"A goal with a plan is just a wish."
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Spencer

I couldn't stop smiling to myself the entire car ride home after talking to Elsa, nor could I stop the rest of the day.

Or the next morning, which did not go unnoticed by Rey.

"You talked to Elsa yesterday, didn't you?" my Beta said when we got in the car. I was dropping her off at our hotel so she could take care of some business there.

"I did," I admitted, unable to hold back the happiness in my tone.

"You two back together?"

"No, but we're going to stay friends. I'll take it. It's better than not being able to talk to her at all."

"You're not the only Stark that can get along with a Laroche," she said casually, shoveling a handful of peanuts into her mouth.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning onto the main road. In my rearview mirror, I saw the two cars with the rest of my pack mates pull up behind me.

"I talked to her packmate, Finn. I didn't know he was part of their pack until Elsa came up, asking if he was ready."

"Were you both civil?"

"Yes, I was civil, especially because she thanked me for my silence about you two. Elsa didn't say outright that that's what it was for, but she didn't need to. It was easy enough to guess."

"There might be hope yet. Listen, how's the pack doing? They've been quiet around me ever since I told them off. I have a feeling they're not telling me everything that's going on."

"They're worried about you, and yeah, they haven't been telling you certain things. Although you'll be happy to know they've been listening to you about not messing with the Laroches. Whatever you said to them in terms of that got through to them."

"About time. So what are they not telling me?"

"Let's see, Fred and Scarlet have 'secretly' started dating. They haven't told the parents yet, but when Tommy caught them in an incriminating position, it wasn't hard to figure out."

"Please tell me they had clothes on."

"Mostly."

"Oh, god. What did Tommy do?"

"He yelled out, 'My eyes! My innocence!' to which Emily shouted, 'you lost your innocence two years ago!' Scarlet and Fred stopped what they were doing and hastily went their separate ways, but not before it was forced out of them that they were having a thing."

I snorted. "Okay, what else?"

"Brian and Callie were arguing over you."

"About what?"

"He's on your side about the whole dating thing. He says if you're not interested, then you shouldn't have to date her because she deserves to marry someone who loves her in that way, not just as a friend."

"I'm both offended and on his side. What did Callie say?"

"That you could learn to love her."

"I know I couldn't. What else?"

"Gigi had a pregnancy scare. She missed her period by two weeks. It was just freakishly late with bad timing since she and Tommy had done the do two weeks before she was supposed to start."

I snorted. "Done the do?"

"Shut up. It just came out."

"So, is she?"

"No. Francine took her to the doctors in secret, and she took a pregnancy test. It all came back negative."

"Bloody hell, I'm mad at them, but I don't want them to feel like they can't come to me for anything or that they can't tell me anything. I need to do damage control, don't I?"

"Maybe spend some time with them. You've been wrapped up in your thoughts for quite a while now with good reason, but you're still the alpha. You still have a pack that needs you to be looking out for them."

"Want to switch places?"

"Do you not want to be alpha or something?"

"I'm worried about how things have been going, that I'm going to be a bad alpha. I feel like I already am one. I've seen how well they respond to Dom, and I see how they respond to me, and it's just... it's different. It's not the same."

"You were always more reserved between you and your brother. To see you lose your head like that reminded them of who and what you are. You're the alpha Stark. And for the record, they do the same thing to Dom. They know you two already have a lot on your plates, so they don't tell him everything either. He doesn't know about anything about what I've just told you."

"I guess that makes me feel a little better," I said, pulling up to the entrance of our hotel.

"Tell Elsa and Finn I say hi. I'll see you when you get home." Rey exited the car, and I drove off to school, meeting my pack there. They were all waiting outside their cars for me to arrive.

"What are you guys doing this weekend?" I asked, locking my car.

"Some of us girls are going to buy dresses for graduation. Why?" Gigi replied.

"What if we made it a pack outing?" I suggested. "I've been distant for a while now, and I want to spend some time with my pack."

"Uh, yeah, sure," Scarlet said.

"Why have you been so distant?" Grey queried.

"I just had a lot of things going on that were stressing me out. I took it out on you guys, and I'm sorry I did that. I'm better now," I said. "So, do you agree it should be a pack outing?"

