Shift- Chapter 1

I saw flashes of color, like paint splattering across my vision. They were all very vivid colors, all glowing iridescent and bright against a black and shadowy background. They moved in pairs, each with a black slit down the center, reminding me strongly of a cat’s eye.

I heard a soft voice, and it was strangely familiar, yet I couldn’t place it. It was saying my name in a whisper; I could barely hear it as it spoke my name, the sound rolling through the dark and the orbs with an exotic twang. It was intoxicating to hear it, and I wanted to grasp it, to find it and lose myself within it.

That’s when another voice rang through the darkness, this one screaming my name instead of whispering it ever so delicately.

“Phoebe Frost, get your butt out of that bed now!” It was my mother’s voice, yelling at me from the other side of the heavy wooden door of my bedroom. “I am not driving you to school because you missed the bus!”

I yawned, and stretched, feeling my sore muscles creak when I did. We had had our first track practice yesterday, and since I hadn’t been running since volleyball season that fall, every single part of me hurt. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have been slacking for so long, I had known it was coming up, and should have started running sooner. But, I don’t like running all that much, I do track to stay in shape, nothing else.

Track meets were usually a pretty big self-esteem low for me. I couldn’t run very fast, I couldn’t jump very far, I couldn’t jump high, and I can’t throw heavy things very far. So, usually, my coach put me in a sprinting event and watched me lose. Epically.

I can’t say it really made my day better, especially when my best friend was in the sprints and usually got in the single digits for placing. She was also a long jumper, and was pretty good at it.

“Phoebe!”

“I’m coming!” I shut my eyes, and wished that time would freeze, just so I could sleep for a little bit longer. When I knew that it wouldn’t happen I opened my eyes and tossed off my covers. My room was warm from the space heater in the corner, but the air in the hallway outside of my room was freezing and made goosebumps rise on my legs and arms.

Running through the hallway, I found my mother in the kitchen, with a plate of eggs in front of her. She didn’t even look up at me when I came in the room, she just pointed to a plate of waffles on the counter.

“It’s about time you got down here, I thought I was going to have to get a bucket of cold water,” she commented when I’d sat down in my usual chair.

“Practice was rough last night, I didn’t want to get out of bed,” I said and then took a bite. I made a face, my waffles were cold.

“That’s what happens when you take forever to get out of bed.”

I made a noncommittal noise and stood up to put my waffles in the microwave, I stood there waiting while Mom rinsed her plate in the sink. “Are you going to be home late tonight?”

“I don’t know, Hanna and I still have that project due tomorrow that we need to finish, and we have practice right after school. So I guess we’ll be a little later than usual.”

“What time is practice out?”

“Five thirty, since its conditioning time right now. Then I’ll need time to take a shower and then I’ll probably head to the library with Hanna to work on our project. Maybe I’ll be back around eight? All depends on when we get the project done. Or the library closes.”

Mom nodded her head, “Just don’t get home too late, or I will use cold water to wake you up tomorrow.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, that’s a promise,” Mom said, and then she kissed me on the forehead and picked up her keys. “I have to go to work. Don’t miss the bus,” she warned me, and then she was gone, headed out the door for work.

I moved sluggishly after I finished my waffles to get ready. I headed into the laundry room to get some clothes, since Mom hadn’t folded any there weren’t any clean clothes in my room. I thought my bare feet were going to freeze off while I stood back there, digging in laundry buckets for jeans, a shirt, some socks and then some shorts and another shirt for the day. God, why do we have so many clothes in this house? There are just two of us!

Finally I found all of the clothes and rushed out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I headed back into my room and wanted to curl up under my covers to warm myself up from the cold laundry room. Knowing that if I did that, I would miss the bus, I pulled off my shorts and tank that I’d worn to bed and pulled on the cold jeans and T-shirt.

I put on my socks and shoes and stuffed the rest of my things in my duffel bag, and glanced at the clock. The bus would be here in less than five minutes. Crap. I rushed over to my backpack and stuffed my textbooks in it, disposing of the ones that I wouldn’t need for today, and hoping I had everything.

I ran into the living room and threw my bags into a chair, and then into the bathroom so I could run a brush through my hair and brush my teeth. I yanked the brush through my hair, trying to work quickly through the snarls in my hair. The more frustrated I grew, the more my hair seemed to not want to have the tangles brushed out of it. Finally, I got them all out, and I grabbed my toothbrush, and rushed through brushing my teeth, and then rinsed with mouthwash.

Still swishing the mouthwash, I grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder along with my duffel bag and ran out the door. The bus was just up the street, and I started to head over to the bus stop, spitting out the mouthwash on the way there.

Once I was finally on the bus, I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes, relived I hadn’t missed the bus and had to call Mom again like I’d had to two days ago. I really needed to start getting up earlier. I gave a small smile, like that was ever going to happen.

I felt someone sit down next to me, but didn’t bother opening my eyes. I felt them lean against my shoulder, and then they whispered, “Do you love me?”

