During the last couple of months of 7th grade, I tried my hardest to keep my new powers under control, and it took quite some time to tame them enough, especially whenever I felt emotional or over-stimulated. That being said, I learned how to hide my ears and tail (shaking and ringing my bell, thus making me a full-on human). But I did slip up and morph a few times. An example being one time during math where I let out a big sneeze, shifting into a zebra on accident, but instantly shifted back before anyone noticed. HOW nobody noticed? I have no idea, guess it was sheer luck.

Once summer time started, I learned to gain a little more power and control over my collar, which included training it to change me into the animal of MY choice: mostly through psychic-esque commands. So if I wished to be something like a rhinoceros or a tiger, I simply imagined the animal and the bell would glow, transforming me into said animal. I still had to be careful around my family and in school.. and Cree.. I still wondered how I'd come clean to her about my powers. I envisioned the conversations in my head about a hundred times; coming clean about my powers to Cree, to my parents, my friends... I always assumed the worst within each scenario. It frightened me to no end. But they love me, I would tell myself, they would understand. Well, one evening in late July, that dreaded time had finally caught up to me..

I was in the hide out that evening, eating pizza and lounging around with a couple other teens who were there. Soon after all the pizza was gone, I began to grow quite bored, so I decided to go swimming around in the form of a river otter in the indoor pool that we've recently installed, fountain and everything. I was enjoying myself quite a bit, until out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cree walking in at the opposite side of the room with groceries. After putting everything away, I heard her ask, "Where's Delilah?"

"She's over at the fountain," a teen boy casually answers. That was when our eyes met as her mouth hung open a little, and that was my cue to sprint off towards my pod of the hide-out.

A minute later, I heard a knock on my door, to which I reluctantly opened it, wearing my helmet as I trembled like leaf. "y-yes?.." Cree looked down at my furry, greyish-brown tail tucked between my legs. ".. wh.. what happened to you? Y-you have a tail!" I held my breath for a few moments as my heart pounded against my rib cage, and that's when I let out a long sigh. "Alright, I know when I'm beat.. ya see, after you left a couple months back, that Steve fella gave me this collar," I explained, pointing to the bell of the collar. "It's called the 'Darwin's Bell', and it gave me the power to shift into animals.." I paused and looked at the floor before looking back up, my ears wilting as I remove my helmet. "You, uh.. ya wanna see for yourself?" Cree stared at the bell around my neck. Despite her confusion, she said, "Yeah, show me."

"A'ight, here goes nuthin'-" I stood straight before lightly tapping the bell, and presto! I took the form of a lioness.

Cree, however, just looked on in astonishment. I could see the gears turning in her head as she was clearly trying hard to grasp what just happened. "How.. How long have you been able to..?" Cree was scrambling for information.

"Since my 13th birthday," I said before chuckling a bit. "I-It's actually kinda neat, I've always watched animals on TV, and now I get to BE them-" I look at Cree's still shocked expression and couldn't help but frown a bit. ".. you ain't scared of me now, are you?.." Cree quickly shook her head, "oh, no, not at all!" she hurriedly responded. I exhaled in relief. "Th-that's good. I would never hurt you, just so you know.. you're my best friend!" Cree sympathetically reached a hand out, petting me between my ears. Letting out a little chuff of contentment and relief, a happy tear slips from my eye, "Th-thank you.. I love you so much.."

We embraced for a while before I whispered, "I think it'd be the right thing to explain this to my family as well. I'll do it later tonight, though." I had felt much more confident now, cuz if my friends accepted me for who I am, I was certain that my family would understand, too. That being said..

I marched back home that night when mom was about to serve dinner and loudly cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. "Yall, I've come back with something special to show!" Once i was sure my whole family was watching, I then took my helmet and jacket off, revealing two fluffy, dark brown ears and busy tail. My siblings eyes widened while my parents just looked on in confusion. "y-you.. you grew a tail! But.. how??" Nathan stammered, still gawking at my appearance. "I'll show ya!" tapping the golden bell on my collar, I shifted into a cat. The whole room gasped. "Ya see, my friends got me this here collar for my birthday a couple of months back. It gives me the power to shift into animals! Pretty neat, huh?" my siblings nodded enthusiastically, while my Mom and Dad looked at each other, then smiled a bit. "OK, as long as you keep it under control, and save the big animals for outside - the last thing we want right now is blowing our money on house insurance," Dad said, getting a chuckle out of Mom.

I was so relieved from how well my parents took it, I actually started crying. Nathan hugged me and offered me to sleep in his room with him that night, to which I gratefully accepted. He didn't mind my tail brushing against his legs all night, though he did admit he woke up itchy the next morning.