My first shift book 1#

twenty-two

**Jade – English Class**

The bell rang. I said bye to Alex and walked to English with Maya. Me and her had English together. On my first day I was told to sit beside her, and now we were friends, so I didn't mind sitting there anymore.

We put our bags down and waited for the teacher to come in.

"So," Maya smiled, "how's the pain today?"

I looked down at my legs.

"I guess they're still hurting a bit, but I'll get through it."

Just then my phone buzzed. I looked down and saw it was Dad.

**Dad:** *Hey Jade, we need to talk at lunch about you being gone too long.*

My heart dropped.

*Oh no... what am I gonna do?*

Maya looked over at me right away.

"Jade... what's wrong? What did you read?"

I handed her my phone without saying anything. She read the text, then looked back at me with wide eyes.

"Oh no..."

"I know," I whispered.

"If your dad wants you home, you'll have to change back, and that won't be good."

"This is bad," I said, trying not to panic. "I'll have to tell Alex after class."

"I know... but what are you gonna tell your dad?"

"I can't tell him I'm not coming home. He'll wonder why I'm still here."

Maya thought for a second.

"Okay... let's not panic yet. We'll figure something out at lunch."

I nodded, even though I wasn't sure there was a way out of this.

Before we could say anything else, the teacher walked in.

"Good morning, everyone! Sorry I'm late today."

The class answered back.

"Today we're going to the library. You can each pick a book to read after the morning announcements."

Everyone waited quietly while the announcements played over the speakers. Once they were done, we lined up and walked to the library together.

The library smelled like old books, and the shelves seemed to go on forever. I walked over to the romance section and started looking through the books. Most of them were love stories, but then I noticed a whole shelf about werewolves and vampires.

Maya walked over beside me.

"You know..." she said quietly. "Maybe you should read one of the werewolf books. You might find something about... you."

She smiled a little.

"And it's a love story too."

I laughed softly.

"I guess you're right."

I picked up a book called **My Moonlight Love**.

"Ooo, I like that one," Maya said.

"What did you get?"

She held up her book.

"Just another romance."

We both smiled and walked over to check them out.

When we got back to class, everyone found a seat. The room became quiet as pages started turning.

I opened **My Moonlight Love**, took a deep breath, and started reading the first chapter.

Even though my eyes were on the words, all I could think about was Dad's text and what was going to happen at lunch.