My 18th birthday and Senior year

Chapter 14

As my alarm clock goes off, it's a week before my 18th birthday. I’m starting to feel weird, my body is aching all over, and I feel a bit weak. Not tired, just weak. As I open my eyes, and slap my alarm clock to shut it off, my vision is a bit off. It kinda feels sharper, my hearing is the same, but my vision is definitely sharper, and my senses are also sharper. I can also sense things further away.

 I get up and walk to my shower, and I notice my pants seem to have gotten a bit shorter, as if I've grown a little bit more. As I look at myself in the mirror, I notice that I’m indeed taller. If I had to take a guess, I'd say I'm at least 6 feet tall. I immediately  mind-link my mom and dad to come to my room. When my mom and dad get there, they immediately ask me what’s wrong, but I hear my mom gasp, when she sees me. My dad just says, “I knew it”, with a smirk on his face, and my mom and I say at the same time, “Would you like to fill us in?!!” 

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Violet pov

This morning, while my husband and I are getting dressed in our room, we receive a frantic mind-link from our daughter. I looked over at my husband, to which he gave me a look of, ‘I don’t know’, with a shake of his head and a shrug of his shoulders. I tell him, “Well, let's go see what's going on, my dear husband.” We make our way to our daughter's room. 

When we entered I asked my daughter, “What's wrong?” As I walk around the corner, into the bathroom, I see it. My daughter is way taller, her hair is much more prominent in the colors of the black and purple, with the blue and red streaks and pink tips. She definitely looks, as if she is hearing and seeing things better. She also has a small, what looks like to be a tattoo, below her right ear of a dragon.  

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Havrith pov

As soon as my wife and I receive the mind-link from my daughter, I look at my wife, shrug my shoulders and shake my head at her. We make our way out of our room, and down the hall to my daughters room. We walk in, and my wife and I head to my daughters bathroom. As I'm standing there, watching her and my wife talk, I’m smiling to myself, as I know what is happening. I know my daughter is getting her dragon soon, I’d say it will be the night of her 18th birthday. 

My daughter and wife look at me and say, “What?” and I can't help but burst out laughing. My wife hits my arm, and when I calm down, I tell them, “What you 2 don't know? Ashley sweetie, you’re getting your dragon soon.” My daughter looks at me with a dumbfounded look on her face.

 I just smiled at her and said, “I didn't know for sure that you were going to get it. So I didn't say anything, when you shifted so early with your wolf, I had my suspicions, but I wasn't sure. As I've never heard of a Tri-ling before, so there was no guarantee. I figured you would either get one, or both, but could not be sure. However, now seeing you, and how you look, I know you will now get your dragon. I can't wait to see her, I've been waiting for another dragon to fly with me, in our family. Yes, I know that Jackie’s dad is also a dragon, but it’s not the same when teaching a new dragon to fly.”

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Ashley pov

I stand there just looking at my dad, just wondering why he waited so long to tell me. I find myself wondering, if there were signs, my dad as if reading my thoughts says, “There were signs honey, but not enough to be concrete proof. I may have had my suspicions, but I was not sure, not until I saw you just now this morning. No honey, you are not a freak, because you will still have your wolf.” 

As he says this I wonder to myself if Midnight Rose is going to have a problem with flying, as she is a land animal. To which she says, “I'm a wolf, not an animal, and no I think it would be fun, if not a little scary. Also, sharing the space in your head will be kinda fun. Having someone else to bounce ideas off of, when you're busy doing human or witch stuff, might help keep me sane.”

I snicker and tell my parents what Midnight Rose just told me. They both start laughing, as do I. Midnight just chuffs in my head, and I start laughing even more. When we all calm down, I look at my mom and say, “Well I guess a shopping trip is in order, I’ll see what I can wear for now, and we can donate my old clothing to the orphanage. When I figure out what no longer fits, I'm going to assume most of my pants, lol and probably my shorter dresses.” 

