Wunderhein Academy: Book 1- Awakening

“Five more minutes.” Kitten yawned as her hand crept out of the bed, making its way to her bedside table to hit the alarm Dmitri had given her. She tried curling back into her warm spot and attempt to sleep again but was interrupted by giggles.

She blinked for a moment, wondering if she had imagined it. She sat up when they started again.

She was right. Someone was giggling. A lot of someones. She turned to the window, instantly wondering if someone was peeking in. She didn’t see any faces.

She frowned and stepped out of bed before slipping into her shoes.

“Aleksei would freak if he knew I slept in my clothes last night.” She muttered, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to neaten it. She thought about re-tying it but the giggles began again.

“Forget this.” She hissed, tying her shoe-string hair band around her wrist. “Lexie’s probably not even awake yet.”

She glanced back at the window but there was still no faces peeping from it. Frowning, she opened her door as silently as possible and followed the giggles.

“If anyone is spying on me,” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m going to give them a real good kick.

She turned the corner into the courtyard and halted, surprised to find a handful of untidy kids huddled together next to her room.

Kids like her. She pulled up the top of her jersey but it slid down again, revealing her shoulder and how painfully large the clothing was for her.

“Hey what’s going on here?” She demanded. “I’m trying to sleep.”

The Meat-bags stopped what they were doing at her voice, almost jumping all at once like naughty kids caught stealing from the kitchen. When they saw her, they relaxed visibly.

“Come see what we found.” One of the taller ones, meant to keep watch from look of his stance standing on the outside of the circle. Since he had failed to see her, whatever they had found must really be interesting.

Kitten felt stuck between telling the pack of lost boys to move on, and wanting to see their secret treasure. She could almost her mother scolding her, saying curiosity killed the cat. Giving in to temptation, she took a step forward and allowed herself to be pulled into the group.

“Check it out.” A youngster practically danced in delight. “A captain.”

Kitten’s mouth dropped at the figure of Aleksei passed out on the grass. For a moment her eyes darted to her window.

“He’s a bigger pervert then Dmitri.” She hissed, clenching her fists.

“Did you say something?” One of the meat-bags glanced at her.

“Nothing.” She replied, checking the window again. This felt wrong. The window was too high for him to look through. If he wanted to watch her, then he could have done so ages ago in the bathroom.

She bent down and touched his face, noting the graffiti that had been drawn on it. Something that looked similar to a sausage and the Russian dumplings her mother used to make. His skin felt warm but hardly feverish.

“Lexie,” She began to shake him. “Lexie wake up.”

“I bought the water.” Laughter came behind her.

She turned and found another meat-bag holding a tin cup of water.

“Great.” She smiled at the boy holding the water. “Give that here. We can wash his face.”

“It’s not for his face.” The taller boy replied almost gleefully. “His going to wet himself.”

“No-ways!” Kitten shot up and held her arms out. “I can’t let you do that.”

She noted the murmur running through the meat-bags. Finally one stepped forward, reaching out to pull her up by her arm. She pulled her arm in and gave it a tug, managing to throw the meat-bag off her like Aleksei had shown her once during a training session.

“What’s so great about a dumb brawn captain?” One of the boys spat on the ground.

“Yeah, stupid brawns captains are all empty in the head anyway.”

“But he’s my Stupid Brawn Captain.” She cried, whipping out her switchblade and pointing it at the crowd. “And his not stupid. Just a jerk sometimes.”

“You’re not helping your case, you know?”

Kitten hissed, trying to think what to do. It would be so easy to just walk away and pretend she never saw all of this. But the Pack doesn’t do things like that.

She bit her lip for a moment.

“Look, let me have him.” She began. “You don’t need him. If he wakes up and sees what you did then you’ll be punished. Give him to me and I’ll take the blame.”

The meat-bags began to talk amongst each other. Some glanced at her as if she were crazy. She kept her eye on them, taking in their un-kept appearance. For a moment, she lowered her weapon.

“You ….guys aren’t teamed up meat-bags are you?”

One of the kids looked to the ground, digging his foot in the soil almost as if he was ashamed.

“We get around alright.” The eldest snapped at her.

She didn’t believe him. She recognized the desperate look hanging around them all. She swallowed, recalling what it was like being un-wanted until the pack took her in.

“Look,” She tried again softly. “How about a trade? I have some cookies I can give you for him.”

“Cookies?” The word caught the boys interest.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “And I have a spare uniform. It’s too small for me but I could throw it in.”

“New uniform.” A whisper hit the air. She didn’t miss how the boys’ eyes lit up as if Christmas was coming earlier.

“Why would you do that?” The elder meat-bag frowned. “No one’s interested in us.”

“Because I’m no-one.” Kitten shrugged. “What do you say? Do we have a deal?”

