James got on the bus in a terrible mood. He saw Meg sitting in her usual seat, but he had no desire to sit next to anyone. So he found an empty row of seats on the other side of the bus and plopped down on a seat.

Meg could see he was upset, and instinctively moved closer to see if there was anything she could do to cheer him up. James curtly told her nothing was wrong. Meg knew he wasn’t being honest, so she asked again. James turned his head towards her and again said that nothing was wrong, and to please not bother him.

Meg was hurt by his attitude towards her. She thought that he was different from other boys, and that he liked her enough to ask her on a date despite their size difference. Now he was acting like a jerk. She moved back to her seat in silence.

James was still upset about his mom’s reaction from the night before. His parents, especially his mom, had been so supportive of him growing up, encouraging him to follow his heart and dream big. He thought his mom would have been ecstatic and happy that he found a girl that he really liked. Instead, her reaction broke his heart. 

Growing up, he wouldn’t, even couldn’t, do anything to upset his mom. He loved and respected her that much. She had always been there for him no matter what. Now, he suddenly felt like he would be betraying her if he took Meg out. He wanted to close his eyes and wish everything away.

The bus arrived at school, and the students filed out. James let everyone exit, then left himself. Upon entering the school, the hallway was crowded as usual. Students, especially the girls, would talk to each other like they had seen them in years, despite talking on the phone the night before. 

James could see that the mood of the crowd was upbeat, which amplified his feeling of misery. And he was being overwhelmed by feelings of conflict. He loved his mom, but he really liked Meg. He felt like he couldn’t win no matter what he did.

Tom pulled his truck into work. He was feeling very apprehensive. He replayed the incident with the secretaries the day before, plus the talk and sense he got from Susan, over and over in his head. He had absolutely no idea what would happen, or how he would be treated. But he decided that he had a job to do, and he was going to do it to the best of his ability.

Tom made his way into the office. The secretaries were huddled together towards the back. They were chatting and laughing, but Tom sensed that they weren’t laughing about him. They seemed to be having a genuine conversation involving humorous family exploits. So he made a beeline for his desk, and quietly sat down. 

He didn’t see Susan around. He thought that maybe she was running late or in a meeting. And he was alone with the secretaries. He silently prayed that there would be no incident like the day before.

The secretaries took their seats and began working. About 10 minutes later, one of the secretaries asked Tom if he could get coffee for them. Tom wasn’t sure that he had heard correctly. Did they just ask him to get coffee instead of telling him? He wasn’t about to question anything, so he got right on it.

Five minutes later, he returned with his cart full of coffee cups and each lady had their morning caffeine fix. After Tom put the last cup on the last desk, one of the women called him over. Tom and cart arrived. The lady placed a large file on his cart and told him to make copies and then drop the original folder off in accounting. 

Tom took the cart with the file and did as instructed. One thing he noticed about the lady was that her instructions were given professional-like, not with disdain. Maybe Susan’s talk with the secretaries was having an effect. He couldn’t be certain, because the secretary who gave the task was usually very quiet, and he never sensed outright hostility from her. But he didn’t want to disappoint her, so he completed the job as quickly as possible, for him, and came back to the office. 

When he returned, the lady with whom he had the incident with, had more files for him to drop off. She piled folder upon folder on his cart, and told him to take them to personnel. Tom noticed that her contempt for him was still there. She shot him a look and told him to get going.

Tom started to push the cart, but was having trouble. It was a lot heavier than he thought, and used all of his strength to push as hard as he could, but the cart only moved a couple of inches. The secretary got up out her seat and, with one hand, pushed the cart to the door with ease. She looked down at Tom and sneered that if he couldn’t do the job, then he should quit. Tom’s face was beet red with embarrassment. He could barely move the cart with all his strength and two hands. Yet the large lady moved it with one hand and no effort.

The secretary was about to say something else, when Susan arrived. She saw Tom and the secretary, and the upset look on his face. Then she saw the cart, and all the thick, heavy folders on it, and she immediately guessed what the incident was about. 

