“Hey, Honey?” Archie tugged at her arm. “Since Buck isn’t here, can we shift?”
“I don’t see why not.” Honey smiled down at him. “But make sure you put your clothes somewhere safe this time, okay? I didn’t bring any spare pants.”
“Yeah!” Archie cheered. He waved at the others. “Guys! Honey said yes!”
Rufus was already shimmering into his griffin form. Beth shifted to a pegasus, prancing around him. She flicked her tail in his face, like teasing a kitten with a bit of string. Rufus pounced, and Beth jumped into the air, soaring away. The griffin hesitated, then followed more clumsily, struggling to get aloft.
Honey remembered what the girls had said last night, that it wasn’t healthy for shifters to stay in one shape too long. It wasn’t something that Buck had mentioned, but it made sense. Now, as she watched Beth and Rufus chase each other through the sky, something else belatedly occurred to her.
“Finley,” she said. “Are you okay at camp?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Yes, of course I am. Why?”
“It’s just, you’re a shark, and we’re a long way from any ocean.” She could have kicked herself from not spotting this earlier. “You aren’t able to shift here.”
Finley hesitated. “Well…”
“Oh, don’t worry about him,” Estelle said airily. “He can shift just fine.”
Honey glanced at the lake. “So you’re a freshwater shark?”
Finley fidgeted. “Not exactly.”
“Wait, you can shift on land?” Archie interrupted, looking up. “I thought you’d just, like, flop around and die.”
Finley was starting to look a little hunted. “No, but—”
“Then shift now!” Archie scrambled to his feet, one sock still on. He poked Finley in the shoulder with one finger. “I wanna see a real live shark!”
“Me too,” Flora agreed. “I havesomany questions. Do you really have skin like sandpaper? Can you smell a drop of blood from miles and miles away? How big are you?”
Finley shot Estelle a look that was rather less friendly than normal. “Thanks, Estelle.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Stop being a wuss, Finley. I don’t know why you’re so weird about this. You shift all the time back in Atlantis.”
“That’s different,” Finley said. “Everyone there already knows what I am. I don’t want people here to…”
“To what, Finley?” Honey said gently, when he didn’t continue.
Finley looked at his feet. “To treat me any differently.”
“I wouldn’t be scared of you,” Archie reassured him. “Sharks are cool.”
“Yeah, we’re your friends, silly.” Flora demonstrated this by punching Finley in the shoulder, in a way that was probably meant to be affectionate but still made him stagger. “We know you aren’t going to eat anyone.”
“It’s not that.” Finley bit his lip. “It’s just… things are complicated, back home. Because of my animal, and—and my family. Everyone thinks I’m special.”
“Youarespecial,” Estelle said matter-of-factly.
“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t.” The moment the words left his mouth, Finley looked stricken, like he’d just confessed to some terrible crime. “I didn’t mean that! Don’t tell my mom and dad.”
“Of course we won’t,” Estelle said. She took his hand, squeezing it. “What happens at camp, stays at camp, right?”
“You can say whatever you want here, Finley,” Honey said. “Even things you can’t say back home. It must be hard, having to live up to everyone’s expectations.”
“It’s not that I’d rather be someone else,” Finley said. “I’m proud of my animal, and my mom and dad. And I’m grateful that I was born with this power, because it means that one day I’ll be able to help people, and make the world a better place. But sometimes I think it would have been easier if I’d just been a sea dragon like my dad, or a great white shark like my mom.”
“It’s tough, being different,” Claire said, somewhat to Honey’s surprise. She was so shy, she rarely spoke up in a group. “Even when everyone tells you it’s a good kind of different.”
