When the last was gone, Ava and the others stood to begin the rest of the day. Attendants were all over the halls, pasting notices—game rules, practice times, training guides, and the teachers in charge.
Ava decided to check it out after the first class.
Strolling from the dome assembly, past the gigantic notice board, Ava forced herself and her overtly curious friends past the crowds surrounding the boards.
Deacon was clutching a flier and talking to his friends. “They have an ICT department, I’m not kidding. Look, I got the invite yesterday. I’m gonna go over there tomorrow with my parents to check it out.”
When they were past hearing range, Winta cocked her head and turned to Ava. “James got an invite, too. His parents are flying out next week.” She adjusted her backpack and looked away. But Ava caught the sharp slice of raw pain in those dark eyes before she did.
“Hey, it’s not that bad. He didn’t say he’ll transfer, did he?”
“I don’t know, Ava, and neither does he. His parents will decide after seeing the school. What if he goes? I don’t know how I’ll live with that.”
Ava and JiSoo reached for her hands on either side, “Hey, slow down. Next week we’ll know. For now, just enjoy the time you have together. Worrying about it won’t help.”
Winta groaned and placed her head on Ava’s shoulder. “It’s so haaaarrrddd.”
On cue, James appeared as if from nowhere as they were about to cut in to the training rooms. He had the same cute smile, but this semester, magically, the scrawny boy was all brawn and muscle.
His rolled-up sleeves exposed the muscles he’d somehow acquired in a matter of months. He wasn’t quite in-your-face handsome like Tarun, but he had an open, innocent face that was offset by his quick easy smile. One of his front teeth was chipped, broken on a dare to chew through a bucket of ice the first week of the semester.
He passed a steaming cup of coffee to Winta, but his charming blue eyes dimmed noticeably when he realized Winta was off in her own sad world. “Babe? What’s wrong?”
She gave a small shrug, “Nothing.”
“It’s clearly something….”
Ava slid behind Winta and pointed at Deacon who was holding the flier, talking animatedly about the new school.
His eyes cleared, understanding washing over him. “Babe, I told you it’s just a tour. I’m not transferring.”
Ava let go of Winta’s hand, opting to give the couple some privacy. “Uh guys, I’ll see you after class.”
“Me too,” JiSoo said, following close behind Ava.
And they left Winta and James to discuss their fate.
6
Winta whirled around on James. “It's not just a tour and you know it!” she burst out as soon as her friends were out of earshot.
James's eyes fell. His fists opened and closed and then opened again. Winta could clearly tell he was trying to string together words in his brain.
“Excuse me,” Winta muttered as someone bumped into her. The bell would go off soon, and the students flooded around them on their way to the different training rooms.
Finally, James's throat seemed to work again. “I don't want to transfer, but we both know my parents are concerned that my second form still hasn't come in.”
Winta’s shoulders dropped. “Yeah, I do know. Probably more than anyone else here. I know how much you struggle with it and how much it's affecting you. That's why I know how selfish it is that I don't want you to go.” She reached for his hand but dropped it again. “And your parents are probably right, the new school might help you develop it. I've heard that's their specialty…. I just… Oh God, I hate this.”
James ran his tongue over his teeth. “Yeah, it might help me, but I still don't want to go. I love it here. I love being with you here. Why would I want to jeopardize that?” He raked his hand through his hair. “Okay, maybe I just won't go on the tour. Would that bring that beautiful smile back?”
Winta jerked her chin back. “What? No. I don't want you to stay here against your parents’ wishes. You have to go on that tour.”
He shrugged. “Maybe my second form will show up before the tour so there will be no reason for them to send me.”
The warning bell rang just as she was about to respond.
“Okay, I have to go.” She forced her chin up.
“Winta,” he said weakly as he reached for the sides of her face with his hands.
“I can't. I just can't deal with this now. I'll see you later.” She stepped away from him, walking away with her quick, long strides, the bottom of her plaid uniform dress swishing with every step.
