When she walks past him, he makes a show of throwing his arm around her and walking out of the class beside her.
So dumb.
I ignore it all, though, and head to my last class of the day. The Natural History of the Unnatural World.
After a quick trip to the restroom which is a cacophony of artificial smelling perfumes and thinly masked body odors, I make it to class just after the bell rings. I’m greeted by a sea of confused expressions as I stand in the open doorway. There are maybe twenty kids in the class which has already started, and I don’t want to interrupt, but when the teacher notices everyone’s confused faces staring at something behind him, he turns and spots me.
“Are you lost?” he asks me with a frown.
I shake my head. “No,” I tell him, stepping closer to hand him my schedule. “I’m a late transfer,” I add sheepishly.
His frown deepens, his nearly white brows furrowing together like two fuzzy caterpillars.
“Were you dropped in here because of space issues?” he asks, seemingly still confused.
“I’m not sure. My schedule was chosen for me before I arrived.”
He raises a single brow. “What are you?”
“Shifter,” I tell him. “Wolf,” I add in at the last second.
His eyes widen but he nods his head and returns my schedule. “Alright then. Grab a seat. We’re doing a bit of a refresher today, anyway.”
I head to the only available chair. When I sit down, a boy leans over his desk toward me. “Hey, you’re new here, right?”
I nod, bracing myself for whatever he says next as my nose registers that he’s a cat. Hmm, I wonder what kind?
“I’m Zheng. What’s your name?”
“Isa,” I say, surprised by the introduction.
“Cool. Nice to meet you, Isa.” He flashes me a brilliant smile. He’s cute. Really cute. He has shaggy black hair that hangs down in his face and black almost pupiless eyes. Wide, high cheekbones coupled with slanted, hoodless eyes highlight his east-Asian good looks.
Dressed in black pants and a charcoal long-sleeved shirt he gives off a bit of an emo kid vibe, but it’s cool and it definitely fits him.
I match his smile before turning my attention to our instructor, a glimmer of hope unfurling in my chest. He’s nice and he’s a shifter. This is good. Really good.
Most of what our teacher goes over I already know. He’s rehashing the story of the Awakening. Why paranormals were originally in hiding and some of the lessons of our past that we need to carry into our futures.
He goes over the Salem witch trials, which I’ve heard more times than I can count, and then he begins rambling about faction treaties and why most of them failed. To be honest, based on my limited knowledge, they failed because humans always stab us in the back and put us in cages. Only time will tell if that ever changes.
Most of the kids ignore him, but I pay attention just in case there’s anything he might add that varies from what I learned before. My education was entirely Pack based and through the lens of shifters so there’s a good chance I might learn something new, if not today, then at some point in this course.
Witches were the first faction to make an attempt at going public with humans and it failed. Which is why it took over four hundred years for the rest of the factions to take the plunge themselves. To mitigate the risks, when the Awakening happened, for the first time in our histories, the three largest paranormal factions—shifters, vampires, and witches— chose to stand united and come out at once hoping that to some degree, there would be safety in numbers. Smaller factions like the fae, druids, and harpies came out later, once the dust had settled, and some, my mother had speculated before, had yet to make their presence known.
“First trimester we cover all the crap we already know,” Zheng tells me. No surprise there.
The teacher—Mr. Meyer—explains our upcoming assignment that’ll be due next week—an essay on how our particular faction fared during the witch trials and whether we believe our faction was helped or hindered by the experience.
The bell rings, signaling the end of class.
“We’ll continue where we left off tomorrow,” he says to the class before turning his ice blue gaze toward me. “Study your syllabus so you know what to expect.”
I nod. Grabbing my things to head out, I pull my phone from my pocket, realizing I have a text.
Natalia: Your father’s meeting ran late. Call a rideshare.
I frown. What the hell is a rideshare?
Me: I don’t know what that is.
Natalia: Download the Ridez app. I’ve already set up an account for you. Log in: IsaKline Password: Kline05
Uhhh. Okay. My upper lip curls in the beginnings of a snarl as I stare at the username she assigned me, but before I let myself get too worked up I exhale a shaky breath and pull my wolf back under control. It’s not worth the fight. I’m sure I can change the username later.
Besides, it’s good Brian’s meeting ran late. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the ride home with him. I search the app store on my phone for the app she mentioned and hit download. I haven’t taken a rideshare before, but I’m sure it’s not rocket science.
Zheng sidles up beside me and peaks over my shoulder at my phone. His scent, a blend of black cardamom and mint tickles my nose.
“Something wrong?”
“No. Bri—my dad is just running late so I’m gonna catch a Ridez.”
“I can give you a lift,” he offers.
“You don’t even know me.” I give him an incredulous look.
He shrugs and gives me a boyish grin. “I know. But, I’d like to get to know you. Besides, shifters should stick together. Don’t you think?”
Heat creeps up my face, but before I can
