The Reluctant Luna

Chapter 3

Hey Somersault,

It didn't work. I cut... um, I cut deeper than I should have. I just... felt hopeful. I wanted it so bad... My hand is bandaged up and... well, it'll heal. It's just that Juniper is giving me a hard time about it. She knows why I did it. It's straightforward enough for her to figure it out.

Shoot. I'm sorry. I don't mean to take a jab at her intelligence. Just that I'm disappointed right now. It's hard enough dealing with the cold and the frustration without having to navigate her disapproval on top of everything else.

To make matters worse, my aunt caught me when I tried to sneak back into my room and... let's just say it wasn't a very uplifting situation. Outside of school and work, I've been grounded for a month now, and I have to clean the bathrooms in addition to taking care of dinners. It's ok. It's reasonable enough. And my aunt has taken me in, and I have a place to stay and... I guess sneaking out wasn't a very nice way for me to repay that.

In reality, I feel like it's not such a bad sentence. It's not like I go out partying much... or at all, and I do the dinners most nights anyway. Cooking is a nice thing. Cleaning the bathrooms is... it's ok too. I think I'm not meant to feel this way, but I'm actually kind of relieved in a strange way. I'm glad I snuck out and tried to shift. I feel like I couldn't not have done it. I had to try. And maybe in this way, cleaning the bathrooms for a month is the cost of doing that. I feel like, even though it maybe wasn't the most enjoyable outing lol, I'm feeling like it was worth the cost.

So... yeah. I feel like I should apologize for not having more uplifting news for you. But at the same time... it's ok. I'm not going to let myself feel sad. I've been through a lot, and I'm not going to let this setback define me.

As for shifting... I want to believe it's still possible. Maybe this is me being naively optimistic... But I think being in my situation, maybe it's natural for me to desire it so strongly so that I can finally fit into the pack...

But that said, I think I need to not focus on it so much anymore. I need to not get my hopes up too high. For the time being, I'm just going to toe the line. Do as I'm told. I've set a new goal to get into better shape. I've resolved to do at least 20 minutes of exercise during my two-hour private study class.

Ok, so it probably doesn't seem very hardcore, but... it's more than I have been doing, and I think it's enough to start with. I can always increase it later.

And also this way I'll still have an hour and a half to write and watch the shifter class. It's a tournament day today. It's always a tournament day on Fridays! The school goes nuts over the tournament ranking. Anyone who is anyone is in the top 100 for rankings.

To give you a sense of scale, there are about 3,000 students in the school. Each tournament lasts an entire semester. The ranking isn't gender-specific either. It's different for shifters because of their shifting abilities. Males and females are about equally matched. Sure, males tend to have more strength, but females tend to be faster and more agile. Also... it's not definitive, but some studies suggest that females have more potential with their shifting abilities.

What I mentioned before about being able to access shifter abilities in human form... things like sharper eyesight, or keener instinct are very uncommon. And even if a shifter has that potential, it takes years of focus and practice to be able to control it.

Mondays are almost always for sparring. At the start, they learn a new offense or defense move that they're meant to try and implement during the practice. Wednesdays are reserved more for the shifting side. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays are focused on cardio, weight training, and stretching.