‘Shit’ thought Sofia as she dashed down the dirt road, unaware of how much her life was about to change. With each stride the heavy backpack bounced against her back, and hanging over her head was a leaden sky that threatened rain. It had happened again, she had overslept and classes were about to start. Unfortunately, the first class was physics, and the teacher was not exactly called the Stuck-up for his kindness and understanding. The last thing she wanted was to endure one of his scoldings in front of her classmates, especially when she felt the energy in her chest so unsettled.

“Damn full moon!” she said, not even trying to suppress the growl of frustration that rumbled in her throat.

Fortunately she knew a shortcut through the pine forest that would get her to school faster. Sofia left the dirt road and dove right into the woods. It was autumn and the humidity in the air had created a pale mist that covered the entire forest. That was no problem since Sofia knew it well enough to be able to move among the trunks without fear of tripping. With nimble steps she dodged ferns, stones and roots with ease.

So focused was she on reaching her destination that she did not see the creature that was running straight towards her. Nor did she hear its footsteps, surprisingly silent despite its frantic pace. In the fog she caught a glimpse of a pale silhouette, but that was all she saw just a second before she felt the blow that sent her rolling to the ground. It hurt, it really hurt. Groaning, covered in mud and leaves from head to toe and a little dazed, Sofia looked up.

“Oh, fuck!” She covered her mouth with a hand and felt her heart skip a beat.

It was a dog, and it wasn't. It was a huge canid, the size of a mastiff, all white except for its muzzle, which was stained with fresh blood. The creature looked at her with fear in his blue eyes and whimpered as he lowered his ears. Before she could say or do anything, the dog ran off into the forest and disappeared into the mist. For a few minutes Sofia sat there, panting.

“Fuck... A weredog…”

It began to rain. Irritated, she let out a snort. She couldn't have had worse luck even if she tried, but it wasn't as if she could do anything about the weather either. After brushing some of the mud and leaves off her clothes, she started running again. Somehow, she managed to reach the high school as the shrill bell was already ringing. With the soles of her trainers wet, she sped through the corridors and ran up the stairs, jumping the steps three at a time. She was lucky not to fall any of the times she ended up skidding as she took a corner.

Panting, she burst through the classroom door just moments before the Stuck-up did, and her appearance was so pitiful that everyone stared. Sofia raised her head high and walked over to her desk, the last one at the back of the room. She didn't mind being stared at; she wasn't the most popular girl in class either. There was a reason why she sat alone and she really preferred it that way.

“New fashion?” said Lola, the class snob, as Sofia walked past her.

Her friends laughed at her joke.

“Lola, the repair shop called. They said you can go get your insultometer back, it's already calibrated,” Sofia said, and the other girl, who always looked divine, twisted her face into a sneer.

When she reached her desk she was careful not to drag the chair before she sat down. The scraping of the legs on the floor made an atrocious noise and she had drawn enough attention to herself already. Anyway, it seemed that her classmates had already forgotten about her, most of them at least. Lola and her minions were gossiping as usual.

Sofia rolled her eyes and, from her backpack, pulled out the notebook and pencil case she would need for class. Her notes were a thing more akin to scribbles than notes, with cross outs, some crooked annotations, and others tight to the edge of the page. They weren't pretty but she could understand them, and that was good enough for her.

The Stuck-up arrived shortly after and began to draw pictures and formulas on the blackboard. As he explained the lesson, Sofia bit her lip and looked out the window, at the leaden, rainy sky outside. A weredog in broad daylight, and his muzzle was bloodstained. That wasn’t good.

“Miss Bregan, would you mind answering the question?”

Sofia jumped and turned away from the steel-colored sky to stare at the stiff, severe-looking man in front of her. The teacher had folded his arms and was staring at the girl with such a frown that his bushy eyebrows almost shadowed his eyes. He was close enough for Sofia to get a clear whiff of his scent, a mixture of different aromas including chalk, soft and familiar, and a perfume so intense that it made her nose sting a little.

The entire class was silent but the girl could feel that all the attention was focused on her. ‘Shit’, she licked her lips, a gesture she made whenever she was nervous, and looked away to focus on the blackboard. Written on it was a series of formulas next to a drawing showing the orbit of a group of stellar objects interacting with each other. Maybe she could still get by without being scolded or punished. After analyzing the formula for a brief moment, she did a quick mental calculation and blurted out the answer. From the way the teacher twisted his face Sofia knew that it was the correct one.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Hum…” With a gesture that made him look indignant, the teacher turned his attention to the rest of the class. “For tomorrow I want you to solve the equation by applying it to different bodies in the Solar System.”

