She had a beautiful smile. Pearly white teeth, all set straight in her mouth, as if she'd had braces. Pity she didn't smile that broadly much.

***

That test he was talking about, turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. Vir said he would take maximum half an hour to 'evaluate my level of competence in reading,' as he so nicely put it. It basically meant that I had to read out long lists of words to him as fast as possible. The short words were easy, the one- or two-syllable words rolled over my tongue as soon as my eye fell upon them. 

Cat, pear, final, tower, plus, river, sun, shower, blanket, vowel, lamp, plant.

Easy.

There were four rows of short words on the A4 piece of paper, and when the minute ended, I had reached the second half of the third row.

Vir nodded seriously, and wrote something down. "Very well, are you ready for the next minute? I have another list of short words for you." 

I frowned. "Did I do something wrong?" I thought I did great. I mean, I didn't cheat in this test, which was a first.

He shook his head and smiled softly. "No you did great, Livia. It's just that in research, you need to repeat an experiment at least a couple of times for it to be valid. We will perform this particular test with the short words four times today, and then four times tomorrow and the day after as well. Just to see if there is a difference in your reading competence on different days."

"Oh." I tapped with my fingers on the wooden desk, and folded my legs underneath me on the chair I was sitting on. "Well, then let's start the second round, maybe I can do better this time."
The corner of Vir's mouth went up a bit. "Yhea, aim for that."

Arm, beard, bathe, hamster, lake, rainy, flower, hat, bee, sound, trousers, snowman, candle.

This time I read until the fourth word of the last row on the piece of paper. "I did better, yay!"

"Well, it also depends on the list of words, some lists just have combinations of words that are easier than others," Vir ruined my fun.

"You know, you could also say well done Livia, you did better than last time!" I was aware my voice sounded a bit snappy, and as soon as I spoke the words, I wanted to take them back. It wasn't even that they were hurtful, or that Vir seemed affected by them, just that... Well, I was turning into a big softie around him. "Just give me the next test," I said.

He sighed deeply for giving me the next experiment. It was a new sheet with the blank side on top. "You can turn it around once I say yes. The assignment is the same as before, read out all the words to me as fast as you can. Now the words are going to be longer, so don't be sad when you don't get as far as last time, alright?"

I nodded.

"Okay, you can start."

Hell yes this was more difficult than last time. Some words were okay, like forever, Indian, holiday and adventure. Even the words with four syllables were fine. Information, macaroni, secretary, ordinary. But all the words with more than four syllables, that's where It went wrong. I kept stuttering, trying to read the words over and over again, but the syllables were dancing more and more the harder I tried. In the end skipping the long words just seemed easier, so when I had tried to pronounce a word four times, I gave up and went on to the next word.

Imagination, antidiabetic, identifiable, procrastination, trigonometry, compartmentalisation, electrophotometer, individualistically.

Impossible.

I sighed loudly when this minute was over. I was halfway the first row. The second and third time didn't go any better. "Maybe I'm just not made for reading. Maybe I should just become a personal trainer or something." Actually, that wasn't that bad of an idea? I liked sports.

Well, I liked inline skating and one on one sparring. But that was about it. Maybe I did need a career prospect, because maybe a personal trainer wouldn't be the job for me either.

"I just told you that this list of words is a lot more difficult. Many people have trouble reading nine-syllable words, you are not the only one."

"Yhea, but I should manage the five-syllable words, they aren't that long," I countered immediately.

"Well, we knew that your reading skills are not well developed Livia." Vir leaned forward over the desk, and him being in a closer proximity made my heart beat faster. Still, this reading thing completely destroyed my mood of being funny, witty or understanding.

"Well, thanks," I mocked him in chagrin.

Exhaling loudly, Vir stood up to tower over me. "Well," he said again. "Then we should work on that, don't you think?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe."

We sat in silence for a while, none of us saying anything.

"Do you want-"
"Are you going-" 

"You first," we spoke together at the same time, after which we both proceeded to wait until the other would start talking.

"Livia," Vir said calmly, after a while. "Tell me what you wanted to ask me." I had noticed his cheeks were coloured a light pink, which was a huge move in the right direction compared to two days ago, when he was permanently blushing when I was in the same room as he was. 

"Well, I was wondering, are you going to be present at the gala tomorrow night?" The thought hadn't really crossed my mind before, until I had overheard someone talk about it this morning. It was just that I'd been so consumed with my thoughts on the lie, and seeing Vir again, I hadn't payed attention to it. The Great Gala, a party thrown in honour of the representatives of all the packs. It was the most important night for many of the winners from other packs, as in that night job offers were given. It was the only night that the representatives made a chance to be employed in this pack without having to be tested thoroughly again. During the week, the representatives were meant to socialize with the many researchers Sapientiae has to offer. They needed to show their intelligence and competence, and then at the gala, they could sign a contract for indefinite time. That would mean being able to move to another pack without having to go through an entire procedure. So all in all, a big night for everyone.

I never even thought about the gala before meeting Vir. I just brought a nice dress I borrowed from Allison, and I planned on dancing and eating until it was acceptable to leave. I mean, I never expected a job offer.

Still did not expect one, to be honest. I just assumed Vir would let me stay afterwards, seeing I'm his mate and all.

"Of course I'm planning on making my acquaintance at the gala. I'm the Alpha, Livia, in case you'd forgotten. I actually am obliged to be present." He spoke a bit irritated with me, and I didn't really have an idea why. It quite stung, actually.

"Yhea, well, sure. What I meant is, are we going to be seen together? I assume we aren't, right? Knowing you don't want this-" I pointed from me to him and back to me, "to be out in the open." Also here I didn't really have an idea why. And again, it quite stung.

"No, you are right, we are not going to be seen together in that way." He massaged his temples, as if he was stressed. "Listen, Livia. It was really nice seeing you and all, but I really have to start working again. I have a meeting in one minute and I really have to attend it. You can stay here if you want, but I don't expect to be back until very late this evening, so perhaps it would benefit you more if you just went to your room, or took a walk outside."
With that he walked away, leaving me behind with nothing but my confused thoughts.