Page 44 of Shifting Tides

“Whoa, that’s so weird,” Brett said. “I’ve never met a mermaid who wasn’t… well, an elitist snob from birth. Have you tried transforming yet? What was it like?”

“Brett, give the girl a break,” the other friend chastised, holding his fork aloft over his plate. Then he looked at me. “Sorry, Brett has no filter. I’m Niko.”

I laughed. “It’s okay, I don’t mind. I’ve heard that my fellow mermaids can be quite… delightful. I can promise you guys I’m nothing like them.”

“Glad to hear it. Tobias found a keeper.” He winked at Tobias, who just rolled his eyes and turned away.

“What are we talking about?” a chipper female voice asked just before a pretty redhead sat on the other side of Brett.

“Oh, hey, Ashlyn.” Brett gave her a wave. “Just getting to know thenew,new girl.”

I cocked my head at that strange description, and Ashlyn’s friendly smile grew wider as she took me in.

“Omigod, thank you!” She reached out to put a hand on mine in a gesture of solidarity. “I was getting so tired of being thenew girl. You’d think a stray phoenix showing up would be old news fast, but I’m still the hot topic after three months.”

“That’s because you keep setting fires,” Tobias deadpanned without looking up from the scrambled eggs he was pushing through ketchup on his plate with his fork.

“Accidentally,” she corrected indignantly, shooting a glare at him. Then she smiled back at me. “But now that you’re here, everyone’s forgotten all about little ol’ me.”

“Until you start another fire,” Brett interjected with a smirk.

She slapped him on the shoulder. “Will you shut up!”

I couldn’t help but snicker at their friendly teasing, and honestly, hearing that another new student got the same treatment I was receiving was somehow comforting.

Ashlyn looked back at me. “Anyway, I know how hard it is to be the new girl, so I’d love to be your friend. These guys have been my only friends since I got here, and they only got roped in because our dads are friends.”

Her high energy and non-discerning nature drew me in instantly, and I smiled. “Thanks. I could definitely use all the friends I can get.”

The breakfast turned out not to be such a fiasco. Brett spent most of the time asking me random personal questions about my pre-mermaid life, and Tobias and Niko argued about mermaid politics, which was all very educational—I guessed that much of my time spent with Tobias would be.

He was like a handsome computer, always calculating, always spouting facts, and at least making it look as though he had no emotions. But there was something about him I liked, despite all the warning signs—especially the giant “Not Interested” label on his forehead whenever he looked my way.

And Ashlyn and I briefly bonded over our similar histories. Her father had been out of the picture her whole life, just a faceless name on a birthday card once a year. She had thought she was human just like me, raised by a human mom. When it came out a few months ago that she inherited her dad’s phoenix after all, he came back into her life and brought her here.

She was just as new to this world as me and just as spurned by her peers. I couldn’t be more grateful that I met her, for both our sakes.

“Since you know what it’s like to be new to all this, could you help me understand a little bit about the different types of shifters?” I asked her while the boys were distracted. “There’s so many, and I have no idea really what’s unique to any of them. Do they all have the same powers? Is it just their form that’s different?”

She nodded in understanding, her eyes lighting up as if she were excited to be the knowledgeable one for a change. “Okay, so, let me give you a quick breakdown of each shifter type and what their special abilities are:

“Phoenixes”—she put a hand on her chest—“can manifest and manipulate fire, as the boys so graciously shared with you already.” She rolled her eyes. “Dragons are the same. We really only differ in what our shifted forms are.

“Mermaids”—she gestured toward me—“can manipulate water. Some of them can also be seers, like they get visions and stuff. And I’ve heard of special mermaids that can also be sirens, but I don’t really know what they do, you know?”

I nodded vaguely, also having no clue.

“Then you have all the different weres,” she continued. “Hounds turn into wolves and have the sharpest smell sense of the shifters, to the point where some can even tell what emotion you’re feeling by what you smell like.”

“It’s called empathic,” Tobias cut in, and I turned to look at him. “Very well-trained hounds can become empathic.”

“Right,” Ashlyn conferred. “And then there are moas, who turn into big cats—like mountain lions and stuff—and, oh, what’s their special power again?” She pursed her lips in thought.

“Maos have ultra-sensitive hearing,” Tobias informed, his expression looking a little annoyed, like she should already know all of this. “At top skill, some maos can even become telepathic.”

“That’s hearing people’s thoughts, right?” Ashlyn asked. “Or is that moving objects with your mind?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes before looking sideways at her. “Hearing thoughts. Moving objects is called telekineses.”

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