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normal kid hoping to get through a day with minimal torture from the normal-sized fourteen-year-olds. I really am going to miss these guys.
    –RYLAND–
    Don ’ t cry. Don ’ t cry. Don ’ t cry , I think as I approach Alice and Melinda for what could be the last time. I mean, they’ve been my best friends since elementary school when Alice, even then too tall for the boys, pushed down the biggest bully in kindergarten after he made Melinda cry. A boy should really never tease a girl about her hair when there are other girls around.
    Anyway, so I ’ m telling myself it’ll all be okay. I’ll see them again soon. I just have to master my Shifter-ness, defeat some sort of universal Shifter overlord government on steroids, make peace with the Ordinaries, and return in time for prom. I am so not missing prom.
    Melinda is blushing from ear to ear and grinning like a Cheshire cat. Uh, oh.
    “Oh, my gosh!” She giggles, still shy, even around us. “Who on Earth is that?”
    “What do you mean?” I ask, awakened from my reverie. Here I was, thinking about never seeing them again, and they don ’ t even know it isn ’ t a normal day.
    Alice gives me a cold, hard look. “You know exactly who she ’ s talking about. Isn ’ t that your stalker?”
    I turn around to look for Kai, but he’s long gone. He’ll be back after school to meet up with us, but he won ’ t stick around all day. At least not visibly.
    Melinda pulls out her ridiculously old, chunky flip phone. “I took a picture,” she says, beaming.
    “For exactly this situation,” Alice continues. “We knew you would deny everything.”
    Melinda waves her phone around for a moment, right in my face. “That ’ s just a picture of me and Tanner,” I say flatly.
    Partially, I ’ m relieved. It would’ve been hard to explain why I was hanging out with my stalker—especially right before I disappeared. My parents would be able to figure out where Tanner and I went, but Melinda and Alice would probably think my crazy stalker kidnapped me.
    Melinda snatches her phone back to look at the picture. Alice leans over her shoulder to see, too. They both frown. “But he was right here,” Alice mutters, pointing off to the left side of the photo.
    I feel myself glancing at the ground. I don ’ t know what to tell them. I mean, I can ’ t tell them the truth; they ’ ll think I ’ m insane. I probably would think I’m insane, too.
    Melinda furrows her brow then looks accusingly at me. “He was right there. I don ’ t know how my pic got cropped or whatever, but he was there.”
    “Okay,” I sigh. “He ’ s not really a stalker. He ’ s just new in town and happens to ride my bus.”
    Melinda beams again. “He ’ s cute.” She can barely get the word out; she ’ s blushing too badly.
    Alice gives Melinda a hard look and stares at me. Deadpan, she says, “What Melinda means to say is the boy is hot. What ’ s going on there?”
    I feel my face go warm. I understand why they ’ re asking, and I wish I were a normal girl. I wish I had just found a cute new guy here in town. I wish he did just ride my bus. I wish we could gossip and giggle about my potential first boyfriend. I wonder now if I ’ ll ever get to experience that.
    “Nothing’s going on there,” I say. “He ’ s new, and he ’ s in Tanner ’ s grade. We were just trying to show him around.”
    “Oh,” Melinda sighs. She’s probably the most eager of the three of us to gossip about boys, but she can hardly speak to anyone, let alone a cute boy. I think her plan is to live vicariously through me.
    Don ’ t get me wrong. She’s super smart, really funny, and very compassionate. She can talk to a boy about school or help him when he ’ s having a problem, but if he talks to her the next week, she can ’ t say a word.
    Alice is the total opposite. She can talk to anyone about anything, but she has this emotionless demeanor that intimidates most people. It ’ s not that she’s