"Wait, your mom found a Lilith Fruit, and she actually ate it?", Maddie said loudly. "Your mom?"
"Is this the same mom who totally freaked out when you got changed, begged you to get it undone, and called you a 'freak'?", asked Natasha.
"The very same," Hwan said, the painted image that was her mouth curling into a satisfied smirk. She knew that her status as one of the popular girls, something she had wanted for so long, had just been cemented.
Of course, what it took to be considered one of the cool kids had changed a lot since Hwan first started high school. Ever since a few kids came back from summer vacation with Lilith Fruit changes they had picked up in another city, it was all anybody could talk about. It wasn't likely that anybody at school was going to find a fruit of their own - teenagers generally aren't doing their own grocery shopping, after all. But it wasn't too hard to find a Fruit user and get them to change you. A lot of them seemed enthusiastic to spread whatever curse they'd been hit with to anybody that wanted it. And when a Fruit user popped up in their very own town, doling out pooltoy nozzles, it was like the floodgates had opened - water-related pun not intended.
Naturally, the school officials hated this new trend. They tried to ban all transformations on school grounds, saying it was a distraction to learning (though, arguably, a much greater distraction was the fact that all the textbooks in subjects like biology and physics had been rendered completely obsolete by the existence of magical body-changing produce). But what could they do? Make a kid shave off all his new fur before he could enter the building? Most of the changes couldn't just be turned on and off at will - and very few of these impulsive teenagers had even bothered to think about how they were going to eventually get them reversed, when the person who had the power to do so was a total stranger they happened to encounter once. So the administrators were powerless to do anything about their increasingly inhuman student body, and had more or less given up on trying by now.
All of that helped to explain why Hwan was currently sitting at one of the designated "cool kids' tables" in the lunchroom - where being changed was practically a requirement for entry. Right now, she was sharing a table with four of her fellow pooltoy girls - girls that would never have given her the time of day back when they were all normal, but who were now suddenly her new friends. Hwan would never admit, not to them and certainly not to her mom, that she wasn't really enthusiastic about her new body. But she'd always been insecure about whether she could "fit in", and when she saw a chance to climb to the top of the social ladder, she jumped at it. Now she had something even better to show off - a change that nobody else even knew about before.
"So, when's your mom gonna set up shop and start passing out fox parts?", Chloe asked excitedly. A hidden benefit of all your peers being inanimate objects - well, not really inanimate, since they could still move, but it was fun to describe yourself that way - was that nobody at the lunchroom table actually needed to eat anything. That left more time for chatting. "I'd love to have a pair of ears like those," Chloe continued, gesturing a translucent arm at the triangles poking out from Hwan's head.
"Um, I don't know if she will," Hwan said. The lady at the grocery store was one thing, but there was no way her mom was going to be happy with a parade of teenagers (and, presumably, people of all ages) lining up to demand that she change them. But Hwan knew that her new peers weren't the type to take no for an answer, so she had to give them a better excuse than that. "I mean, I think she's still trying to figure out how to control her powers. The stuff that she gave me was just an accident, so it might be a while before she's ready to do it on purpose..."
"Right, right," Isabella said sarcastically. "You're definitely not just trying to keep those ears and that tail all for yourself."
"I am not!" Hwan shot back.
"I'm just kidding," Isabella said. "But seriously, you're going to be the most popular girl at the party this weekend, now that you're double-changed and all. Especially if you're the only one who gets to have those things on you."
"The party?" Hwan asked, although she knew full well what sort of party Isabella was talking about. Ever since the Pooltoy Fruit popped up in town, most of the 'floaties' (as those who had gotten that change liked to call themselves) started holding total ragers every weekend at the house of anybody in the neighborhood who had a pool in the backyard. Hwan had never been to one of these before, but she'd heard about the sort of stuff people got up to there. Using the surface of the water as a dancefloor was just the beginning - before long, the floaties would be exploring everything (yes, everything) their new bodies were capable of. Hwan was particularly disturbed to hear that some people were even getting deflated at these parties. Sure, they always got blown back up again, but even the thought of it made her vinyl skin crawl.
"Yeah, the party," Isabella finished.
"Don't tell me you're going to miss another pool party," Natasha added.
"A pooltoy that's never been to the pool," Chloe remarked. "How ridiculous is that?"
Hwan couldn't stand the teasing. She was already going to give in and agree to go when Maddie pointed out something that made Hwan's animal ears perk up: "You know, it's going to be at Brad's place this weekend."
Hwan had the biggest crush on Brad. Well, okay, all the girls at their school did, and so did a couple of the guys. Brad was the quarterback of the school's football team, and one of the last remaining people who could still be considered "cool" while also remaining fully human. Engaging in any sort of transformative activity would certainly mean getting cut from the team, after all. His normal form was attractive enough, anyway, and he practically had girls throwing themselves at him already. There was no way Hwan would ever have a chance with a guy like him - until now, when her two overlapping changes guaranteed that she'd be the center of attention at his house party.
Hwan nearly started bouncing in her seat with excitement, making a sort of whoopie-cushion squelching sound as she held herself back. No one laughed at that sort of thing anymore, though - it just happened all the time. "Okay, okay! I'll be there!"