Chapter 4
Laura
"Where are you going?" I heard my mom say angrily.
"I'm going over to Trisha's house."
"No, you are not. You are going to go back to your room and you are going to stay there until you decide to tell us why you did this to yourself."
"I already told you! It was pure chance, we think it was the rock."
"Well you can just forget about going anywhere until we can figure out how to get you back to normal."
"Mom! This is permanent, there's nothing anyone can do about it!"
"We'll just see what kind of surgery we can get done and try to get rid of that tail too." She said, seemingly oblivious to what I was saying.
"Are you crazy!? My tail is connected to my spinal cord!! You can't amputate it without paralyzing me! Don't you care?!"
"Yes I care you ungrateful brat! That's why I'm willing to put up the money to repair you."
"Mom I don't know why you think I want to be 'repaired!' You think I'd have a better life as some sort of paralyzed cripple that has to go everywhere in a wheelchair? Why would I want to do that?! Mom, with these, I can fly!"
That was obviously the last thing she wanted to hear.
"YOU WHAT?!"
"I...I...."
"You've been sneaking out haven't you?! HAVEN'T YOU!!!"
"Please Mom I just...I...."
"You just what?!"
"I needed to. I didn't have any other option."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" I lost it, I started bawling.
"It's up in here, it's part of me, I just can't not fly." I pointed to my head, trying to make her understand.
"Go to your room! And if you even think about trying to get out through your window, Your father is in the backyard practicing with his bow and arrow."
Would he really shoot at his own daughter? I asked myself. I looked up at my mother through tear stained eyes. The rage burning in her expression told me all I needed to know. Yes, he would...
*Trisha
"Hey Trisha, come look at this!" My mom called from downstairs. Jackie was pestering Josh and I, so neither of us were too reluctant to go see what my Mom wanted.
"Yeah mom, what's up?"
"Do you know this boy?" She said holding up a page of the newspaper. I looked hard at it for a second. His face did look familiar.
"I don't know, he looks really familiar though."
"Well it says here his name was Luke, he went missing the night before last. He left early evening to go to the grocery store and didn't return home. His parents called the police after he hadn't shown up for two hours. Name ring a bell?"
Of course! How had I forgotten?
"Oh yeah! I remember him now! He was in my Algebra class last school year."
"and you already forgot his name?" Josh laughed.
"No, this isn't a good picture, and he was always really quiet. Incredibly smart, but he never really talked much."
"You think he ran off?" Mom asked.
"I doubt it, unless things were really bad at home." I answered, briefly letting my thoughts wander to Laura's predicament.
"Hmm, well he seems like a nice kid. I hope this turns out okay. I'm going to go take a shower before your dad gets home." She dropped the paper and disappeared into the hallway. Everything was quiet for a moment. Until Jackie poked me on the shoulder.
"Trisha I thought you said daddy was coming home this morning."
"Don't worry Jackie, he'll get here soon."
"When's soon?"
"Why don't you just go play with your new Pidgey until he gets here?" I suggested. Finally little black haired Jackie decided to leave. Who knows, maybe she actually did go off to play with the Pidgey.
"How did she catch a Pidgey? Those things are almost impossible to knock out of the sky." Josh asked, giving me a suspicious look.
I grinned, "Well I was sorta..."
"Oh, Right, I get it."
"Think Laura will be able to make it over here?"
"With the way her parents are acting? No way, I'm surprised at them. I thought they had more sense than that."
It was true, Laura's parents normally behaved well normal, but upon Laura's transformation into a Dragonite morph they just snapped and wouldn't let her do anything. I tried to call her, but her parents heard who I was and immediately hung up on me. It was beginning to become clear to me that eventually we'd have to be seen by the rest of the community. It had been almost a week since we found the stone, and so far we'd managed to keep from being found out, but school was supposed to start back up in two months, and we couldn't just stop attending. Morphic or non-morphic, life would still go on. A few of my other friends called and wondered where I was. I laughed at the thought of how surprised they would've been if they'd been able to see the person on the other end of the line.
Finally around two in the afternoon, my dad got home. He was tired, and my mom had a hard time getting him to listen to her long enough for her to explain. Josh and I waited upstairs while they talked. They weren't too far away from where we were, so it was easy for me to listen in. Boy was dad surprised. His first thought was that my mom was playing some sort of welcome home trick on him. They argued for a minute over whether or not she was just joking around. Finally my mom gave up and called me into the living room. I didn't have much choice, so I promptly marched into the room. Josh was kind enough to come with me. He stood just behind me as my tall, dark haired father gaped at us. He finally blinked a lot and rubbed his green eyes, as though he didn't believe what he was seeing. I could hardly blame him. I could hardly believe it myself. He finally managed to get some words out.