Susan told the secretary to go back to her desk, and the lady complied. Susan then grabbed about three quarters of the folders and told Tom to follow her with his cart. Tom looked at the size of the folders in Susan’s arms and thought that he still wouldn’t be able to move his cart if they were the only things on it. And yet, Susan was carrying them like the were nothing.

Tom followed Susan to Personnel and she drop her folders off and told him to wait for a copy of a list. Tom thanked her for her help. Susan smiled and said it was no problem, then left to go back to the office. 

Once in the office, Susan had a talk with the lady who was quickly becoming a very big pain in the ass for Tom. Susan reminded the lady that Tom was there to help the secretaries, not to be abused, harassed, or humiliated by them. He was still a human being.

The secretary reminded Susan that she felt that Tom’s presence in the office was a hindrance to it running efficiently. And it wasn’t her fault that he wasn’t as strong as the ladies in the office, nor was it their problem. He was inferior to them in every way. And that if he couldn’t do the job he should quit.

Susan was getting mad. She told the secretaries to be nicer to Tom. She went to her desk and seethed. As reprehensible as the secretary’s attitude towards Betas in general, and Tom in particular, she couldn’t fire her. It was a by-product of the Alphas basically becoming the dominant subset of the human population. Rules and laws designed by Alphas to benefit Alphas and Alphas alone. It made her, an Alpha, feel powerless. The best she could do was to try and protect Tom from the lady’s wrath.

Back at school, James was still upset about the situation he found himself in. He was distracted, not really paying attention in History class. His mind was playing ping pong. Back and forth, his mom, or Meg. It was giving him a headache. 

After class, he absentmindedly ran into the back of a freshman Alpha girl, and promptly ended up on the seat of his pants. The girl turned around and looked down at him. James didn’t know her name, but she was in his grade.

James apologized to the girl, but she wasn’t in the mood to accept. She started yelling at him that he should be more aware of Alphas because, as a little Beta, he could get hurt. James, who was still on the ground, told her that he had apologized for running into her, and it was an accident, and maybe she should be more aware of Betas.

This set the girl off. She wasn’t used to being talked to like that by a Beta. She felt disrespected, so she reached down and grabbed him by his shirt and effortlessly lifted him up so that his feet were off the ground. She told him to apologize for what he said. James refused. The girl was getting madder and madder, but James held firm. He was scared, but he wasn’t going to show it.

The girl brought his face closer to hers and was about to say something when James heard a familiar voice telling the girl to put him down. It was Meg. The girl looked at her, then James, and asked why should she. Meg told her that her was her boyfriend, and if she hurt him, then she would have to deal with her.

The girl finally looked fully at Meg, and saw that Meg was about a foot taller than she was, and weighing her options, decided to gently place James on the ground. Meg stepped towards the girl, and the girl apologized to Meg for the trouble. Meg told the girl to apologize to James. The girl got an incredulous look on her face, but saw the steel in Meg’s eyes, and turned towards James and apologized for the “misunderstanding “. And then the girl left.

James looked up at Meg and felt a wave of embarrassment. Here he was at 6’5” having to be saved from harm by a much larger girl. But he was thankful that Meg showed up when she did. He couldn’t think of anything else to do, so he went up to her and tried to give her a tight hug around her waist, but his long arms weren’t quite long enough to meet up behind her. He thanked her for what she did. 

Meg looked down at him and started running her hand through his hair. They still had another 10 minutes before class, so James took her much larger hand with his, apologized to her for his behavior earlier, and explained everything about the night before and the talk with his. 

Meg listened sympathetically. She had been in his shoes. She liked boys that were smaller than her, only to run into parental disapproval. She reassured him that things would work out. As she was speaking her last words, James motioned her to bend down, which she did. Then he stood on his toes and struggled to give her a kiss. Sensing what he was trying to do, she lifted him up enough for him to give that kiss. It made both of them feel better.