"BUT the main thing right now," JT spoke with a small smile, "Is to see family. It's been a while seen I've seen family. It's been a while sense I've seen my little niece."
With that, the man came forward and actually hugged Abby and brought a nice smile to Abby's face as she hugged him back.
"I'm not exactly little any more," Abby chuckled back as she hugged him back, "In fact I haven't been little in any sense of the word for more than a year, now."
JT returned the chuckle and looked up to the double dosed Animalian that his niece had become. Given how tall she had grown, along with the hourglass figure she'd developed, complete with wide hips, a massive bosom, and a Amazonian musculature, Abby was easily bigger than him now, and fitting any adult Animalian that he'd seen on television over the past year. However, that really wasn't a surprise any more, given that Abby had been an Animalian for over a year and his sister and her husband had told him about the accident that had happened the previous year that had resulted in Abby's transformation and the development of Animalia as a sort of side town and civilization alongside Lyre and the Brown farm. He remembered getting a call from Josephine about what had happened... the spill, the fact that Abby had been out riding the stallion Samson and ended up having sex with him after he had been uplifted.
"I can imagine, and this must be Samson?" JT answered as he looked over to Samson who was standing slightly beside Abby.
"Yes," Abby nodded and then gestured to the rest of her friends, "And these are Sarah and Malice... they're Huskies, And Malice is short for Mary Alice..."
"I prefer Malice," Malice cut in.
"Pleased to meet all of you," JT moved to shake their hands.
This is Travis and Jessica," Abby introduced them.
"You're a mite smaller than your friends, I see," JT commented to Jessica as he noticed that Travis stayed close to Sarah.
"I'm only a singer doser," Jessica said slowly, "As such... I won't be... as "big" as the others until I finish going through puberty."
"I see," JT commented, "Well... I trust you're fine with that..."
"I am," Jessica gave a small smile, "Though... now that I'm fifteen and a year older... I HAVE been starting to feel many of the things related to an adult Animalian starting to get stronger..."
"Just part of growing up I suppose..." JT smiled to her.
Jessica nodded as Abby moved on to Sophie and Roger.
"And this is Jessica's boyfriend, Roger, he's also a single dosed rabbit," Abby introduced him and then moved on to Sophie, "and this is Sophie..."
"Who's still human," JT noticed.
"For now," Malice commented.
"You didn't become an Animalian?" JT asked to her, remembering that a lot of people in Lyre ended up becoming Animalians shortly after the government accepted Animalians the past year, for various reasons.
"MY family is accepting of Animalians, but they aren't quite accepting of the idea of humans BECOMING Animalians. So, while my family will fight for Animalians having civil rights... they won't let me become an Animalian until I turn eighteen," Sophie explained.
"Do you want to?" JT wondered.
"Yeah... though... as I said I have to wait..." Sophie spoke, "and specifically, if it works... I was thinking actually Dinotopian... a Pterdactylus based Animalian..."
"Which will take time for Horizon to work on the formula for," Abby added to him.
JT nodded to that as the others thought back to their first day at school and how things there had gone. Roland was still recovering in the hospital, but for Jessica, Sarah, and Malice, they could think back to other things that related to their first day... Though there were some other things that they did want to tell JT on, which related to the fact that Martin and Josephine Brown had also become Quarter Horse Animalians, but JT had turned to head into the house well ahead of them.
"Abby... did your mom tell him about her and your dad joining our herd too, or..." Samson asked.
"I don't know... between everything that happened with Heather attacking Sophie and Roland on the first day of school and the stuff related to the hurricanes hitting Texas and Florida... I really don't know," Abbey said weakly, leaving them to think about the things that had gone on besides what had happened on the first day of school. "If they didn't... he'll be in for a surprise."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"I still can't believe we don't have all the same classes," Malice grumbled as they made their way into the WSA building, presently looking down at the note card that held her schedule. The classes were essentially the next in the list of classes from what she'd taken the year before at Lyre High, but the big thing was that she had few classes with her sister. "We shared every class last year."
"Last year, you were still adapting to being in a situation more out of your experiences," Sarah answered, "Remember you went from young puppy to double dosed Animalian in a human school and human environment. They had us together to make sure you wouldn't cause any trouble."
"Me cause trouble?" Malice raised an eyebrow and lowered one ear, "I'm a good girl."
"Yes, yes you are," Sarah smiled to her sister, "but you're also used to things like this now. So there is no need for us to have EVERY class together."
Malice only sighed as they walked past the Mammoth bones that were set up as part of the "welcome" to the building in its atrium. They looked around to see Animalian students of all sizes, several were double dosers like them, though a few were only single dosed Animalians. The higher ceilings made things easy for the uplifted Elephants to walk in and make their way to where their lockers. The lockers were also oversized as well. The weight was light enough that the uplifted mice could still open them, but the equipment was also large enough that the lower dexterity levels among the larger Animalians wasn't a problem. Sarah remembered seeing Abby struggle mightily with locker doors designed for human hands.
The one thing that got Sarah a bit down was that Sophie wasn't there. Of course, WSA had been set up as a school for Animalians and Animalians ONLY, and Sophie was still human, thus she couldn't come. She was back in Lyre.
"The one thing that has ME down is that Sophie can't be here with us," Sarah sighed, "We've been friends since elementary school... me, Abby, Jessica, and Sophie."
