by Martha Carr
“Look out! Hey!” She waved her arms over her head. “There’s a bunch of—”
Someone else screamed when three more wild boars burst through the shimmering curtain hanging from the archway and charged right into the field full of dancing kids.
“What the—” Mr. Petrov leapt aside when one of the beasts charged him, then pointed at it and let off a red dart of light. It struck the boar in its hindquarters and sent the thing skidding across the grass, squealing and writhing to get back to its feet. Then it charged again.
“No, no, wait!” Amanda shouted. “That’ll make them—”
The dessert table flew sideways and crashed to the ground, scattering cookies and brownies and other desserts into the dancing crowd. More students screamed and shouted and fled in every direction. The teachers tried to find the wild animals in the darkness, summoning their attack spells that stood out like beacons, illuminating their faces.
They won’t be able to see anything like that—
“Amanda!” Summer shouted.
She spun to see the giant boar with huge, stained tusks lowered as it charged.
There wasn’t any time to think about it. She shifted and leapt aside, landing on the grass on all four paws as the boar barreled right into her clothes before stumbling and crashing to the ground with a shriek.
“We’re being attacked!” Corey shouted, raising both his large, meaty hands in the air and barreling through the other panicked students. “Someone’s trying to kill us!”
Then everyone completely lost their shit.
Spells flew in every direction. Kids stumbled over each other and the scattered dessert. The glass punch bowl skittered across the dance floor and shattered. The teachers shouted for everyone to calm down, but they didn’t sound calm at all.
Amanda ignored all of it and focused instead on the scent of almost a dozen wild boars running loose across the campus, all of them as terrified as the students and teachers, and no one else knew it.
She darted after the closest boar charging toward a wide-eyed junior girl who stood there, frozen. With a snarl, she leapt at the thing and snapped at its back legs. The boar squealed and darted sharply to the left before racing off toward the swamp again. Amanda spun and took off after the next strongest scent.
“Holy shit, it’s a wolf!”
“Get out of the way, man. That thing will bite your face off!”
“I hate the Everglades!”
With a snarl, Amanda leapt through the scattering students and barreled into the side of a mud-splattered boar charging Principal Glasket’s turned back. The beast squealed and rolled twice across the grass before scrambling up again and taking off for the main building. It ran head-first into the glass door, writhed around again, and got up one more time to make a swerving, unbalanced race back into the swamp.
Glasket spun and stared at Amanda with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.
The gray wolf darted off again to snap at a much smaller boar squealing and running in circles. As soon as it took off away from her, something heavy and hard rammed into her hind legs and sent her skittering across the grass. When she righted herself, the biggest beast of them all was already charging toward her with a growling grunt, shredded strips of her borrowed dress dangling from one of its tusks.
She snarled at the thing and waited until the last second.
“Miss Coulier!” Glasket shouted and launched a fireball at the boar. It glanced off the top of the thing’s back and did little more than singe the thick, bristly hairs on its hide before it swung both deadly sharp tusks toward the gray wolf waiting for it.
Amanda leapt aside and twisted in midair to snap her jaws down around the boar’s backside. Its rear legs gave out, and it screamed before she let it go. That didn’t stop her from racing off after it, snapping and snarling until the thing disappeared through a stand of mangroves at the edge of the swamp, snapping off branches and leaves before it splashed into the shallow water.
Then she turned back and trotted in a wide circle around the central field and the dancefloor, sniffing the air and panting. There better not be any more.
There didn’t seem to be.
The music still pumping from the invisible speakers echoed across the campus, and when an electronic musical explosion sounded, it startled the last boar from where the thing had been rooting around in the scattered desserts. It squealed and scurried off, bashing against the side of the overturned banquet table before zigzagging back toward the water’s edge.
There. Now they’re gone.
Only then did she notice that the entire student body was staring at her—the small gray wolf standing fifty feet outside the decorated dancefloor. Nobody said a thing.
Uh-oh.
Amanda sat on her haunches and licked her muzzle, searching the stupefied faces all turned toward her.
I can’t shift back.
“Mr. Petrov,” Glasket muttered.
“Huh?”
“Hand me your dinner jacket.”
The Combat Training teacher stared blankly at her. “You want—”
“Right now, Stanley. I’m pretty sure that animal raced off with the last of Miss Coulier’s clothes on its tusks. Give me your jacket!”
The wizard leapt into action and peeled off his jacket before she snatched it from him and hurried across the field in her seafoam dress, her heels clicking harshly on the dancefloor. The students had already started to whisper to each other in surprise when she reached Amanda with her lips pressed firmly together.
“Did you know she was a shifter?”
“Did the teachers know?”
“She’s even scrawny as a wolf.”
“Watch. I bet she’ll bite Glasket’s hand off.”
“Dude, shut up.”
Glasket lowered herself to the grass in her fancy underwater-theme gown and held out Petrov’s long dinner jacket in both hands. “That was very well done, Miss Coulier. Surprising to see, of course, but you handled the issue.”
Amanda stared at the teacher and let her wrap the jacket around her back. It smelled like Mr. Petrov’s overwhelmingly strong cologne with an undercurrent of old, stale coffee.
