"Hey wait up!"

Erin's feet slowed as he stepped up to his locker and began taking out a few books he needed for his first three classes. He already attached a face to the voice that had called out to him, and knew that his friend, Wolf, would be by his side in moments.

"Hey man, did you see the new kid?" Wolf asked as he stopped next to him.

New kid? It's already March. Who the heck would transfer here, first of all, and why after midterms?

"No, I haven't." Erin replied.

"He's freaking tiny! He's a senior but like, five foot nothing." Wolf said.

That was a bit weird, but he didn't think that it was a big deal.

"He probably is just a small animal shifter or has stunted growth. It happens." Erin replied with a shrug as an image of Arron flashed into his mind for a moment. He hoped that everything was going well and that Rylan was treating him right. He'd been keeping up with him and their kid, Roan, but school had kept him quite busy.

A hand settled on his shoulder as he shut his locker, making Erin roll his eyes. Wolf leaned in and whispered in his ear with a smirk. Incoming poor joke.

"What if he's a mouse?" The guy said.

That had Erin shoving him away with a grunt of annoyance.

"He's not going to be a darn mouse!" He grumbled.

Erin wasn't one to bully because there really was no reason for such things, but he just couldn't stand mice. He was ashamed to admit that he had killed a few in his life time. No shifters, though, of course.

As Wolf leaned in again to pester him Erin allowed some of the skin around his eyes to crinkle and flare grey, warning him to back off with the mouse jokes that were surely waiting on the tip of his tongue. Wisely, Wolf figured out that he wasn't in the mood to joke around and quickly disappeared back into the crowd.

I don't want to be an ass to him, but I just don't feel like being picked at right now.

By the time Erin stepped into his first period English class he noticed that he was late.

Crap.

"Hello Erin. While I know that elephants enjoy taking their time on things, I suggest that you make getting to class before the late bell rings, a priority." His teacher said sarcastically.

Blowing out a sigh, Erin shrugged and sauntered to the back of the class to sit down. He knew that ignoring the teacher would probably make him his target for the mday, but at least he'd remembered to study his notes the previous night, just in case. As he began getting out his notebook and pencils, he heard the door open and grinned.

Good, another late student. Maybe the teacher can just take out his PMS on them.

Grayson's body was literally shaking as he stood, stock-still, in front of the door to his English classroom. It had taken him a good twenty minutes to find it, but now that he was there he wanted to run away. His mother had said that starting public school after being home-schooled for so long would be frightening, but she hadn't told him that there would be so many kids. He reached up nervously to tug at his small black collar, calming slightly when he heard the faint bell ring.

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. The little voice in his head squeaked over and over until he finally bit his lower lip and reached toward the door. The second he stepped inside he wanted to run again, but instead he straightened his shoulders and shakily walked over to the teacher.

Thank god the office lady gave me a paper so that I could just hand it to my teacher and not have to talk.

As the man read it Grayson kept his eyes down and just stared at his new black and dark blue tennis shoes. His mother had gotten them for him so that he would fit in a bit more considering his old ones had been falling apart. He still kept them in a box in his closet, though, because he'd really really liked them, even if the soles were falling out and part of the shoelaces had been chewed off by himself. Sometimes habits just got the better of him.

"Alright, Mr. Grayson?"

He jumped slightly when the teacher spoke right next to him, getting a few snorts out of the classroom of kids. Trying to ignore them, Grayson quickly looked up at the teacher and nodded once.

"Welcome to English. Please tell the class a little bit about yourself."

Oh no.

He very slowly faced back toward the classroom full of students and lifted his eyes up a little. Everyone was staring at him. He knew that he was short, but to make matters worse, most of the kids seemed to have brown, black, or blond hair. His was white with silver and grey highlights. There was only one other person who had similar colored hair but he was way in the back and almost seemed to be glaring at him.

"U-Um. Hi. My name is Grayson." He murmured nervously, his voice barely above a whisper.

He froze after that, not really sure what else he was supposed to say.

Do I tell them that I was home schooled? That I'm a shifter? He could see a few shifters in the classroom just because of certain features, but was he supposed to just come out and say what he was?

A hand was suddenly on his shoulder, making him jump again and squeak a tiny bit. That had most of the class chuckling while he felt a blush begin to converge on his nose. Darn shift messing with my human form.

The hand on his shoulder gave him a nudge forward.

"Go ahead and sit down, Grayson." The teacher said.

Didn't need to tell him twice! Grayson quickly made his way between the crowded desks. There were backpacks kicked into the isles along with pens and a few pieces of paper but he managed to get to the back without much of a problem. However, as he began to get himself into a seat next to the other gray-haired boy, he nearly squeaked again when he heard the guy huff and grumble.

"Get away, now."

He thought that he'd misheard him so he hesitantly straightened back up and turned to face the other boy. Grayson couldn't help but hug his English book to his chest when the boy's eyes narrowed into another glare.

"I-I'm sorry." He stuttered quietly.

The guy seemed incredibly tense so he decided against bothering him further, though he had hoped that they could be friends. So much for that, I suppose. When the boy started getting up Grayson quickly scurried off to the only other empty desk left. One of the legs on the chair was partially broken causing it to rock if he shifted his weight a little, but he guessed that he could just deal with it for the one class.

He could tell that the angry boy was watching him throughout the class but managed to keep his own eyes on the board or his notebook so that he wouldn't make whatever he had done to bother the other kid, worse.

The second the bell rang he shoved his book and notebook into his bag and ran out the door. The next two classes were thankfully void of the upset boy, but Grayson found out that the school had quite a few carnivorous shifters in it. Way more than he had thought.

He returned to his locker before lunch to put away the books he'd needed for his first three classes, but when he began to turn around he was stopped by a pair of hands on his hips and a nose nuzzling against his neck.

"Hmm. I smell a rat." Came a male voice with a deep growl to it.

"I-I'm not a rat." Grayson squeaked right before he was turned around and abruptly shoved into his locker, which was a tight fit, even though he was pretty small. Another squeak slipped from his lips as the other boy leaned in. His face slowly began to grow fur as his mouth elongated and sharp teeth made themselves known. A wolf! Grayson quickly dropped to the floor of the locker and felt his clothing fall on top of him.

"Aha! I knew it was one or the other. Hey Erin, come here!" The boy shouted as he looked away from a moment.

There was silence for a few seconds, but Grayson was more focused on getting his clothing off so that he could see. So, when he finally managed to poke his tiny head out from the hole in his T-shirt, he about fainted. The boy that was mad at him from his English class was looking down into the locker and his face immediately changed from one of boredom to anger when their eyes met. In the next two seconds his locker door was slammed shut and the lock clicked into place.

"Wolf! You know I hate mice! Get back here right now!"