Chapter 5

What's more intimidating than a first day at a new school? A first day at a school for shape-shifters when you're the only one who knows nothing about the shifter world.

I hardly slept that night, so I was up when I heard shuffling and chatter in the hall outside my door. Celeste had said the other students in this section were all mermaids—like me, supposedly. But I was hesitant to go out there.

How would I possibly fit in? These other students had probably known their whole lives what they were. I had no knowledge of their customs or history. It was like I was in a foreign country and I didn't speak the language.

I sluggishly slid off the bed and picked up the tablet that sat on the desk. A quick tap revealed the class schedule.

Monday-Wednesday-Thursday:

8:00 Mastery

9:00 Algebra

10:00 Chemistry

11:00 English

2:00 Defense

Tuesday-Friday:

8:00 Shifter Biology

9:00 Shifter History

10:00 Transformation

11:00 Music

2:00 Defense

There was a note at the bottom to skip Defense class for the first day, which I was perfectly fine with because it sounded too physical, and I was completely exhausted.

Today was Thursday, which meant I had Shifter Biology first. I looked at the digital clock sitting next to the closed laptop on the desk. Six-forty-five AM. I had about fifteen minutes to get dressed before venturing to find some breakfast.

I had no idea what I'd wear. I hadn't had the chance to grab clothes before rushing out of the house, and I was still in the same slimming jeans and t-shirt from the party last night. Though they didn't smell like they'd gone through a rough night, I had no desire to wear the proof of my horrors a minute longer.

Hoping against hope, I slid open the closet door. Surprisingly, the shelves were filled with black slacks, and the rack had a row of black polos, all with a little blue swirl on the left breast.

Apparently, this school had a uniform policy, which I was surprised to be grateful for. I'd always hated schools like that, as I enjoyed expressing myself through fashion—hence the blue streaks in my hair. But wearing the same outfit as everyone else might help me stand out a little less, and I desperately needed that today.

I quickly changed into one of the sets, brushed my hair and teeth, and tied my shoes. I grabbed the tablet, loaded with the schedule and the school map, and readied myself to start the day, when I realized I didn't have any school supplies whatsoever: no pen, pencil, paper, nothing.

I couldn't just show up to classes empty-handed, regardless of the haphazard way I got here. I looked around the room, hoping to once again find a surprise resource, but there was nothing in the desk drawers or anywhere else in this modest space. Just a detached keyboard that had been sitting under the tablet.

Sighing, I looked at the keyboard. Maybe I could type notes. What else was I supposed to do?

Leaning against the foot of the desk was a stylish laptop bag with the school's crest embroidered in shiny, colorful thread. I shoved the keyboard and tablet in the bag and slung it over my shoulder, then took a deep breath before opening the bedroom door and heading out.

The common room was a buzz of activity, with students moving all about. And just as last night, when they saw me enter their space, they all quieted to look at me.

"There she is, the new mermaid," I heard one of them whisper, followed by barely stifled giggles.

I pretended not to hear, pretended not to notice them staring, and strode through the common room with my head held high. Didn't they have anything better to do than gawk at the new kid? This was worse than when we moved to Tucson, and I'd been the only white girl at Sunnyside High.

I pushed through the wave doors into the massive grand hall, trying to orient myself and remember where things were from last night. There was no way I was going to ask anyone for directions, so I was going to have to find the cafeteria on my own.

I removed the tablet from my bag and pulled up the school map, taking a good look at it for the first time. There were the mermaid dorms and the grand hall at the center, from which several hallways branched out. My eyes scanned the screen until they caught sight of the words DINING HALL on the ground floor to the left of the grand hall.

There, that wasn't so bad. I wasn't some helpless damsel in distress—I had to remind myself of that after everything that happened yesterday.

I put the tablet back away and smoothed the front of my shirt, then made my way to the stairs that would take me back down to the ground floor of the grand hall.

Unlike in the mermaid common room, when I passed other students, they didn't stare and whisper. The uniform was doing its job, after all. I did get the occasional up-down look from some of the male students, which on a day like this was a welcome confidence booster.

