I felt a hand grab my arm and turn me around. I must've been really out of it if I let someone sneak up on me. It was Shannon. She looked me over and cursed. "Shit, it's only the first day. Of course they haven't warned you," she grumbled. She took my hand. "Come with me," she ordered. The crowd was looking at me again, but everything seemed to have a red haze around it. Shannon dragged me from the room as fast as she could, into the back room, which was a giant kitchen. The staff there didn't seem to notice us coming in. "Let me guess, you ate less than usual because you were hanging out with humans?" she demanded as she plopped me into a stool and started rummaging through the kitchen. She came back a moment later with a mostly rare steak and a glass of red liquid I didn't want to think too much about in my human form. I looked at her confused. "Eat, wolf-girl, before you do something stupid,"

My next breath brought me the smell of meat and I dug in. Shannon went rummaging again and got herself a glass of the red liquid, blood, my brain corrected. It wasn't until I finished my steak and my own glass before I came back to myself and the red haze faded. Shannon looked reassured when my eyes cleared and my canines shrank again. "I've never had that happen before," I told her sheepishly.

"It doesn't happen to most students before at least their Neophyte year," she explained. "It must be different for you, since you're a Shifter, not a human. The administration should have warned you. They usually go over it about halfway through first year," she sighed. "I'm not explaining this well, I'm sorry. As you know, your body is going through changes now, as you turn from human to vampire. In your case, you're turning from Shifter to vampire. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Shifters, particularly the wolves, get bloodlust if they don't eat often enough," I nodded along "and you eat more than normal humans, which makes you look strange to the humans. Don't do that again. Vampires also suffer from bloodlust when they haven't had blood. The kitchen here is always open. The school doesn't want any accidents," she scolded gently. I nodded, my face turning red. "I promise your friends won't think any less of you. We've been watching them. They're good kids," she told me gently. I nodded again.

"Thank you," she grinned at me.

"That's what a mentor is for. You ready to head back out there? The club fair is almost over. Any idea what club you're going to join?" she asked as she stood and we headed back out to the main room.

"I was thinking of asking Kinoshita-sensei if I could join both of her clubs," I replied. Shannon smiled.

"I'll put in a good word for you. I'm also going to make a comment to the headmistress about what happened earlier. Don't worry you won't get in trouble. I just want them to know they should warn the Apprentices earlier, especially if they get any more shifters," I was relieved that I wasn't going to get in trouble for this. My father would be livid if he knew how close I'd been to losing control. I would just have to make sure he never found out, and never let myself fall into that situation again.

My friends were waiting for me on the other side of the kitchen door. "Are you ok?" Mary asked, obviously worried. "We saw Shannon drag you off..." I smiled at them, glad they cared, and nodded.

"I'm fine," I told them, trying to be reassuring. "I'll explain more at dinner, I promise, but I'm really fine," the club members were packing up their booths. "Did you guys choose clubs?" I asked, hoping to distract them from me for a little while. We still had a little time before dinner and the teachers suggested we go up to our lockers and get our things to prepare for study hall after dinner. My friends and I walked up to the Apprentice wing together. The boys were trying out for the different sports, Mary had found an anime club she wanted to check out, and Sarah had found a ballet club. I was curious about those, and decided I'd have to check them out for myself too. I did have to make sure I picked the best club, after all. I'd be stuck with it once the decision was made.

I grabbed my books from my locker so I'd be able to do my homework later. Next was a trip to the supply room to get more notebooks and things I hadn't anticipated. At least I'd already gotten a planner, so I could write down my assignments earlier. By the time we made it back to the cafeteria, the booths were all dismantled and the real tables were back again. Dinner had started, so we went through the food line. I filled up my tray, not willing to risk the bloodlust again. My friends looked confused at my giant plate of food when I finally sat down with them. I blushed, embarrassed by it. "Shifters have higher metabolisms than humans," I explained to them. They nodded, accepting it just like that. Luce and Damon were arguing about which sports were the best. If they hadn't been laughing so hard during it, I would've thought they were about to come to blows. They acted more like brothers than boys who had just met. After we had finished dinner, the boys took our plates and trays back while Mary, Sarah, and I got out our homework to begin work. The teachers were all sitting at their table to answer any of the students' questions. We got to our work, chatting occasionally. My phone kept whistling with messages from my mom. She was still worried. I tried to reassure her that I was ok and would see her Friday.

"Talking to your husbands, wolf-slut?" one of Dawn's friends said at my back as I was typing out yet another reply to my mom. I tried to ignore her. She was being stupid, but me fighting her wouldn't help anything. It would just get all of us in trouble. "We know that's all the good Shifter girls are, breeding more Shifter mutts," a crowd of students had congregated in front of the teachers' table, blocking us from view. Just what I needed, more ignorant girls commenting on things they didn't know and didn't want to know.

"It's still too stupid to realize we're talking about it," another girl giggled, when I tried to ignore them. My friends stood as one, scraping their chairs. I turned in my chair to stop them, they shouldn't get themselves in trouble on my account!

Before they could do anything about the girls, I heard an exasperated sigh from the other side of the girls. "I thought we got through to you lot earlier," Shannon's voice said clearly. Before they could sputter anything in defense, Shannon grabbed them by the ear and started dragging them off toward the teachers' table. Yamada had been standing just behind her and took a seat at our table when she left.

"Don't worry, she can handle those two alone. She thought they might try something again," he explained as all of my friends seated themselves again, looking worried "It is good of you to stand up for your friend," he added "though you did not pick the easy route," he seemed impressed with them. After a few minutes, Shannon came back to join us for the rest of study hall.

"I thought they would've learned the first time I took one of them to the headmistress. I've never seen this many problems out of the Apprentice class," Shannon grumbled as she took her seat. Yamada nodded.

"I'll get the rest of the Journeymen on it," Yamada reassured her. "They won't put up with it,"

"In the meantime, Sam, stick with your friends. After this, they'll be a lot less likely to cause trouble when there are people around," Shannon ordered. I nodded meekly. Shannon spent the rest of the time talking with Yamada about the Japanese essay they'd been assigned and helping the rest of us with our homework. I hoped those girls really learned to leave me alone this time.