Winta was feeling completely lost now. "So you stopped him from kissing you? But you said he kissed you. So did you stop him after? I'm so confused."
Bringing her hands to cover her face, Ava grumbled, "It was too much. It occurred to me he was just using me. He dragged me all the way out there… Just to get me alone, and… Why else would a boy invite you off where no one can see you, and then make a move on you? Am I right?"
Winta's heart sank. She almost didn't want to know the rest of the story, but she kept quiet. Instead, she simply asked, "So what did you do?"
After about ten seconds of awkward silence, Ava grumbled, "I pushed him away, gave him a piece of my mind, and then stormed off."
Winta groaned louder than she meant to.
"He didn't even try to stop me," Ava went on. "He just stood there like a wounded animal, watching me rant, and then just let me go. I guess he didn't even care. Probably because he knew I was right."
There was no way Ava really believed that. Winta knew she was just saying the words to convince herself they were the truth. "Ava…"
"Don't start!" Ava snapped. "On top of all that, he mentioned something about mythical shifters with magical abilities. One of them is the magical ability to heal."
Winta nodded her head. She hadn't thought of that. But her parents had read her stories about fabled shifters who could heal people and even bring them back from the dead.
"So now that's all I can think about," Ava finished.
But now Winta's head was spinning as well. That was a fascinating detail. Was there some sort of magical cat shifter out there? Maybe there was a lot more to Ava than any of them realized. Biting down on her lip, she looked at her friend. "We've already wasted time. Let's get to the library."
Elaine was on her way to Black Dorm. To Colin’s room specifically. He'd called her over, and apparently Deacon and a few of the others were already there. She'd heard about Deacon’s falling out with Tarun and wanted to help console him.
Who was she kidding… Console?
Nah.
She just wanted to go over there and complain about Tarun while the other attractive boys doted all over her.
It was pure coincidence that she saw the stupid cat and her elephant friend backing out of the Indigo hallway. What were they doing out at this hour? Both girls had to duck from the nighttime attendant patrolling the halls. Of course, she had to do the same, and jumped behind a pillar.
Elaine waited until the attendant was out of sight and the girls started on the move again before she followed stealthily behind them, being careful not to make a sound. She was interested to know why her goody-two-shoes former roommate had decided to leave the comfort of her room to skulk around at night with her pesky friend.
At one point, she had to dodge behind a cleaning cart to keep from being seen. Then, as they neared Gold, she choked at the thought that perhaps Ava was stupid enough to visit her boyfriend in his dorm. She knew Tarun was alone in there because Deacon was at Colin’s. But, to her relief, the girls sailed right past that wing as if it wasn't there and continued down the whirling stairs.
Sneaking down the stairs behind them was trickier because the steps creaked when they moved. She had to hang back at the top and wait for the girls to make it to the bottom before she shifted into her eagle as quietly as possible and, in one smooth movement, sailed down to the lower level to catch up with them.
It turned out they were headed to the library. Not at all what she’d been expecting, but now that she thought about it, it made sense. Ava had been skulking around the library the last time she caught her with Tarun. What could possibly be so important in that gross dusty room for her to risk expulsion?
The girls disappeared into the library and closed the door behind them. Elaine entertained the thought of barging into the room after them to expose them, but she knew that wouldn't go well for her either because she was also out of her room after hours. Instead, she tiptoed over to the doorway, still in her eagle form, and leaned up against the door to listen, utilizing her bird hearing once again to eavesdrop.
From her position, desperately hoping no one would walk by, she could hear everything they said. So the kitty’s father abandoned her? It seemed fitting, Elaine thought. Who would want a pathetic daughter like Ava?
Oh, but there was more.
Her healing abilities. Now that was interesting. Elaine had caught wind of some commotion during training that day, but she hadn't fully grasped what happened. Apparently Ava's horrific wound had healed within seconds? What could that be about?
But as she stood and pondered those two details, mention of something else snapped her back to attention. That little brat had kissed Tarun?
Oh, she was going to make her suffer. After everything that stupid cat had put her through, Elaine would make her pay. And now she had even more information on her. She was stupid to sneak out with her friend.
Elaine had heard enough, and she moved away from the door. It appeared she’d have to take a little detour to Headmistress Levine's office.
20
The bright side of being a small fish in a huge pond was that no one ever paid you much attention. If you're too small to be seen, it's easy to sneak around.
Okay, so that turned out to be a lie. Sure, Ava was small. Sure, the academy was big. But she got way more attention than she wanted, and it turned out, sneaking around was not a luxury she could afford.
Here she had been so caught up in finding out more about her father and her healing abilities, that she'd thrown caution to the wind.
She whined, begged, and cajoled her friend into breaking the school rules and accompanying her to the library.
Upon entering the library, they had made their way through the dusty pages for about twenty minutes before Winta's head snapped up and looked around. Winta had been the smart one and thought to utilize her elephant hearing while they were in there.
"Someone's coming." Winta snapped the book she was holding closed with a smack and shoved it back on the shelf.
"Oh no! What should we do?" Ava felt like a deer in headlights.
