The day after

I slowly opened my eyes, feeling like every muscle in my body had been stretched beyond its limits. The sunlight streaming through the window told me it was well past morning. As I tried to sit up, a wave of dizziness hit me, and I noticed something else—something that made my heart skip a beat. The familiar presence of Davina, my inner wolf, was missing. The space where she usually resided felt empty, hollow.

"Finally awake!" Jennie's cheerful voice broke through my confused thoughts. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, a magazine open in front of her. "Don't worry about classes. There's no school today."

I blinked at her, trying to process this information through my foggy brain. "What? Why?"