Tarun clenched his fists so tightly at his sides he couldn't even feel his hands anymore. But hey, at least he hadn't punched Deacon in the face yet. So that was good. He was about to raise his voice, but stopped himself, took a deep breath, and then said calmly, "Believe it or not, you can't tell me who I can or cannot talk to. I'm so over this. Just go back to your nasty little narrow-minded world and maybe bring Elaine with you." He kept his tone calm and deadly. Tarun knew he sounded like his father whenever something had really upset him. He pushed past Deacon to walk into the room, but Deacon pushed him out of the way, darted into their room, and slammed the door in his face instead, locking it behind him.
"Oh, and tell the others, too," Tarun hollered through the closed door. Then he remembered he was still in the hallway, and people were staring. He looked up, smiled tightly, and headed back toward the stairwell. Apparently he was going for a walk instead of returning to his room right now. It was probably going to be very awkward between him and his roommate for the next few days.
16
Back in her room that night, Ava yanked her comforter over her head and unfolded the page she'd stolen from the yearbook. Oh yes, Mr. Jerome, the library attendant, would have a conniption if he found out what she did to school property. Illuminated by her flashlight, she stared at it all over again. Since the moment she left the library, thoughts of her father had consumed her.
There was nothing in that expression of his to suggest why he'd become the type of person to abandon his family. Sure, he looked serious, but who does that? There had to be so much more to this story. There had to—
Her blanket was suddenly yanked back, and Ava looked up to stare into Elaine's pinched scowl. Ava just groaned inwardly. It was way too late at night for Elaine's drama. What did she even want now?
"This is all your fault!" Accusation dripped from Elaine’s tightly strung body.
Ava sat up, only half amused when she noticed Elaine had big black tear streaks running down her face. "You're gonna have to be more specific." She pushed her comforter all the way down and swung her feet off the bed.
Elaine, for once, did not look perfect. Her hair was all over the place, mascara smeared down her cheeks, and even her clothes looked extra wrinkled. And were her socks mismatched?
The eagle whipped her right hand so close to Ava's face that it almost made contact. Ava reared back. "What the hell are you doing? You almost hit me!" She shifted farther back again before Elaine actually slapped her. The bird was obviously unhinged.
"He was mine, and you ruined it," Elaine hissed in her face.
Ava had to wipe the spray of spit off her forehead. Okay...disgusting. "Wait, is this about Tarun?"
"Damn right it is. Do you really think you can take him? Like that will actually work. For how long?"
"I didn't take anything or anyone. And he's not up for the taking. He's his own shifter with his own mind. He makes his own choices. If he chooses to spend time with me, that’s not your problem." Ava felt no guilt. Why would she back down from something like this? She had done nothing wrong.
"Whatever act you're putting on might be working right now, but he will eventually see through it," Elaine kept going. "And when you take what's mine, I will take what's yours."
What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Yours? What are you even talking about? Last time I checked, you and Tarun weren't dating, despite the fact you keep throwing yourself at him, so I don't see the problem. He doesn't even seem to like you very much."
"What did you just say to me?" Elaine lurched back, stomping her feet. A few feathers shot out of her pajamas. Oh boy, she was pissed all right.
"Way to act like the school tramp, Ava," she sneered.
Ava stood and stepped closer to Elaine calmly. "We both know who the school tramp really is. And it's definitely not me," Ava returned.
Elaine squared her shoulders and narrowed her eyes. "Whatever. I've been watching you." She sniffled, still trying to sound tough.
Ava stood up a little straighter, feeling more confident as she went on. "Of course you have. I'm adorable."
Elaine ignored her jibe. "I know your type. You're just a sad little wannabe. A tiny little kitten who wants to be a great big wildcat. But you're not. And you may think you can take him away, but he's going to figure out what a poser you are soon enough. But I can see right through you, and I'm already so sick of you!"
Ava took a deep breath. She realized Elaine was all squawk and no bite right now. Clearly, she didn't know how to process her own emotions, so she was taking it out on Ava, the closest person in her vicinity. "If you want him so badly, why don't you just tell him?"