“It's fine honey,” my dad says. “I kinda knew this day would come, so I was preparing for it. In a way, that's why I had you buy some longer dresses and shorts. I would like to get you measured, to see how tall you are now. You look to be at least 6 feet tall, but you might be 6 foot 1 inch or 3 inch tall.” 

I mind-link the girls and Matt and tell them to meet me in my room, and to prepare for a big surprise. About 5 minutes later, they all get to my room and knock on my door, and I tell them to come in. I'm standing there in my black and purple dress, with my black ballet flats on. I have some makeup on, but my hair I left down.

 When they walk in, they look as if they are in shock at first. Matt pipes up first, and whistle’s “Damn girl, you are taller, and your hair, holy crap, as if I thought the colors couldn't get any brighter.” The girls all say together, “What happened?” To which I snicker and say, “My dad says this is because I’m getting my dragon!” Again, they all look shocked. Kim this time, is the first to say, “Damn girl a dragon?” Alice then pipes up and says, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah” I say, “As if I was not enough of a freak already, let's add even more, taller in height to the mix. I swear when I get a mate, I hope he or she doesn't mind me being a tall freak.” Matt comes over, and puts his hand on my shoulder, and says, “Ashley, I’m sure your mate will love you no matter what. You'll see, it will all be fine, so why did you call us all, I'm sure it wasn't for us to Gawk over how amazing you look.” 

“Actually, I was hoping I could convince you guys to join me for a shopping trip. As my pants and most of my clothing no longer fit me.” Matt gives me a look like ‘Girl you know it’. Then everyone else says, “We’re game.” So we all set a time for 1 pm, and went off to do our own thing for the morning. I headed for the training grounds and realized that I can't exactly train in a super short dress, so I just watched the training. My dad comes and sits next to me, and I tell him my fears about finding my mate.

My dad tells me, “You’re overthinking it sweetie, your mate will not reject you, just because you’re six foot three now. Whoever your mate is, will love you for who you are. You will still be Alpha of this pack, and they will be either a Co-Alpha or your Luna.” I look over at him and give him a smile and nod. It's not really going to placate me, but it did help me to get my mind off it.

After training, my dad and I head into the pack house, and my mother has lunch ready. I tell her and dad that the girls, as well as me and Matt, will be going to the mall at 1pm, to get me some new clothing. 

It's now a week before my birthday, and I know my mom and the pack have something planned. I’m lost in thought, as the girls and Matt meet me at my truck to head out. We all climbed in my truck. Matt, Alice and I in the front, and Jackie, Kim, and Crystal in the back.

When we get to the mall, I hit up some of the normal stores, and quickly realize that most of the clothing isn't going to fit. I found some really cute things at Forever 21, but when I tried it on, it wasn’t long enough to even cover my ass. When I found a store called Torrid, I felt like I hit the mother load. This store is designed for taller, and bigger women. They had very cute pants, shorts, skirts, shirts and dresses. I found some swimsuits, and leggings as well, and some really cute shoes and socks, as well as tights.

 After we paid for everything, and put it all in my truck, for safekeeping, we had dinner at Red Robin. After we ate, we headed back to the packhouse. I parked my truck and took everything up to my room. Matt stayed with me, and helped me put everything away, and pack my old clothing, to take to the orphanage. 

As I head to bed, with thoughts running through my head, and though I find sleep, it feels like it went too fast. The next morning, when I wake up, I feel super tired. My mom and dad are waiting for me at the table for breakfast, and I find myself eating more than ever before. 

My dad says, “Ash sweetie, you look exhausted. Your dragon must be coming soon. She might even appear in your head a few days before you shift, so her and your wolf could make room in your headspace.” After breakfast my mom and I do some more witch training, followed by my dad with more Alpha duties training. 

