He knew firsthand what those birds of prey were capable of, and if he hadn’t been there to dispel it, Elaine may have caused more damage to Ava’s name. He also knew how vindictive the entire student body as a whole could be. Shifters or not, they were still teenagers. Not unlike the eagle that started it, most of those teenage shifters couldn’t wait for someone to gang up on. Bullies. Ava’s porcelain face floated to his mind again, for the third time in a span of maybe a few minutes. Her eyes—always sad, always lonely—called to him.
All he wanted was to please her, to keep her smiling. If he could, he’d single-handedly break down all the segregation in the school, make them see that everyone was the same, that no one got to choose what they would be, but that was not in his power. What he could do, however, was get back to her as soon as his shift was finished.
Also, he didn’t believe a single thing Elaine said about her. He would confirm everything with Ava and Winta himself.
Soon.
He resumed patrolling, his mind made up to talk to her.
23
“When?”
“At night.”
“Ava, do you really wish to go home that bad?” Winta stood akimbo.
“I think it’s perfect timing,” JiSoo defended Ava.
“Thanks, JiSoo. Look, Winta, it’s the best time,” Ava wheedled.
“No, you look at me, you are not listening.” Winta’s accent got extra thick when she was trying to make a point. “I told you there was a way we could access those records. Daytime, no problem...you want to repeat the same mistake?”
“Of course not. That’s not the point.” Ava folded her arms.
Winta threw her hands up. “Then what is, Ava? Because, this is not working.”
They were sitting huddled together in the dining hall, whispering hotly. It was dinnertime, and Ava hadn’t seen a glimpse of Tarun. It was driving her insane, as was the letter to her mother burning a hole in her purse.
“Okay, I’m sorry, I just wanted to get on with it, that’s all.”
Winta, always the one with the sense of reason, placed a calming hand on her shoulder. The three of them had rushed through their food, and their plates sat empty between them.
“All right, we’ll go after the first class…aaaaand I’ve lost you... What are y—oh.” She followed Ava’s gaze to where Tarun was greeting his friends with slaps on the back. Ava didn’t recognize them; they looked older. Was that a fourth-year kangaroo making eyes at him??? His deep baritone laughter floated to her ears.
That was where he belonged: in the crowds with the elite, just like him.
“Ava?”
“I don’t think she knows we’re here,” JiSoo said, but she was also looking at Tarun. Who wouldn’t? He was easily the alpha male in the room, even among those older predators.
“Ava? Earth to Ava,” Winta snapped her fingers in front of her face, and Ava returned to her senses.
JiSoo reached over to her with a white napkin, “I’m just gonna wipe that drool.”
Ava snorted—a very unladylike sound—and swatted JiSoo’s hands away. “It’s not that bad.” But she stylishly checked to see if there was a line of saliva running down her mouth.
“So, when are you gonna talk to him?” JiSoo pressed.
“Soon as I get the chance. He’s still busy for now.”
“What if he comes over here?”
“No!” She looked panicked for a second. “He wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh, but I think he already is,” Winta pointed out as quietly as she could.
As they watched, Tarun sauntered away from his group, followed closely by James who’d probably been waiting for the opportunity to see Winta.
Ava gulped the water in her glass at one go, then averted her eyes from him, scared she would make a fool out of herself if she stared hungrily at him, just the way she craved to.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Ava saw Elaine glaring at Tarun’s back. She quelled the urge to laugh out loud.
Wait, she was jumping to conclusions; for all she knew, he was coming to give her a piece of his mind.
“Hey Winta, JiSoo.” He flashed the girls another one of his disarming smiles.
Ava pretended not to hear, even when her friends fell over themselves to make space for him.
“Ava?” he greeted her, too.
Grudgingly, she dragged her eyes up to meet his. She was prepared for the jolt this time and kept her eyes on him. But lord, did he have to be soooo striking? He practically smoldered. Just looking at him turned her insides to mush.
“Oh, hi, didn’t see you there.” So obviously lying.
His eyebrow slid up, amused. “Doesn’t matter, I see you.”