Elaine was noticeably taken aback. Clearly she'd been expecting a fight, and Ava had simply knocked the wind out of her sales with a few words. But Ava knew better—she wouldn't give her a fight. That wouldn't go well for her.
"Well, maybe I will," she mumbled. "And then you can cry under your covers when he chooses me. But I see what you're doing. You're just trying to get under my skin, and it won't work."
Ava pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, Elaine, do whatever you want. I don't care. I’ve got a headache coming on, and frankly, I don't give a rat’s ass if you marry Tarun tomorrow. I just want to go back to bed."
Elaine's hands flew to her hips. "There you go again!"
"Uggggghhh. Nothing shuts you up! I can't make you happy, even when I said you can take him and I don't care. Just stop your squawking and leave me alone!" Ava started to turn away from her.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Elaine's face was pinched to the point of ridiculousness. "And don't you turn away from me! I'm not done yet!"
"Oh my goddddd, Elaine. Really? Ever since I got here, it's just been one problem after another with you. You don't let me rest, you don't ever shut up, and you aren't even nice to me. If you want to get rid of me so badly, just tell Levine I scream in my sleep or something and get a different roommate!"
"I tried to get rid of you from the first day, but they don't allow roommate changeovers!" Elaine stomped her feet again.
So there it was. That made sense. Elaine would've gotten rid of her if she could have. Weirdly enough, that stung. But Ava refused to let Elaine's rejection get to her. "Well, if that's really what you want, I'm sure you are clever enough to come up with some excuse to get rid of me. Lie if you have to." She crawled back under her covers and then looked back up at Elaine. "And as for Tarun, I don't really know what's going on there between the two of you, but maybe if you stopped acting like a raging bitch all the time, he might look at you twice. Good night." And with that, she threw herself down on her pillow theatrically and pulled the comforter over her head once more.
17
Three days after the cataclysmic fight with Elaine, Ava packed all her clothes and removed the sheets from her bed for the very last time in that room. Elaine and her flock talked loudly about her from the other side of the room as if she weren't there, making her feel even worse about the situation.
Elaine had made up some horrible lie about Ava having serious bowel problems that made her impossible to live with because of the stench. Reluctantly, Ava had played along because she wanted to get out of that room almost as badly as Elaine wanted her out. So, even though it was humiliating, Ava had pretended to burst into tears in front of Headmistress Levine, tearfully admitting that sometimes she just couldn't control herself. What a great way to start the week.
She had requested to move in with Winta, but Winta was still sleeping outside, and Michaela already shared the room where Winta kept her stuff. But apparently Levine was able to find her another "perfect fit." It turned out there was a student in their year over in Indigo Dorm that had virtually no sense of smell—strange because she was some kind of dog-shifter. Levine figured they would be suited perfectly for one another.
So, after folding her purple sheets and placing them carefully in her suitcase, off she went to her new room allocation, far from Elaine and her gang of b
ullies. Stepping out of Maroon for the last time was cathartic.
Admittedly, she always was something of a hothead. Or at least her mother always said so. And it was true; her emotions ran from hot to cold, sometimes quicker than expected. Sometimes her feelings ran really cold. That was how she had endured the final three days with her god-awful roommate until she could move.
"Here, kitty, kitty. Want some milk?" Diana had giggled, shaking a bottle of milk at her.
Well, joke was on them because she actually loved drinking milk. "Sure," she scoffed, grabbing the bottle of milk out of a very surprised Diana's hands as she stomped past them.
As much as she'd tried to save her dignity, she was still shaking mad when she finally made her way to Indigo Dorm.
If only someone could explain to her why she was accepted into this elite school only to be surrounded by shifters she couldn't relate to. Shifters who made fun of her. And why had her mother let her come here to be ridiculed?
Approaching Indigo C, she knocked on the door. Almost instantly, the door swung open, and a short and pretty Asian girl, possibly Korean, peeked out at her, beaming.
