Page 98 of Pack: Posy 3

"Ty and Peri are dating, and Reau is obsessed with how cute they look together," I told the guidance counselor. His head tilt had reminded me of something, and I brought it up before I forgot it again. "Reau has a therapy dog. Will he be allowed to come to school, too?"

"Of course." Mr. Varner nodded. "There was a girl here last year with a service dog, and his photo was even included in the yearbook. Do you remember, Wyatt?"

"Yes. Mesia was blind," he told me, "and her dog, Freddy, was a yellow lab. Freddy attended school every single day for four years, which is way better attendance than Ash and I can claim. Of course he deserved his picture in the yearbook."

"Spring can come to school with me?" Thoreau bounced up and down in his seat. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Sure thing, buddy." Mr. Varner chuckled, then motioned to his laptop. "Instead of sculpture, you and Posy could take photography together. Landry Benson is in that class."

Who?I linked Wyatt.

Ash's gamma. You'll meet him today at your self-defense training.

Oh. Okay.

"Sounds great. Reau?" I turned to him and waited until he met my eyes. Well, kind of. He always seemed to look at my forehead instead of making eye contact. "Would you like to take photos with me and Landry?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" He clapped his hands excitedly.

"Good." Mr. Varner nodded and referred to his computer again. "Posy, you can't earn enough credits to graduate this spring since you have no recent formal schooling. Do you think you'll continue working on your diploma after this year?"

"I want to experience high school, but I'm not sure I'm smart enough to pass a single class," I admitted, dropping my eyes to my twisting fingers.

"Oh, baby, you're plenty smart." Wyatt grabbed the arm of my chair and hauled me closer, then cupped my cheeks in his palms. "We'll help you go as far in school as you want, whether that's one year of high school or getting your doctorate."

"Thank you, Wyatt," I whispered with a little smile, then looked at Mr. Varner. "I'd like to see how this year goes before I decide anything."

Mason had explained what a GED was, and how I could work on it online from home. If regular high school was too much for me to handle, I could go that route if I wanted to later. I wasn't sure a diploma was all that important for a luna of a werewolf pack, but I wanted to be more educated.

I did not want to shame my mates.

"Very well." Mr. Varner nodded. "Let's focus on real-life skills and electives, then. How about Number Sense? It's a basic class, but will teach you real-world math skills that you'd actually use. I'd suggest the same thing for Reau. There's no way to tutor him enough in a few weeks to take algebra, which is the lowest math we have after Number Sense. Um, the only thing is, no one on your list is in that class, Wyatt."

"Can I see the rosters?" Wyatt asked. "I might have missed someone I can trust."

"There's only two sections, and this is the only one that would work to have Reau in it with Posy." Mr. Varner turned his laptop around, and Wyatt's eyes skimmed down the screen.

"Oh. Crew's little brother, Grey, is in there. Neither of you have met him yet," Wyatt looked at me, then Thoreau, "but he's a great kid. He's your age, Reau, and could be Crew's twin as far as personality goes. I think that will be all right, if you two are okay with it?"

"Sounds reasonable," I said, "and Reau and I will have each other."

"Cutie, I am not leaving the two of you unsupervised. Who knows what mischief you'd get into?" Wyatt grinned down at me, and I rolled my eyes.

"What else would you be interested in, Posy?" Mr. Varner asked.

"Jayden told me what social studies meant, and I'd like to take a few of those classes. And English because I want to be able to write and speak well so I don't sound dumb."

"Baby, stop calling yourself dumb!" Wyatt groaned.

Mr. Varner asked in a gentle way if I could read and write before we went any further with planning my schedule, and I assured him I could read and knew how to physically write, but not how to do essays or papers or anything. He asked what books I'd read and, when I listed the most recent, he asked if I understood them. We had a good conversation aboutTo Kill a Mockingbird, and he nodded, satisfied that I could read well enough to do the work for social studies, even though I'd admitted there were some words I didn't know in the book.

"As far as writing, how about Introduction to Academic Writing?" Mrs. Terrell suggested. "That class focuses on grammar and how to compose essays, which helps improve how you organize your thoughts. You also present your essays to the class, so it helps with public speaking."

I said yes, then Mr. Varner listed off social studies classes that worked in the puzzle of schedules he was juggling. I chose Survey of World History, which I'd have with Tyler, and Geography, which I'd have with Peri.

"Now, for your other two classes, you could do home economics with Peri, keyboarding with Tyler, or, um, well, are you interested in weightlifting with Landry?"

"No, thank you, sir." I smiled a little. "What is keyboarding?"

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