Many of them were filing into the archways to the left of the grand hall, so I followed the masses, hoping they would lead me to the right place. Once I passed under the arch, I realized there wasn't much farther to look.

The entire span of the left side of this building was the dining hall. Tables packed with people filled the open space, and all the way to the back of the room was a huge buffet station. The smell of bacon and eggs assaulted my nostrils, and I realized how hungry I really was, having hardly eaten the night before.

After waiting in line for a few minutes, I left the buffet station with a tray full of delicious-smelling food. Now, I just had to find a place to sit and devour it. I was used to the whole first-day cafeteria shuffle, and I just didn't care if I offended anyone today by intruding on them. I looked around the large room, scouring for an empty seat.

There was a round table not too far away with two empty seats, and I saw that all the girls at that table were wearing the same symbol on their shirts as mine. Mermaids.

I put on a friendly face and approached the table.

"Hi, girls," I greeted with a chipper voice. "Mind if I sit with you?"

The three girls stopped their conversation and shot me looks down their noses. The strawberry blond in the middle had a polished beauty, the kind one sees in magazines. She was flanked by a girl with hair so dirty blonde it appeared to have a greenish tint to it and another with long black hair similar to mine.

The strawberry blonde was clearly the queen bee, and I reluctantly wished I'd noted that fact before approaching them.

"This table is full," said the strawberry blonde in an unashamedly catty tone.

"Ohh-kaay," I said, pursing my lips. I turned away from the table without direction.

Luckily, I spotted an empty seat at the end of a long rectangular table, and I wasted no time in snagging it and digging into my food. The group of boys to my right were in a loud debate about something, and I was happy that none of them noticed me.

As I ate, I saw that all the students had varying symbols on their shirts—one of the four symbols that made up the school crest.

The boys arguing next to me all had the three red slashes on their shirts. I knew that the blue swirl was for mermaids, and I couldn't help but wonder what the other four symbols meant. Caesar had said there were nearly a dozen different shifters in the world, so why were there only four symbols?

When my tray was empty and my belly pleasantly full, I rushed out of the dining hall and went in search of my first class. According to the map, it was out the double doors at the far end of the grand hall and across the campus in a big pie-slice-shaped building.

Once again, I followed a flock of students out of the end of the hall and stepped into a scene I hadn't expected—but then, nothing about the school was within the realm of my expectations.

The campus looked like a regular school campus, complete with the most vibrant green grass filling the space between every connecting sidewalk. Grass was the last thing I thought I'd see under a dome at the bottom of a lake.

There were even fruit-bearing trees standing here and there, offering shade from the surprisingly bright turquoise light that filtered from the surface through the depths of water above The Dome.

I realized I had stopped to stare—right in the middle of the pedestrian traffic on the wide sidewalk—and continued my trek toward the pie-slice building, which in actuality, was much bigger than the digital map could convey.

"James, calm down, man."

There was a group of boys on the grass that appeared to be in a fight—or on the brink of one. I would've ignored them completely if the sound of growling hadn't caught my attention.

A boy in the center of the quarrel had his hands firmly on the chest of the one who was growling, trying to calm him down. But the growling boy heard none of it. His breathing came louder and more forceful, and his eyes began to glow a bright red. I thought I was seeing things and blinked hard.

"James, no!" the mediator yelled, and before the last word was out of his mouth, the growling boy's body ripped out of his uniform, sprouted a thick coat of ashy brown fur, and mutated into a giant, snarling wolf.

I gasped and jumped away from the scene, clutching my bag to my frantically beating heart.

No one else around reacted the way I had. Many either rolled their eyes and shook their heads or laughed in derision, making fun of the boy, who was now a huge hairy dog. Was this a regular occurrence?

"James Barnes, what do you think you're doing?" a woman yelled as she made her way across the yard.

"Oh, he's in for it now," another student snickered before fleeing the scene like everyone else.