Ava's shoulders instantly relaxed, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. The girl hadn't even spoken yet, but there was something reassuring in her big rounded eyes.
"Oh, hello! You must be Ava! I'm JiSoo. Come in, come in. We’re going to have so much fun together!" JiSoo squealed. Thick accent—definitely Korean. She bent and lifted Ava's heaviest bag as if it were made of powder, and disappeared into the room.
Relieved she hadn't been allocated to stay with a new version of evil, Ava took a step inside. JiSoo had already pranced to the left side of the room to place Ava's suitcase on what Ava could only assume was her new bed. Then the girl announced, "This is your side. I know the bed’s probably not as big as the one you had over at Maroon, but…" Then her already round eyes rounded even more—bulged, actually—and she pointed frantically at Ava's feet.
Ava jumped, afraid she was standing on a big cockroach or something, but when she looked down, she saw only the empty hardwood floor. But JiSoo continued pointing, waving her petite fingers in horror.
"What's wrong?" Ava looked back and forth frantically.
"No shoes in the room!" JiSoo was almost hyperventilating now. She gesticulated, her eyes bulging more as they opened wider.
Then something shocking and profoundly disturbing happened. Something Ava couldn't have been prepared for in a million years.
Her new roommate’s eye popped right out of its socket and rolled underneath her bed. One look at the hole in JiSoo's face, and Ava's scream rocked the walls of their room.
"Your eye! Under… Bed… What the heck? Omigod! HELP! HELP!" Ava took several steps backward until she crashed into the door, panting like a dog.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry…" JiSoo squatted in front of the bed and reached under to retrieve her missing eyeball. She patted her tiny hand around underneath for a moment until she found it, wiped it off with her fingers, and popped it back in the socket.
Ava gagged immediately and had to swallow down her own vomit. "Holy mother of crap on a stick! You just shoved it in! Your eye… You just… Oh god…"
"But I don't need help. Look, I'm fine, see? No blood," JiSoo tried to comfort her. "Just calm down, please."
"But, but—but, seriously, what was that though? You scared the hell out of me!" Ava blustered.
"Just take off your shoes at the door, and I'll tell you." JiSoo pointed at Ava's feet again.
Without question this time, Ava slipped out of her black platform Mary Jane's, another gift from her mother, and then continued ranting, "These types of things should come with a warning label, you know?! You can't just go around giving people heart attacks. That's not okay. You need a sign on the door or something that says ‘Warning, my eye may pop out—don't be alarmed!’"
JiSoo obviously found her reaction thoroughly amusing, but she didn't laugh out loud at least. "I'm a pug shifter. It happens sometimes." She shrugged. "And by sometimes, I mean almost constantly."
A pug shifter? Okay, that made sense actually. Ava thought of Buster, her pug at home. It had only happened once before, but he had gotten startled, and yes, one of his eyes had indeed popped out of its socket. It just kind of dangled there on his face, and it was disgusting. Lucy had taken him to the vet to get it pushed back in. And Ava was very grateful she hadn't had to witness it.
"Okay then," Ava finally said. "So you're a pug shifter. All right, but I really should have been warned first thing. Come here, feel my heart! It's about to jump out, see?"
"Mmmhmm." JiSoo pressed her lips together and nodded. She certainly didn't come check to see if Ava's heart was actually about to jump out. "Yeah, so anyway, where's the rest of your stuff? Is this it?"
Ava examined her new roommate. JiSoo was small for her age, but not as much as the phoenix shifter. Her short-cropped black hair spiked out at the edges, showing off her thin neck and narrow shoulders. Her face was rounded, and her cheeks were cherub chubby. She wore a white crop top and denim overalls. They suited her. Ava looked down at her own plaid dress. She was still wearing her school uniform because she was in such a hurry to get out of Elaine's room as quickly as possible.
"Yes. I mean, no. I still have two bags waiting in the hall in Maroon. My friend was supposed to come help me with them but didn't show up in time. And I should probably go back for them before someone messes with them. Would you like to help?"