The day of my birthday is fast approaching, and my head starts hurting. It feels like something is trying to break through. My wolf, Midnight Rose, says, “It's your dragon side, they are trying to come into your headspace. They are trying to  communicate with both of us.” She tells me to focus on my mind, and help her break through. After about an hour or so, a bubbly and chiper voice is in my head saying, “Hello Midnight Rose and Ashley, my name is Crimson Rose. I'm your dragon, we will shift soon. In about 3 days, at midnight, on your 18th birthday. For now though I need to rest, and work with Midnight Rose, to create an equal space in your mind.” 

Today is the day of my 18th birthday. My mom and dad have been busy all day, with the rest of the pack, setting up decorations. Everything looks amazing, there is black, red and purple decorations everywhere. Dragons and wolves are everywhere, as decorations, both in pictures and plates with napkins. The cake looks huge, it has a picture of a dragon flying across the night sky, while a wolf is howling at the moon. The event center is all set up, with balloons and streamers in red, black and purple and blue everywhere, and a DJ on the opposite wall, from the buffet table that’s full of food and drinks. 

My birthday is in full swing, and we are all having fun, when Crimson Rose tells me to head outside, as it's almost time. I mid-link my dad and tell him, everyone in the pack, head outside. My dad and I step into the clearing, in the garden area behind the events center. 

I feel the shift starting, before I even have time to get undressed. I hear my bones snapping and rearranging, and the pain is like nothing I've ever felt before. I scream and double over in pain. As I hit the grown on my knees, Crimson says, “It’s almost over, try and relax.” As I mentally roll my eyes the pain stops. I open my eyes, and what I see shocks me, my dragon stands 12 feet tall, and has a 6 foot long tail. Her scales are red with purple outlines around them, and she has large wings that reach a total of 8 feet across, when fully open. Her wings are purple with Red outlines, opposite of her scales. At the end of her arms, she has 4 fingered claws. My dad looks at me with awe, and says “Honey your eyes are bright, a super bright blue, almost like an icy blue!”

 Crimson says, “How about we go for a flight to seal the bond? I would love to spread my wings.” I mind-link my dad to tell him Crismon wants to go for a flight to seal the bond and ask if he wants to join us. My dad smiles at me and says, “I thought you'd never ask. Give Crimson control for now, and I’ll shift into my dragon. Let’s fly.”

I give Crimson control, and she takes flight. Shortly thereafter, my dad joins us in the air. After the 2 dragons have their chance to fly, my dad asks me through the mind-link, if I'd like to give it a go. He goes over some basics with me like banking, and not flapping my wings too much. To just glide for the most part, and only flap when I need more lift, and to never take my eyes off what is in front of me.

 After some more talking from my dragon, she pulls back from the forefront of my mind and gives me control. At first, I’m scared out of my mind, but as time goes on, I get more and more used to it. We spend about an hour flying around, before my mom mind-links us, and says, “Ok you two, it’s time to have cake!” My dad and I snicker, and start to head back to land. As it’s my first time, I give back control to Crimson. She lands back where we took off, like she has done it a million times before. We shift back, and Matt meets me with a new dress, and a blanket to cover me. 

After I get dressed, we head in for cake. The rest of the night, I spend some time with my fellow pack members, and friends. A few hours later, I grabbed the microphone from the DJ, and quieted everyone down. I tap the mic and say, “Hey, everyone I just wanted to say thank you all for coming to my 18th birthday celebration! The Event Center will still be open for the next 2 hours, for anyone that still wants to dance and eat more. I, however, am going to bed. It’s been a long day and I’m exhausted!” Everyone at my party collectively says, “Goodnight Ashley, Happy Birthday!!”

As I head back to the packhouse, Midnight and Crimson are both cuddled up, and passed out and snoring in my head. When I get to my room, I don’t even bother taking off my party outfit or removing my makeup. As soon as my head hits my pillow, I’m out cold, like Midnight and Crimson.

