ShapeShifter — Chapter 1 — to be continued

“ FIONIX! Get up you’re going to be late for school!” She sighed. Her mother was always
worried about being late. “ Coming mom! “ she yelled. She groaned and got out of bed,
went to the bathroom, got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair, pulled on her shoes,
grabbed her backpack, and rushed downstairs, where her mother was tapping her foot
impatiently. “ Took you long enough.” Mother snapped. Fionix sat down at the table to
shovel her breakfast, a pancake on a stick with a sausage in the middle, into her mouth
before her mother told her to hurry up and get into the car. In the car, when they were
speeding along 35 highway, mother spoke. “ I’m sorry for being so snappy this morning,
Fionix…” “ its ok mom. I know that we’re under a lot of pressure do to my-“ “ Hush!!”
Mother hissed at me, “ we do not speak of it in public! “ I looked at her sheepishly,
“ understood, mama. “ She started to say some thing else, but we were pulling into the
school drop-off line “ Have a good day, Fionix! “ Mother said in a falsely cheerful voice.
“ You to “ I hopped out of the car and walked into school. On my way to Mrs Painton’s
classroom, one of the school bullies, Cole, stopped in front of me. “ Where ya going,
weirdo?” He growled angrily. “ Don’t test me today, Cole. I’m not dealing with you.” I said
in a deadly quiet voice. Cole must have been unnerved, because his eyes widened and he
whirled around and ran off without so much as a backward glance. I smirked. In my
classroom, I saw my best friend, Sophia, and I waved her over to tell her what had
gone down in the hallway. When i ﬁnished, her eyes where nearly has large as Cole’s,
and she looked really impressed. “ You scared of one of the biggest bullies?!” She asked
in a incredulous voice. “ I didn’t mean to, it just sort of… happened…” Just then Frankie
walked into the room. I cought Sophia staring and laughed. “ Sophia , you’re hopeless!”
She glared at me, “ what’s that supposed to mean?” I giggled loudly “ ohhhh nothing!” I
walked over to her desk and sat down. When Mrs Painton walked in, her eyes swept
around the room, on her face was a warm smile. “ Good morning, class! How was your
weekend!” Different shouts went up, but most of them were “ GREAT” or “ Good!”
I sighed. Niles was being super annoying, banging his journal against the desk and
yelling to his friends across the room. He’s sitting with my table group, which consists
of Sophia, Frankie, and Landon. For some strange reason, the teacher isn’t scolding him.
“ Can you please stop?” I hissed at him. He just glanced mockingly over his shoulder at
me, smirking. I seethed silently, wishing that he would get moved to another class, or
better yet, another school. “Fionix” I snapped to attention. “ Y-yes, Mrs Painton?” “ Do
you have something to share with the class?” I glared at Niles. “ No ma’am…”
Later, at lunch, the bully of ALL TIME, Alarra, walked up to me, grinning evilly. She
stopped in from of me, and said in a loud whisper, “ I know your little secreeet…” My
heart stopped and I stared at her, eyes wide. “ W-what are you talking about?” She
smiled wider, clearly enjoying my panic. ‘ I wont tell anybody yet… but you better
watch your back.’ Alarra stalked off with her gang of pink-haired friends.