Animage Academy: The Shifter School Down Under Year One

by Qatarina Wanders

  She gulped and decided it was best to hide within the crowd as she entered. That way, they wouldn’t pick her out. She clenched her smallest bag close to her, the only one Paul hadn't sent ahead. And they forced her to give up her phone while still on the boat. Cell phones weren't allowed on school grounds for fear the secret would be more likely to leak out to unsuspecting, mundane humans.

  As she walked, she kept her eyes fixed on the cobblestones. One foot in front of the other. The path was wide enough to accommodate all the approaching students without excessive shoving. Unconsciously, she kept her hair covering more than half of her face. And as she looked around, she thought to herself that she really should have worn the shoes her mother had picked out for her instead of her sneakers. All the girls passing by her made loud clicking noises with the high heels of their fancy designer shoes.

  Beautiful wildflowers lined the pathway. Ava let the scents wash over her. She inhaled deeply, allowing the fragrance to calm her frazzled nerves.

  She kept reminding herself there was nothing to fear, nothing to be ashamed of. Not that it helped, because as they got closer and closer, her trepidation spiked. All those doubts came to the surface. She was an embarrassment.

  She spotted little Priya ahead. The girl had already made friends with other children her age. Ava smiled sadly. Her only friend so far had already gone off with other children. But that's what children do. She immediately felt ridiculous for feeling jealous of little kids.

  It appeared as though the school admitted as many students as possible this year. From all parts of the world. She saw students clad in full burqas, turbans, and kimonos.

  The surrounding fragrances grew stronger. No longer floral, but something entirely unique. Ava looked up and sniffed the air. Many shifters have the sharpest of senses. Especially the sense of smell. Instinctively, she knew they were approaching some sort of magical barrier.

  She looked down, refusing to lift her head. Her heart thudded, and she clasped her hands behind her back, noticing they had turned ice cold and somewhat numb. Just a few steps now and she would be inside.

  That's when she felt someone lurch into her. She looked up and realized all the students had stopped directly in front of the main steps.

  The doors were extremely wide. She saw they were even wider than she initially thought. If she stretched out her arms, she wouldn't be able to reach the doorframe on both sides.

  She saw Paul standing ahead of her, right next to the doorway, arranging students into a line on the steps. Had she missed some sort of speech or instructions he had given? The students in front of her were moving ahead and nodding. Was she the only person who didn't know what was happening?

  Then she saw the first student approach the doors. A tall red-haired boy clutching a white backpack.

  As he entered the doorway, Ava heard a distinct buzzing noise. The school entrance seemed to vibrate, and, immediately, the redhead’s human skin fell away in an instant. The gruesome sound of tearing muscles and cracking bones filled Ava's ears.

  Squatting in his place in the doorway now was a cute little black bunny. His pink ears wiggled as he hopped back and forth.

  The laughter and the jeers came next.

  Oh no.

  Apparently the entranceway forced the student to shift….

  "Oh look, it's an adorable little bunny!"

  Those words may have sounded nice under any other circumstances, but the laughter that followed was just short of brutal.

  A nearby attendant, a gorgeous woman dressed in a strict black suit, nodded approvingly, and the bunny hopped in farther, shifting back a moment later, and disappearing inside the building. Thankfully, his clothes shifted with him, otherwise the whole situation would have been ten times more painful.

  Well, that was reassuring. At least the school somehow made sure they didn’t end up naked for all to see.

  Paul continued to guide the students through the entranceway one at a time. Dozens of typical Australian animals went through, as well as a few dragons, a buffalo, two gorillas, several assorted birds, and a handful of some other less-impressive animals. Ava could always tell by the upcoming student’s mannerisms if they were about to shift into something they’d rather not. A sheep shifter started shaking uncontrollably and almost fell down the steps twice before he made it to the top. And then a pair of twin guinea-pig shifters were permitted to go through together because one of them wouldn't stop crying.

