For the first time in her sixteen years, Ava genuinely wanted to say damn all consequences and murder them one by one. It would be fitting; a cat ripping out the throats of birds. When the ringing in her ears finally reduced, she'd discovered Elaine had apparently scored a kiss from Tarun.
Lovely.
They would make such a stunningly attractive couple.
But today—today the chaos hadn't started yet. Although she tried to bury herself under her pillow, she knew she couldn't hide forever. It was already getting hot and suffocating under the heavy comforter as the sunlight filled her room. But she cherished these quiet moments every morning, so she delayed for another several minutes before finally throwing the comforter back and allowing her feet to touch the floor.
If only she could force herself to wake up significantly earlier. She slid her feet into her flip-flops and crossed to the window. If she were a morning person, she could have hours of quiet time instead of minutes.
Looking out the window, she gazed at the Sacred Tree, forever fascinated with it. So many leaves. She wondered about the story behind each and every one of those shifters. She thought about Priya, and imagined the fun the little girl would have coming up with those stories.
Beyond the tree, she could see a few students already out and about.
Next, she padded over to her dresser, the one on her side of the room—the side not covered in puke pink. She then removed the plaid dress she was required to wear on school days, and a pair of black heeled boots. She'd given up on her Converse for the time being. Choosing to fit in better instead. Although she wouldn't have admitted to anyone out loud that was why.
She tossed the dress on the bed, hanger and all, and stepped out of her pajamas. Just as she did so, Elaine's humming stopped.
Ava steadied herself for Elaine's reappearance from the bathroom.
"You know what would just be so nice?"
Ava didn't even turn to look at her. "What might that be, Elaine?"
"To enter this room without perceiving this reeking stench."
Ava rolled her eyes. Sometimes, when Elaine spoke, especially to her, she tried extra hard to sound smart. But sentences like that, little did she know, made her sound like a snotty moron. The reeking stench, as she so eloquently called it, was Ava's lavender body mist. A completely natural conglomeration Lucy made for Ava before she left for the academy. She enjoyed the smell, and it reminded her of home. And it was nothing compared to the Chanel perfume Elaine practically bathed in every morning. Frequently, Ava would still be coughing by third period from having to inhale so much of it. And she swore she could even taste it in her food.
Ava bit her tongue, resisting the urge to indulge Elaine's bullying.
With no response from Ava, Elaine prattled on. "It's absurd, you know. And to think, you're from Miami!? I thought people in Miami had class and taste…"
Ava didn't hear the rest because she had already retreated to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She quickly turned the shower on to drown out Elaine's shrill voice. Whatever, like Pasadena is really so much better, Ava thought, which was where Elaine was from.
After her shower, when she returned to the room, Elaine's flock was already there. The incessant chattering filling the space.
Five of them. The one bouncing on Elaine's bed was Lorraine, the hawk shifter. Just like Elaine, she was blonde with blue eyes and big boobs. Breanna, standing next to Elaine in front of the mirror, her red curls bouncing as she put makeup on, was a falcon shifter. Diane and Daniella were twin raven shifters, each with pale skin and long dark hair—very Edgar Allan Poe but sexier. And then Lois, the platinum-blonde owl shifter, reclined on the fluffy pink rug, browsing through a fashion magazine.
None of the girls spared Ava a single glance. Fine by her. She shrugged into her uniform, only partially listening to them. Drowning them out completely was impossible when they were in the same room. Then, as she headed over to her vanity mirror to brush out her long brown hair, she picked up on part of the conversation.
"…was talking to her, I swear it."
Ava paused mid stroke and turned, not knowing which one of them had spoken. They all sounded the same to her, aside from Elaine, who she could tell apart because her voice was the highest in pitch.
"What? That clumsy thing?" Lois prattled.
Were they seriously talking about her while she was right there? That was low, even for them.
"Yeah, I saw them talking under the oak." That was Daniella.
Okay, maybe they weren't talking about her.
