I was sweating like crazy and I felt like I couldn’t move anywhere. They were attacking my family, the Nighters were. They were hurting them and I couldn’t do anything about it. I was trying to run and help them, but I couldn’t get to them. I screamed and yelled at them, trying to get their attention. Suddenly I was being pulled back away from my family. They were soon just a speck in my vision.

I woke up suddenly. It was just a nightmare. I have been having the same one since I’ve been here. I rubbed my eyes and then opened them.

“Hey Anna!” Bryn exclaimed.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. What was she doing here?

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“Well, a matter of fact I was chosen one year ago. My job has been to keep you safe from the Nighters, but not on Mondays, that’s my day off.” She explained.

“So you’ve been in this for a while?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait. One question. Why would you have to protect me from the Nighters?”

“Um. Well, you should ask Jack.”

Suddenly I realized that there was another person in the room. He was sitting in the chair and he was GORGEOUS! He was tall, dark and handsome. He had thick brown hair and emerald green eyes. Bryn realized I was staring at him.

“Oh. This is Conner, he’s my boyfriend. We met here and we’ve been together ever since.” She said

Wow. How cheesier could you get Bryn? I acted polite anyway.

“Nice to meet you.” I said to him.

“Same to you.” He replied.

“Well we better get going and you have to go to practice right?” Bryn asked

I nodded and they left. After they left, I laid back down and thought about everything that had happened to me in the past month. I was chosen to protect the human race, I’ve learned about a secret world apart from our own, and I have been turned into a wolf/man cross breed. What surprised me the most was that one of my best friends was also one before I was and I never noticed. I did think that it was strange that she was never at school on Mondays but I thought that was just how Bryn was.

I put all of that out of my mind and focused on the day ahead of me. Today was the same as the past weeks have been: training, training and more training. I got up from my bed and took a shower. After that, I slipped on a pair of sweats and my Phillies t-shirt. Walking into the kitchen from my room, I stub my toe on the doorframe. I held my breath and grabbed my foot. When the pain went down, I limped over to the counter and slide a bagel into the toaster. Next I poured myself a glass of OJ. I noticed that Bryn had brought me a newspaper to read. I dove right into it and when I saw that the Phillies were doing great, I threw my hands in the air and yelled “WOOH!” Right then someone knocked on my door and the toaster popped.

“Come on in! It’s unlocked!” I said as I pulled my bagel out of the toaster. I slathered on some cream cheese when Jack walked in. His spiky blonde hair was wet and plastered to his face. He was probably just at the pool. He may not look like it, but Jack loves being in the water and he is the best swimmer I have ever seen. He can swim miles without getting tired and hold his breath just over seven minutes.

“Been swimming?” I asked him.

“Oh,” he touched his wet hair. ”yeah. Do you mind if I grab a towel?”

“Go ahead.” I told him.

I finished my bagel and juice when Jack came back shaking his semi-dry hair.

“So guess what today is?” Jack asked

“What?”

“The big day.”

Jack had been mentioning this day since I started training here. It would be the day when I first make the change. I must admit that I have been so nervous about today because I didn’t know how this was going to work and Frado said it was the hardest part in this whole challenge.

“Well, see you at eleven.” Jack said and then left.

I looked at the clock; it was 9:30. There was only one and a half hours separating me and the thing that would change me forever. I worried about this for almost thirty minutes, but didn’t realize until I looked up at the clock again. I decided that it was time to head down to the training room. I was walking to the elevator when I spotted Bryn down the hallway. She saw me too and jumped into the elevator with me at the last second. As we were in the elevator, I told her what I would be doing in an hour so she gave me some pointers.

“Just stay calm. If you aren’t calm, it will be harder to change. You will know when your close to it if you feel all of the energy in your body go to your heart. I you feel that, then you want to hold your breath and you will feel dizzy and you’ll be a beast!” She had a weird way of explaining things.

We were at the training room and I could see Jack inside giving a lesson to a couple of guys. They’re names were Marcus and Colin. Colin was eleven years old and Marcus was my age. They weren’t related at all, but they look like they could be brothers. They both had the same jet black hair and deep brown eyes. They weren’t very friendly, so that’s basically all I knew about them.

I had seen many people here practice changing and all of them seemed to get it quickly. It looked like it was nothing to them. I wondered if I would be able to do it so easily as them. Jack spotted me when I walked into the door and he began wrapping up his lesson with Colin and Marcus.

Since I’ve been here, Jack and I have grown closer and closer. Because he chose me, he is now like a second father to me. No where close to my real father, but more like a godfather. Marcus and Colin walked past me and out the door. Okay this is it. Just stay calm, I told myself. I walked over to Jack and nervously stood across from him. I could see that he was really excited about this, but I couldn’t find a reason to make myself feel the same way.

“Alright,” Jack said as he clapped his hands together and rubbed them. “Let’s get started.”

He taught me some breathing exercises to help me in the beginning and how to channel my energy. I was on the brink of transformation when I heard a long and loud howl. At first I thought it was me and that I had made the change, but when Jack started pulling me out the door it broke my concentration and I realized that it was something else. We went down the stairs onto the ground floor and into the room with the computers that Frado had brought me to a month before. This room was jam packed though. Jack made his way to the front and the man who was sitting in the chair pointed to one of the large screens. I couldn’t see what was on the screen and when I was trying to get closer to the screen, I was pressed against the wall with Willy in front of me, Rosie behind me and next to me was a guy the same age as Frado. They were great friends and they always hung out with each other. I didn’t know him that well, but I knew his name was Chris. He wasn’t as tall as Frado and he had short brown hair. We exchanged glances and nervous smiles before we went back to listening about whatever was on the screens.

“It looks like they are forming in North Delaware. We could be there in thirty minutes if we hurry.” The man in the chair said.

“Alright, let’s head out. Team A & B out to the trucks. Team C stay here.” Jack’s voice was loud and clear.

Suddenly I was being pushed around as people shoved out the door. I finally made it out an sported Jack just walking out the front door. I ran to try and catch up with him, weaving through the people. I got out the door and made it to Jack before he got in his truck. He saw me and turned around.

“No Anna you have to stay here.” He said.

“I want to come.” I told him.

“NO! STAY HERE!” He yelled. And with that, he left along with the other pickup trucks. I watched them one by one drive out of sight.