"Bengal tiger," he murmured into his glass as he tried to take another sip before remembering it was empty. He cleared his throat awkwardly and lowered the glass back down, hoping she hadn't noticed his faux pas. “I remember you from the tour now. You’re American, right?”
“Sure am.” Elaine giggled at him, probably assuming his awkwardness was because he was attracted to her. “California girl.”
Great.
"What do you think of my dress?" She changed the subject and did a slow twirl, making an effort to pop out her chest and backside a little extra as she turned. "Too much?"
Instead of telling her what he was thinking, which was that she looked like a plastic Barbie doll in that ridiculous pink dress, he said, "You look stunning."
She covered her mouth and giggled, her exposed shoulders quaking with the effort, making everything else jiggle. "I know, right?"
Tarun refrained from rolling his eyes. Was this girl for real?
"Oh! Come with me and try these pastries, I promise, they taste like you're biting into Heaven." Without waiting for acquiescence, she grabbed his bicep and pulled him along behind her. He couldn't even get a word in as she dragged him away. He made a last-ditch effort to look around for Ava who was barely visible edging her way toward the other wallflowers. Hopefully, he would get a chance to talk to her later.
Ava watched Elaine drag Tarun across the hall. It figured they would be interested in each other—they were both gorgeous, after all. Ava let out a little sigh and fought disappointment. And it had turned out maybe Elaine was a decent person after all, so she shouldn’t be bothered. Even though Elaine had been rude to her initially, she'd ended up rescuing Ava from a social disaster, for which Ava would remain forever grateful.
After their initial unpleasant encounter, Elaine had ignored Ava completely until she was ready to go to dinner, hogging the bathroom the entire time so Ava couldn't even get in there.
When Ava was heading for the door, dressed in her blue jeans and button-down shirt and sneakers, as usual, Elaine had stopped her by grabbing her shoulder and jerking her backward.
Ava stopped and gaped at Elaine, who was dressed in a ridiculous bubblegum pink floor-length evening dress. Initially, Ava possessed an impulse to slam the door on the pretty blonde's face, but the determination in Elaine's eyes made Ava pause and listen.
"Where do you think you're going?" Elaine questioned her accusingly.
"To dinner, obviously." She'd resisted a powerful urge to roll her eyes.
Elaine chuckled. "Dressed like that? I can't let you do that. They will eat you alive."
"Why? What's wrong with what I'm wearing? We aren’t supposed to be in our uniforms or anything, are we?" Ava realized that perhaps she should have paid better attention to the stack of brochures the attendant had handed her when she first got there. It appeared Elaine knew something she didn't, which was probably why Elaine was dressed like that. Was this supposed to be formal?
"For starters, everything." Elaine dropped the fashion magazine she’d been holding and circled Ava until it got uncomfortable. "And no, definitely no uniforms. Are you kidding me?" She gestured to her own ensemble, her perfectly lined lip curling up. "Was my outfit not enough of a clue for you? As your roommate, I guess I'm responsible for making sure you look presentable tonight."
And that was how Ava ended up wearing the beautiful gold gown with matching high heels. Her mother had bought her the shoes the previous Christmas, but she never intended to wear them. She didn't even realize her mother had snuck them in her suitcase! And, thankfully, Elaine turned out to have a perfectly matching dress for her.
After tossing the dress at Ava, Elaine had left her to her own devices to get ready, which was why Ava ended up thirty minutes late, and now she was starving. Shifting always took a lot out of her, and she hadn't eaten a thing since she left her apartment.
"So when does dinner actually start? Do you know?" Ava asked the girl closest to her, tapping her lightly on the shoulder from behind.
The girl swiveled around, and Ava's eyes widened slightly. Had Ava been attracted to women, she would've been smitten. This girl was stunning. Her bare skin looked like literal chocolate. Deep brown and glossy. Her hair was short and curly, held up with several pins, and big yellow hoops hanging from her ears caught the light and twinkled as the girl moved her head.