She knew how much it pained James that he was the only one in their group—heck, probably the only one in the whole school—left who hadn't manifested into his second form by his third year.
He couldn't join them when they all went out to play and train in their larger forms. Even though she didn't have a second transformation either, it was different because she was already an elephant. She was the biggest shifter of their whole group. And he was by far the smallest.
And she knew what it was like to feel like an outcast. After all, up until this year, she was forced to sleep outside because she still hadn't harnessed her shifting power enough and still accidentally shifted in her sleep. This was the first year she was allowed to sleep inside her dorm room because she could finally control it.
Yup, she knew what it was like to be the odd one out, and if transferring to a new school would help him develop his shifter abilities so he could finally manifest into his second form and never feel like an outcast again, she certainly wouldn't hold that against him, even if it meant the end of the relationship.
James sat next to Ava, watching her chew on the head of her pen as they both tried to focus on what Professor Bills was droning on about.
Something about timing your shift properly in an attack…whatever.
None of their other friends were in this class, so Ava and James stuck together.
Still not happy about his conversation with Winta, he would be grateful for anything that could take his mind off of it, and listening to Bills’s droning voice certainly wasn't doing it for him. James hadn't put two words together since he walked into the classroom, and he was fully aware that Ava knew exactly what he was upset about. Girls talked. So Winta had certainly told her what she was upset about by now.
“Now, I want you all to take this class period and select which two games to sign up for. Each of you have to pick two of the four, and I'm passing sign-up sheets around now, then you will have the rest of this time to head outside and train. Bills informed them.
Thankful for something to focus on other than breaking his beautiful girlfriend's heart, James eagerly grabbed the sign-up sheet off the empty desk in front of him before the fox shifter next to it could grab it first.
“What will you sign up for?” Ava asked him as she eyed the sign-up sheet.
“I don't know yet.” He eyed the paper, trying to decide which games were the least likely to humiliate him. “What about you?”
“Probably the race and the war games,” Ava surmised.
“Really? Not the obstacle course?”
“After making a complete fool out of myself in the winter games last year in that obstacle course? Are you kidding me?” Ava leaned back.
“You didn’t make a fool out of yourself. You just had trouble with the water—that's understandable for a cat.”
“Whatever.” Ava shook her head. “I assume you're going for animal soccer? You played soccer in your last school, right? You should be a shoo-in.”
“I didn't play soccer! I played football. As in, the game where we actually hit the ball with our feet! Not what you Americans call football, which is actually soccer. Sheesh.”
“So wait.” Ava scrunched her brow “Is this going to be American soccer or European soccer?”
James explained patiently, “This is Australia, so their version of soccer is the same as ours; it's what you American
s call football—for whatever weird reason.”
Ava laughed. “Okay, but still, animal soccer is one of the games, and you have experience with sports, so that's probably your best bet.”
James tapped his pen to his chin. “That's a good point actually. You're probably right. And then maybe I should do the race? At least I can fly fast in my hummingbird form.”
Ava's eyes suddenly gleamed as she turned her whole body to face him. “Gonna compete against me in the race, huh?”
He didn't roll his eyes, but he came close. “Ava, we’re not competing against each other in the final trials, remember? We're going up against other schools. You don't have to prove yourself against me; I already know you're better.”
Her glow heightened, which definitely wasn't what he was going for. “What's the matter, little hummingbird?” She raised a mischievous eyebrow. “Scared a girl is going to beat the crap out of you?”
James scoffed. He wasn't about to fall into her trap. “I also know you ran track in your former high school. You won awards, for goodness’ sake! I don't want to compete with that. I don't want to compete with you at all.”
“Okay then, you're definitely scared,” she drawled, flicking her hair back over her shoulder.
“No, Ava, I'm not scared, I'm just not stupid.” He folded his arms.
