Michael Lee woke up at around 5:30 AM. He was a senior at Otter Falls High school. He was Varsity Football and he had decent grades; all around, a
pretty good guy. He was sort of the all American male stereotype, famous back in the 1950s. Though he was a bit of a bully, he couldn’t help it really; peer
pressure and all that. He mainly did this when he was around the rest of his buddies. He got away with a lot of it too, thanks to his being such a
phenomenal player and decent student.
Michael was home alone his parents were rich and busy people who had ostensibly moved to this tiny town to keep Michael away form bad influences in
reality they had moved so they could pay fewer taxes. They worked in the city and mostly came home only a few days a week. Michael had essentially
since the age of ten taken care of himself; though his parents had hired a ‘nanny’ to watch him for the days they knew they would be completely absent.
Leaving a ten year old alone was irresponsible and illegal. At sixteen, they judged he was capable of being on his own and dropped the ‘nanny’. After
that, the neighbor, Mr. Schroeder agreed to look in on Michael from time to time. Mike liked the older retired man, when he had a problem Mr. Schroeder
was always a sympathetic ear and he often appealed to Michael’s better nature when it came to his being a bully. He was like a grandfather and Michael
respected him. His parents didn’t ignore him really it was more they were just excessively busy.
Michael went over to the back door and let his large Rottweiler Bix out. Bix had been his dog since he was a puppy. He had gotten him five years ago and
had cared for the dog very well. He had gotten him on a bet with his Dad that he could to be responsible. He had won that one too.
Bix ran around the fenced back yard and Michael took the time to pour the dog his breakfast and a large bowl of water form the tap. Then he let Bix back
inside. Petting the dog on the head he went over and got a glass of water for himself he was still thirsty after last night’s pizza. He took a big gulp and
then sputtered.
“Bix!” He said and the dog looked up at him surprised. Then after seeing that Michael was not paying attention to him he went back to eating. Michael
meanwhile tried spitting out dog hair. Somehow the glass had dog hair in it and he had swallowed some with his water. That dog had a shedding problem
but he never seemed to run out of hair. Michael knew he would have to sweep the house before his parents came home, but they wouldn’t be back for
another two days.
Michael went back to making breakfast for himself. Out of necessity he had learned to cook and he was pretty good at it. He could even make a pretty
good roast, it was simple enough to put the roast in foil with some spices and vegetables and pop it in the oven for a couple of hours. His father didn’t
want to hear such things. His father believed in a hyper masculine ideal for his son and he didn’t want Michael acting ‘fruity’ in anyway.
Little did his father know that Michael was gay. Michael hadn’t slept with anyone and hadn’t come out to anyone, but he knew he was. This
was another reason for the bullying, to make sure no one suspected. He thought it would be best if he kept that secret form his homophobic friends and
his dad and possibly his mom. Right now he never wanted to come out.
But back to more important matters; he set out food on the counter and was busily cooking when he felt slightly odd; a little itchy and a brief wave of
dizziness and nausea that made him wonder if he was coming down with the flu. He passed it by in his brain and started, making some scrambled eggs.
Little did Michael know that the water he had just drunk was connected to a pipeline that was connected to the filtering and purification plant that drew
from the river.
It was a state of the art purification system, it used oxygen to kill off bacteria, charcoal filtration to improve taste and reverse osmosis filters to remove
micro particulates and bacteria. The water was treated with only enough chlorine to meet state and federal standards because the town wanted to have
‘pure natural’ water. The chlorine ensured that most viruses would not be transmitted. The animorph virus was not ‘most viruses’. It would take the
chlorination levels of a swimming pool to kill it off in water. Michael had no idea that he was now infected with the virus. Not all the pipes in town were
infected, but a good number of them were.
Michael shook off the odd feeling and, indeed, it seemed to have passed on it’s own. He went to the door as in any second he knew it would…*DING
DONG* ...ring.
Michael opened the door to his smiling friend Isaac Ferris. Isaac was a bit smaller then Michael with black flowing full bodied hair. He was a charming guy
who broke the hearts of a lot of women as he walked by and some men. Michael had entertained a crush for Isaac for awhile, heck it was how he knew he
was gay. Well, that and that time he tired to sleep with his girl friend Linda. But he knew Isaac was straight and they were just friends. Isaac stepped
inside and immediately asked. “So what’s for grub?”
Michael had let it slip that he could cook and after the obligatory mockery and jokes they had tried his food and discovered he was good at it. Isaac had
discovered that Michael was better a better cook than his own mother; Isaac said she had once burned cold cereal, a comic exaggeration, but not too far
from the truth. Isaac always made excuses to be at Michael’s when Michael was cooking.
“What no, ‘Good morning, Mike.’?” said Michael sarcastically. He didn’t mind he took his friend’s informality as a compliment.
“Food, then pleasantries.” said Isaac.
“Right this way greedy gut!” said Michael.
As they walked in Bix bounded into the room and immediately started humping Isaac’s leg.
“BIX! BAD DOG!” said Michael grabbing the dog’s collar and leading the horny mutt, over to a study room where Bix’s bed was and locked him in. Bix
was horny from the virus with which, unknowingly, Michael had also been infected.
“Sorry about that man.” said Michael apologetically.
“No worries buddy. I’ll take it as a weird compliment.” said Isaac coming into the kitchen. “Again I ask, what’s for eats.”
“Nothing fancy, just some scrambled eggs and toast.” said Michael as he finished doling out the eggs.
“Hey these eggs are great,” Said Isaac happily as he began chowing down, “by the way, nice look with the beard. You have no idea how jealous I am of
an eighteen year old guy who can grow a beard after going without shaving for one day.”
Michael was perplexed by this; he had just shaved this morning. He felt his cheeks and chin and went to the bathroom to check it out; perhaps he’d just
thought he’d shaved this morning. When he got to the bathroom he saw a nice growth of stubble, about three days worth for Michael. That was so
weird; his dad didn’t grown hair that fast! He knew he had shaved yesterday. He checked his razor, just to be sure, and it still had fresh traces of shaving
cream and a few whiskers from this morning. “What’s going on!” he thought and ran his hand over his beard again.
Isaac called out as he was coming down the hall, “Hey Mike, is there something wrong?” Just then, Michael was beginning to feel a little warm and his
cock was starting to get his attention.