I slept poorly that night. I was distracted by the scent of the forest. I was already sick and tired of being trapped inside.

My alarm went off the next morning and I forced myself to roll out of bed, feeling just as exhausted as when I had fallen into the bed after Mary had left the night before. I showered and dressed, still mostly asleep. I made sure my uniform was straight and that I was wearing all of the pieces. I dug the hourglass on its chain from under my shirt, so it could be seen. I also go my phone out of my skirt pocket to make sure I didn't have any missed messages. I'd only been gone from my real life for a week, but it already seemed so far away. I missed my brothers, my parents, our loud crazy family, and all the extended family of shifters.

I did, however, text Eric. I needed to get out of human form for awhile. I had promised dad that I wouldn't go into the woods alone. <Run with me tonight?>

I had my bag packed for my classes before I received the reply. <I'll meet you at 6> I was grinning when I left my room. I was surprised to see Meaghan waiting for me on the other side of my door. She was even carrying two cups of coffee.

"You're pretty chipper for 7:15," she greeted me as she handed me one of the coffees. I grinned at her, which even got her to return the favor with a tiny smile.

"My brother's coming to visit tonight," I told her as we headed off towards breakfast. She raised a sleepy brow.

"We're only allowed visitors on the weekends." She reminded me as we reached the stairs. She sounded sad that she had to inform me of that fact.

"I-I have special permission," I reminded her in turn. I was nervous about talking to people about being a shifter. It hadn't made me many friends here so far. I was already feeling tight in this skin. I was nervous and edgy, and needed to shift forms before it got any worse.

Meaghan looked me over. "How'd you manage that? Even the Journeymen don't have those kind of privileges." I tried to smile at her, tried to calm my racing heart, tried to relax. I had to hope and trust that as my mentors, Meaghan and the others wouldn't look down on me for what I am.

"My father is one of the local Alphas." I reminded her. I hesitated on the wording for the rest of my explanation. "As the first Shifter enrolled here, the headmistress has allowed some extra privileges to appease the Shifter community." I hoped that was explanation enough. We had almost made it to the cafeteria and I wanted this conversation to be over before we made it to where the other students would be. They weren't likely to react as calmly as my mentor. I wasn't even sure of how calm her reaction would be.

"Lucky," she replied dreamily. Then she added with a complete reversal of tone that had me stopping in my tracks: "You're only using this extra power to see your brother?" she sounded incredulous. I turned to her confused.

"Who else would I see?" All I had were my parents and brothers. My parents were busy, so I couldn't drag them out here unless it was really important and urgent. I would see them this weekend anyway.

"A boyfriend? Your parents? A friend? Why on earth would you choose your brother?"

"I don't have a boyfriend!" I insisted, grumpily, while my stupid brain decided it was a great time to show me an image of Caleb... "And my parents are always busy running the pack." I hurried on in my explanation before she could see the hint of red coloring my cheeks. Meaghan just didn't understand the Shifter community. "Besides, I grew up surrounded by my brothers. They were my best friends, even if we did fight like siblings..." I trailed off. I didn't feel like I was explaining things very well to her. She didn't seem to be getting it.

"You're weird," was the reply I finally received from her after a dreadfully long silence. I started, hoping I wasn't losing one of my few friends. "My brother and I hated each other growing up." I finally relaxed. If she thought that my relationship with my family was the strange thing about me, that was perfectly ok.

We finally made it through the breakfast line and found the table where Emily, Shannon, and Mary were waiting for us with their breakfasts. Shannon waved enthusiastically as we sat down. I smiled at her and finally looked over my breakfast. I hadn't paid much attention to what they were serving this morning. It was eggs, sausage, toast, and orange juice. There was also a thing cup with the two pills we received every morning. I peered at the pills. "What are these, anyway?" I asked my table-mates, indicating the pills.

"Vitamins," Shannon answered a touch too quickly. I looked at her more closely. She was in her last year here, and looked older than the rest of us. She was paler than the rest of us, and held herself with the grace and confidence of a full vampire. With my heightened Shifter senses, however, I noticed that her heart was beating too fast and she was too uncomfortable. In short, she was lying. It was dangerous to lie in front of Shifters. We're trained young to spot the signs of a lie. The oldest Alphas even claim that they can smell a lie on someone. I'm not sure if that's true or just a story the Alphas make up so people don't try to lie to them. Regardless, I knew that Shannon was lying.

The others seemed to accept Shannon's story, though. I didn't know what to think of it, but decided it was best not to push the issue until I had more information. I took the pills anyway. Shannon was watching me and I had to make sure she continued to think I believed her. I didn't, but there was no reason she needed to know that.

All too quickly, the bell sounded and we all gathered up our things, rushing to drop off our breakfast dishes on the way out of the cafeteria. I said a quick goodbye to my mentors and headed off to class with Mary, the mornings events still on my mind.