Nerd's Badboy Alpha novel Chapter 11

When we reach the school, Alex gets out of his truck before me and opens my door to let me out. He grabs my elbow as I jump from inside the truck to the ground, like a dad helping his little girl. I give him a weird look and wrestle my elbow from his hold. "Stop being weird."

He laughs and ruffles my hair. "You're just extra adorable today, Melvin."

As we walk toward the campus, he takes my backpack from me, and I realize that people are actually stopping to stare at us. Alex doesn't seem to notice. People look at him all the time. Why would he care? Some of them are gawking, some downright hostile. The hostility comes from the females who want Alex Royce to be their boyfriend and there are a lot of them. Their glares feel like a sunburn after a full day at the beach. We pass by a couple of my friends who mouth WTF at me.

"Dude," I tell him when we stop at my locker. "You're going to get me killed."

He gives me my backpack. "You're exaggerating, Melvin. No one cares, all right? This whole hierarchy thing is all in your head. I don't see it."

I sigh. "You don't see it because you're at the top of it."

"Cut it out, bud. You worry too much. No one will mess with you on my watch." He chucks me on the chin and continues by himself down the hall.

The whole time, kids were watching us like we're a South Korean soap opera on Netflix. They look at me, then at him as he walks away, before looking back at me again. Okay, this is ridiculous. I'd really like to be invisible again.

As I turn away to put away some books for later classes, someone tugs on the end of my braid. I yelp and jump, bumping my head on my locker door.

"Oh, sorry," says my friend Molly with a sheepish smile on her face.

Molly Park is small and dark like me and most people mistake us for sisters, except she's Korean-American and I'm not. She's also a were-cat. She can shift into an orange tabby cat at will. "Jesus, man. You almost gave me a heart attack." I rub my head.

"What the hell, dude? Are you dating Alex Royce?"

I scoff. "Yeah, okay. Do I look like the kind of chick Alex Royce would go for? A bunch of hyenas kicked my ass two nights ago and he saved me. Now he thinks he has to look after me forever or something."

"Wow," Molly says, surprised. "That's some old-fashioned chivalry. Like Lancelot old-fashioned. I didn't think roughnecks like him were capable of that."

"He's not a roughneck. He's actually mad-decent. I was sick at home yesterday and he came over to check on me."

Her mouth drops open and she slaps my arm. "And you didn't think to call me, your best friend?"

And yet they're not dating because Serenity says she has no time for romance at the moment. She just wants to focus on her studies, so she can get into the university of her choice, the University of Cambridge in England. Her fallback is Harvard or Yale. She's also super busy with student council stuff and all sorts of other school activities. She's one of those go-getter gals.

I'm not. And I'm okay with that. I would just really like to maintain my low-profile existence, graduate high school with no incident, go to an integrated state college, and find a job within the pack afterward. I figured I'm destined for the library since I don't see Bethany or Tiffany wanting to take over from Aunt Ruffia. Uncle Alfred will assign me a mate who will hopefully not reject me because of my inability to shift and we'll have little shifter babies, live uneventful lives, and die as boring wolves.

Molly and I reach the classroom and we take our seats along the wall like we usually do so the teacher doesn't see us and calls on us. Not that she ever does. There are way too many impressive people in this class, like Alex and Serenity.

Alex and I actually share three classes this year: this one, Calculus, and American Literature. And yet until yesterday, he and I had never had any interactions. I'm just beneath the notice of someone like Alex Royce and I'm totally okay with that. It's better to be invisible than seen, but mocked, bullied and beat up.

Alex isn't in his usual seat in the middle yet. He's probably holding court over his minions somewhere or in the cafeteria having breakfast.

The caf actually has decent breakfast options: scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast, sausages, pancakes. Shifters consume a lot of calories, so the cafeteria always has hot food ready. I usually just eat scrambled eggs and fruit because my stomach can't handle much else, and I eat breakfast at home because the caf is Apex territory, much like everywhere else at school.

Two minutes before the second bell, Alex strolls in with his crew, all private schoolboy perfection in navy-blue blazer and trousers, white button-down shirt, and perfectly knotted necktie. He takes the seat next to me and his crew settles around him like satellites.

He smiles at me before opening his textbook. I look away and focus on the white board, trying to ignore the fluttering in my stomach.