Shifters: Chapter 1

Introduction
The year is 2012. My name is Katt Gramden and I'm 20 years old. But I suppose the only reason that's important is so you know that this story took place in the past. In fact, I'm only 15 when this whole story started. It's amazing how much can happen in 6 years. How much can happen to the world.
There's no need to worry since nothing's happened yet. The year is 2006, and the month: the early days of November. I've already finished my freshman year of high school, and now we're ending autumn and starting the cold months of winter.
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Chapter 1

Birds

Hard work. That's all it was. I heard people complain about in school all the time! It drove me wild. After all, the only thing that stopped you from having a good time was your mind set, or at least that's what I always said. Some people didn't agree, but why would you live your life miserably when you could have lived it in the happiest way possible? "Katt! Hey, what's up?" I turned around when I heard my name coming from a particularly familiar Italian voice.

"Oh hey Shana," I said blankly as my mind still swirled with the thoughts I had been preoccupying myself with. Shana had been my friend since I could remember. She's always looked after me since she's a bit older than me. With a small petite figure and white-grey hair, she kinda' looked like an old lady from behind, but really her face looked a lot like one of a baby's. Not to mention she had these dark blue eyes that got lighter and lighter towards the pupil.

I looked down at Shana before putting on my mysterious grin that usually meant trouble. Shana didn't seem to notice so I finally spoke up, "well, look who seems to be shrinking some more?" Shana immediately responded to that comment. She promptly took her folders and books and took a sharp swing at me. "Woah! Geez, it was just a joke!" I smirked trying to stay as collected as possible since I was practically dying of laughter on the inside. Shana was a short 5'1" and no one expected her to get any taller. I on the other hand stood 6 inches over her at a decent 5'7".

"Yah, well, it's not cool to think that I'm shrinking! I already feel old today. I recognized some older music, you know the song, 'Mr. Jones',  that was playing over the speakers, and there happened to be some 8th graders wandering around today so they could get acquainted with the school. They had absolutely no clue what music it was! I was stunned. It's a classic after all," She said disappointedly with a small pouty face on her lips. I simply giggled a little bit. I did know the song, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't listen to it on a daily basis. We walked into the cafeteria and the surroundings seemed to light up almost instantly as the wide glass roof opened above us. Our cafeteria was pretty large and on each end there was a staircase leading up to the second floor. In a way, it looked like a ballroom with a bunch of round tables in the middle. That would probably explain why we held homecoming there.

"Hey, I'll be right back. I'ma go get lunch." I called to Shana, walking away after dropping off the usual stuff I bring to lunch with me. I turned down the ramp into our 'lunch line' and noticed a couple other of my friends were all ready to check out their lunches. "Hey Bolt."

Bolt turned around as he heard his name, "Oh. Hey, Katt."

"You sitting at our table today?" I asked as I grabbed a fruit cup of what I thought were apples, but they might have been pear slices, who knows with high school food.

"Nah, I'm going to go over to Rey's office today. I think I need some extra help." I raised my eyebrow knowing that Rey taught gym. Last time I checked Bolt needed more help in math, not gym. I decided to not ask questions. I grabbed my macaroni 'n cheese, milk, and Sun Chips before checking out and skipping, seriously skipping, over to my lunch table. As usual, Ree interrupted me before I could get to the table.

"OMG stop-uh!" she mock complained as I giggled and sat down.

"Why?! Can't I skip through school without being criticized by my own friend?"

Ree thought about this a second before saying dramatically, "No-o-o!" while shaking her head back and forth very slowly and inelegantly.

Ree was only a little shorter than I. She was Puerto Rican and had long horse-like hair with dark red streaks she had dyed in. Her round figure could be seen in only 1 of my classes unfortunately. I had known her since the 3rd grade, and she's always been by my side too, we're practically sisters.

It was a typical lunch hour for me and my friends; all craziness and no trace of sanity to be found. Lots of talk on art and the crazy stories Cal came up with. She was hilarious most times, especially when the stories were real, which a good 99 percent of them were, which made them even greater. The rest of the day was pretty boring, just your usual high school day of notes and homework. When I got home I did the usual check the internet, do half of the homework, eat dinner, and do the other half. Once I finally got around to do the second half of my home work, I plopped down on my bed and pulled out my iPhone so I could listen to some music. After a bit of work I closed my eyes for a second, to just let my mind drift.


As I opened up my eyes I realized that as soon as I had finished up my math homework last night, I had fallen asleep and it was already 6 o'clock in the morning. I still managed to catch the bus on time but in the mean time I left my bag and calculator at home. "Katt, you look beat. What happened last night?" Ree asked.

