Chapter 3

3

KOVI

My reading is interrupted by my suitemate plopping five massive bags onto our wooden table. We share the common living area, so I only blame myself for not hiding out in the library. I wanted to munch on my werebear claws in the privacy of my own suite, and maybe read about agriculture. But with my other best friend back, it seems I’m done.

“I think I have everything we need for tonight.” Blake smiles triumphantly and puts his hands on his hips. He grins and nods, and his tangle of brown curls bob along. While he’s not as promiscuous as Seth, Blake loves a good party. To be fair, the move-in weekend bonfire is a long-revered tradition among students. I’m fairly certain Dean Yaga knows of its existence and turns a blind eye since the event doesn’t cause trouble―that she knows of, anyway.

“Are you sure?” I deadpan. “I didn’t hear a police report, so you couldn’t possibly have stolen enough liquor.” Pilfering through his bags, I find there are, indeed, dozens of glass bottles filled with all sorts of drinks.

“Ha ha, very clever, Kove.” We proceed to pull out the bottles and he grins. “We only get to have one first weekend of junior year, so we need to make it count.”

“Clearly,” I reply. I skeptically read each bottle. “Vampire vodka…tentacle tequila…genie gin. Damn, Blake, you went all out.”

He beams at me. “Thank you, sir. I want the year to get off to a good start. So am I missing anything? My people on the baseball team are bringing kegs of Boowery beer.”

He rubs his hands together and grins, and I look down into a bag.

“Did you remember cups?”

“Shit.” He frowns, and I snort. I sit back down and close my book while he waves his hand. “It’s fine. That’s what the dining hall is for.”

“And snacks?”

“Again, dining hall.” Blake nearly vibrates in joy, and I chuckle. “I am so pumped. We’re upperclassmen now, and we gotta party hard before classes start.”

I shrug and lean on the chair. “How hard? Because I don’t want to hold Seth’s wraps up while he vomits again.”

Blake guffaws. “That night was hilarious. But come on, first party of the fall! Live a little, let your branches out and shakes some leaves, or whatever.”

He raises up a hand, and I eye it skeptically. I’m far from a wet blanket, but I actually enjoy studying my major, environmental science. Still, my friend has a point; the first weekend of the year has always been a spectacle “I suppose…since we don’t have homework yet, letting loose will be fun.”

I take his hand and give him a bro-hug. “You know it, Kove.” He takes out a milk crate and gently packs away the liquor. “Plus, it’s the first year partying with humans. Should be sick.”

My anxiety creeps up again. I have to mingle with non-monsters? “Um…too bad we didn’t invite any humans. Since we uh, don’t know any.”

“Oh, Seth did.”

“What?!” I yelp.

“He texted me saying he’s working with one now. He invited him and a few others, and they pretty much invited all of the human transfers.” Blake shrugs and hoists up his crate of liquor. Before I can school my expression, Blake studies me. “Look, dude,” he says with a lower voice. “It’s no big deal.”

I swallow and take a deep breath. Seth, Blake, and I have had plenty of heart-to-hearts over the past two years, so he knows about my past. “You’re not some kid anymore. You have your shifting down on lock.”

I tuck my book closer to my chest and nod again. Blake’s right, but I haven’t spoken to a human other than my parents since who-knows-when.

“You can always hang out with us at the party.” Blake’s tone is soothing, and I’m glad my best friend has my back. I’ve shared with him my baggage, and he understands my trepidations when it comes to mingling with humankind. He smiles, and his green eyes shimmer like his scales in his monster form. “And hey, if you get nervous, that’s what liquor is for!”

He cackles and saunters off, and I’m left alone in the common room. Seth seems to have already made friends with humans. Blake is more than ready to hang out with them. The question is, am I?

(TWELVE YEARS AGO)

Homeschooling is boring, but at least now I live near a park. Mommy and Daddy even let me go out alone since our apartment is only two blocks away. There are several massive oak trees and patches of wheatgrass past the small baseball field on the far side. The middle has a big blue jungle gym with slides and swings.

My parents say it’s dangerous for me to be around so many kids because I’m a monster. Still, some public school kids come here at the end of the day. I like to come here, too, and pretend I’m one of them. Friends would be nice.

But no one wants to talk to the weirdo shifter kid, even though I look like a normal Sri Lankan human. I walk with my hands outstretched to the sides around the park, listening to the trees and their whispers. Most of the plants are perfectly happy. None of the grown-ups understand that plant life doesn’t think in words like we do. The OME says there are very few dryads in the world, and most are in Asia.

I wish I lived near more monsters my age.

I walk by another tree when a noise pulls me out of my thoughts. A kid about my height pops out of nowhere, grinning at me. He’s wearing a green t-shirt and blue pants, and his hair is so orange that he almost looks like a carrot.

