Tiger's Mate

Chapter 24

•Ethan•

That morning I was walking with Katski in the halls, a silent agreement we simply fell into, very casual, as we were heading in the same direction anyway for our first dreadful class of the morning. I had my mind zoned out for the most part as I walked — already on thoughts about how I wouldn't be paying attention to any of the next hour and a half that awaited me, but that's when I suddenly realized that I was missing something. Namely, a certain werecat walking beside me.

I stopped and ended up turning back to the direction we had come from to find Katski standing in the middle of the hall, his eyes seemingly glued with curiosity at something on the medium-sized bulletin board that hung off the wall next to the window.

"Hey look at this!" Katski said, not seeming to have noticed that I was several paces ahead of him.

"What is it?" I questioned with as I walked back over to him with a flick of annoyance at whatever disruption this was, but he didn't seem to notice as the werecat gestured and pointed at at a particular flier hanging from a bright-yellow thumbtack. I followed his action and saw what had him so interested; it was a flier for basketball tryouts, later after school.

"You play?" I asked curiously, realizing now that I never found out whether he was into any sports or not.

Katski raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck with a sheepish look. "Yeah...a little, I guess. I played a lot back at my old school."

I shrugged. "Then try out." I said it like the most obvious thing, but for some reason he seemed surprised by my answer.

"You think I should?"

"Why not?" I questioned. "I'm sure you'll dominate the mortals anyway. Some of them really suck."

He laughed at my blatant disregard for the mortals, but I think Katski was only half listening at this point, most of his attention was still focused on the flier, reading it and noting the time.

4:00 PM, North Gym

When I noticed the halls becoming less full I prodded Katski's shoulder with my elbow and gave a nod in the direction of our class. "Come on, Kitty. You said yourself you can't afford to fail — not showing up on time won't help."

"Like you have any room to talk," he snorted as he followed. "Sometimes you don't even show up at all."

* * *

Oh surprise, surprise — the school day was another snooze fest.

I swear, the only thing keeping me from completely disregarding my classes were the fact that I needed to show up enough to graduate, and the reprimanding of a certain werecat.

Unless you counted that third thing, being that it was either this — human school — or education with the pack elders and their cranky old hides. Somehow, I had a feeling that I wouldn't be an easy student — definitely not the docile sit-still-and-listen type, and I wasn't sure there was an elder wolf in the pack with the patience to deal with that for a whole year. Honestly — I was doing them a favour.

I was stuck leaving my locker on my own — not that I hadn't done that since the school year started. But the werecat I had originally expected to leave with had gone and rushed off the moment class ended, having thrown me a quick wave before racing off to the locker rooms with his gym bag swinging over his shoulder. He hadn't admitted it, but I think he was excited for tryouts.

I was just going to walk home on my own — and mind you, had been fully planning on it too — until I had just so happened to pass the gym on the way to the North exit. It was the screech of shoes on the floor and the flash of bright colours that caught my attention enough for my gaze to spare a moment to glance through the glass of the door where it seemed the basketball tryouts had already begun.