Shifters

Chapter 1

Three days earlier.

I sighed and arched my back to stretch as Mr. Sanchez's voice droned on about nothing in particular from the front of the class. Class would be over in five minutes, then there was only two day left of school until winter break.  

I looked around the bland room. There were no posters, no painting, no decorations of any kind. My eyes drifted lazily around the room, I looked at each of the students faces. If there was something that could keep me busy for hours, it was people watching. I loved to see all the different combinations of hair color, eye color, skin color, and any other features. I would store each face away in my memory and go home to scetch it. I had so many scetch books full of different faces. There were no new faces here though, which was always dissapointing.  

The bell rang and I jumped up from my desk. I gathered my books into a messy pile and hurried out of the room. Standing by my locker was one of my friends, Jade,"Only two more days!" she exclaimed as I got closer. "I know, but that seems like an eturnity!" I replied, "don't worry Ev, it will be break before you know it." I smiled and threw my books in my locker. 

"I hope so!" I paused, "well my dad is probably outside by now, so I should go, I'll see you tomorrow!" As I turned Jade said, "Take care Ev." that was a strange response, I thought, but I didn't say anything. Most of the boys turned to stare as I left, but I didn't pay attention to them, I wasn't really looking for a relationship right now. 

My dads car was waiting in the parking lot so I walked quickly to the car. As I opened the door my dad waved to me and continued talking on the phone. I waved back as I shut the door. I sighed and looked out the window. Snow drifted down from an endless sea of clouds above the school. I rested my head on the window and closed my eyes.

I opened my eyes as my dad pulled into our driveway. I yawned and climbed out of the car. As I walked into the house my mom said from the livingroom, "you got a letter in the mail today. It's on the counter." "thanks!" I replied. As I headed upstairs, I grabbed the letter off the counter. Once I got to my room I threw my bag on the bed and closed the door. I turned the letter over and looked at the front. My name and address were on it, but the was no return address. I bit my lip and walked over to my desk. 

I leaned up againt my desk as I opened the letter. It was written in neat cursive, it said, "Hello Evelyn. You may be wondering how I know you, or what this letter is about. As a matter of fact, you are probably wondering both of these things. But that's not important, seeing as you are about to find out what this letter is about.  

Have you ever wondered if you were meant to do something, or ever thought that you were meant to be somewhere else? Have you ever wondered why you love to look at faces, why you love to draw every new face you see? You are becoming what you are meant to be. A shifter. Shifters can changer their appearence with a single thought. They love to draw or take pictures of faces so they can remeber it and use it later. Of course as you can imagine, it is very hard to control these thoughts, just one thought of a person, and you will look like them. Which is very bad if you are with that person.  

The only rule with shifting is that you must have the same human shape, you know, two arms, two legs, one head, walking upright. You get the picture. But I am offering you a place to learn how to control this, there are others like you, however no one knows that we exist, so if you slip up at school and shift infront of them, then you will probably end up in some top secret government facility as a lab rat. It's happened before.  

But my goal isn't to scare you, I only want to help you, it can be very hard to get control of your thoughts when you are in your home enviorment. If you want to talk, I will be at the cafe down the street from your school everyday at 5 o'clock PM for a week, starting tomorrow, that's how long you have to decide. I hope to see you there.

Maximilian Kaufman "

I rolled my eyes and debated telling Jade about the letter. It was probably another way one of the boys at the school had decided to use to try to get me to go out with them. I snorted at the thought of what Jade would say. I looked up and froze as my eyes passed the mirror. Well not my eyes, Jade's eyes stared back at me. I looked exactly like Jade.