin Sue.”

He looks confused for a moment.

“Names are important,” I tell him.

He nods. “You’re right. They are. Y’all be careful getting home.” He opens the truck door for me, waits for me to get in, then slams it shut. Instead of running to his car, he stands in place until I can’t see him anymore.

Darla, bless her, doesn’t say a word.

There’s no going back to sleep for a long while after we get back home. I curl up in bed, much to the annoyance of the cats who’ve claimed it as their own, and scroll through the one social media account I still keep. I blocked Morgan and his immediate family long ago, but his upcoming wedding seems to have reached the outermost edges of my social circle. Somehow, his and Willa’s faces still manage to permeate my feed like a tenacious fungus.

A few of our old mutual friends have posted pictures of Willa and Morgan’s engagement party. Willa is glowing, of course. Her skin is flawless and every single strand of her blonde hair is perfectly styled. There isn’t a single picture where Morgan isn’t at her side, looking at her like she’s the world.

It’s hard not to compare myself to her, to not feel dumpy with my frizzy red hair and freckled cheeks. She has a degree in something, a “real” job at a bank, and now, an Alpha fiance.

Between this and Zach, all the peace I’d found this past week evaporates and reality weighs in on me. I’m just a human woman with no money to my name. I’m renting a room in a trailer and am about to be waiting tables.

Carefully, I scroll, making sure I don’t accidentally ‘like’ anything. It’s one thing to indulge my nosiness, but I won’t give them the satisfaction of knowing I’m stalking them from a distance.

After my curiosity is assuaged, I toss and turn in bed for a long time, thinking about everything that’s happened in the past few months.

How did I ever let things get this bad? How did I end up here, far from home, with barely a part-time job to my name? I’ll need something else if I’m going to get out of this rut. I need to find a job with a future, or at least something that will pay me enough to get a start on an actual future.

Maybe it’s time I go back to school and get a degree or learn a trade. I pull out my laptop and look up the college that’s about forty-five minutes away in the bigger city Black Raven County is adjacent to.

Mama got sick right after I graduated high school, so it was easy to put it off. I needed to work and help take care of her, then Morgan came around and made it seem unnecessary. What did a future Luna, the woman who would stay at home and raise her Alpha’s children, need to waste money on a degree for?

Would it be a waste now? Am I even smart enough to make it through? The group of kids I hung out with in high school were all college-bound. It always seemed like a given that I’d go. I never questioned it back then. But with every passing year that I haven’t gone, it seems more and more like an impossible dream.

This college is not the well-known state school all my friends attended, nor is it the fancy private school Willa’s parents spent a fortune on. In fact, the website looks ten years out of date. APPLY NOW! flashes in a scrolling banner across the top of the college’s website. It claims to be accredited, and I’ll have time to myself now that I’m not anyone’s future Luna.

I click on the Degrees section and scroll through what they offer. History is listed, of course, but what would I do with a degree in it? I skip down to the technical programs and find nothing that catches my eye. Their technical programs seem to be focused mostly on hospitality and beauty, which is disappointing. I’d love a program in welding or even something to make the carpentry official.I spend the next twenty minutes scrolling through all of my options, wondering if this was a dumb idea.

I’ve almost given up on the idea of going back to school at all when the very bottom listing catches my eye–Teacher Certification. Below that are the words Elementary and Secondary. Secondary has a long list of different subjects alphabetically, history among them. When I was in high school, I thought I might teach little kids one day like my mom, but secondary would mean teaching the big ones. Am I up for that? I have my doubts, but it would mean I could get a whole degree in history and have a job at the end of it.

Lord knows, Mama is probably rolling in her grave right now as I debate this. Growing up, I spent every August in her classroom helping her set up, and at least one or two Saturday afternoons every month during the school year helping her in her room. She always told me to stay away from education.

I stare at the Apply Now banner for a long while before I take a deep breath and click on it, then sit up in bed and begin working on the application.

A little over an hour later, my application is done. I stare at the last screen before hitting submit, feeling a little terrified. It’s silly. Nothing’s going to happen. You can change your mind and not go. Hell, you may not be able to get financial aid since you are applying for the spring semester this late.

My hand hovers over the mouse pad for a second longer, before I click submit. I write down the advisor’s name, Dr. Nita Morales, and email address, then take a deep breath.

Step one of twenty million toward Red’s New Life–done.

---