It was Sunday afternoon, a few weeks after the Cullens had found out about her and they were out in the woods. Maya had been explaining more about her kind to them and had mentioned that she was faster than your average animal and could run for longer periods than normal cats typically could. This information, given that she was in the company of the competitive vampire child Emmet, had naturally led to him challenging her to a race.
Which led to them all out in the middle of nowhere as Esme, the only one they could count on besides Carlisle to not cheat, played referee.
"On your mark ... get set ... go!"
Emmet and Maya took off running, him on two feet and her on four. They sped through the trees, ducking, dodging and jumping over obstacles, Maya only a step behind him.
"Gonna have to do better than that if you want to beat me!" He cried.
Maya let out a huffing laugh and picked up her pace, passing him. He growled at this, also speeding up trying to over take her again.
They eventually came around the final bend in the make shift track and could see the rest of the family cheering them on.
They both put on a final burst of speed, crossing the finish line at the same time. Both skidded along the ground, throwing up dirt and plants as they tried to stop. Maya actually getting a mouthful of weird tasting plants and dirt as she did.
"Yes! I totally won!" Emmet threw his fists up in the air in victory as Maya sent him a scowl, unable to talk back in her current form.
"Actually Emmet, you both tied" Esme cut in.
"What? No! I totally crossed before her!"
"No Em you definitely tied" Rose stated.
"Aren't you supposed to be on my side babe. I feel betrayed!" Emmet clutched his chest in mock hurt. Which caused them all to burst out laughing.
"You know we're just going to have to race again kitty!"
"Another time. Maya still needs sleep, especially since you all have school tomorrow" Carlisle interjected, knowing full well that Emmet would want to keep racing until he won.
Emmet pouted at this as they all turned to head back. Maya began to shift back, wanting to be able to talk as they walked, but began to panic as nothing happened.
Jasper who was just ahead whipped around the moment he began to feel her panic. "What is it Darlin'? What's wrong?" Racing back to her side he looked around for a threat but didn't see anything.
Maya continued to tremble as she tried to shift back, only managing to change her size from that of a panther the size of a horse to that of a small kitten.
By now all the Cullens had stopped to see what was wrong and looked at her in confusion. "Are you unable to shift back?" Carlisle asked.
She nodded her head frantically, not having the faintest clue what could be wrong with her as this had never happened before.
"Alright. Nobody panic. Let's get her back home to see if the book I got on shifters can tell us anything" Carlisle said taking control. They all nodded, Jasper quickly scooping her up into his arms before running home.
When they all arrived, Carlisle sped up to his office, returning a moment later with the book. He began to flip through the worn pages reading faster than any human could.
"Where did you even get a book on shifters?" Rose asked, trying to distract herself from her worry.
"A friend of mine lent it to me. He has spent many years studying them" Carlisle replied absently as he stopped flipping and began to scan through the page slower. "According to this book, the only thing that can affect a shifters ability to move between their human and animal form is a kind of herb that has to be ingested. Apparently, it is often used to help keep them in one form if they are injured and shifting would disrupt the healing."
He turned the book around so Maya, still in Jasper's protective hold, could see the drawing of the plant. "Have you eaten something like this recently? I know it grows around here as I have seen it in the woods on occasion."
Maya scanned the picture not really recognizing it. She was about to shake her head no, when she remembered the face full of dirt and plant she had gotten when her and Emmet had stopped. Just her luck, she had probably eaten that plant then.
She nodded her head, turning to Edward for a translation, letting down her mental walls just enough for him to hear the thoughts she wanted him to.
"She says she probably did when she and Emmet stopped" he translated.
"Well, that makes things simple. Apparently, there are no lasting affects, but you will be stuck in this form for the next twenty-four hours" Carlisle informed her.
"But Carlisle, what about school and her father? She can't simply vanish for a day?" Esme questioned, knowing how worried she would be if one of her children was missing.
