October 14, 1996

A strange, teenage humanoid chimera is leaned back in a plastic chair, which thankfully has a hole on the seat of it for her tail to run through. She is wearing a loose pair of calf-length shorts, with just enough wiggle room as to not rub up too much against the thin pelt of velvet, striped fur that covers most of her body. From afar, the look and pattern of the fuzz would easily be mistaken for her skin (which, underneath the pelt, is the same color, a mocha-brown). The girl's feet are propped up on a table, the toenails shaped like small claws, giving the look of someone with a more bestial outdoor look. She is not wearing shoes, the sandals the girl had on earlier are at the foot of the chair she is sitting in. Her long, extremely prehensile tail darts around behind her this way and that, looking roughly over four-feet in length. Heavily striped, just like the rest of her, the tail ends at a hairy tuft that gives it the look of one that would look fitting on a lion.

Up a bit higher, the humanoid chimera is sporting a dull-colored halter top, which for most of her age would not seem appropriate to wear (seeing as how she's thirteen years of age). However, the reason quickly becomes obvious as on her back in-between her shoulders sit a pair of powerful wings, like that of a feathered bird. The wings are as close to as big as she is, with feathers patterned more loosely after her brown-and-white striped skin. One added bonus to her extra appendage, just like her tail, is that her wings are also quite flexible, as currently due to her sitting position they are folded tightly against her back, leaving enough room so that she is able to sit comfortably on the plastic chair.

The most striking feature on the girl, aside from her wings and tail, are her eyes. Her eyes sport a very striking violet color, accented by her slit pupils, just like a feline. Her ears are shaped like frills, similar to that of a lizard. Those extend outward from her round, chocolate-colored face. Her hair is of medium length, tied into two loose pigtails that hang low near her shoulders. On the top of her head sticking through her head, are two thin antlers, similar to that of an antelope.

Sitting right next to Laura in another seat is slightly older girl, dressed in a gothic-like attire, the extremes of black and white clashing heavily and making her stand out just as much when next to the chimera. Her fiery red-dyed hair would be equally as long as the chimera-girl's, but is pinned tightly against her scalp. She's also wearing a pair of torn jeans, along with a shirt of some obscure underground band. In another contrast to the chimera's lack of shoes, the gothic girl is wearing a pair of heavy boots.

The both of them glance at each other, before looking around at their surroundings: The room the two are located in is packed with kids of various high-school ages, milling about in the large cafeteria. This scene would look most typical across the country in the various schools: Different groups (and races) of the kids sitting with one another, gossiping and chatting about the things that happened during the day, or the day before, or what may happen later on in the week. The only noticeable thing that sets this place apart from the rest of the cafeteria is the very small group of kids sitting at the table where the chimera and the gothic one are located.

"Hey, don't want to eat that, Laura?" one of the kids asks. This one is a chubby Caucasian person, who tends to chow down on most of whatever's in front of him. But then again, when you're the linebacker for the high school football team…

Laura looks over the big guy and shrugs, along with a shake of her head. "Naw, you can have it. Not even feeling hungry right now."

The gothic girl snickers some, looking over Laura's plate as the big guy grabs a chunk of her pizza. The 'food' in question was dripping with yellow grease, but that seemed to matter little to the large guy as he starts to chow down on it. "Willis, dude, you're gonna get yourself a heart attack if you keep eating that crap!"

Willis simply looks at the gothic girl and grins at her. "Hey, I'm still a growing boy! Besides, I gotta keep myself in shape for the big game next week. I intend to squash the Q-B when I get my hands on 'em! Besides, Mack, you ain't even ate your own stuff."

Mackenzie glances down at her own plate: A half-eaten hamburger sits, though it seems everything else on her tray, the fries and fruit, was already consumed. "So what? I'm on a diet."

Laura blinks her large eyes, looking at Mack: "Diet? Since when? I've seen you snacking on those chips all day in social studies class."

A fourth kid in the group raises his head. He's of a light-brown complexion with short, curly hair and is wearing a thin pair of glasses. Below him in his lap is a book he was apparently reading. "I don't think the teacher cares. Heck, I've seen people bartering stuff in there back and forth while he was teaching. He said they'll pay for not paying attention to him later on the week, though."

