I waited for what felt like hours, and it probably was. I'm sure the sun rose a fair bit since I woke up. I knew I couldn't just get up and walk back across the school ground; someone was bound to see me. So I waited. And waited.

Finally, through the leafy branches I spotted Jerome walking past and I knew then that I had to make a decision. Do I let him walk past, and he'll never know that I was even here? Or shall I call out to him, ask him to find me some clothes, and let him think I am some crazy freak who runs about naked at night?

Since he already thinks I'm mad after the incident with his dog, really, I have nothing to lose.

"Pssttt. Jerome!" He stopped and looked around, unaware of where my voice was coming from. "Over here!"

"Lily?" Finally locating where I was, he started walking towards me. "I was wondering where y-"

"Nononono!" I cut in "Stay there! Don't come any closer!" He stopped abruptly.

"Lily. Why are you hiding in a bush? Wait-"

"I need clothes!" I squeaked, cutting him off. "Please? Otherwise I'm trapped here." I had no idea what the time was, but I was guessing it was near the start of school, as more and more students had started to walk along the pathway, forcing my nerves to twist into a tighter knot every second.

Jerome nodded slowly, as if he was still trying to process everything and turned away back towards Anubis house. Once again I was left alone, waiting. I tried listening out to the people who were walking past, but soon realised my senses were no longer heightened as they were yesterday, so instead I began poking a twig against the dry earth and allowed my thoughts to trail back to Jerome.

How did I even know that Jerome had gone to get me clothes? He could have tricked me, going to tell all his friends instead, or maybe he just left me here, stranded. I didn't even know him that well. How could I have been so stupid? But I still have no choice but wait, so I may as well hope that he's the better person.

After what felt like an eternity I was just about to give up, when Jerome finally came into view and was carrying a small bundle. He tossed it into the bush and carried on walking without stopping, or even making eye contact, so not to attract any attention. Unravelling the bundle, I quickly pulled on my clothes and a small note fell out, fluttering to the ground. All of my joints protested as I bent over to pick it up, as I'd been hiding for a very long time in the same position. The note read:

'Meet me in my room at 8 tonight. I think you have some explaining to do.'

I quickly shoved it in my pocket and started walking toward the school, but stopped when I realised my bag was the first thing I needed before anything else.

Once again the pathway was deserted; meaning lessons had already started, so I pulled myself into a very stiff run. Once I made it back to Anubis house I crept inside, climbed the wooden staircase as silently as possible, although this proved to be rather difficult as every step followed a loud creak, slipped into my room, slung my bag over my shoulder and started climbing back down the stairs, thinking I had made it out without being caught.

Not quite.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I had just reached out to grab onto the door handle and make my great escape when Victor's voice boomed along the entrance hall, shaking every bone inside my body. I spun around to face him.

"Victor! You surprised me." I clamped my hand over my heart.

"Would you like to tell me where you disappeared to this morning? And why you aren't in lessons right now?" He took a step towards me and suddenly I felt very threatened, pressing myself against the door to keep as much distance in between us.

"I-I was out on a walk. I got lost." I lied. He crossed his arms and looked me up and down, not looking convinced, before leaning towards me, making his eyes level with mine.

"Well, it better not happen again," he growled, making me tremble slightly. The 'or else' was implied. With that, he turned and climbed the stairs back up to his office, slamming the door behind him.

I walked as fast as I could to get away, my heart thumping noisily, but stopped once again when I heard another voice call out to me from behind.

"Lily! Hey!" Fabian jogged to catch up and then stopped next to me. "Where were you this morning? We couldn't find you anywhere."

"I don't really know. It's a long story. I'll tell you guys later. Tonight?"

He nodded. "Sure."

We walked to class together, and he gave me a very brief tour of the building before taking me to where we were going to spend the rest of today's lessons, of which most I spent deeply pondering last night's events.

. . .

When the final bell rang, I raced back to Anubis house before anyone else arrived to give myself some time to think about what I was going to tell the others, but I only managed to gain a few sacred minutes to myself before Patricia entered and gave me a death-glare that said "talk to me and die", so I decided to evacuate to Nina's room to see what she thought about, well, everything.

When I reached her room I raised my hand and knocked on the door three times, and she opened it after a few seconds.

"Lily! Hey, come in." Opening the door wider, she moved aside and let me through.

"Thanks, I've kind of come to take refuge from Patricia. And to tell you about last night."

"Oh, yeah. Fabian said about that." She sat down on her bed and patted the space next to her, signalling for me to sit down. Hesitantly I climbed onto the bed and dove into explaining what happened, from being a dog to waking up in a bush to having to beg Jerome to help me out. When I finished it took her a while before she said anything, and the first thing she said was,

"So Jerome knows?"

"Not yet. All he knows is that I spent the entire night sleeping nude in a bush. He probably thinks I need mental help."

At that moment, the light blonde girl burst through the door, and after a few moments of intense brain racking, I remembered her name was Amber.

"I need mental help!" She exclaimed, and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Maths is so hard. Where's Mara?"

"Haven't seen her, Amber." Nina looked at me and smiled. "Have you even tried to do it yourself?"

"I guess I could do that." She slumped down on the chair next to her bed and began to work on it. I turned my attention back to Nina.

"So should I tell him what really happened?"

"You could try, but I highly doubt he'll believe you."

"Great. Then I can leave him thinking I'm insane."