"Sure. I wasn't doing anything anyway." JiSoo just smiled brightly again, and Ava could swear she saw that right eyeball twitch, making her nervous.
JiSoo pranced over to the door next to Ava, her movements short and quick. Ava pulled her shoes back on as JiSoo slipped into hers. Together, they headed down the halls and took the whirling stairs. The staircase carried them over to Maroon Dorm, Ava's former hellhole.
On arriving at the hall that led to Ava's old room, they saw Winta struggling with the remaining two bags. "What took you so long?" Winta whined, dumping the bags back down on the floor.
"I'm sorry, but you didn't show up in time, and I was itching to get away from Elaine,” Ava defended herself, crossing the hall to sling her arms around her best friend's shoulders. "This is my new roommate, JiSoo, and she just scared the crap out of me. Do you know each other?"
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad," JiSoo objected. "Hi Winta, I've seen you around. You're the elephant shifter, right?" JiSoo bowed.
Winta quickly bowed back, bending low. She had to bend pretty far, considering JiSoo was at least a foot shorter. But by the time she stood back up, JiSoo bowed again, even lower this time.
So Winta did the same. So JiSoo bowed again.
Winta bowed one more time, and as JiSoo dipped again, Ava burst into laughter.
Winta stopped herself mid bow and straightened, looking at JiSoo quizzically. "You mean, mean girls," she said with a smile, obviously not really upset.
Elaine and her gang could be heard through the door, twittering in the room, so Ava motioned for them to get going. She didn't want to risk having to interact with any of them again or their onslaught of insults they'd definitely hurl at her and her friends. They already made fun of her for being a cat and having an elephant best friend. She could only imagine how they would handle a pug shifter with eyes that literally popped out of socket.
Between them, carrying the rest of the bags was much easier, and it took them only minutes to get back to Ava's new room in Indigo, which was conveniently only a few doors down from the room where Winta kept all her belongings.
In no time, all three girls were gathered around Ava's new closet, helping her sort out her clothes.
"So did you write that letter?" Winta asked, holding up a shimmery red dress against her own body in front of the mirror.
"That dress would look so good on you. Do you want to see if it fits? And no, I’ve been too busy fighting with Elaine and changing rooms." Ava stuffed several pair
s of socks inside a drawer.
Winta hung the dress in the closet without trying it on.
"Excuse me? That sounds romantic! You have a crush?" JiSoo asked, clapping her hands a couple times.
"What? Oh, no. That's not it," Ava answered, silently asking Winta with her eyes if she thought it was okay to let JiSoo in on the information about her parents.
Winta nodded almost imperceptibly.
"It's a letter to my mother," Ava finished.
"Already homesick?" JiSoo tilted her head to the side as she held up a pair of Ava's panties on display.
"No!" Ava snatched her underwear away from JiSoo. Then she filled her in on the situation before JiSoo made more assumptions.
"I smell a mystery." JiSoo rubbed her hands together after Ava finished.
"Me too, actually," Winta agreed. "I've been thinking about it a lot since you first told me. It really is so mysterious."
“We could go back to the library,” suggested Ava. “There’s bound to be more on my father. We could microfiche all day.”
“What’s that?” Winta questioned her.
“It’s like a TV, but we’ll be slotting newspapers into it.” Ava answered, a huge burden off her shoulders. These girls didn’t judge that she was a tabby—didn’t care. One an elephant, JiSoo a pug... Oh, she had her a group of misfits, that was for sure. And it made her smile.
Winta was also the first African friend she ever had and JiSoo the first Korean—a staunch one, no less, by the way she panicked when Ava wore her shoes into the room. And if she counted Tarun and James, that covered her first Indian and European friends. And here she was in Australia. She chuckled at the thought. There were a lot of different accents flying all around her nowadays. She wondered how odd her American accent sounded to everyone else.
Animage Academy: The Shifter School Down Under Year One Page 12
