Flames and Starlight

8🌘

Laura

I led Peter to my grandma's house, the only place I knew where to go. She wouldn't be happy we ran out of class, but she'd be understanding once we explained everything.

However, my wings faltered when I saw her standing on the back porch, her hands on her hips as she stared up at us with a glowering face. She knew it was me and there was no point in turning around since she'd shift and follow me and I'd be in even bigger trouble.

"Is that your grandma?" Peter asked in his bird form as we descended closer to the porch.

Shapeshifters could still speak with their human voices even when they were still in their animal forms, which was pretty neat though we had to watch when we did it in case there were humans around despite humans knowing about us. We had to make sure to not freak humans out and at that point, I could agree. It would be pretty freaky to hear a talking dog or any other animal and I made sure not to shift around humans anyway, despite that one time, and we all know why that happened.

"Yes," I answered him. "Don't worry. It'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" he asked, sounding skeptical and I didn't blame him. My grandma could be pretty scary when she was mad. "She looks pretty pissed."

"She is, but she's reasonable. I'll talk to her and she'll understand."

"If you say so." He still didn't sound convinced.

We flew down to the porch, landed in front of Grandma, and shifted back into our human forms.

I'd barely become human again when she started in on me.

"Laura Paige Harper, is there a reason why you and this boy decided to run out of class?" she demanded, glaring at Peter and me, a growl laced in her voice as her eyes started to glow a faint red.

Peter stood behind me, trying to save himself from my grandmother's wrath. My hands were shaking from the rage she was no doubt going to dish out on me for leaving school property, but I forced my expression to stay calm and looked her right in the eye as I explained everything to her. I left out the part that Peter was a hybrid; it wasn't my secret to tell, even to Grandma, and apologized for what we did.

Grandma stared at me for a long moment after I was done explaining what had happened. The red disappeared from her eyes and her expression softened. She sighed and pulled me into an embrace. "I'm just glad you're okay. I was so worried when they called and told me they didn't know where you went."

I hugged her back. "I'm sorry I scared you like that. I had to get out of there when he brought that up and I couldn't let him bully Peter anymore."

She pulled back and squeezed my arms gently. "That teacher should've never said or acted that way in the first place. He needs to be reported. That was unacceptable behavior."

She looked over my shoulder at Peter, who'd been silent this whole time. I moved out of the way as she stepped closer to him and extended her hand. "And I'm going to assume you're Peter. I'm Kim Cremer."

Peter smiled and shook his head. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Cremer."

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that teacher. No educator should ever speak to a pupil like that. Have you contacted your parents about where you are and what happened?"

He started to curse then shot my grandma an apologetic look. "Sorry, no, my phone's still in the locker at school. They're going to flip out when they hear what happened."

I groaned as well, suddenly realizing I'd left all my stuff at school too. "Shoot, I forgot my stuff too."

"Peter, you can use our house phone to call your parents. We can drive by the school tomorrow to get your stuff."