"Tyler's been telling everyone about the Daisy Mart," Miriam whispered the Mei as the four friends walked through the halls of their school one morning.

"He says your mom went nuts!" Abby added.

"And that you're kind of a perv." Priya deadpanned.

Mei's temper flared. "I am not a–" she caught herself and took a deep breath. "Tyler is an insecure jerkwad. Words were exchanged. Slightly uncomfortable secrets were revealed. End of story…" Mei trailed off as she caught sight of Sean O' Cullen walking to his locker. He was whispering a prayer, clutching that golden crucifix of his. His curly blonde hair caught the glow of the lights above him, almost giving him a halo. When he noticed her, he smiled. "Morning, Mei. Nice toque." Her heart started to beat faster than normal.

"Uh, Mei," Miriam waved her hand in front of her friend's face. "Why're you staring at Sean O' Cullen?"

"I, um, wasn't." Mei lied. At that moment, her attention was drawn to one of her notebook doodles of Sean, blown up to poster size and taped to the lockers. "No!" She quickly ripped it down.

Miriam groaned. "Tyler keeps putting these up! Knock it off, butthead!" she exclaimed as Tyler put up ye another such sketch on a classroom door.

"Oh, Sean, my island manly man!" Devon mocked, pantomiming a steamy make-out session.

Mei's temper flared. "I am gonna–" But before she could finish her threat, Sean suddenly pinned Tyler against the door, his grip tight on the collar of Tyler's jersey. "You leave Mei and her friends alone, you metal-mouthed, Dumbo-eared gobshite, or so help me, Jaysus, I'll tear you apart," Was it Mei's imagination, or was Sean growing more muscular? "And, trust me, I can be a real beast when pushed."

He let Tyler go and stomped towards Math class. Tyler just sat there, stunned. Mei took a deep breath, glad that her recent… issue hadn't come to light, She followed Sean's example and raced to Math class, Miriam on her heels.

"What's with her?" a girl asked.

"What's with your face?" both Miriam and Sean snapped. Miriam looked between Sean and Mei. "Seriously, though, what's with you guys? You're both acting weird."

"I'm just… really excited about Math." Mei lied.

"I just hate bullies." Sean popped a loud kink in his neck. At that moment, Mr. Kielowski walked in and announced that today's lesson was on the quadratic formula. Miriam and Sean groaned, but Mei relaxed and began to take notes. Miriam passed her a note.

You sure you're ok?

Yup! All good! Mei wrote back.

Sean happened to look out the window out of the corner of his eye. To his shock, he saw Mrs. Lee outside. She seemed to be spying on Mei.

Quickly, Sean tapped Miriam's hand and gestured his eyes towards the window. Miriam looked outside, blinked in shock, then quickly wrote another note to Mei. At first, Mei ignored it, but Miriam insisted. Mei rolled her eyes and looked at the note.

Your mom is outside.

Mei looked outside in horror as she spotted her mother. A security guard tried to intercept her non-violently, but then she kicked him.

"This isn't happening, this isn't happening," Mei whispered. The students and teacher gathered to see the commotion, which only served to further embarrass Mei.

"Mei-Mei! Tell him it's Mommy! Tell him you forgot your pads!" Ming Lee exclaimed, brandishing a box of hygiene implements for all to see.

As the class winced, Mei couldn't take it anymore. With an audible "POOF!" and a wave of red mist that threw the room into chaos, she unleashed her red panda form.

When the mist cleared and Sean, who had been thrown across the room, saw his friend, he gasped. "Cu Chulainn dean trocaire…"

Mei locked eyes with him. He could see the fear in her reddish-brown irises and she could see the shock in his blue-green ones. Suddenly, she smiled, made a heart with her paws, and exclaimed "Awooga!" It made Sean chuckle. But then, poor Mei's face fell and she raced out of the room, crying. Her mother was in hot pursuit. Sean was stunned. "I've…never seen that before." He looked at Miriam. She didn't seem to have noticed Mei's transformation. Only that she had gone. Sean debated telling her, but he decided not to.

That was for Mei to decide.

—

The next morning, Sean, Miriam, Abby, Priya, Mikey, and Sean's 9-year-old neighbor, Toque knocked on Mei's bedroom window. "Mei, it's us. Are you ok?" Mikey asked.

"Guys, what're you doing? Go away!" Mei pleaded.

"We were so worried! We thought you died of embarrassment!" Miriam said.

Toque rolled his eyes.

"Hey, lay off, T. Mei's had a rough day. I can tell you that." Sean chided.

Toque pointed to Sean, then towards Mei, put his hands over his heart, his dark blue eyes big and luminous.

"This has nothing to do with how I… might feel about Mei!" Sean snapped.

"Forget that," Abby whipped a flyer out of the front pocket of her overalls. "4Town's coming to Toronto!"

Mei pulled back her curtains, revealing her pada form. "What?!"

Her girlfriends screamed. Mikey's eyes went wide. Toque hid behind Sean. But the Cape Breton native was unmoving.

