who can trace your heritage back to the conflicts between humans and lycanthropes, sometimes known as weres, one hundred years ago. You will experience adolescence differently than your peers, but that doesn’t make you any less important.” She coughed into her hand and then resumed twisting her fingers about each other. Aisha didn’t see how she hadn’t broken a knuckle by now. “Anyway. Let’s begin.” She started the PowerPoint presentation and dimmed the lights. Aisha did not outright put her head down against her desk, not wanting to earn herself a trip to Principal Parks’ office like Clayton, but she paid little attention to the white-coated actor on the screen, and she doubted she was the only one whose attention switched off. The were wars had taken place over one hundred years before and ended in a resounding defeat for the weres; they had been lucky to survive at all. Weres had blended in among the human populace to the best of their ability ever since then, intermarrying among humans until most weres couldn’t shape-shift even if they wanted to any longer. The only real remaining traits were a tendency towards amber-colored eyes, and a certain…possessiveness towards mates. And, for the girls, the heat.
On the projection screen, the white-coated actor with the reassuring face continued to speak. “As you get older, some of you may notice that you respond differently towards the opposite gender than your friends, and you probably wonder why.” A derisive mutter started up in the back of the room. Ms. Romanova snapped her fingers several times and turned on the lights, glaring until the snickers subsided. Aisha twirled her pen between her fingers and slumped further down into her uncomfortable desk seat. “Girls in particular might discover that their hormones become difficult to control during certain days of the month, and boys might find that they have a strong, confusing reaction to the young ladies around them. As frightening as these feelings might be, the important thing to keep in mind is not to be alarmed. With modern science, these urges can be medicated so that were-descended people don’t find their ordinary lives disrupted at all.”
“Heat,” Aisha said to her desk. “Just say it and stop being a coward. Weres go into heat.”
“Did you have something you wanted to say, Aisha?” Ms. Romanova asked, testily. Aisha’s eyes were a rich shade of hazel, striking but ultimately human, and her feelings towards the boys in her class had never differentiated from the sweaty palms and fluttering stomach marked by three-quarters of the other girls in her class. If the combined were heritage of her parents was enough to throw her into a heat cycle, the tendency hadn’t shown itself yet.
“No, ma’am,” Aisha replied obediently.
“Then please try to be respectful of the other students who may want to learn something.” Ms. Romanova turned back towards the presentation. Aisha twirled her pen through her fingers a few more times and watched with half her attention as the actor in the movie, who had probably never seen so much as a petri dish in his life, assured the class that having were blood was perfectly natural and that they shouldn’t treat their classmates any differently.
Sure, Aisha thought derisively. Except for the expensive suppressants and all of their side-effects. Beyond that, we’re just like you.
By the end of the video and the immediate uproar of the boys in the class trying to smell the girls that followed, Ms. Romanova looked as though she regretted taking up teaching at all.
***
Aisha fisted her hand through her long, black curls and held them up from her neck, turning her head this way and that as she scrutinized herself in the mirror above her bathroom sink. She looked good with her hair falling down about her shoulders and knew it, but the club Cassie wanted to take her to was guaranteed to be sweaty and
On the projection screen, the white-coated actor with the reassuring face continued to speak. “As you get older, some of you may notice that you respond differently towards the opposite gender than your friends, and you probably wonder why.” A derisive mutter started up in the back of the room. Ms. Romanova snapped her fingers several times and turned on the lights, glaring until the snickers subsided. Aisha twirled her pen between her fingers and slumped further down into her uncomfortable desk seat. “Girls in particular might discover that their hormones become difficult to control during certain days of the month, and boys might find that they have a strong, confusing reaction to the young ladies around them. As frightening as these feelings might be, the important thing to keep in mind is not to be alarmed. With modern science, these urges can be medicated so that were-descended people don’t find their ordinary lives disrupted at all.”
“Heat,” Aisha said to her desk. “Just say it and stop being a coward. Weres go into heat.”
“Did you have something you wanted to say, Aisha?” Ms. Romanova asked, testily. Aisha’s eyes were a rich shade of hazel, striking but ultimately human, and her feelings towards the boys in her class had never differentiated from the sweaty palms and fluttering stomach marked by three-quarters of the other girls in her class. If the combined were heritage of her parents was enough to throw her into a heat cycle, the tendency hadn’t shown itself yet.
“No, ma’am,” Aisha replied obediently.
“Then please try to be respectful of the other students who may want to learn something.” Ms. Romanova turned back towards the presentation. Aisha twirled her pen through her fingers a few more times and watched with half her attention as the actor in the movie, who had probably never seen so much as a petri dish in his life, assured the class that having were blood was perfectly natural and that they shouldn’t treat their classmates any differently.
Sure, Aisha thought derisively. Except for the expensive suppressants and all of their side-effects. Beyond that, we’re just like you.
By the end of the video and the immediate uproar of the boys in the class trying to smell the girls that followed, Ms. Romanova looked as though she regretted taking up teaching at all.
***
Aisha fisted her hand through her long, black curls and held them up from her neck, turning her head this way and that as she scrutinized herself in the mirror above her bathroom sink. She looked good with her hair falling down about her shoulders and knew it, but the club Cassie wanted to take her to was guaranteed to be sweaty and
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