Wolf Like Me

Leah POV (Age 11)

“Weirdo.” 

Leah heard the voice behind her but chose to ignore it, burying her nose deeper into her book. Water off a duck’s back, as her grandmother would say. Words may have an edge like a sword, but they draw no blood. 

“God, look at her. Doesn’t she realise break is for having fun?” The girl mocked, kicking some dirt in Leah’s direction where she sat, pressed up against the crevice of a wall with her book. 

The mud littered the pages, Leah floundering as she tried to brush it away without damaging the book. It was her first week of middle school and she appeared to be failing at fitting in. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t trying- she was. However, the school and their parents had decided Leah would do best here not in Fatin’s classes. They seemed to think it would help her grow.

Of course, it was good to make her branch out, but Leah was also a creature of routine. Most of the friends she had made in the past were simply because they liked Fatin, and eventually learned to like Leah too. People often found her quiet at first, whereas Fatin’s friends knew her after enough time of being around the pair who were joined at the hip.

“Please don’t do that,” she mumbled, removing the last of the dirt from the book she had used that month’s pocket money to buy. Her parents weren’t made of money, but once a month she was given some to buy a book. She spent hours researching thoroughly before deciding on one. Though most months she picked up a copy of a book she had first read in the library and loved, slowly building up her shelf of favourites at home. 

“Are you gonna cry or something?” the short girl teased, kicking the dirt this time at Leah’s face. 

She wiped frantically at her eyes, heading for the bathroom as the dirt burned them. Normally at break, Fatin would be near her but today she was off. Then, the rest of the week she had left Leah to her own devices to read, knowing she needed the space briefly as her routine changed. As always, Leah would slowly flock back to her side, but she normally processed huge changes solely in her bubble. 

Yet now, as she washed the dirt from her eyes which were now reddened and sore, she wished Fatin was back. She missed the protective hand in her own. As an omega, she could say little against the girl without putting herself lower on the social chain.

The rest of the week passed the same way each and every day. 

Kaitlyn -as Leah now knew her name to be- hated her. One time she had pushed her over resulting in a cut that now passed through Leah’s brow, one that would leave a scar. In dodgeball, she had thrown the ball so forcefully at her that Leah’s pale stomach and arms were riddled with bruises. Then there was the worst thing; during class Kaitlyn had managed to get into her bag. She took Leah’s book and dropped it in a bathroom sink during break. 

It was ruined. 

Leah slowly shrunk into herself. She no longer had her book to read at break and no longer had anything in her routine except for a newly blossoming fear of the blonde alpha. 

Next Monday Fatin returned, and Leah held her breath in relief. Her mate would be there during breaks at the very least. 

“Hey,” Fatin said at break, sidling up beside her. “Do you want to eat lunch with my friends and me? Or did you still want time to yourself this week?” 

“I’ll sit with you,” Leah said enthusiastically. Lunch with Fatin would mean safety and normality. No longer having to fear-

“Kaitlyn, this is Leah. You cool if she sits with us?” 

The alpha looked up, grinning falsely around her sandwich. “No, that would be great. Wouldn’t it Leah?” 

Leah swallowed thickly, feeling the earth crumbling beneath her. Kaitlyn was ‘K’. Fatin’s new best friend. Nervously she took a seat by her mate. Maybe this would change things? Maybe now that she knew, things would improve. 

“So, what television do you like?” 

“Leah doesn’t watch much television other than with me. She likes documentaries though, right?” 

The saddest part was Fatin thought she was helping her mate out. However, as Kaitlyn rose a brow and scoffed, she noted that this may have only given her more bait. 

“I like television.” She really did love documentaries and some of Fatin’s shows.

“No, you don’t.” Fatin laughed, not inferring Leah’s panic as it rose. 

Leah pushed her sandwich back into her bag and tweezed at her brow as Fatin talked to her friends. 

Friends who were cool and liked what she did, unlike Leah. 

That day Kaitlyn left a handful of uncapped paint markers in Leah’s rucksack, staining the material so badly that she had spent two hours that night trying to scrub it out in the bath. Tears dampened her collar. She had bought that bag with the Christmas money she saved, and in seconds it had been ruined.

“I’m sick,” Leah said the next day.

“Oh honey, did you pick up what Fatin had?” 

“Yes.” 

Her mother didn’t question it because Leah rarely missed a day of school. Instead, she passed her some clean pyjamas and called into work, taking the day off to watch Leah. 

The next day she passed it off all the same, adding a weak cough as if that would sell it. 

By day three, her mother was no longer buying the excuse. “Go in. Fatin misses you and you’re going to get behind on your work. You have no temperature and I need to head into the office.” 