“Prove it.” She winked and then turned to face Bills again, but her body was taut, her back ramrod straight. “Besides, I ran track, and you played soccer, so we’re equal.”
“That's not equal and you know it, you slick cat.”
“Fine, but either way, we're about to get out there and face off, so let's go!” She hastily scribbled her signature underneath the games she wanted to sign up for on the sheet and jumped up, grabbing her backpack from under her chair.
James rubbed the back of his neck as he signed his name under hers for the races. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut, but nooooo, he had to wake the dragon. Why did he even ask her what she was doing in the first place? Now she wanted to race him.
He hadn't even started the training yet and he was already exhausted.
7
Tarun was stuck on patrol that day. Or so he made it seem—he’d actually just gone there voluntarily, not even bothering to shift. The other shifters on the patrol team were not there. Only him. In one hand, he clutched an empty Vampire Serum bottle, in the other, a single piece of paper that had arrived in the mail earlier.
His mother had written it herself: ‘The doctor confirmed it. I’m cancer-free.’
There was a smudge of blue ink next to the words. Tarun didn’t have to be a detective to know that it was his mother’s tears.
‘Your father would be so happy,’ she’d also written. Those were the words that’d driven him to a double-shot of serum and a pretend patrol shift. He was the reason why his father would never see his mother smile again. He was the reason why his family had a gaping hole. He was a curse, a terrible plague that struck the Gulati family.
The letter in his hand burned his skin, and his fist tightened around it. Nothing was going to bring his father back. The worst part was that Tarun couldn’t get the vision out of his head—he couldn’t forget that night.
Ava had cornered him after a quiet and tense dinner; he’d escaped with the lame excuse of an upset stomach, but really, he’d disappeared to down an extra dose of Vampire Serum.
He stood by the bluffs, watching the water rave, crash darkly against the rocks. It was exactly how he felt: like an oncoming storm was brewing inside him. It was just at the edge, pushing to come out, to break free.
He knew what he had to do.
He didn’t like it—this solution to the unending abyss that was his mind. The wind whipped his hair into his eyes, blurring his vision as he took the first step forward. His boot knocked against a protruding rock.
His left leg dragged him further. His heart thumped heavily, blood pounding in his ears; he couldn’t hear, couldn’t see. It was just him and the sea—waiting to encompass him in its ferocious arms. This was right. No one needed a curse like him around. Ava thought he was good, but she didn’t know what he truly was. A pariah who brought pain and sadness wherever he went.
Another slow step. He could see below now. The jagged rocks poking through thundering waves. Tarun’s breath caught in his throat—it was hard to breathe. The cold he felt shook him from inside, the letter burning a hole in his fist.
His mother’s words flashed in his vision.
With a scream that rose from the depths of his soul, Tarun thew himself off the edge into the darkness. Gusts of wind pushed against his skin as he fell and the sea below rushed at him....
“TARUN, NOOOOO!”
A dream…
He was gone, and he could still hear her…
He’d miss her the most.
“Stooooppppppp!”
He heard it again through the haze—the clouds in his head. Then, the winds stopped, the sea was no longer rushing toward him, the rocks no longer pointing at his heart. He hung suspended in mid air, his arms and legs flailing.
A force, as if from nowhere, snatched him up and flung him out of the bluffs. He landed on the soft grass at the perimeter of the patrol grounds.
Bracing his fists on the grass, he struggled to his feet. He hadn’t yet caught his breath when Ava rammed into him head-on and knocked him flat on the ground.
He opened his mouth to speak, to defend himself, when her fist came flying out. A bone cracked; his nose shattered. He could taste the metallic tang of blood.
She didn’t stop there.
Eyes blazing furiously, she jumped from him and began to kick him over and over. In the ribs, his back, his head. No part of him was safe. His head was clear now, and if this continued she would literally kill him.
He opened his swollen lips to talk, and blood spurted. “Ava, stop!”
