Chapter 5

I felt sick and nauseous, today would be my first day back in school. Mom had called Principal Lassiter, and explained my current situation. He had promised to keep an eye out for trouble. Though I doubted that would do me any good. At least I would have Marjorie to keep me company. We had more talks in the days leading up to going back to school and had decided to keep as close to each other as we could manage.

Forcing the bile that threatened to creep upwards from my stomach back down, I looked at Marjorie standing next to me. She was probably equally scared and unsure. She looked back at me and nodded, "Let's get this over with."

Together we walked into the building and as soon as the first students saw us, the comments started.

A boy with pimples said to his friend, "Phiew, it starting to stink in here. Oh I see it, the skunk has returned, with a friend this time."

Someone else, whom I couldn't see, said quite loud, "It's the invasion of the animal mutants. Someone should get an exterminator or animal control here."

A stuck up girl I recognized as Sheila said, "I can't understand why they let animals into school. You know that my mom tried to have them expelled? The school overruled her and said that they have a right to education. Well, I think they should be locked up in a zoo."

We just kept walking on, like they didn't exist until someone tried to make me trip on a sudden extended leg. But being a squirrel hybrid made me have fast reflexes. I simply hopped over it and continued my way as if nothing happened. Though the people were quite hostile with their looks and downright verbal abuse, they didn't try anything physical. There had been a formal warning by the school and county that it would be regarded as a premeditated attack and would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The school had added that any physical abuse on a hybrid MORFS victim would be grounds for expulsion and persecution by law.

So, we were free from any direct attack. However I knew that it would mean that once we got out into the open without witnesses, meaning without people around that didn't want to see hybrids getting hurt, we would get jumped, beaten and worse.

After classes I had to go back to my locker and get a book I needed. Marjorie offered to go with me, but I said to her, "No need, I'll be back here in a moment." Stupid me, I hadn't counted on some people waiting for a chance like this.

As I closed my locker with my free hand, the book I had needed was knocked from my other hand. Angrily I turned to the one who did that and started, "What the hell do you..."

My voice trailed off as I saw Gary Fields and Phil Bondi with Sheila Tarkin behind them glowering at me. Phil growled, "Not such a big mouth anymore do you, Wally? Oh yes, we found out who you are. I always thought you were a sissy, now you've gone and proved it."

Gary added, "And you had to report us to the Police for the rape of that skunk girl, didn't you?"

"She's a badger," I protested involuntary.

"Whatever," said Sheila. "Just beat this freak up and move on to the other one.

I backed up against the lockers while Gary and Phil moved in on me. Phil launched his fist at my head and I barely managed to duck under it. I kicked his leg, but didn't manage to drop him. He did flinch and it offered me a gap to slip past them. I ran as fast as I could towards the doors at the end of the hall. Which with my powerful legs I outran them easy enough. I hit the doors quite hard, but they opened inwards, not outwards, and I bounced back into the hall. My three assailants were on me before I could pick myself up from the floor and Sheila smirked, "We got you now, bitch."

I backed up against the doors that resisted my pushing and I feared the beating that I would get now. Maybe I could scratch them or kick them hard enough to make some room for me and escape, but I feared that it wouldn't be so easy.

Things got worse as I saw Gary pull a baseball bat from behind his back. 'He's going to beat me up with that? I'm so screwed!'

Something inside me felt odd and a rush of energy flowed through me. I didn't know what to make of it, but it wasn't unwelcome. Then the doors behind me pushed back at me and I got pushed towards my attackers. 'Is someone there trying to get in? Is there someone to help me?' My hopes went up even more, but then the doors blew open throwing me into the swing of Gary's bat. I had the wind knocked out of me, but I still hoped that whoever pushed the doors open, would save me from them. I looked back at the door and was so disappointed. There was no one there!

Sheila screeched, "Hit her again, before she can escape."

I more felt than saw Gary swinging his bat again, when a hard cold wind blew from the doors knocking all three attackers from their feet. I had trouble staying put as well, but my nails bit into the linoleum floor and held me stay put. Phil was the first to get up again. He looked at the empty hall behind me and said, "There is nothing there! Where did that gust come from?"

I had no idea myself, but I counted myself lucky that the wind was there. I got up on all fours and clambered through the doors up the empty hall to escape them. The wind kept buffeting me and the others till I managed to round a corner. The air rushing past was much less there and I ran as fast as I could towards where Marjorie was waiting for me.

Nearly out of breath I arrived at Marjorie and she asked worried, "What happened? Why are you breathing so hard?"