She forced herself to remain stoic, even when everything in her screamed to be let go, to gush like all the other girls were doing, but she stilled against it.
Their eyes held across the table. Everything seemed to fade away. The noise in the dining hall receded. The clatter of spoons and forks against plates fell silent. All that remained—to Ava, at least—was Tarun, in that moment.
She caved. “I’m sorry,” Ava mouthed...or did she say it out loud? She wasn’t sure.
“I understand.” He held her gaze.
Did he really, though?
There were no more words, none were enough to describe how she felt in that moment, that second.
Then the bell went off, interrupting whatever he was about to say.
About fifty chairs scraped back at once, pulling Ava back to the present. Beside her, James was trying his best to make Winta laugh; he’d inserted chopsticks in his mouth—they stuck out like fangs—and he wiggled his thick eyebrows at her. Probably trying to be a walrus.
Winta chuckled and scraped her chair back, too. Tarun held out his hand for Ava. James walked between JiSoo and Winta, smiling widely.
The guys accompanied the girls to their dormitory. Ava couldn’t believe she and Tarun had just resolved everything so easily. Everything just felt perfectly relaxed and comfortable now. How was that even possible?
“I’ll see you tomorrow at lunch,” he said to her as they approached her room. JiSoo had already disappeared inside, and Winta had walked off with James.
“What makes you think I want to see you?” she fired back playfully. Uh oh. Was that too harsh?
“I want to, shouldn’t that be enough?” He grinned with the side of his mouth.
Okay, she hadn’t screwed things up again. Ava suddenly felt tired of the games and nodded, “I can’t wait to see you, too.”
He broke into the widest smile she had seen on him yet, exposing his perfect white teeth.
“Okay, Ava, good night.” He backed away slowly, still looking at her.
She stood at the door, watching until he turned and went out of sight. A little sigh escaped her before she went inside her room to gush to JiSoo.
The day may have begun badly, but it sure ended on a pleasant note.
Elaine, however, still sulking in the dining hall, was fuming. Her day was ruined, destroyed! She’d figured Tarun would hear all the rumors and run back to her screaming. Instead, she’d succeeded in driving them together.
The knife in her heart twisted viciously. No, there was no way that little brat was going to get all this, and she knew just what to do. Obviously Ava was beginning to feel like the queen, and what did a queen need?
A befitting crown.
Elaine was more than ready to gift her one.
All she had to do was wait for daylight.
She slunk to her room, avoiding Deacon who leered at her. He was persistent, and though she wanted to use him to get back at Tarun, she didn’t want to deal with him right now. Boys tended to ruin things. If she was going to do this, she’d trust only one person to execute it perfectly: herself.
24
The girls had been unfaltering in their decision not to break into the library one more time. JiSoo had to be convinced further by Winta before she caved.
That afternoon, after classes,
they took a detour to the mailing room. Considering the ancient ways of the school, the mailing room was the most sophisticated.
Bunny shifters of all shapes and sizes worked there in their animal forms. Some were adults employed by the academy, others were students trying to earn extra credits. She even saw the kid who transformed on the first day at the security area. He seemed to have adjusted well—didn’t appear lost in the midst of others like him.
The room was enormous, a busy cavern that never slept.
“Winta, does your dad have a place like this, too?” Ava asked as she looked all around her.
Winta laughed. “Be serious, Girl, letters disappeared with the email era. Animage is probably the only place around that still has an operation like this.”
JiSoo, who was yet to be caught up on Winta’s wealthy family, looked blank. Ava filled her in as they walked straight to the mailing counter. Several students had beat them to it, and so the line was fairly long.
They settled in to wait Ava’s turn. She took the time to survey her surroundings more. Next to the wall, five large printers were lined up, manned by five bunnies per machine. She wondered how they didn’t get swallowed by the ginormous printers.
She giggled and pointed them out to her friends. Five bunnies climbed atop each other’s heads, ears flapping. They formed a little pyramid, and the top one tethered and steadied itself, then continued to retrieve papers like it was nothing.