I opened my eyes to find one of the most annoying people ever looking at me with brown eyes. “No, Anderson, I do not love you.”

“Why can’t you just admit that you do?”

“Because I don’t love you!” I shoved him off of me, but he just leaned on me again. “Anderson, get off of me.”

“I can’t get off on the bus! That’s like a crime!” He looked up as another girl got on the bus and said loudly, “Hello beautiful, did you miss me?”

The girl rolled her eyes and sat down, ignoring him. Just like any respectable female should. Sure Anderson could be sweet, but if you knew him, then you’d know that any chance he got, he was talking to girls. Not just one or two girls, every girl he saw within a ten mile radius.

He left then to go sit by the other girl, and I leaned against the cold glass of the bus window, watching the landscape roll by. We were a rather small community, and a farming one at that. The whole eight mile journey to the nearest school was filled with stretches of fields that soon would be filled with corn and soybeans, just like they were every year.

Agriculture was a big part of our school, with the FFA being the most dominant club that there was. FBLA and FCCLA didn’t come close to the size, not even combined. We didn’t have many other choices for extracurricular activities. There was basketball, volleyball, cross county, and track for sports. There was Academic Bowl for the braniacs. And that was it, we didn’t have much, but I can guarantee you that half of the time, we spew out better test scores than larger schools. Still, living here had serious disadvantages. Everyone knew everything about everyone else.

You couldn’t tell someone something without it somehow getting around to the whole school, even if neither of you said anything to anyone else. That’s just the way it was; there were eyes and ears everywhere. There were no secrets.

When the bus finally pulled into the parking lot, I thought I knew I was going to have a bad day. The kids had been screaming and shouting and I’d already accumulated a headache that I knew would only get worse with my first hour class: Spanish.

It wasn’t that I was horrible at it; it wasn’t even that I didn’t like the teacher. It was the simple fact that we had to do more talking and thinking in that class that my math class. And the fact that my pronunciation skills could use some work didn’t help that much either.

The halls were filled with people gathering their books and such for their first class of the day or standing in groups around lockers and chatting before they had to head to homeroom. Our lockers were painted a shade of purple, and none of them had peeling paint. If they did, I can guarantee you the principal would have thrown a fit.

I got my things for Spanish out of my locker, and as I shut it and started to walk away, I slammed into someone, sending half of the stuff I’d been carrying to the floor, along with whatever the other person had been carrying.

“Oh crap!” I said, bending down to pick up my things. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s fine, I wasn’t watching where I was going either,” a male voice said. I recognized it and I instantly started to turn a shade of bright red. I could tell by how hot my face was getting. It was Cerek Carson, a guy in my grade who I just happened to have a huge crush on.

I handed him his things, and tried to hide my face, hoping he hadn’t seen how red I’d gotten. At least he’d probably think it was from embarrassment from crashing into him. Hopefully. As soon as everything was picked up, I pretty much ran to my homeroom, hoping to save myself from even more embarrassment that morning.

It was too much to hope for as I saw Hanna laughing her butt off the minute I walked into the classroom. She’d probably seen the whole thing and now she was laughing her butt off at my embarrassment. The jerk.

“Girl, I totally just saw you with that epic fail!” Her face matched the shade my own had probably been, except that she was laughing, and I so hadn’t been. I sat down next to her, shooting her a glare.

“Oh cheer up,” she said as she tried to calm herself down. “At least you didn’t start word vomiting.”

I shot her another glare at her half-crapped attempt at trying to cheer me up. I buried my head in my arms, and wished I was back at home, and hadn’t already made myself feel like crap. Sure, I liked Cerek, but he didn’t like me. Or at least not in the same way, which made that whole scene all that much more embarrassing. What if he’d thought I’d crashed into him on purpose or something? God I wanted to go home.

But I guess I could agree with Hanna. At least I hadn’t started word vomiting; which is basically whenever I get really nervous, I start spewing out the most random crap that comes to mind, and I do mean everything. I’d once, or maybe even twice, gotten really nervous in front of the class when making a speech and accidentally told the entire class I was on my period. It was still a running joke for all of them whenever I made a speech. It sucked.

I kept my head down as Cerek walked into homeroom, even when Hanna swore to me that he wasn’t looking in my direction. I didn’t want to look up at him. I just couldn’t do it.

When the bell rang ending homeroom, I ran out of the classroom, and for once I was the first person in the Spanish room. I just wanted the whole day to be over with, so when the entire day dragged by, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.

The rest wasn’t really that horrible, but I still just wanted to slam my head against a wall as I got ready for track practice. I mean, seriously, what was the point of me running today or ever for practice when I was going to lose every race? Oh, right, I wanted to stay in shape.

The wind was cold, and the sun wasn’t much warmer, so I left my hoodie on as I walked outside with Hanna next to me so we could start warm-ups. We were on the line and getting ready to run our first warm-up down and back when it hit me: a powerful surge of energy.

