Chapter 7 Rumour

"Arielle Starr, senior year student." The principal says, looking through my file. "You're here because you got into a fight with a group of students in the school cafeteria. The cafeteria monitor tells me that you fought with a girl you are actually friends with."

"If I may, sir, I didn't fight with her. I was just defending myself!" I protest, feeling like I have been cornered by everyone at school today. The hurt from being attacked in public by people I considered friends keeps sending spikes of pain through my body, both emotional and physical because their slaps and punches hurt a lot. Three of the people I called friends, Beth, Nessie, and Fran, ganged up on me when I got into an argument with Beth. At first, we were shouting at each other because they were accusing me of being a whore and bringing shame to all the Omegas in the pack while I tried to get out the name of the person who snitched on my pregnancy about them.

Eventually, I got it. It was a student from the school who had been volunteering at the hospital the day I was at the doctor's taking a pregnancy test. Had we been human, I think I would be able to sue the hospital for letting careless people into service, but as I was a werewolf, every complaint like this went to the Alpha, and considering the Alpha was the grandfather of the baby who was growing inside me and his son wanted nothing to do with me...I don't think I would be getting any sort of justice from either of them.

Maybe David would be mad that someone actually leaked the news, though. But I did not think I was strong enough to go to him with this.

Given how public the fight in the cafeteria was, he might know it by now.

My parents would definitely know about this. And they are going to be so mad.

"I didn't attack anyone, sir," I keep telling the principal because the most I had done was to put my hands up and curl down so no one would get my stomach. No matter what, I have to protect the baby first from now on.

"The students tell me otherwise. You're the one who provoked them, according to what I heard." The principal says, "You're the one who approached them."

"I didn't know they would attack me," I retort. "I eat lunch with them every day, so that day I was going to do the same thing. But they wouldn't let me sit and started accusing me of vile things. When I tried to ask them who snitched on me, they got aggressive, telling me that I was trying to get someone innocent in trouble to cover up for my own... activities," they used the word 'whoring around' but I can't repeat that in front of the principal! "They were the ones who started it. They were the ones who started hitting me!"

"It's the word of three students as well as half the cafeteria against you, Arielle, and everyone says that if you hadn't approached them, none of this would've happened." The principal says as if he had not heard a word said before. I could not believe it, he was supposed to take the victim's side, and I was the victim in this situation.

"Sir, I literally was not given a choice. I didn't want any of this, I just wanted to have lunch with my friends. How was I to know that they'd turned on me overnight?"

"You keep telling me that your friends had turned on you. What did you do to make it happen?"

My cheeks burn with shame at the accusation, and I want to hit him in the smug face. No one liked the principal of our high school; he was always doing the wrong thing and might possibly be misusing the funds that were directed at the school. He favoured athletes above all else, and he was very discriminatory towards Omegas. Also, he was so loyal to our Alpha that the rumour had it he had a framed photo with him and Alpha Lincon Aspen in his drawer and he looked at it adoringly every morning.

I did not want him to realize that the son of his idol had knocked me, an Omega, I'm pretty sure he was going to find a way to expel me from school and probably kick me out of the pack.

"There's a rumour, it's not real, but everyone believes it," I say, trying not to give too much out.

"What kind of rumour?"

"They think I'm pregnant because I went to the doctor yesterday. I just had a period issue!" I lie.

The principal grimaces, "I don't need to know that Miss. Starr."

Is this man for real?

"You asked me!"

"I asked you what the rumour was, god, have some decorum."

I wish Beth had hit me hard enough to knock me out, so I didn't have to go through this.

"Well, you're all in the wrong here. Fighting is not an activity for young ladies like yourself, especially Omega girls. You need to keep yourselves in check..."

I have a hard time keeping myself from rolling my eyes because of his misogynistic, Omega-discriminatory tirade. I wish David's father was not as much of a traditionalist as to keep these kinds of people in positions of power, but there's nothing we can do about it. Sometimes I wish I was human; I'm pretty sure humans don't have to go through these kinds of nonsense.

"...so, you're suspended! You will have three days to stay home and reflect on your actions here." The principals declare, and I get up from the chair as soon as possible, taking my bag with me.

"Great, thanks, can I go now?" I asked him and watched the man fume.

"I should call your parents." He mutters.

"I'm over eighteen years old, you can't call my parents." I point out the law of the pack. "So, can I go now?"

"Omegas like you are going to be the downfall of this pack," the principal mutters darkly, "try and learn some sort of decorum, young lady. You're going to need it!"

"Tell me something I don't know." Muttering to myself, I leave the principal's office, needing nothing more than to take some painkillers for my paining head.

How am I going to tell this to my parents now?