If Only We Could Be Us

“What am I going to do guys?” I asked my roommates as I waited for them to change so that I could go battle.

“What?” Jack asked, “You mean Tommy?”

“Yes!” I practically yell, “He is going to rip me to pieces!”

“Don’t worry, you will be fine. If it’s that bad just run off of the field.” Mitch said.

“But I can’t even shif-” I was cut off by one of the teachers running into the locker and started to yell at everyone to get on the field.

I walked as slowly as I could to the fighting grounds. Maybe I will get lucky and throw up again. Or I will get so scared and be able to shift. Or even better, he will fall off of a cliff and I won’t have to fight. I continued to contemplate how I could possibly get out of this until I heard my name called. I took the walk of doom to the field and blocked out what the teacher was saying to us.

Across the field was Tommy. He was looking straight at me with an “I’m going to rip your face off” look. He quickly pointed at me and then slid his finger across his throat. This should be a good time.

You can do this Munro, just focus and you can shift.

“Okay boys, get ready. One, two, three…. FIGHT!” and with that I ran out to the center of the field and tried to shift.

I kept trying, but kept failing. I looked up to see Tommy charging at me and suddenly he turned into a huge tiger. No matter how many times I tried to force myself to change, I just couldn’t. He was a few strides away from me and I decided to do the only thing I could think of, scream and run away.

I could tell that everyone watching this fight was laughing at me, but I don’t care, I just kept running. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my right leg and felt some blood trickling down. I fell to the ground from the pain. Tommy jumped on top of me and started to scratch and bite me. Why wouldn’t he stop? It was obvious that I couldn’t fight back! I began to cry out in pain, when suddenly, I felt Tommy being pushed off of me.

I opened my eyes and saw a purple tiger viciously scratching Tommy. Was that Shayne? I didn’t think about that for more than a moment when out of the corner of my eye I saw all three trainers shift into their animals and run onto the field to split up the fight. There was a lot of growling and every now and than, you could hear silent cries of pain. After about five minutes, everyone was back in their human forms and the fight was over.

“Munro!” Claire yelled, “Get your ass over here!”

I got up as quickly as I could and ran/limped over to where the two boys and three trainers were standing. I didn’t look up at any of them. I just stared at my feet.

“What the hell was that? Anyone like to explain?” The trainer from the tiger clan asked.

“Shayne just ran in and started to beat me up! This is NOT my fault!” Tommy screamed.

“Well if he would have just stopped attacking Munro than this wouldn’t have happened!” Shayne responded, “He could have killed him!”

“Fine. Shayne and Tommy, you two are going to have detention with me all of next week. Every day after this class you will stay after and clean up,” The tiger trainer decided, “Class is canceled for the rest of the day! Everyone get out of here! NOW!”

I heard receding footsteps and I looked up from my feet. Standing in front of me was a very cut up version of Shayne. His left cheek was bleeding and there were cuts and blood all over him. I can’t believe that I caused that.

“What the fuck were you doing out there Munro?!” Funny, I think that was the first time he hasn’t called me kitty or kitten.

Instead of answering I just shrugged my shoulders.

“You are so lucky that I ran out there when I did, he would have killed you!” His voice was full of rage, “Why didn’t you just shift and fight back! You’re so fucking stupid!”

My eyes were burning from the tears pooling in them.

“I didn’t shift because I can’t, you happy?” I ask before running away.

I heard his voice calling me, but I just ignored it. I ran all the way into the woods and to Freddy. I start to climb him when suddenly I feel something grab my ankle and tug me down. Before I could fall, two strong arms caught me. I look up and saw two light grey eyes staring down at me.

Shayne.