Author's Note

This chapter is being published a day early and is dedicated to @snickerstein. Happy birthday!

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The next class we went to was Transformations, and it took up twice the the amount of time that all the other classes took. I was excited. Now we would actually learn things.

Turns out, we were going over rules and expectations. Dang it. I slumped in my chair. How come teachers feel the need to tell us rules and expectations every time? I'm thirteen years old. I know this by now.

The next class was history. That was literally the most boring thing I've ever been to. It was taught by Ms. Greta Hutchinson, a woman who was over 80 for sure and was "about as interesting as a slug" says Audrey.

After that, we had lunch and a free period. I was proud of myself. I found my way back to our room all by myself. With Taylor's help. I went to my bed and worked on cleaning up my personal area a little bit. Audrey plopped down on her bed. "I am so exhausted," she groaned. I gave her a questioning look. "We didn't even do anything," I said.

"Exactly!" she exclaimed. "I'm exhausted from lack of doing stuff." I laughed and shook my head. "I'll just pretend that made sense."

"I agree with Audrey," Anna said. "I'm really excited for when we actually get to transform and stuff. I mean, you can't just show us we can turn into mermaids and not let us!"

Audrey turned her head to look at Anna. "You strike me as a talkative person, yet this is the second time you've said anything. Why?"

Anna immediately got quiet and turned away. "Oh. Uh yeah. Sorry." I frowned, but didn't say anything.

Taylor walked into our room. "Hey guys, we were thinking we should do the password thing now. Sound good to you?" We nodded. "Yeah that's a great idea," Talia said.

We all came into the living room, and stood around the table. Ashlyn sat. "We might as well sit you guys, she said we would have to choose a chair anyways." I nodded and sat.

Audrey sat next to me on one side, Sophie on the other. Sophie seemed to quietly follow me and Audrey, but always with this hesitation, as if she wasn't sure if she was being accepted or not. I tried to be as welcoming as possible. I smiled at her when she sat.

Tess was about to sit, but Audrey shook her head. "You sit directly across from me, so I can keep an eye on you." Tess flushed. "I don't have to do anything you tell me to do!" she huffed. She sat two seats down from Audrey to the left. "Fine then," Audrey humphed. I leaned over to her. "You didn't actually expect that to work did you?" I whispered. She shrugged. "It was worth a try."

Eventually everyone was seated but Amy. "Um," she started tentatively, "does anyone know how I choose a chair if I can't sit in it?" We looked at her dumbstruck, and shrugged. Lydia started to stand. "I can help you out of your wheelchair if you want," she began to say.

But just then, the one chair left began to glow. It slid back, and around Amy. She yelped in surprise. Then it did something strange. It...melded with the wheelchair, so it was like all of ours, with the high backs and all, but had big wheelchair wheels. It rolled itself forward and into the table.

We gawked. Amy looked terrified.

Then Audrey broke the silence, laughing. "I guess that's what they mean by it will change itself to the owner's desires!"

We all laughed. It was so crazy it was ridiculous.

Now that we were all seated, Taylor straightened in her chair. "Ok, so first thing's first. We need a password. Ideas anyone?"

I thought. I'm bad at these types of things.

"A random word, like cheesestick," Ashlyn mused. Taylor frowned. "That may make it hard to remember..."

Tess groaned. "This is going to take forever."

"Tessisanidiot?" Audrey suggested. "I'd remember that." Tess glared at Audrey. "Or Carrot. You know, like the orange vegetable?"

"I'm a vegetable now?"

"Carrot and cupcake," I murmured idly. Tess and Audrey glared at me.

"How about the first letters of all of our names? Do they make a word?" Talia suggested. Taylor nodded. "Good idea. Everyone go around and say the first letter of your name."

We did. I only found one word in the pairing, and it wasn't exactly a nice word.

"Hey," Anna said loudly. "All of our names start with L, S, A, or T." I thought for a moment. She was right. We all looked at her. She suddenly froze, and looked like she wanted to disappear. We were silent.

"That is so cool!" Ashlyn gushed suddenly. "We HAVE to base our password off that." Anna grinned sheepishly.

We tried combining them in different ways. It still didn't make a word. I say back, frustrated.

"How about Alternates?" Sophie said quietly. We all turned to her. "Alternates?" Tess said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, ALT, which is an abbreviation for our names without the S, is the abbreviation for alternate on the keyboard, and if you added an S it would be plural so I was just thinking..." Her voice got quieter and quieter. We were silent.

"Sophie," Taylor said slowly, "That. Is. Brilliant!" She said excitedly. We all nodded emphatically. "And no one would guess it," I said grinning. Sophie gave a small smile.

"All in favor say aye," Taylor said.

"Aye," we all said. Tess flipped her hair. "Fine. Can we go now?"

"We have to set it first," Taylor said. "So cross your wrists over your neighbors...like this..."

I put my right hand over Sophie's left and my left under Audrey's right.

"On three," Taylor said. "One, two three!"

"Alternates," we all said. The table glowed softly for a moment, then faded. "Awesome," Taylor said. "Alright Tess, now you can leave."

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After that, we went to Usage, which was basically how to use our transformed selves. We didn't really do much in that class, as we could transform. However, the teacher (Ms. Klasson) did say something that interested me.

"Now there are a few negative side effects of being a myth," she had said. "I'm sure all of you have had a strange relationship with pain, correct?"

I nodded in wonder. How did she know?

"That's because your body is hyper-sensitive so it can easily shift into other forms. It's quite essential. However, it does mean that any pain you feel is twice as worse." She grinned. "But that makes you tough."

I grinned too. Take that Austin! I'm not a wimp. I'm just hyper-sensitive because I'm a shape shifting, magical creature.

The rest of the day was spent doing normal school classes, which no one was pleased about, especially Audrey.

"We are mythical creatures," she seethed. "We are supposedly freaking magical, and we have to go to math."

I laughed and Sophie smiled. "What I can't believe," I said, "is that Ms. McCarty is our English teacher."

"Oh that woman is insane," Audrey said nodding. She paused. "You know, I don't think I can ever describe anyone with that word in good conscience again."

"Well," Sophie said, "if anyone's insane, it's her."

We both looked at her. And then burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry," she apologized immediately, her eyes widening.

"No," Audrey gasped, "don't apologize. That was fantastic."

My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. "That was really funny."

"It was?" she whispered. We nodded.

She looked down and have a half smile. The thought struck me that maybe no one had ever laughed at a joke she made. That made me sadder than I thought it would. This poor girl, who maybe never had friends. And she was such an awesome person too.

And that's when I knew. I HAD to be friends with her. To make her happy for maybe the first time in her life.

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That night I saw the mirror. It was completely black. I tilted my head, waiting for something to happen.

Just then, a bright light appeared and slowly came towards me. I reached for it, willed it to come closer. Then it spread, and there it was, offering for me to take it.

A hand.