"Are you sure you're ok?" mom asked on the way home.

"I'm fine, mom. All I did in that fight was run away," I told her. I was still grumpy that I hadn't been allowed to go back and help the others in the fight. I had hated leaving Eric out in the woods without any others of the family to help him.

"You did your job, and you did it well," dad said from the driver's seat. "Your job was to protect Katie. The best way to do that was to get her out of that situation and to somewhere secure. Guardwork is about protecting your charge, even if you have to retreat from the battle with her to do that."

"Yes, father," I replied. I knew all of this, but it still felt like copping out when I had run from the battle and hadn't returned to help. I also knew that I would have been a distraction to all of the fighters on our side. I knew it was the right decision, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn't some pampered little princess who needed protecting.

"What did Caleb give you for your birthday?" mom asked. I handed the box up to her so she could see the wolf statue he made me.

"He said he made it himself," I told her proudly. I didn't know why I was proud of something Caleb of done, but it was a better present because it was handmade. I had to figure out how to give him an equally awesome gift. I wasn't good at too many crafty things, but I had an idea brewing. I just hoped he would like it.

"It's beautiful," mom said as she handed me the box back.

We arrived back at the house soon and I headed upstairs to do my homework. I did stop first at the foot of the stairs to tell mom that I had to go to the coffee shop in the morning to meet with my professor again. She wouldn't argue with something that I had to do for school. Especially when the results of skipping it could mean my death...

I bounded up the stairs and put my wolf statue with the other things that were going back with me to school tomorrow. I wanted it on my desk at school. I plopped down on my bed and dug out my laptop, intending to get to work on my homework. I got distracted uploading pictures of my birthday party to Facebook. I also sent messages to Lily and Melissa. I hadn't kept in as good of contact with either of them as I should. So I spent the evening chatting with them, and Caleb who contacted me an hour or so later, while I worked on my homework.

-Have any of the shifters started trying to court you yet?- Lily asked. A few of them were courting her.

-Caleb Silverwolf is.- I replied. I figured it was safe to say he was interested, especially when his Facebook profile picture had suddenly changed to the same picture of us dancing at my birthday party that was his desktop background. -No one else yet-

-Let me know if Dean Lyall or Gabe Freki start wooing you-

-Are they your frontrunners?- I asked her, curious as to why she'd be asking me about them.

-Yes. It's not that I don't trust them, but you're the next closest and the newest eligible girl...-

-I understand. I'll let you know, though I'm sure if they're interested in you, they won't bother with me-

The shifter boys would be loyal to her until she chose one officially. She was only 16, so that wouldn't happen for a couple of years at least. I wasn't expecting many suitors, since I was tainted by being Chosen.

-How's your new school?- Melissa asked me.

-Not nearly as awesome as any school with you in it- I replied. I missed my best friend. I knew I wouldn't be able to be as close of friends with her anymore. I was Chosen, and a shifter, and things were getting too complicated and dangerous for human friends.

-High school is SOOOO much better than middle school. Way cooler people, minus you of course.- Melissa went prattling on about her new friends. I knew she'd be ok without me. We had survived middle school together, but we were both moving in different directions now. I had a feeling our friendship was going to be strictly online now.

I updated my profile picture to a picture of me at my birthday party and finally got to work on my homework. I tried to ignore the notifications coming in, especially the comments from people who had seen Caleb's profile picture, asking if he was my boyfriend. At least the shifter girls didn't bother asking. They would know that I wouldn't pick a boyfriend until I had at least a few more candidates. I had to pick not only someone I liked, but someone who would be a good leader for the shifters.

-How's the homework going?- Caleb asked. I sighed. I was never going to get this assignment done.

-Not great- I admitted. -Everyone in the universe seems to want to talk to me tonight. It's a nice change of pace from school-

I realized after I had type that last part that I shouldn't. I hadn't told him about my school troubles yet.

-What's wrong with school?- he asked.

-Teenagers aren't nice no matter where they are. I'll tell you the whole drama later.- I promised. I really wished I had started my homework earlier. I had anticipated having tomorrow afternoon to do it.

-How much homework do you have left? Should I leave you alone until tomorrow?- I didn't want to tell him to leave me alone.

-Not much.- I lied. -Just a chapter to read in Dracula, a few geometry problems, a few questions to answer about the biology chapter we're on, a STUPID essay for my vampire class, and my Japanese assignment.- I whizzed through the geometry and biology homework. Neither class was one I terribly cared about, but since I didn't have friends at the school, I spent most of my time studying and knew the material. The Japanese homework went quickly too. The only difference was that I liked Japanese class, and Professor Kinoshita.

-That sounds like a lot- Caleb called me on my lie. He had waited almost an hour to reply, though, which had given me plenty of time.

-Nope. Down to the stupid essay and the one chapter to read. Both of which I can do tomorrow. :) - I planned on doing my essay while I sat with Professor Rhodes tomorrow. She would help me with it.

-You should check the news. There's some trouble with the vampires- Caleb told me suddenly.

I flipped on my TV and saw what he was talking about. There was an attack on a pair of vampires who had gone out to see a movie tonight. The assailants were claiming they hadn't known the couple were vampires. No one was believing them, as the vampires were the only ones attacked. There were five other attacks in the same nature in the city tonight. The vampires were all ok. Fully grown vampires were extremely hard to kill. The media was trying to blame the vampires for not being obvious about what they were. These weren't the first such attacks either, just the most in one night.

I knew things were going to change at school because of this. I just hadn't had an idea yet how much