All too eager to get away, I did the same, rushing even quicker toward my first class. I didn't know if I would ever get used to seeing people turn into oversized beasts, but it didn't look like I would have much of a choice.

Once I entered the building, finding my classroom was easy. All the doors were labeled by subject, and Shifter Biology was the eighth door down, between Chemistry and General Biology.

I was the first student to arrive, and I was happy that I wouldn't have to awkwardly struggle to find my seat in front of a full class.

The teacher, dressed in the same style of formal clothing as Celeste had been last night, looked up from her laptop when she saw me enter.

"Ah, you must be Arya." She rose from her desk and walked over to me, offering me a welcoming smile. "I'm Mrs. Sharp. I'm very pleased to have you in my class."

"Uh, thanks," I said, smiling back. "Are the seats assigned?"

"Yes. Your seat is in the second row, third column." Mrs. Sharp held out an open hand toward the seat in question. "I know you're a bit new to all of this, but we get new shifters in class at least once a month, so we often go back over the basics. If you have any questions during the lecture, feel free to speak up."

Mrs. Sharp's demeanor was so sweet, almost motherly. I already felt calmer for being in her presence, and the reassurance that a refresher course was in order was also a big relief.

I nodded and took my seat.

As more students began to fill the seats around me, I studied the educational posters and diagrams on the walls. There were diagrams of about a dozen different creatures, complete with skeletons, musculature, organ structure, and vein maps.

There was a dragon to the right of the dry erase board, a gryphon next to that, some kind of large furry creature with nine tails—and again, I wondered just how many different shifters there were.

The mermaid diagram was especially interesting, and I studied it until class started, imagining just how a human's bones could mutate and combine like that.

"Good morning, class," Mrs. Sharp announced. "As we've had a couple of new students recently, I think it best to go over the basics."

There was a collective groan from the class, and I sunk into my chair, hoping to avoid blame for the repetition.

The other students began pulling tablets out of their cases and setting them on their desks.

So I don't need a pen and paper after all.

I was glad that I had the sense enough to take the tablet with me. I pulled it out and started it up on my desk, finding the keyboard pretty much attached itself with some sort of magnetic clasp, then set my sights back on the teacher, eager to type down everything she said.

Mrs. Sharp flipped a switch to dim the lights, and a machine projected an image onto the whiteboard. The image was of ten different creatures separated into groups.

"All shifter species are classified into the four major categories," Mrs. Sharp lectured. "Who can tell me the four categories?"

A girl somewhere behind me must have raised her hand.

"Adina," Mrs. Sharp called.

"The four categories are archaic, avian, were, and the best of all, oceanid," the girl said with a haughty tone.

Mrs. Sharp frowned at the girl but continued to say, "That's correct. There are three major shifter species under the archaic class, which are gryphons, kitsunes, and nagas."

She pointed to the group on the top left of the image. Obviously, I already knew what a gryphon was. The other two creatures, though, I didn't recognize at all. One was a fox-like creature with a cluster of fluffy tails, and the other was some sort of lizard-man that honestly looked the most frightening of all.

"Avian houses the flying shifters: dragons, phoenixes, and harpies," Mrs. Sharp continued, pointing to the group on the top right.

Again, I knew what a dragon was, and my only knowledge of phoenixes came from Harry Potter, but I was sure phoenix shifters were much cooler than that. The harpy had to be the weird creature with wings for arms and talons for feet. I wasn't sure why that made me cringe, but it did.

"Currently, mermaids are the only species classified under oceanid, simply because they have just recently come out of the water, so to speak, and we don't have enough knowledge of what other species may reside in the depths."

Mrs. Sharp pointed to the lone mermaid figure on the bottom left of the image, and her summation had my mind whirring with all kinds of fantastical ideas of marine creatures with tentacles and electric spikes. I clearly watched way too many movies, but when you aren't allowed to have a social life, what else are you supposed to do?

"And as for weres, the three major types are hounds, maos, and ursas."

I was happily surprised that I remembered those from Caesar's explanation last night. See, I've totally got this.