“Please.” One of the boys pulled on the eldest arm. “Please, please, please.”

The eldest looked tempted. Kitten bit her lip hard enough that she tasted blood, hoping that he would agree. Finally he nodded. “Fine, you can have him.”

Kitten almost kissed him. Instead she smiled widely, slipping her blade away before turning back to Aleksei.

“Come on.” She bent down, pulling his one arm over her shoulders and toppled over with Aleksei falling on her. She rubbed her head, wincing after banging it against the wall. “Wow, your heavy.”

She heard a sigh before her captains weight vanished from her legs.

“If you need help, just ruddy ask for it.” One of the boys grabbed her hand and pulled her up violently to her feet.

It took her a moment to regain her focus. Two of the boys had Aleksei hauled up between them by his arms, his feet dangling oddly on the ground.

“Where do you want him?”

Kitten jumped at the question. She hadn’t thought of that. She didn’t know where the boys dorm was although she knew it was close to her room. Boris had told her that much once.

“My room.” The words tumbled without her thinking. “Then I can give you the stuff I promised.”

The eldest of the group nodded. She almost skipped as she led them to her room, and pulled out her key. Her eyes widened for a moment. “Flip, I forgot to lock my door.”

“Did you say something?”

“Nothing.” She lied, pretending to unlock the door.

“Hurry up.” The bigger teen holding Aleksei up grumbled. “This jerk’s heavy.”

“Agreed.” She smiled, pushing her door open and stepping to one side. “Put him on my bed.”

The two went inside with their unconscious baggage, throwing him down on her hard cot non-too-gently.

Aleksei didn’t even flinch. For a moment, Kitten stopped breathing. A tug on her sleeve pulled her attention.

“Cookie?”

Kitten looked down at the youngster at her side. She hesitated before breaking into a smile and patting the child’s head. “Sure. Let me go get it.”

She went into her room, trying to wiggle in the space made smaller by the two meat-bags watching her. She got on her knees by her trunk, digging out the promised treats. With it, she pulled out her spare pants, two shirts before adding her hairbrush, soap and toothpaste.

She stood up and handed the items to the leader of the small group.

“We don’t need that.” He straightened when he saw the extra items. “We don’t take hand-outs.”

“It’s not a hand-out.” She held it out towards him carefully. “It’s a gift.”

“Gift?” His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“So we can be friends.” Her words seemed to have surprised him. He glanced at his comrade for a moment before looking back at her.

“I remember how lonely I was when I didn’t have a team.” She continued. “You shouldn’t feel like that.”

“That’s the rules.” Came a hiss. “You’re nothing until you have your cuts.”

“So, I don’t have my cuts.” She pointed out. “That makes us equal doesn’t it?”

The boys looked at her before slowly taking the items. She beamed at them, this time giving in and stepping forward to wrap her arms around the tallest. She hadn’t even realized she had been crying until he patted her back. “Hey it’s ok. He’s just sleeping is all.”

“If you need us, follow the star marker.” The other teen informed her.

She nodded dumbly. The boys smiled at her, nodding once in thanks before slipping past her to leave, closing the door behind them.

Kitten sank to the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees, hiding her face as she wept silently. Outside the school bell rang, indicating the world outside was still in its usual rotation.

“Hey hurry up we’re going to be late for class.” The boy yelling beyond her door startling her for a moment.

“Don’t worry.” She told the passed out body on her bed. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s not like they’ll miss me in class anyway. But I guess I should probably still study right?” She sniffed, wiping her nose with her sleeve before trying to smile. “Or you’ll get mad at me.”

She crawled to her school bag to pull out a book then sat down again, flipping through the pages. “The other guys will be here soon. Boris will notice I’m gone. You’ll be fine. You’ll see, you’ll be…”

She gulped before clutching the book.

“Please be fine.” She whispered. “My mother wasn’t fine. She died like this. Staying in bed then not waking up. But you’ll wake up right? You’re the wolf. You have to wake up.”

Aleksei didn’t respond.

“I know a nursery rhyme about wolves that my mother taught me.” Kitten began to sing softly. “Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Don’t lie too close to the edge of the bed.

Or the little Grey Wolf will come

And grab you by the flank,

Drag you into the woods

Underneath the willow Root.”

Her stomach growled interrupting her song. She halted to rub it. “Maybe I shouldn’t have given away all those cookies.”

Aleksei responded with an odd growl. She looked at him in delight.

“You better wake up Lexie, or I’m tearing up all those books in the library.” She relaxed comfortably against the wall of her room. “I’ll tear up my school books. Especially maths. And I’ll destroy your books. I’ll bend the pages.”

She giggled before turning to look at the book in her hand. “Stupid books.”