The gym had actually been pretty cool. It was set up similar to Alfie’s with weights and various punching bags in one corner, actual gym equipment like back home in another corner and then the other half of the room was empty. The only difference were the bleachers running down one side of the room. It was enormous. I would have to ask this Caleb guy if I would be allowed to use the gym outside of the combat classes. I could not get by on just two work out sessions a week no matter how intensive they were. If I didn’t work out most days my magic raged inside me looking for some kind of outlet. I had quickly learnt that working out was the best way to channel that energy and, hey, it gave me my toned figure and kick ass moves so it couldn’t be all that bad.
I really was not looking forward to unpacking because it felt kind of like giving up and accepting that there was no way out of this situation. There was no way out of this situation. I just didn’t like to give up so easily. Having said that I actually felt at home here already and it had only been a few hours. I liked the guys. Who was I kidding I more than liked the guys. My filthy mind couldn’t stop thinking about all of the ways I would like to ‘like’ the guys. It was strange for me though. I didn’t like to form relationships. I didn’t really have any friends outside of Alfie and a couple of the guys at the gym. I’m not sure if Marnie counted as a friend. I didn’t trust easily. Another by-product of my fucking up life. I also didn’t like to form the kind of relationships that were the naked kind of relationships. In fact, I hadn’t actually done that. The naked bit. Not with anyone. I had never found anyone I trusted enough to look at the scars like that. Showing the scars meant telling my story. It felt like giving away a huge part of me and I just hadn’t found anyone that I wanted to even try to trust that much. Urgh my life was a bit of a shambles really but my talk with Madame Nines had actually made me feel like maybe that didn’t matter.
I opened up the first box which turned out to be a box of clothes and saw a note lying on the top.
Kitten,
Some douche turned up and explained what has happened. When we saw the news we knew it would mean trouble for you and I’m sorry that I wasn’t there when you needed me to be. Me and the guys wouldn’t let him in your rooms, so we packed up the stuff that we thought you might need. This will always be your home kitten. And this place will still be here when you get out of there. I should have told you sooner, but I suppose I’m not a brave man. I love you like the daughter I never had and I wish I could have done more when you needed me the most.
Be seeing you soon, Alfie.
P.S. I’ll keep your bike safe for you until you get home.
I could feel my eyes mist over and I ached to go home. Alfie’s would always be home. I should have been brave enough to tell him that too. But if we had the internet here maybe I could email him and keep in touch while I was here. As I unpacked the three boxes I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thoughtfulness of Alfie, not only had he packed all of my clothes, bedding and the blanket off the sofa but he had also chucked every piece of junk food that he could find into one of the massive boxes. There were even cans of diet Dr Pepper in the bottom. He had interspersed throughout all three boxes my collection of knifes hidden away between clothes. I didn’t actually need the physical knifes because I could pull my own with my magic but there had been times when I was so tired out on a job, in the early days, that I had needed them. Ever since they had become a kind of security blanket for me.
It didn’t take long to get my clothes unpacked and my room set up. I still had time before the guys lessons would be finished so I pulled out my iPad and logged into Netflix doing a little happy dance when I managed to log into my profile. I opened one of the massive bags of Cheetos that Alfie had
packed in the boxes and started in on the second season of Stranger Things. I was behind the rest of the world when it came to TV but I was actually glad that I could binge through the three seasons before I would have to wait for a fourth to come out. I was only about twenty minutes into the first episode when someone banged at the door to my room. I unwrapped myself from the blanket I was snuggled up in and opened it to the sight of three faces grinning at me. Shit, I was a total goner with these guys. All three piled into my room. And settled around the room. Liam fell into the armchair, Kyle perched on the desk and Sykes flopped onto the bed patting the space beside him. I rolled my eyes and laughed sitting cross legged at the bottom of the bed. I could see Sykes eyeing up my Cheetos with suspicion.
“So how was school?” I asked laughing at them.
Sykes snorted “Well we didn’t get into trouble today Mum.”
I laughed and grabbed the Cheetos popping one in my mouth and offering the bag to Sykes. He pulled one out, gave it the stink eye and then popped it in his mouth. I watched him fascinated by his first Cheetos experience. This was a massive life step for him. “Hmmm…” he said thoughtfully “it’s like cheese flavoured crunchy air that ends up stuck to your teeth.” I couldn’t help but laugh at what was admittedly quite an accurate description. “But I like it!” He declared taking the bag off me and helping himself to more before passing it around the room.
