Oliver quickly ran off to bed upset about his parents decision. He flopped down in his bed in a heap wondering what was going to happen to him with these retroviruses that were now coursing through his veins altering his young DNA.
"Am I gonna become a dog, a cat, a bird like mom and dad said?" He started thinking about all of the different odd behaviors he had witnessed the day before but could not pin specific animals to any of them.
At school he tried to make a friend. The boy who did become his friend was named Hunter and had wolf qualities, mostly just the advanced senses and speed, but had some extra hair. He said he has been there for a month and was the newest student until Oliver came.
"so you don't mind that your parents did this to you?" Oliver asked.
"well I did at first, but now I don't mind it, it's kinda cool" Hunter said.
"when does it start?" Oliver asked.
"when did you get the retoviruses put in?" Hunter asked.
"about a week ago" replied Oliver.
"it will Probably start today or tomorrow" Hunter said.
At lunch, Oliver followed Hunter to the cafeteria. There were three different lines marked CARNIVORE, HERBIVORE and OMNIVORE. Oliver followed Hunter to the carnivore line.
"What do they serve here, anyway?" asked Oliver.
"It's a different meal every day." said Hunter. "Today they have T-Bones. It's the best one."
Oliver liked steak, and was pretty hungry, or at least he was until he got to the front of the line and realized that the meat was raw. He looked in front of him and saw two boys walking away from the line with giant raw t-bones on their plates. He looked at Hunter's plate. The lunch lady placed a giant t-bone onto the plate. It landed with a splat.
"Wait, you actually eat that?" said Oliver, who was feeling sick.
"Yeah," said Hunter enthusiastically. "It's great!" Oliver looked around for some sort of cutlery.
"Where are the forks?"
"What forks?" asked Hunter.
Oliver decided to get his lunch from the herbivore line instead, where they were serving salad.
He sat down with Hunter where there were two other boys sitting. Their names were Scotty, Jack and Eric. Hunter explained that Scotty was changing into a horse and Jack into a donkey. Eric wasn't very friendly but Hunter explained that he was turning into a lion, and was not comfortable around people he didn't know. Hunter assured him that Eric was really nice once you got to know him. Oliver watched in disgust as Hunter and Eric attacked their T-bones with gusto. He looked over at Scotty and Jack, who were eating from a plate that was full of assorted grasses and plants. He looked down at his own salad, realizing that it wasn't really a salad, but was just assorted leaves.
"Don't they have any normal food here?" Oliver asked to Hunter, who was finishing his meat.
"What do you mean?" asked Hunter. "This is normal. You'll get used to it."
Oliver picked up a leaf from his plate. It looked clean and safe to eat. Besides, if he didn't eat it, he could either have raw meat, grass or go hungry. He cautiously put the leaf in his mouth. It was rubbery and chewy and disgusting, but not as disgusting as the thought of eating raw meat was. Oliver swallowed the leaf and looked up at Hunter, who was watching him eat.
"You didn't look like you enjoyed that very much." said Hunter, wiping some meaty juice from the side of his mouth.
"How can you eat this stuff?" asked Oliver. "It's all gross."
"Well," said Scotty. "You haven't actually tried everything here yet, so you can't say it's gross. And all this means is that you're not a herbivore."
"Yeah," said Hunter. "Try some meat or something. You can figure out if you're a carnivore."
"I like meat," said Oliver. "I just like it cooked, that's all."
"Have you ever tried it raw?" asked Hunter.
"No." said Oliver. "Doesn't eating raw meat make you sick?"
"Not here it doesn't." said Hunter. He got up and brought back a plate of meat, and put it down in front of Oliver.
"Try it." said Hunter.
"Can't I try some food from the Omnivore line first?" asked Oliver.
"Try it." insisted Eric, who was now paying attention to Oliver very closely.
"It does kind of smell good," thought Oliver. "No, I can't eat this, it's raw meat! I could get salmonella or mad cow disease or whatever you get from eating raw meat!" But he was really hungry. He needed to eat something soon. His parents had told him to try the new things at his new school, but raw meat? It was starting to smell good to him, all the meat and fat and bone. He slowly picked up the meat and held it closer to his face. It really smelled good to him, and, if he took one bite, it would be fine. He slowly put the meat up to his mouth and cautiously took a small bite. Suddenly, he wasn't aware of anything else around him except the meat, which tasted fantastic! It was the best food he'd ever eaten! He attacked the meat, eating mouthful after mouthful, ripping and tearing at it. He was vaguely aware of Hunter saying something, but he couldn't understand what it was. After what seemed like a very short time, he was done the meat. He dropped the bone to the ground and started to realize what he had just done. He looked up at the 4 boys staring at him.
"Oliver, that was awesome!" exclaimed Hunter.
"You ripped that thing apart!" Eric told him. "I've never seen anyone eat their meat that fast before!"
Oliver didn't know what to think of himself, he was shocked, disgusted with himself over what he just did, but at the same time he felt good. He still had the taste of raw meat in his mouth, and was ashamed of himself for liking it.
"Did you see what happened to his eyes!" said Scotty.
"I know!" said Hunter. "They rolled over." Hunter turned to Oliver.
"Oliver," said Hunter. "I think you're going to be a shark."
"Why a shark?" asked Jack.
"Haven't you seen 'Jaws' before?" said Hunter. "When a shark bites into something, his eyes roll over."
"I'm going to be a shark?" asked Oliver, who didn't know what to think of the idea.
"Well, I'm not sure." said Hunter. "I mean, I think I'm going to be a wolf, but I don't know for sure. It's hard to tell at this stage, but your eyes did roll over just like a shark's would. We'll have to wait a bit longer to know for sure."