I smiled, "ah, I'm just tired. Woke up late and didn't get any coffee." I sighed looking over towards the breakfast line. I finally got up and got myself some French toast and milk before coming back. They had coffee, but it was no good; they had caffeine free coffee. Crazy right?

When I started walking to my 1st hour class someone briskly ran into me, his shoulder ramming into my collar bone. "Freak!" I heard him shout out. It was quickly followed by some snickering and hushed talking through the hallways. This was a normal thing, but it had been getting worse since I had made my identity public. I was a Shifter, or in some ways, a 'morpher'. A good twenty percent of the school were Shifters, but that twenty percent were considered freaks by 95 percent of the humans in the school.

I could morph into a panther and a cat; I didn't see what the big deal was. The only reason we were at that school was because there was a project going on to see how mixing our two species in schools would affect education. The schools were segregated into different species. Humans and Shifters. The reason why they had moved me and a couple others to the human school was an enigma to me. After all, there was more peace in the segregated schools, and no one minded being kept separate. It's not like the Shifters got all the advanced school supplies while the Humans got our leftovers, everything was equal.

I heard someone yell behind me so I flipped around. Ree had seen what had happen and was kicking some major butt. I couldn't help it while a smirk escaped my lips. That guy deserved it, but still, not in school while the deans could show up. I jumped over the crowd with ease and started to pull Ree away from the guy. "Hey! Ree stop. It's ok dude, I'm fine!" I tried to reason with her, but she seemed to be in a fury. "REE!" I snarled. That got her to look up along with the rest of the surrounding students to stop cheering. "Let him go." I coaxed. She simply let out a huff and back up and walked away, her tall horse ears flat back and irritated. She was normally pretty protective, and a great friend to have if you ever got on the wrong side of people, but she was a little over protective lately. Ree was a horse shifter; a Gypsy Vanner horse at that.

After slipping away from the crowd and avoiding the few deans they had sent, I walked to my 1st hour, which was chemistry. We did nothing but the ever so popular mole day celebration. Thus we did some scavenger hunts for the volume of a square if its mass was 13g/cm3 and its density was 1.02. Any who, the best part was the avocado races. you had to roll those little green fruits from one side of the hallway to the other, only using your nose. I won that one with not so much grace as I had expected. At least mine didn't roll down the stairs like the other guy's had.

After the bell rang, the rest of the day until lunch was composed of pottery, English 2, and Algebra. Oh, what fun. As soon as the bell rang for lunch I practically ran down the stairs trying to beat the ever elusive Cal. I don't know how she does it, maybe it's because her 5th period room is closer than mine, but she beats me every time. Maybe dragons are just really fast? I may have forgotten to explain that she's a reptilian Shifter. She's just as short as Shana, if not shorter. I suppose it doesn't help she's Asian.

I sighed as I saw her stuff on the table, and let out a sigh, "Beat me again…" My tail happened to lash a bit as it appeared on my lower back and suddenly I found myself being pulled backwards by it.

I tried to spin around but something was still latched onto it. I heard all of the snickers around me when a higher pitched male voice spoke up. "What's the matter kitty? Something caught your tail!" he almost sang.

I hissed, "Let go you idiot!" Whoever it was finally did and I stumbled as I turned around to face the guy, my face plastered with rage. He was only about an inch taller than me and only because of his small Mohawk of hair. He was probably a skater by the way his dark jeans hung down and a purple tee clamped tightly around his body. It was no other than the famous Matt Mercer. It pained me that I had the same last 3 letters in my first name as he did.

"Oh I'm sorry, did kitty get mad? I hope it doesn't bite me!" he cooed. His voice was sickening to my ears which were also cat ears now as well. I looked around to find a dean and saw none. It was amazing how they could disappear when you wanted them around the most. "What's the matter, none of your freak friends here to back you up?"

"No, but I am! So move along Matt!" I turned to see who had said it and saw Emily.  I was happy to have her as a friend, not only because she was awesome, but because I knew that is was possible for humans to be accepting.

Matt stumbled as his eyes narrowed. He grumbled something under his breath before walking away to his table. I sighed, I guess I never was very good at defending myself on the spot. Maybe I should have thought up some defensive saying.

I turned to Emily and smiled, "Thanks Emily," I said softly as I rubbed at the back of my neck, which I usually did when I was embarrassed or nervous. In this case, it was embarrassment. I had tried not to get so shy and quiet when that kind of thing happened, but it was so hard to stay on your game when that happened several times every day.

