Emrys

It must have been at least eight at night, and I had just slipped furtively out of the art room and was about to hoof it to the Rupertson household becauseI didn’t have a car or a job to get a car (not that I’d have been allowed to work in the US at that point)-when I heard a commotion coming from the parking lot.
I slid with my back along the cold brick walls, and when I came to the corner of a wall where the parking lot was, I, with all the stealth of a feral cat, peeped around it, my eyes adjusting to the light coming from one of the only lamp posts in the lot. And gasped at what I saw.
There, in the midst of not only Garret’s friends, but Garret himself, was a blond I knew by the name of Mindy Pendragon, and only because she was head of the student council, orated the morning announcements, and was the heartthrob of every single guy from sixth or seventh grade on, possibly even the grades where
you just started to have “those” kinds of hormones, in the whole school system. There was no way you couldn’t know who she was.I mean, I got why guys would like her. She was tall, blond, had an amazing
figure, blond, had large, blue-green eyes, blond, had enough money to rival the Rupertsons, and she was blond. Basically the opposite of my short, scrawny, black haired, poor self. But that did nothing for her now. Garret and his friends-I surmised from the wreak of booze wafting off of them in nauseating waves-were drunk, and from another suspicious scent coming from them, high as well.
I mean really, really high. They must have taken her car keys just before she was going to unlock her blue and-black, brand spanking new Dodge Charger, because they were chucking said keys back and forth over her head, raucously laughing and hooting like baboons at her failed attempts to procure them.
This poor girl was staying at school late, probably finishing some head-of-the student-council-type-business to better the school, and here she was getting harassed by drunken, very under-the-influence idiots. Feelings for Garret aside, I couldn’t allow this to happen. Things could only escalate from key stealing. And they almost did. Mindy stumbled and fell, badly skinning her knees-I could smell the blood from where I skulked-I guess due to the fact that I could transform into an animal of my choosing when I wanted and the senses tended to stick around to some extent-and, to my horror, Garret picked her up by the throat and slammed her against her car, pressing his body against hers, his buddies braying like the jack
asses they were. Without really thinking, the Gaelic words “astar” and “neart” were on my lips,
and I was flying across the parking lot, using all of my barely there weight and scrawny shoulder to ram into Garret’s ribs.Apparently, no one else saw me coming either, ‘cause they all stood with mouths
in aghast O shapes when I was suddenly there, Garret flailing his arms uselessly in a windmill fashion as he hit the asphalt. The words come to me; astar-speed, neart-strength. Garret looked up at me from where he’d landed squarely on his ass at first with anger, then hurt and confusion once he realized the one who’d knocked him so good was the girl he’d confessed his love for many a time, whether he
remembered it or not. I looked down at him in return, a pain welling in my chest at what I’d just had to
do to my…friend…or at least as close as I had to one here. I steeled myself, furrowing my brows with as stern an expression as I could possibly muster. “Garret, wha’are you doin’?!” I demanded, my accent becoming thick with anxiety. “Bindy?” was all he said in response, his mind working too slow from drugs and alcohol to really absorb things. Before I knew what hit me, someone hit me. My jaw and temple throbbed as I reeled into Mindy’s car from the force of the punch. Mindy gasped and tried to help me up, but I was still unsteady on my legs and my ears were ringing. Somebody wrenched Mindy off my arm, and then they had us both on our knees with our hands held behind our backs. Blood leaked from my right temple.
What am I supposed to do now? “I’m so sorry…Bindy Ambrosius, was it?” Mindy glanced at me, trying to remember who I was. “Oh, right, you’re the exchanged student from Ireland. Anyway, you
didn’t have to do that. Thank you, it’s just I’m not of any concern to you, and now look.” I shrugged.
“Don’t mention it.” Not that she’d have a chance to mention it if I didn’t think of something, and fast.
“Wha shooooood w-w-we do wif ‘em, Garr?” One of Garret’s friends asked Garret, who was transparently the leader of his group, because he was Garret. The others broke in with their ideas: “We got two of ‘em, now.” “We could take turns…” One put his finger under my chin to make me look at him, and when I did, my eyes were blazing. “Aw, c’mon, baby, don’ look at me like that.” I snapped and was planning to take him down a digit or two, but he moved his hand away too quickly. “Oooo, this Irish girl is feisty!” another guffawed. “A biter!” They all were just howling with laughter. Tears streamed down Mindy’s face, and, though she stayed completely quiet, Icould see her shoulders trembling with tears. I had had just about enough of their crap at this point. I had no choice. I would have to use my powers. I growled enough to startle the guys and get them to look at me. I yelled up into the blackness of the night, eyes glowing as white as two North
Stars, summoning a Gaelic word I knew. “Athrú!” I’d taken note of the perfectly full moon, which had given me the idea for my plan. I yanked out of my captor’s grasp as I fell, hands and knees, on the ground, my
body quivering as it reshaped, albeit painfully. My mouth and nose elongated into a muzzle bristling with black fur, harboring the most wicked of fangs. My hands curled into paws with claws primed for shredding,
the rest of my body becoming lean and sleek and powerful. Where Bindy once stood now snarled a black she-wolf. I had a moment of silence for my clothes that lay shredded around me, one of the
few outfits I had owned. Of all days to wear the really cute one! I managed to maneuver Mindy behind me and next to her car, my teeth and raging, unrelenting stare keeping the men at bay. Whoever had last obtained the keys dropped them a couple feet to Mindy’s left. I looked over my shoulder at her and motioned for her to retrieve them. She was just staring in wide eyed horror at me. “For all the Saints, get the bloody keys!” I snapped. If me turning into a wolf had taken this group for a ride, then me turning into a
talking wolf drove them over the edge. But, thankfully, Mindy cautiously went for the keys.
I swung my head back towards the guys, one of which I would have behanded because he’d made a move towards Mindy, except he jumped away like a rabbit, and held them in my gaze. “Now, listen to me, ya lot’a bastards! You’re goin’ to leave ‘ere, and you will never bother Mindy or me, or any other woman for that matter, ever again, or I swear by my limited edition Game of Thrones DVD’s, I will hunt down every single
blasted one’a yah!” I looked at Garret pointedly and demanded with a roar in my
voice: “Now, GET!” Not needing to be told by a talking shape shifter twice, they scattered like cockroaches when the light comes on, which is how I saw the lot of them at that point. I turned back to Mindy, concealing my arsenal of teeth. “Are you alright?” She just shook her head, still trembling, unable to speak.
I looked towards the school, debating what exactly to do about the security cameras that surely caught all that had transpired on tape. I didn’t care about the part that showed what Garret and his gang of punks were
doing, and I wanted them to get in trouble, bad trouble, but I wasn’t about to go exposing my secrets.