Mei pulled the girls in, the boys following on their own. Once everything was calm, Priya asked "Are you a werewolf?"

"No! She's a red panda!" Abby hugged her friend and nuzzled her face into Mei's fur. "You're so fluffy!"

"What on Earth?" Mikey gasped.

Toque peeked out from behind Sean, who gently patted his small friend's toque.

"Mei, what the heck happened?" Miriam asked.

Mei shrugged. "It's just some, you know… inconvenient genetic thing I got from my mom. It'll go away… eventually." but after a moment, she broke down.

"Oh, Mei…" Sean was at her side in a second. The others followed, even Toque, who patted Mei's paw.

"I hate this," Mei sobbed. "I'm slobby, I'm smelly, my mom won't even look at me, and now 4Town?" she looked at Abby. "When are they coming?"

"May 18th. They just announced it." Abby said gently.

"There's no way this'll be gone by then! Just go. Go become women without me." Mei whimpered.

"Mei?" Sean gently put a hand under Mei's chin. "It's going to be okay. Believe it or not, I know what you're going through."

"How?" Mei demanded.

Sean sighed. "There's a reason… my parents have tried to raise me to let go of my anger. Why you've never seen me get angry, really angry," he sighed. "If I did… I would also transform. But not into a big fluffy red panda or any sort of cute animal," he looked at his hands. "It's called the warp spasm, or riastrad in Irish. It's a family curse passed down through the men of Clan O' Cullen. Our ancestor, the warrior Setanta, was the first to inherit this power. It served him well. When needed, he could transform into a powerful creature of sinew and rage, unstoppable except by his taboos, or geas. But now, in the new world, this warp spasm is nothing but a curse."

Mei looked at him. "IS there no way to… cure it?"

Sean shook his head. "None. I'm stuck with it and so will every firstborn son of my line," he looked at her. "I once told you I owed you, Mei. Please, let this be my repayment," he put a hand on her paw. "Let me… let us, your friends, help you carry this burden. Lean on us when you need us. We're here."

Mikey nodded. "Sean and I may not be 4Townies, but we're by your side regardless."

Toque gently wrapped himself around Mei's arm.

Sean laughed. "That's Toque, by the way. He's my neighbor. I was supposed to have a Melee tournament with him, but when I said I was coming here instead, he tagged along."

Mei smiled as she put a paw underneath the boy. "Hi, Toque. Thanks."

Toque flashed a thumbs up.

Miriam smiled. "We love you, Mei."

"You're our girl." Priya added.

The 7 shared a group hug. Mei let out a contented sigh. With a POOF and a puff of red mist, she was back to her old self, albeit with red hair.

"Whoa!" Priya exclaimed.

"Mei, you're you!" Miriam grinned.

"And you… look amazing. Red is a good color on you." Sean said, bushing, causing his two male friends to poke and prod him.

"Is it gone?" Abby pinched Mei's cheek.

"Ow! Abby, what the heck?!" Mei exclaimed. But she didn't panda out. "Hmm… something feels… different." She looked back at Abby. "Abby, hit me."

Abby decked Mei. Mikey looked at Sean fearfully, but the Irish-Canadian only flared his nostrils.

Mei popped up, still human. "Omigosh, I stayed calm! Something about you guys, like, neutralizes the panda!"

"Aw, it's our love." Miriam gushed.

"We're like a warm, fuzzy blanket," Miriam added.

"Yeah." Abby concurred.

"I can have my room back… I can have my life back!" Mei realized.

"Even better! You can come with us to 4Town! We're all asking our parents tonight! This is our chance!" Miriam exclaimed.

"I can't do that! My mom would never let me go!" Mei countered.

"Well, now that you can control the panda, you just need to prove it and she's gotta!" Miriam debated.

Sean shrugged. "Might work, might not. Mrs. Lee is very strict. I don't think she likes me very much."

"Mei-Mei?" Ming's voice called from the hall.

"Crap, you guys gotta go! Mei pushed the girls out the window, the boys following. Mei closed her window. "I'll call you later, I promise."

"We love you, Mei!" Priya droned.

"Hang in there, girl!" Abby exclaimed as Mei shut her curtains.

As the friends scattered, Miriam smirked at Sean. "Okay, you have an obvious crush on Mei, Seannie Boy."

Priya nodded. "It was clear by the way you talked to her."

"It was sweet, though," Abby admitted.

Sean blushed. "So? It's not like it matters. Sure, she can control her transformation, but mine's a beast of rage. It's so horrible, it's never been sketched or recorded in history. It's that ugly. The last thing I would ever want to do is hurt Mei. Besides, I had a geas placed on me when I was born. I can't harm anyone I care about or… well, according to the old ways, the gods will turn their back to me in my time of need. But that's Pagan beliefs. I'm Catholic."

"So what does happen if you break your taboo?" Mikey asked.

"I don't know, and I pray I never find out."