After gym class, Oliver walked to the bathroom. He wanted to inspect the slits in his neck closely. Hunter had told him that they were called gills and that was why he could breathe underwater. He explained that a lot of the boys and girls at the school had them. Oliver walked over to a mirror. They were red slits that, as Oliver watched, closed themselves. When they weren't open, all Oliver could see were three faint lines on his neck that were hardly noticeable.
"It must be because you aren't in the water any more." explained Hunter.
"I guess so." said Oliver.
After school, Hunter came over to Oliver's house to play. They went out into the backyard to play. It wasn't long before Hunter started running on all fours around the yard being chased by Oliver. Oliver was acting differently as well. He was moving faster, and he moved in short bursts rather than continuously as he tried to catch Hunter, who was very fast on four legs. It was very hot and before long Hunter was panting with a tongue that was a little longer and a little flatter than it should have been.
Once they were both tired, the two boys went inside the house to find his parents still unpacking. They each got themselves some chocolate milk and sat down in the kitchen to drink it.
"You must be psyched that you're changing like this." said Hunter.
"I am, but don't you find this whole thing really weird?" replied Oliver. "We don't know what we're becoming."
"I can make a pretty good guess." said Hunter. "Your eyes roll over when you bite something, you ripped your meat apart when you ate and you can swim inhumanly fast and have gills. You're a shark. My senses of hearing and taste are way more than what they used to be, I'm starting to grow a little bit of fur, I eat raw meat and my teeth are growing. I'm a wolf."
"You're teeth are growing?" said Oliver.
"Yeah, take a look!" said Hunter. He opened his mouth. Oliver could see that some of his teeth were longer than they should be and looked like canines.
"I think you're right." said Oliver. "I think you are becoming a wolf."
Hunter started scratching behind his ear. "Yeah, I am."
"What about the urges that I keep getting to do weird stuff?" asked Oliver.
"Those are your new instincts." said Hunter. "It's your body telling you how to do stuff."
"Is that how we change?" asked Oliver.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it." said Hunter. "Most of the physical changes happen without warning. So do the internal ones, but those are because of your new instincts developing."
Suddenly Hunter stopped scratching and listened very carefully. "You're parents are coming downstairs, I think."
Hunter was right and Oliver's parents came down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Hi Oliver." said his mother. "Who's your new friend?"
"This is Hunter." said Oliver. "We think he's turning into a wolf."
"A wolf?" asked Oliver's father. "You must be having a lot of fun."
"I am too." said Oliver. "I....I...."
"Oliver's trying to tell you that, um, well, we think he's turning into a shark." said Hunter.
"A-A shark?" said Oliver's parents.
"Yeah, we think so." said Oliver. "Some weird stuff has been happening lately."
"You're changing already?" said his father.
"Yeah," said Oliver. "Today my eyes rolled over when I bit into my T-Bone at lunch, and then when we were swimming in gym class, I....I grew gills." He pointed to the faint lines on his neck.
"Gills!" said his father. "Then you must be able to breathe underwater."
"I can." said Oliver.
"He can swim really fast too." said Hunter.
"Well, we have to see this for ourselves." said his mother. "We'll take you to the community pool."
Oliver turned to look at Hunter. "Hunter, are you going to come too?"
"No, I don't like swimming. I'll see you at school tomorrow."
Hunter walked outside the house and started to run home on all fours.
"See you tomorrow morning!" he called back.
Oliver's parents took him to the pool, and waited for him outside the change rooms. Oliver walked over to the deep end of the pool and jumped in. Once he was underwater he could feel his gills opening up again, and once more he could breathe underwater. Oliver waved to his parents from under the surface of the pool. He felt the urge to swim again, but this time he didn't fight it. He took off, swimming all over the pool as fast as he could. He felt incredible, like there was electricity running through him. He swam and he swam and he swam all throughout the pool, dipping up and down, turning left to right. As he swam, he noticed all the other kids in the pool, who like him, were turning into aquatic animals. They all had gills and some of them were much older than Oliver and at later stages in their changes. Some of them were almost completely animals. But he kept swimming until his father stuck his hand in the pool and began splashing. Oliver could feel the vibrations in the water and zeroed in on where they were coming from, something he had never done before. He shot himself up towards the surface of the water.
He broke the surface of the water right where his parents were standing.
"Great job, Oliver." said his father. "You picked up the vibrations I was making."
"Is that what I was doing?" asked Oliver.
"Yes, son." said his father. "That's what a shark does. It's how sharks find their prey. I called you because it's time to go. You have school in the morning. We'll take you back here tomorrow."
"Can't I swim for a few more minutes?" asked Oliver.
"No, we'll take you back here tomorrow." said his mother.
Oliver climbed up out of the pool. His parents watched with curiosity as his gills closed themselves.
"We're very happy that you're taking this so well." said his father.