Wolf-Shifter

The Shapeshifter: Surviving the Secrets Final part

Maddy had been at the Lodge for about two months now, and she felt she had settled in quite a lot. Everybody was being on their best behavior for her, especially Dax, now that he had found he was in the presence of another shapeshifter, with the exception of Spook. Even Lisa had offered to give her a manicure last week. The only other person who hadn't gone out of their way to make her feel welcome was Luke, although she had begun to suspect that he was a bit shy and nervous. She couldn't blame him, really. The other day, one of Barry's experiments had exploded; she'd very nearly had a heart attack. Clive, of course, had instantly launched into a lecture on how Barry should have added the hydrogen iafter/i the metal, otherwise how would they get any proper results, did he iwant/i the whole school to explode?

Dax's leg had healed up quite nicely, and he no longer had to wear crutches, although he still hobbled along quite slowly. They were sitting now on a short wall overlooking a field of grass, watching Gideon chase Jacob and Alex all over the grounds for impersonating a very sexy and lovable Lisa behind his back. Gideon had gone bright red as 'Lisa' teasingly asked him if he wanted to spend the night at her dorm.

The atmosphere was very quiet and slightly awkward. Dax kicked his good foot against the wall, rubbing his hand through a mop of fluffy dark hair. Clutching her chest, Maddy gently allowed her hair to fall in front of her eyes and wondered if she should make an excuse that she had homework to get on with.

The sound of footsteps jerked her head upwards. Luke was walking towards them; he made to sit down next to her, before stopping and very pointedly sitting next to Dax instead and rapidly signaling to him.

Dax watched him with a frown. "Uhhh…sorry, mate, I'm not too good on the whole sign language thing."

Rolling his eyes with a grin, Luke just pointed towards the kitchens and then mimed drinking. Dax's eyes lit up. "You mean hot chocolate?"

There was a nod.

"Yeah, okay then. Are you getting some for everyone?"

Luke quickly counted the students on his fingers before nodding again. Dax watched his fingers. "There aren't eleven anymore-twelve, remember?" His smile was slightly uneasy as he gestured towards Maddy. Maddy smiled and gave a shy wave, which was ignored.

"Did someone say hot chocolate?" a voice suddenly called, and Gideon came rushing up the hill, clutching at a stitch in side and looking very red faced. Jacob and Alex, after having their T-shirts pulled up over their heads telekinetically, were now making a quick getaway. "If you did, make sure there's the fluffy cream on top. And sprinkles. And maybe a Flake."

"Any other requests, Your Highness?" Dax laughed, jumping up off the wall. Maddy followed suit.

Gideon considered this for a moment. "And a bar of Galaxy," he added, completely oblivious to the giggles around him.

They were all in the common room, sipping hot chocolate and relaxing, watching a slightly fuzzy magic act on the television. Spook was getting incredibly wound up about it, muttering under his breath all the mistakes the magician made, and how any fool could see that she wasn't ireally/i disappearing, you could see her slipping down into a secret panel, the moron…

Maddy was actually interested in the whole thing. Leaning forwards, she flicked hair behind her ear and watched intently as the magician effortlessly cut a woman in half before reattaching her to her limbs. It looked amazing. How the hell did they do it? Where did they come up with this stuff?

Spook, who was sitting opposite her, noticed her expression and scowled. "iPlease/i," he hissed, gulping down the last of his drink, "You think rookie tricks like that are any good? Let me show you some ireal/i magic."