I squinted as the glitter dust slowly floated down. “What the- What was that all about?”
I thought for sure it had to be a prank, or a dream, somehow. After all, there was no such thing as fairies. But the woman’s words lingered in the back of my mind, even as I got ready for school the next day.
The next morning, I walked to school, as usual, a cool fall breeze blowing through my hair. Laurie’s Glen High School was nothing special, a plain, boxy brick building on the outside, green tile and white walls on the inside. We had lockers and bulletin boards, but no real decorations or “school spirit” stuff to see. Our small-town school’s budget couldn’t afford some of the nicer things I’d seen in schools in TV shows, like Overhead projectors or a big lab room for chemistry. We barely even had working Wi-Fi.
Once inside, I moved through the spread-out crowd over to my locker, grabbing a few extra pencils, and a notebook I’d accidentally left in there yesterday. I closed it again, and started walking, only to bump right into a girl carrying a stack of textbooks, knocking her, and them, over.
“Ack! Uh, sorry,” I mumbled, reaching down and picking up her books.
Getting a glance at her face, I saw it was Gloria, the science teacher’s assistant. She was a sophomore like me, and volunteered as the teacher’s assistant in the physics course, but I hadn’t really seen a lot of her outside of class. She was a brunette, about an inch shorter than me, with bright green eyes.
“Oh, uh hi,” she replied, picking herself up, grabbing a couple more dropped books. “You’re Greg, right? Greg Gullion? From Mr. Peterson’s class?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” I nodded. I was about to hand the books back to her, but realized they’d be stacked pretty high. No wonder she’d lost her balance when I bumped into her. I wasn’t really in the mood to play Good Samaritan that day, but despite myself, I said, “Hey, would you like help carrying these? I’m guessing they’re going to Mr. Peterson’s?”
“Yes,” she nodded quickly, stacking the rest of her books and picking them up. “I’d appreciate the help very much!”
The two of us walked down the hallway side by side in silence. At first. After about half a minute, she turned her head toward me.
“So, Greg… what sort of hobbies do you have?”
“Well…” I gave it a little thought about how honest to be before answering. She didn’t seem like the type that’d laugh at me for it. “Eh, I enjoy anime and video games, mostly.”
“Really?” A smile appeared on her face. “What shows?”
“Well, I’ve been catching up on This Criminal Life lately…”
“Oh, I love that show! What arc are you on? Have you got any favorite characters? Personally, I just love Kumi! She’s adorable, and she gets so many good character moments.”
I blinked. Gloria had always seemed so reserved and quiet when I’d caught sight of her around school, and suddenly, she was way more passionate than I’d ever seen her before. And about something I happened to like, too.
The walk to Mr. Peterson’s class felt shorter than normal, and the two of us kept chatting back and forth even as we got into the classroom, and placed the books.
“…And while the season 3 finale was a kinda slow,” I said, “you gotta admit, Kiryu’s Rushdown Thunder Slam made for one of the best finishing moves in the series.”
“Oh, it’s definitely in the top five,” Gloria nodded, before her eyes glanced at her watch. “Oh shoot! Peterson’ll get here in one more minute! I need to clean up a couple more things before he gets here. Do you mind if I can meet you again during lunch?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Great!” She opened her backpack, and pulled out a small notebook labeled “schedule,” and jotted down what I guessed was a reminder to meet with me then. A quick glance in her backpack showed it was tidy and organized, with a place for everything, and everything in its place.
I was about to turn around, and get to my desk, when I noticed something… off, about her ears. They were a little higher than before. And kind of pointy, too.
I gasped when I saw black fur rapidly sprout of the back of them, before spreading around the rest of her head. Her nose turned black, shrinking as it and her jaw stretched forward into a short snout.
She looked up at me, her pupils now narrow slits. “Uh, is there something on my face?”
“Uh… f-fur?”
She smiled and shook her head. The whiskers growing from the sides of her little snout twitched. “Okay, so what’s wrong then? You look like you’ve seen a ghost, or something.”
I watched as black fur, with a patch of white in the front, trailed down her neck and under her dress. “No, I mean, uh… the fur uh…” I suddenly remembered the Fairy’strange blessing from last night. That those that fell in love with me would transform to fit my fetishes. Yeah, I was hugely into furries and transformations.
I also remembered that they and their families wouldn’t find the change strange. I decided to test this. “I thought I saw a wasp climbing through your fur.”
“Oh shoot!” She reached up to her face, her hands now covered in white fur that looked like little gloves next to the black fur covering the rest of her arm’s length. “Is it gone now?” As she dropped her hands, I saw little pink pads on her palms and the bottom of her fingertips, with little retractable claws just above them.
“Uh, yeah, it is…” I stammered, watching as a furry tail slowly grew out behind her, black, tipped with a dab of white. Looking down, I could see her shoes had vanished, and her feet had become little paws, which she somehow balanced perfectly on.
“Oh, that’s good,” her tail stopped flicking back and forth. She turned around to get back to what she’d been doing, letting me see that her pants now had a custom hole in the back to let her tail through.
What on earth could I do about this? I walked back to my seat, shaking. While other students, and Mr. Peterson, started to walk in, giving Gloria odd looks, but not freaking out like I had. I tried to keep calm, but it wasn’t easy. This whole thing was REAL? And now I was going to school with a (admittedly really cute) cat lady? This was a lot to take in.
So much, that I only just realized then, Gloria being affected by the curse meant that she at least had a crush on me. And what’s more, if the rest of that Fairy’s “blessing” is true, she wouldn’t be the only one for long.