H.A.

10

The meeting with the professor went smoothly, it hadn't taken much coaxing for him to start the exchange procedure and file her applying papers. He assured us that he would keep in contact with the both of us and that he was exited that one of his students was going abroad. He invited us both for an afternoon latté in a nearby café but we had to decline as we were already running late and had to hurry off to Noël's house.

Her parents weren't all I'd expected. He father, or guardian, because he was actually her uncle, the shifter one, was friendly enough and Noël seemed quite close with him. Her mother however, took one glance at me, she gave me a quick once-over and dismissed me none so subtly.

Noël, seeing this took me apart as her parents turned to go into the living room and whispered in my ear apologetically.

"Sorry for my mother's behaviour, she can be quite racist sometime." I frowned at this. Her mother was married to a wolf and still she was racist? But I decided to ignore it.

Or at least try to ignore it.

Throughout the whole remainder of the afternoon, Noël's mother dropped thinly veiled (she spoke French only) insults under her breath when she though no one was listening. They were mostly about my skin colour, my body shape, my language, etc. near the end of the afternoon, her husband, a wolf, who could obviously also hear her rude comments, to my surprise, snapped at her and took her to another room where he chastised her for being rude to me, an alpha wolf. So he'd noticed... Noël was looking down at her knees her cheeks red with embarrassment and I chuckled to relieve the tension in the room.

"Soo... you didn't tell your parents I was a wolf?" I asked her curiously. She shook her head in the negative.

"I know it isn't something I should be blabbing to the world..." I nod at her answer.

"But still, your father is a wolf too..."

"He and my cousin are the only two wolves I know, he said, 'for the safety of the other wolves, even if he trusts me to keep his secret, he can't divulge any information about his kind' if I hadn't seen him and my cousin shift before my eyes, I would never even have known what they were."

"But you know so much about our kind?" another blush adorns her cheeks.

"I read a lot, my cousin and I have this game going where I guess if something is true or close to the truth and she keeps quiet, bet I know whenever she's trying to hide something from me so..." I chuckled at that, this girl really is something.

"Anyway, I have to go... thank you for the hospitality, thank your father too... and tell your mother I actually understand French." I mock-scoffed and her cheeks turned an even deeper red as she stood up to guide me to the front door. "You could have said so from the start!" she lightly shoved me in the shoulder and we both laughed before saying our goodbyes. I wouldn't see her the next day, she had taken the full shift at the hotel, then in the afternoon she'd planned something with some of her school friends, but we had arranged to meet the day after, before I left.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

"No mother, I'll be staying here in Paris for another week, I'll be home on my birthday and give you my answer like I promised but before that, I'm free to do with my life whatever I want." I replied curtly before hanging up the phone. She'd called a few minutes before, just as I got back to my hotel room and wanted to know why I had to stay longer in France. Just before, I'd been on the phone with my professor back in Baldomar to arrange for me to get leave for another week. I felt like I needed some relaxing after the last couple weeks of constant stress, and that way Noël could travel with me back to the States. I'd texted my mother right after getting off the phone with my professor and she'd called me immediately. But I'd made my decision and I told her so. I wouldn't reveal it till my actual birthday but I had made it none the less and I would stand by it and relax for the remainder of my impromptu vacation.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

Noël I knew, was panicking a little at the sudden change in her curriculum, all of the sudden she would be gone, off to the states for half a year, but at the same time I could feel her excitement whenever I was in her presence and that alone made me smile.

The day after the meeting with Noël's parents, I went back to Noël's university to make some further arrangements for her exchange. When that was done and it was still early morning, I hopped on a train and went on a city trip to Brussels, Belgium. The train ride calmed me down and I thought again of Connor O'Brian. I had not let myself think of him ever since he left but now his face came to mind as I stared at the passing scenery. What type of man was he? He was clearly attracted to me, it would be weird if he wasn't seeing as we were mates, but he was so cruel in his rejection of me, and then he tried to approach me again... and he had wanted to apologise? But he had a fiancé... and he broke up with her... but then he suddenly left... he was a mystery... I remembered the card he'd left for me, did I still have it? I had thrown it away, but then? I'd put it away in my purse? I grabbed it and rummaged through it till I found the crumpled card and flattened it on the small table. 'Please call me.' I hesitated. I tapped in his number and looked at the screen for a few minutes before throwing both my phone and the card (not before crumpling it again) back into my purse. Why should I call him? What would he expect me to say? He was the one that left. I took both back out. Smoothed the card again, tapped in the number, hesitated... no, I would not call him. I saved his number in my phone anyways, crumpled the card again and put both away again. I forced my mind to think of happier things and focused on today's destination.

Brussels.

I'd never been there and wondered what it would be like.

I thought of all the traditions the quaint little country had and felt giddy. All the typical Belgian food... chocolate, waffles, Dutch doughnuts, even French fries could have originated from the small country... after a near two hour ride I got off and a mix of smells hit my senses. I was baffled for a moment and wondered how any wolf could survive in this cramped environment. Were there even wolves in this place? After adjusting to the overwhelming jumble of scents, I let my senses guide me around the city. I stumbled upon some interesting little streets, visited the 'Museum Van Cacao en Chocolade', sighted some architectural marvels, ate some of this and that and when it was time to head back to the station to catch my train back, grabbed a sandwich from some cheap vendor in the terminal and boarded the train.

Altogether it had been a fun and relaxing day I concluded before falling asleep.

I was awoken by the voice of the guard announcing our arrival in Paris.

Hopping of the train, it was already dark, instead of going to the hotel, I made a detour to the forest I'd gone to some nights ago, and had a quick run before heading back to the hotel. It was near one in the morning when I made it back and I was surprised to find Noël at the reception. She was reading some magazine and was surprised to see me as I went up to her.

"You just came back?" she asked in astonishment and I nodded before telling her I went on a run before coming back.

"I went to Brussels on a city-trip" I told her and rummaged in my purse for a second before pulling out a small chocolate bar and handing it to her.

"You know we can buy those here in Paris too right." She stated with a straight face and I scoffed at her.

"But they wouldn't be from 'Belgium' now would they." I retorted pouting before we both burst out laughing.

Sheaccepted the chocolate and I excused myself and went upstairs. I took a shortshower and dropped dead on the bed.