The next day, I don’t wake up until about 2pm. My mom and dad came to check on me in the morning, but as I was still sleeping, they just quietly left again. When I finally woke up, my body was extremely sore all over. Crimson said, “Your body is still in recovery from your 1st shift. Usually, it only takes 1 night to adjust to the new form, but as there are 2 different forms, dragon and wolf, it might take 2 to 3 days, for your bones and muscles, to fully adjust into a form that works for both Midnight and myself.”

I mind-link my parents, and tell them that I’m awake, but Crimson said it might take 2 to 3 days for my body to adjust to being able to shift into both forms. I ask if they can bring me some food, and water to my room. After I’ve eaten what my mom brought me, I get out of bed to try and go take a shower. My body screams at me, so instead I just lay in my bathtub, with the jets on high, to help relax the muscles. 

3 days later……

My body is finally adjusted and I can get out of bed without falling down from pain. I head downstairs where everyone is eating breakfast, and they all stop eating to stare at me. “What?” I say. “Am I not allowed to eat with everyone anymore?” Matt rushes over to me to tell me in my ear, that my hair has changed again. My hair is now a midnight blue, with purple, black and red streaks in it, and it almost looks like an ombre  color with pink ends. It also now reaches halfway down my back.

“There’s no way!” I said. I rushed over to the closest mirror, and no shit, Matt was right. There were even some light, natural waves in my hair. I turned this way and that way, and my hair flowed as it swayed. It even looked like there was some silvery shimmer in the midnight blue areas that made it look like stars. 

After staring at my hair for another few minutes, I sat down at the table with the others, and us kids started talking about my party and Jackie’s 18th birthday that was coming up in 3 weeks. Jackie said she wanted a ‘Pretty in Pink’ themed birthday and we all started laughing. “I swear Jackie, you and ‘the everything has to be pink’ phase you’re going through. I hope your dragon has pink, like your favorite color, at least some of it, that is.” I said.

Jackie laughed and said, “I hope so too, pale pink is already in my hair, but that might just be because my Fae side is a pink hue.” We all laughed and kept talking about what we think Jackie’s dragon might look like and what her name might be.

2 weeks later we started our final year of high school. We had all AP classes again, AP English, AP Calculus, AP Bio Chemistry, AP History. We finally didn't have to have any elective classes or language classes, so our school days were only 4 hours long, and we got to leave at lunch.

Today Mary Jo, and her 2 minions Sasha and Angie, stopped us as we were walking to my truck after school. Mary Jo wanted to talk to us about something. She claimed she didn’t want to end the year as enemies and wanted to settle our differences. They wanted to meet at the diner across the street to talk, so we agreed to meet them over there.

When we got over there, we sat in a secluded booth in the back, where it wasn’t as busy. Mary Jo started the convo, “So, like the reason why I didn’t like you, when ya’ll started here, didn’t like actually have anything to do with you. Like my mom, just like got the news that she was set to like deploy the following week. My mom is in the Air Force, and she's like gone a lot. Sasha and Angie’s mom are also in like my mom’s platoon. So like all 3 of our moms were like deploying in a week. My dad is a CEO of like a big Pharma company and so he’s gone a lot too. Shasha’s dad is like the CFO of my dads company and Angie’s dad is like the COO of the company. They all take off and go to like the same business meetings across the USA and all over the like world too. We’re sorry we took it out on like you these past 2 and a half years. Like it wasn’t even your fault. Like we know we were being bitches about like everything and I like admit, I was like jealous when your name Ashley got put like on the top of the like school bulletin after the like 2nd week that you were like here.”  

Then Sasha took over and said, “I’m like sorry too, the day we like asked if you liked hanging out with the trash, wasn’t like a really bad news day, but like my dad, was like headed to Japan for 2 weeks, and he was like leaving my like bastard step-brother in like charge of me and my little sister. We like really hate him and the like bad influence people he likes to like bring around the house, like whenever my parents are not like home. They like do drugs and shit and then like blame it on me when like shit goes missing in our house.”

