Hello, readers. You know how in elementary school and clubs and stuff like that, people come to the front of the room and say "My name is_ , and I_"? Well, for me, that would be "My name is Jessica Haywood, and I am a freak in every definition of the word." First of all, my only "friends" are my teachers, since all the kids at school call me a loser. Guess what nickname THAT has earned me? That's right: the ever-so-dreaded teacher's pet. Which actually couldn't be more appropriate. Because my DNA is infused with an animal's.
It all started about a month ago…
I had been walking down the sidewalk with a bag of groceries in one hand and a burger in another (it's not that I'm fat, but I'm not fit or anything so I like to spend spare change on some good ol' fast food) when something possessed me to take an unfamiliar turn. I didn't know this part of town very well, though I'd passed through it many times. I wanted to get home and put those groceries away, but figured a walk couldn't hurt. After all, that burger had to be at least 600 friggin' calories.
I suddenly stopped at the porch of a strange building. It was pretty big, and it was, well, pretty in general. It looked like a little girl's princess dollhouse had supersized into real life. There was a sign posted on the door that said "CLOSED". Still, I was tempted to look in the window. I looked around for anyone to accuse me of trespassing, then took a careful step forward.
I didn't make it to the window.
What happened next wasn't painful, just… weird. I felt like I was out of my body. Like I wasn't me, yet I was. I could no longer see the cute café I was walking toward, only a bright red light. When I glanced down, I shrieked. I was naked. What was going on? Was I a victim of some sort of sick sci-fi porn? The sad part is, one of my first thoughts was that I wouldn't mind that because at least someone, SOMEONE, was interested in me.
Pathetic, I know.
Anyway, I had no idea what the hell was going on. Maybe somebody shot me for stepping on their land, and I had died. So where was God? And the golden gates? Wait, the light was red… So maybe I had gone to Hell?
Wait. I saw something move. It looked like a sparkle- a light blue sparkle- was floating toward me. It started to take shape as it got closer. I then saw it was a sort of animal. A little animal, with a fluffy tail.
It was a squirrel. A blue squirrel.
I recognized what type it was right away: a Eurasian Red Squirrel. They were known for their crazy long tails and cute little tufts of fur on their ears. I had to smile for a moment at the adorable little rodent.
But, the smile quickly faded. This wasn't Eurasia, this was Japan. And no matter where you are, squirrels are not blue and do not glow. There had to have been something in my smoothie, or my burger was bad. Why else would I be hallucinating like this?
When I opened my eyes from a blink, I saw the squirrel walking up to me, in midair. Kay. Made about as much sense as everything else that was going on. As if they had a mind of their own, my arms reached out and grabbed the squirrel. Its beady black eyes met mine, and they seemed to have a hypnotizing effect. The next thing I knew, it had jumped into my chest. I glanced behind me to see if it had gone through me, but nope. It was inside me.
Next thing I knew, I had fallen on my butt on the sidewalk. I immediately looked down, and sighed in relief. I was wearing clothes again. I quickly tossed all my spilled groceries back in the bag and scrambled to my feet, shooting off down the road. I was certainly not coming to that freakish café again.
At least, I didn't plan on it.
"I'm home!" I called. I don't know why I even bother announcing that every day. My dad works 5 to 11 every day. Poor guy has to be reminded to comb his hair and have breakfast every morning. Usually, that breakfast is something to go like yogurt or a granola bar. I've tried making him breakfast, and he appreciates it, but just doesn't have the time. I wished I could see him more, but it's not like I could complain. His hours put a roof over my head and prevented me from starving. After all, my part time job as a "cook" at a local fast food place (it's the one place I DON'T eat at, since I know what I have to put in the food) didn't support us much; I only earned $10 a week. $20 if I really impressed my boss, which was rare since he hates me.
Anyway.
There are two things that keep me from feeling lonely at my house. The first is a framed, enlarged version of the picture in the golden heart shaped locket I wear everywhere. It shows me, my dad, my mom, little brother, and newborn baby sister. You see, when I was 6, my dad took me shopping, and when we came home, our apartment had burned down. They saved my 4 day old sister Suzan, but my mom and brother they had trouble finding. They died after being in the hospital for a mere 2 hours. I cried for weeks. I think my dad did too, when he was alone though.
After about a week went by, my dad realized that we had been falling bankrupt for over a year, and he couldn't afford more than one child. He had no choice but to put Suzan up for adoption. It was when he kissed her good-bye that I saw my father cry for the first time in my life.