"But this school is for Animalians," Malice answered, not noticing that she was essentially justifying the decisions that in establishing a separate district with OPEN enrollment and only allowing Animalians to enroll amounted segregation, regardless of the specific reasons for it, "and Sophie does like us... and likes Animalia. I'm sure before long she'll join us and we'll all be together again."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And Malice generally stuck to her opinion that things on that front would even out and that Sophie would join Animalia. Of course, Heather Wilcox's attack on Sophie and Roland had sprung into many things that had made the first day frustrating, and Sarah and Malice were BOTH horrified that a friend had been attacked by an insane Animalian. Thankfully Roland would be okay and the end consequences of the attack proved to be less severe than what could have been expected. The fact steps were taken to ensure that the Lyre and Animalia School Districts were reintegrated served to assure that Sophie's concerns were addressed and fixed, though that probably wouldn't go fully into effect until next school year, as there would be some need for added buildings and room for that, but it was a better step.
The thing that made Sarah and Malice smile the most about the whole thing, was that Sophie did ultimately confirm that she did wish to join Animalia, as Malice had expected. Sure, a pterodactyl wasn't quite the species that Malice thought, but she did figure that Sophie would want to join Animalia at some point. They all got on so well together. Sophie WAS a good friend, and not to mention that many students from Lyre joined Animalia the previous year when they found that a mature Animalian was bigger, buffer, and more athletic than they could hope to be otherwise, not to mention the more "adult" things that many chose to join Animalia for.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jessica's first day had been rather quiet, but not one without her own self-realizations. School at WSA really wasn't all that different from what it was like at Lyre the previous year. The real difference was that the desks and tables were built to last and built to deal with many of the weight issues that larger Animalians presented that had been difficult the previous year. Many of the desks were solid metal that had been polished smooth and painted so that light wasn't needlessly reflected off of them. They were also easily adjustable to adapt to the height of the Animalian in question. There were levers on the sides of each desk that would allow students to adjust each desk as needed, and that came in handy during second hour. The Animalians that had been at her assigned desk were an Elephant and a Hippo that had been at the zoo when they were uplifted. When Jessica and Sammy arrived, they had to turn the levers and lower the desk so that it would fit the converted rabbit and uplifted hamster's smaller height. The chairs, which were built more like an office chair, complete with strong wheels had similar features. Getting the desks in the right height and place had been the biggest thing for day.
"So how have you and Roger been making out?" Sammy asked to Jessica.
"Making out?!" Jessica almost jumped at the question, nearly missing the chair as she an Sammy sat down.
She then looked over to her former pet with some surprise.
"Yeah," Sammy nodded, "You were busy with your friends on the Animalia Ambassadoria team that I didn't get to see much of you over the summer. I wanted to make sure things were okay."
"Oh..." Jessica answered, slightly embarrassed as the first thing that had flashed through her mind was her and Roger in the back of her parents car making out with Roger going for her chest and her going for his pants. She tried to put that out of her mind, but a lot of it simply wouldn't go away.
It was something that Jessica had been noticing a bit more, particularly after turning fifteen just before school started. She guessed that related to essentially growing up as an Animalian. In this it was something that was something of a living experiment. Most Animalians were double dosers, largely the result of either finding a mate rather quickly or the fact that they were already adults when they became Animalians. In this it had been observed that adult Animalians had naturally high libidos, likely to help increase the population, as Jessica had noticed that Abby and Samson, Sarah and Travis, and Malice and Simon often had sex with each other as often as they could.
"And Roger and I could well end up the same way," Jessica privately realized to herself, "Some of my clothes are feeling a bit... tight... and I'm not mature, yet. I'm still growing... Eventually... I'll be built like Judy. I may not be as big as Abby... but I will be quite voluptuous and strong... and Roger..."
Jessica soon had to stop thinking on that realization as that had only lead her starting to become slightly aroused. It only reminded her that she was growing up. She may not have gotten the double dose to go straight to being a physical adult the way Abby, Sarah, and Malice, but that didn't mean that as she matured she wouldn't catch up with them.
"Roger and I are doing fine," Jessica eventually managed to answer Sammy, "He's been nice and has gone along with our Animalia Ambassadoria trips... Which has been fun, though we'll probably see a lot of that go down now that school is starting again. How are things with you and Samantha?"
"Very good," Sammy smiled, "We're mates now... double dosed and everything... but we'll still be here... learn things and find ways to contribute to Animalia. And I owe it all to you, Jess... for being a good owner before I was uplifted and being such a good friend."
"Thanks, Sammy," Jessica answered.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Of course, the word that Sophie and Roland had been attacked had made Jessica's private wonderings about going through puberty as an Animalian seem a bit childish, as it did lead to some negative consequences, but in the end, the consequences that came down proved to be less what was feared. The only thing now was to move forward... Privately, she also wondered on how fast Project Thylacine would evolve into Project Dinotopia and what that could ultimately mean for Sophie. She remembered Sophie saying she was interested in the idea of being a pterodactyl at the hospital, but that'd also soon relate to other issues that went beyond some of the animal's instincts.
There would also be parental worries, that Sophie's parents had. The Browns and the Wesleys probably had those fears too, when Abby and Sarah were first changed, but they were a different situation. Abby and Sarah were both transformed by accident and double dosed before they realized just how far they were going. Of course, for the Wesleys, some of those concerns were ultimately less when it was found that Sarah's father had been something of a closet furry who jumped at the chance, and Sarah's mother went along with him. However, her own parents had been hesitant when she voiced wanting to be an Animalian to assure Sammy that things would be fine between them, and while they ultimately gave their consent to her being an Animalian, they didn't allow for a second dose. Sophie's parents had similar concerns unless they changed their mind, Sophie would not get to be a pterodactyl until she turned eighteen.
Though, as the group walked in to begin work on things like homework and so on, Jessica privately wondered on when would be the best time for Sophie. Her waiting until she grew up might mean the issue of instincts might be Sophie's only hurdle... but then a part of Jessica's mind hoped that Sophie's parents would change their minds, at least for a single dose, so that she and Sophie could grow up into adult Animalians together. Roland could join them as Sophie's mate... and their whole group could be complete.