Shifter Falls Academy- Year One Read online

  I started walking behind the group of girls. I was far enough away that they wouldn’t notice me, but close enough that I’d be able to follow them to find my way out of the hallway. Headmaster Wild had given me vague directions, but I figured that most of the finding was going to be up to me.

  It was probably some sort of test.

  If I couldn’t find the girls’ dormitory, after all, how was I going to find the strength to learn how to do magic?

  The girls veered off to a classroom, but I spotted a side door up ahead that looked like an exit. Cool. I hurried toward it, rushing so quickly that I didn’t notice the student stepping out of a classroom until it was too late, and I slammed into him.

  I bumped into him and he grabbed me to keep me from tumbling. He dropped his papers in the process, though, and they went flying all over the hallway. It was all very cartoonish.

  “I’m sorry,” I hurriedly said, and I dropped down to my knees and started picking up stray papers.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “I should’ve looked where I was going.”

  “No, it was me,” I told him. I grabbed another sheet. “I wasn’t looking. Guess I was in a bit of a hurry.”

  I grabbed the last paper and got to my feet before shoving the sloppy pile of papers toward the boy.

  “Here. I believe these are yours.”

  “Thanks.” He took the papers from me and then he looked me up and down. He wasn’t leering at me and I didn’t get the impression he was checking me out. Rather, he just seemed curious. “Are you new here?”

  “Yes.”

  “First day?”

  “Yep.”

  “I’m Kenneth.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  He chuckled and held out his hand. I shook it, and he looked at me like he was waiting for something.

  “I still don’t know your name,” he said.

  “Oh, sorry. It’s Charlotte, but I go by Charlie.”

  “That’s cute,” he said. “Charlie. I like it. Well, Charlie, where are you headed?”

  “Um, I’m supposed to be finding my dorm room,” I told him. Would asking for directions be cheating the system? Had Headmaster Wild expected me to do that? Or had he hoped I would wander around on my own until I discovered where I was going?

  Kenneth seemed to sense my discomfort and smiled at me.

  “Want some help?” He asked. “These buildings can be hard to navigate when you’re new.”

  “Yeah, I mean, that would be great.” Kenneth was a tall guy. Shifter? He had to be, right? What kind of shifter was that tall, though? He towered over me, but he was still lean and lanky. He wasn’t muscular like Caleb or Daniel. They definitely seemed more like wolves. Kenneth was like...I didn’t know. A giraffe, maybe? Could he be something like that?

  “Sure thing. It’s this way.”

  He turned and gestured for me to follow him. We went toward the side door I’d originally been eyeing, and then just before we reached it, we turned right. There was a narrow hallway there that led to a little staircase going down.

  “Down?”

  “It’s the easiest way to reach the dorms quickly,” he explained. “I mean, we could walk, but it started raining, and you probably don’t want to get soaked, no?”

  “Not so much.”

  “There are underground passages that go to all of the other buildings,” he said. “You honestly never have to go outside if you don’t want to.”

  “I’m not sure if I should be relieved or not.”

  “Feel relieved,” he said. “We get nasty weather here in the winter.”

  “You sound like you’re an experienced student,” I pointed out. “Are you a second year?”

  “Nope,” he shook his head. “But my sisters are all Shifter Falls alumni. It’s my first year here, but they prepped me. A lot. What about you?”

  “Are you asking if my sisters are alumni?”

  He chuckled. “I guess that’s a no. Do you have sisters?”

  “Nope, it’s just me.” I wondered how much I should tell him about myself and about my past. Did I want him to know I was basically an orphan? I mean, I didn’t really know if my parents were dead or not. I didn’t know where I came from or what happened to me or anything, really. Was that really information I wanted to share freely with this guy?

  Or did I want to take advantage of that fresh start?

  The problem with admitting you were a foster kid was that people had preconceived ideas of what that meant. Usually, it meant they thought you were violent or overly sexual. They suspected you would steal from them or they thought you’d have bad habits. Whether those things were true or not didn’t matter.

  Foster kids had a reputation, and did I really want that reputation following me to Shifter Falls?

  Nope.

  Not so much.

  “You’re lucky,” Kenneth said. He didn’t seem to notice my bout of internal dialogue or the fact that I was struggling with what to say. “My sisters are bossy as hell.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “What do they do?”

  We started walking down the narrow staircase. It was dark, but there were torches lining the walls. They didn’t look like ordinary torches. There was something different about the flames. They still glowed orange, but something told me that this was enchanted fire. The flames looked...cold.

  “Normal sister stuff, I guess,” he shrugged as he walked. Then he seemed to notice me looking at the flames. “Never seen darkfire, huh?”

  “Darkfire?”

  “Touch it,” he said.

  “No, that’s all right,” I pulled my hand back to my side. I clenched my fist, reminding myself to stay cool and keep it together.

  “Come on,” he urged. He didn’t seem like he was mindlessly pressuring me, though. Kenneth seemed...excited. It was like he was happy to show me this part of his life: the magical part. It was strange because we were strangers. There was nothing between us. We weren’t romantically entangled. We weren’t even friends. There was something about him, though, that made me feel like I could trust him.