"She's so gross though." Ava watched Lorraine through her mirror. She was talking nonchalantly, as if talking smack behind people's backs was a perfectly acceptable activity.
"Nooo!" Elaine screeched. "Who does that?"
"Apparently he has no taste or class—ouch! Diane, watch the curling iron!" Breanna wailed.
"Sorry!" Diane slackened the cord and moved slightly to the left. She was curling the ends of Elaine's hair for her. How precious.
"Well, why do you think Tarun hangs out with him so much then?" Elaine looked at herself in the mirror as if questioning her own reflection.
Breanna just shrugged.
"What's her name, anyway?" Lorraine asked, dabbing another coating of red lip gloss onto her already overly glossed lips.
"Winter… Wanda… Juanita… Something," Lois suggested.
They all giggled.
"Are you sure it's not Shaniqua, or Laquinta, or something?" Elaine said, an evil smirk on her lips.
At that, all the bird girls cackled even harder.
Ava froze, accidentally dropping the hairbrush right into her lap. She knew exactly who they were talking about now… She had to stomp one foot on top of the other to keep herself from losing her cool too quickly.
She swung around to confront them.
"Her name is Winta!" she shrieked. They all paused and stared at her. Elaine just scowled, but Ava didn't care. She plunged right on. "Her name is Winta, and James is lucky she gives him the time of day! She's way out of his league!"
"Pretty sure you got that backwards, Tabby," Breanna mocked her.
"James may be a tiny little bird," Elaine cut in, "but he hangs out with the other predators, so he's definitely out of her league." She folded her arms haughtily.
Ava flushed, and not prettily, then jumped out of her chair, the hairbrush falling out of her lap to her feet. "Yeah? You mean like Tarun is out of your league?"
The girls gasped collectively. It was a low blow, and Ava knew it, but she was past caring. Besides, they started it. They all knew full well Winta was Ava's best friend at the school. Which meant they started talking about it with her in earshot completely on purpose.
Elaine stomped toward Ava, although she tottered dangerously on her heels before she steadied herself. "You will regret that, Roomie." Her voice was deceptively calm, as was the smile playing on her hot-pink lips.
"Oh, I'm so scared." Ava shivered dramatically.
Daniella coughed discreetly behind her palm. None of the other girls dared interrupt the charged silence. Elaine's evil smile disappeared, and she stared down at Ava, unblinking. "You should be," she deadpanned.
Ava smirked back at her, doing her best to come across way more confident about this than she felt. "Oh, it's on." Then she picked up her backpack, threw it over her shoulder theatrically, and strode out of the room.
Once Ava made it outside, she met up with Winta who'd been skulking in the shade of one of the gum trees.
Apparently not noticing Ava's distress, Winta just locked arms with her and went on about their usual best-friend chatter. "I mean, I had to talk to that guy! You took so long! He approached me under the tree, and I couldn't get away because I had to wait for you where I promised I would. But you were late!"
Ava blinked. "You mean James? I thought you liked him."
"Yeah, he's cute and all. And he seems nice—when he's not making a complete clown out of himself—but what am
I going to do with a hummingbird? I'm an elephant! Everyone will laugh at us. Every. One."
Winta's behavior surprised Ava. She slowed down and turned to look her friend in the eyes. "Winta, that's not something you should worry about. And honestly, I'm surprised you even are. If you like him, then you gotta go for it.”
"How can I know if I like him if I don't even know him? It doesn't sound worth it. Not to be the laughingstock of the school for the next four years." She pushed her tongue into her upper lip. She did that whenever she wanted to make a point clear. It was as if to say, ‘I dare you to argue with me.’
But Ava wasn't having it. "So what if they laugh? That's practically all they do at this stupid school. And if they're going to do it anyway, it certainly shouldn't prevent you from living your life."
Winta pulled her arm away from Ava's, and crossed it over her chest with her own. "Yes, oh Mighty Sage One. How ironic of you to say that."
Ava looked away for a moment. "What?"