“I’ll have to ask you to change back now,” Glasket whispered. “To put everyone else a little more at ease, if you don’t mind.”
With a low whine, the girl shifted back into her human-like form and immediately grabbed the edges of Petrov’s jacket to wrap them tighter around herself. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Amanda.” Glasket slowly stood. “I don’t think anyone else here had any idea how to handle the situation. What happened?”
“There were some kids—oh. He’s hurt.”
“Who?”
“One of the kids. I think they scared the boars and—”
“Principal Glasket!” Candace shouted. “Principal Glasket! Rob’s hurt!”
Glasket stormed toward the group of students who’d tried to warn the rest of the school as Amanda rose to her feet and turned away from the dancefloor, mostly so she could finish buttoning the dinner jacket that didn’t cover as much as she wanted.
“Hey.” Summer approached her, looking over her shoulder at the stunned students now crowding around Candace and the other kids as Rob wailed in agony, and Principal Glasket told him to suck it up at least until Nurse Aiken could have a look. “You could probably make a getaway now while that giant baby howls up a storm. I left my backpack on the other side of that weird arch thing.”
“You still have an extra set of clothes in there?”
“Always.”
With a tight laugh, Amanda kept her head down and quickly walked off with Summer. “That was weird.”
“No, that was awesome. Seriously.” They skirted around the archway, and Summer grabbed the extra sweats from her backpack, holding them out and looking away while Amanda quickly pulled them on. “Leave it to this place to get attacked by a bunch of pigs—”
“Boars.”
“Whatever.”
“They were scared. I think Candace and those other kids stumbled onto their den and freaked them out. Which was stupid.”
Summer burst out laughing. “You sound like you’ve chased around a bunch of wild boars a few times.”
Amanda smirked. “A few, yeah. I’m pretty sure those panicked. A bunch of dancing kids and loud music didn’t exactly help.” She clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. “Now everyone knows what I am.”
“Oh, come on.” Summer tossed Petrov’s jacket aside and thumped Amanda on the back. “It was gonna happen sooner or later, right? Might as well make the reveal in badass style as you did.”
“I guess…”
They stared at each other, and her shifter hearing picked up the muttered conversations of the students as they all talked about her—the shifter girl.
“Miss Coulier?” That was Principal Glasket. “Did anyone see where she went?”
“Behind the curtain,” someone replied.
Summer shook her head. “Screw ’em. You don’t have to—”
“No, it’ll be worse now if I keep hiding and try to pretend this never happened.” Amanda shot the other girl a tight smile, then stalked off toward the curtain in the archway again. Pulling the hood of the zip-up sweatshirt over her head was probably as close as she would get to having any privacy tonight. Now I’m definitely the odd one out at this school.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Hey, there she is!”
Amanda had no idea who shouted it, but the second she stepped through the curtain, a cheer rose from the students. Stopping in surprise, she looked up to see most of the kids scattered around the field grinning and nodding at her, clapping or whistling or watching her with approval.
Definitely not what I expected.
Her smile felt tight and not precisely genuine. She caught a fleeting glimpse of Principal Glasket guiding Rob toward the main building to see Nurse Aiken. The kid limped and groaned, and Candace and the other two kids who’d snuck off from the dance with him huddled together on the dancefloor, scowling.
“Coulier!” Jackson jogged toward her, looking her up and down with a mixture of awe and apprehension. “Holy shit. I mean, yeah, I guess we all expected you to be something awesome, but a shifter? You should’ve said something.”
“Why?” Grace asked, beside him. “It’s none of your business. Or any of us ours.”
“Well, it kind of is now, huh?” He gestured at the other students, most of whom had now gone back to dancing on the dessert-strewn floor as the music continued. A few still watched Amanda with eager grins, whispering to each other when they thought she wasn’t looking. She could hear most of what they said.
Of course, they don’t think I fit in here. Nobody does. I’ll prove them all wrong.
She even heard Mr. Petrov muttering to Ms. Ralthorn as he leaned toward her. “What the hell was that dwarf teaching her?”
“I heard there was a lot of hunting involved. Which would explain all this.”
“That was pretty awesome, though.” Jackson stepped toward Amanda and clapped a hand on her shoulder. “You look like yourself again when you’re not in a dress. Hey, how’d you learn to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Chase giant pigs away from people.”
Summer snorted and folded her arms. “They’re boars.”
“Same thing, isn’t it?”
Amanda shot him a crooked smile. “Not exactly. I just—”
“Check it out.” David Grady sniggered and walked toward her and her friends, surrounded by the other Louper players who never left his side since Mr. LeFor had named him team captain. “We have a magical sheepdog to round up the pigs and send ’em back home. That’s why you’re really here, isn’t it?”
She knew he was trying to get to her. Right now, after the boars crashed the dance and she’d revealed her biggest secret to everyone all at once, she didn’t want to get into it with another kid.
No point in fighting.
“Whatever.” She turned around and headed back toward the archway.
“Hey, I didn’t say you could go, shifter,” David snarled, summoning a blotchy spell of flickering orange light in his large hand. “’Cause now we need to set some ground rules. Can’t have you running around wolfing out on us all the time. Gives you a pretty unfair advantage.”