I felt ready to run; actually, I felt like I was made to run. My sight shifted, and suddenly, the world seemed brighter, more vibrant. I remembered briefly the colors from my dream and the soft voice. Then the whistle blew.

I knew I’d be the first one done when I started moving. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. It was like it was instinct, primal.

When I touched the end line first, I thought Coach was going to drop his clipboard and whistle. I thought everyone else’s eyes were going to fall out of their sockets. Heck, I thought my eyes were going to fall out of their sockets and I was the one who’d done it.

Suddenly, the crappy day I’d had didn’t seem to matter anymore. As practice kept going, I finished first in everything. And I do mean everything. I ran faster, I jumped further, and I didn’t get tired; not once. It was like something inside of me had suddenly snapped into place, and I was good at running and jumping. It was amazing.

When practice ended, Coach pulled me to the side. He seemed even more awestruck by my newfound talent than I was.

“Frost, I don’t know what happened between yesterday and today, but I’m really proud of you. Keep up the great work.” It was all he seemed to be able to say to me without babbling on and on. Hanna had waited for me at the edge of the court and before the school gym.

“What happened out there Phe? You were amazing!” She said, wiping her forehead with a towel. “You jumped farther than Maria and she placed first in state last year!”

I was smiling, I couldn’t help it. “I don’t know.” I told her. “One minute, I was getting ready for another sucky day of practice and then, I just knew that I could run faster and jump further. I don’t know what happened.”

The whole locker room was congratulating me on my achievements of the day and when I left, I was in much higher spirits than I think I’ve been in my whole life. I actually meant something to the team now instead of being someone they wished would just quit the team. I mattered to them.

My high faded a little as Hanna and I tried to finish our science project in the slowly dwindling time before the library closed for the night. Somehow though, we managed to scrape the entire thing together with about five minutes to spare.

We walked outside, and the cool night air rushed around me, and I closed my eyes. It felt nice. The stars above me were shining, sparkling against the inky sky, their cold brilliance making me smile for no reason at all.

“Do you want a ride home?” Hanna asked me as she grabbed her keys from her purse and started to head for her car.

I shook my head. “No, it’s not that cold. I think I’ll walk.”

She waved to me as she got in her car and drove away from me. I breathed in the scents of the night air, and was surprised by how many scents there actually were. I could smell the smoke from several chimneys nearby, the smell of coffee from the small gas station across the street, and even the smell of the earth, even though no one had been digging nearby.

I could hear the wind as it whistled through the fallen leaves from fall that still clung to the ground, and I could hear the sound of barking dogs in the distance.

I was surprised by how much I could see though. There was no moon tonight, and even though the stars seemed especially bright, they didn’t seem to put off that much light of their own. The streetlights usually never worked around here, kids usually ended up shooting the bulbs with BB guns and the city just never bothered replacing them, knowing they’d just get shot again the next night.

So despite the fact that the only light came from the stars, I could see as if it were a full moon and the street lights were perfectly functional. I knew it was weird, but I was still on my high from track practice that afternoon, and I wasn’t about to let the fact that I could see in the dark be a bad thing.

Too bad that in my haste to walk through the nice night with my night vision, I forgot that hick town or not, the dark streets can still be dangerous. I was on an empty stretch of street; the nearest house was maybe a half block away from me.

When I first heard the sound of footsteps behind me, I should have known to run. Instead, I was that stupid girl from murder movies who turns and asks the darkness, “Who’s there?” Yeah, maybe my newfound talents distracted me, but I should have had more sense.

A figure was walking leisurely towards me, hands in his pockets, I couldn’t see their face, it was hidden by a hood. That was my second reason that I should have ran. Yet, I didn’t.

By the time he was close enough that I could smell the alcohol around him, and see that he was clutching something in his pocket, I didn’t have time to run anymore. I could see pretty well, but what happened next still makes me wonder what really happened.

I could see the world in vivid colors in an instant, like someone had turned on the sun inside my head, and only my head. With an instinct that was more natural than it could have been anything else, I went into a crouch.

The man swaggered towards me, and a knife glinted in the starlight. I now knew why the stars had looked so brilliantly cold tonight. As he swung at me, I thought for sure I would feel the knife slide through my skin and leave a long, ragged bleeding cut in its wake.

But I was gone before the knife could touch me; I bounded up, like a springing cat and was over the man, behind him. I don’t remember ever touching him, but he yowled in drunken pain and turned towards me. Three, long jagged slash marks ran up his cheeks and on part of his forehead, and blood ran down his face, black in the darkness.

I gasped and glanced down at my hands, shocked to see five long nails that reminded me vaguely of cat’s claws protruding from each of my fingers. Even as I watched, they retracted and turned back into regular fingernails.

The man still had blood on his face, and was backing away from me in shock. I didn’t think twice before I ran into the night and towards my house, wondering what the heck had just happened.