"Trisha," he gasped. "This is ...amazing! How did this happen?"
I sighed, feeling somewhat relieved, and held up the dull purple stone that still hung from my neck. My dad looked at it for a moment, then just nodded.
"Where did you find this?"
"It was on an island just a little ways offshore. We call it a Morph Stone."
He nodded as though satisfied with my explanation. Then he looked beyond me at Josh.
"And who is that behind you?"
"This is Josh, only more Mewish!" I laughed as Josh said hello to my dad.
"Well Trisha, I never thought I'd have such a pretty Raichu for a daughter." He laughed and rubbed me on the head.
"So are you having a good break?" He asked, changing the subject rather quickly. I figured he was still getting used to the idea that such a bizarre thing could happen. I thought about the question for a while. Finally I answered.
"Yeah, its been really exciting!"
"Good, well why don't you go on upstairs while I talk to your mom?"
"Uh sure?" I answered. He gave me a hug before Josh and I left.
I had been thinking about a specific question for several days now, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided that getting morphed into a Raichu girl was more of a dream come true than it was a hassle. I mostly thought about the good points. First of all, being part pokemon just felt cool. Second, my four closest friends were in the same boat with me. Third, all the little abilities I kept discovering were not only interesting, but they were fun to do too. I got a little 'yes' feeling some reason whenever I zapped something. The only bad points I guess were the difficulties I had adjusting. The hardest thing to get used to was having a tail. I always had to keep track of where it was, so I didn't get it shut in a door or something. It felt really weird at first, but then I got used to the feeling of it being there and realized that it felt more strong and cool than weird. The only other negative point was all the time I had to spend fixing my jeans and shorts so that they could accommodate my tail, but once I got it done, it really didn't matter anymore. I thought about it for a long time and finally decided that yes, I liked the new me.
Josh stayed over for another hour. We made plans for everyone to get together and try to figure out how to help Laura. She never did show up or even call. Josh and I could assume that her parents had her locked up in a cage or something.
It wasn't til in the evening after dinner that I really got to have a good conversation with my dad. He still seemed oddly unsurprised by the whole deal.
"Hey dad?"
"Yes?"
"Can we talk?"
"Yeah sure, what's on your mind?"
"I dunno, you just seem sort of unsurprised by all of this and I as wondering why."
"Well that's what my trip was about. Several of the workers up in Otago dug up one of these stones. All of them got morphed like you guys did. I went up their to talk with them and work out worker's comp."
"And?"
"They didn't want any, but it wasn't quite that sumple. There was a bunch of legal garabage to get through first, and then the four of them just vanished without a trace."
"Vanished?"
"Yeah, they didn't show up to court a few days ago. The police searched everywhere, but they didn't find a trace of them."
"So what's going to happen to the five of us?"
"I wouldn't worry Trish, you'll be fine. From what I saw of you and Josh this afternoon I would've thought you'd been a Raichu all your life." We both laughed about it and talked until he and Mom decided togo out to a movie. It was only eight, but I was tired and turned in early. One thing I found out very quickly was that you'll never sleep totally comfortably until you've had fur.
The next morning we all got together again at the island, everyone but Laura. We discussed the problem for a few minutes and decided we'd just have to go to her house and talk it over with her parents. Her house wasn't too far from the coast, but it took twenty minutes to get there. Lori had obviously just discovered levitation and kept showing it off in short flights down the sidewalk. Sometimes I wondered if anything bothered her at all.
By the time we got to Laura's house I was starting to lose my nerve. Grant was on edge as well. Laura's parents had a bad tendency to turn the sprinklers on at unusual times. Sometimes just to get someone to go away. Thankfully, Josh led the way and rang the doorbell. Laura's father answered. He went wide-eyed at the sight of the four of us on the front porch.
"What do you want?" He snapped.
"Uh... We were wondering if Laura could come with us to the movie this afternoon." Josh answered nervously.
"I'm afraid not, Laura's grounded."
"Grounded?"
"Yes, grounded."
"What for?"
"That's none of your business!"
"Well, uhm, when will she be ungrounded?"
"I haven't decided yet."
"Can we just talk to her for a minute then?"
"No, please go away, we're very busy!" Laura's father snapped then slammed the door closed. We decided to leave before things got out of hand, like if he called the police or something.
