RRRRIIIIINNNGGGG!!!!!
Finally! She thought. The bell had rung. School was out for the summer. She quickly picked up her backpack, her books, and binder, and fled from the class room. Around her, her friends and classmates screamed excitedly, chit-chatting about so and so’s plans for the summer. She smiled as she thought about what she would be doing.

“Jess! Jessica!!!” Someone yelled to her from the end of the hall. Gawd, She thought irritably, what now? She turned to see who it was, and saw her bff, Victoria, making her way through the crowd. “Wait up!” Victoria yelled. She sighed and moved to the right of the crowd, to wait for Vickie.
“Oh my god that crowd was huge! I thought I’d never reach you!” Vickie exclaimed.
“Well I’m just glad you did. So what did your class do for your last day of 8th grade?” Jessica asked Vickie. Please not a long answer, I have to go, Jess thought worriedly.
“Oh my gawd, don’t even get me started! First, Mr.McBlue went on and on about how we have to learn to be ‘mature’ and stuff, I mean, as if we weren’t! Then he’s a like can you believe that in only 2 months you all will be high schoolers! We were all like, yea we know, get to the point. So then he goes to his little chair sits down and puts on his glasses. That’s when I know we’re in for a long story. So he says ‘I remember my first day of high school. Man, it was different then middle school. I will not lie, I was a little scared at first, but then I got the, how do you kids say it? The ‘hang’ of it’” Vickie complained.
“Wow, you mean he actually said the ‘hang’ of it?! Yuk!” Jess yelped. “I can’t believe that. Anyway, you want to hang out over summer? I’m going to be busy some days, but other than that we should totally go see a movie or something.”
“OK! That sounds like fun. I’ll call you later. I have to go; my mom still has to pick up my little sister.” She said, as she looked through the glass door that was at the end of the hall before refocusing her attention on Jessica. “But I would really love to do that. Maybe we could go shopping too because I have to get my new high school wardrobe.”
“Yea. Sounds fine. Well you call me, and we’ll talk, k? See you around!” Jess said, happy to end the conversation. She rushed past Vickie, turned to wave, and then ran out the glass doors to freedom.







“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” Jess yelled out to the living room after taking her key out of the keyhole. “Mom?” She walked down the yellow painter hallway to the bright and cherry kitchen. She put her stuff down and the countertop, and saw a note hastily written on printer paper reading:
Hey Honey,
It’s Mom. Did you have a good last day of school? I hope so. Anyway, I’m going to be gone till 10:00 tonight, honey, your father and I have some things to attend to. There are some leftovers in the fridge; you can put them in the microwave for a few minutes. You know what to do. If you have any problems, call dad’s cell, my phone ran out of battery, and yes I broke my charger. Honey, there are no chores for you to do, so relax, go on the computer, or you can go to a friend’s house, but call me first.
Love you,
Mom and Dad


She smiled as she read the last part. She glanced at the kitchen clock, it read 1:25. Wow, She thought, it took me an hour to walk home. I have just less than nine hours of free time. She thought of the possibilities that it offered.
She could Explore!








Exploring was fun. It was what she did in her free time. Its was a gift she possessed. She didn’t know how or why she has it, but she just does. It’s hard to explain Exploring. That’s what she called it. It was a way to free herself from her troubles. For her, Exploring was were she can switch bodies with another human, animal, or insect, were she can here everyone’s thoughts (not just human, but animals and insects if she wanted to), change shape( kind of similar to the switching, but she doesn’t leave her body somewhere while she is in another, instead its were she can change, like melt into the body form) and have supper speed, hearing ,strength, and sight. She can turn those off whenever she wanted to.

She doesn’t know if there are other people with the same powers as hers on earth, who was not evil, but good. It’s frustrating not to be able to tell someone the secret she so badly needs to tell.


‘Caaaaa caaaaaa!’ screamed the crow she was chasing. She screeched, and then dove towards the crow. The way her eagle body moved made it wonderful to fly at such a speed. She was catching up with the bird faster than she thought, so she cut off the dive, and arched back up to gain more altitude. This is so much fun, she thought, I love this! She reached the altitude she was going for, turned swiftly, and dived back towards the crow with a final screech. Gaining speed, she reached the crow, grabbed him and headed back towards the trees that held her makeshift home. Halfway there, she released the crow. Laughing, she turned to face him.
“Had fun, Neletar?” She smirked. “Shall we have another lesson?”
“Don’t rub it in, Shifter, I may just beat you one day. But yes, it was fun.” Neletar said, in between laughs. “Let’s head back to your place so we can get more birds to join our fun!”

Laughing, Shifter said, “All right, as long as you don’t call me Shifter in front of them. They don’t know, remember? Call me Lavenair in front of them, for that is what they call me.”

“Yea, yea. I remember well. So I guess I can’t call you Jess either, huh? That’s what your human family calls you.” He replied. “Let’s go! Bet you can’t catch me!”

Laughing, he swooped into a dive, and speed towards her makeshift home. She giggled, and then followed.




Laughing, they finally reached the bird homes, where all the crows, eagles, and sparrows all lived in peace. She glanced around at the houses, where her family away from home lived. The last time she was here was last year, when the battle she was fighting with the other Shifter, Nick, had lead all the way back to her home, in Washington. She sighed when she remembered why she had to fight him. He wanted to take her powers, combine them, and use them to take over the world. He said they would share the reins of powers. He had almost convinced her when she remembered her family and friends. She had asked him what he planned to do with all the humans and animals. He had simply replied;
“Slaves, my friend, slaves! Imagine a world were anyone and everyone had to do our will, or be punished! And all the wrongs that have been committed to you in the past can be avenged with out someone stopping you, Jess. What a beautiful place it would be.”He smirked. “But of course you could have whatever slave you wished, should it be your dad, or your long ago enemy. Just think, in a world like that, we could abuse our pow ers when ever we wanted!”

“What about your family, your friends, Nick! What about them?! Would you go on and ruin their lives just for fun? Or just to see them hurt? Have you ever wondered why we were given our powers? To save others from harms way? Or to force our own will onto others who don’t have our powers? We were born to save others, Nick. We were born with good in our hearts. We must spread that goodness, and take away evilness! Don’t let yourself fall, Nick. I know you have some good within you.” She had said, with hope bursting in her heart with every word.

She remembers it as clear as yesterday. They had been in a clearing in Alaska. She had lead him on a trail, hoping to lead him away from civilization, so as to lower the chances of someone getting hurt. She had unfortunately miscounted how fast he was, and he caught up with her only 10 miles from where she had planned to confront him.

They had fought lion to tiger, until she had trapped him, the lion, in an avalanche of snow. He had managed to get his head free, but not his body. He was too exaughsted to change into something to burrow out. He had hissed, roared, screeched, and made so much racket, she was scared someone might hear them, no matter how far away they were. He must have gathered up enough energy, because he shifted to a mole, and dug through the snow until he was under her. She realized what he was trying to do, moved and caught him in her paws when he shot out of the snow as a rattlesnake. Hissing, he then shifted to a fly and got out of her grasp. She shifted to a white pigeon, and chased the fly. Shifting at the last minute, he was again a lion, and she a tiger. The fight continued tooth to claw. Realizing he was loosing to a much more experienced Shifter, he changed to an eagle, and soared back towards the Alaskan and U.S. borders. She switched to an eagle too, and followed, hopeing to catch up with him. To be continued.