Wendy was having a nice nap, when she heard books slam on the table she was 'reading' at. She looked up feeling a bit irritated.

She gave Sehun a look of disinterest, and made as if to should her backpack to show she was leaving.

"You shouldn't be sleeping," he said.

"I'm not."

Sehun smirked and sat across from her. He glanced to either side of them and leaned in closer. "I know who you are, furry."

Wendy did not give him the pleasure of a response so she left him there without another word.

"How was school?" Tiffany called when Wendy returned home that afternoon.

"Stupid."

"Excuse me?"

"School is stupid." Wendy replied and wnet to the fridge to get a can of soda for herself. Sehun was stupid and ing annoying. He was always an to her, and so she tried not to worry abou what he meant by what he said.

Furthermore, she didn't want to cause Tiffany to worry about their safety.

It would cause so much trouble to withdraw themselves from this city and move elsewhere.

And what about money?

Tiffany would have to find a job again, and it wasn't easy finding work much less a new place to live.

Sehun's just ing around, Wendy tried to convince herself. He knows nothing...

But she could not deny that Sehun carried the similar scent of shifters. Either he was hanging aroudn with other shifters, which she doubted was any benevolent hang out, or he was one of them.

She would opt for the former but there was no one in school aside from herself who was a shifter. And Wendy made sure to cover up any signs of who she is.

--

Irene squinted as the bright sunlight shone down on her and her club members. Since it was nearing the holidays, charities and foundations were opening up to help less than fortunate families and individuals. Of course, because she had to be the perfect student and daughter, she was the president. 

And Sehun was the vice president.

Absolutely perfect story in the eyes of everyone who looked up to her.

Today, they were going to help a non-profit give some extra generous food rations to the poor families, who would exchange them with food stamps. In addition, families would get some baked goods that her club made for today.

There was a lot of people.

And Irene had never been to the slums of town before. It was a little scary at first. It looked like one of those sketchy downtowns in the movies. The only thing that made her feel better was the familiarity of her club members and the parents that were there to keep watch on them. Plus, the non-profit people were pretty friendly and knew their way around.

It was also at this moment, that Irene took amoment to think that she was very lucky - too lucky. Her life was good and comfortable.

She could never imagine living on borderline homelessness.

The way she and her club members were dressed made it evident that they did not belong here at all.

A few hours went by, and there was a lull of people so everyone decided to take a quick water break. It seemed everyone wanted to be early since it was a first come first serve thing. There was still enough for a good number of families left.

As she sat down on an overturned basket, she thought she saw someone familiar coming out of a shop with a grocery bag in tow. The way she walked, her clothes, her silhouette - the only thing different was the cap concealing her face.

Wendy would never have imagined she would see Irene's pretty face here in the slums. If anything, she shouldn't be here - and Sehun shouldn't either. The last thing she wanted was for them to know where she lived, even if it wasn't the exact address.

She pulled the cap lower over her face and crossed the street to make more distance.

--

"How's progress going?" 

Irene, Sehun, and Wendy were in a triangle attempting to discuss peacefuly waht to do next with their project. There were only qualms with Sehun and Wendy's ideas clashing - more like Wendy rejecting all of Sehun's ideas because she hated his guts right now.

The teacher seemed to sense tension but did not get in the middle of things. "You'll have to learn to work with other people. That's what this project is all about. Collaborating creatively."

Once the teach was gone, Sehun gave Wendy a look of a disdain. "Why are you even in this class?"

"Why are you?" she countered and tapped her pencil on the paper in annoyance. "Because Irene is here?"

Wendy wished she hadn't said that because the older girl visibly tensed and looked uncomfortable.

"Don't bring Irene into this," Sehun hissed. "She's nice enough to want to work with you. You should be grateful."

She scoffed and looked to the clock. "Great. One hour left and too many days to count with this bull," she muttered.

"It's not all about you, you know. We're gonna the same grade no matter what, and I don't want it to be because you didn't want to pull your weight," Sehun continued.

"Ok, well you're trying to pool too many ideas into this. It would be impossible to do everything!" she snapped. "We agreed on poems not a ing love song."

"WEll what if I change my mind?"

