Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 17: Trees

"If you want to shift, you need to figure out how you became a werewolf in the first place."

What the heck does that even mean? It's been about a week since Prashanth said that, and ever since then, I've gotten no response. He now gradually talks to me more, which means that I always ask him what he meant by that. But you want to know what he does every time?

He cocks his head to the side, smirks, and says, "You'll figure it out."

Damn it, dude. Give me at least ONE HINT! Because right now, we're doing the complete opposite.

"How does... everything feel?" Abhi questions with a concerned yet sneaky tone while he notices me sprawled across the sofa.

"I thought I was fit until I tried your workouts. Now, I feel like the laziest person in the world," I groan into the sofa while I try and put on some random TV show.

Since we have one more week before Thanksgiving break is over, the others took advantage of that opportunity. Now, they're all just trying to think of every possible way to trigger my first shift into a wolf. They definitively know I am a werewolf because of my pH, but they were too inexperienced to figure out why I wasn't shifted yet and how to bring it out.

So like the typical 20-year-old kids that they are, they are going to do it the hard way and force it out of me.

Yeah, it's just as painful as it sounds.

So far, Divya has tried to startle me until my wolf jumps out in fear, Naishal and Abhi worked me out until my muscles burst out of my body, and Tusharika and Sam made special drinks for me with their sorcerer abilities. Oh, and who could forget how Vaibhav shapeshifted into a cyclops so that I could fight him?

Right now though, all I have are sore muscles, stomachaches, three heart attacks, and a fear of cyclopes.

The worst part? No wolf in sight.

I feel so bad because I'm a massive lost cause right now, but they're not giving up yet. They keep trying to find new ways to make me turn, and I'm scared that they're gonna be massively disappointed because I was neither athletic, reflexive, nor receptive enough to do their ideas successfully.

Sure, it massively hurt my ego that I couldn't do anything, but it sucked even more that they were always so frustrated with themselves.

"Don't blame yourself, it hasn't even been a week yet. Besides, it's our fault for making you do all this because we don't know what to do. At least you actually tried to do everything. The first time I trained after shifting, I cried because of how much pain I was in. You're taking it pretty well," he reassures me, patting me on the back.

"Shanthi, any hints here?" Abhi gets Prashanth's attention as I put on some Netherworld reality show by accident.

Sure, watching supernatural creatures tear each other apart on camera is pretty satisfying. I'll watch that. After all, learning opportunities are everywhere.

"Nope," he replies blankly.

"Oh, come on. Are my struggles funny to you?" I pout at him. "Since you think you're so smart, what do you think I should do?"

"Fine," he grumbles. "I mean, you were worked to the bone. Maybe you should try something a little more relaxing?" he shrugs as he grabs some cereal and milk from the pantry.

Relaxing? Nothing about this process screams "relaxing". What's next, taking a bubble bath in lava? Yeah, that's definitely soothing.

"I HAVE AN IDEA!" Vinnie suddenly screams from upstairs. Her loud footsteps boom across the house as she runs down the stairs.