Can I still join?

Lanni~

Being on the run from the government was worse than having to assassinate someone.  Luckily, my cover hadn't been blown in this town yet.  When I was working for the government, I modeled my human form after Cinderella and wore flowery dresses all the time.  Now, I have curly brown hair and violet eyes.  I can't change my size, but I've changed my wardrobe.  I always try to wear a fedora, leather jacket, and boots now.

I was in surveillance mode.  I was absolutely sure that there were other shifters at this school.  I could smell them.  My branches reaching high, I tried to listen to see if anyone would say anything about shapeshifting.   Kimya and Joy ran past me.  I tried to listen in to their conversation.  When I heard the word "shapeshift", I changed back into human form. "Ah, so you two are the shifters," I  said, taking Carlisle out. "Now, are you a good shifter, or a bad shifter?" 

Name: Aranel

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Favorite form: Adult Bald Eagle

Human Appearance: Shoulder length white-ish blond hair, she always wears a brown coat and black jeans, and yellow converse. She has bright yellow eyes and very pale skin.

Favorite Appearance: Pure white feathers on her head and neck, dark brown feathers on her chest and back and wings. Yellow beak, talons, and eyes. A wingspan of 84 inches, and 36 inches tall.

Weapon of Choice: A bow and arrow, with feathers from her own shedded feathers.

Other: Her dad was a shapeshifter and he turned into a bear, but when he was a bear he attacked her so she ran away and has kind of been looking for him ever since, traveling from city to city and spending a month or two there. She moves to the school where the other shapeshifters are and finds them there.

Tippy, tippy, TOP!

~Joy~
I was still on my toes, ready to leap when the murderer ran away.“Can you believe that?” Kimya hissed, slipping back into her human form. I didn’t say anything; I just slowly lowered my hackles, watching the door. “You’re lucky she didn’t tear you to shreds!” Lenni shook her head. I carefully turn back into human form; I didn’t want to stir my other forms that I couldn’t control. “And it’s all thanks to you, right?” Kimya grumbled at Lenni. “We could have beaten her,” I murmured, running my fingers through my black hair. “Maybe,” Lenni said, “but she was strong, and a murderer.” “We would have given her something to remember us by,” Kimya said firmly. “I doubt that was the last time we’ll see her,” Lenni said, turning away from us and walking into school, a different way to the wolf girl. Kimya was still pouting. “She probably thinks we’re weaklings that need to be protected.” I shook my long hair, letting it fall over my eyes. “It's for the best, Kinya, I guess.” She sighs, shaking her head. I feel energy behind me; I know it’s another shape shifter or two. Kimya isn’t worried or doesn’t notice, “I’ll show you round the school, Joy.” I feel a tiny smile pull at my lips. I know she won’t see because of the hair, but I’m really grateful. Why is she being so nice to me? Lowly, black, grumpy me. I vow then and there to always be on her side and help her; I can feel that she isn’t bad however new I am at shape shifting. “Thanks.” I place my hand in hers and give her a look, hoping she understands me. She smiles back and whispers, “We’ll stick together.” I feel a grin spread all over my face like sunshine; it feels wonderful. I give her a quick hug and go to draw back, but she pulls me in. I’m touched, deeply…The energy grows stronger and Kimya and I turn around. Two boys are standing there, looking at us. They know what we are, and they also know that we know. They both have black hair, but one has hazel eyes, while the other has black. I think the one with black eyes is Japanese or Korean but I can’t be sure. The staring battle goes on and I begin to feel threatened. I take a step back, desperately holding on to my human form. Wise Kimya grabs my hand and settles me a little. The boy with black eyes nods and says, “Sup?” Kimya nods back. I suddenly see that the grounds are almost empty; school must have started. Some girls are remaining in the distance, looking interested, then I feel their energy.

I see then that all the shape shifters of the school but Lenni and Wolf Girl are out here.

@ Blue Moon, I hope you don't mind Joy and Kimya become best friends.

Matthew Wang

"'Sup?" I said to the two girls. I'd met Rastus [What kind of name is Rastus Birchleaf? Who gives their kid the last name Birchleaf? How, exactly, is that blending in? Matthew: common first name. Wang: most common Chinese last name. Common. Blending in.] I'd met Rastus just a few minutes earlier, when I'd seen a fox go behind a tree, and then a guy come out. Wasn't that hard to guess.

Turned out we were both going to the same school. Him being "15" and me being "12", we wouldn't be in the same classes, but we'd agreed [Read: I convinced him] to keep in contact. You wouldn't believe how few guy shapeshifters there are out there. I've met one other guy, back in 1969 [Read: A long time ago], when America went to the moon. I've met at least ten girls. Conclusion: Guy shapeshifters need to stick together. Especially when navigating a school that combines grade 7-12.

So when psycho girl with the knife shows that she's a shifter, same with tree girl and the two others, we decide [Read: I walk over and Ras follows] to walk over say hi. Or in my case, "'Sup?"

The bell rang. Nobody in the yard moved towards the school. "So," I said, "since we all seem to have the same abilities, why don't we all go ahead and introduce ourselves?" And, of course, nobody said a word. [Read: They wanted somebody else to go first.] "I'm Matthew Wang," I said.