Emily simply smiled, "Ah, no problem. I'll see you later." She wasn't in that lunch period, I knew that. I did know her just a little bit though. I had known her since Freshman year of high school. We had been together in a show last year. Both her an I acted, and our personalities were very similar. She was Italian as well, only she didn't have the accent since she had been born in the United States. Her dark blond hair was nice and curly though, and it complimented her light grey-green eyes.

I went and got my usual lunch again and sat down. For some reason I always got back to the table before Cal did though; who knows why? As she landed at the table I smirked, "so any new news today?"

She shook her head, "Nah, just the usual, we do have NAHS (National Art Honors Society) after school today though. Mrs. O-C forgot to put it up so it was played on OE news." I nodded and went to go text my dad when I remembered that the rule was "no phones allowed."

"Guess I'll have to text my dad in the locker rooms before gym starts…"

Ree nodded, "Same here, I didn't know we had that today either. I don't pay attention to the news any way!" she chimed. I simply shook my head.

"You're hopeless sometimes you know that?"

She smiled and shrugged. "What? It's so hard to pay attention when It's so boring! Oh, and are you ok Katt?" She suddenly seemed to remember the incident earlier today.  I nodded, but being reminded of it didn't help much.
"Yah I'm fine. Matt pulled my tail again today before you got here th-"

"What!? I'ma go and-"

"Ree! Please, I'm fine. You're over reacting. It's not like we're going to get a better reputation if you beat up anyone that does something mean." I argued. I really had been thankful for her doing all this, but she had been a little over reactive lately.

Ree simply shrugged, "I don't know, but I'm Puerto Rican and nobody is gunna' do anything to any of you!" she said as she put up her pointer finger and waved it around and then did the 'young man' move from the YMCA dance to point to all of us. I couldn't help but start laughing.

"Thanks Ree. Don't know what I'd do without you!" I laughed.

The rest of the day went on pretty smoothly and I didn't get any more insulting outbursts from the Humans. I just hoped the next day would get better. As the school day ended I grabbed my stuff and ran over to Mrs. O-C's room for the club meeting. It was mostly about picking people for the officer spots in the group like president and secretary. Also talking about some other crucial field trips and things to come. Besides that, not much was going on. Ree, Cal, and a few other people I knew from other places were in NAHS as well, so at least I had some people to talk to after the meeting ended. What confused me was that most of the people in there were Shifters. A girl and one other guy were humans. They both seemed fine with us around; in fact they seemed to be happy they had a lot of Shifters in there. I figured it was just because this way it didn't seem like the group was kicking non-Humans out or anything, and the school board wouldn't get suspicious.

When the meeting ended and me Ree and Cal walked outside, their rides were already there, so I waited for my dad to come pick me up. I knew it would be about a half an hour considering he didn't get off work till about 5 minutes ago. I sat on a bench near the front of the school and waited for about 10 minutes. I turned my head ever so slightly, trying to shake myself out of the 'stares' and noticed a guy had sat next to me. He looked truly devastated and his palm was on his forehead while his grey-black hair was stuck up between his tightly gripped fingers. There were two rips in the back of his shirt and he looked as if he had just ran twenty miles. I finally looked straight at him, curious to figure out what had happened. "Hey are you ok?" I asked.

"No! I'm not! That dumb ass football coach wouldn't let me on the team!" he spat out. I winced a little when he suddenly turned to me, a look of shock on his face.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to yell at yah… I'm just tense is all…" I couldn't help but smirk as he looked back towards the ground. There was a look of knowing on his face, as if he knew why he wasn't accepted to join the team.

"It's no problem. I'd get upset too if someone didn't let me into an activity. Maybe you were just too good for the coach," I said on a cheerful note.

He smirked at that, "That's right, I was just too good. Wow, do I sound full of myself now." He laughed awkwardly. I had to laugh at that one. He seemed to notice something as his head perked up, "So, what's your name? I didn't quite catch it," he said, seeming to have moved on a bit from his issue.

"I'm Katt," I half-purred with a smile.

He nodded, "I'm Rav."

"Like a Rave?" I asked a bit confused. That was an odd name.

He shook his head, "no, Rav, pronounced like R-A-H-V" he explained.

He looked to his left and stood up, "Well, there's my ride, I'll see yah later Katt."

I nodded, "Alright Rav, I'll see yah later!" I called as he ran off. All of a sudden the wind picked up from my left and large purple-black wings came from his back and through the holes in his shirt. He ran forward, jumped, and rode the wind. My eyes widened as I realized Rav was simply short for Raven.