“What’s going on, Seth?” Miss Minnick always called me by my last name in front of the other students, but called me by my first name in private. She was a nice lady, a good teacher, and an awesome mentor.

“I’m April’s Fool,” I said. “In fact, she’s probably looking for me right —“

“Oh, pffft. That girl needs to be put in her place.” Miss Minnick collected the blue-books stacked on her desks. She was the only teacher who still used blue-books for our exams in this age of tablets and smart-devices.

“I don’t think I’m the one to do it, Miss Minnick.”

“You’re stronger than you think, Seth. Never forget that.” She made a sweeping motion with her hands. A breath of brimstone filled the room, and all the blue-books flipped open and started correcting themselves in blood red ink. “Now, off with you, so you can attend to the game.”

I nodded and sprinted away.

April stood in the hallway in front of her class, tapping her heel and glancing at her phone.

“About time, fool,” she said. “Carry my backpack.”

I was a little shocked she wasn’t more irate. I shouldered her backpack and followed her through the hallway. She texted constantly on her phone the entire time. Students made way for her as she stalked through the hallways, her curly black hair bouncing on her shoulders.

“I miss the way your hair used to look,” I said.

She glanced back at me, her azure eyes perfectly made up with heavy dark eyeliner and mascara.

“You wore less makeup then too.”

“I was a child, stupid.”

“I know somewhere under all that makeup and hair product, the April I loved still lurks. Why can’t you just admit you won and let me go? We don’t have to play this stupid game.”

She stopped, and I realized we were in the quadrangle between wings of the building. I noticed there was a gathering of other students, including her stupid clique of the popular girls.

She moved into her group, then turned to regard me with an icy glare.

I knew this was going to be trouble.

“Fool!” she screamed out. “You were late picking me up!”

I glared at her in return, clenching my jaw. I felt my pulse racing again, and the change wanting to sweep over me. Not the time or place, Seth.

The danger of angering a were like me was control. If I lost control of my temper, I was a little like the Hulk—I had no ability to restrain myself or my inner instincts. With this many people gathered around in this small of an area—

It would be a bloodbath.

“Ooh, he’s getting angry,” Stephanie said. She ran a finger over my bicep.

“Don’t touch me,” I said and was a little surprised at how inhuman it sounded.

My true nature with the full of the moon was over a week ago, but shreds of my inhumanity still lingered. Most people don’t realize that weres must maintain a facade of control at all times. By giving into my inner nature could spell disaster of all kinds — to those around me, and to myself. Weres going feral and being stuck in the feral state were definitely not unknown, though it had been a long time since High Valley had a feral were.

You are the song in your mind. Live through your song. My father’s voice during our training rang in my ears, and I calmed myself.

April was a child playing a child’s games in front of children.

“It’s okay,” Mitzy whispered somewhere beside me. “You’re okay.”

I nodded.

“As punishment,” April placed a perfectly sculpted fingernail on her chin, tapping softly.

Dark magic swept up from the ground, granular and black. It hissed in the confines of the quad. I heard a few gasps as people realized April was wielding magic.

April allowed it to roil over her arms, her eyes fading to inky darkness.

“You said you liked my hair,” she said in a soft voice that everyone in the area could hear.

I felt a tingling along my limbs that swept up my body and centered on my scalp. I closed my eyes. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, not at all. It felt—good but I didn’t want to let on to that fact. It swept over me, surrounding me, through me and then it was over and I was left panting from the pleasure of it. It took every force of will in my body to make sure my tongue didn’t loll out of my mouth and I needed to adjust my pants.

The area exploded in glee.

The popular girls all screamed, laughing, as Mitzy turned me around to face her.

“It’s okay, Seth, I’m here. Just look at me.”

“What?” I said. “What did she do?”

“Now!” April said. “Heel, Fool!” she pointed at her side, and I shook my head—

And felt something move. “What the—“

Looking to the left and right, I saw dark curls, the same corkscrew curls that April wore, to my left and right. I had a heightened sense of smell as a were, and the fragrance of my hair swept over me, licorice with a bit of rose petals.

“What the hell did you do to me?” I yelled, pulling at the hair somehow stuck on my head.

“Oh, don’t be a baby,” April said. “Heel.”

“We can fix it later, dude,” Jeff called out from beside me. “I got hair clippers at home.”

I shook my head, feeling the long locks dance around my shoulders and down my back.

Jenni, Stephanie, and Charlotte walked alongside her, and I walked a few paces back, clenching my jaw but not hating the fragrance of my new hair. I’d never give her the satisfaction that I liked the smell. She intended it to demean and degrade me, but I clenched my jaw defiantly and didn’t allow myself to even look at the other students who pointed and laughed in my direction.

You are the song in your mind. A symphony of instruments in perfect harmony with the world around you.

We made it to her classroom, and the other girls went in. I handed April her bag.

She ran her fingers through my springy curls, arranging them carefully, smiling.

“Does this make you happy?” I said, looking at her with my jaw clenched tightly.

She touched my cheek then, where the muscles of my jaw worked in anger and frustration. Her hand was soft and warm.

“No,” she said in a quiet voice.

Something about that made me feel even more humiliated than a few moments ago.

“Then why did you do it?” I said.

She looked at me, her azure eyes soulful and large. “I had to.”

I didn’t have an answer to that. She regarded me for another moment. “Be on time, stupid.”

I nodded. “Yes, Mistress.”

She winced at that, closing her eyes, then went into her classroom.