I'm back! and here is your weekly fix of shift! thank you to Dannyrules96 for the ideas you gave me, they were most helpful! and thank you to Blackwolfe swaping band stories with me. for the chapter that is coming up after this i cant make any promises about its timlyness, because the past 6 chapters have been pre-written and i simply had to post them, but now i have used up all of the chapters that ive had stored and i have to write a chapter a week now. all things considered that dosnt seem like that much but since practice is starting up again the amount of down time i have is going to plumit. so just to give you a heads up so i dont get pms saying "hey shift... shift... hey shift you forgot somthing!" because then i would have to punch said person over the internet and i like my computer to much for than and would rather not have to damage it like that. ok im babbling now... before you start reading you should keep in mind that i love rewiews and i will answer you back. please *puppy eyes* (hehe see i can do that [get it?])
Chapter 6
First let me tell you a few things about Jade's step dad: he's a jerk. A fat jerk even. This is the guy that refuses to eat alfredo sauce simply because its white and creamy. And in his words "No real man should eat anything white and creamy." I know, ew. And he says all of this in front of his 4 year old daughter. What a guy, right?
"What was that for, Dad?" jade asked practically spitting the last word. I thought her head was about to explode.
"I was just driving my new car," he said with mock innocence, then almost as on after thought, "Oh, and by the way you're grounded."
"What?! Why?! "Jade's eyes were starting to bug out of her head a bit at this point.
"You clearly don't know how to play safely. I saw you playing in the middle of the road."
"We were sitting on the curb when you sped by, splashing us with filthy water!" I figured it would be frowned upon to point out that we had been playing in that filthy water 10 minutes before he drove by.
"I was just driving home from work," he said continuing the mock innocence. All she could do was sputter. "But like I said, you are grounded, let's say for two weeks. That means no TV, no phone, no computer, you can only go to work and guard," he turned to me and smiled, "and no friends. So you can go now, Jamie."
Now my jaw was right back on the ground. I mean talk about your catfish mouth. WAIT! NO! DON'T THINK ABOUT A CATFISH! The last thing I need right now is gills, the whiskers and guppy lips, especially in this situation. But I really do hate this guy. About a month ago, one of my rats, Willa, had been sick and could have died. I had gone over to her house to hang out and when I got there he was mocking me about it. "I heard about your rodent, Jamie, I think I know what you should do. Just find a snake and feed your rat to it. It will squeeze her till she doesn't squeak any more, then it will open its mouth nice and wide to swallow her right up." The jerk…
"I guess I'll text yo- well, I'll send you a message by way of carrier pigeon. Bye." I turned and started walking toward my house. As I walked I heard Jade storm inside and slam the front door.
"You want that to be 3 weeks?" her step dad yelled at her. I swear I heard Jade lock the front door.
"Hey, I'm home!" I called as I walked in my front door.
"Hello, Chicklita! Where have you been?" my mom asked as she was sitting on the couch.
I plopped down on the couch next to my mom. "Puddle jumping with Jade."
"Oh yeah? What's the score?" Yup she knows all about the amazing game that is puddle jumping.
"One gargle for me, and two gargles and two weeks grounding for Jade."
"Step dad?"
"Yup."
She sighed as she tuned back to the TV. Let me just take a moment to tell you just how much I love my parents. I know that a lot of people are like "Mom, back off my life." But my mom is like my best friend, we stay up late on the weekends talking about our day and end up talking late into the night. We get punchy too. You know that time when you are so tired that everything is funny and you say really weird things? Yeah, those times. That is how we have gotten so many of our inside jokes. For example: stampeding ducklings. See, it's not funny to you. We talk the same way and we are both crafty (you know, artistic) and can watch a movie once and, much to the dismay of the people around us, can quote full scenes from it. And I get my cautious nature from my dad, some people may call it paranoid but we prefer to call it being very prepared…. For everything... At any time. We go shooting together and took karate classes together and both got our black belts. He's taught me how to look at things and see how they work. They're awesome, I love them both.
I got to thinking about the weird things that had been happening lately. You know, gills, whiskers, the chicken incidence. I wonder if I can control when I change. I looked down at my dog Grace that had her head resting on my leg. Hmmmm….
"I'm gonna go upstairs, call me when dinners ready, " I told my mom as I reached over and gave her a hug.
"Okay."
I ran upstairs to my room and closed the door. Okay. How does this whole thing work? When I had become fully chicken I was dancing. When I grew whiskers I was mimicking Pip, and when I got gills I was imagining breathing under water. So in all incidences I was thinking of something specific, except for when I turned into a chicken; then I was thinking of everything at once. Well there's something. Let's try this. I sat down on my floor just in case this didn't go as planned. Everything at once. And let's try, ummm, a dog. I closed my eyes and thought of Grace, and how she was sitting earlier. With her head resting on my knee, leaning up against the couch with one of her front paws up like she always does and the very tip of her tail wagging. I opened my eyes and looked down. I still saw myself sitting cross-legged on my floor. Well maybe it's the other way around, instead of thinking of all the parts of the dog maybe I have to think of every part of my body instead. I looked down at my scared hands and arms. Everything. If I could figure this out I could get rid of these scars. I looked at my face in the mirror in front of me, at the angry red scars that crossed half my face. They could be gone. I stood up and went to the far corner of my room. The best way to think of everything was to dance. I went into B plus position and mentally counted myself off. 5, 6, 7, 8. I did a quick jazz step, pleaed and lept into a sotae. Arms out, head up, butt tucked, chest out, legs apart and toes pointed. DOG!
When I landed it was on four rather short and fuzzy legs. I walked over to my full length mirror and wagged my tail. Yup, that's right. I had a tail to wag. In the mirror I didn't see an average girl with scares on her face and on her arms; no I saw a black dog with long fur and a pink tongue hanging out of her mouth. I took a few steps closer to the mirror and cocked my head to the side. I sorta looked like Grace, but I was missing all of her markings like her white socks on her feet and the white on her snout. Not to mention her brown eyebrows and mustache. I closed my eyes again thinking specifically about my eyebrows, snout and feet, when I looked in the mirror again there they were. I stood there marveling at the fact that I had just turned myself into a replica of the dog that was sitting down stairs.
I tore my eyes from the mirror and looked at my front paws; I could still see those stupid scars from all those years ago like reminders that even if I'm a different animal I will never be normal. I wined and looked back up. Now that I was aware that they were there I could see scares on my face. Well I guess some things never change. I've gotten used to having them for this long I guess I just suck it up and accept reality. Now that's a funny statement; accept reality, and I'm sitting in the middle of my room as a dog, reality's got nothing on me.
"Jamie, dinners 'bout ready," my mom called up from the kitchen down stairs.
And again, crap.
I ran back over to the corner and did what I'm sure was a crazy looking little failed attempt at a leap while praying to turn back into my normal self. I landed back on all fours but when I looked down I saw red scars and thumbs so I knew I was good. Just to be sure I checked myself in the mirror, didn't see any fur and was happy to see that I was still wearing the clothes I had on earlier. That's good to know that after I change I won't need to replace my clothes.
"Jamie?" my mom called again.
Oh right, food.
"I'm comin'," I called down as I headed for the stairs. Well I may not be able to tell anyone about what I figured out I can do but I still couldn't help but smile.
and the chapter is done! now if you would be so kind as to just scroll down ever so slightly and click on the convenetly located reveiw button i would love you forever! and again *puppy eyes*
and in case you couldnt tell i was venting a bit about the dad. i couldnt just make that stuff up. the whole alredo thing happend. *puke*