“They’re so cute…” JiSoo melted to mush beside her.
“Can you recognize any from our year?”
“Sure, he’s waving at me right now,” JiSoo answered. “See?” She pointed.
“How can you tell?” Winta squinted at the “waving” bunny. “Wait, is he your crush?”
JiSoo blushed furiously and prettily. “No, I told you, I don’t like him like that…”
“But he likes you, oh—he’s coming over…look away!”
The girls hustled to appear lost in conversation. The little bunny transformed into a handsome Asian boy as he made his way to them. JiSoo, unfortunately, collided with the boy as he finished his shift, causing a mini avalanche as the boy knocked down three more in the line.
JiSoo opened her mouth and eyes in horror, temporarily forgetting where they stood….
It was bad.
Her right eye popped out first, the left following shortly after. The boy, the reason for the avalanche, noticed the trouble and quickly morphed back to bunny form and scurried away.
Everyone in line, except her friends, screamed, running off in different directions at once upon seeing JiSoo’s black empty sockets. Thankfully, no one stepped on the eyeballs that had rolled under their feet.
Winta and Ava hustled to find them before they disappeared behind the massive counter.
“Here, JiSoo, sorry.” Winta handed one back to her.
Ava wordlessly gave her the other.
JiSoo lifted her eyebrows and pushed one in, then the other. Ava cringed—that was so unsanitary! By the time she was through, only the attendants, who seemed to have seen it all, remained. Every other shifter had left the line and fled.
“Are you okay?” Ava asked her friend.
“I’m fine, I’m fine, okay?” Even though she looked like she was trying not to cry. “Just mail the letter, and let’s get out of here.”
Ava knew JiSoo was hurting by the way her back stiffened and her chin wobbled. She clearly struggled so hard to keep up the façade of confidence.
She pushed the letter to the hands of the waiting attendant—a bunny shifter in his human form. He took it and filed it under a sign that read: ‘Miami Delivery.’
“I’m done,” she announced, “That wasn’t as hard as I thought. I have to admit, I’m grateful you got rid of that line for me.” She tried to lift JiSoo’s spirits a little. “For some reason, I pictured talking pigeons and owls.”
That wrangled a smile from her sullen roommate at least, and they emerged from the mailing room together and headed outside. Ava had converted Winta and JiSoo to loving the outdoors as much as she did.
“That was classic, JiSoo.” Winta couldn’t hold in her laughter any longer. Immediately after stepping outside, and she was safely out of JiSoo’s reach, she doubled over and laughed heartily, snorting adorably at the end of each laugh.
Her laughter was infectious, and Ava soon joined in, mimicking the utter horror in the other shifters’ faces when JiSoo’s eye fell at their feet. Soon, JiSoo's initial annoyance changed to mild amusement as she watched her friends.
“Great, you guys know you’re being mean, right?” But she was now grinning foolishly, the annoyance having evaporated completely, leaving her smiling sheepishly.
“That had to be the biggest kerfuffle I’ve seen since I came to this school.” Winta stood back upright, and they started walking down the pathway to the tree they had claimed as their own. Usually they sat underneath until it was time for the next class.
On getting to the tree, they heard the squeals first.
“What the heck? No one else likes to sit there, much less talk to us,” Ava speculated. They walked a bit slower until they could see.
Behind the tree, where the girls claimed as their spot, Elaine and her gang were crowded there.
Elaine spotted them first, and she cornered Ava. “Can we talk?” She eyed Ava’s friends. “Privately.”
Ava’s hackles rose—or they would have if she were in her cat form—instantly alert. Quickly she scanned the area to see if someone was about to jump on her,
“Relax. If I wanted to harm you, you’d be seriously wounded by now.”
She had a point. Ava nodded. What could she do in a public place anyway…? She followed Elaine away from both of their groups of friends.