  So I reached out.

  I wiggled my fingers through the flames, and nothing happened.

  “What is this?” I whispered.

  “Darkfire.”

  “I heard the name. I mean...well, how did it come to be here?”

  “It’s enchanted. Headmaster Wild and some of the teachers are pretty good at enchantments. There was an incident with a fire a few years ago and some of the teachers got tired of doing damage control, so they implemented darkfire for use at the school.”

  “I’m sorry if this is a rude question, but why not use electric torches or just install lighting?”

  “They could, I’m sure, but this is so much more fun, don’t you think?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Besides,” he shrugged. “If there’s a power outage, lights and electric torches go out. Darkfire doesn’t.”

  “Are there are lot of power outages at Shifter Falls?”

  “Some, not a lot.”

  The idea of being trapped at the school without power or electricity made me a little bit uncomfortable. I didn’t like the idea that I might be trapped in an old, creepy castle without access to something as basic as lighting, but then again, maybe I’d learn all of the skills I needed to emotionally deal with it.

  It was only my first day.

  Today was going to be the hardest day at Shifter Falls Academy. If I could make it through today, then all of the other days would be better, right?

  They had to be better.

  We finally reached the bottom of the staircase and then we were in a little hallway that stretched out in either direction, as well as straight ahead.

  “Left goes to the dorms,” Kenneth said.

  “And right?”

  “That leads to some of the basement classrooms.”

  “There are classrooms down here?” The space felt damp and smelled a little
musty. It definitely had that you’re-about-to-be-locked-in-a-dungeon sort of feel to it.

  “Absolutely. Some types of magic are best performed in the dark.”

  “What types of magic?”

  Kenneth only shrugged and we turned to the left.

  “Wait,” I stopped. “What leads straight ahead?”

  “Storage, I think,” he shrugged. “I’ve never been over there, so I don’t know.”

  “That doesn’t bother you?”

  “Why would it? There are plenty of things I don’t know.”

  Okay, so apparently even shifters weren’t perfect. To me, curiosity was kind of important. It was part of who I was. Maybe that made a little more sense now that I knew I was a cat shifter. You know, “curiosity killed the cat” and all.

  “I just think it would drive me nuts not to know,” I finally told him. We started walking in the direction of the dorms. The hallway was a little wider. Four or five people could walk side-by-side without feeling cramped, and there were more darkfire torches down here. Despite being deep underground, I didn’t feel too cold or even scared the way I thought I would.

  “There are a lot of things I don’t know about magic,” Kenneth told me. “That’s the thing about being a shifter. There’s always going to be something you don’t know. You have to learn how to let those things go.”

  “But wouldn’t it be better to seek after that information?” I pushed.

  “Sometimes,” he shrugged. “But sometimes you have to know when to stop pushing and seeking. Sometimes you have to know when it’s okay to not know. Does that make sense?”

  “I feel like we’re having this deep, meaningful conversation, and we’ve only just met,” I told him, laughing lightly. The mood was heavy, and I felt like this was a conversation I needed to cling to so that I wouldn’t forget. I didn’t want to forget.

  I couldn’t.

  Magic was going to start filling my head pretty soon, but Kenneth’s words actually seemed kind of true. He was right, in a way. I mean, I didn’t know who my parents were. That was something I’d been chasing and searching for.

  Maybe it was time to let those dreams go.

  “Up ahead,” he gestured before us. The hallway forked and there was actually a little sign on the wall. It said GIRLS and BOYS. There were arrows pointing in either direction. We stopped, and I looked down each hallway. The BOYS hallway looked like it was shimmering just beyond an invisible sort of barrier. When I looked at the GIRLS hallway, I saw the same thing.

  “What’s that?” I gestured to the barrier.

  “Enchantments,” he said.

  “Does that mean there are no girls allowed in the boys’ dormitory?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “How unfortunate,” I said drily.

  He laughed. “I suppose it’s not such a bad thing. You know, it keeps the mystery alive.”

  “I guess the enchantment keeps everyone from making bad choices, huh?”

  “Well, it cuts down on people struggling to focus on their lessons.”

  “So guys and girls are never allowed in the same dorm?”

  “Lobbies are free-for-alls,” he told me. “But these entrances are blocked off because they go straight to the bedrooms.”

  “How do you get to the lobbies?”

  “Ground floor access.”

  “How formal.”

  “Okay, you walk down a little forest path and just walk right in.”

  “Thank you.”

  I looked over at the hallway that shimmered just beyond my reach. This was it, I supposed. I was going to have to push through that barrier and go find my room. Then my real adventure at Shifter Falls could begin.

  “Thanks for your guidance,” I said to Kenneth. “I appreciate it.”

  “It was nice to meet you, Charlie,” he smiled.

  Then he turned around and went back where we’d come from. I waited until he disappeared, and then I walked over to the hallway that was labeled BOYS.

  I reached out to touch the barrier. Was it really enchanted? Was it actually going to block me from going through? I had to know. I reached for it and pushed my hand against the shimmering wall, but nothing happened.

  There was no zap.

  No shock.

  Nothing.

