"What the heck are you talking about?" said Ric.
The tiger cub stood up, its back arching. It hissed.
"Ric, Josh tried to kill you because he felt betrayed. You look like that now, and I'm thinking he didn't like it."
"But this isn't about him."
"He's your friend. What you did probably made him feel isolated from you."
Ric shook his head. "Well, turn him back and I'll explain things."
Mr. Mendes smiled. "Good." He opened the book and paged through it, finding the spell. He carefully cast the spell. The cub began to grow, age, and change, its body shedding fur and reforming. In a matter of minutes, Josh sat on the couch. He looked pretty peeved. He looked at Mr. Mendes. "Why did you stop me?"
Ric spoke. "Josh, this doesn't change anything between us. We're still buds."
"My best friend just aged to twenty years and looks like a football star. Like you're gonna want to hang out with me now."
Ric grinned. "This just means I'll get some dates, that's all."
Josh sighed. "All right." He took the book from Mr. Mendes. "What else can this book do?"