Winta figured they could climb out one of the large gilded windows and jump into the bushes outside.
Filled with an urgency that spiked by the second, Ava clambered over the sill behind her friend.
She looked out the window, grateful she always landed on her feet because that was a pretty big drop. Winta was already on the ground below her, looking up with scared eyes. "Hurry!" How Winta had landed so gracefully without hurting herself, Ava had no idea. Maybe she shifted to her elephant feet as she landed or something?
Ava threw her legs over and jumped down, landing roughly on all fours. Before she could straighten back up, a bright light flashed onto her.
Coming to a full standing position, she and Winta turned to stare directly into two very bright flashlights.
The end.
Or so it seemed. Perhaps, if everything really had ended outside the library with Headmistress Levine glaring at them, that probably would have been better. But no. It got worse.
Elaine, of all people, stood proudly beside the headmistress. She was the one holding the second flashlight.
"You girls better have an excellent explanation for this." There was no trace of humor in Levine's voice. Of course not.
Instead of responding, Ava and Winta simply stared back, still looking like deer in headlights.
Sighing, Levine tried again. "You know the rules, yet you chose to leave your rooms at this ungodly hour and break into the library? What was so important that couldn't wait until tomorrow?"
Ava couldn't seem to find her ability to talk. She wanted to make up some kind of lie, but her lips just wouldn’t move. It appeared that Winta couldn't talk either. Ava felt tremendously guilty for dragging her friend into this.
"Elaine, that will be all. You should hurry to the infirmary now." Levine waved Elaine off. "Now, as for the two of you…"
So that was how Elaine kep
t from getting in trouble for also sneaking out. Ava knew full well that Elaine hadn't been headed to the infirmary at that hour, but she had probably been such a quick thinker she came up with that story at the last second. Clever, actually.
Elaine scampered out...and did she give them the finger over her shoulder? Ava couldn't be sure, but she thought so. Of course, she couldn't be sure of anything when she was being dragged to the terrifying griffin's office.
Headmistress Levine forced them to stay the night in her office. Apparently that was also where the headmistress lived, and she disappeared through a doorway behind her desk. Intermittently, Levine had come in to check on them, but otherwise left them alone.
It was a very odd and unexpected punishment. Ava had no idea what she was going to do with them.
Neither of them slept a wink. Ava was too nervous to sleep, and even though Winta was probably also nervous, she also knew falling asleep and accidentally shifting would wreck Levine's beautiful little office.
"Good morning, ladies." The headmistress greeted them as she glided into the office as if she hadn't just kept them captive there half the night.
"Good morning," they both grumbled suddenly from her couch.
Levine strolled to her uncluttered desk to retrieve her purse, leaving the girls in suspense.
"What now?" Winta whispered to Ava as she uncurled herself from the couch. They only had a short time before breakfast, and Ava was definitely hungry, but she was still trying hard not to panic. Were they getting expelled or not?
Finally, Headmistress Levine returned; this time her hair and makeup looked neater. "You may go."
Ava just sat there and blinked. "That's it? We can just—"
"Yes," Levine cut her off. "I just spoke with Professor Bills, and I would like to speak with you in five days. I will call for you when it's time. But for now, you may go to breakfast and then head to class as usual."
Ava couldn't even believe this was happening. What was the headmistress getting at? They were seriously just going to strut right out of there with no punishment? Or was there a worse punishment coming? And five days? What was that all about? What would happen then?
"Don't just sit here and stare at me. I'm happy to come up with another punishment right now if you so desire," Levine warned.
"No, no!" Winta grabbed Ava's hand and pulled her up. "We're going. Thank you, Ma'am."
Ava followed Winta out of the office.
"You were right, that was a terrible idea. It's all my fault and I'm so sorry," Ava apologized. "I shouldn't have dragged you into my drama, I—"
"Stop talking, Ava, before you make it worse. I chose to go with you because I'm your best friend, and that's what we do. We stick by each other no matter what." Winta gave Ava's hand a tight squeeze.
Hand in hand, they returned to Indigo Dorm. Ava walked Winta to her room before retreating to her own. They got more than a few stares on their way, probably because they both looked like such a mess from sitting up all night.
Before Ava had even stepped one foot inside her room, JiSoo was in her face, bouncing up and down to make herself closer to Ava's height. "Why didn't you say anything?" the girl demanded, banging the door closed behind Ava.
JiSoo was already dressed for school, her uniform perfectly ironed, and her short cropped hair pulled awkwardly into two puffy pigtails that glinted in the light. Her hair was too short to fit entirely into the pigtails, so chunks stuck out all over.
"You were asleep. I didn't want to disturb you," Ava said matter-of-factly.
"Disturb me? You didn't even think to invite me out to wherever it was you went? Now, I've missed out on all the fun!" She stomped her little foot.
What? "Exactly what fun are you referring to? Winta and I almost got expelled!"
"Oh, so you could invite Winta, but not me?" JiSoo stamped her fists onto her hips in defiance. "Winta, who you had to go find. But not me, who was asleep right next to you!"
