You Call This a Gift?
Chapter 23: Annalisia

I followed Miss Humai away from the bench and into the woods. She thought it would help me to shift if I was in the location the animal was most seen in. I sat and tried again. When the heat surged through me, I tried to ignore it. I looked at my hands and saw fur appearing and my nails getting longer. I got excited and looked to Miss Humai then looked back at my hands which were now my own.

“Ugh, I’m never going to get this,” I said angrily as I pulled some grass from the earth. The dirt clung to the bottom of the grass as I tossed it to the side.

“You will just need to practice not distracting yourself,” she said calmly with a faint smile. “Our day is done. I will see you next week… keep practicing,” she said waving goodbye as she climbed through the brush out of the woods.

I lay back in the grass staring at the blue sky that peeked through the overhead branches. Sunbeams peeked through and danced in various spots, one moving across my hand I felt the warmth it caused on my palm and closed my hand trying to trap it inside. The warmth vanished just as it had when I tried shifting. I continued watching the sun beams dance for over an hour.

I heard footsteps running from farther back in the woods. I propped myself up glancing in that general direction and saw Jonah come running through the branches smacking them away from his face in the process. I called out his name and he came to a stop almost tripping over a tree root.

“Oh… hey,” he said looking around to see if we were alone. He then made his way closer and sat on the grass near me.

I sat up meeting my eyes with his. “So how was your day?” I asked.

“It was okay, I guess; practice makes perfect, they say,” he said smirking.

“Yea, sure, it does” I said frowning.

“What’s wrong?” he asked curiously.

“Nothing at all, just too stupid to get my own power to work, that’s all,” I said placing my head in my hands.

“What do you mean? I’ve seen you use your power many times you have it down pat,” he replied smiling.

“Not that power,” I said and then explained my new power and my failed attempts of the day.

“Oh that’s awesome, two powers!” he said quickly followed by, “You will get the hang of it, I promise! I can even help you if you want.”

I pondered the idea of spending time with him and practicing. “Okay, if you want to,” I replied.

I ran back to the cabin to meet the girls we were supposed to go swimming today. I walked in the door and they were ready in their bathing suits sitting on the couch waiting patiently.

I joined them in the living room bathing suit on, towel and sunscreen in hand.

“Ready?” I asked.

They all said yes and jumped up and began to head to the lake. We walked past the dining hall and down the dirt road to the lake. There were only four or five others swimming today and two sitting on the sand. I shook my towel and dropped it down flat in front of me. The girls did the same. Kenna and Sable took off running into the water letting it splash all over as they dove in. I sat down on the towel next to Lorraine who was already sitting. I squished a dollop of sunscreen onto my palm.

I talked with Lorraine for over twenty minutes about everything there is to talk about.

“Shall we swim?” she asked while holding her hand over her eyes to block the sun. I glanced out at the girls swimming circles and splashing each other.

“Kenna and Sable have become such great friends,” I thought to myself realizing I haven’t spent much time with Kenna since we got here. “Yea, let’s go,” I replied while standing up to go that way. We joined the girls splashing back and swimming all around.

“Hey, guys, I invited Bradley, Jonah, Kevin, and Josh to come to our cabin for a movie night,” Lorraine said while drying her hair off with her towel. The girls were excited and started digging through the kitchen cabinets looking for snacks to put out for everyone.