“Okay, I’m just gonna go ahead and say it.” Elaine folded her arms. “I’m sorry for the way things turned out between us. I was blinded by jealousy. You had everything I wanted, and you didn’t even know it. You spent all your time hiding in the shadows, when you could easily shine. I was jealous when Tarun saw that in you, too, so I wanted to break you.”
Ava stood there dumbfounded. Did Elaine really just not only apologize to her, but actually admit her own faults? This was the best day ever! “Elaine, if you’re trying to apologize, then I accept it. I never liked the fights—”
“Me either. I don’t know what got into me. I’m so sorry.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I want us to start over...become friends, the way we should have been when you came to the room.” The eagle looked the cat directly in the eyes as she spoke. She looked so sincere. “I resented you then, but now all I want is to be your friend. Ava, do you think that’s possible? Can we start over?”
Ava was stunned for a few seconds before she recovered her tongue enough to speak. There she was, imagining all the things that could go wrong before the end of the semester if Elaine continued to see her as the enemy, and now it was suddenly a non-issue. But, still, there was a little voice in her head telling her not to take this apology at face value. “I want to talk to my friends first.”
Elaine’s face pinched. “Okay, but we accept one friend at a time.” The way “friend” dripped from her lips sent shivers of pleasure down Ava’s spine. She was ready, more than ready, to stop being bullied and finally be accepted by the popular clique in school. Besides, if they accepted her, then people wouldn’t mock her and Tarun when they were together.
With those thoughts on her mind, she stepped away from Elaine and ran back to Winta and JiSoo who had walked a fair distance away, but still stood to watch.
“Did you see that?!” Ava squealed excitedly when she got closer to them.
They wore matching expressions of confusion stamped on their faces.
“Elaine apologized! She wants to be my friend, can you imagine?!”
Winta and JiSoo exchanged looks. Then Winta said, “I can’t imagine, no. So what was your answer?”
“I told her I wanted to run
it by you guys first.”
Winta’s shoulders relaxed.
“Tell me, you don’t buy any of that crap, do you, Ava?” JiSoo added.
“What crap? You should have seen her, heard her, she sounded sincere!” She had expected her friends to be happy for her, so why were they being so negative?
“Ava, she’s setting you up for something, can’t you feel it?” JiSoo squeezed her hands into fists.
“She’s definitely using you. I thought you’d be smart enough to realize that. C’mon Ava, tell me you’re not considering her offer!” Winta chided.
“Excuse me?” Ava flared her nostrils. How dare Winta talk to her like she was dumb! Now she could see what they were doing. “You’re just jealous she doesn’t want you.”
Her friends reared back—a slap may have hurt less. Ava almost regretted her words—almost.
JiSoo’s chin went up. “Fine. Do what you like, but don’t forget we warned you. Let’s go, Winta. Clearly Ava has new friends now.” Coldly, JiSoo turned away, obviously expecting Winta to do the same.
Winta looked directly into Ava’s eyes, silently pleading with her. “This is a mistake, Ava. And I know you feel it, too.” Then she turned and followed JiSoo away.
Ava’s mind was made up. Her friends didn’t want good things to come her way, but they would change their minds soon enough.
Didn’t they see this was an opportunity for all of them? That Elaine had finally come to her senses? Her friends were wrong. She was going to explore this, and finally gain some popularity at the school. Then they would come crawling—no, running—back to her.
“I’ll see you later.” She returned coldly to their retreating backs, and then she pirouetted to meet her newest friends.
25
Being one of the popular girls was a whirlwind of makeup, hair spray, and idle gossip.
Ava felt lost in a haze of mascara, shiny pink lip gloss, eyelash curlers, hair dryers, and a host of other beauty unnecessary products. Then there was her new wardrobe. Apparently everything she brought with her was absolute crap. Elaine loaned her a pair of sparkly black pumps and taught her how to cinch her uniform dress so it showed off more of her body. Admittedly, Ava had always wondered why the popular girls looked better in their uniforms. She’d figured they were just more blessed in the curve department, but now her uniform held to every curve of her body, highlighting every crevice that was there and even what wasn't.
Animage Academy: The Shifter School Down Under Year One Page 17