"It's not like that…"
JiSoo prodded Ava's chest with her tiny index finger. Ava was concerned those eyes could pop out at any second. They were bulging dangerously out of their sockets.
"We snuck into the library because I was desperate for more information about my father and his potential magical healing abilities. But we got caught, okay?"
JiSoo's eyes got even bigger. "I could've helped! I would've gotten you into the library no problem. That's one thing I'm good at—"
"Actually, you just would've ended up on the headmistress’s list along with us. Elaine ratted us out, and that's why we got caught." Ava kicked off her shoes and stepped into the room, figuring she could squeeze in a shower and still make it for the tail end of breakfast. Her roommate, on the other hand, had different ideas.
"You take your time getting ready," JiSoo offered. "I'm headed to the breakfast hall, and I can bring yours back."
"That would be wonderful, JiSoo, thank you so much." Ava meant it. She really wasn't ready to deal with everyone quite yet.
Without another word, JiSoo disappeared, off to fetch breakfast, and, not long after, Ava let out a sigh of satisfaction when she stepped into the hot shower.
When Ava exited of the bathroom, Winta was sitting on her bed. "JiSoo stopped in my room and told me to meet you here, and that she would bring us all breakfast?" Winta said it as more of a question.
Ava chuckled. "She's the best. If not kind of a lot to handle sometimes."
Just as she said that, the door flew open, and in pranced JiSoo with heaping trays of food in her hands. Kicking off her shoes, she brought the trays over and sat them down on the table in the corner. "Here you go, ladies! You're going to need this. You might want to brace yourselves for a lot of gossip."
"Great," Winta mumbled as she stuffed a pastry into her mouth.
"How did word even get out so quickly?" Ava picked up a piece of sausage.
"Elaine, I think," JiSoo explained. "People were talking very loudly. It sounded like the two of you robbed a bank or something."
"What about Tarun?"
"Yeah, he was there, too. And not so happy either." JiSoo bounced from one foot to the other. She really was a bouncy little thing. "How did Elaine catch you, anyway?"
"Beats me," Ava said. "I didn't even see her follow us, and the door to the library was closed while we were in there."
"Sounds to me like she has it out for you even more than you realize."
Ava just nodded as she took a bite of her eggs. "Flerfinflifsmo bufamotmosofmy."
"You might want to swallow the food in your mouth first," Winta suggested.
Ava took a big awkward swallow, and then repeated herself: "I guess so, but I don't know why."
JiSoo looked serious for a moment. "Just so you know, she's telling everyone about how your father abandoned you."
Ava's mouth fell open. She thought she felt a little piece of food fall down her shirt. "She knows about that?"
"That she does, and she isn't mincing words."
"What else did she say in this very enlightening breakfast conversation?"
"I don't know because I wasn't right next to her for all of it, but I did see Tarun stand up to yell at her. You should've seen her face go different colors in seconds. But it worked. She shut up after that."
"Tarun defended me?" Ava brought her hands up, wiggling a piece of bacon. "Why didn't you lead with that?"
"Why didn't you invite me along?" JiSoo moved her head back and forth.
Ava only smiled at that. She really appreciated JiSoo.
After scarfing down breakfast, the three girls stepped out of the dorm room together. As soon as Ava stepped into the hallway, she finally realized the full effects of their adventure.
Everywhere she looked, someone was pointing at them and whispering. Although she was fairly used to that, this was different—there was more open malice on the students’ faces. JiSoo must have sugarcoated her version of the story for them somewhat.
It seemed that everyone had conclude
d she had broken into school property and stolen something. The shifters literally cleared a path for her as she and her friends walked by. When they got to the stairs, those cleared as well. No one would look directly at her for more than a split second. And conversations hushed when she got close by.
She thought it should have been obvious that she hadn't stolen anything, considering she was still there at the school. Yes, Levine had gone easy on her, for whatever reason, but she certainly would not have had she caught them stealing.
All Ava could do was square her shoulders and lift her chin and continue to class as if nothing was wrong.
As a few of the dolphins loudly made fun of her as they passed, JiSoo whispered to her, "Just ignore them. This will blow over as soon as they find someone else to pick on."
But she only listened to JiSoo with one ear. The other ear was busy listening to the jeering dolphins.
Thankfully, today's first class would have all the first-years together, so Winta and JiSoo stayed by her side.
21
At the door to the classroom, Ava collided with someone, and her bag slipped from her shoulder, spilling the contents all over the floor.
"Hey, Tabby, why don't you pay attention to your surroundings?" A pair of stiletto pumps stepped on the books and papers scattered on the floor. Elaine. In all her malicious glory. She grinned from ear to ear, her pink lipstick shining. Lashes thick with black mascara, and her studded jewelry making her hands and fingers sparkle.
Ava tried to ignore her and squatted down to pack her belongings back into her bag. JiSoo and Winta dropped to help her as well.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" Elaine's voice was syrupy sweet. Her flock, standing nearby, found her stupid comment hilarious and giggled uncontrollably.
Ava rolled her eyes. Everyone thought they were so clever with their cat jokes. But most of them weren't even remotely original.
Animage Academy: The Shifter School Down Under Year One Page 15