Soar, Part 5 - Duck

Monday opened up crisp and sunny, the trees around the park swaying in the soft breeze. Alex could hear the last blackbirds of the autumn singing in the trees as she hurried across the park towards the school. She was going to be late, and she refused to be late. Taking the steps two at a time she slipped into their homeroom seconds before the teacher.

"Good morning, class," said Miss Hemsburg as she walked in. Someone trailed in after her.

"Good morning, Miss Hemsburg," the class chorused after a moment's pause, no doubt caused by the surprise of seeing the newcomer.

"Today I have some very... unusual news," said the teacher, shuffling through her papers. "We received a transfer student just this weekend." She gestured at the person standing next to the teacher's desk. Alex exchanged a look with Annalise, who was sitting on the desk next to her. She shrugged. No one else in the class didn't seem to know what was happening either.

It was a boy, or at least Alex thought it was. He had white hair, just a bit wavy, cut above his ears, which were round. His eyes were yellow and they scanned the classroom with amused intrigue. He seemed... normal. Almost too normal. He possessed no outward signs of his race, like horns or wings or a tail, which wasn't that uncommon, but still stuck out like a sore thumb in the class where most people did. Alex squinted at him as his eyes drifted over her.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?" the teacher suggested, and the boy looked at her.

"Sure," he said, his voice surprisingly light. "My name is Anka, Anka Wuopio. It's nice to meet you all. I hope that we'll get along." He smiled sweetly, but Alex couldn't help but feel it was... forced, somehow.

He took a seat at the back of the class and the lesson begun.

~x~

"So, what are you, exactly?"

There was a crowd around Anka's desk during recess, as the students tried to find out more about the mysterious transfer student. He was nice, and polite, going along with their questioning and giving the most roundabout answers Alex had heard since the previous parliament elections. Alex wasn't sure what to think of it... Was he hiding something, or was he just too polite to outright tell the others to bugger off?

The girl who had asked the very straightforward question was slapped on the arm by her friend with a muffled hiss of "you can't just ask that!", but Anka just laughed.

"I am an animorphagus, actually," he answered with ease. There was a collective 'ooh', from the students. Animorphs didn't show the traits of their animal forms, except for during transformation, so that explained why no one could tell.

"What animal?" asked the friend who had just reprimanded the other girl for being just as blunt.

"Well, I can't give away all my secrets, can I?" asked Anka with a sly grin and the girls 'aww'd in disappointment. "I'll tell you this though; it's a bird."

If only you'd given away any of your secrets during the conversation, maybe I'd buy this bullshit, thought Alex to herself.

"Are you okay, Alex? You've been glaring at Anka for a while now," came a voice by Alex's ear and she looked up, surprised. Skye was looking at her, brow knit together in worry, and her other friends were looking uncertain as well.

"Oh," said Alex. She scratched behind her ear. "Sorry. It's just.... I can't shake the feeling there's something... off about 'em."

"Off?" asked Olivia and Alex shrugged.

"I don't know," she said. "I feel like there's something more to this Anka Wuopio than meets the eye."

The girls were silent for a while, regarding each other worriedly.

"I suppose..." said Roxie finally. "That would be his animal form."

The rest of the girls groaned and returned to their desks while Roxie sniggered to herself.
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DONE. I know I'm late I forgot haha.

New character ooh.

Your topic issssssssss "Statue"

Pie out.
P.S. I'm giving you full reigns on where this story goes from here. You clearly don't want to write about normal things, so You get to decide what the thing is gonna be! I'll back you up with anything you decide to write. See you on Wednesday!