Weirdo, perv, know-it-all - the insults that had once rolled off Mei's back now clung to her fur. Since she was now a freak with a capital "F", a few new ones would likely soon pass across her peers' tongues. That was if she even got to go back to school. Missing a history test that afternoon was one thing, but all of high school was another. Was there even a desk big enough for her? Probably not, unless the principal of Douglas Secondary felt like changing the school's mascot.
Mei's stomach tightened. Just twenty-four hours prior, the idea of dropping out of school would have been up there with winning the lottery without buying a ticket - absolutely implausible. Now... Well, who was going to care if a giant red panda didn't know how to use les verbes irreguleires in a sentence?
"It's not like I won't have a job." Mei balled her paws into fists. Oh, she could just see it already. Wide-eyed tourists were going to paw at her as if they were at a petting zoo.
"What an incredible costume!"
"This fur feels so real!"
Well, this was certainly one way for her parents to drum up business. But hey, what else was she supposed to do, run away to join the circus?
Why couldn't she have just gotten her period? Painful, embarrassing, the absolute worst thing ever - despite all of Miri and Priya complaints, they couldn't say that it was anything special.
"Hold your head high," her mother had said that morning. The hand she'd pressed into Mei's shoulder had held her tighter than any seatbelt ever could. "I know this isn't fun, but it's not as if people can look at you and see what's going on."
Her mother's words had been true once, hadn't they? No one who passed her on the street could have ever guessed that she was sharing bodies with a five-hundred pound red panda.
A shaking sob escaped Mei's throat. One gave way to another. Her whole body trembled and shook as if an earthquake was running through it.
"Mei-Mei?"
Mei tensed. "Mom, I-"
"Mei-Mei, I'm coming inside."
Mei tightened the ball that she'd been curled up into for much of the afternoon but said nothing. What was she supposed to do, tell her mother no?
The smell of char siu filled her nose as the door behind her slowly creaked open.
"Oh, my sweet little Mei-Mei," her mother said. "I'm so sorry that you have to go through this."
Though she squeezed her eyes shut, Mei could see her mother all the same. Her shoulders were drooped and lips drawn back into a long frown, her hands held bunched together at her chest. It was the same look she'd given Mei when she'd gotten second place in the city-wide spelling bee in the third grade and when her cat, Lord Fluffy, had gotten run over the summer before starting middle school. Would she soon start wearing that expression every day like she did shoulder pads?
The floorboards squeaked as her mother crossed the space separating them. What had once been a few feet might as well have been miles.
A shiver ran through Mei when flesh met fur. Though her mother's touch was firm as ever, her hand felt so small pressed against Mei's curled back. Could she even see her wrist beneath that jungle of fur?
"Mom, what if the ritual doesn't work?" Mei sniffled. "What if I'm stuck like this forever?"
"You can't think like that, dear."
"How am I not supposed to?"
She couldn't even look at herself in the mirror!
What was it her mother had said, that the more she released the panda, the harder that the ritual would be? Did how long also have as much of an effect as how much? She didn't have a clock, at least one that hadn't been crushed into a pile of glass and circuits, but judging by the slowly building shadows in her room, it had been at least six hours since she'd poofed. Few spoke highly of time, but could anyone else say that the passing minutes were conspiring against them?
"I hate this so much! Mom, why did this have to happen to me? Why do I have to be a monster?"
"Oh, sweetie, please don't ever call yourself that. No matter what, you're still my amazing little girl."
Mei whimpered.
"Just think, by next month you'll be back to your old self." Running her palm back and forth, she pressed circles into Mei's back. "Soon this will be all behind you."
Mei opened her eyes, focusing her shaking gaze on her tightly drawn curtains. "You promise?"
"I promise you, Mei-Mei, things are going to go back to the way they've always been."