"Who made you leader?"

"Why are you making it a big deal? Besides, Irene doesn't mind. You should be more open minded."

"You should be more considerate," Wendy retorted.

"Hah! That's rich coming from you."

"What can I say? I'm a master at deflecting s."

The whole time, Irene was unsure how to deflate the situation, and she wasn't sure why the two were always at each other's throats. Sure, Sehun wasn't the nicest to Wendy, but Irene felt weird that Wendy was being just as bad to him too. 

She would have thought WEndy could be the bigger person, but maybe that was too much to assume. They hardly knew each other.

Now they were at a standstill with no progress down at all.

"I'll do the bookbinding. Make it look nice," Wendy grumbled.

Sehun didn't answer as he angrily drew in his notebook.

"I can't believe she had the audacity to say all that to me!" Sehun complained after school. He slammed his locker shut and kicked the one below his. "She's lazy and doesn't understand how people work! She's a freak!"

"You aren't being particularly nice to her either," Irene pointed out.

"SHe started it. Whos side are you on anyway?"

"No one. You're both being awful," she told him. 

"Why did you even offer to be her partner?" he demanded. 

Irene shrank back when he her. "Sehun, please. It's only a project. I'll talk to her."

"You should be more careful who you mix with. Wendy is not normal," Sehun growled.

--

"Hard day at school?" Tiffany asked when she felt the grumpy aura of Wendy enter the house.

"This kid keeps annoying me on purpose cuz he hates me," Wendy replied. "I hate group projects."

"It's life, kid. Wait until you work retail. It gets worse."

Wendy glumly plopped at the table and Tiffany gave her soem chicken to make he feel better. "It'll be over soon, Wendy. You'll have ot learn to deal with buttheads someday."

"I think I'm allergic to people."

"Oh? I don't think so since you're always going to that same place on the full moon."

Wendy simply chomped into the food. Of course TIffany would suspect and figure out what she was doing.

"I'm allergic to idiots then."

Tiffany chuckled and pat her head. "Just be careful who you're picking fights with. This town is small. We dont want to get caught up with the wrong sorts."

Wendy felt her heart drop and she commmited to mind to be a little more cautious. She heard round school that Sehun's parents were powerful, and had connections with the governing authorities. I'm an idiot.

--

The next day, Wendy gave herself a mental peptalk not to let Sehun get under her skin. It was only a project and they would never have to dael with each other again. Plus, Sehun was a senior so after school was over for summer, she was done with him.

She wondered if she would ever see Irene again though.

WEndy actually paid attnetion in her classes all day and avoided the library because she didn't want to be grumpy from a disrupted nap. 

"Wendy."

She turned with surprise to find Irene standing behind her, looking a little nervous as well. She supposed that her fight with Sehun might have frightened the senior. The words were pretty sharp, even if Wendy was proud of some of her retorts.

"Hey," was all she could say.

"Can we...can we talk?"

"Sure."

Wendy never thought she would imagine Irene being akin to a scolding mother. She was getting NICELY told off for her behavior the other day.

"People might disrespect you because of how you treat them," Irene told her. "It wouldn't hurt you to try to be a little more reasonable."

"It's not my fault everyone's at my neck," she wanted to say, but didn't. Irene had a point. Wendy was ready to fight if someone so much as whispered a snide remark behind her back, and it didn't help that her hearing was hyper aware.

But that was the only way she knew how to protect herself if silence wasn't going to help her.

"You should mind your own business," Wendy said instead, which wasn't helpful either.

"I can't. We're working on this project together and I don't want to hear you two arguing."

"Do you just let him walk all over you?" 

"Excuse me?" Irene looked a little offended.

"You just follow him around, or so it seems."

"You should mind your own business," Irene turned Wendy's retort against her. "He's my childhood friend, and our parents are close."

Wendy paused. She didn't feel like fighting today either, and she also did not want to turn off Irene, who probably wasn't even interested in her anyway at this point. "I'll try."

--

Hello! Happy new Year! Sorry it's so long, I'm working on the updates for a couple of the other stories. It'll probably be within the next two weeks. I've been gaming too much. HOw have you been? What games are you into?