End Chapter
^_^ And next chapter things get really intense
Laura
"Where are you going?" I heard my mom say angrily.
"I'm going over to Trisha's house."
"No, you are not. You are going to go back to your room and you are going to stay there until you decide to tell us why you did this to yourself."
"I already told you! It was pure chance, we think it was the rock."
"Well you can just forget about going anywhere until we can figure out how to get you back to normal."
"Mom! This is permanent, there's nothing anyone can do about it!"
"We'll just see what kind of surgery we can get done and try to get rid of that tail too." She said, seemingly oblivious to what I was saying.
"Are you crazy!? My tail is connected to my spinal cord!! You can't amputate it without paralyzing me! Don't you care?!"
"Yes I care you ungrateful brat! That's why I'm willing to put up the money to repair you."
"Mom I don't know why you think I want to be 'repaired!' You think I'd have a better life as some sort of paralyzed cripple that has to go everywhere in a wheelchair? Why would I want to do that?! Mom, with these, I can fly!"
That was obviously the last thing she wanted to hear.
"YOU WHAT?!"
"I...I...."
"You've been sneaking out haven't you?! HAVEN'T YOU!!!"
"Please Mom I just...I...."
"You just what?!"
"I needed to. I didn't have any other option."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" I lost it, I started bawling.
"It's up in here, it's part of me, I just can't not fly." I pointed to my head, trying to make her understand.
"Go to your room! And if you even think about trying to get out through your window, Your father is in the backyard practicing with his bow and arrow."
Would he really shoot at his own daughter? I asked myself. I looked up at my mother through tear stained eyes. The rage burning in her expression told me all I needed to know. Yes, he would...
*Trisha
"Hey Trisha, come look at this!" My mom called from downstairs. Jackie was pestering Josh and I, so neither of us were too reluctant to go see what my Mom wanted.
"Yeah mom, what's up?"
"Do you know this boy?" She said holding up a page of the newspaper. I looked hard at it for a second. His face did look familiar.
"I don't know, he looks really familiar though."
"Well it says here his name was Luke, he went missing the night before last. He left early evening to go to the grocery store and didn't return home. His parents called the police after he hadn't shown up for two hours. Name ring a bell?"
Of course! How had I forgotten?
"Oh yeah! I remember him now! He was in my Algebra class last school year."
"and you already forgot his name?" Josh laughed.
"No, this isn't a good picture, and he was always really quiet. Incredibly smart, but he never really talked much."
"You think he ran off?" Mom asked.
"I doubt it, unless things were really bad at home." I answered, briefly letting my thoughts wander to Laura's predicament.
"Hmm, well he seems like a nice kid. I hope this turns out okay. I'm going to go take a shower before your dad gets home." She dropped the paper and disappeared into the hallway. Everything was quiet for a moment. Until Jackie poked me on the shoulder.
"Trisha I thought you said daddy was coming home this morning."
"Don't worry Jackie, he'll get here soon."
"When's soon?"
"Why don't you just go play with your new Pidgey until he gets here?" I suggested. Finally little black haired Jackie decided to leave. Who knows, maybe she actually did go off to play with the Pidgey.
"How did she catch a Pidgey? Those things are almost impossible to knock out of the sky." Josh asked, giving me a suspicious look.
I grinned, "Well I was sorta..."
"Oh, Right, I get it."
"Think Laura will be able to make it over here?"
"With the way her parents are acting? No way, I'm surprised at them. I thought they had more sense than that."
It was true, Laura's parents normally behaved well normal, but upon Laura's transformation into a Dragonite morph they just snapped and wouldn't let her do anything. I tried to call her, but her parents heard who I was and immediately hung up on me. It was beginning to become clear to me that eventually we'd have to be seen by the rest of the community. It had been almost a week since we found the stone, and so far we'd managed to keep from being found out, but school was supposed to start back up in two months, and we couldn't just stop attending. Morphic or non-morphic, life would still go on. A few of my other friends called and wondered where I was. I laughed at the thought of how surprised they would've been if they'd been able to see the person on the other end of the line.
Finally around two in the afternoon, my dad got home. He was tired, and my mom had a hard time getting him to listen to her long enough for her to explain. Josh and I waited upstairs while they talked. They weren't too far away from where we were, so it was easy for me to listen in. Boy was dad surprised. His first thought was that my mom was playing some sort of welcome home trick on him. They argued for a minute over whether or not she was just joking around. Finally my mom gave up and called me into the living room. I didn't have much choice, so I promptly marched into the room. Josh was kind enough to come with me. He stood just behind me as my tall, dark haired father gaped at us. He finally blinked a lot and rubbed his green eyes, as though he didn't believe what he was seeing. I could hardly blame him. I could hardly believe it myself. He finally managed to get some words out.
