After the conversation with Kai, Gary was stomping his foot on the ground, twisting it about in the grass. The whole conversation with Kia had put him in a sour mood. 

“Hey are you okay, bro?” Tom whispered to his buddy. “I don’t know where you went, but I think it’s best you calm down before you get called up.”

At the moment, both of them were taking part in their mandatory extracurricular club activity, rugby. It would be an understatement to say that Gary wasn’t really in the mood for it. The two boys sat on the bench along with the rest while Mr Root was giving his typical lecture. 

The gist of it was that they were going to try the same thing today as they had done last time, as they had shown enough talent to be selected for the team, not that Gary was paying too much attention to what the coach was saying anyway. He was more preoccupied with the agreement he had just made.

He didn't know when, but during their conversation on the roof Kai had somehow managed to slip Gary what was known as a ‘burner phone’. A phone often used by gangs, they weren’t digital like smartphones, and instead just had the normal physical dealing buttons with a poor screen display. He was also given a new number that Gary wasn’t even aware of. 

‘I don’t even know when he slipped it over to me?’ Gary thought. 

He only realised when in the middle of his walk, something started to vibrate in his pocket. On the screen there was a message. 

[This is your new phone. Don’t give this number to anyone. Whenever I need to contact you I will do so through here, so remember to keep it charged ;-3]

‘So he really is going to treat me like his loyal dog to do his bidding, hmm.’ 

Before his anger could get the better of him, he reminded himself just why he had joined a gang in the first place. 

For the sake of his family.

No matter what he needed to do, his priority was to keep his family safe from the Underdogs. If that meant he had to become Kai's personal dog for a while then so be it. Personally he found it a lot more annoying to be ordered around by someone so close to his own age, but that was something he would have to swallow.

“What is wrong with you kids?!” Mr Root shouted in his deep booming voice. Apparently Gary hadn’t been the only one who hadn’t been paying attention to Mr Root. Even Tom seemingly considered picking his nose to be a more fruitful activity.

“It seems you guys need some motivation! Luckily for you, I know just the thing that would have rattled my behind when I was your age.” Blowing on his whistle, it was Mr Root’s signal to cue in their surprise.

At that moment, walking from the school playground onto the field were a group of girls, who were still in their school uniform. A couple of boys who looked to be from the years above were carrying a couple of benches around with them and placed them on the field for the girls. 

Immediately, Gary noticed that the new girl Xin was among the spectators.

“Hey calm down, buddy or your little soldier might pop out,” Tom teased him.

The very next moment, Gary looked down on the ground and started taking deep breaths. Tom might have only been jesting, but a teenage boy’s hormones truly were no joke. Just thinking about the possibility, elicited some type of reaction in his pants. 

“You know, Xin’s a cool girl. You should have accompanied us, she actually likes playing video games, and I’m not talking about those cheap ass casual mobile games. Also she seems to be into martial arts. I believe she might even practice some kind herself. Oh and get this, the best thing about her… she friggin loves Altered fights! She’s like the perfect girl, something's got to be wrong with her, right?” Tom further nudged his buddy Gary on, expecting some type of reaction.

“Hey.” Gary said, taking in a deep breath and a slight pause. 

‘Gary, first you scare me by saying weird things, and doing strange things. You would tell me if there was something wrong with you, yeah bro.’ Tom thought, but was too afraid to say this out loud to him. 

Tom was afraid of rejection in the end, and he didn’t want to seem pushy, especially since Gary was his only friend. 

“I think I'm feeling better now.” Gary said, lifting his head up and his face slightly read. 

Tom sighed and wiped his forehead. Normally he would have had another snarky reply, but something was clearly off about Gary today.

“Now that we have an audience, some of you might actually start to take things seriously. I bet some of you will be looking to impress these sweet young ladies. And if you aren’t able to do that then you should feel embarrassed for wasting their time, having to watch such a pathetic display of sport!” Mr Root screamed.

Just like last time, Blake was made to carry the ball, and the coach would call a group of three people from the bench to try to successfully take the ball from Blake. Unsurprisingly, nothing really changed now that the girls watched them. 

Eventually, after everyone else had failed, Gary, Tom and Brick were called up to be the defenders. Gary dragged his feet across the ground and didn’t look up once, too afraid of what might happen if he caught a glimpse of Xin again. If he were to transform with all eyes on him the situation would be… disastrous didn’t even cover it.

