That's Ben. Not Cody.

Cody's POV

      "Mom, I don't want to go to school, today, I'm sick." I tell my mother as she fixes my chocolate curls while humming.

      "You're not sick, Cody." She says with a sigh very obviously trying to hide a smile. "We've checked your temperature three times already. You have to go to school." She tells me and I pout in defeat. I love school and learning all the cool facts about everything but there's always some meanie there that makes me want to stay home with my sister.

Kara would never make fun of me for being small or being shy, she only makes me giggle and shares her food with me. The food part is probably why she's my favorite person in the world.

'Hey, I thought I was your favorite.' Comes a voice from inside me and I jump. I keep forgetting that I got my wolf just like everyone else, and hearing Jessie's voice randomly always scared me half to death.

'Technically, you're a wolf so Kara is my favorite human.' I tell him slowly, still trying to get used to the mental connection that I feel with something inside me. Jessie seems a lot cooler and better than me and I'm sure if he was his own person, he would be popular, even with the humans.

"Come on, Cody! Come get in the car!" I hear my mom yell from the frown door and I startle once more because I could have sworn she was just behind me fixing my hair. Leaning down to grab my backpack, I scramble to hurry and get out the door and into the car, calling a quick "Bye!" to my dad.

I struggle to get the back door open, so my sister on the other side leans over to push while I pull, allowing me to get in the car, though my breath is heavy from the effort. Once I'm in, mom smiles at me in the mirror making sure I put on my seatbelt before she throws the car in drive and we're on our way. I'm biting my lips nervously as I look at the window until I feel a little tap on my leg making me turn to see my sister frowning at me in worry.

      "What's wrong?" She whispers to me and I frown in confusion, tilting my head at the question. She understands and shuffles a bit closer to me to talk in my ear. "Whats the real reason you don't want to go to school?" She asks me and I immediately stiffen.

     As much as Kara is sweet and caring she also very protective and if I tell her about Ben she's gonna try and beat him up. "I just wanna be home." I answer but I can tell she still doesn't trust me. She doesn't try to ask me again though because soon we're pulling up to her middle school. She reluctantly unbuckles her seat belt and hugs me tightly and says bye to mom before hopping out the car.

     I watch as a bunch of people start coming up to her to say hey and give her hugs and I feel jealously in my chest because of it. I don't have any friends because I'm too shy and quiet and I don't like it. I quietly pout in the backseat, looking out the window at the familiar scene that plays out before me.

     "Cody, you okay, sweetheart?" I hear mom ask, and I turn my head to look at her in the mirror like she taught me. I think about telling a fib, but decide not to because like this morning, mom always knows.

    "Mom, why am I so small?" I ask her, a tiny frown coming to my face as I question her.

    "Small? You're the biggest fifth grader I know!" She tells me and I sigh, knowing what she's trying to do, but it's not really helping at the moment.

     "I'm the only fifth grader you know." I grumble and I know she heard me but she doesn't say anything. She stops at the stop light and turns in her seat a little bit to stare at me for a second before she turns back around and her hands grip the wheel tightly.

     "Is someone teasing you at school?" She asks and I try to remain calm as I answer but her mom voice is the scariest thing I've heard in my life.

     "No." I say but even with the one syllable word, I can't help the squeak that comes along with it.

      "Cody Lorenzo don't you lie to me!" She says angrily and I know I have ten seconds before she's yelling at me in spanish that I only half understand. Luckily, more on my part than hers, we pull up to the school just in time.

      "Bye, mom, love you!" I say quickly, standing up to kiss her cheek before opening the door and hopping out before she can grab me. I keep my head forward as I begin to walk away and I feel Jessie shake his head at me.

     'One of these days, she's going to catch you.' He tells me and he seems highly amused.

     'Well today isn't that day.' I answer with a mental smile and he laughs as we make our way through the front door and into the school that I secretly like to call, hell.

✨✨✨

"Alright class, it's time to take go grab your art from yesterday so that we can hopefully finish it today." Mrs. Juniper says excitedly as she claps her hand and I'm excited to finish my picture form yesterday, the project meaning to be my sister's birthday present at the end of the week.