"Trisha," he gasped. "This is ...amazing! How did this happen?"
I sighed, feeling somewhat relieved, and held up the dull purple stone that still hung from my neck. My dad looked at it for a moment, then just nodded.
"Where did you find this?"
"It was on an island just a little ways offshore. We call it a Morph Stone."
He nodded as though satisfied with my explanation. Then he looked beyond me at Josh.
"And who is that behind you?"
"This is Josh, only more Mewish!" I laughed as Josh said hello to my dad.
"Well Trisha, I never thought I'd have such a pretty Raichu for a daughter." He laughed and rubbed me on the head.
"So are you having a good break?" He asked, changing the subject rather quickly. I figured he was still getting used to the idea that such a bizarre thing could happen. I thought about the question for a while. Finally I answered.
"Yeah, its been really exciting!"
"Good, well why don't you go on upstairs while I talk to your mom?"
"Uh sure?" I answered. He gave me a hug before Josh and I left.
I had been thinking about a specific question for several days now, and the more I thought about it, the more I decided that getting morphed into a Raichu girl was more of a dream come true than it was a hassle. I mostly thought about the good points. First of all, being part pokemon just felt cool. Second, my four closest friends were in the same boat with me. Third, all the little abilities I kept discovering were not only interesting, but they were fun to do too. I got a little 'yes' feeling some reason whenever I zapped something. The only bad points I guess were the difficulties I had adjusting. The hardest thing to get used to was having a tail. I always had to keep track of where it was, so I didn't get it shut in a door or something. It felt really weird at first, but then I got used to the feeling of it being there and realized that it felt more strong and cool than weird. The only other negative point was all the time I had to spend fixing my jeans and shorts so that they could accommodate my tail, but once I got it done, it really didn't matter anymore. I thought about it for a long time and finally decided that yes, I liked the new me.
Josh stayed over for another hour. We made plans for everyone to get together and try to figure out how to help Laura. She never did show up or even call. Josh and I could assume that her parents had her locked up in a cage or something.
It wasn't til in the evening after dinner that I really got to have a good conversation with my dad. He still seemed oddly unsurprised by the whole deal.
"Hey dad?"
"Yes?"
"Can we talk?"
"Yeah sure, what's on your mind?"
"I dunno, you just seem sort of unsurprised by all of this and I as wondering why."
"Well that's what my trip was about. Several of the workers up in Otago dug up one of these stones. All of them got morphed like you guys did. I went up their to talk with them and work out worker's comp."
"And?"
"They didn't want any, but it wasn't quite that sumple. There was a bunch of legal garabage to get through first, and then the four of them just vanished without a trace."
"Vanished?"
"Yeah, they didn't show up to court a few days ago. The police searched everywhere, but they didn't find a trace of them."
"So what's going to happen to the five of us?"
"I wouldn't worry Trish, you'll be fine. From what I saw of you and Josh this afternoon I would've thought you'd been a Raichu all your life." We both laughed about it and talked until he and Mom decided togo out to a movie. It was only eight, but I was tired and turned in early. One thing I found out very quickly was that you'll never sleep totally comfortably until you've had fur.
The next morning we all got together again at the island, everyone but Laura. We discussed the problem for a few minutes and decided we'd just have to go to her house and talk it over with her parents. Her house wasn't too far from the coast, but it took twenty minutes to get there. Lori had obviously just discovered levitation and kept showing it off in short flights down the sidewalk. Sometimes I wondered if anything bothered her at all.
By the time we got to Laura's house I was starting to lose my nerve. Grant was on edge as well. Laura's parents had a bad tendency to turn the sprinklers on at unusual times. Sometimes just to get someone to go away. Thankfully, Josh led the way and rang the doorbell. Laura's father answered. He went wide-eyed at the sight of the four of us on the front porch.
"What do you want?" He snapped.
"Uh... We were wondering if Laura could come with us to the movie this afternoon." Josh answered nervously.
"I'm afraid not, Laura's grounded."
"Grounded?"
"Yes, grounded."
"What for?"
"That's none of your business!"
"Well, uhm, when will she be ungrounded?"
"I haven't decided yet."
"Can we just talk to her for a minute then?"
"No, please go away, we're very busy!" Laura's father snapped then slammed the door closed. We decided to leave before things got out of hand, like if he called the police or something.
End Chapter
^_^ And next chapter things get really intense