They all stopped to think about a possible cover story as Maya yowled for their attention, Edward once again being used as a translator. "She says we can just tell her dad the truth as he already knows about her shifting abilities and he can just tell the school she is sick."
"Your father knows?" Rose asked stunned.
"Apparently, he found out when she was younger and couldn't control it. He also knows that there are other supernatural creatures out there, but never asks any questions about it. They simply call them her "special friends" and leave it at that" Edward explained for her.
"Well that certainly makes it simple" Carlisle said before getting up to grab the phone to call Charlie and explain to him how his daughter would be trapped as a cat for the next few hours. Which he had taken surprisingly well. Although this admittedly had to be one of the tamer situations his daughter had found herself in, so it was probably not all that surprising to him. It certainly wasn't as bad as the time she got stuck in a vent at the police station and he had to remove part of the wall and take a chunk of the vent apart to free her.
Once that was done Jasper headed up to his room, taking Maya with him. He laid her down on one of the pillows on his bed taking the other one for himself. "Shall we continue with the book we were reading earlier?"
She gave a nod and he leaned over to pick it up, beginning to read aloud as she moved to his lap so he could pet her as he read. She purred as he stroked her back, eyes falling shut as she soaked up the attention and allowed his voice to sooth her.
Eventually she nodded off to sleep, Jasper enjoying the soft sounds she made as she slept. He marked their page and moved it off to the side. Gently he rearranged their positions so he could wrap her in his arms as he snuggled with her.
When the next day came, all the Cullen children got ready to head to school, saying goodbye to Maya as they did. What none of them noticed was that she had hitched a ride in the back of Edward's Volvo when no one was looking. She didn't want to stay at home all day, as nice as Esme was, and instead thought that it might be fun to attend school as a cat. At the very least she would be able to get cuddled by Jasper if she was there. She did make sure to wave bye to Esme though as they pulled out so the poor woman did not think she lost the girl. She wanted to have fun and cuddle with her mate but she was not going to do it at the expense of Esme's peace of mind.And if the smile and wave the woman shot her was any indication, Esme didn't mind in the least.
And so, as the Cullens headed into school, a tiny black kitten trailed along at their heels, none of them noticing her yet. She followed Jasper as they all split up, heading off to join him in history. As he sat down at his desk, she came to a stop at his feet and began to bat at his boots with her paw for attention.
When Jasper looked down and saw her, he let out a sigh. "You really can't stay out of trouble, can you Darlin'?" He picked her up and cradled her against his chest. He was secretly glad that she had followed them. He had not been looking forward to attending school without her and figured that even in cat form she would inevitably entertain them all with her actions.
She spent the first half of the morning simply hanging out with him, purring as he scratched her head absent mindedly while the teacher talked. As he moved from class to class, she climbed up to perch on his shoulder. Grinning at the comments they received and everyone's reactions. While it was obvious everyone was curious, they were all too intimidated by him to actually ask about her.
"Is that a cat on his shoulder?"
"Oh my God! He looks so hot like that!"
"Do you think its his cat?"
"How come he gets to bring a pet to school?"
"Do you think he would let me pet it?"
"God I wish he would pet me like that."
By the time lunch rolled around, she was thoroughly enjoying her self. This was definitely how she wanted to attend school. She still got all the learning done, but no teachers asked her questions or commented at the fact that she spent the whole lesson in Jasper's arms. Nor did she get in trouble for sitting on desks or playing as they taught.
When they arrived in the cafeteria for lunch, Maya once again perched on his shoulder, Jasper made sure to pick out food that he knew she enjoyed. Usually he just got whatever, since he would never actually eat it, but today he knew that she would be eating whatever he bought.
They made their way over to the "Cullen table" as the other students called it and sat down to join the rest of his family. Emmet and Alice were hiding grins, while Rosalie was attempting and failing to look stern and Edward was just plain scowling.
"You brought her to school? Could you be anymore reckless? We're trying to not draw attention to ourselves!" He whispered angrily the moment Jasper sat down.
