The next day at school, Mr. Winslow, Jr. was teaching science class. He pointed out a frog life cycle diagram on the overhead projector. He told the kids, "You are all aware of this process after a pair consisting of one male and one female amphibian reproduce; the offspring containing half of each parent's inheritors. It is the second metamorphosis that elucidates the mysterious aspects." He began explaining the process which surely would baffle anyone except geneticists. Mr. Winslow, Jr. had a great time teaching them about the transmogrification.
In the cafeteria later, same old day, Montgomery told Alice: "I can't wait to see what form Oliver will evolve."
Alice replied, "Me neither, Montgomery. Me neither." She smiled brightly back at her boyfriend. Meanwhile, Oliver sat completely silent, sad, and alone at a table. The other kids were talking loudly about his future mutation as lunch continued on. After lunch, Oliver got off campus for an hour, but soon returned.
Throughout middle school days and nights, Oliver obliviously started taking on some odd habits. He would spend long hours by the school pond, and developed an unhealthy obsession with icky worms and crawly bugs. He began chewing on leaves, and when he was let out of class, he had an extra hop in his step that he didn't show before.
One afternoon while sitting by the school pond and contemplating jumping in, he was joined by the school's resident mall goth, Liza. She greeted him with a surprisingly warm smile, "Hello Oliver. How are you doing today?"
Oliver looked at her and shrugged, "I dunno. I guess I'm just waiting to see what happens next." With that he dipped his hand into the water and scooped it up. He brought his hands closer to his face, inhaling deeply from them as if they were flowers. His eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Oh wow! The pond water is filled with algae and...I'm hungry..."
Liza laughed softly. "That's pond scum for ya, Oliver. It's all part of being less and less human."
"But no one else seems bothered by it," Oliver protested stubbornly.
"Probably cos they ain't evolved yet," she chuckled, pointing to several schoolmates playing football nearby, their forms seemed complete with arms, legs & heads still intact.
"Do you know yet what we're going to be? And when?" Oliver whispered.
"I don't think any of us knows exactly," Liza mused, shrugging while stating matter-of-factly, "But there's whispers around town about birds or maybe frog folks like me - some sorta amphibious creature possibly..." Her eyes sparkled whilst adding mysteriously, "Each change seems different though!"
"You seem so excited by these changes!" Oliver said; envy on his face, hunger gnawing at him more than ever since that retrovirus stirred up unknown desires, unaware how much he was craving those alien feelings inside him to burst through his skin...
Liza just grinned before whispering back: "Who knows what irony forks out next! Each meal now feels like it could be my final bite as a human girl. But you know... uncertainty is kind of exciting in its own twisted way right?"
With each passing day of this wild phase, Oliver became more distracted by every clue he dug up about the other kids undergoing changes. Some kids he saw every day were beginning their metamorphosis as well: flat chests morphing into plant-like growths; smooth skin starting to resemble scales. The air was thick with anticipation; but one thing remained constant - a shared instinct within them begging for an emergence! Childhood innocence vanished behind increasingly inhuman habits; because no one had a choice but to endure this grueling devolution... or was it triumph?