“Yo, cool!” he says.

Before I can respond, he picks up something from the ground. He’s wielding a large, thick branch, about three feet in length. “A sword!”

I look left and right, then realize I’m the only one he can be talking to. “That’s a branch,” I mutter.

“Not if you use your imagination.” He points it at me and bounces his eyebrows. “En garde!”

I snicker. “What?”

“We can play dueling monsters. Oh, my teacher said it’s not okay to say that, since monsters are real. We can be…dueling knights!” The red-headed kid waves his branch, and I can’t help but giggle.

Something about him makes me feel fuzzy all over, like when I watch videos of puppies doing tricks.

I push down my excitement―no one wants to be friends with me. “Don’t you want to play with the others?” I nod behind me where some kids are throwing a flying disc around. A few parents are chatting on the park benches, paying us no mind.

“No,” the boy says. He drops his arms and a sadness washes over him. “They’re losers. Because they say I’m a loser. Just because I can’t afford nice sneakers and video games and stuff.”

A dark feeling crawls up my throat. Maybe I should spook them in my shifter form to teach them not to mess with others.

The kid stands up straight again and beams at me. “So, you and I can play!”

“You…want to?”

“Yeah!” He holds up his branch. “We can duel as knights until one of us loses our sword. Now, where to find you a worthy sword…” He turns around and stares at the grass.

There isn’t a single branch in sight. So, just this once, I use my powers in public. Gazing up at the tree, I shift only my hand. My dryad powers compel it to let go of a dead branch. It won’t hurt―it’s like getting a haircut. After I look around to make sure no one’s watching me, I hold out my wooden hand and direct the nearest tree to drop a piece of wood.

“Like this?” I ask.

The kid turns around and smiles again. “Wow! Where’d you find that?”

I wave my branch around. It’s longer than his, but clearly came from the same species of tree. “Uh…the ground?”

“Alright!” His smile burns bright, like Christmas lights in the darkness. “Now where were we? Oh yes, en garde!”

He slowly moves his stick around, and I match him in speed. He gently presses, then rotates back for another one. “Touché!” he says with a dramatic growl.

I giggle and move just like him. We spend several minutes in a groove of pretending we’re in a movie about sword fighters. We dance around each other, like our fights are happening in slow motion. We hop around and find a standing metal pole near the jungle gym, and we decide to make believe it’s an alien dragon. He even adds sound effects.

“Bam! Pow!”

“Whoosh!” I add.

We’re both giggling by now. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“I’m Kovi.”

“I’m Tan. Boom! Pow!” He maneuvers his sword in slow motion against the metal, and I chuckle. “How come I don’t see you at school?”

“I’m homeschooled. I live not far from here. Pow!” When I turn away, I notice how low the sun is. I bite my lip and glance at him. “Oh no, I gotta go. It’s almost time for dinner.”

“Same for me. I gotta run. See you tomorrow, Cody,” he says. He gives me a salute and runs off, waving his stick the entire way.

“Yeah, sure. And it’s, um…Kovi,” I mutter. I doubt he even heard that. But how can I care ? My cheeks burn and I’m smiling so hard as I walk home.

I’ve never laughed that much before. In fact, I don’t even think I’ve ever had that much fun before. Tan is…so cool. I didn’t know friendship could feel like butterflies times a hundred.

(TODAY)

The sun has almost set by the time I return with firewood. I step over several lawn chairs in my dryad form, then shift back down when I get to the bonfire. I place the wood pieces on the firepit, and then greet Felicia, a phoenix shifter. Without even morphing into her monster form, she waves her hands and manifests a controlled flame. I like and trust Felicia, but I all but bolt away from her flames―trees and open fires do not mix.

After I set up two large plastic tables, each with several red cups, I hear the howls and hollers of my fellow students. A crowd of a dozen or so young monsters walk down the hill toward us. A baseball player I’ve met once or twice is bumping music with a portable speaker. Above them, giant bats, harpies, and mothmen float down then shift into human form. With the howls and cheers of all my fellow students, I can’t help but smile. I know I’m not the most social creature, but I’ve missed my fellow monsters over the summer.

“Humans, ghouls, and monsters, welcome welcome!” Seth, the party monster he is, riles up the crowd and high-fives half of them. He raises his hands and announces, “Any donations to the drink fund can go into this sarcophagus.” He taps the yellow-and-blue crypt to his left, and, to my relief, the big jocular monsters usher in people to donate. That’s good―most of Seth’s funding comes from the government, and liquor isn’t cheap.