"I don't know yet, but I've been standing right here since I arrived, and these shoes are killing me!" She spoke with a thick African accent, slowly, probably so people could understand her.
"Oh, that sucks. I'm really famished," Ava complained, “I haven't eaten since breakfast."
"I hear you, and after that stupid security check at the entrance, I feel like I'm going to pass out from starvation," the girl scoffed.
"You too? I thought it was just me. My mom is always on me about eating like a lady, but shifting just takes so much energy!"
"Especially when it's been a while, right?"
"Yes, exactly!" An easy smile creased her lips. "I'm Ava."
"Winta." The girl extended her hand.
Ava took it quickly, realizing it had probably seemed rude that she hadn't offered hers first when she introduced herself. "That's a really beautiful name." She meant it, too; the name suited the owner perfectly. Elegant and mysterious.
"Thank you. It means desire." She shrugged. "It's kind of awkward to have that name." Her voice was soft with a lilt and a slight lisp at the end of each sentence.
"Well, it's still beautiful." Ava offered her a smile. Then, changing the subject, "So, Winta, why aren't you dancing? You could take off your shoes like some of those other girls did." She pointed.
A shadow crossed Winta's face, her round and full features pinching up a little. Her nostrils flared slightly. "I don't want to," she said flatly. Her lashes swept down, shading her eyes from Ava's view.
Not that Ava was one to talk; she wasn't dancing either; despite that, she said, “I mean, it seems like it could be fun.”
"Are you asking me to dance with you?" Winta raised an eyebrow and laughed.
"Oh! No, I—"
But it was too late. Winta grabbed Ava's hand, and together they crossed to the dance floor. Winta took the lead because she was the taller of the two.
Winta rolled her eyes playfully. "You just couldn't let me enjoy my peace over there as a happy wallflower, could you?" she teased.
Ava let out a genuine laugh. She didn’t expect this, but she was having a good time. Then the music sped up to a fast waltz, and that shut her up real quick.
Apparently Winta knew what she was doing on the dance floor, and Ava could barely keep up with her. They whirled around together, laughing, completely disregarding the fact half the room avoided them like the plague, probably for fear of being stepped on.
"Admit it, you're having fun!" Ava screamed over the music.
"A teeny bit," Winta huffed. "Perhaps."
A tingling bell rang through the room, drawing their dizzy eyes to the podium. The music faded and the commotion around the girls died down.
Ava looked around the room. She noticed most of the original Aussies were sticking to their own. Because of the formal attire for the night, it was easy to see what most of the females shifted into because their arms were exposed. The boys, however, were all wearing suits or tuxedos, so there was no way to see any of their shifter marks.
Ava could make out a group of dolphin girls nearby sticking together. They were all giggling and cackling. Made sense, they really sounded like dolphins.
There were other clusters of students around, too. Some were a mix of both boys and girls. Based on the marks on the girls’ arms, Ava knew they were shifters she wouldn't want to mess with. There was a group of seven dragons. She also recognized a bear shifter, some sort of lion, and a gorilla mark in a group of at least a dozen. Ava guessed they were all predators. Tarun stood close to them. So much for her wish that he was a cat like her. That meant he was probably some sort of predator,
too. She wondered what kind.
Nearby, Elaine stood by her group of girls, all birds of prey, and a pack of wolves hovered behind them.
Sheesh. Some of these shifters were terrifying.
Scattered around the cliques were, well, everyone else. Ava could make out the guinea-pig twins hovering toward the back, girls with bunny marks, and a few sheep.
An older woman, silver-haired, pencil thin, and eagle-eyed, but still beautiful, rang the gold bell again and brought the room down to complete silence.
"Welcome to Animage Academy." The woman held out her arms as if waiting for a hug. "For those of you who are new here, I am Headmistress Levine. As you may have noticed, we make comfort a priority for the four years you will spend with us. You will lack nothing, but…"
Several shifters groaned.
