The School of Wolves

Ch. 48 My Turn

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Seeing that it took a while for me to join the group, Lilac whispered in a curious and interrogating tone, "Where were you? I thought you were right behind me?"

Not wanting to tell her that Aiden pulled me aside, I tell her a small white lie. "I had to go to the bathroom."

Lilac only looks at me with worry. She has known forever that my nervous habit is having to go to the bathroom even if I don't have to. So hopefully she won't find it an odd excuse.

The instructor's loud voice finally stopped giving instructions which led to everyone paying attention very carefully. His loud voice then listed off our names from his clipboard one by one.

I focus all my attention on his face, not wanting to miss my name being called. Once hearing my name called, I walk over to the first line trying to keep my head held high. However, inside I am dreading going first.

As I stand amidst the hushed anticipation, my heart feels like it is beating faster than a hummingbird's wings. With a fervent prayer, I silently plead for the moment when Lilac's name would ring out into the air.

It would be really nice to experience the first obstacle courses with her. I know I will feel much better if she's by my side.

And then, as if the universe had heeded my whispered plea, she came waltzing over to our lineup with a confident stride. Lilac's nervousness from earlier completely changed as she approached the line-up with poise. The rest of the girls looked at her, including me, in admiration for her strong presence.

A stark contrast to my pitiful attempt to hide myself amongst the line-up of girls. I should probably look more confident and prepared like Lilac. Otherwise, I fear I may be posted on the school forum for my nervous show out on this field.

Who knows what they would write about. Being the only human born of an Alpha, is not something you hear about every day. So, I'm prone to a wide variety of gossip, not all good either.

The instructor calls us up to the yellow starting line marked on the field. With each step, my confidence started to build up.

Shedding each layer of nervousness and doubt that found its way into the pit of my stomach. I stop right at the starting line, taking a deep breath trying to steel myself for what lay ahead.

Once we are all lined up and put into our positions the Instructor shouted, "Everyone ready?"

I just nod my head with resolution while some yell a response like they're in the military.

The countdown ensued, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1!" "Bang"

The gun rang out signaling the start of the course. I bolt forward, my heart pounding with a mix of anticipation and nerves following the group of girls. I run slightly behind the group shaking my head slightly trying to stop the ringing in my ears. I shouldn't have chosen a spot so close to the gun.

As I approach the base of the building that seems to stretch up into the sky forever, I stand dumbstruck at its sheer size. There are just some footholds in it and small rocks to hold onto to climb up.

My eyes widen for a split second trying to see a path up the wall that would be the easiest to climb. There's no harness just ourselves and that scares me.

I'm not afraid of heights but I could seriously injure myself if I fall. The only thing that is helping our fall is padded mats around the base.

I look over seeing Lilac as one of the first contesters to try climbing the wall. Seeing her confidence in her ability, another girl who I notice from Aubrey's group starts climbing too. Her agility and lean but long body helps her reach towards the farther away hand hold.

Her hands reach out for the rocks with her feet following quickly. Soon others will follow so I resign myself to be the next one to climb.

I take a deep breath, summoning courage as I began to climb up. With each upward movement, I strain my muscles in exertion.

The burn of exertion echoes through my limbs but I push through the pain. My determination to not let others and myself down, keeps me going. I'm grateful for all the time I spent climbing our pack's trees this summer, so this isn't as hard as I anticipated.

As I climbed higher and higher, the world seems to fall away beneath me. I make the mistake of taking a quick glance downward. My head spins as I get slightly dizzy seeing the ground blur into shapes.

I try to shake it off by taking a deep breath, but it doesn't help my mind to wander and picture me falling down in slow motion. I keep my focus fixed firmly in front of me, to look for the next rock to hold onto.

My legs and arms start to shake and after what feels like an eternity, I reach the pinnacle of the wall. With a final burst of energy, I pull myself over the edge, collapsing onto the concrete slab. I sigh in relief as a stretch of concrete allows me to rest my limbs.

Not wanting to waste any second, I look up seeing Lilac at the edge of the concrete floor. I get up from my position and cautiously walk over to her. Once at her side, I see just what was making her stall. There are only five ropes that are tied into the concrete as it drops straight down to the ground. Only a wall to scale down the rope is available to us if we don't want to climb down the rope.

Lilac questions, her voice wavering, "Do we have to scale down the building with just a rope?"

The girl next to us startled us as she responded, "I think so. Wait, there's no harness? Of course there isn't." Her voice became angry as a string of profanities shouted from her mouth.

I just looked at Lilac not knowing what to think about it all. It must be pretty bad if the girl next to us swears out of frustration. Just then, the soft sound of a bell chimes in front of us and a blue image with instructions shows up.

This must be the working of the Wizard. Lilac and I share a look of excitement before reading it.

"Wow, I have never seen magic being used like this before. But it gives us good instructions on how to scale down the wall with the rope," Lilac said, surprised that we would even be given pointers.

Just then the sound of the other girls climbing over the wall sped up our process of completing this first obstacle. "I don't know about you guys but I'm not wasting a minute more," the girl said as she started her descent.

"Let's do it together," Lilac said.

Smiling, I responded, "Okay."

As I stand closer to the edge, I angle my body as I sit down so I can hold onto the rope and put my legs on the wall for support. I look around the surrounding area from my vantage point high above the obstacle course. I try to see if I can find the other obstacles that lay ahead and I see the mud and water pit.

I dreaded this one when I first saw the boys going into it. I'm glad that we get to climb first before we get wet otherwise that would be a disaster. It wouldn't be fun to run with soggy shoes.

I start the descent after first wrapping the rope around my waist in a loose knot before holding onto the rope and sliding down until my feet are on the wall and I lean backwards. Keeping the rope in my left hand, I slowly let go of a small amount of rope each time from my right as I push off the wall.

Why girls have to go first is beyond me. They must've taken the saying 'Ladies go first' literally.

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