"Ok, I cannot do this!" Amber threw her pencil down furiously, picked up a fashion magazine and lay down on her bed to read it.

"Just do what you think is right." Nina said to me, then pushed herself up off the bed and picked up Amber's homework. "You're right, this is hard. Let me help you."

"Thanks Nina!" Excitedly she patted the side of the bed next to her for Nina to sit on, and I got up and started to leave the room, but was stopped when Fabian and KT burst in through the door.

"Victor's on a rampage! Alfie put honey on his desk chair, God knows why, and he's out to get whoever crosses his path. I wouldn't go downstairs if you want to live."

"Wait, wait, wait." I stopped them in the midst of their panicked explanation. "Did he actually sit in it?"

They looked at each other for a moment and then nodded, causing the room to erupt with laughter, only to quickly be hushed in case Victor had heard us.

After a little while, when everyone had calmed down and stopped thinking about the look on Victor's face as he squelched down onto his seat, normal school talk drifted onto the question: where were you this morning? I explained everything, only to be greeted with confused, thoughtful and doubtful expressions.

"Maybe you slept-walked?" KT suggested.

"And took off my clothes? And barked like a dog?" I shook my head.

"You could be an animal shape shifter!"

Everyone's head turned toward the person who we least expected to have spoken.

"Amber, you're a genius!" Fabian exclaimed.

"A shifter? That sounds crazy." I looked at them all doubtfully. I'd never believed in magical powers, well not until recently. It seemed the only explanation for the weird orange sparks.

"You'd be surprised at all the crazy things this house has done. And Nina. And the rest of us." Fabian pointed out.

"I bet it's some kind of Egyptian thing. That's what everything is in this place." Amber added.

I shook my head. "I have no idea." Just at that point, I caught sight of a clock on the wall. "Oh man. I only have five minutes before I'm going to see Jerome, I need to go!" In a blur I rushed out the room, leaving them all to try and figure out whatever the hell was wrong with me.

Or not wrong. I could have a superpower, after all.

. . .

Cautiously, I knocked on the door. Butterflies danced in my stomach as I heard footsteps tread towards the door, and as it slowly opened an entire knot must have formed, as I couldn't even speak.

"Lily, hi." Jerome looked just as uncomfortable as I felt. "Come in."

He closed the door as I sat myself down on his bed, my eyes trained to the ground. The bed dipped a little as he sat down next to me, and the moment he did, a fountain of words escaped my mouth without me intending to.

"Jerome, I don't think you're gonna believe me when I tell you what happened because I can't even believe it and it's super weird and embarrassing and you may think I'm crazy and I kind of feel like I'm crazy but I'm not, I swear." I could feel the heat radiating off of my cheeks, and I pulled off my jumper.

"What actually happened?"

After explaining the entire story, including what Amber added just a few moments ago, he just sat there, a look of deep concentration plastered on his face. It was then that I noticed the clear crystal blue colour of his eyes, and I felt myself staring longer than I should have.

"It's better than anything that I came up with." Shaking me out of my trance, he just shook his head.

"You don't believe me?"

"I don't know what to believe. It certainly all makes sense, except the fact that I don't believe in magic."

"Neither do I." I reached up to run my hand through my hair.

"You'd better not let Victor see that. He'd murder you."

"See what?"

"Your tattoo?" He pointed to the back of my upper arm, and I had to twist it round awkwardly to see what he was looking at.

There, on my arm, was a tattoo.

It was no bigger than a large coin, and it had some kind of animal print with very tiny writing around it, so small that I couldn't make out the letters very clearly, but from what I could see they looked like some other language.

I tried rubbing it off, but it was no use.

"I don't have a tattoo."

"Then what's that?"

"A tattoo."

"Wait, let me look at it." He gently placed his hand back around my arm and leaned in to look at it in more detail. For some reason, the fact that he was so close to me and that his hand was connected to my arm sent excited butterflies dancing through my stomach. I forced myself to look down at the ground and stay still.

"They're runes."

"Runes?"

"It's like ancient writing. I don't know that much about them, but I bet they're on the internet somewhere." His eyes grew a little bit wider and he leapt off the bed and delved underneath it, pulling out a laptop. Swiftly, he sat back down and began frantically searching Google only for only a few minutes before he had pulled up a page of 'Rune Translations'.

"It's Elder Futhark."

"Which is?"

"It's the oldest form of runes. I think it says … r … a … u … k, or maybe a c … a. Rauca?" Before I could even open my mouth, he began typing into his laptop again. I waited for a few more minutes before the typing and clicking suddenly stopped.

"No way…"

"What?"

"It's Latin … for 'husky'." He shook his head. "You stroke my dog, a husky, go crazy as a dog, husky, in a dream, and possibly real life too, wake up with no clothes because you turned into a dog! You're a shifter. Your arm even says so."

I just stared at him blankly.

"It makes sense." He stared at me, and I just stared back.

"A shifter."

"Tomorrow. After school. We should see if you can do it again."

"Do what?"

"Shift! Surely if you did it once you could do it again."

"But I was dreaming! How am I supposed to even-"

"Let's just see. Behind the school, in the woods, tomorrow."

"Tomorrow. Okay." I slowly stood up. I couldn't quite handle all this crazy information, but hopefully if I met up with Jerome tomorrow I could get my head around whatever the hell I was.

A shifter.