Calfuray Academy (ManxMan)

Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Crawling Out of the Friend Zone

"It is important to remember that cat shifters instincts vary greatly from dog shifter instincts. It is easy to lump shifters and their tendencies together but when learning about a shifter, one must learn about their animal counterpart and assume that half of their mannerisms come from that side of them . . . " My eyes were wide as I focused on Dean's words. He had been reviewing the shifter unit for our end of the unit test when one of my classmates asked the dumbest question.

"Why are we learning about the different shifters?" The whole class had frozen when the question has arisen. "Don't they all have different animal shifts but act the same?"

I almost felt disgusted when I heard a few more mummers of agreement from other students, students who probably weren't shifters themselves. The twitch of irritation that Dean let loose was his only break of composure before he calmly shut the students down.

They had been learning the entire shifter unit yet they still didn't realize how different the shifters were? It might have been because our Dean talked about groups of animal shifters and talked generally about them but the shifters were all different. It blew my mind that I was in a class where some of the kids didn't see that.

After making that first statement, Dean went on to bring material from earlier in the unit and show how many contrasts existed between the groups. He was still making the guy who had asked the question look worse and worse when the bell finally rang to let us leave.

Dean sighed, threw a tensed hand over his wipe and made a large dramatic wave of his hand.

"Go." He said, watching the class with a calculated eye as we packed up to go. "I'll have all of class tomorrow to get those ignorant thoughts out of your heads." Sam and I were giggling at the glum faces around us as we shoved our stuff into our bags. We found it funny how sassy Dean got when some kids said something dumb in class. The two of us started to talk about what we thought Dean might do tomorrow and went to walk out of class.

I looked up and waved at Dean but instead of waving back and letting me go on my way he waved me over to him. I frowned in question before softly telling Sam not to wait up and walking over to Dean.

"What's up?" I asked him, twisting my bag strap in my hand to keep myself occupied. Dean looked intensely into my eyes for a few moments before cracking a small smile.

"Have you been to the pool area yet?" He asked me, slipping his hands into his jeans' pocket and rolling his shoulders. My eyes shot to the muscles around his neck and I blushed when I got a glimpse of his shoulder muscle tensing under the skin. I blinked a few times to focus on what his question was and slowly shook my head no.

"I thought that the pool was reserved for the swim club." I told him, confused as to why he would even mention the pool. Dean chuckled and I felt myself blush from embarrassment before I knew what I did wrong.

"I meant pool as in the pool tables." He explained, and my cheeks reddened even further. It was not uncommon for me to blush around him. That was mainly because I was very self-conscious around the man. Somehow, just by being around Dean, I felt as if everything I did was wrong. I knew that I had to get rid of that mindset if I wanted to form a real friendship with him, but it was hard when he had only been a holy vision in my mind for so long, and now he was a real guy that was talking to me.

Dean put his hand on my shoulder and gently rubbed the spot to ease my embarrassment.

"Don't get embarrassed about it, it doesn't matter." He told me, his deep and smooth voice calming my body and easing my mind. Dean smiled in self-satisfaction when he saw that I had relaxed. "I had asked you about it because I wanted to know if you wanted to go there with me after school tonight."