Laura looks over at the young man. "Quiz coming up, huh?"

"Yep."

Mack rolls her eyes, looking over and messing with one of Laura's loose feathers on her wing. "I can pass that class in my sleep. This shit's boring as hell."

The black glasses-wearing guy looks at Mack: "You mean just like math class, which you keep asking me for help on?"

Mack shoots a glare at the guy. "Watch it, Terrance."

Terrance raises an eyebrow in response. "Hey, it's not like everyone else doesn't know… I mean, aren't you supposed to be a senior this year?"

Mack's glare at Terrance intensifies, but Laura waves a hand in front of Mack's face to break her angry concentration. "Cool it, you. Terrance, you sure have a way with girls, you know what?"

Terrance blinks and glances down at his book, shutting it. "Sorry, Mack…"

Mack simply huffs in response. The whole group sat at the table in relative silence, compared to everything else going on around them, when a couple of taller guys stroll towards the table. One of them has a tray full of the day's food: Extra-greasy lasagna. The duo whisper to one another for a moment, before strolling past behind the chair Laura was sitting in.

"Oops!" the guy holding the tray exclaims, as he appears to lose is balance, the tray falling out of his hands. The contents of the try find themselves falling all onto Laura's back, just as she had leaned forward in her seat. Her eyes flare open in shock as the still-warm pasta is wasted down her back and part of the base of her wings. Her whole body seizes up, the tail stiffening as the others at the table look on in equal amounts of disbelief.

"Oh shit, oh shit, I'm sorry!" the guy who spilled the contents onto Laura quickly spits out. His apparent friend stood a few steps away, doing his best but is terrible in trying to keep from laughing. Most of the kids sitting closest to the table are now also looking, some of the kids snickering a bit, others watching intently for a reaction.

Instead, it was Mack who jumps up with a start, scowling at the guy: "Hey, watch where you're going with that!"

The guy, a lanky white kid, who is rather tall for his age, puts up his hands in defense. "Hey wait, it was an accident, I'm sorry! I said I was sorry." A few of the other kids in the cafeteria laugh a little at that.

Laura is now glaring back at the person, her eyes ever-so bright. She sniffles once to stifle her tears. "You did that on purpose! Look at your friend laughing over there!"

The other guy, a rather muscular, tanned brunette, quickly stops laughing and takes immediate offense: "Hey, watch it you freak. I ain't the one that put him up to that!"

A few of the kids emit gasps as Willis stands up, looking over both guys, the other muscled one in particular. "Hey, Thomas, I heard you whispering for a bit before he threw the food at Laura."

The first guy's face turns red, most of anger, as he too glares at Willis: "Hey, fat-ass, I said I was sorry! She can just get her furry-ass cleaned up of all that!"

"Yeah, by licking it probably," A random student commented, causing a few others in the nearby area to chuckle. Laura's tail and her wings shake a bit as she tries to stand up. Terrance glances around everyone, and quickly looks back down on the floor right as a couple of faculty members run up to the confrontation to see what was going on.

"Everyone cut the crap out! What's going on here?" the loud voice of a balding, black male in a rather old-fashioned suit bellows, quickly silencing almost everyone in the cafeteria.

Willis, Mack, the two guys and Laura freeze, all looking at the authority figure. The other person flanking him, the school security guard, looks closely at Laura, before glancing behind her and seeing the mess. Laura looks back up at the guard, sniffling once.

"So what happened here? Tell us or the whole lot of you are going to get lunch detention." The black man in the suit looks over everyone.

Laura points at the kid who had the tray. "He spilled that food all over me, Mr. Thompson." Her tail fans the air in agitation while her accuser looks over Laura with contempt, but then quickly stiffens up when Thompson looks dead-at the young man."

"Devan, did you do this? Was it an accident?" Mr. Thompson's eyes bore into the young man. Devan quickly gathers himself, shuffling his feet once.

"It- it was an accident." Devan finally manages to spit out. "I said I was sorry!"

Willis's face turns a humorous color of red, contrasting heavily with his originally pale-colored skin. "What?! I heard Thomas daring you to throw that on Laura! You liar!"

