The Alpha’s Mate Who Cried Wolf
Chapter 33
Chapter33
Without greeting Mr. Thomson, I enter the science room and place my bag on a table and sit in silence, avoiding eye contact with Mr. Thompson and Nina.
‘Late again, Magnus,’ he huffs with his hands-on hip.
I shrug my shoulders and look away. Nina is sitting four tables away. It’s obvious she also isn’t happy to be here.
Well, if you two think you are both going to sit here in silence, then you have another thing coming,’
Nina and I turn our attention back to Mr. Thomson.
‘I have borrowed some tools and a spare tabletop from the woodwork room. You will both spend detention fixing the table you broke,
‘What! But I never broke it,’ Nina protests.
“Do not care, Nina, now come and take this hammer,’ he growls.
I abruptly step down from my chair and march up to the teacher’s desk, muttering and mumbling in dissatisfaction. Nina takes the nails and hammer and I carry the tabletop. Nina kneels next to the broken table and assesses it closely. I kneel opposite her and place the tabletop down.
Mr. Thomson walks towards the class doorway. ‘I will be back in thirty minutes. I expect the table to be fixed.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I say, waving him off.
Nina clears her throat. ‘Take the legs off the broken table, then we can nail them into the new tabletop.’
Without saying a word, I take hold of the legs and go to pull it off, but Nina interrupts me, tapping me on the shoulder with a screwdriver
Ignoring her suggestion, I pull the leg, ripping it off, but the leg is bent and crooked as she foretold would happen…
‘Great one, Magnus, a broken table and a bent leg, just great,’ she huffs.
‘Well, if you think you can do a better job, then you fix it.’
‘If you didn’t break it in the first place, Magnus, I wouldn’t have to fix it.’
Our hands are on our hips as we glare at each other, grizzling in silence.
“Unbelievable,’ she says and kneels by the other leg and unscrews the good leg with the screwdriver, as I should have done.
As she unscrews the last nail, the metal leg falls towards her. I grab it just before it hits her head. She looks up in shock, but I’m not sure if it’s because she was about to be hit across the head or if it’s because I caught the leg before it knocked her out. I take the leg over to the new tabletop and hold it in place. She is still silent; her mind plays over what just happened.
‘Well, are you going to come 10 screw this in while I hold it or not?|I growl.
She shakes her head at her thoughts and kneels right beside me. Qur legs touch and I want to smile, but I don’t. Her dainty hands twirl the screwdriver in circles until the four screws are in. I lean across her lap to grab the bent leg, our faces so close for a moment that I smell her sweet breath reminding me of candy. Her lips have a clear coat of lip-gloss, I guess the strawberry
flavour. Try to bend the leg back in place, but I seem to make it worse. Nina lets out a giggle, then quickly places her hand over her mouth to hide her smile. Something flutters inside my stomach at the thought that I just made her laugh like that. It’s a pleasant feeling, unlike the one I have had for years that carries a sense of doom.
She finishes screwing the bent leg in and we stand back to look at the table that is on a slant. I place a book on it and we watch as it slides off and burst into laughter,
“What do you think Mr. Thompsons is going to say?’ Nina sniggers
“Eh, who cares? It was fun making it, but then again I don’t want another detention,’ I say, picking up the fallen book and placing ”
under the foot of the bent leg. The table is now leveled out.
We burst into laughter again and the fluttering I feel inside grows. Mr. Thomson walks into the classroom. I hope the table is… finished,’ he trails off, looking at the bent leg propped up on a bodk.
‘Magnus and Nina, detention again next Wednesday.’
“But we both try to argue with him.
I told you both to fix it, not mangle it more! Now go home before decide to call your parents,’ he yells.
Nina and I both gulp and run out the door together. Seeing as we both live at the Packhouse, we both walked towards home together in silence, but it was a nice silence though.
Walking along the grass, she sees a baby bird chirping near a tree and rushes over to it. I follow her and watch as she scoops it up.
The poor thing has fallen from its nest,’ she says as she stares up at the extremely tall tree. I’m going to put it back in its nest.’
You can’t climb up there Nina, this tree is even taller than what I would even climb,’ the bird chirps in her hands. It’s quite cute to look at. I gently scratch its little head to reassure it. It relaxes and snuggles further into Nina’s hand. I can feel our bodies radiating warmth and realise how close I’m standing to Nina. I take a step back, giving her space.
Well, I can’t leave it here, Magnus. I’m going up there with or without your permission,’ she says and grabs onto the first branch.