Some of the folks in line appear to be humans, since I don’t recognize them, and I don’t trace monster essence on them―oh, and they seem nervous as hell. Seth shakes a hand of some girl and announces, “If the bonfire is too hot, jump into the river to cool yourselves off!” Everyone in the donation line cracks up. My best friend has the benevolent pharaoh act down pat, and he manages to calm them down. That doesn’t help me though, so I sip my tentacle tequila in a pink cup and walk away from the drinks.

I take a lap around the bonfire, greeting anyone I know. I walk past some folks playing beer pong and head toward the water. Blake is playing a casual water polo game with some kraken and mermen. My suitemate truly thrives when he’s in the water; in his shifter form, he dons green skin, massive gills on his neck, and webbed appendages. Seeing him splash around with others, he’s as happy as, well, a lagoon creature in a marsh.

I take a sip, then head back to the main bonfire area. While the music blares and students howl and cheer, it’s still possible to have a private conversation, and I’m heading to one right now. Seth is showing off an empty bottle to three people I don’t know yet―must be humans.

It’s okay, you’re not a kid anymore . You can do this.

When I approach the quartet, Seth says “…and that’s why it’s called Ghosta Cola.”

The others nod and hum in earnest. Two girls in glasses and flannel blouses smile and pass around the empty soda pop bottle, and the one dude closest to Seth looks directly at me. Even with the blazing fire behind him casting shadows, I can tell he’s my type. He’s bulky but not too large, with broad shoulders, and trimmed curly hair. When he sips from his cup, I check out his tiny waist and thick thighs. He’s an inch shorter than me, but that’s never been a turn off. Hello, pretty human…

“Ayy! Kovi!” Seth bumps his shoulder into mine.

“Sup.”

“Everyone, this is Kovi, my smartest suitemate. Kovi, meet the humans, they’re new to the U.”

I wave at each of them and they introduce themselves.

“We’re so excited to be here,” one girl Rachel says. “My brother is a minotaur, so I’m pretty comfortable around monsters.”

“And my cousin is a kraken,” the other girl, Shonda adds. “Speaking of which...”

“Right, you wanted to try some tentacle tequila. Let’s see if we can nab a drink.” Seth guides the girls toward the drink area, but the good-looking boy stands still. “Here, Tanner you introduce yourself to Kovi. He’s the dude I work with who’s majoring in environmental science, too.”

Seth walks away and I inch closer to this guy, Tanner. “Hey.”

“Hey. Koh…Vee, right?”

“Yup. I’m Kovi. Welcome.” He’s very welcome . “You…enjoying the bonfire?”

“I am.” We share a chuckle.

“I’d love to chat more, but fires freak me out.”

“Oh, you wanna sit somewhere else?” Handsome and a gentleman . He smiles and points away, and I take in his adorable freckles shining in the firelight. He leads me a few feet to a circle of lawn chairs.

“Thanks.”

We sit down and each take a sip. “So, monsters don’t like fire?”

“Hey, that is a gross stereotype that is offensive to monsterkind.”

“Oh.” Tanner’s face falls, and I grin. “I’m, uh…”

“I’m just messing with you.”

I crack up, and Tanner joins in. “You got me, man.”

Look at me, charming human dudes! “But seriously, I’m not keen on fire. The phoenix shifters control it, though, and it keeps us nice and cozy on nights like these.”

“I love the vibe. Everyone’s been very welcoming. Especially Seth.”

“He’s a party monster that one.”

“I’ll say. He already told me about his taste in boys.”

I snigger. “Even if I didn’t live with the guy, he has no qualms about giving me details about his hook-up history. Way more information than I bargained for.”

“That’s hilarious!” We share a laugh, and I scoot even closer to him. Maybe it’s the drink, but I find myself letting my guard down with this human I’ve just met. Something about him makes me feel nostalgic, like we’ve known each other for years.

“So, you’re majoring in environmental sci?”

“Mhm.” Tanner takes a sip. “I did community college for two years, and I earned enough credits to enroll as a junior.”

“Same. We’re the same year, and the same major.” I bite back a grin. I lean forward and purr, “You and I have a lot in common.”

“I guess we do.” If I’m not imagining things, a spark of interest flashes in his eyes. “Seth said he’d help me meet hot gay monster guys. Is that something…you’re interested in as well?”

We both grin, and I lean back. Well aren’t I a lucky dryad? I study him curiously and take a sip. The voices around us drown out as I swirl my drink in my hand. Even in the darkness, lit only by the bonfire, Tanner looks drop-dead sexy.

“I could be. Or I could be interested in attractive human dudes. Only time will tell.”

“The semester has just started,” he says. He lifts up his drink and quirks an eyebrow. “To new memories?”

“To the start of an interesting year in human and monster relations.” We clink cups. “Welcome to Creelin U, Tanner.”

“I think I’m gonna enjoy it here,” he says in a low tone.

“I very much hope so.”