Amy met up with Lina on the corner and the two walked to school, as was their usual custom. Lina didn't mention the store at all, and Amy wasn't about to bring it up for fear Lina would call her crazy. She did try indirectly referring to the previous day, but apparently all Lina could remember was walking straight home from school. "I don't know why it took us like an hour longer than it usually did. Did we stop somewhere?" Lina thought. Amy didn't bother answering.
She was mystified, and still somewhat horrified, at her tail. She knew it wasn't supposed to be there, yet now that it was she was feeling all sorts of strange new sensations. It was like having a new limb attached to her, sending its nerve signals to the sensory part of her brain. At first the swishing of the furry tuft of hair against her legs was annoying, but it had become comforting and somewhat amusingly ticklish.
In school, things were not as Amy was used to. Half of the people she used to call friends wouldn't talk to her, and most of the ones that did were guarded and quick to end their conversations. Amy felt dejected; the entire population had become a clique, and she was the only one on the planet not included. Even her teachers were talking to her differently, as if they didn't expect her to be as smart as the rest of the students.
Then Amy overheard a conversation Lina was having with a few girls that Amy had never liked, in her new life or her normal one. She was approaching Lina's locker at the end of the day but held back when she saw the group surrounding Lina. She ducked behind a gap between the wall of lockers and a drinking fountain and listened in on the conversation.
"Why would you even ask me to do that?" Lina said in an insulted tone.
"Because we think you've got a good thing going. You've got great looks and a great voice. But you can't be in the show unless you put some distance between yourself and the zebra girl." This voice belonged to Harriet, the group's leader. She was the star in the school's upcoming drama production, but she had developed the trademark superior attitude way earlier in life. Her friends were yes-girls who either got roles in the play thanks to Harriet's influence, or were rejected but didn't have the courage to leave Harriet's side. These were the girls Amy remembered from her locker dream, but in the true reality, Amy had never come to blows with them. She had the good sense to keep out of their way.
"There's more to life than singling out people who don't fit your definition of 'pretty,' Harriet. Get out of my face."
Amy heard Harriet huff, and seconds later she peered around the corner to see the whole group headed off down the hall. Lina had gone back to putting books in her locker. When Amy approached Lina, she didn't mention Harriet. Lina seemed more than eager to tell her about the incident anyway.
"Those selfish freaks. They're less human than you are, Amy."
"Is...is being human a bad thing?" Amy asked, not sure how to take that last remark.
Lina stopped what she was doing and gave Amy an apologetic look. "No! No, of course not. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, I know who you were really trying to insult. Besides, I guess I'm really not human."
"Sometimes things just happen. Nobody knows why you've got zebra stripes and a tail, but then again at least ninety-eight percent of your DNA is still human. Heck, you're closer to me genetically than monkeys." Lina closed her locker and the two headed out of school. "That's why I want to go to college in the genetic field. You've inspired me to find out what other mysteries can be out there. Maybe one day we'll find a way to change our bodies to look however we want. Then we can both have zebra stripes." Lina winked at Amy, and Amy realized she was being completely honest. Before, when Amy was truly human, Lina was going for a genetics degree just because she found it the most interesting. Now she had apparently been influenced by Amy herself.
Although this reassured Amy that much of her life was still the same, none of it could keep her from wanting to change back to the body she was used to. She tried to ignore the fact that her memories of that old life were starting to become harder to recall, while the visions she had seen in her dream were as vivid as ever. She wondered if that magic store had reappeared, and if they would be able to find it on the way home just like they had yesterday.