“Because you’re failing your magic classes doesn’t give her an advantage,” Grace retorted.
“Nobody asked you.” David pointed at her, then gestured toward the dance floor. “Go take your fancy ass back to the party before you break a nail or something.”
Grace glared at him.
“I’m going to bed,” Amanda said. “Grace, it’s fine. I don’t care.”
“Yeah, well I do,” David shouted. “There’s a reason nobody wants to keep shifters around. You don’t belong here.”
Now there was a crowd growing at the far end of the field where the junior Louper player wouldn’t leave her alone. A larger number of students were sniggering at her now, pointing, laughing, whispering to each other about whatever they thought she really was.
“If you’re trying to fight me,” she told David, “it’s not gonna happen.”
“Of course not. You still need a collar. Maybe a nice fenced-in yard out here so you can run around without—”
“Will you shut the hell up already?” Summer stormed toward the huge half-Kilomea junior. “Whatever you’re trying to do, you’re making yourself look even more like an idiot. I thought that was impossible until right now.”
David looked her up and down and snorted. “You a shifter too?”
“What? No. I’m not an insecure assbag who thinks he’s better than everyone because he plays on the only Louper team in existence that hasn’t won a single game yet.”
The other team members looked at their captain in confusion, and even David looked confused for a second to find a girl who hadn’t been with them in LA standing up to him like this. He tried to chuckle and folded his arms. “What’re you gonna do about it?”
“I’m telling you to shut up and leave her alone.”
“Make me.”
With a sigh, Summer glanced at Amanda and shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
She jumped toward the half-Kilomea and shot her hand out toward him, launching a brilliant burst of strobing yellow light. He yelped and raised a hand to shield his eyes, also blocking his view of Summer darting in to land a surprisingly hard uppercut to his gut. David grunted and crashed to his knees.
“Hey!” one of the sophomore players shouted. “You can’t—”
Summer punched him in the face and shoved him into the other team members.
“My fucking nose!” Blood poured between his fingers clamped down over his face.
She spread her arms and stared at them. “Anybody else wanna start being a dick all of a sudden? ’Cause I promise I’m really good at dealing with assholes.”
The kid with the bloody nose groaned before racing across the field. David struggled to his feet, gasping, and glared at the black-haired girl. “You’re an idiot if you want a shifter for a friend.”
“Say that again. I dare you.”
“Summer.” Amanda grabbed the girl’s arm and gave it a warning squeeze. “Let it go. I don’t wanna spend another weekend scrubbing walls.”
“Naw, this guy has it coming.” Summer pulled her arm away and jerked her chin up at David. “Are you gonna run away from this like your friend or what?”
He snorted and rubbed his sore stomach. “You’re pathetic.”
Still, he turned and stalked back toward the other kids revving up with the dancing again now that the wild boars were gone and Amanda looked like a girl instead of a wolf.
“Yeah, and you won’t make it through the first five minutes of the next Louper game,” Summer shouted after him. “I have a bet going already!”
Jackson ran a hand through his hair and stared at her, his mouth gaping open. “I can’t believe you hi
t him.”
“Yeah, well, someone had to.” Summer turned toward Amanda, breathing heavily and casting angry glances at the backs of the retreating Louper players. “Hey, where’s the thing?”
“No.”
“Come on. I could use that and knock his dumb ass back to California. He has no idea who he’s messing with. Go get it.”
“What’s the thing?” Grace asked.
“Nothing.” Amanda shook her head. We can’t use the crystal we stole from a temple to fight other students. She hoped Summer could see all that in her gaze as she stared at the other girl and slowly shook her head.
Summer sneered at her. “Whatever. This dance sucks.” She blew past Amanda and threw the shimmering curtain aside before stomping through the archway, presumably back to the dorms.
Amanda stuck her hands in the pockets of Summer’s zip-up hoodie and wrinkled her nose.
“Wow.” Jackson chuckled. “Someone’s really on Team Shifter, huh?”
Grace smacked his arm. “Why would you say something like that?”
“What? Summer’s been a jerk since day one, and now all of a sudden she’s punching Louper players in the face because they wanted to fight Coulier. What gives?”
“Maybe she doesn’t like bullies.” Amanda shrugged.
“Nah, that’s not it. She’s up to something—”
The music turned off, and Principal Glasket stepped up onto the stage. “Well, that was certainly an unexpected addition to the festivities tonight.”
“Turn the music back on!” someone shouted.
“Yeah, we’re still dancing!”
The witch blinked furiously as the students started chanting for the music again. Then she rolled her eyes, flicked her hand, and the pumping bass blared through the invisible speakers again. The kids roared their approval and got back to dancing.
“Hey, you think those pigs ate all the cookies?” Jackson didn’t wait for a reply. “I’m gonna go find out.”
Grace stepped toward Amanda as all the other students at the Academy went back to acting as if nothing had happened, despite the destroyed dancefloor and the overturned table and a handful of students still casting wary glances around the field, looking for more wild boars. “You know, you could’ve told us.”