"I didn't bring her, she stowed away. In your car I might add." Jasper busied himself with tearing apart the burger he had gotten for her to eat, not really caring what Edward thought of the situation.
Edward ignored that last part, focusing instead on the fact that she was there, "you still should have taken her home."
"I don't get why its such a big deal man? So shadow decided to come to school, big deal. The worst that will happen is they will call Esme to come get her." Emmet had really enjoyed having her in his English class. It had been fun to have her jump after his pencil as he rolled it around and it certainly made the class more interesting than it usually was.
"The big deal is she is drawing too much attention to us." Edward growled not understanding how his family could be okay with this. He had known of course that three of them were a lost cause; Alice and Emmet were too carefree and Jasper would do whatever he could to please his supposed mate. But he thought he would at least have Rosalie on his side given that this could possibly bring trouble to their family.
The whole situation angered Edward. Especially given that up until Maya's arrival, he could have also counted on Jasper to take his side on this if it meant keeping the family safe. But ever since Maya's arrival that had changed. His brother was absolutely obsessed with her in his opinion and Edward thought it was becoming a problem. Mostly because Edward was still not sure that the girl was his mate. After all, of the two if anyone was going to find theirs, it should have been Edward. Which is why he figured that Jasper had simply latched onto the first new girl he saw that even slightly interested him and she was only playing along because she wanted to have a "hot vampire boyfriend".
"It's fine, as Emmet said its not like we will really get in trouble. And we tend to draw attention simply by being here, so one little kitten is not going to make a difference. Especially given that no one will ever know she is anything more than a regular cat" Rose defended her husband.
Maya during all this, was not paying attention at all and instead was happily accepting small pieces of food from Jasper as he fed her. When it was done, she moved down onto his lap, deciding that since she could not actually talk, now would be a great time for a nap.
Edward sulked for the rest of the day, but the others enjoyed having 'Shadow' with them in class. She kept them entertained by pretending to be an actual kitten. During art class she had attempted to paint with her paws much like how the kittens in the Disney movie Aristocats had. Which had caused Alice to giggle uncontrollably before whisking her off to the sink to rinse her off. In Chemistry she had jumped from their lab desk to the empty one next to it and back again, attempting to get further each time. Jasper had put an end to that though when she had landed on his page and actually managed to slide right off the end of theirs.
After that class she had snuck off to go explore the areas of the school students, at least those in human form, could not get to. She happily ran along beams in the roof or found her way into vents, using them to sneak into storage rooms to investigate and listen in on various conversations feeling very much like a spy from the movies. She had even found an unused room in one of the buildings that had a door leading out onto the roof and planned to come back as a human to make it her own secret place to escape to when school got on her nerves. Or you know, when she wanted to make out with a certain sexy cowboy undisturbed.
By the time she began to head back to Jasper, the last period of the day had ended and students were all over the halls. Instead of being cautious, given the fact that she was currently a tiny kitten and could therefore be stepped on, she bounded out into the hall. She jumped over feet and wove her way around legs, making a fun game out of dodging the other students while looking for Jasper. She headed towards the parking lot figuring that was where he would be since the day was over.
She had almost made it too when out of nowhere a pair of hands came down to grab her, lifting her up to hold her firmly against a chest. She panicked for a second until she recognized the hands and the scent.
She looked up to see Jasper looking down at her with a frown. "Now just where did you get off to? You know you had me worried? Thinkin' that you got stuck somewhere and could not get out. Or you got hurt or stepped on." She sent him an apologetic look. She had not meant to worry him, only have a bit of fun as his last class was kind of boring.
He carried her out to their cars and hopped into Emmet's Jeep to head home, still holding her tightly to him. He did not actually release her until they were home, where he knew she could not get lost or into too much trouble without him noticing. He really had enjoyed having her there with him at school as a cat where he could hold her all he wanted. However, after spending all of last period worried about where she had run off to, he was more than ready to get his mate back to her human form. Not that she couldn't get into trouble in that form, but at least he didn't have to worry about her being stepped on or taken home by another student.