Dani was drawing on a piece of paper when the whole of Beartooth was called outside. Dani wondered what it could possibly be for. She joined the rest of the school on the field outside the building. Principal Krill had a megaphone in his hand. Dani noticed her friends and her boyfriend had joined her. "Beartooth students, we want to add a new type of shifter to our ranks," Krill said. Dani felt confused. Beartooth already housed furred, feathered and scaled animals. What type of shifter did Krill want to add? And it was already a known fact, that when shifters dated their partner got another animal to shift into if the partner had a different animal form. For example, Dani knew she would get a bird form, along with her wolf form, in time and Ryker would get a wolf, along with his bird form. If the shifters broke up, the other form would disappear. If the pair married however, that second form would be permanent. Dani already felt her feathered form forming. She wondered what her bird form would be like. It took a while though. "Skinned animals." Skinned animals? "Like elephants." The group glanced at her. Dani's Biology teacher's , for example, other form that she was born with was a lioness, Dani didn't know what the teacher's other other form was. She was definitely married. Dani didn't think anymore of the teacher.

"Do you remember when you first shifted?" Ryker asked the group. Dani assumed he wanted her to answer first.

"I do," she said, smiling. "I was 5 or 6, I don't exactly remember what I was doing. First thing I had hands-" She paused and shifted into her wolf form, making her voice get more of an edge to it. "-next thing I had these." She held up her paws. She shifted back.

"Cool," her boyfriend replied. Ryker turned toward Catherine. "You?"

"Well," Catherine said. "I was around the same age as Dani, I was playing dolls when my hands suddenly turned into hooves. I couldn't play with the dolls anymore."

Ryker turned toward Kayla. "You?"

Kayla smiled. "I was also around 5 or 6, I had been singing when my voice suddenly got a growl to it." Ryker didn't reply with his first shifting story, as Dani had expected him to.

"Rykie. We told you ours, now tell us yours." Beads of sweat ran down Ryker's face.

"I was 10..." he replied quietly. The girls had heard him though.

"You're a late-shifter," Dani concluded. Ryker hung his head in shame. Dani walked over to him. "Ryker, there's nothing wrong with being a late-shifter, we're all different." Ryker gave her a grateful look. She hugged him. "Ryker, girls, let's walk back to class, Krill seems to be finished here." The group walked to the empty classroom. "Girls, let me introduce you to the place me and Ryker did our project." She pointed around. "And... Where the base of our relationship grew. Friendship."

"Yes. It was also torture," Ryker added. Dani gave him a look

"Yes. And where I was the most obilivious." She and Ryker burst into a fit of giggles.

"Ryni..." Dani heard Kayla whisper. She turned toward her.

"Kayla, you don't have to ship us anymore, we're 'canon'." She let a small giggle, and she gave a small wink. Kayla took the look.

"I know, but that doesn't mean I can't ship you two," replied Kayla. "Oh and I might write a novel about you guys and me." Dani gave her a look.

"You want to write a novel? Good luck with that." Kayla nodded.

"You'll be the first to see it!" Kayla vowed. Dani rolled her eyes and smiled. The entire group burst into laughter so loud it echoed in the empty room. Catherine looked around.

"Who chose this classroom and why?" Ryker tensed beside Dani and he was blushing.

"I did. I-I wanted to get know Da-Dani without other people around. We talked a-a lot in this room. A-about things sometimes weird."

"Yes, about lots of things," Dani confirmed. "Mostly about, believe it or not, crushes." Her friends gave them looks.

"So you both had feelings for each other..." Kayla begun.

"...and you mostly talked about the very things you had for each other, and the name of either of you never came up in conversation?" Catherine added. Ryker and Dani glanced at each other.

"Yes," they replied in unison.