She didn’t sit with Fatin at lunch, fearing it would only give Kaitlyn more ammunition. Instead, she sat in one of the toilet stalls, reading a textbook on history. 

She hated it. 

“Leah is getting behind in class,” her teacher explained a month later to Leah’s parents, as she sat there between them bobbing her knee restlessly. 

“What do you mean? She was the top student in her year group in her last school.” Maryann straightened up in her chair. 

“We’re just…” She eyed Leah softly, swallowing. “Worried about how little she participates in class. There are certain tasks she also won't do -crafts and group things- and sometimes she gets quite… isolated or withdrawn.” 

“Then what do we do?” 

“Afterschool clubs perhaps? She may also benefit from seeing a doctor.” 

“A doctor?” Kurt asked, astounded. 

“Leah is just… very particular. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but taking her to see someone may help us learn how to make her most at ease in a new learning environment.” 

“That’s just Lee,” Kurt said. 

“Yes, but it would be best just to check regardless. As Leah had spent much of her schooling with her mate there, things may have been missed.” 

Kurt huffed, straightening his shoulders. 

“Don’t listen to her,” he said in the car on the way back. “Teachers are rude sometimes.” 

“Maybe we should book an appointment though?” Maryann said. “Just so we can tell her that we did?” 

Leah sat in the doctor’s office a week later, her mother filling out a questionnaire and handing them her teacher's own notes. 

She wasn’t in the room as he spoke to her mum, or as he referred Leah to a specialist who she was introduced to two days later. 

“You look like you enjoy books,” she said to Leah who had her nose buried in a book she found in her office as she asked her some of the most stupid questions she had ever heard in her life. “Do your friends enjoy books? Maybe you could make up a story with one of these objects for me?” 

Leah tensed, wiping her eyes as she curled in on herself. She hated every question, every task she was asked to complete.

Most were ridiculous.

Not only that but this so-called specialist was talking to Leah as if she was five.

“She’s autistic,” Leah heard Maryann relaying the information to Rana one evening, her ear pressed to her bedroom door, listening in as her heart pounded. Though Leah knew little about her diagnosis yet, she knew that her mother had cried when told. Whilst her mum had stated it was just out of shock, not sadness- Leah wasn’t sure.

“Will she require any additional help?” Rana said.

“Yes. They’re looking for someone who could help her with coping methods for when she shuts down or gets upset. They think she may have OCD or something forming as a part of it. Leah is so drawn to her routines they think that may be why she’s struggling so much with the new school. Her old schoolteachers’ records confirmed none of this is exactly new. The isolation is, but everything else was pre-existing at her old school.” 

“Fatin misses her. She said she’s been distant.” 

“I just don’t know what to do. Should we have caught this earlier?” 

“No. You do a great job with Leah, just as we do with Fatin. It just means now that you know, we can all work on making her more comfortable. Maybe we should have them move into the same class again?” 

“I don’t want Leah getting too dependent on Fatin being her shield. I think being in her own class will push her.” 

“But is it pushing her too far too suddenly? This is a new school, and she knows no one.” 

“I don’t want to make the mistake of not helping my daughter flourish without an alpha by her side.” 

“Maybe try her out in Fatin’s class for a week? See how she gets on and settles? You can always move her back later once she's more comfortable.” 

“Okay, I’ll speak to the school.” 

Leah ended up in Fatin’s class a week later with a seat right next to hers. Whilst she knew that she may have to change classes later, Leah had missed her mate. Sitting next to her, she was already feeling more of a sense of her routine- her normality. The steady thrum of Fatin’s own alpha confidence left her smiling down at her work.

She opened up a little more, even raising her hand in class as Fatin beamed proudly beside her. 

It was all going better. At breaks, she would stick to herself and in classes she stuck to Fatin. 

Until the dance. 

“Lanky Leah,” Kaitlyn appraised with a grin. “I missed you in class.” 

Leah tugged on her cardigan working her jaw. God, she hated that girl. “Sure,” she mumbled, biting back the grimace of annoyance. 

But then Kaitlyn was turning her cup upside down over Leah’s dress with a grin. She didn’t have many special clothes. This dress she reserved for the dance was another costly price to pay at the hands of that girl. 

“Oops. Better clean that up lanky.” Kaitlyn laughed, going to turn away but walking straight into a solid form. 

“What did you just say to my mate?” 

“Nothing. We just joke around a lot.” Kaitlyn smiled, though Leah noted her throat bobbing anxiously. 