  After that, a group of seven shark shifters went through one by one. Each of them looking around proudly before being forced into their shift. They were particularly interesting to watch because they couldn't walk around. As sharks, they could only lay there and roll around awkwardly before shifting back. The student directly in front of Ava was an octopus shifter. She made an entertaining show of moving up the entranceway wall, sticking herself to the ceiling, shifting back, and doing a graceful and likely well-planned backflip in mid air. She landed with her arms raised and took a bow in front of all the students. Everyone clapped.

  Great, thought Ava, now I have to follow that.

  She took a deep breath as Paul beckoned her forward and gave her a gentle push toward the school entrance.

  Here goes nothing. Ava placed one quivering foot on the doorstep, glancing around quickly, hoping most of the students weren’t paying her much attention.

  Unfortunately, most of them had given their rapt attention to the octopus girl and were still staring intently, waiting to see what Ava would become.

  Damn the school security system for this. Perhaps if she’d had time to prepare, she wouldn't be shaking like a leaf in the summer breeze right now. But it made sense the school needed to test every student upon entering. Who knows? Maybe they’d had non-shifter stowaways onboard in the past.

  The instant she moved under the archway, that pesky house cat she tried so hard to tamp down in the taxi jumped into existence for all to see. Her clothes vanished, only to return (hopefully) when she morphed back.

  The hall on both sides of her erupted in laughter.

  She looked around, her ears back in displeasure. Letting out a little meow, she wished she could somehow make them understand this wasn't her fault. It's not like she asked to be a tabby cat.

  Her shabby brown fur was the same color of her shabby brown hair, but she had some dark stripes here and there across her whole body. To make matters worse, she was small, even for a cat. When she was younger, she had accidentally shifted in the house a few times and had to run for dear life while Buster chased her around. Even her pug was bigger than she was in her cat form.

  The previous name-calling and jeering was nothing compared to what she was currently receiving. Why were they being so mean? Why her? I mean, sure, she was a kitty cat, but the other students hadn't even ridiculed the guinea pigs this badly.

  Her ears thumped, and she heard the blood pounding in her head viciously. She couldn't take a second longer, and without waiting for the attendant’s approval, her bones elongated, that nauseating cracking noise taking over, and she returned to her human form, her brown hair once again cascading down her back, nearly touching her waist.

  Trying not to cry, she popped her nose in the air. No tears, Ava. That would be a lot more humiliating.

  The attendant shot her a dirty look, but didn't reprimand her for shifting back too early. Instead, she pointed toward a desk behind her where several students waited in line to receive their room allocation.

  Upon receiving her room number, she barely looked at what was written on it, and hightailed it out of there as quickly as possible. She didn't know where she was going, even though there were attendants everywhere trying to give directions, but it seemed the majority of the students lining the halls were headed in one direction, so she followed suit.

  Eventually, she was able to get her wits about her enough to look at the room allocation on the card she was holding. She expected a series of numbers, but the only thing printed on the maroon card was the
number three. She flipped it over a couple more times before looking up with a confused expression.

  That couldn't be right. Just number three? She looked closer at other students passing by—they were holding cards like hers, but the cards were different colors. Did that mean something? She should've paid better attention.

  She looked around, somewhat frantically, for another school attendant who could help her. That's when she noticed a group of beautiful but not-at-all-friendly-looking girls push past her, holding maroon cards as well. One of them shot her an unpleasant side glance, and then said, just loud enough for Ava to hear, "Oh goody, they put the tiny kitten in Maroon with us."

  Ava groaned. What did they mean by tiny kitten? She was a full-grown tabby, darn it. Just wait, she would scratch those mean girls’ eyes out one by one. She would show them who looked harmless and cute.

  Still reeling from the whole ordeal in the entranceway, and the girls’ comments, it took her a minute to notice the maroon doorway and the gleaming curved stairs that whirled beneath it where all those girls holding the maroon cards had disappeared.

  Wait a second, they said the academy put me in Maroon... That must be the name of the dormitory wing….

