"I'm... "
Dawn paused, thinking furiously. Could she really just come out and say it? What was she going to say, anyway? "I'm just depressed because this whole reality is a lie, and I wasn't half snake before this morning, and was a boy, besides, although you probably don't even remember it?" He'd probably laugh it off and assume it was some kind of prank. If she stuck to her story, he'd probably think she was crazy. Heck, before today, what would she have said if Tony had come to him and confessed that he wasn't really the boy he remembered having always known, but was supposed to be a girl? Of a different species?
For that matter, how did she know this HADN'T already happened before? How many things that were in her life and "normal" had always been that way? Had anyone else she knew had their whole life altered by the turn of a page, or some other way? Would she even know if they had?
Dawn shivered. It was a terrifying prospect. But Tony was still looking at her expectantly, waiting for an answer, and probably starting to wonder what was bothering her. And she couldn't risk losing that support yet, this whole thing was too big to think about yet by herself. Now that she was feeling a little more sure that their friendship hadn't changed, she didn't risk losing it by appearing crazy. The only real option, she realized, was to try to break it to him gradually.
"I'm... Sorry. I'm just a little distracted today."
Tony's eyes immediately filled with concern. "Oh? Is something bothering you? It's not the studying, is it? Word is, next quiz isn't until next week, so we can always study another night, if you're tired...?"
"No, it's... not that. I just... " She paused again. This was the critical part. How to explain without sounding crazy. Suddenly an idea struck, and clutching to it frantically, she plunged ahead. "I just had a really weird... dream."
"Last night?" He asked. "Was it the one where you show up at school and then suddenly realize you're not wearing any pants?" He giggled a little. Dawn stared at him in shock for a moment, before realizing the irony of the comment. It still caused a tiny mental flinch, on her part, as she realized ruefully that she would probably be showing up to school EVERY day from now on, sans pants, unless she tracked it down. It was also a little unnerving how casually he talked about it. He might have been commenting on the color of her hair, for all the importance it seemed to have. Clearly he didn't see anything out of the ordinary about it.
"No, you loser, some Sigmund Freud you turned out to be!" She gave him a playful shove. "And not last night either. I fell asleep in the library and had a really weird dream."
"ok, sorry, sorry!" He cried, laughing. "Ok, then try to relax, and tell me about your dream." He stuck his pencil in his mouth, and pretended to smoke it like a pipe, while adopting a fake German accent. "And after zat, you cahn tell me ahbout zour mother."
She laughed a little at that, although inside, was thinking that this was not going to make things any easier. After an exaggerated, drawn-out sigh, just to make it very clear what she thought of his Freud impression, she started to talk.
"It was actually kind of the opposite of that. I... dreamed... I was wearing pants. Because I didn't have THIS." Dawn gestured expansively at her coils of tail, and gave a kind of full-body shrug for emphasis. "Because I was a human being, with legs, and stuff."
Tony raised an eyebrow, but gave no other real indication. He'd stopped fiddling with the pencil though, and was giving her his undivided attention. Taking a breath, she plunged onward.
"And also..." this last bit came out almost as a whisper, "I was... I mean, I dreamed I was.... a boy named Daryn."
Neither one of them said anything for a moment, and Dawn stared at the quilt of the bed. She couldn't bring herself to look up at him, to see how he had reacted to her "dream". So instead she traced patterns of the quilt with her eyes, and the silence grew.
The moment was broken when she felt Tony put his hand on her shoulder, and she flinched involuntarily. "Dawn," he said. Nervously, she met his gaze at last, and braced herself to hear whatever he was about to say next...