Her shoulders quivered, her breath coming in gasps. He couldn’t see her face under that bush of purple hair covering it. She crashed to her knees and began to pummel him again with blows, sobs racking her entire body. She was shaking violently and making blubbering noises that sounded like words he couldn’t understand.
Her right fist slashed out again and he caught it before it landed. “Ava.”
She struggled against him, but he wouldn’t let her go. She stopped and fell atop him, still sobbing, her hands flat on his chest.
“Why, WHY? Why would you do that?” she cried.
A purplish light spewed from where she held his chest; it spread into him, tiny threads into every part of him that was hurting, that ached. Soon the pain stopped, his blood caked, crusted on his face, the pounding in his head ceased.
“Tarun, why?!” she demanded again.
He rolled her off to the ground, smoothed the hair off her tear-streaked face. Speech was hard; his throat was packed with words, but his lips were frozen. His eyes roved her face.
“You could’ve talked to me, or anyone. Not this—this is not an option.” Her voice quivered as she spoke.
He pushed against the block in his throat. A bitter taste in his mouth. “I didn’t know what else to do, I was lost, I’m lost. I—I keep seeing his face—it’s everywhere I go,” he replied, his voice pained.
“Who?!” She gave him a shove. “Who are you talking about?”
He groaned deep in his throat, then lay back on the grass. “My father.”
“Your father?” she repeated. She propped her head on her hand. Her free hand went to wipe snot from her streaming nose. Her brows were creased, those eyes asking him to delve into a part of him that he preferred to shut off forever.
“I killed him, Ava. I murdered my father.” Saying the words felt cathartic. He watched and waited for the revulsion to rise, for her to spring up and condemn him, but all that appeared in that face was more confusion.
“Tarun, what are you talking about?”
“Before I came back last semester.”
“Yeah?”
�
�I went ho—home…to um, to…”
“What?! Tarun, I know you, whatever it is, you can tell me. I don’t know what happened to your father, but I’m sure it’s not your fault. Please.”
“That’s just it, Ava. It is my fault.”
“No. No. Tarun.”
“Yes, it is!”
“Okay, okay…” she braced her palms and leaped up. She stretched one hand out to him. “C’mon, let’s get you inside. The attendants will be looking for us, and they probably need to lock up or something. We’ll talk there...and don’t get any ideas of slipping away.”
He took her hand and pushed himself up. The enormity of what he just did dawned on him, and he swayed on his feet. A wave of dizziness swept through him; she caught him before he hit the ground.
“Are you okay?” she asked, concern etched in her beautiful face.
“Not yet,” he stroked the side of her cheek, close to that dimple he simply adored. How could he have shut her out? “But I will be.”
She stared at him, lips slightly apart. Her breath caught when he touched her bare skin, making his heart pound for a whole other reason. She was his anchor; his heart--how could he have thought of leaving?
“I—”
“Shh, save it. For now.”
He nodded, allowed her to lead him down the path that led back to the main school grounds. Through the windows, he could see the lights streaming from various dorms. The girl beside him, walking with short, measured strides, trying so hard to hide what she was feeling. He felt it in their joined hands, in the way she clutched his hand, squeezing.
She avoided looking at him--he couldn’t tell if it was repulsion or pity. But he did look at her--he gulped it in like a man in a desert. He admired her--her skin, spotless and glinting off the light from the moon. Her cherubic face, rosebud lips that he hadn’t kissed enough lately. The perfect cheekbones that framed her face into the heart-shaped beauty she was.
Looking at her profile, he wondered what drove him to take that drastic decision. Then again, he was deceiving himself. It was because he didn’t want that naked adoration in her eyes to fade when she looked at him, didn’t want her to know that he felt like an alien in his own home no matter how many times people toed the line: ‘It wasn’t your fault.’
Animage Academy: Year Three ~ The Shifter Academy Down Under (The Shifter School Down Under Book 3) Page 4