"But…" the woman continued, raising her deep voice a tad more. "We still do not provide you with modern conveniences. We keep the academy old-fashioned in many ways. And we do this for several reasons. There will be no electronic communication."
More groans from the crowd.
"Students from last year, we are aware of the changes, and we expect you to cooperate with the new shifters. There are no exceptions. We expect genuine camaraderie at the school. Your obligation is to embrace one another as your own, even with the influx in foreign-exchange students." She hesitated. "It is unnecessary to avoid fellow shifters as I see most of you doing right now."
Slight murmuring filled the room, but no one moved to cover the gaps.
Levine let out a sigh. "I see we have our work cut out for us. For now, enjoy your party and welcome to Animage Academy!”
The spattering of clapping noises turned to halfhearted applause before everyone proceeded through an enormous set of double doors into the next room.
"I still can't believe this," Ava said from the side of her mouth to Winta. Ava had been referring to the fact she’d been accepted to the school. But Winta didn't seem to take it that way.
"Yeah, it looks just like my father's dining room!" Winta cried out as she clapped her hands. Her eyes wide as she gazed at the tables full of food.
Ava looked up and gasped. And here she thought the ballroom was extravagant, but the dining hall was even more impressive. Tables extended across the room with more food than Ava could ever have dreamed up.
Wait, what?
"Did you just say this looks like your father's dining room?" Ava looked at Winta. "Are you telling me his dining room has—let me count—three, no, four chandeliers hanging from the ceiling? And tables filled with hundreds of special foods? More than any of us would even be able to finish?"
Winta’s lips quirked; a lopsided grin took over her face that was both endearing and condescending. "Usually, yes."
"Usually?"
"Yes, but sometimes, if we have company, he likes to be more extravagant."
Ava just blinked. "Is he like…a king or something?"
"Or something," Winta answered quietly, piquing Ava's curiosity further.
But that's when Ava spotted her name on a place card three chairs away from the headmistress. "Oh, that's me." Her focus moved to filling her stomach and away from Winta's rich father.
She pulled out the chair, a high-backed wooden chair covered in red velvet.
"Oh, and it looks like this is me!" Winta squealed, pointing to a seat across the table from Ava, only a few chairs down.
Headmistress Levine, who already sat at the head of the table, glared at Winta.
"Sorry," Winta mumbled, as she made her way to her chair, but she winked at Ava. Then Winta rushed to get seated, clasped her hands on her lap, her back ramrod straight, looking straight ahead. As prim and proper as could be.
Headmistress Levine harrumphed and looked away, relaxing her pencil-thin eyebrows. Her attention quickly moved to the boy seated directly next to her, who reached across her to grab heaping spoonfuls of the food, barely sparing her a glance. The headmistress rolled her eyes.
Throughout the meal, Levine explained that the students were seated according to seniority. The first-year students sat closest to the headmistress. Although the young children had their own separate dining room and welcome party. A new wing was built in the school especially for them because the academy had never allowed children under sixteen before now.
Ava briefly wondered how Priya was doing as she hadn't seen her since entering the building.
Shoving chicken into her mouth, Ava tried to drown out her insecurities. Exposing her shifter mark didn't matter now because everyone at the school had already seen what she was. And even if they hadn't, word would spread fast.
But, on the bright side, she had a new best friend, hopefully. Although, now that she thought about it, she didn't even know what Winta shifted into.
She snuck a glance across the table to where Winta was delicately pulling tomatoes out of her salad with her fork. The pretty yellow dress Winta wore had puffy sleeves that hung over her arms. Ava wondered if Winta was purposely trying to cover her mark. The tip of Winta’s mark peeked above her right sleeve, but Ava couldn't make out what animal it was.
Ava supposed that wasn't important. Winta liked her, and that was all that mattered.
Another thought nagged at her as she assaulted her food. The saltshaker reminded her of the unicorn powder she'd seen on the ship. What was with that? Once she got a little more settled, maybe she would do some digging. Not that it was any of her business, but it called out to her for some reason.