I had to catch my breath first and it doesn't help that I don't sweat anymore, I have to pant to dissipate the extra heat from exercising. Finally I could utter, "I got ambushed by Gary, Phil and Sheila. They were going to pound me to pulp. I barely managed to get away from them."

"Let's go to the police and report them, or tell the Principal to take measures." Marjorie said to me with worry in her voice.

"Tell them what?" I asked Marjorie. "It will be my word against theirs. There isn't any proof they did anything. I got away before I got injured, thank god. We'll just have to watch out for them trying to hurt us. Gary did say that he suspects I told on them to the police, so they'll be double as eager to hurt me."

Marjorie just looked at me and hugged me for support. I shuddered thinking how close I had come to being beaten to a pulp. I had been really lucky with that sudden wind out of nowhere, blowing my attackers away like that. Marjorie asked, "So how did you get away?"

I hesitated a little, "Well, I don't really know how it happened, but suddenly there was a hard gust of wind that blew them from their feet and down the hall. Thanks to my hardened nails I managed to stay in place, else I would've been blown through the hall with them."

Marjorie looked at me, "A sudden gust of wind? You mean that there was wind inside the school? How is that possible? Was there a door open to the outside? No, that wouldn't explain it, there's hardly is any wind today. Are you sure that you didn't see anyone? Maybe someone with a superpower from MORFS was there."

She fired her questions so fast at me that I reeled from the intensity. I thought back to my situation in the hall. I hadn't seen anyone there. Nor did I know anyone with powers in my school. And even if someone had powers, why rescue me, but hide from me at the same time. It all didn't make sense.

All the way back home, I kept thinking about the strange wind that had saved me. I was almost home when I got a light whack on my back and a cheerful Remo said, "Tag, you're it." He raced past me to our home, like we always raced home, but this time I had the advantage.

With my powerful legs I jumped much higher and further then he could and within moments I overtook him, tagging him lightly on his head in mid-jump. "Tag, now you're it." I didn't stop, but raced on towards home.

At the door we both panted from the exercise, till Remo said, "Not fair anymore. You can run faster and jump higher than me now."

I was a bit peeved with his comment, "You want to talk fair? You didn't almost get beaten to a pulp in school just because you had the misfortune to change gender and become a hybrid."

Unfortunately for me, Mom heard that last remark, she yelled, "What? Who tried to beat you up? Did you report it already?" as she opened the door.

Looking up at her I stammered, "I umh ... well ... you see..."

She interrupted me, "Never mind! Remo, where were you when this happened? Did you see who it was?"

Remo was clearly embarrassed as he hadn't witnessed it. "I can't be with her all the time! This is the first I've heard about it myself."

Mom was very upset, I could tell. She pointed inside and both Remo and I quickly went inside. After taking off our winter-coats, mine looked more like a summer coat now, and put our bags down, Mom made us sit in the living room.

"Spill it," Mom said gravely to me.

I hesitated, which earned me an even sterner look from her. "Fine, I'll tell you." I sighed. "I was with Marjorie most of the day, but I forgot a book in my locker and went to get it, all by myself. As I closed my locker I was confronted by Gary Fields, Phil Bondi and Sheila Tarkin. They were going to kick my ass for being a freak and because I reported them to the police."

"You're not a freak." growled Mom. "Did you report the incident to the police or the school?"

I looked down, "I can't, there were no witnesses, it would be my word against theirs. It would look like I was going to have them expelled for no reason."

"There has to be something we can do," said Mom exasperated. "They will try it again if they're not stopped."

"They won't get away with it next time, I'll be watching you're back, sis." Said an otherwise quiet Remo.

"You'd better watch her back, I'm disappointed that you weren't there today for her." Mom was really upset about it all."

I decided not to tell her about the wind incident. I had some thinking to do about that. I asked her, "Can I be excused now? I want to get to my room now."

Mom dismissed us with a hand wave and we both quickly went upstairs. Remo said as we reached the top of the stairs, "I really mean it, if I had been there I would have taken them on. I'm going to look out for you now."

I smiled, "Thanks Remo, I hope I don't need it. Besides I always had to bail you out of trouble remember?"

"Yeah, but you can't do that anymore little girl." Remo teased me.

Angrily I turned towards him, but he laughed and disappeared into his room. "I'll get you for that," I said mockingly.

Finally Spring had arrived, the weather was getting warmer and the snow was almost all gone. In my free time I enjoyed walking in the woods even more now. Sometimes I just couldn't resist and jump into trees and climb all the way to the tops. If I lived in a city, though I shuddered at the thought, I probably would be good at parkour. I really had the body, muscles, and dexterity for that kind of sport.

