Throughout the next few days, Opal learned more about Artemis than she'd ever wanted. The first day after she came back, Opal took a shower—only to find, to her immediate amusement, that Artemis had a birthmark in the shape of a heart right above his left elbow. No wonder the boy never wore short-sleeves. After a few days, however, Opal's delight in discovering Artemis' deepest secrets, the novelty wore off, and she remembered exactly how much she hated the human. She couldn't wait until the day when she could abandon Artemis' body, and find herself one of her own. Unfortunately, being stuck within a body that isn't yours has its downsides—especially so when you had to pretend to be someone you despised with all your heart. Almost every day, Opal would glare at herself in the mirror, the the face of Artemis Fowl, and snarl at her reflection. "Go to hell," she would growl, while firmly clasping her hands behind her back; the urge to break the mirror was so strong.
She was doing a lot of that these days, resisting. Every time Holly passed her, every time Foaly whinnied a good morning. Her mind's natural instinct was to impale them on the tip of her razor sharp tongue, but she daren't, not yet, lest they uncover who was truly hiding beneath Artemis' skin. Opal almost lost it once or twice, when Foaly told an embarrassing story about her when they were in school together, (No, but really, Artemis, and then we watched her fall in the hole, and she was screaming that she'd have the death of us,) when Holly gave her a hug, when Myles tried to impress her with his intellect. Honestly, she would think to herself, how does anybody ever put up with them?
And that wasn't even the end of her problems. Opal was used to seeing the world from a completely different angle than the one she was at now, over a foot taller. Her body was also much bigger, and she kept bumping into things. But the hardest to get over was the hair. Oh, God, the hair. She used to have the most gorgeous, thick hair. And now—it sickened her to think about it, even. Whenever she wanted to run her fingers through it. She promised that she would put an end to the silly human's life, although this, too, had its complications. There was no way she could kill Artemis without killing herself, at least not now. This complicated things more than a little bit, as she had absolutely no desire to stay in the Mud Boy's body and life forever. Although...sometimes...sometimes she felt as if she were becoming him. She would, out of the blue, feel some sort of curious affection for Holly, want to reach over to her, touch her shoulder. Opal figured that Artemis must have once had a crush on her. How gross. She would feel the same way about Myles and Beckett sometimes, when they crowded around her, demanding to be hugged. She had almost even called them cute! Goodness! The professional criminal genius inside her demanded her not to form attachments to any of Artemis' former friends, yet somehow, she felt herself drifting closer to them, becoming less and less like the cold, unmerciful person she was before. It's probably just because I'm cooped up in Artemis' body. I'll be fine once I find a way to get back to my own self. It's no big deal, she would assure herself. How wrong she was. How very wrong.