Shifter

Chapter 4

A/N: Welcome to Chapter 4... It has been a long time since I posted and I feel really bad but school was really stressful and time-consuming for a while, but I'm continuing now so FORGIVE ME PLEASE.  

I walked into homeroom that morning half asleep. I was shuffling towards my desk, my back hunched over and my eyes unfocused, when suddenly, something drew my gaze to the other side of the room. And sitting there was a girl, with brilliant gold eyes, like the color mine had changed to (or so I thought they had) in the mirror. She stared at me, a slightly puzzled look pulling her eyebrows together, and I stared right back, unable to look away. Eventually she shook her head and stared back down at the scrap of paper on her desk, mumbling to herself, and the connection broke.

I felt myself blushing furiously as I walked back to my seat, wondering what had happened. It was like... Like something inside the two of us was connected. It was as if that bit of gold energy that was pulled out of me in my dream last night was in her too. But that was stupid. That didn't make sense. Why would that be? I didn't even have gold energy inside me. It was just a dream. But I still couldn't stop thinking about the weird way that the girl's eyes seemed to glow, the way I had looked over towards her as if I didn't have a choice, even though I'd never seen her before. I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I almost didn't hear the teacher introducing the new girl to the rest of the class, explaining that she was new here, and contributing her name. Loni. 

And this was how I slogged through the rest of my morning classes, wondering about the weird girl from homeroom (she wasn't in any of my other classes, thank goodness), and hoping that maybe at lunch I could grab some chips or something and then hide in the library to avoide any exhausting social interaction. However, my plans were thwarted by - guess who - Loni. She cornered me in an empty bathroom, looking harried, like she had been trying to find an opportunity all day. 

"Look," I said, blushing again. "About what happened in homeroom..."

"How long?" she asked suddenly, her eyes flaring in the flourescent lighting. "How long have you been having them?"

"Been having what?" I asked, staring at her, surprised at the intensity in her voice. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean."

"Having the dreams?" she said, the tone of her voice suggesting that it was obvious. "How long have you been having the shifter dreams?"

I blanched. How did she know I was having dreams? I hadn't told anyone. Besides that, she was new here. How would she know? And what was a shifter?

"The-the  what dreams?" I stuttered oh so intelligently. She glared at me, as if frustrated I hadn't caught on yet. 

"Shif-ter," Loni said, speaking slowly, as if to a young child. I got kind of frustrated, because she was asking a lot of me, but not giving much clarification in return. 

"I know what you said!" I snapped. "What - exactly - is a shifter?" The intensity slowly melted off her face, her eyes dulling to a bronze color as her expression turned to one of confusion. 

"You- you don't know?" she asked, now looking edgy, like I was a bomb that could go off at any  minute. 

"Know what?" I was getting frustrated at that point, being asked all these questions that I knew nothing about and being expected to know what they mean. "I don't know what's going on here! So please enlighten me."

Of course, at that moment the bell rang, and Loni looked panicked. 

"Look," she said, dragging me out of the bathroom behind her. "I'll try to catch you after school, and I'll explain everything. In case I can't, here's my number. You need to know what you are, before you lose control." 

And with that she darted off down the hallway, leaving me with a slip of paper in my hand, and full of a lot of questions and very few answers, which, though I had only known her for a short while, I was used to already. 

I apologize for the short chapter, but it's late and I wanted to get something up, and come on, this was a pretty great place to end it. But I am sorry it's so short, I'm going to try to post more often. I would be psyched to get some feedback, tell me what I can do better, and what I'm doing right if you've got time. Thanks!