"Shade."

"Shade, you're dreaming."

"Shade."

"Shade."

"Shade, wake up."

Shade groaned, pushing his face deeper into the pillow.

"Hey." Enyanaida poked his cheek. "Shade, wake up before I shove you off the couch."

Shade turned so he was facing upwards. "Why..."

"Because you need to get your backpack so you can go to school."

Shade froze. Wait. Why am I here...? Oh. OH.

Remembering the events of last night, Shade stretched, quietly groaning when he felt a burn on his back stretch. Ow...

"Come on, I'll go to your house with ya."

Shade shook his head no. "Sorry, Mom's sick and Dad went somewhere. I wouldn't want you to get sick."

The "sick" thing wasn't exactly a lie. His mother was sick on the inside.

"Oh, okay. Well... See you at school, I guess."

"Bye, Enya."

Shade got up, then started walking to his house. Once he was there, he climbed into his bedroom window. 

Ty was awake. "Brodah!"

"Shhh!" Shade shushed, quickly grabbing his bag. Then, he noticed a sticky note on the door.

We're leaving this afternoon, so you'll have to take care of the twins.

It's a good thing I know how to change a diaper and all that fun stuff.

Shade sighed, slightly annoyed but slightly relieved. I don't think they noticed I was gone.

Quietly, he crept back out of the window. He dropped his backpack to the ground, then went out onto the branch near his room and shut his window. Jumping to the ground himself, Shade picked up the bag and left to go to school.

As he was walking, his hair was beginning to stand on end.

Someone's watching me.

Shade kept walking and acted like nothing was going on. He could hear footsteps behind him. After a few seconds, he whipped around...

And nobody was there.

Looking around the area, Shade's eats began to flatten against his head. He used magic to cloak himself and his belongings, then Shade, bag, clothes and all, melted into the shadows.

Jumping from shadow to shadow, Shade made it to the school safely. He couldn't get the hairs on the back of his neck to go back down.

He groaned as he could feel the beginnings of another coughing fit. He tried to keep it quiet, but it ended up being a particularly bad fit, and he keeled over.

Enyanaida noticed him from the playground and ran over. "Shade, this is why I wanted to walk with you!"

Shade shakily stood up, still coughing a little. "It's normal, remember? It's happened since I was two."

Enyanaida stared at Shade for a second, then sighed, running a hand over his face. "Fine. But at least smile? Let me make sure you're okay?"

Shade gave a smile, and Enyanaida shivered. "Come on, not the creepy smile!"

Shade shrugged. "That's my normal smile, Enya."

Enyanaida sighed, slightly exasperated at his friend. "I've told you a million times to work on your smile!"

Shade shrugged. "It's a good way to scare people off."

After staring at Shade for a second, Enyanaida nodded. "That's true."

The friends walked to the swings. Shade looked at Enyanaida and asked, "Where were you yesterday? Allison was being rude as usual, and I didn't have my friend to back me up."

"Oh, sorry about that, had a magic doctor's appointment. Fire and water magic together are kind of rare, so they wanted to make sure my fire side wasn't evaporating my water side and my water side wasn't drowning my fire side."

Shade nodded. "That makes sense."

"Hey! Half and half, Shade!  Whatcha guys doing?"

Shade tensed up, immediately regretting ever coming to school. No, oh Death's Lake, oh heck, oh no!

Enyanaida turned. "Hey, Terra!"

Shade's tail was fuzzing up. Turning around, Shade braced himself for the pure extrovert who was now in front of him.

"Okay, So you'll never believe this, but Dad rescued a baby ferret yesterday, and I got to keep him!" Holding up the ferret, she smiled. "His name is Mr. Sparkles, because Dad found him in a box full of glitter,and even after three baths, he still has some glitter."

Shade backed up to avoid any glitter getting on his clothes. "That's nice."

Smiling, Terra began to talk a mile a minute. Shade's head was starting to hurt. I do usually get a headache from her talking, but this headache is different... Ignoring the headache, Shade sat down on the concrete, then pulled his sketchbook out of his bag, deciding to draw the ferret. Using animal magic, he talked quietly to it.

"Hey, buddy. Come here real quick." He patted the ground in front of him.

The ferret ran out of the bag it was in and sat on that spot on the ground.

"Okay, I want you to hold really still for me, and you can have a treat after, okay?"

The ferret twitched a little, and Shade took that as a yes. Drawing the small animal, Shade began to listen in on the conversation.

"...and I heard that the shade got attacked by a dragon before it ran away! So cool, right?"

"Yeah, sounds like the shade was having a bad day."

Shade finished with the ferret and searched his bag for a treat for the creature. He eventually found a sandwich and tore off some bread with a little peanut butter and a little jelly, giving the piece of food to the ferret. It ate the food, and from the noises it made, it seemed to like it. Finishing the drawing with some colors, Shade picked up the ferret and gave it back to Terra.

"We should probably get to class."

Terra and Enyanaida nodded. "Alright." "Let's go!"

The three walked to the classroom. Shade sat down at his desk in the back left corner.

* * * * *

"It was a red and blue dragon, with purple eyes. It looked kind of like it was split in half."

"Is that so? Why weren't you able to bring the boy back?"

"The dragon scared me..."

"Bring back the one with shadow magic! If you come back empty-handed, you know what'll happen."

"... Yes, sir."

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Okay, so do you all like it so far? Please tell me if I can do anything to make it better! And who's this? We will see later! Bye!