Devan's eyes widen as Thomas steps forward, clearly angry. "What's it to you, you sack of-!"

The big guys step up as close as possible to each other in intimidation, though the security guy manages to stop everyone in their tracks. Mack pulls Laura back a bit, checking out the mess left on her back, trying to help the chimera girl with wiping some of the chunky meat sauce away.

"Everyone stop or I'm throwing all of you in ISS," the security guard sternly warns. He's a stout, Hispanic-decent male, a bit shorter than Mr. Thompson but noted for being a former weightlifter and someone to not mess around with.

Mr. Thompson shoots an agitated glare at Willis, who backs down a bit, then looks over the rest of the group. "I didn't see what all happened over here. But I'mma say this, if I hear of any more trouble from you two…" he says, pointing at both Devan and Thomas. "Then someone's going to be cleaning the cafeteria floor for the whole week, on top of ISS. You hear me?"

Both of the guys fall silent, nodding. Mr. Thompson looks over Laura once, frowning a bit. "And you… go on and get to the restroom. I'll send notice to your next teacher that you'll be late. And probably try to find another shirt for you…" He looks over Laura's figure. "If it'll fit."

The security guard goes and ushers the guys to go in another direction. Mack gives them a mean look, with Willis huffing once. Terrance is busy keeping his head low, as if trying to make himself smaller than he already is. Mr. Thompson walks off amid the very quiet cafeteria, with Laura quickly slipping on her sandals and scampering past him and into the hallway. Mack quickly follows the girl into the one of the restrooms. One of the more perceptive students, who was standing in the doorway, blinks and her mouth opens up in surprise when she noticed that the antlers on Laura's head appeared to spark a couple of times.


Laura sniffles once, finally letting more of her emotions out as Mack helps the chimera with brushing out some of the food from her hair. Both are in the handicap stall, Laura's top is off of her, as she glares angrily at the stained backside of it. Mack glances over Laura's shoulder while using a comb (that the chimera carries with her) to run through some of her feathers and fur on Laura's body.

"Hey, girl. Don't sweat it. Those guys are just assholes. You're lucky that mess didn't get in your hair." Mack starts, in an attempt to break the ice and console her friend.

Laura huffs, shaking her head. "It's been like that since I've got here. Middle school was better than this. Those people at the Home said the kids here wouldn't be doing all this to me. Or so the fat one of the bunch says. Guess it was too much money or something to homeschool me…"

Mack chuckles a bit, running back and forth from the sink to soak some paper towels, before returning to the stall with Laura inside. "Hey, the middle school wasn't that great, either. You just don't know because you only came in for half of the eighth-grade. Besides, I recognize one of the guys who was laughing about that spill. Accident, my ass. His name's Thomas. He was always doing some stupid a few years ago with him and his goons. Seems he only got worse."

Laura whines a bit, trying to wipe out as much of the stain as she can from her top. She sulks as she holds it in front of her, Mack still tending to making sure any more food particles are still clinging onto the chimera-girl's fur. "This sucks… I've only been here a few months, yet I already have enough people treating me like dirt. I just want to get through all of this mess so I can get the hell out of this crazy town."

"I know, girl. Same here… Say, you know you can always fly out of here anytime you choose, right? I mean, you can still fly of course, right?"

Laura glances back, putting a finger to her lips. "Shh! Yeah… I can, but I don't know where I want to go."

Mack blinks at her friend. "Why you shushing me? What's wrong with talking about that?"

Laura shakes her head, flopping her pigtails this way and that. "The only people who know about me being able to fly are you, Joanna, and… Chris." Her voice trails off when she mentions Chris, the nickname of Crystal, one of the girls who Laura considers a close friend, even three years later.

Mack falls quiet, taking a long deep breath. "Yeah… I miss them. And… sorry, Laura."

Laura works up a smile, turning around to Mack. "No, it's fine. Thank you."

Both girls giggle once as they close in for a warm hug, when the door of the stall flies open with a reedy-looking girl taking a Polaroid photograph of the two! Laura and Mack's eyes grow wide in complete shock, as the chimera-girl quickly looks down, realizing she's still top-less, and attempts to cover herself up as fast as she can!

