We attended the local school in Clearwater Valley, Colorado. Yes, it was great living in the Rockies and yes, the skiing was to die for. Just one problem: our pack was flat broke and to my knowledge not a single shifter in the pack had ever come within four miles of a ski slope. At least not in human form anyway.

If you asked Jules, he’d tell you school was the best. He’d mean it, too. He might not even be wrong. School might very well have been the best for him. Jules had no problem fitting in with people. He blended in like he was made for it. He walked down the hallways as if he was skating on wheels. Guys called out to him and greeted him like dogs who’d just heard the word “walkies.” Girls moistened their lips and went quiet when they saw him coming. They fixed their hair surreptitiously and laughed a little too loudly when he got close.

If you asked me, I’d tell you school was a colossal crock of shit. If you had a few hours to spare, I’d happily tell you all the ways in which the education system sucked, but if not, you’d just have to take my word for it. It was shit. Even if you could get past the failings of the curriculum, you’d still be left with everything else. The teachers. The students. The shrill voices. The fakeness. The fear. I heard it and felt it and smelled it all over campus. It was loud. Too loud. It interrupted my thoughts and by the end of the day, my brain felt like it was buzzing.

“That bad, huh?” Jules said when we met at our usual meeting place near the school gate and started walking home.

“Worse,” I snarled.

“Only two weeks till summer vacation. Then you’ll be a junior. You’ll be a free man before you know it.”

The thought of the summer vacation did make me feel better. It made me feel a whole lot better. It was going to be great. What didn’t make me feel better was the thought that because of when our birthdays fell, Jules was a year ahead of me. I had two years left of school, and he only had one.

I sighed loudly. “Ugh, two more years of this bullshit. Don’t remind me.” I knew if I thought school was bad now, it was going to get a hell of a lot worse when Jules finished, and I had to attend on my own for the last year.

“Pity your folks didn’t put you in first grade with me. With that brain, you could easily have coped.”