I watched my mother pull out of the driveway with tears in her eyes; I was not going to cry. I had two weeks with these people and I would not let them break me down so easily already. Taking a deep breath I waved my mother goodbye as she turned the corner, then I turned towards the house and marched to my prison, dragging my suitcase of books behind me. When I reached the door I could see my reflection in the glass. I saw a tomboy with a low ponytail, a National Guard t-shirt, and some baggy blue jean shorts. I was no longer the scrawny, wimpy, fourteen year old girl I was last year, I had changed over the year, and for those who know me, the difference was obvious. These people though, they would never realize the difference in me. I am a shifter, and last fall I had my first shift...into a rabbit of all things, never trying that again.
"Seraphina!" a shrill female voice shouted as i walked into the house. I cringed when I heard it, and mumbled to myself, "Welcome to hell Sera!" I hate it when she pronounces my full first name. All the beauty of the Hebrew language was sucked out of it when she said it. These days everyone calls me Sera, unless I have done something to piss them off. At this house though, that was almost all of the time.
"Seraphina, get in here," she bellowed, "You know the rules, get in here and change out of those boy clothes and into the clothes your father and I bought for you!" The way I dressed always seemed to cause problems here. My shirts are always too baggy, my shorts too long, my hair not styled right, and my comfortable tennis shoes aren't heels. My father is well aware of my hatred of such feminine clothing, but he does not dare stand up to his girlfriend, plus apparently I am not "presentable" as I am. As I passed the ice queen i gave her a nod to let her know i was going back to the room to change, plus i was just too lazy to attempt to give her a gleeful greeting.
I put my suitcase onto the bed and examine the clothes the ice queen had laid out for me, a hot pink tank top with frills, a skirt short enough to be banned in most public schools, and some stiletto heels. Outfits like these are going to be the death of me. I shoved them back into the dresser and dug through the drawers until I found what that woman considered work clothes, then dug around of an acceptable pair of running shoes in the highly unnecessary pile of shoes in the closet. Put it all on and walked out the door with the excuse that I was going for a run.
I started out towards the woods at a jog, when I got past the tree line I shifted into a mountain lion, one of my personal favorites, and headed east towards the mountains. If I kept a steady pace I could be there and back before nightfall. I never understood why my father rejected his shifter genes. Nor did i understand how he could resist the urge to shape-shift, I loved how it felt and I loved the freedom. I don't think he likes the fact that I embrace shifting, he refuses to tell his girlfriend Riane about his ability or mine, seems kind of cowar.....my train of thought was interrupted by a sharp clicking sound up in the trees. I skidded to a stop poised to attack, something moved in the trees, a hunter, great. I may heal fast, but I am still pretty sure a bullet would end up doing some serious damage, plus its pretty hard to explain that one to Riane. I took off into the bushes, no one should have been this far into the woods, there were no trails and this was a "No Hunting" zone. So much for the mountains tonight, from the looks of it I was going to spend all of my spare time trying to shake this guy off my tail. If i could get far enough ahead maybe i could jump into a tree and then shift into a bird, a dove or something else he wouldn't bother to shoot. i heard the cracking sound of a bullet ricocheting off of a tree to my right, I couldn't keep running at this speed for much longer. I picked up the sent of water and headed that way. Another bullet hits nearby, I can smell the water strongly now, it's close. I jump over a log and through the leaves, but instead of hitting solid ground as I expected, I continued to tumble through the air. When I crashed into the icy water below everything went black.