  My hand also didn’t go through.

  Hmm. I stepped closer to examine the barrier. I’d never seen anything like it. It almost looked like a wall of water: only thicker. Maybe it was more like gelatin. Still, I pushed it a few more times, pressing against it with my hands. Okay, so it definitely wasn’t going to budge. That didn’t really seem fair, but whatever. I wondered how they enchanted it, anyway. How could the barrier detect who was a boy and who was a girl?

  I went back over to the side labeled GIRLS, and I pressed my hand through the barrier. This time, I wasn’t met with any resistance at all. Strange. With a sigh, I stepped through. The barrier was cold and moist, and I hated the sensation of it against my body. It felt kind of gross, to be honest. It reminded me of jumping into a cold lake.

  Once I was through, I looked back behind me. I could still see the hallway entrance. I could see where I’d come from, but somehow, it seemed very far away indeed. Turning back, I started walking. There was a staircase leading up, and I took it. By the time I reached the top, I was out of breath, and sweaty. Hopefully I’d be able to get settled in my room and then find a place to shower. I could definitely use one after all of the traveling.

  “Hey,” a feminine voice said, and I turned to see a young woman who was probably about my age. She was standing in a doorway, and she looked at me with a grin. “Are you the new girl?”

  “Uh, yes?”

  “Come on, then. Headmaster Wild told me you’d be coming.”

  “He did?”

  “Yep.”

  “How did he get a message to you so fast? I just left his office and came straight here.”

  The girl laughed.

  “Okay, so it’s obviously your first day, and that’s cool. Don’t worry, though. He’s got a lot of ways he can communicate with people around the school. Not all of them are weird. Some of them are.”

  I shrugged, thinking about what Kenneth had said. Was this another one of those things I just wasn’t going to be able to understand, so I might as well not try?

  “Let’s get you to your room. This way.”

  She led me into the lobby and past groups of girls who were studying, reading, and talking. In the center of the room was a spiral staircase that stretched up into the ceiling.

  “Are we taking that?”

  “Yep.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep.”

  “Is it safe?”

  The girl only laughed.

  She went first and I followed, but I gripped the railing a lot tighter than I probably should have. We passed the second floor of the building and then got off on the third floor. The staircase kept stretching upward into the ceiling, though.

  “You’re on the third floor with Jade,” the girl said.

  “Are you Jade?”

  “Nope,” she laughed, looking over at me. Her hair bounced when she moved. Was that an enchantment? Everyone at the school seemed so beautiful and put-together. I definitely didn’t feel that way. “My name is Dana.”

  “That’s a pretty name.”

  “Thanks,” she shrugged. “I used to hate it, but, well, we have to work with what we’ve got, right?”

  She smiled at me and when she did, I felt like everything was going to be okay. Maybe life at Shifter Falls wasn’t going to be as scary or terrifying as I thought it was going to. After all, the other students seemed really cool and really nice and really helpful, and that was something that would go a long way in helping me feel like I wasn’t totally alone.

  There was a little sitting area that had hallways branching off in every direction. My room was down the South hallway, and Dana led me to my room.

  “This is as far as I go,” she said. “
Bathrooms are down the hall and breakfast is between six and eight.”

  “That’s early.”

  She laughed. “I know, right? Way too early, if you ask me.” She shrugged. “That’s what the teachers want, though. They always say we need to start our days off right with a good meal. I’m pretty sure they think that anyone who struggles with magic just isn’t eating enough before trying.”

  I chuckled.

  Okay, so apparently, magical teachers weren’t all that different from regular ones.

  “Thanks for all of your help,” I said to Dana.

  “Anytime,” she said. “See you around.”

  Chapter 8

  I didn’t have to wait long to meet my new roommate. I had unpacked my little backpack and put all of my stuff away and was lying on the bed when she came home. I heard her key in the lock and then the door swung open. Instantly, she stopped and pulled out her wand.

  “Who the hell are you?” She snapped. “Speak now or I’ll turn you into a pumpkin.”

  Instantly, I held my hands up.

  I’d never been the biggest fans of pumpkins.

  “I’m Charlie,” I said. “I live here now.” I eyed her wand warily, and suddenly, my chest started to hurt. Was the room getting smaller? It kind of seemed like it was getting smaller. Maybe I was getting bigger, Alice-in-Wonderland style. Either way, I couldn’t look away from the wand. Pointed at me like that, it felt horrifying.

  It felt dangerous.

  Did my roomie actually have the power to turn me into a pumpkin? Was that sort of thing something that happened regularly at Shifter Falls Academy?

  Slowly, she lowered the wand.

  “You live here?” She looked from her bed to mine and back again, as if trying to figure out whether I was messing with her or not.

  “Yeah, I, uh, I’m new. First day,” I shrugged, laughing a little. I laughed awkwardly, and I wondered if she could tell just how nervous I was about all of this. In the span of 24 hours, I’d not only learned that I was secretly a shifter who could turn into a kitty-cat, but my entire life had been uprooted, as well. I’d left Fiona’s home, I’d left my job, and I’d be thrust into a new world of magic and people who carried wands, apparently.