Aware that she had ceased to be of interest to the teacher, Sofia looked down at her wrist, at the white, half moon-shaped scar on her skin. It was not just any mark, it was yet another reminder of the blood that ran through her veins, the blood of the children of the moon. Most of the teachers preferred to ignore her, as she was never problematic and always handed in her assignments on time. However there were two who seemed to be obsessed with her; the biology one because she wanted to help her, and the Stuck-up because he seemed to always be trying to catch her off guard.

“Imbecile…” she mumbled, holding back the urge to bare her teeth and growl.

She wasn't sure which of the two she was referring to either. Sofía appreciated Rosa’s efforts, but things were too complicated. Again she turned towards the window to let her gray eyes rest on the sky of the same color. Thick raindrops fell on the glass and slid lazily across the cold surface. Even with the window closed, the aroma of wet earth was intense. Yes, she thought again as she wrinkled her nose, annoyed by that scent she could perceive too clearly, things were too complicated for anyone to help her.

The shrill ringing of the bell pierced her ears. Sofia pursed her lips and cringed. After years of going to high school, she should have gotten used to the sound by now, but she hadn't. Every time it rang, and it did so several times a day, it was as if a high-pitched screeching sound was drilling into her head. She couldn't stand it, and not just because it was annoying. Her senses were more acute than those of her classmates’, especially smell and hearing, and she knew that this was nothing compared to a cinanthrope who had already gone through its first change. If it was already unbearable for her, she couldn't even imagine how it had to be for one who wasn’t a pup.

“Hey, Sofi!”

That loud voice calling out her name across the classroom could only belong to one person; Sara. It was quite a sight to see as she was huge, a meter eighty tall, maybe a little more, with broad shoulders, a freckle-covered face and thick black hair she always wore short and spiked.

Sara’s good mood as she approached made Sofia feel a little better, and the shy shadow of a smile began to creep onto her lips. She wasn't just her best friend, she was her only friend and the only person who had approached her when she joined the school as a new student the previous year. It’s not like she could blame the rest of her classmates either. Sofia had made it clear from the very first day that she didn't want anything to do with anyone, but Sara had seen beyond her armor and had been obstinate enough to become her friend.

“Mate, I've come to offer you an indecent proposal," said the girl with a broad smile, and leaned on the desk with so much force that she pushed it away a little.

“I'm scared. What have you come up with now?” asked Sofia as she closed her physics notebook and put it in her backpack.

“A guy my sister knows introduced me to a boy who is new in town. He hasn't made any friends yet, and I thought we could meet for a drink and I could introduce you to him.”

“Seriously, Sara, you're going to pick up all the lonely weirdos like we're stray dogs?”

Sara let out a thunderous laugh that caused a few of their classmates to look in her direction.

“Looking at it like that, I might have the makings of a shelter volunteer," she said with a broad grin.

“Come on, children, everyone to their places, we're going to start,” said Rosa, the biology teacher, who had just entered the class.

“Well, mate, see you after class. You're going to like him a lot, you’ll see. He's a great guy.”

“Wait Sara, I still haven't said...” she said, reaching out towards her friend, who was already leaving towards her desk at the other end of the classroom. “That I agreed...”

After letting out a long, deep, weary sigh, Sofia dropped her hand and looked down at her backpack. Without much enthusiasm, she rummaged through her notebooks until she located the biology one and pulled it out. Although there were parts of the subject that she liked, they had started the term talking about genetics, a topic that the girl found particularly tedious. ‘It's not like I'm going to be able to change my genes just because I understand how they work. Anyway, I don't think genetics can explain why this happens to us’ she said to herself as she grabbed her pen.

When he looked up at the blackboard, her eyes met her teacher's gaze. On her face she saw an expression of stubborn patience that made a pang of guilt jolt her stomach. Sofia lowered her eyes to the notebook and licked her lips. It was a nervous gesture that she was unable to control, no matter how hard she tried.

Rosa was a good woman and Sofia knew she only wanted to help her, but she couldn't. It would be best if she stayed away from her and the world she belonged to. The less she knew, the better. In fact, she shouldn't have allowed Sara to get close to her either, and at first she tried to keep her away, but she couldn't deny that she was still a teenager and needed some friends if she didn't want to go completely insane. What she didn't need was to endanger more people.

“Fuck, Sara, why do you get me into these messes?”