Leah had been too embarrassed to tell Fatin. Her cheeks flamed being caught red-handed -or stomached- covered in the punch as Kaitlyn mocked her. She hadn’t wanted to ruin the one friendship Fatin loved or admit that she couldn’t stand up for herself to the alpha.

“Leah, what is this?” 

“Nothing.” 

Fatin narrowed her eyes. “How long?” 

“What?” Leah stood a little straighter even though she wanted to curl up and cry. 

“How long has she been pulling shit like this?” 

Leah winced at the language; Fatin only used the S word when she was seriously angry. In fact, Leah had only heard her use it twice. Once in the car against her mum who was dragging her to a cello recital that she didn’t want to go to, and the second time when she broke her toe.

“I-I don’t know.” 

“Fine.” Fatin didn’t want to push her but could read her mate enough to suddenly note the signs of the prior month's unease as she picked up the entire punchbowl, tipping it over Kaitlyn’s head.

Fatin POV

“One week of detention,” the teacher said as he sat across from Fatin. 

“Okay.” 

“Do you want to tell me what that was about?” Rana asked angrily as she shut the door to the car. Leah sat there, chewing her nails as she stared out the window. 

“Please can we do this when we get home?” Fatin implored with wide eyes. 

“She was just standing up for me,” Leah said.

Rana closed her eyes, pinching her brow. “Fine. When we get home.” 

“I don’t want any lies.” 

Fatin sat on the couch, folding her arms. “I think Kaitlyn has been bullying Leah since we started at the school.” 

“Why do you think that?” 

“I caught her at the dance pouring punch over her and mocking her.” 

“One event does not mean that-”

“She never has lunch with me, and Kaitlyn is always there. The first weeks Leah broke her book. I remember when I saw it, she said she dropped it in a puddle, and it was ruined. Now she never brings books to school, Mum. You know how much she loves her books.” Fatin tensed. “She had a cut on her brow that first week, had bruises all over her arms she said were from sports.” Then there was the fact that Kaitlyn always had been a bit of an overconfident little shit now that she thought about it.

“You think she hit Leah?” 

“I don’t know. But she always feels off around her. I thought her fear was because she feared my friends, or not fitting in, but I think I read it wrong. She’s scared of Kaitlyn.” 

Rana sighed. “I’ll text Maryann.” 

Rana chewed her cheek as she knocked on Fatin’s door an hour later. “She didn’t hit her.” 

Fatin dropped her head. Maybe she was wrong to act as she did towards Kaitlyn but after the punch that she dropped on Leah, she didn’t regret it one bit. 

“She did push her over, kick dirt at her, throw balls at her in sports class and ruin two of her books and her backpack though. Among a list of many other things.” Rana shook her head. “I’m not saying you were right to throw a bowl of punch over her head -in public at a school event- but I’m also not saying that you were wrong to.” 

“Am I still grounded?” 

“Yes. But you can spend your grounding with your mate.” 

Fatin smiled. Her mother was doing her a favour. When she was grounded, she wasn’t allowed to do cello events. It meant more time watching television and eating food with her mate. “Thank you.” 

“You watch her, okay? As an alpha, you take a lot of weight on your shoulders. Your father has done a whole lot to protect me over the years, just as I have with him.” 

Leah always protected Fatin, but rarely protected herself. It was something that worried Fatin. Omegas were often shy, but Leah took it to a whole new level by frequently shutting herself off from the world. Then again, that was one more thing that made her perfect in Fatin’s eyes. Leah put the world before herself.

“Will she be okay?” 

“Oh yes. Maryann might try moving her to another class in a month or two and see how she gets on now that we know there were certain people causing worry for Leah. Not just her usual worry for routine. We've also notified the school so they can watch Kaitlyn.” 

“She’ll be okay though?” 

“Leah will be fine, sweetie. She has you, and you have her. You’re a good balance.” 

She tilted her chin in agreement. They had always balanced one another out perfectly. 

Sure enough, a month later they took the plunge and Fatin held her breath all the way until she saw Leah at break. 

“How’s your new class?” 

Leah smiled, opening up her book as she sat next to Fatin. “I like it there.” 

Fatin rested her head on Leah’s shoulder as she read, centring her breath as she too smiled. “Good.” 

That day Fatin left a handful of uncapped markers in Kaitlyn’s backpack, raising her brow at her after school in a word of warning. 

Petty, perhaps. But Fatin also wouldn’t risk giving her another inch so the idiot thought she could take a mile. 

“A small word of warning,” her father had whispered to her at dinner. “Goes a long way.”

A small word of warning, Fatin thought as she flashed a smile at the blonde.