Angie was the last to talk, “I’m like sorry too. When my dad left for a different location than Sasha’s dad, I was even more pissed off, because like I know he’s cheating on my mom, and he like uses her deployments to go see his like mistress in a different state, and her family. Well I guess it’s his family, since he leaves me to take like care of my little siblings alone. I have to like get them ready for like day-care and school. My little brother is 3 and my little sister is 7 and in 2nd grade.” 

Mary Jo took the convo back over and asked, “Do you think we can bury the like hatchet or like whatever it’s called, and be like civil if not friends?” “Can we think things over for a day, and get back to you tomorrow at school?” I ask. “Of like course!!” all 3 of them say.

That night we talk it over, about giving Mary Jo, and her minions a clean slate. After several hours of debating, we decided to give them another chance. Mary Jo actually gave me her number before we parted ways this afternoon. So I texted her, and told her what we decided, and asked if she wanted to hang out with us this weekend at the outlet mall. Mary Jo said yes, so we planned to meet there around 9am on Sunday. 

That Sunday we met up at the mall and walked around to see if they are being surreal about becoming friends. They want to treat us to lunch, and some fun to apologize. So we leave the mall and head to the Olive Garden, for their never ending pasta and salad with breadsticks, for lunch. While there, Mary Jo asks us if we’ve ever been bowling, to which we say no. She then tells us that that’s where they normally go on Saturday nights with their younger siblings to let them have some fun. We tell them, that in the little town, near where we live, that we have built 2 obstacle courses, 1 for adults and 1 for kids. She says that sounds like fun, and asks if they can bring their siblings over to that too, to which we all say yes. I tell her that we also have a $10 per month per household YMCA, which has pools, gym, and sports courts.

Mary Jo, Sasha and Angie have joined our clique and now we all hangout after school at the diner until they have to go to pick up their siblings from school and day-care. We have actually become friends, I know enemies to friends, very cliche.

The next week Jackie shifts into her dragon, and with no surprise it’s 2 shades of pink with blue outlines. Her dragon’s name is Camelle and she’s as bubbly as my own dragon. Jackie’s eye color has changed slightly to a pink and blue bi-color and her hair is now a blondish pink with light blue streaks in it.

The next few months go on as usual, Jackie’s dad teaches her how to fly and both her and I, do flying patrols, every week with the other dragon shifters, as we get used to flying. Midnight has actually become a fan of it because and I quote, “It’s like a rush of wind blowing through my fur!”. 

Over winter break we host our 1st mating ball, now that all of us are 18, to see if we find our mates. Sad to say, even with how many other shifters came, that none of us 6 found our mate. Maybe during the spring or summer ball we’ll find our mates. However, lots of our warriors and their family members did find their mates. Their families decided to move in and join our pack. We now have over 500 people in our pack.

The 2nd semester is more of the same, though this time, the rest are figuring out where they want to go to college, and getting applications sent out. Spring rolls around, and we host our 2nd mating ball. More of our pack found their mates and their families joined ours, but unfortunately, the 6 of us didn’t find ours again. Next month we will be graduating and I’ll be sending in the application to the royal council.

2 weeks later…..

It’s now 2 weeks until we graduate, and spirits are high, as lots of us high school kids have gotten acceptance letters back, from colleges that were in our top 3 choices. Mary Jo and I were both called into the Principal's office today, we both gave a ‘WTF did you do and why am I involved look’ to each other, while we sat outside his office. When he called us both in at the same time, and told us to have a seat, we both thought we were in some big trouble.

Turns out the Principal just wanted to let us both know that we were chosen to be Valedictorian, Mary Jo as the regular side, and myself for the AP side. He wanted us to both write a speech to present at the graduation ceremony. He also wanted to ask us if we knew of a place big enough to hold the ceremony indoors as there is a storm coming and the gym isn’t big enough to hold 300 students and their families. I told him he could ask my dad, about using our Event Center, near our little town that’s a 40 minute drive from the school. He said he’ll contact my dad about it, thanked us, and we left his office.