12082016-RECONSTRUCTED

Word Count: 2,627

001

Road rage has always been a serious weakness of mine. I absolutely couldn't stand drivers who dared challenge me for a spot on the road. An unfortunate affliction that I'd been a victim of before I could drive, I'd jump around in the back seat yelling instructions at whoever was. Almost all of my pleasant childhood memories took place in a car, driving up the same stretch of country road over and over, sticking my hands out to enjoy the feeling of speed, giggling as my grape popsicle melted onto my hand.

Call me an aggressive driver, but I will engage in battle without even blinking. Blame it on my chronic urge to rule the road. So when a glossy black sports car slunk in front of me, cutting me off without any indication and causing me to slam on the brakes, I almost spit fire. Several curse words rang in my head as my wolf growled in annoyance. I settled my hands on the steering wheel securely and leaned forward in my seat just a smidge. My mouth curled into a crazy smile.

“Aaemi,” Justin Blake whined as he caught the glint in my eyes, “come on. It's the first day of school. Just let it go.” My packmate sat next to me, he'd been watching the entire thing and now his hand closed over his seatbelt in hopes of self-preservation.

I turned to him, then back at the black car in front of me, trying to convince myself that I didn't need this kind of adrenaline rush on our first day of school. But then the car broke sharply, even though there was a fairly open expanse of road in front of them, and paused there teasingly for a few seconds.

My eyes lit in glee. The ing car was asking for it.

“Damn,” Justin tipped his head back, smacking it against the headrest several times as I jerked the steering wheel to the left and sped into the other lane. It was a bare miss, just inches of air whistling between metal, but slightly disappointing as I didn't manage to scrape off any paint. The shiny finish flashed in the sunlight as we sped past it. I glanced at the windows. They were as heavily tinted as mine, but I flipped the driver off anyways.

“Careful,” Justin yelped as I swooped into our previous lane, claiming the road in front of the black car. The horn bellowed from behind us and at the sound Angel Clark, who had previously been dozing off draped across the back seat, jump upright in surprise. One year younger than Justin and I, she was one of our only packmates that had wanted to come to the first day of school.

“What's going on?” She cried, swaying a little as I slowed my speed down to a crawl. More honking ensured as the car tried switching lanes to overtake me. My wolf growled. Don't let them win.

Like hell.

I jerked the steering wheel to the right and cut them off again. That earned me another round of pissed off honking. I laughed, tilting my head back for a dangerous second. I was thoroughly pleased, the driver in the car seemed to be having just as much fun as I. Rather than pull the windows down and yell profanities at me, the car kept pace with me. Excellent sportsmanship. I wondered who was driving.

“Aaemi.” Angel shoved light blond hair out of her face, “are you quarreling with someone again?” She asked, in the rear view mirror I could see her grab her seat to keep herself from falling off of it.

“Quarreling? You are probably the only person in the universe that uses that word, Angel.” I said, my eyes darting from the car's position on the road to my speedometer. I've gotten my share of tickets, and even though most of them laid unpaid in my glove box, I wasn't too fond of the pink slips.

“I thought the word is appropriate the situation,” Angel muttered. I heard her rustling around on the ground for something. Probably her phone so she could complain to Jaron about this.

“Oh god,” Justin turned green as I spun our car into a dizzying turn where only my werewolf reflexives kept me from crashing. Angel clutched her head but I kept my eyes glued on the car behind us who seemed to be slowing down in defeat.

The headlights flashed once.

Surrender.

Grinning, I stepped on the gas pedal and shot forward. My wolf howled in triumph but one pained groan from Angel had me plastering a half-apologetic smile onto my face as I caught her eyes in the rear view mirror.

“I'm sorry,” I said sheepishly, slowing my speed down now that the car was out of sight.

“You're really not.” Angel brushed off my apology and beside me, Justin nodded in agreement. I scoffed but didn't deny it. I enjoyed that. The bastard deserved it.

"One day, you're going to lose our license, "Justin tells me, shaking his head with disapproval that was far beyond his years.

"But who's going to drive you to your hot yoga classes?" I ask, shooting him a crooked grin, easily making fun of his two major regrets. Letting his older brothers convince him that hot yoga was what made a man and letting his permit expire.

"That was one time Aaemi," Justin says mock exasperated but I can smell his embarrassment, "and yet I regret asking you to drive me so much."

I smile, turning to coast onto the freeway. It was a short drive, just one exit and we were driving into the school parking lot

"We're here," I say, "nervous?"I didn't need to ask, I could smell the citrus tinge of nervousness that rolled off their bodies. This was our first time attending a school that accepted shifters, we didn't have to hide who we were, and there was something nerve-racking about attending a school knowing you may not be the strongest person there.

“You'll be fine,” I direct my words mostly to Angel. She had to face her entire graduating class by herself while Justin had me to keep him company, “it's just school.”

“I like school,” Angel s