“Jared, is that you?” Jared heard a voice whispering to him, and he looked over to see the young raccoon in the bottom bunk looking at him with his eyes wide open. The raccoon boy stared a second longer, lingering on the damp stain on the front of Jared’s boxers, then he said, “Quick, hide under here!”
The raccoon lifted the sheets on his bed and motioned him over, and Jared hopped under the covers without thinking, hopefully keeping the other teens in their cabin from catching him in such an embarrassing state.
“Yo, Rick! You smell that?” Jared soon heard a scratchy, cracking teen voice speaking from beneath the blanket and kept as quiet as he could. Wait… That raccoon was Rick? Jared felt his tail whipping around frantically as he desperately tried to make sense of everything that was going on. What happened last night that could turn three grown mean into 13 year old animal kids?
Although, Rick’s closer to 14, a little voice in the back of Jared’s head whispered, then he pinched himself to stop all these weird thoughts from infiltrating his brain.
“Whatever, Josh. I think whoever smelt it, dealt it,” Rick said confidently, his voice taking on the tone of a cocky young teenager. “Maybe you were dreaming about that hot kangaroo counselor from orientation!”
“Ha! In her dreams!” Jared heard Josh retort, sounding a little flustered. “Well, whatever. As long as whoever it is takes a shower before I gotta smell them again, I guess it doesn’t matter. Later!”
Jared heard the sounds of kids heading out the door to the cabin, presumably for a morning shower. Soon, everything was silent and Rick peeked under the covers at Jared. “Coast is clear. Unless you want to spend all day down there?” he asked.
Jared peeked back out from under the blanket and looked around, seeing only the raccoon that Rick had become and a skinny weasel, and the three boys looked one another over curiously. “Martin, is that you?” Jared asked incredulously, covering up the stain on his boxers with one paw. “You’re… you’re a weasel.”
“I’m a marten!” Martin said indignantly, as if it were the most important thing in the world. A strange look crossed his faced, then he said, “…Not that I even knew what the fuck a marten even was until I woke up this morning. Guys, this is insane! I already did the teenager thing, and I’m not interested in doing it again as a fucking animal!”
“And Sarah’s not gonna be interested in a weasel,” Jared said, a grin forming on his face as he teased his friend about his crush. He started to look though his bag for a clean pair of boxers, then he groaned as he pulled one out and looked it over. “What the fuck’s a Fortnite?” he grumbled as he stripped off his stained pair.
“Marten! And don’t think Jackie’s gonna be interested in you looking like that! Tigers are cool, but I don’t think she’s interested in fooling around with a 13-year-old one!” Martin pouted, his voice cracking noticeably as he got more and more worked up.
Rick just watched his friends argue back and forth, trying to take in all this new information. He spotted himself in the mirror, and despite how odd this situation was, he had to admit that his fluffy ringed tail and distinctive facial markers made him look quite handsome, for a kid at least. Maybe ‘cute’ would be the better word…? His thoughts was interrupted by someone flicking his pointed ears, and he turned around to see Martin glaring at him.
“Quit daydreaming and focus, Ricky!” the marten boy fumed, his fur standing on end. “We need to find the girls and get the hell out of here!”
Jared heard that and blushed a little bit. “Umm… I’ve gotta deal with this first…” He said, indicating the sticky patch of fur around his crotch, making Martin facepalm and groan. The marten grumbled to himself as he paced around the room in frustration with his friends’ apparent lack of concern for this ridiculous situation they found themselves in.
“Martin, calm down, okay?” Rick said calmly. As the oldest of the three of them at 13 and ten months, he tried to be the voice of reason. “We’ll figure this out, so don’t let yourself get worked up right away.”
Martin let out a sigh and slumped down onto a bunk bed. “Okay, so what’s your plan then?”