"Joy," said the girl who I was having a staring contest with.

"I'm Kimya," said the girl next to her. Nobody else said anything after that. Okay...

Psycho girl with knife flung open the main door and strode out into the yard. "What the heck am I feeling right now?" She glared at us. Her gaze said weaklings. Her posture said I kill people. Her mouth said: "Where'd all the shapeshifter babies come from?"

"Rastus Birchleaf," Ras said. Sorry, I just can't call him Rastus. It has to be Ras. He turned to psycho girl with knife. "Did you say you kill someone?" he asked quietly.

"What's it to you?" she snarled

Another girl, this one with long red hair, materialized in the yard. Must have been invisible. "Malva Dimestico. She said that it depended on who's point of view it was."

A thought occurred to me. I was pretty sure that someone had had some sort of sparkly wand.

But there was one more girl who hadn't said anything. We all looked at her, even psycho girl with knife. She had on a long brown coat and black jeans. "Aranel," she said.

Now we all turn to psycho girl. "My name is absolutely none of your business," she snarled.

"Yeah," I said, "we're all shapeshifters. I think it kinda is." Nobody else seems willing to say anything.

She sighed. "Fine. Lupa. Lupa Deanne."

Well. If that doesn't scream I-kill-hunters-who-kill-wolf-packs, then I don't know what does. Lupa? I mean, come on. How obvious can you get. If you've been around this town, Harrison, for more than a day, you've heard about the wolf pack, and how they're all dead now, and one of the men who went hunting died, several sustained really bad injuries, and there's this talk of there being a girl... It's not hard to put together two and two.

"Hey," Lupa said, narrowing her eyes, "I don't think that tree was there before..."

We all turn around. There's a little apple tree, but without the apples. It transforms into guess what? Another girl. [Read: More proof that there are very few guy shapeshifters.] She's got purple eyes. "Hello everyone," she said. "My name's Lanni, and I highly suggest you not mess with me. I've got a lightsaber that works. It's sparkily, and I call it Carlisle." She has a lightsaber. She says it works. Like a real one. At some future date, I will get down on my knees and beg her like a four year old for a lightsaber. I need a lightsaber.

"So," Lanni said, "did you kill somebody or did you not?" She's got the air of an investigator. FBI, CIA, NSA, or DHS. Anyone of them.

"LUPA DEANNE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND STAY AWAY FROM THE OTHER KIDS OR WE WILL SHOOT," someone said through a bullhorn.

Kimya smiled sadly. "I guess you did kill someone."

Lupa snorted. "Not really. It's complicated, but I didn't really kill him."

Something was bothering me. "But how do they know your name?"

Lupa shrugged, and put up her hands. Any second now, she was going to turn into something, and I wished the police luck trying to stop her. "I don't know."

There were helicopters overhead. "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST," someone said with a different bullhorn. "YOU WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE FORM OR YOU WILL BE SHOT."

Wait. WHAT??

"YOU ARE UNDER ARREST," the voice repeated. "NONE OF YOU WILL ATTEMPT TO CHANGE FORM OR YOU WILL BE SHOT." None of you. As in all of us. This wasn't just Lupa, this was all of us.

I'm sure the others turned into something great and fearsome and got away. Me? I turned myself into a cloud and ran away. It's kind of hard to see things when you're a cloud.

But when I thought I had escaped the police, a voice came from behind me. "Where do you think you're going?" someone said. I turned into a sparrow and looked behind me.

And nearly dropped out of the sky. I was small, so the enormous bald eagle looked like it was ready to eat me.

It looked at me. Probably she. She looked at me. "You got us to introduce ourselves and say hello, therefore it's your duty to stick around."

Well, there was some sort of logic to that. Besides, I was curious.

//Kimya

I turn quickly into a mosquito as I see Joy plummet from the sky, form flickering dangerously. Trying to save her now would be a threat to both our existences. The bullets whizz through the air too fast. Sorrow pulls at my heart as they make contact. Out of the corner of my eye I see Rastus pick her up. Flying down, I change breifly to my human form. "Don't let them see you," I hiss. Rastus nods and changes into a horse, Joy on his back. We run into the nearby trees. I look Rastus straight in the eye as he shrinks down to his human form again. "You take care of Joy," I whisper to him, "I'm going to fight them. We can't run away forever and they know it." His eyes widen.

"They'll shoot you," he says, fear tugging at his voice. I smile at him, but there is no humor in my eyes. 

"Rastus, I am some of the most renowned warriors in human history; a few rifles are not going to kill me now. Ever heard of Joan of Arc?" Rastus nods, not knowing what to say. Scales start to appear on my arms. "That was me. So was Bast, Athena, and many more." I turn to face the advancing helicopters. "Just find a safe place for Joy to recover. I will come as soon as I can." My body starts to grow taller and I take a reptilian form, becoming a huge dragon that towers over all of the helicopters. I swat many of them out of the air like flies. Others, I scorch with blue flames. The remaining soldiers start to retreat. We are safe for the moment, but now we are all on the run from the humans' greatest weapons.