Spots (mxm)

Chapter 1: Spots

This story is being heavily edited and partially rewritten, if you enjoyed the first version please check this one out, too :) I will try my best to still make it fit correctly with the others 4 books when I start really changing chapters. 

A loud knock rang out in the bedroom as his mother banged on the door for the third time.

"Arron, come on, get up! You're going to be late for your first day at your new school."

"That's not a bad thing!" He shouted back with a groan as he pulled the blanket further over his head. He definitely did not want to go to school, much less a new school right in the middle of the year. It was early December and as they had driven through town the previous night to their new house Arron swore a Christmas brochure vomited on their new neighborhood. The lights were so bright across the street that he'd had to hang one of his comforters over the window just to get some sleep.

The door creaked open a moment later, followed by the sound of his mother's footsteps.

"I need to go to work. I better see that paperwork from the office filled out tonight."

Arron replied with another groan and listened as she sighed and walked out. A minute later the front door opened, then clicked shut, followed by the sound of her car driving off.

"Meh..."

Sitting up, he gave a big yawn, then slid out of bed. He really wasn't a morning person... or an afternoon person for that matter. Running his fingers through his messy, dirty blond hair let him know that there weren't any knots, but it definitely wasn't going to behave without a handful of gel in it.

Eh, not worth the time in front of the mirror. Everyone at my old school just messed with it anyways. Hopefully no one will shave it like last time.

He had always been the runt of his school and being a freshmen didn't help with kids bugging him. Shapeshifters stopped hiding from society a long time ago so half of the kids in schools were now openly known as them. Big cats and wolves were the predominant factions for the most part. There were plenty of other types, but they were too few and far between. Lions and wolves were the main groups because they had such large and strong families. A pack of wolves was nothing to laugh at, but a pride of lions? Yeah...

Hopefully his school didn't have as many shapeshifters as his last one, though that was just wishful thinking. He was a shapeshifter after all, but even keeping his head down and mouth shut didn't keep him from being bullied by all the other predators.

With a tired sigh, he got himself dressed in a pair of black jeans, black tennis shoes, and a grey rock band shirt that he had worn so much the image and letters on it were fading. After a quick tooth brushing he grabbed his skateboard and ran downstairs.

His mother had left out his normal breakfast, a piece of toast with butter, on the counter. With a small smile he grabbed it and headed for the door. His favorite picture of his father was hanging right beside it.

"Hey dad. It's only been a month but we're keeping it together. Miss you..."

He could feel himself beginning to blink back tears and quickly shook his head. It would not be good to start his first day of school looking like he'd just sobbed like a kitten. Putting on a determined face, he walked outside and locked up, then tossed his board down to skate off to school.

The huge building took about twenty minutes to get to and he was freezing by the time he kicked up his board and ran inside.

Darn cold winters! That was one thing he was jealous of the other cats for. Most of them had nice thick coats. Even when they were shifted they always seemed to be warm. At least the building was a little warmer than outside, though not by much.

As he stepped into the office his blood immediately chilled far more than the temperature outside. Predator. Alarm bells went off in his mind for self preservation, but he bit his lip, hard, to keep himself from bolting. That's what got him targeted at his other school... his instincts were way too strong. Every shifter had their animal's instincts, but both of the doctors his mother had sent him to told him his were much more powerful than other kids his age.

Arron's eyes darted around the room, first checking the receptionist sitting behind the desk. She seemed like some sort of bird judging by her fidgeting actions, so he quickly switched his attention to the teacher who was sorting files behind her. Again, not a predator. Then he turned and unintentionally locked eyes with exactly who he'd been hoping wasn't there.

A lion.

The boy's eyes were the bright gold of a predator, and that narrowed gaze said he could sense that Arron was considering running.

"Don't." The boy warned, his voice deep, showing just how close his animal was from the surface. If he ran, the boy would chase.

He was honestly about to take his chances and run when someone stepped between them, cutting off the lion's stare in the nick of time. It was obvious right away that the new person was a prey animal, but judging from his size, he wasn't one that would ever go down easily. When Arron looked up, a young teacher smiled down at him. He pressed his hand gently against Arron's messy hair, calming his nerves.

After a moment Arron heard shifting behind the teacher, then the tiny bell above the door chimed and the lion walked past them and out. The tension in the room went down several notches once the door shut and he could finally breath steadily again.

"Those are some strong instincts you've got there, kid."

Arron's face flushed with color at the man's words. It was embarrassing to have such little control over them. It was just like the cat took over and he had barely any choice but to follow.

"It's okay. You'll get better with it over time. Just try not to stare down anymore lions... especially while your lower lip is bleeding." The teacher said.

He carefully wiped the little line of blood from where Arron had bitten into his lip as Arron answered quietly.

"I'll try not to."

"Good, now let's get you set up. You must be the new kid, Arron?"

His chest tightened a little as he nodded. Not having a last name meant that you didn't have a family you belonged to. Even though his animal shift was generally solitary in the wild, their shapeshifter forms preferred something akin to a lion pride. They'd had had one back where they'd used to live, but when his father had passed and him and his mother had moved, they'd lost the right to it.

Biting back a frown, Arron hesitantly handed over his paperwork. The teacher looked through it for a moment before raising a brow and glancing down at him.

"There's a note saying that you still need your rabies shot?"

Oh no.

He had run out the last time the doctor had tried to give him that shot. It burned really badly. The teacher evidently knew he would have said no so he just grinned and grabbed the schedule the receptionist handed him.

"Alright, we need to go get you that. I'll take you to the nurse's office."

Arron grumbled, wishing he could have just taken his papers and gone to class. It wasn't like he was going to get rabies in one day. But he knew it was school policy to have that shot, so he really couldn't argue.

"It'll be okay, the nurse here is awesome." The teacher said.

Arron wasn't too sure about that, but he decided not to complain. He had run out of his last doctor's appointment to get it, after all. He was about to start following the teacher, who took a step toward the door, when something he definitely hadn't planned decided to happen abruptly, right where he stood in the middle of the office. Did I really have to shift right now? He thought, frustrated. It was true, he couldn't control his instincts... but he also couldn't control when his cat felt like coming out.

The shift left him with a fuzzy reminder of why he was bullied so often at his old school besides his instincts and random shifting problems. His shift was a cheetah... kitten.