Marjorie sometimes went with me on my hikes through the woods, but she wasn't as quick in the trees as I was. We still did lots of things together and helped each other out with homework and talking about school and such. I really liked having her as a friend again, though now she would just be my best friend as opposed to my girlfriend. Sometimes she teased me about finding a boyfriend, and that made me start thinking about my sexuality. 'Am I still attracted to girls? Does that make me a lesbian? Or should I be looking a boys now. It doesn't appeal to me, yet!' But sometimes my mind wandered and I looked at girls as friends or competition. I hadn't caught myself looking at boys yet, but I feared that it was just a matter of time. 'Am I gay if I date guys, since I used to be one? Or am I gay if I date girls, because I am one? This is confusing the hell out of me!'

I hadn't encountered that strange wind again, so I thought it was unlikely that I had a power of my own. Believe me, I tried my best to see if I did have a power. I tried meditating, relaxing, focusing, and just plain doing all those things they show on TV. I still hadn't seen so much as a breeze of wind that was unusual.

Things got progressively worse at school, though there were no open hostilities that could be reported, just the small irritations that were getting common. Rumors were flying around at warp speed though, I had heard that some considered Marjorie and me lesbians, since we hung out together most of the time. They didn't consider the boys hanging out together as being gay though, which was essentially the same thing.

People still tried to trip me up when I was walking with my lunch tray, but each time I managed to avoid it and balanced my tray well enough that I didn't even spill a drop of my drink. Marjorie just stomped on any foot in her way, and apologized immediately sarcastically. A few jocks tried to goat her into a fight, but it was always quickly nipped in the bud by teachers. The worst things were when they pinched or stabbed my tail. It really hurt, but I couldn't show any proof, so I just tried to be quicker getting out of the way and avoid those who would do it as much as I could.

Then one afternoon everything changed, my whole life got turned into a new direction. It didn't all happen at once though, but that afternoon was the pivotal point of it all. I was alone in the woods, just enjoying myself and climbing some trees.

One tree that I was climbing started to creak ominously. I was usually much better in determining the state of branches. Just to be on the safe side I jumped to a bigger nearby tree, only to find the branch I was about to grab was in even worse condition than the ones before.

The branch disintegrated when I grabbed it and with a scream of fear I fell down to the ground.

As I plunged downwards, I saw to my horror that there was a bunch of small trees and other hard sharp plants waiting for me to crash into. Again I screamed and then it was like something clicked inside my head. I felt a headache coming up, but not like I had ever experienced before. It was like I had been blind and now I could suddenly see. It was overwhelming, exhilarating and frightening all at the same time.

A pressure was building up inside of me and I screamed out. At the same time I felt something push very hard against me. It was even hurting me and it was coming from below. It lurched me back to where I came from and I grayed out from the G-forces.

As I gathered my wits and looked what was happening, I noticed that I was sailing through the air at quite a height and a lot of speed. With my tail as rudder I tried to steer myself towards the pond that I could see from up here and it did work somehow. I managed to make a hard but safe landing into the water. The splash was so hard that I got the wind knocked out of me and I fought to get back up to the surface before I drowned.

I made it to the surface just in time to get fresh air into my lungs and then groaned as I noticed how far I had to swim back to the shore. It wasn't helping any that the water was still frigid and sucking all the heat out of me despite my fur protecting me somewhat.

It took me a long time to reach the shore and I was shivering of the cold and barely made it out the water. I laid down on the ground to catch my breath. But suddenly I started giggling which went to laughing out loud from joy, now I knew that I had a power. It had been me that had caused the winds to appear.

I shivered from the cold and quickly went home to change clothes. Mom wasn't too happy with my wet clothes, but fortunately she was more worried about me getting sick than why I was wet. I took a hot shower and used the industrial blow dryer and the big brush to get my fur back into shape.

I wanted to go out again to tell Marjorie about my new discovery, but Mom had other ideas and made me stay in to help with dinner before doing my other chores. I wanted to tell my family about my power, but I couldn't find an opening to start the topic and before I knew it I had to do my homework before going to bed.

The next day I went over to Marjorie to tell her my news. However when I found her sitting glumly on the porch, I wanted to ask her first why she was brooding. "Hi Marjorie, what's eating you?"

"Can you believe it? Biff morphed and he got a power. He can do stuff with water! Why couldn't we get any powers?"

I sat down next to her and felt like I should tell her that I had found my power. I feared that if I did now, I would lose her friendship. Her friendship had started to mean so much to me that I never wanted to lose it. So, I just sat next to her and offered her some support. "Did he change in his appearance?"