  Still seething relentlessly, she jogged after them, completely unaware of the other stir her presence was causing nearby.

  6

  Tarun stood next to Deacon, a gorilla shifter, on the adjacent stairway. Their attendant was spouting instructions and the rules of the dormitories, but neither of them were paying much attention. Deacon was the first to spot her. "Yo! Dude, check out that hot little thing over there."

  Tarun slapped his friend lightly upside the head. "Stupid comments like that are why you're still single." But even so, he followed Deacon's gaze and recognized her instantly. The pretty girl he had shown around on the boat. The one who had almost knocked him off his feet, both literally and figuratively.

  "Too bad she's a house cat. Can't be seen with her." Deacon was just rambling at that point, and Tarun was trying to ignore him.

  "Although even if we can't hang around together in public, I wouldn't mind getting her behind closed doors…" Deacon just kept on going.

  That got Tarun's attention. "Dude, what the heck is wrong with you? You seriously wouldn't hang out with that super-hot girl just because she's a tabby cat?" A look of disgust crossed over his features. "But you would still be happy to have your way with her as long as no one knew?"

  Deacon didn't seem to notice the horror crossing Tarun's features. "No, of course not. She would never fit in with us."

  Tarun didn't answer. He was too busy staring at Ava. He watched her lick her lips and take a swipe at her eyes. Was she crying?

  "You're stupid, Deacon," he finally said. But Deacon just kept plowing forward like a bulldozer. "Now that chick right there—her I would be happy to show off."

  Tarun looked around. "Which one?"

  "Blonde hair, huge boobs, pink low-cut shirt. Right that way." He pointed.

  "Oh, yeah, I see her." Tarun sounded little more than mildly interested. "What is she?"

  "Is your eyesight going, old man?" Deacon teased. "You can't see that shifter mark? From the looks of it, she's some sort of bird of prey. Looks like an eagle or a falcon."

  Tarun just glared daggers at Deacon before pulling his head back toward their dormitory attendant giving instructions.

  The big-chested blonde girl didn't look like an agreeable person. Tarun could tell she was being rude to those near her. "It looks like she's practically punching people out of the way. Doesn’t that bother you?"

  Deacon just chuckled. "She's a fiery one, that's all." He was still twisting his head backward to get a good look at her when their group reached the top of their stairs.

  “Didn’t we meet her at the school tour this summer?” Tarun asked.

  “Oh, that’s right! Eagle shifter for sure. What was her name?”

  Tarun shook his head. He didn’t remember, and he didn’t want to.

  Following a group of students, Ava finally found an attendant to explain where she needed to go. Ava stopped at the second door on her left...at the top of the Maroon stairs, and stared at the sign on it. Number three. This was it. She slid the old-fashioned gold key they gave her into the lock and turned it until it clicked open.

  "Dinner’s at six, don't be late," the attendant called out from down the hallway.

  She certainly wouldn't be, and her stomach rumbled in agreement.

  As soon as she stepped inside the room, she froze where she was.

  It looked like someone had vomited Pepto Bismol all over the interior of the room. Everything was bright pink. Well, half of it anyway. The bed, pillows, walls, table, even the ceiling was pink with glitter. Yes, glitter. Ava suppressed a tiny gag.

  She was still standing there with a look somewhere between confusion and disgust across her face when a pretty blonde girl exited the bathroom, snapping a makeup compact shut. The girl was halfway to her pink bed before she noticed Ava standing in the doorway.

  "Who are you?" the girl asked. Her skin sparkled everywhere it was exposed from her strapless pink top. Had she seriously covered herself in glitter? And how was she breathing in that tight thing she was wearing?

  Ava couldn't read the girl's expression, but she guessed the girl was less than thrilled to see her. "I… Uh… I'm Ava. Ava Carrington."

  The girl's perfectly drawn-on right eyebrow slid up her forehead.

