Jaguar Sun by Martha Bourke

enough for me to see his face. His eyes were red.
    “Matt, what is it? What’s wrong?”
    “Go home, Maya.”
    “What are you talking about? What’s going on?”
    “Nothing. Just go home.”
    “Let me in,” I said, surprising myself by how forceful I sounded.
    “Maya, just go home, please,” he said, sounding suddenly desperate.
    “Let me in. Now.”
    “Fine!” He slammed the door against the wall and walked away from me. I followed him into the living room. “You wanna know what’s going on?” he snarled. “Fine. My life’s over, that’s what’s going on.”
    I stared at him, taken aback by his strange behavior. And that’s when I saw it—the beautiful mark of the gray wolf on the back of his neck. I could hardly believe my eyes.
    “Wait, wait...you’re...you’re a shifter? That’s what this is about?”
    He turned to face me. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m a shifter. So I guess it’s out. Are you laughing ? What the hell’s the matter with you? I tell you I’m a shifter and—”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. I mean, I was in total shock. Catching my breath and turning around, I slid my hoodie down over my shoulders and held up my hair so that he could see my mark.
    “Oh, come on, Maya, it’s not the same as getting a tattoo, you know that.” He rubbed his palms over his eyes. “God, I’m going be the only shifter in school!”
    “Matt! It’s not a tattoo!”
    “What?”
    “I’m a shifter.” I managed to smile.
    “Come on, My, you’re not even eighteen. And what are you telling me, you phase into a tree?”
    I looked into his eyes, those beautiful, sad eyes, and I begged Balam to tell me what to do.
    “Get your coat,” I said.
    “What?”
    “Don’t get all dumb jock on me. Get your coat.” And that’s when I realized that he probably hadn’t even left the house in days. “Come on, no one’s going to see you where we’re going.”
    I finally got him to the car, but his face said it all. He was going through everything I had gone through, and worse. He didn’t have Grandma, the twins or a mentor to help him through it. Well, I said to myself, maybe he didn’t have an actual mentor, but he had me.
    “Where’re we going?” he asked.
    “Relax. Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” I said as I put the top down. I swung onto 180 and headed toward the Gila Forest. I took us a ways in, taking it slow.
    “So,” I asked him when we were out of sight of the highway, “so when did it start?”
    “Last Tuesday. In P.E.”
    Yikes. I pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car.
    “What’re you doing?” he asked.
    “Do you want to learn how to phase or not?” I watched his face. It showed all of the fear and uncertainty that I had felt. But he was curious, too.
    “So you really are....” His voice trailed off.
    “Do you seriously think my dad would let me get a tattoo?”
    “Now that I think about it, it did seem a little off.”
    “A little? Okay, I’ll go first. The key is to find your trigger. It’s usually a thought. My trigger is remembering the freedom that phasing gives me.”
    “What’s your second form?”
    “Watch.”
    I turned away from him, relaxed a moment, and held the image of Balam clearly in my mind. Just as before, I thought about freedom and I started to feel the pull forward from my very center. Then I let go.
    Matt gasped. “Maya, oh my God, you’re—you’re so beautiful!”
    I trotted back to him and stopped right in front of him, nudging at his hand with my nose so he could feel my fur. He scratched me behind my ear. Man, did that feel good. Yum ! After a couple minutes of bliss, I moved away from him, let everything relax, and phased back.
    “What?” I said.
    “So, you really don’t lose your clothes when you phase. Gee, that’s too bad.”
    I smacked him in the arm, but I was glad he was starting to relax. “Ready to try?” I asked him. The fear returned to his face almost immediately. “Okay,” I said, “but first