So, the boy who had turned into a giant dog not five minutes ago in the yard was a hound. As I had gathered from the teacher's reaction outside, students weren't allowed to just shift whenever they wanted. I was super grateful for that because if I thought I had to see even one more person transform into a monster today, I was going to freak the hell out.

"Now, who can tell me which is the only species that is forced to shift under a full moon?" Mrs. Sharp asked the class.

The boy in front of me raised his hand. "Trick question," he said with a smug chuckle. "There are three: hounds, maos, and ursas."

"Correct. And what is special about their creation that is different from all other shifters?"

"Weres become weres because they're either bitten or scratched by another were, while all other shifters are born as what they are," the boy answered.

"Very good. Can someone else tell me what makes mermaids different from other species in terms of birth?"

The class was silent in response. I looked around the room at the other students, and a few rows behind me, one girl was raising her hand.

"Come on, guys, we just went over this last week." Mrs. Sharp gave them all a moment to remember before letting out a sigh. "All right, take it away, Adina."

"Mermaids are the only shifters that are born in their shifter form," Adina answered with pride. "We are the one true shifter species."

Wait a minute. What? Mermaids are born mermaids?

My heart thudded against my ribcage, and I reeled under the implications of what that fact meant. There really was no way Mom hadn't known.

Mrs. Sharp sighed again. "Thank you, Adina, but in the future, please keep your opinions to yourself."

The rest of the lecture was on the puberty trigger, the hormonal stage of development that caused most of the shifter species—excluding weres and mermaids—to have the ability to shift. This usually happened anywhere between twelve and sixteen and was when most students were invited to the school.

When the lecture was over, I felt infinitely better about being here, like I could at least comprehend most of what was going on. I now knew which category each of the symbols referred to—the blue swirl was mermaid, of course, the red slash for weres, the wing for avians, and the talon-looking symbol for archaic.

As I walked to my next class, I was able to tell roughly what type of shifter each student was by which symbol they wore on their shirt.

Next on my schedule was Shifter History. When I found it, I was a little shell-shocked to see that Caesar was sitting behind the desk at the front of the room. I knew that he was the school director, but not that he also taught classes. He didn't look up as I entered, and I was somewhat relieved not to gain his attention.

The room was structured like a lecture hall with theater-style seats of red upholstery. I assumed that these seats were not assigned and sat in a seat at the front of the class. I opened my tablet on my lap, excited to take more notes.

A shadow fell over me as I was getting situated, and I looked up from my screen to see the three girls from the dining hall standing in front of me, all of them giving me dirty looks.

It was only then that I recognized that the arrogant mermaid who'd been making all the comments in Shifter Bio—the one named Adina—was the greenish-blonde one.

"What?" I asked, holding my head high as I stared right back at them.

The arrogant strawberry blonde leader hmphed at me, then turned her head in a demeaning gesture and led her trio up the stairs to sit at the back of the class.

My blood seethed in my veins, and I noticed that my hands were shaking on either side of my table.

What the hell was their problem? I had half a mind to stalk after and demand to know what stick they had up their asses about me.

It wasn't like I had never been dissed by other girls before. Under any other circumstances, such a thing wouldn't have fazed me. I was used to this kind of crap as the frequent new kid. But I was already vulnerable, like cracked glass, and I wasn't sure how much more I could take before I cracked—either into an explosion of rage or a shattering of misery.

I fought the angry tears that stung my eyes, not just for their hazing, but for everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

Just focus on class, I told myself. Just get through this. Those bitches will get over it eventually, and so will I.

Caesar started class just then, giving me the perfect distraction.

"Today, we're going to talk about the Mer Allocation. Do any of you know what this refers to?"

There were some giggles in the class behind me; some I knew came from Adina and her trio, but it was a guy who raised his hand. Caesar pointed his index finger at the guy.

"It was when the mer migrated from living in the ocean to living on land."

Caesar nodded. "Yes. I'm sure you're all too young to remember, but it was a big shock to many of us to learn that mers even existed. They had always been a subject of legend, a fairytale even to us shifters."

