It was reasonably early when Brittney woke up, it was tomorrow morning. She stretched out her back, yawning a bray "Haaaaaawwww..." that went currently unnoticed by Brittney as she still had her eyes closed. She started to rub her eyes with the back for her hand. She felt something brush against her eyelids, and as she opened them, she realised that what happened yesterday wasn't some sort of lucid dream. This was real. The fur. The muzzle. The ears. The hooves. The tail. The braying. All real. She was still this strange combination of human and donkey. Brittney went silent. All she wanted was to crawl up into a ball and hide away from reality. She didn't want anyone to see her like this. She was human, not this smelly, ugly animal that she was now. She wanted to be back to normal, but now, she was the only one who couldn't be classified as normal in her mind.
"Brittney, honey, breakfast!" her mother said, loud enough that it could reach her room.
Breakfast. She couldn't even think about breakfast at this point. Until, her stomach growled. With all the yelling and crying that was happening yesterday, she didn't eat for a long while, leaving her very, very hungry. Brittney just sighed as she got out of bed. She walked out of her room with her head down, not noticing what was on the screen of the Chronivac...
ERROR:
Unexpected error in reality alteration. Currently fixing...
(Do not turn off the computer.)
Brittney carefully went down the stairs, going step by step so she didn't trip up on her hooves. "Good morning, honey, did you have a good sleep?" her mother asked. Brittney didn't respond. Brittney didn't want to respond. "I made you your favourite..." her mother exclaimed. Her favourite? Corn Flakes? Cheerios? That Sugar Puff cereal that she always loved when she was a kid? This made Brittney look up in excitement, even though she still frowned (which somehow became easier now that she had a muzzle). What could it be?
"...oats".
"Oats..." Brittney thought as she looked away from her mother "...oats...What are we going to have for breakfast tomorrow? Hay?!?"
Her mother placed the plain bowl of oats on one side of the table. On the other side was her father, reading the newspaper. It looked like nothing had changed. It was still the same old newspaper, no mention of donkeys, no mentions of people changing into donkeys, it was exactly like yesterday didn't happen. Her mother sat on the chair that was next to her father, placing her bowl of muesli on the table. She didn't know what was going on. She was a donkey now, but she wasn't before, now her own parents believe that she had always been one. It was like a dream, but Brittney knew that somehow this was real. She didn't need to pinch herself, she already felt the twitch of her ears, the swinging of her tail and the fur moving as she walked. She looked back up at her parents. "How are you, daring?" her father asked "Look, I'm sorry for what happened last night, I had a busy day at work so I was very, very stressed when I came home. It won't happen again, sweetie, I promise. We just need to understand how you are feeling, alright? Can you forgive me?". She was a bit shy looking back up at her father, but she nodded. "Thank you" her father replied. Brittney noticed that something was different, something felt off and she didn't know what. Just then, the smell of her oats started to waft into her outstretched nostrils. Her mouth was watering, she never felt like this about something so mundane as grain, but she was almost fixed in on the current uneaten bowl of oats. She grabbed the spoon that was next to the bowl and started to chow down on the grain. Something about it was so, so tasty. She got more and more spoonfuls into her mouth, chewing on the grain like corn flakes. More and more spoonfuls left the bowl, until her mother spoke. "Honey, it's almost time to get ready for school". She noticed that something was off again when her mother spoke. Her ears, as well as her fathers ears, were slightly pointed. Both their hair was darker than before, which was odd since none of them ever dyed their hair. Their fingernails were slightly darkened as well, even though it couldn't really show through her mother's painted fingernails. Something about it felt odd to Brittney, she felt like something was different but it didn't feel like anything changed. Maybe it was just her. She had to ask to know if her parents felt the same.
"Dad, Maawwm, do you feeeel like any thing is different?" Brittney said, getting used to the brays while also trying to stop some of them coming out of her mouth.
Her parents looked at each other in confusion and looked back at Brittney. "Uhh... no, sweetie, we haven't" her father replied. She looked at her mother, awaiting a response. "No, I haven't felt like anything has changed. We are still the same, so I'm not sure what you mean" her mother added "Anyways, you should get ready for school, the bus should be coming soon".
Brittney didn't know what to do. Should she keep a careful eye on her parents or should she go to school?