"Juicy! That one's going into the paper!" the wild glasses-wearing girl exclaims, she immediately starts to run off.

Mack growls in anger, prepping to give chase, but glances at Laura with immediate concern. Laura is looking at the camera girl, her eyes wide and a few tears rolling down her furry face, as she screams out at her!

The lights around in the bathroom flicker, with Mack looking around in a panic. The girl who took the Polaroid is already looking at the photo that just printed out, trying to make distance, when a few of the lights over the voyeur mysteriously crack and explode! The girl screams and dives down, covering her head as some of the glass rain down over her. The lights in the rest of the building flicker some more, causing a bit of a stir in some of the classrooms.

After a beat, Mack turns back to Laura, who was quickly putting her top back on. The chimera-girl was clearly embarrassed by what transpired, but she also looks back at Mack, a puzzled expression on her face as she examines the mess of glass over the camera girl. Some of the kids and a few teachers are looking outside the doorways of a few of the classrooms, while a couple of security guards, as well as Mr. Thompson rush down the hallway, just as the voyeur with the camera is standing up, brushing off some of the glass, cutting one of her fingers on a broken bulb.

"Now what the hell is going on?" He loudly shouts, looking over the trio of girls.

The girl with the glasses quickly straightens herself, looking over the Polaroid photo. Her eyes widen as she looks over her camera. Her face turns red, as she glares and yells in Laura's direction. "You! You did this! You freaking… freak! You ugly monster! You broke my camera!"

Mr. Thompson grimaces, looking over the camera-wielding girl. "Brenda! You better watch your mouth! What did she do? What were you doing out of class?"

Mack steps up in front of Laura, both girls outside of the restroom. "Brenda was sneaking around trying to spy and take pictures of everything she ain't supposed to!"

"So what?! I saw you two getting all friendly and hugging up one another! That thing didn't even have her top on! And I KNOW the way she screamed, she broke the glass over my head AND my camera! You're paying for this, you creep!"

Mr. Thompson looks over Brenda, a scowl on his face. "You'll watch your language and keep a lid on it. Whatever's on that picture is belonging to the office now. Next time you pull such a stunt again, I'll be hearing from your parents about your behavior!"

Brenda's eyes grow wide, and then she actually fumes back at the Vice Principal! "I'm going to tell daddy about this! Just you wait!" The Junior-grade girl stomps off, with one of the security guards quickly following to chat with her. They proceed to have a heated exchange, until Brenda snaps a curse word at the guard, who then quickly marches her to the office.

Mack rubs Laura on her back, as Mr. Thompson approaches the both of them, his eyes falling on the mutant girl. "Did you do this? What happened?"

Laura's violet eyes look back up at the authority figure. "I don't know what happened. Mack was trying to help me out after lunch… and then Brenda was all being evil and taking pictures. We didn't do anything, honest!" Her eyes tremble some, a hint of fear behind them.

Mr. Thompson sighs, looking at Mack. "I'll let this slide, for now. You were supposed to be in class, I only gave Laura the permission to take the time to clean herself up. Laura, sorry, we couldn't find an extra shirt for you… we did call the Home for someone to bring you something to replace what you have on."

Mack nods, looking over Laura. Laura's tail moves around behind her, as her wings shake once to get rid of a few loose feathers before tightening back up against her back.

Mr. Thompson continues. "Alright then. Mack, you get to class. Laura, come with me. We'll call the folks at the Home. And perhaps get some clearer answers."

Without another word, Mack waves at Laura before walking down the hallway at a brisk place to the room she's supposed to be in. Laura wipes her eyes with a free arm before following the vice principal down to the office. She squeaks out a question as she and Mr. Thompson enter inside.

"Am I in trouble?"

Thompson looks down at Laura, before shaking his head. "As far as I know, no, you're not. Now go into the restroom over there, I'm going to call the folks at the Home about this."

Laura sighs, feeling defeated in a way, before she goes into the restroom. This one looked cleaner than the others, mostly being for faculty members. She chooses one of the further stalls, locks herself inside of it, then sits on the top of the toilet, doing nothing, until the tears roll down her face.

"I already hate this place."