“Wait.” I settled back into my seat at Mrs. Sandlewood’s voice. “Your food card. I forgot all about it.”
My mom smacked her head. “Oh my goddess, so did I.” I looked over at her and raised an eyebrow.
“I know you mentioned it before just now, but what is the deal? Couldn’t I just buy food with my debit card?” I switched between the two laughing women. “What?”
“Baby. The university works within a specific system. The only card you can use to purchase anything here is the food card.”
“We have been using the system for years. It’s stopping kids from flashing their money around.” Mrs. Sandlewood typed on her computer. “We load the card, and it comes with a specific daily limit that you can’t go over.”
“Why?” I was dumbfounded. What on earth was going on? In my last life, Brandon stopped me from going to university, so I was completely lost hearing this.
“Years ago, there were a few Alphas that went out of their way to throw their weight around. One was to torment other students, and then stood up and made a point.”
“What exactly happened?” I turned to my mother, and she snickered.
“Well, there was an Alpha that was throwing his money around.” She started between her chuckles. “Specifically, when I started here.”
“Okay…” I shook my head in confusion.
“Well, the first Alpha was from a richer pack, and he flaunted it.” Mrs. Sandlewood picked up the story as my mother lost it to her giggles. “He would try to buy things for his friends, and even bought out the textbooks for one class.”
“Screwing over the rest of the class.” My mother interrupted.
“He was from a much richer pack?”
“And a little bit of an asshole.” My mother cackled.
“And then the second Alpha, he bought out the entire store and gave everything away to the other students. He made sure everyone was ready for their classes with the textbooks, except for the first Alpha.”
“It was incredible.” My mother wiped her eyes, finally done laughing.
“It was something. I worked here in the office back then and was witness to the mayhem they both created. The card system was implemented within a month.”
I nodded along. “Who were the Alphas?” I looked at Mrs. Sandlewood, but she was clearly not going to answer.
My mother rubbed my hand as she coughed. “Vince was the first Alpha, and the second was your father.”
There was a thick silence in the room until Mrs. Sandlewood cleared her throat. “Now, that story isn’t meant to be run around the school, so keep it to yourself.”
“Of course.” I automatically answered.
“So, how much would you like to add to your card?”
“How often can we load it?” My mom asked. “When it first started, there was a one-time loading, and the kids had to learn to budget.”
Mrs. Sandlewood nodded. “The program is the same. That’s why Alpha Vince typed up the requirements for Alphas. He wanted you to be prepared before you came and had to budget.”
My mom looked at me and kind of bobbed her head back and forth. “And the remainder of the money at the end of the semester — is it rolled over or is it emptied and then reloaded?”
“We changed that, where we used to refund it every semester. We recently moved to a rollover method. You can add to it at the beginning of each semester, but once it’s gone, it’s gone until the end of the term.”
My mom nodded and looked at me. “You aren’t stupid with your money. But I want to make sure you have enough to do what you want.” She bit her lip as she thought about it.
“How much is normally added?” I turned back to Mrs. Sandlewood.
“Oh.” She clicked a few times on her computer and then nodded. “Beta’s or lower usually load between twenty-five and forty thousand dollars. But the Alphas usually load more.”
“Why?” My mom kept counting things on her hands, and I just laughed.
