300 Days With The Alpha Beta Triplets
SHAPE SHIFTERS

Bella:

"Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that Noah?" Kai asked as the rest of us tried to force words out of our mouths the moment he walked up to Mother and Alpha Fred, who were conversing a few inches away from us.

"Good evening, Principal Evelyn and Alpha Fred," he said to them, offering a bow.

We all glanced at each other, knowing this was part of the plan to solidify the story that no student had died.

"I'm going over there," I said to my friends, then I left the circle, walking up to my mother.

"Hello, Noah," I said to him. He looked at me, giving a brief wave.

"I will be leaving now, thank you," he said to them, then made to leave.

"Actually, it's you I came to see," I said to him. He glanced at my parents briefly before clearing his throat.

They couldn't even mimic his mannerisms properly.

"Hazel and I have been looking for you," I said to him, and he raised a brow.

"Why would Hazel be looking for me?"

"Because she's your mate, hello?" I said, and he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Right, sorry. I've been so busy thinking about the midterm tests that I forgot about her," he said, and I mind-linked the triplets, letting them know what I had done.

'Hazel doesn't want to speak with him, whether he's real or fake,' Finn said. Then the triplets and Hazel started walking towards us.

"Noah," Hazel called out, but as she approached, she walked right past him.

"I do not want to speak with you," she said coldly, and the triplets followed her. I shrugged at him.

"I guess I can't force her to open her mouth. Bye." With that, I walked away, making it to the elevator just before the doors closed.

We were silent for a second before I spoke.

"So, we're not going to talk about the new Noah?" I asked, and they all sighed.

"There's always something going on in this school, and at this rate, I don't think it will ever stop," Ryder said with a straight face.

"I'm just glad this semester is almost halfway through, which means we only have a semester and a half left before we can get the hell out of this school," Kai said, and Hazel hissed.

"I'd give up anything to be in your place," she said as we walked down the hallway.

I expected the triplets to head to their room, but they followed us to Hazel's. When we got there, they sat on my bed while Hazel rummaged through her closet, pulling out a massive book and tossing it onto the floor with a loud thud. She flipped through a few chapters before stopping.

"Shapeshifters. They're the fourth group of supernaturals in Moon fire, but they aren't very common."

As she said this, we all knelt around the book, looking at the drawings and the information.

"How come we haven't known about these people?" I asked.

"Good question, Bella," she said, flipping more pages. "They're a very small group who mainly settled in the werewolf region in the early days. They mated with werewolves, so most of them are hybrids, but the citizens never thought of them as very important," she explained, and all I could think of was how cool it would be if I could morph into anyone.

"So, morphing into someone isn't cool?" Ryder asked. I shot him a 'do you understand?' look.

"No, because back then, they couldn't morph into people. Only inanimate objects, blending into their environment. It was their way of protecting themselves from danger. But mating with wolves made them evolve, and now they can morph into were people, which is kind of dangerous, especially with how the school is using it," she said, then shut the book.

"In essence, we're doomed, and we don't know what more they can do. We have to be on the lookout for them. They could morph into any of us to gather information, and if that happens, we're finished," she said, causing me to swallow hard.

"So, how do we identify these shapeshifters?" I questioned, and she turned to face me.

"It's simple. You watch their mannerisms. Like today, you could tell that wasn't Noah because he barely knew anything about me. They haven't yet learned how to morph into someone while keeping all the person's memories, so you can catch them that way," she said, sitting on her bed.

**

The next day, we prepared for school and made our way to the cafeteria for breakfast before heading to class. On our way, a car wheeled into the school compound, and two elderly people stepped out of it.

"Those are Noah's parents," Hazel said, causing my heart to skip a beat.

We were probably about to witness something intense; I thought as I watched them march past us toward the school building, where my mother stood in front.

The five of us watched, our hearts racing in our chests, as they came to a halt. Now the students had left the cafeteria, heading toward class too, so school was crowded.

"This is going to get messy," I said, grabbing Kai's hand. "I don't think I can watch," I added.

"I can," Hazel said, a smile planted on her face.

"Principal Evelyn," Noah's mother said, taking off her glasses. "It's been a pleasure working with this great school, but I'm here to pick up my son."

When she said that, I froze. Were they in on this too? I questioned myself.

Noah ran out of the school building at once, throwing his arms around his parents.

"Mum, Dad, I can't wait to go home," he said, and I sighed.

"Who even comes up with these cheesy lines?" I asked, watching as my friends' faces froze in horror.

"His things will be packed. You can go," Mother said. His parents walked away with him, and we watched the car zoom off into the distance.

After that, all the students walked into the classroom like nothing had happened, because of course no one knew Noah was dead.

"They're all shapeshifters," Hazel said, and I swallowed hard.

"This is getting out of hand. What are we going to do?" I asked, and she shrugged, opening her locker like nothing had happened.

She grabbed something, then she faced me to see the worried look on my face.

"Do not look surprised, because we will do nothing. The midterm tests are in two weeks, and after that, we have a one-week break to figure it out. If we dig too deep into this, the management will replace out. This isn't Fae we're fighting, Bella-it's the school. We need to think," Hazel said.