We had relatives up in Japan that would help us out with real estate, so we moved from America to there. Being a foreigner, I was an outcast the day I enrolled at my school. I had managed to make two friends, since they were both teased for being from different countries too. Unfortunately, their parents were only STATIONED in Japan. They moved before I had known either of them for more than 3 years. I've been painfully lonely friendship wise ever since.
Okay, so THAT was off topic. The second thing that keeps me from being lonely at home isn't a thing at all: "it" is my animals. I know it seems dumb to have pets when we can barely afford to care for ourselves, but my dad just couldn't get rid of our cat Daisy. We had gotten her as a kitten when Suzan was 2 days old. She's an old cat, but a good cat nonetheless. There's also Whiskers: my gray squirrel. I found him the day we moved into our current house, in the forest in the park. Some damn hunters had shot his mother- I knew it was for fun, since they left the body- so he was dying. My dad let me nurse him back to health, and since the little guy came to think of me as a mother, I kept him. My uncle helped me build an enclosure for him in the backyard.
After putting away the groceries and filling up Daisy's dish, I went outside to see my squirrely friend. We have a little routine: I click my tongue, and he pokes his head out of his house. When I open the cage door and step inside, he pounces onto his wooden tree-like perch and stretches his little legs. He waits for me to fill up his food dish, eats about half of it, and if I haven't left he scampers onto my shoulder and gives me a little squirrel-kiss on the cheek. But today, he didn't follow the routine.
The moment I stepped in the cage, I felt his fur brush against my neck. He was perched on my shoulder, sniffing me eagerly. I chuckled. "It's okay, I got your food right here buddy." I went to fill up his dish immediately, assuming he was really hungry for some reason. But I halted, puzzled. His food dish was still half full from this morning.
"You picky little guy, that stuff hasn't gone bad yet!" I took a fresh nut- his favorite kind, too- out of a bag and offered it to him. He uninterestedly continued climbing over me, tail twitching in excitement. That was odd. He NEVER turned down a nut. I hoped he wasn't sick… I couldn't afford a vet bill.
Then it hit me: the squirrel from in front of the café. It HAD jumped into me…
Okay. I definitely belonged making macaroni jewelry at the Funny Farm. Whiskers was probably just being weird today. No big deal. I gave him some fresh food, gently put him on his perch (it took me a few tries, he was REALLY determined to stay glued to my shoulder), and bolted out of the cage. I kissed two fingers and touched them to Whiskers' nose, then gradually made my way back inside.
I slumped against the wall, then slid down to the floor with a sigh. I ran a hand through my light brown hair, trying to get a grip.
Wait. What was that?
Tilting my head, I looked at the back of my hand. My jaw dropped. In the center of the back of my hand was a tiny, pink star. That wasn't there before…
I stood up, speed-shuffling into the kitchen where the light was better. The old saying "I know _ like the back of my hand" didn't really apply to me apparently. I looked at it from all different angles and distances, but it wouldn't go away. I told myself to get a grip. I probably just scratched it on Whiskers' cage or something. The fact that it was shaped like a star wasn't TOO bizarre. I mean, people claim to see grease stains shaped like Jesus.
My heartbeat started making its way back to normal, but I still had a pounding in my head. I seriously needed an Asprin. But, I reminded myself, Dad needs them way more than me. So I instead decided to settle for a bubble bath.
As I stripped out of my caprees, I heard a noise like when you drop a coin on the ground. At the same time, something shiny caught my eye. A tiny, golden pendent with strange pink markings on it had fallen out of my pocket. I picked it up and examined it in my hand. I felt a strange power emanating from it, washing over my arm. The normal human instinct would be to drop it, but something made me want to hold onto it. And never let go.
My arm seemed to have a mind of its own again, and brought the pendant toward my lips. Ew, was I seriously about to KISS it? I dropped it on the floor! I managed to prevent my mouth from touching the thing, but I couldn't bring it back down. Images streamed through my mind, consisting of silhouettes of 5 girls I didn't recognize and odd creatures (some of them resembled humans with big elf ears), then the squirrel from before, then strands of DNA. Throughout the montage, the colors red and blue were flashing. The final image was another silhouette, this one of a boy. For some reason, the image made my chest tight, bubbly, and warm.
Once the pictures stopped, my hand through to my head and I dropped the pendant. I miraculously didn't have a headache, but it had been so much in so little time that I needed a rest. Thank God tomorrow was Saturday.