Winta silently assessed her friend, hiding her smile behind her long, elegant, and manicured fingers.
Ava wondered briefly where Winta had received that manicure, but she shook it off. Winta had plenty of artistic talents. She probably did it herself.
"Something is going on with you," Winta accused. "I can tell by the ticking vein in the side of your temple, right there." Winta reached one of her sparkling fingernails up and tapped the side of Ava's face.
Ava batted her hand away.
"I had a rough morning with Elaine is all. And her flock. They are so awful." She wiped a few strands of hair away from her face. In the weeks she had already spent at the academy, she still had yet to get used to the constant draft from the ocean. Although, she recently learned the ocean was not as she thought. Even the sky was a glamour. The school really was several miles underground. Growing up calling it the shifter school down under was apparently completely literal.
"Watch it, Trumpeter."
Ava looked around. It was Kiki, another random Aussie. A wombat, if Ava remembered correctly. She opened her mouth to ask what that was about, but closed it again immediately. Trumpeter. Like an elephant's trumpet. Got it.
Poor Winta, she was now as disliked as Ava. Ava couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She wondered if perhaps Winta wouldn't be getting this so bad if she didn't hang out with her.
She could still hear Kiki giggling as she joined up with a few others, and Ava lost it. "No, you watch it, you stuck-up twat waffle!"
Winta jumped back, clearly alarmed.
Kiki just stuck her tongue out and flipped her the bird. Very mature. But at least that was it. She and her friends kept walking.
"Ava, really, what crawled up your butt this morning? You deal with Elaine and her flock every day. What made this one affect you so much?"
The two friends were entering the reception area now, specifically, the same reception room where she had to reveal herself the first day of school, right through those double doors. She still thought about that horrible moment every time she walked through them.
Inside, shifters were heading in all different directions. There were hallways and training rooms on all sides, and the colossal granite counter straight ahead, where Headmistress Levine stood, serenely watching her students move around.
Prior to coming to Australia, Ava had never seen let alone spoken to a griffin shifter. They were one of the rarest animals known. Probably, the only shifter more rare than a griffin would be a unicorn. But unicorns were completely extinct now. Or supposedly… Ava still wondered about that unicorn dust. But Headmistress Levine was a powerful griffin shifter, even though Ava had never seen her transform. Nor had anyone else in the school that she knew of. It was rumored that when she did so, Headmistress Levine stood over twenty feet tall with a wingspan that stretched from one end of the great hall to the other. That probably explained why the headmistress preferred to say in her human form.
Headmistress Levine nodded slightly toward Ava and Winta, acknowledging them like she did every single shifter as they passed her. Her squinting eyes kept contact with Ava's for a little longer than was comfortable.
Shaking off that creepiness, Ava finally answered. "Elaine was in rare form," she bit out. Spitting the name out like it was poison.
"What could she possibly have done this time that would be worse than any other time?" Winta questioned her. "You can't keep letting her get to you when you know this is how she is."
Ava glowered at her friend. "It's not funny. That girl is Satan incarnate, I'm telling you."
Winta's eyes widened, genuinely terrified. "Don't mention his name out loud like that!" she warned.
Ava looked at her, confused, then remembered that where Winta was from, her family believes, firmly, maybe too firmly, in the devil’s potency. Having not grown up religious, it was difficult for Ava to relate to, but she knew Winta was dead frightened of the consequences.
Before it could progress, Ava simply waved her hand, cutting her off. “Sorry. But she's so impossible. Nothing I do is right. If I talk wrong, if I move wrong, if my perfume is wrong—"
"But your perfume is wonderful!" Winta leaned in and sniffed Ava like a dog.
Ava laughed loudly and playfully pushed her friend away. "I know, right?"
Winta laughed, too.
"Seriously, I have to wake up every morning to a squawking feathery eagle knocking things all around the room, and she can't handle a little tabby cat? A tabby! She complains I get cat hair on everything, but that's a lie, because I rarely morph anywhere in the room other than my own bed when I'm asleep, and I would never ever touch her stuff… But does she listen? Nooooo."
