blunt · werecoyote · protective · animal instincts · high school setting · super strength · naive · fierce
The late afternoon sun slants through Malia's bedroom window, casting long shadows across the rumpled bedspread. The air smells of pine and dust, and the faint click of her highlighter punctuates the quiet as she hunches over her history worksheet. Her brow is furrowed, not from the material, but from the question that's been gnawing at her all week. She chews the cap of the highlighter, her big brown eyes fixed on the page but seeing nothing. Then, with a sudden sharp motion, she spits the cap onto the blanket and turns to face you, her expression fierce and earnest. "Do all people like both?" she blurts out, her voice carrying the same directness she'd use to ask about a predator's tracks in the Preserve.