''I'm going to practice at the school, mom'…'I'll be until nine o'clock, mom'…'Your daughter's a fucking IDIOT, mom'…'
"What with all the chairs? OH, are we playing Musical Chairs? I call the stereo!"
Smiling cheekily, she ducked under a flying piece of plastic furniture…
"Fine, YOU can control the stereo. I call chairs!"
Another one, only she flipped backwards onto balance beam to avoid the chair.
"Picky, picky! Why don't we talk this over? I've got ICE CREAM!"
OH, they were not amused with the girl…
She could have been a Sophomore, at least two years younger than her adversaries, though she would probably never be as skinny.
They were UBER-anorexic, twigs with knobby joints and snobby noses and blonde hair.
Their eyes seemed sunken, giving them a haunted look.
The lone girl was average, toned and healthy-looking, with dark onyx hair and darker, almost bottomless eyes.
At least she had a figure to fill in her pale gold leotard…
"Why don't we break your neck instead?!" One shouted, jumping up to knock the brunette off the balance beam.
Back-tracking gracefully, she raised her hands to fend off any possible strikes.
"That doesn't sound very nice!" She joked, pouting.
"How about a tea party? Cookies?"
Glad for her self-defense and karate classes in the past, she redirected a pitiful punch and landed one of her own.
The senior screeched like a banshee, and the dark-eyed girl covered her ears as the echo rang painfully.
Curious at the sudden sensitivity of her ears, she had to push the wonder away as the other two girls brandished the ROTC fake guns.
"Are we playing War now?"
"Get lost, freak!!"
"We've had enough of your creepiness!!"
"I'M the creepy one? You all look like the living dead, honey."
"GET LOST!!"
"Kinda hard to leave with you two blocking the door." She pointed out, fiddling with the end of her braid absentmindedly.
"You're not leaving this room!"
"Really, now?"
The brunette quirked an eyebrow, feigning intrigue.
"Then what will I be doing, oh great fortuneteller?"
"DYING!!"
Eyes widening, she flipped off the beam to avoid sharp-pointed guns, cart-wheeling away from the pouncing gymnasts.
Landing on her feet, she bolted for the door, crying out when someone grabbed hold of her braid.
It was a jock, probably a wrestler considering the muscles, and she whipped around to strike him.
His fist found her gut, and she gasped as all the air was forced from her lungs.
"Not so tough now, huh?"
Panting for breath, the girl clutched her stomach, teeth clenched...
The initial pain had subsided, but it had ignited a hot coal inside her…
The flames licked through her veins, scorching and morphing and changing…
She felt the transformation…
Sharp claws escaped her fingers, causing blood to ooze down her palm, as her teeth became pointed fangs.
Something uncurled from her tailbone, brushing against her legs, and something else twitched upon her head before lying back against her hair.
A roar escaped her throat, and her eyes flashed a brilliant, feral green before she pounced.
Everything was a blur, a rush of sounds and colors that went by before she could identify them.
When her senses returned to normal, sharper than before, she stared in shock at the four bloody, trembling teens before her…
The warm liquid on her hands, the metallic taste in her mouth…
None of the blood was hers.
That thought just kept repeating itself, and her muscles moved as a wave of panic overtook her.
Running from the room, the building, the city, she didn't realize how far she had run until she fell, collapsed beside a lake.
Breathing harsh, the girl raised herself up to look at the clear water, blinking in surprise at the reflection staring back.
Snow white hair, the tips black and her bangs the same onyx shade.
Crimson smeared on her mouth, accentuating fangs and glittering, feline emerald irises.
White, black-striped cat's ears poking up behind her bangs, twitching to catch sounds.
A long matching cat's tail swayed at her back, and claws dug into the grass scratching her palms.
Looking at the sharpness in wonder, she carefully retracted them, and looked at the blood they left behind.
Something wet escaped her eyes, washing away the blood, leaving clear trails of guilt and sadness in their wake…
So she cried.