"She's despicable," Winta quipped, but the corner of her mouth turned up.
Ava smiled back at her, grateful Winta was no longer asking questions because she certainly didn't want to tell her what Elaine and her friends had actually been talking about that morning.
It looked like Winta had been about to say something else but quickly snapped her mouth shut, knowing she needed to stay quiet as they passed the training rooms already filled with students waiting for teachers.
The classes were divided up differently in different situations. The land animals could all learn together on certain days, whereas the water animals took to the "ocean."
Other days, the classes were divided by seniority. The first-years were together and the fourth years—or the seniors—were off in combat training.
Through the window at the end of the hall, in the distance, Ava could clearly make out sharks, jellyfish, seahorses, octopuses, whales, and even seals getting ready for their lessons. Just as she was wondering where the dolphins were, a group of them rushed past them, almost knocking Ava's purse off her shoulder as they squeaked and chattered. Probably all late for class. The dolphins reminded her of the cheerleaders in her former high school, whereas the sharks reminded her of the jocks—or specifically just the football players. And just as football players tended to date cheerleaders, so the sharks and the dolphins paired off. Oddly enough, Ava had only seen two female sharks and zero male dolphins.
Grateful she didn't have to train in the ocean—she hated water, another cat thing—she looked away from the dolphin girls disappearing out the glass doorway at the end of the hall.
The land animals trained in rooms tailored to their sizes and features. Which was why, today, she had to leave Winta for two whole classes.
"I'll see you at lunch?" The girls stood together at the door to Winta's upcoming class, target practice. Behind Winta, through the door of the classroom, Ava could see moose, giraffes, elk, gorillas, bears, dragons, and a rhinoceros prancing around. She would die before admitting it, but she was fiercely grateful to the school for creating the system. Otherwise she'd worry constantly about getting trampled.
"Sure, of course. Oh, and Ava?" Winta turned and faced her friend. "Don't let her get to you, seriously."
Ava just nodded sheepishly, realizing she’d been complaining abou
t Elaine all the way to class. Feeling foolish, she spun around—not an easy feat on her stupid pointy boots—and set out for her own class, bracing herself for Elaine and whatever horrors her training held for her.
12
Her training room held about fifty shifters already. Although Ava had an uncanny ability to recognize and remember someone's face, even if she only saw them once, names still escaped her. When she was young, twice she'd forgotten the name of her own pet—what ever happened to that poor guinea pig?
She wrapped her fingers around the ornate door handle and pulled back, sucking in air, her lips set in a straight line, and closed the door behind her, turning to face the next hour of her day.
She still couldn't believe the training rooms sometimes. It didn't even feel like school. Of course, she was previously used to a normal high school class, filled with desks and chairs and whatnot. This was just so different.
Firstly, this room was circular, no corners. Along the walls, cushioned seats faced the podium where the instructor stood to teach. There was a board behind there, which was a little more typical but rarely used because most of the classes were practical. But occasionally the teacher sketched out certain moves for them or tried to write notes and key points when they were explaining something.
And, to be fair, it made sense that they wanted the students to learn theory and practical demonstration. Besides, the headmistress insisted. On the other side of the wall, behind a protective glass case, were stored materials of all sorts. Some of them were bizarre, like saddles, muzzles, whips, and maces. There were a few assorted blades, and even sets of nunchucks and rope darts. Ava hadn’t seen any of these items in use though, and she wasn't in a hurry to change that.
As of now, all the shifters needed for training was to learn better coordination and fine-tuning.
Well, in her case, she needed a little more than that.
She took her place toward the back. There were five rows of ten seats, and she took the last on the right. Although most of those seats would be pushed back when they began the hands-on training. She pulled her hair forward to cover most of her face and her shifter mark as best she could as she unpacked her books and her notepad and pens.
Animage Academy: The Shifter School Down Under Year One Page 8
