As Jen clambered onto the bus, her friends waved their phones at her and motioned for her to sit next to them. It was the last thing she wanted today. In fact, Jen planned on finding a quiet place in the school to hide all day away from everyone else, on the off-chance this curse thing started to take hold. She smiled weakly at her friends and found an empty seat by the bus driver, who grunted and took off for the next stop.
"Jen!" her friend Michelle half-whispered to her from further back. She did her best to ignore it.
She heard footsteps coming up the aisle and Michelle plopped down next to her. "Jen, what's up? Come back with us, you have GOT to see what Stacey posted last night!" Michelle paused. "...Jen, are you okay?"
Jen grimaced and half-turned away from her friend. "Oh, I'm not feeling too well today. Mom made me come to school anyway."
"Oh..." said Michelle. She sat quietly for a moment. Jen could feel her eyes burning into her, and wished she would just go away. "Ohhhh, I think I get it," Michelle whispered. "I'll go check my purse."
"Excuse me?" Jen asked. Michelle was already back in her seat, rummaging in her purse and chatting quietly with her other friends. After a minute, she came running back to Jen's seat, the bus driver scowling at them both for the commotion. She pushed a small object into Jen's hands. "Didn't have time to shave, huh?" Michelle whispered. "Happens sometimes to all of us, although we're not all...like you. Y'know."
Jen opened her hand. A small pink safety razor was inside. "What...?"
"Your fuzz," Michelle said, as if Jen should know exactly what she was talking about and why she should be embarrassed about it. She pointed at Jen's shoulder, cringing. She wasn't able to see what her friend meant by craning her head around, so she shakily pulled out her pocket mirror, not wanting to see what she was expecting.
But there it was, plain as day. A light dusting of grey fur, along her neckline and atop her shoulders, poking out from under the thin straps of her top.
"O-oh god," Jen muttered.
"Honestly you're lucky to have a friend like me who isn't judgmental and lets you know when it's showing," Michelle said, flipping her hair around and adjusting it. "I don't know how you've managed to stay so popular with your weird condition. Other girls can be super vicious about stuff like that."
Jen didn't really hear her. She was frantically dragging the razor against her shoulders, scraping off as much of the fur as possible. Rat fur. The seat next to her was getting covered in rat fur. Michelle gave her a disgusted look and scooted away.
"Anyway...uh, you can keep the razor. I'll see you in third period, I guess." Michelle dashed back to her other friends. Jen noticed they weren't looking at their phones anymore, and whatever they were talking about, they kept glancing in her direction. She scrunched down into her seat where she hoped no one could see, and nervously kept at it with the razor.
Her mirror was getting fogged up from her heavy breathing. When she rubbed off the condensation, the reflection showed the fuzz encroaching on her neck, too. It was gone in a few swipes.
Jen thought back to Kyle's words. Others would notice the difference...so to them, Jen wasn't "transforming," she had always been this way...but it still wasn't normal. That was what he meant. And it was only going to get worse. How would people treat her when she had "always" been a disgusting rat creature?
"Hey, hey!" Jen was startled out of her absent-minded shaving by the bus driver's yell. He was glaring at her. "Now quit doin' that, girl, I have to keep this bus clean!" He shook his head. "Some people...just shameless."
Jen's eyes fell to the scattering of fur around her and on her skirt. She mumbled an apology and brushed it off to the floor, and heard giggling from the back of the bus. Trying to ignore the people she thought were her friends, she surveyed the damage in her pocket mirror again. She tensed up -- a thin sliver of blood now ran along her shoulder where she'd cut herself with the raw razor. Red-faced, she searched her purse for a napkin.
Already one of the worst mornings she'd ever had, and Jen knew this was still just the beginning.