“Hey, what the hell is wrong with him, why is he walking so strange?” one of the girls whispered from the sideline. 

“I think he might have crapped his pants,” another one made fun of him in a hushed tone. 

“Why is his hair so green? Does he want us to mistake him for grass?” a third one badmouthed him.

Even though they were a fair distance away from the girls, Gary could hear it all. He could hear his heartbeat, the boys and all the girls talking about the boys including him. Naturally, everyone had nothing but good things to say about Blake, but then something interesting caused Gary's ears to twitch. 

“Hey Xin, as the new girl, who do you have your eyes on?” one of the girls surrounding her asked. With Xin being the mayor's daughter, there were plenty of girls who wanted to befriend her.

“It has to be Blake, right? All these other boys are a bit immature and strange if you ask me. Like, can you believe it, they get far too obsessed with those Altered fights. Why would you find two people hitting each other fun, I just don’t understand it,” another girl commented. 

“Oh,” Xin replied in surprise. “I actually like those Altered fights a bit myself. As for the boys… hmm, I agree that Blake has potential. His muscles are built solidly and his lean body frame allows for fast movements. His reflexes so far have been amazing as well.” 

“However, if you mean romantically then I’m not interested in any of them. Maybe if one of these boys could beat me in a fight then I would be impressed.” 

Her words had stunned the other girls and they didn’t really know what to say.

“Erggh, right. I guess those Altered fights are a little cool, hehe” the one who had just made fun of the sport had quickly changed her tune. 

‘What a bunch of fakes,’ Xin thought to herself, but outwardly kept her nice appearance. ‘This is exactly why I told Dad that I didn’t want to transfer here or at least under a fake name.’’ 

Gary had heard it all from the field, and specifically he was repeating in his head what was the last thing Xin had said. That if someone could beat her in a fight then she might show a bit of interest. 

A smile appeared on Gary’s face. 

‘If I beat Blake here, won’t it show her that I’m strong? Maybe that will get her interested in me!’

[Quest received]

[Whoo the girl of your dreams]

[At your age boys only care about two things, money and girls, so act as if your life depended on it and show her who the Alpha is!]

[Task: Retrieve the ball from the opponent!]

[Reward 10 Exp]

Gary was a little bit distracted by the new Quest popping up right in front of him, but the piercing sound of the whistle quickly snapped him back into action. Blake was running towards them, with the ball gripped tightly. Passing Tom was easy enough, as his best friend just stood there like a plant.

“TOM!!!” Mr Root shouted enraged. “I’m going to, I’m going to…. Just get off the field, you disgrace!!!” He shouted as he kicked a patch of grass. 

Brick attempted to get the ball, but as usual, an athlete like Blake easily avoided the grab leaving only Gary, who was now intentionally hyping himself up. 

[BPM 130]

[BPM 135]

[BPM 140] 

His pulse didn’t stop rising, and Gary wasn’t trying to control it. Running forward, a large piece of mud with grass was thrown into the air, and Gary shot off like a rocket towards his schoolmate. 

Blake didn’t even have time to react and the only thing he could do was go for a spin.

‘I’m faster! I’m faster than before! I can do it!’ Gary thought triumphantly.

When Blake had finished his spin, Gary was right there in front of him. The two of them collided, with Gary's shoulder and Blake's shoulder banging into each other.

Defying everyone’s expectations, the one to fly through the air with the ball still in his hand was none other than Blake, despite his larger size. Not letting his eye off the ball, Gary followed up with a great leap that would even make some professional basketball players jealous.

When the two landed on the ground, Gary was the first one to get up with the ball held in his hand. 

“I got it, I got the freaking ball!” Gary shouted with joy, holding in his hand a deflated ball that his thumb had managed to pierce through. 

“Excellent!” Mr Root shouted. “Now that's what I call a tackle. Congratulations, you’re officially off the bench!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Gary decided to take a peak towards the girls. Most of them were saying horrible things about him for hurting the school’s superstar, but he didn’t care about their opinion. He was only interested to know what Xin thought about him. 

“What a crazy good jump,” the girl muttered to herself. Although this was in no way a direct complement, it was nevertheless enough for Gary… for now. 

‘Maybe this Werewolf thing isn’t so bad after all. I will just have to learn to control it.’

[13 days until the next full moon]

‘... the sooner, the better…’

******

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