He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace leisurely on stage, and my attention was locked on his every word.

"They trickled in at first. Testing the waters, so to speak." He chuckled at his joke, but no one else did. "Then assimilated into human society, assuming human identities to live on land full-time. Due to global warming, overfishing, and pollution, along with upgraded hunting technology by hunters, the mermaids no longer felt safe in the depths, and believed their only way to escape the dangers of humans was to join them. Does anyone know when this happened?"

Another hand went up. "1995?" a girl in the back answered.

"Correct. The movement began in the early eighties, and by 1995, the entire mer civilizations of the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean had merged with humans."

Caesar pointed to a student I hadn't seen raise a hand.

"Is it true that Celeste was one of the pioneers that led the mer to land?" a girl asked.

"Very good, Jenna. Yes, in fact, were it not for Celeste's brilliance with financial gains, the mer might never have made the switch. And were it not for Celeste, none of us would be here in this room." He paused to let that sink in.

"When The Dome's predecessor school was destroyed by vampires eight years ago, Celeste came forth with the vast funding she and other mermaids had amassed using their fortune-telling skills. She offered to help create a new school for shifters of all origins. Celeste made The Dome possible, and it has proven to be the greatest shifter sanctuary of all time."

I was on the edge of my seat, frantically typing everything he said. I found it all fascinating! I was blown away by the history of a people I never knew I belonged to—and still questioned that relationship. After all, I had yet to see proof that I was actually a mermaid.

What if Celeste and Caesar had gotten it wrong? What if that was why those other girls dogged me? Because they could tell I wasn't one of them? After learning about the mermaids' history, I would be so honored to be a part of that community, to be welcomed into their culture, and learn all I could.

"Are there any questions on the lecture?" Caesar asked the class.

"I have a question," a gratingly familiar voice said from the back of the room.

"Yes, Cora," Caesar said.

I turned around to see who had raised their hand. Sure enough, it was the strawberry-blonde diva.

"Why have all the teachers been searching for a stray mermaid all these years?" Cora asked, shooting a venomous look at me.

A stray mermaid? The teachers have been searching for someone like me? Why?

I turned my quizzical gaze on Caesar, as did the rest of the class.

Caesar faltered momentarily, and I didn't miss that his eyes flashed to me for a second.

"I'm sorry?" he asked, obviously feigning ignorance.

"What's so special about this new mermaid you brought in last night?" Cora rephrased, this time directly targeting me. "I think we all want to know."

"Ooo, I smell blood in the water," some boy yelled in the background, and snickers followed.

I stared at Caesar with anticipation, barely breathing. If there was something special about me—something other than being a mermaid, which was already incredible if it was true—then I wanted to know about it. Maybe it could shed some light on the vampire attack on my house, on my mom…

"I think you should leave the gossip in the dorm rooms, Cora," Caesar said, dismissing the issue entirely. "Now, does anyone have any questions about the lecture?"

The class was quiet for a moment, but then one student raised their hand to ask something trivial.

I didn't hear it. My brain was abuzz with speculation. What did those mermaid girls know that I didn't? It seemed that everyone knew more than I did, and not just about the shifter world, but about me.

Now that I really thought about it, it did seem strange for a school director to come to a prospective student's home in the middle of the night to invite her to a school, shifter or not. Not that I didn't appreciate him swooping in to save me, but what was so urgent about my placement at the school that it couldn't wait until an appropriate hour during the day?

But if they did expect something special from me, what if I disappointed them? My next class was Transformation, and I had no idea how to transform, or if I even could. What if I failed, proving myself to be nothing but human?

They would kick me out for sure. But then, I'd already seen too much of their world. Would they kill me to protect their secret?

The bell rang, announcing the end of class. I left the lecture hall and nervously made my way to the gymnasium where Transformation was held. My legs moved sluggishly like I was trudging through molasses, and part of me—a big part—wanted to turn around and run back to my room.

Why did it feel like I was heading to my own execution?