Page 35 of Misfit Monsters
She motions toward the table. “Surprising people. Startling them. You seem to do that a lot, but kind of randomly.”
I let my grin widen. “It’s fun. Gotta get all we can before we’re shoved in a van!” Human language allows almost as much play as human bodies. The way words bounce together when they sound similar gives me a quiver of giddiness.
I have the urge to pop my fox ears out to add to the amusement, but I haven’t forgotten Toni’s recent warning. Maybe I can get away with that tomorrow.
The new shadowkind woman’s smile has tightened a little around the edges. Almost as if she’s getting sad.
“You don’t seem like you’re totally having fun,” she says. “There’s something else… Did someone hurt you? Do you need help?”
It’s my turn to freeze in shock. What does she mean—how could she?—?
Oh. She glows emotions, and she must pick up on them too. The way she’s talked to our classmates—yes, I should have seen it.
What does she think she’s seeing inme?
For a second, I can feel her peering under my skin, into a jumble of images that rise up at her attention. Stark lights and gleaming bars, burning metal, squeals and whimpers?—
I cast off the fragments of memory with a twitch of my limbs and a buoyant laugh.
Iamhaving fun. As long as I keep moving, nothing can catch up with me.
Why is she trying to trip me up, get me stuck?
I lift a shoulder in a partial shrug. "I'm thinking you should mind your own business. Sorry if you don't like a little play when it could make your day."
The fall of her pretty face brings a twinge of regret—another emotion I don't want gnawing at me.
"I didn't mean I don't like it,” she says. “You're really good at brightening up class. I was just?—"
I turn on my heel and amble away from her as if I can'thear her speaking, adding a brief swish of a tail for good measure before I whisk it out of sight. Guilt pricks at me, but it isn't as if I owe her anything.
I meander around the courtyard again, doing flips to conjured applause. The smiles and giggles I get in return should set me at ease, but restlessness winds through my chest, propelling me onward, farther, faster.
I know where to go when I'm feeling that way.
I leave the courtyard and lope through the halls to the gym. This late in the afternoon, no classes are using it, but it's too early for the recreational morphball games my classmates sometimes set up. Perfect.
With a little shake, I transform my jeans and loose collared shirt into a tee and running shorts. Then I launch myself along the track formed by lines painted on the varnished floor.
You wouldn't think running in literal circles would be satisfying. Before I came to the academy, sometimes I'd work out this energy by racing through the streets of whatever city or town I found myself in, dodging mortals who'd flinch out of the way.
But the combination of exertion and predictability is strangely gratifying. I can slow down or—more often—push myself faster, and nothing will stand in my way.
I circle around the track, each iteration a little faster, a little more burn in my legs. The sensation will disappear as soon as I slip into the shadows, but it's exhilarating while it lasts.
On my sixteenth circuit, another student pokes his head into the room. He looks so big and dopey that I chuckle to myself.
He walks over to examine the metal crate that holds the sports balls. A picture sparks in my mind, bringing a sly smile to my lips.
As I come around the next bend, I curl my fingers—and nudge my power against the latch on the crate’s lid so it pops free.
The front of the crate swings open. Balls tumble out over the unsuspecting shadowkind, bonking him in the head and chest.
I expect him to simply sway and then laugh like I've just started to. But apparently he's not all that steady in his human body.
He staggers to one side and the other amid the bouncing balls. One trips him right over. He falls with a smack of his head against the floor and an accompanying cry of pain.
Coach Brandish materializes out of the shadows with a fierce expression. "Mirage! Why would you attack Cliff?"
