If Only We Could Be Us

Did he rely just ask if I could hang out with him? He is a tiger and I’m just a little jaguar. It’s my first real day here and I already know that is a big no-no for him to talk to me. This must be some sort of cruel joke. His friends must have put him up to this so they can all beat me up.

“Aren’t you hanging out with your friends for a movie or something?” I asked and his face scrunched up a bit.

“How did you know that?”

“Um, I overheard your friend ask you during first class,” wow this was awkward, “Sorry”

He suddenly had a smirk on his face, “Kitten eavesdropping on me huh?”

“I’m not a kitten.” I barely whispered.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you kitty.” He leaned in closer and chuckled to himself.

“I’m not a cat! I don’t know why you stupid people keep calling me that, but I’m not! Sure I may be only 5’6” and I’m just a jaguar, but I’m not a kitty.” I yell to him before sprinting off.

I have no clue where I’m going to go, but I don’t care. I ran through the doors of the school and past the dorms. I continue to run past a few groups of people as they yell at me and say that jaguars don’t belong here. I quickly become tired and I stop running. I look at my surroundings and see that I am in the woods alone. I lean against the closest tree and look around.

I have no clue how to get back to the school so I just look around for a nice spot to rest and collect my thoughts. I look up at the tree and see a large branch that would make a perfect seat. I grab a hold of the tree and start to climb up. I make it about halfway up to the branch when my sweatshirt gets stuck. In the process of unhooking it from the large twig I manage to not only rip my sweatshirt, but also cut my arm a little bit. A small amount of blood trickles down, but I just ignore it and continue my way up.

When I made it the thick branch I lean my back against the trunk of the tree and kick my feet up. I look down and notice that I am pretty far up. People probably wouldn’t be able to see me from up here, but I can look out and see most of the school.

This is the perfect place to think.

There are a few boys on what looked like a sports field. They all shift into their animal and start to run around. I wish I could do that. Shift on command that is. When I was younger I could, but my dad made all of that change.

I became a shifter because of my mother. It skipped her generation, but when my dad found out about me being one, he flipped out. He got so mad at me every time I would shift that he started to beat me. He would punch me and whip me with his belt every single time and called me a disgusting freak.

Eventually, he trained me to not shift. After a while I was unable to shift when I pleased. The only time I can shift now is when I get extremely angry or scared. If it wasn’t for him, she would still be here. My mom would still be alive. I would have been able to control myself and not lose my temper.

After about two hours of sitting on my new best friend (I decided to name the tree Freddy) I finally climb down.

I patted Freddy and said, “See you soon Fred!” before walking away and trying to find my way out of the woods back to my dorm. By the time I got out, it was dark out and there was no one in sight. I made my way back to my room and slowly opened the door trying not to wake my new roommates. I closed the door and started to walk to my bed when a light turned on. Sitting down in front of me was Mitch and Jack. They had their hands on their laps and their legs crossed.

“We have been expecting you Munro.” Jack said.

There was a slight silence before all of us suddenly broke out in laughter.