I took a long, LONG bath. It lasted over an hour and a half, actually. I had fallen asleep halfway through it, so I awoke to cold water. I stood up, taking the stopper out of the drain. I wrapped a towel around myself and picked up my pile of clothes. I proceeded to my room, forgetting about the pendant at the bottom of the pile.
How odd. I didn't remember leaving the window in my room open… I shrugged, untying the towel. Once it was on the floor, I heard a sharp chirp from my window. I glanced up and smiled a little. A cute little bird was perched on my windowsill, staring at me. I wondered if it was weird that it felt uncomfortable to have a BIRD look at me when I was naked.
But I soon realized it wasn't the intrusion of privacy that made me feel odd.
A jellyfish-like creature floated up to the bird, something flashing in the middle of its translucent body. My jaw dropped as it wrapped itself around the little birdie and seemed to seep into it. I gasped as it fell backward out of the window. My instinct was to look out the window and see if it was okay. Damn you instincts… The bird had morphed into a giant eagle-looking thing, probably the size of a pterodactyl or bigger. It let out a screech that shook my entire house.
Without even thinking about it, I dove for the pendant. Before I knew it, my lips were pressed against its smooth surface. A voice I didn't realize was mine shouted out "MEW MEW RASPBERRY. METAMORPHO-SIS!" An unimaginable power washed over my entire body, everything around me becoming a blue and red light. I felt many things- too many to keep track of- change inside me, blood pumping through my veins at a breakneck pace. I saw two elbow-length, dark brown gloves stretch across my arms, a star shaped hole in the right one revealing the glowing pink star. I naturally covered up my chest with my newly gloved hands, but soon didn't need to as a strapless shirt with horizontal blue and red lines appeared. It ended right below my- oh, how I hate this word- breasts. On my shoulders were suddenly puffy, detached "sleeves" (so as sleeves they were actually pretty useless) that were blue with a red lining. A skirt with the same color combination but with vertical stripes appeared, as well as a pair of knee-high light brownish boots. There was a red thing on my left thigh- I can't think of what it's called, but the groom takes off the bride's in a wedding- with blue trim, too.
My body was now in control of itself. My mind seemed to be on a distant planet. I did a 180 degree spin, then a handstand. I. did. a. handstand. And it came as naturally as breathing. Take that, D- in gym class! The joy of the moment quickly faded, though, as a super furry, red-orange TAIL more than ¾ as long as my height popped out of me. Talk about freaky and disgusting! Yet, I didn't feel it at all.
I sprung backward, landing perfectly on my two feet with one in front of the other. I spun around some more, my hair and eyes becoming red- and I mean RED red, not Weasley red. My ears faded away, and were replaced with two ears the same color as the tail. They had two little tufts of fur on top, their color closer to a dark brown. Somehow, I could still hear out of them, almost better than with my human ears. I winked- not by my free will, mind you- and all the sparkles that had come off my body during the transformation came together around my neck. A blue choker with red trim formed on my neck, the pendant dangling off it. I spun around once more, leaned back a little, and crossed my arms and legs casually.
Without even feeling myself move, I was out of that position and back in my room within a split second. The bird was flapping outside my window, staring at me eagerly. Hungrily. I lost control of my voice and body once more and called out "RASPBERRY RIBBON RING!" A red ring with blue dots on it suddenly appeared in my hand. I slipped it over my right hand, twirling it around my wrist several times. It must've reacted with the star on my hand, since they started glowing in unison. I tossed the ring in the air, and another larger ring- this one blue with red dots- appeared and fit itself perfectly around the smaller one. The new ring made its way back to my hands, and I thrust it forward. Somehow, SOMEHOW, a blinding light burst from it, piercing the bird. Its roar of pain was deafening, and I felt sort of bad for it. But, I saw the jellyfish thing float away from it, and it return to its cute little self.
Wow. All that transforming crap for that quick fight. But it was then I realized the whole sequence had taken place within one moment. The bird probably saw me as my human self, blinked, then saw me as this freaky chick. I looked in my dresser mirror and saw I was still that freak. I took a few steps closer, and stared at myself. It took me a while to accept it was MY reflection. I gasped a little when I saw a tear forming in the corner of my eye, and gulped when it rolled down my cheek. In a flash of pixilish light, I was human again.
With all that had just happened, I still managed to have enough sense to throw on my nightgown. Once I did so, however, I fell back on my bed and let the tears continue. Soon enough, I was crying like a baby. A pathetic fricking baby.
I always knew I was a freak, but this was just too much.
Welcome to my story.