  This was clearly someone who was aware of her power and used to using it, Ava noted, her heart sinking. She'd really been hoping for a roommate she could get along with. Then at least she would have one friend.

  "And what is that supposed to mean to me?" asked the girl, finally.

  "Well, I'm your new roommate," Ava confirmed, even though she thought it should have been obvious. She observed the girl further. She would've been truly stunning if it weren't for the perpetual sneer on her lips. Her eyes were also entirely too narrow.

  The girl rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I told Marta I was fine on my own!" Whoever Marta was, Ava didn't want to be in her shoes. This sassy blonde looked ready to kill.

  "Well, it's already done, so which bed is mine?" Ava asked and immediately regretted it. It was pretty obvious which one was hers. The one that didn't look like it was set in Barbie’s pink palace.

  The girl drew the back of her hand to her hairline and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, grumbling, "Please, not a stupid one."

  For the umpteenth time today, Ava wanted to crawl into a hole and die. "Right, I'll take that one." And she moved toward the second bed. Thankfully, the beds were pretty far apart from each other. Their room was quite sizable.

  "I assume these are yours?" The girl pulled open the closet Ava hadn't seen until just now because it was so pink it blended in with everything else.

  "Oh, yes, my bags." Ava didn't know how Paul had pulled that off, but she shook her head and moved to grab them gratefully. It was his job, after all. But she would worry about that later, because, for now, she had a pissed-off queen bee on her hands.

  "You haven't told me your name…" Ava ventured, trying to see if she could make the best of this conversation. Maybe, once the girl realized having a roommate was inevitable, they could be friends. That's what roommates did, right? Learned to love each other?

  The girl walked toward her slowly, her hips swinging from left to right. When she was inches from Ava's face, she jabbed her perfectly manicured pink pointy fingernail into Ava's chest. "I'm Elaine. Never, ever, touch my stuff."

  Ava stared back at her. Okay, maybe not then.

  7

  Tarun leaned against the wall, watching.

  His bowtie was choking him, and he readjusted it for the fifth time in probably two minutes.

  He'd somehow managed to get his errant strands of white hair to relax against his scalp; despite that, he compulsively smoothed it back over and over. Occasionally, he sipped his drink, more for something to do than because he
was actually enjoying it. It was just some sour nonalcoholic wine the school opted to serve instead of the real thing.

  Soft music filled the atmosphere, spilling over from the orchestra on the stage. Couples swirled past him, pretty gowns twinkling and shoes shining. The atmosphere reminded him of the ballroom scenes in the movie Titanic. And he felt just as ridiculous and out of place as Jack. He remained in the dark, somewhat shaded part of the hallway, not ready to do much socializing.

  Well, unless she came around. He would be interested in socializing with her, for sure. He checked his watch in the dim light. The gathering had started thirty minutes earlier. This was a bit beyond fashionably late. Where was she anyway?

  There she is.

  Dressed in a shimmering gold floor-length gown, so stunning he could almost mistake her for a model, Ava stood by the door.

  His eyes followed the movement of her fingers as they trailed up and down her naked arms. She was rubbing them as if she was cold or uncomfortable or both. At the sight of her, his mouth went dry.

  Shaking himself out of his stupor, he gulped down the rest of the drink, slurping it much more noisily than intended, and almost spilled it down the front of his pristine white shirt. He moved to set down his glass so he could go greet her.

  "Tarun."

  He turned to look for the source of the voice.

  "That's your name, right?"

  Before him stood the attractive yet unpleasant blonde Deacon had been ogling earlier.

  "Yes, that's right." He tried to glance at her name tag without staring too intently at her chest. "And you are Elaine?"

  "Yes, that's right. I think we met on the school tour over the summer." She shot him a seductive smile and then angled her shoulder forward—pushing up her cleavage even more—so he could get a good look at her right arm. She pointed to her shifter mark there. "I'm an eagle shifter. Fifteen-foot wingspan, I might add." She winked at him. "How about you?"