“So, how’s your afternoon been?” Kyle asked. I hadn’t realised that I had left Alfie’s letter on the desk until he added “Kitten?” I got off the bed and picked up the letter from the desk before dropping it in the desk draw and raising an eyebrow at him. He at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed before he grinned at me without a care in the world.
“Picking up my uniform, checking out the gym and then I’ve just been unpacking and watching some Netflix, nothing much. How was your
afternoon?” I asked him, sitting back on the bed.
“Nothing much just, you know, school.” Kyle shot back following my lead.
Sykes was eyeing us suspiciously before he shot up and went to move for the desk drawer. As he stepped past me, I swung one of my legs off the bed and knocked one of his legs behind the other as he tried to step forward, causing him to fall to ground in a tangle of legs. “Hey, mean!” he shouted indignantly whilst getting up and brushing himself off.
“It’s called privacy” I smiled back at him.
“Awww but he got to read it. I need to know whose calling my kitten, kitten!” he said giving me his best puppy dog eyes as he fell back on the bed.
“So, I’m your kitten now am I?” I asked finding myself actually not so insulted by the name. Probably helped that I had been called that since I was like nine.
“I would have thought that was obvious by now” Sykes declared with a huff. I took a swig of my diet Dr Pepper before offering him some.
“Yeah for the whole forty five minutes we’ve been together it became very obvious” I laughed nudging him with my foot. He smiled at me as he took a drink before he pulled a face and quickly passed the can back to me.
Kyle laughed and he and Liam both turned down the drink before he added “So you want to get some of those questions out the way?”
Thankful for the change of subject I nodded my head “You have chickens!” I blurted out like some kind of lunatic.
All three laughed at my outburst and I couldn’t help but agree with their assessment of my statement. It was pretty ridiculous. “Yeah,” Kyle laughed “we have chickens. I think a lot of stuff that we have here will be pretty similar to what you are used. Some theories are that the realms used to be joined and others that, well, I can turn into a wolf and you have wolves in the human realm. Really chickens are the least weirdest thing going on.” I would have to concede that point to him. “The one thing that we are probably behind with is technology. Only because we rely more on magic. The internet came across less than a year ago. Once people started moving between realms again, I think they realised that it was a useful tool for sharing information. With that came some phones and computer technology. But we don’t really have cars because we portal travel. Obviously, we have things like electricity and that has been around forever.” I looked up at the lights in my own room, huh I hadn’t thought about that.
“So, you all just started school here as well then?” I asked.
“Yep, we all actually grew up together in the same pack so we go way back.” Kyle must have seen the confusion on my face “Liam was adopted into the pack when we were all around five. All turned twenty in the last couple of months, so we all ended up here.”
“Ok, so, I don’t know anything and I apologise if I say something offensive,” I quickly added “but could you shift before you hit twenty.”
Liam was the one to pick up this answer and he smiled kindly at me “You’re not going to say anything that offends us don’t worry. We can shift from an earlier age but we need another fully-grown shifter with us to help us through the shift, we can’t do it alone until we fully come into our own magic. Prevents any unruly teenage shifters from running around and causing chaos. I was adopted into their pack because panther shifters are rare and their alpha was strong enough to be able to help me shift.”
I didn’t ask about the circumstances of his being adopted. He had obviously lost his parents and I didn’t want to pry. I also didn’t want to open up any questions about my own background.
“Now that you’ve hit the magic twenty, do you just shift easier or will you get other magic too.” I asked.
“Shifting definitely gets easier because we can do it alone” Sykes explained “but it depends on how strong you are with if you get anything else. Most don’t and it takes a lot of training to develop other skills but some get nature-based magic. We’re also faster and stronger than some of the other types of supernaturals.”
“It’s weird that you call yourselves that” I laughed.
“Yeah I suppose,” Liam thought “I think it’s become more popular since the gates were opened and people started to travel between realms again.”
We spent the rest of the night talking about our likes and dislikes and generally getting to know each other. It was fun and I was hugely grateful that they didn’t ask anything about my childhood or my background. We ended the night starting Stranger Things from the beginning and all of us cuddled up together on the bed. It was nice.