Unicorns were extinct, so the dust would be super rare. Yet the powder was being used liberally just for transport? It didn't add up.
8
Winta and Ava trailed behind the other students in clusters back to the dorms. Everywhere Ava looked, she saw fancier dresses, fancier shoes, fancier hairstyles. These shifters weren’t playing.
The girl right beside her took the cake, easily and absolutely. Her jewelry alone could pay rent on Ava's apartment back home for at least a year. Good lord.
Looking at all the stunning riches around her, Ava remembered Winta's comment about the dining hall earlier. "You still haven't told me about your father."
Winta chuckled, showing off her tiny chiseled white teeth. "Dad? Oh, there's not much to tell. He's a businessman." She hesitated. "Among other things."
"Other things like what?" For whatever reason, Ava was super curious—a cat thing.
"Well, he's a shifter. One like me. I'm sure he's the reason I got into this school."
"You mean you think he got you into the school because of his money, or because he's a shifter? Because I don't know if you've noticed, but we are all shifters here!" Ava then fell silent, unwilling to push Winta into revealing what she didn't want to. Even though her raging curiosity was getting the better of her. But her mother always reminded her…
Curiosity killed the cat, right?
Winta didn't seem terribly put off. "I just mean because of the kind of shifter he is. He's powerful. My entire family is." And she left it at that only to move on. "What about you?"
"What do you mean?" Ava looked up at her. Their height difference was significant, even though Ava was wearing taller heels. "What about me?"
"Your family—are they all shifters? Or just your father? It's my understanding that the shifting gene is usually passed down on the male side."
"Oh, I don't really know. He…um… He left before I was born, so…"
"He just left you? That's awful. I'm so sorry. I suppose that's even worse than dying."
Ava glared at her.
"Sorry, I just mean, well, when a parent dies, you know it's not their fault. For you, your dad just left you. And that's really horrible.” She gritted her teeth. “So again, I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn. I shouldn't have said that."
Ava loosened her shoulders. "It's okay, I mean, you're right, anyway." Then she went on. "But my mom's a tabby cat, too. So I'm guessing that's what he was as well. Honestly, I've never even known if he was also a shifter or
not, but since you just said it's passed down on the father's side, I guess that means he was also a tabby cat?"
"Yeah, more than likely." Then Winta scrunched her brow as if she thought of something. "Why don't you just ask your mom?"
Ava let out a loud guffaw. "You don't think I've tried? Believe me, I've brought it up way more than she would like. But she never talks about him, and she just won't. One time, I pressed her a little too much, and, well, I won't do that again."
"Oh?" Winta queried, dragging her dress down for the umpteenth time.
"Let's just say there is still a spaghetti stain on the kitchen wall right above where I sit at the table, and we now have an odd number of matching dinner plates." Ava chuckled at the memory, even though it really wasn't a laughing matter at the time.
Apparently Winta didn't know what to say to that because she didn't respond.
Awkwardly, Ava traced the patterns on the wall with her fingers. They had stopped at the base of the Maroon stairs. "It's just, you know, it's heartbreaking to watch your mother melt down like that."
Winta, probably sensing the pain behind Ava's nonchalant words, rested her hand over her slim waist. I'm sure he had a good reason for leaving—"
Ava's chin jerked up, nostrils flaring. "What reason could he possibly have for choosing to leave his pregnant wife?" She didn't give Winta a chance to answer. "I will tell you. None! Definitely none. Only a terrible father and a coward would do such a thing."
Then, she stepped forward and jabbed her finger into Winta’s chest with each word: "Don't. Make. Excuses. For. Him."
Winta couldn't say the words fast enough. "Okay! Okay, I get it. You're right."
Ava took a deep breath and said nothing.
Winta, opting to diffuse the tension, said, "Come on, don't let him ruin this night, too." She reached down and cupped Ava's shoulder, shaking her slightly. "Hey, what about that boy in there who couldn't take his eyes off you?"
Animage Academy: The Shifter School Down Under Year One Page 5