I wait until almost everyone has gone to the front to grab their papers before I stand from my seat and head to the table to search through the remaining stack of papers until I find mine. I freeze however once I see the word that's written on there in ugly brown marker, across the lighthouse that I had worked so hard on for Kara.

Tears come to my eyes as I read the word Runt sprawled across my paper and before my teacher can see it, I crumble it up in my hand and throw it in the trash, going to get another fresh sheet from the art table in the side of the room. I stiffen when I feel Mrs.Juniper approach me from behind as I grab my favorite colors and my new blank paper.

"Cody?" She says coming up beside me to crouch down next to me with a concerned frown on her face. "Why did you throw your project away?" She asks me and I try to keep my lip from wobbling as I think of the reason.

"It got messed up so I have to start over." I tell her quietly looking down to avoid her friendly gaze, knowing I would crack under the weight of them.

"Cody is someone.." Before she can finish I interrupt her.

"I have to hurry so I can finish my project in time." I tell her and scurry off back to my seat in the back table, sitting across from this nice boy named Ashton. He could be sitting with Ben and the rest of the cool kids but for some reason, ever since we met last year, he's stuck to me like glue.

     I quietly begin working on my lighthouse again, trying to remember how I did it yesterday and Jessie watches with a frown. 'Why don't you just tell someone?' He asks me, clearly fed up with me letting Ben do as he pleases but he wouldn't understand.

     'I'm the quiet boy in class. No one would believe me.' I tell him shyly and he doesn't say anything as I continues to work in the paper in front of me. I've actually made some pretty decent headway on the previously empty space when I see a pair of feet appear next to the table where I'm sitting and I squeeze my eyes shut, wishing away the boy standing next to me but of course that's impossible.

    "Oh look, the runt had to restart his project." He snickers at me but I keep my head down as I answer, too scared to look him in the eye.

     "I'm not a runt. I'm just a hybrid." I whisper, but I know with his wolf ears, he's able to hear me just fine.

      "My dad said small wolves are runts and omegas. Are you calling my dad a liar?" He asks me, his hand coming to take the crayon in my hand and break in half making me whimper in fear.

      'Yes. He's a liar.' Jessie sneers but I remain quiet as I always do when Ben comes around. 'Cody you cant keep letting him do this.' But I ignore the words he says and sit quietly, hoping the bigger wolf with walk away and leave me alone.

     Before he can do anything, however Ashton speaks up form his spot across from me, barely looking up from his picture of the coral reef. "Leave him alone, Ben. Go back to your table." He says confidently and I stare at him in awe that someone who actually stick up for me besides Kara but the feeling doesn't last long as Ben turns his attention to the closest person to a friend that I have.

     "Shut up. You're just a faerie. What are you going to do Tinker Bell?" He tells Ashton, turning his body towards him.

    'Say something, Cody. Don't let him say that when he just defended you.' And as much as I just want to curl up and disappear and allow someone else to take the heat for once, Jessie is right. And so taking a deep breath, I finally say my first words against Ben.

"Don't talk to him like that. Leave him alone." I say and Ben whirls around to face me, only to laugh.

"Oh you think you're tough?" He says and I feel my fist ball up in my lap in anger at the stupid mean wolf. "The only thing you are is a small, stupid runt." He says grabbing my paper from the table and ripping the second attempt of Kara's present in half.

For the first time in my life, a growl escapes my lips and Ben's eyes widen as I stand out of my chair making it fall back and begin hitting him with my balled up fists. He trips over the leg of the table and he screams as he falls to the ground and I continue to hit him with tears streaming down my face.

"I am not a runt." I tell him sobbing as Mrs. Juniper comes racing to pull my sobbing form off of a scared Ben.

Instead of attending to him, she pulls me into her arms and I wail and repeat the words over and over through my cries. And from this day on I will never let me or anyone else get called a runt ever ever again.

'Good job, Cody.' Says Jessie and it calms me down a little bit as I glare at Ben, my teacher grabbing my hand to lead me to the tissues and I give the stupid wolf one last kick. The action makes him yelp and me smile in triumph even though I just got into my first fight.

~~~~~~~
The grammar and vocabulary isn't the best in this extra and that's on purpose. I'm writing from a fifth grader's POV so it can't have college level words yk?

Thoughts?

Comments?

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