My pack nodded eagerly. We walked into school, heading up to our lockers. The Laroches were already at theirs, and even though we exchanged some death glares, that's all that happened.

We'd arrived at school later than usual, so rather than chatting for a bit, we all dispersed to our classes. My first class was physiology. It was the first time in a while that I was looking forward to it. Elsa resided in her usual seat. I took the one next to her.

"Hey," I greeted.

Her face lit up at the sight of me. "Hey. How are you?"

"Better than I've been in a while. My pack is behaving, and I'm talking to you again. It's good. What about you?"

"I graduate in two weeks, and I'm talking to you again, so I'm great. So you know what's on the agenda for today? You know?"

"Unfortunately, I am not the teacher and cannot begin to guess what the evil mastermind has planned for today."

Elsa grinned as the bell rang. All the students who had been standing took their seats, and our teacher started the lecture. He informed us that for the final project, which would also be our final exam grade.

"In groups of two or three, you'll create a presentation on one of the systems we've learned over the course of this semester. However, there cannot be any projects on the same organ or system, nor can there be any projects on something we've learned about that organ already. You can choose your partners for this but choose wisely. You have until the end of this class to come up with an idea. Upon telling me, you'll receive the guidelines sheet for the requirements that your presentation must have. All right, choose your partners," the teacher said. Elsa turned to me and said, "Partners?"

"Partners," I agreed. "So, any ideas?"

"I do. I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and saw this article about someone dying of a broken heart. Maybe we could do something about that, whether or not it's true, and if so, what causes it. I know there's been some debate about it."

"I like that idea. Want to tell the teacher, and I'll start pulling up information on the laptop?"

"Yeah. I'll be back." Elsa got up, disappearing for a brief few moments while I booted up the laptop. By the time she got back, I was on Google, typing things in the search bar. She scooted her desk next to mine to get a better view.

"Here, let me see," she said, sliding the laptop in front of her. I shifted in my seat so I could see what she was doing. She pulled up a few tabs from a few different articles and leaned back in her chair, jumping when her back hit my arm, which I had unconsciously put on the back of her seat.

"Sorry," I apologized sheepishly, starting to remove it.

"It's fine," she said rather quickly. "Wasn't expecting it to be there. You can leave it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine." She went back to looking at the articles and explaining it all to me. I listened to her with rapt attention, fascinated both by her and the subject. Before I knew it, the class had ended, and we were packing up our things to leave.

"Want to meet at the library after school?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'll see what I can do about a ride because Anna drove me today."

"What if I gave you a ride home and just didn't drive you all the way up to your house?"

Something flickered in her eyes, almost as if she was seriously contemplating it. "My parents would wonder why the person didn't walk me to the door... you know what, screw it. I'll tell them I'm getting a ride home from my partner. I'll see you later, okay?"

She hurried out of the classroom. I waited a few moments before walking out after her and heading to gym. Jack, Fred, and Grey were in the locker room waiting for me, already in their gym clothes.

"Honestly, I know you're on the other side of the school, but why does it take so long for you to get from physiology to PE?" Jack asked.

"I was talking to the teacher about our final. Listen, you know I trust you guys with my life, right?"

"Yeah," Grey responded, right at the same time as Jack said in bored exasperation, "What do you want?"

"Can you two pick up Rey from the hotel after school? I need to go to the library for this project, and it's a waste of gas for me to pick her up, head home, and then go back down. We're rich, but that doesn't mean we can't be ecologically or economically aware."

"If you want to get with a girl, you could just say that," Jack countered with a grin. "Who is she?"

"It's a science project, Jack. Not a screwing session. We're not going to be like Scarlet and Fred."

"How'd you know about that?!" Fred squeaked, flushing a deep crimson. Jack and Grey howled in laughter at their friend's discomfort.

"Just because I've been distant doesn't mean I don't know what's going on. Now come, we have a class to get to." I strutted out of the locker room with my packmate sputtering in shock behind me.

Little did they know, I was formulating a plan for today's gym class. If no one wanted to try getting along with the Laroches, I was going to make them.