Supper came and went without anything particularily noteworthy happening. Dawn's dad was just as unsurprised by her being a snake-girl as her mother and brother had been, and the small talk around the dinner table was much the same as usual. The only real difference she noticed was that she had much more of an appetite than usual, but with so much more body to feed, that made sense. Dawn couldn't understand how the world could suddenly have freakish semi-human creatures in it and still be so much the same, but on the other hand, it was nice that she'd be able to try and find a way to change back in a familiar environment, rather than having to get used to an entirely new world as well as an entirely new body.
Afterwards, Dawn grabbed her satchel and headed out to the car with her mother. The family van was mostly the same, except that one of the seats had been taken out of the middle row and was sitting in the far corner of the garage. She slid inside, coiling up in the empty space and shutting the door. Dawn was pretty bad at remembering to fasten her seat belt, so she was actually surprised when her mother didn't remind her to do so. Then again, it wasn't like a seat belt would do much to restrain her in the event of a collision. For once, she was grateful for her mom's over-careful driving habits.
"You know, dear," her mom said, as they pulled out of the driveway, "I just want you to know that your father and I have been noticing how you've been trying to get along with Joey lately, and we appreciate that a lot."
"Um, thanks," Dawn said, kind of surprised. "Have I really?" She hadn't intended to say the last part; she was just musing aloud by mistake. She and Joey got along pretty well in the old reality; did this mean there had been problems with them now? She supposed that small boys and teenage sisters didn't typically get along, but she hoped the enmity was nothing serious.
"Oh, yes," her mother said. "You know, the way you've been putting up with his nickname for you; you didn't used to do that. Or let him ride on you, although he's probably getting too big for that. It's just nice to see you two getting on a little better."
"Oh, yeah," Dawn replied. "Yeah, I guess I've just been kind of hoping that if I ignore it, he'll stop." Now that she thought about it, she wasn't particularily fond of "Wormy" as a nickname, but at the time it had just been another entry in a very long list of weird things about her day. And it still wasn't something she felt like making a big deal over; after all, she wasn't planning to be like this any longer than necessary. They arrived at Tony's house a minute or so later. Dawn exited the vehicle and lifted herself up to window level to wave goodbye.
"Have a fun evening, dear!" her mom said. "I'll pick you up around nine-thirty, alright?" Dawn nodded, and the van pulled away. Well, it was time to face the next challenge. She slithered up the driveway to Tony's house and rang the doorbell.
Tony answered it, grinning cheerfully. "Hey!" he said. "Come on in!" Dawn followed him inside. So far, so good; he wasn't treating her like a girlfriend, so her biggest concern was taken care of. But how was she supposed to tell him that she'd been a normal human male this morning?
The two of them grabbed a couple sodas and headed up to Tony's room, where an assortment of textbooks were flung across the bedspread. "Thanks for coming over," Tony said. "I know you don't like studying much more than I do, but my mom's been on my back about keeping my grades up this semester, and you're a lot better about keeping on track with this stuff than I am."
"Hey, no problem," Dawn said, coiling up on the floor next to the bed. "I mean, you help me out in math, after all." She tried to smile, but she was still nervous about how to tell Tony the truth.
"Hey," he said, noticing her expression. "Something wrong? You seem kinda down."