Growing Pains
JJ was laying down in his bed, staring around the ceiling. He kept awkwardly shuffling around, trying to make himself comfortable in bed with the tail he just grew. He was still thinking about what had happened earlier at Knox’s house. After JJ and Kaizen left together, Kaizen went to his own home after they reached where JJ lived. He had snuck in through his window, hoping not to wake up his mom.
Oh god, his mom. How the hell was he going to explain this to her? It’s not like he could just say “Oh yeah, so this morning I got injected with some weird thing and transformed into this,” that would just make her worry.
He rubbed his eyes. Man, worrying for three days straight had really exhausted him. JJ knew he probably had an unhealthy amount of sleep deprivation. Turns out pain knocking you unconscious doesn’t count towards those sleep hours. He just knew he couldn’t manage sleeping, not yet at least. He sat up and dug through his very unsuitable clothes and pulled out his phone.
It surprised him to see his friend Tyler had messaged him late last night. Tyler was one of JJ’s human friends. He was kind of shy sometimes, and you only really got to see the true him when he was with his closest friends. It amazed JJ sometimes what Tyler could do when you got to know him.
JJ opened up his messages app and tapped on Tyler’s name. It seems Tyler tried to message him last night. There were messages asking him if he was okay, then panicked messages wondering why he wasn’t responding. JJ sighed, and knew he couldn’t hide forever. He texted Tyler eight simple words.
“Meet me at the park in 30 minutes.”
He turned his phone to silent and stood up. He thought about taking a shower, but realized he couldn’t. Not only could the noise possibly wake up his mom, he knew Kaizen had to use some special shampoo. I mean, you can’t really use soap when you’re entirely covered in fur. It just won’t work
He sighed again, thinking of something, anything he could do to pass the time. He shuffled over to his desk and opened up his laptop. He figured that would be a pretty good distraction. He opened up the pictures folder, the one synced with his phone. He absent-mindedly scrolled through them, not really paying attention.
All of this was seriously going to mess with him. Nothing was going to be the same again, was it? The pictures just simply reminded JJ of what he’d lost. Looking at himself only a week ago, it was hard to believe that he was really that teenager in the photo. JJ looked at his paws and back to a photo of him holding up a controller on his couch. It was a little crazy to realize that where human hands were hours before now had squishy paw pads.
The pictures only made him feel worse. JJ stood up, his head hung down low as he walked over to his bed again. He tentatively climbed back into bed before curling up in a ball, and drifted soundlessly to sleep.
Tyler stood in the wood chips by the child-sized play structure. His short and scruffy black hair was blown about in the cold fall wind, the white streak on the side standing out from most of it. Tyler was a pretty small boy, being no taller than 5 feet. His thin figure betrayed the fact he never worked out.
Tyler pulled his phone out of his pocket. He could have sworn he was on time. Sure enough, it had now been a little over thirty minutes since JJ sent Tyler that message. Tyler slid his phone back into his pocket. He figured that waiting a second longer wouldn’t hurt. It was then that Tyler spotted the distinct figure of an Anthrian walking down the sidewalk. They were fussing over the hoodie it was wearing, the hoodie’s hood no doubt annoying them, since it didn’t seem to have ear holes typical of Anthrian hoodies.
Wait… why wouldn’t it have ear holes? Tyler found this a bit strange, but didn’t say anything. Maybe they just wanted a specific brand.
Then he noticed the person was walking towards him. At the distance of only a couple paces away, they stopped in place and lowered their hood. They had wide blue eyes, the fur on their face a nice purple.The very tips of their ears were yellow, and their cheeks faded from purple to a dark blue.
“Tyler…” the figure said in a voice he recognised, but couldn’t quite place. Apprehension filled him, and he took a step back.
“Who are you?” Tyler said, his voice quivering slightly.
“It’s… it’s me, JJ.” JJ said with a nervous smile.
Tyler’s eyes widened for a moment, before he began squinting in confusion. That’s why he recognised the voice.
“H-how?” Tyler said, positively amazed and confused.
“You might want to sit down for this,” JJ said, putting one arm around Tyler. He led him over to a nearby bench and they sat down. They simply sat in silence for a moment, neither one really sure how to start.
JJ took a deep breath, before he told Tyler the story. How JJ had gone to Knox’s house in search of Kaizen, and had walked out completely changed. He tried his best to describe the pain, to describe the feeling of fear and bewilderment after waking up and realizing what had happened to him.
To Tyler, the story would have been completely unbelievable. The only reason he believed it was because of what was sitting right next to him. His friend was permanently different. JJ would probably never be the same again.
It had been about a week since the incident at Knox’s house, and JJ was trying his best to adjust. He was pretty much forced to buy new clothes, new shampoo, and many new bedsheets. The hardest thing JJ had to do however was tell his mom. He didn’t want to relive that experience again.
JJ was sitting in his room at his desk catching up on some homework from school. Fall break was long gone, and he didn’t have the excuse of looking for his missing friend anymore, so he was forced to go back. He was working on some math when
“Hey dude!”
JJ almost jumped out of his fur. He spun around quickly to see Genie behind him, lounging on JJ’s bed.
“Don’t scare me like that!” JJ exclaimed, still recovering from the scare. “Can’t you knock at the front door?!”
“I did, actually,” Genie said as he stood up. “Your mom just let me in, seeing as I am one of your friends.”
“Couldn’t you have knocked on my door?” JJ replied un-expressively.
“That I didn’t do,” Genie said, still sounding nice and cheery. “Anyways, I think I have a solution for your… predicament.” His eyes had narrowed at that word.
“What, being turned into an Anthrian?” JJ responded, a little bit confused. “Knox said it wasn’t reversible.”
“Certainly by normal means, yes. As you may have noticed however, I’m not a very normal man.” Genie said, with a sly smile and a shrug accompanying. “I’m here to offer you a choice.”
JJ was interested now.
“What choice?” he asked.
“A very simple one, as a matter of fact. You can choose to stay as you are now, or…” Genie paused, leaving JJ in suspense. “I can give you the power to switch between your human and Anthrian form at any time.” JJ sat for a moment, his expression unimpressed.
“Are those the only options?” JJ said, raising his paws palms-up. Genie nodded.
“Only options I’m willing to give to you. It’s that way because honestly you look kinda cute, and because I don’t wanna change things too much.” Gene explained, in a sort of matter-of-fact tone. “You know how I am.”
JJ had heard similar remarks to the first about him many times. He couldn’t disagree, he did look cute. JJ had always thought that about Kaizen, though he never voiced it. He ultimately sighed.
“Out of the two, I think I’ll take the latter.” JJ said, resigned.
“Great!” Genie shouted, and clapped his hands. Everything dissolved, and they were in a starry void. JJ was standing now (though he had not stood up himself) and Genie was standing before him.
“Is all of this really necessary?” JJ asked in deadpan.
“Not at all,” Genie replied, before he walked forward and tapped JJ on the shoulder. An indescribable warm feeling spread through JJ’s veins, his essence suddenly aware of something awakened inside of him. It all happened in an instant, and before he knew it he and Genie were back in his room.
“There,” Genie said cheerily. “I did it. Just think of switching, and it’ll happen.
JJ did as he was told. He began to think of becoming a human again, willing something inside him to obey. JJ felt his body ripple from head to toe, his fur being replaced by normal skin and his legs and arms looking human again! He raised up his arms in shock that it actually worked.
“That’s… incredible,” he said in awe. He closed his eyes, and with another will, he changed back, fur spreading from his feet to his head and his legs once again in digitigrade form.
Things weren’t going to be the same again.